Nader's Noblesse Oblige

You know, I don't usually fume lately even when watching Senate Republicans on C-SPAN. But Nader's gaffe [blissful ignorance] today makes me mad in the way I cannot even put to words.

Here is part of Nader's statement, to give a sense of it (although I'm sure whoever reads this post is well aware of his words already):

There's only one thing different about Barack Obama when it comes to being a Democratic presidential candidate. He's half African-American...Whether that will make any difference, I don't know. I haven't heard him have a strong crackdown on economic exploitation in the ghettos. Payday loans, predatory lending, asbestos, lead. What's keeping him from doing that? Is it because he wants to talk white? He doesn't want to appear like Jesse Jackson? We'll see all that play out in the next few months and if he gets elected afterwards.

I mean, first of all, the number one thing that a black American politician aspiring to the presidency should be is to candidly describe the plight of the poor, especially in the inner cities and the rural areas, and have a very detailed platform about how the poor is going to be defended by the law, is going to be protected by the law, and is going to be liberated by the law.

So, Matthew Yglesias responds to this all very well. He adds good links to show how Obama has talked specifically about each of Nader's uninformed quips.

It's about time Nader's spoken words truly reflected the reputation he's earned.

The ICC stumbles on first real case

Today's NYT reports that the International Criminal Court (ICC) ordered all proceedings stopped on the trial of the Congolese warlord Thomas Lubanga. Mind you Lubanga spent three years after he was indicted and captured without a trial.

As the Times states, after difficult hearings the judges dismissed the case and ruled that the prosecution had withheld “significant” exculpatory evidence from the defense. As a result, they wrote, “the trial process has been ruptured to such a degree that it is now impossible to piece together the constituent elements of a fair trial.”

Right, the ICC is proving more and more how arrogant and ineffective they are. A couple things could be going on here.

The Court's mission is to try the “most serious crimes of concern to the international community as a whole.” Lubanga, however, is clearly a small-timer as Congolese warlords go. SInce the ICC HAS YET to try or convict anyone, it may be that they want an easy case to get the ball rolling. If this is the case, then they've just proved themselves and the rest of the international legal/political community wrong.

On the other hand, the ICC may have hoped that Lubanga could set an example for the bigger fish in Central Africa, since the fundamental goal of setting up an international justice system and the ICC specifically is that the prosecution of war criminals will deter and fight against impunity.

But, with the trial essentially gone, good luck with this point.

This is annoying for us idealists and pragmatists desiring a strong international justice system one day...

It's (twisted) good cop bad cop time

Yesterday's Matt Lauer interview with McCain is rightfully catching the ire of pundits for a quote he makes, basically asserting that it's unimportant to think about bringing troops home.

What I find more interesting is the way McCain framed the success of the surge. Blah blah, of course it's significant that he distances himself from Bush, but he did it in such a way that screams of coordinated messages between his campaign and the White House. Specifically, Bush will continue to simply be himself and push to make sure his predecessor will stay in Iraq, and McCain will draw subtle differences in policy yet continue to hold the same overall views and strategy...I mean it's almost hilarious how similar McCain's position is on foreign policy (Iraq) with that of Bush regardless of his theatrical "distancing" quotes.

So this delusional, warped good cop bad cop game is emerging with McCain and Bush, respectively. McCain gets to be the smarter, saner, more at-home-with-the-voters cop, and Bush gets to be that nasty, unwavering, jaded cowboy who's failed foreign policy doesn't need to be changed, it simply needs to be resurrected by a more capable Maverick type.