TWO SIDES TO EVERY QUESTION

What a novel idea: instead of assuming that Sotomayor will let her ethnicity and gender drive the outcome of her judicial decisions, why not LOOK AT HER DECISIONS and see if that has been the case?

http://politics.theatlantic.com/2009/05/sotomayor_and_race_read_her_opinions.php

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2009/5/30/736959/-Sotomayors-real-record-and-Americas-real-issues

Annals of dishonest reporting: the AP tries to construct an “on the one hand/on the other hand” story about Sotomayor’s ethnicity. Sometimes she proclaims it, sometimes she wants it discounted. But they really have to twist the facts to get there. Read this

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2009/5/30/736906/-A-Craptacular-Article-From-The-Associated-Press

The Gender Issue

http://www.mydd.com/story/2009/5/30/115346/362

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2009/5/30/736933/-Sotomayors-Republican-Gender-Gap

I think Digby is half right here: it’s generally useful for the Republican elected mainstream to have pressure from the right that energizes their base by saying things they can’t say. So part of the “debate” within the party over Sotomayor is good cop/bad cop. But I also think it causes them real trouble with independents and potential crossover voters to be seen as extremist and racist – and this debate has exposed the ugly underbelly of the party in a very public way. And there’s no doubt that the party lacks any leader or coherent voice right now

http://digbysblog.blogspot.com/2009/05/good-cop-bad-cop-by-digby-dont-be.html

Steve Benen: http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/archives/individual/2009_05/018405.php
[T]he idea that unhinged attacks will "help in uniting the Republican coalition" doesn't make sense. For one thing, it's clearly not "uniting" anyone -- the right spent nearly as much time yesterday dealing with each other's smears as they did addressing the nominee. For another, the Republican coalition is shrinking, and by launching racially-charged, misogynistic attacks against a clearly qualified Supreme Court nominee, the Gingrich-led faction is only driving away everyone else, while insulting the nation's fastest growing demographic. . . .

Kevin Drum: http://www.motherjones.com/kevin-drum/2009/05/sotomayor
The Battle for the Soul of Conservatism . . .

The Bush administration’s “pre-9/11” mentality

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/05/29/AR2009052901560_pf.html

Did Bush officially authorize the use of torture? And if so, when? (after it had already started, apparently)

http://emptywheel.firedoglake.com/2009/05/30/bushs-approved-torture-in-2003/

Whatever they say, the GOP [hearts] Rush Limbaugh – or, at least, they have to pretend to

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2009/5/30/736869/-A-Suggestion-For-The-Media
[Karl Rove] He's a leader. . . .
[Eric Cantor] He believes in principles . . .
[Michael Steele] I have enormous respect for Rush Limbaugh . . .
[Michael Pence] I cherish his voice. . . . [read on]

Can the Republican party be saved?

http://www.slate.com/id/2219279/

Sunday talk show line-ups

http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2009/05/the-sunday-show-line-ups-7.php
• ABC, This Week: Sen. Charles Schumer (D-NY) and Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX).

• CBS, Face The Nation: Sen. Jon Kyl (R-AZ) and Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA).

• CNN, State Of The Union: Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY); Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) and Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-TX).

• Fox News Sunday: Sen. Arlen Specter (D-PA) and Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC).

• NBC, Meet The Press: Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-VT) and Ranking Member Jeff Sessions (R-AL); Caterpillar CEO Jim Owens, Google CEO Eric Schmidt, and Xerox CEO Anne Mulcahy.

Bonus item: The “Smart Girls” are D-U-M-B

http://tbogg.firedoglake.com/2009/05/29/we-like-to-think-of-smart-as-more-of-a-goal-than-an-existing-quality/

Watch: http://www.pjtv.com/video/PJTV_Daily/Politics_%26_The_Smart_Girl%3A_The_Birth_of_a_Fempire/1946/

***If you enjoy PBD and support what we are doing, you can help by forwarding a copy of this issue to your friends (using the envelope link below) or by sending them a copy of its URL (http://pbd.blogspot.com).

I don't get anything personally out of this project, except the satisfaction of doing it (I don't run ads, etc). The credit really all goes to the people whose material I copy and redistribute. But if I do have a "mission," it is to get this information into the hands of as many people as I can.***
- posted by Nick Burbules @ 6:49 AM

 
MELTDOWN

As we hoped, the Sotomayor nomination is tearing the GOP apart, in a struggle between unaccountable pundits and former politicians whose own credibility requires playing to the nativist crowd, and elected GOP officials (especially from Western states) who can’t afford to alienate the Hispanic vote and see their party locked in an endless, unwinnable argument over race. Grab your popcorn . . .

http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/2009/05/gas_on_the_fire.php
[Josh Marshall] We know that a key dilemma for the GOP in the early Obama era is that they are increasingly divided between people who want to get the party back into the business of winning elections and ultras who want to go totally off the deep end with often extreme rhetoric and quests for ideological purity. What's more, these 'pragmatists, for lack of a better word, are cowed by the ultras because in a shrunken GOP the ultras make up a much larger percentage of the party. . . . [read on]

http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2009/05/sotomayor-spark-lights-intra-gop-conflagration.php
[Eric Kleefeld] After a week of escalating race and gender rhetoric from the right over the Sotomayor nomination, it's now looking like some in the Republican Party -- those concerned with actually getting elected -- have become alarmed by the political damage the more extreme members of their party may be doing and are moving to rein in the vitriol. It's the starkest example yet of an interesting division within the right, one that has been apparent for some time, but which the Sotomayor nomination has not only crystalized but accelerated: the right-wing bomb-throwers obsessed with ideological purity versus the right-wing pragmatists who want the party to actually win election again some day. . . . [read on]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/michaeltomasky/2009/may/29/cornyn-limbaugh-gingrich-sotomayor
Texas GOP Senator John Cornyn is not exactly known for his progressive Republican views but yesterday he said something interesting. Asked on NPR about Newt Gingrich and Rush Limbaugh's criticisms of Sonia Sotomayor as a racist, he answered:

"I think it's terrible... This is not the kind of tone any of us want to set when it comes to performing our constitutional responsibilities of advise and consent."

Cornyn dismissed Limbaugh and Gingrich, adding: "Neither one of these men are elected Republican officials. I just don't think it's appropriate. I certainly don't endorse it. I think it's wrong." . . .

http://www.americablog.com/2009/05/peggy-noonan-suggests-that-rush-newt.html
Peggy Noonan suggests that Rush, Newt, conservative activists are “idiots” for attacking Sotomayor . . .

http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2009/05/gingrich-digs-in-on-sotomayor-bashing.php
Newt Gingrich does not seem to be deterred by the new message of the Republican leadership, such as Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX), that he and Rush Limbaugh should stop calling Sonia Sotomayor a racist.

Gingrich has now sent out a fundraising e-mail, asking for help to send blast faxes to every member of the Senate demanding that the Sotomayor nomination be defeated. . . .

http://www.americablog.com/2009/05/rush-fires-back-at-gop-senator-cornyn.html
Rush fires back at GOP Senator Cornyn . . .

More: http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/2009/05/putting_out_fire_with_gasoline.php

Meanwhile, the rhetoric of the right is becoming, if possible, even more extreme and outrageous

http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2009/05/limbaugh-compares-sotomayor-nomination-to-picking-david-duke.php
Rush Limbaugh is now comparing the nomination of Sonia Sotomayor to the idea of nominating David Duke

http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/2009/05/logical_extremes.php
G. Gordon Liddy: Let's hope Sotomayor isn't "menstruating" at key Supreme Court conferences.

http://digbysblog.blogspot.com/2009/05/good-god-by-digby-think-progress.html
[Liddy] “I understand that they found out today that Miss Sotomayor is a member of La Raza, which means in illegal alien, “the race.” . . .

http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2009/05/tancredo-i-dont-know-whether-obama-administration-hates-white-people.php
Appearing on Hardball today, former Rep. Tom Tancredo (R-CO) was asked whether he agrees with Rush Limbaugh that the Obama Administration hates white people. His answer: "I don't know."

http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2009/05/buchanan-blasts-that-woman-sotomayor----and-obama----for-attacking-white-men.php
The Sotomayor nomination has become an occasion for Pat Buchanan to refocus on his main political cause: The endangered, persecuted white male.

On MSNBC today, Buchanan sad that Sonia Sotomayor believes in advancing minorities at the expense of white men -- and so does President Obama . . .

http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2009/05/race-baiting-sotomayor-critic-now-baffled-by-argument-about-race-and-identity-politics.php
[Brian Beutler] Earlier today, MSNBC correspondent Savannah Guthrie got an email about the fight over Sonia Sotomayor from a shocked Wendy Long of the Judicial Confirmation Network. "Somehow," she wrote, "this important debate is turning into an argument about race and identity politics."

How ever could that have happened!? Maybe it had something to do with statements like this by...Wendy Long: "[Sotomayor] herself has said that she thinks it's appropriate for her to make decisions as a Latina woman, from that perspective, bringing to bear those demographics on her decision-making. And that she thinks if she applies her personal views and her personal demographics to the case before her, she's going to make a better decision than a white man."

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2009/5/29/736629/-Rove-Peddles-Lies-About-SotomayorAlito
Rove Peddles Lies About Sotomayor . . .

Have fun!

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/05/28/AR2009052803627.html
[Eugene Robinson] President Obama's nominee for the Supreme Court, Judge Sonia Sotomayor, is a proud and accomplished Latina. This fact apparently drives some prominent Republicans to a state resembling incoherent, sputtering rage. . . .

http://yglesias.thinkprogress.org/archives/2009/05/a-hypothesis.php
[Will Wilkinson] I really don’t get why many Republicans have taken this opportunity to reinforce the already widespread impression that they are morally odious morons.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/05/28/AR2009052803623.html
[Michael Kinsley] Listening, via the media, to the debate inside the Republican Party, you also have to wonder about the party's commitment to a colorblind society. The Democrats' too, but Democrats don't carry on about colorblindness the way Republicans do. It's clear that the one paralyzing fact about Sonia Sotomayor, to Republicans, is the color of her skin. If she weren't Latino, they would be in full revenge-for-Clarence-Thomas mode. Instead, they are in an agony of indecision, with GOP strategists openly warning: Support the Latina or die. . . .

http://www.slate.com/id/2219265/
[John Dickerson] There is no leader of the Republican Party. There probably won't be one until the GOP nominates its next presidential candidate. But while the hierarchy of the players shifts, the party drama follows an expected pattern. As Republicans react to developments like President Obama's reversal of Bush-era national security policies or his nomination of Judge Sonia Sotomayor, it may not always be possible to know which member of the cast will appear—but it is possible to predict which roles will have to be filled. . . . [read on]

I wouldn’t want to be judged today on what I said and did when I was a sophomore

http://firedoglake.com/2009/05/29/stuart-taylor-on-sotomayor-not-just-a-student-radical-but-an-uppity-minority-female/

More: http://yglesias.thinkprogress.org/archives/2009/05/not-a-parody.php

I have one gripe with Democratic court appointments. Republican presidents put forth young candidates who will hold lifetime appointments for decades. Democratic presidents often don’t do that. Here we have a 54 year old woman with Type 1 diabetes – what’s the prognosis?

http://www.slate.com/id/2219373/

The Court’s rightward shift

http://yglesias.thinkprogress.org/archives/2009/05/the-courts-right-shift.php

George Bush’s simpleminded moral worldview

http://digbysblog.blogspot.com/2009/05/bushs-turn-by-dday-i-guess-cheney-and.html
In his largest domestic speech since leaving the White House in January, Bush told an audience in southwestern Michigan that after the September 11 attacks, "I vowed to take whatever steps that were necessary to protect you." . . .

"The first thing you do is ask, what's legal?" he said. "What do the lawyers say is possible? I made the decision, within the law, to get information so I can say to myself, 'I've done what it takes to do my duty to protect the American people.' I can tell you that the information we got saved lives." [read on]

Carl Levin (D-MI) calls Dick Cheney a liar

http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2009/05/levin-calls-cheney-a-liar-on-torture.php
Regarding Cheney's claim that classified documents will prove his case -- documents that Levin himself is also privy to -- Levin said: "But those classified documents say nothing about the numbers of lives saved, nor do the documents connect acquisition of valuable intelligence to the use of abusive techniques. I hope that the documents are declassified, so that people can judge for themselves what is fact, and what is fiction." . . [read on]

More: http://theplumline.whorunsgov.com/torture/levin-cia-torture-documents-cheney-wants-dont-prove-squat/

http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/archives/individual/2009_05/018402.php

http://emptywheel.firedoglake.com/2009/05/29/carl-levin-to-cheney-youve-got-nothing/

You know what they say: it can’t be libel if it’s true

http://emptywheel.firedoglake.com/2009/05/28/liz-cheney-tries-to-avoid-prosecution-question/
Liz Cheney: Calling My Daddy a Torturer Is Libelous

Another liberal wuss who doesn’t understand what is necessary to keep America safe

http://digbysblog.blogspot.com/2009/05/phony-soldier-speaks-out-by-digby-man.html
[On Gitmo] What I do support is what has been termed the responsible closure of Gitmo. Gitmo has caused us problems, there's no question about it. I oversee a region in which the existence of Gitmo has been used by the enemy against us. We have not been without missteps or mistakes in our activity since 9/11 and again Gitmo is a lingering reminder for the use of some in that regard. . . .

