GEORGE FARAH: The League of Women Voters ran the presidential debate process from 1976 until 1984, and they were a very courageous and genuinely independent, nonpartisan sponsor. And whenever the candidates attempted to manipulate the presidential debates behind closed doors, either to exclude a viable independent candidate or to sanitize the formats, the League had the courage to challenge the Republican and Democratic nominees and, if necessary, go public.

In 1980, independent candidate John B. Anderson was polling about 12 percent of the polls. The League insisted that Anderson be allowed to participate, because the vast majority of the American people wanted to see him, but Jimmy Carter, President Jimmy Carter, refused to debate him. The League went forward anyway and held a presidential debate with an empty chair, showing that Jimmy Carter wasn’t going to show up.

Four years later, when the Republican and Democratic nominees tried to get rid of difficult questions by vetoing 80 of the moderators that they had proposed to host the debates, the League said, "This is unacceptable." They held a press conference and attacked the campaigns for trying to get rid of difficult questions.

And lastly, in 1988, was the first attempt by the Republican and Democratic campaigns to negotiate a detailed contract. It was tame by comparison, a mere 12 pages. It talked about who could be in the audience and how the format would be structured, but the League found that kind of lack of transparency and that kind of candidate control to be fundamentally outrageous and antithetical to our democratic process. They released the contract and stated they refuse to be an accessory to the hoodwinking of the American people and refuse to implement it.

And today, what do we have? We have a private corporation that was created by the Republican and Democratic parties called the Commission on Presidential Debates. It seized control of the presidential debates precisely because the League was independent, precisely because this women’s organization had the guts to stand up to the candidates that the major-party candidates had nominated. And instead of making public these contracts and resisting the major-party candidates’ manipulations, the commission allows the candidates to negotiate these 21-page contracts that dictate all the fundamental terms of the debates.

Secret Debate Contract Reveals Obama and Romney Campaigns Exclude Third Parties, Control Questions

Sitting in the path of convoys for wars they did not start, dealing with debts taken by politicians they do not represent, plagued by poverty and terrorism and unemployment, an energy crisis and a revenue crisis, Pakistanis can certainly claim the position of the world’s most disgruntled nation.

Anti-Westernism is a useful panacea in this regard, allowing for vast stores of helpless hatred to be directed somewhere outward at those who have options or escapes.

Arguing for some doses of logic to break this fever of hating the West is much like trying to rehabilitate the most unwilling of addicts. Nevertheless, the distinction may be instructive for those who can take out a moment to consider its implications.

While redemptive for the moment, the all-consuming wish for a West-less world also represents a suspension of ethics and morality. In a Pakistan where acts of bravery and service are judged not on the basis of their own value, it is not religion or ideology that determines whether something is good or bad. What determines the latter is the single, crucial test of whether or not it is tainted by the corrosive, impure influence of the West.

A world without the West | DAWN.COM

President Obama says the “most important” lesson he learned during his first term in the White House is that “you can’t change Washington from the inside.”

“You can only change it from the outside,” Obama said at a “Meet the Candidates” forum hosted by the Spanish-language network Univision.

Earlier:

“Change happens because the American people demand it, because they rise up and insist on new ideas and new leadership, a new politics for a new time.”

Obama’s ‘Most Important’ First-Term Lesson: ‘Can’t Change Washington From Inside’ - ABC News

Nice...

Neil Young - Ontario - Red Rocks 8-6-2012 - YouTube

Graphic designer Peter Saville tells the fascinating story of the iconic cover art he created for the 1979 Joy Division album Unknown Pleasures. The intriguing graphic, which has turned up on everything from T-shirts to tattoos, is a data visualization of the signal emanating from the first pulsar to be observed by scientists.

The Story of the Iconic Cover Art for Joy Division’s Unknown Pleasures

Last week, the court in Idaho—the very same court that granted the FBI’s request for a warrant in 2003—took the FBI to task for this “misleading and highly suggestive” warrant application.  Judge Edward J. Lodge, adopting the recommendations of Magistrate Judge Mikel H. Williams, ruled that the FBI agent who sought Mr. al-Kidd’s arrest violated the Fourth Amendment by recklessly misleading the court.  Judge Lodge also ruled that the United States was liable for false imprisonment, and that Mr. al-Kidd’s “abuse of process” claim—his claim that the government had misused the material witness statute “for a purpose other than to secure testimony”—deserves a trial.

