Freedom in the 50 States

"We find that the freest states in the country are New Hampshire, Colorado, and South Dakota, which together achieve a virtual tie for first place. All three states feature low taxes and government spending and middling levels of regulation and paternalism. New York is the least free by a considerable margin, followed by New Jersey, Rhode Island, California and Maryland. On personal freedom alone, Alaska is the clear winner, while Maryland brings up the rear. As for freedom in the different regions of the country, the Mountain and West North Central regions are the freest overall while the Middle Atlantic lags far behind on both economic and personal freedom. Regression analysis demonstrates that states enjoying more economic and personal freedom tend to attract substantially higher rates of internal net migration."

New York News - David Mamet: Why I Am No Longer a 'Brain-Dead Liberal' -

"I'd observed that lust, greed, envy, sloth, and their pals are giving the world a good run for its money, but that nonetheless, people in general seem to get from day to day; and that we in the United States get from day to day under rather wonderful and privileged circumstances—that we are not and never have been the villains that some of the world and some of our citizens make us out to be, but that we are a confection of normal (greedy, lustful, duplicitous, corrupt, inspired—in short, human) individuals living under a spectacularly effective compact called the Constitution, and lucky to get it."

Slashdot Comments | The case for public run money

For anyone who thinks GM's problems started recently:

The lowliest paid guy in GM can buy a top of the line new car, a caddy say, and never sweated the 5 buck a gallon gas last summer. They can also have a harley, a snowmobile, a main house, a summer camp and etc. That's why no one in the car companies could see they were making way too expensive gas hogs. I was just a lowly GM employee in the 60s, we were making an *obscene* wage for what we were doing and I know it has gone up from then. You could eat steak and lobster every night, and I did frequently. Went out to eat all the dang time. I had friends who bought and trashed new muscle cars every six months on that sort of wage! Wore them out street racing. No probs, just go buy another one. That's how much we were making back then, and what that meant for being able to buy stuff. I mean a real nice apt was 90-100 bucks a month, they would have deals where they could advertise them as less than a hundred, and it was quite possible to find a good enough place for like 12 bucks a week or 50-60 a month. I know I just stayed in a real nice motel efficiency because it had freeking maid service! It was only a little more than an apartment and just as nice, so who cared? Utilities for most people, electric, natgas, fuel oil, phone, were a joke, gasoline was 6 gallons for a dollar, and you had to go way out of your way to find the worst possible job that didn't come with full insurance. When you were making hundreds of bucks a week THEN, with just an entry level blue collar job, well..it leads to "irrational exuberence" that lasted culturally for decades..That's why NONE of those CEOs realized what a bad PR move showing up in their private jets was..no frame of reference with the regular folks in the rest of the nation. The rank and file union "brothers" are similar, just used to living so high on the hog for so long they can't even conceive that they are overpaid by three times.

You Need to Understand Selective Incorporation

"I am watching Fox News and they are talking about Judge Sotomayor, and anchor Gregg Jarrett says that Sotomayor ruled this year that the Second Amendment doesn't apply to the states. Then he says, 'as a lawyer, I find incredibly puzzling ... I don't understand where she was coming from.'

Perhaps he can read my primer on incorporation or my prediction that selective incorporation is going to be officially killed soon. (And not for nothing, but I don't make predictions often.)"

Follow links at original source.

Obama ducks promise to delay bill signings - Washington Times

It seemed among the easiest of his transparency pledges and is entirely under his control, but President Obama is finagling his promise to post bills on the White House Web site for comment for five days before he signs them.

Mr. Obama last week signed four bills, each just a day or two after Congress passed and sent it over to him.

Doomed dealers rap GM, Chrysler quality - Washington Times

"We do understand that Consumer Reports uses a three-year window of vehicles in order to judge reliability, so it will take time to see the results of the changes that we are putting in place to address reliability and quality concerns of our customers," Chrysler said.

"Chrysler has a lot of practice explaining its poor ratings," Mr. Fitzgerald said.

New Jersey's Flat Tax Debate - WSJ.com

If ever a state were ripe for bold economic reform, it would be New Jersey, which is shedding jobs and is in perennial budget crisis despite one of the highest tax burdens in the land. So why is Chris Christie, the GOP front-runner in the state's 2009 gubernatorial race, taking cheap shots at the flat tax?

