Well we kinda knew that.

12-11-2008 - Levin, McCain Release Executive Summary and Conclusions of Report on Treatment of Detainees in U.S. Custody : Senator Carl Levin: News Release

Gist: Torture ordered at the highest level.

Executive summary here.

Sully on the captured Brits

The Daily Dish: Captured Brits:

"The news reports put that word in quotation marks. I wonder if it emerges that they are being subject to George W. Bush's preferred euphemism 'coercive interrogations.' And if that turns out to be the case, and we have to pray it isn't, then what will the United States and its ally Great Britain say in complaint? After all, Iran is only doing to Western soldiers in captivity what the U.S. has been doing to 'enemy combatants' since the war began. Then there's a question of what kind of trial they might face. One in which their defense gets a chance to see all the evidence against them? Oh, wait ... we don't do that either. "

Yep. It's not like we can bitch about that sort of thing anymore. Thanks George.

Sully goes to The Atlantic

Andrew Sullivan's blog has moved to The Atlantic's website. That's cool, but even more cool is the whole blog is readable via RSS feed again. For the past year I've visited Sullivan's actual blog probably 5 times more than any other blog because at Time his RSS feed was the first three lines of the post. Great for advertising purposes I suppose, but bad for the reader.

What the "Surge" is really about

A Sully reader nails it:

If we leave before he's (Bush) out of office, the whole of this sorry affair is his. He has no one to blame for his failures. If somebody else comes in and, miracle of miracles, pulls something off, Bush will act as if he loosened the jar that somebody else finally opened. If the next (probably Democratic) administration pulls out, Bush will have succeeded in wiping his sticky booger on them, and his water carriers will take delight in trying to spread the meme that Democrats lost the war.

Leaving this mess for the next administration is Dubya's plan.

A mememe

Found here.

Ok here is the deal

1. Grab the book closest to you.
2. Open to page 123, scroll down to the 5th sentence
3. Post the text of next 3 sentences on your blog
4. Name of the book and the author
5. Tag 3 People

Book: LDAP System Administration
Author: Gerald Carter

The following excerpt from ypldapd(8) manpage describes ypldapd's position with a network:

YPLDAP(8)
ypldap emulates the equivalent process ypserv by providing an RPC call-compatible interface. Rather than consulting 'map' files as ypserv does, however, ypldapd draws its data from LDAP databases.

Man I read some thrilling stuff.

A Sully Reader writes

http://time.blogs.com/daily_dish/2006/12/on_vdh.html

You missed the biggest flaw in Victor Davis Hanson's statement, which is its historical inaccuracy. This country did not fight and defeat Germany, Italy and Japan all at once. We defeated Japan with some help from the British Empire and Commonwealth, and China; we defeated Italy with substantial help from the British Empire and Commonwealth, as well as Free French, Polish, Czech and other forces; the Soviet Union defeated Germany, with major help from us as well as the British Empire and Commonwealth, as well as Free French, Polish, Czech and other forces.

Had the Soviet Union not broken the back of the German Wehrmacht and its allies before Moscow, at Stalingrad and at Kursk, and thereafter, there is serious doubt whether even the combined forces of the U.S., the British Empire and Commonwealth, and their allies, could have defeated Germany in northwest Europe. Read Max Hastings.

This is an example of the pride and hubris in an all-powerful U.S. that does not have to resort to mere diplomacy and alliance building as it goes boldly forth to impose its military will abroad - pride and hubris that directly led us to the dire circumstances in which we now find ourselves in Iraq.

Sully's Underwear Flap

Andrew Sullivan | The Daily Dish: Underwear, Again:

"But I am not sorry for publishing a visual of them. My response is the same to Mormons as it was to Muslims who were offended by my publishing images of Muhammad. This is your taboo, not mine. And this is a free country. If you cannot handle some inspection of your religious practices, then you need to find some other place to live."

Sully's right as usual. In case you wonder what's got some Mormon panties in a wad, it's this.



A picture of LDS "temple garment" that many Mormons wear at all times.

Piling on.

Whiskey Bar: Useless Idiots

Billmon takes on Sully and the former Bush Only Party (BOP) faithful for bitching about getting bitched at.

