Fables of the reconstruction

This Is What America Looks Like to the Rest of the World

This is a picture of a person:

The person is an Iraqi being held prisoner by the United States Army. The prisoner has been hooded, hooked up to wires, and made to stand on a rations box. The prisoner has been told that if (when) he falls off the box, he will be electrocuted.

This image was broadcast all over the world yesterday. Millions of Muslims in the middle east saw it.

This is another person:

He is naked and hooded. He appears to be sitting on the back of another naked, hooded prisoner. His genitals have been blurred by the television network. A female United States soldier, Private Lynndie England, is pointing to his genital region, smiling, and giving the "thumbs-up" sign.

That picture was seen all over the world yesterday, too.

I point this out because I don't think many people have actually seen these. (I could be wrong.) I went to many news sites today and I only found them in two places, WashingtonPost.com and al Jazeera. Unless they were played frequently on television, which I doubt given the coverage of Cheney's testimony along with some other guy at the 9/11 commission, not many Americans saw these.

Look at those pictures again. That's America to the Muslim world.

For that reason, the officers in charge of that prison and anyone who participated in the mistreatment of prisoners must be tried by a court martial for violations of the law of war. Those trials must be public, and the people responsible must receive long prison sentences. This must be done quickly and with much media attention.

Why? Not because it's the right thing to do, although it is. We have to do it because otherwise we will have made thousands of more terrorists. If we don't, we'll turn millions of otherwise moderate Muslims and Arabs against us. These pictures are snapshots from a major battle in the so-called war on terror - the political part of that war - and they show a stunning defeat in the making.

If nothing is done, when the next attack comes and thousands more Americans lie dead, remember these pictures.

(Update May 1, 2004: Added a clearer picture and description.)
(Update May 2, 2004: Identified Pvt. England by name.)

Rape Rooms

From the Guardian:

[P]rivate contractors were supervising interrogations in the prison, which was notorious for torture and executions under Saddam Hussein.

One civilian contractor was accused of raping a young, male prisoner but has not been charged because military law has no jurisdiction over him.

Yet another side effect of the privatization of the war.

Oh, and it's a good thing we liberated Iraq so they no longer will have to fear the kind of mistreatment that we're inflicting on them now.

(Tip: Atrios.)

The PATRIOT Act Has Become Self Aware

It seems the PATRIOT Act has a built-in self-defense mechanism. That, or consciousness:

Patriot Act Suppresses News Of Challenge to Patriot Act

The American Civil Liberties Union disclosed yesterday that it filed a lawsuit three weeks ago challenging the FBI's methods of obtaining many business records, but the group was barred from revealing even the existence of the case until now. ...

"It is remarkable that a gag provision in the Patriot Act kept the public in the dark about the mere fact that a constitutional challenge had been filed in court," Ann Beeson, the ACLU's associate legal director, said in a statement. "President Bush can talk about extending the life of the Patriot Act, but the ACLU is still gagged from discussing details of our challenge to it."

Is there any possible reason why a court challenge to the law is itself a risk to the nation's security? Anyone? No? I didn't think so, either.

(Tip: Mac at go fish.)

When Is A War Crime Not A War Crime?

Apparently, 60 Minutes II got ahold of a dozen pictures of Iraqi prisoners being abused by U.S. troops. I can't find the pictures on-line, so here is how they are described:

[One picture depicts] one Iraqi prisoner ... told to stand on a box with his head covered, wires attached to his hands. He was told that if he fell off the box, he would be electrocuted. ... [Others] show Americans, men and women in military uniforms, posing with naked Iraqi prisoners.

There are shots of the prisoners stacked in a pyramid, one with a slur written on his skin in English.

In some, the male prisoners are positioned to simulate sex with each other. And in most of the pictures, the Americans are laughing, posing, pointing, or giving the camera a thumbs-up.

Frankly, I am not surprised by the abuse, although I am surprised that some commander allowed pictures to be taken. I assume that mistreatment of prisoners is commonplace so long as the Red Cross or a news crew is not in sight.

What is the Pentagon going to do about it? A very firm slap on the wrist is in order:

The investigation recommended administrative action against several of the commanders, which could include punishments up to relieving them of their commands, said the official, speaking on condition on anonymity.

Other reports say the transgressing soldiers may also receive a stern lecture.

It's interesting to compare and contrast a few quotes from March, 2003:

The Geneva Conventions on the humane treatment of those affected by war says prisoners of war must be protected "against acts of violence or intimidation and against insults and public curiosity." ...

Iraq has broadcast images of five members of the Army's 507th Ordinance Maintenance Company personnel captured near an-Nasariyah on Sunday and two Army helicopter pilots taken captive when their Apache went down in a raid on Republican Guard positions near Baghdad Monday. ...

The United States has faulted Iraq for showing pictures of the prisoners of war, which the U.S. claims violates the Geneva Convention on treatment of POWs. Article 13 of the Convention bars any "humiliation" of prisoners. ...

President Bush said Sunday he expected that Iraq treat any prisoners "humanely, just like we'll treat any Iraqi prisoners."

Pentagon spokesperson Victoria Clarke has warned "those who harm POWs will be found and punished as war criminals. The Iraqi regime must allow the International Red Cross to see the prisoners." ...

The U.S. led coalition has taken about 4,000 Iraqis prisoner, and the Pentagon makes a point of contrasting their treatment with that given by the Iraqis to coalition troops. ...

