This question still lingers after a 1997 "60 Minutes" interview with Mike Wallace.

From the "GodFather" blockbuster movies, to "The Sopranos" the mafia has become a profitable genre for American entertainment.  In the process, we have to ask whether our evaluation of these individuals has been shifted.  By examining their lives, their internal struggles, their personal quirks and motivations has the outrage at their actions been lost. Has there been a shift from seeing these people as a scourge of society, to something quite different, members of a unique specialized community that must be judged on their own rules.

Last night 60 Minutes had an interviewwith John Martorano, Occupation: The Executioner.   The tone of the interview was non judgmental, even friendly in recounting the old friendship between the subject and a deceased member of the 60 Minute staff.  

Paul O'Neill's interview with 60 minutes regarding his input into the book The Price of Loyalty by Pulitzer Prize winning journalist Ron Suskind.

This was in 2002, before the Iraq War. Before the selling of war, before the lies of WMDs, aluminum tubes and and yellow cake from Niger. Before oil companies were swooping down on Iraq to gobble up production sharing agreements. We didn't listen.

Listen now.

This evening's 60 Minutes had a story on a new non-lethal weapon developed by the Pentagon. This weapon can deter crowds of people without inflicting any permanent damage. It is described as a potential "game changer" in the Iraq War.

The story depicts a training exercise that demonstrates the efficacy of the weapon. But in the demo, the targets are not simulated Al Qaeda or Mahdi Army footsoldiers. Instead, they are American men holding signs that say "WORLD PEACE" and "PEACE NOT WAR". Why is the Pentagon training soldiers to see American anti-war protestors as the enemy?

[Update] I've been informed in the comments that this segment ran 3 months ago. It's still worth watching if you want to be profoundly disturbed.

My loves, my sweeties, my precious beings:  This is not a candidate diary.  One of my favorite artists died today, & another one, even more special to me, nearly died.  They are saying that James Garner is gonna be okay.  & even that okay I just typed is special.  He was born on April 7, just like me, in Norman, a town I grew up in, & even though he's from OK, he's a liberal, just like me.  

Robert Rauschenberg is wrongly considered a pop artist- a distinction that bothers me to no end, right or wrong- & more often these days gets lumped in w/ Roy Lichtenstein.  

First, there is no popular art.  There is art, & art alone.  That comic book you are reading, that is art.  That baseball game you attended, that is art.  That awful Vegas Diaz/Kutchner vehicle thingy you might have attended this past weekend, that is art.

Second, I am not denigrating Lichtenstein.  That is most definetely art.  Not the kind of art I care about, but art just the same.

This was originally posted on Citizen Orange.

It may not be politically viable, I may be attacking allies in this post, but someone needs to say it.  In the wake of shocking exposes in the New York Times, The Washington Post, and 60 Minutes, it looks like there's actually some movement from the U.S. government to enact some pro-migrant, or better said, less anti-migrant federal legislation.   Nina Bernstein and Julia Preston of the New York Times report in "Better Health Care Sought for Detained Immigrants".

On last night's episode of 60 minutes, Pat Tillman's mother took issue with the question of "what will it take for you to be satisfied". She said that the cover-up and propaganda that ensued after Pat's death went beyond their family to the general public. "This was a public deception" she says.

Those who knew Pat are asked to comment on how he would feel about what has happened since his death. They say that Pat had expressed fears that if he died, his death would be used for purposes of propaganda. They say that Pat would probably be furious at what has happened and call it criminal.

I feel really bad for the Tillman family and I'm pretty ashamed of how this was handled by my country's government.

Antonin Scalia is a vile, ideological hack who defends torture.  This has nothing to do with lofty conversations about the Constitution, the living Constitution, and originalism.  Scalia’s views on torture are unsound, Colonel Kurtz unsound, by any technical or common sense views.  Just look at what he has to say about torture as punishment:

On April 10, 2008, Justice Antonin Scalia was given an award at the University of Virginia. Scalia was a founder of the Federalist Society; while he was at the school, he spoke at a lunch for UVa Fed. Soc. members.

Guess what? I'm a member. I went.

