Friday, May 20, 2005

Senate filibuster

I'm a simple guy. I like simple arguments.

The minority party in the Senate has a tool, the filibuster, which acts as a brake on the desires of the majority party.

Currently, the minority party in the Senate is also the minority party in the House, and the majority party holds the White House.

This current majority party would like to take the filibuster away from the minority party. No filibuster, no brake on what the majority party wants to do.

That's the scenario. In thinking about this situation, why would the word "compromise" come to anyone's mind? Go with the natural first reaction: "hell no."

Torture, again

All Americans have a duty as citizens to read this article. The NYT reports on a "nearly 2,000-page confidential file of the Army's criminal investigation."

There are two things that I focused on in reading this account. First, what is the official position of the US government? The article touches briefly on this.

Nor were the rules of engagement very clear. The platoon had the standard interrogations guide, Army Field Manual 34-52, and an order from the secretary of defense, Donald H. Rumsfeld, to treat prisoners "humanely," and when possible, in accordance with the Geneva Conventions. But with President Bush's final determination in February 2002 that the Conventions did not apply to the conflict with Al Qaeda and that Taliban fighters would not be accorded the rights of prisoners of war, the interrogators believed they "could deviate slightly from the rules," said one of the Utah reservists, Sgt. James A. Leahy.
"There was the Geneva Conventions for enemy prisoners of war, but nothing for terrorists," Sergeant Leahy told Army investigators. And the detainees, senior intelligence officers said, were to be considered terrorists until proved otherwise.


Second, how have these policies affected people who were gathered up as suspects, but who were detained in error?

By then he was dead, his body beginning to stiffen. It would be many months before Army investigators learned a final horrific detail: Most of the interrogators had believed Mr. Dilawar was an innocent man who simply drove his taxi past the American base at the wrong time.


And:

Some of the same M.P.'s took a particular interest in an emotionally disturbed Afghan detainee who was known to eat his feces and mutilate himself with concertina wire. The soldiers kneed the man repeatedly in the legs and, at one point, chained him with his arms straight up in the air, Specialist Callaway told investigators. They also nicknamed him "Timmy," after a disabled child in the animated television series "South Park." One of the guards who beat the prisoner also taught him to screech like the cartoon character, Specialist Callaway said.

Eventually, the man was sent home.


The practice of torture by our military, and the approval of that practice, either implicit or explicit, is a stain on our national soul. I feel this stain on my soul, even though I have never supported these actions.

But never mind. Who saw "The Apprentice" last night?

Thursday, May 19, 2005

A rant to remember

AmericaBlog:

Shut up and leave the country if you're so unhappy living in America the way the Framers set things up.

Nice to hear this said. It is too much to hope that Frist would simply start describing his position as "pro-mob rule."

Wednesday, May 18, 2005

Newsweek Newsweek Newsweek

This story has been driving me crazy. Here is a rational take on it, at CJR Daily.

More later.

Ah, screw that, I've got nothing to add, just go read this guy.

Monday, May 16, 2005

Good post...

...about the Newsweek nonsense and the sounds of jackboots marching in the distance.

http://coldfury.com/reason/?p=511