Recently in Law & Liberty Category

At this juncture, I think a little pessimism is not unhealthy. Health care, even in a watered down form, has not passed. We lost Massachusetts. The banks we bailed out are earning record bonuses. Everyone is nervous about losing one or more houses of Congress. The Justice Department is preparing to whitewash the authors of the torture memos. And our guy is still trying to "engage" the Republicans rather than obliterate them. A little grumbling from the base seems to be in order.

We live in extraordinary times, if only we can lift our eyes from the press of the mundane long enough to see it. As I write, I have just finished reading a series of "tweets" broadcast by a friend in besieged Kabul, one of many friends in the international diplomatic/aid community working to ameliorate conditions in the most desperate places in the world.

Image via Wikipedia

Although I spent two years in the Peace Corps, I was always particularly impressed by my Peace Corps colleagues who went on to make careers of international service. Over the years, I have intermittently followed their careers as they narrowly cheated death from landmines in Zaire, tried to patch up Rwanda after the genocide, stimulated agricultural production in Mozambique, and tried to foster democracy in Afghanistan. And while I am amazed that Google can rescan the Haitian landscape within hours in order to give rescuers a detailed map of the devastation, I recognize that the key element in repairing the frayed edges of the international community is the people on the ground. With their unique blend of courage and compassion, they are my heroes.

John Milton, one of the most prodigious intellects of the seventeenth century, who played an active political part in one of England's greatest political upheavals, spent the latter part of his life confined to comparative inactivity by total blindness. Like Beethoven composing symphonies he could not hear, Milton dictated Paradise Lost from memory. In his sonnet On His Blindness, Milton wrote, "They also serve who only stand and wait." But among the vast majority of us who effectively "stand and wait," at least with respect to the world beyond our borders, let us have a moment's reflection for those who go forth and do, at their peril, and wish them a safe return.

The Wordy Shipmates by Sarah Vowell


My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Ronald Reagan had a great gift for reducing powerful ideas to shallow platitudes. So perhaps it is no surprise that, like some verbal reverse alchemist turning gold into lead, he could debase the Puritan fear of accountability to a stern deity to a bland notion of modern celebrity. When John Winthrop spoke of a City on a Hill, it was equal parts aspiration and admonition. Yes, he intended the Massachusetts Bay Colony to be an example of godliness to others, but he was also firmly persuaded that if the Colony abandoned the the path of righteousness, that God could make it an example of another sort after the fashion of, say, Sodom and Gomorrah. Reagan, in contrast, basically viewed the "City on a Hill" as a variation of the Magic Kingdom. Reagan's platitudes are just one of many ways in which modern America has watered down and caricatured the Puritans' high minded, if sometimes oppressive, ideals.

None of which is to do justice to the bitingly funny and deeply compassionate narrative of life in early America recounted by Sarah Vowell in the Wordy Shipmates. Vowell has a keen understanding both of how radically different the Puritan outlook was from our modern sensibilities and yet how deeply ingrained Puritan notions of their special place in the world are in modern America, with both comic and disastrous consequences. And in the end, some of the characters Vowell is most fond of are the rebels and misfits - Ann Hutchinson and Roger Williams -- who were forced out of the Massachusetts to Rhode Island, where they established a precedent for religious tolerance that has been a significant thread in American history ever since.

Contrary to today's secularists, Roger Williams was not concerned with limiting the state's power in matters of conscience because he was irreligious. Rather, he was, if anything, too religious, so scrupulous about his own salvation that at times he would refuse to pray even in the company of his wife and children less they tarnish the purity of his thoughts. Williams recognized, however, that the tyranny of the state in religious matters corrupts both religion and government. False doctrines can be imposed by force, but more importantly religion comes to serve secular ends.

No account of early New England would be complete without confronting the colonists' encounters with the Native Americans. Vowell acknowledges that the early epidemics that wiped out huge numbers of the native population were inevitable once initial contact was made between Indians and Europeans. However, she also observes that the subsequent genocide was not, and she vividly describes the incineration of virtually the entire Pequot tribe - men, women, and children - in one monstrous conflagration as a horrifying precedent for the centuries of massacres to come.

For any person willing to take a lighthearted look at early America, and its underside, the Wordy Shipmates is a volume not to be missed.

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It is a shibboleth of the Right that anyone more liberal than Rush Limbaugh is a "traitor" to his country; the egregious Ann Coulter even wrote an entire book about liberal "Treason." The shrill rhetoric and exaggerated alarums over the bogeymen of the Left betray a deep-seated unease about American democracy, however. Modern American democracy is committed above all to the orderly transfer of power through stable institutions designed to express the will of the People. Secondarily, American democracy is committed to the proposition, familiar to every student who ever dipped into the Federalist Papers, that no one locus of power is ever to be trusted completely. A government of limited powers can best be preserved by encouraging each of the three branches of government to jealously guard its prerogatives and ensure that no other branch overstepped its authority.

In contrast, modern American conservatism, as repeatedly expressed in the eras of Nixon, Reagan, and Bush the Younger, is infatuated with the cult of the man on the white horse, the strong central executive who will put all to rights because he is not bound by the petty considerations of law or morals that bind lesser mortals. (See Bombing of Cambodia, Watergate, Iran-Contra, War on Terror.) The Party panders in the pursuit of power to the racaille of the American South, who have historically been the pillar of slavery, segregation, States Rights, Jim Crow, and the Southern Strategy and who now form the electoral core of the rump of the party of Lincoln, (Teddy) Roosevelt, Eisenhower, and Rockefeller, but the Republican Party does not fundamentally believe in fulfilling the will of the people. Rather, theirs is the paternalism of the plantation owner and the corporate executive, the "Quality" who will ensure that the teeming swarthy masses do not threaten white privilege in America, endowed upon the white man by grace of God, the gun, and the smallpox. The alternative would be to recognize equality and welcome participation in the political process by all Americans. (Anyone who doubts the overtly exclusionary tendency of the contemporary, conservative American South need only review the disproportionately anti-Obama vote of white southerners compared to the overall vote in their own states and to whites in other parts of the country, or anecdotally the interview footage of white Southerners in Kentucky before the election.)

The first two chapters of Benjamin Wittes' Law and the Long War starkly illustrate this modern tendency in the modern politics of the Republican Party. Proceeding under a theory of the "unitary executive," the Bush Administration sought to consolidate the emergency powers it had assumed immediately after the crisis of 9/11 on a permanent "wartime" basis. In his first chapter, "The Law of September 10," Wittes seeks to show not only that there was some continuity between the anti-terrorism efforts of the Clinton and Bush Administrations, but also that there were some theoretical precedents dating from World War II (or earlier) for the Bush Administration's insistence that the Geneva Conventions did not apply to Al Qaeda and the Taliban and that it needed no authorization from Congress to regulate its treatment of those captured in the wake of 9/11. In particular, Wittes points out that Guantanamo had been used prior to 9/11 for the indefinite preventive detention of HIV positive illegal immigrants, and that the Clinton administration had pioneered on a limited scale the practice of extraordinary rendition, or "outsourced torture," that later became a staple of the Bush Administration's "War on Terror." Wittes concedes that the Bush Administration was totally lacking in legal justification for its actions in only one area: its decision to disregard the jurisdiction of the FISA Court over the conduct of electronic surveillance.

Wittes explains the readiness of the Bush Administration to disregard legal and moral norms in pursuit of the so-called "War on Terror" precisely in terms of the Bush Administration's public insistence on casting the conflict almost entirely in wartime terms and its concomitant contempt for any argument that legal guidance or Congressional authority was relevant to prosecuting the conflict.

While Wittes' attempts to show legal continuity and at least theoretical justification for the Bush Administration's disregard of legal and moral norms in its prosecution of the so-called "War on Terror" seem a little strained, he is quite persuasive on the legislative and political dynamics that guided the Administration's actions. Wittes' formulation has almost the ring of a Greek tragedy. Persuaded in their hubris that any request for legislative authorization from the Congress would diminish the inherent power of the "unitary executive," the (Vice) President's men, particularly David Addington, strongly resisted any suggestion that they ask the Congress for legislation to regulate the custody of terror suspects and adjudication of their cases. Wittes identifies three important consequences of the Administration's arrogance. First, they failed to recognize that whatever small quantum of executive authority might be lost to the Congress, the authority of the executive is vastly magnified when bolstered by statute, as Justice Jackson long ago pointed out. Second, they failed to recognize that the supine Congress — Republican or Democrat — was ready to give them anything they requested. Third, they underestimated the willingness of the Supreme Court to step in and fill the vacuum left when the Administration bypassed the Congress, resulting in a series of highly embarrassing Supreme Court decisions that in fact undermined executive prerogative and enhanced the reach of the Court.

In Wittes' view, the normal dynamic of American democracy should be that the President proposes, the Congress legislates, the President executes, and the Courts, if necessary, adjudicate. The Bush Administration turned this dynamic on its head. The President, recognizing no limit on his authority, was brought up short by the Court, and then sought to control the damage by seeking legislation from the Congress to limit or overturn the Court's rulings. Such a course of action is not only woefully inefficient, but it drastically undermines the Administration's moral authority for any action it might take, particularly when the rebuke comes from a notoriously conservative Supreme Court. It is one thing to take action with the full endorsement of the nation's deliberative and legislative bodies; it is quite another to suffer public rebuke from the nation's highest court and then to be seen frantically manipulating a rubber-stamp Congress in order to proceed with a course of action that has been roundly condemned. Moreover, proceeding in such a manner is a course of action that, once the immediate fires had been extinguished, could only be undertaken by men with a fundamental contempt for representative democracy and a complete lack of concern for the damage they might do to our institutions and our freedom.

Having widely outraged some sensibilities with my recent unequivocal call for decriminalization of drugs, it will come as a surprise to no one that I also advocate legalization and licensing of prostitution.

The goal of bringing both drugs and prostitution out of the underworld and into the sunshine is to limit both their prevalence and their harmful effects. Ironically, the drug problem drives in part the prostitution problem, as many young women become prostitutes in order to feed a drug habit, and many pimps inculcate drug habits to maintain control over their prostitutes.

There are few social problems more rife with hypocrisy than prostitution. As a rule, we punish the largely female prostitutes more severely than the largely male customers, although even then the usual punishments are so light as to call into question any genuine commitment to ending the trade. I positively admire Deborah Jeane Palfrey and Sidney Biddle Barrows compared to the two-legged cockroaches David Vitter and Eliot Spitzer, who hypocritically condemn the very lusts in which they are most deeply steeped. Cf. Angelo in Measure for Measure. My objection, mind you, is not so much to the lust as to the loathsome hypocrisy. Ms. Palfrey should not have been the one who suffered, or at least not alone.

Mind you, calling prostitution a victimless crime is cant. Overwhelming, it appears, women sell their bodies out of economic compulsion not simply profit maximization. In doing so, they frequently suffer danger and disease, not to mention whatever psychic cost there is to repetitive, anonymous copulation. But calling for legalization, as with drugs, does not imply endorsement; it merely recognizes the futility of our efforts at interdiction and the excerbation of the costs of the behavior in question.

The first benefit of legalization of prostitution would be to undermine the element of coercion. Not only would employers be more closely scrutinized by the government, but also women who decided to engage in the sex trade would have more opportunities and greater job mobility. Moreover, legalization would hopefully undercut the economic gains of kidnapping and sex slavery. If women are to have control of their own bodies, they must have enough economic freedom that prostitution is an option, not a last, desperate necessity.

As a recent article in the Guardian demonstrates, a second significant benefit would be disease control. See http://bit.ly/2VVRAE . Puritanical South Africa apparently wants to legalise prostitution for the duration of the World Cup in the hopes of avoiding an explosion of HIV infection. Nearly half of South Africa's prostitutes are HIV positive, and without screening and treatment, authorities fear that there will be an explosion of HIV infection among the 3.2 million fans. Meanwhile, proponents of legalisation in South Africa are mainly dismayed that the country is only talking about legalisation during the games rather than on a permanent basis.

It is time for more dignity and less disease. The time for legalization is now.

Just discovered Yale Law School's Avalon Project, a collection of major historical documents from ancient times through the twenty-first century. It looks as though it will repay a second, and third, look.

Hypothesis: Alcohol kills more people in this country than all illegal drugs combined.

Proposal: Decriminalize all drugs now. Marijuana, heroin, cocaine, LSD, meth, ecstasy, the lot. Disparage them, discourage them, tax them, treat them, but decriminalize them. Restrict sales to adults. (If you object that the kids are going to get ahold of them, ask yourself what the kids are doing now in the face of our failed interdiction policy.) Decriminalize drugs, and the end of artificial scarcity created by interdiction will drive down the price, the gangs will wither, and violence will decline. If you doubt it, ask yourself how much bootlegging goes in this country. We need to stop the enormous profits from trafficking from fueling ongoing international violence and providing a pretext for repression. We need to restore balance to the market so that some farmers will reallocate their production to to other crops. We need to get the vast number of young people guilty of nothing more than seeking a quick high out of jail. What do you say?

Public Affairs Blogger Thomas Nephew and Legal Affairs Blogger The Talking Dog are holding an extended online discussion of Benjamin Wittes' book Law and the Long War about the War on Terror and its deformation of United States law.

Corporate Irresponsibility: America's Newest Export by Lawrence E. Mitchell


My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Corporate Irresponsibility was probably destined never to be a popular book from the day it was written in 2001. Not only did it run counter to American business orthodoxy, but it takes a self-consciously scholarly approach from the outset. Any book the first third of which is devoted to a Kantian analysis of the deontological justification of the corporate form is unlikely to garner a wide audience outside academia. This is a shame, because this book is a thoughtful exploration of deep rooted flaws in American corporate law and practice, flaws which are considerably more apparent now than when the book appeared. From the outset, Mitchell questions the fiction of corporate personhood, a creation of the Supreme Court in the late nineteenth century that endowed the corporation with the same legal rights as individual persons. Mitchell sees this as a tragic mistake. A corporation possessing all the legal rights of a person may incorrectly be thought to share the motivations, inhibitions, and interests of a natural person. In fact, however, the corporation, particularly in its American form, owes but one loyalty and possesses but one motivation, the maximization of short term profits and stock prices.

Mitchell questions the little examined assumption of American culture that short term profit and societal benefit are coterminous, formerly expressed in the notorious comment that what is good for General Motors is good for the country. (Not such a popular sentiment since the recent collapse of GM.) In fact, an exclusive focus on short term stock price not only blinds the corporation (and the people to run it) to such obvious externalities as pollution, but also even to the financial decisions that would be in the best interest of the corporation and its stockholders, much less employees, customers, and the public.

One example (mine, not Mitchell's) might be the Walt Disney Corporation's relentless pursuit of extension of the copyright term in order to protect its proprietary interest in Mickey Mouse. It has long been recognized, and is acknowledged in the United States Constitution, that copyright is an appropriate temporary measure to ensure that artists and writers are compensated for their work and encouraged to produce more of it. In general, however, works should pass into the public domain as soon as possible so that ideas will be widely disseminated and older works can inspire new ones. (Shakespeare might never have written a line if he had been subjected to a rigorous enforcement of today's copyright laws. The author of the ur-Hamlet would no doubt have sued!) An individual artist only needs to have an artificial monopoly on his creative work for the duration of his lifetime, or perhaps a little longer to provide for his children. This is consistent with the principle of limited copyright, and flesh and blood is likely to demand little more. Only the corporation, which exists in perpetuity, or until dissolution do us part, is likely to demand a perpetual copyright with no regard for the free flow of information or the general welfare, although it may cloak itself in the rights of the very artists it exploits through draconian distribution contracts. The corporation knows no conscience, only profit.

Under these circumstances, the incentives for corporate behavior (or misbehavior) make a real difference in light of the absence of the kind of restraint normally to be expected from individuals. Unfortunately, the corporation in its American form takes to extremes an emphasis on short term stock price and exclusive obligation to shareholders that exacerbates corporate asocial (or antisocial) tendencies. While there seems to be consensus that long-term planning is necessary for the long-term health of corporations, the insatiable demand of stockholders for short-term returns can clearly undermine the long-term health of the corporation. Obvious examples include such cost-cutting measures as slashing the research department and reductions-in-force of necessary personnel. On another level, the focus on short-term profit encourages America's takeover culture, in which companies that do not maximize their short-term stock price are susceptible to hostile takeover and leveraged buyouts that saddle them with massive debt. (The argument that performance is driven by takeover threats is, of course, tautological so long as performance is primarily measured in short-term returns.)

