Political Prosecutions

Spotty wants me to write a bit more about the shenanigans in the Eastern District of Wisconsin that ended up in an unprecedented reversal from the bench from the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals yesterday in the Georgia Thompson "corruption" scandal. For background, go here.

First off, let's look at United States Attorney Steven Biskupic:

But in the 15 months he's been in office, the U.S. attorney has had a lot of people in this town running scared. The notches in his prosecutorial belt include convictions of three Milwaukee aldermen and indictments of an ousted state senator and the former chairman of the state Democratic Party.

Steven Biskupic: Devout Roman Catholic, Career prosecutor, Federalist Society member, "wears his conservative credentials on his sleeve," and for all appearances, goes after corruption like a pit bull when it's Democrats doing the wrongdoing.

There's Democratic State Senator Gary George

And Milwaukee Aldermen Paul Henningson and Jeff Pawlinski

And Milwaukee Alderwoman Rosa Cameron.

Attorney Mark Sostarich.

Democrats all. Were they corrupt? By the looks of it, yep. But we know corruption knows no one political party, or so the Abrahamoff apologists keep telling us.

Couple this enthusiasm with a Bush I appointee on the bench who's on the Advisory Board of the Milwaukee Federalist Society, and innocent people go to jail.

And don't kid yourself into thinking that it's over because the mid-term elections are behind us. Just last month, Biskupic brought in another indictment for donating while Democrat.

Do you really need to ask?

Why yes, Grasshopper, our leaders do send innocent people to jail just to score political points.

Katie has words with Nick

Nick Coleman sits in the newsroom and stares thoughtfully—perhaps quizzically—at his computer monitor. He is either working out a knotty bit of syntax for his next column, or he is playing solitaire. A shadow grows across his desk that engulfs Nick and obliterates the light from the florescent overhead lights.

I want a word with you, Buster!

Nick flinches and hits the "minimize" button in the corner of the monitor. It was solitaire. He replies:

Oh, it's just you, Katie. I thought it was Tice or Pear or whatever than new dude's name is.

You're gonna wish it was one of them.

Nick swivels his chair around to stare at Katie's belt buckle and says:

What did I do to offend you this time?

My daughter—my baby daughter—is reading your column.

Glad to hear it. At least somebody in the family has the reading chops to tackle what I write. She's what, a high school senior?

At Most Holy Sepulp—never you mind that. When I talked to her over breakfast recently, she called you "Nick."

Well that is my name.

Ever since I started working here I have tried my best to keep my daughter away from you and your influence. But it is obviously not working. Are you stalking her?

Stalking? Are you crazy? Never mind. I shouldn't dignify that with an answer, but in your case I'll make an exception. Of course not. But I am glad to hear that she is capable of considering or expressing a thought independent from yours. It must be terrible to realize you've failed as a parent. What's she been reading by the way?

Your column on Wednesday about tax equity and raising the top marginal rate in the income tax in Minnesota. About how the current system of sales, property, and income taxes is actually regressive.

I know that doesn't bother you. But why does the column make you so mad at me?

Because in my column the next day I criticized the DFL for proposing tax increases, and my daughter cross examined me from your column. I won't have you coming between me and my children!

A smile crosses Nick's face:

Oh, really?

Yes. How sharper than a serpent's tooth it is to have a thankless child!

You mean a thinking child, don't you?

Oooh, you! From now on, I want advance copies of your columns so that I can rebut them—and so I know when to hide the paper at home.

You aren't serious, are you?

I am serious.

'Fraid not, Katie. And you know, Katie, next year your daughter will be away at college. Then she'll be in the clutches of all those liberal academics that you complain about so much. If your intellectual vaccine isn't working now, think how bad it will be when she's in college!

Aaaaraaaauugh! I'll get you, Coleman.

Katie stalks away from Nick's desk. Nick looks at the little crowd of people that has gathered, gives a little shrug, then turns around in his chair and restores his solitaire game.

Tags: Katherine Kersten, Nick Coleman, tax equity

Katie will be soooo jealous!

That little tart Pamela of Atlas Rugs (you could look 'em up in the Yellow Pages) is flirting with Katie's Scott Johnson of Powerline. Scandalous really. It seems the two got together at a recent caucus of concerned conservatives to discuss the liberal bias of faculty on campuses in America. The event was held late last month at that Harvard on the Kinnikinnic River, the University of Wisconsin at River Falls. Let's let Pammy tell us a little about it:

Today is a day I will not soon forget. A morning of conservative speakers (Governor Pawlenty, Ron Robinson - extraordinary presentation on exposing the liberal media) - the highlight of which was Katherine Kersten, Minneapolis Star-Tribune columnist. Kersten very carefully explained in great detail the terrible liberal bias on college campuses and why diversity stops at the classroom door. What was most valuable to this crowd (college students) was what actions they could and should take in confronting bias. Somewhat depressing was her matter of fact closing that things would not change until this generation, her generation of faculty and professors, faded away (in other words, when they were dead.)

Spotty, you mean Katie was there and Scott and Pammy were flirting right under her nose?

