Hillary says she’s “absolutely not interested” in running for president again.

Hillary and Chelsea after big win during 2008 primary.

Hillary tells Tavis Smiley that she will not likely stay on as Secretary of State for an entire Obama presidency if there is a second term.  She also says she is “absolutely not interested” in running for president again.

TAVIS SMILEY: Finally, there’s already speculation about whether or not Secretary Clinton is going to do this for the full first time, and whether or not she has any interest if asked to stay on to do it for eight years? You see how tough the job is, can you imagine yourself doing all four years and, if asked, doing it for another four years?

HILLARY CLINTON: No, I really can’t. I mean, it is just…

TAVIS SMILEY: No to what? All four or eight?

HILLARY CLINTON: The whole, the whole eight, I mean, that that would be very challenging. But I, you know, I don’t wanna make any predictions sitting here, I’m honored to serve, I serve at the pleasure of the President, but it’s a, it’s a 24/7 job, and I think at some point, I will be very happy to LAUGHS pass it on to someone else.

As for the presidency. . .

TAVIS SMILEY: And finally, just for the record, you have said before, emphatically, in fact, that you are not interested in running again for President of the United States, I’m taking your answer now to mean that that’s still the same?

HILLARY CLINTON: Absolutely not interested.

Execution of Chemical Ali reminds us why the Iraq war was worth fighting.

Chemical Ali pictured on Iraqi televsion just before his execution in Baghdad.

Those who opposed the war in Iraq believe the moral questions about the war have been settled.

They haven’t.

Today’s announcement by the legitimate, democratically-elected government of Iraq that “Chemical Ali,” Ali Hassan al-Majid, was hanged for crimes against the Iraqi people, reminds us that the war that ended the despotism of Saddam Hussein and Ali was a just war that ultimately freed millions of people from Saddam’s cruelty and ruthlessness.

Ali himself played a pivotal role in Saddam’s suppression of the Iraqi people.  He masterminded the broad military campaign against the Kurds that was called Anfal, Arabic for the “spoils of war.” The offensive lasted from 1987 to 1988 and saw up to 182,000 people killed, villages razed and families herded into internment camps. It is reported that TWO THIRDS of those victims were women and children.

Sadaam Hussein and Chemical Ali were guilty of gassing more than 5,000 Kurds, including women and children.

Today’s execution was carried out after a final guilty verdict was rendered against Ali last week for the 1988 gassing of Kurds in the northern Iraqi town of Halabja, an attack that killed as many as 5,000 people killed and came to symbolize Saddam’s brutal methods.

It is also worth remembering the reports that came out about Saddam’s use of torture in a pre-9/11 study by Amnesty International: Iraq: Systematic torture of political prisoners –

Torture is used both to extract information or confessions from detainees and as a punishment. Political detainees are tortured immediately following arrest and their torture generally takes place in the headquarters of the General Security Directorate in Baghdad or in its branches in Baghdad and in the governorates. Torture also takes place in the headquarters of the General Intelligence (al-Mukhabarat al-’Amma) in al-Hakimiya in Baghdad, its branches elsewhere, as well as in police stations and detention centres such as al-Radhwaniya. Detainees in these places are held incommunicado for months or even years without access to any lawyers or family visits.

In the mid-1990s Iraq introduced judicial punishments such as amputation of hand and foot, branding of forehead and cutting off of the ears, and many people have been left with permanently mutilated bodies as a result of such punishments. Such punishments have been described as cruel, inhuman and degrading by international human rights bodies. The Iraqi Government justified the introduction of these punishments by the increase in the crime rate which it attributed to the impact of economic sanctions imposed on the country since 1990.

Chemical Ali’s execution also reminds me of a quote from the BBC that was reported in an article called Iraqi Dictator Saddam Hussein’s Shop of Horrors by Jeff Jacoby:

In June, the BBC interviewed “Kamal,” a former Iraqi torturer now confined in a Kurdish prison in the north. “If someone didn’t break, they’d bring in the family,” Kamal explained. “They’d bring the son in front of his parents, who were handcuffed or tied and they’d start with simple tortures such as cigarette burns and then if his father didn’t confess they’d start using more serious methods,” such as slicing off one of the child’s ears or amputating a limb. “They’d tell the father that they’d slaughter his son. They’d bring a bayonet out. And if he didn’t confess, they’d kill the child.”

I would ask about the Iraqi people the same question we Americans ask ourselves when judging how our circumstances have changed: “Are the Iraqi people better off today than they were in 1991, 0r 1996, or 2001?”

If you don’t think they are, you are either blind to the past or ignorant of the present.

Scott Ritter: Hillary antagonist arrested in teen sex sting.

Scott Ritter Arrested in Teen Sex Sting.

About two years ago in this blog, I reported that former UN weapons inspector Scott Ritter was in New Hampshire attacking Hillary Clinton for her views on Iran. Turns out, Hillary was right that we needed a flexible response to the despots in Iran. Ritter was wrong that diplomacy alone would convince Iran to drop its nuclear weapons program.

Now, it turns out, Ritter is in the news again, this time for being caught in a teen sex sting. That’s right, the pro-Iranian weapons inspector is also a pervert.

Here’s how Fox reported the story:

Former chief United Nations weapons inspector Scott Ritter was arrested in a Pennsylvania sex sting in November on a litany of charges involving a lewd Internet conversation with a person he thought was a 15-year-old girl. Ritter, 48, allegedly masturbated in front of a Web camera while he was engaged in conversation in an Internet chat room with an undercover cop posing as the teenage girl.

You can read the affidavit against Ritter here.

What makes the story even more sordid but predictable is that Ritter was caught twice before trying to have sex with underage girls, in April and June of 2001.  In one case the charge was dismissed; in the other charges were never brought.

It will be amusing to read the twisted logic of those who revered Ritter and his anti-Iraq war sentiments as they try to excuse his immoral behavior and poor judgment. Certainly if you already agree with Ritter politically his judgment and morality are irrelevant: a chimpanzee could make the same case and you would agree with it.

But for those he might try to convince of the righteousness of his views, his judgment and morality are indeed relevant. If he shows such poor judgment and immorality as to knowingly jerk-off in front of an underage girl, why should his judgment and moral positions concerning world affairs be trusted?

I have a feeling that Ritter’s days as the “sky is falling” king of the far left are over. . .or should be.

From Rake Morgan, co-editor of the Hillary Clinton Quarterly.