David Corn

DC,

CIA ‘amnesty’ dismays campaigners

[snip]

In publishing the memos, the Obama administration is clearly hoping to draw a line under the whole episode, says BBC defence correspondent Rob Watson.

The administration did not say it would protect CIA agents who acted outside the boundaries laid out in the memos, or those non-CIA staff involved in approving the interrogation limits.

That leaves open the possibility that those who crafted the legal opinions authorising the techniques, one of whom is now a federal judge, could yet face legal action.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/8004319.stm

FWIW

One thing I think is lost in the din about prosecutions is even if someone broke the law they can be found not guilty - and as it takes a all 12 in a jury to convict - I doubt many would be convicted.

If the torture was bad enough or the acts ugly enough then maybe some nutcase could be weeded out. I'd wager the infliction of torture attracts some sadistic and troubled souls.

Not to mention even the torturer suffers. Maybe therapy for some of the torturers is needed?

We (the country) didn't inflict these wounds, it was Bush and Cheney and their ilk. If we don't seek justice or if justice is delayed it is adding insult to injury.

Torture is quite good at extorting confessions but at no time has anyone proved that it is probable that timely information is produced by its use. Dick Cheney has spent so much time waiting to respond to an attack on the USA that he has built up a desire to inflict damage on others. He is in fact a mentally ill man.

Who would have thought the American/Spanish Inquisition? (MPFC)

Shackled with handcuffs, forced to stand naked, slapped in the face, thrown againd a flexible wall?

Sounds like a night of good times with Keith Olberman and Nancy Pelosi.

You can not really blame Obama Admin for granting amnesty to torturors.

JFK was the last President to mess with the CIA. Look where it got him.

OBAMAS TOTURE MEMO?

A young Guantanamo prisoner from Chad was given permission to telephone a relative but instead called the Al Jazeera television network and said he was being beaten and abused at the U.S. detention camp.
Al Jazeera and Reuters reported that Gharani claimed the alleged abuse began about 20 days before Obama took office -- and has continued ever since.

Are these activities torture or not? Let's check with people that have spent time in Iraq, and are acquainted with the terrorists the U.S. is at war with -

Jack Hensley
Daniel Pearl
Nick Berg
Eugene Armstrong
Kenneth Bigley

Their answers are definitive.

Red Queen time.

I don't have to outrun the bear, I only have to outrun you!

http://apnews.myway.com/article/20090418/D97KT7MG0.html

Apparently, Obama has yet to learn that it is "better to be strong and disparaged, than weak and dismissed".

And the beat goes on -

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=a_mMcqyL2ZUE&refer=home

Texas House votes to slash Gov. Rick Perry's budget

AUSTIN – House members virtually wiped out Gov. Rick Perry's office budget Friday in order to help veterans and the mentally ill.

With little debate, the House on a voice vote approved erasing 96 percent of the nearly $24 million that budget writers had recommended for Perry's office operation over the next two years.

Some Democrats cast the House's move as a rebuke of the governor's recent comments about Texas seceding from the Union.

"That's the headline: 'Two days after governor says we ought to secede, House zeroes out the governor's budget,' " said Appropriations Committee vice chairman Richard Raymond, D-Laredo.

http://tinyurl.com/cfmrbm

Good for the Texan house.

But maybe they could give him a quill pen?

"When Geithner worked as a policy adviser in Washington for the International Monetary Fund, he didn't pay any Social Security or Medicare taxes on his income despite repeated reminders from the IMF to do so. After the IRS audited him in 2006 and discovered the errors, Geithner corrected his returns for 2003 and 2004. But he did not pay the taxes he owed for 2001 and 2002 until after Obama nominated him to be Treasury secretary."

Anyone have a calculator? I want to figure out how much in interest and penalties on the $ 34,000.00 Tim had to pay.

BTW - Biden is collecting Social Security - hope he saves some for me!

OPEN LETTER TO LYNNDIE ENGLAND

Dear Lynndie,

As a country, we asked you to be prepared to give your life in defense of this great nation and in return we are obligated to pay you, train you, feed you, clothe you, shelter you, provide leadership and guidance, but above all to protect you from harm to the best of our ability, we failed.

Not only did we fail, but our Commander-in-Chief lied about that failure. He said that you failed to follow orders, you were a rouge, you forgot your training, engaged in conduct not authorized and Secretary Rumsfeld even called you a "bad apple" .

None of those statements were true. You were following orders, your superiors did know, and our government had authorized the policy at the very highest levels.

There is no higher betrayal then to be betrayed by the President of the United States.

