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December 20
Sealed, delivered, and signed?
It has now been revealed that Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld has not personally signed many of the letters sent to the next of kin of those killed in battle.
I am a fan of the Bush administration, supporter of the war in Iraq, and believer that the world is a better place today than it was two years ago. I am also a believer that Donald Rumsfeld’s experience with the military makes him among the most qualified men in the world to hold the job of Secretary of Defense.
But this is inexcusable.
One doesn’t die for their country so that their casket may be draped with a flag and the President and Secretary of Defense may personally sign letters. No, one dies for their country for larger purposes and for greater goods.
But to the grieving - those who loved the deceased - such military honors are symbolic that such an ultimate sacrifice does not go unnoted and will not be forgotten. Funerals are not for the dead; they are for the living. And in these cases, the living deserve - and need - the most dignified possible funerals.
These men died at the orders of Mr. Rumsfeld. The least he should do is at least take a moment to think about their existence once they have paid the highest of prices. But instead he has had an auto-pen do the deed for him.
Auto-pens are used for campaign solicitations, Christmas cards and thank you notes, not letters to the families of the dead.
After the January elections in Iraq, the President might do well to reconsider his selection for Secretary of Defense.
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Man of the Year
Time magazine has named President Bush its Man of the Year.
The selection seems like a no-brainer in light of last month’s national Republican electoral sweep headed by the President, who won his own race over Mr. Kerry. The November victories affirm a unique style of leadership that will persevere for at least four more years.
And while I agree with the selection, here are a few other people who might have made interesting selections:
Janet Jackson: That little incident at the Super Bowl back in January has led Howard Stern to abandon radio airwaves, network affiliates to opt out of airing Steven Spielberg films and Michael Powell to become a household name.
Jesus: Mel Gibson’s film about his final hours made a historic dent on the film industry, while President Bush, led by his philosophies, showed that a majority of Americans still care about his words 2000 years later.
Kofi Annan: You don’t have to be a positive person to be Man of the Year (Hitler was), and Annan may have proven to have shaken the world more than anyone else this year. He has brought corruption to the UN with the Oil for Food scandal, internal rancor with the sexual harassment corruption he turned a blind eye to, and is now under pressure to resign the highest international post there is.
William Rehnquist: His court has defined how foreign prisoners and enemy combatants may be treated, laid down the law on affirmative action, and now prepares to tackle the Pledge of Allegiance and numerous other issues. But with his illness comes question of where the court is headed, how safe those gay marriages in Massachusetts truly are, whether abortion can survive four more years, and panoply of other matters.
Michael Moore: His film, the highest grossing documentary of all time, sought to influence the election one way and may well have led it in the other direction. He made it into the Presidential Suite at the Democratic National Convention, and is now one of the most recognizable political figures in America despite having been nothing more than a weird breaking into auto plants with a video camera two decades back.
Sponge Bob Squarepants: Hey, it would have made for a really cute cover photo!
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December 18
ACLU, CIA in the same business
In a definite sign of the apocalypse, it has been revealed that the ACLU is spying on its own members.
This would be like appointing Joe Camel to be Attorney General, putting Betty Ford on the board of Johnnie Walker or requesting a trio of Purple Hearts for self inflicted wounds.
Oh, wait…
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December 14
From the Not-All-Democrats-Are-Brainy-Intellectuals Dept.
Minnesota elector mistakenly casts electoral vote ballot for John Edwards
“Senior moment,” indeed. Good luck on finals, everybody.
Update: Slate’s Timothy Noah says this is just one more example of the many “idiocies” of the Electoral College.
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December 12
“You’re Fired!” (But I won’t tell you why)
More than six months ago, a tragic thing happened to Aliakbar and Shahla Afshari: they were both fired from their laboratory jobs at the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health. The reason, they were told, was because they failed secret background checks that classified them as “threats to the national security of the United States of America.” Mr. and Mrs. Afshari, who came to the U.S. from Iran over 18 years ago, were never offered an explanation why, after having passed background checks upon being hired in 1996 and 1997, they would fail one seven years later. Oddly, their lawyers were never able to gain access to documents justifying their release, nor were they able to obtain the agency’s policies on background checks.
