Roger Kimball reminds us of a good reason to celebrate May Day.

....May Day commemorates not only the pink-tinged political fantasies and joyous vernal enthusiasm, but also the opening of hostilities in the Spanish American War, when Commodore George Dewey's fleet steamed into Manilla Bay at dawn. "You may fire when ready, Gridley," Dewey famously said to his executive officer....

Kimball notes this in the context of the outrageous comments made by Attorney General Holder, who, as Kim noted last night, is making noises about cooperating with the nut job Spanish Judge Baltasar Garzón (he of the presumed Pinochet scalp(not)). As I have mentioned before, the Left has been in heat over the possibility of a war crimes prosecution for months. Andy McCarthy laid out the reasons why this sort of witch hunt is not only bad policy but also bad law. At the center of the Left's polemic is the unresolved (at least in the comments of this blog) issue of whether water boarding is torture. As mentioned previously, it is essential that Obama and the Left discredit this interrogation tactic because "Otherwise, in the event of a future terrorist attack, critics may blame his decision to rein in C.I.A. interrogators."

Rather than leave the debate about water boarding and torture to the American judiciary system AG Holder is sending the signal that he will comply with evidentiary requests from a foreign court. As Kimball notes, this is rancid policy:

How do you spell "jurisdiction?" How, for that matter, do you spell "nauseating display of sanctimonious political correctness"? How about "Baltasar," as in Baltasar Garzón, the grandstanding Spanish judge who on Wednesday opened "investigations" at the National Court in Madird into allegations by four "detainess" ("detainees": that's Newspeak for "terrorists") that they were tortured by U.S. Military personnel at Guantánamo Bay.

Jurisdiction is the issue. If President Obama doesn't jealously protect the principle of jurisdiction and Executive power (instead of making things up) then no US official (operating under said power) is protected including his own administration. Are we witnessing the self immolation of US sovereign power? Surely there are some grown ups that have the president's ear on this vital issue.

Kim Covered McCarthy's Letter Here