A Lesson We Won't Learn

Yglesias makes a good point about Karzai's election fraud in Afghanistan:

But I think there’s a lesson here about America’s tendency toward geopolitical self-righteousness. When Russia backs pro-Russian political leaders in countries that are important to Russia (Georgia, Ukraine, etc.) even when they commit election fraud, the tendency is for the United States to enter an orgy of moralistic denunciations. But we, too, have our moments in which we feel strategic interests compel us to keep backing our favorite horse even if he commits some election fraud. We don’t need to embrace it when other countries do it, but it’s worth having some humility.

The chances of us learning this lesson: zero.

An Open Letter to Ang Lee

Dear Mr. Lee,

I see that your new film, "Lust, Caution" has received an NC-17 ruling from the MPAA. Evidently it has too many "pelvic thrusts" for the board, among other things.

By now you should know how the MPAA and the United States works. The fact that the female characters might enjoy sex or, God forbid!, have an orgasm, is deeply offensive to this nation. More offensive is the idea that a man would perform oral sex on a woman. That clearly violates the nation's values.

What you need to learn is what Americans find acceptable. Sawing a woman in two for instance. Totally acceptable. Other things you might do is torture a woman to death, have a woman thrown to her death from a tall building, or otherwise see women humiliated. That is OK.

If you follow my advice, you will at least get an R rating. If you can get a BIG STAR in your film, you'll even get a PG-13.

Posada

I am disgusted but not shocked that U.S. district court judge Kathleen Cardone has thrown out all charges against Cuban terrorist Luis Posada Carriles. Posada, who has admitted to blowing up a Cuban airplane in 1976 that killed 73 people and who masterminded a series of hotel bombings in Havana, is now a free man in the United States.

I cannot really comment on much of why the judge threw out the charges. She claims Posada was treated unfairly in his immigration hearing. Maybe, but I doubt she is so concerned with the thousands of other, non-terrorist, immigrants who are also not treated fairly by the United States. Cardone wrote in her decision, "This court finds the government's tactics in this case are so grossly shocking and so outrageous as to violate the universal sense of justice." More shocking and outrageous than blowing up an airplane and killing innocent people?

Whether or not the government had a legitimate case against Posada for immigration violations, there is no question that they should immediately deport him to Cuba, Venezuela, or perhaps a third Latin American nation. By keeping Posada in the United States, we are telling the world that we only denounce terrorism when that terrorist has not received CIA training and is not doing what the U.S. desires. We are hypocrites to the rest of the world and we deserve to be fully denounced for giving Posada asylum.

Of course, the fact that Cardone was nominated for her position by Texas Senators Kay Bailey Hutchinson and John Cornyn gives us a pretty good idea about why she threw out the charges against Posada, regardless of the actual merits of the case.