The House resolution approved Thursday demands that Iraq obey the Geneva Conventions, condemns violations of those rules to date, and calls for the Red Cross to have access to Americans held captive.

I am sure Congress and the warbloggers will rise to the occasion and call for the American officers and soldiers who have abused these prisoners to be tried as war criminals.

No, I am not holding my breath.

How to Chill Free Speech

Janet Jackson's tit pops out. The FCC goes apeshit. Howard Stern draws a record fine. So, what's the response from broadcasters?

"Zero tolerance is the new standard." ...

The open-ended ruling against offensiveness has attorneys preaching absolute caution. It could greatly expand the commission's jurisdiction, [an attorney] says, and the elimination of the "informal or fleeting" excuse means the stakes are higher. The FCC "used to cut people some slack, but now that's gone," Crigler says. "One word will do you."

Why are we letting these people do this shit?

(Tip: Jeff Jarvis.)

Just To Cover All The Bases

Shorter Roger L. Simon:

John Kerry demonstrated weakness of character by volunteering to fight in Vietnam.

(Tip: Roy Edroso at Alicublog.)

Spies Like Us

There is some minor fear and paranoia rippling through the blog world because intelligence analysts may now be reading blogs.

Deep breath, people. This is a good thing.

From the article: "News and intelligence is about listening with a critical ear, and blogs are just another conversation to listen to and evaluate. They also are closer to (some situations) and may serve as early alerts."

Right. It kind of surprises me that people don't understand that this is a validation of the success of blogs. Intelligence analysts are just information-processors, just like bloggers. They read covert information, of course, but they also read overt sources - like newspapers, economic data, and now ... blogs. If I were an analyst responsible for tracking Iraq, for example, I would damn sure make time every day to read Juan Cole. He might put two pieces of information together in a way I hadn't thought of. Enough bloggers like that, and my ability to deliver good reports is significantly improved.

Note also that this observation applies to a whole host of other information-processing jobs: business analyst, lawyer, and scientific researcher, for examples. As the technology develops more people will use the widely-distributed data that blogs produce as inputs for their decisionmaking.

The Soul of a Sex Doll

Lee Chapman at Tokyo Times has an amusing post about blowup dolls in Japan, which are called "Dutch wives" there. (No, he doesn't know why, either.) But what really caught my attention was this bit at the end:

[F]or any unwanted Dutch wives, the company [that makes them] will discreetly take them back free of charge. And rather than just throw them away, twice a year it has a Buddhist memorial service, where the souls of the dolls are consecrated.

First, whaaaa? Second, whuh? Third, how strange and wonderful must it be to live in a country with a tradition of animistic religion.

Snark Hunt

Roger Ailes:

I'm going to make a special effort to praise Republicans who condemn this hateful bigot. If you see any, please let me know.

All I Have Ever Needed to Know About Human Nature, I Have Learned From John le Carré

Parse that how you will.

That is all.

Canadian BDSM Porn Producer Acquitted of Obscenity

People have probably not been waiting for this decision with bated breath, except for those whose ball gags are too tight, but I have been hoping for a favorable outcome, and here it is:

Judge R.R. Low said the Sweet defense's presentation of several "mainstream" books and videos with themes at least as graphic, sexual, and violent as his adult BDSM vignettes, "coupled with their widespread availability, satisfies me that Canadians, for better or worse, tolerate other Canadians viewing explicit sexual activity coupled with graphic violence which is more or less indistinguishable from the eleven videos."

[T]he defense show[ed] both mainstream materials such as American Psycho, I Spit on Your Grave, Rape Me, and Portrait of a Serial Killer, as well as certain computer materials, to support the defense's contention that Sweet's adult videos were not quite as full of unacceptable material as the prosecution had alleged.

I am glad for the acquittal, but I am still confused about Canadian law and not much comforted by the standard Judge Low seemed to be applying in the case. It implies strongly that unpopular speech is unprotected in Canada, and that really worries me.

(Tip: DazeReader.)

Can I Put Michelle Malkin in a Cage in My Basement? Please?

What a dishonest, racist, stupid hack:

The usual suspects - plus one holier-than-thou world power - are calling on the U.S. military to repent for its treatment of Muslim chaplain James Yee (aka "Yousef" or "Yousif" Yee).

Wow, all that idiocy, packed into one sentence. The "usual suspects" are Andrew Sullivan (!), and "Arab-American and Asian-American activists". Who is the world power mentioned? China! And why mention Yee's other names? Sure, he's a Muslim, so he must be a suspicious character, potentially a traitor.

What more do Yee and his sympathy circle want? They want the government to beg forgiveness for being too aggressive in defending against potential terrorist abettors.

Fuck you, Malkin. We're all "potential terrorist abettors", which is another way of saying "completely and totally innocent."

After the Yee case came to light, I wrote that the military's deference to radical Islam was a menace to national security. The outcome of the Yee case does not change my position. (And by the way, to those who have demanded that I apologize to Capt. Yee, I'll send a condolence card when you apologize for your "Free Mike Hawash" campaign on behalf of the Portland software engineer who pleaded guilty to aiding terrorists and confessed that he and other associates were "prepared to take up arms, and die as martyrs if necessary, to defend the Taliban.")

