Head Fake

Dan Drezner on Mike Huckabee's Foreign Affairs essay: "[T]here are feints in interesting directions, but in the end it's just a grab-bag of contradictory ideas."

Why Do I Get My Hopes Up?

A few days ago, I noted Senator Lindsay Graham (R-SC) raking an Army General over the coals for refusing to say, explicitly, that water boarding would be torture if done by Iranian intelligence on a U.S. soldier. I noted the rhetoric was pleasing -- but Graham has a history of talking without walking when it comes to torture.

And lo and behold; Steve Benen reports that Graham has put a hold on legislation that would have restricted the CIA to techniques permitted by the Army Field Guide Manual.

When push comes to shove, Graham stands in favor of torture. Don't let me forget it.

Does Intention Matter?

Upon request, Kevin Drum receives a conservative argument as to why it's okay for America to torture in the war on terror. He reprints it without comment (I, as you will see, am not so generous):

I want our side to win. Or maybe more accurately, I don't want our side to lose....As with any other form of violence, motivation is everything. A cop shooting a murderer is not the same as a murderer shooting an innocent victim, although both use guns, and at the end, someone is bleeding and dying.

You'd be amazed at how many people find these things nearly equivalent. A leftist I know sees no difference between a Palestinian child dying from a stray Israeli bullet during a firefight, and an Israeli child dying when a Palestinian terrorist puts the barrel of a gun to the kid's forehead and blows his brains across the back wall of the child's bedroom. In his two-dimensional perception, the only important factor is that both resulted in a dead child. Avoiding true moral analysis and motivations allows him to skirt the concept of "evil," a term which makes many liberals intensely uncomfortable.

John Kiriakou said that waterboarding a terrorist stopped dozens of attacks. Dozens. Not attacks on military targets, but attacks on innocent non-combatants.

That was the motivation.

The terrorists who torture and kill our prisoners (never something as benign as waterboarding) don't do it because they need information to save innocent people. They do it because they like it, because they want to hurt or kill someone.

At some point you have to decide if a known terrorist having a very bad day (after which he goes back to a hot meal and a cot) is more of a moral problem than allowing a terrorist to blow up a building full of people.

Yes, it's good if we do it, when it's for the right reasons. So far, it's been for the right reasons. And no, it isn't good when it's done to us, for the reasons it has been done to us. Get back to me when some enemy tortures one of our soldiers in order to save innocent lives.

Got it?

There are two issues that spring to mind upon reading this argument.

1) The unidentified conservative draws a contrast between America, which tortures to save innocents, and the terrorists, who do it "because they like it, because they want to hurt or kill someone." This is a tempting argument. But ultimately, it is intellectually lazy. Certainly, there are brutes among men -- people who simply like to cause pain. But when it comes to vast, multi-national organizations, motivation is never that simple. The world is not made of cartoon villains. Ask anybody -- from the Klan to the Gestapo to Al Qaeda -- if their intentions are good, and they'll answer yes. They'll say they are building a better world. They are saying they are saving their people from damnation and imperial domination. They'll say they are purging society of the infidels and the undesirables. People don't cackle in corners about their plan to bring darkness and evil down upon the world. Everybody comes with good intentions.

A hypothetical I heard used was if Iran captured and water boarded a downed American airman to figure out if the U.S. was planning an invasion. Surely, innocent lives are at stake. They could claim good intentions. They wouldn't be lying. But neither would it be enough. Water boarding is not something civilized societies engage in.

2) Nonetheless, motive does matter. It is different; torturing someone to save innocent lives versus doing it for thrills. And we can evaluate different proffered motives dispassionately -- we don't have to simply agree with an assertion that a motive (establishing the caliphate, sending a message to the queers) is good.

But motive isn't all that matters. Nobody seriously disputes this, because nobody (I hope) disagrees that there is some outward limit to what we can do under the moniker of good intention. Can we water board suspected terrorists in order to save lives? This man says yes. But that isn't the only question at issue. Can we water board suspected terrorists without knowing whether it will save lives or not? Can we torture people who we're not sure are terrorists (and in some cases, we find out later are not)? All of these are moral questions raised by the current torture regime.