Now, the Afsharis did attend two conventions of a student run Persian organization (a group that has had several members investigated by the F.B.I.) but to consider their employment at the institute a threat to this nation is quite a stretch. Mr. Afshari is 52 years old and has a doctorate in industrial engineering. Mrs. Afshari is 43 and has a mater’s degree in occupational health and safety. They have one child in college, one in dental school, one in middle school, and they live in a quiet residental neighborhood in Morgantown, West Virginia. While they were employed, neither had access of any kind to classified government documents or banned biological or chemical toxins. Their research was purely academic and of public record. Neither had applied for access to higher security clearances, which entails more intensive background investigations but still grants people the right to request internal documents if they fail the checks. Such explanations provide people the means to defend themselves—an opportunity the Afsharis were never given.
I don’t know about you, but I feel safe knowing that the government is spending all our tax money investigating and firing middle-class, middle-aged potential “renegades” while Mr. bin Laden and his murderous comrades are free to plot their next attack. I am strongly in favor of defeating terrorism domestically before we exercise all means to do it globally, but the case against the Afsharis is baseless and unfair.
I am confused that those who cry for “less government” do not get upset with such obvious examples of excessive governmental interference in citizens’ lives. There is a fine line between being careful and being paranoid—and an even finer line between actions that can be considered defensive and actions that cannot be defended at all. The Afshari’s case is one more example of government leaders (particularly through certain questionable Patriot Act provisions) using national fear to rationalize tampering with the rights of citizens. Justifying governmental oppression in the name of “national security” is appalling. And, though I would like to believe otherwise, there is little doubt that the fact that the Afsharis happen to be Muslim is just a coincidence. Perhaps it was a lawyer representing the couple, Allan N. Karlin, who said it best: “How can we expect the people of the Middle East to emulate our democratic ideals abroad when we fail to apply those ideals to people like the Afsharis here?”
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December 11
Another one bites the dust
Matt Drudge may have summed it up best with his headline, “On second thought, Mr. President.” And just like that, Bernard Kerik - the former NYC top cop who even had the support of Hillary Clinton - is out of consideration for Secretary of Homeland Security, a job that was assuredly his just 48 hours ago.
So who to top the department now?
Some thoughts:
Asa Hutchinson, the current #2 guy, is a seasoned politician, loyal Republican, and has excellent experience in the department
Rudy Giuliani would be an interesting pick, though word is that he is holding out to run for Commander in Chief in ‘08.
John McCain would be stellar, if the governor of Arizona would agree to appoint a Republican to the senate to replace him.
John Danforth, who recently resigned as US Ambassador to the UN, was reportedly holding out for the Secretary of State post, but might be willing to take this spot.
William Cohen, a Republican from Maine who was President Clinton’s Secretary of Defense, would be an interesting bi-partisan choice.
James Carafano, The Heritage Foundation’s Senior Research Fellow for Defense and Homeland Security, knows the turf extremely well and would make for a stellar non-political selection. (Full disclosure: I am a former Heritage intern, and still serve as a book critic to Townhall.com, a website operated by the foundation.)
George Pataki, the governor of New York, stumped hard for President Bush on the campaign trail, and has experience insofar as he was running the state on 9/11. Drawback: New York may never again elect a Republican governor.
And finally, it is worth noting that both Casper Weinberger and Henry Kissinger are still alive.
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December 10
Manufacturers: Rumsfeld’s pants on fire
U.S. soldiers in Iraq had a rare opportunity to exercise their First Amendment rights when Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld was recently broadsided by the troops he was giving a pep talk to. They asked him why they were underequipped, overextended, and why they were lacking armor: “Why do we soldiers have to dig through local landfills for pieces of scrap metal and compromised ballistic glass to up-armor our vehicles, and why don’t we have those resources readily available to us?” asked one specialist. Rumsfeld delivered the lame reply that “you go to war with the Army you have” and attempted to deflect the blame onto armor manufacturers. But some manufacturers are telling a different story: “‘We’ve been telling the Pentagon for months that we have the capacity to double our production,’ said former U.S. Rep. Matt Salmon, a consultant for ArmorWorks of Tempe. ‘We’re ready, and we haven’t heard a thing.’”
