Category: The Dish

Saner than most now in the GOP. He actually understands federalism – and if forced to pick between Christianism and federalism, he’ll pick federalism. He’s growing on me – fast:

Well, if Peggy Noonan and yours truly represent anyone but ourselves. Which we probably don’t.

"Anyone who knows what waterboarding is could not be unsure. It is a horrible torture technique used by Pol Pot and being used on Buddhist monks as we speak. People who have worn the uniform and had the experience know that this is a terrible and odious practice and should never be condoned in the U.S. We are a better nation than that," – Senator John McCain, on Michael Mukasey’s refusal to state that waterboarding is torture.  Rudy Giuliani’s defense of waterboarding as not torture.

It tells you everything you need to know about what has happened to the Republican party that this good man is now ignored on a subject on which no other Senator has comparable authority. But Dick Cheney, a man who never served his country in uniform, now gets to define the meaning of American honor down. For him, as for the Khmer Rouge, waterboarding is a "no-brainer". Actually, it’s a no-souler.

My friend, Bruce Bawer, writes:

Every time that my partner and I fly to the US and I have to fill out a customs declaration form, it galls me to have to write "0" under "Number of family members traveling with you" given that my partner is, in fact, under the law of Norway, not only my family but my next of kin.  So on one recent trip, I wrote "1."  At passport control in Newark, the woman asked me where the other member of my family was.  I explained that he was a Norwegian citizen and had therefore gotten in line with other non-US citizens.  She asked what our relationship was.  I explained that we were domestic partners.  She spat out, in a vicious tone: "THAT’S NOT FAMILY!"  I replied, in a civil tone, "It is in Norway."  She said nastily, "Well, it’s not here," and, grabbing a pen, changed my "1" to a "0."  Not wanting to jeopardize my partner’s chances of getting into the country, I chose not to argue with her.

Every one of my closest friends here in Oslo has had at least one unpleasant experience at US passport control.  One of them, a musician who has twice won the Norwegian equivalent of the Grammys and who is an entirely civilized and presentable person, was once asked by an immigration officer: ”What drugs are you taking?  When was the last time you were in prison?”  I’ve lost track of the number of Europeans whose most disagreeable memories of the US are of their treatment by these people.  I spend a lot of time defending America from unfair criticism by Europeans, but this situation is indefensible.

Scott Horton relays a nugget of history I never knew. Today is Guy Fawkes Day, when the British commemmorate the foiling of a religiously-inspired terrorist plot to blow up the House of Commons in 1605. Eventually, it became a holiday fused with anti-Catholic propaganda, and the way in which Fawkes was needlessly tortured, and the monarchy fanned fear of Catholic terrorism to entrench absolute power tarnished the meaning of the holiday. So George Washington banned its celebration in the United States:

America was involved in a struggle for its liberty, and the commemoration of Guy Fawkes stood for the opposite: government by fear, oppression of a minority, a celebration of arbitrary power. Guy Fawkes Day was the abnegation of the essential values of the Revolution. So the original George W. put it in an order: no more Guy Fawkes Day.

Order in Quarters issued by General George Washington, November 5, 1775:

As the Commander in Chief has been apprized of a design form’d for the observance of that ridiculous and childish custom of burning the Effigy of the pope–He cannot help expressing his surprise that there should be Officers and Soldiers in this army so void of common sense, as not to see the impropriety of such a step at this Juncture; at a Time when we are solliciting, and have really obtain’d, the friendship and alliance of the people of Canada, whom we ought to consider as Brethren embarked in the same Cause. The defence of the general Liberty of America: At such a juncture, and in such Circumstances, to be insulting their Religion, is so monstrous, as not to be suffered or excused; indeed instead of offering the most remote insult, it is our duty to address public thanks to these our Brethren, as to them we are so much indebted for every late happy Success over the common Enemy in Canada.

America, it was settled, would mark the old Guy Fawkes Day with a new tradition: the exercise of the Democratic Franchise. It was to be the day on which the rulers are held accountable to the people.

From revulsion against torture, liberal democracy was born. And by acquiescing in torture, liberal democracy will die.

He recalls how American soldiers treated Iraqi captives during the Iraq war he waged. I think he understands what his son has done to this country’s honor. Weeping is the natural response of a father and a patriot.

Ron Paul is celebrating Guy Fawkes Day with an online fundraiser. You can check his running total here. If you want to help rescue conservatism from the authoritarians, torture-supporters, law-breakers and massive spenders of the current GOP elite, you know what to do.

Martin Kramer cannot figure her out:

In September, Hillary issued a statement on Israel designed to bolster her standing among pro-Israel voters. Her Foreign Affairs piece, aimed at the wider foreign policy establishment, takes a very different line.

Who is the real Hillary, behind the triangulation? Who knows?

"In no part of the Constitution is more wisdom to be found than in the clause which confides the question of war or peace to the legislature, and not to the executive department. … War is in fact the true nurse of executive aggrandizement. In war, a physical force is to be created; and it is the executive will which is to direct it. In war, the public treasures are to be unlocked; and it is the executive hand which is to dispense them. … It is in war, finally, that laurels are to be gathered, and it is the executive brow they are to encircle. The strongest passions and most dangerous weaknesses of the human breast; ambition, avarice, vanity, the honorable or venial love of fame, are all in conspiracy against the desire and duty of peace," – James Madison.

Is James Madison now regarded as a "leftist"?

Rich Lowry seems to believe that waterboarding is not torture or forbidden by the Geneva Conventions and US law. What is his view, I wonder, of the many documented scenes at Abu Ghraib of stress positions, mock executions, and degrading sexual abuse? The prisoner above, for example, is not in excruciating pain. He is not having his fingernails pulled out. He is not being strangled. He is being subjected to a mild variety of vershaerfte Vernehmung that Lowry approves of and that the US once prosecuted as a war crime. Presumably this technique, which Lynndie England somehow picked up from someone down the line of command from Gitmo commander Geoffrey Miller, is fine by Lowry’s interpretation of the law and of Geneva as well. So what exactly was the problem at Abu Ghraib, according to Lowry? That the acts of abuse were performed? Or that they weren’t performed by the right people under the right circumstances? The latter seems to be Giuliani’s position: he wants Abu Ghraib methods but more professionally done. Is this now the official Bush-Cheney position: that what once "shocked the conscience" should now be legal, and that the attorney general should approve of it? Just checking.

If waterboarding does not shock Lowry’s conscience, why does the picture above? Or doesn’t it any more?