a backward march into the Dark Ages

* digby:

"I think that is one of the most interesting observations I've read in a while (certainly in the New York Times.) The Republicans and the Christian Right are leading America on a backward march into the Dark Ages --- and that is stepping on our dreams. As a culture, we have always been idealistic about progress and inspired by new discoveries to improve the lot of the human race. We're about invention and reinvention. It's one of our best qualities.

These people are telling us that those days are over. We have to depend upon brute force, superstition and ancient revelation. Science is dangerous. Art is frightening. Education must be strictly circumscribed so that children aren't exposed to ideas that might lead them astray."

* tristero:

"Please understand that I think the Dems, in reality, have no incentive to backpedal or go soft on the egregiously awful, even criminal, behavior of our Republican overlords. They should hold them accountable via robust investigations, oversights, and when called for, indictments. That said, in reality there are many obstacles to doing so. The worst, of course, is that the US has a juvenile delinquent for a president who has been double-daring his opponents to make explicit the constitutional crisis he began during the Florida election debacle of 2000, and which he has renewed over Schiavo and the filibuster "nuclear option." Rightly or wrongly, the Democrats will not act in such a way as to force a serious public showdown over Bush's crackpot notion of the "unitary executive" (ie, the idea that the Constitution makes a Republican president an absolute monarch)."

* Time:

"On the face of it, Abu Doha would appear to be the sort of case for which the U.S. offshore detention system was created. The 40-year-old Algerian militant is alleged by counter-terror officials to be a Qaeda-aligned terror kingpin and suspected of involvement in a number of plots around the world, including the "Millennium Bomb" plot aimed at Los Angeles International airport in 2000. Yet, as things stand, Abu Doha looks set to be freed from prison in Britain and deported on immigration violations, after the U.S dropped its bid to extradite him over the LAX plot.

The prospect of his going free troubles security officials on both sides of the Atlantic, and leaves some bewildered by Washington's decision to drop its case against him.

* via Raw:

" Former Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi and his British corporate lawyer, David Mills, are to stand trial on charges of corruption, judges in Milan ruled Monday. Judge Fabio Paparella set the trial's opening hearing for March 13.

Berlusconi is accused of paying 600,000 dollars to Mills to persuade him to withhold evidence in two corruption trials involving his Mediaset company, back in the 1990s.

The two are already facing another court trial on charges including false accounting and tax evasion. That trial is set to start on November 21."