The Daily Dish is basically a clearing house for the truth about the Bush torture regime. His coverage has been great. Typical quote:
The Western anathema on torture began as a way to ensure the survival of truth.
And that is the root of the West’s entire legal and constitutional system. Remove a secure way to discover the truth – or create a system that can manufacture it or render it indistinguishable from lies – and the entire system unravels. That’s why in the West suspects are innocent before being found guilty; and that’s why in the West even those captured in wartime have long been accorded protection from forced confessions. Because it creates a world where truth is always the last priority and power is always the first.
This is not a policy difference. It is a foundational element of Western civilization. The way Cheney constructed it, it was not even a mere war-power as we have usually understood it – because the war was defined in ways we haven’t usually understood it. Since the war had no geographical boundaries, since an “enemy combatant” could be an American citizen or resident, since the enemy could never surrender, and since the war could never end, the dictatorial powers, allied with the power to torture, undermined the balance of the American constitution. Until this is fully accounted for and the law-breakers brought to justice, that constitution remains with a massive breach below its waterline. It may not sink immediately; but its fate is sealed unless this precedent is not just moved on from, but erased.
Only two today. I’m busy blogging about torture at the other place.
A review of the book Chave gave Obama. What is it about leftist screeds like Das Kapital and The Population Bomb that they retain their appeal even after everything they say is thoroughly disproved by history?
It turns out that the GOP was right about the cost of cap and trade after all. Wonder if the organizations who called the GOP liars wil back down? The price of cap and trade might be worth it. But to make that argument, you have to admit that it has a price to begin with.
I’ve linked to this sort of thing before, but it’s worth linking again to list of disaster myths. I’ve come to hate that movie cliche of, when disaster hits, people running back and forth in front of the camera while screaming.
I’ve noticed CNN has run a number of articles recently about the awfulness of drug addiction. I have to wonder if this is some canned response to the growing tide against the War on Drugs.
No. CNN being in the pocket of the establishment? Say it ain’t so!
A stunning and depressing portrait of dictatorship run amuck. Critics say it’s the ultimate free market. Those critics don’t know what they’re talking about. Dictatorship and slavery are not free markets.
I wonder if all the right-wing bigmouths who said Obama was a pussy about the pirate issue will shut up now that three pirates are dead and the captain rescued.
Probably not…
Update: Boortz gives Obama credit after criticizing him last week. Good for him.
As our government grows bigger and, as a result, less effective, we’re going to see more stories like this, in which Hawaiians repaired a road faster and cheaper than the government would have.
I don’t know the background to the story of fed employees getting pay rises while everyone else is told to tighten their belts. I’m assuming this isn’t as simple as people would like to believe.
I have to agree with Reason. It does seem like Obama talks out of both sides of his mouth sometimes. That doesn’t make him bad; that just makes him a normal politician.
Apparently, Monster Cable, when they aren’t harassing people who claim their product is overpriced, are busy suing the crap out of any other business that calls itself Monster. I don’t know that a loser pays legal system would prevent this; but it couldn’t hurt. The thing is that I can think of few people who, hearing the word “Monster”, automatically envision the electronics firm.
I have to agree with Hot Air. Why is it so amazing that Obama extended the olive branch to the muslim world? Bush did that for years. Why do people react so obsequiously when Obama says things they vilified Bush for?
I stopped trusting Consumer Reports back in the 90’s when they endorsed a single payer healthcare system. That and that every product they recommended turned out to be a steaming piece of crap. Their report on the anti-CPSIA rally today is typical of lazy shilling they’ve been doing lately (read the comments for a response — I can’t top them). Memo to CR: big business loves CPSIA. It’s driving the competition out of business.
Nice, The Obama Administration already has a report indicating that their green car plan for Detroit won’t work.
Our ridiculous legal system doesn’t just hamstring doctors and cripple legitimate businesses. It lets genuine bad actors get away with murder. Exxon is still fighting the lawsuit over their oil spill of twenty years ago. Why not? It’s reduced their burden from $5 to $2 billion.
More from Greenpeace: they tried to pretend there was a meltdown at a nuclear plant.
It’s going to be quiet around here for a few days. I’m still reacting to the tragic passing of my fellow blogger, Lee. On the one hand, I never met him. On the other hand, he’s the reason this site exists at all and has as much influence on my political thinking as anyone. He was what Joe Posnanksi calls an “e-migo”, someone I felt like I knew through his blog and a precious few e-mails exchanges. Over at Right-Thinking, people who knew him in meatspace are posting their memories, which makes me only wish I had met him in real life.
I will be posting again sometime soon. One thing Lee didn’t explain to me when I started doing this — eventually it becomes a necessity.