But W Was Not in the Room, so it's OK

ABC News reports, as the headline says: "Top Bush Advisors Approved 'Enhanced Interrogation'":

In dozens of top-secret talks and meetings in the White House, the most senior Bush administration officials discussed and approved specific details of how high-value al Qaeda suspects would be interrogated by the Central Intelligence Agency, sources tell ABC News. The so-called Principals who participated in the meetings also approved the use of "combined" interrogation techniques -- using different techniques during interrogations, instead of using one method at a time -- on terrorist suspects who proved difficult to break, sources said. Highly placed sources said a handful of top advisers signed off on how the CIA would interrogate top al Qaeda suspects -- whether they would be slapped, pushed, deprived of sleep or subjected to simulated drowning, called waterboarding. The high-level discussions about these "enhanced interrogation techniques" were so detailed, these sources said, some of the interrogation sessions were almost choreographed -- down to the number of times CIA agents could use a specific tactic.

The advisers were members of the National Security Council's Principals Committee, a select group of senior officials who met frequently to advise President Bush on issues of national security policy. At the time, the Principals Committee included Vice President Cheney, former National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and Secretary of State Colin Powell, as well as CIA Director George Tenet and Attorney General John Ashcroft.

OK, for the record, the Vice President, Secretaries of Defense and State, Attorney General, Head of CIA and the NSA are not 'top advisors'... they are the CABINET. That is the freakin' executive branch. Just leaving the president out of the room, but inviting everyone else, doesn't give him deniability.

Second of all, uh, we've just been told that the VP and top secretaries agreed to torture people. Yup. Now what? Isn't that kinda worse than, I dunno, Watergate or Monica-gate?

Now what? Huh? Now what's going to happen. Put smart money on 'nothing.'

h/t TPM.

6 Degress of Larry Craig

In addition to being a 'tearoom cruiser' (I now know more about this stuff than I ever thought it healthy t do), Senator Craig is/was a member of The Singing Senators - a quartet of Republican crooners: (1) John Ashcroft (R-MO) Baritone, (2) Larry Craig (R-ID) - Lead, (3) James Jeffords (R-VT) - Tenor, (4) Trent Lott (R-MS) - Bass.

Now, I am not saying there's anything wrong with being the lead in a male a-capella group. I'm certainly not saying it's in any way gay.

The Wiki explains the origin:

"In 1995, at New Hampshire Senator Bob Smith's birthday party, Ashcroft, Jeffords, Lott, and Connie Mack of Florida sang 'Happy Birthday.' Later, when Senator Bob Packwood of Oregon was having a birthday party, Jeffords called Lott and suggested that the four of them sing at the party. Mack declined, but Larry Craig joined. "

How nice of Larry to join! And all for Bob "Mr. Morals" Packwood. If anything, this explains that Larry has some important friends (e.g. Lott has so far been holding off from calling for his resignation).

The funny thing about the GOP is that they want him to resign for his sin of being gay; I would want him to resign because, uh, he was arrested (and plead guilty) for public lewdness.

I read on some blog that we should feel compassion for Craig. I guess because he's embarrassed. OK. Sure. But our standards are pretty low if we have such compassion for a ranking Senator who was arrested in a public bathroom.

We should have compassion for the victims of Katrina - many of whom have still been left homeless two years after Bush's Hurricane. Give them sympathy, give Craig ridicule.

Terror Alert Review

While I like to see Burt's smiling face, telling me all's Yellow in the US, I'm wondering if I should keep the terror alert up. First of all, the java-mojo mechanism that runs the alert slows down the blog's loading. Second of all, and most importantly, the terror alert is unlikely to change now that (a) Ridge is out of a job, (b) Ashcroft has left, and (c) Bush has been re-elected.

Even though we are far more vulnerable now than three years ago, Burt will not help us despite his mighty powers.

If you have opinions on the matter, let me know.

FBI entrapped AIPAC

Bush is the best friend Israel has ever had - at least better than Clinton - at least better than his father - or actually, I'm not sure if he's such a friend. A few months ago there was a celebrated case where a member of AIPAC was entrapped in a FBI sting. Ya see, it seems that the FBI investigated two members of AIPAC who have been accused of spying for Israel, giving them details of the secret US deliberations with the Iranians. [Recent reports accuse them of leaking the secrets of the McShwarma]. Here's the original story (CBS news)

However, as the Jerusalem Post indicates the FBI set the whole thing up. It's pretty complicated - but as far as I can tell, the FBI entrapped two AIPAC members as part of a strange paranoid witch-hunt. As this article indicates, there's a subtle double-standard against Jews in the intelligence agencies about loyalty to Israel.

Thank you Ashcroft for keeping America safe. How many terrorists have you caught yet? None?

Backpost finished, kinda, 2/17/05. This is still difficult to finish because I still don't have all the right details...

Getting Messy

The world is getting messy quick. Colin Powell resigned from Sec. of State today and considering who they have to replace Ashcroft, I expect Zell Miller to be the replacement. Goss, the new CIA chief is leading a "shakeup" (to use the Times term), Condeleeza Rice may be the new State (which means a new Nat Sec Director) and ODB died. A full week.

