Harry S Truman:

“Once a government is committed to the principle of silencing the voice of opposition, it has only one way to go, and that is down the path of increasingly repressive measures, until it becomes a source of terror to all its citizens and creates a country where everyone lives in fear.”

I have been increasingly concerned by attacks on judges, both physical and philosophical. The squealing about so-called “judicial activism” has been particularly appalling. Those who declaim liberals as “America-haters” seem to themselves have a vulgar contempt for America’s institutions. See also:

• In Contempt of Courts – Max Blumenthal visits the “Confronting the War on Faith” conference.
• Oliver Willis collects some of the Right’s more egregious anti-judiciary quotes.

Terri Schaivo has died, and may she rest in peace. I pray that she’ll find a happier existence in the next world than she found in this one.

I haven’t read or talked much about the case because I just think it’s a deeply personal situation. I cannot presume to know the pain of the husband or of Schaivo’s family. I can’t imagine there was a pain-free outcome that would have pleased everyone. Everyone involved suffered from this tragedy, and the public spectacle only exacerbated the pain.

Better men than I have weighed in already, but here’s what I will say: What appalls me about the radical right’s reaction to this case is how absolutely hypocritically pious it is.

Do you notice how these radicals always rally around the rights of those who have—literally—no voice? These right-wing zealots easily summon the moral certainty to kill or condone the killing of death row inmates, of doctors who perform abortions, of Arab prisoners of war, or of innocent civilians if they happen to be living near good bombing targets. In the name of their god, they will sanction, countenance, and call for the murder of their enemies. But they’ll draw the line at the brain-dead and the fetus. Anybody who can express their own point of view will be either ignored, dismissed, or shouted down with extreme prejudice, but humans whose life states are fuzzy or indeterminate will be defended to the last breath.

Conservatives stay mum as hundreds die every second from AIDs, hunger, preventable diseases, and abject poverty. They support the rights of companies to poison our water and food, to spoil our land, and to consign country and citizen to the poorhouse. They rip great swaths out of our Constitution in the name of preserving national security. But let some vegetative victim come close to peace after umpteen years of extraordinary hospice care and exhaustive legal battles, and suddenly the “sanctity of life” is their number one issue. Suddenly the party of small government is bringing the full weight of the legislature to bear to micromanage a painful, thorny, complex family drama. Suddenly, the party that has fought so hard to preserve the sanctity of marriage is sanctimoniously shrieking at a faithful husband who has been dealt a blow that God forbid any of them should ever come close to understanding.

Terri Schaivo was a wingnut’s wet dream. She represented metaphorically the ideal citizen of a conservative utopia. She was unable to communicate, unable to feel pain or pleasure, unable to respond to those around her, unable to defend herself, unable to participate in the struggle that was taking place over her. Brain-dead, thought-free, choice-free, completely dependent on others for every function, Schaivo could be controlled and manipulated to suit any purpose. She was an empty vessel, to which all manner of ideals could be ascribed, and none refuted.

I wish her peace. I wish her family and her husband peace. And I desperately hope that those who found Schaivo such an inspiration for passionate words about the importance of respecting life will remember that there are millions and millions of conscious, thinking, feeling people on the point of the knife who could really use a few ardent advocates on their side, too.

A few weeks ago I linked to the photograph of a young girl wailing and covered in blood after her parents had been killed by American soldiers at a checkpoint in Iraq. There is now a website collecting funds to help the family. I urge you to visit the Hassan Family Relief Fund to read more, and to kick in a few dollars to help the victims of this horrible tragedy.

Thanks to J. Tony for tracking me down and letting me know about the fund.

The Battle for America.

Sure, it’s a big file, but you’ll want to suck down every last megabyte.

James Wolcott notes President Bush’s bizarrely detached behavior at his press conference yesterday, mere hours after news came that a helicopter crash in Iraq had killed 31 American soldiers.

I think this is one of the things that disheartens me so much about this President. To me, from my perspective, it seems that he just has no compassion. Say what you want about Clinton, but he seemed to genuinely care about people. Was it an act? I don’t know, but it doesn’t really matter. My President represents my country, and so I want him to reflect—at least in some part—my values. I want him to express some awareness about the world the way I see it. I don’t have to agree with him about everything, but I have to know that he might at least make the effort to hear my point of view if we were ever in a room together.

I don’t get any feeling from this president that he is the least bit concerned about freedom, liberty, or justice, at least not in the way I understand how these concepts are demonstrated. He seems devoid of grief, shame, or embarrassment, and that just doesn’t seem American to me.

Hey, by the way, happy Not One Damn Dime Day! Of course, I’m celebrating the spirit of Not One Damn Dime Day all year long. Dammit.

Digby took my breath away with this post, which I hope you’ll read. It contains the text of a speech Bill Clinton gave on the anniversary of Martin Luther King’s “I Have a Dream” speech. Aside from seconding Digby’s stirring comment about the values of the Democratic Party and why they’re worth fighting for, it’s damn good to remember a time when we had a president that had a heart and a brain. You wanna kick Clinton for his personal peccadilloes, well fair enough. But on the podium, m’boy could bring it.

Via The Regular:

[George] Clooney’s excellent letter in response to O’Reilly’s tirade against Clooney for organizing a Tsunami relief fundraiser, of all things. Just another part of the bizarre Right-Wing war on celebrities.

Wanna see some smack down? Read it. Read it now.

At The Poor Man, John Derbyshire plays the straight man:

The Poor Man—Easy Answers To Unnecessarily Stupid Questions

Over at National Review (happy 50th, guys!), John Derbyshire blogs from a sensory deprivation chamber deep beneath the surface of Mars:

Define “abusing.” Some of these prisoners are ruthless terrorists with the blood of Americans—and, of course, many Iraqis—on their hands. Most of them have done something or other to end up in custody. If U.S. interrogators yell at them, is that “abuse”? If they threaten or intimidate them, is that “abuse”? If they prevent them going to the bathroom for a couple of hours, is that “abuse”? If they smack them upside the head, is that “abuse”?

Click here for the punch line.