Tête-à-Tête-Tête

Just a few random notes. I don’t read much of John Cole’s web-site any more. Lately, there hasn’t been much there that hasn’t already been said on Daily Kos. But I was glad to see him counter the idea that we should go after McCain for his crony’s big payments to terrorists. It’s good that he is providing some perspective on this. Prior to that, I was inclined to accept a worse interpretation of Chiquita’s actions. Not that Chiquita are saintly by any stretch… And, I still have questions – like, why if this was the case, was Chiquita forced to pay a big fine for their actions, and what happened after they stopped making those payments? And, of course, Fox News, McCain, and their media friends will seldom stop to include the context making perspective on Barack Obama and his time spent serving on the board of a community organization alongside a former Weatherman… or anything else. But that’s a separate battle, I guess.

Also from BJ, I think it’s sad that Cristopher Hitchens has to try it out to figure out that waterboarding is torture. And I don’t like Hitchens, his attitude, and some of his politics. But if there is an honest doubter left, let him read this piece.

Finally, a thought of my own about the W Clark – J McCain dustup. I preface by saying that no – nothing Clark said could sanely be construed as an attack on McCain’s service or POW status. That’s stupid. But there’s a meme going around that because his service was not a wartime command and did not involve any strategic operations, that it does not go as a qualification for the Presidency. I disagree. First, having directly experienced years of torture, McCain has been less craven than others in his party where it comes to the U.S. implementation of the practice. That’s not a unique qualification. Obama has opposed torture – I think more forcefully than McCain – and has arrived at a qualifying position on the matter without having directly experienced it. But, it is a qualification. The contrary position is a disqualification and is part of the reason that George Bush fails to pass the Commander In Chief threshhold. The other qualification is one that the pundits have mentioned some: that his perserverance as a POW shows character, and character is a relevant qualification. Now, McCain has character flaws – he’s proven that over and over again… but so does Obama. The point is that McCain’s service is a qualification, even if it isn’t a unique or necessarily sufficient one.

That’s my political ramble for today.

One other thing worth mentioning:
Paul House is free on bond, awaiting a new trial.

Two years ago, the U.S. Supreme Court concluded he would not have been convicted based on the DNA evidence that emerged years after his trial, and a federal judge ordered prosecutors to retry House or free him.

House, who has multiple sclerosis and uses a wheelchair, left prison in a white sport utility vehicle with his mother and his state-appointed public defender.

I met his mother at our performance of The Exonerated. I expect Mr. House to become the next in a long string of exonorees who would otherwise have been poisoned to death by our government, with our approval, using our tax dollars.