As I wrote a week ago, today is the sixth anniversary of the opening of the detention facility at Guantanamo Bay for “enemy combatants.” Not prisoners of war with legal rights accorded the Geneva Conventions, but enemy combatants who exist in some sort of legal black hole. The ACLU has asked that people wear orangeContinue reading “On Guantanamo’s Anniversary”
Tag Archives: Politics
On Political Preliminaries
I’ve been working on a politics post. I’ve mentioned it to one or two people. It is… different. Maybe it’s a little geeky. Maybe it’s a little inside baseball. Yet… it’s what I think. More importantly, it’s what I feel. But first, a few preliminaries. It’s no secret that I’m a John Edwards supporter. Indeed,Continue reading “On Political Preliminaries”
On Entering the Dark Side
It’s fair to say that I’m something of a political junkie. Lately I’ve been following conservative blogs. Like Red State, which is essentially the Republican equivalent of DailyKos. Why? you ask. I know what I think about the Republican presidential candidates — Romney’s liberal past will come back to bite him in the ass, Huckabee’sContinue reading “On Entering the Dark Side”
On Protesting Guantanamo
On January 11, 2008 the detention facility at Guantanamo Bay will celebrate an unfortunate anniversary. Its sixth anniversary. The United States will have been holding detainees there, outside of legal guidelines and international law, for longer than the American involvement in, say, World War II. Longer than the Civil War. Longer than most Presidencies. SixContinue reading “On Protesting Guantanamo”
On the Heir to Progressivism
I’m not going to write much on the Iowa Caucus results from last night. The candidate I’m pulling for, the candidate I’ve given money to — former Senator John Edwards — came in second on the Democratic side with thirty percent of the vote, behind Senator Barack Obama (with 37 percent) and ahead of SenatorContinue reading “On the Heir to Progressivism”
On John Edwards, Viking Warrior
This morning’s Washington Post ran some excerpts from Dana Milbank’s new book, Homo Politicus: The Strange and Scary Tribes That Run Our Government. If the government is a primitive tribe — and yes, there’s some primal sociology at play in politics — then how do candidates stack up in a primitive hierarchy? (Or for theContinue reading “On John Edwards, Viking Warrior”
On the Founding Fathers
Sunday’s Washington Post ran an interesting editorial by historian Joseph Ellis, author of numerous books on the Founding Fathers, with the headline, “What Would George Do?” The question Ellis asks — how would the Founding Fathers, like Washington and Jefferson, react to the problems facing the nation today, like Iraq, the media, and so forth?Continue reading “On the Founding Fathers”
On Mitt Romney’s Anti-Endorsement
Newspapers have been endorsing candidates at all levels of the political process for years. People running for President, for instance, covet the endorsements of newspapers, both in the general election and the primaries. I’m not sure if I’ve ever seen anything quite like this, before, though. The Concord Monitor, in Concord, New Hampshire, ran anContinue reading “On Mitt Romney’s Anti-Endorsement”
On First-of-the-Month Hits
From the creative mind of Keith DeCandido, “Tell what the first post of every month of the 2007 calendar year was.” Okie-day! January: On Incompetant Blundering — An after-action report of an Age of Empires III game. February: On Invitations — I was invited to a blogger conference. March: On the New Mission — IContinue reading “On First-of-the-Month Hits”
On Political Opinions
Things I’ve said in the past two days: How can a politician put together the words “debate on torture”? There’s no debate. Torture is torture. End of sentence. You just don’t do it. Calling Condi Rice “incompetant” is being kind.