That's right, grasshopper. Here's Pammy's description of lunching with Scotty and sitting on a panel with him:

Lunch followed, which I thoroughly enjoyed ......... exchanging barbs with Johnson. Laughs easily, and so gracious. Hamish guy. That Fargo accent killed me. If I ever feel nostalgic I'll be sure to rent the flick. He sounds just like Jerry Lundegaard. . . . .

The panel that Scott and I were on "Advancing your conservative ideas in New Media" followed. And I gotta tell you I had a blast. . . . .

Scott was up next and he was great. Fascinating. He took us through that morning on September 9, '04 when events began to unfold that brought us to the defining movement in 2004 Presidential election - Rathergate. Riveting. IMAO, this singular event changed the course of history. It seems to me that Johnson either ignores or negates his profound historic role in this monumental moment. When the history books are written, Johnson will be there -- that is if the West wins the war on the jihad (if the Islamists win, there will be no books.)

I followed Scott and it was pure exhilaration. I loved those kids. [italics are Spot's]

Lest you think the animal attraction was only one way, boys and girls, listen to this from Scotty, writing about the same event:

I'm speaking this afternoon with the beautiful heart-on-sleeve blogger Pamela Geller of Atlas Shrugs at the Midwest Conference of the Young America's Foundation. Last night former Attorney General John Ashcroft kicked off the event with a rousing speech demolishing a few of the cherished "myths" that have become mantras of the left.

Pamela has posted video of the speech in her report on the opening of the conference last night here. Mrs. Ashcroft was also in attendance. Accordingly, you should not infer that Pamela did not enjoy the speech from the fact that she did not shout out "I love you" or words to that effect during the talk, as she did during her recording of Dr. John Hagee's "Israel lives" speech at CPAC. [italics are Spot's]

There is only one thing left to do, boys and girls: show you the guilty pair. Don't you think that Scott especially is wearing the silly grin of the smitten?

A big tail thump to James Wolcott.

Tags: academic liberal bias, Atlas Rugs, Powerline, Katherine Kersten

Clap harder

Spotty's got himself a case of writers' block and as he trots off to the Blogger veterinarian, he's dropped a big ol' hint for me to pick up the slack.

Trouble is, I can't decide which story today is the best for the grasshoppers to look at as a microcosm of life today. There's the recess appointment of that Swift Boate Lies funder who was so doomed in the Senate his nomination was pulled so they could sneak it in when no one was looking. Then there's the story about Abu Gonzales having to cancel the family vacation to moot court his upcoming Congressional testimony so he doesn't get hung up on the truth. Then there are those pictures of Dick Cheney hiding Michele Bachmann-like in the bushes during that last press conference the President had.

But I think the winner is the story about Minnesota's own big mouth, Republican State Representative Marty Seifert, proclaiming that President Bush has all the popular appeal of a sexually transmitted disease.

Whatever you say, Rep. Seifert does have a way with words.

Pop goes the Katie

Hi, Mom!

Good morning, dear. Just finishing breakfast?

Yes. And reading the paper, too.

Just make sure you don't miss the bus out to Most Holy Sepulcher. It's your senior year, remember. You have to be an example for the younger kids.

I won't, and I am, Mom. I have a question, though.

Yes?

I read your column this morning.

And?

You really popped a cork on this tax increase debate. I'm kind of glad that you're off this "all imams, all the time" stuff—it was starting to worry me—but I don't know, doesn't Nick Coleman have a point?

What? You read Nick Coleman? Coleman's not the Prince of Darkness, but he knows him personally. Uh, what did he say?

You never read Nick Coleman? Well, yesterday Nick, I mean Mr. Coleman, said, well, wait a minute, yesterday's paper is still here:

But the truth is that while the quality of life in Minnesota has been deteriorating in almost every way that matters to common people, Minnesota's wealthiest have been getting a tax break that they don't need and don't deserve. And the result is that the cost of government has shifted unfairly to the middle class while the things that matter to the middle class -- public schools, roads, public safety -- have declined.

If raising taxes on the wealthiest 1 percent of Minnesotans to the level they were at before conservative Candy Men went on a welfare-for-the-rich binge is what it takes to turn things around, well, I think Minnesotans would make the sacrifice. We aren't stupid.

According to the state's Department of Revenue, Minnesota households earning between $45,000 to $105,000 (the state's median income is about $47,000) pay 12.3 percent in state and local taxes, while households earning above $105,000 pay 10.9 percent. The very wealthiest Minnesotans, earning more than $355,000, pay about 9 percent.

So the rate for the middle class is about one-third higher than for the rich.

Apparently, this includes income, sales, and property taxes. It sounds like an income tax rate increase at the very top would make the tax system more fair.

Oh really, miss smarty pants? How many times have I told you taxes are always evil, because they reduce the amount that people can give to their church.

C'mon, Mom. It was just a few days ago that you and Dad sat me down and told me that the property taxes on our house were getting so high that you had to cut my weekly allowance from $8.35 to $7.20. It sounds to me like we're in the group that's getting stuck with a bigger and bigger burden. I'll bet Uncle Bill is making out like a bandit.

Sigh. I suppose he is. Still, the DFL wants to raise gasoline taxes, too! What about that?

