by JAMES TARANTO
Tuesday, July 3, 2007 3:23 P.M. EDT

Clemency for Terrorists
In August 1999 President Clinton granted executive clemency to 16 members of FALN, the Puerto Rican terror group behind some 130 bombings, including one that killed four people at New York's Fraunces Tavern in 1975. Even the ultraliberal New York Times looked askance:

To be sure, an American President has an absolute power to pardon. But that does not relieve him of the obligation to defend any and every decision to intervene in the criminal justice system. Indeed, this President's rare use of the pardoning power makes it all the more important for him to reveal his reasoning. Of more than 3,000 applications for clemency filed since 1993, he has granted only 3. The suspicion is rampant that his motivation was a political effort to please the Puerto Rican community that is crucial to Mrs. Clinton's hopes in the coming Senate race from New York.

The House voted 311-41 for a nonbinding resolution "expressing the sense of Congress that the President should not have granted clemency to terrorists." All 41 of those voting "no" were Democrats, as were 71 of the 72 members who voted "present" (the other was a self-styled socialist who abjured formal membership in the party).

Nancy Pelosi, now speaker of the House, did not vote. But the Congressional Record reveals that was only because she showed up late;

Ms. PELOSI. Mr. Chairman, on the last vote, H. Con. Res. 180, I was detained in traffic while returning to the Capitol. Had I been present, I would have voted "no."

Pelosi was unwilling to criticize a president of her own party when he turned loose terrorists convicted of such crimes as seditious conspiracy, possession of unregistered firearms and interstate transportation of a stolen vehicle. Keep that in mind as you read her statement yesterday:

The President's commutation of Scooter Libby's prison sentence does not serve justice, condones criminal conduct, and is a betrayal of trust of the American people.

The President said he would hold accountable anyone involved in the Valerie Plame leak [sic] case. By his action today, the President shows his word is not to be believed. He has abandoned all sense of fairness when it comes to justice, he has failed to uphold the rule of law, and he has failed to hold his Administration accountable.

For our part, we're just happy that a good and patriotic man won't have to go to prison as a sacrifice to the Angry Left. Plame kerfuffle personage Matt Cooper makes a good point:

Why not just pardon the guy? Why leave him with the stigmata of a convicted felon and a $250,000 fine to add to his legal bills--even if they are taken care of by the generosity of so many of his friends. (By the way, can the Scooter defense fund now release the names of donors?) If Bush had the courage of his convictions, he would have been like Jack Nicholson in a A Few Good Men and admitted that he thought [Plame's blowhard husband, Joe] Wilson was a jerk and that he believed what happened afterwards was right. Instead, Bush vowed to take action against the leakers.

By the way, what about the real "leaker" of Plame's "identity," Richard Armitage? Is he ever going to face "justice"?

The Hobgoblin of Little Minds

• "Nonviolent offenders should not be serving hard time in our prisons. They need to be diverted from our prison system."--Sen. Hillary Clinton, Democratic debate, June 28
  
  
• "Today's decision is yet another example that this Administration simply considers itself above the law. . . . This commutation sends the clear signal that in this Administration, cronyism and ideology trump competence and justice."--Sen. Hillary Clinton, press release, July 2

(Hat tip: blogger "Maryland Conservatarian." )

Pinin' for the Fjords
The Progressive features an Independence Day essay by far-left historian Howard Zinn:

On this July 4, we would do well to renounce nationalism and all its symbols: its flags, its pledges of allegiance, its anthems, its insistence in song that God must single out America to be blessed.

Is not nationalism--that devotion to a flag, an anthem, a boundary so fierce it engenders mass murder--one of the great evils of our time, along with racism, along with religious hatred?

These ways of thinking--cultivated, nurtured, indoctrinated from childhood on--have been useful to those in power, and deadly for those out of power.

National spirit can be benign in a country that is small and lacking both in military power and a hunger for expansion (Switzerland, Norway, Costa Rica and many more). But in a nation like ours--huge, possessing thousands of weapons of mass destruction--what might have been harmless pride becomes an arrogant nationalism dangerous to others and to ourselves.

Finally, someone whose patriotism we can question!

Doing 'Our Propaganda Work For Us'
Yesterday the Daily Mail, a London tabloid, had a fascinating piece by Hassan Butt, a former Muslim fanatic:

When I was still a member of what is probably best termed the British Jihadi Network--a series of British Muslim terrorist groups linked by a single ideology--I remember how we used to laugh in celebration whenever people on TV proclaimed that the sole cause for Islamic acts of terror like 9/11, the Madrid bombings and 7/7 was Western foreign policy.

