I've written here before about my husband's work as a criminal defense lawyer and his representation of two prisoners at Guantanamo Bay, one of whom was released last year after six years of detention.

Last week, my husband returned home from his sixth trip to Gitmo, frustrated as always but more hopeful than usual. His frustration lies with the sham of justice there; his hope with the incoming Obama administration. He doesn't say much about his remaining client; most of the file is classified and unavailable even to the prisoner.

But he did make one comment as we drove from the airport in St. Louis to our home in the bootheel of Missouri. Sounding tired and resigned, he noted this has been the longest case of his 32-year career. And it's not over yet.

I don't have an answer to this, but : ... they caustically and condescendingly tore down anyone whom they disagreed with, with a special fondness for liberals and progressives, whom they viewed as self-deluded phonies who hadn't been sufficiently enlightened as to the one true path.

Good grief. I've experienced similar responses here and elsewhere and have refused to respond to such bullying. Perhaps I am a self-deluded phony but, if I am, would I know it?

and I say that as a guy who's hearty.

But I'm thinfully shapeful! I weigh, at best, 145 pounds (and that's on a very slim 5'11" frame).

And please, I'm not trying to creep you out!

Oh, also, I'm handsome.

Sounding tired and resigned, he noted this has been the longest case of his 32-year career. And it's not over yet.

Thank you for this personal anecdote. I hope it will be over sooner rather than later.

Agreed. :o)

...people are being held in America's growth industry, jails, who have also committed no crimes? If this is what happens when the fullglare of the world is on your nation then what the hell happens in those places we cannot see? This crazy administration has made more enemies for your nation than any before them and that is something considering what their predecessors got up elsewhere. I remember that woman plaintively crying out as the WTC collapsed, "Why do they hate us so much?" Well lady now you have your answer, because those cretins running the US treat too many like pieces of crap whilst enriching themselves and entrenching their power. This the stark realtiy of your nation and it is sad to see. I often wonder about America, thinking is this the same nation that helped beat back fascism in the 1940s? The answer is a resounding NO! As in Israel with the Palestinians it seems America has truly lost it's moral compass. The champions of the opressed have become the opressors. Where the f*#k is Superman!

:-)

"Another neighbor, a patriarchal old Englishman with a white beard, kept a great stand of bees. I remember his incessant drumming on a tin pan to marshal them when they were swarming, and myself as idly wondering who first discovered that this was the thing to do, and why the bees should fall in with it. It struck me that if the bees were as intelligent as bees are cracked up to be, instead of mobilising themselves for old man Reynolds's benefit, they would sting him soundly and then fly off about their business. I always think of this when I see a file of soldiers, wondering why the sound of a drum does not incite them to shoot their officers, throw away their rifles, go home, and go to work." -- Albert Jay Nock

The same goes for citizens. They follow the leader who says we are moral and we do not do evil. So stop believing the evidence of your own lying eyes!

http://www.latimes.com/news/politics/la-na-foreign-policy20-2008nov20,0,1380983.story

By Paul Richter

November 20, 2008

Reporting from Washington -- Antiwar groups and other liberal activists are increasingly concerned at signs that Barack Obama's national security team will be dominated by appointees who favored the Iraq invasion and hold hawkish views on other important foreign policy issues.

The activists are uneasy not only about signs that both Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) and Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates could be in the Obama Cabinet, but at reports suggesting that several other short-list candidates for top security posts backed the decision to go to war. ... click sig for more

***********

Seems to me that Glenn is correct in that we can only judge actions by the president elect and not the fears of others. (like me)

However, the "signs" are not looking favorable for those who hope for an end to the brutal American worldwide murders.

Seems to me that Glenn is correct in that we can only judge actions by the president elect and not the fears of others. (like me)

Nevertheless, fear is healthy (I always say).

They were different. It's hard to describe, but there was a smug way in which it became personal beyond normal ad hom attacks. The haughty and dismissive condescension just oozed out of their every word, which were carefully and specifically chosen for the intended target, and meant to cut. It felt almost stalker-like, and quite creepy.

There was also a Jesus-like surely to their views, that they were unquestionably correct and that only a fool--i.e. everybody who wasn't them--would be stupid or dishonest enough to question them. They seemed to take joy and smug satisfaction in insulting people who disagreed with them. And one of them even claimed to feel joy whenever a US soldier was killed in Iraq.

At the fringes, both sides have their self-righteous crazies who Must Not Be Questioned. Which always makes me chuckle whenever a wingnut refers to an Obama or Kos as a radical far-left fringe liberal. Hardly. Not even close. They're Federalist Society material in comparison.

Anyway, they appear to be gone from there, for now.

That's fascinating to me. There is, I agree, a creepiness to the whole approach that is quite unsettling. I don't pretend to understand it but agree that, At the fringes, both sides have their self-righteous crazies who Must Not Be Questioned. Which always makes me chuckle whenever a wingnut refers to an Obama or Kos as a radical far-left fringe liberal. Hardly. Not even close. They're Federalist Society material in comparison.

You know, whenever I have the misfortune of seeing the likes of Bill O'Reilly or Hannity, both of whom rail on about DailyKos as the epitome of the far left radicals among us, I laugh. And just for the reason you state. There is a radical leftist world out there that is far less permeable than the likes of these will ever know.