Way to change the subject, asshole. Anyone who spends 76 days in solitary confinement and gets threatened with the death penalty for something they didn't do deserves an apology. And what fucking "military[] deference to radical Islam" are you talking about?

Nor does the dismissal of charges against Yee negate the pressing need to subject to heightened scrutiny the rest of the armed forces' Muslim chaplains - more than half of whom were trained by a terror-linked, Saudi-subsidized institute.

The pressing need evidenced by ... the complete vindication of the chaplain in question? Good logic. And in World War II, General DeWitt argued that the total absence of sabotage by Nissei just proved they were up to no good.

It's only the marginally more sophisticated political atmosphere today that prevents the rise of another McCarthy. People like Malkin would be at the head of line, waving blank sheets of paper in the air.

Regarding Christopher Ruddy

See the ticking timer on that google bomb? It's about Christopher Ruddy.

Jay-Z, Esq.

99 Problems (But a Bitch Ain't One)

The year is '94 and in my trunk is raw
In my rear view mirror is the mother fuckin law
I got two choices yall pull over the car or (hmm)
Bounce on the devil put the pedal to the floor
Now i ain't tryin to see no highway chase with jake
Plus i got a few dollars i can fight the case
So i...pull over to the side of the road
And i heard "Son do you know why i'm stoppin you for?"
Cause i'm young and i'm black and my hat's real low?
Do i look like a mind reader sir, i don't know
Am i under arrest or should i guess some mo?
"Well you was doin fifty five in a fifty four" uh huh
"License and registration and step out of the car
"Are you carryin a weapon on you i know alot of you are"
I ain't steppin out of shit all my papers legit
"Do you mind if i look round the car a little bit?"
Well my glove compartment is locked so is the trunk and the back
And i know my rights so you gon' need a warrant for that
"Aren't you sharp as a tack you some type of lawyer or something?
"Somebody important or somethin?"
Nah i ain't pass the bar but i know a little bit
Enough that you won't illegally search my shit
"Well see how smart you are when the K-9 comes"
I got 99 problems, but a bitch ain't one

Morals of the story: Get out of the car when ordered to. But you don't need to consent to a search of your car. And don't take legal advice from musicians.

Our New Friends

It's a fake. It's true.

It's both.

Guided By Voices Quits

From the Guided By Voices Official Web Site:

After almost 20 years, assorted lineups, and countless albums, EPs, singles, triples, stolen bases, misdemeanor convictions, and broken hearts, Dayton, OH's fortunate sons are taking leave of your senses. 'Half Smiles Of The Decomposed,' to be released August 24 on Matador Records, will be the final album from Guided By Voices, one of the most acclaimed independent rock bands of all time.

It's sad. But it had to come sometime. Now maybe I can finally catch up with all the goddamn music they've already created, and Pollard can check himself into rehab.

You Do Not Have to Know Arabic

Here's how we are trying to win in Fallujah:

(Tip: As'ad AbuKhalil at The Angry Arab News Service. The picture is from here.)

The Better Kind of Negro

Write this one down and read it frequently. Don't forget it:

When a white person screws up, it ignites a debate on the screw up. When a black person screws up, it ignites a debate on race.

Actually, I'd amend that second sentence to end "... a debate on black people." We're almost always in a debate about race.

(Tip: Kevin Drum at Political Animal.)

Exhibit R

If you need another example of boneheaded warblogger thinking that substitutes wishful thinking for actual analysis, check this. An excerpt:

[A] tiny minority, a clique -- are causing a ruckus. A larger percentage of the population may share in the "goals" of these knuckleheads but there are quantifiable reasons why this may be the case: a warm, snug security blanket has been yanked out of a spider hole and tossed into the furnace. It's now sink-or-swim time for everyone. The demonstrative value of this to the people of the Middle East is a big reason why the Iraq model must not be allowed to fail.

You get all that? The Iraqis are motivated primarily by material concerns. Concerns that were being well taken care of by Saddam Hussein under the sanctions regime. The problem is that Iraqs don't know how to compete, like Americans. They better learn how to swim damn quick, or we'll be forced to pour more money and lives down a hole in the sand just to prove we can.

And hey, if it doesn't work out, it's the liberals' fault.

Look Over There! Evil, Evil Lawyers!

Milton at Trivial Pursuits summarizes the state of play:

[T]he difficulty with tort reform is the fact that there is no evidence--none, zip, zilch, niente--via independent regression analysis that supports tort reform advocates' contentions that large jury verdicts are a substantial cause in high medical malpractice insurance premiums. [I]f jury verdicts only have a small or even, as I suspect, a negligible effect on med mal premiums, then capping those verdicts simply can't have the desired effect (because the causal impact is so small).

[I]nsurance is an investment vehicle, and when the market tanks, investors lose money. Insurers are no different in this capacity. Some insurers, like some investors, engage in high-risk investments, and lose more money. To some extent, the raising of premiums is an attempt to pass the losses onto physicians (and ultimately, of course, onto patients and other payors).

If true, this also explains why med mal premiums in states which have enacted such laws universally fail to demonstrate any significant differences in either the med mal rates, or the trajectory such rates take over time, as compared to jurisdictions without such laws.

Evidence? Someone actually cares what the evidence is? Since when?

(Tip: Charles Kuffner.)

Getting The Government We Deserve

Good news for Bush, Americans are uninformed:

A majority of Americans still believes Saddam Hussein was in cahoots with al-Qa'ida and that Iraq either had weapons of mass destruction or a programme for developing them, according to a new opinion poll. ...