[On trials] Well, first of all, I don't think we should be afraid of our values we're fighting for, what we stand for. And so indeed we need to embrace them and we need to operationalize them in how we carry out what it is we're doing on the battlefield and everywhere else. So one has to have some faith, I think, in the legal system. One has to have a degree of confidence that individuals that have conducted such extremist activity would indeed be found guilty in our courts of law. . . .

[On torture] There might be an exception and that would require extraordinary but very rapid approval to deal with, but for the vast majority of the cases, our experience downrange if you will, is that the techniques that are in the Army Field Manual that lays out how we treat detainees, how we interrogate them -- those techniques work, that's our experience in this business. . . .

When we have taken steps that have violated the Geneva Conventions, we rightly have been criticized, so as we move forward I think it's important to again live our values, to live the agreements that we have made in the international justice arena and to practice those.

***If you enjoy PBD and support what we are doing, you can help by forwarding a copy of this issue to your friends (using the envelope link below) or by sending them a copy of its URL (http://pbd.blogspot.com).

I don't get anything personally out of this project, except the satisfaction of doing it (I don't run ads, etc). The credit really all goes to the people whose material I copy and redistribute. But if I do have a "mission," it is to get this information into the hands of as many people as I can.***
- posted by Nick Burbules @ 7:53 AM

 
SAUCE FOR THE GANDER

More evidence that characteristics are treated as “issues” for Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor which were overlooked or treated as positives for Republican nominees

Now: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/29/us/politics/29judge.html
Sotomayor’s Sharp Tongue Raises Issue of Temperament
Judge Sonia Sotomayor, President Obama’s Supreme Court nominee, has a blunt and even testy side . . .

Then: http://www.reason.com/news/show/30441.html
Scalia's ferocious dissents are designed to foster opposition to the Court's anti-democratic usurpations. . . Scalia met this ham-fisted decision with sarcasm, sneers, and an explicitly ideological critique. . . .

http://unenumerated.blogspot.com/2007/06/why-justices-can-be-rude.html
Scalia's (in)famously ascerbic dissents have long been an object of interest among legal commentators . . .

More: http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/2009/05/one_might_almost_say_shrill.php

http://www.slate.com/id/2219251/

http://abajournal.com/news/sotomayors_sharp_tongue_will_make_her_a_match_for_scalia/

Let’s play . . .

http://firedoglake.com/2009/05/28/fdl-game-time-which-judge-said-this/
Which Judge Said This? . . .

More examples

http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2009/05/flashback-republicans-accused-dems-of-racism-for-opposing-hispanic-judicial-nominee.php
Flashback: Republicans Accused Dems Of Racism For Opposing Hispanic Judicial Nominee . . .

http://yglesias.thinkprogress.org/archives/2009/05/sotomayor-vs-estrada.php
Karl Rove says conservatives shouldn’t worry about alienating Hispanic voters . . .

More: http://christyhardinsmith.firedoglake.com/2009/05/28/scotus-start-yer-ad-war-engines-the-gops-swift-boat-pr-team-is-back-in-action/

http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/2009/05/high_brow_and_low_brow.php

http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/2009/05/to_take_the_public_conversation.php

http://yglesias.thinkprogress.org/archives/2009/05/only-republicans-can-drive-latinos-to-the-democrats.php

The Republican proxies clearly believe they can say ANYTHING and still be given respectful press coverage

http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2009/05/trancredo-sotomayor-is-member-of-latino-kkk.php
Tancredo: Sotomayor Is Member Of "Latino KKK" . . .

http://yglesias.thinkprogress.org/archives/2009/05/tancredo-accuses-senators-mccain-and-martinez-of-complicity-in-kkk-activities-will-they-fight-back.php
[Matt Yglesias] Now as Dave Meyer points out, this is not just a vile slur on Sotomayor and the NCLR, it’s a serious slur on Senator John McCain (R-AZ) who delivered the keynote at NCLR’s 2004 conference and also addressed the group in 2008. Meanwhile, Senator Mel Martinez (R-FL) accepted an award from NCLR earlier this year.

The question arises as to whether McCain and Martinez are going to stand for this. Will they take on the maniacs in their own party who are slandering them, or will they decide to just lay low and hope that nobody notices what’s going on. I know that if someone accused me of having delivered the keynote address at a Klan rally, I’d be mad as hell. Is McCain?

More: http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2009/05/nclr-spokesperson-not-the-first-time-tancredo-doesnt-know-what-the-heck-hes-talking-about.php

http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/2009/05/truly_cant_help_themselves.php

The enabling press

http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/2009/05/28/sotomayor/index.html
[Glenn Greenwald] I have no doubt that there are legitimate grounds for criticizing Sotomayor. I have reservations about her and am very interested in her answers at her confirmation hearing. She's a Supreme Court nominee and shouldn't be beyond intense scrutiny. But the bile coming thus far from the Right (and Respectable Intellectual Center) is laughable, contrary to all the available evidence, and grounded in the most naked and destructive stereotypes (the little lady can't keep her emotions in check or her mouth shut; the Latina woman decides in favor of minorities at the expense of the oppressed white male). Before the media keeps repeating the screeching and inflammatory accusations from Rush Limbaugh, Newt Gingrich and Karl Rove, they might actually want to first see if there is evidence to support those accusations. That is what "reporting" allegedly is about. . . . [read on]

http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2009/05/the-face-of-the-sotomayor-opposition.php
[Brian Beutler] If your only source of news was cable television, you might think that the Senate was gearing up for an historic fight over a Supreme Court hopeful so out of the mainstream that it might be worth questioning the sanity of the President who nominated her. . . . [read on]

http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/2009/05/sotomayor_debate_careens_toward_complete_nonsense.php
According to The Politico, charges that Sonia Sotomayor is a "racist" are picking up steam and must be addressed. . . .

More: http://firedoglake.com/2009/05/28/late-night-some-democrats-are-as-usual-very-silly-people/

Reading the Washington Times makes you dumber

http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/archives/individual/2009_05/018381.php
[WT] "Sotomayor reversed 60% by high court." . . . [read on]

Changing the rules

http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2009/05/kyl-bucks-obama-on-confirmation-timetable----falsely-cites-roberts-and-alito-as-precedent.php
Senate Minority Whip Jon Kyl (R-AZ) is now saying the confirmation process for Sonia Sotomayor will likely have to wait much longer than President Obama wants -- going into September rather than happening before the August recess.

"My guess is that if you apply the same general standards as were applied to the Roberts and Alito nominations that probably it goes into the first part of September," Kyl told Fox News.

Simply put, this is baloney on multiple levels. For one thing, John Roberts was first nominated for the Supreme Court in late July 2005, then confirmed as Chief Justice in late September 2005 -- a period of just over two months. Alito took a bit longer, being nominated in late October 2005, and confirmed in late January 2006 -- a period of three months. Kyl is using these two examples to justify a period of nearly four months. . . .

THIS is interesting

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2009/5/28/736209/-Republicans-Tried-To-Keep-Sotomayor-Off-the-Supreme-Court-...-More-Than-Ten-Years-Ago
The campaign against Judge Sotomayor began on the editorial pages of the ultra-conservative Wall Street Journal and was given much wider exposure when it was taken up by Rush Limbaugh, the right wing radio talk show host. . . .

Judge Sonia Sotomayor seemed like a trouble-free choice when President Clinton nominated her to an appeals court post a year ago ... But Republican senators have been blocking Judge Sotomayor's elevation to the appeals court for a highly unusual reason: to make her less likely to be picked by Mr. Clinton for the Supreme Court, senior Republican Congressional aides said in interviews. . .

Senate Republicans think that they would then have a difficult time opposing a Hispanic woman who had just been confirmed by the full Senate. . . .

[BarbinMD] It's hard to believe that this was written, not this week, but more than ten years ago. That's when the campaign to keep Sonia Sotomayor off of the Supreme Court began. . .

David Broder speaks from his throne

http://digbysblog.blogspot.com/2009/05/hoping-for-best-by-digby-this-says-it.html
I have to believe that many Republican senators will seize the opportunity Obama has provided and prove they are not as narrow-minded as their most extreme backers. And then hope that, like some mirror image of Souter, Sotomayor will surprise the world with some of her votes. . . . [read on]

Is Sotomayor pro-choice?

http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/archives/individual/2009_05/018374.php

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/05/28/AR2009052803937.html

The detainee photos the Pentagon (and Obama) don’t want us to see

http://tbogg.firedoglake.com/2009/05/28/more-bad-apples-bad-apple-ing/
[Daily Telegraph] Photographs of alleged prisoner abuse which Barack Obama is attempting to censor include images of apparent rape and sexual abuse . . . [read on]

More: http://washingtonindependent.com/44710/censored-photos-show-rape-sexual-abuse-of-prisoners

http://digbysblog.blogspot.com/2009/05/its-never-crime.html

Is Ben Nelson a Democrat again?

http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2009/05/is-ben-nelson-backing-off-his-opposition-to-a-public-plan.php

Roland Burris: in real trouble this time?

http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/2009/05/how_damning_is_the_burris_transcript.php
How Damning Is The Burris Transcript? . . .

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2009/5/28/736128/-Roland-Burris-Still-Lying-Through-His-Teeth

Perjury? http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2009/5/28/736201/-Roland-Burris:-Is-It-Perjury-Yet

Here’s the recording: http://politicalwire.com/archives/2009/05/28/the_burris_audio.html

Watch: http://politicalwire.com/archives/2009/05/28/burris_on_the_hot_seat.html
On MSNBC's Hardball last night, Chris Matthews eviscerated Sen. Roland Burris (D-IL) over the recently released federal wiretaps of conversations Burris had with the brother of disgraced former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich.

The grilling Burris endures is almost too painful to watch. . . .

Bonus item: a perfectly reasonable comparison

http://firedoglake.com/2009/05/28/redstates-erick-erickson-compares-rush-limbaugh-to-jesus-christ/
RedState’s Erick Erickson Compares Rush Limbaugh to Jesus Christ . . .

***If you enjoy PBD and support what we are doing, you can help by forwarding a copy of this issue to your friends (using the envelope link below) or by sending them a copy of its URL (http://pbd.blogspot.com).

I don't get anything personally out of this project, except the satisfaction of doing it (I don't run ads, etc). The credit really all goes to the people whose material I copy and redistribute. But if I do have a "mission," it is to get this information into the hands of as many people as I can.***
- posted by Nick Burbules @ 7:16 AM

 
CARTOONISH

More Republicans buy into the “Sotomayor is a racist” line

http://politicalwire.com/archives/2009/05/27/gingrich_comes_out_hard_against_sotomayor.html
[Newt] "White man racist nominee would be forced to withdraw. Latina woman racist should also withdraw. . . New racism is no better than old racism"

http://politics.theatlantic.com/2009/05/sotoskirmish_tancredo_says_soto_appears_to_be_racist.php
Former Rep. Tom Tancredo (R-CO) says Sonia Sotomayor "appears to be a racist." . . .

More: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26315908/#30971477

http://www.americablog.com/2009/05/top-rnc-staffer-piles-on-newt-led-theme.html

http://yglesias.thinkprogress.org/archives/2009/05/racism-vs-reverse-racism.php

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2009/5/27/735910/-Sonia,-Maria,-Harriet....Whatever.

http://christyhardinsmith.firedoglake.com/2009/05/27/scotus-right-wing-objections-to-sotomayor-in-a-nutshell/

Getting a little desperate, aren’t they?

http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/2009/05/scraping_the_bottom_of_barrel.php
National Review Online's Mark Krikorian: "Putting the emphasis on the final syllable of Sotomayor is unnatural in English... and insisting on an unnatural pronunciation is something we shouldn't be giving in to."

Weekly Standard's Michael Goldfarb: "Obama seems to have the views of a 21-year-old Hispanic girl -- that is, only by having a black president, an Hispanic justice, a female secretary of State, and Bozo the Clown as vice president will the United States become a true 'vanguard of societal ideas and changes.'"

http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2009/05/conservative-whispers-to-hill-reporter-concern-about-the-impact-diet-will-have-on-her-jurisprude.php
[Brian Beutler] As you may have noticed, those critics have repeatedly cited a speech she delivered in 2001 at U.C. Berkeley's Boalt Hall School of Law, in which she said, "I would hope that a wise Latina woman with the richness of her experiences would more often than not reach a better conclusion than a white male who hasn't lived that life."

The right is, of course, outraged. In the same speech, though, she also got a bit more personal: "For me, a very special part of my being Latina is the mucho platos de arroz, gandoles y pernir - rice, beans and pork - that I have eaten at countless family holidays and special events," she said.

My Latina identity also includes, because of my particularly adventurous taste buds, morcilla, -- pig intestines, patitas de cerdo con garbanzo -- pigs' feet with beans, and la lengua y orejas de cuchifrito, pigs' tongue and ears.

Good lighthearted fun, right? Wrong.