Doesn't the governor want to borrow a bunch of money for transportation? Somebody is going to have to pay that money back, right? I think the Republicans want that somebody to be kids like me. Just so they can say they didn't raise taxes. Who's our state representative? It's Ron Erhardt, isn't it? He's been trying to get the gas tax raised for years. And Ron's a Republican, right?

Oh good! Here's your bus. I mean, have a nice day in school, dear.

Update: For a really good critique of Katie's column, boys and girls, Spot wants you to go read the tax policy go-to guy, Charlie, at Across the Great Divide.

Tags: Katherine Kersten, tax equity

Spotty? Spotty?

Hey Spotty! Where are you? We haven't heard from you today.

Spot's been really busy at his day job.

Do you even have a day job, Spot?

Well, okay, Spot didn't feel very well today.

C'mon Spotty, you're starting to sound like Alberto Gonzales: first it's one excuse, then it's another.

All right. Try this one. Spot's got writer's block.

That's more believable, anyway.

And Spot may have writer's block tomorrow, too, although tomorrow is a Thursday.

Steve Sack on McCain's power shopping

There was a lot of commentary yesterday--and today, too--about the stroll that John McCain and others made through a street market in Baghdad. Spot mentioned it. Here is Steve Sack's synthesis of the whole thing:

Technorati Tags: John McCain, power shopping, Iraq war

Spotty laughed, too

The right-wing blogosphere is has been pouting and harrumpfing over CNN reporter Michael Ware's reaction to John and Lindsey's Excellent Adventure in Baghdad. After being stung by reaction to his comments that there were neighborhoods in Baghdad where, golly, it was safe to go for a stroll, John McCain set out to prove that he was right! Jeez, even Dave recognized that McCain's comments were off-base.

So John and Lindsey and Rep. Mike Pence jetted off to Baghdad to do some shopping and show that Michael Ware! Apparently, Lindsey was able to score some really good bargains for a little redecoration back home:

"I brought five rugs for five bucks. People were engaging and just a
few weeks ago, hundreds of people, dozens of people were killed in this
same place," said Graham.

It apparently didn't occur to the senator that he may have gotten such a good deal because there weren't any other buyers around: they were dead, too afraid to shop, or shooed away by the US military in advance of the VIP visit. And Spotty bets, Senator, that if you amortize the cost of the trip to the taxpayers over those five rugs, they were more than a buck apiece!

As it turns out, the senators and their entourage did have some company: five helicopters and about a hundred soldiers. And of course, they traveled in armed humvees under heavy guard. The press conference where Lindsey describing scoring the rugs was in the Green Zone.

But what did the locals really think? Well, they were skeptical:

But the market that the congressmen said they saw is fundamentally different from the market Iraqis know.

Merchants and customers say that a campaign by insurgents to attack Baghdad’s
markets has put many shop owners out of business and forced radical changes in the way people shop. Shorja, the city’s oldest and largest market, set in a sprawling labyrinth of narrow streets and alleyways, has been bombed at least a half-dozen times since last summer.

Spot wonders if the McCain campaign paid for any of this boondoggle. He doubts it.

Technorati Tags: Iraq war, John McCain, Lindsey Graham, rug shopping

We are all imams now

The backlash and the hysteria over the lawsuit brought by the flying imams have reached a fever pitch, and in a lot of places, too. It's about all that Katie can talk about. Not to mention Powerline, but Katie and Powerline have such a mutual admiration society going that it is difficult to call them separate sources.

Minneapolis lawyer Gerry Nolting, described as Hulk Hogan by our own Katie, has offered to defend any passengers who get sued under the "John Doe" complaint prepared by the imams' lawyer. Nolting is a partner of Powerline lawyer John Hinderaker.

Stevan Pearce, a Republican Congressman from New Mexico sponsored a bill intended to insulate people who speak up to report "suspicious behavior" so long as they act in "good faith." Frankly, the bill in its present form is so ambiguous that it couldn't be applied or enforced in any rational way.

And then there is Spot's favorite reaction, the one from the Filipino harridan Michelle Malkin:

Dear Muslim Terrorist Plotter/Planner/Funder/Enabler/Apologist,

You do not know me. But I am on the lookout for you. You are my enemy. And I am yours.

I am John Doe.

I am traveling on your plane. I am riding on your train. I am at
your bus stop. I am on your street. I am in your subway car. I am on
your lift.

I am your neighbor. I am your customer. I am your classmate. I am your boss.

I am John Doe.

I will never forget the example of the passengers of United Airlines
Flight 93 who refused to sit back on 9/11 and let themselves be
murdered in the name of Islam without a fight.

I will never forget the passengers and crew members who tackled al
Qaeda shoe-bomber Richard Reid on American Airlines Flight 63 before he
had a chance to blow up the plane over the Atlantic Ocean.

I will never forget the alertness of actor James Woods, who notified
a stewardess that several Arab men sitting in his first-class cabin on
an August 2001 flight were behaving strangely. The men turned out to be
9/11 hijackers on a test run.

I will act when homeland security officials ask me to “report suspicious activity.”

I will embrace my local police department’s admonition: “If you see something, say something.”