Yep

Eschaton:

Iranistan
The other night during the SOTU when I was at CAP Action Fund with Sam Seder I was on for a bit with Amy Sullivan from the Washington Monthly. Seder asked us both to name the biggest threat to the Republic, aside from George Bush and Dickey Cheney. Sullivan responded, with all seriousness, Iran.

Look, I just don't get this stuff. I don't want Iran to have nukes. I don't think that's a good thing for the world. I certainly didn't want Pakistan or India to have nukes. But is a nuclear Iran really a threat to us? Certainly an Iran-with-nukes could blow the hell out of a city or two, but an Iran that did such a thing would pretty much cease to exist. It isn't mutually assured destruction, it's you fuck with us a little bit and YOU NO LONGER LIVE BITCHES!"

More Sullivan

www.AndrewSullivan.com - Latest Posts:

"I do not believe that the last three centuries are best described as Jonah does as 'the great unraveling.' I see them as a great liberation, with horrendous dangers but also great promise. We've seen the new dangers - the evils of Nazism and Communism. But that doesn't mean the old dangers - theocracy and religious war - have abated. The war we are now fighting, after all, is a response to these old dangers, not the new ones (or, perhaps, a hideous fusion of the two). Amidst this confusion and diversity, conservatives should stick to what we have, not retrench to reactionary certainties that become more brittle as they become more vulnerable. What we have in Britain and America is a tradition of individual freedom, a spirit of free thought, and a Constitution that protects us from government tyranny. I think this is sturdy enough structure to keep us free. I'm surprised many conservatives have such little faith in it."

Simply the best.

www.AndrewSullivan.com - Daily Dish:

"I don't think and have never said that we're in the grips of a 'theocracy.' We live in a constitutional democracy. Iranians live in a theocracy, and I am aware of the difference. But one element of our politics - one that happens to have a veto on Republican social policy - does hold that religion should dictate politics, and that opposition to a certain politics is tantamount to anti-religious bigotry. They're very candid about that, as we saw last Sunday. As Bill Donahue put it: 'The people on the secularist left say we think you're a threat. You know what? They are right.' Very senior Republicans echo the line that there is a filibuster against 'people of faith.' This isn't just about gays, although we've felt the sting of the movement more acutely than most. It's about science, stem cell research, the teaching of evolution, free access to medical prescriptions, the legality of living wills, abortion rights, censorship of cable and network television, and so on. The Schiavo case woke a lot of people up. I was already an insomniac on these issues. Maybe I'd be more effective a blogger if I pretended that none of this was troubling, or avoided the gay issue and focused on others. But I'm genuinely troubled by all of it, and by what is happening to the conservative tradition. I'd like to think that a qualified doctor like Bill Frist could say on television that tears cannot transmit HIV. But he could not - because the sectarian base he needs to run for president would not allow it. I'm sorry but that's nuts. I'm glad Glenn is now calling attention to all of it. "

For big old tree hugging liberal Republican like myself... whaaaa! Yeah I said it. Economically conservative, socially libertarian (try finding that in either party) and generally liberal in thought (whatever that means) I find myself in almost 100% agreement with Andrew Sullivan. He has the best political blog on the Int4rwebs.

Sully gets it right.

www.AndrewSullivan.com - Daily Dish:

"THE HYSTERIA MOUNTS: I'm beginning to wonder if the Republican party will soon oppose the whole concept of an independent judiciary. Just read William Bennett's screed in National Review. It contains the sentence: 'It is a mistake to believe that the courts have the ultimate say as to what a constitution means.' Bennett and his co-author argue that Jeb Bush should send in state troops to reinsert the feeding tube and break the law if necessary. Screw the science. Screw the court system. Screw the law. I disagree with Jonah that this is a minor spat with no long-term consequences. We are looking directly at the real face of contemporary Republicanism. Sane, moderate, thoughtful people are watching this circus and will not soon forget it. "

Did I mention that I still love Andrew Sullivan. I'm gonna sample the (non-wingnut) true conservative anti-federalist portion of the blogsphere for some choice quotes.

