If it amounts to torture, it is not constitutional

Another new California law: SB 568, allowing defendants mentally incompetent to stand trial to be forcibly medicated.

Michael Mukasey’s views of presidential power and torture turned out to be Gonzo Lite, which may be my nickname for him, although other suggestions are welcome in comments (I’ve chosen to forego “the alliterative Michael Mukasey” – is anyone disappointed by that decision? Thought not). In the future, no Bush administration hack should be allowed to use the word torture, especially in the sentence “we do not torture,” if they are unwilling to define it. Without definition, a word is meaningless, and they might as well say, “we do not blibblewog.” Asked whether waterboarding is torture, he claimed he didn’t know what waterboarding entailed. When it was described to him, he still said, “If it amounts to torture, it is not constitutional.” Of course, under the Bushies, the Constitution has also been reduced to meaninglessness: If it amounts to blibblewog, it is not blibblewoggle.

I just spent one of the silliest half-minutes of my life trying to decide how one spells the adjectival form of blibblewog, a word I just made up.

I’m not sure why I felt obligated to check, but there are no Google hits for blibblewog (although, not surprisingly, there are for Gonzo Lite).

Tony Blair gave his first major speech since leaving office, wearing a tux and white tie yet, excoriating Iran and militant Islam, which he likened to fascism and said used “demonic skill” to exploit grievances and etcetera etcetera. The Guardian says he was “speaking at a charity event in New York,” but does not say what sort of charity such a speech was appropriate for. So I looked it up: the Alfred E. Smith Foundation. A Catholic group. Was that a smart choice of venue?

I have some left-over photos for your captioning pleasure. The Segway Boys are wounded soldiers.


And these are from an event today at which Bush announced more toothless sanctions on Burma’s military leaders.