Tortured Logic

From CBS News:

The justice has been explaining his positions publicly more and more, and even delving into some thorny issues, like torture.

“I don’t like torture,” Scalia says. “Although defining it is going to be a nice trick. But who’s in favor of it? Nobody. And we have a law against torture. But if the – everything that is hateful and odious is not covered by some provision of the Constitution,” he says.

“If someone’s in custody, as in Abu Ghraib, and they are brutalized by a law enforcement person, if you listen to the expression ‘cruel and unusual punishment,’ doesn’t that apply?” Stahl asks.

“No, No,” Scalia replies.

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Surge General

From Salt Lake Tribune:

The promotion of Gen. David Petraeus is another ominous sign that the Bush administration may attack Iran.
President Bush is nominating Petraeus, commanding general of the Multi-National Force in Iraq, to replace Adm. William Fallon as head of Centcom: U.S. Central Command, which oversees the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.
Fallon was forced to resign last month after his outspoken opposition to an attack on Iran. Petraeus, by contrast, has been heating up the rhetoric against Iran.
“Iran has fueled the violence in a particularly damaging way through its lethal support to the special groups,” Petraeus testified to Congress in early April. Those special groups (meaning, the militias) pose the biggest threat to the United States, he added.

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Sliding Scales, Slippery Slopes, and Banana Peels

From the Washington Post:

The Geneva Conventions’ ban on “outrages against personal dignity” does not automatically apply to terrorism suspects in the custody of U.S. intelligence agencies, the Justice Department has suggested to Congress in recent letters that lay out the Bush administration’s interpretation of the international treaty.

Lawyers for the department, offering insight into the legal basis for the CIA’s controversial interrogation program, reasserted in the letters the Bush administration’s long-held view that it has considerable leeway in deciding how the conventions’ rules apply to the harsh questioning of combatants in the war on terrorism.

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A Musical Refrain for John McCain

FromThe Salt Lake Tribune:

WASHINGTON – Not content to sit on the sidelines, longtime senator and one-time presidential hopeful Orrin Hatch has penned a song for his Senate buddy John McCain in hopes of helping his White House bid.
Really, he did.

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Your Appointment Has Been Cancelled!

From the Washington Post:

Speaking of Iraq, the Georgetown Hoya newspaper last week quoted a student saying she was “displeased that university officials have not asked” former Pentagon undersecretary Douglas Feith”to return to teach next year.”

Asked about Feith’s status, Robert Gallucci, dean of Georgetown’s foreign service school, told us that when Feith was hired — something that caused an uproar among the faculty — it was understood he “was on a two-year appointment.”

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Yoo (not you) Hoo!

Yeah, I’m talking to you (not Yoo)! Kids, I want you (not Yoo) to run on over to a very good blog called the Grievance Project. My friend, E.M., unlike myself, covers very important stuff. The latest post over there is on an op-ed by Scott Horton about John Yoo (not you). In fact, there are lots of posts about John Yoo (not you) over there, and i suggest you read them all. Oh, did I tell you that E.M. was good enough to allow me to illustrate the diary? (All credit for the title goes to E.M.)

He Said, She Said

ATLANTA, April 23 (Reuters) – Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter on Wednesday accused Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice of not telling the truth about warnings she said her department gave Carter not to speak to Hamas before a Middle East trip.

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Say It Ain’t Snow!

Tony Snow has been hired by CNN and appeared last night on Larry King’s show. 😯

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