WTF Snowe?

TPM reports:

After months in which the Senate health care bill was held up over efforts to find some form in which she would agree to sign on to it, Sen. Snowe (R-ME) now says she will oppose it because it is being "rushed."

There are cogent reasons to oppose the Senate's health bill. Being "rushed" stopped being one back in September-October.

My suspicion is that Snowe would like to support the bill at this point but doesn't have the patience to deal with the Full Metal Malkinization that would ensue from the right.

Why is the trial a problem?

Josh Marshall counters:

[..] most of the criticism comes under three distinct but related arguments:

1. Civilian trials give the defendants too many rights and protections and thus create too big a risk they'll get acquitted and set free.
2. Holding the prisoners and trial in New York City puts the city's civilian population at unnecessary risk of new terror attacks.
3. Holding public, civilian trials will give the defendants an opportunity to mock the victims, have a platform to issue propaganda or gain public sympathy.

The first two arguments strike me as understandable but basically wrong on the facts. The third I find difficult in some ways even to understand and seems grounded in bad political values or even ideological cowardice.

(continued)

Sen. Webb (D-VA) on the terror trials

Via TPM:

"I have never disputed the constitutional authority of the President to convene Article III courts in cases of international terrorism. However, I remain very concerned about the wisdom of doing so. Those who have committed acts of international terrorism are enemy combatants, just as certainly as the Japanese pilots who killed thousands of Americans at Pearl Harbor. It will be disruptive, costly, and potentially counterproductive to try them as criminals in our civilian courts.

"The precedent set by this decision deserves careful scrutiny as we consider proper venues for trying those now held at Guantanamo who were apprehended outside of this country for acts that occurred outside of the country. And we must be especially careful with any decisions to bring onto American soil any of those prisoners who remain a threat to our country but whose cases have been adjudged as inappropriate for trial at all. They do not belong in our country, they do not belong in our courts, and they do not belong in our prisons.

"I have consistently argued that military commissions, with the additional procedural rules added by Congress and enacted by President Obama, are the most appropriate venue for trying individuals adjudged to be enemy combatants."

For most of the detainees now in Guantanamo, this is probably true. But I think the Obama administration appreciates that because previous commissions enacted by Bush lacked the fairness and legitimacy of due process, merely reforming them is not enough. We must break with that past somehow.

Viewed in this light, trying KSM and a handful of others in New York seems inspired and fitting.

May they get their just desserts at an indisputably fair trial. And may the rest of the mess Bush left at Guantanamo be dealt with fairly but more quietly with the new commissions.

Sigh-inducing quote of the day

"We need someone to stand up to Barack Obama and his policies. We must protect our culture, our Christian identity."

—Curtis Reynolds, Arkansas GOP Senate candidate and retired Army officer

"Abstinence-Supporting GOP State Lawmaker Admits To Sex With 22-Year-Old Intern"

Hope it was worth it.

Will social conservatives never grow up and admit sex is normal—something that should be done safely and in moderation, not avoided until it gets you in trouble? Abstinence-only is like teaching people to diet by almost-starving them for days at a time, until they finally break down and go rob a grocery store or dumpster diving and get themselves into trouble.

Doctor apologizes for insensitivity

Regarding that "disgustingly racist" image, TPMMuckracker posts the doctor's P.R. apology statement:

DR. DAVID MCKALIP SENDS APOLOGY DIRECTLY TO PRESIDENT OBAMA
McKalip apologizes for sending insensitive image via e-mail

St. Petersburg, FL (July 23, 2009) - David McKalip, M.D., brain and spine neurosurgeon of St. Petersburg has never been shy in expressing where he stands regarding President Barack Obama's health-care reform. Despite McKalip's position on health system reform, he sends a sincere apology for a forwarded image of President Obama in an e-mail depicting the president in Papua New Guinean tribal garb with a logo beneath it saying, "Obama Care."

"I genuinely regret the decision I made in passing this e-mail message along. Directly to President Obama, I sincerely apologize for offending him. This was, in no way whatsoever, my intention. The image has nothing to do with my feelings or thoughts on any race or culture. I recognize that this image is offensive and hope that the nation refocuses on assuring all Americans have access to high-quality, affordable health care with no party interfering in the patient-physician relationship. My intention is to focus directly on the issue at hand, which is putting financial and decision-making power into the hands of patients and taking it from government and insurance companies," said McKalip.

The image forwarded was from a long chain of e-mails and not created by McKalip.

It's a shame that such a statement is necessary, but c'est la vie. Taking on sensitivity police isn't something many people have the time or will for, especially busy doctors who don't want interference with their work or hospital's reputation.

Obama and racial hypersensitivity

(meme) Commenting on the TPMMuckraker story, LGF calls this image "disgusting racism"...

Really? So if I say I think it's pretty funny, does that make me a disgusting racist?

I recently read about shamans, witch doctors, and other primitive "spiritual" medicine in the early chapters of Robert Wright's The Evolution of God. And it seems to me that painting parts of Obama's health reform (like the public option) as running the risk of stifling innovation and leading to more primitive outcomes for medicine should fall within the norm of political satire.

But wait, we can't do that because it might suggest African-Americans are primitive, because of Obama's part-African heritage? Sigh.