According to Hill reporter Alexander Bolton, "This has prompted some Republicans to muse privately about whether Sotomayor is suggesting that distinctive Puerto Rican cuisine such as patitas de cerdo con garbanzo -- pigs' tongue and ears -- would somehow, in some small way influence her verdicts from the bench." . . .

http://www.americablog.com/2009/05/gopers-already-going-overboard-with.html
David Shuster: "What evidence do you have that she would put her feelings and politics above the rule of law?"

Tom Fitton [Judicial Watch]: "Because President Obama chose her." . . . [read on]

Ah, the days when “empathy” was a good thing . . .

http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/2009/05/uh-oh_annals_of_off-message.php
The first President Bush introduced Clarence Thomas by hailing his "great empathy." . . .

More: http://firedoglake.com/2009/05/27/republicans-gender-ethnicity-and-empathy-shouldn%E2%80%99t-matter-for-judges-unless-they%E2%80%99re-conservatives/

http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/archives/individual/2009_05/018362.php

Who said it?

http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/2009/05/27/sotomayor/index.html
“Because when a case comes before me involving, let's say, someone who is an immigrant -- and we get an awful lot of immigration cases and naturalization cases -- I can't help but think of my own ancestors, because it wasn't that long ago when they were in that position. . . .

And so it's my job to apply the law. It's not my job to change the law or to bend the law to achieve any result.

But when I look at those cases, I have to say to myself, and I do say to myself, "You know, this could be your grandfather, this could be your grandmother. . . .”

When I get a case about discrimination, I have to think about people in my own family who suffered discrimination because of their ethnic background or because of religion or because of gender. And I do take that into account. . . . I've watched them struggle to overcome the barriers that society puts up often just because it doesn't think of what it's doing -- the barriers that it puts up to them.

So those are some of the experiences that have shaped me as a person.”

And who said THIS?

http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/archives/individual/2009_05/018367.php
“Taken in context, the speech was about how the context in which we were raised affects how judges see the world, and that it's unrealistic to pretend otherwise. Yet -- and this is a key point -- she admits that as a jurist, one is obligated to strive for neutrality. It seems to me that Judge Sotomayor in this speech dwelled on the inescapability of social context in shaping the character of a jurist. That doesn't seem to me to be a controversial point, and I am relieved by this passage:

"While recognizing the potential effect of individual experiences on perception, Judge Cedarbaum nevertheless believes that judges must transcend their personal sympathies and prejudices and aspire to achieve a greater degree of fairness and integrity based on the reason of law. Although I agree with and attempt to work toward Judge Cedarbaum's aspiration, I wonder whether achieving that goal is possible in all or even in most cases."

Relieved, because it strikes me as both idealistic and realistic. I am sure Sotomayor and I have very different views on the justice, or injustice, of affirmative action, and I'm quite sure that I won't much care for her rulings as a SCOTUS justice on issues that I care about. But seeing her controversial comment in its larger context makes it look a lot less provocative and troubling.”

A Big Problem

http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2009/05/former-gop-senator-sotomayor-nomination-a-big-political-problem-for-republicans.php
Former Sen. Tim Hutchinson (R-AR), a right-winger who lost re-election against conservative Democrat Mark Pryor in 2002, gave a remarkably candid and dispassionate analysis of the Sotomayor nomination on MSNBC today -- laying out just how bad he thinks it is for the Republicans . . . [watch]

More: http://firedoglake.com/2009/05/27/sotomayors-confirmation-hearings-will-be-a-trial-for-the-gop/

Repubs admit there’s no way to stop Sotomayor

http://politicalwire.com/archives/2009/05/27/republicans_will_not_fight_over_sotomayor.html

http://thehill.com/leading-the-news/sessions-says-no-sotomayor-filibuster----yet-2009-05-27.html

The real purpose of the attacks against Sotomayor – not to block her, but to fire up the base and promote fundraising

http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2009/05/inside-the-network-the-people-who-are-attacking-sotomayor-and-why-they-stand-to-gain.php

http://digbysblog.blogspot.com/2009/05/early-winner-in-sotomayor-battle-by.html

Unfortunately for them, it works both ways . . .

http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2009/05/nationals-dems-e-mail-supporters-republicans-will-obstruct-sotomayor.php

It's an old theme: accuse others of doing what you are doing yourselves

http://www.mydd.com/story/2009/5/27/174624/657
[Lucas O’Connor] This isn't about Sonia Sotomayor. Not really. Let's be clear about that. This is about extending the line of spoken and unspoken racism from last year's campaign into the first year of the Obama administration and whipping up the far edges of the conservative base. When Newt Gingrich calls Sotomayor a racist, when Rush is at least more transparent in calling her a reverse racist, when Senator Inhofe worries aloud that being Latina means she can't judge fairly, they're only nominally talking about her specifically. What they're really doing is fear-mongering directly to the white, racist parts of the Republican base.

Specifically, their message is that all of the Muslim, terrorist, un-American craziness from the campaign that whipped McCain/Palin crowds into violent, racist frenzies are coming true, and Sotomayor is the evidence. So when Mitch McConnell says he'll drag out the nomination as long as possible, it's because of the notion that stoking racial fault lines is a winner for the GOP. Electorally, it's a ridiculous idea. The GOP as led by the likes of Gingrich and Limbaugh won't find any success as the anti-racism party. But they will lather up a base that hasn't been as motivated recently. Not only is it morally reprehensible, but it's dangerous. Motivate the wrong person along these lines and you're creating physical danger for any number of people, firstly including President Obama.

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2009/5/27/736014/-GOP-Struggles-To-Avoid-The-Racism-Label-...-Fails
GOP Struggles To Avoid The Racism Label ... Fails . . .

I do try to represent the views of those to my left – and there are plenty who don’t think Sonia Sotomayor is such a great choice after all. Here’s an example

http://sideshow.me.uk/smay09.htm#05271235
[Avedon Carol] I suppose I'm expected to ready myself for a fight to defend Sonia Sotomayor . . .

More: http://washingtonindependent.com/44606/will-sotomayor-disappoint-liberals
Will Sotomayor Disappoint Liberals?

Alberto Gonzales and John Yoo are lucky they aren’t in prison as far as I’m concerned – do they really want to take a high profile now?

http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/2009/05/the_self-rehabilitation_of_alberto_gonzales.php

http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/2009/05/gonzo_rehab_campaign_has_its_work_cut_out.php

http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2009/05/john-yoo-warns-against-results-oriented-sotomayor.php

[NB: I imagine that both of these guys are thinking, "I sold my friggin' soul to Bush and Cheney in the hope that some day *I* might be a SC nominee!"]

What COULD the Dem leadership have done when they were informed about the Bush gang’s torture policies?

http://emptywheel.firedoglake.com/2009/05/27/what-pelosi-rockefeller-harman-could-have-done/

One of Rush’s standard lines is disparaging the politics of victimhood – well, except when it suits him

http://www.salon.com/politics/war_room/2009/05/27/limbaugh_minority/index.html
"If ever a civil rights movement was needed in America, it is for the Republican Party."

Yes, that's what the radio host said on his show Wednesday. He added, "If ever we needed to start marching for freedom and constitutional rights, it's for the Republican Party. The Republican Party is today's oppressed minority." . . . [read on]

Bad news for Roland Burris

http://www.salon.com/politics/war_room/2009/05/27/burris/index.html
[Vincent Rossmeier] On Tuesday, the U.S. Attorney's office in Chicago released an FBI transcript of a secretly recorded phone conversation between Blagojevich's brother and now-Sen. Roland Burris, D-Ill., the man Blagojevich named to fill President Obama's vacant Senate seat.

The call occurred prior to Burris' appointment and therefore, the most notable aspect of the conversation is that Burris offered to write the then-governor a campaign check. "I know I could give him a check," Burris said. "Myself."

However, during the same call, Burris also acknowledges that he had to be careful to avoid appearing like he was trying to buy the Senate seat. "If I do that, I guarantee you that that will get out, and people said, 'Oh, Burris is doing a fund-raiser,' and, and then Rod and I both going to catch hell," he said, and worried that if he assisted Blagojevich and then received the appointment "that means I bought it." But he promised to send a check to the governor anyway.

Burris might have gotten himself into some legal trouble with the call, as at one point he seems to tie the donation to the Senate seat. "God knows, No. 1, I want to help Rod... No. 2, I also want to, you know, hope I get a consideration to get that appointment,” Burris said. . . .

More: http://washingtonindependent.com/44602/the-multiple-layers-of-that-burris-blagojevich-call

http://washingtonindependent.com/44489/the-infinite-gall-of-roland-burris

Bonus item: Opponents find the right medium for making fun of Michele Bachmann (R-MN): a comic book

http://dumpbachmann.blogspot.com/2009/05/city-pages-preview-of-bill-prendergasts.html

http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2009/05/coming-soon-michele-bachmann----the-comic-book.php

***If you enjoy PBD and support what we are doing, you can help by forwarding a copy of this issue to your friends (using the envelope link below) or by sending them a copy of its URL (http://pbd.blogspot.com).

I don't get anything personally out of this project, except the satisfaction of doing it (I don't run ads, etc). The credit really all goes to the people whose material I copy and redistribute. But if I do have a "mission," it is to get this information into the hands of as many people as I can.***
- posted by Nick Burbules @ 7:16 AM

 
A TWO-FER

Smart move: a quality nominee who will sail through with bipartisan support, and another opportunity for the Republicans to tear themselves apart over race and gender, while further alienating the Hispanic vote

The nomination (video): http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/2009/05/the_announcement.php

Her bio: http://www.americablog.com/2009/05/on-sotomayor-compelling-life-story.html

Why Sotomayor’s a great nominee

http://balkin.blogspot.com/2009/05/why-sotomayor-nomination-makes-sense.html

http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/2009/05/26/sotomayor/index.html

http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/archives/individual/2009_05/018353.php

I thought so too: Obama’s recent comments on “empathy,” “real-world experience,” and the “common touch” in a nominee suggest that he’s been leaning toward Sotomayor for a long time

http://politics.theatlantic.com/2009/05/obamas_pick_from_the_start.php

The first Hispanic? Yes, if you don’t count the Portuguese Benjamin Cardozo (and most don’t)

http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/2009/05/scotus_sephardic_jew_trivia_edition.php

http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/2009/05/what_might_have_been.php
[David Kurtz] It's hard to believe it now, but there was a time not too long ago when it looked like the first Hispanic Supreme Court justice would be ... Alberto Gonzales.

Rush takes the lead: Sotomayor is a “racist” and the GOP must go to the mattresses to stop her. Go ahead, guys, take his advice

http://www.rushlimbaugh.com/home/daily/site_052609/content/01125106.guest.html

Tucker Carlson too: http://conservativexpress.blogspot.com/2009/05/tucker-carlson-calls-sotomayor-racist.html

James Inhofe (R-OK): http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/2009/05/neanderthal_caucus_weighs_in.php
"In the months ahead, it will be important for those of us in the U.S. Senate to weigh [Sotomayor's] qualifications and character as well as her ability to rule fairly without undue influence from her own personal race, gender, or political preferences."

Judicial Watch's Tom Fitton: http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/2009/05/the_opposition.php
“The President said that he wanted a judge who had empathy and I read empathy to mean bias in favor of politically correct individuals, whether they be women or a gay person or a black or Hispanic. You know that's the way they should decide in favor of them no matter what the law is.”

The RNC’s talking points on Sotomayor - all ready in advance, of course

http://briefingroom.thehill.com/2009/05/26/rnc-fumbles-sotomayor-talking-points/

More: http://www.mydd.com/story/2009/5/26/214130/112

The first wave of GOP responses

http://tpmcafe.talkingpointsmemo.com/talk/blogs/robert_reich/2009/05/sotomayor-and-the-republicans.php
[Rob Reich] Put on your seatbelts. Many Republicans have been itching for this fight. . . .

http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2009/05/sonia-sotomayor-and-gop-obstruction-efforts-the-bigger-picture.php
[Brian Beutler] When Republicans and conservatives aren't on television suggesting Sonia Sotomayor isn't fit to serve on the Supreme Court (or just outright insulting her)--when they go home at night and seriously consider what's best for them and their movement--they should keep a couple things in mind . . .

http://www.salon.com/politics/war_room/2009/05/26/sotomayor_hispanic/index.html
[Alex Koppelman] The Sotomayor nomination works for Obama on two levels: One, it helps him shore up the Hispanic vote, which was pivotal in his win last fall. Two, it puts the GOP in the position of risking further injury to its standing with that demographic. . . .

http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/05/26/republicans-weigh-risks-of-a-supreme-court-battle/
[NYT] President Obama’s nomination of Sonia Sotomayor to the Supreme Court has put the Republican Party in a bind . . .

http://www.motherjones.com/kevin-drum/2009/05/waiting-meltdown
[Kevin Drum] I also doubt that this was a key factor, but it wouldn't surprise me if a few people in the West Wing did indeed figure that this was a nice bonus. The wingnut wing of the Republican Party seems hugely energized by Sotomayor's nomination and ready to go ballistic over it. This might be good for them in the short term (it's a nice fundraising opportunity, brings internal factions together, etc.), but Obama, as usual, is looking a few moves ahead and understands that a shrieking meltdown from the usual suspects will mostly help the liberal cause: the American public already thinks the conservative rump running the Republican Party is crazy, after all, and this will help cast that feeling in stone. Most normal people think empathy is a good thing, not a code word for the dictatorship of the proletariat.