To address the distortions that focusing on short-term stock price imposes on corporate behavior, a central reform that Mitchell proposes is to reduce the influence of stockholders on corporate governance. Ideally, Mitchell argues, one could largely eliminate it by making corporate boards self-perpetuating. The Yale Corporation, which governs Yale University, is largely run this way (although the alumni representative is elected). Shareholders would naturally, retain the power to invest or disinvest in the corporation so as to protect their investment, although on the investor side of the equation, Mitchell also proposes a variety of incentives to curb day trading and other short-term trading that distort the market rather than improving market efficiency. Mitchell's reform of corporate law would ideally act to encourage longterm planning by corporate boards and long-term investing by stockholders. Recognizing that it is unlikely that stockholders would ever completely relinquish the power to elect the board, Mitchell offers as a compromise elections that would occur not annually, but only after the board had served a term of several years. At the same time, Mitchell proposes to extend the amount of time between reports, rather than issuing them quarterly, to encourage a longer view on the part of investors. (However, one might question whether modifying behavior by withholding information is an effective or desirable strategy.) Although the book is not long, Mitchell does deal with a host of other issues, including the disgusting tendency toward self-dealing that has lately so outraged the public, as managers award themselves massive bonuses even as their companies go under. Mitchell outlines the problem as inherent in the wide scope given board members under the "business judgment rule," under which conflicts of interest on the part of board members can be excused if they are approved by a majority of the "non-interested" board members. Given the reciprocity that characterizes corporate boards, allowing the Courts to abdicate their oversight responsibility in the name of the business judgment rule is a recipe for institutionalizing conflict of interest. Mitchell endorses stricter legal oversight of boards to regulate their conduct, but fundamentally is more concerned with how corporations behave within society than with oversight of the personal conduct of board members.

A short review does not do justice to this dense but penetrating analysis of the tectonic flaws of America's corporate structure, an analysis that has proved as prescient as it is generally unheeded. Timely today, it would have been more timely reading for America's policymakers when it came out.

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I honor the memory of the 9/11 dead and grieve for the horrible deaths inflicted upon them. I was not at ground zero (although some of my relatives were very, very close), but I was a couple of blocks from the White House, as I am every work day, when the Pentagon was hit. I understand that having been hit once, we could be hit again.

However, I am also incensed that the tragedy of 9/11 has been misappropriated by the Republican propaganda machine to justify war abroad and repression at home. This kind of politicization of a tragedy dishonors the dead.

I also think that the horror and immediacy of 9/11 have created a loss of historical perspective. Tragic and horrific as 9/11 was, it was not Nagasaki or Stalingrad. I suggest that as we remember the tragedy of 9/11, we also remember other great and tragic historical September events. I suggest this not to diminish what happened on 9/11, but to caution against a self-absorption that distorts our place in history and the world.

Other Noteworthy September Events

1792 September Massacres initiate the Reign of Terror
1812 Battle of Borodino, 70,000 casualties, French capture Moscow
1862 Battle of Antietam, approximately 20,000 Americans die
1863 Battle of Chickamauga
1886 U.S. crushes the Chiricahua Apaches with the capture of Geronimo
1914 Battle of the Marne, first trenches dug
1915 British use gas at Loos, kill 60,000 of their own men
1916 Battle of the Somme continues, eventual casualties equal 1,000,000
1917 Passschendaele continues, eventual casualties equal 700,000
1939 Germany invades Poland, unleashing the Second World War
1940 Italy invades North Africa, beginning the North African campaign
1943 Allies invade Italy
1945 Surrender of Japan
1962 James Meredith enrolls at Ole Miss
1963 Birmingham Church Bombing

Sources
http://french-history.suite101.com/article.cfm/the_reign_of_terror_in_the_french_revolution
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Borodino
http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/cwphtml/tl1862.html
http://militaryhistory.about.com/od/civilwar/p/chickamauga.htm
http://www.historynet.com/geronimos-last-surrender.htm
http://www.pbs.org/greatwar/
http://history.searchbeat.com/worldwar.htm
http://faculty.smu.edu/dsimon/Change-Civ%20Rts.html

My note to Congressman Joe Wilson (R-SC) after he interrupted the President's speech on Health Care Reform by shouting "You lie!"

Dear Sir:

I wish simply to state that I believe that you are a disgrace to the United States Congress. Your state in particular bears a heavy legacy for the centuries of bloodshed, oppression and slavery that it has plunged this country into. You would think that you would have the decency to treat the country's first African American President with a modicum of respect, whatever dark thoughts you may harbor in your heart. One would think, in particular, that a former aide to the notorious segregationist Strom Thurmond would be particularly careful about perpetuating Thurmond's, and South Carolina's, racist legacy. Tonight you have shown that that racist legacy flourishes still in South Carolina and among Republican Southerners, who have clearly learned nothing and forgotten nothing since at least 1964, if not 1864. Truly, sir, if there were ever a tradition of Southern gentility, it has died in you and your swinish colleagues.

Very truly yours,

Charles W. Day, Jr.

This is a shout-out to the kindred spirits at AngryTownHall.com who want to end our socialist government's iron-fisted control over our fire departments. Next step, free the libraries!

I have just read the first of Cory Doctorow's short stories in Overclocked, which are available for download under a Creative Commons license. It has the virtues, among others, of a) being short, b) illustrating an important point about a fundamental freedom, c) alluding to George Orwell, d) relying on the common programming concept of recursion, and e) availing itself of an innovative legal structure for marketing and distribution purposes. All in all, it's "Science Fiction" in the best senses of both terms.

The Post describes how the greatest generation fought the most monumental war of our time:

"We got more information out of a German general with a game of chess or Ping-Pong than they do today, with their torture," said Henry Kolm, 90, an MIT physicist who had been assigned to play chess in Germany with Hitler's deputy, Rudolf Hess.

The American interrogators of World War II got more information with more humane techniques in a vastly more significant conflict. We are not the men our fathers and grandfathers were, and we will be remembered as a generation whose confrontation of a lesser challenge was small, petty, cruel, and vindictive.

Hendrik Hertzberg on why Dick Cheney is one of the most evil men in America today.

The Darksider: Comment: The New Yorker

The Washington Post thinks Democrats have the edge on the Web. I hope they are right, and that we keep it.

Online, GOP Is Playing Catch-Up - washingtonpost.com

Vladimir Putin's Russia might seem like an unlikely soil for one the foremost modern voices of freedom to take root, but world chess champion Garry Kasparov has transformed himself from world renowned chess player to world renowned advocate for democracy. Today in Red Square, Kasparov and some 2,000 companions faced down, and were arrested by, some 9,000 heavily armed riot police, stifling the demonstration but illustrating Kasparov's point that Russia is once again a state run by gangsters. (One of the many troubling aspects of George W. Bush's foreign policy outlook is his admiration for Russian strongman Vladimir Putin, despite (or because of?) Putin's suppression of domestic dissent.)

Kasparov discusses his program at his Committee 2008 website and as a contributor to the Wall Street Journal (subscription required).

Lawyers (Scripting News)

Ur-blogger Dave Winer is critical of the civil justice system, and predicts that bloggers will make it more accountable:

Critics ask if blogging is a field of banality but arming citizens against big corporations is becoming an important part of our economy, and it's for the good. Today, when I tell a company that's taking unfair advantage that I have a blog, nothing happens. In a few years I don't think it'll be like that.

Mr. Winer notes that — at least today — nothing happens when he tells a company he has a blog. He might get farther by telling them he has a lawyer.

Will Episcopal Church Change View on Gays? - Newsweek Beliefs - MSNBC.com

The Bishop of New York suggests that if the Episcopal Church must choose between selling out its gay and lesbian members or ditching the Anglican Communion, we may be kissing the Communion good-bye. Good riddance, say I, and not one penny more for the bigoted Anglican church of Nigeria. I may have to put up with the blandishments of the egregious Peter Akinola, but I see no reason to subsidize them!

The Endlessly Maddening (for Liberals) Case of Ralph Nader - New York Times

The New York Times favorably reviews a new documentary about Ralph Nader. Personally, although I count myself a liberal, I do not share liberals' outrage over Nader's role in the 2000 presidential campaign. Not that I am blind to the tremendous damage that has resulted from the Bush presidency, but because I believe that it really was up to the Democrats to win the election, and that they dropped the ball. I am crossing my fingers that we will do better in 2008, although early signs appear mixed to me.

As for Mr. Nader, for one of whose organizations I worked in the nineties, he will always be one of my heroes for his uncompromising stand on behalf of consumer safety and corporate accountability in the face of tremendous opposition.

Robert Stein, a former comptroller for the U.S. Coalition Provisional Authority which governed Iraq and oversaw the reconstruction effort after the U.S. invasion, was sentenced to nine years in prison and forced to return $3.6 million in taxpayer money that he garnered in bribes for diverting nearly nine million dollars in contracts to a particular American contractor. Characterized as "one of the largest fraud schemes to emerge from the reconstruction of Iraq" by the Post, this scheme leaves one to wonder how many others there have been and how big they were.

Jimmy Carter - A New Chance for Peace? - washingtonpost.com

The clear fact is that Israel will never find peace until it is willing to withdraw from its neighboring occupied territories and permit the Palestinians to exercise their basic human and political rights.

Jimmy Carter claims that too much attention has been focused on the provocative title of his recent book "Peace Not Apartheid" and not enough on the premise that peace talks need to be resumed and persecution of Palestinians ended. Carter insists that he is offering a way for Israel and the Palestinians to find peace and security, and calls on the Democratic leaders of the Senate and the House to send a fact finding mission to Israel and the occupied territories in preparation for and support of peace talks.

Pentagon Sets Rules for Detainee Trials - washingtonpost.com

The military is once more prepared to try "enemy combatants" in military tribunals with relaxed rules of evidence, particularly allowing the admission of hearsay and evidence obtained through coercion (but not "torture') before Dec. 30, 2005. The tribunals will be comprised of American military officers and will have the power to impose the death penalty. Detainees have no right of habeas corpus, which has raised speculation that the Congressional act authorizing the tribunals will be struck down by the Supreme Court. Then again, why should anyone accused of being a terrorist have rights?

FederalNewsRadio - WFED: Pentagon Disavows Comment on Detainees

Amid a storm of condemnation, the Pentagon has backed away from comments by a senior official that were clearly designed to intimidate law firms representing detainees in Guantanamo Bay:

Charles "Cully" Stimson, the deputy assistant secretary of defense for detainee affairs, said in a radio interview last week that companies might want to consider taking their business to other firms that do not represent suspected terrorists.

As an editorial in the New York Times points out, Stimson's remarks strike at the heart of the American tradition of fair representation for anyone accused of a crime. As the Times also observes, we have come to expect nothing less from the Bush Administration.

newsrack blog

Thomas Nephew has a fascinating analysis of the President's speech and its consequences for the war effort — in Afghanistan!

I'm Tortured by Doubt - washingtonpost.com

Funny thing, as Scott Adams points out, is that torture's proponents have not ponied up much evidence that it even works.

Max Boot and Geoffrey Wheatcroft on American Foreign Policy - New York Times

Max Boot and Geoffrey Wheatcroft vie with each other in the New York Times to see who can describe the situation in Iraq in bleaker terms. Wheatcroft's assessment is that we have only two options:

For McCain to advocate another 20,000 troops is a cop-out. He should be saying, "America can win in Iraq, but only if we have the stomach for the fight. We will need to commit an army of at least half a million for five, ten, maybe 20 years, and be prepared for casualties on the scale Europe has known in the past century. In turn that means bringing back the draft (with no exemptions or deferments whatever for anyone with 'other priorities'), and it means raising Federal income tax to World War II levels. Let us therefore brace ourselves to our duties, and for what will indeed be a Long War."

But those who take the Odom line should also be candid and admit what cutting and running implies: the whole of the larger Middle East, from Turkey to the Gulf, Israel to Iran, will be abandoned to its fate. Back to fully-fledged isolationism, America First, and the narrowest interpretation of the national interest.

Although both of those would be intellectually honest, I have to admit that, looking at America, again from afar, neither seems at present what we call practical politics, or a likely campaign platform. But then what else is there?

If Wheatcroft is right, then facing up to the consequences of this country's, and this President's, actions is going to be very difficult indeed.

White House, Joint Chiefs At Odds on Adding Troops - washingtonpost.com

Apparently, the Joint Chiefs agree with Colin Powell that a surge of 20, 000 to 30,000 additional American troops in Iraq would create more problems than it would solve. But is the Administration listening?

Powell Says U.S. Losing in Iraq, Calls for Drawdown by Mid-2007 - washingtonpost.com

Colin Powell offers a grim, some would say realistic, assessment of the situation in Iraq, one which apparently largely agrees with the Iraq study group. His most chilling comment, in my view, is his statement that the active military is "broken."

Although he said he agrees with Gen. John P. Abizaid, the top U.S. commander in the Middle East, that there should be an increase in U.S. advisers to the Iraqi military, he said that "sooner or later, you have to begin the baton pass, passing it off to the Iraqis for their security and to begin the drawdown of U.S. forces. I think that's got to happen sometime before the middle of next year."

Before any decision to increase troops, he said, "I'd want to have a clear understanding of what it is they're going for, how long they're going for. And let's be clear about something else. . . . There really are no additional troops. All we would be doing is keeping some of the troops who were there, there longer and escalating or accelerating the arrival of other troops."

He added: "That's how you surge. And that surge cannot be sustained."

The "active Army is about broken," Powell said. Even beyond Iraq, the Army and Marines have to "grow in size, in my military judgment," he said, adding that Congress must provide significant additional funding to sustain them.

Bob Woodward, in State of Denial, asks Senator Carl Levin how he feels about Colin Powell's current "anguish" over his support of the Iraq War at its inception. Levin responded that he did not care about Powell's anguish now, because he cannot forgive Powell for not stopping the war when he alone perhaps had the power to do so.

Lawyers, Guns and Money: I'm actually being quite charitable here

A reflection on the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and how the recently deceased Augusto Pinochet systematically violated them. Unfortunately, in too many ways, the Declaration seems to remain largely an aspiration in most countries.

Update: A short history of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Interestingly, in addition to the United States, Chile, Iraq, and Iran were among the signatories.

Conservative Rabbis Allow Ordained Gays, Same-Sex Unions - washingtonpost.com

NEW YORK, Dec. 6 -- A panel of rabbis gave permission Wednesday for same-sex commitment ceremonies and ordination of gays within Conservative Judaism, a wrenching change for a movement that occupies the middle ground between orthodoxy and liberalism in Judaism.

Now, Conservative Jews have recognized same sex marriage and gay ordination. It almost seems as though the only people who don't these days are Nigerian bishops, Virginia churches, and the Islamic Republic of Iran.

Bitch Ph.D.

Jose Padilla has been reduced to a shell of man by the government's pretrial isolation and interrogation tactics. HIs defense lawyers now claim that he is no longer fit to stand trial.

Episcopal Churches To Vote on Departure - washingtonpost.com

Two Washington-area conservative Episcopal congregations are threatening to bolt the Episcopal Church because it treats women and gays as full equals before God. If the Churches do so, they will be submitting themselves to the authority of a lunatic Nigerian bishop who supports jail time for homosexual activity.

However, they know there are questions about a suburban Washington congregation technically under the leadership of Akinola, who has supported a new Nigerian law that penalizes gay activity, whether private or "a public show of same sex amorous relationship," with jail time.

Contrast, for example, the position of Bishop Tutu; the Nobel Peace Prize winner and hero of South African independence is in favor of expansive rights for gays in the Church.

In addition, there is likely to be a bitter court battle as the Episcopal Church seeks to enforce its rights to the property of the two Churches.

History will not be kind.

Homemade Memorial Is Stirring Passions on Iraq - New York Times

A field of white crosses with a sign stating that they were in memory of the Iraq war dead has stirred an ugly controversy in Lafayette, California.

At issue is a hillside memorial, made up of some 450 small white crosses and a 5-by-16-foot sign that reads: “In Memory of 2,867 U.S. Troops Killed in Iraq.” The memorial was created by Jeff Heaton, a building contractor and antiwar activist, who said it was meant “to get people involved on a local level” and talking about Iraq.

People are talking, and they are saying that Heaton has to take down his sign. Heaton is defending the sign as integral to his Constitutionally protected freedom of speech. The town, meanwhile, is not amused by a monument to war guilt.

blackprof.com: Why Kramer’s (Michael Richards) Letterman Apology Was Important

Law Professor Spencer Overton accepts Michael Richards' apology as sincere, and thinks it has some lessons for the rest of us. Overton points to Harvard's Project Implicit, which attempts to detect racial and other hidden biases based on unconscious reactions to visual stimuli. A number of sample tests are included with the project, which collects some personal data but promises confidentiality.

On a personal note, while I was not overly surprised by the results of the one test I took, I am confirmed in my belief that I must consciously strive every day to treat people fairly, equally, and as individuals.

Embittered Insiders Turn Against Bush - washingtonpost.com

The Washington Post reports that now that the War in Iraq has turned into a quagmire that gets deeper by the day, the Republican rats are falling over each other in their rush to jump ship. While they were happy to share the credit following a swift invasion — a cakewalk, as former Bush and Rumsfeld protege Ken Edelman put it — now the neocons are focused sticking it to the feckless George W. Bush. As Adelman commented:

"There are a lot of lives that are lost," Adelman said in an interview last week. "A country's at stake. A region's at stake. This is a gigantic situation. . . . This didn't have to be managed this bad. It's just awful."

Though Adelman does accept some of the blame for the botched occupation, the Republican response in general has been more along the lines of selectiong Trent "I wish the segregatioist ticket had prevailed" Lott for MInority Whip.

See also Selma to Montgomery, Wikipedia.

Newrack is in fine form with pointers to the Right Was Right on the Democrats' true agenda, revealed at last, and firedoglake's encomium of Democratic visionary James Carville.

Persistent Race Disparities Found - washingtonpost.com

. . . that race in America will remain a major issue for a long time to come, the Washington Post reports on the stark differences in standards of living among members of different races:

White households had incomes that were two-thirds higher than those of African Americans and 40 percent higher than those of Hispanics last year, according to data released yesterday by the Census Bureau. White adults were also more likely than black and Hispanic adults to have college degrees and to own their own homes. They were less likely to live in poverty.

Yes, I did see the RNC's slimy, racist ad against Harold Ford. I do not think their tactics were fair or honorable, and I would have preferred to see him win. He seems to be a decent man, if a bit on the conservative side for a Democrat. That said, I still do not think his consolation prize should be the DNC chairmanship.

Howard Dean as chairman of the DNC presides over an historic reversal of the Republican juggernaut that has owned the Congress for twelve years and the whole government for six. He espouses a very credible strategy that we need to fight for votes in every state, including Red states like Missouri and Virginia, where we won.

Now, James Carville wants to replace Dean with a candidate who, but for the fact that he is African American, would be a classic Southern Democrat who lost his Senate race — Harold Ford. It makes no sense.

Thanks to newsrack for the story.

Mubarak Warns Against Hanging Saddam - washingtonpost.com

Saddam should not hang, but not because Hosni Mubarak says so. For obvious reasons, Saddam's trial must make Egypt's dictator uncomfortable. The last thing he wants to see is a precedent for accountability by a neighboring head of state. It was not worth a war to bring Saddam to justice, but there seems to be no doubt that his many crimes cry out for punishment.

As an opponent of capital punishment, I do not believe that hanging is the appropriate punishment for Saddam Hussein, even if he is more deserving of hanging than most. I have no doubt, however, that he should finish his days in a small concrete cell removed from the rest of humanity.

A Voter Rebuke For Bush, the War And the Right - washingtonpost.com

The political pendulum in American politics swung away from the right yesterday, putting an end to the 12-year Republican Revolution on Capitol Hill and delivering a sharp rebuke of President Bush and the Iraq war.

Now maybe we can begin to mitigate the damage.

As I go to bed, we could still take Virginia . . . .

Polls Closing As Democrats Seek Control - New York Times

Socialist Rep. Bernie Sanders wins a Senate seat in Vermont.

Right now, election night seems like a frat party . . . . A long night, followed by a big headache.

Hussein Is Sentenced to Death by Hanging - New York Times

Saddam Hussein richly deserves everything that is coming to him; in fact, there is probably not a punishment commensurate with what he has done. However, I do not think killing him is worth what we have done to Iraq, and to ourselves, and I take no joy in a hanging.

Democrats, on the Offensive, Could Gain Both Houses - washingtonpost.com

The Washington Post thinks the Democrats can take both houses.

Ted Haggard, evangelical pastor of a 14,000 person megachurch, leader of an association of 30 million evangelicals, right-hand man of Christian political boss James Dobson, confidant of Karl Rove and President George Bush, and staunch enemy of gay marriage, has admitted days before the election that he bought crystal meth and received a massage from a gay prostitute, but denies the prostitute's claim that the pair had regular sex every month for three years. The National Association of Evangelicals has accepted Haggard's resignation with "regret" for his "indiscretions." I would be curious to know what Pastor Ted's annual income was as a preacher of the Word, and what will happen to his ill-gotten gains now that he is exposed not merely as a bigot, but as a hypocritical bigot.

Andrew Sullivan quotes C.S. Lewis on the danger of mixing religion and politics.

Where We Went Wrong - washingtonpost.com

Dick Armey, of all people, on the current state of the Republican Party:

Now spending is out of control. Rather than rolling back government, we have a new $1.2 trillion Medicare prescription drug benefit, and non-defense discretionary spending is growing twice as fast as it had in the Clinton administration. Meanwhile, Social Security is collapsing while rogue nations are going nuclear and the Middle East is more combustible than ever. Yet Republican lawmakers have taken up such issues as flag burning, Terri Schiavo and same-sex marriage.

Armey is also probably right that if the Democrats win control of Congress in the coming election, they need to concentrate on sound policy that is good for the country rather than simply settling scores with the Republicans. Where Armey is wrong is in the implication that doing so is synonymous with surrendering to the Republican agenda of 1994.

In general, I like Andrew Sullivan, even if I suspect that there are many issues over which we disagree. I do not read Hugh Hewitt much, but what I have read, I do not like. I do not think that my reaction is based simply on my feelings about their respective politics, although I am sure that is part of it.

Reading Hewitt's interview of Sullivan, I found Hewitt's single-minded attack on Sullivan tendentious. Hewitt's tactic is basically to assert a superior knowledge of Constitutional Law and Catholic theology and then attempt to trip Sullivan on the details. Cross examination may be an effective means of determining credibility in the courtroom, but it does not make for a very pleasant or enlightening book interview. As a rule, when I watch a book interview, I am more interested in substantive information about the book than I am in skewering the author. I am willing to give the author enough of the benefit of the doubt so that I can learn something about his book. I have not yet read Sullivan's book, but the impression I get from his blog, in contrast to Hewitt's, is that he is more interested in a free spirit of inquiry than in playing the role of the grand inquisitor. Humility is a becoming trait, but it appears to be one in which Mr. Hewitt is singularly lacking.

Are Republicans Republicans because they hate Bill Clinton, or do they hate Bill Clinton because they are Republicans?

One person I asked thinks that the Republicans are obsessed with Bill Clinton because he got away with eight years of peace, prosperity, and even some legislative accomplishments — without having control of Congress for the most part — whereas the Republicans, after six years of virtually complete dominance of all three branches of government, have nothing to show but a yawning deficit and a catastrophic foreign war. The only explanation is that Bill Clinton worked some weird mojo on them and is still laughing from the sidelines. (She dismissed the idea that people are obsessed with Clinton because he is an unethical male horndog — after all, doesn't one expect that of our (male) politicians?) What do you think?

I have just finished Bob Woodward's State of Denial. I can't quote from it, because I have already lent my copy to a friend. However, I can say it is a very clear explanation of how the Iraq War, a bad decision in the first place, went from bad to worse. Most of the outline should be known to any reader of the newspaper by now, but the details are quite telling. Perhaps most revealing for me was Woodward's account of Jay Garner's telling Donald Rumsfeld the United States had made three tragic mistakes: disbanding the Iraqi army, purging the government of mid-level Ba'ath party members, and refusing to meet with a provisional government. Garner's analysis, however, does not begin to capture the fundamental wrongheadedness of the prosecution of the war portrayed by Woodward, from the futile search for the Weapons of Mass Destruction that never were to the willful deafness to any kind of bad news.

The Year Of Playing Dirtier - washingtonpost.com

The Washington Post reports on new lows in political ads, mainly Republican — from false accusations that Democratic candidates engaged in phone sex to white women making come-ons to African American candidates in Sourthern states with particularly virulent lingering biases against interracial relationships.

Newsrack, the most recent addition to my blogroll, responds to Rush Limbaugh's juvenile attack on Michael J. Fox's poltical ads in support of stem cell research. Limbaugh accused Fox of faking the symptoms of his illness and the side effects of his treatment. The link has a YouTube clip of one of the ads, so one can see what the controversy is about.

Having rather enjoyed and admired Victor Davis Hanson's book on the Peloponnesian War, I was quite disappointed to read his screed on how the Arabs should be more grateful after all we have done for them. Hanson may be right that politics in the Middle East is broken, but he does not seem to be willing to acknowledge how deeply implicated the West has been in the breaking. And it seems churlish for a Classical scholar to deride the intellectual heritage of the people who preserved the writings of the Greeks.

Link from Lawyers, Guns and Money

Ben Cardin has the most powerful political ad I have heard on the radio in a long time. However, to get it you need to know (1) who John Lewis is, (2) that African Americans may well be the swing vote in the Maryland Senate race, and (3) that the Republican candidate Michael Steele is also African American.

Bumpersticker by Irregular Goods.

Embattled CEO To Step Down At UnitedHealth - WSJ.com

William McGuire's company is rich beyond the dreams of avarice by limiting or denying needed medical care to kids like mine. Dr. McGuire is rich beyond the dreams of avarice because he allegedly backdated his stock options illegally.

At the end of last year, Dr. McGuire's cache of unexercised options was valued at $1.78 billion, a sum far greater than any other U.S. corporate chieftain. Yesterday, UnitedHealth said he agreed to have all of the options issued to him from 1994 through 2002 repriced, likely cutting tens of millions in dollars from their value. But the company left open other financial arrangements with Dr. McGuire, and the exact terms of his departure are likely to be the subject of intense negotiations.

McGuire is under investigation by the S.E.C. , federal prosecutors in New York, and the Minnesota attorney general. Somehow, however, I am skeptical that Dr. McGuire will ever do more than a few months at a federal country club, after which he will be free to enjoy his ill gotten millions.

Restraints Fray as Nuclear Age Grows Globally - New York Times

The New York Times explains why nuclear power may be mankind's most tragic mistake, since it enables the widespread proliferation of nuclear weapons.

TAPPED

Scott Lemieux debunks criticism of the Lancet study in the American Prospect.

(Incidentally, in an earlier post I stated that the study was 95 percent accurate. More precisely, there is a 95 percent chance that the number of deaths falls between approximately 400,000 and 800,000 950,000, with the most likely number being around 600,000.)

Congratulations to Professor Joan Meier and the Domestic Violence Legal Empowerment and Appeals Project (DV LEAP) on receiving the Mary Byron Foundation's Celebrating Solutions Award today. DV LEAP provides critical help to domestic violence victims and lawyers who are appealing adverse rulings in the courts. Not only does DV LEAP aid and empower victims, but it works actively to improve the law regarding domestic violence.

Not surprisingly, MoorishGirl already had the story. The commentary is worth reading, particularly the note that Bush may have killed more Iraqis than Saddam.

Iraqi Death Toll Exceeds 600,000, Study Estimates - WSJ.com

The Wall Street Journal reports that a study to be published in the Briitish medical journal the Lancet estimates the number of Iraqi civilian deaths at 600,000.

WASHINGTON -- A new study asserts that roughly 600,000 Iraqis have died from violence since the U.S.-led invasion in March 2003, a figure many times higher than any previous estimate.

The scientific methodology of the study, performed by scientists who have studied Rwanda and other crises, is described as excellent by
university experts in the United States. The results are credited with being 95% accurate.

The Bush League

The Washington Post's Gene Weingarten asks if George W. Bush is the worst president in U.S. history. Judge for yourself.

Foley Case Upsets Tough Balance by Capitol Hill’s Gay Republicans - New York Times

In a story on gay Republican Congressional staffers, the New York Time writes:

When asked why he remains in the party, Mr. Bennett gave an answer common to gay Republicans: he said that he remained fundamentally in sync with the small government principles of the party and its approach to national security, and that he was committed to changing what he considers its antigay attitudes.

How ironic that the Republicans are now the party of big government deficit spending and intrusive deficit spending, and that their national security policy has proved an unmitigated disaster for the country.

United Church of Christ News - UCC leader criticizes Family Research Council's use of Foley scandal to scapegoat gays, lesbians

The Rev. John H. Thomas, the UCC's general minister and president, is condemning remarks by Tony Perkins, president of the right-wing Family Research Council, who is using the Mark Foley congressional scandal to scapegoat the larger gay and lesbian community.

The United Church of Christ issued a strong statement condeming attacks on homosexuals arising out of Congressman Mark Foley's advances to Congressional pages. The problem, the UCC pointed out, is one of sexual predation on youth by adults, and is not rooted in sexual orientation. Link from Andrew Sullivan.

One of my personal heroes, Daniel Ellsberg, thinks it is time for federal employees to start leaking what they know before the Bush Administration plunges the country into war with Iran.

Virginia Republican Senator George Allen has created a sensation with a spectacular string of racially and ethnically offensive remarks, whether it is referring to a South Asian Democratic aide as a monkey ("macaca") or stating that asking a question about his Jewish lineage is casting an "aspersion." Now, Slate magazine offers the George Allen Insult Generator!

Surge in Anti-Muslim Incidents Reported - washingtonpost.com

The Washington Post reports a surge in violence against American Muslims:

The Council on American-Islamic Relations received 1,972 complaints of harassment, violence and discriminatory treatment in 2005, up from 1,522 in 2004, according to an annual report released yesterday.

Andrew Sullivan quotes Jeffrey Hart on the President's betrayal of the conservative tradition.

Jamie Raskin for State Senate - Silver Spring and Takoma Park

I have sporadically followed Jamin Raskin's career as an American University professor, author, and civil rights activist. I think he will be a good choice for the Maryland Senate.

Owing to problems with the Montgomery County election, the polls were kept open an extra hour, so I was able to vote on my way home today. (Throughout the county, the election officials forgot to ship the key cards that unlock the voting machines to the polling stations.) There are some good people running, and I want to support the Democratic alternative to the ruling party. In light of the Republican lock on the federal government and the lack of a really convincing agenda on the part ot the Democrats, I can't say that my heart was really in it, however.

I am going to do my best to keep my radio and television turned off tomorrow. I will try to remember quietly the tragic deaths of the people killed on that date, many of them a couple of miles away from me. But I do not want to hear the nauseating, self-serving, back slapping, self congratulatory, complacent, hypocritical, bathetic, crass, exploitative, ghoulish rhetoric of our shallow political class.

HOV Traffic Waits for No Man, Even the President

The Secret Service spent nearly a day trying to convince Virginia traffic officials to shut down the HOV lanes — including bus service — for six hours during rush hour. Why? So that the President could drive to a fundraiser for embattled Republican Senator George Allen. Finally persuaded that stranding 22,000 commuters was not a good idea, the President took a helicopter instead.

The Volokh Conspiracy reports that gay civil rights pioneer Dr. Franklin Kameny has a website featuring selections of historic papers and photographs from the early history of the gay rights movement, of which Kameny was an integral part. The avowed purpose of the website, beyond educating people about Dr. Kameny's work, is to find a sponsor for a permanent home for the collection in a museum or library.

Chinese Rights Activist Stands Trial After Police Detain Defense Team

BEIJING, Aug. 18 -- The blind rural lawyer who exposed forced abortions and sterilizations in eastern China last year stood trial Friday without his lawyers, while supporters said the case made a mockery of any effort in China to impose the rule of law.

In the face of China's complete disregard for human rights or due process, the courage of a few lawyers at least offers a ray of hope.

blackprof.com: Advice for New Law Students of Color

I wish I had read Professor Overton's advice before I went to law school. As it was, a lot of what he has to say was not apparent until I was studying for the bar.

The post also has a lively and intelligent discussion in the comments; one that illustrates incidentally that meaning is not confined to authorial intention.

Lamont Defeats Lieberman After Tight Race - New York Times

Ned Lamont, a Connecticut millionaire whose candidacy for the United States Senate soared from nowhere on a fierce antiwar message, won a narrow but decisive victory tonight over the storied incumbent, Joseph I. Lieberman, in the race for the Democratic nomination.