Or let's press the issue further. Can we dip their fingers in acid? What if they still won't talk? Can we dip their family members' fingers in acid? Can we sodomize their sons with spiked bats? If we do so, does it matter that we went in with pure souls?

Intention only gets you part of the way. There are still boundaries which an ethical society cannot cross, no matter how noble the heart and no matter how righteous the cause.

Comedy Is a Dead Art. Now Tragedy! That's Funny!

Is there a grad student alive in the Western World with worse luck than Scott Eric Kaufman? I should thank him for literally being a magnet for bad karma.

But he's a good guy, so I hope everything turns out okay. And he wins the lottery for good measure.

Authoritarian Evolution

Following up my post yesterday on how the changing international scene is proving a boon for African liberalization, Daniel Drezner rescues us from crippling optimism by noting how authoritarian regimes have adapted to the new era and found new ways to solidify their grip on power. Route #1: economics. Keep the economy humming, and folks really don't care that they don't get to vote. Route #2: use quasi-Democratic means to ramp up executive power. This appears to be a favorite in South America, where Presidents win office democratically, then host loaded "constitutional conventions" to remake the system to their liking (Drezner cites Bolivia and Ecuador, as well as the narrowly defeated attempt in Venezuela).

It's a good post, and shows that the forces of democracy can't get complacent.

In The Bunker

Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee, writing in Foreign Affairs, critiques the Bush administration for having an "arrogant, bunker mentality." Now, if past experience is any guide, Huckabee's somewhat surprising break from orthodox, institutional conservative talking points will rapidly be followed by a sprinting back-track, as he cowers from the furious reaction of the base.

See, e.g., immigration, taxes.

Law School Brochure Blogging, Part II

Positive ones today, kids.

I got a nice thick envelope from Michigan Law School today. At first, I was really excited -- until I remembered I hadn't actually submitted my application to Michigan yet (soon!). A nice counter-balance to the thin envelope I received from a school "acknowledging" my application. Anyway, I give Michigan full marks on its brochure. It was jammed full of information, and it came with a personal note at the bottom ("We love to get Carleton grads!"). The author even underlined "impressive" in "credentials as impressive as yours." Am I a sucker for having my ego stroked? You better believe it. But actually, it was the "Carleton grads" note that really made me happy. I like it when my school gets recognition, one of my close friends from Carleton just got into Michigan, and my adviser is a Michigan alum (undergrad and Ph.D -- she got her law degree at Boalt Hall).

Also with a good brochure was Chicago-Kent School of Law. While my eyebrows did hike slightly when they said they were "among the top three law schools in the Chicago area" (true, but I think there's a real gap between them, and Northwestern and Chicago), I did think they did a good job pitching their Honors Scholars program. I was particularly impressed that their LSAT cut-off for the Honors Scholars program was higher than their 75th percentile LSAT score (which isn't too shabby itself). That tells me they're a) truly gunning for top students and b) trying to improve the quality of their student body overall -- both good signs.

Indiana came today too, but it was pretty forgettable.

See Part I.

Five Myths About Torture

Courtesy of Reed College Professor Darius Rejali. They are:

1) Torture worked for the Gestapo [I like how this is considered an argument in favor -- DS]

2) Everyone talks sooner or later under torture.

3) People will say anything under torture.

4) Most people [specifically, the intelligence professionals administering the torture -- DS] can tell when someone is lying under torture.

5) You can train people to resist torture.

The McGwire Paradox, Redux

Last year, I wrote a post on the burgeoning baseball steroids scandal entitled The McGwire Paradox. Noting the intense amount of loathing Barry Bonds has received as he pursued a cherished national record (namely, career home runs), I asked why Mark McGwire, who also chased and eventually broke a popular home run record (Roger Maris' single season mark) while under steroid suspicions didn't receive the same opprobrium. Now it's not like McGwire was treated with kid gloves during his run. But surely we can agree that he didn't face the same level of hostility that Bonds has: booing at every ball park, a universally hostile media, and now a criminal probe.

Working off that, Paul Butler of George Washington Law School wonders if the 89 players -- mostly White and Latino -- named in the Mitchell Report will face similar charges to the ones being pressed against Bonds. If not, Butler argues, prosecutors should drop the case against Barry.