Millionaires Go Missing - WSJ.com

The Maryland state revenue office says it's "way too early" to tell how many millionaires moved out of the state when the tax rates rose. But no one disputes that some rich filers did leave. It's easier than the redistributionists think. Christopher Summers, president of the Maryland Public Policy Institute, notes: "Marylanders with high incomes typically own second homes in tax friendlier states like Florida, Delaware, South Carolina and Virginia. So it's easy for them to change their residency."

California Budget Deficit Schwarzenneger - Deal Journal - WSJ

"You live, you learn. Right?

Well, not in America. Here we live, screw up and then go back to doing the same stupid things we did before.

Apparently, it is just too hard for us to make the tough, necessary choices."

Fiat’s GM and Opel Deals: Building an Empire With No Money Down - Deal Journal - WSJ

"While consumers must pay cash to buy cars, Fiat looks to be building an auto empire without putting down a single penny. Will this work or not?"

Considering they are dealing with people who have never so much as run a lemonade stand, probably so.

U.N. condemns North Korean nuclear tests | U.S. | Reuters

"U.S. President Barack Obama said Pyongyang's nuclear weapon program was a threat to international peace and security and called for an international response."

Uh, Duh.

The Human Condition : My Second-Favorite Son: A Dad's Tale of Parental Favoritism

New title suggestion: "Self absorbed retards continue to propagate. World ending soon."

PS: Newsweek blogs suck as bad as the magazine. They don't deserve this link, except as an example of why you shouldn't link to them. I hope they go out of business soon."

George F. Will - End Run on Free Speech - washingtonpost.com

“Out of the loop” Joe Biden says decision to shut Guantanamo was “like opening Pandora’s Box” :: Toby Harnden

Biden continued: "But, look, what the president said is that this is going to be hard. It's like opening Pandora's Box. We don't know what's inside the box."

He also said that "to the best of my knowledge" the number of prisoners "who are a real danger who are not able to returned or tried" has "not been established" by the Obama administration.

So he basically just confirmed his predecessor Dick Cheney's analysis that the decision was taken "with little deliberation, and no plan".

Bush's Gitmo Vindication - WSJ.com

"President Obama delivered a major speech yesterday on how he intends to prosecute the war on terror (or whatever it's now called), and in particular his desire to close the detention facilities at Guantanamo Bay. As rhetoric, his remarks were at pains to declare a bold new moral direction. On substance, however, the speech and other events this week look more like a vindication of the past seven years."

The Climate-Industrial Complex - WSJ.com

"Some business leaders are cozying up with politicians and scientists to demand swift, drastic action on global warming. This is a new twist on a very old practice: companies using public policy to line their own pockets.

The tight relationship between the groups echoes the relationship among weapons makers, researchers and the U.S. military during the Cold War. President Dwight Eisenhower famously warned about the might of the 'military-industrial complex,' cautioning that 'the potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist.' He worried that 'there is a recurring temptation to feel that some spectacular and costly action could become the miraculous solution to all current difficulties.'

This is certainly true of climate change. We are told that very expensive carbon regulations are the only way to respond to global warming, despite ample evidence that this approach does not pass a basic cost-benefit test. We must ask whether a 'climate-industrial complex' is emerging, pressing taxpayers to fork over money to please those who stand to gain."

WAAS Up? - Cringely on technology

Well, it seems that no one so far has picked up on the “that” in THAT’s the story.

But I’ve been saying for years now that there is no reason to mourn the death of traditional media (newspapers etc.) when in fact they died a long time ago.

Companies, government agencies, police departments, subway authorities, and your local little league all have as part of their mission communicating with the public. It’s quite easy for them to do this now and in some ways those that used to be the conduits of this information (the press) are now like the little old lady down the street. They spread unconfirmed gossip, and when not, get the story wrong all on their own, slant it to match their own world view, or just make it up because they got stuck in traffic.

Much of the printed news is in fact regurgitated press releases. After all the author of a press release isn’t likely to lodge a copyright complaint even if you copy them word for word. On complex subjects, where the reporter diverges from the pure text of the PR he is likely to be delving into Fantasyland, going from his own apocryphal knowledge of the subject. “Yeah, my GPS was acting up the other day, things must REALLY be bad!”

When it comes to Q&A where the reporters supposedly represent the interests of the public things aren’t much better. White house press conference these days are a laughing stock (and it isn’t just due to the fawning attitude of the press to the new administration).

