"This was the voice of moderation until 13 Sept, 2025"
by hilzoy From the NYT: "The rest of the nation may be getting back to basics, but on Wall Street, paychecks still come with a golden promise. Workers at the largest financial institutions are on track to earn as much money this year as they did before the financial crisis began, because of the strong … Read more
by publius Today's Week in Review has an article on various American Presidents' affinity for Shakespeare. Total juvenile snark, but this is still great stuff from the Artist Formerly Known as the Decider: George W. Bush knew Shakespeare, too: he told an interviewer that on vacation in 2006 he had “read three Shakespeares,” but he … Read more
by hilzoy From the Washington Post: "The World Health Organization rushed to convene an emergency meeting Saturday to develop a response to the "pandemic potential" of a new swine flu virus that has sparked a deadly outbreak in Mexico and spread to disparate parts of the United States. Health officials reported that at least eight … Read more
by hilzoy In an unprecedented, shocking development, David Broder is against any sort of accountability for what he refers to as "torture": "If ever there were a time for President Obama to trust his instincts and stick to his guns, that time is now, when he is being pressured to change his mind about closing … Read more
by publius The agreement to use reconciliation for health care is huge – it’s arguably the single best development since Obama’s inauguration. It not only means that health care reform will be much easier to pass – it means that the ultimate legislation will also be much better (with a public plan, etc.). And that’s … Read more
by hilzoy From the LATimes: "The Obama administration is preparing to admit into the United States as many as seven Chinese Muslims who have been imprisoned at Guantanamo Bay in the first release of any of the detainees into this country, according to current and former U.S. officials. Their release is seen as a crucial … Read more
by publius Via Andrew Sullivan, Steve Chapman raises a really good point – there’s simply no way that the effectiveness of torture can solely justify its use. And I think he poses a difficult logical problem for torture supporters. Chapman notes that if “effectiveness” is all we care about, any form of torture would necessarily … Read more
by hilzoy I wanted to highlight a point from yesterday's NYT article on the decision to use torture: "By late 2001, the agency had contracted with James E. Mitchell, a psychologist with the SERE program who had monitored many mock interrogations but had never conducted any real ones, according to colleagues. He was known for … Read more
by hilzoy I'm late getting to this, from McClatchy: "The Bush administration applied relentless pressure on interrogators to use harsh methods on detainees in part to find evidence of cooperation between al Qaida and the late Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein's regime, according to a former senior U.S. intelligence official and a former Army psychiatrist. (…) … Read more
by hilzoy The NYT has a damning piece about the decision to use torture: "In a series of high-level meetings in 2002, without a single dissent from cabinet members or lawmakers, the United States for the first time officially embraced the brutal methods of interrogation it had always condemned. This extraordinary consensus was possible, an … Read more