Sullivan on the release of the British from Gitmo

www.AndrewSullivan.com - Daily Dish:

"The final four Brits in Guantanamo were immediately released by the British government upon returning to the UK. They are charging torture. No formal charges of terrorism have been brought against them. Either we should be deeply concerned that potential terrorists are now at large or that innocent men have been held without any due process for three years and, if they were not British, would still be in jail. Which is it? "

From Sullivan

www.AndrewSullivan.com - Daily Dish:

"'I attended a continuing legal education seminar for Army Reserve and National Guard lawyers last weekend. I was struck by one thing: The biggest response from a ballroom full of JAG lawyers was when one dynamic Colonel spoke and said the Army needed to do a better job in handling detainees. He quoted a dispatch from WWII when the commander of a US prisoner of war camp reported back that his camp was under air attack by the German air force, that he could not protect his German prisoners of war, and he had opened the gates and set them all free. This is the standard for the US Army and we need to live up to it. The room cheered. My impression is that the people who have been trained in this stuff (at least the citizen solders) may not be terribly pleased and indeed may be somewhat embarrassed with how this is unfolding. This is also consistent with the JAG lawyers being kept out of the loop.' "

Now I suppose we'd stack them into a pyramid to make it easy for one bomb to get them all.

When Hentoff and Sullivan agree

village voice > news > Liberty Beat by Nat Hentoff

They're probably right. And retired rear admiral Don Guter, former navy judge advocate general, says it plain: "That branch [Congress] has really abdicated its responsibility to set rules and oversee what's happening [to the detainees], and we are paying a price for it."

www.AndrewSullivan.com - Daily Dish

www.AndrewSullivan.com - Daily Dish:

"WRONG = LEFT: Jonah gets emails very much along the lines I do. If you quibble with any aspect of conservative-Bush orthodoxy, you've gone 'left.' This is, of course, moronic. A realist critique of Bush's interventionism is not left-wing. A small government criticism of deficits is not liberal. A defense of states' rights against the Bush Justice Department is not left-wing. Now, you may agree with the Bushies on all these issues - but the notion that all disagreement is 'liberal' is loopy. It comes, I think, from the moronic Hannity-style conservatism that has essentially degenerated into high-school name-calling of anyone who dares dissent. 'Liberal' means nothing to them but a term of abuse. Of course, in many ways, the best strain in contemporary conservatism is the last resort of old-school liberalism. But that would just confuse the demagogues, wouldn't it?

That is why I read Andrew Sullivan everyday.

Andrew Sullivan on Bush's new Ed Sec.

www.AndrewSullivan.com - Latest Posts:

Here's how insidery the new Bush cabinet is looking. The new education secretary, Margaret Spellings, began her political career in the mid 1980s, when Karl Rove asked her out on a date. Somehow, he got over the rejection. Two decades of complete political subservience later and Ms Spellings gets a bang-up new job enforcing her boss's federal take-over of American education. She helped run Bush's 1994 campaign for Texas governor and has been working long hours under the radar in the Bush White House for the past four years. Is she a radical? Not exactly. She hasn't pushed for the conservative panacea of school vouchers, and distanced herself as a divorced single mother from the religious right. Is she a toady? Well, that's an unfortunately loaded term. Let's just recall that, outside of the George W. Bush orbit, Spellings has virtually no record and no career. She is his creation. "

I love a good true conservative.

From MSNBC News

Scott Ritter of Delmar is well known internationally as an outspoken, former U.N. weapons inspector. Now more information is coming to light about Ritter's past and a disturbing arrest. His attorney confirms he was arrested in 2001, but neither she nor police will discuss the details.

It turns out that Ritter, who has been very critical of Bush's warmongering, may or may not have been arrested in 2001 for one of my "favorite" online crimes -- soliciting sex from a person it's completely legal to solicit sex from. It turns out he was probably arrested for attempting to solicit sex in an Internet (probably AOL) chatroom from someone he may (or may not) have thought was a 16 year old girl. Of course he did no such thing in reality. Instead he solicited sex from a definetly legal (probably 30-40 something, probably male) person posing as a 16 year old girl in an Internet (probably AOL) chatroom. Ritter was never charged. Forgetting the shaky, though precedent covered, legality of the arrest, this is the kind of thing that gets conspiracies started.