And Obama? He gets to be the calm at the center of the storm, providing his usual striking contrast to the seething stew of preachers, radio screamers, and Gingrich acolytes who will be making themselves ever more tiresome to Mr. and Mrs. Heartland with their ranting jeremiads. I don't blame conservatives for opposing Sotomayor even though they know that she'd only be replaced by someone equally liberal if they did somehow manage to derail her (liberals did the same with Roberts and Alito, after all), but if they're smart they'll realize that the usual shriekfest is playing right into Obama's hands.

But they're not smart, are they?

No, they’re not: http://theplumline.whorunsgov.com/president-obama/happy-hour-open-thread-dems-to-make-scotus-fight-about-the-gop/

http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=YmUwM2UyMGM4ZDBiZDRiNjljOTcwYzU4MmEwNzNiOTM
[Ramesh Ponnuru, NRO] Obama's Harriet Miers . . .

Lots more stupidity from the right: http://www.openleft.com/diary/13492/how-you-know-sotomayor-nomination-is-a-good-thing

http://firedoglake.com/2009/05/26/conservatives-already-screwing-up-opposition-to-sotomayor/

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2009/5/26/735544/-Predictable-Attacks-Against-Sotomayor-Begin

The seven Republicans who voted for her last time – what excuse can they give for reversing themselves now?

http://theplumline.whorunsgov.com/president-obama/flashback-three-gop-senators-backed-sotomayor-for-judge/

http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2009/05/hatch-im-now-concerned-about-things-sotomayor-wrote-before-i-supported-her-last-time.php
Orrin Hatch: I'm Now Concerned About Things Sotomayor Wrote Before I Supported Her Last Time . . .

Jeffrey Rosen’s low point

http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2009/05/anatomy-of-the-unsuccessful-sotomayor-whisper-campaign.php

http://digbysblog.blogspot.com/2009/05/even-liberal.html

What will happen – and why she’ll be confirmed easily

http://www.slate.com/id/2219038/
[Dahlia Lithwick] Confirmation hearings are inevitably an invitation to behave badly. . . .

More: http://www.scotusblog.com/wp/the-dynamic-of-the-nomination-of-sonia-sotomayor/

http://www.motherjones.com/kevin-drum/2009/05/supreme-court-kabuki-watch

On Sotomayor’s comment that being a Latina from a poor background makes her a better judge. Is this the outrage the GOP thinks it can mount a fight over? Please, please try

http://digbysblog.blogspot.com/2009/05/context-by-digby-for-anyone-who-is.html

http://christyhardinsmith.firedoglake.com/2009/05/26/scotus-sotomayor-affirmative-action-the-ricci-case-and-the-gops-helms-ad-groundhog-day-strategery/
[Wendy Long, NRO] “Judge Sotomayor is a liberal judicial activist of the first order who thinks her own personal political agenda is more important that the law as written. She thinks that judges should dictate policy, and that one's sex, race, and ethnicity ought to affect the decisions one renders from the bench.”

Yoo who?: http://digbysblog.blogspot.com/2009/05/context-by-digby-for-anyone-who-is.html
[John] Yoo touted the unique perspective that he said [Clarence] Thomas brings to the bench. Yoo wrote that Thomas "is a black man with a much greater range of personal experience than most of the upper-class liberals who take potshots at him" and argued that Thomas' work on the court has been influenced by his understanding of the less fortunate acquired through personal experience.

http://digbysblog.blogspot.com/2009/05/conflict-of-interest-by-digby-john-yoo.html
[Digby] Not to put too fine a point on it, but Yoo complaining about the use of "empathy" in the law is just sick, considering his legal reasoning with respect to torture. . . .

More on the role of “empathy” in jurisprudence

http://www.openleft.com/diary/13484/empathy-and-experience-in-the-law

Remember when George Bush proclaimed the rise of “compassionate conservatism”? It was a ridiculous lie at the time, and years of war, torture advocacy and Rovean politics makes it even more laughable now. From reader DR:

I for one would purchase a pay-per-view event where a panel consisting of Sean Hannity, Rush Limbaugh, Newt Gingrich, and Dick Cheney discussed in detail the exact parameters of a conservative philosophy of "non-empathetic compassion".

Catholics on the Court

http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/2009/05/religion_and_the_court.php
[Josh Marshall] If Sotomayor is confirmed, the Court would have six Roman Catholics, two Jews and one Protestant -- and that, the oldest, John Paul Stevens. . . . [read on]

More signs of a Republican party in disarray: the fight to purge moderates

http://www.rushlimbaugh.com/home/daily/site_052609/content/01125107.guest.html

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/michaeltomasky/2009/may/26/republicans-colin-powell

Bonus item: Another liberal wuss wants to close Gitmo

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/michaeltomasky/2009/may/26/david-petraeus-barack-obama-dick-cheney

***If you enjoy PBD and support what we are doing, you can help by forwarding a copy of this issue to your friends (using the envelope link below) or by sending them a copy of its URL (http://pbd.blogspot.com).

I don't get anything personally out of this project, except the satisfaction of doing it (I don't run ads, etc). The credit really all goes to the people whose material I copy and redistribute. But if I do have a "mission," it is to get this information into the hands of as many people as I can.***
- posted by Nick Burbules @ 7:51 AM

 
RECYCLING

Robert Reich (and others) want Obama to finance health care by taxing employee health benefits

http://yglesias.thinkprogress.org/archives/2009/05/raising-revenue-through-taxing-employer-provided-health-care.php

One problem: http://www.politicususa.com/en/Obama-healthcare-taxes-mccain
[Sept 12, 2008] Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama hammered John McCain on the issue of taxes today, while speaking in Dover, NH. Obama specifically pointed out that McCain’s healthcare plan would tax workers’ health insurance benefits. . . .

You could see it coming: the biggest impediments to Obama’s policy initiatives are . . . . his own party members

http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2009/05/ben-nelson-now-more-conservative-than-ever.php

http://washingtonindependent.com/44124/house-democrats-battle-new-emissions-standardsagain

Iran: what we don’t know

http://yglesias.thinkprogress.org/archives/2009/05/unconventional-wisdom-on-iran.php
[Fareed Zakaria] Everything you know about Iran is wrong, or at least more complicated than you think. . . .

Yes, John Yoo did believe that the President could order ANYTHING he deemed necessary to protect national security — and it would be legal. Anything

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2009/5/25/735102/-Rove:-Torture-memos-an-attempt-to-constrain-behavior

Obama World and Cheney World

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/05/25/AR2009052502112.html

More critiques of “preventive detention”

http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/2009/05/25/obama/index.html

http://digbysblog.blogspot.com/2009/05/feingold-tries-to-stop-obama-from.html

Life in a supermax prison (thanks to Colleen V. for the link)

http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2009/03/30/090330fa_fact_gawande

The “Newburgh Four,” dimwitted and drug-addled terrorist wannabees, look like they’ll be very hard to convict

http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/2009/05/how_a_government_mole_won_the_loyalty_of_the_newbu.php
[Zachary Roth] Reports last week suggested that the Newburgh four -- the men arrested Wednesday for plotting to bomb two New York synagogues -- perhaps weren't the swiftest ships in her majesty's fleet. But over the weekend, people close to the four came forward to describe how the government informant at the center of the case against them -- the man known to the suspects as Maqsood -- aggressively courted the men before luring them into an imagined jihad.

Here's what the New York Daily News, Post, and Times reported about how "Maqsood" (identified as a Pakistani immigrant named Shahed Hussain) won the men's loyalty:

Kathleen Baynes, the girlfriend of James Cromitie, described as the plot's ringleader, said Maqsood had given Cromitie cash, food, cameras, rent money, and marijuana. "Maqsood gave him a lot of marijuana," she said . . .

http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/2009/05/defense_lawyer_on_newburgh_informant_a_real_snake.php
Defense Lawyer On Newburgh Informant: "A Real Snake" . . .

More: http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/2009/05/counter-terror_expert_you_wouldnt_catch_al_qaeda_w.php

John Bolton, discredited on nearly every conceivable front, still thinks people are interested in his advice on foreign policy

http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/2009/05/disappointed_and_puzzled.php

While the Republicans are searching for a new brand and a new standard-bearer, are they really going to turn back to a former Speaker of the House who resigned in disgrace?

http://christyhardinsmith.firedoglake.com/2009/05/25/newt-gingrich-for-prez-aint-enough-stain-remover-on-the-planet/

http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2009/05/you-cant-keep-newt-gingrich-down.php

http://theplumline.whorunsgov.com/republican-party/memorial-day-open-thread-gingrich-at-odds-with-cheney-and-limbaugh/

http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/2009/05/speaker_gingrich.php

http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/2009/05/still_more_newt.php

Dick Durbin takes on Newt: http://digbysblog.blogspot.com/2009/05/more-please-by-digby-think-progress-has.html
DURBIN: I’d just say that I’m afraid Mr. Gingrich is suffering from a little political amnesia here. . . . [read on]

We already have the Kennedy and Bush dynasties – do we need any more?

http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/archives/individual/2009_05/018331.php

The press we have

http://digbysblog.blogspot.com/2009/05/by-dday-it-happened-friday-before.html

Bonus item: The kind of people they are

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2009/5/25/735207/-Midday-Open-Thread
[News-Observer] A state House member accused of drinking before speeding to work and embracing a teenage female page said Thursday he will quit the Republican Party after a three-decade political career after comments by fellow GOP legislators who participated in a probe of his conduct.

Rep. Cary Allred, R-Alamance, said next week would change his party registration from GOP to unaffiliated after being betrayed by fellow Republicans.

"If they don't like me they can go to hell," Allred said in a telephone interview.

***If you enjoy PBD and support what we are doing, you can help by forwarding a copy of this issue to your friends (using the envelope link below) or by sending them a copy of its URL (http://pbd.blogspot.com).

I don't get anything personally out of this project, except the satisfaction of doing it (I don't run ads, etc). The credit really all goes to the people whose material I copy and redistribute. But if I do have a "mission," it is to get this information into the hands of as many people as I can.***
- posted by Nick Burbules @ 6:22 AM

 
THE CHENEY WAY

This is why I do PBD. During the “Chris Matthews Show,” David Ignatius let slip a news tidbit that, as far as I can tell, has been totally ignored by the press, but which casts a completely different light on one of the stories they’ve covered breathlessly for weeks. Will it get any attention now?

http://www.nbcunicareers.com/news/28054.shtml
On NBC's "The Chris Matthews Show," Washington Post columnist David Ignatius reports on what Dick Cheney knew when he requested the release of those CIA torture memos:

DAVID IGNATIUS: We will not see [the memos that former Vice President Cheney wants released] for a long time. I'm told by the White House when Cheney made this request, he knew there had been an executive order issued by George Bush, his president, essentially banning the release of these memos during the process of litigation. So he was asking for something he knew he wouldn't get.

I hope that Cheney and the he-man Republicans are prepared to attack not only Obama, but all the other wusses who don’t care about America’s security because they want to close down Guantanamo: wusses like Colin Powell, John McCain, Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff . . .

http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/archives/individual/2009_05/018326.php

And this guy: http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/05/08/politics/main1596464.shtml

More opposition to “preventive detention”

http://emptywheel.firedoglake.com/2009/05/24/feingolds-opposition-to-indefinite-detention/

http://oxdown.firedoglake.com/diary/5440

I don’t really like the idea of using Gitmo detainee transfers as an excuse to build more “supermax” prisons

http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/archives/individual/2009_05/018324.php

What’s wrong with them? http://www.insideprison.com/supermax-prisons-psychological-effects.asp

Our stupid, lazy press. Now we’re going to hear the “flip-flop” meme all over again?

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/24/weekinreview/24stolberg.html
[NYT] On all these fronts, Mr. Obama and his aides have offered detailed explanations of the factors that shape his decision-making. So far, the public seems on board. But in a sound-bite culture, there are limits to how much nuance the public can absorb.

And that raises a question: at what point is President Thinker in danger of being perceived as President Flip-Flop? . . .

The GOP seems to have evolved their messaging on Obama's Supreme Court nominee. At first it was “empathy is a code word for liberal activism.” Now it’s “we don’t want empathy at all” (really)

http://firedoglake.com/2009/05/25/we-demand-cold-hearted-bastards/

Moderate Republicans try to take back their party

http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2009/05/24/ridge-takes-aim-at-shrill-limbaugh/
Ridge takes aim at Limbaugh . . .

http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2009/05/24/powell-i-am-still-a-republican/
In an appearance on CBS' Face the Nation, [Colin] Powell responded to attacks from former Vice President Dick Cheney and talk show host Rush Limbaugh, saying they are "not members of the membership committee of the Republican Party."