Hopefully, this represents the beginning of a new chapter in the history of the Democratic Party, one in which the Democrats are finaly willing to challenge the Bush machine.

I spent part of the evening at Busboys and Poets for a book signing of Spencer Overton's Stealing Democracy. Overton, a professor at the George Washington University Law School, is a coauthor of the blog Blackprof.com

Coretta Scott King died, and Samuel Alito was sworn in as the nation's 110th Supreme Court Justice.

The Get-Out-of-Torture-Free Card - Why is Congress banning torture but allowing the use of torture testimony? By Emily Bazelon

Congress deserves a pat on the back today for facing down the Bush administration and passing John McCain's unconditional ban on torture, right? Not exactly. Alongside McCain's legislation sits another amendment that undercuts the ban by allowing for the legal use of testimony obtained by torture. If enacted, that provision will move the United States away from standing behind a clear legal and moral principle and into the murk of hedges and exception-making—achieving exactly what McCain's bill is supposed to avoid.

Why is Carl Levin supporting this atrocious amendment?

House Endorses Senate-Passed Ban on Mistreating Terror Suspects

In a symbolic move, the House endorsed a Senate-passed ban on cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment of foreign terrorism suspects Wednesday as negotiations between the White House and Sen. John McCain over the provision appeared at an impasse.

To Halt Abuses, U.S. Will Inspect Jails Run by Iraq - New York Times

American military officers will inspect hundreds of detention centers and embed with Iraqi police commando units and other Interior Ministry forces to try to halt widespread abuses uncovered by raids on two Iraqi-run detention centers in Baghdad in the last month, the American ambassador pledged Tuesday.

A Scotsman Wields a Not-So-Invisible Hand in Africa - New York Times

"We don't want to create a dependency culture in Africa," he said. "We make an investment. We want a return. We wouldn't just give the money and hope for the best. I am a Scotsman after all."

Scottish billionaire Sir Tom Hunter promises a novel approach to aid to Africa in conjunction with former U.S. President Bill Clinton.

Plan: We Win - New York Times

The New York Times on President Bush's plan for victory in Iraq: "A president who seems less in touch with reality than Richard Nixon needs to get out more."

Supreme Court to Hear Tribunals Challenge

The Supreme Court agreed today to rule on the legality of the Bush administration's planned military commissions for accused terrorists, setting the stage for what could be one of the most significant rulings on presidential war powers since the end of World War II.

I feel very conflicted about the Court's decision to hear this case. On the one hand, I am dismayed that the question of whether such tribunals might be legal has ever been raised; clearly they ought not to be. However, I hope, though I do not expect, that the Court will see the light and rule that the tribunals are illegal, and that prisoners may sue in U.S. Court's to enforce the Geneva Conventions.

Rosa Parks, Black Activist

From abroad, challenges to US role as top innovator | csmonitor.com

Federal spending on research in the physical sciences, when measured as a share of the national economy, has been falling for four decades, notes Don Giddens, dean of engineering at Georgia Institute of Technology, in Atlanta.

If we are losing our technological edge, much of the reason would appear to be our stinginess in supporting research.

www.AndrewSullivan.com - Daily Dish

Andrew Sulllivan celebrates the Senate's historic 90-9 vote to ban the use of torture by the U.S. military and establish clear guidelines ffor interrogation. The House has yet to vote, but this vote is very encouraging.

Crooks and Liars

Sounds like a movie worth seeing.

Buying of News by Bush's Aides Is Ruled Illegal - New York Times

Federal auditors said on Friday that the Bush administration violated the law by buying favorable news coverage of President Bush's education policies, by making payments to the conservative commentator Armstrong Williams and by hiring a public relations company to analyze media perceptions of the Republican Party.

Three Days After Losing Katrina Duties, FEMA Chief Resigns Post - New York Times

Michael Brown has resigned from FEMA, not a moment too soon. Meanwhile, in Louisiana, Bush feigns cluelessness, or does he?

Osama and Katrina - New York Times

Besides ripping away the roofs of New Orleans, Katrina ripped away the argument that we can cut taxes, properly educate our kids, compete with India and China, succeed in Iraq, keep improving the U.S. infrastructure, and take care of a catastrophic emergency - without putting ourselves totally into the debt of Beijing.

The catastrophe in Lousiana and Mississippi beggars description. God help those people.

Andrew Sullivan describes what's happening in the Sunday Times.

Coretta Scott King to Remain Hospitalized at Least a Week

The doctor treating Coretta Scott King said yesterday that the civil rights icon will remain in an Atlanta hospital for at least another week while recovering from a stroke that immobilized the right side of her body and left her unable to speak.

Left Behind - New York Times

And maybe this is the part I find most distancing about my president, not his fanatic heart - the unassailable sense he projects that God is on his side - we all have that. But that he seems to lack anything like real remorse, here in the third August of Iraq, in the fourth August of Afghanistan, in the fifth August of his presidency - for all of the intemperate speech, for the weapons of mass destruction that were not there, the "Mission Accomplished" that really wasn't, for the funerals he will not attend, the mothers of the dead he will not speak to, the bodies of the dead we are not allowed to see and all of the soldiers and civilians whose lives have been irretrievably lost or irreparably changed by his (and our) "Bring it On" bravado in a world made more perilous by such pronouncements.

Rich Liberals Vow to Fund Think Tanks

In addition, the number of liberal bloggers on the Web has been growing at a fast pace, and their blogs have become both central forums for debate over party strategies and hugely successful vehicles for campaign fundraising, including raising through online contributions more than two thirds of the $750,000 used in the surprisingly competitive House campaign of Democrat Paul Hackett in Ohio. Rosenberg has created the New Politics Institute, an organization that works with bloggers.

Democrats are franctically scrambling to match the conservative network of think tanks that has fueled the conservative political resurgence. The million-dollar question is whether all the money that is being raised will actually result in any new ideas.

CNN Suspends Novak After He Walks Off Set

NEW YORK -- CNN suspended commentator Robert Novak indefinitely after he swore and walked off the set Thursday during a debate with Democratic operative James Carville.

Frank Rich of the New York Times thinks the President's premature Supreme Court announcement and unexpected choice are signs of a vain attempt to escape the widening scandal over administration insiders' blowing a C.I.A. Agent's cover as political payback.

One particularly ugly note is that Rich reports that Karl Rove has a history of trying to smear his opponents by questioning their sexual orientation.

White House Aims to Block Legislation on Detainees

The Bush administration in recent days has been lobbying to block legislation supported by Republican senators that would bar the U.S. military from engaging in "cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment" of detainees, from hiding prisoners from the Red Cross, and from using interrogation methods not authorized by a new Army field manual.

Apparently John McCain and other moderate Republicans are hoping to preempt a more sweeping Democratic bill calling for a 9/11-style Commission to investigate torture of American prisoners.

Andrew Sullivan quotes George Orwell on why torturing our enemies is morally repugnant, tactically ineffective, and politically unwise.

BATTLE OVER THE BAR EXAM

New York law examiners have raised the bar on this month's bar exam, prompting the state bar association to create a panel to investigate whether the exam really measures lawyer competence.

The article notes that it is remarkable that it is the New York Bar Exam is coming under scrutiny, since New York has devoted unusual attention to its admission process. (The article also points out that New York is unusual in that a quarter of the candidates are educated abroad, but cites no correlation to rising scores.)

My sympathies, condolences, and solidarity go out to the British people today. Clearly the people who perpetrated the monstrous crime of bombing civilians on the tube and the buses do not understand that no trait is more British than fortitude in adversity.

Reporter Jailed After Refusing to Name Source - New York Times

WASHINGTON, July 6 - Judith Miller, an investigative reporter for The New York Times, was sent to jail on Wednesday after a federal judge declared that she was "defying the law" by refusing to divulge the name of a confidential source.

Andrew Sullivan summarizes the Air Force Report on religious coercion at the Air Force Academy. Somehow it does not appear that Christians are the are the people at risk of oppression in modern America, despite the rhetoric of the Republican Party.

We Are Our History -- Don't Forget It

Gelernter's own place in history is perhaps most secure because he is a well-known victim of the Unabomber. I do not agree with his ultimate implication that Kennedy's aggressive anti-Communism somehow justifies our intervention in Iraq, but I agree with his argument that it is impossible to have an intelligent discussion of the issue without an understanding of history.

It's All Relative

The Washington Post suggests that the revelation of Mark Felt's secret role in the Watergate scandal may have been a self-serving decision by his family:

Watching W. Mark Felt appear alongside his daughter and grandson on Tuesday to affirm that he was Deep Throat, one could be forgiven for suspecting that he was not the driving force behind this very public admission. Smiling like an eager-to-please child, his pajama top tucked poorly into mismatched bottoms, the 91-year-old looked like a man who no longer made many decisions for himself. Any evidence that he was once among the nation's most powerful lawmen was long gone. The two faces framing his, however, seemed to be very much in charge. His attractive, determined daughter Joan and his clean-cut, law student grandson, Nick Jones, positively glowed with purposefulness. It was hard not to think that they were the ones behind the revelation, not the shaky figure clutching the walker.

It is a very poignant picture.

Rights Group Defends Chastising of U.S. - New York Times

LONDON, June 3 - An official of Amnesty International said Friday that the term gulag in its annual report to describe the United States prison camp at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, was chosen deliberately, and she shrugged off harsh criticism of the report by the Bush administration.

I feel a little conflicted about learning the identity of Deep Throat. Part of the romance of the Watergate story was the secret identity of Woodward and Bernstein's confidential source, and the world seems a little plainer and less mysterious now that he has revealed his identity after 30 years. However, perhaps in the waning years of his life, it is fitting that he be honored for his role.

NAIC Online - Is Social Security Busted? (requires registration)

The [Voice of the American Shareholder] survey asked shareholders to rate their support for eight proposed changes in the Social Security system. The solution that received the most support ("strongly" or "somewhat" in favor) from 69 percent of shareholders was increasing the income level subject to Social Security tax. Social Security taxes currently are deducted from employees' income up to $90,000 per year. Raising that ceiling is a tactic also favored by many economists.

"I favor gradually lifting the income ceiling, because in effect, the current system imposes a regressive tax on those who earn less than $90,000," says Spear of Carnegie Mellon. "Someone who earns $50,000 pays a higher proportion of his income toward Social Security than someone who earns $130,000."

What kind of retirement system is it in which I pay a higher proportion of my income in Social Security taxes than Bill Gates does? Even without the $90,000.00 ceiling, the tax is regressive because it imposes a flat 7.5 percent on all incomes, unlike the graduated income tax. Particularly for people of limited means, this is a big bite out of the money they need to meet basic necessities.

It amazes me, however, that our current president can propose (a) privatizing the system so that it is subject to the whims of the stock market, or (b) turning it into a welfare program instead of a retirement program. We all know how politically popular welfare is, and making Social Security a welfare program is the first step toward destroying it. Clearly, however, the current administration is not going to do anything that might require the rich to pay the same proportion of their income toward Social Security as the rest of the country.

TO BLOG OR NOT TO BLOG

The ABA explains that you may be able to blog and keep your job, if you are careful. Be afraid, be very afraid.

Papal hopeful is a former Hitler Youth - Sunday Times - Times Online

Although there is no suggestion that he was involved in any atrocities, his service may be contrasted by opponents with the attitude of John Paul II, who took part in anti-Nazi theatre performances in his native Poland and in 1986 became the first pope to visit Rome's synagogue.

The Sunday Times has the most comprehensive treatment of Ratzinger's wartime service. However, the Jerusalem Post has a generally favorable article on Ratzinger's relationship with the Jews and Israel. There appears to be a Rashomon-like quality to the story of Ratzinger's youth.

Catholic World News (CWN)

[Ratzinger] was born in Germany on April 16, 1927, which was Holy Saturday that year, and baptized at the Easter Vigil services. His seminary training was interrupted by World War II, when he was inducted into the German army, deserted, and was briefly interned in an American POW camp.

Boston.com / News / World / Europe / Cardinals' detractors hang 'dirty laundry'

A Sunday Times of London profile on Ratzinger, saying his doctrinal watchdog role has earned him uncomplimentary nicknames like "God's rottweiler," reported on the cardinal's "brief membership" in the Hitler Youth movement and service, in the final stretch of World War II, in a German anti-aircraft unit.

In his memoirs, Ratzinger speaks openly of being enrolled in the Nazi youth movement against his will when he was 14 in 1941, when membership was compulsory. He says he was soon let out because of his studies for the priesthood.

Two years later he was drafted into a Nazi anti-aircraft unit as a helper, a common fate for teenage boys too young to be soldiers. Enrolled as a soldier at 18, in the last months of the war, he barely finished basic training.

Ratzinger's wartime past "may return to haunt him," the British paper wrote on the eve of the conclave's start.

Books

None of it is new. Back in 1985, on the eve of a bishops' synod convened by John Paul to discuss the implementation of Vatican II, two naive American journalists visited me at my hotel in Rome to check out a story they'd been fed: that, years earlier, Joseph Ratzinger had been a Nazi. Locating his listing in a standard reference work, I pointed out that when World War II began, Ratzinger was all of twelve years old. The journalists went away sad, leaving me to marvel at the malice of whoever was peddling such hateful poppycock.

Crisis magazine explains that Ratzinger was just twelve years old when the war began. However, that means he would have been 17 when it ended, and UPI seems to think that he saw action. No, I do not think that Ratzinger was a Nazi. I think it is still troubling that a man who saw action as a soldier in the Army of the most evil enterprise in history should be elected Pope without more explanation. What has he said about the War?

Analysis: Ratzinger in the ascendance - (United Press International)

Ratzinger, once a teenage infantryman in the German army at the end of World War II, and then briefly an inmate in an American prisoner-of-war camp, has repeatedly stated he would like to retire to a Bavarian village and dedicate himself to writing books.

Why is it that the new Pope's service as one of Hitler's soldiers does not seem to have excited more comment, particularly in light of Pius XII's complicity in the massacre of the Jews?

The President of the American Bar Association, Robert J. Grey, Jr. issued a statement condemning attacks on the judiciary in the wake of the controversy over withdrawal of Terri Schiavo's feeding tube. In part, the statement read as follows:

As members of the legal profession, I know you share my concern over the public's misunderstanding of the judiciary's role and the politically motivated criticism of the judiciary stemming from the Terri Schiavo case, and are equally alarmed about the murders of Judge Lefkow's family members in Chicago and the attacks at the Fulton County Courthouse in Georgia. The circumstances of these tragic events require careful analysis, thoughtful leadership, and measured response. The American Bar Association has long held the preservation of judicial independence as one of the most important Association goals. These recent events have elevated the urgency of that commitment among the ABA's leadership. In the past several days, I have issued public statements condemning the violence against our judiciary and the gratuitous and vicious public attacks on the dedicated men and women who are our country's judges. During my speaking engagements, I have taken the opportunity to call for a change in tenor when the national discussion turns to our justice system.

Regardless of how one feels about the specific circumstances of the Schiavo - or any - situation, the role of the judiciary is clear. Federal and state judges are charged with weighing the facts of a case and following the remedies set forth in the law, responsibilities they carry out valiantly and with great dignity and sensitivity.

It is vital that the legal community address the current atmosphere in which our legal system operates, in what can only be called a decline in civility and respect toward our justice system. Too often judges are characterized as political tools and the justice system merely an offshoot of politics, and not the independent leg of our democracy that they are.

It is time to remember that even when we disagree with the men and women who are appointed to the judiciary, we should respect the instititution because it is a vital part of our democracy and the rule of law.

Doubts on Weapons Were Dismissed (washingtonpost.com)

That was one among many examples -- cited over 692 pages in the report -- of fruitless dissent on the accuracy of claims against Iraq. Up until the days before U.S. troops entered Iraqi territory that March, the intelligence community was inundated with evidence that undermined virtually all charges it had made against Iraq, the report said.

How many people have died because of the Bush Administration's lies about the need to go to war in Iraq? How do these people sleep at night?

Showy, Tenacious Lawyer Rode Simpson Murder Trial to Fame (washingtonpost.com)

Johnnie L. Cochran Jr., 67, the dogged lawyer whose emotional, sometimes flamboyant courtroom summations played to national audiences during his successful defense of O.J. Simpson, died March 29 at his home in Los Angeles. He had an inoperable brain tumor.