I am John Doe.

I will protest your Jew-hating, America-bashing “scholars.”

I will petition against your hate-mongering mosque leaders.

I will raise my voice against your subjugation of women and religious minorities.

I will challenge your attempts to indoctrinate my children in our schools.

I will combat your violent propaganda on the Internet.

I am John Doe.

I will support law enforcement initiatives to spy on your
operatives, cut off your funding, and disrupt your murderous
conspiracies.

I will oppose all attempts to undermine our borders and immigration laws.

I will resist the imposition of sharia principles and sharia law in
my taxi cab, my restaurant, my community pool, the halls of Congress,
our national monuments, the radio and television airwaves, and all
public spaces.

I will not be censored in the name of tolerance.

I will not be cowed by your Beltway lobbying groups in moderate
clothing. I will not cringe when you shriek about “profiling” or

“Islamophobia.”

I will put my family’s safety above sensitivity. I will put my country above multiculturalism.

I will not submit to your will. I will not be intimidated.

I am John Doe.

If you're a black kid from Minneapolis attending Edina High School as an ABC student or under the "It's Your Choice" program, and you're driving home late one evening from doing homework with a friend, and the Edina cops stop you for "Driving While Black," you're an imam now. Well, okay, the ABC kids don't have cars, but still.

If you're a Hispanic teenager and you get kicked out of Maplewood Mall because you like red and black, or whatever colors that the mall decides are gang colors, you're an imam now.

If you're a single mother who moved out of Chicago or, gasp, Gary, Indiana to the Twin Cities to find a better place to raise your children, and face the stigma of being called a "welfare queen," you're an imam now.

If you're a middle-aged (we'll give him the benefit of the doubt), white, suburban lawyer who has always loved our country's democratic institutions and civil liberties, you're an imam now.


Technorati Tags: flying imams, john doe defendants

Katie's prayer

Dear Lord,

Just a short one tonight. The news is over, so I should be asleep by now.

I want to thank You again for the flying imams. They have been, well, a Godsend.

Without the imams, perhaps I would have had to write more about the Iraq war, or Hurricane Katrina, or the cloud hanging over the coronation of Rachel Paulose. Who knows? Maybe even Halliburton's no-bid bonanza, or one of the other thirty-plus scandals that the administration has got going.

This conservative columnist gig is no picnic these days, let me tell You! So I appreciate the help.

In fact most of the right-wing blogosphere owes You a debt of gratitude for the flying imams. Why, a couple of days ago, Michelle Malkin put up a powerful post where she expressed solidarity with Mr. and Mrs. Bigot, saying we are all "John Doe" now. It was great, even if the idea was just derivative of the I'm Spartacus campaign mounted to support the two liberal blogger women who were hounded off of John Edwards' campaign by Bill Donahue.

I can't remember an incident that has promoted as much fear and paranoia. Your Hand had to be in it.

Well, g'night. Talk to you in the morning; morning in the Midwest anyway.


Technorati Tags: Katherine Kersten, flying imams

A rich vein

Katie tapped a rich vein of irony when she gushed about the Good Muslim last Thursday. As an irony miner, Katie is the best. It's just too bad that she is oblivious to her gift. You will recall, boys and girls, that Katie spoke approvingly, even lovingly, of Dr. Zuhdi Jasser, the Arizona Muslim cheesehead who joins Katie's crew in denouncing the flying imams, especially their threat to sue Mr. and Mrs. Bigot.

As MNO pointed out, two of Dr. J's favorite movies are Mel Gibson classics, Braveheart and The Patriot. The latter contains a scene where the British in revolutionary America herd a village of people into a church and then burn it, an atrocity committed that the Nazis practiced (substitute synagogue for church), but not the British. So what does Dr. J think:

Here's the lede from Katie's column:

Dr. Zuhdi Jasser of Phoenix was deeply troubled after 9-11. A Muslim, he saw his faith threatened by extremists seeking to hijack it for political ends. "Islam is a spiritual path," he says. "The mixture of politics and religion is toxic to our faith."

Hello? Katie? This guy is calling for separation of church (mosque) and state. Katie's all for it, apparently. Unless of course, the religion is Christianity, not Islam.

Oh sure, Katie gets frosted when those darn Methodists want to stick up for gay rights, or the Lutherans celebrate environmentalism, or Katie's fellow parishioners worry about global warming, but she stands foursquare with Christians who want to continue to discriminate against gays or use public funds to pay for their kids' religious education (no specific link, but Katie has written several times about public - private school issues).

Dr. J is concerned about restraining majoritarian impulses that might harm people like, well, him. He's got a nice gig going for him in Phoenix, and he doesn't want it ruined by a bunch of noisy clerics. And who could blame him? Spot certainly doesn't.

Katie is blissfully unaware of the fact that Dr. J is saying something that is antithetical to her Christianist theocratic dream for the United States.

Technorati Tags: Katherine Kersten, flying imams

Who is Katie’s good Muslim?

Zuhdi Jasser: boy, that name is familiar.

Oh come on, Spot. You never heard of him until Katie gave him a big write up Thursday.

