Category: The Dish

Friday, I linked to a disturbing story about the U.S. military’s Bush-approved post-Geneva rules of engagement. The U.S., under this president, now allows soldiers to kidnap the wives, girlfriends and even children of suspected insurgents in order to flush out the enemy. We saw some of this at Abu Ghraib, where relatives of alleged terrorists and insurgents were raped, abused and photographed to get them to lean on people outside the jail, or to blackmail them once they had left. A reader reminds me that kidnapping of wives and the use of blackmail have been openly conceded in the past. Money quote from a 2003 Washington Post piece:

"Col. David Hogg, commander of the 2nd Brigade of the 4th Infantry Division, said tougher methods are being used to gather the intelligence. On Wednesday night, he said, his troops picked up the wife and daughter of an Iraqi lieutenant general. They left a note: ‘If you want your family released, turn yourself in.’ Such tactics are justified, he said, because, ‘It’s an intelligence operation with detainees, and these people have info.’ They would have been released in due course, he added later. The tactic worked. On Friday, Hogg said, the lieutenant general appeared at the front gate of the U.S. base and surrendered."

I’m reminded of Fred Barnes’ description of president Bush’s leadership methods in his new book. All he cares about, Fred assures us, are the results, not the means. Fred thinks that’s a good thing. When torture, illegal wire-tapping, kidnapping, rape and murder of defenseless prisoners are the means, I beg to differ. I’m also reminded of the following astonishing piece of dialogue, recorded recently at Notre Dame. In it, John Yoo, Dick Cheney’s favorite legal protege, explains the Bush administration’s view of the legal limits of the president’s power:

"Cassel: If the president deems that he’s got to torture somebody, including by crushing the testicles of the person’s child, there is no law that can stop him?

Yoo: No treaty

Cassel: Also no law by Congress — that is what you wrote in the August 2002 memo…

Yoo: I think it depends on why the President thinks he needs to do that…"

Just a reminder of the moral universe in which this administration and its enablers live.

Tom Lehrer, meet Mahmoud Ahamedinajad. Doing the Islamist Rag!

"Palestinians have delivered their next generation to Moloch, to a movement whose religious pageants include parading children dressed as suicide bombers. The celebration of mass murderers as religious martyrs and educational role models, promoted by both Fatah and Hamas, has now reached its inevitable conclusion in the national suicide of the Palestinian people," – Yossi Klein Halevi, in the New Republic (behind the subscriber firewall, alas).

"Whenever faced with a problem, an American tends to ask a couple of specific questions. Can I fix it? And if not, who can I sue?" – yours truly on the legal fight against fat. While I’m shamelessly self-promoting, my Time essay of two weeks ago, "We Don’t Need A New King George," is still among the most emailed stories on the Time website. You can read it here. Pass it along.

"But more than scandal should trouble Republican sleep. They can stamp out the scandal flames on their skirts but still be crushed by the collapsing roof if they don’t take care of the deeper problem. That deeper problem is their raison d’etre," – Mona Charen, Townhall.com.

Not a great poll summary for the president. I’m just relieved that people do seem to grasp his fiscal recklessness. His disapproval rating on the deficit – 64 percent – is his highest. The generic party numbers look terrifying for the Republicans. Democrats lead them by 51 to 37 percent. In the history of the polling, the party gap has rarely been so large.

I hadn’t realized that Father McCloskey had added another power-broker to the Opus Dei cult in Washington: Senator Sam Brownback. This profile is a must-read about the shifts within Republicanism over the past decade or so. There are plenty of interesting nuggets – not least of which:

"Pat got me elected," [Brownback] says, referring to Robertson’s network of Christian-right organizations.

Off-message, Sam. Money quote from the profile:

[Brownback] tells a story about a chaplain who challenged a group of senators to reconsider their conception of democracy. "How many constituents do you have?" the chaplain asked. The senators answered: 4 million, 9 million, 12 million. "May I suggest," the chaplain replied, "that you have only one constituent?"

Brownback pauses. That moment, he declares, changed his life. "This" – being senator, running for president, waving the flag of a Christian nation – "is about serving one constituent." He raises a hand and points above him.

And so conservatism slowly dies in America, replaced by religious fanaticism.

If you’re interested in hearing a frank, smart, honest discussion of the gays-in-the-military issue among actual soldiers, gay and straight, then click here. It’s a fascinating debate – and suggests to me that a new consensus now exists within the military that the ban makes little to no sense any more.

An interesting 2001 column.

Many of you keep asking me questions. I have never discussed Charles’ handicap with him, which, I would think, is the norm. But he tells part of the story here. It’s inspiring in many ways.