Bush and HIV-Positive Foreigners

As China prepares to lift its ban on visitors with HIV, the Bush administration actually tightens the rules for visa waivers for HIV-positive non-Americans, to make it even more onerous for them if they decide to risk it and visit the US:

On World AIDS Day last year, President Bush announced his intention to create a streamlined process for foreign travelers with HIV to enter the United States more easily. Currently the United States is one of only 13 countries in the world, including Iraq, Saudi Arabia, and Sudan, which ban travel for individuals who are HIV-positive. Now, almost a year later, DHS has proposed regulations which would make it even harder to get a short-term waiver.

I just don’t understand this. The Bush administration has done a lot for foreigners with HIV, but continuing a Jesse Helms-initiated ban on even visits from foreigners with HIV is furthering the stigmatization of the HIV-positive population. Does Jenna Bush realize that the woman she wrote her book about is barred from even entering the US? Do we we really want to be more hostile to people with HIV than China?

A Conservative Against Torture

A great post:

One of the key things that conservatives ought to remember (and which we notice all the time in liberal proposals) is that INTENTIONS DO NOT EQUAL OUTCOMES.  The government is horribly incompetent at all sorts of things and we ought not abandon that insight when analyzing proposals of people who allege that they are our allies (the idea that Bush is a conservative ally is something I’d like to argue about on another day–but my short answer is that he isn’t).

As with limitations on free speech, I don’t trust the government to be able to fairly and nimbly navigate the rules that would be necessary to  make certain that it only used a legal right to torture  when it was the right choice.  Sadly this is no longer a hypothetical question.  In actual practice, we find that Bush’s administration has tortured men who not only didn’t know anything about what they were being tortured about, but weren’t even affiliated with Al Qaeda.

Let me say that again. Bush’s administration has tortured men who were factually innocent.

Not men who got off on technicalities. Factually Innocent.

We also have over a hundred deaths in US interrogation/custody. God knows how many of the murdered were innocent. You give government these tools – let alone one man with no oversight – and you are risking oblivion as a free society. This is a conservative position.

Graham On Maliki

Lindsey Graham is surely right to worry that any security gains in the Iraqi regions mean little unless reciprocated by the Maliki government. Time is running out. But where is the alternative? James Joyner shrewdly notes:

The problem, however, is that Maliki gained power as a result of democratic processes that we helped institute. Wouldn’t this move give lie to the notion that the Iraqi government has sovereignty? … Our leverage is incredibly limited given that it’s clear we are desperate to wash our hands of the Iraqi mess. That doesn’t exactly inspire a lot of confidence. Moreover, anyone who came to power through the strong backing of U.S. political leaders would thereby be at an incredible disadvantage domestically and in no position to lead the tough reconciliation process.

I thought this war was over?

“Bris” and “Brit”

A reader sets me to rights:

The word "brit" literally means covenant. The full phrase in this context is "brit milah", the covenant of circumcision. So when it was written "at a Jerusalem brit", it means "at a Jerusalem circumcision."

And while I’m at it, Jules Crittenden is not David Frum’s brother-in-law. He’s David Frum’s wife’s cousin. With the neocons, the layers of family connections can get confusing.

From Oy To Ow

What goes around:

Rabbi Yosef Shalom Eliashiv, leader of the powerful Lithuanian religious movement, served as godfather at a Jerusalem brit [sic] Wednesday but suffered a deep cut to his hand, apparently when the mohel slipped.

The 97-year-old sage received stitches and was declared well. The baby was unharmed.

I’d love to meet that Jerusalem Brit, wouldn’t you?