Computer virus strikes US Marshals, FBI affected

Speaking of "Worst Practices".

Which Gates? Obama flubs defense chief's name [again]

"The defense chief, who goes by Bob, was also misidentified at a Pentagon ceremony on Tuesday. Then, he was introduced as Ronald Gates."

Making Bush look smarter, one speech at a time.

Projects Gone Wrong - IT Management

Is this the era of "Worst Practices"?

George F. Will - Sense From California's Voters - washingtonpost.com

"California's voters are complicit in their state's collapse. They elect and reelect the legislators off whom public employees unions batten. Also, voters have promiscuously used their state's plebiscitary devices to control and fatten the budget. In November, as the dark fiscal clouds lowered, they authorized $9.95 billion more in debt as a down payment on a perhaps $75 billion high-speed-rail project linking San Francisco and Los Angeles -- a delight California cannot afford."

Disappearance of Disc With Clinton Data Investigated

"May 20 (Bloomberg) -- Federal authorities are investigating the disappearance of a computer disc from the National Archives containing Social Security numbers and Secret Service procedures from former President Bill Clinton’s administration, congressional officials said."

Has anybody checked Sandy Berger's sock drawer?

Most-Popular Lists Breed More Popularity - WSJ.com

Talking Points Memo: A Real News Source for Maureen Dowd and Others | Peter Kafka | MediaMemo | AllThingsD

"After an initial attempt by Dowd to explain away the similarity between her work and his, the Times is now running a correction on Dowd’s Sunday column, noting that she “failed to attribute a paragraph” to Marshall."

Go to link for more on the blogger that the Dowdwager likes to "quote".

Dems red-faced over veteran imposter - The Denver Post

"And the mostly Democratic candidates he supported — looking for credibility on veterans issues and the war — lapped it up appreciatively.

Now, politicians are dealing with news that the man they believed to be a former Marine and war veteran wounded in Iraq by a roadside bomb, in fact, never served in the military — but did spend time in a mental hospital."

Mean Street: Stress Testing Obama’s Facts - Deal Journal - WSJ

Peeved at Auto-Warranty Calls, a Web Posse Strikes Back - WSJ.com

"On Thursday, the FTC filed a complaint against three companies -- not including Auto One -- that have placed more than a billion so-called 'robo-calls' to sell extended warranties. They are seeking a temporary restraining order against these companies, and seeking redress for consumers who bought the extended warranties."

'Youth Magnet' Cities Hit Midlife Crisis - WSJ.com

"This drizzly city along the Willamette River has for years been among the most popular urban magnets for college graduates looking to start their careers in a small city of like-minded folks. Now the jobs are drying up, but the people are still coming. The influx of new residents is part of the reason the unemployment rate in the Portland metropolitan area has more than doubled to 11.8% over the past year, and is now above the national average of 8.9%."

Trade Wars Brewing in Economic Malaise - washingtonpost.com

"Take, for instance, Duferco Farrell Corp., a Swiss-Russian partnership that took over a previously bankrupt U.S. steel plant near Pittsburgh in the 1990s and employed 600 people there.

The new buy American provisions, the company said, are being so broadly interpreted that Duferco Farrell is on the verge of shutting down. Part of an increasingly global supply chain that seeks efficiencies by spreading production among multiple nations, it manufactures coils at its Pennsylvania plant using imported steel slabs that are generally not sold commercially in the United States. The partially foreign production process means the company's coils do not fit the current definition of made in the USA -- a designation that the stimulus law requires for thousands of public works projects across the nation."

FTC Drops Case Against Rambus - WSJ.com

"The commission's move ends a seven-year battle with the Los Altos, Calif., developer of memory chips. The FTC in 2002 alleged the company improperly hid its plans to patent technologies for chips while a member of an industry standard-setting group in the mid-1990s. The agency charged Rambus later demanded stiff royalties from makers of the widely used chips."

Bad news.

Congress and Waterboarding - WSJ.com

In a report to Congress on May 5, Mr. Panetta described the CIA's 2002 meeting with Mrs. Pelosi as "Briefing on EITs including use of EITs on Abu Zubaydah, background on [legal] authorities, and a description of the particular EITs that had been employed." Note the past tense -- "had been employed."

Mr. Goss says he and Mrs. Pelosi were told at the 2002 briefing about the use of the EITs and "on a bipartisan basis, we asked if the CIA needed more support from Congress to carry out its mission." He is backed by CIA sources who say Mr. Goss and Mrs. Pelosi "questioned whether we were doing enough" to extract information.