Federal Lawmakers Reach Deal in Schiavo Case (washingtonpost.com)

A one-page memo, distributed to Republican senators by party leaders, called the debate over Schiavo legislation "a great political issue" that would appeal to the party's base, or core, supporters. The memo singled out Sen. Bill Nelson (D-Fla.), who is up for reelection next year and is potentially vulnerable in a state President Bush won last year.

"This is an important moral issue and the pro-life base will be excited that the Senate is debating this important issue," said the memo, which was reported by ABC News and later given to The Washington Post. "This is a great political issue, because Senator Nelson of Florida has already refused to become a cosponsor and this is a tough issue for Democrats."

The Republican leadership of the Senate shows its respect for the dignity of human life and adherence to the principles of federalism and states' rights. Andrew Sullivan comments.

The New York Times > Opinion > Op-Ed Columnist: The Debt-Peonage Society

A vast majority of personal bankruptcies in the United States are the result of severe misfortune. One recent study found that more than half of bankruptcies are the result of medical emergencies. The rest are overwhelmingly the result either of job loss or of divorce.

The Congress is apparently on the brink of making it much harder for middle class families that have suffered personal misfortune or tragedy to take refuge in bankruptcy. New York Times columnist Paul Krugman sees this as part of an ideologically driven shift in the law that will force middle class Americans into poverty. The only beneficiaries are the credit card companies, but for the Republican Congress, their vote is apparently the only vote that matters. Thanks to Workplace Fairness.

The Washington Post has an update.

law.com - Law Firms Mull the 'Gen Y' Equation

Another managing partner at a national firm said that many new associates, unlike associates before them, no longer "feel lucky" to have their jobs. The attorney also said that associates now operate under a pack mentality.

"[Newer associates] have a very strong connection with each other as opposed to the institution. If someone is treated badly, they all react to it," the attorney said.

My wife perceptively observed that this anonymous managing partner has a huge blind spot: he fails to recognize that the associates feel no loyalty to the firm because the firm shows no loyalty to them. Clearly, as far as he is concerned, they are simply so many expendable units of billable hours. Small wonder that they are not willing to sell themselves body and soul into indentured servitude. What is most galling is that this gutless bully of a "managing partner" insists on hiding behind anonymity in print. If this is really his national firm's policy, he should have the cojones to stand behind it.

The New York Times > Arts > Frank Rich: Gonzo Gone, Rather Going, Watergate Still Here

[Hunter]Thompson was out to break the mainstream media's rules. His unruly mix of fact, opinion and masturbatory self-regard may have made him a blogger before there was an Internet, but he was a blogger who had the zeal to leave home and report firsthand and who could write great sentences that made you want to savor what he found out rather than just scroll quickly through screen after screen of minutiae and rant.

Fuck the South

Fuck the South. Fuck 'em. We should have let them go when they wanted to leave. But no, we had to kill half a million people so they'd stay part of our special Union. Fighting for the right to keep slaves - yeah, those are states we want to keep.

And now what do we get? We're the fucking Arrogant Northeast Liberal Elite? How about this for arrogant: the South is the Real America? The Authentic America. Really?

O.K., so I guess I am perhaps the last person in America to discover this rant, but it is still funny. Thanks to the Suburban Limbo.

The inaugural speech of January 20, 1961 is as stirring today as it was over 40 years ago.

Wal-Mart Chief Defends Closing Unionized Store (washingtonpost.com)

Wal-Mart Chairman H. Lee Scott on his company's bully boy tactics in Chicago:

"Our size causes us, when we do something inappropriate, which is usually done out of stupidity, to come across as being done out of arrogance. And people just won't stand arrogance."

Now Wal-Mart has created an uproar by shutting down its only union shop in Quebec instead of agreeing to arbitration. Stupid or arrogant?

Free Expression Can Be Costly When Bloggers Bad-Mouth Jobs (washingtonpost.com)

But Mosteller, 25, said the blog was one of the reasons she was given for losing her job, and she is still in shock. "Considering I treated the blog as a smoke break, I didn't think of it as a problem."

I take a dim view of companies that fire people for saying things outside of work. I think it is particularly deplorable when the company is an institution putatively devoted to free speech, such as a newspaper. However, it is an unpleasant reality that some companies can and will fire employees for what they say outside of work.

Like any potentially powerful tool, a blog deserves to be treated with respect. Sometimes that means taking some care about what we say.

People groom themselves before they present their persons to the world. Similarly, a blog is a public persona, which should at least receive the same amount of care as choice of a necktie, polished shoes, a clean shave, and combed hair.

Update: On a more sinister note, Robert Ehrlich's staff member Joseph Steffen also paid for the illusion that he was not accountable for his blogging.

Guardian Unlimited | Guardian daily comment | Bush must face up to a rising power

Jeremy Rifkin on the possibility that President Bush may address the european Parliament in Brussels:

Let me suggest that if the secretary of state, Condoleezza Rice, were to convince the president to make such an address, the positive political fallout might be as significant as Henry Kissinger's bold move to have Richard Nixon visit China 33 years ago. Formally recognising the EU in this kind of very public way could help usher in a new era of cooperation between Europe and America and go a long way to heal the rifts that have developed since the end of the cold war.

News: D.C. Law Students Receive $2.4 Million Contribution

The D.C. Law Students in Court (LSIC) program received a contribution of $2.4 million from a cy pres award resulting from a court settlement.

Clinical programs are among the most valuable parts of a legal education. Not only do clinics give law students practical training that is otherwise largely absent from the law school curriculum, but they also provide much needed legal services for people of limited means. I am delighted to see that the clinics at my alma mater, George Washington University Law School, will share in the proceeds of the settlement with Comcast.

A recent study finds that high school students know little about the First Amendment and care less. Part of the problem is that school newspapers are being cut owing to budget constraints, so students are not obliged to confront issues of free expression first hand.

A federal judge rules that the military's tribunals in Guantanamo Bay fail to meet the minimal requirements of due process. Our conduct of the war and disregard for basic human rights continues to tarnish our triumphant moment following the successful Iraqi election.

The New York Times > International > Asia Pacific > Very Discreetly, China Buries Zhao, Its Troublesome Ex-Leader

Some 2,000 mourners and at least that many police officers turned out Saturday for a heavily restricted funeral service for Zhao Ziyang, as authorities took steps to ensure that the final commemoration of Mr. Zhao, the former leader, would not touch off anti-government protests.

A reminder that Tiananmen is not forgotten, but China is not free.

Bush Aims to Forge a GOP Legacy (washingtonpost.com)

The Washington Post outlines the Bush strategy to shift political and economic power to the wealthy corporations and individuals who are the primary beneficiaries of the Republican Party, and by doing so to permanently shift power to the Republican elite. The targeted attacks on unions, trial lawyers, and Social Security are the Administration's opening salvos. The Post comments:

When President Bush stands before Congress on Wednesday night to deliver his State of the Union address, it is a safe bet that he will not announce that one of his goals is the long-term enfeeblement of the Democratic Party.

But a recurring theme of many items on Bush's second-term domestic agenda is that if enacted, they would weaken political and financial pillars that have propped up Democrats for years, political strategists from both parties say.

I used to think that use of the word "hubris" was largely confined to discussions of either Greek tragedy or the Vietnam War. For some reason, the word seems to be making a comeback. Nothing to do with our assumption that we have a quick fix to remake the Middle East in our own image, I'm sure.

I guess my priorities are not in the right place. I find it rather odd that Americans are willing to confirm as attorney general a man who condones brutal torture by American troops that includes rape and murder, but not someone who hired an undocumented immigrant as a nanny and did not pay taxes on her. Not that I endorse denying benefits to immigrant workers either.

MoorishGirl: "We don't need the Americans' intervention. We know who to elect. Not like them -- they elected a moron."

Randa Jarrar on the news quote of the day from a Palestinian factory worker. Also picked up by Andrew Sullivan.

www.AndrewSullivan.com - Daily Dish

Andrew Sullivan discusses the severity and pervasiveness of the torture of prisoners, many of them undoubtedly innocent, by the American military. The practices Sullivan describes include electrocution and sodomizing prisoners with broomsticks, and somewhere between five and twenty-five prisoners were tortured to death. The current nominee for attorney general has a heavy burden to justify his approval of these practices.

Randa Jarrar at MoorishGirl notes that Professor Joseph Massad of Columbia University, having been accused of anti-Semitism, has written an essay in Al Ahram on what anti-Semitism means as it is applied to both Jews and Arabs.

I am hesitant to wade into the debate over the Palestinian issue (about which I do not know very much, though I hope to know more). Professor Massad is right that there is a great deal of prejudice against Arabs and Muslims in Europe and North America. Where we part company, I think, is where he implies that it is possible to oppose the existence of Israel and not be anti-Jewish, and where he argues that Arab antipathy to Jews is "political" and not "racist." I doubt that he would see European or American hatred of Arabs in the wake of the oil crises and 9/11 as "political" and not "racist." I also think that it is too reductive to argue that Israel is simply the colonial and imperial creation of Eastern European Jews, or that the only reason proffered to justify Israel's existence is the Holocaust. I hope that someday there is a compromise solution that provides the Palestinians with a country and a decent life, but I am not sure that Professor Massad is interested in a compromise.

Nevertheless, while I believe that Professor Massad's ideas are fair game for criticism, I do not believe that he should be silenced or his job threatened. Free speech is only meaningful when it protects speech with which we disagree. Too often in this country, the Palestinian voice has been drowned out. If the Palestinians and their advocates are not heard, there will never be peace.

Andrew Sullivan points to a provocative column by Amir Taheri suggesting that the United States' poor relations with much of the Arab world have more to do with the United States than with Israel.

Haaretz reports that the shooting of Palestinian children in the occupied territories by the Israeli Defense Forces is "a routine matter, without commissions of inquiry and without public interest." The conscience of the world was shocked recently by the brutal tracking and cold-blooded shooting of 13-year-old Iman Al-Hamas by an Israeli officer as she tried to flee a restricted zone. Contrary to initial IDF reports, the radio traffic showed that the Army knew she posed no threat and was trying to flee when she was gunned down. This kind of cold-blooded and gratuitous killing is incompatible with civilized society or the standards to which the IDF aspires. (Andrew Sullivan pointed me to the original story about Iman Al-Hamas.) See also Iman Darweesh Al Hams, Wikipedia.

Canada Invites Strippers and Gets Scrutiny (washingtonpost.com)

Nude dancers come here under one of several programs aimed at recruiting foreign workers with specialties sorely needed in Canada. Last year, the country imported more than 19,000 construction workers, almost 5,000 nannies and 1,560 university professors. In addition, 661 work permits were issued or renewed for foreign exotic dancers.

The program has set off a raging debate over whether exotic dancing exploits immigrant women or offers them opportunities they would not otherwise have. Club owners contend there is no link to prostitution. Although prostitution is mostly legal in Canada, soliciting prostitution is generally against the law, and clubs that pressured women into providing sexual services would be breaking the solicitation laws.

The one former exotic dancer I have known was a lawyer who advocated unionization and legal protection for dancers.

Alabama Vote Opens Old Racial Wounds (washingtonpost.com)

Alabama voters rejected a state constitutional amendment on November 2 that would have repealed provisions in the state constitution requiring separate schools for white and black children. Their reason? The amendment would also have repealed language that says the state does not guarantee a public education. Former Justice Roy Moore, who was removed from the state supreme court after trying to bring a giant granite sculpture of the ten commandments into the supreme court building earlier this year, led the fight against the amendment. Moore threw the fear into the population that "activist federal judges" might force the state to raise taxes to pay for public education. Since Alabama is apparently ranked 44th in per pupil expenditures by state, this might not be such a bad idea.

R.I. Reporter Found Guilty In Trial for Not Naming Source (washingtonpost.com)

Reporter Jim Taricani, despite living with a heart transplant, would rather go to jail than reveal the name of his source, who revealed a tape of the mayor of Providence taking a bribe. Unlike the federal judge who is holding Taricani in contempt, Taricani recognizes that the First Amendment requires that reporters be able to preserve their access to sources by promising confidentiality if a free press is to fulfill its duty to inform the public.

I ran across Andrew Sullivan's article in which he takes William Safire to task for criticizing John Kerry's mention of Mary Cheney during the debates. Jonah Goldberg of the National Review argues that Kerry is "creepy" for bringing up Mary Cheney's sexual orientation because he is "using" a family member of an opponent for political gain. Ultimately, however, Goldberg's argument still rests on the assumption that homosexuality is a stigma. He asks, for example, what would happen if George Bush brought up John Kerry's divorce. Goldberg would probably regard divorce as something to be ashamed of; the whole point of the arguments of people like Sullivan and Hillary Rosen is that homosexuality is not. As for Goldberg's asking whether Kerry would have been offended if Bush had commented on the fact that Teresa Kerry is a successful immigrant; I do not think that Kerry would have so much as blinked.

Andrew Sullivan points to cartograms that give a truer picture of the political composition of the country.

The Boston Globe reports that Massachusetts has the lowest divorce rate in the country. The divorce rate in Texas is nearly twice as high. How's that for family values? There's more; born again Christians have the highest divorce rates.

The New York Times > Opinion > Op-Ed Columnist: Voting Without the Facts

Bob Herbert of the New York Times argues that ignorance about the war may have played as great a role in the election as religious bigotry. For example, he reports that 70 percent of Bush supporters thought that Saddam Hussein was working closely with Al Qaeda. (The 9/11 Commission found no evidence of this.) Herbert thinks we need four years of teach ins.

Am I Blue? (washingtonpost.com)

I mean, look at it this way. (If you don't mind, that is.) It's true that people on my side of the divide want to live in a society where women are free to choose abortion and where gay relationships have full civil equality with straight ones. And you want to live in a society where the opposite is true. These are some of those conflicting values everyone is talking about. But at least my values -- as deplorable as I'm sure they are -- don't involve any direct imposition on you. We don't want to force you to have an abortion or to marry someone of the same gender, whereas you do want to close out those possibilities for us. Which is more arrogant?

Every once in a while, Michael Kinsley reminds me why he is one of my favorite writers. Kinsley cogently, and with wry humor, makes that point that opponents of George Bush need not trim out sails to the political wind of the moment just because it seems to being blowing in his direction. (Note: At this moment, this article is the most emailed article on The Washington Post.)

The New York Times > Opinion > Op-Ed Columnist: The Values-Vote Myth

[Bush] won because 53 percent of voters approved of his performance as president. Fifty-eight percent of them trust Bush to fight terrorism. They had roughly equal confidence in Bush and Kerry to handle the economy. Most approved of the decision to go to war in Iraq. Most see it as part of the war on terror.

The fact is that if you think we are safer now, you probably voted for Bush. If you think we are less safe, you probably voted for Kerry. That's policy, not fundamentalism. The upsurge in voters was an upsurge of people with conservative policy views, whether they are religious or not.

If Brooks is right, then the interesting question becomes why do people think an unnecessary, unsuccessful war against a country that was not an immediate threat makes us safer.

Never Give In, Never, Never, Never - The Churchill Centre

[N]ever give in, never give in, never, never, never, never-in nothing, great or small, large or petty - never give in except to convictions of honour and good sense.

Sir Winston Churchill

The election is over, but the fight to save the country has just begun.

I cast my vote today. I tried. We may know how it turned out in the morning, but right now I am not too optimistic.

MoorishGirl tells it like it is.

Bob Herbert excoriates the war effort in the New York Times. Herbert points out that we sent in the troops without the tools necessary to do the job, and without telling them clearly what the job was. To paraphrase Talleyrand, we have learned nothing and forgotten nothing since 1968.

My response to Jane Galt/Megan McCardle, who was lauded by Andrew Sullivan for her "thoughtful, thorough, and cogent argument" in support of George Bush.

Bush's military adventurism in Iraq represents a failure of imagination in foreign policy, not proof of it. In light of the intense animosity we have generated in the region, the worst consequences of Bush's "quagmire" most likely have yet to unfold. We've been here before, when we needed to "stay the course" in Vietnam lest the dominoes tumble and the world be overtaken by Communism. Next thing we hear from the Bush camp will be that there is "light at the end of tunnel." Perhaps we need to have a statement of goals that will either let us ascertain when we have achieved victory or when further loss of life is pointless. However, if Bush really has made a ghastly mistake, he should not be allowed to persist in it for another four years.

On the home front, the consistent thread in Bush's policy has been to consolidate his base by institutionalizing increasing wealth for the wealthiest Americans. This is not what America is or ought to be about.

