Voting is good. Flu shots are good. But mix them together in the middle of a hard-fought election season and politics takes over. Houston, Texas, Mayor Bill White has ordered a halt to the city health department's privately funded drive to offer flu vaccinations at early voting sites in predominantly Hispanic and black neighborhoods, amid conservative criticism that the effort would boost Democratic turnout.More here.
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The New Yorker's Hendrik Hertzberg on the Republican Party trainwreck, which he notes includes racist attack ads, exploitaiton of fears over terrorism, a record budget deficit and prosecutable corruption:
There is much more along these lines, from many places, almost all of it of Republican provenance. But the most depraved pronouncement . . . came from the Vice-President of the United States, Dick Cheney. In an interview with one of three dozen right-wing radio hosts invited to spend a day broadcasting from the White House, Cheney was asked if he didn’t think it was “silly” even to debate about “dunking a terrorist in water.” “I do agree,” he replied. The interviewer pressed: “Would you agree a dunk in water is a no-brainer if it can save lives?” Cheney: “It’s a no-brainer for me.”The “dunk in water” they were talking about is waterboarding. It has been used by the Gestapo, the North Koreans, and the Khmer Rouge. After the Second World War, a Japanese soldier was sentenced to twenty-five years’ hard labor for using it on American prisoners. It is torture, and torture is not a no-brainer. It is a no-souler. The no-brainer is the choice on Election Day.
(Hat tip to Josh Marshall at Talking Points Memo)
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