(crossposted at Midtopia)
Diverse and Contradictory has a post discussing why political parties are congenitally incapable of governing.
The Republicans and Democrats have tried so hard to be the party of everyone, that it’s impossible to gain any real consensus among their members.
Republicans have fought this weakness by creating polarizing issues and then standing for them. The [...]

Reader_i_am writes:

Not long ago, I made the mistake of bringing up the concept of moral courage in a comments section elsewhere. Almost immediately, that idea was dismissed, even pooh-poohed, and I assume it was because the word “moralâ€Â? is immediately associated with religion and petty “moralism.” But moral courage isn’t about that (although, at its [...]

That’s what the Jack Balkin thinks, and it has one helluva good point…
Today the Army filed criminal charges against Lt. Col Steven L. Jordan, a military intelligence officer who was second-in-command of interrogation operations at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq. Charge III of the Army’s Charge Sheet accuses Jordan of “cruelty and maltreatment,” based on [...]

U.N. decides it should protect people after all.

UNITED NATIONS – The U.N. Security Council affirmed for the first time Friday that the international community has a responsibility to protect civilians from genocide, war crimes and ethnic cleansing when national governments fail to do so.
A resolution, which was unanimously approved by the 15-nation council, endorsed [...]

(crossposted from Midtopia)
In a report required as part of the renewal of the Patriot Act, the Justice Department said Friday that the FBI secretly sought information on 3,501 U.S. citizens and legal residents last year. The report covers some but not all National Security Letters, which let the government obtain records without a judge’s approval [...]

I’m showing you a picture of my car, which a 2002 Volkswagen Jetta. It’s a nice car that gets me where I need to go.
So, why am I showing you this?
Look at this next photo.

Do you see the letters “TDI?” That stand for “Turbo Diesel Injection.” Yes, my car runs on [...]

Looks like we’re going to the Save Darfur rally in DC this Sunday. I say it ‘looks like’ because although we have plane tickets, and hotel reservations, and have boarded the animals, one can never overestimate my family’s capacity for screwing up even the most settled plans. Used to be there was a one-to-one ratio [...]

…but first it must be destroyed…
And after the response to Katrina, this isn’t a shock…
WASHINGTON â€â€? Hurricane Katrina exposed flaws in the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the Department of Homeland Security that are “too substantial to mend,” and FEMA should be dismantled and rebuilt inside the troubled department, according to the final report by [...]

“Institutionally, the presidency is walking all over Congress at the moment. If we are to maintain our institutional prerogative, that may be the only way we can do it.”
- Senator Arlen Specter, R-Pa.
He’s talking about proposing legislation to cut off funding for the NSA’s warrantless wiretapping program if Congress doesn’t get some answers soon.
More here.

It’s actually a t-shirt. I’m getting three. One for me, myself and I.

Republicans and Democrats are vying to see who can come up with the stupidest pander to motorists — all part of a short-sighted election-year reaction to $3-a-gallon gas.
President Bush eases environmental standards for refineries, trading long-term environmental damage for short-term price relief. Republicans say “drill in ANWR!” and suggest sending every taxpayer a $100 rebate, [...]

Join the 101st Fighting Keyboardists. They’ve even got a spiffy logo. If you haven’t seen the term before, you haven’t read the left side blogs (or seen left-side comments on everyone else’s blog). It’s the contemptuous term for anyone who writes and publishes in support of the War on Islamist Terrorists but who isn’t actually [...]

Powerline, like a lot of pro-Republican blogs, most days seems inclined to go down with the Bush ship. But the authors haven’t lost their knack for identifying, and skewering, the two-left-feet approach to politics as practiced by the current leading lights of the Democratic Party. Such as the reaction to the appointment of Tony Snow.

On [...]

The op-ed by Todd Beamer’s father, based on the Flight 93 movie, is behind the subscription firewall at the WSJ. Cardinalpark, however, has a key excerpt up over at Tigerhawk:

This film further reminds us of the nature of the enemy we face. An enemy who will stop at nothing to achieve world domination and force [...]

Here’s how . . . I think.
In an e-mail newsletter I received this link:
It finds the cheapest gas station near you, without you wasting a gallon or two driving around looking for it.
Just plug your zip code in and it’ll tell you the lowest — and highest — price in your area. Check it [...]

No, it’s not an oxymoron.
In fact, there’s a blog called GreenGOP.org that just launched recently. It aims to reverse the stigma the GOP has so deservedly earned.
Check it out.

Why? Because the same approach “failed miserably” in the 80s, according to new House Majority Leader, John Boehner.
Well John, not that this is a good argument, but you think maybe that things have changed in 20 years? After all, even after the elder Bush dismantled Reagan’s supply side economic model because it drove the country [...]

So Al-Zarqawi has released a video in which he attacks the United States and all of his other enemies. And who are they?
“Any government that will be established in Iraq today, whoever is in it, whether they are the rejecters (Shiite Muslims) or the secular Zionist Kurds or the agents who are Sunnis in name, [...]

Well, if they’re cleaning house…why not redesign the website too?
It is widely believed that The United States of America is the most powerful nation on the face of the earth (meaning different things depending on who’s saying it). The world moves, in some measure, to the beat of its economic drum and worldwide policies are [...]

Seriously, that’s my only question when I read this story…
Sen. Pat Roberts (R-Kan.), who chairs the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, said he wants to divide his panel’s inquiry into the Bush administration’s handling of Iraq-related intelligence into two parts, a move that would push off its most politically controversial elements to a later time.
The [...]