If someone is waterboarded in the forest, is it torture?

After a rather uneventful first day of hearings for the Attorney General Nominee, Michael B. Mukasey (who I might start referring to as shifty bastard), the second day turned out to be a bit different. Day 1 was filled with lots of feel good folksy talk, but details were sparse. He said the first day that the president could not order torture;

“Torture is unlawful under the laws of this country,” Mr. Mukasey said. “It is not what this country is all about. It is not what this country stands for. It’s antithetical to everything this country stands for."

Bush says that the US doesn't torture. But as long as they dont die or have organ failure, it isn't torture. And those couple that did die were just accidents, and then a few suicides too. Oh yea and it's not torture if we send them to another country that will do it for us (now a major motion picture movie), kind of in the same way as it doesn't make you gay as long as your not the one doing the blowing.

So when he was asked to be more specific:

Senator Sheldon Whitehouse: “Is waterboarding constitutional?”

Mukasey: “I don’t know what is involved in the technique,” Mr. Mukasey replied. “If waterboarding is torture, torture is not constitutional.”

Whitehouse: “is the practice of putting somebody in a reclining position, strapping them down, putting cloth over their faces and pouring water over the cloth to simulate the feeling of drowning. Is that constitutional?”

Mukasey: “If it amounts to torture, it is not constitutional.”

Seems like the trend is to avoid direct talk, and invent a new word for what we do like 'terrorist surveillance program' or 'enhanced interrogation'

Extra: a short history on waterboarding from Dick Durbin:

The United States has long taken the position that this is a war crime. In 1901, the U.S. Army Major Edwin Glenn sentenced to 10 years hard labor for water-boarding a captured insurgent in the Philippines.

U.S. military commissions after World War II prosecuted Japanese troops for engaging in water-boarding. The torture statute makes it a crime to threaten someone with imminent death. Water- boarding is a threat of imminent death.

I'm hoping that you can at least look at this one technique and say that clearly constitutes torture, it should not be the policy of the United States to engage in water-boarding, whether the detainee is military or otherwise.

MUKASEY: It is not constitutional for the United States to engage in torture in any form, be it water-boarding or anything else.

Victory in Iraq

The mysterious pocket dimension

If your in the mood for a long anti-Clinton rant take a look here. It mentions Dennis Kucinich at the end, who you can see here.

Cowboy Country

Amateurish raids by immigration, complete with cowboy hats. Shoot-em up mercenaries paid billions in Iraq. Drunken shootings by same mercenaries. Legalised torture secretly justified in secret memos. The list can go on, but I should stop here before I induce vomiting.
The first 'CEO administration' seems to be keeping with that label. Their meetings are punctual, he is 'the decider'; and instant results, lackadaiscal planning and oversight, and profit above all else rule the day. With the largest military budget in the world, we don't have an army large enough to keep the peace in Iraq without heavy reliance on mercenaries like Blackwater. Mercenaries who have conviniently been exempted from US, US military, and Iraqi law by our occupation authority in Iraq, until now. The staggering costs of our occupation are floodling into the pockets of Bush's friends and donors, who our own audits show are overcharging, and not completing work they were paid for.
Have you ever wondered what would happen if a spoiled rich kid from New England who likes to pretend he's a Texas cowboy, who failed in every business venture his daddy paid for him to try, who liked to think he was an airplane fighter but got a stateside post during Vietnam from his papa that he didn't bother showing up for, became president of the US?

This was great

Olbermann on Bush:


Kieth Olbermann is excellent.

Semantics Game

It's all a semantics game...
Remember the good old days of the republican majority? When a simple majority vote would usually pass a bill? Back when the headlines and tv and radio hosts would report how democrats are blocking something with a filibuster? When you heard not so subtle threats of the 'nuclear option' when talk of a democratic filibuster came up? Remember the right wing talking heads railing about obstructionist democrats? If you are Alberto Gonzales and don't recall, take a look at this, this(second half), and this. How much ink was given to democratic filibusters and the nuclear option? Lots.

Do you wonder what headlines you see when republicans filibuster 2 (or more) bills this week? Judging by the AP articles on the habeus corpus bill and leave and deployment time bill that ran in most newspapers; there will be no mention of filibuster or blocking. Not one. Why did these bills fail?

"The proposal... failed on a 56-44 vote, with 60 votes needed for passage"

Why 60 votes you may wonder? Don't look to the articles for help.

Hint: it rhymes with General Custer

3 strikes (wax on, wax off)

The bad news has been coming more and more frequently this summer, with three rather significant events happening this week. Yesterday was Alberto Gonzales' last day at the justice department (please hold your applause till the end). Then later in the day yesterday the Iraqi govt. rejected Blackwater Inc.'s right to operate in Iraq due to an incident in Baghdad where quite a few Iraqis were killed. For the cherry on top, it was announced that the inspector genereal of the State Dept. is under investigation for fraud, abuse, profiteering, and basically doing a shitty job. The man behind it all is Rep. Henry A. Waxman, (D-Calif.)