The Wall Street Journal and the New York Post both tried to cover for Rumsfeld with bogus claims that armor production is at full capacity: link
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Update: O’Reilly: ADL chief a “nut”
Bill O’Reilly, who as some of you may recall recently told a Jewish caller to “go to Israel” if he didn’t approve of Christmas being celebrated in schools, has responded to his critics (such as Anti-Defamation League of B’nai B’rith president Abraham Foxman), who are evidently “the most vile, despicable human beings in the country.” Media Matters has analysis of O’Reilly’s latest fumbling attempt to deflect criticism.
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December 9
Running with the Devil
While some will use this as yet another opportunity to mock the Catholic Church, I believe the Pontifical University in Rome is absolutely right on this one.
The attitude toward Wicca in this country is that it is just one of many acceptable religions. Right here in Wisconsin, just a few years ago, we decided to appoint a Wiccan to be chaplain at the Waupun Correctional Institution.
Wicca is the single fastest-growing religion in America and it is also spreading in Europe. It is not fun and games, but downright dangerous. If the Church does not stand up to this, nobody else will.
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One step ahead
Canadian Supreme Court: gay marriage is constitutional.
Note that the scope of the ruling was limited, meaning gay marriage legislation will proceed piecemeal on a province-by-province basis.
Extended analysis is available at SCOTUSBlog.
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4th Grade Alcoholics?
With the holidays coming up, there are food drives, people asking for donations on State Street, toy drives, warm clothing drives, and so many more ways to help out. But not everyone is lucky enough to benifit from these drives.
Recently, a fourth grader in New Orleans was suspended for bringing jell-o shots to school to sell to the other kids. The jello was then handed over to the police to determine whether or not they contained alcohol. The reason behind this bizarre story? The girl’s mother is a bartender who sells jell-o shots in her bar and in order to get money for Christmas, the girl was selling them at school.
This is one of those sad stories that gets extra attention during the holiday season. Just remember, at a time of caring and sharing, it’s important not to forget the people who are less fortunate.
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December 8
“Yes, I Made A Mistake And I Am Sorry.”
These are words that we will, unfortunately, never hear from our current Commander in Chief. In a recent article, Adam Lichtenheld noted that President Clinton had admitted his mistake in not classifying what was going on in Rwanda as genocide. Now, I’m pretty sure the point of that was not to say that Clinton did what was right, for it took him too long to admit that fact. And yes, it did take him too long to admit he was wrong. But he did eventually admit he was wrong. And that’s what’s important for this discussion. Admission of mistakes and ability to learn from such mistakes are a cornerstone of good leadership.
Now with that in mind, let’s compare this approach to Bush’s approach. Seriously, this man’s arrogance is simply astounding. When asked to admit to three mistakes he has made during the second presidential debate, he could not think of one. Bush has been the President of the United States for almost 4 years now. He is forced to make tough decisions everyday. And as we have all been told, “this is hard work”. Well Mr. President, as a junior in college, I don’t have to make these difficult decisions daily, but I can think of plenty of mistakes I’ve made, even just in this last year.
And this inability to admit mistakes is just the beginning of Bush’s poor leadership. Instead of challenging his beliefs to be sure that they are correct, Bush surrounds himself with yes-men and women. The only member of his cabinet who voiced his problems with the administrations decisions was Colin Powell and we know how well that’s going. With Powell out of the picture, no one is left in the president’s close group to chime in with some common sense.
This is not to suggest that the people surrounding Bush aren’t intelligent and incapable of thinking for themselves. Unfortunately, I have almost no hope left that Bush will make an attempt to surround himself with people that not only disagree with him, but have the courage to stand up to him. But alas, only time will tell what will come of the second Bush term.
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“America Is So Much Better Than This”
Wisconsin’s junior Senator Russ Feingold has characteristically voiced his support for a Presidential nominee (in this case, Condoleezza Rice for Secretary of State) because he feels it is his constitutional duty to do so. Nevertheless he has presented an eloquent and compelling critique of the U.S.’s foreign policy record over the past four years, a record that will likely be damaged more by the loss of the moderating influence of departing Secretary Colin Powell:
Over the past four years, we have witnessed the greatest loss of a very valuable type of American power in our history: our power to lead, to persuade, and to inspire… . [T]his power will not convert the extremists who oppose us no matter what. Those people must be eliminated, pure and simple. But it can thwart their plans, by denying them new recruits, undermining their appeal and their message, and unifying, rather than dividing, Americans and the rest of the international community. Rather than bolstering this asset, which has helped to make us the most powerful country on earth, I’m afraid we have squandered it.
