Month: June 2003

Everyone’s linking to this one, but what the heck — let’s dogpile. Rand Beers resigned from his position as a counterterrorism advisor in the White House just before the war on Iraq began. Not because he didn’t support the war; he did. Rather, he couldn’t take working for Bush.

Beers had been working in the NSC since the 80s; he replaced Oliver North as director for counterterrorism and counternarcotics. He worked for Reagan, Clinton, and both Bushes. He’s a registered Democrat but it would be hard to argue that he dislikes Republicans.

He’s now working for Kerry, because he feels that strongly about the mess Bush is making of our counterterrorism policy. Read the article.

Looks like the Killer D T-shirts are finally available. Paypal 20 bucks (includes shipping) to dkz@swbell.net, subject line “T-Shirt Order”, tell him what size you want. Or use this link, which I just whipped up and used myself.

This really shouldn’t be a surprise, but I was a bit surprised. The official British investigation into those trailers decided they weren’t WMD labs. They were, apparently, hydrogen gas producing units, which is exactly what the Iraqis claimed they were. The Brits may have had an easier time figuring this out, since Iraq’s original artillery balloon systems were sold to Iraq by a British company.

So let’s go back to the surprise. Why was I surprised? Because I can’t help believing, on some level, that there are WMD in Iraq. Despite the fact that no Iraqi official has decided to let us know where they are, and despite the fact that we can’t find the tens of thousands of tons of WMD that Bush claimed, and despite the fact that Iraq didn’t use ‘em even at the 11th hour — some of me says “Well, they must be there.”

Thus, you can point at me and say “Look! There’s someone who was against the war, yet he believed in WMD!” However, it might be instructive to think about why I sorta believe in WMD. (On a gut level, let me emphasize. My brain strongly suspects we won’t find any, and it’s right.)

I thought there were WMD in Iraq because I didn’t think the President of the United States of America would mislead us about that kind of thing.

Truly. If Bush had gotten up and said “We’re pretty sure there aren’t any of those in Iraq,” I would have said “Oh… OK.” I mean, why wouldn’t I buy that? Doesn’t the President have access to better intelligence than I do? He absolutely does. So when he beat the drums so passionately and warned us in such uncertain terms that Iraq had WMD — I bought into it. I believed it because he said so, and I still have a little part of me that believes it because it’s so hard to wrap my mind around such a grievous lack of accuracy.

I don’t feel too bad about this. The technique known as the Big Lie works, and whether or not Bush consciously lied he used that technique. I’d use a better name for it if I had one. It comes down to someone in a position of authority saying something with absolutely no doubt in his or her tone; people believe that, because the consequences of thinking that the authority figure is lying loom large in our hindbrain.

Bush may well not have meant to mislead us. (Josh Marshall has a great piece on this, by the by.) But the effect was certainly misleading.

Unsurprisingly, Bush’s faith-based programs have taken that fateful next step. This one involves the Head Start preschool program. In eight states, it’s now possible for religious organizations running Head Start programs to discriminate in hiring based on religion.

This is ludicrous. The rationale is that religious organizations might not participate without being able to discriminate. I am forced to say “So?” Religious groups that feel the need to discriminate based on religion are not appropriate teachers for our children.

The Guardian has another piece on Guantanamo. Five points off for using scare quotes and the term “death chamber.” Ten points granted, however, for quoting the British Foreign Office regarding their concern about the British citizens currently interred down there. Remember, while we won’t subject our own citizens to a military tribunal, we’ll do it to the citizens of our allies.

Tipped off via the intrepid kodi, we have more on the Guantanamo plans for an execution chamber.

There also are plans to build a permanent modular detention facility, to imprison detainees who might be sentenced to indefinite terms, and an execution chamber should any be sentenced to death, he said.

If this is accurate, and the article quotes named individuals in the military, they have at the very least developed a process and procedure for military tribunal executions. And, in fact, it’s been posted.

Any lawful punishment or condition of punishment is authorized, including death, so long as the prerequisites detailed in reference (a) are met.

The above-mentioned reference (a) is the Military Commission Order No. 1, which is available here (as a PDF). It refers back to this Presidential order for authority. It should be noted that these tribunals are limited to non-US citizens, although it includes citizens of some of our allies.

Lawrence Haws argued in comments below that these plans could be intended as a threat to induce cooperation. S’still possible. I hope he’s right.

I should also note that, on reviewing the orders referenced above, that the military has outlined a fair system of trials. Without spending more time thinking about it, I wouldn’t argue that the tribunal system itself is unfair. I am more concerned about a judicial system established by executive order, for reasons involving separation of powers. (There’s probably something to be said here about the system of military justice for our military personnel; I will summarize by observing that becoming subject to that system is a matter of personal choice.)

Daily Kos, who is among the top five liberal bloggers, got a gig working for Howard Dean as a political consultant. From his disclosure post, his focus is going to be on providing services for the Internet campaign.

Now, “rah rah bloggers affecting politics rah.” Take that as said. And, yeah, it’s interesting that Dean chose a blogger to manage his online community. But I think it’s more interesting contemplating the fact that Dean cares about his online community at all. Blogs are part of that. So are the Dean Meetups, which have touched far more people than the Dean weblog. (Note that the Meetups translate into real world action in the form of charity work.)

He’s certainly polling higher, so something’s working. I think his core messages are fairly powerful, and he’s found a good way to broadcast those messages. The next step is convincing his Internet constituency to amplify those messages and talk about them to people who could care less about the Internet. If he can make that happen, he’s got a pretty solid chance of winning the nomination.