Category: The Dish

They both intend to vote for Mukasey, despite his refusal to state that torture, as practised by this administration, is illegal. Every time the Democrats fold on these matters, Cheney tucks a precedent under his belt. Every time they cave into their cowardice and fear, another critical part of our liberty disappears. These precedents are designed to destroy the rule of law and replace it with the rule of a Decider. And they will last for ever, as will the right to torture, because this war is for ever. This is how democracies perish. The rule of law no longer has any party to defend it. The Republicans want no check on the powers of our de facto protectorate. And the Democrats have no spine. We live under the lawless protectorate we deserve. And such lawlessness is always the result when cowards refuse to confront bullies.

Another sign of what’s going on: some big-name Finnish musicians come to Minnesota for a music tour. One is allegedly the "Bruce Springsteen" of Finland. They’ve done nothing wrong. But this is what they get at the airport:

Immigration agents at the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport subjected them to more than two hours of interrogation that the musicians considered so harsh and demeaning that they filed a formal complaint with the U.S. Embassy in Helsinki.

"It was almost three hours of screaming, door-slamming and accusations, according to the report I received," said Marianne Wargelin, honorary Finnish consul for the Dakotas and most of Minnesota, which has the second largest Finnish-American population in the nation…

"They threatened us with severe punishments if we talk to each other," according to the complaint signed by musicians Ninni Poijärvi and Mika Kuokkanen, "Through the walls, I can hear officers yelling, screaming. They ask about the purpose of our trip — except we are only allowed to give yes-or-no answers. I try to talk about our plans to meet with Finnish-American folk musicians. Nobody listens. They interrupt me constantly and they yell, ‘You are a liar!"’

Oh, and welcome to America.

According to Ross: help kill off Romney’s and Thompson’s candidacies. And then Rudy picks him as veep, I guess.

An update from the Onion:

Christian Charity Raising Money To Feed Non-Gay Famine Victims

I don’t know whether to laugh or cry:

A blogger discovers a JC Penney catalog from 1977 in the attic.

"I think Bill [O’Reilly] asked the governor [Huckabee] if he really believed in Adam and Eve.  The answer doesn’t matter to me so much as what the question represents:  A huge breach in the previously widely respected understanding that such questions are not asked of presidential candidates and, if asked, politely turned aside as inappropriate in a nation built on the premise that religious tests are unconstitutional in law and that politics is best kept very clear of theological disputes appropriate to church debates and academic settings," – Hugh Hewitt, one of the main architects of turning the GOP into a sectarian, fundamentalist organization, and demanding adherence to a set of religiously-based propositions as a condition of being a GOP nominee. Now, of course, he needs a Mormon to enforce theoconservatism, doctrinal issues are suddenly verboten. Alas, they’re not. You fuse politics with religion, you have to live with the consequences.

Emily Dickinson presages Paris Hilton:

I’m nobody!  Who are you?
Are you nobody, too?
Then there ’s a pair of us — don’t tell!
They’d banish us, you know.

How dreary to be somebody!
How public, like a frog
To tell your name the livelong day
To an admiring bog!

An animated stick figure fights with an animator trying to torture him. And he can use the brush tool and the eraser tool. Cool:

Animator vs. Animation by *alanbecker on deviantART

A reader writes:

Yes yes yes. I haven’t been to NYC for almost 20 years and would love to go again, but after our recent horrendous experiences flying via to Mexico via Houston my wife has vowed not to travel to or through the US until there are signs of things changing. That’s $600 at least of tourists’ money lost to the US economy for a start.

Another writes:

My partner and I got a taste of this flying back to the US from Johannesburg, South African to JFK. During the 1 hour refueling break in Dakar, everyone had to take all belongs out of the overheads and hold them in our lap while the plane was inspected ("In order to prepare to enter US Airspace").. as if passengers spent the last 8 hours of the trip assembling bombs and putting them in the overheads for safe keeping.

Then upon arrival, my partner and I went up to passport control (The US citizen line) and were yelled at as we were not family so we were not to come up together (not an issue in the 3 countries visited on our trip..nor any other country we have visited and we have traveled extensively around the world). I know this does not compare with non-residents but we both felt anything but a nice welcome back to our own country.

Gay couples can expect abuse from US immigration authorities if they start acting as if they are a family in any way. In the end this takes a toll.