I just saw in Slate that Barack Obama has been sending a messenger to Canada to tell them (who he has to tell, Slate doesn't specify) that his whole Anti-NAFTA thing is just a show to impress the yokels in Ohio. Don't worry, he's really a free trader just like us. He just needs to say these things to get elected so that he can protect NAFTA.
It reminds me of LBJ sending messengers back to Houston to tell his financial backers that he didn't really believe in Civil Rights, that he only said these pro-civil rights things so that he could keep control of the Senate from the Northern Liberals and Republicans. Really he was a segregationist just like them. Really.
He has taken a page from the Master, while Clinton is sampling Walter Mondale.

An American politician who speaks intelligently about religion? Really?

Colin sent over a link to this video inspired by a Barack Obama speech:

Here's the backstory. Compare and contrast with Mosh.

I've been mostly avoiding writing about politics, but I'll put it out here now: I'm pulling for Obama. (And not just because Scarlett Johansson tells me to -- or Caroline Kennedy.)

I'm pulling for him because he's inspirational. And I think in electoral politics today, it's all about turnout. Inspiring voters will increase turnout. You win the turnout game (in the right places), you win the election.

Now, I know that Hillary can be inspirational too. The problem is that she also inspires hatred, among many. I think (and this is of course without evidence) that she'll inspire as many people to turn out against her as she will for her. People love to hate Hillary. I'm sure the GOP would love to have her as the Democratic nominee.

Many people to whom I've advanced this argument have asked, "Isn't the country too racist to elect a black man?" Maybe yes. Maybe there's a reason there are so many lies being spread about Obama and so many people willing to believe them.

But then again, maybe not. (I mean, as Thudfactor points out, wouldn't John Edwards be the front-runner if this were the case?)

Or maybe this will be the year that Reverend King's prediction -- "I can foresee the Negro vote becoming consistently the decisive vote in national elections" -- will come to pass. Maybe turnout from all those inspired by Obama will wash away those who could not pull the lever for someone who looks different from them.

I guess we'll find out tomorrow. See you at the polls.

In an April 1995 memo, Bush invited his staff to come to his office to look at a painting. … The picture is a Western scene of a cowboy riding up a craggy hill, with two other riders following behind him. Bush told visitors—who often noted his resemblance to the rider in front—that it was called A Charge To Keep and that it was based on his favorite Methodist hymn of that title, written in the eighteenth century by Charles Wesley. As Bush noted in the memo, which he quoted in his autobiography of the same title: “I thought I would share with you a recent bit of Texas history which epitomizes our mission. When you come into my office, please take a look at the beautiful painting of a horseman determinedly charging up what appears to be a steep and rough trail. This is us. What adds complete life to the painting for me is the message of Charles Wesley that we serve One greater than ourselves.” Bush identified with the lead rider, whom he took to be a kind of Christian cowboy, an embodiment of indomitable vigor, courage, and moral clarity.

Only that is not the title, message, or meaning of the painting. The artist, W.H.D. Koerner, executed it to illustrate a Western short story entitled “The Slipper Tongue,” published in The Saturday Evening Post in 1916. The story is about a smooth-talking horse thief who is caught, and then escapes a lynch mob in the Sand Hills of Nebraska. The illustration depicts the thief fleeing his captors. In the magazine, the illustration bears the caption: “Had His Start Been Fifteen Minutes Longer He Would Not Have Been Caught.”

Bush's Favorite Painting

GOP Candidates :: Buffy Villains Mapping. Also the Democrats.

And, you're probably tired of hearing about Iowa, but the Brooklyn Paper's coverage of the caucus in Brooklyn, Iowa is great.

This headline, from CNN.com, sums up the hypocrisy of Americans, politicians, and almost all religious people. Basically he said yesterday: I believe something, but don’t worry because what I believe doesn’t affect the way I behave. I will always act in accordance with your beliefs, whatever they are. ALL of you, regardless of what crazy thing you believe. Even if they contradict each other. Because deep down I know we all have the same core belief: we are religious only when it is convenient.

Naomi Wolf deplores lack of civic information among the young, blames the Left for making them cynical. Look, Ms. Wolf, I'm a big proponent of civic education and civic engagement. Wrote my college thesis on it and everything (for Dahl of all people, who I was lucky to have for a senior seminar.) But blaming the Left for making youth cynical about democracy is like blaming your mom for making you wary of strangers.