Read the full text of Senator Feingold’s speech to the Senate here.
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December 7
O’Reilly: Get the Christmas spirit, or get out
While it would hardly be worthwhile to note every gaffe, faux pas, gaucherie, and all the other acts of tactlessness with French names that Bill O’Reilly engages in, it’s worth noting his most recent outburst, in which he told a Jewish caller to “go to Israel” when he complained about the pervasiveness of Christmas celebrations in American public life (specifically in public schools). What follows is a classic O’Reilly rant, which occured right after he lectured his caller on Chanukah’s “seven [sic] candles…and nights”:
O’REILLY: All right. Well, what I’m tellin’ you, is I think you’re takin’ it too seriously. You have a predominantly Christian nation. You have a federal holiday based on the philosopher Jesus. And you don’t wanna hear about it? Come on—if you are really offended, you gotta go to Israel then. I mean because we live in a country founded on Judeo—and that’s your guys’ — Christian, that’s my guys’ philosophy. But overwhelmingly, America is Christian. And the holiday is a federal holiday honoring the philosopher Jesus. So, you don’t wanna hear about it? Impossible.
And that is an affront to the majority. You know, the majority can be insulted, too. And that’s what this anti-Christmas thing is all about.
So, because a majority of Americans celebrate Christmas, minorities (such as Jews, for whom Chanukah begins at sundown tonight) have no right to object to the promotion of that holiday in a publicly-financed forum such as a public school. Regardless of the merits of the caller’s argument, O’Reilly has once again demonstrated that, like his audience, he is deeply committed to the belief that he shouldn’t have to acknowledge that he lives in a country where many citizens’ beliefs, preferences, and origins are not his own. Indeed, to be faced with such facts is an “insult”.
What’s most interesting about this outburst is that O’Reilly appears to have dropped his trope of referring to his audience (broadly speaking, conservatives, although many conservatives would claim O’Reilly doesn’t speak for them) as an aggrieved minority. It used to be a standard conservative tactic to speak in the language of minority rights—in other words, that recognition of conservative viewpoints was a necessary concession to democratic fairness. Now that conservatives have begun to rebrand themselves as a majority, in the wake of what they are describing as an electoral near-revolution, the recognition of minority viewpoints apparently is not so important anymore.
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A day that should live in infamy
Today marks the 63rd anniversary of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. And while the haunting words of President Roosevelt - promising that the day “shall live in infamy” - still reverberate through American schools, the truth is that the magnificent power of time - healer of all wounds - seems to have rendered observances of the awful attack rather muted in a modern context.
Relations with the Japanese and Germans have been fully mended over the past half-century, and the numbers of the Greatest Generation are dwindling with every day. But it is important that we remember the sheer horror of this moment time, and take even just a moment every year to be thankful for the successful emerge from the last war that truly commanded the involvement of the entire world.
It is ironic that two of the defining moments of World War II sit nearly a perfect half-year apart on the calendar - the June recognition of D-Day and the December recognition of Pearl Harbor. But if we are no longer a society interested in observing the crucial battles and awful casualties that raged on during every day of the calendar year, it doesn’t seem like all that great a toll to at least pause for a moment of thankful reflection as the early days of June and December pass.
After all, we manage to do it every July, and that was a war from which we have no survivors left to thank today.
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The dollar in decline
Why the continuing fall of the dollar against the euro, pound sterling, etc. is no good thing: an Economist.com link
The dollar has been the leading international currency for as long as most people can remember. But its dominant role can no longer be taken for granted. If America keeps on spending and borrowing at its present pace, the dollar will eventually lose its mighty status in international finance. And that would hurt: the privilege of being able to print the world’s reserve currency, a privilege which is now at risk, allows America to borrow cheaply, and thus to spend much more than it earns, on far better terms than are available to others. Imagine you could write cheques that were accepted as payment but never cashed. That is what it amounts to. If you had been granted that ability, you might take care to hang on to it. America is taking no such care, and may come to regret it.
The Onion offers further analysis here.
