Torture and humiliation have been justified by the right as an "essential" part of the "War on Terror", because they will force the evil, inhuman terrorists to break and spill all of their vital intelligence assets. The long term goal of this behavior, of course, is supposedly to bring these supposed terrorists to account. Obviously, there is a lot of controversy about these methods. Still, the right wing keeps coming back to the fact that these methods are necessary to extract the truth out of intransigent suspected terrorists.
But what if it turns out that these methods themselves have rendered known terrorists unprosecutable?
I totally stole this from a mailing list, although it was anonymous. If anyone knows who wrote it, please let me know so I can give them credit. Although I am not Muslim, I AM South Asian, and I can understand the problems faced by the Islamic community in this country (particularly because, lets be honest, this country views the world in terms of color, not faith). So I think this is a hilarious counterpoint to the kinds of twisted logic that allows Americans to give credence to ridicuolous concepts like "Islamofascism".
The greatest threat to civilization, to democracy and individuality, does not come from Islam, Islamism, or so-called Islamofascism. It comes from Buddhism.
"Flying while brown" has been a depressingly well-documented phenomenon, with perhaps the scariest recent example being the Canadian Muslim doctor expelled from a United Airlines flight after a "drunk and belligerent" passenger decided he was a terrorist because he was praying. But to me, this just takes the cake -- apparently even Arabic script with English translation is enough to bar you.
There's a very interesting diary right now regarding the usage of the term "Libertarianism" as a counterpoint to Authoritarianism. a gilas girl proposes that the counterpoint to Authoritarianism is NOT libertarianism, but is rather Progressivism, and she uses this argument to make her claim:
Progressivism is a force and a social movement that came together to counter and offer alternatives to the Social Darwinism that came to dominate traditionalist's politics in the early 20th Century. That Social Darwinism most often manifests itself today in both the Libertarian and Conservative policies that eschew collective action and/or government intervention.
(emphasis added)
I started responding to that but it turned into a diary entry, so read on below!
NEW DELHI - The U.S. Embassy in New Delhi warned Friday that foreign militants, possibly al-Qaida members, may be planning to carry out bombings in India's two major cities in the coming days.
In an e-mail sent to American citizens living in India, the embassy said New Delhi, the capital, and Mumbai, the country's financial and entertainment hub, were the likely targets, and the attacks were believed to be planned for either before or on India's Independence Day, August 15.
BBC News is reporting that the Mexican Presidential vote is too close to call. This is a VERY important election, and it may have important repercussions for Mexican-American relations. Details over the flip.
The recent sniping between DailyKos and TNR has been intensely uncomfortable for many Democrats. It's forced many people to take sides, and while most people reading this have come down on the side of DKos, it's a difficult position for anyone. This site could not have become as big and important as it has become without a broad spectrum of Democrats, and I suspect the recent "with us or against us" rhetoric has resulted in some uncomfortable feelings among many posters/TNR readers. But what tends to get lost in this mud-fight (pie-fight?) is the fact that we CAN'T be focused on each other right now. The real enemy is out there dismantling the things we believe.
The diary posted by John Kerry and Russ Feingold earlier this morning was a very encouraging sign that the Dems are finally starting the process to get us out of Iraq. However, I was dismayed to see they had both called for a hard and fast deadline for withdrawal. This is in contrast to earlier calls for developing a timetable, which is a whole different creature. I'll admit that the diary was well-written, and was persuasive in some ways, but I still don't buy the case for a hard deadline. I'll explain why over the flip.
I missed out on the site's Kos-inspired "Libertarian Dem" philosophy discussion because I had too much going on, but I wanted to add my two cents. I think it's misleading and awkward to try to jam the traditionally hostile terms "Libertarian" and "Democrat" together -- it forces us to round off edges and ignore complexities that are often fundamental to the terms. But I agree with Kos' underlying point: we need to draw a distinction between the individualistic, self-empowering ideology shared by much of the netroots and the institutional, communitarian values promoted by traditional liberalism. I think Social Capitalism bridges that gap.
Illinois' Democratic Party is amazing in its ability to give both great hope and terror in the same moment. As one of the few states to see large Dem gains since the beginning of the Bush Era, Illinois has been a consistent ray of hope. Gov. Blagojevich has also taken a pretty bold position on healthcare, creating new programs that (theoretically) cover millions of people through the state. But the corruption, infighting, and poor budget management of the Dems is cause for serious alarm. IL GOP's sadly smart decision to select moderate Judy Barr Topinka as their candidate has thrown new wrinkles into the situation as well. Recent developments in this race leave me scratching my head -- but I'll elaborate over the fold.
It's suddenly become very, very common to hear Republicans expressing anger and dissatisfaction with "W: The President". He's lost staunch religious conservatives, Reagan aides, and even major neocons like Francis Fukuyama. All of sudden, these freedom-loving patriots so willing to sacrifice thousands of American lives for "democracy" (or at least carefully staged elections) in the Middle East are starting t sound like America-hating, French-speaking, treasonous libruls. In fact, they're suggesting Our President of all people might be incompetent. Well don't you believe these latte-sipping surrender-monkeys. By any political measure (and we all know that's what MATTERS), George W. Bush is among the most successful Presidents in American history.
Armando started a nice little discussion of race here on Daily Kos, and I've been really interested to hear some of the personal perspectives represented. As a South Asian-American whose major area of research interest is racial disparities in health, I've been following these discussions on identity and racism with great interest. Ironically, I had a fairly shitty experience tonight, but I'm thinking late night blogging will be healthier than simply stewing. And hey, it happens to be germane right now.
We've all known that Wal-Mart increases poverty rates for quite a while. However, so far that information has either been based on common sense or anecdote. But now it seems that scientifically valid, peer-reviewed research has been published that lends a ton of weight to that idea.
Once in a while I succumb to temptation and write a diary detailing the colossal mess the Baby Boomers have been making of the country. When that happens I'm invariably slammed by various commentators, who take pains to point out that we shouldn't be looking at our country's problems from a generational perspective, because that hurts our ability to be really analytical and unbiased. So I trust these commentators are simply outraged at Senator Clinton's recent comments regarding the work ethic of our generation.
There have been rumors and reports of Blackwater mercenaries operating in New Orleans for some time now, but I'm disturbed the openness of this MSNBC article, which suggests that even local communities are starting to hire these trained military killers.
"In the middle of the summer Moses the raven suddenly reappeared on the farm, after an absence of several years. He was quite unchanged, still did no work, and talked in the same strain as ever about Sugarcandy Mountain. He would perch on a stump, flap his black wings, and talk by the hour to anyone who would listen. `Up there, comrades,' he would say solemnly, pointing to the sky with his large beak -- `up there, just on the other side of that dark cloud that you can see -- there it lies, Sugarcandy Mountain, that happy country where we poor animals shall rest for ever from our labours!' He even claimed to have been there on one of his higher flights, and to have seen the everlasting fields of clover and the linseed cake and lump sugar growing on the hedges. Many of the animals believed him. Their lives now, they reasoned, were hungry and laborious; was it not right and just that a better world should exist somewhere else?"
Here we go again. "DLC Dem-Lite" vs. "Berkeley wackjob fanatic". "Moderates" vs. "Progressives" vs. "liberals". Brother vs. brother. Everyone seems to suddenly have a passionate stake in this "battle" over how to get out of Iraq, and everyone seems willing to fight it with the same intensity as any pitched Howard Dean battle. But there's something weird about this fight. Sure, all the vitriol and anger is flying, but are our various Evil Villains and Unimpeachable Champions really as divided as some on this site seem to think?