More: http://www.americablog.com/2009/05/powell-hits-back-at-rush-and-cheney.html

http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/archives/individual/2009_05/018323.php

Is Liberty University jeopardizing its tax-exempt status?

http://www.mydd.com/story/2009/5/24/153646/936

Talking point wars: how the Repubs and the Dems try to frame the discourse on health care

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2009/5/24/734535/-Countering-Begalas-Countering-of-Luntz
[Paul Begala] The Republicans have three goals:

1. Co-opt our messaging;

2. Confuse voters; and

3. Kill health care reform. . . . [read on]

More: http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/archives/individual/2009_05/018325.php

Bonus item: When Karl Rove held the levers of power, his boast about “creating our own reality” made sense – the Bush gang’s control over messaging and manipulating the media was legendary. But now that he’s on the outs, the same efforts look, well, silly . . .

http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/archives/individual/2009_05/018321.php

***If you enjoy PBD and support what we are doing, you can help by forwarding a copy of this issue to your friends (using the envelope link below) or by sending them a copy of its URL (http://pbd.blogspot.com).

I don't get anything personally out of this project, except the satisfaction of doing it (I don't run ads, etc). The credit really all goes to the people whose material I copy and redistribute. But if I do have a "mission," it is to get this information into the hands of as many people as I can.***
- posted by Nick Burbules @ 7:05 AM

 
BELIEVE IT OR NOT

Do the Republicans actually BELIEVE the arguments they use?

http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/archives/individual/2009_05/018319.php
[Steve Benen] For years now, many of us have pondered the question: conservative Republicans don't actually believe their arguments, do they? Publius considers this in the context of the hopelessly bizarre debate over the closing of the detention facility at Guantanamo Bay. The right is probably lying, hoping to exploit the politics of fear, but what if conservatives have come to accept their own nonsense? . . . [read on]

More: http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/archives/individual/2009_05/018316.php
[Steve Benen] Indeed, we keep having the same arguments. The right will ask, "Is waterboarding really torture?" The rest of us will calmly explain the situation, point to the law, the science, and the history, and explain why it's torture. The right will respond, "OK, but is waterboarding really torture?" Months go by, and conservatives keep asking the same question, learning the answer, and then asking the same question again. Lather, rinse, repeat.

This week, we kept hearing that torture prevented terrorist attacks. We know there's no evidence to support that, conservatives know we know that, but the right keeps saying it anyway. . . [read on]

Today’s version of rendition

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/24/world/24intel.html
The United States is now relying heavily on foreign intelligence services to capture, interrogate and detain all but the highest-level terrorist suspects seized outside the battlefields of Iraq and Afghanistan . . .

The Village

http://digbysblog.blogspot.com/2009/05/bipartisan-terror-policy-by-digby-heres.html
[Dday] Here's some good news for President Obama. The villagers have decided that he's getting terrorist policy juuuuust right. Dick Cheney and his pals on the right believe in torture and no due process at all while the "far left" believes that torture is immoral and everyone is entitled to basic human rights, so the proper course is to split the difference and only rip up half the constitution instead of the whole thing. . . . [read on]

Well, now I think we understand why Mr. “Secure Undisclosed Location” has suddenly been falling all over himself to get on the air waves lately

http://politicalwire.com/archives/2009/05/23/cheney_seeks_book_deal.html
Cheney Seeks Book Deal . . .
"A person familiar with discussions Mr. Cheney has had with publishers said he was seeking more than $2 million for his advance. That sum may prove hard to get in this economic climate, especially given his generally low approval ratings, which publishers view as a potential -- but not certain -- harbinger for sales." . . .

http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/archives/individual/2009_05/018318.php
[Steve Benen] This might offer at least some hints about Cheney's recent motivations. A book written by a failed former vice president may not compel publishers to pay the big bucks, but a book written by one of the leaders of the modern Republican Party, and the GOP's leading attack dog of the nation's elected leadership, might generate a more sizable advance.

What I don't quite understand is why anyone would expect Cheney's book to be successful. After all, the former vice president has a well-deserved reputation for almost comical dishonesty. Who's going to pony up $29.95 for a book written by someone who routinely blurs the line between fact and fiction?

If Cheney were prepared to write a juicy tell-all, with fascinating behind-the-scenes insights, it might have a better shot at becoming a best seller. But it seems unlikely that the secretive former vice president would reveal anything that would make his administration look bad.

And then there's the matter of yet another Bushie writing yet another book about a period most Americans are anxious to leave in the past. For eight years, every decision Cheney made turned out to be wrong, if not completely disastrous. How many book buyers will want to relive the Bush years through Cheney's eyes?

Another explanation: http://digbysblog.blogspot.com/2009/05/motivations-by-dday-apparently-dick.html
[Liz Cheney] I don’t think he planned to be doing this, you know, when they left office in January. But I think, as it became clear that President Obama was not only going to be stopping some of these policies, that he was going to be doing things like releasing the — the techniques themselves, so that the terrorists could now train to them, that he was suggesting that perhaps we would even be prosecuting former members of the Bush administration.

More on the Pelosi/CIA dispute – dishonest reporting by the Washington Post

http://emptywheel.firedoglake.com/2009/05/23/wapo-doubles-down-on-conflict-over-truth/
[Emptywheel] In spite of the fact that it is becoming increasingly clear to the rest of the media that Porter Goss and Nancy Pelosi agree that they were not briefed that the CIA had already been torturing prisoners in September 2002, the WaPo has decided to double down on deliberately misreading events . . .

Six years ago, Bush and the Republicans stood astride the world. The Dems were mostly afraid to take them on. Rove had a plan for a “permanent Republican majority.” So, what happened?

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2009/5/22/734545/-The-GOP:-A-National-Party-No-More

The kind of people they are

http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/archives/individual/2009_05/018317.php
[Steve Benen] Remember this week, when the RNC chairman vowed to attack Democrats with "class" and "dignity"? It was a vow that didn't even last a day. . . . [go ahead, read on]

http://campaignsilo.firedoglake.com/2009/05/23/rnc-ad-compares-pelosi-to-pussy-galore/
Time For Women to Exit the GOP? . . .

Sunday talk show lineups

http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2009/05/the-sunday-show-line-ups-6.php
• ABC, This Week: Adm. Michael Mullen, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

• CBS, Face The Nation: Former Sec. of State Colin Powell; Dr. Alvin Poussaint, psychiatrist, Harvard University.

• CNN, State Of The Union: Former Sec. of Homeland Security Tom Ridge; Sens. Barbara Boxer (D-CA) and Richard Shelby (R-AL); and Sen. Byron Dorgan (D-ND).

• NBC, Meet The Press: Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D-IL) and former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich (R-GA).

***If you enjoy PBD and support what we are doing, you can help by forwarding a copy of this issue to your friends (using the envelope link below) or by sending them a copy of its URL (http://pbd.blogspot.com).

I don't get anything personally out of this project, except the satisfaction of doing it (I don't run ads, etc). The credit really all goes to the people whose material I copy and redistribute. But if I do have a "mission," it is to get this information into the hands of as many people as I can.***
- posted by Nick Burbules @ 6:42 AM

 
A REAL DEBATE

“Preventive detention” – Obama’s dilemma

http://www.motherjones.com/kevin-drum/2009/05/guantanamo-quandary
[Kevin Drum] I appreciate the outrage, but this is a genuinely knotty problem. It was knotty under Bush and it remains knotty under Obama. For various reasons, some defensible and some not, Obama is right: there are almost certainly a small number of Guantanamo detainees who are (a) unquestionably terrorists and unquestionably still dedicated to fighting the United States, but (b) impossible to convict in any kind of normal proceeding.

At the same time, they aren't American citizens. They were captured on a foreign battlefield, not U.S. soil. They are, essentially if not legally, prisoners of war in a war with no end. So what do we do?

There is no president of the United States who has ever lived who would release such people. There's no president who would survive doing so even if he did. It's an impossible situation.

So what do we do? This is a case where, unfortunately, I think outrage is too cheap and too easy. We're still left with the question: what do we do?

More: http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/2009/05/22/preventive_detention/index.html

http://www.talkleft.com/story/2009/5/22/112959/706

http://digbysblog.blogspot.com/2009/05/psikhushka-by-digby-in-case-anyones.html

http://washingtonindependent.com/44171/olcs-marty-lederman-an-opponent-of-preventive-detention

http://politics.theatlantic.com/2009/05/the_rubicon_of_indefinite_detention.php

http://oxdown.firedoglake.com/diary/5395

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2009/5/22/734254/-Home-of-the-Whopper

http://digbysblog.blogspot.com/2009/05/get-mo-gitmo-by-digby-following-up-on.html

Ouch. Former Bush admin head of Homeland Security says Cheney and the rest are talking out of their rears – the U.S. is NOT less safe under Obama

http://politicalwire.com/archives/2009/05/22/ridge_says_country_is_not_less_safe.html

Just a few days ago the Conventional Wisdom was, How pitiful is it that the most visible advocate for Republican foreign policy is a disgraced former VP whose popularity is somewhere down in the range with swine flu. Today it’s, Wow, what a great job Cheney is doing; Obama should be worried. Puh – leaze!

http://www.mydd.com/story/2009/5/22/203924/013
Let me get this one straight, Associated Press: Dick Cheney becoming the rhetorical standard bearer for the GOP is a good thing for the party? . . . [read on]

http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/2009/05/larry_v_liz.php
[David Kurtz] Those who subscribe to the Cheney view were marginalized even within the Bush Administration five years ago. They lost that debate. Obama, on the other hand, has taken, as should now be obvious, a much less forceful stance on these issues than many of his supporters had hoped. You might call it a more centrist position (though I'm resistant to that characterization for several reasons). But in any event, it's not necessarily representative of the progressive point of view. Cheney is an outlier. He doesn't represent "one side" of this debate. But if you frame it as a debate between Cheney's extreme position and Obama's very moderate position, you've suddenly dictated an outcome to this so-called debate that is considerably to the right of where the political center is right now on this issue.

How Cheney’s criticism of Obama helps

http://theplumline.whorunsgov.com/torture/gibbs-cheney-criticism-shows-were-not-following-bush/

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/michaeltomasky/2009/may/22/dickcheney-torture-odonnell
[Lawrence O’Donnell] This was as sleazy a presentation by a vice president as we've had since Spiro Agnew. This was an absolute abomination. He cannot, ever, frame the other side's position honestly. What you saw with Obama earlier was Obama describes the other side's position fairly. He then goes on to advance his position. Cheney comes out and lies about the other side, it's the only way he can talk. He says that Obama will not use the word 'terrorist,' when Obama does indeed use that word. He pretends that all we did was tough questioning. He says that 9/11 -- he says that 9/11 made everyone take a second look at the threat. That is a lie. Dick Cheney and the President were in possession of memos that said this threat was present, this particular methodology was going to come, that they were going to use airliners. He and the President failed in their first nine months in office to pay any attention to the A.Q. Khan network, who he now wants to take credit for dismantling. What did Cheney do before 9/11? He denies, in this speech, that 9/11 changed him and then describes his very specific activities on 9/11, which were frightening for the Vice President. Then he goes on to say that he thinks about it every day. This guy just has to lie from beginning to end through his setup of his opposition's position in order to advance any of his ideas at all, none of which have any proof to them at all.

http://www.mcclatchydc.com/national-security/story/68643.html
[McClatchy] Former Vice President Dick Cheney's defense Thursday of the Bush administration's policies for interrogating suspected terrorists contained omissions, exaggerations and misstatements. . . .

Liz Cheney takes up the flag for torture

Watch: http://tpmtv.talkingpointsmemo.com/?id=2574371

http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/2009/05/deep_thought_81.php
[Josh Marshall] Why is Dick Cheney's daughter the only person he can find to go on TV to defend him? . . .

http://washingtonindependent.com/44176/liz-cheney-for-congress
Paul Bedard talks with conservatives who are positively twitterpated with Liz Cheney and want her to launch a political career. . . .

Chicago right-wing DJ volunteers to undergo waterboarding, to show that it ain’t so bad. Guess what?

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/michaeltomasky/2009/may/22/mancow-waterboarding-torture

http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/2009/05/from_olbermann.php

Your turn, Sean: http://firedoglake.com/2009/05/22/cmon-in-hannity-the-waterboardings-fine/

The press’s craven deference to Cheney

http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/archives/individual/2009_05/018298.php

Pelosi was right

http://emptywheel.firedoglake.com/2009/05/21/victory-is-mine/

Still going back to the same old well

http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2009/05/on-meet-the-press-its-high-ranking-dem-dick-durbin-versus-newt-gingrich.php
On Meet The Press, It's High-Ranking Dem Dick Durbin Versus ... Newt Gingrich . . .

The perfect GOP candidate for 2012

http://www.salon.com/politics/war_room/2009/05/22/barbour_shops/index.html
How fitting would it be if a Mississippi governor an ex-lobbyist who had no governing experience prior to running for the statehouse were the next GOP presidential nominee? It would confirm that the Republican Party has been reduced to its core. . . .

Yes, we knew this was why Michael Steele was chosen as head of the RNC – the only Republican who could attack Obama on racial grounds without being called racist. Well, I still call it racist . . .

http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2009/05/steele-the-media-didnt-vet-obama----because-hes-black.php

More: http://washingtonindependent.com/44234/everyday-im-hustlin

Because they’re godless heathens

http://www.salon.com/politics/war_room/2009/05/22/liberty_dems/index.html
Liberty U. bans College Dems . . .

Bonus item: Going after Rush – rude and crude

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2009/5/22/734142/-Ron-Reagan-On-Rush-Limbaugh

***If you enjoy PBD and support what we are doing, you can help by forwarding a copy of this issue to your friends (using the envelope link below) or by sending them a copy of its URL (http://pbd.blogspot.com).