When he was done speaking, I was able to chat him up a little bit. And, what do you know? It looks like this lil' ol' blogger scooped 60 Minutes' Leslie Stahl.

Here's the audio.

Some comments on the rest of the audio after the flip.

In Martin County, Kentucky this week, John McCain added another one his "Forgotten Places" to the growing list of places his campaign would now like to forget.  With a straight face, McCain told the residents of the economically devastated region that eBay represents their economic future. And he did so by appropriating the words of Meg Whitman, who just happens to be not only McCain's national campaign co-chair, but the former CEO of eBay.

Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia has 3 words for critics of the the decision that gave us George Bush instead of a real President in 2000.  “Get over it.”

In an interview with CBS correspondent, Leslie Stahl, set to air on 60 Minutes on April 27, Scalia dismissed any suggestion that the ruling in Gore V. Bush was politically motivated.

CBS must ask two very different questions. The obvious: who should replace her? The more difficult: should we even bother?

"If you don't have three solid paragraphs....." So, according to the rules I should be posting this in an Open Thread. I cannot find an open thread that is suitable, and I think my subject is more important than that. I am deliberately ignoring the rule this one time, and I realize it may not fly.
 Here goes -- Did you Watch Al Gore Tonight on 60 Minutes?

Yes, it's true, and it is unfortunate.  Full disclosure: I'm an Obama supporter, and I'm also someone who does not believe that the Democratic infighting is good for the party or for the candidates.

So, again, the unfortunate fact that Al Gore wants to stay out of the general election, and that he wants to stay uncommitted as long as he can...well, it's disappointing.

Gore went onto 60 Minutes tonight and to the shock of no one paying attention kept mum on who he likes.  More, including video, below the fold...

While clicking around today for election news, I happened upon a disturbing video--a German resident claimed that when he was detained at Kandahar and later Gitmo, the Americans tortured him.  Moreover, 60 Minutes is due to air the story tomorrow night.

Just in case this was some kind of bad dream, I moseyed over to CBS News' Web site to make sure this was for real.  Unfortunately, it is.

A German resident held by the U.S. for almost five years tells 60 Minutes correspondent Scott Pelley that Americans tortured him in many ways - including hanging him from the ceiling for five days early in his captivity when he was in Kandahar, Afghanistan.

Kurnaz is an ethnic Turk who has spent most of his life in Germany.  While he was in Pakistan studying Islam, Pakistani police arrested him, and he was "auctioned off" to the United States for $3,000.  At the time, we were offering "bounties" for suspicious foreigners.

Kurnaz was carted off to Kandahar--and that's where the real horror story begins.

Breaking tonight!!!  He's Going to Be Free as of TOMORROW and through the Appeal (Overturning)!

A federal appellate court today ordered former Gov. Don Siegelman released from prison while he appeals his 2006 conviction, saying there are "substantial questions" about his case.

Siegelman attorney Vince Kilborn said Siegelman would be released sometime Friday morning. "His wife and his daughter, Dana, are driving out to get him," Kilborn said. The judges wrote that Siegelman met both requirements for an appeal bond: He is not a flight risk and his appeal raises a substantial question of law or fact likely to result in reversal or an order for a new trial.

"After thorough review of this complex and protracted record, we conclude Siegelman has satisfied the criteria set out in the statute, and has specifically met his burden of showing that his appeal raises substantial questions of law or fact," the judges wrote.

Two Sundays ago, my wife and I were riding our respective couches doing a little Sunday night lounging. After a period of channel surfing, we finally settled on 60 Minutes. I rested the remote next to me and lay back to watch Steve Kroft report on the upcoming primary in Ohio. It was the usual fare, nothing ground breaking or extraordinary - let's put it this way - nothing I didn't already know. Next up was a story entitled "The Pentagon's Ray Gun".

This Diary was originally a comment on a thread about a story on 60 Minutes about an organization that travels around providing health care to indigent or uninsured people. It was heartbreaking to see people who have been completely defeated by our system.  It spurred me to think about my 21 year history in the healthcare delivery universe.

The following is a fairly comprehensive look at how I see it....