Pruning Shears

No Associated Press content was harmed in the writing of this post

Our image in the Muslim world would probably improve if we stopped killing so many Muslims.

This could be huge. WikiLeaks may be taking over the functions formerly held by well-funded (and supported) investigative journalism at big outlets. It’s also why the war against it is such a big deal. Release is scheduled for tomorrow, so watch for it.

It turns out Abu Zubayda is a good artist:

The diaries will allow us to ask for specific, targeted discovery that will prevent the Government from claiming that we’re on a fishing expedition or that they shouldn’t be inconvenienced and be forced to search for things that do not exist. These diaries will lend credibility to the fact that we are not on a fishing expedition. We believe that Zubaydah’s diary, for example, will identify individuals who made exculpatory statements to Zubaydah and that there will be specific descriptions about that.

Let’s review: We bombed Cambodia back to the stone age and a few years later Pol Pot launched a genocide. We declared war against North Korea, are still formally at war with them, and it has become a uniquely brutal and repressive society. When you go to war, there are unintended consequences. While the primary actors - the leaders and key supporters of the country in question - bear primary responsibility for the evil they unleash, it is completely disingenuous to deny the role we played in preparing the ground by sowing misery and fear. So it’s hard for me to read the story of Afghan boys being tortured in prisons and not wonder if this will be the face of the next human rights catastrophe America unwittingly opens the door to.

Dan Froomkin reviewed Vaughn Walker’s ruling against the government on the state secrets privilege. It’s a reversal for both the Bush and Obama positions on the issue. I hope it greatly helps Marcy Winograd and does correspondingly large damage to Jane Harman. If we can’t get investigations of the principals then maybe we could at least get some of the enablers tossed out of office. That seems to be about the best we can hope for these days.

“Caroline Hunter, a Bush-appointed Federal Election Commissioner who remains in office, provided misleading statements under oath in an effort to conceal Republican National Committee involvement in vote suppression activities during the 2004 presidential election, a Raw Story investigation has found.” More:

After hearing arguments from both sides, Judge Debevoise rules that the RNC has violated the decree.

In granting the injunction, Debevoise specifically addresses Hunter’s statement denying that the Party was involved in vote caging activities. He finds her sworn testimony — made as a witness — unsupported by the facts in the case.

“Miss Hunter,” Judge Debevoise tells the court, “states in a conclusory way that, ‘To the best of my knowledge, after due investigation, the RNC is not initiating, controlling, directing, or funding any programs of voter challenges as described above, including the effort by the Ohio Republican Party to challenge voter registration in Ohio as alleged.’”

“Miss Hunter’s information and belief,” he concludes, “is belied by the evidence developed during the brief period of discovery.”

I love how wingnuts are unable to comprehend the nature of protest. Here’s how it works: If you object to something strenuously enough, you show up and make some noise. If you do so persistently enough you might be arrested for disorderly conduct and removed from the scene. If you’re willing to take that chance, go for it. That’s democracy. No violence, no threat of violence, just a big noise. If that kind of protest accompanies Karl Rove or John Yoo whenever they give a speech, arrange for beefed up security in advance and have police arrest the protesters sooner rather than later. Nothing complicated about that. If Karl Rove or John Yoo have to do this kind of planning for years and years it may be worth considering whether simple personal animus is enough to sustain that level of protest, though I’m sure the Michelle Malkins of the world will think a certain species of derangement is sufficient.

Leftover link from Thursday. Krauthammer has been wrong more often than right, but his prediction that Obama would adopt some of the Bush policies most abhorrent to liberals is being borne out.

I haven’t seen anyone mention this, but doesn’t the RNC Bondage Party story have all the earmarks of a political hit job on Michael Steele? It was broken by a conservative outlet; when was the last time a right wing outlet published a devastating investigative report against a right winger? (“Never” is your answer.) It’s a very curious thing, and I’m a little surprised no one has thought to dig into that part of it, unless the main story line was so overwhelmingly titillating that it obliterated everyone’s ability to consider any other angle. Oh and by the way, Voyeur West Hollywood has received an almost unimaginably large amount of free publicity thanks to the RNC. Companies dream of windfalls like this.

The more we learn about our torture regime the worse it sounds, and it sounded thoroughly evil to begin with.

Looks like Republicans’ reflexive opposition to Democrats will put them on the side of Wall Street.

I literally laughed out loud when I read this. It must take a great and sustained effort to maintain such a low level of self-awareness.

Thomas Hoenig once again makes good noises.

Jeff Stein has a long piece on Steve Kappes, deputy director of the CIA. I’m only partway through it right now but it’s a very good read.

More right wing hypocrisy.

Big pension funds may not be willing to accept their big losses as the normal ups and downs of the market.

I WISH I COULD WRITE LIKE Balloon Juice commenter neil:

The fact remains that Glenn Greenwald is a member of a PAC devoted to defeating health care reform legislation and defeating Democratic candidates. You don’t have to blindly follow Dear Leader to oppose this kind of thing. It’s more like the liberal equivalent of the Club for Growth. Ideologically pure and tactically counterproductive.