A staggering 82 per cent of respondents believed most experts supported the notion that Iraq was providing "substantial support" to al-Qa'ida - a contention that President Bush has been forced to disavow. ...

The poll also showed a correlation between people's ignorance and their political affiliation. Among those who believed WMD had been found in Iraq, 72 per cent said they would vote to re-elect Mr Bush in November and 23 per cent said they supported his Democratic challenger, John Kerry. Among those who knew that no WMD had been found,74 per cent supported Mr Kerry and 23 per cent backed the President.

I blame the teachers' unions.

(Tip: Prof. Brian Leiter.)

What Part of "Democracy Freedom Stay The Course Terror Terror" Don't You Understand?

Get your war on here:

"East Coast elitist"? Fuck it, sure - is that what you call it? Fine. All I know is I'm from New York City, I can actually think on my feet, I can string two fuckin' sentences together without notes, and I could answer some motherfuckers' questions about a war without just spitting out eleven different permutations of the same "goo-gah freedom" phrase! So sue me - that makes me elitist? Good! If "elitist" just means "not the dumbest motherfucker in the room," I'll be an elitist!

Oh, my. When will these liberals learn to be civil?

#7402 of This Does Not Appear to Be a Joke, But Could Be

It's a vibrator shaped like a pistol. Yes, you insert it into yourself (or hold it on the appropriate spot) and ... pull the trigger. How erotic is that? Answer: not at all.

And brainstorm: little fake-sperm bullets! That explode when you do! Where is Chuck Heston?

(Tip: The pink one, who has a very wise roomie: "Cynthia, you are way too high to purchase a gun-shaped vibrator on the internet.")

Render Unto Caesar the Things Which Are Caesar’s

Atrios:

No one finds it particularly troubling when it's pointed out that an "out" atheist couldn't get elected dog catcher in most of this country, let alone to Congress. ... [So,] I'm a bit sick and tired of White Christian Males pretending that they're the persecuted ones.

In addition, I'm a bit fed up with people hand-wringing about anti-religious sentiment from "the Left." First of all, "the Left" which has any clout or power in this country is explicitly "pro-religion" to a degree which disturbs me. My retinas still burn with the image of the members of Congress on the steps of the Capitol screeching out "UNDER GOD" while performing the pledge of allegiance. ...

I'm tired of liberalish Christians telling me it's my job to reach out to Christian moderates who feel that "the Left" is hostile to them. Screw that. It's time for liberalish Christians to tell their slightly more right-leaning brethren that those of us who fight to maintain the separation between Church and State do it to protect freedom of religion - not destroy it. It's time for moderate and liberal Catholics to take a stand against their Church's assault on Democratic (and only Democratic) politicians who deviate from doctrine.

I'm not hostile to religion. I'm hostile to those who cloak their hate [and] bigotry in religion. I'm hostile to those who want to impose their religion on me and everyone else. I'm hostile to those who have no understand[ing] where their freedoms come from, and why they're important. I'm hostile to Christian Exceptionalists who believe that simply by being religious they're immune from all criticism.

The militant versions of the two religions causing most of the religiously-inspired trouble in the world - Christianity and Islam - require a sense a victimhood, of being threatened, to sustain themselves. I have more exposure to the American Christian flavor of this, which is a kind of insanity. It requires its adherents to believe that the "world" is implacably Evil and hostile to Christianity, while actually participating in a society in which Christians and their religion are ubiquitious and the holders of the reigns of nearly all political power.

It's not that liberals are hostile to Christianity per se, it's that Christians have a built-in sense of resentment that society doesn't conform to their view of the good. I think that for many American Christians, one of the factors driving this is the cognitive dissonance generated by their acceptance of the evidence that their faith is irrational and probably the product of their own psychological needs. One can't be militantly religious and an empiricist. This conflict produces a dark cloud of foreboding in many believers, and rather than examine the roots of those feelings, they attach them to an external source - unbelievers, the world, you name it. No amount of good wishes from liberals will make that internal conflict go away. And until that conflict is resolved, it's pointless to try to compromise with believers as a whole - irrationality has no coherent set of positions to compromise with.

There are only two ways to resolve the situation. One, we could capitulate completely. One Christian friend once asked me, "Wouldn't we be better off if everyone was a Christian?" To which the answer undoubtedly is, "Yes", in the way that we'd be better off if we were totally homogoneous. We'd be better off if we were all atheists, or all pedophiles. Unanimity has its benefits. The other way is as Atrios suggests: tell religious people that their beliefs have no privileged place in politics simply because they are religious, and that they will be subject to the same terms of debate as everyone else. The religious in America control the secular political process already. They can't also demand that they be immune from criticism, too.

The Truth Will Cost You Your Job

Remember the photo of the coffins of dead U.S. soldiers from the other day?

The woman who took the picture was fired by the contractor that employed her, at the urging of the U.S. military. They fired her husband, too, who also worked there, for good measure. The contractor sounds unhappy about it: "They were good workers, and we were sorry to lose them," [the company spokesman] said. "They did a good job out in Kuwait and it was an important job that they did."

