I’ve been trying to get a good grasp on the recent Boumediene v. Bush supreme court ruling without much success (that’s the one that granted habeas corpus to Guantanamo prisoners). Most of the news articles focus on the political aspects and are generally vague. I read some of the court opinion itself (along with the dissent), but wasn’t able to reconcile the two side: they seemed to be arguing about different things, which I suppose isn’t that usual. If you have any suggestions for ways to learn about this sort of thing, I’d appreciate it.

A couple of recent speeches I’ve enjoyed:

Obama’s Father’s Day Speech (23 min)

One of my favorites in a while, worth a watch.

Gore endorsing Obama in Michigan (15 min)

(probably won’t play in Reader)
I enjoyed this more than most of the political speeches I remember hearing from Gore, but I guess it’s been a while.

For some unimaginable reason, I ended up spending some time tonight reading through parts of clintons4mccain.com, a site for Clinton supporters now supporting John McCain. I don’t actually recommend going there, unless you like to watch logical gymnastics performed poorly. My favorite quote was (paraphrased): “I like that John McCain is a fighter, just like Hillary. That’s something they have in common”… except that they’re fighting for the opposite things!

Also “[Obama] doesn’t represent us, or grassroots Americans.” What is a grassroots American? If any campaign is grassroots, it would be Obama’s, by any empirical measure. Their selective amnesia is mind-boggling. They don’t remember how Clinton was the inevitable nominee, according to the press, before a vote had even been cast.

OK, I shouldn’t write any more about this. It’s like arguing with an answering machine.