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December 6
Lots of Testing, Little Learning
Yes, the U.S. educational system has shown its inferiority once again. A report released yesterday, which tested young high school students of the world’s richest countries on real life, basic math problems, ranked the U.S. 24th out of 29 countries. Ouch.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A41278-2004Dec6.html
Despite steady rises in standardized tests scores (in large part to the Bush Administrations infamous education bill, No Child Left Behind, which sets national testing standards for young students) the U.S. continues to fall behind its educational competitors in Asia and Europe.
So whom did our bureaucratic geniuses in the education sector blame the lackluster results on?
You guessed it! When asked what the overall message of the report was, deputy education Secretary Eugene Hickok was quoted as saying, “we need more qualified teachers.”
C’mon, Eugene. If we implement legislation that forces educators to revolve their curriculum around preparing students to ace a test, we severely undermine the basic educational value of learning. Students are taught, at a very young age, to prioritize getting the grade over learning the material. It’s hard to “get young people interested in math and science” (Hickok’s words) if, instead of letting them explore the material, we force students to regurgitate useless facts and formulas just so government leaders can hold up a piece of paper and claim, “See! Our children our geniuses, and we are geniuses for making them geniuses!”
Pasi Sahlberg, a former official in the Finnish education ministry who now works at the World Bank, was asked about Finland’s impressive results in the survey (#1 ranking). “Every child goes to the same school, and there is no school choice,” Sahlberg explained, “Teachers focus 100 percent on educating and teaching children rather than preparing them for tests.”
Hmm….those crazy Finns may be on to something there. But what do our Washington think tanks say when told of the U.S. coming in 24th? Tom Loveless, a researcher at the Brookings Institution, argued that U.S. standardized math tests are “far too easy.” That must be it. Or it could be because, as director of the Center on Education Policy Jack Jennings pointed out, the U.S. is a “much more diverse country than most of its competitors.”
Yeah, those minorities, really dragging us down.
Our kids might not be able to apply any of their “acquired math skills” to real life, but at least their test scores are above average.
But hey, our children should never fear; getting good grades, possessing a high IQ, and learning to apply knowledge to real life situations is not the end all, be all.
I mean, look at our president.
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December 4
So long, Tommy
Tommy Thompson announced his resignation Friday, ending his four year tenure as the head man of Health and Human Services in President Bush’s cabinet.
A few days before the November election, I had the opportunity to travel with Thompson as he stumped for Bush throughout Western Wisconsin. And he was honest then - just as he was with much of the media - about his intentions to leave, so this comes as little surprise.
But Thompson still leaves a helluva legacy behind. Record financial allocations for AIDS support in Africa (since the UN has proven rather incapable of dealing with large sums of money sans corruption), enough Cipro for the entire population, and September 11 support.
He did a lot of good in Wisconsin during his several terms of Governor and, frankly, we coudl use him back as Doyle continues to falter. But whether Thompson comes our way again or really does go into the private sector, he sure has served his people well.
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December 3
Keeping sex in the closet
(Caution: Reading this post may cause pregnancy, infertility, or AIDS.)
Given the Republican backlash against the new film about Alfred Kinsey, the University of Indiana researcher whose work put the lie to widespread perception of American sexual Puritanism, it’s not entirely surprising that the Bush Administration’s approach to sex-ed has been to pull out all the stops in an attempt to convince students not to have any. But a report commissioned by Congressman Henry Waxman (D-CA) reveals the gross distortions and outright lies used in numerous federally funded ($170 million this year) abstinence programs which put scare tactics—largely to no effect—to use in achieving their goals.
Among the untruthful and unsupported “facts” that are presented:
On HIV:
HIV can be contracted through sweat and tears.
Condoms fail to prevent transmission of HIV in 31% of heterosexual intercouse.
Half of all gay teenagers have tested positive for HIV.
On pregnancy and conception:
Mutual masturbation causes pregnancy.
A month-and-a-half-old fetus is a conscious, thinking individual.
Abortion causes sterility.
On gender relations: “Just as a woman needs to feel a man’s devotion to her, a man has a primary need to feel a woman’s admiration. To admire a man is to regard him with wonder, delight, and approval. A man feels admired when his unique characteristics and talents happily amaze her.”
