David Brooks doesn’t think we should try Khalid Sheikh Muhammad in the US because he will then have a mouthpiece to spout off whatever he wants and more terrorists will germinate and blow up the weedy patch of WTC remains.  Of course, at-large bin Laden actually does spout off whatever he wants from time to [...]

The assertion that by holding Dick Cheney accountable for his participation in American torture chambers, “the cost to the country would simply be too great” makes no sense.  Why does it destroy a democratic nation to see its former leaders prosecuted for horrible felonies?  If anything, that would be death to an autocratic regime or [...]

Sometimes the op-ed spread of the Sunday Times is like when you open a crypt and you get that chilly gust of stale air.  (And really, who hasn’t raided a mausoleum from time to time?)  Today is one of those days.
Three of the four columnists are off today.  I’m sure they’re all at the Vineyard.  [...]

I wonder how many vials of smelling salts Jo-Ann Fabrics sold yesterday, because blogger Marcy Wheeler/emptywheel said blowjob on the teevee.  This violated everything in the book.  It ranks up there with such grave constitutional crises as Bill Clinton’s receiving one, a notable episode from back in the days when pretty much everything was comparatively [...]

Why can the United States, after torturing a number of people, lying about it, brushing off its significance, defending its necessity and reserving the right to do it again in the future on the president’s say-so, prosecute a foreign national for torture and crow about it?  That is absolutely and incontrovertibly an Oceania-Is-at-War-With-EastEurasia mentality.  It’s [...]

Peter King: the last Republican congressman from Lawn Guyland (and one of only 3 in all of New York!)
First of all, this is a man who loves terrorists.  He is a strong supporter of terrorism, as long as it is practiced by white people who speak with charming brogues.  (If you are from Long Island, [...]

When the Republicans are in charge, the rate at which we career towards oblivion speeds up.  When the Democrats are in power, the pace of “socioglobal” destruction decelerates.  We’re still falling apart, only more slowly now.  Although the jury is still out on whether or not the destruction of everything can actually be reversed, a [...]

This is incredibly depressing.  The government has decided that it need not permit suspects to have their day in court.  Specifically, a lawsuit filed by victims of CIA torture will not be heard because the US government feels that merely having to produce evidence to defend its actions will jeopardize national security.  Even though the [...]