I somehow made it all the way through the State of the Union address last night. Much as I disagree with the Bush administration, I even found him unusually appealing. I actually had the thought, “Well, maybe most of this administration’s ugliness is Cheney. Maybe Bush means some of what he is saying here.” I thought he really tried to appeal to our hopefulness at a very sour time – that showed some good leadership. But that’s about it. So…
So what does Sandra Day O’Connor say (in case you’ve forgotten, she is a Republican but not a neo-con) now that she has announced her retirement from the Supreme Court? Speaking in Spokane WA to a group of lawyers and judges in late July, retiring U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor said she is worried about the future of the federal judiciary because of a “climate of antipathy” in Congress. “I’m pretty old, you know. In all the years…
Torture is a contradiction of our historical national values. In addition, we undermine our national security and are in violation of our own laws when we allow it. Informants will not come forward if they cannot trust us not to treat them fairly under international law. We do not get accurate information with torture – ample historical precedent teaches us that those who are tortured will say anything to make it stop. After a couple of years of imprisonment, what…
Cozy with the Bush administration, Judith Miller may go to jail to protect their leakers (Rove and whoever is intended eventually to take the fall for his action – wherever will they find another Ollie North?). Normally I would be on the side of journalists to protect their anonymous sources, but in this case it is obstruction of justice to do so. I don’t think journalists should be accomplices to all this, and I don’t believe that’s what investigative journalism…