Christopher Hitchens — whom I have always perversely gone on liking, even though I often find him grievously mistaken and frequently cruel when defending his wrong views — decided to experience waterboarding first-hand to find out whether it is torture and if so, how long he could endure it.  (Vanity Fair).  His conclusion?  It is.  As Justin Gardner says, good to see he gets it.  Hitch writes (in Vanity Fair): You may have read by now the official lie about this...

Many Democrats have had reason to comment lately on the conventional wisdom that Democrats must always tack to the center to win an election in this country. Count me among those who want to see more challenges to that conventional wisdom (which to me just means ‘last year’s assumptions’). While I understand the reasons why candidates do it, the fact is that eight years of neoconservatism has moved all the goal posts way to the right. To repair the damage done by Bush and his...

Why should angry Hillary supporters who have sworn never to forgive be the only intransigents refusing to hear what their own candidate is telling them? At Sadly, No!, Gavin writes: Maybe we can become Chris Dodd bitter-enders. [ahem] Personally, I shall never in all my life forget the howling persecution that we endured from the O-bot smear machine and the Clintonazi long-knifers. They have tried to marginalize us, but ho! now we will band together and marginalize them. Yes, as Dodd is our witness,...

This is a crucial post from Crooks and Liars for disillusioned Dems (like me) and for anyone, anywhere who has considered voting for McCain (unlike me).   It’s extracted from a June 19 post by Steve Benen at The Carpetbagger Report, the The Carpetbagger Report. I’ve been disappointed by Obama’s recent stance on several issues, aptly summarized here, and have acknowledged the accuracy of the following: As a result of Obama’s reversal on FISA, his very noticeable...

Don’t get me wrong. In my opinion — and as a Clinton supporter, I followed the exchanges extremely closely while they were happening— Bill Clinton has every right to be angry about the way Hillary was treated by the Obama campaign.  I don’t think his anger is productive, mind you; and I think he is undermining Hillary’s chances.  But if Hillary values her political career, she needs to give Bill a time out.  Hillary, as a mature woman, knows the best...

Glenn Greenwald has administered a swift and deadly kick to Olbermann’s credibility on the issue and to any lingering hope that Olbermann might recover sufficient detachment to be considered a reliable commenter on any issue relating to his Hero, Barack Obama. Now that Obama has made his position on FISA crystal clear, Olbermann has apparently decided how he is going to spin the issue:  by being as disingenuous as Obama man.  When W was fighting for FISA, Olbermann called it "an...

And what he says isn’t going to cheer you up if you oppose it. It had crossed my mind that perhaps Dodd’s and Feingold’s repudiation of the bill was at least partly motivated by a wish to mitigate the disappointment many Democrats feel in Obama’s stance on FISA. I don’t really know how these things work. But after all, Obama did suggest, didn’t he, that he wasn’t happy with this part of the bill and would fight to see it removed? Yep, that’s what...

As a follow-up to some deeply cynical speculation about the 94 Dems who 180′d on FISA, I’d like to add that some Democrats in Congress can apparently still find their spines.  That’s cheering, right? Senator Harry Reid is supportive of efforts to strip the retro-active immunity from the new FISA bill.  This won’t keep it from shredding the fourth amendment, but it’s a step in the right direction.   Senators Russ Feingold and Chris Dodd have promised...

In March, the House passed an amendment that rejected retroactive immunity for telecoms that assisted the NSA in illegal wiretapping.  Most of us have wondered what happened to change the minds of 94 Democrats.  What happened between June 20 and March 14 to change 94 Democratic hearts and minds? The answer might well be simple:  money.  Could it be that simple? MAPLight.org has published a breakdown of contributions received from Telco PACS by the 94 Dems who experienced the...

Certainly he’s disappointed many of his supporters.   As I said, while I more or less expected it, I felt a distinct thrill of disappointment when I read his statement.  While I realize that liberal Dems tend to tack to the right once they know they’ve got the nod, it seems a bit…previous.  We haven’t even had the convention yet. Atrios named him Wanker of the Day; at TPM Greg Sargent called it a ‘downer.’  Yep. The problem is, Obama can’t...

While I pretty much expected it, I still felt a frisson of disappointment. I admit it. It’s not a piece of legislation I could ever support. Greenwald has it right, I think. At TPM, Greg Sargent says tersely, ‘Obama’s statement on the FISA “compromise” is in, and suffice it to say that it won’t make opponents of the Dem cave-in very happy. He’s supporting it.’ He’s set out Obama’s statement. Sargent finds it a ‘downer.’

There’s much consternation among progressives and the Republicans over recent developments in Obama’s unmasking as the tough, take-no-prisoners politician — and centrist Democrat — he is and has always been. Jazz Shaw comments here at TMV on Obama’s ‘Rovian’ roleplaying here. In a piece which seems to me to be simultaneously mean-spirited and [very] grudgingly admiring David Brooks writes of ‘The Two Obamas.’ Andrew Sullivan — who seemingly...

Economist Paul Krugman pointed out back in January that Obama was less progressive than either Clinton or Edwards on certain issues affecting domestic policy.  With respect to today’s article in Fortune — certain to cause alarm and despondency among progressive supporters who were carried away by his Message of Hope — color me unsurprised.  Forewarned by Krugman and others, I checked the fine print.  His campaign was quick to point out that this isn’t really...

But of course:  it’s always the mid-Twentieth Century for a certain segment of the American public. Family Circle is sponsoring a bake-off between potential First Spouses.  Which one is the best role model for the homemakers of America?  As The New York Daily News says, ‘[T]he stakes are not small. The wives of the winners of the last four presidential elections have also won this competition.’    So…by failing to win this competition, Michelle or...

Charlie Crist—the Republican Governor of my very own state— is right:    “Once somebody has truly paid their debt to society, we should recognize it, and we should honor it and we should welcome them back into society and give them that second chance.”  (NYT)   I’ve always thought that it was disgraceful that Florida permanently banned ex-felons from voting, serving on juries, or obtaining state licenses, unless they went through a prolonged process...

So it is rumored.  I have a hard time believing that they’d really try it on.  But according to Tim Conneally,  it seems that this may be what they’re thinking. Where the group had previously invoked the Digital Millennium Copyright Act and sent cease-and-desist orders to at least one blogger, seeking the removal of excerpted content (in some cases as few as 17 words in length), now the press service has attached an "Excerpt for Web Use" charge for passages as...

For those keeping score — and for Hillary Dems thinking of voting for McCain or enabling a McCain victory by not voting at all — The New York Times has a handy tally of points on which McCain and Bush agree and disagree. Before it’s all over, we’re all going to need one. Dana Milbank says it best: ‘Put Your Right Wing In, Take Your Left Wing Out —If John McCain keeps dancing like this, he’s liable to break a hip’.

Those wacky government contractors.  Will we ever tire of of their sportive tricks? I’ll never understand why more Republicans in Congress — who worry obsessively about taxes and who used to get teary-eyed about the troops whenever a Dem used the phrase ‘withdrawal deadline’ or ‘exit strategy’ — aren’t apoplectic over the amounts of tax dollars being flushed down the latrine in Iraq, not to mention the rampant war profiteering at the expense of...

Jim Windish has been covering this story as it evolved, but I thought I’d jump into the discussion, as it is an issue that concerns me greatly. I’m always uneasy when I color outside the lines — and even more so when I don’t know where the lines lie. So one part of me is glad that we’re finally having this discussion. The other part of me is asking why the AP gets to make the call. As Steven Benen notes, ‘The AP is one of the most commonly linked tonews outlets...

Levels of violence in Iraq may be decreasing; in Afghanistan, things aren’t going so well.  In southeastern Afghanistan, the militants are making a comeback and those who know about these things will tell you that the gravest threat to the US of terrorism is likely to come from Afghanistan and Pakistan rather than Iraq. (VetVoice) On Friday, Taliban militants blew up a prison in Kandahar, allowing between 870 and 1110 prisoners to escape — including ‘a number of high-ranking...

McCain has weighed in on the Supreme Court’s decision in Boumediene v. Bush.  He doesn’t like it. The United States Supreme Court yesterday rendered a decision which I think is one of the worst decisions in the history of this country. Sen. Graham and Sen. Lieberman and I had worked very hard to make sure that we didn’t torture any prisoners, that we didn’t mistreat them, that we abided by the Geneva Conventions, which applies to all prisoners. But we also made it perfectly...

Right.  There are none so blind as those who will not see.  According to The New York Times, a substantial number of media critics, commentators, pundits, and outlets — not to mention many well known so-called ‘progresssive’ bloggers — still aren’t prepared to acknowledge the offensively biased coverage of Senator Clinton throughout the primary.  People, even my 80 year old "I am not now, nor have I ever been a feminist" Republican mom noticed...

Lynn Denniston at SCOTUSblog calls it ‘a stunning blow to the Bush Administration in its war-on-terrorism policies.’    Shaun Mullen sums up the disposition and the background of Boumediene v. Bush here. The New York Times reports: In its third rebuke of the Bush administration’s treatment of prisoners, the court ruled 5-4 that the government is violating the rights of prisoners being held indefinitely and without charges at the U.S. naval base in Cuba. The court’s...

Look at these faces.  While the rest of the world wrings its hands and waits helplessly on the sidelines, Burma’s government says it will accept aid, but that it doesn’t want the help of foreigners in getting it to the people. (BBC News)  The UN is pretty sure the government’s own unaided efforts won’t be enough.  The UN says that up to 1.5 million people may have been affected by Cyclone Nargis, which devastated the Irrawaddy Delta region on Saturday....

First, if you’re wondering what I as a Hillary supporter think about Hillary’s decision to continue running after yesterday, the answer is I don’t know what I think of it as a strategy.  Naturally I would like to believe that she could still somehow prevail.  I am not sanguine.  People are speculating that she is now running for the VP slot.  We’ll see.  But — and this matters more to me — I most definitely admire her for her unswerving...