There is a sense, both in the criminal justice system and in the social Zeitgeist, that drug use by African-Americans is somehow worse than drug use by others....To state the obvious, all drug offenders ought to be treated the same. Since we don’t have the resources to “level up” enforcement for white people to enforcement for African-Americans, we should “level down” enforcement for blacks. It seems unlikely that the 88 other baseball players accused of doping will be investigated and prosecuted like Bonds. Dropping the charges against Bonds would send the important message that when it comes to criminal justice, what is good enough for white people is good enough for African-Americans.

Butler has written much excellent scholarship on this and related topics. If you have the time (and the access), I highly recommend his article Starr is to Clinton as Regular Prosecutors are to Blacks, 40 Boston College Law Review 705-716 (1999).

Drug Users of America, Unite!

At his new American Prospect location, Ezra Klein argues that Bill Shaheen's clumsy effort at making Obama's past drug use an issue may have actually aided Obama by inoculating him against the charge when Republicans (or their proxy groups) throw it at him in the 2008 elections.

I certainly hope that's right. But can I just say I find this whole thing ridiculous. Obama used drugs as a kid. Fantastic. Lot's of kids do. I don't find that thrilling information, but you know what I consider the ideal outcome of a youthful drug habit? Kicking it, going to Ivy League schools, and eventually becoming a front-runner for President. There is this persistent murmuring that Obama is a bad example for kids because, after he admitted to taking drugs, he didn't have the decency to become a hobo or thug for the rest of his life.

This mentality simply won't last. Kids today know people who take drugs. If we got rid of all the people who had tried marijuana, I wouldn't have a college anymore. And you know what? Having had friends, class-mates, roommates, family members, and romantic partners who have experimented with cannabis, I can say without a doubt that the world would be a worse place if they were in prison. Anybody who has attended college in the last several decades has had the same experience. Eventually, it's going to have an effect on policy.

Oprah's Racial Politics

Nobody should be surprised that some of Oprah's fans are not happy seeing her stump for Obama. When you have as much of an audience as Oprah has, undoubtedly you're going to have people who aren't Obama fans, and it's no shock that they would rather not see their icon pitching for a politician they find distasteful.

What does amaze me, however, is that they are accusing her of being racially divisive:

But, what's especially interesting about reading Oprah's Web site is why some of those fans seem to be upset: the way she stumped for Obama, they say, seemed to pit white against black.

"I've been inspired to believe that a new vision is possible for America,"
Oprah said while on the stump with Obama in South Carolina. "Dr. King dreamed the dream, we get to vote that dream into reality."

Back on Oprah's Web site, one commenter wrote, "Winfrey has artfully begun her stump speeches alongside Obama with a negative racial tone."

And another commenter wrote, "Don't pit blacks against whites."

How Ms. Winfrey's comments could conceivably be called "a negative racial tone" or "pit[ting] blacks against whites" is literally beyond me, except so far as any mention of racial justice makes whites defensive and angry.

Oprah says she is "offended" by implications that she is supporting Obama due to his race. As she should be. It is offensive to assume that Black voters are so immature that they see nothing but skin color when casting their ballots. Obama is getting her vote because she thinks he is the best candidate for America -- the same reason most other voters choose their candidates.

Day In, Day Out

Michelle Cottle has an important observation on Fred Thompson:

With only three weeks to go until the caucuses, is it really possible that Thompson is going to at last get serious about the race and exert some sort of effort? I've always gotten the sense that ol' Fred likes to think of himself as a clutch player, the type of fella who doesn't need to work up a sweat in the early going then comes to life in the last few minutes of the game to carry the day. You saw this in his 1994 Senate run, where, in the closing months, Thompson perked up, hunkered down, and scored a major victory after getting his butt whooped for most of the race.

I suppose Thompson could still be plotting something similar in this election. But do we really want a president who thinks of himself as a swoop-in-at-the-last-second kind of guy? The presidency isn't really a "clutch" kind of job. Yes, you need someone who responds well under pressure, a strong leader who doesn't freak out in a crisis or buckle during intense negotiations. But you also need someone who can perform over the long haul, who can handle the daily grind and grinding anxiety of the job.

This is important, and the media needs to incorporate Cottle's words into the broader narrative of the hypothetical "Thompson surge." It matters because the media needs to take note of this if/when Thompson begins his last-minute push. I would not be surprised if Thompson at least makes a strong move back to the top in the waning days of the campaign. After all, the Republican electorate does not seem happy with it's choices, and Thompson's original rationale as a candidate was precisely to be the savior for conservative voters who had nowhere else to go.

But Thompson shouldn't be given bygones on his previously lackluster effort when covering this surge. It'd be one thing if had been chugging along diligently up to this point, and was regaining votes as Republicans decided to give him a fresh look. That's essentially what happened with Huckabee, and his move to the top of the pack was properly framed. It'd be easy to use that template all over again with Thompson. Easy, but wrong. Huckabee overcame lack of name recognition, but that won't be a problem if he's the leader of the free world. Unlike Huckabee, Thompson's prior mediocre polling is intricately connected with the type of President he'd make. Thompson will have to work hard every single day, day in and day out, if he's President. His lack of commitment to going through the grind is the sort of thing voters have a right to be reminded of, even if he's willing to buckle down in the clutch.

Could You Be More Specific?

Hit and Run live-blogs the last Democratic Iowa debate. Unfortunately, they tag the debate as "The One Nobody is Watching", which is spectacularly undescriptive. But the coverage itself is interesting.

We Can Only Hope

The Boston Globe reports on Africa's surprising turn-around over the past few years. Democracy is up, economies are thriving, and peace is spreading. Matt Yglesias notes that the end of the Cold War, which inherently stymied reform by letting corrupt nations play the two global superpowers off for string-free support, has given these states breathing room to grow and prosper. Yglesias is right that it's important to not get into that same game with China in the coming years, but we must be equally vigilant to not let China cast itself as a "shield" for illiberal regimes who want to continue oppressing their citizenry with impunity (as they have been doing for Sudan).

Of course, it's not all good news -- there are still hellish scenarios playing out in Zimbabwe and Sudan, and Yglesias linked to the Globe article itself as a counterpoint to Congo's descent back into chaos. But any progress is good progress -- and nothing would be better for the persistent trouble-spots in the region than if their neighbors were able to get on solid footing and could pull them up with them.

House Votes To Outlaw CIA Use of Waterboarding

In a 222-199 vote, the House passed a bill which would prohibit the CIA from using interrogation techniques not sanctioned in the Army Field Manual, such as waterboarding. Good news.

There were five Republicans amongst the ayes. They were Representatives Roscoe Bartlett (MD), Wayne Gilchrest (MD), Tim Johnson (IL), Walter Jones (NC), and Chris Smith (NJ). Special credit to Bartlett and Gilchrest, whose ballots meant that the entire Maryland Congressional delegation voted unanimously against sanctioning torture.

There were also ten Democrats who voted nay. They were Representatives Danny Davis (IL), Dennis Kucinich (OH), Barbara Lee (CA), John Lewis (GA), Jim Marshall (GA), David Scott (GA), Jose Serrano (NY), Pete Stark (CA), Maxine Waters (CA), and Lynn Woolsey (CA). With the exception of Marshall and possibly Scott, I'm guessing that these folks were objecting from the left, not casting ballots in favor of torture.

Contempt Citations for Rove and Bolten

The Senate Judiciary Committee has voted to hold Karl Rove and Josh Bolten in contempt for refusing to produce documents related to the U.S. attorneys scandal. It now goes to the full Senate for another vote there. If it passes again, then we could have a major constitutional showdown brewing, as the Bush administration has signaled its willingness to fight to the death to prevent these subpoenas from being enforced.

The WaPo

I'm a fan and defender of the Washington Post, though some parts more than others. I think it's news section is really good (when it's not talking about Hillary Clinton's cleavage). Tom Toles, the editorial cartoonist, is a god amongst men. I even think the unsigned editorials are decent. Their columnist rotation, well, that's a bit iffier:

It has been extraordinarily soft on George W. Bush throughout the various debacles over which he has presided. In fact, the most recent addition to the Post's Op-Ed writers is Michael Gerson, the former Bush speech writer, a man who combines a sunny shallowness with insular retrograde politics. The hiring is inexplicable -- the only possible way Gerson could attract an audience in this area would be if he were slated to be torn apart by wild dogs -- then he could sell out FedEx field.