Why does it make sense to argue that since both parties are bad on civil liberties, it does not matter if the Republicans are worse?

Who seriously thinks that Bush the Texas oilman would support emissions taxes?

Bush was a mistake. Let's not repeat it.

Incidentally, I do not know the origin of the moniker "Jane Galt." However, it sounds suspiciously like a play on "John Galt," the hero of the best known novel of the shallow materialist Ayn Rand.

Kerry for President (washingtonpost.com)

Rebels Massacre 49 Iraqi Guardsmen (washingtonpost.com)

The bodies of 49 freshly trained Iraqi National Guard recruits, lined up and executed by insurgents, were discovered on a roadside about 75 miles northeast of Baghdad, Iraqi officials said Sunday.

Despite regarding our intervention in Iraq as basically misguided, I am shocked and saddened at the fate of these young people whom we recruited but didn't — or coudn't — protect.

I never thought to find myself on the same side of an issue as former RIAA Chairman Hilary Rosen, but I agree with her analysis of the furor over John Kerry's mention of Mary Cheney. Unfortunately, most voters do not seem to get it.

Debate Ducking (washingtonpost.com)

Mr. Kerry did himself no credit when, like his running mate, he brought up "Dick Cheney's daughter, who is a lesbian," in response to a question about homosexuality. Mr. Cheney has been forthright about his daughter's sexuality, and that's commendable, but it's hard to see why the Democratic ticket should keep bringing it up. Yet unlike Mr. Bush, Mr. Kerry did answer the question, saying he believes homosexuality is an innate characteristic and not a lifestyle choice.

Why does the Post think this did Mr. Kerry no credit? Does it think there is no contradiction in the Bush-Cheney campaign's position on gay rights (i.e. that they should be denied by Constitutional amendment) when a member of the Vice President's family, who is working on his campaign, is gay? Or does the Post perhaps think that Ms. Cheney is somehow being stigmatized when Mr. Kerry brings up her sexual orientation? If the latter, it says more about the Post than Mr. Kerry.

As recently as 1967, States could deny interracial couples the right to marry. See Loving v. Virginia, 388 U.S. 1 (1967). Professor Randal Kennedy offers some perspective on the history of Loving.

Lynn Cheney accuses John Kerry of a "cheap political trick" because he mentioned that her daughter Mary Cheney is a lesbian when asked if he believed homosexuality to be innate. (Kerry said yes, ask Mary Cheney.) Cheney and the right's outrage seems manufactured. Andrew Sullivan points out that Mary Cheney is out of the closet, lives with her partner, and has directed outreach programs for gays and lesbians. Neither she nor her parents has made any secret of her sexual orientation, and Mary Cheney has taken a visible role in the Bush-Cheney campaign. Sullivan suggests that the outrage stems not from concern about Mary Cheney — who is apparently quite open about her sexual orientation — but from the Right's discomfort with any discussion of gay sexuality. They talk about tolerance, but they are not willing to tolerate openness. They preach about families, but they are willing to deny gays and lesbians their right to have families. They say they want to uphold marriage, but not for anyone who is gay or lesbian. The most revolting aspect of all is that they call themselves Christians, but have no concept of what it means to love their neighbor.

Politics News Article | Reuters.com

With a mixture of bemusement and condescension, Reuters takes note that the campaign is being blogged:

NEW YORK (Reuters) - The U.S. presidential campaign between George W. Bush and John Kerry has prompted a frenzy of gossip and conspiracy theories among Internet bloggers, hybrid online sites that blend news, gossip and opinion.

As Bush and the Massachusetts Senator slug it out in a neck-and-neck race ahead of the November 2 election, partisan bloggers have flooded the Internet with alternative views about both candidates, which they hope will help sway voters.

After tonight's debate, I would say that the Kerry campaign is 3 for 3 in the debates, but I am unashamedly partisan. I think Kerry is right that the War in Iraq was a mistake and that the administration did not plan adequately for the peace. I agree with Kerry that the Bush tax cut for the very rich was a mistake. I agree with Kerry that we need to do more for homeland security. (I just finished the 9/11 Commission Report.) I agree with Kerry that we need to reform the health care system, and that this entails more than simply curbing trial lawyers. (Disclaimer: I am a trial lawyer, although I do not do medical malpractice cases).

House Rejects Same-Sex Marriage Ban (washingtonpost.com)

Every once in a while the U.S. Congress shows a grain of common sense and humanity:

The House joined the Senate yesterday in refusing to approve a constitutional amendment to bar same-sex marriage, described by Republican supporters as a vital protection for traditional families but denounced by Democratic foes as a divisive pre-election ploy to inflame prejudice.

Any temptation to rejoice should be tempered by the realization that although the proposed Amendment fell short of the two-thirds vote necessary for passage, a majority of the House voted for it. We've got a long way to go, baby.

Today is the anniversary of the Emancipation Proclamation. Whatever its moral impact, the Proclamation did not as a practical matter free any slaves, since its provisions applied only the States then in rebellion against the United States. Slave states on the side of the Union (e.g. Maryland) were exempted.

Rejecting Turkey, And the Future (washingtonpost.com)

Here's a quiz: Over the past two years, which developing country has undertaken the most dramatic economic, political and social reforms in the world? Some hints: This country has deregulated its economy, simplified its tax code and put its fiscal house in order, resulting in 8.2 percent growth this year and a 10 percent rise in productivity. It has passed nine packages of major reforms that have reduced the military's influence in government, enshrined political dissent and religious pluralism, passed strict laws against torture, abolished the death penalty, and given substantial rights to a long-oppressed minority.

Fareed Zakaria makes an incisive argument for integrating Turkey into the European Union. Of course, it is not up to us.

The New Yorker: Fact

Addressing the real but uncertain dimensions of voter fraud means risking potentially greater harm to legitimate voters. "There is no doubt that there has been fraud over the years — people voting twice, immigrants voting, unregistered people voting — but no one knows how bad the problem is," Lowenstein says. "It is a very hard subject for an academic or anyone else to study, because by definition it takes place under the table." And, despite its neutral-sounding name, "voting integrity"� has had an incendiary history. "It's one of those great euphemisms," Pamela S. Karlan, a professor at Stanford Law School, says. "By and large, it's been targeted at minority voters."

The New Yorker argues that a new shift in the Justice Department toward cracking down on voter fraud rather than ensuring voter participation will discourage minorities from exercising their right to vote, to the benefit of the Republican Party.

The Price Of Labor's Decline (washingtonpost.com)

David Broder opines that the shift to the right in American politics is a result of the decline in the unionization of the American labor force (from 1/4 of the labor force in the 1970's to barely 1/8 today). Today, Labor is no longer the political factor that it was even a decade or two ago, with severe consequences for wages and benefits, workplace safety, education, housing, and civil rights.

I look at it as a timely reminder that Thomas Geoghegan's is on my list of books to read.

Christopher Hitchens, whom I like and respect more and more as I read his stories, quotes Bernard Spencer on the meaning of 1,000 dead. While it is unclear exactly to what context Spencer referred, Hitchens obviously has Iraq in mind:

I read of a thousand killed.
And am glad because the scrounging imperial paw
Was there so bitten:
As a man at elections is thrilled
When the results pour in, and the North goes with him
And the West breaks in the thaw.

(That fighting was a long way off.)

Forgetting therefore an election
Being fought with votes and lies and catch-cries
And orator's frowns and flowers and posters' noise
Is paid for with cheques and toys:
Wars the most glorious
Victory-winged and steeple-uproarious
... With the lives, burned-off,
Of young men and boys.

Hitchens points out that there is no magic in the number 1,000: in reality, 999 or 1,001 is just as appalling. Something about round numbers makes one stop and think, however.

Top News Article | Reuters.com

POPLAR BLUFF, Mo. (Reuters) - President Bush offered an unexpected reason on Monday for cracking down on frivolous medical lawsuits: "Too many OB-GYNs aren't able to practice their love with women all across this country."

Boston.com / News / Nation / Bush fell short on duty at Guard

In February, when the White House made public hundreds of pages of President Bush's military records, White House officials repeatedly insisted that the records prove that Bush fulfilled his military commitment in the Texas Air National Guard during the Vietnam War. But Bush fell well short of meeting his military obligation, a Globe reexamination of the records shows.

Particularly interesting is that Bush spokesman Dan Bartlett admits that he was not correct about Bush's fulfilling his National Guard commitments in Boston. Once again, the White House does not let the truth get in the way of a good (war) story.

www.AndrewSullivan.com - Daily Dish

Then you see Zell Miller, his face rigid with anger, his eyes blazing with years of frustration as his Dixiecrat vision became slowly eclipsed among the Democrats. Remember who this man is: once a proud supporter of racial segregation, a man who lambasted LBJ for selling his soul to the negroes. His speech tonight was in this vein, a classic Dixiecrat speech, jammed with bald lies, straw men, and hateful rhetoric.

The New York Times > Washington > Campaign 2004 > About New York: Serving Canap�s, Then Recalling the 107th Floor

A wicked piece by the Times about World Trade Center waiters who, having survived the attack on 9/11, are forced to silently serve self-satisified Republicans from the hinterlands who think 9/11 is all about them.

Michael Moore Joins the Press -- And Gets Some (washingtonpost.com)

When Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) called him "a disingenuous filmmaker" during his speech, Moore said, "Thank you, John McCain."

No offense taken. Only dollar signs.

"Hey, the film's doing $120 million right now," Moore said. "When McCain mentions it, I have a chance to do $150 million. It just creates more interest, more excitement."

The Associated Press

And while Kerry may be worried about veterans' support in America, Sinh said he would vote any day for his former enemy over President Bush. In the veteran's opinion, Kerry's experience along these rivers fighting Viet Cong might keep him from sending other young Americans to invade countries.

A more mature perspective in the White House on sending young Americans to die in Quixotic foreign military ventures would be a welcome change. The article does not mention one of the other lessons of Vietnam, namely that a war based on lies to the American public will not retain the public's long term support.

Democratic Senator Zell Miller of Georgia has proven himself to be a Republican in Democrat's clothing with his anticipated keynote address at the Republican Convention. Let him know what you think of his turning his coat at zellout.com

Unsafe From Any Screed (washingtonpost.com)

The following phone conversation between me and Ralph Nader is true. I couldn't have made it up if I tried.

I'm still proud to be counted an admirer of Ralph Nader.

Protesters Pour Into Manhattan Streets (washingtonpost.com)

NEW YORK -- Bearing flag-draped boxes resembling coffins and fly-swatters with President Bush's image, more than 100,000 protesters peacefully swarmed Manhattan's streets on the eve of the Republican National Convention to demand that President Bush be turned out of office.

Swift Boat Accounts Incomplete (washingtonpost.com)

An investigation by The Washington Post into what happened that day suggests that both sides have withheld information from the public record and provided an incomplete, and sometimes inaccurate, picture of what took place. But although Kerry's accusers have succeeding in raising doubts about his war record, they have failed to come up with sufficient evidence to prove him a liar.

It may be comforting that the Post has not been able to prove Kerry a liar, but the results of the newspapers investigation have a disconcertingly tentative and ininconclusive tone. What seems clear, however, is that the disgruntled veterans who are attacking Kerry are far more upset by what he did after the war than by anything he did during the war.

Records Counter a Critic of Kerry (washingtonpost.com)

In newspaper interviews and a best-selling book, Larry Thurlow, who commanded a Navy Swift boat alongside Kerry in Vietnam, has strongly disputed Kerry's claim that the Massachusetts Democrat's boat came under fire during a mission in Viet Cong-controlled territory on March 13, 1969. Kerry won a Bronze Star for his actions that day.

But Thurlow's military records, portions of which were released yesterday to The Washington Post under the Freedom of Information Act, contain several references to "enemy small arms and automatic weapons fire" directed at "all units" of the five-boat flotilla. Thurlow won his own Bronze Star that day, and the citation praises him for providing assistance to a damaged Swift boat "despite enemy bullets flying about him."

Unfriendly Fire - Liar vs. coward in the Vietnam ad war. By William Saletan and Jacob Weisberg

Jacob Weisberg shreds the credibility of the "Swift Boat Vets," even before the revelations that Larry Thurow's own citation contradicts his allegations against Kerry.

Wired News: Copyright Crusaders Hit Schools

"We want to teach children to be thinking human beings," said Melinda Anderson, a spokeswoman for the NEA. "Not a parrot for some corporate agenda."

Darth Vader and the RIAA have attempted to brainwash the nation's schoolchildren about the evils of copyright infringement. The rebel alliance, a.k.a. American Library Association, has mounted a counterattack against the Death Star.

IsThatLegal?

Interesting discussion of the fallacies underlying Michelle Malkin's new book justifying the internment of Japanese Americans during World War II.

STLtoday - Business - Technology

What you write on a Web log can get back to your employer, but blogs also are the hottest way to keep up with new information.

Chatological Humor* (washingtonpost.com)

Apparently, we haven't quite got our stuff together yet. I hope you all saw the stories today that these alerts were based on pre-9/11 information. I believe it is currently a federal offense to make fun of our government, so I won't. I am staunchly behind our Secretary of Homeland Security and his aides, Cocky Locky, Goosy Poosey, and Henny Penny.

Thanks to Gayle for the pointer.

Security Alert (washingtonpost.com)

It is important that prominent Democrats such as former governor Howard Dean refrain from observing, as Mr. Dean did, that "every time something happens that's not good for President Bush, he plays this trump card, which is terrorism," because that would imply that no terrorist threats, however serious, should be taken as such.

The Post stops short of saying that Howard Dean is incorrect in his assessment. Rather, it seems the Post editorial board does not think that telling the truth is prudent in this instance — a novel position for a newspaper.

Bush's 9/11 Farce (washingtonpost.com)

Almost three years after the events of Sept. 11, 2001 -- the biggest intelligence failure in U.S. history -- and after his own administration went to war for reasons that did not exist, the president has ordered his crack staff to see which of the Sept. 11 commission's recommendations can be implemented fast and without congressional approval. Bush, you will recall, opposed the creation of the commission in the first place.

Surely we would have been better off to focus the war against the Taliban and Al Qaeda: "War on Terror" is catchier but has ultimately served to give the Bush administration a blank check to undertake whatever illegal or repressive actions it wished. Cohen now points out, again, what everyone suspected: the Bush administration has never been serious about domestic security.

Mouthful Gets Metro Passenger Handcuffs and Jail (washingtonpost.com)

Curry-Hagler turned around and followed Willett into the station. Moments after making a remark to the officer, Willett said, she was searched, handcuffed and arrested for chewing the last bite of her candy bar after she passed through the fare gates. She was released several hours later after paying a $10 fine, pending a hearing.

What on earth made this woman think she could flout the law against eating in the Metro in front of a transit cop, continue to break the law after being warned by the officer, mouth off to the officer, and keep on walking after she had been ordered to stop, and that there would be no consequences. Unfortunately, it appears that she has learned nothing from the experience.

Arab Americans Report Abuse (washingtonpost.com)

Fifteen percent of Arab Americans in the Detroit area said they have experienced harassment or intimidation since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, and a significant number wish other Americans understood them better, according to a University of Michigan report to be released today.

The real test of a civil society is how it treats its least popular members.

Charleston.Net: News from the Associated Press

The law has caught up with Bobby Fischer for having an expired passport. His detention by the Japanese authorities may be a way to show that they are cooperating with the United States in apprehending international lawbreakers before they have to make the difficult choice of whether to hand over deserter Charles Robert Jenkins. Jenkins is married to a Japanese woman, so turning him over to U.S. authorities for prosecution may not be a popular decision.

Chinese Pressure Dissident Physician (washingtonpost.com)

BEIJING -- Chinese military and security officials are forcing the elderly physician who exposed the government's coverup of the SARS epidemic to attend intense indoctrination classes and are interrogating him about a letter he wrote in February denouncing the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre, according to sources familiar with the situation.

The New York Times > Washington > Author of '02 Memo on Torture: 'Gentle' Soul for a Harsh Topic

In an article devoted to letting Jay S. Bybee off the hook for his views advocating wide discretion on the part of the government in the torture of prisoners, the New York Times comments:

"He has a kazoo collection," said N. Gregory Smith, a former colleague on the law faculty at Louisiana State. "He'd get a little ensemble of kazoo enthusiasts together and play. They would occasionally perform the `1812' Overture."

And this is supposed to show that he doesn't believe in torture?

Mistakes Loom Large as Handover Nears (washingtonpost.com)

The ambitious, 15-month undertaking stumbled because of a series of mistakes that began with an inadequate commitment of resources and was aggravated by a misunderstanding of Iraqi politics, religion and society in occupied Iraq . . . .

U.S. DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE OFFICE OF LEGAL COUNSEL EXPERIENCED ATTORNEYS

Applicants must possess a J.D. degree, be an active member of the bar (any jurisdiction), and have at least one year of post-J.D. legal experience. Because OLC's 24 attorneys handle some of the most difficult and important legal issues confronting the Executive Branch, it is highly selective in its hiring. The ideal candidate will have exceptional academic credentials, judicial clerkship or comparable experience, strong background in constitutional law, and outstanding legal research and writing skills.

Apparently these are the qualifications of the people who concluded that torture of American prisoners is legal.

The New York Times > Opinion > The Plain Truth

Of all the ways Mr. Bush persuaded Americans to back the invasion of Iraq last year, the most plainly dishonest was his effort to link his war of choice with the battle against terrorists worldwide.

While the New York Times excoriates the administration over its claims that the war in Iraq was justified in part by links between Saddam Hussein and Al Qaeda, for some reason the Washington Post offers a half-hearted defense of Dick Cheney's prevarications.

Welcome to DMCC web site - Diplomats & Military Commanders for Change Official web site

The text of the statement by former diplomats and military commanders criticizing President Bush's leadership in foreign affairs.

No Evidence Connecting Iraq to Al Qaeda, 9/11 Panel Says (washingtonpost.com)

The 9/11 panel's conclusion that there is no evidence linking Al Qaeda and Saddam Hussein's regime calls into question Bush and Cheney's repeated assertions that there was such a connection and that it justified the war in Iraq.

Retired Diplomats, Military Commanders Fault Bush's Leadership (washingtonpost.com)

A document signed by a group of high-ranking former diplomats and military commanders faults the Bush administration for leaving the country diplomatically isolated and strategically vulnerable.

Use of Dogs to Scare Prisoners Was Authorized (washingtonpost.com)

A military intelligence interrogator also told investigators that two dog handlers at Abu Ghraib were "having a contest" to see how many detainees they could make involuntarily urinate out of fear of the dogs, according to the previously undisclosed statements obtained by The Washington Post.

Andrew Sullivan thinks this is just the beginning of the story.

THE WAR IN CONTEXT:: Iraq, the War on Terrorism, and the Middle East Conflict - in Critical Perspective

The War in Context has an extended round up of continuing converage over the scandal surrounding the Justice Department's memo approving torture in violation of international law.

Top News Article | Reuters.com

SAVANNAH, Ga. (Reuters) - Facing criticism for methods used to interrogate terrorism suspects held by the United States, President Bush insisted on Thursday he had always ordered questioning methods to remain within the law.

"What I have authorized is that we stay within U.S. law," Bush told reporters in Savannah, Georgia, when asked what measures of interrogation he would authorize if the United States had a terror suspect in custody it knew was planning an attack.

The weight of the evidence, and the phrasing of the denial, suggest that perhaps the president is not being completely forthcoming.

Lawyers Ascribed Broad Power to Bush on Torture

Retired Rear Adm. John Hutson, the former judge advocate general for the Navy, said the memo read as though the lawyers were trying to bend the law to benefit their client, rather than stating the law fairly and accurately.

"That is not the job of people advising the president or the attorney general or the secretary of Defense. They have to be right legally, and I think they have an obligation to be right morally. I think they failed on both counts," said Hutson, now dean of the Franklin Pierce Law Center in Concord, N.H.

It's the Law -- Even in War

Allen S. Weiner, a law professor and former State Department lawyer, spent a career defending the U.S. military against allegations that it had violated the laws of war. To his chagin, it appears that the U.S. military has not lived up to its best traditions in Iraq.

The New York Times > Opinion > Op-Ed Contributor: Fight Fire With Compassion

George H.W. Bush's former National Security Advisor points out that sometimes compassion is as effective a means of gleaning intelligence as brutality.

www.AndrewSullivan.com - Daily Dish

The lame responses by John Ashcroft to the evidence in leaked memos that the Bush administration condoned torture with the personal approval of the president are damning. It's even more damning that Ashcroft will not release a critical memo, prepared by his department, making the point that some forms of torture, if approved by the president, would not be illegal.

A Plunge From the Moral Heights (washingtonpost.com)

"Some things are not American. Torture, for damned sure, is one of them."

Cohen makes the point that torture is not easily contained. A little bit can quickly become a lot.

The Los Angeles Times reports the Walker interrogation marked the beginning of a new American policy of violating the rights of prisoners and international law.

Michael Froomkin has an analysis of the torture memo. See IsThatLegal?.

IsThatLegal?

An instructive comment on the difference between FDR's Justice Department and Bush's:

Under the leadership of Francis Biddle, FDR's Attorney General, the Justice Department opposed the eviction and incarceration of American citizens of Japanese ancestry.

Legalizing Torture (washingtonpost.com)

In a stinging lead editorial, the Washington Post denounced the Bush administration's stated willingness to disregard United States and international law in order to extract information from prisoners through torture.

There is no justification, legal or moral, for the judgments made by Mr. Bush's political appointees at the Justice and Defense departments. Theirs is the logic of criminal regimes, of dictatorships around the world that sanction torture on grounds of "national security." For decades the U.S. government has waged diplomatic campaigns against such outlaw governments -- from the military juntas in Argentina and Chile to the current autocracies in Islamic countries such as Algeria and Uzbekistan -- that claim torture is justified when used to combat terrorism. The news that serving U.S. officials have officially endorsed principles once advanced by Augusto Pinochet brings shame on American democracy -- even if it is true, as the administration maintains, that its theories have not been put into practice. Even on paper, the administration's reasoning will provide a ready excuse for dictators, especially those allied with the Bush administration, to go on torturing and killing detainees.

The Post points out the obvious: that the standards articulated by the Bush administration will now serve as a justification for almost any depraved act toward American servicemen and civilians by our enemies, in stark contrast to our former published policy of applying no interrogation methods that we would not be willing to have Americans undergo.

One of the most shocking aspects of the Justice Department's memorandum on torture is that the Post reports that it was signed by a man who has since been rewarded with a Judgeship on one of the highest federal courts in the country. It is a scandal that a man who could argue that the President could legitimately engage in a vicious and depraved disregard of the law should be entrusted by that same president with the duty of upholding and interpreting the law. If the Post report is correct, Jay S. Bybee should resign in disgrace.

Schisms From Administration Lingered for Years (washingtonpost.com)

But the lavish praise obscures that much of Reagan's record through eight years in office was highly controversial and intensified social and political divisions. Even now, nearly 16 years after he left office, some major interest groups and key voting blocs most adversely affected by Reagan policies remain bitter about his legacy.

The controversies and scandals included attacks on the federal school lunch program and aid to the poor, anti-union tactics, the illegal sale of arms to Iran and Reagan's 1985 participation in a ceremony at a German cemetery where Nazi soldiers are buried.

For another view of Reagan, see Andrew Sullivan's eloquent tribute.

I oppose almost everything that Ronald Reagan stood for, including his legacy under the Bushes, but I wished him no ill, and I am glad that he is at peace after his long ordeal with Alzheimer's disease.

The New York Times > International > Asia Pacific > Hong Kong Vigil Remembers Tiananmen Square Killings

Defenders of the Beijing government compare Tiananmen Square with Kent State. Besides the obvious disproportion in the number of dead, the comparison ignores the degree to which the respective countries' governments were held accountable.

An Icon, and Then He's Gone

Just after noon on June 5, 1989, the day after Chinese troops stormed the square to brutally crush a student political uprising here, a solitary protester engaged in a modern-day David versus Goliath showdown: Clutching nothing but two shopping bags, he stood his ground before a column of oncoming tanks on the adjacent Avenue of Eternal Peace.

It's uncanny that this image which is seared onto the American mind as the symbol of the slaughter at Tiananmen is virtually unknown inside China.

Yahoo! News - Dellinger, One of the Chicago Seven, Dies

A moving tribute to a man who stayed true to his principles.

Retired General Assails Planning for Iraq War (washingtonpost.com)

Retired Marine Gen. Anthony C. Zinni, former U.S. commander in the Middle East, charges in a book to be published today that "everybody in the military knew" that the Bush administration's plan for Iraq consisted of only half the troops that were needed, and says that country is now "a powder keg" that could break apart into warring regions.

The New York Times > Business > Media & Advertising > Weinsteins and Disney Reach Deal on 'Fahrenheit 911'

Disney will allow the distribution of Michael Moore's controversial new film documenting ties between the Bushes and the Saudi regime.

The New York Times > Week in Review > Word for Word: The Supreme Court Asks: Who Will Guard the Guardians?

In the argument in Rumsfeld v. Padilla, Justice Kennedy anticipated some of the problems that have come to light since the news broke of torture of Iraqi P.O.W.'s at the Abu Ghraib prison.

I attended a Continuing Legal Education session on mediation tonight. The evening started with a discussion of the goals of mediation, and then proceeded to a role playing exercise designed to demontrate the techniques described earlier. One of the most important first principles is try to choose your mediator, so that you get a mediator whose style suits your case. Prepare your client for the need to compromise. As a mediator, keep your voice low and put plenty of options on the table. Be prepared for mediation to be an emotional experience. As a mediator, remember that the most valuable thing a mediator can offer is himself, and that a mediator's continued involvement can be necessary to bring about a long term resolution.

I visited a high school class in the District of Columbia this morning to speak with students about employment law as part of Georgetown University's Street Law program. We talked about illegal (discriminatory) questions on job applications and about basic wage and hour law (such as time and a half for overtime). The topic most hotly debated by the students was whether an employer could require them to pay for their own uniforms. (Answer: not in the District of Columbia). I am very much looking forward to going back next week. The program is run with the assistance of the District of Columbia's Employment Justice Center.

Yahoo! News - Bush: Disgusted by Abuse of Iraqis, Vows to Act

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Bush (news - web sites) said on Friday he was deeply disgusted by the abuse of Iraqi prisoners by U.S. troops . . . .

The President has done the only decent thing by denouncing the abuse of Iraqi prisoners by our troops. The news that our troops would be engaged in that kind of abuse is sickening, however. It also raises questions about whether there is an attitude in the government and the Army that would encourage such abuse. The fact that these kinds of acts can be perpetrated on prisoners supposedly protected by the Geneva Convention makes it all the more urgent that "enemy combatants" not protected by the Geneva Convention be afforded at least some recourse to judicial review. The test of our respect for human rights is not only how we treat our friends and our citizens, but how we treat our enemies. The abuse in Iraq has already tarnished our human rights record, particularly in the eyes of the Arab world; let us not become a new byword for disregard of human rights.

Yahoo! News - Blog-Tracking May Gain Ground Among U.S. Intelligence Officials

Apparently, the oxymoronic intelligence services have decided that Blogs represent the latest open source of intelligence. So remember, Big Brother is watching us type (or even paranoids have enemies).

The New York Times > International > Asia Pacific > The Hostages: Freed From Captivity in Iraq, Japanese Return to More Pain

The New York Times reports that the recently freed Japanese hostages have returned to Japan in disgrace for "causing trouble" by attempting to set up charities and report the news from Iraq. Apparently, the hostages' return to their homeland, which would have been celebrated with a hero's welcome in this country, was greeted with such hostility that it is worse than being taken hostage in the first place. Condemnations of courage are not limited to Japan, however; Andrew Sullivan points out that the University of Massachusetts' Daily Collegian has run an op-ed piece stating that Pat Tillman deserved to die for serving in Afghanistan.

The University of Missouri-Kansas City has a discussion of free speech rights of public employees.

The Scranton Times Tribune also thinks that the University of Scranton overreacted when it shut down the school newspaper over a parody of the Passion of the Christ. In an earlier story the paper reported that the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education and the Student Press Law Center had also voiced opposition to the University's suppression of its student press. The Washington Post, meanwhile, in its round up of student papers shut down over April Fools' editions, seems to have unfairly characterized the Scranton story by placing it in the same context as two papers who published racially offensive stories or cartoons. In all of these case, while it is appropriate for the staff of the papers to be accountable for what they publish, it does not seem that the appropriate response is simply to shut down the paper. Even when speech is offensive, the cure is more speech -- further debate and articulate criticism. Only in this manner is the public educated about the value of free speech and the values that those opposed to the offensive speech seek to uphold.

Eric J. Heels notes that the University of Scranton has shut down a student newspaper over a parody of Georgetown University and the Passion of the Christ. Heels notes that Scranton is private, and that not everyone thinks all parodies are funny. As far as the question of whether you believe in free speech is concerned (i.e. from a moral not a legal perspective), whether an institution is private or public is irrelevent, and it is precisely the parodies that do not amuse powerful institutions that are in the most need of protection. Even though a private university may be beyond the reach of the First Amendment, a university of all places should uphold the values of free inquiry and free speech.

David Giacalone has a thoughtul entry on the absurdity of law school rankings. (Yes, I was pleased to see that my alma mater ranked in the top 20, barely). He focuses on the importance that professors — even more than prospective students — attach to these ratings. I would wonder, however, whether it is not appeal to the alumni — and their money — that drives the frenzy of deans and faculty over ratings.

Scripting News: 3/12/2004

"I don't buy the arguments that people in hetero marriages lose anything by gays marrying. That's like saying that because someone reads a book somehow your reading a book means less."

The Washington Post reports an erosion of support for the war in Iraq among military families who feel the President launched the war under false pretenses.

It is a commonplace of American history that one way the Southern planter aristocracy maintained its dominant social position was to focus the hatred of poor whites on African Americans. So long as the white poor could comfort themselves with their supposed superiority to African Americans, they were unlikely to analyze the true source of their misery and turn their ire on their white betters. According to the New York Times Magazine, a similar story appears to be playing itself out in today's France, where the large and growing North African population, frequent victims of discrimination, vents its frustration on France's Jewish minority. The result is a wave of anti-Semitism in France unparalleled since the end of the Second World War.

The Motley Fool debates gay marriage. (Registration required.)

Halley Suitt gets it right . . . again. She has the insight to see that it is not just gays who will rally against the President's bigotry, but their fathers, mothers, brothers, sisters and friends, in addition to people who believe that the Constitution is too important to serve as a vehicle for hate ever again.

Yahoo! News - Report: Slavery Alive and Well in Florida

"TALLAHASSEE, Fla. - Modern-day slavery is alive and well in Florida, the head of a human rights center said Tuesday as it released a report on people forced to work as prostitutes, farmworkers and maids across the state."

With this kind of thing going on in Florida, why is our nation focused on trying to prevent people from getting married?

George Bush continues to be a master of talking out of both sides of his mouth. On the one hand, he decries "partisan anger" and touts a commitment to opportunity and responsibility. On the other hand, he wishes to amend the Constitution to take away the right of people of the same sex to be married. The President apparently sees no contradiction in these two positions. Hopefully, the electorate is not so blind.

Op-Ed Contributor: Lawyers, Guns and Mayors

"The Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act would shield irresponsible firearms manufacturers, wholesalers, dealers and trade associations from any form of civil liability in cases in which they recklessly or negligently supply firearms to criminals."

It is hard to take seriously a New York Times article by Leslie Wayne whose thesis is that wealthy Arab-Americans are raising large amounts of money for Bush but whose examples are mostly Iranian or Pakistani.

ethicalEsq & haikuEsq...: home

Discourage litigation. Persuade your neighbors to compromise whenever you can. Point out to them how the nominal winner is often a real loser -- in fees, expenses, and waste of time. As a peacemaker the lawyer has a superior opportunity of being a good man. There will still be business enough."

David Giacalone (a.k.a ethicalEsq.?) posted the above quote in his short history of Abraham Lincoln's law practice. Among the additional benefits of settlement are that the weaker party (whose success in a lawsuit may have as much to do with resources and the state of the law as justice) has the chance to emerge from the suit with a tangible and certain benefit, and the knowledge that the stronger party recognized some validity to his claim.

A bill I could support.

Guantanamo Spy Cases Evaporate (washingtonpost.com)

"Some experts on military law and the men's lawyers say the prosecutions of Yee and Halabi have been riddled with inconsistencies and oddities that cast doubt on the government's original fears that a spy ring was operating in the high-security prison for alleged al Qaeda and Taliban fighters."