I suppose you're right, grasshopper. Actually, it's Dr. M. Zuhdi Jasser, Chairman, Board of Directors. And that would be Chairman of the American Islamic Forum for Democracy, an organization that advertises itself as "at home with American liberty and freedom." Spot has a box of kibble that says the "M" stands for Mohammed, which the doc is apparently ashamed of.

Katie made a big deal in the linked column about the fact that the doc was opposed to the lawsuit brought by the flying imams against US Airways, the MAC, and perhaps Mr. and Mrs. Bigot.

Here's a little more about the background of Dr. M. Zuhdi Jasser, from the AIFD site:

Dr. Jasser is a former U.S. Navy Lieutenant Commander and served in the U.S. Navy as a medical officer from 1988-1999. He is a native of Wisconsin and graduated from the Medical College of Wisconsin in 1992 with Honors in Research. He completed his medical education on a military scholarship as part of the National Health Professions Scholarship Program with the U.S. Navy. He then completed his internship in internal medicine at Bethesda Naval Hospital in Bethesda Maryland in 1993. After serving as Head, Medical Department aboard the U.S.S. El Paso from 1993-1994, Dr. Jasser completed his residency training in internal medicine at the National Naval Medical Center in Bethesda, Maryland. He was selected to serve as Chief Resident in Internal Medicine from 1996-1997 and then served his final tour in the Navy as a staff internist in the Office of the Attending Physician for the U.S. Congress from 1997-1999. He finished his military service as a Lieutenant Commander with an Honorable Discharge in 1999. His highest military award was the Meritorious Service Medal. He is now in the private practice of internal medicine and nuclear cardiology in Phoenix Arizona.

In 2002, Dr. Jasser noted the obvious increasing American attention to Islam and Muslims and their role in the national and international war against Islamism and 'Islamo-fascists'. As a result of what he felt to be a paucity of Muslim scholarship demonstrating the synergy of American democracy and its founding principles with the religion of Islam, he set out to form AIFD. He felt that many Muslims came to America in fact somewhat similarly to our founding fathers and so many others--- seeking freedom, liberty, and the American dream in order to escape religious persecution from so-called "Islamic" lands.

Dr. Jasser is a cheesehead! Not only that, he was a doctor for Congressional representatives for a couple of years. Are you beginning to see where Dr. Jasser is coming from boys and girls? Here's a little more about Dr. Jasser. Doc Jasser actually sounds like an accomplished guy, but he's pretty conservative—voted for George Bush—and obviously has a lot invested in the American Dream. Wouldn't you have liked to know about his eleven years in the US military and his conservative politics before accepting his views of the flying imams' lawsuit from Katie? Of course you would.

It doesn't mean you would discard what Dr. Jasser has to say, but it would certainly help you understand him if you had a little more about his background. It's no secret—Spot found it readily enough—but Katie's identification of him is incomplete enough to be called misleading.

Tags: flying imams, Katherine Kersten, CAIR, American Islamic Forum for Democracy

Sauce for the goose, etc.

Via Mia Culpa, this from a column in today's Guardian in the UK:

It's right that the government and media should be concerned about the treatment the 15 captured marines and sailors are receiving in Iran. Faye Turney's letters bear the marks of coercion, while parading the prisoners in front of TV cameras was demeaning. But the outrage expressed by ministers and leader writers is curious given the recent record of the "coalition of the willing" on the way it deals with prisoners.

Turney may have been "forced to wear the hijab", as the Daily Mail noted with fury, but so far as we know she has not been forced into an orange jumpsuit. Her comrades have not been shackled, blindfolded, forced into excruciating physical contortions for long periods, or denied liquids and food. As far as we know they have not had the Bible spat on, torn up or urinated on in front of their faces. They have not had electrodes attached to their genitals or been set on by attack dogs.

They have not been hung from a forklift truck and photographed for the amusement of their captors. They have not been pictured naked and smeared in their own excrement. They have not been bundled into a CIA-chartered plane and secretly "rendered" to a basement prison in a country where torturers are experienced and free to do their worst.

As far as we know, Turney and her comrades are not being "worked hard", the euphemism coined by one senior British army officer for the abuse of prisoners at Camp Bread Basket. And as far as we know all 15 are alive and well, which is more than can be said for Baha Mousa, the hotel receptionist who, in 2003, was unfortunate enough to have been taken into custody by British troops in Basra. There has of course been a court martial and it exonerated the soldiers of Mousa's murder. So we can only assume that his death - by beating - was self-inflicted; yet another instance of "asymmetrical warfare", the description given by US authorities to the deaths of the Guantánamo detainees who hanged themselves last year.

You know where international law on the treatment of POWs and detainees comes from, don't you boys and girls?

Spotty, you taught us that it is contained in the Geneva Conventions.

Very good grasshopper. Here's part of Convention III, Article 13:

[P]risoners of war must at all times be protected, particularly against acts of violence or intimidation and against insults and public curiosity.