The woman who took the picture, Tami Silicio, said, "It wasn't my intent to lose my job or become famous or anything." Of course, that's naive. Any infraction of a company rule can get you fired. She knew she wasn't allowed to take pictures of the coffins. (If she didn't realize it would be a major political issue to give the picture to a newspaper, then she's really naive.) It's a shame she and her husband lost their jobs over it, though.

It does go to show a couple of other things, too:

First, using private contractors allows you to really punish people who leak information that's embarassing to the government. You can fire a soldier, too, but it's much, much harder. Private employees will keep their mouths shut about what they see if they know they'll be on the next plane home if they talk.

Two, this shows how desperate the military is to keep the issue of war dead and injured under wraps. It wasn't enough to just ride out some controversy. They had to reach down and get the woman fired. They had to get her husband fired. It's vindictive.

Just as much of a shame is that this incident is considered normal. If it's noticed at all, rightwingers will express satisfaction that they were fired. Everyone else might be unhappy about it for a minute and then it will be lost in the maelstrom of bad news which is the Bush administration. These two people will join the ranks of the unemployed and the government will keep lying to us by omission. Everything's back to normal now, citizen. Go about your business.

Awed But Definitely Not Shocked

Kynn Bartlett of Shock and Awe has landed a gig as a columnist for The Californian. Go, Kynn!

I Have Seen This Movie Before

And now, once again, Gen. Anthony J. Zinni speaks:

"I'm surprised that [Rumsfeld] is surprised [at the number of U.S. casualties] because there was a lot of us who were telling him that it was going to be thus. ... Anyone could know the problems they were going to see. How could they not?" ...

For years Zinni said he cautioned U.S. officials that an Iraq without Saddam Hussein would likely be more dangerous to U.S. interests than one with him because of the ethnic and religious clashes that would be unleashed.

"I think that some heads should roll over Iraq," Zinni said. "I think the president got some bad advice." ...

Not even Zinni's resume could shield him from the accusations that followed.

"I've been called a traitor and a turncoat for mentioning these things," said Zinni, 60. The problems in Iraq are being caused, he said, by poor planning and shortsightedness, such as disbanding the Iraqi army and being unable to provide security.

Zinni said the United States must now rely on the U.N. to pull its "chestnuts out of the fire in Iraq."

"We're betting on the U.N., who we blew off and ridiculed during the run-up to the war," Zinni said. "Now we're back with hat in hand. It would be funny if not for the lives lost."...

"In the end, the Iraqis themselves have to want to rebuild their country more than we do," Zinni said. "But I don't see that right now. I see us doing everything.

"I spent two years in Vietnam, and I've seen this movie before," he said. "They have to be willing to do more or else it is never going to work."

It's too bad this man is legally prohibited from being SecDef anytime soon. Maybe he's interested in being SecState.

(Tip: Mark Kleiman.)

The Other Other Fables of the Reconstruction

Hi to everyone landing here looking for the article on the situation in Iraq entitled "Fables of the Reconstruction", by Jason Vest. The actual link to the story is here.

This blog and that story, of course, derive the name from an REM album. For my part, I chose the title because I see the coming years as a matter of working to rebuild not only Iraq but the United States as well. This country has suffered severe damage as a result of conservative policies that have put our health, our education, and our prosperity as a people at risk. We've also been subjected to a corrosive kind of politics that echoes the lies of German fascism - that national pride and military might are identical, that criticism of authoritarian government is treason, and that certain subgroups - Jews, blacks, gays, liberals, pick one or all - are undermining the health of society. These are the "fables" that must be countered with new stories - or rather, forgotten old stories of the value of good government, mutual interdependence, respect for and appreciation of difference, and a love of questioning authority and the use of force.

What it means to be a liberal today is to stand for preserving and resurrecting that which is good about America. That's the real reconstruction project.

Transfer Tubes

Here's the reason why the Pentagon has to use doublespeak like "transfer tubes" instead of "body bags", and why cameras are banned at Dover AFB:

Eleven a week dead - a total of 564 - since the landing on the Lincoln and "Mission Accomplished".

Update April 23, 2004: The photographer was fired.

No Matter How Cynical You Become, The Right Will Top It

Jesse at Pandagon:

I look at something like that Saudi deal..., and I can't help but feel that we're being charitable. We've been saying Bush lied about the war (and he did) - but it turns out he lied about the war, compromised national security, and struck a deal with a terrorist-supporting state, a real one, for cheap oil prices near election time. The darkly insinuated (and stated) reason for offense at Kerry's "foreign leaders" remark was that Kerry was going to somehow sell out our national security for their support, that he'd promised them things if they'd just do things to support his presidential run.

Bush has done exactly that.

... [D]uring the Bush years, I feel as if we're almost running behind the true political depravity. We find out Bush lied, and we say it, and by the time that the full-throated denunciations of anyone who dares advance that rather obvious truth begin, we find out something worse. ...

We don't have to peer in the dusty corners for dark secrets these days. Every time we turn around, there's something new, bright and shiny and just plain wrong in our face. I'm a liberal because I support what government can do and what America can become. I'm also a liberal because I despise what the people in charge of our government are doing with the tools we gave them, and what they're making America into.

I think there are two kinds of people who still support Bush. The hard-core cynics who put their own interests above those of the nation first, last and always. And those who, for whatever reason, simply can't accept, despite all the evidence, that the President of the United States is part of the first group.

Just Another Casualty

Today's Doonesbury; only relevant if you're a fan. I think Ray's tying off a tourniquet - which is what you might do if someone's lost, say, an arm.

