Internal Monologue

...perhaps they should emulate Reagan's stance on torture : "The United States participated actively and effectively in the negotiations of the Convention [Against Torture]. It marks a significant step in the development during this century of international measures against torture and other inhuman treatment or punishment. Ratification of the Convention by the United States will clearly express United States opposition to torture, an abhorrent practice unfortunately still prevalent in the world today," - president Ronald Reagan, 1988. Now whether Reagan lived up to this I don't know. He certainly seemed to be fine supporting a number of regimes that used torture (e.g. apartheid South Africa). But you compare this rhetoric to what the current crop of Republican contenders is spewing at the debates and it's night and day. I never really grokked the cult of Reagan worship among the American right. There isn't an equivalent on the American left: we certainly pre

I haven't linked to Bill Maher as much as I have to Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert, but his political commentary is often quite good and quite funny. Here's a recent clip (via Mahablog ):

More family pictures available at the usual place .

This graph is rather ominous. But understandable given the situation in northern Iraq.

Here's a fun little quiz to determine which candidate most agrees with your positions on some issues . For me, Kucinich and Richardson tied for first, with Gravel and Edwards coming after. Clinton and Obama were my lowest-ranked Democrats, which is sad because at the moment they are the front-runners. The highest ranked Republican for me was libertarian Ron Paul (no surprise), and the lowest ranked was Jim Gilmore. All Republicans were ranked lower than all Democrats for me. So I suppose I'm a good little Democratic partisan. Of course, there are other considerations besides issue agreement one should take into account when voting in primaries (experience, electability, charisma, character, what interest groups they are beholden to, what kind of people they surround themselves with, etc.) . But it is good to have some inkling of which candidates agree with you the most on some of these things. Right now, I'm undecided as to who to vote for in the Democratic primary. The p

Check it out (HT: Mad Latinist via email).

Condi talks to two of the American right wing's all-time greatest villains: WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Anxious not to repeat mistakes of past Middle East peace-making, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has turned to former presidents Bill Clinton and Jimmy Carter for tips ahead of her own conference this year. Rice invited Carter, a vocal critic of Bush administration policies, to the State Department on Wednesday where the two discussed his Arab-Israeli peacemaking efforts in the 1970s, State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said on Friday. HT: C&L .