I don't get anything personally out of this project, except the satisfaction of doing it (I don't run ads, etc). The credit really all goes to the people whose material I copy and redistribute. But if I do have a "mission," it is to get this information into the hands of as many people as I can.***
- posted by Nick Burbules @ 7:22 AM

 
A TALE OF TWO SPEECHES

Obama’s speech

Text: http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2009/05/obamas-national-security-speech.php

Video highlights: http://tpmtv.talkingpointsmemo.com/?id=2567451

Is Obama going too far in continuing Bush-era policies?

http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/2009/05/21/obama/index.html

http://digbysblog.blogspot.com/2009/05/rhetoric-and-reality-by-dday-glennzilla.html

http://www.mydd.com/story/2009/5/21/223527/045

http://firedoglake.com/2009/05/21/does-obama-plan-to-give-up-a-little-liberty-to-get-a-little-safety/

http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2009/05/aclu-obamas-speech-was-dazzling--too-bad-the-policies-suck.php

http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2009/05/an-emerging-consensus-obamas-policies-mimic-the-bush-administration.php

http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2009/05/ccr-obama-embraces-indefinite-detention-not-meaningfully-different-from-bush.php

http://washingtonindependent.com/44093/boo-bushs-ad-hoc-ism-yay-obamas-ad-hoc-ism

Cheney’s speech

Text: http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2009/05/cheneys-national-security-speech.php

Video highlights: http://tpmtv.talkingpointsmemo.com/?id=2567980

Cheney’s lies

http://www.slate.com/id/2218762

http://firedoglake.com/2009/05/22/including-every-mumbled-and-the/

More: http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/2009/05/cheney_rolls_out_new_fib_for_2009.php

http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/2009/05/cheney_on_torture_misinformation_and_straw_men.php

http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/2009/05/cheney_still_pushing_bogus_saddam-al_qaeda_link.php

Cheney hates democracy

http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/2009/05/cheney_even_arguing_about_torture_is_helping_terro.php
“And when they see the American government caught up in arguments about interrogations, or whether foreign terrorists have constitutional rights, they don't stand back in awe of our legal system and wonder whether they had misjudged us all along. Instead the terrorists see just what they were hoping for - our unity gone, our resolve shaken, our leaders distracted. In short, they see weakness and opportunity.” [read on]

Rush helps

http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2009/05/limbaugh-if-i-were-a-terrorist-id-give-obama-standing-ovation.php
"Had I been a terrorist, were I a terrorist, I would have been prompted to give Obama's speech a standing O today," said Limbaugh. "It would have been tempting to give him a standing ovation because essentially Barack Obama apologized to terrorists all over the world for the last eight years of the previous administration."

A completely unbiased comparison – from the right

http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2009/05/kristol-obama-pseudo-thoughtful-cheney-a-grownup.php
[Bill Kristol] Obama "Pseudo-Thoughtful," Cheney A "Grownup" . . .

Completely unbiased comparisons – from the left

http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/2009/05/dont_forget_the_mockery.php
[Josh Marshall] Clearly there's going to be a lot of mano a mano razzmatazz that the media tries to gin up around this. But for those who want to remain among the lucid, let's not forget who the former vice president is.

This is someone who not only organized and seemingly directed a policy of state-sponsored torture. He did it in large part to get people to admit to crankish conspiracy theories he got taken in by by a crew of think-tank jockeys in DC whose theories most even half way sensible people treated as punch lines of jokes. So it's Torquemada or 1984 but only after getting rescripted by Mel Brooks.

This is an extremely gullible man who has just come off being the driving ideological force in an administration that most people can already see produced more fiascos and titanic, self-inflicted goofs than possibly any in our entire history. By any standard the guy is a monumental failure -- and not one whose mistakes stem in some Lyndon Johnson fashion from tragic overreach, but just a fool who damaged his country through his own gullibility, paranoia and bad judgment. Whatever else you can say about the Cheney story it ain't Shakespearean. . . . [read on]

http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/archives/individual/2009_05/018290.php
[Joe Klein] "From the very first -- the notion that those who oppose his policies saw 9/11 as a "one-off" -- Cheney proceeded to mischaracterize, oversimplify and distort the views of those who saw his policies as extreme and unconstitutional, to say nothing of the views of the current Administration. This is the habit of demagogues. Cheney's snarling performance was revelatory and valuable: it showed exactly the sort of man Cheney is, and the sort of advice he gave, when his location was disclosed. I hope he continues to speak out. We need his voice to remind us what we've happily escaped.

"Contrast that with the President. He spoke with reason and dignity. He treated his audience -- the American people -- as adults, capable of assimilating a difficult argument. He presented the views of his opponents, on both sides, fairly. His speech acknowledged the difficulty in balancing our democratic values against our very real national security needs."

[Steve Benen] But his larger point sounds right to me. Watching Cheney's speech, the one phrase that kept coming to mind was, "He must think we're idiots."

It'd take too long to fact check the entire address, but the deliberate deceptions were constant and unavoidable. While the president went out of his way to be principled and candid, Cheney argued that to disagree with him is to fail to take 9/11 seriously. To come to different conclusions on these controversial questions is to think we're permanently free of a terrorist threat.

He even rolled out the old canard: the very debate over torture gives terrorists "just what they were hoping for." . . . [read on]

http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/archives/individual/2009_05/018288.php
[Steve Benen] Now that it's over, Dick Cheney's speech on national security was clearly a mistake. It's been easy for the former vice president to show up on various news programs and attack the president, but today's appearance at a conservative think tank put Cheney in a position in which he had to present an actual vision. He would have been better off repeating talking point to Hannity and Limbaugh.

Note, for example, that Cheney referenced 9/11 25 times. It was enough to make Rudy Giuliani blush.

For that matter, the speech was striking in its lack of anything new or compelling. Even casual political observers probably could have sketched out the framework of the speech in advance, and been pretty close to the actual thing. Looking at counter-terrorism as a law-enforcement matter is a mistake; Obama, Democrats, and the New York Times are putting us at risk; except for all of the spectacular failures, Cheney's approach to national security was effective; torture is good, but releasing torture memos is bad; the rule of law is "an elaborate legal proceeding"; Obama is only worried about impressing Europe; and someday, historians will agree that Bush/Cheney was just terrific.

It's almost as if Cheney just grabbed a couple of copies of the Weekly Standard from January and pasted them together.

One of the concerns that stood out for me, though, was Cheney's frequent references to "euphemisms."

"Behind the overwrought reaction to enhanced interrogations is a broader misconception about the threats that still face our country. You can sense the problem in the emergence of euphemisms that strive to put an imaginary distance between the American people and the terrorist enemy.... In the category of euphemism, the prizewinning entry would be ... It's one thing to adopt the euphemisms that suggest ... "

Since when does Cheney find "euphemisms" so offensive? We are, after all, talking about the leader of an administration that came up with some doozies in the euphemism department.

"Terrorist surveillance program" is euphemism for warrantless wiretaps. "Enhanced interrogation program" is a euphemism for torture. Indeed, the previous administration used euphemisms as the basis for an entire national-security strategy: "war on terror," "weapons of mass destruction," and "mushroom clouds" were standards for quite a while.

Cheney probably thought it would raise his stature to speak after the president on the same subject. The strategy was half-successful -- he got the media to characterize this as some kind of showdown between relative equals. But the other half was a humiliating failure -- Cheney came across as a small, petty man, trying a little too hard to undermine the nation's elected leadership while salvaging some shred of personal credibility.

The GOP’s “Daisy Ad”

http://theplumline.whorunsgov.com/republican-national-committee/new-gop-ad-compares-threat-of-closing-guantanamo-to-nuclear-war/

An oft-repeated statistic about freed Gitmo terrorists returning to the field is probably wrong

http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/2009/05/nyt_reporter_maybe_1_in_7_detainees_didnt_return_to_terrorism.php

Life in a “supermax” prison

http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/2009/05/maxed_out.php

Michael Steele keeps shoveling

http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/archives/individual/2009_05/018295.php

Bonus item: McCain on Cheney

http://firedoglake.com/2009/05/22/early-morning-swim-special-ko-and-john-mccain-vs-dick-cheney-edition/
"When you have a majority of Americans, seventy-something percent, saying we shouldn't torture, then I'm not sure it helps for the Vice President to go out and continue to espouse that position," he said. "But look, he's free to talk. He's a former Vice President of the United States. I just don't see where it helps."

And then he got acerbic: Cheney, he says, "believes that waterboarding doesn't fall under the Geneva Conventions and that it's not a form of torture. But you know, it goes back to the Spanish Inquisition."

***If you enjoy PBD and support what we are doing, you can help by forwarding a copy of this issue to your friends (using the envelope link below) or by sending them a copy of its URL (http://pbd.blogspot.com).

I don't get anything personally out of this project, except the satisfaction of doing it (I don't run ads, etc). The credit really all goes to the people whose material I copy and redistribute. But if I do have a "mission," it is to get this information into the hands of as many people as I can.***
- posted by Nick Burbules @ 7:32 AM

 
PRETTY PLEASE?

So, we’ve known for a while that torture actually preceded the ad hoc legal figleafs generated by Yoo, Bybee, and Bradbury. So what gave them legal cover before that? (You won’t be surprised)

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2009/5/20/733812/-Bombshell-Report-Ties-Gonzo-to-Torture,-Months-before-Authorization
NPR is reporting today that significant new information has emerged per an ACLU FOIA request directly tying Alberto Gonzales, in his role at White House Counsel, to the torture of Abu Zubaydah. . . . [read on]

More: http://washingtonindependent.com/43909/james-mitchell-asked-please-can-i-torture-abu-zubaydah-did-alberto-gonzales-say-yes

Is there any real reason to be concerned about Gitmo prisoners being transferred to high-security US prisons? Aren’t there already “terrorists” being held there? Or is this just another attempt by the right (surprise, surprise) to whip up irrational fears for political advantage?

http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/2009/05/20/guantanamo/index.html

More: http://washingtonindependent.com/43869/a-terrorist-is-a-detainee-is-a-terrorist

http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/2009/05/creeping_wusseydom.php

http://www.juancole.com/2009/05/what-to-do-about-guantanamo.html

There it is

http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/archives/individual/2009_05/018275.php
"No good purpose is served by allowing known terrorists, who trained at terrorist training camps, to come to the U.S. and live among us," said Rep. Lamar Smith of Texas, the senior Republican on the [House Judiciary Committee]. "Guantanamo Bay was never meant to be an Ellis Island." [read on]

http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/2009/05/good_point_2.php
[MR] As Congressional Republicans make their childish complaints about the possibility of Guantanamo prisoners coming to the U.S. mainland, it's worth remembering why they were put there in the first place. It wasn't because they possess superpowers or that America doesn't know how to lock up dangerous people. It was solely so that they would be outside of the reach of the U.S. legal system.

The CIA destroyed interrogation tapes out of fear of prosecution – and now we’re supposed to believe that they are paragons of honesty and transparency?

http://emptywheel.firedoglake.com/2009/05/20/april-13-2002-may-6-2002-may-20-2002-may-23-2002-may-28-2002-august-4-2002-august-11-2002/

The Republicans are shocked – SHOCKED – that anyone would cast doubt on the credibility and integrity of the CIA (except when they do it, of course)

http://emptywheel.firedoglake.com/2009/05/20/issa-waaahhhh-dems-all-reminding-us-of-lies-cia-told-in-2002/

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2009/5/20/733751/-Boehner-admits-CIA-has-lied-to-Congress

http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/2009/05/in_savaging_pelosi_for_attacking_cia_gop_ignores_its_own_record_of_similar_attacks.php
In Savaging Pelosi For "Attacking" CIA, GOP Ignores Its Own Record Of Similar Attacks . . .

New Democrat Arlen Specter defends Pelosi

http://theplumline.whorunsgov.com/house-dems/specter-defends-pelosi-says-cia-has-very-bad-record-on-honesty/

http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/2009/05/specter_cia_has_a_very_bad_record_when_it_comes_to.php

Sigh. The craven need for the media to show “both” sides now takes a weird turn – treating a speech by the President and one by Dick Cheney as equivalent events.

Because, you know, they just haven’t done enough to cover the pro-torture side of the debate . . .

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0509/22748.html
Barack Obama, Dick Cheney plan dueling speeches . . .

More: http://theplumline.whorunsgov.com/political-media/cnn-and-msnbc-to-carry-cheney-national-security-speech-live/

http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/2009/05/how_they_roll_in_washington.php
[Josh Marshall] Wow, Wolf Blitzer just told us how President Obama is on the ropes on his counter terror policies and has to steel himself for his big confrontation with DIck Cheney.

Another crook

http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/2009/05/bush_pension_chief_charlie_millard_pleads_the_fift.php
[Moe Tkacik] For practically his entire 18-month term directing the obscure Pension Benefits Guaranty Corporation, Charlie Millard could not stop talking about his radical new plan to plow the majority of the agency's coffers -- which offer partial bankruptcy insurance to the retirement funds of 44 million Americans -- into stocks, real estate and private equity.

Well, that ended today.

