Against torture

By Aziz P. -
I oppose Alberto Gonzales for Attorney General. To nominate him is to validate his position that torture is acceptable and that the Geneva Conventions are non-binding, at the President's discretion. I do not believe that embracing human decency ever takes an "option off the table" as others have argued - for such pragmatism, bereft of principle, leads America to moral equivalence with those we seek to depose.

Gonzales must not be rewarded for his role in eroding our moral high ground. Accountability for Abu Ghraib. No to Alberto for AG.

Aside: I hope that the Democrats hold the line against Gonzales. I am especially hoping not to be disappointed by Hillary Clinton on this matter, though since she's not my senator there's precious little say I have in the matter. Hillary voted for Rice, which did not disappoint me as much as it did others, but confirming Gonzales would be a bitter pill to swallow. Not a deal-breaker, but bitter nontheless. How will Kerry vote? How will Bayh?

Comments

Razib Khan said…
1) i think gonzales is bad news. not only has he promoted some rather sketchy views on torture, etc., he's not intellectual of high caliber, rather, he's been promoted because of political loyalty.

2) can the democratic party oppose him? he's a latino who has had decent relations with the national advocacy organizations for his community. the fact is he's not really *that* conservative, just loyal.
3:10 AM
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

A fair solution to Jerusalem

By Aziz P. -
I remember reading one of the books by Tom Clancy in which Jack Ryan was credited with coming up with a solution for Middle East peace which was pointedly never actually detailed in the novel. It was just a way to give his character some foreign policy cred, but ended up like that mysterious suitcase in Pulp Fiction. I couldn't help but be reminded of that, though, when I read former New York mayor Ed Koch's innovative solution to resolving the status of Jerusalem . Instead of putting the hot-button issue of Jerusalem last on the agenda, the issue should be addressed first. If the Jerusalem question is solved, everything else should fall into place more easily. I believe there is a way to keep Jerusalem unified. I am talking not only of the old walled city, which is a very small part of the city of Jerusalem, but the whole city, east, west, north and south. [...] My suggestion is to situate the new Palestinian capital in that part of East Jerusalem that is occupied overwhelming...
Read more

Conservatism's shari'a, liberalism's ijtihad

By Aziz P. -
An interesting meta-debate by intellectual conservatives over conservatism's future is playing out. It started with David Frum's Waterloo essay, which led to his political excommunication. Julian Sanchez observed that this represented an epistemic closing of the conservative mind , a thesis that was validated by the retribution visited upon Jim Manzi for daring to suggest that conservatives will achieve more persuasion by using honest, strong arguments instead of weak, emotional ones. All of this has led John Quiggin at Crooked Timber to argue most wisely that as conservatism implodes, liberalism needs to find its own rationale that is more than just "not conservatism". Quiggin has a list of priorities for the liberal movement to address, and closes with the general plea, ...the left has to stand for something more than keeping the existing order afloat with incremental improvements. We need to offer the hope of a better world as an alternative to the angry tribali...
Read more