Plan to Supplant Episcopal Church USA Is Revealed (washingtonpost.com)

"Episcopalians who oppose the consecration of a gay bishop are preparing to engage in widespread disobedience to church law in 2004, according to a confidential document outlining their strategy."

It seems the Episcopal Church is going to pay a stiff price for doing the right thing by confirming Bishop Gene Robinson of New Hampshire. The determination by this small band of hatemongers to wreak havoc on the Church is appalling. Obviously, it will be a real test of the Church's ability to live up to its best principles and meet hate with love. That does not mean that we should let the schismatics walk away with a dime, however.

MediaGuardian.co.uk | Broadcast | Simpsons parody upset Fox News, says Groening

"Rupert Murdoch's Fox News Channel threatened to sue the makers of the Simpsons over a spoof news ticker, the show's creator Matt Groening has claimed."

Meat From Infirm Animals Is Banned (washingtonpost.com)

"Animals too sick or old to stand or walk will be banned from entering the food supply, federal officials said yesterday, in a move that would keep from 150,000 to 200,000 to "downer" cattle a year from going to the slaughterhouse."

This is progress? (Too little, too late).

Readers interested in Robert Scoble's recent discussion of freedom of religion may want to refer back to TPB's analysis of the Establishment Clause during the controversy over Justice Roy Moore's Ten Commandments sculpture and his follow up post in Unbillable Hours.

Strong Support Is Found for Ban on Gay Marriage

"The latest New York Times/CBS News poll has found widespread support for an amendment to the United States Constitution to ban gay marriage. It also found unease about homosexual relations in general, making the issue a potentially divisive one for the Democrats and an opportunity for the Republicans in the 2004 election."

Government of the bigots, by the bigots, and for the bigots.

giacalone's Haiku Bar & Grill: giacalone's Bar & Grill

"Pursuant to the following Notice, we'll be re-opening soon, with a new name, but the same old management."

Dean Greeted Warmly by Arab Americans (washingtonpost.com)

"An assemblage of politically active Arab Americans gave former Vermont governor Howard Dean repeated ovations Saturday at the windup of a two-day meeting that marked a clear shift of allegiance from President Bush to his Democratic rivals."

FindLaw Legal News - Groups Urge Supreme Court to Act on Guantanamo

"A group of former U.S. federal judges, diplomats, military officials and human rights advocates urged the Supreme Court on Thursday to review the case of detainees held without being charged at Guantanamo Bay and elsewhere in the name of terrorism."

Pope Cautions Anglican Leader on Gays

"Pope John Paul II told the archbishop of Canterbury on Saturday that the acceptance of openly gay clergy members by many Anglicans presented "new and serious difficulties" in relations between the two churches."

First of all, the relationship between the Catholic and the Anglican communions has been pretty clear since the time of Henry VIII.

Secondly, the Pope should look to his own house. It is the Catholic Church that is riven with multimillion dollar lawsuits for child molestation, but has seen no need to question its policy of celibacy for its all male priesthood. No such scandal has touched the Episcopal Church, whose broad spirit of inclusion allows people to become priests irrespective of marital status, gender, or sexual orientation. Perhaps the Pope should cast the beam out of his own eye before he seeks to pluck the mote out of his neighbor's.

Among Episcopalians, Grief Over Gay Bishop (washingtonpost.com)

"When the Episcopal Church confirmed a gay bishop, Paul Wilcox put on black trousers, a black shirt and a black tie. Then he got out a can of black Rust-Oleum and painted over the word "Episcopal" on the lawn sign at St. Andrew's Church in West Nashville, Tenn., where he has been a parishioner for 15 years."

A sad reminder that America's most enlightened church still has its share of small-minded bigots, albeit perhaps not for much longer.

An interesting footnote to the story is that African and Asian bishops who have been very critical of the United States churches for the confirmation of a gay bishop are now complaining because donations from wealthy New York churches have dried up. How strange.

Media Blamed for the Message

"There is something pitiful about a person of Wolfowitz's stature, experience and power responding to the regular killings of young Americans in Iraq by lashing out against Arab satellite TV channels like Al Jazeera and Al Arabiya."

According to this story, Wolfowitz is accusing the Arab media of "incitement," a category of speech that is typically outside of First Amendment protection in the context of American Constitutional law. In American law, however, it is next to iimpossible for a newspaper, or even a television station, to meet the standard of imminent harm that is required to show incitement. As this article suggests, blaming the media for the resentment that is resulting in the shooting of American soldiers is likely mistaking the symptom for the disease. Shutting down newspapers is consequently an unlikely cure for unrest in Iraq.

Halley's Comment

"Women are fed up. They are telling the truth about their lives. Changing poopy diapers tends to ground one in reality. Whether at home or at work in a corporate-speak memo about accounting practices, women know shit when they smell it. It makes them a little impatient with lies. They know a kid with strep throat is not a business event that can be rescheduled. They see with the eyes of mothers. They see hunger. They see tears. They see the tears of the husbands and other men in their lives. They deal in the truth. They know when they are being conned. They know they are second class citizens at work. They are not so dumb as they look. They know they are second class citizens at home. They know they are getting ripped off. They know they are raising the next generation of citizens, that no one much appreciates it and they are really exhausted. This makes them lethal. This makes them whistleblowers of the most courageous ilk. They are disenfranchised and therefore have nothing to lose and everything to gain by telling the truth."

Unbillable Hours has a monumental exposition of why the presence of the ten commandments on the Supreme Court building is not an endorsement of religion, whereas the ten commandments statue in the Alabama Supreme Court is. In the latest developments, "Ten Commandments" Justice Roy Moore has apparently been suspended for defying the federal court's order to remove his carved statue of the commandments.

The fracas surrounding the antics of Chief Justice Moore has clearly touched a raw nerve among Alabamans, and I suppose that I have done my part to rub salt on the wounds. I am sure that there are many sophisticated, civilized Alabamans. I know a few. I am sure, just from reading her blog, that Sugarmama is one. However, it is going to reflect badly on a state when more than 50 percent of the voters elect Elmer Gantry to be Chief Justice. At the time of his election to the Alabama Supreme Court, Justice Moore had already become notorious as the "Ten Commandments" Judge.

On another issue, de jure segregation may be "long past" but the legacy of hate and discrimination in this country is alive and well. So, no, I do not think we can just "get over it." We have come a long way, but we have a long way to go. Prejudice can be found in every state, and is obviously not limited to Alabama. Alabama does, however, still enjoy the unenviable distinction of being one of the six states whose electoral procedures are still subject to federal supervision pursuant to the Voting Rights Act. On the fortieth anniversary of the march on Washington, Alabama, any more than any other state in this country, should not be given a pass on the issue of race relations.

Episcopal Church Confirms Gay Bishop (washingtonpost.com)

"Surmounting threats of a schism and eleventh-hour allegations of misconduct, the Rev. V. Gene Robinson won confirmation today as the first openly gay bishop in the Episcopal Church and the worldwide Anglican Communion."

Today is a day that I am proud to be an Episcopalian, and I hope that the Episcopal Church's example of inclusion and charity will serve as a beacon to the rest of the Anglican Communion and the worldwide Christian Church.

stickbugblog

"Since two government lawyer bloggers have called it quits recently (blueblanketblog in part and Crimen Falsi completely), the law clerk bloggers have started trying to sort out where we stand in the world of ethics and blogging."

Yet another reminder of why my father has always said he never wented to work for the government. Obviously, there are compensations to a job at an agency such as the Department of Justice, where one has the opportunity to do quite a bit of good. Stories like this, however, are reminders that Uncle Sam exacts a steep price.

Media Notes: Dean's Moment (washingtonpost.com)

' "Then Dean's forces burst from their blogs (weblogs are the jungle drums of the Internet age) and made themselves heard in the old-fashioned language the political establishment understands: money. They deluged his campaign with $7.6 million in the second quarter (ended June 30), which was $1.7 million more than presumed front runner John Kerry, $2.5 million more than poll-topping Joe Lieberman, $3.1 million more than glamorous newcomer John Edwards, $3.8 million more than seasoned Dick Gephardt.... " '

F.C.C. Media Rule Blocked in House in a 400-to-21 Vote

"The vote, which was 400 to 21, sets the stage for a rare confrontation between the Republican-controlled Congress and the White House, because there is strong support in the Senate for similar measures, which seek to roll back last month's decision by the Federal Communications Commission to raise the limit on the number of television stations a network can own."

Ralph Nader Says Bush Impeachable on Iraq War

"He urged the nine Democratic presidential hopefuls to attack Bush on these points, adding Democrats are showing an 'unwillingness and inability to go after the principal vulnerability of Bush, which are the corporate crimes, fraud and abuse that has swept the country.'

"In many ways, this was light criticism of Bush by Nader. He has said the war in Iraq developed from 'messianic militaristic determination turned by a closed mind, facilitated by a cowering Congress and opposition Democrat Party and undeterred by a probing press.'"

The New York Times reported the same story, but toned it down considerably.

1947 Diary Found in Truman Library (washingtonpost.com)

"In a loose-leaf entry dated July 21, Truman wrote:

"The Jews, I find are very, very selfish. They care not how many Estonians, Latvians, Finns, Poles, Yugoslavs or Greeks get murdered or mistreated as D[isplaced] P[ersons] as long as the Jews get special treatment. Yet when they have power, physical, financial or political neither Hitler nor Stalin has anything on them for cruelty or mistreatment to the under dog. Put an underdog on top and it makes no difference whether his name is Russian, Jewish, Negro, Management, Labor, Mormon, Baptist he goes haywire. I've found very, very few who remember their past condition when prosperity comes."

It is a shame to read Harry S Truman spouting off like just another cheap, small-town Southern bigot.

I saw a chilling PBS documentary two nights ago on the descent of Liberia into chaos. The most disturbing part of the story was perhaps the rise and fall of Samuel Taylor Doe, the master sergeant with an eighth grade education who seized power in a military coup and then was brutally deposed some years later by Charles Taylor's rebels. Memorable scenes included Doe's utter incapacity to answer foreign journalists' questions about his plans after he seized power, his appearances with Ronald Reagan at a time when the U.S. found him a useful pawn in the war on Communism, and his grisly end after he was betrayed, his ears and genitals were chopped off, and he was put on public display to die a slow and painful death. Doe apparently did not suffer more than thousands of Liberians under his despotic rule and the ensuing civil war, but his suffering was particularly vivid both because of its contrast with his previous state and because it was captured so starkly on television.

The broader theme of the piece seemed to be that even when Liberia was a showpiece of African independence, the U.S. descended founders and leaders of the country never managed to reconcile with the indigenous Liberians, leading ultimately to the countries' descent into despotism and anarachy.

Losing

"It is frequently said that the only lawyers who do not lose cases are lawyers who do not try cases."

reviewjournal.com -- News: CIVIL LIBERTIES: Disadvantaged

"Many Las Vegas lawyers, however, say there is an emerging pattern of intimidation and excessive force, with casino security, state gaming officers and the Metropolitan Police Department often working in concert to trample constitutional rights, civil liberties and gaming regulations to deter advantage gamblers from playing at local properties."

[via Unbillable Hours]

Our Man in Jazz

"In 1962, approached by city fathers about a jazz festival in the pre-Civil Rights Act South, Wein observed dryly, "You know, Duke Ellington is accustomed to being treated as royalty wherever he goes. He stays in the finest hotels. But I understand that your hotels are segregated and will not accept blacks as guests." He noted that many jazz bands were integrated. The city fathers agreed the time was not yet ripe for a New Orleans jazz festival. In 1968 they came back to him, discovered his wife was black, and instead hired Wein's former colleague Willis Conover."

Gene Santoro with a taut review of the autobiography of legendary jazz promoter George Wein.

Ashcroft Aide Under New Scrutiny "The report criticized the prolonged detentions and occasional physical abuse of illegal immigrants with no clear ties to terrorism, and it generated headlines from Australia to Ireland that spoke of the "unduly harsh" conditions." [via New York Times: National]

According to the New York Times, Inspector General Glenn Fines has attempted to shed some light on the Justice Department's detention of illegal immigrants following the 9/11 terrorist attacks.  While Mr. Fines' report has riled conservatives, it has drawn worldwide and Congressional attention to the harsh conditions under which the detainees are held.  The report did not go so far as to criticize Attorney General John Ashcroft or other top officials by name.

Dell to Stop Using Prison Workers

"Responding to concerns from both customers and environmental advocates, Dell Computer announced yesterday that it would no longer rely on prisons to supply workers for its computer recycling program."

A story like this always causes me to do a double take: "Wait a minute; I didn't know that Dell was using prison labor in the first place!" A few years ago it was fashionable to criticize the Chinese for their reliance on prison labor, but the dirty secret was that we have our own prison-industrial complex, in the words of Jesse Jackson. Reliance on prison labor can only depress wages and working conditions in the private sector, and it at least raises questions about exploitation of the prisoners themselves.

The New Republic Online: Sex Appeal

"By resurrecting an unprincipled and unconvincing constitutional methodology, the Court will energize the conservatives who have lost the culture wars, and will allow them to cast themselves as judicial martyrs rather than political losers."

Jeffrey Rosen advances the argument that it would have been more appropriate to strike down the Texas sodomy law on the narrow grounds that it violated Equal Protection of the Laws than on privacy grounds. The broad privacy language in the majority opinion will lead, he fears, to increasingly embittered confirmation battles as conservatives assail the court for judicial activism in creating broad-based sexual freedom based on a right of privacy.

NY Times: Intel Loses Decision in E-mail Case. The California Supreme Court ruled yesterday that a former employee of Intel was free to send e-mail messages to current company employees, overturning a lower court's injunction. The court rejected Intel's argument that the messages represented illegal trespassing to its computer systems.

Want Diversity? Think Fuzzy (washingtonpost.com)

"Finally, the court is confused if it thinks that a subjective judgment full of unquantifiable factors is obviously fairer than a straightforward formula. But confusion seems to be a purposeful strategy. The court's message to universities and other selective, government-financed institutions is: We have fudged this dangerous issue. You should do the same."

I thought the Court should have upheld the formula. But I have not read the opinions yet.

Lester Maddox, Segregationist and Georgia Governor, Dies at 87

Slight of stature, Mr. Maddox was direct and outspoken in the defense of his convictions, which he wrapped in a states' rights banner. These included the view that blacks were intellectually inferior to whites, that integration was a Communist plot, that segregation was somewhere justified in Scripture and that a federal mandate to integrate schools was was "ungodly, un-Christian and un-American."

The Times reported that Martin Luther King, Jr. said he was ashamed to be from Georgia when Maddox was elected governor. Now that Maddox is dead, let us hope that the past which he represented can be laid to rest also.

Supreme Court Strikes Down Texas Law Banning Sodomy

"The Supreme Court was widely criticized 17 years ago when it upheld an antisodomy law similar to Texas'. The ruling became a rallying point for gay activists.
Of the nine justices who ruled on the 1986 case, only three remain on the court. Rehnquist was in the majority in that case -- Bowers v. Hardwick -- as was O'Connor. Stevens dissented.
``Bowers was not correct when it was decided, and it is not correct today,'' Kennedy wrote for the majority Thursday."

The Supreme Court was long overdue in overruling Bowers v. Hardwick and invalidating the sodomy laws. I am both surprised and gratified by this ruling and the Court's finding that affirmative action is constitutional under some circumstances. If the Justices are not careful, people will start calling them liberals. (Not that anyone would ever make that mistake about the egregious Antonin Scalia.)

Big Media's Silence

"If allowed to stand, this surrender to media giantism would concentrate the power to decide what we read and see -- in both entertainment and news -- in the hands of an ever-shrinking establishment elite."

William Safire inveighs against the F.C.C.'s vote to allow greater concentration of the media by relaxing ownership limits. The result could well be that a few giant corporations end up owning most major media outlets to an even greater degree than they do today.

One of the interesting points that Safire, a conservative himself, makes is that much of the outcry has come from conservative organizations fearful of having their voices extinguished by a closely held "liberal" media. They say that politics makes strange bedfellows, and I find it odd to be making common cause with many of the organizations -- such as the N.R.A. -- that Safire cites. Then again, I find it interesting to see the Bush administration caught between liberal and conservative opinion on this issue. Let us hope that it has the desired effect and that the Congress rolls back this misguided decision by the F.C.C.

The Shifted Libarian has a pungent critique of the Supreme Court's decision allowing Congress to require filtering of Internet content as a condition of funding.