Millard pleaded the Fifth three times before a Senate subcommittee convened to discuss the fund this afternoon . . .

A hint of who Obama wants for the Supreme Court?

http://www.salon.com/politics/war_room/2009/05/20/wood/index.html

http://www.openleft.com/diary/13421/judge-diane-wood-visits-dc

An EFCA compromise?

http://www.openleft.com/diary/13423/is-an-efca-compromise-possible

http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2009/05/harkin-compromise-on-efca-or-else.php

Here’s one of the more ridiculous arguments you will hear for why conservatism isn’t really in political trouble after all

http://yglesias.thinkprogress.org/archives/2009/05/except-for-the-unpopularity-of-conservatism-conservatives-are-in-good-shape.php

Now this is chutzpah: the GOP says, we don’t want the government involved in health care – look what a mess it made of Katrina

http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2009/05/republicans-compare-public-option-to-hurricane-katrina.php

Beware the “Global Warming Gestapo”

http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2009/05/goper-climate-bill-will-create-global-warming-gestapo.php

A good investment? The GOP is spending three quarters of a million dollars to try to keep Al Franken out of the Senate

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2009/5/20/733615/-Senate-GOP-blowing-big-money-on-lost-2008-race

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2009/5/20/733567/-MN-SEN:-The-NRSCs-Contribution-To-Obstruction-Continues

Michael Steele, having already abjected himself at the altar of Rush Limbaugh, now goes for the Glenn Beck crowd

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2009/5/20/733479/-Michael-Steele-goes-full-Beck-nuts

http://digbysblog.blogspot.com/2009/05/those-crazy-conservatives-by-digby.html

Don’t mess with Colin Powell

http://www.americablog.com/2009/05/powell-limbaugh-feud-grows.html

Some kind of circle being closed: a Kennedy to run for Obama’s Senate seat in Illinois?

http://www.americablog.com/2009/05/kennedy-from-illinois.html

Bonus item: Awww. . . . isn’t that sweet?

http://www.americablog.com/2009/05/gop-hearts-dick.html

***If you enjoy PBD and support what we are doing, you can help by forwarding a copy of this issue to your friends (using the envelope link below) or by sending them a copy of its URL (http://pbd.blogspot.com).

I don't get anything personally out of this project, except the satisfaction of doing it (I don't run ads, etc). The credit really all goes to the people whose material I copy and redistribute. But if I do have a "mission," it is to get this information into the hands of as many people as I can.***
- posted by Nick Burbules @ 6:45 AM

 
CREDIBILITY GAP

In the Pelosi/CIA showdown, the accuracy of CIA briefings takes hit after hit

http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/2009/05/source_eit_term_wasnt_in_use_when_pelosi_was_brief.php?ref=fpa
[Zachary Roth] Here's yet another reason (as if more were needed) to doubt that that CIA briefings document perfectly reflects what lawmakers were told about torture back in the early days of the war on terror.

Almost every briefing described in the document -- including the September 2002 Pelosi briefing that's directly at issue -- refers to "EITs," or enhanced interrogation techniques, as a subject that was discussed. But according to a former intelligence professional who has participated in such briefings, that term wasn't used until at least 2006 . . .

http://emptywheel.firedoglake.com/2009/05/18/bob-graham-it-was-oca-with-the-briefing-in-the-hart-senate-building/
[Emptywheel] Bob Graham was just on CSPAN's Washington Journal. He raised two more potential problems with the CIA's account of its briefings on torture. . . .

http://emptywheel.firedoglake.com/2009/05/19/david-obey-yet-more-proof-the-cia-briefing-list-is-totally-wrong/
[Emptywheel] According to House Appropriations Chair David Obey, the CIA interrogation list records a Democratic Appropriations staffer attending a September 19, 2006 torture briefing, when all the staffer did was walk John Murtha and Bill Young to the briefing, but was turned away at the briefing. . . .

http://attackerman.firedoglake.com/2009/05/19/cia-responds-to-obey-these-are-notes-memos-and-recollections-not-transcripts-and-recordings/
CIA Responds To Obey: ‘These Are Notes, Memos, And Recollections, Not Transcripts And Recordings’ . . .

http://emptywheel.firedoglake.com/2009/05/19/the-cias-comedy-of-briefing-list-errors/
The CIA’s Comedy of Briefing List Errors . . .

http://theplumline.whorunsgov.com/torture/cia-wont-say-whether-panetta-disputes-pelosi-claim-she-was-lied-to/
CIA Won’t Say Whether Panetta Disputes Pelosi Claim She Was Lied To . . .

http://www.motherjones.com/kevin-drum/2009/05/truthiness
[Kevin Drum] The CIA sure does suck at keeping even marginally accurate meeting notes, don't they? If you're the suspicious type, you might wonder if this is deliberate. If you're the institutional type, you might wonder what else they suck at. And if you're the political type you might be thinking that putting together a Truth Commission to get to the bottom of this is sounding a lot better than it used to.

More: http://emptywheel.firedoglake.com/2009/05/19/pincus-and-cia-panic/

http://emptywheel.firedoglake.com/2009/05/19/torture-appropriations/

http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/2009/05/smoke_and_mirrors_ii.php

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/05/19/another-democrat-says-cia_n_205173.html

Get used to it

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/05/18/AR2009051803126.html
Battered by recriminations over waterboarding and other harsh techniques sanctioned by the Bush administration, the CIA is girding itself for more public scrutiny and is questioning whether agency personnel can conduct interrogations effectively under rules set out for the U.S. military . . .

Respect for the law

http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/news/2009/05/complaint_seeks_disbarment_of_bush_lawyers_1.php
[AP] A coalition of liberal groups filed petitions Monday seeking disbarment of Bush administration attorneys linked to memos on harsh interrogation techniques of detainees. . . .

Michael Steele declares that “the era of Republican apologies is over.” That was a mighty short era. I don’t remember any Republican apologies at all

http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2009/05/steele-the-era-of-republican-apologies-is-over.php
"The era of apologizing for Republican mistakes of the past is now officially over. It is done," Steele will say. "We have turned the page, we have turned the corner. No more looking in the rearview mirror. From this point forward, we will focus all of our energies on winning the future."

http://theplumline.whorunsgov.com/republican-national-committee/steele-claims-gop-has-turned-corner-but-polls-show-otherwise/
Steele Claims GOP “Has Turned Corner,” But Polls Show Otherwise . . .

[NB: Okay, so maybe Steele was apologizing for himself: http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/2009/05/did_i_miss_all_the_gop_apologies.php]

What a nut

http://www.eschatonblog.com/2009/05/holy-crap_19.html
[Atrios] Did Steele really just say that change is being delivered in a teabag?

...yes he did.

More: http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/archives/individual/2009_05/018253.php

A victory of sorts for Steele: the ridiculous GOP proposal to rename the Democratic Party is replaced with . . .

http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2009/05/report-steele-defuses-democrat-socialist-party-resolution.php

How much longer can Steele last?

http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2009/05/steele-threatens-resignation-if-he-loses-financial-control----and-hes-paying-staffers-a-lot.php
Steele Threatens Resignation If He Loses Financial Control . . .

More: http://politics.theatlantic.com/2009/05/steele_tries_the_reset_button.php

Back to the future!

http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/news/2009/05/steele_insists_gop_comeback_has_started.php
[AP] Yet, even as Steele urged the party to focus on the future, he reached back to a Republican former president, saying: "Ronald Reagan always insisted that our party must move aggressively to seize the moment. He insisted that our party recognize the truth of the times and establish our first principles in both word and deed."

http://www.americablog.com/2009/05/newt-gingrich-face-of-new-gop.html
[John Aravosis] If this GOP gets any newer, they'll have to open up their own AARP branch.

The latest news on the Republican rebranding effort being led by number two Republican in the House, Eric Cantor, is that former House Speaker, and uber-conservative attack dog, Newt Gingrich is joining Cantor's group . . .

http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/archives/individual/2009_05/018257.php
[Steve Benen] The more interesting angle to me is the assembled group of GOP leaders who will help "rebrand" the party. We have a 72-year-old failed presidential candidate (McCain), a failed president's brother (Jeb Bush), another failed presidential candidate (Romney), and a disgraced former House Speaker who left office more than a decade ago after getting the boot from his own Republican caucus (Gingrich).

More: http://theplumline.whorunsgov.com/republican-party/gingrich-to-be-a-public-face-of-cantors-effort-to-remake-gop/

Newt Gingrich: Nancy Pelosi must resign, because her popularity numbers are as bad as mine

http://www.eschatonblog.com/2009/05/when-newt-was-king.html

Barney Franks vs Michele Bachmann in a battle of wits: no contest

http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2009/05/barney-frank-faces-down-bachmann-on-acorn-funding.php

A steel cage death match in Kentucky

http://politicalwire.com/archives/2009/05/19/bunning_blasts_mcconnell_again.html
On his weekly conference call with reporters, Sen. Jim Bunning (R-KY) called Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) a "control freak" and said that it would probably help him during his 2010 re-election campaign if McConnell doesn't back him . . .

The Republicans still can’t figure out how to deal with Rush Limbaugh

http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/archives/individual/2009_05/018245.php

Gutless: the Dems back down on Gitmo

http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/archives/individual/2009_05/018262.php

http://www.motherjones.com/kevin-drum/2009/05/bitch-slapping-dems

“Freedom of Information” doesn’t mean what it used to

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/05/19/AR2009051901322.html

Follow-up item: Rumsfeld denies allegations in GC article

http://politics.theatlantic.com/2009/05/a_response_from_donald_rumsfeld.php

Bonus item: Hissy Fit 101

http://digbysblog.blogspot.com/2009/05/remedial-hissy-by-digby-uhm-everyone.html

***If you enjoy PBD and support what we are doing, you can help by forwarding a copy of this issue to your friends (using the envelope link below) or by sending them a copy of its URL (http://pbd.blogspot.com).

I don't get anything personally out of this project, except the satisfaction of doing it (I don't run ads, etc). The credit really all goes to the people whose material I copy and redistribute. But if I do have a "mission," it is to get this information into the hands of as many people as I can.***
- posted by Nick Burbules @ 7:48 AM

 
THE WAR ON PELOSI

Matt Yglesias gives some perspective

http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/2009/05/best_line_of_the_day.php
You know, Newt Gingrich knows a lot about saying stupid things and being forced out of the job as Speaker. ... But one way or the other -- I mean, I wasn't in the room, you weren't in the room, Newt Gingrich wasn't in the room. None of us know exactly what happened there. But whatever it is Nancy Pelosi knew about, George W. Bush, Dick Cheney, John Yoo, Jay Bybee, they knew more. And ultimately, when we have a thorough investigation of what happened, the bulk of the blame has to lie with the architects of the policy, not with a member of the opposition party.

Reading Leon Panetta’s statement more closely . . .

http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/2009/05/by_george_hes_got_it.php
[Josh Gerstein] Central Intelligence Agency Director Leon Panetta didn't reject or deny House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's allegations that she was falsely briefed by the CIA about interrogations. . . . [read on]

Fox News admits what the real game is

http://theplumline.whorunsgov.com/probes-of-bush-administration/fox-focus-on-pelosi-changes-subject-from-whether-to-prosecute-bush-officials/
Fox News: Focus On Pelosi Changes Subject From Whether To Prosecute Bush Officials . . .

More: http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/archives/individual/2009_05/018239.php

Will it backfire?

http://yglesias.thinkprogress.org/archives/2009/05/the-rights-torture-backfire.php

The kind of people they are

http://www.americablog.com/2009/05/right-wings-blatant-misogyny.html

When you look beneath the carefully-parsed denials that torture took place (because the definition of “torture” was changed to exclude what they were doing) – what shows up beneath the surface is an implicit EMBRACE of torture, along with the suggestion that these people deserved it

http://digbysblog.blogspot.com/2009/05/bush-doctrine-of-torture-by-digby.html
[Sleon] The idea [of the Bush Doctrine] was that the US had the right to attack and invade other countries and change their governments because we thought they, or their proxies, or just a splinter-group of their citizens, might possibly be a threat to our citizens in the future. . . .

If that's all OK on a government to government level, it must be OK on a personal level too. And there it is: Cheney's torture policy is just the Bush Doctrine for individuals. The (evil) genius of it is that he's found a way to indefinitely extend the ticking time-bomb scenario. If we can invade other countries and kill and maim their citizens because of something their leaders might do, then surely we can do the same to individuals who may not know of any time-bombs currently ticking, but who might know of someone else who might start a bomb ticking at some future date.

The thirteen who made torture happen: http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2009/05/18/torture/

I caught this too: watch RNC head Michael Steele almost admit that in his opinion the Bush/Cheney gang tortured (is there any other way to interpret his comment?)

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2009/5/18/732859/-Michael-Steele-Almost-Admits-It-Was-Torture

Steele puts his foot in it again: seeming to endorse a torture inquiry, then having to send out his spokesman to take it all back

http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2009/05/steele-endorses-truth-commission.php

http://theplumline.whorunsgov.com/probes-of-bush-administration/steele-spokesperson-walks-back-claim-that-hes-open-to-torture-probe/

More on the use of torture to fabricate an Al Qaeda/Iraq link

http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/2009/05/gitmo_investigator_interrogators_were_tasked_to_fi.php

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2009/5/18/732869/-Guantanamo-Investigator-Confirms-Torture-Iraq-Connection

http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/2009/05/detainee_said_he_was_brought_to_gitmo_to_give_info.php

A new Gallup poll

http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/2009/05/flailing_with_friggin_everybody.php
The new Gallup poll surveys the damage the Bush presidency has had on the Republican party. With the exception of frequent churchgoers and retired people, the GOP has lost support with every demographic group. . . .

