James Taranto: Terrorists Win Two in Court; Kerry's Contradictions; 'Turkeygate'

Separate three-judge panels of the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals have issued rulings limiting the enforcement of the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act, a law President Clinton signed in 1996. In Humanitarian Law Project v. Department of Justice (links to rulings in PDF format), Judges Harry Pregerson and Sidney Thomas held that it violates the Fifth Amendment right of due process to convict someone for providing material support to organizations classified as terrorist by the State Department unless the defendant has "guilty intent."

Another conservative gets Humanitarian Law Project wrong... and demonstrates a complete ignorance of the respective plights of Kurds in Turkey and Tamils in Sri Lanka. Yeah they've done a lot of nasty, unconscionable things. They've also had the governments of their countries do even worse things to them. The LTTE engaged in bombings... the Sri Lankan Army engaged in (and continues to engage in) widespread torture and executions, indefinite detentions, disappearances... I think maybe when they started filling barrels with petroleum and gelatin, lighting them on fire, and dropping them arbitrarily on Tamil villages that the government there lost any claim to moral superiority... And it was not the Tamils who started the conflict. Also, were I a Kurd in Turkey, I think I would be justified in fearing another minority genocide after my language and culture were outlawed. The whole point is that without any discussion of the merits of these organizations, the individuals merely associated with them are convictable under the statute. This is due process violation at its worst.

Why even bother taking note of Kerry's futile utterances? Well, consider the reason he seems certain to lose the nomination: because he's too hawkish for the Democratic electorate.

He's not only too Hawkish, he's too gawky. I don't think the press is allowed to talk about this kind of thing, but the fact is, you can't be that ugly and be president. Maybe that makes this an unfair world, or an unfair country, or an unfair Democratic Party, but the fact is, voters aren't going to vote to keep that face on TV. Especially not during the dinner hour.

I've been watching Kerry a lot lately (by the way, he served in Vietnam), and what gets me more than all the stupid blather coming out of his mouth, is the deeply lined, contorted, twisted, twitching face that surrounds that mouth.

The guy is revolting to look at.

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