Obama on Habeas Corpus

He’s on the record as recently as this week:

"We need to bring to a close this sad chapter in American history, and begin a chapter that passes the might of our military to the freedom of our diplomacy and the power of our alliances. And while we are at it, we can close down Guantanamo and we can restore habeas corpus and we can lead with our ideas and our values."

Is Clinton Inevitable?

Jim Henley thinks so:

I think there’s a passion for Hillary Clinton’s candidacy that’s almost as invisible to the Democratic-Party netroots as Karl Rove’s vote drive among evangelicals was in 2004. Only very occasionally does this passion glimmer into the view of the progressive blogosphere. My claim is basically that the Clinton voters are out there mostly nursing their allegiance quietly, like the classic quiet conservatives keeping their opinion to themselves until they get into the voting booth.

Clinton’s supporters are more anti-war than Obama’s and more classic working-class Democrats. Go figure.

(Hat tip: Matt.)

The Art of Book Covers

I miss the old Penguin and Pelican imprints in England – those elegant, simple all-type covers that almost scream at you: it’s the text that matters. It didn’t occur to me they could inspire high art. But they have, as well as an artist’s liberties with various authors and invented titles:

Harland Miller’s paintings are unusual in the range of current contemporary art in that they are, first, self-evidently painterly paintings and, second, companionable; they can make you laugh.

I remember the first time I came across the Hemingway painting I’m So Fucking Hard – it was propped against the wall in a studio, an appropriately imposing object, about 6ft by 4ft – I laughed out loud. Ditto its companion painting, Dirty Northern Bastard, attributed to D. H. Lawrence. Also Not Bi-curious by Norman Mailer. I could go on.

And he does. Norman, by the way, has always struck me as very bi-curious.

Spit and Justice

Orin Kerr poses an interesting 4th amendment question:

If the police want to collect a suspect’s DNA sample, can they mail him a letter under false pretenses, wait for a response, and then analyze the seal on the letter (which the suspect likely sealed with saliva) to collect the DNA, all without a warrant? A divided Washington Supreme Court has just concluded that the answer is "yes" in State v. Athan…

And it happened. More context here.

Another Waas Scoop

It’s looking grimmer for Rove and Gonzales:

The Bush administration has withheld a series of e-mails from Congress showing that senior White House and Justice Department officials worked together to conceal the role of Karl Rove in installing Timothy Griffin, a protégé of Rove’s, as U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Arkansas.

How Serious Is The GOP Revolt On Iraq?

I use my usual test: is it verboten to talk about at NRO? Yes! Glenn is more forthright and says the following:

I think this is shortsighted and wrong and likely to hurt the country. 

I disagree. In fact, a rightly restive Congress is clearly a major advantage Bush and Cheney now have in grappling with Maliki. They can persuasively say: if you don’t come through, we’re outta here. And we’ll be forced to leave by the Congress. If that leverage combined with the surge does not produce a political breakthrough, we’ll know that such a breakthrough is likely impossible. And we’ll know by September. It’s also true that the United States is a democracy. A president who cannot explain a war, cannot show real progress, and cannot command credibility after four years of fighting has no one to blame but himself.

Carter, Evangelicals and the GOP

The former president is going to stir up the usual passions with this initiative:

Christian Zionists can be better friends of Israel by challenging its government’s policies, while accepting Judaism as a legitimate path to God, Carter told a group organized by Rabbi Michael Lerner in California last week, according to the rabbi.

"He said it was a terrible error for Jews to become allied with Christian Zionists who actually desire our conversion or burning in hell," Rabbi Lerner related in an interview Tuesday.

More here.