Commonwealth Commonsense

Good News, Bad News

The good news is that the Bush administration is slowing eschewing 19th century methods of war.

A new Army manual bans torture and degrading treatment of prisoners, for the first time specifically mentioning forced nakedness, hooding and other procedures that have become infamous during the five-year-old war on terror.

Delayed more than a year amid criticism of the Defense Department's treatment of prisoners, the new Army Field Manual was being released Wednesday, revising one from 1992.

It also explicitly bans beating prisoners, sexually humiliating them, threatening them with dogs, depriving them of food or water, performing mock executions, shocking them with electricity, burning them, causing other pain and a technique called "water boarding" that simulates drowning, said Lt. Gen. John Kimmons, Army Deputy Chief of Staff for Intelligence .

The bad news is some prisoners don’t fall under the provisions of this manual.

President Bush on Wednesday acknowledged the existence of previously secret CIA prisons around the world and said 14 high-value terrorism suspects — including the mastermind of the Sept. 11 attacks — have been transferred from the system to Guantanamo Bay for trials.

He said the "small number" of detainees that have been kept in CIA custody include people responsible for the bombing of the USS Cole in 2000 in Yemen and the 1998 attacks on U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania, in addition to the 2001 attacks.

…The president said the 14 key terrorist leaders, including Mohammed, Binalshibh, and Zubaydah, that have been transferred to the U.S. military-run prison at Guantanamo Bay would be afforded legal some protections consistent with the Geneva conventions.

That’s some assurance, isn’t it.

We Need to Talk

[In one country], instituted a nationwide needle-exchange program; they distribute condoms free at health clinics around the country, and they have methadone treatment centers in every province.

…[A doctor there] established what he called a "triangular" clinic, which eased the AIDS stigma by treating addiction and sexually transmitted diseases as well. The innovative program caught the eye of [ the country’s] health minister, and by 2003 [the doctor] had taken it nationwide. Today he has triangular clinics in 67… cities and 57 prisons.

What country might this be? Some amoral Scandinavian nation or perhaps the free loving France? No, it would be Iran.

As David Ignatius says, we need to talk.

And Ban Books, Too!

Here’s something the Islamo-fascists and the Christo-fascists can agree on.

Vote Republican! I Am!

You don’t believe it. I wouldn’t have either until I learned that by voting Republican we Democrats can get everything we want. Of course, I needed a college professor to educate me.

We need to elect Republican snake oil salesmen. The slicker the better. No more Bill Frist’s. No more Dennis Hastert’s. We need guys who can sell the farm and offer to throw in the bat shit for free.

Arnold Schwarzenegger is making friends with Democrats in the California Assembly. The Dems there like him so much, they are apparently ignoring Schwarzenegger’s opponent, Phil Angelides, who is trying to gain traction. Here’s why.

…[I]t is convenient for the Democratic-dominated legislature to have a governor with Schwarzenegger's star power. If anyone can sell something to voters, they reason, Schwarzenegger can. "The legislators understand they can get more out of Arnold than Angelides because Arnold has to bargain," said Sherry Bebitch Jeffe, a political analyst at the University of Southern California.

So it’s best to have someone whose political interests are the opposite of yours because you can bargain with him, whereas I suppose if a Democrat was governor, he’d give the Dems in the Assembly everything they want.

Now where’s the fun in that!

Angry -- and Proud of It

Just this weekend, Republican Sen. Mitch McConnell characterized the Democratic Party Chairman’s comments as coming from “the angry face of Howard Dean.” Republicans love to say that the Democrats are “angry,” as if to suggest they don’t have a grip on their own passions and would likely act precipitously if in charge. You hear that characterization time and again.

I’ve always wondered why the Dems just didn’t say, “You bet I’m angry -- about the war that’s killed 2600 Americans and maimed nearly 20,000, about the economy that leaves the middle class behind, about the Katrina debacle, about government interference in end of life decisions. I could go on. There is a lot to be angry about.”