Clay Dyer - The Most Inspirational Fisherman Ever

Prepare to realized you haven't lived up to your own potential.

Official Google Blog: 30,000 new Google Apps business users at Valeo

"Today, more than a million businesses have moved beyond traditional software and hardware to cloud computing – where data and applications live online – and they're using the Google Apps suite not just for Gmail, but also for shared calendaring, collaborating on files without attachments, private video sharing and quickly deployable internal and external sites. IT managers are refocusing the money and time saved towards core projects that help their individual businesses become more competitive."

Official Google Blog: A planetarium in your pocket

"At today's Searchology event we were pleased to launch Google Sky Map for Android. Google Sky Map turns your Android-powered mobile phone into a dynamic window on the night sky. When you point your phone upwards you will see a map of the brightest stars, constellations and planets in that part of the sky. The next time you see a bright star and want to know what it's called, Sky Map can help you identify it."

One-fourth of overseas votes go uncounted

It said that of 441,000 absentee ballots requested by eligible voters living abroad - mainly active-duty and reserve troops - more than 98,000 were "lost" ballots that were mailed out but never received by election officials. Taking into account 13,500 ballots that were rejected for such reasons as a missing signature or failure to notarize, one-quarter of those requesting a ballot were disenfranchised.

Chrysler and the Rule of Law - WSJ.com

"By stepping over the bright line between the rule of law and the arbitrary behavior of men, President Obama may have created a thousand new failing businesses. That is, businesses that might have received financing before but that now will not, since lenders face the potential of future government confiscation. In other words, Mr. Obama may have helped save the jobs of thousands of union workers whose dues, in part, engineered his election. But what about the untold number of job losses in the future caused by trampling the sanctity of contracts today?"

PRUDEN: Even a messiah loses his training wheels - Washington Times

"George the imaginary person threatens everything Mr. Obama has in store for us - higher taxes (whether disguised as 'user fees' or 'investments'), Al Gore's vast scheme to combat global warming whether the globe is warming or not, and a health-care plan guaranteed to eventually assure every American access to medical care equal to the quality health care now available in France, Canada, Britain and maybe even Lower Volta."

Google's Android Mobile OS Poised for Fast Growth | John Paczkowski | Digital Daily | AllThingsD

"2009 is going to be a banner year for Google’s Android mobile operating system. Strategy Analytics estimates shipments of handsets running the OS will grow 900 percent this year as more vendors adopt it."

Migrating To Linux--Safely - Forbes.com

"The IT industry is rife with stories of staffers who work with Windows by day but hack Linux during their off hours. As a result, your company may already have a rich but hidden source of Linux and open source software knowledge close at hand.

Before your company begins a move to Linux, canvass your IT staff for people who already have Linux experience. At the same time, be sure to ask non-IT employees to step forward if they have experience working with Linux or with other common open source desktop applications. Each of these employees can provide an important bridge between your company's formal IT goals and the informal, day-to-day experiences that make or break a software migration."

U.S. Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, & Transportation - on the Future of Journalism

Note, the actual hearing starts 60-minutes into the video, so you should skip ahead unless you want to look at this graphic for an hour.

George F. Will - Government Intervention Turns Capitalism Upside Down - washingtonpost.com

In "Democracy in America," Alexis de Tocqueville anticipated people being governed by "an immense, tutelary power" determined to take "sole charge of assuring their enjoyment and of watching over their fate." It would be a power "absolute, attentive to detail, regular, provident and gentle," aiming for our happiness but wanting "to be the only agent and the sole arbiter of that happiness." It would, Tocqueville said, provide people security, anticipate their needs, direct their industries and divide their inheritances. It would envelop society in "a network of petty regulations -- complicated, minute and uniform." But softly: "It does not break wills; it softens them, bends them, and directs them" until people resemble "a herd of timid and industrious animals, of which the government is the shepherd."

Sounds like where we are headed alright. Welcome to Sheepleville.

Jon Stewart Courageously Defends His Bottom Flank

"It takes a big man to admit he screwed up and take a principled stand. It takes a phony liberal elitist to apologize for the sake of protecting his television ratings.

Jon Stewart makes Arlen Specter look principled."

...

So let me offer some common sense that will be self-explanatory to Middle America.