By blaming the Government for our actions, those who pushed this "Blair's bombs" line did our propaganda work for us.

More important, they also helped to draw away any critical examination from the real engine of our violence: Islamic theology.

As if on cue, the same day's New York Times included this, in a follow-up piece on the weekend's busted terror plots in Britain:

In the past, some Muslim leaders have said Britain's military actions in Islamic countries, notably Iraq and Afghanistan, has made it vulnerable to attack from disaffected members of its own Muslim minority of around 1.6 million. But [Prime Minister Gordon] Brown seemed focused more on blaming Al Qaeda.

The Daily Express, another London tabloid, reports meanwhile that Brown "has banned ministers from using the word 'Muslim' in connection with the terrorism crisis." While they're at it, they should try not to think of an elephant.

Arabs vs. Eskimos
The pseudonymous blogger "Baron Bodissey" translates a Norwegian story of violence in Denmark:

Because Greenlanders have repeatedly been attacked by Arab and Somali immigrants in the city of Århus, Danish authorities have started an information campaign in local schools and a slide show showing photos from Greenland with comments in Arabic. Greenlanders have been subject to rock throwing, harassment and assaults by Arabs.

Residents in the district of Gellerup stay in their flats for most of the day because they fear to go outside. "It baffles me that parents don't react to this. I complained to a mother in my apartment building after her son had assaulted me, but she slammed the door shut in my face," says Naasunnguaq, who uses the Inuit word for flower as a nickname because she wants to remain anonymous. She has lived in the neighborhood for 16 years. According to Lars, also from Greenland, Arabs have racist views of Greenlanders: "They cannot understand why we should be allowed to live in Denmark. Even if we try to explain that we are Danes and get [Danish] citizenship by birth, they don't understand it," he says. . . .

Their football matches and events during Greenland's National Day have also been interrupted by rock throwing. A large number of security guards had to be employed to keep the attackers at bay. According to the chairman of the Multicultural Association in Gellerup, Rabhi Azad-Ahmad, the attacks are caused by ignorance and prejudice, and because young Arabs and Somalis are looking for easy targets to assault in order to send a message of strength to other groups. Several of the Greenlanders have problems with finding a place to live in other parts of the town, but the Århus municipality will try to accommodate those wishing to move to other apartments in order to escape the racist violence.

Anyone want to explain this away in terms of the Danish presence in Iraq or Israel's "occupation" of the disputed territories?

Dr. Evil
Yesterday we raised the question of why so many terrorists seem to be physicians and why so many physicians who are politicians seem to be strong adherents to one ideology or another. Several readers responded with the obvious answer: that doctors are arrogant. But a couple offered more unusual answers. This is J. Kaplan:

Perhaps most physicians are doing something helpful and meaningful with their lives already, and therefore have little incentive to enter the public arena. Perhaps only those most upset with the political system leave such a noble profession to find another role for their activism. Perhaps most Muslim doctors are satisfied with their contribution and only those who are truly passionate get involved with causes. Or perhaps most Muslims are too busy eking out a living and only relatively rich doctors have the time to be active in these causes.

On the other side, perhaps this is why so many lawyers enter politics. It's not like they were doing anything to benefit society before, so they find a way to do good in their eyes through public service.

Malcolm Coate strikes a similar theme:

I think your doctor effect can be best described as a "selection issue." Doctors have higher opportunity costs than most other professionals as their work is very highly paid and very rewarding. (While a few of our one million lawyers make even more money than physicians, most do not.) Hence only the physicians with the strongest political motivations "select" themselves for the career change to politics. Doctors may be opinionated people, but your evidence cannot be used to conclude they are extremists.

As for the terrorists, my guess is another selection issue. Muslims with extreme political views are probably excluded from the United Kingdom. The physicians were selected for this terror mission, because they could be admitted even with evidence on extremism. This might be one time where the highly restrictive licensing policies of the American Medical Association for U.S. physicians have served this country well.

Wikipedia has a "list of physicians" that includes the following extremists, in addition to those we noted yesterday: Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad, Chilean socialist ruler Salvador Allende (1903-73), Haitian dictator Francois "Papa Doc" Duvalier (1907-71), Israeli assassin Baruch Goldstein (1956-94), Latin American terrorist Ernesto "Che" Guevara (1928-67) and Palestinian terrorist George Habash.

