Category: Edgewise

  • John Yoo’s Opinions: Discuss

    I have to ask how someone as obscure (until recently) as John Yoo, former law clerk to Justice Thomas, currently a law professor at UC Berkeley’s Boalt law school, is in the position of writing innovative legal rationales for the U.S. Justice department advocating denial of legal rights to U.S. prisoners at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba,…

  • Even some conservatives can’t get behind presidential law-breaking

    In a long well considered post, Glenn Greenwald posits that the illegal wiretap scandal might be one that resists the usual tamping down by the Bush cult of personality (Breaking the Daou Cycle: Conservative opposition to Bush’s law-breaking): > Former Bush loyalists are now, in droves, expressing discomfort or worse with George Bush generally and…

  • Did they spy on Bill Richardson?

    New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson suspects that the NSA intercepted some of his phone calls discussing his negotiations with North Korea (The Albuquerque Tribune: Local / State Government). Richardson’s name often comes up as a possible Democractic presidential or vice-presidential candidate.

  • Kingly prerogratives

    Perhaps I’m humorless or old-fashioned but I’m still not over the cavalier way the President and all of his men are defending their decision to spy domestically without seeking warrants. Last week Christopher Brauchli put it thusly in a post to Spot-On called Presidential Prerogatives: > When asked by Jim Lehrer of “The NewsHour With…

  • Basic Facts as a Wondrous Surprise

    There are so many basic facts about the world that we, as grownups, take for granted, yet to a child are matters of wondrous surprise. Living here with my eight-year-old grandson Seaney has really brought that home to me. The process of opening up the wider world to him has been an inspiration and a…

  • The madness of kinging George

    The capacity for Bush defenders (I can’t call them conservatives — not even sure they’re really Republicans anymore) to argue that up is down and black is white and violating the law is not violating the law has reached a crescendo. Glenn Greenwald explains cogently just how far out of line the defenses of warrantless…

  • An overdue realignment?

    A diarist at Daily Kos asks Will Real Conservatives Become Democrats? and provides some interesting links that suggest that a possibly unexpected realignment may be in the offing. * [Will Real Conservatives Become Democrats?](http://www.partialobserver.com/article.cfm?id=1708) * [Open Letter to Libertarians and Conservatives](http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2005/12/18/5724/7930) * [Thoughts from a Libertarian Democrat](http://www.terrymichael.net/home.htm)

  • Osama’s satellite phone

    With so many lies flying around about Bush’s warrantless wiretaps — even the lies have lies — one caught my ear the other day during Bush’s press conference and repeated by 9/11 commissioner Lee Hamilton in an article in today’s Times. The anecdote (much like Reagan’s false – but – still – believed – to…

  • Malevolent Design

    Proponents of Intelligent Design argue that it is just an alternative theory that open minds will agree should be taught as a possibility alongside Darwinian evolution. Another alternative theory that merits such treatment is Malevolent Design. Though still in its infancy, Malevolent Design has a strong scientific advantage, because it is a testable hypothesis that…

  • Well, what’s he waiting for?

    In Address, Bush Says He Ordered Domestic Spying NYT [Boldface added] As a result of the [NYT’s] report, he said, “our enemies have learned information they should not have, and the unauthorized disclosure of this effort damages our national security and puts our citizens at risk.” He said the Senate’s action “endangers the lives of…

  • Sue, are you? Sue sue, sue, sue

    Tort reform for thee but not for me: Sirotablog: NOW & THEN: Trent Lott on suing & lawsuits

  • Bumblers

    Let me just say: if there’s indeed a so-called “War on Christmas”… …based on the number of lilting Christmas tunes I’ve been hearing in public places all around the liberal paradise that is my beloved Bay Area, the folks who are fighting in this particular conflagration — the anti-Christmas bridade — are a pack of…

  • Why do we buy that Bush Administration torture is intended to extract the truth?

    We read now about an Al Qaeda prisoner whom we sent to Egypt to be tortured. He eventually came up with a fabricated story that Saddam Hussein had trained Al Qaeda members in chemical and germ warfare. This testimony became a favorite piece of smoking-gun evidence, cited repeatedly by top officials in favor of their…

  • Pinter writes for Bush

    My friend EB sent me a note quoting Pinter, sure to enrage the jingoes: > On the chance that you haven’t seen it already, here’s an excerpt from Harold Pinter’s Nobel Prize acceptance speech: > > I know that President Bush has many extremely competent speech writers, but I would like to volunteer for the…

  • Could anyone have foreseen this? –Just about.

    Washington Post Without ever using the words “mistake” or “error,” Bush said the administration miscalculated by clearing insurgents out of a city and then moving onto another assignment, only to allow enemy forces to retake control. DKo: Could anyone have foreseen this? Just about anyone. However, it is never fair to criticize Mr. Bush for…

  • I was saying “Boo-urns”

    Abramoff scandal spreads to the Senate: Now A Republican Senator Tied Up In Abramoff Scandal… | The Huffington Post

  • Jack and the Greenstalk

    It’s funny how shit keeps a bubblin’ up. The Bush administration is like a plumbing disaster these days. And all those leaky pipes are connected to each other. Which brings me to indicted former lobbyist Jack Abramoff. Back before his name was coffee break conversation, in the beginning of Senator McCain’s not-yet-newsworthy Indian Affairs Committee…

  • 16 lies

    Mary McCarthy once famously declared that every word Lillian Hellman wrote was a lie, including “and” and “the.” I don’t bring this up to get into the feud between two acclaimed writers. Rather, it came to mind when I was thinking about President Bush’s now famous “16 words” in the January 2003 State of the…

  • Too Mean to Miss

    Washington Post A tearful [Ohio governor] Taft pleaded no contest Aug. 18 to misdemeanor charges. After vowing earlier not to tolerate ethics violations in his administration, he said he had failed to live up to his own standards and public expectations. “I am disappointed in myself,” said Taft, the son and grandson of U.S. senators…

  • Woodward’s pucecake

    Or, a tale of a sneakily different color….the testimony of Bob Woodward, purveyor of deep cover journalism, in which he reveals his conversation with “Cheney’s Cheney” I. Lewis Libby on June 23, 2003 about an 18-page list of questions he wanted Cheney’s Cheney’s Cheney to answer, including one about “yellowcake.” I too, would like to…

  • Immaculately Conceived Torture

    Immaculate Conception is different from the Virgin Birth. Mary gave birth as a virgin, which precluded Original Sin from being transmitted from Joseph. But what about Original Sin being transmitted from Mary? Well, Mary, though not herself the offspring of a Virgin Birth, was also free from sin, because she was produced by Immaculate Conception.…