The CIA story is the most important in my eyes. This is simultaneous with a shakeup in the FBI and the new department of concentrated Intelligence Agencies (or whatever) being created. This means (a) our intelligence agencies are being gutted and will spend more time keeping their bureaucracies alive than keeping us alive, (b) in a battle between the FBI or CIA and the President, back the FBI/CIA.

I'll explain. As soon as I admitted that, yes, Goofy was elected in '04, I said to whatever Republican wandered into my path, that they could have done this the easy way - by having Bush go down gracefully - but now we gotta go the impeachment route.

Unless Clinton, who basically did nothing, Bush and his Band of Happy Elves have done so many prosecutable actions that only their tight control of information and curtain of radiating fear keeps them in power.

Bush is Nixon. Nixon was finally caught. Who did it? Yup, Woodward & Bernstein.

Actually, they didn't. They were just young and ambitious enough to be witting pawns of two very powerful agencies. The first was the man "Deep Throat" (whose identity we still don't know) but who was leaking all the damning info to Woodward.

The second, and most important agency was the FBI. FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover was the most powerful man in America - he had secret info and surveillance on hundreds of politicians and he knew all the skeletons. He died on May 2, 1972. His successor, L. Patrick Gray was cut from very different cloth (e.g. Gray appointed the first women as Special Agents, see the FBI website).

Gray and the new FBI leadership did not play Hoover's games and they went hard and heavy after the Watergate break-in. The key elements to the Woodstein stories were the grand-jury investigations opened by the FBI.

Put simply, the FBI put the President out of business. And I pray to God that they do it again.

I Apologize

Seriously, I need to apologize. My brother asked me if I should be so happy that Ashcroft was resigning because 'maybe they'll find someone worse.' I said, well sometimes the Devil You Know is already bad enough.

I was wrong. The new AG candidate, Alberto R. Gonzales, is another one of the GOP tokens but this time, with his own baggage. According to many reports (This from washingtonpost.com), Gonzales may be responsible for the "legal" decisions that threw away the Geneva conventions and led to the horrors of Abu Ghraib.

My brother was right, I was wrong, I apologize. In the future, when trying to predict the actions of the President, always choose the most despicable path.

AWRIGHT!! Ashcroft is Gone

Finally, a silver lining! Ashcroft is leaving the government! (Ashcroft, Evans Resign from Bush Cabinet)

Oh my! He was the absolute worst of the gang of thugs. Worse than the lying thief Cheney; than the incompetent torturer Rumsfeld. True, Ashcroft should be wearing handcuffs, but sometimes you gotta celebrate the small wonders.

Education Gap

The Democracy Corps has an analysis of their recent survey that brings forward some startling facts. What they call "The Tale of Two Gaps"

The gender gap between Democrats and Republicans is a known factor. But in 2004 - as opposed to 2000 - we now see a clear gap in education.

The key chart:
________________2000 Gore, Bush___________2004 Kerry, Bush

Male________________42____54________________46________49
Female______________54____43________________52________45

Non-College_________48____48________________48________50
College_____________47____49________________52________44

These numbers are frightening, especially for you college-educated Republicans. Basically, as I've said before, the only ones voting GOP tomorrow are those who are irretrievably partisan or utterly uninformed.

If for whatever reason, Bush manages to steal 2004 like he stole 2000, then those of you who are GOP loyalists have a responsibility to tell your grinning idiot man-child in Chief that he needs to clean house. I don't think we in the losing party will have a voice if Bush wins (and who knows when we will again!). Please, for the love of all that's good, tell him that he needs to fire Rumsfeld immediately, retire Ashcroft, put Cheney in the old ogre's home. Please.

And if Bush doesn't win, then I want to buy tickets to the many many trials. If Rumsfeld doesn't get arrested for Abu Ghraib, we're still in trouble.

Thomas Too

According to this Washington Post story, if Bush is re-elected then when Rehnquist steps down as Chief (which is imminent) then Bush is thinking of nominating Clarence Thomas as the new chief.

Ken Foskett, the author of "Judging Thomas: The Life and Times of Clarence Thomas," claims that top Bush administration officials have discussed with Thomas the possibility of his succeeding William Rehnquist as chief justice.

I don't see why not; in the choice between Cheney, Rumsfeld, and Ashcroft, Thomas is the least likely to want to kill me personally with his bare hands. But the thought of that low-grade Uncle Token as the chief terrifies me.

Token? That's pretty harsh. Would I say that Powell is a token. No; because he's the top of his game and actually gave Bush legitimacy (a opposed to those other clowns who take away from this administration every passing second). Do I think Condi Rice is a token? Hell yes. She is as dangerously incompetent as the fat white guys - so why is she there? Tokenism.

What's the difference between token and affirmative action? AA recognizes that the minority in question has been disadvantaged by centuries of continued discrimination. Tokenism recognizes that you can hide your racism by publicly displaying whatever minority dude is callow enough to sell out their fellows. It works best when the token doesn't have much talent. Paging Dr. Rice, paging the Honorable Thomas.

