Saddam wasn’t a dictator. How do we know this? The judge overseeing his trial says so:

Questioning a Kurdish witness Thursday, Saddam said, “I wonder why this man wanted to meet with me, if I am a dictator?”

The judge interrupted: “You were not a dictator. People around you made you (look like) a dictator.”

“Thank you,” Saddam responded, bowing his head in respect.

Prosecutors have been saying that the judge is biased. I wonder why.

I hope he doesn’t conclude the trial by saying: “You are not a murderer. All these damn witnesses in the courtroom claimed you were a murderer. But you are not. I hope you carry out your threat to crush their heads. Case dismissed.”

I get sick of correcting stories about Lyin’ Joe Wilson. Thank goodness other bloggers don’t. Check out Cassandra and Tom Blumer on the latest stories papering over Lyin’ Joes lies.

If they try to “Swift-boat” John Kerry again, he’s gonna kick their asses:

Asked if he dreads the prospect of being “Swift-Boated” all over again, Kerry counters that he would relish such a fight.

“I’m prepared to kick their ass from one end of America to the other,” he declares. “I am so confident of my abilities to address that and to demolish it and to even turn it into a positive.”

Tom Maguire notes a few things that he hopes will “come out in the ass-kicking.”

P.S. To “Swift-boat” someone means “to raise legitimate questions about their record.” It’s hard to pick up from context, I know.

UPDATE: For specifics on the strength of the Swift Vets’ claims, and more on what has been missing from the documents produced by Kerry to date, go to this post of mine from May.

Funny, he didn’t seem like the kind of fella who would shoot a bunch of people.

Allah notes that his “dislikes” (a long list) include “Republicans.”

They also include:

People who judge others

Normal human behavior

[Expletive deleted]ing Religious People Who Think They Know Everything…..And Then They Stick It In Your Face Cuz’ They Think They Know Everything (They Don’t Understand That They’re Just A Bunch Of Little Sheep)

Catholics

Bible Thumpping Know-It-Alls

Society

When My Rifle Misfires And I Gotta Stand There For 60 Seconds Waiting For It To Fire, Or Not

Nope, not the “Onion.” It’s his actual web page.

And under “Goal You Would Like To Achieve This Year” he put: “Stay Alive.”

Damn underachiever.

[posted by Justin Levine] 

In the global age of the Internet, I find it simply bizarre to think that there are actually websites out there that are illegal to read in the U.S., but perfectly legal in other countries such as Australia. (I’m not talking about any type of sex site, but websites that simply contain text and literature.)

Here is an example if you wish to engage in “civil disobedience” in the U.S. (or is it “fair use”?).

[posted by Justin Levine]

Dahlia Lithwick has a highly dishonest piece about torture in the current edition of Slate. She rejects President Bush’s proposal that torture be defined as treatment that “shocks the conscience.” Lithwick appears instead to support the Geneva Convention protections against torture, which go further, and also bar “outrages upon personal dignity, in particular, humiliating and degrading treatment.”

It would shock my conscience to write a piece as dishonest as Lithwick’s — and perhaps my commenter JVW had something like that in mind when he opined: “I think a workable definition of torture is having to endure Dahlia Lithwick’s blatherings in Slate.” I think that the targets of her dishonest attacks would agree, as they have certainly suffered outrages on their personal dignity due to her torturing of the definition of “torture.”

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