The Dish

"At some point, we have got to stop this madness here in Washington D.C. … The American people are as mad at us about driving this country economically off the edge as any one thing … What we‚Äôre doing to this country is almost criminal," – Republican senator, Chuck Hagel, on the GOP’s fiscal insanity.

With the Democrats’ now pledging to restore the pay-as-you-go principle in Congressional appropriations – i.e. every new spending increase has to be balanced by a tax increase – it’s clear which party formally represents fiscal conservatism. Whether the Democrats deliver is another matter. But one thing we know: the GOP hasn’t delivered. They have spent and borrowed at rates that fully merit the "criminal" rhetoric now lobbed by their own side. They deserve to be punished. Kick them out.

The weekend saw some of the worst violence against coalition troops for a while. The scenes of Shiite mobs, attacking British soldiers, in what was seen as one of the calmer regions is no cause for optimism. Riverbend blog sees a slow but sure Iranian take-over of parts of Iraq:

Looking back at it now, it is properly ironic that our first glimpses of the ‘fall of Baghdad’ and the occupation of Iraq came to us via Iran – through that Iranian channel.
We immediately began hearing about the Iranian revolutionary guard, and how they had formed a militia of Iraqis who had defected to Iran during the Iran-Iraq war. We heard how they were already inside of the country and were helping to loot and burn everything from governmental facilities to museums. The Hakims and Badr made their debut, followed by several other clerics with their personal guard and militias, all seeping in from Iran.
Today they rule the country. Over the duration of three years, and through the use of vicious militias, assassinations and abductions, they‚Äôve managed to install themselves firmly in the Green Zone. We constantly hear our new puppets rant and rave against Syria, against Saudi Arabia, against Turkey, even against the country they have to thank for their rise to power – America. … But no one dares to talk about the role Iran is planning in the country …
The big question is – what will the US do about Iran? There are the hints of the possibility of bombings, etc. While I hate the Iranian government, the people don’t deserve the chaos and damage of air strikes and war. I don‚Äôt really worry about that though, because if you live in Iraq – you know America’s hands are tied. Just as soon as Washington makes a move against Tehran, American troops inside Iraq will come under attack. It’s that simple – Washington has big guns and planes. But Iran has 150,000 American hostages.

Let’s hope she’s wrong. The Sadrite thugs who attacked the British troops clearly want to control the government. I have no idea whether Maliki is strong enough to resist.

"There are certain principles on which there can be no compromise. Fair trial is one of those – which is the reason we in the UK were unable to accept that the US military tribunals proposed for those detained at Guant√°namo Bay offered sufficient guarantees of a fair trial in accordance with international standards," – Britain’s attorney-general, Lord Goldsmith, in a leaked passage from a speech he is due to give this week. In the war on terror, the Bush administration’s abhorrent detainee policies have lost the United States even its most loyal ally. To torture-proponent Mark Levin’s dismay, even the president seems to agree now. But his statement is a telling one:

"Of course Guantanamo is a delicate issue for people. I would like to close the camp and put the prisoners on trial. Our top court must still rule on whether they should go before a civil or military court. They will get their day in court. One can’t say that of the people that they killed. They didn’t give these people the opportunity for a fair trial."

So the president has already said that all these prisoners, dozens of whom are detained on the sole evidence of one tortured, broken man, and not even charged with murder, are murderers. Bush’s contempt for the rights of accused individuals, so evident from his years in Texas, marches on.

Two months ago, I posted an item about the death of one of the most promising young journalists in Iraq, Atwar Bahjat. Money quote from a great profile in the L.A. Times:

She was a poet, a journalist and a feminist. She had written a book tracing her adventures as a war reporter and had begun work on a second book, examining the role of women in Iraq. She didn’t fit into either side of the mounting religious clash ‚Äî her mother was Shiite, her father Sunni.

It turns out her murder was particularly brutal and disgusting. It is described here. If we have failed to protect people like Bahjat in a country where we are responsible for security, then we have failed to do our job. It’s also worth remembering Bahjat whenever we hear of a journalist’s "courage." She had courage. Most of us journalists in the West don’t know what the meaning of the word courage is.