To be honest, I think Georgie W. is a token. He was chosen for his last name and his booze weakened mind. As long as he can keep his prep-school inbred frat-boy arrogance in check, he can pass as a civilian. It's been showing more and more lately (especially in the last debate).

If Team Bush "wins" again in November, then we get the token choosing the token. And I wonder if Ashcroft will then get the bench?

Sullivan too

Bush, Cheney, Ashcroft, Rumsfeld... they may be the only people who still believe all the manure. I just peeped at Andrew Sullivan's blog to find this post:

Saturday, October 09, 2004

ME TOO: Josh Chafetz reflects on where he is in this race. Bottom line: "Undecided ... but leaning more towards Kerry than I was before." That's where I am. Josh's arguments are very close to my own thoughts as well. I cannot support Bush but I'm amazed I'm this close to considering favoring Kerry as president. I'm not there yet. Don't rush me. But after two debates, I feel far more comfortable with the thought of him as commander-in-chief than I once thought possible.

True, Sullivan is gay and this Bush is no pal of that issue, but it runs even deeper. I feel the people who strongly support Bush are either (1) doctrinaire conservatives, (2) people who don't follow the news, (3) people who watch Fox (see #2).

Fox is an embarrassment. Their headline about the second debate: "Is Sen. Kerry too inconsistent in his political positions to lead the nation?"

No other news organization is as biased. In fact, they are all struggling under their own idiocy: that somewhere along the line the goal of 'objectivity' was replaced with 'balanced' which means 'purposeful distortion of facts to appear impartial.'

I'm not joking. Objectivity has nothing to do with being 'balanced' in a quantitative sense. It means 'being able to argue all possible interpretations based on the facts. It's a test of analysis, not factual reporting. Instead, the news has applied their standards to which actual events they state and quote.

Take the current brouhaha about the ABCNEWS memo from Political Director Mark Halperin. Matt Druge - ever vigilant for another Paula Jones - claims that this memo shows the bias in the mainstream press for Kerry.

The key lines in the memo are:

The New York Times (Nagourney/Stevenson) and Howard Fineman on the web both make the same point today: the current Bush attacks on Kerry involve distortions and taking things out of context in a way that goes beyond what Kerry has done.

Kerry distorts, takes out of context, and mistakes all the time, but these are not central to his efforts to win.

We have a responsibility to hold both sides accountable to the public interest, but that doesn't mean we reflexively and artificially hold both sides "equally" accountable when the facts don't warrant that.

We can learn a few lessons from this.

1. we now have proof that until that memo the press has been purposefully distorting their reporting to give equal quantitative space to different "sides" instead of telling us the facts and giving us multiple interpretations

2. Drudge and the rest of the Right Wing Press consider the admission that Kerry is different from Bush an act of partisanship instead of a rational, informed choice. They, of course, would consider attacking Kerry at every opportunity just telling the facts, ma'am.

3. Bush can get away with murder.

4. Clinton lied about his intern; Gore exaggerated about minor things - they were impeached and ridiculed respectively. Bush & Cheney have lied about the reasons to go to war, the conduct of that war, and the current state of the war (and the economy, environment, heath care, jobs etc) and the press has been rolling over and smooching their behinds.

The great test for the press has been given and they have failed. They do not report, they do not analyze, they are not our watchdog, they do not protect. They just feed.

Viva la internet - the only source, now, for accuracy.

New Worst Man in America

Replacing previous title-holder Don "Uckfup" Rumsfeld, who himself replaced George "Father Art in Hell" Bush who replaced John "How Could I Ever Have Been Replaced?" Ashcroft, is Senator James "Unmarked Bills" Inhofe. A senator from Oklahoma; needless to say he is a Republican.

As you can see from the news reports (e.g. WashPost: Senator Critical of Focus on Prisoner Abuse ) Senator Inhofe takes spin #2 - attack the media for being so durn Constitutiony.

To quote the Tyrant du-Jour: "I'm probably not the only one up at this table that is more outraged by the outrage than we are by the treatment,"

Yes! Outraged by the outrage!

Not to feed into the outrage over his outrage by the outrage, I have to wonder just what is Inhofe receive for his act of ethics prostitution? A speaking spot at the Republican convention? New Defense Secretary?

And just so you know who we're dealing with, Inhofe happens to be a major supporter of Israel, probably the strongest in the Republican party!

See this:

• The seven reasons for supporting Israel (from a floor speech of Senator Inhofe on March 4, 2002).
• Also see this story
• And this

And, guess what, I didn't know he was a big Israel supporter when I read his remarks in the Senate... I JUST GUESSED! Seriously!! I wrote the first part of this post and on a hunch I googled "Inhofe" and "Israel" and voila, all this stuff comes up.

Why is it that the biggest scumbags in the government also Israel supporters? I don't want these people as my friends!

A Nice Warm Hello from the Scariest Guy in America

John "Huggy Bear" Ashcroft has struck again. First he insisted that Federal prosecutors seek the Death Penalty in any and all possible cases. Now, possibly after reading his own Bible, he extends that to insisting that all cases should seek the maximum penalty. Before, we thought he just liked people dying. Now we see its part of a larger "hate humanity" thing. Good for him. Lets give this guy another job, huh?