Harry Truman did the right thing. He made an impossible choice that none of us will ever have to make. His job was not, as some liberals insist, to save the world. His job was to save America. We were under attack. By killing many innocent Japanese civilians, he prevented millions of Americans from being killed. He did the one thing a president must do. He kept us safe. As an extra benefit, millions of people worldwide were saved.

George W. Bush also did the right thing. He also made the impossible choice. He also responded to an attack on our soil by going everywhere terrorists were harbored and protected.

We were attacked by Japan, but Harry Truman took the fight to Germany. Germany never attacked us. So what? They were part of the problem.

We were attacked by Al Queda, but George W. Bush took the fight to Iraq. Iraq never attacked us. So what? They were part of the problem, as are Iran and Syria.

More people died at the hands of Harry Truman than George W. Bush. The numbers are not even close. Harry Truman took measures more brutal than anything George W. Bush ever did. Harry Truman ordered the most unimaginable response.

So if Harry Truman was right, then George W. Bush cannot be a war criminal.

Excellent piece.

Obama’s Budget Cuts (Cato @ Liberty)

Not new, but timely:

CIA Says Pelosi Was Briefed on Use of 'Enhanced Interrogations' - Capitol Briefing

"The issue of what Pelosi knew and when she knew it has become a matter of heated debate on Capitol Hill. Republicans have accused her of knowing for many years precisely the techniques CIA agents were using in interrogations, and only protesting the tactics when they became public and liberal antiwar activists protested."

Surprise!

www.washingtonexaminer.com >> Opinion >> Opinion Articles - Editorials on Top News Stories - Senate joins 21st century with high-tech web postings

Sen. Jim DeMint, R-SC, and Sen. Dick Durbin, D-IL, deserve praise for persuading the world’s most exclusive debating society that it should post its voting record on the Internet using the most advanced technology possible. In this case, that means posting Senate vote data using what is known among Internet programmers and entrepreneurs as “XML” programming language. Briefly put, as the Sunlight Foundation’s John Wonderlich explains, XML-based posting “encourages advanced processing and analysis, making votes legible to both humans and computers, and giving us a new view on how Senators vote.”

Jihad Watch: Obama overrules FBI and DHS on release of Gitmo jihadists into American civilian population

"Now -- according to a federal agency source who requested anonymity -- the White House has also overridden opposition to the release from both the FBI and the Department of Homeland Security.

Beginning yesterday and continuing today, Obama administration officials are briefing key members of Congress on the release, which may happen as early as next week. There apparently has been no decision on where the Uighurs will be turned loose. Earlier reports suggested they could be released in Alexandria, Virginia or Washington, D.C."

Here's hoping they come to a blue state near you.

Jihad Watch: Fitzgerald: Dumbing up: The case of Madeleine Albright

There are many like her all over Washington. When they make pronouncements on the subject of Islam, without having studied -- really studied -- the matter, when they lightheartedly assume that reading the newspapers and “talking to the leaders” is all that is necessary (a kind of Tom-Friedman approach to the world), they reveal that they have no idea what level of knowledge is required of them, what level they should demand of themselves. In this respect, they remind me of those interviews with high school students in big-city schools who, with dyed hair and studs in their noses, reply so enthusiastically to a question about what they want to be as adults. One says he wants to be an astronaut, and another says she intends to be a nuclear physicist, and still a third is going to find a cure for cancer, or possibly come up with a way to establish permanent peace. We laugh, or cry, depending on our mood, knowing that the students in question can hardly keep from flunking first-year algebra or second-year English, but think no more of it. And then we realize, when we come across these badly-misinformed but powerful madeleine-albrights, that the same phenomenon, at a level where the stakes are higher, can be observed. She is just like those high school students who have no idea what is required for the kind of things they grandly plan for. She has no idea what she’s talking about, and has no idea what would be required to attain the level of knowledge that would be necessary for her to make, in her position, any statement at all, about the nature of Islam.

Dumbing down. Yes, of course. It's all over. But there’s an even graver problem. It’s the dumbing up. Case in point: Madeleine Albright.

Green-laser micro-projectors green-lighted • The Register

"Microvision told us that they would work with OEMs to get the PicoP-equipped devices in users' hands by the end of this year. With bulk shipments of the G-1000 green lasers scheduled to wing their way to the company's Redmond, Washington headquarters in mid-year, it looks as if they may meet that goal."