It's my hope that those that authored the flawed legal opinions and set the foundation that lead to the complete breakdown of military discipline will be held as accountable as a 21 year old Private from a small town in West Virginia.

SEMPER FIDELIS,
Rodney Patterson, USMC

GOP operatives (Party of No and Darkness), are now criticizing Pres. Obama because he showed strength of character and decency by not engaging in a school yard brawl with leaders who are supposed to be engaging in Dipolomacy! This is leading by example rather than getting petty and in the gutter with leaders who were allegedly disrespectful to the U.S. Those leaders are the ones who looked weak and ignorant, not Pres. Obama. It is amazing to the GOP that Pres. Obama was able to stay "presidential" and smile through the tyrad of evil and to continue to engage in goodwill. Rather GOP thinks to stay calm and positive is to be weak, and that to be strong one must get angry and blown out of proportion like a leaf in the wind when one is provoked. I say rather that it shows strength to maintain one's position of calmness to stay fixed in one's position to be a peacemaker and to show others and the world that the U.S. President does not get down in the gutter when others are throwing barbs at him and it shows Discipline. GOP claim "he allowed himself to be Disrespected"! How could one allow themselves to be disrespected, however, Pres. Obama could himself have become disrespectful to others and made the U.S. look bad if he had engaged in tit for tat, but that is the old way, and Change has come to the U.S. We know longer have a Cowboy in the whitehouse, but a peacemaker and diplomat who shows us that we do not have to get angry when others get angry with us. We don't have to get that way!

Yesterday, while watching Pastor Charles Stanley who preached on staying silent in the face of evil, and that we had to show the strength of character that Jesus Christ did when confronted with enemies and confrontation -- that is to be silent and not engage in the confrontation but to stay responsible with the response given in the face of such challenges!

That is what Pres. Obama did -- who continued to radiate the energy of goodwill and kept his cool in the face of childishness adversity and really showed leadership qualities and also emulated Christ's teachings....., the teachings the GOP frequently profess they live by. Really?

"to stay responsible with the response given in the face of such challenges!"

Civility and courtesy are not signs of weakness - to the contrary they are the harder challenge. Anybody can be a petulant ass. Especially when challenged.

Good points!

Not to mention that Obama has a new BFF in his fave 5.

1. Chavez
2. Castro
3. Ortega
4. Ahmadinejad

Oh goody, he still has one more left to add.

It's no wonder the Pres of France called Obama a pansy azz.

See - a good example of weakness right there!

"He who wishes to exert a useful influence must be careful to insult nothing. Let him not be troubled by what seems absurd, but concentrate his energies to the creation of what is good. He must not demolish, but build. He must raise temples where mankind may come and partake of the purest pleasure."

~ Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749 - 1832)

"Obama goes and accuses me of exporting terrorism: the least I can say is that he's a poor ignoramus; he should read and study a little to understand reality,"

~ Hugo Chavez (2009)

More good examples of weakness!

woot woot!

Republicans Less Popular Than Venezuela

As part of my irregular series documenting unpopular stuff that is more popular than Republicans, (see Legalizing Marijuana more popular than Republicans, and Republicans less popular than China), new polling from CNN indicates that anti-American, oil-cartel, socialist block forming Venezuela is now viewed more favorably than the Republican Party.

http://tinyurl.com/dfpqxe

*****

You can't make this stuff up!

lol

April 6th, 2009

Obama Administration Embraces Bush Position on Warrantless Wiretapping and Secrecy
Says Court Must Dismiss Jewel v. NSA to Protect 'State Secrets'

Example of strength!

Maybe if the GOPhers want to grow to be as popular as some foreign countries they should start some name calling . . .

Wait a minute - too late, eh?

lol

So taking a position simliar to Bush is weakness?

Pretty telling that.

lololo

Obama seeks $83.4 billion to cover costs of Iraq, Afghanistan wars
Seattle Times

WASHINGTON - President Obama asked Congress on Thursday for $83.4 billion for U.S. military and diplomatic operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, pressing for special troop funding that he opposed two years ago...

Example of strength ~

When you can admit you were wrong as a Senator

Taking a position of Bush just goes to show that Obama suckered progressives for a bunch of mindless following fools.

That's all~

By the way, republicans are a bunch of idiots just like the Obama minions~

So I guess you approve of Obama spying on you through the NSA?

Pretty telling!

Maybe you progressives & republicans could take that $8.00 a week tax cut from Obama and buy Hugo Chavez's book. You poor ignoramus's might learn something.