Wednesday, February 23, 2005

Why Lapham Rules

"The point didn't need belaboring because it was made clear the next day when the Senate Judiciary Committee briefly examined the qualifications of Alberto R. Gonzales, the White House counsel, to serve as Attorney General of the United States. The nominee showed himself to be a man of little principal and less integrity, a clever eunuch in a corporate harem, grinning and self-satisfied, unwilling to give a straight answer to questions about the part he played in the drawing up of the memoranda for President Bush that referred to the Geneva Convention as "quaint" and "obsolete," and defined torture as "only physical pain of intensity akin to that which accompanies serious physical injuries such as death or organ failure." When asked for specific recollection of documents that the White House refused to release to the committee, he dodged behind the phrases "I don't recall...I don't remember..."


"Democracyland," Lewis Lapham. Harper's March 25, 2005.

2 comments:

Nick said...

This belongs quite a few posts down but nonetheless...

The family is looking into whether Thompson's cremated remains can be blasted out of a cannon, a wish the gun-loving writer often expressed, Brinkley said.

"The optimal, best-case scenario is the ashes will be shot out of a cannon," he said.

Geoff said...

I'd like my remains dropped in the shark tank at the National Aquarium--when there are busloads of schoolkids there.