The Dish

An inquiry.

The Saudis celebrate:

The 19-year-old Saudi woman was abducted by a gang of men wielding kitchen knives who took her to a farm where she was raped 14 times by her captors. Five men were arrested for the rape and given jail terms ranging from 10 months to five years by a panel of judges in the eastern Saudi city of Qatif, near the teenager’s hometown.

But the judges also decided to sentence the young woman, identified only as "G," to 90 lashes. "G" was told by one of the judges that she was lucky not to have been given jail time. She said yesterday that she would appeal against her sentence.

The woman told the Saudi Gazette that she tried to commit suicide because of her ordeal and was beaten by her younger brother because the rape had brought shame on their family.

Is it Islamophobic to call this barbarism?

George Will continues to be the best conservative columnist in America – and his record over the last few years is a stellar example of cool conservatism under fire. And I think he’s right that all three current GOP front-runners are less awful than some seem to think. If the small but encouraging developments in Iraq lead to more progress, McCain will get a second wind. Giuliani and Romney are both excellent executives, representing two sides of the Republican libertarian/theocon divide. None of them is as incompetent as Bush (although Giuliani is as dictatorial, dangerous and controlling as Cheney). Sane conservatives are also beginning to realize that some of the most divisive issues, like abortion and marriage, are best dealt with at a state level or by judicial appointments – defusing some of the passion. And people forget who Ronald Reagan really was. Money quote from Will:

Suppose someone seeking the presidential nomination had, as a governor, signed the largest tax increase in his state’s history and the nation’s most permissive abortion law. And by signing a law institutionalizing no-fault divorce, he had unwittingly but substantially advanced an idea central to the campaign for same-sex marriages — the minimalist understanding of marriage as merely a contract between consenting adults to be entered into or dissolved as it suits their happiness.

Question: Is it not likely that such a presidential aspirant would be derided by some of today’s fastidious conservatives? A sobering thought, that, because the attributes just described were those of Ronald Reagan.

The GOP has gone insane these past few years with big government spending, borrowing and moralizing. But the Bush era is ending; and a better day may be coming. We shouldn’t forgo a better future in the process of excoriating the recent past.

A reader comments:

My political education and activism grew out of the roots of the evangelical, social conservative, religious right movement of the early to late 90’s. That being said; I have no problem, at this stage of the campaign, to state that Rudy is the best candidate for the 08 GOP nomination. If conservatives actually want to win, that is.

My stance and my energy on these ‘social issues’ have wavered slowly since 9-11 and Iraq. The rise of political Islam, the disastrous results of regime change in Iraq, which I originally supported, your blog, George Will’s columns, and most importantly, CS Lewis’s Screwtape Letters have changed my perspective on the relationship between faith and religion.

Keep hope alive.

What’s not to like?

Obsidian Wings has a must-read round-up of reports from people who are actually there, or who recently returned. The South is Shiite mafia-central, Anbar is improving, the Shiite areas in Baghdad are calmer but the ethnic cleansing continues. Read the whole complex thing. Money quote from Bing West:

What, then, is the biggest problem? How the Americans can infuse into the Iraqi army and police in Baghdad a sense of mission and even-handedness such that the Americans can withdraw from neighborhoods in eight to twelve months without backsliding.

Existing American military tactics and techniques are adequate to staunch the ethnic cleansing; to transfer those conops or to design substitute techniques that the Iraqi army and police can use – and to meld the army and police into a unity of effort – is a far more problematic task. On the other hand, I’ve seen enough examples of tough Iraqi leadership at the battalion and police chief level to believe that some leadership is emerging. Right now, though, the glue is the presence of the American troops. They have to be out on the streets first, then the Iraqi forces fall in behind them.

The places in Baghdad where I saw clean streets, open shops, and guards on every corner were the Shiite areas. It’s too early to tell whether we’re dealing with a rope-a-dope feint by the Shiite politicians. It is in their short-term interests for them to help us purge bad elements, and restore order and services. But whether they believe a compromise with the Sunnis is possible or necessary – who knows?

The evidence that is slowly accumulating makes me tentatively believe that the "surge" has not failed so obviously that it should be abandoned any time soon. I will neer give Bush or Cheney the benefit of ay doubt in the future. They have lied too often. But Petraeus? He gets the benefit of the doubt. One important, under-reported fact:

26 of 31 sheiks have turned their backs on al Qaeda and are putting together their own security forces.

This is good news.

New evidence of a secret CIA detention (and torture?) site in Poland. Interesting detail:

According to a confidential British intelligence memo shown to RAW STORY, Prime Minister Tony Blair told Poland’s then-Prime Minister Leszek Miller to keep the information secret, even from his own government.

More here.

The "secular-progressives" have gotten their filthy, liberal mitts on the currency.

I’m sorry but this is either very, very weird or deeply suspicious.

I don’t mean the surge. I mean the most hopeful small sign in a very long time. The NYT reported it this morning:

On Iraq’s political front, a growing number of politicians publicly declared that they embraced the idea of a cross-sectarian political movement that has been gaining strength this week. It was not yet clear the form the front would take, but if successful it would have broad implications for parliamentary divisions and the way government ministries are apportioned: they are currently handed out to parties, most of which have clear sectarian sympathies.

Most significantly, the Fadhila Party, a faction of the united Shiite bloc, the largest group in Parliament, announced it was leaving the bloc.A spokesman for Fadhila suggested there was frustration with sectarian politics.

"We want to try to build a new politics that is not sectarian that will include all of Iraqi society," said Bassim Sharif, a leader of the Fadhila party. However, he stopped short of saying that they would join the new bloc. "For now we will try to work alone to prove there is a Shiite party that can work in a nonsectarian way." But, he added, "this is the first step to save Iraq from this crisis."

I don’t know whether this will hold, whether it will gain enough momentum to make a difference, let alone help form a new truly national government. But that it is happening at all is encouraging, no? We have been hoping for a miracle. This isn’t one, but it’s the first step away from civil war that I’ve read about in ages. Petraeus today endorsed the obvious fact that this kind of deal – and this alone – can improve the disaster in Iraq:

"Any student of history recognizes there is no military solution to a problem like that in Iraq, to the insurgency in Iraq. Military action is necessary to help improve security … but it is not sufficient. A political resolution of various differences … of various senses that people do not have a stake in the successes of Iraq and so forth — that is crucial. That is what will determine, in the long run, the success of this effort."

Which is why this minor development matters. We are also facing the imminent international conference in which the U.S. will be talking with Iran and Syria about Iraq’s future. Keep hope alive.

(Photo: A US army Apache helicopter drops flares as it flies over Baghdad’s heavily fortified Green Zone 08 March 2007. By Patrick Baz/AFP/Getty Images)

A reader sent me Charity Navigator’s assessment of the biggest gay rights group’s tax-deductible foundation, the Human Rights Campaign Foundation. They get one out of four stars overall. Their efficiency rating is zero out of four. What do these ratings mean? According to Charity Navigator, one star means:

"Fails to meet industry standards and performs well below most charities in its Cause."

Zero means:

"Performs far below industry standards and below nearly all charities in its Cause."

Of course, this does not even include the fact that their one explicit legislative goal for the last twenty years – the Employment Non-Discrimination Act – is still not the law, despite massive public support. In those two decades, the private sector has made more strides for gay equality than HRC, making ENDA close to irrelevant in much of corporate America. Yes: conservative corporations have beaten liberal HRC in advancing HRC’s alleged primary goal. This despite the fact that HRC sucks over $20 million a year from the gay community, and its foundation is sitting on over $20 million in assets, according to the latest IRS-mandated reports, which HRC won’t publish on its own site. And two decades ago, young gays were told that pushing for marriage rights was a bad thing because ENDA had to come first. We ignored them and battled their intense efforts to squelch marriage rights in the 1990s. Despite their efforts – marriage was off-brand for HRC because it was off-message for the Clintons – other pro-gay groups succeeded. HRC takes the credit, of course. That’s one thing they’re really good at.

If readers who are more adept at measuring the efficiency of various groups have more data defending or further subjecting HRC to criticism and scrutiny, I’ll happily post it. If HRC cares to respond, I’ll happily post their self-defense. Enjoy your teddy bears. And next time their hired telemarketers call, demand better.