FBI Hoped to Follow Falafel Trail to Iranian Terrorists Here

Like Hansel and Gretel hoping to follow their bread crumbs out of the forest, the FBI sifted through customer data collected by San Francisco-area grocery stores in 2005 and 2006, hoping that sales records of Middle Eastern food would lead to Iranian terrorists.

The idea was that a spike in, say, falafel sales, combined with other data, would lead to Iranian secret agents in the south San Francisco-San Jose area.

Via Boing Boing.

Yet another reason why torture is bad for national security. Or, the segment in which I agree again with Andrew Sullivan and find myself wondering if either of us has a goatee ...

"Al Qaeda continues to have a deep interest in acquiring weapons of mass destruction... I can trace the story of a sernior terrorist operative telling how Iraq provided training in these weapons to al Qaeda. Fortunately, this operative is now detained and he has told his story."

The man who spoke those words was Colin Powell at the UN. The "operative", we now know, was Ibn al-Shaykh al-Libbi. He was waterboarded and given Bush-approved hypothermia treatment, i.e. frozen till he could take it no longer. It was only then that he told of al Qaeda's links with Saddam's WMDs... the CIA subsequently found al-Libbi "had no knowledge of such training or weapons and fabricated the statements because he was terrified of further harsh treatment." So I now realize that part of the reason I believed the WMD case for war against Saddam was because the Bush administration had been secretly torturing suspects and got false confessions. The biggest intelligence failure in recent US history - the WMD case in Iraq - was partly created by the torture policy. [Link]

Andrew Sullivan lays it down on torture. I wish our presidential candidates would speak out as clearly and unequivocally

First: I do not believe that torture does save people's lives, because I do not believe it gives us reliable intelligence and because the use of it historically leads to its becoming the primary method of intelligence gathering, and so undermines our extreme need to develop better intelligence gathering, especially human intelligence... And I do not trust those in power who tell me otherwise, because there is no check on them whatsoever, no oversight that they have not cheerfully avoided, and any admission of guilt on their part would lead to war crime prosecution...

But secondly: yes, I do think that in a choice between legalizing torture and the loss of American lives, I would choose the loss of American lives, including my own.

This is not righteous victimhood. It is righteous self-defense. There are some things worse than avoiding all casualties in warfare. One of those things is abandoning the core meaning of what a country and a civilization stand for. If America does not stand against the torture of individuals seized without due process by an unchecked executive power, then American stands for nothing. In fact, if this standard had applied two centuries ago, America would not exist at all... To destroy the constitution, the rule of law, and habeas corpus and to legalize torture in the false hope of saving lives is the action of those who do not understand freedom and who do not understand America. It is the action of cowards and slaves.

What part of "Live Free Or Die" do these people not understand? [Link]

Does anyone know why almost half of the Democrats voted to continue funding for the war? They were all on board with Webb's amendment the day before (which would cause a drawdown in troop levels by mandating longer times between Iraq tours for soldiers). I can't figure it out.

Check it out!

DonorsChoose.org is now open to every public school in every state in America!

It's a huge day for us and one we've been working toward for a long time now. So if you know any teachers, tell them they can start writing proposals !

• The 6 Most Over-Hyped Threats to America (And What Should Scare You Instead)
• America's Top Seven Most Hated Substances
• I was trying to find an "eight" to round out this list but could only find The Eight Most Disturbing Criminal Justice Stories of 2003 and Eight of America's Most Outstanding Young Gastroenterologists Earn Recognition as 2006 American Gastroenterological Association Foundation Research Scholars.

Libertarians ask why do taxpayers have to pay for the repair of the MN bridge when MN has enough money to spend hundreds of millions on non-essential services like baseball subsidies for wealthy business owners.

... you have to wonder what makes this a federal responsibility. The typical excuse is that the state can't afford such pricey projects, so it behooves the federal government to step in to help... Washington appears set to provide about $250 million to Minneapolis for a new bridge.

Whatever Minnesota's spending constraints, the state can apparently afford to spend hundreds of millions for corporate welfare to Carl Pohlad, the owner of the Minnesota Twins, for a new baseball stadium. Hennepin County, where the bridge is located, recently passed a new .15 percent sales tax solely to pay for Pohlad's new stadium.

Via Balls and Walnuts comes this mapping of Simpsons Characters to Presidential Candidates. I guess Cheney has the Burns character wrapped up, hence not on the list.

