Nobel prize winning writer Alexander Solzhenitsyn, best known (to me at least) for writing Gulag Archipelago, died today at the age of 89.

The world lost a great writer and, more importantly, a great voice of conscience. May he rest in peace.

We shouldn't lose sight of the fact that laws are made by the legislature, not the president. Any proposal for a substantial change in the law that the president sends to Congress is likely to be amended repeatedly before it comes back to the president for a signature.

Recognizing that reality, presidential platforms tend to be more general than specific. Still, it appears the Democratic platform will recognize (as it should) the valuable contributions that Hillary Clinton and others have made to the debate over health care reform.

The committee charged with updating the platform agreed to include suggestions from Clinton, whose campaign emphasized universal health care.

[more ...]

One of the murderers of Deborah Thornton was executed for that crime. Here's what Deborah's brother, Ronald Carlson, thinks of that:

Wanting to see those who killed your loved ones suffer the same fate is understandable — no one can sit in judgment of those who have faced such loss — but our justice system should not be dictated by vengeance. As a society, shouldn’t we be more civilized than the murderers we condemn? ... The death penalty does nothing more than continue the cycle of violence that is corroding our society.

I have stood more than one time with Death Row families as they prepared to watch their loved ones head to the execution chamber. The pain that they feel is no different from the pain that I felt for my sister. When we engage in the practice of capital punishment, we force more people to suffer through the tragic loss I had to endure. We simply create more victims — victims of the very criminal justice system meant to protect us....

[more ...]

Sen. Barack Obama has sent a letter to the DNC asking that the Florida and Michigan delegations be seated in full. As much as we knew this would happen, it still strikes a sore spot.

Open Left provides direct evidence of why John Kerry is a loser. From Meet the Press:

MR. BROKAW: We're going to get to all those issues, but I also want to raise what a surrogate for Senator Obama had to say to my friend Bob Schieffer on "Face the Nation." This is former General Wesley Clark talking about John McCain. He said, "I don't think riding in a fighter plane and getting shot down is a qualification to be president." He described him as untested and untried. With all due respect, Senator Kerry, he could have been talking about your qualifications. You're a Vietnam veteran...

SEN. KERRY: Yeah, I, I don't agree. I don't agree with Wes Clark's comment. I think it was entirely inappropriate. I have nothing but enormous respect for John McCain's service. . . . I have awe for John McCain's experience as a prisoner of war, and he, and he does understand duty and service. . . .

(Emphasis supplied.) John Kerry embodies the loser wing of the Democratic Party. He is a terrible surrogate in all circumstances, and was particularly bad today. Why the Obama camp continues to trot him out is beyond comprehension.

By Big Tent Democrat, speaking for me only

What's up with Maureen Dowd? Now she's suggesting American women, specifically those who supported Hillary, dislike Obama and won't for him. Her reasons are rather odd. First she compares Obama to romantic figures in Pride and Prejudice and Bridget Jones' Diary, saying women think Obama is arrogant and prideful, then she says it's because he's too skinny and then she makes it all about race.

I hate when writers paint with too broad a brush. I haven't heard a single woman say they would never vote for a man again.

I'm a former Hillary supporter who will gladly vote for Obama over McCain or a third party candidate. Taylor Marsh, among the most ardent Hillary supporter on the blogs during the primaries responds, criticizing the Hillary supporters who can't move on: [More...]

John McCain broke his promise to run a respectful campaign -- again -- when he approved an ad that compared Barack Obama to Paris Hilton and Britney Spears. Will the tactic backfire?

For intelligent independents who had believed that Mr McCain was a cut above all that, it is a sadly disillusioning thing to see. ... The prevailing tone of his new campaign adverts is contempt: they sneer, they mock and they outrageously misrepresent. ...

Some speculate that this new turn in strategy could succeed and may indeed already be working. Mr Obama’s still narrow lead in the polls appeared to wobble last week under the onslaught. That makes it no easier to watch Mr McCain, of all people, descend to gutter politics. The Republican spent years gaining the respect of allies and opponents alike for his integrity and plain speaking. Now, it seems, he would rather lose a reputation than lose an election.

McCain's warped focus on personality rather than issues has likely caused him the support of two voters: Paris Hilton's parents. Kathy Hilton called the ad "a complete waste of the money John McCain's contributors have donated to his campaign." She has a right to say that, since it's her money that's being wasted. She and her husband each donated $2,300 to McCain this year. Think they'll ask for a refund?

It used to be that ordinary people were extremely reluctant to believe that police officers ever abuse their power. The prevalence of video cameras is changing that.

Within the past week, two videos have surfaced showing what appears to be police misconduct in New York. In one video, viewed more than 1 million times on YouTube, a police officer is seen charging a bicyclist and knocking him to the ground during a July 25 group bicycle ride through Times Square -- despite the officer's sworn complaint that the cyclist tried to run him down.

So let's hear it for "Jimmy Justice," a "cop-arazzi" who "prowls the streets of New York looking for law enforcement officers who are breaking the law." While the abuses he documents are minor -- police cars parked illegally while drivers engage in personal errands -- he's performing a public service by exposing the "laws don't apply to us" mentality that drives too many officers.

Update: For those who don't read the comments, you should check this out.

My post, "A Fairy Tale Revisited" has elicited reactions from some quarters. The interesting reactions are the ones that insist that the Clintons are racists and that rejection of the Clintons is the way for Obama to go. August J. Pollak writes:

Jesus Christ, someone save us from the stupid. . . . Because the Obama campaign had the audacity to be upset about veiled racist attacks made against him in the primary, now it's already on the table for McCain to use. See, Obama only had one "race card" in his Magic: The Election deck, and he should have saved it for McCain. A smart candidate would have simply held off from responding to six months of suggesting that the black guy can't actually win.

. . . Armando and the rest of the baby brigade truly embody the most disgraceful and arrogant remnants of the Democratic Party. It's Obama's fault, you understand, that Clinton ran a disgraceful . . . campaign. . . . [I]t's Obama's fault that Hillary Clinton spent the last six weeks of a primary she was already statistically incapable of still winning having her surrogates practically write half of McCain's campaign ads for him.

(Emphasis supplied.) More . .

Your turn.

It is easy to dismiss David Broder because he so often writes foolish things. For example, in today's column, he describes Ted Stevens, whose indictment alleges that he was doing political and legislative favors in exchange for expensive contracting work on his properties, as part of:

the rear guard of a generation of senators who see it as their principal responsibility to help their chronically needy citizens obtain the federal largess that can spell the difference between subsistence and a decent living.

(Emphasis supplied.) Um, Stevens was just labelled by the Department of Justice as a two bit grafter. Foolish, Broder, foolish. But what about Broder's claim that he will "win again" in the 2008 election, that High Broderism will be triumphant? That claim requires some examination. More . . .

The Nation has an open letter to Sen. Barack Obama and is asking his supporters to sign it. The letter, Change We Can Believe In, seeks to hold Obama accountable to the positions he's endorsed while a candidate.

The letter will be delivered to the Obama campaign prior to the start of the Democratic National Convention on August 25. So far, more than 13,000 have signed. I just added my name. You can too. (Added: Big Tent Democrat writes why he won't sign here.)

Why is this necessary?

Since your historic victory in the primary, there have been troubling signs that you are moving away from the core commitments shared by many who have supported your campaign, toward a more cautious and centrist stance--including, most notably, your vote for the FISA legislation granting telecom companies immunity from prosecution for illegal wiretapping, which angered and dismayed so many of your supporters.

[More...]