Sad.

More Than What it Takes to Win This Time

Mark Schmitt, Director of Policy and Research at the Open Society Institute, at The Decembrist has a thought-provoking post up in reaction to Peter Levine's thoughts on "What's wrong with the left, and what we can do about it."

In summary, Schmitt argues:

1. Focusing on money is a necessary but not sufficient way for the left to get back into the game with the right.
2. Blogs and other discussive media let us try out and implement new ideas faster than previously.
3. Left/Progressives are conservatives when it comes to the best parts of American society - the parts worth conserving.
4. Get beyond the politics of "more" - and embrace the politics of better. We're not going to win in the long run by being the party of people who want to spend more money. We have to win by spending the same or less money more effectively.

Schmitt makes a lot of sense. I am looking forward to reading Levine's post in full. Although the day-to-day fight of politics is exciting, it's always time for us to think beyond the current election.

Newspeak

Roy Edroso at alicublog characterizes conservative reaction to Monday's disaster of a press conference:

War is Peace, Freedom is Slavery, and Bush is Churchill.

In other news:

"They could still be there. They could be hidden, like the 50 tons of mustard gas in a turkey farm," said Bush, referring to Libya's voluntary disclosure of weapons in March.

The next day, the White House said the accurate figure for the Libyan mustard gas was 23.6 metric tons, or 26 short tons, not 50 tons.

Moreover, the substance was found at different locations across Libya, not at a turkey farm. And observers did not find mustard gas on the farm at all, but rather unfilled chemical munitions, the White House acknowledged.

Fridgemagnet at Light From An Empty Fridge says:

[I]t wouldn't be a Bush press conference without a misspoken WMD claim. Besides, "like the 23.6 tons of mustard gas not in a turkey farm" doesn't sound very good.

BloggerCon

I really wanted to go to BloggerCon tomorrow, and had registered for it weeks ago. Unfortunately, my family has decided that this weekend is the weekend we must go through my dad's personal effects and sort things out. So, no BloggerCon. I was really looking forward to meeting Oliver Willis, Lisa Williams, Lis Riba and Ellen Dana Nagler.

Yee Finally Cleared

On Wednesday, the Army finally dropped the last of some very minor charges against Capt. James Yee, a Muslim chaplain at Guantanamo who had been arrested, held in solitary confinement for 76 days, and accused of treason and threatened with the death penalty, before the case fell apart and it became clear that he was entirely innocent. Read more about his case here and here.

One more thing: someone owes this man an apology.

(Tip: Body and Soul.)

Howard Stern Voter Registration Drive

Holy shit. Howard Stern, as almost everyone knows, turned on Bush several weeks ago and has been disparaging him on his show and website every day. I have been saying to friends that if he really wanted to be effective, Stern should first run a voter registration drive. The man has 8 million listeners. If he started getting large numbers of them registered and then got them to vote, he could actually have a huge impact not only on the presidential race, but on races nationwide.

Now he's doing it. Arianna Huffington announced it on her blog:

After a thorough exploration of my sexual history, Howard agreed to co-host a voter registration drive along with Uma Thurman and me. Our goal: to sign up as many of his 8 million listeners as possible. He's even promised to make sure that every guest on his show has registered to vote -- with any luck, all those newly registered strippers, lesbians, and hookers just might provide the margin of victory in November.

This is really huge. I guess it's impossible to know how many new voters we're talking about, but I would think there's no reason to believe Stern listeners are more politically active than the average. Probably less, if anything.

Next idea: put the voter registration link on the front page of his site, and get someone to code it so people can fill out the national voter registration form on-line and print it from the browser.

Have Some Perspective, Ma'am

Shorter James Joyner:

Victims who agree with me are heroes. Victims who disagree are a shrill, vocal subset who are being bizarrely fetishized by the media.

Update:

Joyner rejoins in comments (and corrects the link.) The rejoinder doesn't impress me much. First of all, the people we're talking about have lost family members to violence. It is absolutely their right to question the actions of the government which might have prevented their deaths. As someone once remarked, "A single death is a tragedy; a million deaths is a statistic." (Yes, I know who said it; it's still perceptive.)

Overall, it's hard to take the rightwing criticism of the widows seriously. It's clear to me that conservatives are just reeling from being criticized by victims who they feel rightfully should be on the their side. They only become "bizarre" and "shrill" when they blame Bush.

In general, I oppose the universalization of the tragedy that James seems to be arguing for. It's shallow and devalues the pain that people feel from having someone they love being suddenly and senselessly killed. It's especially those who claim some divine right to advocate retaliatory mass murder just from being in the same country as the real victims who need to be ignored. As I've argued before, 9/11 filled a deep, twisted need for some people looking for a reason to justify their worst impulses. Note, please, I don't think James is one of those. But I am deeply skeptical of anyone who did not lose a loved one in the attacks but claim they were changed forever in some profound way.

Meanwhile, Roy Edroso at alicublog:

Some of you may remember the outrage Ted Rall generated with his ungenerous treatment of 9/11 widows ("bug," "ignorant little rant," "ugly, nonsensical," "evasive, gutless, dirt-eating," etc). ... [Given the new attacks on these widows, s]urely James Lileks, Little Green Footballs, Tim Blair, Aaron Rantberg, et alia, will rise to these 9/11 widows' defense?