It just came out the Waxman is going to hold hearings about Blackwater. Though the facts are not yet completely clear, Iraq's govt. is trying to get Blackwater out of the country after a Baghdad incident where between 8 and 20 people were killed by its employees. It's not publicized (or even publically available) how many Blackwater and other mercenaries are in Iraq, Afghanistan, who knows where else, but many estimates have put it near or greater then the number of actual US combat troops. Our wars and occupations are being fought by private soldiers of fortune almost as much as by the military. With huge no-bid contracts, no oversight, no accountability, supposed immunity from any criminal prosecution, and an overstretched US military, Blackwater was living the dream. Little mention was made concerning the wisdom of committing so largely to soldiers-for-hire. Eisenhower talked about the military-industrial complex, and the danger of having such a large permanent group with a large profit motive to fight wars. The same can be said about private warfighting companies...profits will motivate then to fight, start, and prolong conflicts. The Blackwater CEO has certainly made back the money he spent helping Bush get elected.

Three cheers for Bush's privatization of every and all things possible.

My two cents

Hard to find good help these days

So after months of stubbornly staying put, Alberto Gonzalez has finally resigned. This following other recent notable departures such as Karl Rove, and a bit less recently Scooter Libby and Rummy. The AG A.G. is no more. Here's W's statement concerning Gonzo's resignation:

"After months of unfair treatment that has created a harmful distraction at the Justice Department, Judge Gonzales decided to resign his position, and I accept his decision. It's sad that we live in a time when a talented and honorable person like Alberto Gonzales is impeding from doing important work because his good name was dragged through the mud for political reasons."

Almost all the places I went to find that quote corrected the presidents English and substituted impeded for impeding. But I heard the president say that on the radio and he definitely said impeding. Should the media really be correcting the presidents grammar? If the president of the United States is a dim-witted buffoon, shouldn't the people know about it, and not think he spoke correctly because newspapers correct him? But this is a little beside the point so maybe more on that another time.

A few points on what the president said...I don't think talented and honorable are good descriptions of Gonzo, but hey I can forgive that by thinking he was just being polite.
The thing that seems most bizarre is that W thinks it is sad if someone's name is dragged through the mud for political reasons. Maybe I've had him all wrong the last 7 glorious years, but I got the distinct impression that dragging someone's good name through the mud was one of his favorite pastimes. There's little doubt that it was THE favorite pastime of former WH hack Karl Rove. Seemingly just to add insult to injury, dragging people's good names through the mud for political reasons (and firing them) is pretty much the main thing Gonzo was being accused of anyway.

Keep watch for a more in-depth review of some of the highlights of Alberto's time in the white house

More Movies

I feel obliged to list some favorite movies after edgrimly and chopper posted their own lists. I'm going to try and avoid repeats even though some of their picks might be on my list (Blood Diamond, Lost in Translation, and Caddyshack especially)...so here goes:

Comedy: Dumb and Dumber, Coming to America, The Naked Gun, Road To ______

Not many movies make me laugh out loud through the whole thing but these did.

War Movies: Full Metal Jacket, Apocalypse Now, All Quiet on the Western Front

Even after seeing it countless times, Full Metal Jacket is still as engrossing as it was the first time. You won't find any Clive Cussler (Sahara) style filmmaking -war as an awesome X-treme sport-save the day and make it home by the weekend to bang all the hot chicks- in any of these though.

--Honorable Mention: Paths of Glory, 3 Kings, Thin Red Line, The Battle of Algiers

Sci Fi/Fantasy: Blade Runner, The Fifth Element, Terminator

Like Full Metal Jacket, I can watch the Fifth Element over and over and enjoy it every time.

Horror/Action/Thriller/Suspense etc.: The Italian Job, Munich, Mulholland Drive, Heat, Bourne Trilogy, The Devil's Advocate

Not even Neo-Ted Theodore Logan could ruin The Devil's Advocate, though try he did.

--Honorable Mention: Something Wicked This Way Comes

Had it not been made by Disney, this could have been a much greater movie. I know it's cliche to say that the book was better than the movie, but in this case there's no contest.

A few more: Opening Night/Woman Under the Influence/Faces, The Game, Cloak and Dagger, Touch of Evil, To Have and Have Not

O'Reilly and San Francisco

Factor seems to have a memory problem as bad as the AG's, and a wish to blow up cities like Tancredo. At least Tancredo admits what he says.

watch him tell Chris Dodd he never said San Francisco should be blown up

now watch him say San Francisco should be blown up.

Is there something wrong with the Earth's gravitational pull in 1985?

Don't pinch yourself, your not dreaming. The Delorean is coming back.

Third Party?

Here's one of the better articles I've read about the viability of a third party in America. My favorite quote:

"never underestimate the depth or the power of Boomer selfishness!"

What about plan (ii)?

The secretary of Defense said that the pentagon is in the process of creating a plan for leaving Iraq, and apparently it's a priority. Which I am real glad to hear, at least it shows someone is planning for something somewhere. Granted it's not the first plan that was made- being preceded by shock and awe, get Saddam(mission accomplished), find WMD's, build a big wall, and surge- but it's good just knowing there is a plan for something. The broken record was getting old.

Zoom Happy

Filming a musical only small video showing on the screen in the convention hall at the debates tonight, CNN thought it would be a good idea to zoom out real far so you couldnt read the words in the video. Nice.

How about a seperate feed for the videos so you can see them?



UPDATE: I'm not the only one to have this same compmlaint: WaPo