"I had instructed the prosecutors in September 2005 that we would not offer any evidence derived by waterboarding, one of the aggressive interrogation techniques the administration has sanctioned. Haynes and I have different perspectives and support different agendas, and the decision to give him command over the chief prosecutor’s office, in my view, cast a shadow over the integrity of military commissions. I resigned a few hours after I was informed of Haynes’ place in my chain of command," – Morris D. Davis, the former chief prosecutor for the Office of Military Commissions. Scott Horton comments here.
Nationalize The Daily Show!
A reader voices a sentiment that is gathering steam:
I hereby call upon President Bush to intervene and bring an end to the strike of the Writers Guild of America. This is a time of war and national emergency. With the Iowa caucuses less than a month away, and the choice of our next president in the balance, America desperately needs The Daily Show.
There is precedent. In 1950, with the United States involved in the police action war in Korea, President Truman seized the nation’s steel plants after labor negotiations failed between the United Steel Workers of America and the steel industry. President Truman’s action led to the landmark Supreme Court case of Youngstrown Sheet & Tube Co. v. Sawyer, 343 U.S. 579 (1952), in which the opinion of Justice Robert H. Jackson, a former prosecutor of war crimes at Nuremberg, described the limits on executive power in times of war.
Today, as President Bush’s executive branch commits war crimes while denying any limit on its executive power, we again face a national emergency. The strike-imposed silence of Stephen Colbert and The Daily Show has left America without a crucial source of actual information. Democracy is at risk!
It’s time–finally–for President Bush to act like Truman. Please, President Bush, end the strike and bring back The Daily Show before it’s too late!
I think it’s a joke. But then I thought Sheryl Crow was serious.
Malkin Award Nominee
"It’s obvious in retrospect that the waterboarding of animals like Zubaydah was an exercise in restraint, not an orgy of mistreatment," – Bryan at Hot Air.
The Feminist
A small detail from the NYT/CBS poll:
Nearly as many of Mrs. Clinton’s backers say they are supporting her because of her husband as say they are supporting her because of her own experience.
A Circular Firing Squad
Romney attacks Huckabee; and McCain attacks Romney for attacking Huckabee. Marc unpacks the Romney logic here. Here’s the Romney ad:
Larison is unimpressed. He thinks the ad is too wimpy. Byron York thinks McCain just likes Huckabee. It could also be that McCain detests Romney, whatever his past statements of respect. The longer this campaign lasts, the more I see how he feels.
The Perfect Ball-Pen
Someone’s been having fun with some Amazon Bic reviews.
What’s Working In Iraq
A reader writes:
My son is an officer in the Army and he is part of the ongoing action over there. Here is what he wrote me some time ago.
"No one ever mentions the fact that we have literally built walls around each neighborhood and along every highway as the reason the violence is down here. The place looks like an Orwell novel gone wrong. The people cannot shoot each other through walls and the insurgents cannot move around to plant their bombs. A society cannot function walled off form each other. We pay every bill, manage every facet of governance. The government at every level is a joke. The ministries are controlled by one faction (Shia). They have almost no experience or education. A bunch of guys walk around in suits and look important while they do nothing.
The local governments (to use the term loosely) are a collection of gangsters and strong men concerned with consolidating power and lining their pockets with cash from kickbacks of U.S. construction projects. The people have no work ethic. (I offered two grubby starving men 20 dollars each to unload some grain bags… they asked for fifty and then refused to work for less. I unloaded it myself) They throw their trash in the street until it piles high enough for the kids to play on it, and get sick. So, in short, I don’t see a Capitalistic Democracy sprouting along the Tigris. I see the little boy (The U.S. Army) with his finger in the dike. If we remove our hand, it all goes away."
I later had the opportunity to discuss this with my son and he fleshed out the point about the neighborhoods being walled off. He told me that there are 17 feet high cement barriers at the end of every street separating manageable neighborhoods. There are checkpoints to control ingress and egress to each neighborhood. Citizens are not able to lead ordinary lives. The joke among officers over there is that in order to show further "progress" the troops will have to circle EVERY house.
Look At The Tree!
A seasonal video that never seems to get old:
Who wants Bailey’s?
Shakespeare, Calvin and Hobbes, Ctd
A reader found the original strip, discussed in this post.
Yglesias Award Nominee
"What should be done with these people? Should they be given all the rights U.S. citizens charged with crimes in the U.S. have? I’m not sure about that.
But I do know that the procedures in place now just don’t seem fair. If you can’t find out what evidence the Government has against you; if you can’t present your own evidence; if you are arguing to a tribunal that is told to presume that the Government’s position is correct . . . that’s not fair. It runs a real risk of causing us to hold people who are innocent. There has to be a better way," – Patterico.
