The Dish

Yes, it’s bad if U.S. Representative Patrick Kennedy got preferential treatment by the cops after a driving accident caused by substance abuse of some kind. There seem to be inconsistencies to his story. But he has acknowledged his addiction problem; he is going into rehab; and Kennedys have human rights too. They’re human beings as well as celebrities and politicians. I guess I’m biased because I’m old friends with some members of the family. But I have deeply admired how some Kennedys have sustained sobriety. It’s not easy for addicts. And as a society, we should do more to support sobriety and less to demonize and criminalize addicts. Patrick deserves no legal special treatment; he shouldn’t be let off the hook if he did something wrong. But he also needs help. I hope he gets it.

(Photo: Manuel Balce Ceneta/AP.)

From the latest AP-Ipsos poll:

Forty-five percent of self-described conservatives now disapprove of the president … A whopping 65 percent of conservatives disapprove of Congress … Even 31 percent of conservatives want Republicans out of power.

What took them so long?

The rumors are swirling. The CIA is in open revolt, and that might have something to do with it. But the hottest rumors have to do with the Duke Cunningham scandal. Josh has more. There’s some important background reporting on the struggle between Goss and Negroponte here. Stay tuned …

The real Republican split on immigration is a geographical one, Ryan Sager argues. Money quote:

Back in December of 2005, Survey USA tracked views on immigration in all 50 states. In West Virginia, 60 percent of respondents agreed that "immigrants take jobs away from Americans." The picture was the same throughout most of the South: In Alabama, 56 percent agreed, Arkansas 53 percent, Mississippi 53 percent, South Carolina 53 percent.

Meanwhile, only 33 percent in New Mexico agreed that immigrants take away American jobs. In Arizona it was 42 percent, Colorado 44 percent, Nevada 44 percent and California 30 percent.

The South is a very difficult base to manage. Like a cuckoo, it tends to kick other allies out of the nest, be it a Democratic nest in the past or the Republican nest now.

The religious head of Iraq’s Shiite population, Ayatollah Sistani, recently issued an edict calling for the brutal murder of all gay people in Iraq. "The people involved should be killed in the worst, most severe way of killing," this spiritual leader declared. Shiite militias are apparently making good on the fatwa. According to the Independent in London:

A number of public homophobic murders by the Badr militia have terrified Iraq’s gay community. Last September, Hayder Faiek, a transsexual, was burnt to death by Badr militias in the main street of Baghdad’s al-Karada district. In January, suspected militants shot another gay man in the back of the head.

The most recent is the point-blank shooting of a 14 year-old boy for having gay sex:

Ahmed Khalil was shot at point-blank range after being accosted by men in police uniforms, according to his neighbours in the al-Dura area of Baghdad… Ali Hili, the co-ordinator of a group of exiled Iraqi gay men who monitor homophobic attacks inside Iraq, said the fatwa had instigated a "witch-hunt of lesbian and gay Iraqis, including violent beatings, kidnappings and assassinations". "Young Ahmed was a victim of poverty," he said. "He was summarily executed, apparently by fundamentalist elements in the Iraqi police."

I have yet to hear anything from the major national gay groups. Surprise! Alas, I don’t expect the Bush administration to protest this – because they need Sistani so badly. But they should.

Rebuffing free surveillance technology? Jon Rauch has uncovered an almost unbelievable story of government inertia and incompetence.

Dr. Ramin Jahanbegloo was an expert in Isaiah Berlin and Mohandas Gandhi. No wonder Ahamedinejad has accused him of espionage.

It’s still the Easter season. Catholics have fifty days to ponder the great mystery at the heart of our faith – ten more than the more famous forty days of Lent. And the core of that mystery is how such great life can come out of such terrible death. This mystery is, indeed, as Jesuit priest Christopher Devron explains here, inexhaustible. And the life and work of Mychal Judge, brought before us primarily because of the sacrifice of his death, is a new chapter in the Easter miracle. The new documentary, "Saint of 9/11", is a revelation primarily because it fills in the rest of Judge’s astonishing life of service: to the poor and homeless, the victims of terrorism and of AIDS, the warring Irish and the courageous fire-fighters of New York City. His death, in retrospect, was the culmination of a life of sacrifice for others; of humility and abounding generosity. Jesus walked among us. And until he endured the final sacrifice, most of us didn’t even know.

That’s the effective choice for the theocons. The latest data on unintended pregnancies and abortions are not so great. Money quote:

Among sexually active women who were not trying to get pregnant, the percentage of those not using contraception increased to 11 percent from 7 percent from 1994 to 2001, the latest data available, according to numbers Guttmacher analyzed from the National Survey of Family Growth, a federal study.
The rise was more striking among women living below the poverty line: 14 percent were not using contraception in 2001, up from 8 percent in 1994. Better-off women ‚Äî those who earned more than twice the poverty rate ‚Äî were also less likely to use contraception: 10 percent did not use any in 2001, up from 7 percent in 1994… The rate of unintended pregnancies, which had declined 18 percent from the early 1980’s to the mid-1990’s, has leveled off since about 1994. That reflects a diverging trend: among poor women, the rate rose 29 percent, but among better-off women, it declined 20 percent.

So the Catholic church’s ban on all contraception (even if it would prevent AIDS) and the now-fashionable emphasis on abstinence in sex education may have contributed to more abortions in this country than would otherwise be the case. Once again, as in their opposition to an HPV vaccine, the pro-life movement turns out to risk being pro-death in practice. A comprehensive strategy to reduce abortions would not be obsessively focused on criminalizing it altogether, as the theocons want. It would center on a massive effort to get contraception out to sexually active women, especially the poor and black who may not be able to force their sexual partners to use condoms. It would provide Plan B over the counter, no questions asked. Then you need a much more ambitious adoption program, that includes all potential adopters, i.e. gay and lesbian parents as well. Many on the religious right would rather see abortion rates rise or stay stable than concede on these issues. Which reveals what really motivates them: a hostility to sexual freedom as much as a desire to protect life.