News & Comment

How bad Abu Ghraib really was.

Talk Left highlights prison abuse in the U.S., and new allegations by the Red Cross that the U.S. may be engaging in secret detentions.

The GOP has a trial lawyer of their own on the ballot in Florida.

Alas, A Blog on marriage debate, examining the social implications of same-sex marriage and attitudes about the institution as a whole compared on an opinion survey of several countries.

Krugman has the goods on Tom Delay's campaign fundraising practices, and why they're probably in violation of Texas law. Excerpt:

...Now, e-mail and other Enron documents are revealing why Tom DeLay, the House majority leader, is one of the most powerful men in America.

A little background: at the Republican convention, most featured speakers will be social moderates like Rudy Giuliani and Arnold Schwarzenegger. A moderate facade is necessary to win elections in a generally tolerant nation. But real power in the party rests with hard-line social conservatives like Mr. DeLay, who, in the debate over gun control after the Columbine shootings, insisted that juvenile violence is the result of day care, birth control and the teaching of evolution.

Here's the puzzle: if Mr. DeLay's brand of conservatism is so unpopular that it must be kept in the closet during the convention, how can people like him really run the party?

In Mr. DeLay's case, a large part of the answer is his control over corporate cash. As far back as 1996, one analyst described Mr. DeLay as the "chief enforcer of company contributions to Republicans." ...

Billmon has an interesting take on Republican-style class warfare, and discusses whether the elections could be postponed.