German Bundestag Member Volker Beck is a great guy — a hard-driving idealist who works hard on environmental improvement, gay rights, and global human rights. Beck was detained and beaten up by Russian police when he tried to advocate for a gay rights parade in Moscow.
If he does, then this exchange has got to be a top ten example of a self-inflicted mortal wound.
In a documentary titled “Torturing Democracy” that has recently aired on PBS, former Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage stated: There is no question in my mind — there’s no question in any reasonable human being, that this is torture. I’m ashamed that we’re even having this discussion.
I’ve had a number of emails from folks suggesting I am disrespecting the hardworking campaign canvassers and volunteers working hard on the Obama campaign for having reported that at least two paying guests at the Obama fundraiser last night in Philadelphia thought that there was a bit of “inevitability” woven into the evening.
I have heard from two attendees who along with 198 other business and social leaders had dinner with Barack Obama last night in Philadelphia. One said that the whole evening “looked like a victory lap to me.” The other attendee agreed with that assessment. Overconfidence and the posture of inevitability KILLS campaigns.
The U.S. will now remove North Korea from the state sponsors of terror list. Vice President Cheney and John Bolton must have migraines today. Congratulations to Condoleezza Rice and Assistant Secretary of State for Christopher Hill.
Watch out for her bite.
I hinted I had something fun on Wednesday, but the folks at Opinio Juris and UN Dispatch put it out before I had the chance. Sarah Palin is a strong supporter of U.S. accession to the Law of the Sea Convention.
Free Webcam Chat at Ustream Four years ago, Osama bin Laden chronicler and CNN and New America Foundation terrorism expert PETER BERGEN, The Torture Papers: The Road to Abu Ghraib author and NYU Center on Law and Security Director KAREN GREENBERG, and I organized a day long mega-meeting of the world’s best and brightest al…
Here would be an interesting line of defense in Senator Norm Coleman’s brewing scandal. Perhaps Coleman just BORROWED the suits — and wore temporarily — a few times — and then returned them to friend and campaign supporter Nasser Kazeminy. Note to the press: Ask the spokesman if Coleman just took a few loaners. ….