As national commentators have recognized, the court’s rulings are a “big deal.”  It’s the first time that a court has found on the merits that the government violated the constitutional rights of a person wrongfully arrested as a material witness after 9/11.

Federal court calls FBI to account for the unlawful imprisonment of U.S. citizen Abdullah al-Kidd

An interesting observation:

As far as counterterrorism policies are concerned, what is most at stake in the election contest between Obama and Romney are differential categories of trust and mistrust, and resulting asymmetries in their abilities to get things done.  Because Obama is a democrat who came to office with a civil liberties reputation, he garners more trust, support, and leeway from the public, Congress and courts than a hawkish republican when it comes to “aggressive” counterterrorism actions (drone strikes, indefinite detention, proxy detentions, and the like), but less trust, support, and leeway on “dovish” counterterrorism policies (like closing GTMO and criminal trials).   By contrast, and for mirror image reasons, Romney would (like Obama’s predecesor) have more leeway to reduce the GTMO population and conduct criminal trials but would receive more scrutiny and criticism, and have less room for maneuver, for drone strikes and proxy detentions.  There are many complications here, but the bottom line is that a democratic president has more leeway than a republican one to conduct aggressive counterterrorism policies, and less leeway to conduct dovish ones.

Lawfare › What’s Most at Stake for Counterterrorism Policy in the 2012 Election

Obama made a passing reference to civil liberties in a campaign speech this week.

We haven’t talked about what's at stake with respect to the Supreme Court.  We haven’t talked about what's at stake with respect to civil liberties.

OK - lets talk about that.

Most of the bold rhetoric surrounding civil liberties from the 2008 DNC platform was cut from the 2012 DNC platform, a change that is open to a variety of interpretations. I think that any way you slice it, clearly, mainstream Democrats aren't concerned about civil liberties issues right now and don't notice the absence of these issues in the platform. It seems clear that Democrats only care about civil liberties when Republicans are in the Whitehouse.

I've said it before and I'll say it again, as a civil libertarian, I don't have a lot of friends in the American political spectrum, and usually the friends I have are only my friends temporarily whenever they see an opportunity to criticize their political opponents. Take, for example, Glenn Reynolds' insipid call for Obama to resign last month. Of all the affronts to civil liberties that have happened over the past 12 years, he chooses this moment to call for a President to resign? Forgive me for not feeling inspired by his zeal to defend our Constitutional rights.

The civil-libertarian cause is diminished when it appears as if it's opportunistically invoked as a cudgel against ideological opponents.

Many real civil libertarians are critical of Obama's record. However, I think that this mostly represents a feeling of disappointment rather than outright frustration. In my mind the Bush administration committed three significant sins respecting civil liberties:

1. Supporting the Patriot Act - The Patriot Act was passed with broad bipartisan support but for some reason it turned into a partisan issue. There were several provisions that have been found unconstitutional and therefore I think people like me who expressed concerns about it in 2001 have been more-or-less vindicated. I wish that all of the liberal loudmouths who later seemed to join in opposition of it were as angry at the Democrats who voted for it as they are at Bush. Regardless, the Bush administration presented this bill and it is part of the Bush legacy, including the unconstitutional provisions.

2. Indefinite Detention without Charges - The indefinite detention, without charges, of a US Citizen (Jose Padilla), seized on US soil, crossed a line. It is impossible, in my mind, to rationalize applying the term "free society" to a country in which that action was legal. I am very disappointed in the amount of legal wrangling ... [ Read More (0.6k in body) ]

Obama brings up Civil Liberties in campaign speech

Interesting collection of graffiti from the tube.

Photo Album - Imgur

Democrats insist they have a chance at regaining the majority in the House just two years after they lost it in the 2010 election. But Republicans have their biggest House majority in six decades and are playing some offense too, which means it's a tall task for the minority party.

This is a useful dataset. It doesn't look likely that the Dems will take the house.

The race for House control - House race ratings election 2012 - The Washington Post