I think distributing images like this is a bad idea only because it has the misfortune of serving as bait for the anti-racism police. And dealing with them is more tedious than the ordinary PC brigade, because of how harshly "racism" is demonized (justly so, in the case of actual racism).

Growing up bilingual and as a cultural minority as I did, I think I can state with a fair amount confidence that I'm pretty far removed from being racist. I was the only white kid in grade schools I attended and had some painful (as well as nonphysical) altercations with bona fide anti-yankee racism. So I know first-hand what the real shit is like, and this ain't it.

At worst, this image is racially "insensitive". Due to the bubble they live in, there are plenty on the right who have a real lack of racial sensitivity—but this does not mean they're "disgusting racists". And while I know being racially—or more broadly, culturally—sensitive can be is helpful for avoiding misunderstandings, this is not to say that being a sensitivity troll is helpful. Shame on TPMMuckracker and LGF.

I'll say it too

Josh notes:

"That Should Go Over Well"

The latest GOP angle on attacking Obama's health care reform effort. Say we never should have founded Medicare.

Well, it's true. We never should have founded Medicare. The benefits are swell for recipients, but it's a fiscal disaster.

Alas, a government that robs Peter to pay Paul can always depend upon the support of Paul (George Bernard Shaw, 1944).

Senior citizens voting in droves is a big part of why we're in such a mess. It's also politically incorrect to point out a simple truth: they have much less reason to be concerned about our fiscal future.

Photo of the day

Al Franken is sworn in as the junior senator from Minnesota by Vice President Joe Biden on July 7. Franken's wife, Franni, holds the Bible.

Some choice you're giving us, lady

I opposed the Waxman-Markey climate bill that squeaked through the House today for sane reasons: it fails cost-benefit analysis, leaving us worse off than we'd be without it.

Michele Bachmann, however, is here to remind us of her own reasons for opposing it. I'm with her through 0:40, then she unloads the crazy...



Really? Because it's looking to me like our choice is between sloppy, self-righteous 'save the world' sentimentalism from the left and quixotic anti-tyranny fear rhetoric from the right.

King David didn't resign after his sex scandal, so why should Sanford?

From the Dept. of Republicans taking the old book of Jewish fairy tales too seriously.

Preventing public health insurance

The game is afoot.

Pelosi-gate

The Anonymous Liberal summarizes:

Pelosi-gate, in a nutshell: What did one member of the minority party know about the majority party’s illegal war crimes and when did she know it?

TPM says:

Focus, people. Let's not get distracted by what happened and lose sight of who was briefed about it.

Link blag

I endorse Will Wilkinson's ramblings on libertarian democraphobia.

Daily Beast looks back at the wackiest moments of Michele Bachmann, batshit crazy extraordinaire. Spoiler: She sees this as her divine calling!

Also, a manifesto for young voters.

TPM: Et tu, DeMint? Cato has more thoughts.

(video) Obama gets more respect from the press than Bush did. My guess is reporters stood for Bush during his first term. After 2005, not so much. I'll further speculate it's in part because they'd grown very accustomed to him by 2008, he seldom had anything bright to say, and at this point by any reasonable standard his presidency was a terrible failure.

Criticizing Obama shuts down conversations? I guess it's like how those of us who objected to Bush's policies when they were popular were said to hate America, etc.

WSJ: Meet Desirée Rogers, keeper of the Obama brand.

Ordinary Mark Thompson is serious about American exceptionalism, in a good way. William Brafford objects to the term.

It's official: The Obama administration loves MSNBC.

Shepard Smith, Fox News' oasis of sanity

I'm sorry, but you can't detain someone for 7 years just because it's difficult to build a case against them. Better to release a terrorist than put an innocent through that for so long.

Or are we to value the potential harm of released possible-terrorists over the freedom of possible-innocents now? Is this what the right would have us become?

Relatedly, see Jon Stewart's extended interview with Cliff May.

Equality in Iowa

TPM: It used to be that when you saw two men and one woman under a chuppah, everyone's assigned role was clear. Not any more...

Specter laments club-for-shrinkage

Chafee winning in '06 with more money sounds unlikely to me, even though he was a better Senator than the Democrat who replaced him. Under Bush, Republicans were simply to unpopular at that point in RI. But I take Specter's broader point.

The Club's response...

"Senator Specter has confirmed what we already knew - he's a liberal devoted to more spending, more bailouts, and less economic freedom. Thanks to him, Democrats will now be able to steamroll their big government agenda through the Senate.
"This also shows how unprincipled he is. Just a few weeks ago, he stated quite clearly that he was remaining a Republican because he thought he had 'a more important role to play there.' And he said 'the United States very desperately needs a two-party system.'

"This cynical play for political survival calls into question whether Pennsylvania taxpayers can believe anything Arlen Specter says. If his only principle is personal ambition, can he really be trusted with the serious issues that face our country?"

"The Club for Growth PAC enthusiastically endorsed Pat Toomey for Senate in Pennsylvania when Specter was pretending to be a Republican. Club members will be even more committed to Toomey's candidacy now that Specter has revealed his true identity."

Nate Silver has more numbers on what the switch may mean in practice.

Sunday talk on prosecution

Bachmann very concerned about "stark raving mad" DHS Secretary

At what point does self-parody become the new self?

How did the oil get to Alaska?

Joe Barton (R-TX) doesn't have a middle school science textbook handy:



Later, he tweets:



Um, right--what a fool.