That reminds me, I promised to buy Roy a beer a long while ago, just for how well he writes. I must owe him a case by now.

Professional-Level Procrastination

Soooooooo, um ... tax day. Is that soon? Oh.

Maybe I should start thinking about getting some of the paperwork together.

No Jobs and Election Rigging. Sounds Like We Brought American-Style Democracy To Them, After All

Juan Cole:

The unemployment rate is still very high among Shiites in the south. The Great Depression in the US was defined by an unemployment rate of about 25%. That among Iraqis is much higher, perhaps still twice that in a lot of places. Those who complain about the proliferation of militias should remember that militiamen get stipends, and joining one is often a way to make some desperately needed money. Higher employment would make such dangerous work less appealing. Despite the bright promises of American rule, sewage still flows in the streets in the Shiite slums, and there often is not clean drinking water. Most important of all, the Americans promised democracy, but have consistently shut down attempts to have free and fair elections, even (for the most part) at the municipal level. (John Bourne's experiment with open municipal elections in the small towns around Nasiriyah is a praiseworthy exception, but it is an exception). There is a growing fear that the Americans intend to turn the country over to their corrupt cronies, such as fraudster Ahmad Chalabi, and there will be a new, neo-colonial "soft" dictatorship like that in Egypt (also a regime propped up by the Americans).

I think the "soft" dictatorship was the fallback option all along. For some, maybe not so "fallback" and not so "soft". It's clear that we have slim to no chance of imposing a human- and civil-rights respecting, non-theological democracy on the country, if for no other reason the Iraqi people don't like having U.S. soldiers riding through their neighborhoods like conquerors. I think the smarter members of the Bush administration knew that from day one. One way or another, their commitment to this project expires when the polls close on November 2, 2004.

Kerry Ad Calls American Voters "Stupid"

I think this is probably not the way to go about getting votes:

Kerry campaign manager Mary Beth Cahill said Monday[,] "It's time to redirect the cheap name-calling away from Bush and toward those Americans who might be idiotic enough to vote for him."

A controversial 30-second TV spot for Kerry that aired throughout the Midwest Monday blamed the country's ills not on Bush's policies, but on the "sheer stupidity" of America's voters.

"In the past four years, America's national debt has reached an all-time high," the ad's narrator said. "And who's responsible? You are. You're sitting there eating a big bowl of Fritos, watching TV, and getting fatter as the country goes to hell. You ought to be ashamed of yourself."

I think that's unfair. I don't like Fritos.

I Think Thor Told Them To

Mr. Babelon in Baghdad writes:

Some folks here say that the insurgents are capturing and releasing people to show the Coalition that they can get at them any time they would like, and this is a warning to lighten up in Fallujah or else.

Regardless of what you think about this particular theory, the really funny thing (in a twisted sort of way) is that the Iraqis are making up stories to try to explain the actions of the Coalition (for instance, the four contractors who were killed in Fallujah were Jews, which explains the strong reaction by the Coalition Forces), and Westerners here are making up stories to explain the actions of the insurgents.

I tend to think that the "warning" theory shows more coordination and more restraint than the insurgents have shown up to this point. I prefer to think the insurgents kidnapping people are actually aliens, and they are cloning the people they kidnap and releasing the clones as part of a larger effort to take over the earth.

A little while back, Mr. Babelon was making up theories of what kind of car will get you killed in Iraq. (He lost a friend who made the wrong choice in transportation.)

This goes to show, as he says, that humans have to make up reasons for things they don't understand; perhaps, things that have no reasons. This applies to the insurgents, too. They have their own theories, and ascribing omniscience or too much (or too little) rationality to them is a mistake. Same for the Americans. And Mr. Babelon is there. Small wonder, then, that we who are not in Iraq have contradictory or nonsensical theories of what's happening there.

Annnnnnd ... Action!

There is a good reason to think sex will continue to drive the growth of the web:

Erika Kole stood topless in front of the class, discussing the finer points of Title 18 of the U.S. Criminal code, section 2251, which governs how old actors have to be to appear in adult sex videos.

Kole, 25, and 28-year-old Nikki Napoli then acted out a live sex scene. But the 30 students, who each paid more than $200 for the three-hour lecture, appeared more interested in what the blonde model told them about Web site design, product distribution and the porn business than what they were doing in front of the camera.

It was to find porn that brought people to the web in the first instance, and it'll be to distribute porn that they'll continue coming back to the web. Sex sells, but anonymous sex in the comfort of your own home sells faster.

So as the costs of bandwidth and high-speed internet access fall, does this mean amateur pornographers will make life difficult for the pros? No, I don't think so. Just as blogging hasn't crowded out editorial writing, homemade porn is not going to win viewers away from the professional version. As the need for the classes in the article make clear, you can't just pick up a digital video camera and make movies that look professional. Sure, most mainstream porn is crap, but it's crap with high production values. Unless someone invents a camera that finds the right actors, lights the scene, designs it, shoots it, and edits it for you, an increase in homemade porn will simply expand the choices that people have already.

(Tip: Amorous Propensities.)

Total Control

Jack O'Toole:

[M]any of us who initially crossed party lines to support the Iraq war have been turned against it not by the increasing dangers and difficulties of the mission, but rather by this administration's seemingly endless willingness -- desire, even -- to substitute simple-minded PR nonsense for serious talk about serious matters. If Karl Rove and Co. manage to lose this election -- and hard as it is to believe, they well may -- their consistent deceptiveness on issues of grave national importance will surely be one of the major reasons why. And they'll have no one but themselves to blame.