Speaking of the 2008 Election, here come the usual "candidate selectors": one at dehp.net (using data from 2decide) and one from Select Smart. Both give me different results: Dehp rates my top 5 as Kucinich, Gravel (who?), Obama, Edwards, Clinton, while Select Smart ranks them Kucinich, Obama, Biden, Edwards, Dodd. The dark horse Gravel is 2nd on the first list but 13th on the second. Full results after the jump, should you be interested.

My vote's for the "Bart" candidate, if you must know...

Bush, 2004:

"There are too many leaks of classified information in Washington. There's leaks at the executive branch; there's leaks in the legislative branch. There's just too many leaks. And if there is a leak out of my administration, I want to know who it is. And if the person has violated law, the person will be taken care of."

Well, now we now what he meant by "taking care of" the law breaker. . . .

No matter how this story ends, it just doesn't begin well:

Before beginning the drive, Mitt Romney put Seamus, the family's hulking Irish setter, in a dog carrier and attached it to the station wagon's roof rack.

Will Seamus become the most famous political dog since Checkers?

NYC's ex-mayor against NYC's outgoing mayor against NY's senator.

It could happen. Giuliani is the Republican front runner (cough, cough), Hillary is the Democratic front runner, and Bloomberg is this close to running as a third candidate with as much moola as a normal main party candidate would have:

New York Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg is prepared to spend an unprecedented $1 billion of his own $5.5 billion personal fortune for a third-party presidential campaign, personal friends of the mayor tell The Washington Times. "Bloomberg is H. Ross Perot on steroids," said former Federal Election Commission Chairman Michael Toner. "He could turn the political landscape of this election upside down, spend as much money as he wanted and proceed directly to the general election. He would have resources to hire an army of petition-gatherers in those states where thousands of petitions are required to qualify a third-party presidential candidate to be on the ballot." "If Bloomberg runs, he could have more money on hand than either of the two major party nominees," said Mr. Toner, the former FEC chairman. "It would be the first time that happened in the modern era." [Link]

[Oh, just to clarify, I'm not saying that these are the best candidates, I'm just saying it would be fun to see this race]

... stays in Iraq:

More than one-third of U.S. soldiers in Iraq surveyed by the Army said they believe torture should be allowed if it helps gather important information about insurgents, the Pentagon disclosed yesterday. Four in 10 said they approve of such illegal abuse if it would save the life of a fellow soldier.

In addition, about two-thirds of Marines and half the Army troops surveyed said they would not report a team member for mistreating a civilian or for destroying civilian property unnecessarily. "Less than half of Soldiers and Marines believed that non-combatants should be treated with dignity and respect," the Army report stated.

About 10 percent of the 1,767 troops in the official survey -- conducted in Iraq last fall -- reported that they had mistreated civilians in Iraq, such as kicking them or needlessly damaging their possessions.

The report noted that the troops' statements are at odds with the "soldier's rules" promulgated by the Army, which forbid the torture of enemy prisoners and state that civilians must be treated humanely. [Link] (Emphasis mine)

A Proclamation by the President of the United States of America

America was founded by patriots who risked their lives to bring freedom to our Nation. Today, our citizens are grateful for our Founding Fathers and confident in the principles that lead us forward. On Loyalty Day, we celebrate the blessings of freedom and remember our responsibility to continue our legacy of liberty.

Cynical-C rounds up 60 different groups, entities, etc. who have been blamed for the Virginia Tech Shootings: The Blame Game

Mary Tillman, Pat's mother, also testified, saying she was "appalled" by comments from Lt. Col. Ralph Kauzlarich, an officer in Tillman's unit, suggesting that the family was not at peace with the death because they are atheists who believe their son is now "worm dirt." [cite]

So Kauzlarich is saying that Atheists are picky about the truth but that Theists (presumably Christians) don't mind being lied to? Gosh, that doesn't make theists sound so good, does it?

I don't know how I got on the Family Research Council's email list, but every once in a while I read what they send me. Their latest missive, on the killings at Virginia Tech, really stuck in my craw, because of one phrase. Here's the whole thing:

Comfort, Comfort My People

This morning we all woke up wishing that yesterday's tragedy was just a bad dream. Instead, we got ready for work feeling a little more vulnerable, hugging our kids just a little bit tighter, and trying desperately to make sense of it all. For many of us, the bloody horrors at Virginia Tech served as a sudden and painful reminder that we live in a fallen world where man is capable of unthinkable evil. As the media hastens to report every raw detail and parents struggle to overcome the fears now rekindled from Columbine, we wonder if America--like Virginia Tech--will ever be the same. Yet on a day scarred by sorrow and disbelief, there are still glimpses of selfless courage--men and women who, in the tradition of our great nation, paid the ultimate price to protect others. Students of Liviu Librescu are alive today because their professor used his own body to block a classroom doorway as the gunman approached. This hero, who survived the Holocaust only to give his life for his students, is one reason the death toll is not larger. And there are countless others. Policemen who rushed the stairwells, carrying out wounded. Students who helped others leap to safety. And friends, whose only service was offering a shoulder for people to cry on. As Benjamin Franklin once said, "Those things that hurt, instruct." In a world where make-believe violence is entertainment, may Americans finally refuse to pay the real-life price. In a country that seeks to silence God in its schools, may skeptics finally realize that on days like this, He cannot be shut out. I pray that as we carry in our hearts and in our prayers the memories of those lost, we also hold on to our hunger for goodness and virtue so that these innocent people have not have died in vain.

Now what bothers me is not the sentiment, but the use of that phrase here, they shall not have died in vain. Certainly, people are writing much worse things about this massacre. But what's wrong with using this phrase? A quick googling brought up this blog post about the phrase, tracing it down to the Gettysburg Address:

It is rather for us the living, we here be dedicated to the great task remaining before us--that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they here gave the last full measure of devotion--that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain...

And to Galatians 2:21:

I do not set aside the grace of God; for if righteousness comes through the law, then Christ died in vain.

In both of these cases -- and when present-day politicians talk about ensuring that our troops have not died in vain -- the emphasis is placed on the death being one of self-sacrifice. The soldier willingly puts himself in harm's way -- if the soldier dies, he dies fighting for a cause. In order that they have not died in vain, we must continue to fight for the cause they died for. Christ willingly dies for our sins.1 I may have my theology wrong, but I believe that in Christ's case in order for him not to have died in vain we should accept his teachings and his faith.

However, in the case of the students of Virginia Tech, none of them died fighting for a cause. They did not sacrifice themselves (with the exception of Liviu Librescu and probably others who was killed while helping others escape.) They died senselessly because of an insane man's rage. We cannot carry on the work that they died for. To use the language of martyrdom here is false. (Martin Luther King used the same phrase in his Eulogy for the Young Victims of the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church Bombing, and to me it rings equally false there.)

What the FRC means, of course, is that if some good comes out of the killings then these (otherwise senseless) deaths have some purpose. But what good? The good that the FRC wants to put forward (namely, a return to religion in American life.) But this is an all-purpose statement. I could easily say, "We must pass strict gun laws, so that they shall not have died in vain," or "We must arm all students, so that they shall not have died in vain."2

Of course, everyone is trying to make sense of the senseless. And our political views will color how we make sense of this. But let's not make the victims into martyrs for whatever political cause we happen to espouse. Please, let them rest in peace.

1I am reminded of Jules Feiffer's line, "Christ died for our sins. Dare we make His martyrdom meaningless by not committing them?"

2 Boing Boing points to the same idea at "Why the Bombings Mean That We Must Support My Politics" written after 9/11.

I hope you're not reading about it here first, but someone went on a shooting rampage at Virginia Tech today, killing 32 people and then himself.

Horrible, horrible, horrible.

Thudfactor, a VT grad and soon to move back to Blacksburg, has a few notes on the story. My coworker's brother is there; she told us that he slept through class this morning and so was out of harm's way.

Update: Yes, the killer was a troubled loner:

An AOL employee and former classmate of the accused killer writes,

When I first heard about the multiple shootings at Virginia Tech yesterday, my first thought was about my friends, and my second thought was "I bet it was Seung Cho."

Cho was in my playwriting class last fall, and nobody seemed to think much of him at first. He would sit by himself whenever possible, and didn't like talking to anyone. I don't think I've ever actually heard his voice before. He was just so quiet and kept to himself. Looking back, he fit the exact stereotype of what one would typically think of as a "school shooter" – a loner, obsessed with violence, and serious personal problems. (...)

When we read Cho's plays, it was like something out of a nightmare. The plays had really twisted, macabre violence that used weapons I wouldn't have even thought of. Before Cho got to class that day, we students were talking to each other with serious worry about whether he could be a school shooter. I was even thinking of scenarios of what I would do in case he did come in with a gun, I was that freaked out about him. When the students gave reviews of his play in class, we were very careful with our words in case he decided to snap. Even the professor didn't pressure him to give closing comments.

Chris Rabb is helping fight the new unholy alliance between Fox News and the Congressional Black Caucus. One look at this video and it's easy to say why.