Airing a videotape of the Brits in Iranian custody is certainly frowned on by this Article. But have we not lost some of our standing to complain about it for the reasons set forth in the Guardian column? Let's remember what our current Attorney General said back when he was White House counsel:

Notwithstanding his mild-mannered appearance, Gonzales is the iron fist in the velvet glove. Gonzales, whom Bush affectionately calls "mi abogado" ("my lawyer"), wrote one of the most outrageous torture memos. On January 25, 2002, Gonzales advised Bush that "the war on terrorism is a new kind of war, a new paradigm [that] renders obsolete Geneva's strict limitation on questioning of enemy prisoners and renders some of its provisions quaint."

After we manage to somehow pick a fight with Iran—we're working on it even as Spot writes this—you can be sure there will be more American and British service personnel captured in battle. What will we say when they are captured and rendered hors de combat?

Tags: Geneva Conventions, hors de combat, Iran war

Oh, here’s one!

Katie finally found a "good" Muslim. No, he's not a dead Muslim, boys and girls, but he's a Muslim who thinks the flying imams were out of line:

Dr. Zuhdi Jasser of Phoenix was deeply troubled after 9-11. A Muslim, he saw his faith threatened by extremists seeking to hijack it for political ends. "Islam is a spiritual path," he says. "The mixture of politics and religion is toxic to our faith."

In 2003, Jasser founded the American Islamic Forum for Democracy with several like-minded Arizona Muslims. "We are pro-Islam and anti-Islamist," he says. In Jasser's view, Islamists believe that governments should incorporate Islamic law, and that spiritual leaders should also be political leaders.

Though he is well-known in Arizona, he has not been visible outside the state. But that changed a few weeks ago, when he publicly challenged the six imams who filed suit after being detained at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport. Five of them are from Arizona, and Jasser knows several of them, he says. He has volunteered to raise money to help any passengers they sue for reporting their behavior, as they have threatened to do.

Suddenly Jasser is a sought-after radio and TV commentator. His new role is taking lots of time, a scarce commodity for Jasser, who practices internal medicine and is president of the Arizona Medical Association.

Katie quotes Jasser with apparent approval when he says:

"I believe I represent the views of the large majority of Muslims in this country," says Jasser. "They are repulsed by political sermons, by apologetics for terrorism. The vast majority do want to separate their spiritual identity from their political identity."

Yes, Katie, separation of church and state is so important when the church, er, mosque, is Muslim. But your writing clearly shows you don't think the same is true when the religion is Christian. Your views of gay marriage, religious involvement in schools, and the list goes on, make that clear.

Let Spot ask you this Katie: if the imams had been Christian evangelicals, flush with religious fervor after a revival, and were singing Onward Christian Soldiers at the airport gate, would you have a different opinion? Would the Mr. and Mrs. Bigot?

Tags: Katherine Kersten, flying imams

Et tu, Abdu?

A report from the Arab League summit in today's Star Tribune starts this way:

RIYADH, SAUDI ARABIA - Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah, one of the United States' closest Arab allies, told Arab leaders on Wednesday that the U.S. presence in Iraq was illegal and warned that unless Arab governments settled their differences, foreign powers such as the United States would continue to dictate the region's politics.

"In beloved Iraq, blood is flowing between brothers, in the shadow of an illegitimate foreign occupation, and abhorrent sectarianism threatens a civil war," the king said at the opening of the Arab League summit meeting here.

Juan Cole brings the comments into a little tighter focus:

King Abdullah followed up on these harsh criticisms of the US by cancelling his planned appearance at a White House dinner in April. The Saudi royal family is fit to be tied that Bush gave Iraq away to fundamentalist Shiite parties that have close ties to Iran.

Although the Saudi statement is remarkable for its brutal frankness and coldness toward the United States, its real significance is its slam of the government of Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki. Abdullah has not only said that the US presence is an illegal occupation, he has said that the al-Maliki government is nothing more than Shiite sectarian hegemony. The Saudis are known for their behind the scenes diplomacy and their public discretion. King Abdullah is hopping mad, to talk this way. It augurs ill for US-Saudi relations. Abdullah is also angry that Bush is letting the Palestine issue fester and that he pushed for open Palestinian elections but then cut off the Hamas government once it was elected. Abdullah thinks Bush is pursuing irrational policies, the effect of which is to destabilize the Middle East. He is so angry that he sounds a bit like Iraqi Sunni fundamentalist leader Harith al-Dhari, who is connected in some shadowy way with the Sunni guerrillas fighting the US.

Being criticized by the Saudi royal family brings no special moral opprobrium in Spot's opinion. But it does show just hope isolated the US is in the Middle East. Even our thuggish friends are abandoning us.

Tags: Saudi Arabia, Iraqi government, US - Saudi relations

What HE said

Gwynne Dyer, who Spot regrettably once referred to as "she," had an op-ed piece in today's Star Tribune.

Spotty, that isn't regrettable, just ignorant.

As you wish, grasshopper. Anyway, he discussed in some depth something that Spot mentioned yesterday:

Capt. Johanson [commander of the carrier John C. Stennis] has broken or missing irony sensors and empathy sensors! And he sounds like he is spoiling for a fight. A decision made at the ship-commander level is probably how a war with Iran will start.

