Old Fogey's Quotes for Saturday

"Kafka-esque doesn't do it justice. This is 'Alice in Wonderland.' "
Joseph Margulies, a Northwestern University law professor who has represented several detainees at Guantanamo, referring to the government's request to bar detainees from discussing details of their confinement and interrogation--even to their lawyers
U.S. Seeks Silence on CIA Prisons
[I believe I've seen this plot before in the Dreyfus affair that brought great dishonor to the French justice system. I agree that terrorists are terrible--I just think captives should be given the right to prove they are not terrorists. Removing this right gives the terrorists quite a victory by transforming us into the people they claim we are]

"How in the world could we be reliving a nightmare like Vietnam?"
Colbert I. King in WaPo editorial
Two Tales of War: Read 'Em and Weep
[The same way we can be reliving the nightmare of trickle-down economics--a recurrent Republican proposal since the 1920s. How many times does the theory have to be disproved by soaring national debt, increased poverty rates, and economic instability?]

"Getting through five years of wartime without an attack on the homeland took a lot more than luck."
Tricky Dick Cheney
Cheney Vows 'Full Speed Ahead' on Iraq War
[What besides luck has prevented an attack through the unscreened cargo entering our ports? What besides luck has prevented devastating attacks on minimumly secure chemical plants? Surely it was not the the competency of those guys who brought us the stadium security fiasco, which even minimumly competent intelligence authorities should have recogonized as a hoax. These guys actually took weeks to even discover the fake threat that had been posted on numerous websites.]

"If confirmed as secretary of state, I intend to continue the tradition in that position of not actively participating in public campaign or political events."
Condoleezza Rice, during her confirmation hearings
Rice Bucks Tradition With Pre-Election Appearances
[So far her inactive activity has included 9 radio intervies in 10 days. If she were a member of the Clinton administration, a special investigator would be holding hearings on whether she lied under oath. In the Bush administration it's just politics as usual for department secretaries to turn their domains into Republican political operations.]