So it comes with some satisfaction that I learn that three of every four Americans say they are angry.

Most Americans are angry about "something" when it comes to how the country is run, and they are more likely than in previous years to vote for a challenger this November, a new poll suggests.

A majority of Americans surveyed -- and a higher percentage than recorded during the same time last year -- said things in the United States are going "badly." Among this year's respondents, 29 percent said "pretty badly" and 25 percent -- up from 15 percent a month ago -- answered "very badly." By comparison, 37 percent described the way things are going as "fairly well," and 9 percent answered "very well."

Of these people, 76 percent said there was "something" to be angry about in the country today. By comparison, 59 percent felt that way when polled in February.

But folks say (mostly Republican folks) that anger is a wasted emotion. I’ll try to be happier. But it would help if I could drink or smoke whatever it is that those 9% are having. My guess is it’s either Dom Perignon or that stuff with no seeds that costs $400 an ounce.

Old Fashion Learning

Educators brought this on themselves. Over the last decade, we’ve become paralyzed by education standards. We need to pass tests to get out of school and to get into school. If we can’t prove it by choosing (a) over (b), (c) and (d), then we must not be educated.

So it’s not surprising that the culture of objectivity has now put educators on the defensive in a lawsuit brought by parents in Louisville and Seattle who charge discrimination against their white kids who’ve been denied admission into K-12 schools in those cities. In Louisville, the parents want their kids in certain magnet schools where the city is trying to maintain between a 15% and 50% minority population, reflecting the city’s racial make-up. In Seattle, school officials want a multi-ethnic environment in schools because they believe “students learn best in a diverse environment.” Students can go to any school unless it’s "oversubscribed" with that student’s race or ethnicity.

White parents are crying foul and reverse discrimination. But it begs the question, if race isn’t a fair criteria to establish school standards, what is?

Scores, tests, numbers, of course. That’s what an education has become. A gifted writer will be denied a high school diploma is she can’t pass the math SOL. K-12 schools have succumbed to this thinking, whereas colleges have thought that way for decades. If a kid has a higher SAT, then he gets in over a child with creativity but lower scores. Having had three kids apply to college in the last four years, I think it is still solely a numbers game for most schools.

Opponents of plans to diversify schools claim they are being denied admission unfairly because they’re white, despite their higher scores. In both these cases, it may be that kids can’t go to their neighborhood school, although I suspect that affects both whites and minority students.

Whatever the specifics of these cases, having a diverse population can be a critical component of a complete education. We’re not just trying to teach these kids how to add and subject and know dates of the American Revolution. We’re trying to prepare them for today’s complex world. If all you really need to know you learn in kindergarten, you better have some faces that don’t like yours in it. And if you want to understand the subtleties of world affairs, you need some experience with folks you don’t share your views or prejudices. Race and ethnicity are playing a greater, not lesser, role in American life. Kids need some experience in that environment.

Just because a kid scores a few points higher on a test doesn’t mean he can contribute as much to the learning environment as someone else. The same is true in the workplace. Those who charge “reverse discrimination” believe that judging who is the best fit for a job can be coolly calculated by years of experience, courses taken and raises granted. The irony is that jobs have been filled for generations based on who you know, not what you know. But the myth of an objective grading system for employees is the smoke screen for those who can’t understand why a company might want to hire a minority for either the unique perspective he might bring the company’s business or because mere diversity might be beneficial to the company in some intangible way.

Once that kid, whatever race or ethnicity, gets into the real world, he learns what we all know: Life isn’t fair. We make decisions based on intangibles and are judged by the same. So isn’t it best we give all kids the greatest chance possible to explore those inequities and intangibles while they’re young, impressionable and, we hope, less corrupted by established prejudices?

There is no objective way to judge understanding, initiative or dedication. And there is little proof that a kid educated in one school will always have the advantage in terms of intellectual skills over another educated elsewhere. You get out of it what you put into it. But understanding diversity can only be accomplished the old fashioned way -- experiencing it. We do great harm to children if we deny them that opportunity.