Dyer makes the same point today:

"I don't want to second-guess the British after the fact," said U.S. Navy Lt. Commander Erik Horner, "but our rules of engagement allow a little more latitude. Our boarding team's training is a little bit more towards self-preservation." Does that mean that one of his American boarding teams would have opened fire if it had been them in the two inflatable boats that were surrounded by Iranian Revolutionary Guard fast patrol boats off the coast of Iraq last Friday? "Agreed. Yes."

Who is scrappy Lt. Commander Horner?

Horner is the executive officer of the USS Underwood, the American frigate that works together with HMS Cornwall, the British ship that the captive boarding party came from. Interviewed after the incident by Terri Judd of the Independent, the only British print journalist on HMS Cornwall, he was obviously struggling to be polite about the gutless Brits, but he wasn't having much success.

Dyer muses about the result of detaining Americans in the same situation:

"The U.S. Navy rules of engagement say we have not only a right to self-defense but also an obligation to self-defense," Horner explained. "[The British] had every right in my mind and every justification to defend themselves rather than allow themselves to be taken. Our reaction was, 'Why didn't your guys defend themselves?'

So there they are, eight sailors and seven marines in two rubber boats, with personal weapons and no protection whatever, sitting about a foot above the water, surrounded by six or seven Iranian attack boats with mounted machine guns. "Defend yourself" by opening fire, and after a single long burst from half a dozen heavy machine-guns there will be 14 dead young men and one dead young woman in two rapidly sinking inflatables, and your country will be at war. Seems a bit pointless, really.

Dyer is ordinarily more insightful than this. (kidding) The rules of engagement for the US Navy are designed to provoke a war with Iran. And it's a hothead like Horner who will deliver one. That's the whole bloody idea.

Tags: Iran war, rules of engagement, detained British sailors

Bullies and aircraft carriers

You remember Coleman McCarthy, don't you boys and girls?

Sure Spotty, he used to be a columnist at the Washington Post, right?

Exactly grasshopper. Now he directs the Center for Teaching Peace in Washington, D.C.

Next question: who has heard of Capt. Bradley Johanson? Anybody? All right.

Well, Capt. Johanson is the commander of the aircraft carrier John C. Stennis, the modern incarnation of a dreadnaught, currently motoring around the Persian Gulf.

What do these two men have in common?

[furrowed brows and sighing] We don't know, Spotty.

It is admittedly a little obscure, so Spot will help you out. The both got some ink in the Star Tribune today, March 28.

That's the only connection?

Not the only one. They represent the yin and yang of human empathy. First up is McCarthy, who had a piece on bullying on the op-ed page. Spot wants you to read the whole thing, boys and girls, but here is a taste:

In 25 years of teaching courses on nonviolent conflict resolution -- to high school, college, law school students and prison inmates -- I've argued that violence is a learned behavior. Bullies aren't born, they are taught: often by peers, sometimes by the adults at home or coaches who berate their players during practices or games, and perhaps by living in a country like the United States that is perceived by much of the world as a global bully. [italics are Spot's]

If violence is learned, can empathy, kindness and tolerance also be learned? Yes. If taught well and taught consistently, those skills are as teachable as any others.

A prime solution is exposing children in the early grades to the satisfaction of service to others. If parents, teachers and coaches encourage -- and demonstrate themselves -- reaching out to someone who needs help, a message is sent: We are a caring family, we are a caring school; we are a caring team. Be a part of it. Whether the service is as basic as clearing the table after dinner or as large as volunteering at Special Olympics, chances increase that a child will become less self-centered and more other-centered.

Spot says that is a pithy and powerful statement about how to raise your pups. Spot wrote about this recently in Katie enslaves her dog.

And now for a quote from Capt. Johanson in an article about why he is motoring around in the Persian Gulf (the quote is in the last paragraph):

ABOARD THE JOHN C. STENNIS - U.S. warplanes screamed off two aircraft carriers Tuesday as the U.S. Navy staged its largest show of force in the Persian Gulf since the 2003 invasion of Iraq, launching a mammoth exercise meant as a message to the Iranians.

The maneuvers with more than 10,000 U.S. personnel, 15 warships and more than 100 aircraft were sure to heighten tensions with Iran, which has frequently condemned the U.S. military presence off its coast and which is in a faceoff with the West over its nuclear program and its capture of a British naval team.

While they would not say when the war games were planned, U.S. commanders insisted the exercises were not a direct response to Friday's seizure of the 15 British sailors and marines. But they made it clear that the flexing of the Navy's military might was intended as a warning.

"If there is strong presence, then it sends a clear message that you better be careful about trying to intimidate others," said Capt. Bradley Johanson, commander of the Stennis. "Iran has adopted a very escalatory posture with the things that they have done."

Let's see, the United States has invaded the countries on either side of Iran and currently has two battleship groups patrolling off-shore of Iran to the south. Iran detained some British sailors and marines who may or may not have been in international waters, and who were themselves detaining ships:

Exhausted after working a 17-hour day the small group nevertheless seemed buoyed by the day's events, explaining how they had been boarding ships carrying suspected smugglers earlier and planned to return the following morning.

