Category: The Dish

By Patrick
I should probably note that Obama won the delegate count in Texas.

By Patrick

Clinton suggests another metric for the presidency. For once I agree with Allahpundit:

A cute joke that drags on too long and ends up as a talking point, reflected by the dwindling laughter in the room.

Still, I have to give her points for trying.

San Diego, California, 3 pm.

By Patrick

Ross discusses Lieberman Democrats:

There’s an important lesson here: Namely, that the American "center" moves around a lot (and varies wildly on an issue-by-issue basis), and thus a party that moves leftward or rightward on the hot-button issues of the day can sometimes find a new center that nobody realized was there. This tends to leave the inhabitants of the old middle – the Rockefeller Republicans in the ’70s and ’80s, and perhaps the Lieberman Democrats of today – flummoxed and out-of-step, unable to figure out that just because they’ve always considered themselves "centrists" doesn’t mean the American people will always agree with them.

By Patrick
Knitting meets neuroscience.

By Patrick
The web is closing for spring cleaning.

By Patrick

Hitchens on the deeper truth of their record: they ignored Serbian genocide for four years and then claimed credit for ending it. He quotes Sally Bedell Smith:

Taking the advice of Al Gore and National Security Advisor Tony Lake, Bill agreed to a proposal to bomb Serbian military positions while helping the Muslims acquire weapons to defend themselves—the fulfillment of a pledge he had made during the 1992 campaign. But instead of pushing European leaders, he directed Secretary of State Warren Christopher merely to consult with them. When they balked at the plan, Bill quickly retreated, creating a "perception of drift." The key factor in Bill’s policy reversal was Hillary, who was said to have "deep misgivings" and viewed the situation as "a Vietnam that would compromise health-care reform." The United States took no further action in Bosnia, and the "ethnic cleansing" by the Serbs was to continue for four more years, resulting in the deaths of more than 250,000 people.

By Patrick
There is an article in the NYT today on Trevor Paglen’s new book and his research on classified operations. This sentence stands out:

The classified budget of the Defense Department, concealed from the public in all but outline, has nearly doubled in the Bush years, to $32 billion.

Paglen studies black site culture. I’ve long admired his work.

By Patrick

Ezra Klein in the LA Times a few days ago:

Prison rape occupies a fairly odd space in our culture. It is, all at once, a cherished source of humor, a tacitly accepted form of punishment and a broadly understood human rights abuse. We pass legislation called the Prison Rape Elimination Act at the same time that we produce films meant to explore the funny side of inmate sexual brutality.

Occasionally, we even admit that prison rape is a quietly honored part of the punishment structure for criminals.

Convention dictates that no politician can afford to take on prisoners as a constituency. Politically prisoners are high risk and offer low returns. Release one inmate who relapses and a politician is immediately branded as soft on crime. The votes an elected official loses for implementing sensible prison reform aren’t offset by the votes of prisoners or ex-felons since those groups are often denied the right to vote. There are good reasons for prison reform, some of which Ezra discusses, but rarely are the political obstacles to this reform openly acknowledged. Those most affected by the dysfunctional prison system are largely unable to exert the political pressure necessary to fix it. Prison rape is allowed  to go on partially because of the passive acceptance Ezra notes and partially because of the political disenfranchisement of the abused.

By Patrick

A gimmick whose time has come.