On Gonzales

Thoughts on Judge Gonzales:

• On suspending US law. The judge's recent testimony clearly indicates that he believes that American laws governing humane treatment can be suspended when US forces move detainees overseas. This strikes me as a back door permitting the circumvention of legal constraints intended to guarentee human rights.
• On the legal definition of humane. When presented with questions about humane treatment, the judge points out that humanely has no precise legal definition. We all laughed when Clinton said, It depends on what the definition of is is. How is this different?
• On food and shelter and clothing. The judge suggests that humane treatment could reasonably be construed to be the provision of food and shelter and clothing etc... It's that simple. This is a sound byte answer crafted to make the Administration's policy on torture sound reasonable. It evades the question by ignoring the core issue of our use of treatments like waterboarding and snarling dogs on detainees.
• On immunizing acts of torture. Although the judge reassures us that the Administration will not immunize acts of torture, he simultaneously insists that Congress not enact laws forbidding such immunization. Clearly, he believes that this ought to be a tool in our arsenal.

We are in pitched war with the forces of evil. To win, we must demonstrate to our friends and enemies (and everyone in between) the strength of the values and laws by which we live.

I have to doubt about Judge Gonzales's commitment to winning this war; however, the net effect of policies like those he has crafted (and his justifications of them) makes us appear as hypocrites. So branded, we lose credibility in the eyes of the world and thereby sacrifice our most potent weapon in this long-term fight.

For these reasons, I oppose the nomination of Judge Gonzales to be Attorney General.

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I am not well-read on these issues. I am not an expert. Although I have firm views on the matter, I depend on others to help me articulate them. Most of the facts above are discussed in a recent entry on ACSBlog.

10:43:53 PM   permalink: []   feedback:   comments: []  

Outside With My Cat

While rummaging around the other day, I stumbled upon these abandoned words:

What it is that causes one to think thoughts like these and commit them to paper? Casting a cold, analytical eye to purpose, their value hardly counts for anything. So let's just consider them a simple little water color and then move along, shall we?

9:14:11 PM   permalink: []   feedback:   comments: []