My column on the private warmth and openness to immigrants (even illegal ones) and gay and transgendered people by Bush and Cheney can be read here. Here’s another example: Condi Rice. Like her boss, the president, Rice has demonstrated in private great acceptance of transgendered people. Money quote from a NYT Magazine interview with Joan Roughgarden, a formidable biologist:

Deborah Solomon: Your name used to be Jonathan, and you were a male professor until about six years ago.

Joan Roughgarden: When you first come out as a transgendered person, you spend your first year in absolute euphoria. Then reality sets in, and you have to make a life and deal with the stigma.

DS: At that time, Condoleezza Rice was the provost at Stanford. Did you have a chance to meet her?

JR: Yes. She was wonderful. In 1998, I went to see her and brought a letter saying that I was transgendered and about to transition. I requested the opportunity to remain on the faculty. As she read through the letter, she looked up at me and said decisively, "Yes, you may remain at Stanford."
She was so sweet. I had enclosed with the letter some photographs of how I would be appearing in several weeks. She looked at them and said, "Oh, you’re a beautiful woman." I think Condoleezza Rice is a person of incredible depth, intelligence and humanity.

I second that on Condi. I think she’s a great human being and an increasingly effective secretary of state. If you haven’t read Roughgarden’s astonishing book on widespread homosexuality in the animal kingdom, "Evolution’s Rainbow," you should.

Please read this important piece of reporting by Johann Hari. In London, when Johann told me about what he had recently seen and witnessed in the Congo, I found it hard to believe. Here’s his report. It makes Darfur seem peaceful. And it has been shockingly under-reported. Money quote:

The Rwandan troops did not head for the areas where the genocidaires were hiding out. They headed straight for the mines like this one in Kalehe, and they swiftly enslaved the populations to dig for them. They did not clear out the genocidaires ‚Äì they teamed up with them to rape Congo. Jean-Pierre Ondekane, the Chief of the Rwandan forces in Goma, urged his units to maintain good relations "with our Interhamwe [genocidaire] brothers." They set up a Congo Desk that whisked billions out of the country and into Rwandan bank accounts ‚Äì and they fought to stay and pillage some more. The UN found that a Who’s Who of British, American and Belgian companies collaborated with this crime…
Oh, and the reason why this invasion was so profitable? Global demand for coltan was soaring throughout the war because of the massive popularity of coltan-filled Sony Playstations. As Oona King, one of the few British politicians to notice Congo, explains as we travel together for a few days, "Kids in Congo were being sent down mines to die so that kids in Europe and America could kill imaginary aliens in their living rooms."

Read how cheap playstations have led to gang rapes, enslavement and massacres.

I think I’d prefer death to a true life sentence in the Supermax prison.

I echo all of Jon Rauch’s points here about Maggie Gallagher’s latest attack on gay couples’ right to legally protected relationships. There sometimes is a real clash between liberal anti-discrimination legislation and maximal religious freedom. Given the choice, I’m with maximal freedom for religious groups to discriminate in any way they like as private entities; and I’m generally suspicious of anti-discrimination laws. (Dale Carpenter makes the case for allowing the Catholic hierarchy to discriminate here.) That’s why, in Virtually Normal, I opposed laws against anti-gay discrimination in employment; and why I oppose all hate crime laws; and why I firmly support the rights of bigots to express themselves without being restrained or "re-educated" by government. But the marriage argument is still largely a red herring here. Religious freedom is affected primarily by broad anti-discrimination laws, and has been for years. Gallagher wants to give the impression that marriage rights have created this clash. That’s untrue, and she knows it.

While the Vatican stupidly hyperventilates, the movie of the hack novel sells out in advance in some Catholic countries.

(Photo: Jean-Pierre Muller, AFP/Getty Images.)

Vatican astronomer Guy Consolmagno calls creationism a "kind of paganism". My kind of Catholic. (Hat tip: JFL).