(Note: Sorry this feature is later and lighter than usual; technical issues here.)
God I love Paul Krugman:
The slime campaign has begun against AARP, which opposes Social Security privatization. There's no hard evidence that the people involved - some of them also responsible for the "Swift Boat" election smear - are taking orders from the White House. So you're free to believe that this is an independent venture. You're also free to believe in the tooth fairy.
More pundit picks after the jump...
The NY Times'
Bob Herbert continues to express justifiable outrage at U.S. complicity in the torture of Arab-Canadian citizen:
Official documents in Canada suggest that Mr. Arar was never the target of a terror investigation there. One former Canadian official, commenting on the Arar case, was quoted in a local newspaper as saying "accidents will happen" in the war on terror.
Whatever may have happened in Canada, nothing can excuse the behavior of the United States in this episode. Mr. Arar was deliberately dispatched by U.S. officials to Syria, a country that - as they knew - practices torture. And if Canadian officials hadn't intervened, he most likely would not have been heard from again.
At least the Canadians have the decency to admit, somewhat, their error.
The Washington Posts's Richard Cohen examines why there is so much resentment towards the U.S. in Saudi Arabia these days, not just in the Arab street, but among the Saudi elite as well:
But also there is no overlooking the fact that Bush's brand of either-you're-with-us-or-against-us diplomacy has alienated even those Saudis who consider America their second home.
It's not likely the president would ever visit here -- what a security headache! -- but a charm offensive of some sort is clearly in order. After just a brief time here, it's clear to me that any American exploring Saudi Arabia today is not going to find oil -- it's been accounted for, thank you -- but with a little digging will encounter a gusher of grievances. Like the oil, they're just beneath the surface.
Bill Maher contributes a column in the LA Times that dispels the myth of "out of touch Hollywood":
We made all those movies with the smirking sex and the mindless violence and the superheroes beating the heck out of zombies because that's what you want.
It's what the whole world wants. Movies are the one thing about the United States that the rest of the world still actually likes -- our nation's last and only export. I mean, besides the torture. And even the ones being tortured are like, "Cool, this is just like in 'The Deer Hunter.' "
What I'm saying is, Hollywood is nothing more than a restaurant that takes your order for entertainment. You like pornography? We'll make it. And we do, a lot of it. And it's not just people in blue states who've made it a $13-billion-a-year industry.
The Chicago Trib's John Kass, a conservative Republican, throws his support to the Clinton/Kerry proposal to make the federal election day a national holiday, with a caveat:
We should have a national holiday on Election Day, free of work, so we can concentrate on the awesome responsibility of voting. That's where my amendment comes in.
Since we'd have the day off, we'd have time to concentrate on what voting means. We'd do that at the polls by writing a check before we vote. A check to pay our federal income taxes.
Instead of the first Tuesday in November, we'd shift the national vote to when it really counts, say, April 15....
Under the Kass Amendment, the current practice of withholding federal income taxes from your weekly paycheck would be abolished. You'd have to pay the whole bill at once, as part of the voter registration process.
Most Americans really don't feel the tax bite, since nips are taken out each week. If we're lucky enough to get a federal tax refund, we're overjoyed, as if we're about to receive an extra-special present, which is actually a "gift" of our own money.
Kass tried this notion on Clinton's staff, but no bites. He did get a response from Senator Obama, who said it's a novel idea, but voters would have to also get a list of all the goods and services their taxes are paying for.
And today's cartoon, from The Globe's Wasserman: