Month: November 2006

Veterans’ Day (Belated)

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by hilzoy Civilian control of the military is a wonderful thing, but it places a huge responsibility on us. The men and women in the military do not get to pick and choose their missions. When the leaders we elect ask them to fight, they go. We owe them our gratitude, but we also owe … Read more

Three More Things About Iraq

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by hilzoy I write a post on Iraq, and, of course, as soon as I post it, I run across three more interesting stories. One: “The sight of Saddam Hussein haranguing the court that sentenced him to death last week in Baghdad may have done little to slow his trip to the gallows, which looks … Read more

159

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by hilzoy I have noticed with horror the way stories from Iraq that once would have shocked me have come to seem ordinary. (Not less awful; just less surprising.) I can remember when the news of an IED killing three or four soldiers was unusual, and when it was a particularly bad day when the … Read more

Good News!

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by hilzoy The California Daily Journal, via How Appealing, via dKos: “Sen. Patrick Leahy of Vermont, who is expected to become chairman, confirmed Thursday that he is drafting a bill to undo portions of a recently passed law that prevent terrorism detainees from going to federal court to challenge the government’s right to hold them … Read more

Now That The Dust Has Settled …

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by hilzoy I’m still taking in the fact that for the first time in years, my party will actually have a chance to do something, rather than just sitting back and watching the trainwreck and hoping to ameliorate things on the edges. It’s an amazing thought. We can offer policy proposals that aren’t doomed from … Read more

AP, NBC Call VA Senate Race For Webb

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by hilzoy And that means that Democrats control the Senate. And that, in turn, makes me a very happy camper. Last night I said to myself: whatever else happens, Santorum will lose, and that’s a wonderful thing all by itself. If Weldon loses too, I will be very, very happy. If Allen loses — well, … Read more

Goodbye, Donald!

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by hilzoy So: Rumsfeld is out. At least three years too late, but better late than never, when people are dying. And make no mistake: this one really matters. Even if God were to appear to Donald Rumsfeld in a vision and reveal some way of bringing a lasting peace to Iraq and Afghanistan while … Read more

Election Thread

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by hilzoy I don’t know whether or not I’ll update this as the evening progresses, but I might. In the meantime, here, with great big caveats (remember 2004! remember 2004!), are purported exit polls: “Dem leads: VA: 52-47 RI: 53-46 PA: 57-42 OH: 57-43 NJ: 52-45 MT: 53-46 MO: 50-48 MD: 53-46 GOPer leads: TN: … Read more

Antidemocratic Immoral Scumbags

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by hilzoy That’s what I think of anyone who engages in voter suppression. Like this: “Our own Alec Oveis, who sadly left the Prospect few months ago, calls in from Connecticut, where he’s volunteering on behalf of Chris Murphy (one of Tom’s “Dropkick Murphys” positioned to defeat GOP incumbents this year). He reports that voter … Read more

Election-Free Public Service Announcement

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by hilzoy It is the season for flu shots, and so I thought I’d remind everyone that even though flu shots do not protect against avian flu, the threat of an avian flu pandemic gives everyone two additional reasons to get one. (1) Influenza is a nasty disease. In the event of an avian flu … Read more

“What’s Your Plan?”

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by hilzoy For some unfathomable reason, I decided to read the speeches our President has been giving recently in an attempt to motivate his base, and one point struck me as worth commenting on. It’s this: “If you happen to bump into a Democratic candidate, you might want to ask this simple question: What’s your … Read more

More Fun From The Party Of Moral Values

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by hilzoy Josh Marshall has been reporting a new and despicable set of dirty tricks: robocalls that call over and over, or in the middle of the night, pretending to be for one candidate when in fact they are from another. The point, apparently, is to annoy voters so much that they decide not to … Read more

Saddam Will Hang

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by hilzoy

From the Washington Post:

“Former Iraqi president Saddam Hussein was found guilty by a special tribunal Sunday of crimes against humanity for the torture and execution of more than 100 people from a small town north of Baghdad 24 years ago. He was sentenced to death by hanging.”

I oppose the death penalty. That said, there are cases in which I get more upset than others, and Saddam is somewhere around Jeffrey Dahmer’s level on my personal list of death sentences to protest. Rather than say anything about the trial, I thought I’d take this opportunity to remember some other people who were sentenced to death. [UPDATE: These are not the people he was just convicted of killing. I just thought I would rather think about Saddam Hussein’s victims than think about him. END UPDATE.]

Hazar25

Halepce_katliam

06

[UPDATE: While I wrote this I was only thinking about Iraq, not about the US. So let me state for the record: I don’t think that the dreadfulness of Saddam in any way implies that the invasion was justified, let alone that it was justified as actually executed. Our invasion has had horrible consequences for a lot of people, American and Iraqi, and will continue to have horrible repercussions for years to come. There were a lot of other things we could have done to help, things that would not have left hundreds of thousands dead and a country torn apart. We could, for starters, have actually done something to protest the Anfal campaign when it happened, or done more in Darfur today. By invading Iraq, we removed Saddam, but we also heaped more misery on the Iraqi people, who have surely suffered enough already. END UPDATE.]

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Hiatus

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by Andrew For whatever reason, I’m just not up to this right now. I don’t know if it’s the election or something more personal, but coming to ObWings these days is an occasion for me to get angry rather than to learn. There’s no point in that, as I have a pretty acid tongue under … Read more

There They Go Again…

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by hilzoy OK: I give up. This campaign season has gone beyond parody. The whole business about Webb’s novels was bad enough. I tried writing a parody of that (“Characters in racist Harriet Beecher Stowe’s novels USED THE N-WORD!!!“, etc.), but it was just too much. Then the whole brouhaha about Kerry’s remark, which shou;dn’t … Read more

Time To Go, Part 2

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by hilzoy From the Washington Post: “American soldiers rolled up their barbed-wire barricades and lifted a near siege of the largest Shiite Muslim enclave in Baghdad on Tuesday, heeding the orders of a Shiite-led Iraqi government whose assertion of sovereignty had Shiites celebrating in the streets. The order by Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki to lift … Read more