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Tuesday, October 16, 2007 |
Colbert Sits In for Dowd. For those who missed Stephen Colbert’s first foray into Op-Ed writing for The New York Times, here’s his valiant attempt on Sunday to handicap the lineup of ’08 presidential hopefuls, including this gem about actor-lawyer-candidate Fred Thompson: “ ‘Law & Order’ never sufficiently explained why the Manhattan D.A. had an accent like an Appalachian catfish wrestler.” True enough.
The New York Times:
Look at the moral guidance I offer. On faith: “After Jesus was born, the Old Testament basically became a way for Bible publishers to keep their word count up.” On gender: “The sooner we accept the basic differences between men and women, the sooner we can stop arguing about it and start having sex.” On race: “While skin and race are often synonymous, skin cleansing is good, race cleansing is bad.” On the elderly: “They look like lizards.”
Our nation is at a Fork in the Road. Some say we should go Left; some say go Right. I say, “Doesn’t this thing have a reverse gear?” Let’s back this country up to a time before there were forks in the road—or even roads. Or forks, for that matter. I want to return to a simpler America where we ate our meat off the end of a sharpened stick.
Let me regurgitate: I know why you want me to run, and I hear your clamor. I share Americans’ nostalgia for an era when you not only could tell a man by the cut of his jib, but the jib industry hadn’t yet fled to Guangdong. And I don’t intend to tease you for weeks the way Newt Gingrich did, saying that if his supporters raised $30 million, he would run for president. I would run for 15 million. Cash.
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[Truthdig: Drilling Beneath the Headlines]
2:23:27 PM 
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A Look At Cheney[base ']s Relentless Pursuit of Executive Power. It[base ']s a good bet that when future historians examine the Bush administration, they will spend more time plumbing the mysteries of Vice President Dick Cheney than anyone else.This is, quite simply, because Cheney is the most fascinating figure in it. He is the soul of this administration[base ']s relentless pursuit of greater executive power. He is [...] [CommonDreams.org » Headlines07]
2:02:34 PM
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Romney's New National Security Adviser: I'd Torture "In A Heartbeat". Retired General James "Spider" Marks, who has just been named a new national security adviser to Mitt Romney's campaign, asserted in a 2005 interview that he would readily torture prisoners to save a soldier's life or stop a terror bomb, saying: "I'd stick a knife in somebody's thigh in a heartbeat."
In announcing the appointment of Marks, the Romney campaign put out a press release emphasizing his "more than three decades of experience in the intelligence field." But according to CNN, Marks also is a teacher of "interrogation." And as a CNN analyst, he elaborated on his views of torture on the network on November 8, 2005:
 [The Full Feed from HuffingtonPost.com]
1:52:31 PM
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Watada's Double Jeopardy. Jeremy Brecher and Brendan Smith report for The Nation: "The double jeopardy clause of the US Constitution ensures that no American can be tried twice for the same offense. But at a time when our civil liberties are rapidly eroding, a drama is unfolding in Washington State over whether that constitutional protection applies to a US soldier." [t r u t h o u t]
1:50:55 PM
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China Warns US on Dalai Lama Trip. Joseph Kahn, reporting for The New York Times, writes, "Chinese officials warned the United States not to honor the Dalai Lama, saying a planned award ceremony for the Tibetan spiritual leader would have 'an extremely serious impact' on relations between the countries." [t r u t h o u t]
1:50:15 PM
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Chris Hedges | Outsourcing Torture. Chris Hedges, writing for Truthdig.com, says: "The Bush administration has called for the respect of human rights in Burma, a pretty safe piece of posturing, but it remains silent as Egypt's dictator, Gen. Hosni Mubarak, unleashes the largest crackdown on public opposition in over a decade. Our moral indignation over the shooting of monks masks the incestuous and growing alliance we have built in the so-called war on terror with some of the world's most venal dictatorships." [t r u t h o u t]
1:49:43 PM
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© Copyright 2007 Patricia Thurston.
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