Category: The Dish

Henry Rollins pens a love-letter to Ann Coulter. (Some obscenity.)

Jason Zengerle rightly cringes:

VICE PRES. CHENEY: You’ve got Iraq and al-Qaeda, testimony from the director of CIA that there was indeed a relationship, Zarqawi in Baghdad, etc. Then the third…

MR. RUSSERT: The committee said that there was no relationship. In fact…

VICE PRES. CHENEY: Well, I haven’t seen the report; I haven’t had a chance to read it yet, but the fact is…

It’s not denial when you deliberately close your eyes.

"If, on the other hand, Begg’s protestations of innocence are to be believed and the U.S. government was wrong about him, this book documents an unconscionable descent into a hell of government-sanctioned physical and psychological brutality, administered without even the most rudimentary due process. Taken at face value, the stupidity and cruelty that Begg recounts are utterly shocking to anyone who cherishes the vision of America as an enlightened, law-abiding government, not to mention the leader of the free world," – Jane Mayer, on the first book-length memoir from a Gitmo detainee.

Mark Lilla, as always, has an incisive account of what has happened to us in the past five years:

"All sorts of strange types emerged from under their rocks to exploit September 11 – neoconservatives longing for a war that would restore "American greatness" through militarism, legal anarchists who started rewriting the constitution, evangelicals who sensed the opportunity to launch a counter-revolution against all the cultural changes of the last four decades. None of these groups represented more than a fraction of Americans, but, together, they found the ear of a transformed president and of his political advisers, who knew how to exploit them in return. The level of American political debate sank to a new low and is now fixed on symbols – "values," "strength," "family," "security," "life," "freedom" – that bear little relation to contemporary American reality or the world situation. The ’90s were a period of political maturation in United States, but, in the face of trauma, the nation has regressed to an infantile state."

The first chapter of my book is called "A Silver Age: 1989 – 2001."

What do conservative luminaries, Jeffrey Hart, Christopher Buckley, Bruce Bartlett, William Niskanen, Bruce Fein and Richard Viguerie have in common with yours truly? They all hope the Republicans lose this November. For the sake of conservatism and the country.

Three cheers for Matt Lauer. He’s the first mainstream journalist I know of to directly confront the president over what exactly he has authorized in terms of detainee treatment and torture. Watch the president’s body-language. Watch his early aggression. And repeat after me the obvious: We Torture.

The former theocratic dictator of Iran defended the execution of gay people in Iran:

As an expert of Islamic sciences I tell you that capital punishment is accepted in Islam, but it has conditions that are so stringent that executions should almost never happen. If in fact they are happening in Islamic countries it is because, if it happens excessively in Islamic countries it is a problem of bringing those religious rulings into practice …

In regards to the issue of gay people as well as the issue of adultery, the conditions that are required for capital punishment are so strict that it is virtually impossible to meet … Of course this is my opinion and a lot of people don’t accept my opinion, but I was asked for my opinion so this is what I believe … In many Islamic countries homosexual relationships as well as non-consensual heterosexual relationships have been punishable … There are also others, there are others in the world that have similar views namely important sects of Christianity … So yes you are correct homosexual activity is a crime in Islam … And crimes are punishable … The fact that could crimes be punished by execution is debatable … And that we must differentiate between punishment and violence."

Just so we know who we’re dealing with. I graduated from the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard. I’m appalled they would give a platform to an Islamist theocrat like Khatami.

"I know Iraq is a mess and we have screwed up seven ways from Sunday. We underestimated how hard it would be. But the fundamental idea behind Iraq is still correct. If we back out of this fight … your children and grandchildren will never know peace," – Republican Senator, Lindsey Graham, on Sunday.

There are few messages more obvious in the Gospels than a disregard for the biological family and a rejection of earthly wealth. Jesus says nothing about abortion or homosexuality, but he is quite clear about abandoning your spouse, parents and children and divesting yourself of all worldly goods. These are terribly difficult doctrines; and few of us who call ourselves Christians are able to live by them. But most Christians have at least not deceived themselves into thinking that the Gospels are actually about family life above everything and wealth as a critical element of Christian life. Until now. The Prosperity Gospel is one of the greatest blasphemies against the message of Jesus – but it is increasingly a part of the American "Christian" landscape. After all, why lambaste the wealth your congregants crave when you can demonize the minorities outside? This Time cover-story is chilling about what has happened to Christianity in some parts of the country. Just dont expect the religious right to criticize it.

(Photo illustration: Michael Elins.)

Security in Baghdad continues to deteriorate. A Sadrite brags here that he can easily get weapons into the Green Zone. And Anbar province seems to have become a new haven for terror, because of Rumsfeld’s war-management:

The chief of intelligence for the Marine Corps in Iraq recently filed an unusual secret report concluding that the prospects for securing that country’s western Anbar province are dim and that there is almost nothing the U.S. military can do to improve the political and social situation there, said several military officers and intelligence officials familiar with its contents.

The officials described Col. Pete Devlin’s classified assessment of the dire state of Anbar as the first time that a senior U.S. military officer has filed so negative a report from Iraq.

One Army officer summarized it as arguing that in Anbar province, "We haven’t been defeated militarily but we have been defeated politically — and that’s where wars are won and lost."