Glen Greenwald laid into Senate Democrats for confirming Michael Mukasey’s nomination as Attorney General: Every time Congressional Democrats failed this year to stop the Bush administration (i.e., every time they "tried"), the excuse they gave was that they "need 60 votes in the Senate" in order to get anything done. … Beyond that, four Senate…
Month: November 2007
Obama Contrasts Himself Against Clinton
Here’s part of the transcript from his interview with Linda Douglass of NationalJournal.com: Q: But do you think that voters should be concerned about whether she’s telling the truth? Obama: I think that the voters should be concerned that she is running the textbook, classic Washington campaign, which is to avoid giving clear answers and…
Torture, the Litmus Test
There have been several anti-torture articles today, most in opposition to the practice. I’m glad of that – no one should want to have to inflict pain and suffering on another human being. But how important is the debate and/or the practice? At the LA Times, Rosa Brooks calls torture “the new abortion” for the…
Torture
The principle is whether western security services should, in their duty to protect to people of the countries they serve, torture captured enemies. The lines of debate are if torture should ever be allowed and, if so, in what circumstances? If it is ever to be allowed, there’s the question of what techniques can be…
Bhutto Calls Out Musharraf
In a NY Times editorial, Benazir Bhutto says that Pervez Musharraf’s declaration of martial law "will be remembered as the blackest day in the history of Pakistan." Let’s hope that is true. But there may be blacker days still to come. More: Opposition party members, lawyers, judges, human rights advocates and journalists have been rounded…
U.S. to Defy Putin re Missile Defense
Reuters reports that U.S. officials intend to move ahead with plans to locate a missile defense system in central Europe despite pointed protests made by Vladimir Putin of Russia. "We are continuing negotiations with those countries (Poland and the Czech Republic)," Daniel Fried, U.S. Assistant Secretary of State, told a news conference in Baku. "We…
Refusing Medical Care
In the U.K., Emma Gough, a young Jehovah’s Witness woman recently died after refusing to accept a blood transfusion that could have saved her life: She had signed a form refusing blood transfusions, and her family would not overrule her. Couldn’t doctors have intervened? If they had, they may well have been charged with a…
Mukasey and Liberals
At the Huffington Post, Nora Ephron writes that “It’s hard to be a Democrat“, saying: It’s hard to be a Democrat, don’t you think? There’s no alternative, of course, but it’s hard. Someone asked me the other day to write something about why I was a Democrat, and I had no trouble making a list…
Saudi, Forgotten Terrorism Sponsor
Printed in in big, bold letters, the Times Online’s headline reads: “Saudi Arabia is hub of world terror“. Perhaps that’s why King Abdullah recently received a less-than-warm greeting in when he arrived in Britain for a state visit, the first such in two decades. Evidently not all the English were happy to see him: Beyond…
Should Schools Dispense Birth Control?
Demonstrating that a lot of Americans aren’t too bright, 30% of those surveyed by AP said that public schools should give out birth control to students regardless of whether their parents have given their consent or not. (The media is reporting 67% of parents agree with the idea, but that includes the 37% who think that…