[Updated here, with further clarification] We’re Americans. We like to divide up opponents in any conflict into Good Guys and Bad Guys. Since reality tends to be more complicated than that, we can easily be misled by politicians and media pundits whose personal agendas are served by telling us which are the Good Guys and which the Bad Guys. Russia has agreed to “stand down” (NYT); and Georgia has apparently filed a lawsuit against Russia in in the International Court of Justice...

He…accused Putin of wanting to restore Russia to the days of czardom, when a monarchy exerted broad control over parts of Asia and eastern Europe. “I think it’s very clear that Russian ambitions are to restore the old Russian Empire. Not the Soviet Union, but the Russian Empire.” (CNN) Cf. John McCain is your new jalopy

If you are pro-choice, and wish to preserve reproductive rights for women, you need to take a closer look at McCain’s record on reproductive rights and other issues affecting women’s health.

Highly recommended.Fallon is the CENTCOM Chief who resigned last year. Fallon opposed the “surge” in Iraq and…consistently battled the Bush administration to avoid a confrontation with Iran, calling officials’ warmongering rhetoric “not helpful.” (Think Progress) Whatever he may have thought before, he says that the situation in Iraq generally is greatly improved. He also discusses troop withdrawals, Iran, and his own role in US foreign policy. At any rate, it’s an interesting...

The Wall Street Journal’s Market Watch points out that the McCain meme “Is he ready to lead?” begs the question whether McCain is. Rex Nuttimg lists several reasons McCain would be a mediocre president. The quoted material which follows is all extracted from the Nutting piece, which provides quite the brutal reframing of McCain’s career. As Ron Beasley says at Newshoggers, it’s a sort of nutshell version of McCain. I’ve extracted the morsels that most interested...

The Georgian Parliament “has approved a presidential decree declaring that the country is in a state of war for 15 days.” (BBC News) The crisis started when “Georgian forces launched a surprise attack on Thursday night to regain control of South Ossetia, which has had de facto independence since the end of a civil war in 1992″ (BBC News) South Ossetia voted for independence in an unofficial 2006 referendum.(BBC News Timeline) Separatists say that at least 1500 people died...

I previously discussed commentary by legal and policy experts on the terror detainee procedures used in the Hamdan case. Shaun Mullen has background here. Hamdan has been sentenced to 5 1/2 years, which—as The Washington Post says—is a relatively light sentence. Prosecutors wanted him to get 30 years, if not a life sentence. (WaPo) [The sentence] means the first detainee at Guantanamo Bay to face a full military commission trial could be released from custody in just five months. The...

“The White House said the trial was fair and looked forward to more tribunals.” (BBC News) I’m sure. Salim Hamdan, who has been in custody since 2001, was acquitted of conspiracy, but convicted of providing material aid to terrorism. (New York Times) He was convicted by six senior military officers, who deliberated for over eight hours.(New York Times) Shaun Mullen succinctly sets out the background at The Moderate Voice.

In my opinion, this is the way to attack McCain’s smear campaign: with incredulous laughter. Jon Stewart takes up McCain on the Paris Hilton ad and unleashes on both McCain and the media on the ‘Obama-eats-arugula-and-is-arrogant’ meme. Don’t get down in the mud with him; fight the smears by pointing and laughing…

Shearer sings the blues (from his new album).

I discussed the ruling briefly earlier today. At Balkinization, Marty Lederman weighs in, calling this 93-page opinion possibly a landmark decision, ‘an extraordinarily thorough, scholarly and thoughtful opinion — surely one of the best opinions ever written on questions relating to executive/congressional disputes.’ As Lederman points out, [T]he argument itself was not new. But the Bush Administration pushed the argument much more aggressively than any Administration before...

At least one judge—federal District Judge John Bates (a Bush appointee)—-doesn’t think Harriet Miers and Josh Bolten are above the law (AP), or to frame it in DoJ speak, ‘absolutely immune from Congressional subpoenas.’ If the House Judiciary Committee calls, they must respond…in person. (The Gavel) [Remember when Miers didn't appear and they yelled at her empty chair? Good times.] Furthermore, they have to turn over all non-privileged documents. I spot a...

Yesterday, I posted in some depth about Goodling’s work at what legal scholar Jonathan Turley has called ‘The Voldemort Department of Human Resources.’ (Countdown, embedded below) Via The Raw Story: The White House’s silence on the Justice Department report should indicate, perhaps, at least a tacit endorsement of Goodling’s tactics, Turley says. “The question really is why isn’t the president coming forward and saying there’s a shame factor here at...

