swimming freestyle

For Hillary Clinton

Torturous Detail

CIA Director Michael Hayden appeared on "Meet the Press" yesterday and was asked about waterboarding:

We have not waterboarded anyone in now over five years,” Hayden said, concluding that it is “an uninteresting question for the Central Intelligence Agency.”

When asked about the broader issue of torture, Hayden referred to it as just a “legal term,” saying that the ongoing public discussion on “torture” per se tends to “cloud the debate”:

Well, first of all, we’re not talking about torture, all right? I mean, torture is a legal term. Now, there are some things that are illegal that are not, that are not torture. And so we cloud the debate when, when we throw the word torture out there, I think, in a far too casual way.

Later in the interview, Hayden said he is unaware of how the Justice Department currently defines waterboarding’s legality — because he hasn’t asked:

RUSSERT: Do you believe now that the Justice Department allows the CIA to engage in waterboarding?

HAYDEN: I don’t — the real answer is — I’m going to be very candid — I have no idea. And do you know why? Because I’ve not asked. And, and I know that previous opinions may no longer be extant because there have been a series of changes in American law since those opinions were issued.

I would suggest General Hayden consider becoming "interested".  The U.S. has conducted war crimes and those who authorized and participated in those crimes will be held accountable at some point.  The General's defense that he was just doing whatever the Justice Department recommended as the torture du jour will not wash in a real court of law. 

Ignorance is no defense General.

Kucinich for President

When asked why they continue to wage her campaign in light of her position with respect to pledged delegates, the popular vote and states won, Bill and Hillary Clinton have argued voters in the ten remaining primary states would be denied the opportunity to vote for her should she withdraw now.

“Well this is a really close election. Despite what some might say, it is a very close election in the popular vote and in the delegates,” she said. “We have 10 contests ahead of us, plus, don’t forget, Florida and Michigan. You know, I keep beating this drum … millions of people are going to be voting in the next three months, and I hope that will include Florida and Michigan.”  (Link)

Well, isn't that obvious that should she withdraw from the race, voters in primaries to come wouldn't vote for her?  The reason candidates withdraw from a race is because they realize they have no chance of winning and they're just wasting time and donor money at that point.

By the same reasoning, do Bill and Hillary Clinton believe Dennis Kucinich should have stayed in the race so as not to deny those (rabid) Kucinich voters in Pennsylvania and North Carolina the opportunity to cast their vote for Kucinich? 

Tick tock tick tock (the sound of time running out for Hillary Clinton).

 

Elizabeth Edwards Critiques the McCain Health Care Plan

From the LA Times:

Elizabeth Edwards, the wife of former Democratic presidential contender John Edwards, said she and John McCain have one thing in common: “Neither one of us would be covered by his health policy.”

Edwards lodged her criticism of the presumptive Republican presidential nominee’s proposal Saturday at the annual meeting of the Assn. of Health Care Journalists.

Under McCain’s plan, insurance companies “wouldn’t have to cover preexisting conditions like melanoma and breast cancer,” she said.

McCain has been treated for melanoma, the most serious type of skin malignancy. Edwards in 2004 was diagnosed with breast cancer, and announced a year ago that it had returned and spread into her bones, meaning it no longer could be cured.

McCain’s plan focuses on offering new tax breaks for individuals who buy their own health insurance. But critics say the Arizona senator’s proposal avoids giving insurers requirements on whom they must cover and how much they may charge.

A Picture for the Day

Robert Steel, the United States Treasury Department's under secretary for domestic finance, listened to Secretary of the Treasury Henry M. Paulson Jr. speak in Washington. Secretary Paulson spoke about Bush administration proposals to overhaul financial industry regulations. (NY Times)

Maybe It Should Have Been Mandated

It's been widely reported the Clinton campaign is having money trouble.  That, in and of itself, is worth commenting on given her self touted financial expertise.  This news is particularly ironic:

Among the debts reported this month by Hillary Rodham Clinton’s struggling presidential campaign, the $292,000 in unpaid health insurance premiums for her campaign staff stands out.

Clinton, who is being pressured to end her campaign against Barack Obama for the Democratic nomination, has made her plan for universal health care a centerpiece of her agenda. (Link)

The Reframing of Moqtada al Sadr

At the same time, the Americans' portrayal of Sadr has also changed. The Evil One of the last civil war, a man wanted by authorities and dubbed the "most dangerous man in Iraq" by Newsweek, has been repackaged as a leader to whom General Petraeus now attests a sense of responsibility. US military officials speaking on Iraqi television refer to him respectfully as "His Excellency Muqtada."

They know that they owe their successes partly to his withdrawal, and still do today. "Sadr is not the enemy," Ambassador Ryan Crocker said last week in Baghdad. The Americans, he added, are battling "special groups" and "extremist military elements" that Sadr apparently "doesn't have under control." But this is not the view of Sadr's Iraqi rivals, who now seek to deprive him of his power. (Link)

Iraq Hearts Iran

Iraqi lawmakers traveled to the Iranian holy city of Qom over the weekend to win the support of the commander of Iran's Qods brigades in persuading Shiite cleric Muqtada al Sadr to order his followers to stop military operations, members of the Iraqi parliament said.

Sadr ordered the halt on Sunday, and his Mahdi Army militia heeded the order in Baghdad, where the Iraqi government announced it would lift a 24-hour curfew starting early Monday in most parts of the capital.

But fighting continued in the oil hub of Basra, where a six-day-old government offensive against Shiite militias has had only limited gains.

The Qom discussions may or may not bring an end to the fighting but they almost certainly have undermined Maliki - who made repeated declarations that there would be no negotiations and that he would treat as outlaws those who did not turn in their weapons for cash. The blow to his own credibility was worsened by the fact that members of his own party had helped organize the Iran initiative. (Link)

The news that Iran played such a large role in the conflict's resolution only highlights the foolishness of the U.S. policy of ignore Iran.  It's becoming more and more obvious the U.S. and Iran have similar objectives for Iraq: a stable nation without an Iraqi al Qaeda insurgency. 

The Bush Administration's refusal to engage the Iranians is childish obstinance and is protracting our involvement in Iraq.

Terribly Sad

The President is booed as he makes his way to the mound to throw the ceremonial first pitch at the Washington Nationals seasonal opener. 

This makes me realize exactly what we're missing out on.  A sense of pride in our President.

Jean Nouvel

Jean Nouvel, the bold French architect known for such wildly diverse projects as the muscular Guthrie Theater in Minneapolis and the exotically louvered Arab World Institute in Paris, has received architecture’s top honor, the Pritzker Prize.

Mr. Nouvel, 62, is the second French citizen to take the prize, awarded annually to a living architect by a jury chosen by the Hyatt Foundation. (Christian de Portzamparc of France won in 1994.) His selection is to be announced Monday. (Link)

The bulk of Mr. Nouvel’s commissions work has been in Europe. Among the most prominent is his Quai Branly Museum in Paris (2006), an eccentric jumble of elements including a glass block atop two columns, some brightly colorful boxes, rust-colored louvers and a vertical carpet of plants.









Mr. Nouvel has defied easy categorization. His buildings have no immediately identifiable signature, like the curves of Frank Gehry or the light-filled atriums of Renzo Piano.

Right, his KKL cultural and congress center in Lucerne, Switzerland (2000).









Mr. Nouvel's Agbar Tower in Barcelona (2005) is a candy-colored, bullet-shaped office tower.