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Them Durn Lib’ruls has changed its name to Soapbox Canyon.

Orcinus has the 10th (!) part of the
series on Rush, newspeak and Fascism up:

Take two neighbors, Joe and Bill. Joe is a good taxpaying family man and a Republican precinct committeeman. Bill is a Patriot who attends Preparedness Expos and “common law court” meetings and has declared his “sovereign citizenship.” Now, contrary to popular myths, most Patriots in fact are indistinguishable from any other average American — they hold jobs, raise kids, carpool, attend church. And so in most respects, Joe and Bill get along fine, as most neighbors might, though Joe thinks Bill’s ideas are kooky. Then he starts listening to Limbaugh, and after awhile, he begins to think that maybe his government-hating neighbor isn’t so kooky after all.

Meanwhile, Bill listens to the same broadcasts and begins to believe that maybe mainstream Republicans are finally starting to “get it.” The next time he and Bill talk over the fence, they find they have more to talk about. Pretty soon Joe is heading off with Bill to a Preparedness Expo, while Bill starts volunteering to work as a “poll watcher” for the Republicans in the next elections.

The result is that right-wing extremists wind up exerting a gravitational pull on mainstream conservatism — and by extension, the whole political continuum — that far exceeds their actual size or, for that matter, political viability. That the entire spectrum has shifted steadily rightward in the past 10 years and more could not be more self- evident. And at times, it has come with devastating results, as at Oklahoma City.

In Eschaton’s comments Jeff talks about Texas and the death penalty:

I live in Austin, and got my start in grassroots political work fighting the death penalty in Texas.

I can tell you in addition to Banks, we have the ongoing case of Rodney Reed, another man almost cetainly innocent and who there is still time to save (not likely tho, if Texas history is an indicator).

You’re pro-death penalty friends will tell you there has never been an innocent man executed. Not true. The fact is, the lawyers working to save people like Banks and Reed usually work pro bono or are supported on meager salaries (often by grants from European organizations). They are busy saving lives case by case, and when someone dies, the case usually closes. Few attorneys will continue to work on a case for no money and after the defendent is dead. Which is why the innocents on death row in Illnois were exposed by college students doing a project, and not by the state’s courts or by activist attorneys. We do kill innocent people, potentially in every state.

But according to legal groups in this state, there have been 6 executions of innocent men since 1982. I’m not sure that list counts Gary Graham, who was executed amid much publicity during the 2000 presidential campaign. Graham was definitely a career criminal and a bad dude, but there is little doubt he did not commit the crime he was executed for.

Nick Kessler on why the bush administration fucked up the negotiations with Turkey:

The irony here is that the Republican diplomats’ own arrogance obviously interfered with their job, which was to encourage Turkish legislators to support the administration’s plan. While the administration wants to show that it will not be reckless if it stages a military campaign through Turkey’s territory, its representatives didn’t bother to be reasonable. Further, the administration is specifically trying to lure Turkey’s cooperation with promises of massive economic aid, but the diplomats went out of their way to be insultingly stingy with their money. Diplomacy always requires negotiating skill, tact and attention to appearance. These diplomats faced a particularly delicate task–promoting a war that the vast majority of Turkish people oppose. It’s typical of this administration to hand the task to people who don’t care that it’s inappropriate to be selfish and rude, and who are incapable of recognizing situations where this behavior can get in the way of their duties.

Late Night Thoughts on torture:

The woman was naked. She had been raped and beaten repeatedly and her body was a mass of bruises. Now she was being strapped into a metal bed. Electrodes were introduced into her vagina and anus.

“Dear God, dear God, dear God” she repeated again and again.

Her torturer reached out, grabbed a torn breast, and twisted and squeezed until she screamed, a high wail of anguish.

“There’s no God here.”

Sometimes in the 1990s I was unfortunate enough to be assigned to help a professor researching torture by Latin-american right wing squads. After a while, I made it a policy to try to copy documents without reading them. That particular paragraph came, I think, from a Colombian survivors’ report, but I can’t swear to it. What I can tell you is that it has stuck in my mind for more than twelve years and I still wake up screaming from time to time.

There’s No God Here.

After the capture of Khalid Sheik Mohammed many bloggers have expressed their disinterest in the methods of his interrogation. Some, in fact, seem downright delighted that he would be tortured. We need to know what he’s planning. He killed thousands of us. He deserves it.