Obama Administration Picks New Way to Cop Out on Opportunity Scholarships

Translation: "Let me be perfectly clear. Everyone is going to know I'm killing this demonstrably effective program because of the political debt I owe to teachers' unions, which I of course assured everyone would not dictate my education policies. So let's just extend this enough to get people off my back even if it means taking the morally abhorrent position that the program is good enough for these succeeding, satisfied kids and parents, but no one else should be allowed to be similarly successful and satisfied, lest I lose my gazillions in union support. The children are our future, as long as they're not putting their grubby little hands on money that should be going to NEA members. Thank you, and God bless America."

YouTube - Obama Budget Cuts Visualization

Microsoft's new search - Built on open-source • The Register

By all accounts, Powerset will drive Microsoft's latest, ill-fated attempt to unseat the Google search monopoly. In March, a Tweet from Powerset co-founder Barney Pell set the blogopshere a-burbling about the impending relaunch of Microsoft Live Search, and days later, screenshots of an internal beta - dubbed Kumo - rose to the surface of the web.

When Kumo launches, in early June, it will be the first "shipping" Microsoft product backed by open source code. That's the word from Robert Duffner, a senior director in Microsoft's platform strategy group.

How stare decisis Subverts the Law

Might be useful in the next few weeks if you follow any judiciary hearings.

YouTube - Cato Scholars Address Obama's First Address to Congress

YouTube - Citizens United (Hillary: the Movie) v. Federal Election Commission

Federal aid is top revenue for states - USATODAY.com

"In a historic first, Uncle Sam has supplanted sales, property and income taxes as the biggest source of revenue for state and local governments.

The shift shows how deeply the recession is cutting. Federal stimulus money aimed at reviving the economy and a sharp drop in tax collections have altered, at least temporarily, the traditional balance of how states, cities, counties and schools pay for their operations."

Glimmers of Hope for the GOP - HUMAN EVENTS

Pat and Chuck Todd explain well what voters were looking for in the last election but not so much why those voters believed that Obama is the man who can deliver. I suspect the reason is 'The Magical Negro'

From: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magical_Negro

"The magical negro (sometimes called the mystical negro or magic negro) is a supporting, often mystical stock character in fiction who, by use of special insight or powers, helps the white protagonist get out of trouble."
--did anyone not see the droves of white folks hailing the Messiah? The ones here in Boston are from the whitest areas known to man. I doubt that the majority of them ever associate with black people in their day-to-day in any meaningful way. Maybe precisely this disconnect from reality that made it so easy for them to engage in fantasy. What else, other than his color, could they possibly find so inspiring and intriguing in this underachiever, affirmative action baby nobody?

Interesting comment from a reader at Human Events. Also from that comment:

An Idiot’s Guide to the Magical Negro

Is this an example of the bad economies of bailout?

Verizon to Offer Free Wi-Fi to Broadband Subscribers - Digits - WSJ

"Verizon Communications Inc. is preparing to offer free Wi-Fi access at hotspots to subscribers to its home broadband services, according to people familiar with the matter. The phone giant will partner with Boingo, a startup that counts former EarthLink founder Sky Dayton as chairman, to deliver the access."

'bout time I got something for free.

SEC’s Schapiro says journalist job cuts worrying | Blogs |

"It’s very hard to trust anything Mary Shapiro says: She was top SEC Commissioner since 1998,the top cop at Wall Street, later became also top cop at FINRA and all the while she was a Director of the Board of Kraft-Nabisco and Duke Energy, making 500.000 a year in each, and Kraft is the biggest junk-food pusher in America and the World, how can anyone that sells junk foods to children be trusted? I don’t at all , ever !!!"

As is often the case the comments reveal more and are more insightful than the article. Maybe that has something to do with the decline in various segments of journalism.

Saying No to Justice by Andrew C. McCarthy on National Review Online

Charles Krauthammer - The Use of Torture and What Nancy Pelosi Knew - washingtonpost.com

"Some people, however, believe you never torture. Ever. They are akin to conscientious objectors who will never fight in any war under any circumstances, and for whom we correctly show respect by exempting them from war duty. But we would never make one of them Centcom commander. Private principles are fine, but you don't entrust such a person with the military decisions upon which hinges the safety of the nation. It is similarly imprudent to have a person who would abjure torture in all circumstances making national security decisions upon which depends the protection of 300 million countrymen."