IRAN

Here in the United States we know about stolen elections. We had one, but we didn't go running into the streets to shout our outrage. We grumbled, shrugged, and went on with our lives, while the new president dragged us further down than we've ever been before. OK, it's not exactly the same thing, our election was real, votes were counted, not just dumped in order to create the illusion of an overwhelming plurality. But the result was the same, the wrong man jumped in front of the line, proving that even in a real democracy there's enough corruption to blur what is true.

And now in Iran there's blood raging, and running, down the streets. You can watch a young woman's last breath on YouTube. See her eyes take one last look at the world before she bleeds to death, listening to her companions shouting their anguish at her passing. What horror. What passion, as the people continue pouring out into the streets, shouting encouragement to each other as they risk their lives to give voice to their feelings. This is not just about freedom, it's also about wanting a government they can trust. The elections are a lie, a blatant, obvious lie, a gob of spit in the face of democracy, and that's why they're out there being beaten, tear gassed, killed. The government's actions have told them that they don't count for anything, and they want the government to know it's wrong.

Meanwhile here in the United States, a compassionate president gives a heartfelt message and is called weak. He's been called this before, even during the election process, his machismo was called into question. The fact that he has to tread carefully in order not to have the Iran government use his message as proof of their allegations that it is the United States and England who are instigating these protests, doesn't bother these politician. They want the United States to be the pit bull of the world again. The last president we had would certainly be snarling and growling the machismo creed. Either him, or his vice president, who had such a blood lust he shot one of his best friends while hunting.

These politicians aren't used to intelligent governing. The last president told the whole world to f__k off, that the United States would do whatever it wanted to do whether they liked it or not. He let Rumsfeld strut into Iraq with his intelligent weapons blazing, and no one realized that only the weapons were intelligent, the thinking behind them was stupid. Some politicians are nostalgic for the blind fury of stupidity.

My only hope is that President Obama continues to govern with compassion and intelligence, and not listen to those who failed us but want a second chance to do it again.

As for the Iranians... may their courage grant them something besides death and sorrow. We want them to win, because in pursuing a free society, they have become our brothers and sisters. The whole world is watching. God Bless them. God help them. God help us all.

PRIME EVIL

The New York Times recently printed a headline that read, U.S. LAWYERS AGREED ON THE LEGALITY OF BRUTAL TACTIC. The legality? What does that mean? A band of lawyers, some of them acknowledging it was a mistake, gave the green light to 13 methods of interrogation, One of the lawyers, John C. Yoo, declared in a memorandum that only pain equal to that produced by organ failure or death qualified as torture. So, according to Mr. Yoo, as long as you don't kill them you're on solid legal ground.

What does one thing have to do with the other? Declaring waterboarding legal doesn't make it any less a torture. Just reading its description tells you how barbaric it is. Michael Mukasey, President Bush's pick for attorney general, called waterboarding personally "repugnant," but concluded he didn't know enough about how it'd been used to define it as torture. Has our conscience become so numbed, and our morality so corrupt, that an obvious act of torture is no longer immediately repellent, but turned over to lawyers to discuss it's legality?

We're not the only country to use waterboarding to interrogate. It was used by the Japanese in World War II, by U.S. troops in the Philipines and by the French in Algeria. The British used it against both Arabs and Jews in occupied Palestine in the 1930's. In 1947, the United States charged a Japanese officer, Yukio Asano, with war crimes for waterboarding a U.S. citizen. And other countries have used it at one time or another. This horror dates back to the 14th century.

None of this matters. What matters is that if at this stage of our evolution the best we can do is create weak excuses for barbaric behavior, then we're lost as a civilization. Our moral compass is askew, and we are lost, lost beyond redemption, because in excusing our brutality, we lose our conscience--and isn't that what anchors our morality?

HERE COMES THE JUDGE

Judge Santamayor has the Republicans in a tizzy. They don't want to upset the growing Hispanic community by being downright hostile, yet, they don't want anyone leaning away from the right- the direction they nudged the court when they had the power. In obvious desperation they've plucked one remark to wave like a red flag in order to cast doubt on a judge whose heard appeals in 3,ooo cases and has written 380 opinions. The Republicans still want everyone to play by their rules; they are the spoiled brats of politics. That red flag they're waving is the emperor's new clothes on a stick. They have nothing. Get out of the way, boys, here comes the judge.