The death of Habeas Corpus

A country that rounds up people and hides them away without charging them might ordinarily be called a fascist state. It's not supposed to happen in the USA or, presumably, in states the USA controls. Nonetheless, the New York Times is reporting that the Army Says C.I.A. Hid More Iraqis Than It Claimed:

WASHINGTON, Sept. 9 - Army jailers in Iraq, acting at the Central Intelligence Agency's request, kept dozens of detainees at Abu Ghraib prison and other detention facilities off official rosters to hide them from Red Cross inspectors, two senior Army generals said Thursday. The total is far more than had been previously reported.

It is impossible to prostlytize for liberty via the rule of law if the preacher doesn't believe in it.

Practice your love

Watching the President ecourage OB/GYN docs to "practice their love" is almost as funny as Keith Olbermann's reaction.

James Wolcott arches an eyebrow, tells it like it is

James Wolcott the acerbic observer of culture for Vanity Fair has launched a great blog.

I also highly recommend his latest book, Attack Poodles and Other Media Mutants : The Looting of the News in a Time of Terror. It's a dry, pithy walk through wankerworld.

Count backwards from 86,000

My new favorite site. It has nothing to do with politics but it is oddly addicting. Wordcount ranks, in descending order, the most commonly used 86,000 words in the English language.

I have no idea how I have lived for so long without this knowledge.

The tale of the tape

Graydon Carter, writing for the Independent, has assembled a most amazing list: Bush by the Numbers.

To me, this is the tale of the tape. It's a record of an administration that has done this country harm.

The guns of August

The Christian Science Monitor is saying that Iraqi Elections might have to be postponed due to the violence. August was the worst month for the US coalition since the end of the war. It wasn't the dead that made it so. It was the 1,100 wounded.

Bush's wayward years make another appearance

I have a fairly long post about the upcoming festival of slime coming our way over the next couple of months up at New Patriot.

Swift Boat style organizations

In the wake of the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, it was inevitable that we would begin to see knock offs. Give a warm welcome to Cheerleaders for Truth and Texans for Truth. The cheerleader site is a spoof, but the Texans for Truth appears to be a genuine movement to turn the tables on Georgie and swiftboat (i.e. smear) his service in the Guard. The only difference is that the Texans for Truth claim most probably can't be debunked.

New Patriot makes its soulful debut

A bunch of us got together for a bbq over at Chuck Olsen's house earlier this month to bang bottles over the emerging hull of New Patriot, a multi-author blog of center-left thinking. We hope to float a boat of common sense over the river of political disinformation that threatens to engulf us all.