I've opposed the invasion of Iraq from day one. For what it's worth, I am no peacemonger. I supported Bush's invasion of Afghanistan, Clinton's war in the Balkans, and the first Bush's Gulf War. Sometimes being able to kick ass obligates you to do so. And from that standpoint, the invasion of Iraq made no sense to me. Since the middle of 2002 when the invasion was first broached publicly, there has been a tremendous amount of discussion on-line and off whether it was the right thing to do. But O'Toole makes an excellent point: whatever discussion we've been having has been made harder by the administration's relentless desire to control the debate. They have sought to define the terms of discussion so as to make the outcome - favorable to them - inevitable. So individuals have been left on their own to try to dig the truth out of the mass of data out there, and then shape that information into some kind of coherent whole in order to evaluate the situation. One of those truths is that the public often will leave decisions about war and peace to the executive branch. Ironically, it's Bush's desire to control the information flow that has poisoned that trust and may ultimately lead to his electoral defeat and the abandonment of his policy in Iraq.

My New Filing Technique is Unstoppable

Yes! It's now a game, too.

(Tip: Becky S. at Good Grief.)

This Guy is Stealing My Schtick

The Bitter Little Man at Fuck everything writes:

I know that the Ds have to call Gee Dubya on shit like [spending half his fucking time on a ranch or playing golf], but it's pretty fuckin' pointless. Would you rather Bush actually spent time in the Oval Office doing work? Shit, with him actually running the show, you may as well just give Osama a plane, free reign in our airspace, and an unlimited supply of gasoline so he can fly all over the country dousing it with fuel before lighting the match. ...

Joe Pesci help us if Bush got fed up with being a child and decided to be leader of our country. It would be this crazy sitcom, only it would be real life and not that funny. Kinda like regular sitcoms, only people don't typically die for real in them. Man, we would be completely fucked, which is saying quite a bit considering where we are now.

I am totally calling this guy out. First of all, it's already like a sitcom. No, actually, it's like that part in Monty Python's Holy Grail where the Scots guy is all, "I built a castle. It sank into the swamp. So, I built a second one. That sank into the swamp. So I built a third one. That burned down, fell over, then sank into the swamp. But the fourth one stayed up." Except he'll never get to the one that stays up. And thousands of people die when one falls down. And the castles cost hundreds of billions of dollars.

Second, I have been nailing down the corners on the copyright of the really angry, funny cynic thing, okay? So back off. I hired Al Franken's lawyer, bitch.

H-BOMB!

Atrios and Hesiod quit!! I can't believe this!

Oh, those jokers.

Juan Cole on Fresh Air Today

Middle East expert Prof. Juan Cole will be on NPR's Fresh Air with Terry Gross today. Check it out.

( Tip: apostropher.)

Update: Here's the archived audio (RealPlayer). Cole's very mild-mannered, but he's scathingly critical of the neoconservatives who he describes as "extremely ignorant" of Iraq and dupes of Chalabi. About al-Sadr, he says that he's a bad actor, but has a lot of sympathy among other Shia. We should just leave him alone, and his militia will stop making trouble. This makes sense given that they didn't begin their revolt until the U.S. closed down a Sadr newspaper (which Cole describes as containing pretty outrageous lies, but ones that had not actually created any problems for the Americans.)

Our Ally, the Government of Pakistan

Just recently, the United States declared Pakistan a major non-NATO ally, because they are so helpful in our effort to counter terrorism by promoting freedom and democracy throughout the world. Now, in a burst of freedom and democracy, the government of Pakistan has jailed the head of the opposition coalition for criticizing the government:

A Pakistani judge sentenced the leader of the country's main opposition political alliance to prison today on charges of treason and inciting mutiny in the armed forces, state-run news organizations reported.

The man, Makhdoom Javed Hashmi, was arrested last October after he released a letter that was represented as having been written by disgruntled military officers who were critical of the country's military ruler, Gen. Pervez Musharraf. The letter called for putting the country's senior military leaders on trial for seizing power in a bloodless coup in 1999 and criticized General Musharraf's decision to side with the United States in its effort to prevent terrorism.

Pakistan can now join Uzbekistan as countries whose human and civil rights violations we are deliberately ignoring. With major allies like these, who needs enemies?

Creationism, A Delicious Part of This Balanced Breakfast!

Brian Leiter, in the course of a series of posts on so-called Intelligent Design theory, noted that a number of ID proponents he heard from were Federalist Society members. In response, someone wrote:

"[H]olding the Federalist Society responsible for idiotic design people in its midst is like holding the Democratic Party responsible for Larouchies. More to the point, once someone has bought into theism in the first place, is it really that far a stretch to intelligent design? If someone believes in leprechauns and also thinks that the leprechauns make the marshmallows in Lucky Charms, which is the belief that really requires attention?"

No, no. More to the point, who knew there were funny Federalist Society members?

See? Twisted. I Told You.

Okay, so http://i.flowgo.com/greetings/rapeasterbunny/rapeasterbunny.swf is listed on Blogines' toplinks page. (Go ahead and click - work safe.) I only mention it because my interest was piqued after I misread the link as "rape easter bunny.swf". Is that so wrong?