There are two possible scenarios here. First, the Brits were in Iranian territorial waters; in that case they were legitimately subject to arrest for the territorial violation. Second, they were in international waters. In which case you have to ask yourselves, boys and girls, by what authority were they detaining ships on the high seas? Do you suppose we would like it if the Iranians did that?

If Spotty was an Iranian, he would want a nuclear weapon, or several of them, pretty badly. Wouldn't you, boys and girls? Think about the Axis of Evil: North Korea has nukes and didn't get invaded; Iraq didn't have them and got invaded. Which category do you think Iran prefers?

Capt. Johanson has broken or missing irony sensors and empathy sensors! And he sounds like he is spoiling for a fight. A decision made at the ship-commander level is probably how a war with Iran will start.

Spotty wonders if Capt. Johanson was a bully.

Update: You might want to read Arthur Silber's Sleepwalking to the End of the World.

Tags: Coleman McCarthy, Iran war, aircraft carrier John C. Stennis, Axis of Evil

Praying for Monica

O Lord, my Lord!

What is it now, Michele?

I'm glad you're there.

I'm ALWAYS here, Michele. Sometimes I just choose not to be on call.

I'm praying about somebody else tonight, Lord, not myself.

That's refreshing.

What?

Never mind. Just tell me who's in a pickle now.

It's thy maid servant Monica Goodling. She works for the Justice Department.

Yeah, I've heard of her. And you're right. She needs help.

Then you already know about her situation.

More than you, Michele.

Of course, Lord. Will you help her?

What did you have in mind?

I was hoping that you would smite that awful Pat Leahy. And maybe Chuck Schumer, too, although I don't want to ask too much.

Very considerate of you.

Lord, it's just that Monica went to a Godly law school. So did I, as you well know. And we get made fun of for our legal education by the unbelievers. Well, and by some believers, too. I feel her pain.

That's Bill Clinton's line. You know that, don't you?

It is? I'll never use it again. Yuck!

I don't know Michele. I've always sort of liked it. But back to smiting. That's a pretty tall order. Especially since Leahy is on to something.

That's why it is so important that he be smitten, or smited, or whatever.

But let's say Michele, just for the sake of argument, that Monica did some things she shouldn't have done, and said some things she shouldn't have said. It wouldn't really be fair to smite someone who is just trying to get to the bottom of it, would it?

But Monica is one of your people, a sheep in your flock.

You're all sheep to me. God was that Freudian, if I do say so myself. Michele, what would you say if I told you that Monica was involved in activities that were detrimental to the operation of the very process of justice? That she may have interfered with some public corruption cases, and that she assisted in the damaging of the careers and reputations of some fine lawyers.

Well, Lord, I'm sure she had a good reason! It had to be to speed Your Kingdom here on earth.

Hey, don't put this on me! I am not going to smite Pat Leahy; I'm not even going to swat him a little. I may actually pat him on the back.

What? Help someone afflicting one of your sheep?

I told you Michele, you're all sheep to me. It's you people who are always trying to divide everybody up into "us" and "them." It kind of annoys me, frankly. Monica's got the Ninth Commandment on her rapsheet now. Remember the Ninth Commandment?

Ah . . .

I'll save you the embarrassment. You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.

But Lord, number Nine? It's way down on the list. It would be easy to miss.

I always remember things I read last better, Michele. I am afraid Monica is on her own.

You won't do anything for her?

Well, maybe a little advice.

That would be wonderful! What is it?

Tell her to listen to her lawyer. Take the Fifth.

But this will probably ruin her career!

Sometimes, Michele, when you burn your butt, you have to sit on the blisters.

Tags: Monica Goodling, Michele Bachmann, Pat Leahy, U.S. Attorneys purge

We’re winning! II

Here's some more confirmation that Johnny Rocketseed is right: we're winning in Iraq:

More on the rocket attack in the Green Zone today. There were injuries and fatalities.

The military in Iraq had a good laugh over John McCain's comments on Bill Bennett's radio show that there are neighborhoods in Iraq where an American could go for a stroll:

Yesterday, Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) told radio host Bill Bennett that President Bush's escalation is working. "There are neighborhoods in Baghdad where you and I could walk through those neighborhoods, today," he said. Today, when CNN's Wolf Blitzer asked McCain why Americans still aren't able to safely leave the Green Zone in Iraq, the senator replied that Blitzer was giving three-month-old talking points:

"General Petraeus goes out there almost every day in an unarmed humvee. I think you oughta catch up. You are giving the old line of three months ago. I understand it. We certainly don't get it through the filter of some of the media."

But according to CNN reporter Michael Ware, who has been in Iraq for four years, McCain is "way off base." He stated, "To suggest that there's any neighborhood in this city where an American can walk freely is beyond ludicrous. I'd love Sen. McCain to tell me where that neighborhood is and he and I can go for a stroll."

Ware also rebutted McCain's assertion that Petaeus travels in an unarmed humvee: "[I]n the hour since Sen. McCain's said this, I've spoken to military sources and there was laughter down the line. I mean, certainly the general travels in a humvee. There's multiple humvees around it, heavily armed."

John McCain—and Johnny Rocketseed, too—may be oriented to time and place, but that's about it.

Tags: Iraq war, Green Zone, Twilight Zone