Attorney General Michael B. Mukasey today sharply rebuffed congressional demands for details about the Justice Department’s inquiry into the destruction of CIA interrogation tapes, saying that providing such information would make it appear that the department was “subject to political influence.”
So stonewalling Congress makes them look all principled and aboveboard?
Several Democrats have raised questions about the propriety of having the inquiry run by the Justice Department, whose lawyers were involved in offering legal advice about the tapes, and the CIA inspector general, whose office reviewed the tapes before they were destroyed.
If you haven’t been watching MSNBC’s Dan Abrams, who comes on after Olbermann, do check out this week’s “Bush League Justice” series, which you can watch online:
Episode 1: Civil Rights
Episode 2: Signing Statements
Episode 3: Political Prosecutions
Episode 4: Alabama Outrage
Much of the information in these episodes has already been covered in this blog. Nonetheless, it’s refreshing to see the evil libruhl MSM take on the Bushies this directly.
Also at WaPo, Dan Froomkin writes,
President Bush’s repeated insistence that “we don’t torture” appeared even more transparently bogus yesterday as the White House threatened to veto a House bill that would explicitly ban a variety of abhorrent practices.
The bill would require U.S. intelligence agencies to follow interrogation rules adopted by the armed forces last year.
What does that mean? As Pamela Hess writes for the Associated Press, those rules explicitly prohibit “forcing detainees to be naked, perform sexual acts, or pose in a sexual manner; placing hoods or sacks over detainees’ heads or duct tape over their eyes; beating, shocking, or burning detainees; threatening them with military dogs; exposing them to extreme heat or cold; conducting mock executions; depriving them of food, water, or medical care; and waterboarding.”
Bush is now fully owning Abu Ghraib. That, I guess, is one helpful result of flushing out what this president has done. At the time, of course, he expressed shock at the techniques exposed by the photographs at Abu Ghraib. Now he is declaring them legal and necessary.
At this point, I’m too tired of this bleep to be outraged.
Bush is transparent. The disregard for civil liberties foreign and domestic is not secret. What bothers me is that none of the Democrats running for office has specifically repudiated what abuses they would renounce. It makes me nervous.
Strategicly, it may make sense to deliver that level of detail as a challenge to the Republican nominee. What would the Republican renounce or prohibit of Bushs policies. This forces a tap dance as the Republican tries to distance himself from the ‘failed’ policies while not surrenduring any of the imperial powers.
The loathsome toad in the WH is not old, and he has only an inkling of how unpopular he will be in America, possibly eclipsing Nixon in unpopularity.Can we automate a countdown of days, minutes and seconds til he is gone on the banner of Mahablog?
No Political Influence = No Congressional Oversight?
I guess thats his way of thanking them for confirming him.
So if only 1 party controls the Executive Branch, and the power is all in the hands of the President, and the so called 2 party congress is impotent, how do we differ from a Totalitarian state, especially when the current President did not actually win a single election
that did not involve banana republic election practices.
But it’s too late to be surprised or outraged, it is all just kind of mind numbing. Maybe thats their way of letting us know the game is over. Just flaunting it now and daring someone to do something about it which will give them the excuse to declare martial law. But even they did not truly understand that the citizens have become consenters. So long as they are fed, warm
and entertained, the critters are content, even if they do like to squeal a lot and abuse their keyboards.
Why should Mukasey comply? He’s now one of the team. What’s scary is that this SOB is smarter than Alberto.
My take on the “Shock Doctrine:”
When the immoral/ammoral becomes moral,
When the illegal becomes legal,
When torture becomes “enhanced interrogation.”
And waterboarding becomes “swimming,”
The Reptile brain is winning….
From an agnostic: For the love of God, Jesus, Moses, Mohammed, Buddha, Mithras, Confucious, etc. Have some BALL’S!
Stand up to the M-F’er in Chief!
Call for a Special Council!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Call for indictment, impeachment and incarceration.
Stand up, you flaccid corporatist ‘Ho’s!
Harry, get you some Blog Viagra!!! Nancy, get something, I don’t know what…
Is this what I wanted, voted for?
I’m sick of these compromising Bush-diver’s.
This is the worst President in history. The most corrupt member’s of the Republican legislature in history. And you can’t stand up to them?!?! And you’re in the majority?!?!?!?!?!?!?!
You want to win in ’08? Stand up now!
Otherwise, the voter’s will see you for the feckless, flaccid, cowardly, Corporate Whore’s that you are.
Go ahead, PROVE ME WRONG!!!
Paging Nancy… Paging Harry…
Just what I thought, no-one answers…………………
Harlan Ellison summed up how I feel: “I have no mouth, and I must scream…”
So ‘we don’t torture’. “What you mean ‘We’, white man?” to quote the horrible old Tonto joke. I do not wish to be included in a collective noun along with the Bush administration. Though I personally don’t torture. Do you or anyone you know? There must be an acceptable substitute for ‘bitch slap’ that conveys the disdain of that phrase. If I knew it I would use it, to the Bush administration’s collective face.