Tuesday's links and comments

Remember the stupid idea contained in this article next time someone asserts that New York City Mayor Bloomberg is a Republican.

NYC mayor suggests paying poor for good behavior, healthy choices

Funniest part of the article is when they say the idea has been successful in other countries like Mexico. You know Mexico, that's the place people fight to get out of so they can get a sub-minimum wage job here.

Rich Lowry has an excellent column on the current debate regarding treatment of prisoners in the war on terror. In the column Lowry takes apart the stupid argument advanced by former Secretary of State Colin Powell and Senator John McCain that not being extra gentle to terrorist prisoners could result in mistreatment of our own soldiers captured during this and future wars.

McCain warns that such a definitional exercise risks “the lives of those Americans who risk everything to defend our country.” What pleasant, alternate reality does the Arizona Republican inhabit?

Perhaps he missed the story a few months ago about the two American soldiers captured by al Qaeda in Iraq. Al Qaeda released a video of them, described by the British newspaper The Guardian: “One of them, partially naked, had been beheaded and his chest cut open. The other’s face was bruised, his jaw apparently broken, and his leg had long gashes. Fighters were shown turning the bodies over and lifting the head of the decapitated man.” This is savagery immune to a domestic legal debate in the U.S. Maybe McCain and Co. think that the U.S. debate at least will influence our more reasonable adversaries. But since when have we fought a regime — Saddam’s Iraq, Milosevic’s Serbia, North Vietnam, North Korea, Imperial Japan, Nazi Germany — that is not barbarously committed to repression and murder?

The Examiner is running a series titled Meet the Next President taking a critical look at the ten most likely candidates for 2008. They appear to be relatively balanced in considering the pros and cons of each potential candidate. Here are links to the first two in the series:
Russ Feingold
George Allen