My favorite quote from the instructional materials for one such program is about how men don’t prefer uppity women (ladies, take note!): “Moral of the story: Occasional suggestions and assistance may be alright, but too much of it will lessen a man’s confidence or even turn him away from his princess.”
Of the 13 programs Waxman’s officed surveyed, only two were found to present mostly accurate information. Says Waxman: “I don’t think we ought to lie to our children about science. Something is seriously wrong when federal tax dollars are being used to mislead kids about basic health facts.”
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Terrorism in Africa
Buried in the back of the New York Times of Friday’s issue is an international report that thousands of refugees have been fleeing an area in eastern Congo near the Rwandan border. The article claims that this has caused “heightening fears that the Congo war…may be erupting once more.”
If one actually knew of the widespread conflicts plaguing this region, such a report would be viewed as a gross understatement. I have personally been conducting rigorous research this fall on African politics; my results have been disturbing, to put it lightly. The Congo war, which “officially” began in 1998 and “officially” ended early last year, is about as over as the Iraq war was in May 2003 when we declared “mission accomplished.” The ongoing conflict includes troops and citizens of Uganda, Rwanda, and Tanzania clashes between numorous ethnic groups, whose intolerance for each others’ differences have caused increased tension in the country. Rebels and government soldiers alike murder men, rape women, kidnap children to use as soldiers and sex slaves, and committ autocracies that would make Saddam Hussein look unoriginal and merciful. The most generous of estimates predict that over three million people have died in the battles in Congo.
Once again we see how systematic killings in Africa, a continent completely neglected by the international community and U.S. policies, fail to stir any public outrage within the global village or its media. Eastern Africa not only represents mass terrorism of the worst kind; it’s instability threatens to become a breeding ground for terrorist activity. Combine Congo with the genocide in Sudan, which has claimed anywhere from 50,000 to 70,000 lives, with the “genocidal occurances” instigated by the Lord’s Resistance Army against citizens in Uganda (which has witnessed 200-300 innocents killed in one day) and you have much more of a chaotic catastrophe than we thought we ever had in the Middle East, and as much an imminent threat to international stability as the notorious “axis of evil.” I wonder what statistical body count would make Congo, Uganda, and Sudan worthy of an effective global response. Or would one of the nomadic militias have to acquire a nuclear weapon first?
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December 2
Congress Kills Anti-Gun Program
The Republican-controlled Congress is once again betraying its leadership in the White House. After the intelligence fiasco of last month, Congress cut funds to local and state law enforcement agencies that are used to investigate and prosecute gun crimes (might need to create a login for this website). This Justice Department program, called “Project Safe Neighborhoods”, was deprived of $45 millions in local grants, and a related program, which cracks down on youth gun possession, was not given any of its $106 million funding requests.
The lack of funding can be partially attributed to the disastrous deficit, which makes it difficult for Congress, as they have to have to pick and choose where to disperse money. But their actions—not only cutting the budgets of these programs, but completely eliminating their direct finances—is a severe setback in the fight for responsible and effective gun control. Shouldn’t the crackdown on black market weapon sales (the primary focus of these initiatives) be a necessary and fundamental part of the fight against terrorism, a cause worthy of funding in order to preserve the safety of our homeland?
It is difficult to tell whether Congress contradicting the White House twice in as many months is a positive or negative sign. It could be a clear indication that the legislative body will govern independently, as opposed to being completely swayed by the partisan wishes of the current administration. Or it could be proof that the White House has little Congressional influence on many issues, including ones not so easily defined by party lines.
Hopefully, the $900 million that Congress provided in general assistance to state and locals, in addition to the $200 million remaining for other antigun initiatives, will be used to compensate for these losses. Though the stipulations of some of these programs have been questioned (as most intiatives that restrict gun access are), to prematurely and completely cut them out is a drastic mistake. A spokesman for the House Appropriations Committee, Republican Communications Director John Scofield, said that it was “a matter of priorities.” I would hope that keeping guns off the streets (and out of the hands of criminals and children) would be a legislative priority and (as I am sure members of both parties supported the cutbacks) a bi-partisan priority.
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A wheel in the ditch and a wheel on the track
In the Herald’s continuing mission to bring you up to date on the news from other parts of the country, here’s a brief look at the political situation in Alabama.
Sexual toys have been banned by a state law upheld by the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals. Viagra and other such, ah, “compensatory” products are still quite legal. It’s worth noting that the spectacularly conservative 11th Circuit Court Judge Birch, who upheld Florida’s ban on gay adoption rights, actually came out against the decision, citing a fundamental democratic right to privacy.
State legislators have decided to retain the current language in the state Constitution, including references to “separate but equal” public facilities, schooling, and public services for blacks.
Finally, a bill is afoot in the state legislature to ban “gay books”. This includes any books that include references to homosexuality or contain homosexual characters. Alabamans looking to read biographies of Alexander the Great, the book of Genesis, or Alice Walker’s The Color Purple will have to consult libraries in some other state.
These stories are their own commentary.
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Welcome Back!
Well, if you enjoyed the Election Blog, welcome to the new blog…the one where we just talk a bunch of smack about national, state, and whatever issues we feel like.
So here’s my first topic…it seems like embedded reporters are just so pesky. They uncover uncomfortable truths, and what’s bad for our image, is bad for America.
Therefore, a Congressman is proposing removing reporters from the battlefield in Iraq.
What purpose does the embed serve? Ironically, most people don’t like embeds because they think their opinions are captured. The reasoning goes that embeds won’t report on the ugliness of war so as not to risk giving up their ability to continue along with the troops.
The proposal by Rep. Jones to ban reporters from the battlefield is obviously based on the famous footage of a Marine shooting an unarmed and wounded Iraqi in a Fallujian mosque.
But if you want a fascinating, and absolutely engrossing story to read…check out the blog of Kevin Sites , the combat photographer and reporter who took that explosive footage.
In it he makes a very reasoned and thoughtful argument as to what he was going to do with the footage and how it would be perceived.
If Rep. Jones is worried about this footage, maybe it’s because he a). has no idea that war is ugly and fraught with bad decisions b). he’s worried about public opinion turning against this particular war.
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December 1
A few thousand years after Plato
And so we inaugurate a new Herald weblog, this one focused on the national politics often excluded from the pages of our newspaper yet still ever-present in the minds of our writing staff.
In the coming days, weeks and months you can turn to this space for commentary and analysis on the ever evolving fate of our hegimontal Republic. As we prepare to enter the second term of the Bush administration, see Congress in firmly Republican hands, the Supreme Court preparing to take on weighty issues with an absent Chief Justice, and the Capitol continue its flustered existence, things will surely prove most interesting.
So bookmark this newly minted site and stay tuned…
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Welcome—and warning
Welcome to The Republic, the Badger Herald Opinion & Editorial Page’s blog for national and political news. Read this blog for running analysis and commentary from the Herald’s editors and columnists on the stories that define the current state of the nation.
Now, let’s get down to business.
President Bush’s nominee to replace John Ashcroft as Attorney General, Alberto Gonzales, is raising the hackles of civil libertarians and human rights groups for his support of the use of torture as an interrogation tactic on “enemy combatants” and detainees suspected of terrorism. Village Voice columnist Nat Hentoff warns that Gonzales could well prove “worse than Ashcroft” for civil rights and liberties, and (in a first for him) suggests that Democrats should filibuster his approval. NPR’s Nina Totenberg has described how
Gonzales was responsible for developing the administration’s policies on the treatment of prisoners; for developing a new definition of torture to allow more aggressive questioning of prisoners. He developed the policy that allowed the indefinite detention of American citizens deemed to be enemy combatants without [being charged] or [having] access to counsel. … The Supreme Court, though, rejected that [Gonzales’] theory…
In addition to going over the heads of military legal brass and advisors in endorsing the use of torture, Gonzales has argued that the Geneva Conventions governing the treatment of prisoners of war should be disregarded, and fought the reclassification of “enemy combatants” to prisoners of war.
Gonzales is complicit in the “abuse” (read: torture) of prisoners in Abu Ghraib and Guantánamo. And he favors allowing the sunset clauses of the Patriot Act to lapse, making the law permanent. Anyone who was expecting a respite in the wake of Ashcroft’s resignation can stop sighing in relief now. Barring an unlikely and politically costly Democratic filibuster, Alberto Gonzales may well prove to be “worse than Ashcroft.”
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