Meta and Meta

Hilzoy on Haynes' Briefs

Here. You can't make this shit up. (Well, you could, but why would you?)

With His Head Up His [Blank]

Rudy Giuliani with Tim Russert, doing his best Charles Nelson Reilly.

Pride and Extreme Prejudice

And the moral retardation continues:

In a November 5 National Review Online column -- "Waterboarding Has Its Benefits" -- contributing editor Deroy Murdock wrote that "[w]aterboarding is something of which every American should be proud...."

Yes -- he said "proud." Proud, because

[t]hough [it's] clearly uncomfortable, waterboarding loosens lips without causing permanent physical injuries (and unlikely even temporary ones)."

At last: Wife-beaters who prefer phone books over brass knuckles can now go about their business with pride.

Nice Rack

Brian Leiter posts Gerard Dworkin's "Is the Rack Torture?" It's a fine bit of satire, and a useful corrective to the pathological agnosticism about waterboarding that continues to be espoused by even "grown up" conservatives. (Strangely, the more they know, the less they know it.)

Bush Unarmed

The WaPo profiles the soldiers of Fort Hunt -- the men charged with interrogating Nazi POWs.

Interesting in its own right for the soldiers' recounting of their interrogation techniques (which included playing chess and buying the prisoner a steak dinner), the article also provides a clear explanation of why this administration has had to resort to...other measures. For, as WWII veteran George Frenkel notes, their strategy involved engaging prisoners in a "battle of the wits."

(Via Mark Kleiman.)

Back to School

Apparently, the U.S. military has implemented an "educational" program designed to chip away at the extremist convictions of certain young Iraqi detainees, namely, by inculcating them with more "moderate doctrine[s]." Classes are held at a facility named the "House of Wisdom."

So that no child is left behind, the program includes a battery of tests -- polygraph tests, that is -- to ensure quality learning.

Josh Marshall hates this program. Clearly, he's forgetting that this is a different kind of war.

Besides which, it's not like there aren't any domestic applications.

Units of Measure in Iraq

Apropos of this, see my discussion of the Cheney Length.

Giving Aid and Comfort to Foxy Loxy

Shorter debate on withdrawal from Iraq:

War critics: The sky is falling in Iraq. We must withdraw our troops.
Bush: But if we withdraw our troops, the sky will fall.

(Via TPM, who explains why Bush is, you guessed it, wrong.)

Infantile Aggression

Hilzoy has a great post limning the really weird infantile psychology that sustains the authoritarian conservative (but I repeat myself...).

Mark, I think this is another one of those structural advantages.

Another 16 Words

Sixteen words you aren't likely to hear in the next State of the Union Address: The Italian government has learned that Iraq recently sought $40,000,000 in automatic weapons from "black" sources.