Truer than you'd think. We're actually that liberal, and actually politically savvy enough to know who Gerson is.

Ossining Public Schools

Dana Goldstein in the American Prospect has a great article on the efforts of Ossining Public Schools to reduce the performance gap between its White and minority students, in part through programs specifically targeted at Blacks, particularly Black men. Ossining is a rare school district that has a long outstanding commitment to racial integration -- one that recent Supreme Court decisions has threatened.

It's really a fantastic and fascinating piece. Go read.

Our Problem Too

This Echidne post on feminists debating "trivialities" is great the whole way through. She lambastes "concern trolls" who claim to support feminist ends but complain that nominal feminists spend all their time debating trivial concerns like language. If only they were talking about rape in Saudi Arabia, then I'd be right on board. Echidne responds:

Note first that the real and grave injustices that women still face: oppression, rape and even being killed for their gender in some countries, are somehow all problems that only the feminists should try to solve. The rest of the society can just sit back and criticize the feminist attempts, almost like those ice-skating judges at the Olympics. Though of course they would applaud should the feminists actually solve all those frighteningly large problems, without much external funding and while being criticized of nitpicking and various forms of lunacy. But are these problems not the responsibility of the rest of the humankind to solve? It appears not. Only the feminists are expected to fix the world for billions of women.

So true. If you don't think feminists are focusing on the right issues, I guess that's your prerogative. But then you better start focusing on those "right issues". Criticizing them for not pressing for women's rights in Iran is a hollow gesture if your next move is to write your Congressman demanding he repeal the Estate Tax.

But also, as Echidne points out, these "trivialities" are often a big deal to those affected. It's easy to call "trivial" what you yourself aren't being subjected to, but that doesn't mean it's not a special form of arrogance to demean the experience of the other:

That there might be something deeper in the trivial topics some feminists (read: Echidne) chooses is lost on the critics. This something deeper is twofold: First, language matters. It matters that the most common insults in the unmoderated parts of the blog threads are about the object of the insult taking the female position in sex (blow me! bend over!). It matters that a politician who is viewed as bought is called someone's bitch. It matters that "whores" are a common term of denigration, too. It even matters when a politician gives a speech with references to great statesmen, not to stateswomen, and it matters because of what the images might be that our brains create from that speech, and how those images then become expectations having to do with how a politician should look (masculine).

Second, trivialities are sometimes trivial for only those who are not affected by them. Suppose that you are bitten by mosquitoes while your friend is not. You go out for a camping holiday together. You get bitten in the morning, your friend does not. You get bitten at noon, your friend does not. You get bitten in the afternoon, your friend does not. You get bitten all evening at the campfire while your friend enjoys some marshmallows. You then scratch like mad and swear and rant, and your friend suggests that you pay far too much attention to such trivialities as mosquito bites. Then you kill your friend.

People who haven't experienced what you have (or, usually worse, have experienced it one time in isolation and think that because it wasn't a big deal then, they "know" you can deal with it now) don't have the right to tell you what matters and what doesn't in your life. I'm sorry, but you don't get to expropriate experience that way. Certainly, sometimes we have to take our best guesses, and we remain free to forward our opinions and conjectures about what matters and what doesn't. But, as Iris Marion Young put it, ultimately "the only correction to...misrepresentation of the standpoint of others is their ability to tell me that I am wrong about them." You got to listen, people!

Via FLP

No Further Questions

Senator Lindsay Graham (R-SC) is part of that class of Republican Senators that is willing to talk a good game on torture, but when push comes to shove, isn't willing to do anything that will actually prevent it from happening. Still, tell me he doesn't look genuinely upset when Guantanamo Bay legal adviser Gen. Thomas Hartmann refuses to answer whether Iran waterboarding a downed U.S. airman would constitute a violation of the Geneva Conventions.

Senator Graham is right that there are no further questions to be asked on this issue. It's time for some concrete action backing up Graham's strong words.

Via Liberty Street