Sorry Kid, You're the Wrong Color
Last week, as we noted yesterday, the Supreme Court held that it is unconstitutional for government elementary and secondary schools to discriminate on the basis of race in order to promote "racial balance." Earlier last week, the New York Post reported on a case of a New York girl who was the victim of such discrimination:

A Brooklyn mother and father got the shock of their lives when school officials informed them their brilliant 11-year-old girl was denied admission to an elite public school--solely because she's of Indian descent.

"I feel bad because I would have gotten in if I was white," Nikita Rau lamented over her failed bid to attend the Mark Twain School, IS 239, in Coney Island, a magnet school for gifted students.

It turns out Mark Twain--unlike all but one other city public school--admits students according to racial quotas established in 1974 by a federal judge who ordered the school's desegregation. . . .

When Nikita recently applied to Mark Twain, she took an admission test geared toward music students and scored a 79.

Officials told the Raus that because Nikita is classified as a minority, she would need to score at least 84.4 to be accepted, while white students needed to score 77 or more.

The Post noted "that the U.S. Supreme Court currently is considering a case that could end racial quotas in schools nationwide, including Mark Twain." No such luck. Last week's ruling permits racial discrimination as part of a court-ordered desegregation plan.

This Just Makes Us Cry
From the Associated Press:

Toughening ethics laws, once a priority of Democrats, has bogged down in Congress as party leaders find their campaign promises colliding with lawmakers' re-election concerns. Two months have passed since a task force was supposed to have recommended how an independent panel might look into ethics complaints before they go to the House ethics committee. A key sticking point is opposition in both parties to letting outsiders file complaints against members of Congress.

Currently, only House members can initiate an ethics probe. Public watchdog groups call the restriction self-serving and unreasonable.

We're so disillusioned. We really thought the Democrats would be different!

Life Imitates the Onion

• "Inside the SalAkshmi Split: Why Salman Rushdie broke Padma Lakshmi's heart, and how she plans to get him back"--headline and subheadline, Onion, April 22
  
  
• "The Reason Why Salman Rushdie and Padma Lakshmi Split"--headline, Asian News International, July 3

We Love Them All the Way They Are
"Democrats: No Child Law Needs Overhaul"--headline, Associated Press, July 2

It's a Rough Life
"First Baby Born From Egg Matured in Lab and Frozen"--headline, Reuters, July 2

Bartender! Quick!
"Shots Could Help You Lose That Pot Belly"--headline, MSNBC.com, July 1

Breaking News From 793
"Vikings Sail Again"--headline, Baltic Times (Riga, Latvia), July 3

News You Can Use

• "Video Games Rob Reading, Homework Time: Study"--headline, Reuters, July 2"
  
  
• "Study: Troubled Homes Better Than Foster Care"--headline, USA Today, July 3

Bottom Stories of the Day

• "Forecasters See No Tropical Storm Activity"--headline, Bradenton (Fla.) Herald, July 2
  
  
• "MSP Security Not Increased in Wake of UK Scares"--headline, WCCO-TV Web site (Minneapolis), July 1
  
  
• "Charlotte Trash Pickup Normal"--headline, Charlotte (N.C.) Observer, July 3
  
  
• "Dodd Tries to Make Waves in Early States"--headline, Associated Press, July 2

Tree's a Crowd
We were touched by this letter to the editor of the Fort Collins Coloradoan:

I went to go visit the tree being disputed at the intersection of Taft Hill Road and Vine Drive, the one which Xcel Energy is supposed to take down in order to relocate power lines so that the roundabout can be constructed. I have mourned the loss of the old trees already destroyed so that this "progress" could take place. Now it comes down to one tree.

To many people, the life of a tree may not be a big deal. But apparently it is to the person who lives there, and it certainly is to me. I stood there reverently in front of it this morning, crying quietly at the thought of another life being lost. It stands so beautifully, with full and lush leaves, so very tall and graceful. The serenity I felt in its presence rooted me to the spot.

I have no idea whether it is somehow aware, in its way, that it has been sentenced to die, or that there are those who cry at the thought of that. I think of trees as our teachers and am reminded of great teachers in the past who were sentenced to die because of our ignorance. I am grateful that it has touched my life while it is still alive.

May the spirit and wisdom of this tree live on long after it is gone from our sight.

Kathy Kruse
Fort Collins

According to the Audit Bureau of Circulation, the Coloradoan had a circulation of 59,000 as of December 2005. A lot of trees had to die so Kathy Kruse could have her say.

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Today on OpinionJournal:

• Review & Outlook: Scooter Libby deserves better from President Bush.
• Bret Stephens: The covering of women is the flip side of radical Islamic totalitarianism.
• Brendan Miniter: Even Gen. Washington didn't win every battle.