Legal scholar Jonathan Turley—whose blog is on my personal ‘read every day’ list—has reported today on two more extremely questionable taserings. (See also: Police Taser a Blind Diabetic Women with Cancer ‘to Facilitate Cuffing’)First, he tells of a Missouri boy who had fallen or jumped from an overpass and who was tasered 19 times as he lay there with a broken back.

Joe Windish has provided some background, some blogger reactions, and some other useful links. I spent a couple of hours this afternoon browsing the report (h/t to Sadly No! where I found the link to the report (actually entitled ‘Investigation of Allegations of Politicized Hiring by Monica Goodling and Other Staff in the Office of the Attorney General’) (pdf.file) I’ve set out relevant quotes below. I felt angry while I was reading it—which probably shows in my commentary;...

It seems that Petraeus doesn’t accept the idea of a timeline. You can read his reasons here. Right-wingers, who have nothing else but the war to pin their hopes on, will tell you that this ‘proves’ that McCain knows more about war than Obama. I don’t think it proves anything at all. My question remains: what specific conditions, according to the candidates, must be met in order for us to start to withdraw? In sober reality, both McCain and Obama are disputing about semantics...

As someone who is concerned about government accountability, I admire exceedingly Alan Grayson, now running for our 8th District here in Florida (see here and here). He’s an attorney (see the Vanity Fair article about him here) who has aggressively and relentlessly pursued corrupt defense contractors/war profiteers in Iraq. Matt Stoller, who met and interviewed him, writes: Because of his track record suing defense contractors, Grayson is completely uninterested and unintimidated by ridiculous...

CAVEAT: The underlying facts are still in the process of development.  At present, file it away under ‘Interesting allegations’ against Karl Rove.  There have been plenty of others. According to Brad Friedman at The Brad Blog, Ohio Attorney Cliff Arnebeck (lead plaintiffs’ attorney in the long-standing Ohio elections fraud case King Lincoln Bronzwell v. Blackwell  has accused Karl Rove of attempting to intimidate a potential witness, cyber-expert Mike Connell. ...

Apparently the pedestrian Robert Novak ran down isn’t doing too well. Novak feels ‘terrible.’  But probably not as terrible as the man he hit. Meanwhile, Novak’s had a $50 traffic citation. Jonathan Turley has some details of the aftermath and discussion of the legal ramifications.  Turley notes: Novak admits that he was a block away the accident when he was stopped by a bicyclist. However, that bicyclist witnessed the accident and says that he had to chase Novak...

The ACLU has released some crucial memoranda which reveal the tortuous path by which the Bush Administration’s Department of ‘Justice’ taught the CIA to rationalize its way to a distinction between ‘enhanced interrogation’ and plain old-fashioned ‘torture.’  The Justice Department told the CIA that agents would be safe from prosecution if they they believed ‘in good faith’ that flies don’t have feelings so it doesn’t matter if...

Obama’s getting called out for embellishing because of a misstatement to the Israeli Prime Minister.  Responding to an Israeli reporter’s question Wednesday on his commitment to protect the Jewish state, Barack Obama pointed to a bill “we passed” in the U.S. Senate Banking Committee that tightens sanctions and authorizes divestment from Iran. “My committee,” he called it. It’s a minor matter, but in the interests of even-handedness, I shall discuss it before I rip into...

President Bush thought the cameras were off.  He was at a fund-raiser and he’d asked them to be switched off.  So he said: Transcript and commentary here.

Shaun Mullen discusses the ramifications for McCain’s of McCain’s argument here. Michael Stickings rounds up commentary by bloggers here. This piece rounds up related quotes and commentary, including a couple of fairly lame counterjabs from the McCain-supporting (or Obama-dissing) side which prove to be fairly easily seen off. After all, McCain’s whole argument against Obama’s position is founded on a pile of yesterday’s news clippings. Initially, the Iraqi government...

Nationally recognized legal scholar Jonathan Turley calls it ‘a very problematic rationale.’  I’ll say.  The police came to her apartment looking for her son.(WDTN.com)  Her family said she was yelling at officers because she was scared.   "She was terrified. She was extremely terrified," said Harris’s niece, Dionna. "She was scared because the person identified themselves as a police officer. But she’s been robbed before by someone...

Annnnd….attempts by state and federal governments to interfere with a woman’s freedom to control what goes on inside her own personal womb continue apace. Joe Windish has an earlier piece about an 8th Circuit decision that unleashes the State of South Dakota on women who seek abortion in that state by letting the state insert a word or two on behalf of its legislature into the discussion. At this rate, I’m afraid, just having the state insist on telling women who are trying to...