I recommend this DailyKos review of Ronald Brownstein's “The Second Civil War: How Extreme Partisanship Has Paralyzed Washington and Polarized America.” SusanG writes What Brownstein Gets Wrong: Just About Everything.
It begins as follows:
Nearly everything is wrong with this book, and every one of us should read it.
Only problem is, by the time I'm done with the review I really don't want to read the book…
Contradicting a series of international law decisions by multiple national and international tribunals, and citing a missive from the French Foreign Ministry, a French court has ruled that ministerial immunity against torture charges persists past the minister's retirement.
Based on this dramatically deviant assertion by the French Foreign Ministry, the French court of first instance dismissed the torture charges filed against Donald Rumsfeld in France.
Details on what happened and how it deviates from international law as it is commonly understood at the Center for Constitutional Rights, France in Violation of Law Grants Donald Rumsfeld Immunity, Dismisses Torture Complaint.
Is this (pro-US) French President Nicolas Sarkozy's doing? It certainly seems an odd decision for Bernard Kouchner, the former socialist and co-founder of Doctors Without Borders (Médecins Sans Frontières) turned Foreign Minister.
It also seems like the sort of decision a decent court system would overturn on appeal.
via techPresident: Dodd Breaks the Frame, Asks YouTube Question of GOPers
Finally, a presidential candidate has seized the opportunity presented by the CNN/YouTube debates … it looks like the creative minds at Chris Dodd's campaign—which has already distinguished itself with a string of web innovations—were paying attention. A few days ago, they posted this question from Senator Dodd for this Wednesday's Republican CNN/YouTube event:
Amnesty International says,
Since June 2001, there have been more than 270 TASER-related deaths in the United States. AI is concerned that TASERs are being used as tools of routine force—rather than as weapons of last resort. Rigorous, independent, impartial study of their use and effects is urgently needed.
By all means let's get the data. It's possible that the people killed by tasers might have been shot to death by police limited to their traditional guns and truncheons. But I doubt it.
Not to mention the non-lethal abuses — like the 82-year-old Chicago woman tased when she refused to admit cops sent to check on her well-being.
Update: And how did I miss this? “The use of these weapons causes acute pain, constituting a form of torture,'' the UN's Committee against Torture said.
Update2: Digby has a video of a Utah Highway Patrolman tasing a motorist — and then apparently lying to his partner about having given the motorist a warning. Lawsuit to follow. (But, say Digby's commentators, the real issues are pushy Taser salespeople and poor law enforcement training.)
This is mean: What If Gmail Had Been Designed by Microsoft?.
Unfortunately, there's some truth in it too.
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