An outspoken critic of administration policy charged with an indefensible crime... My best guess is this is the last we ever hear from Mr. Ritter. He will get the message, "Be quiet and this will go away, but if you keep talking we keep alledging." This is the kind of crime that government can use to destroy someone without the slightest bit of proof. The accusation itself is enough to sully his reputation with the majority of media sheep. Those who will not look past the entrapping nature of the crime he's charged with. Those who will not look for real evidence of guilt or innocence if one assumes this is actually a crime. Check the lead of the MSNBC story above. His arrest is "disturbing" even though no charges were ever filed. When no charges are filed, I assume that the arrest was in error. MSNBC obviously assumes he was guilty of something if they feel his mere arrest was disturbing. Do you think that if he'd have been arrested for accounting fraud but no charges were ever filed that they would either label the arrest "distrubing" or cover it at all?

Letter from Sullivan Ballou to his wife Sarah written July 14, 1862

My very dear Sarah:

The indications are very strong that we shall move in a few days -- perhaps tomorrow. Lest I should not be able to write you again, I feel impelled to write lines that may fall under your eye when I shall be no more.

Our movement may be one of a few days duration and full of pleasure -- and it may be one of severe conflict and death to me. Not my will, but thine O God, be done. If it is necessary that I should fall on the battlefield for my country, I am ready. I have no misgivings about, or lack of confidence in, the cause in which I am engaged, and my courage does not halt or falter. I know how strongly American Civilization now leans upon the triumph of the Government, and how great a debt we owe to those who went before us through the blood and suffering of the Revolution. And I am willing -- perfectly willing -- to lay down all my joys in this life, to help maintain this Government, and to pay that debt.

But, my dear wife, when I know that with my own joys I lay down nearly all of yours, and replace them in this life with cares and sorrows -- when, after having eaten for long years the bitter fruit of orphanage myself, I must offer it as their only sustenance to my dear little children -- is it weak or dishonorable, while the banner of my purpose floats calmly and proudly in the breeze, that my unbounded love for you, my darling wife and children, should struggle in fierce, though useless, contest with my love of country?

I cannot describe to you my feelings on this calm summer night, when two thousand men are sleeping around me, many of them enjoying the last, perhaps, before that of death -- and I, suspicious that Death is creeping behind me with his fatal dart, am communing with God, my country, and thee.

I have sought most closely and diligently, and often in my breast, for a wrong motive in thus hazarding the happiness of those I loved and I could not find one. A pure love of my country and of the principles I have often advocated before the people and "the name of honor that I love more than I fear death" have called upon me, and I have obeyed.

Sarah, my love for you is deathless, it seems to bind me to you with mighty cables that nothing but Omnipotence could break; and yet my love of Country comes over me like a strong wind and bears me irresistibly on with all these chains to the battlefield.

The memories of the blissful moments I have spent with you come creeping over me, and I feel most gratified to God and to you that I have enjoyed them so long. And hard it is for me to give them up and burn to ashes the hopes of future years, when God willing, we might still have lived and loved together, and seen our sons grow up to honorable manhood around us. I have, I know, but few and small claims upon Divine Providence, but something whispers to me -- perhaps it is the wafted prayer of my little Edgar -- that I shall return to my loved ones unharmed. If I do not, my dear Sarah, never forget how much I love you, and when my last breath escapes me on the battlefield, it will whisper your name.

Forgive my many faults, and the many pains I have caused you. How thoughtless and foolish I have oftentimes been! How gladly would I wash out with my tears every little spot upon your happiness, and struggle with all the misfortune of this world, to shield you and my children from harm. But I cannot. I must watch you from the spirit land and hover near you, while you buffet the storms with your precious little freight, and wait with sad patience till we meet to part no more.

But, O Sarah! If the dead can come back to this earth and flit unseen around those they loved, I shall always be near you; in the garish day and in the darkest night -- amidst your happiest scenes and gloomiest hours -- always, always; and if there be a soft breeze upon your cheek, it shall be my breath; or the cool air fans your throbbing temple, it shall be my spirit passing by.

Sarah, do not mourn me dead; think I am gone and wait for thee, for we shall meet again.

As for my little boys, they will grow as I have done, and never know a father's love and care. Little Willie is too young to remember me long, and my blue-eyed Edgar will keep my frolics with him among the dimmest memories of his childhood. Sarah, I have unlimited confidence in your maternal care and your development of their characters. Tell my two mothers his and hers I call God's blessing upon them. O Sarah, I wait for you there! Come to me, and lead thither my children.

Sullivan

Ballou died at the First Battle of Bull Run on July 21, 1862.