A handy chart: http://www.americablog.com/2009/05/gop-is-shrinking-across-every.html

What Cheney is doing to the GOP

http://www.americablog.com/2009/05/more-gop-cheney-bashing.html

We keep hearing comments from the Republican right that seem to be hinting at armed insurrection

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2009/5/18/732681/-Glenn-Beck,-conspiracy-theory-troll
[Glenn Beck] Gun sales are going up through the roof.

And let me tell you something, I really truly believe the reason why -- a lot of Americans aren't paying attention to this -- is because they...does anybody remember the poem, you know, first they came for the Jews and I didn't stand up because I wasn't a Jew? Do you know that -- from Germany?

In the end, I think this is the problem. First, they came for the banks. I wasn't a banker. I didn't really care. I didn't stand up and say anything.

Then they came for the AIG executives. Then they came for the car companies -- and I didn't say anything.

Until it gets down to you -- most people don't see they are coming for you at some point. You're on the list. Everybody's on the list.

http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2009/05/bachmann-our-freedoms-more-at-risk-now-than-any-time-in-recent-history.php
[Michele Bachmann, R-MN] "People need to realize that truly, our freedoms are more at risk than they have been at any other time in recent history." . . . [read on]

***If you enjoy PBD and support what we are doing, you can help by forwarding a copy of this issue to your friends (using the envelope link below) or by sending them a copy of its URL (http://pbd.blogspot.com).

I don't get anything personally out of this project, except the satisfaction of doing it (I don't run ads, etc). The credit really all goes to the people whose material I copy and redistribute. But if I do have a "mission," it is to get this information into the hands of as many people as I can.***
- posted by Nick Burbules @ 6:31 AM

 
WHERE THEY STAND

Dick Cheney was able to browbeat George Bush into swallowing his paranoid and morally myopic view of the world (Jane Mayer suggests, in the opening pages of the “The Dark Side,” that the belief he had been poisoned by anthrax pushed Cheney into some dark corner of his own psyche. Years of sequestration in a “secure secret location” probably didn’t help either).

Well, we saw what eight years of a shadow Cheney presidency got this nation. Bad enough. But now he seems to want to bully and browbeat another President into letting him set American policy again.

It simply does not occur to this man that he could be wrong – terribly, horribly wrong. He's saving the nation, and everyone else is helping the terrorists

http://firedoglake.com/2009/05/17/republicans-feeling-dicked-around/
Speaking to National Journal anonymously, many of the [GOP] insiders harshly denounced how he has acted since leaving office. “Cheney represents the grumpy intolerance that has come to characterize the GOP. Get off the stage!” said one. “There is nothing Dick Cheney can say or do to help the Republican Party today,” said another. “The best thing he can do is disappear for the next 10 years.”

Whoopsie

http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/2009/05/liz_cheney_wont_deny_her_father_suggested_question.php
In an appearance on ABC's This Week today, Liz Cheney employed a classic non-denial denial when asked about a report her father's office pressured interrogators to use torture to find evidence of Iraq-Qaeda links.

George Stephanopolous asked Liz Cheney about a Daily Beast piece reporting that the vice president's office in 2003 suggested interrogators waterboard an Iraqi detainee who was suspected of having knowledge of a link between Iraq and al Qaeda.

Asked specifically by Stephanopolous if she would deny "that the vice president's office did ask specifically to have information about Iraq-al Qaeda connections presented to this detainee," Cheney offered this muddled response . . . .

People want an investigation

http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/2009/05/17/cap/index.html

The meanstream media does not

http://digbysblog.blogspot.com/2009/05/its-all-good.html

http://digbysblog.blogspot.com/2009/05/whos-afraid-of-big-bad-gop-by-digby.html

Three of the usual suspects, Judith Miller, Stephen Hayes, and Victoria Toensing, all line up on the side of torture. Good to know where people stand

http://emptywheel.firedoglake.com/2009/05/17/a-dick-cheney-torture-trifecta/

More torture photos released, via Australia (thanks to Robert M. for the links). Be warned: very disturbing content

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article11923.htm

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article11930.htm

Will They Hate Us? http://informationclearinghouse.info/article22626.htm

Man, did Rumsfeld and Cheney ever know how to play George W. like a violin

http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/archives/individual/2009_05/018220.php
[HIlzoy] Steve already mentioned GQ's article about Donald Rumsfeld. You should really read the whole thing. I just thought I'd highlight this bit, about the Biblically-themed cover sheets that Rumsfeld attached to the President's daily intelligence briefings on Iraq . . .

More: http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/archives/individual/2009_05/018215.php

http://www.americablog.com/2009/05/rumsfeld-sent-bush-creepy-top-secret.html

More from GQ: http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/archives/individual/2009_05/018217.php
I'm reluctant to highlight just one anecdote from Robert Draper's GQ piece on Donald Rumsfeld, because there's an awful lot of information in the article that deserves to be read, but the story about Rumsfeld during the Hurricane Katrina crisis is remarkable. . . . [read on]

http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/archives/individual/2009_05/018221.php
"What Rumsfeld was most effective in doing," says a former senior White House official, "was not so much undermining a decision that had yet to be made as finding every way possible to delay the implementation of a decision that had been made and that he didn't like." . . .

The whole story: http://men.style.com/gq/features/landing?id=content_9217

Haven’t had any postings on warrantless government surveillance lately – well, it’s still an issue

http://emptywheel.firedoglake.com/2009/05/17/the-data-mining-secrets-and-al-haramain/

Are the Republicans going to mount a scorched-earth fight over Obama’s Supreme Court nominee, or not?

Maybe: http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/archives/individual/2009_05/018219.php

Maybe not: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/18/us/politics/18judiciary.html

New rules: http://www.mydd.com/story/2009/5/17/133657/419
[Jonathan Singer] Listening to conservatives and Republicans argue in recent days that only current appellate court judges are qualified to serve on the United States Supreme Court, it struck me just how elitist the right had become on the issue of the judiciary. . . .

[NB: I don’t think it’s elitism – I think this is a better explanation:

http://castawayre.blogspot.com/2008/10/president-bushs-young-conservative.html
President Bush's Young, Conservative Appellate Court Appointments
The New York Times has an article on the impact President Bush has left on the judicial landscape of the country that will exist for years to come as Bush appointed some of the youngest jurists in history. More importantly, "Republican-appointed judges, most of them conservatives, are projected to make up about 62 percent of the bench next Inauguration" controling "10 of the 13 circuits, while judges appointed by Democrats have a dwindling majority on just one circuit."]

Michael Steele, trying to shed the “party of no” label for the GOP

http://www.mydd.com/story/2009/5/17/123329/608
Steele on Healthcare in '09: No, No, No, No, No . . .

The Republicans are certainly acting as if they think they have Nancy Pelosi in a serious bind over the CIA briefing dispute

http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2009/05/16/gingrich-pelosi-should-be-ousted-as-house-speaker-if-she-lied/

http://www.mydd.com/story/2009/5/17/143438/709

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/05/17/AR2009051702217.html

No, Panetta’s statement DID NOT show that Pelosi was wrong

http://digbysblog.blogspot.com/2009/05/parsing-for-dummies-by-digby-marcy.html

Bonus item: Obama shows the Christians how it’s done

http://www.samefacts.com/archives/barack_obama_/2009/05/obama_at_notre_dame.php

On the other side: http://firedoglake.com/2009/05/17/alan-keyes-arrested-at-notre-dame-during-anti-obama-protest/

http://firedoglake.com/2009/05/17/glendon-torture-is-good-choice-is-evil/

***If you enjoy PBD and support what we are doing, you can help by forwarding a copy of this issue to your friends (using the envelope link below) or by sending them a copy of its URL (http://pbd.blogspot.com).

I don't get anything personally out of this project, except the satisfaction of doing it (I don't run ads, etc). The credit really all goes to the people whose material I copy and redistribute. But if I do have a "mission," it is to get this information into the hands of as many people as I can.***
- posted by Nick Burbules @ 6:31 AM

 
HOW CAN WE MISS YOU WHEN YOU WON’T GO AWAY?

Der Leader

http://tpmcafe.talkingpointsmemo.com/2009/05/15/cheney-limbaugh_2012/
[Paul Begala] The inimitable Mark Shields says there are two kinds of political parties: those that seek out converts and those that hunt down heretics. Barack Obama - like Ronald Reagan and Bill Clinton before him - is a classic seeker of converts. He chose as his running mate one of his defeated rivals for the presidency. He reached out to Hillary Clinton, giving her one of the most important jobs in the world. Even as he pursues progressive policies, he continues to reach out to Republicans, independents and moderates.

Dick Cheney is a heretic hunter. On Face the Nation he essentially declared that Gen. Colin Powell is no longer a Republican. Granted, Powell committed a serious act of apostasy: he endorsed Barack Obama for President. But Joe Lieberman not only endorsed John McCain, he was a constant presence on the campaign trail, a featured speaker at the Republican convention and someone who was willing to stick a knife in Barack Obama. But after the election, Barack Obama and Harry Reid welcomed him back to the Democratic caucus.

Mr. Cheney is made of sterner stuff. He actually said he'd rather be in a Republican Party led by Rush Limbaugh than one led by Colin Powell. I daresay few Americans would agree with that choice. . .

http://www.mydd.com/story/2009/5/15/19525/6218
Dick Cheney seems to be everywhere lately. . . .

Photos: http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/photofeatures/2009/05/cheney-torture-tour.php
Cheney's Torture Tour . . .

Go away

http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/2009/05/cheneys_big_speech.php
[AEI] In April 2009, almost eight years after the deadliest terrorist attack in American history, the Obama administration released four memos from the Bush administration's Office of Legal Counsel. These memos, which justified the use of harsh interrogation techniques against high-level al Qaeda detainees such as Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the mastermind of the 9/11 attacks, have reignited a fierce debate about the United States' counterterrorism strategy.

Amid claims that the interrogation methods amount to torture and that those who approved them should be prosecuted or censured, it is clear that we know surprisingly little about the scope and efficacy of the Bush administration's national security policy. Many questions linger: What type of information did enhanced interrogation methods yield? Were lives saved as a result? Could that intelligence have been effectively collected by other means? How effective was the terrorist surveillance program in detecting the threat of al Qaeda and its operatives in the post-9/11 period? Will inhibiting these procedures cost more American lives?

On May 21, former vice president Dick Cheney will speak at AEI to address these critical issues and provide a blueprint for keeping America safe in the future.

We can almost state it as fact now: the Bush gang, and Cheney in particular, made up their mind to go after Iraq; and after 9-11 showing (or fabricating) an Iraq/Al Qaeda link became an obsessive preoccupation for them. The push to get tough in interrogations had much to do with eliciting evidence to support that link

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2009/5/16/732250/-Cheney,-Torture,-Iraq
[W]hat happened at President Bush's very first National Security Council meeting is one of O'Neill's most startling revelations.

"From the very beginning, there was a conviction, that Saddam Hussein was a bad person and that he needed to go," says O’Neill, who adds that going after Saddam was topic "A" 10 days after the inauguration - eight months before Sept. 11.

"From the very first instance, it was about Iraq. It was about what we can do to change this regime," says Suskind. "Day one, these things were laid and sealed." . . .

"It was all about finding a way to do it. That was the tone of it. The president saying ‘Go find me a way to do this,’" says O’Neill. . . .

http://www.mcclatchydc.com/227/story/68315.html
Then-Vice President Dick Cheney, defending the invasion of Iraq, asserted in 2004 that detainees interrogated at the Guantanamo Bay prison camp had revealed that Iraq had trained al Qaida operatives in chemical and biological warfare, an assertion that wasn't true.

Cheney's 2004 comments to the now-defunct Rocky Mountain News were largely overlooked at the time. However, they appear to substantiate recent reports that interrogators at Guantanamo and other prison camps were ordered to find evidence of alleged cooperation between al Qaida and the late Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein . . .

"I'm aware of the fact that in late 2002, early 2003, that (the alleged al Qaida-Iraq link) was an interest on the intelligence side," said retired Army Lt. Col. Brittain Mallow, a former military criminal investigator. "That was something they were tasked to look at."

He said he was unaware of the origins of the directive, but a former senior U.S. intelligence official has told McClatchy that Cheney's and former Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld's offices were demanding that information in 2002 and 2003. The official, who wasn't authorized to speak publicly on the matter, requested anonymity. . . .

During the same period, two alleged senior al Qaida operatives in CIA custody were waterboarded repeatedly — Abu Zubaydah at least 83 times and Khalid Sheik Mohammed at least 183 times.

A 2004 Senate Intelligence Committee report said that the two were questioned about the relationship between al Qaida and Iraq, and that both denied knowing of one.

A U.S. Army psychiatrist, Maj. Paul Burney, told the Army Inspector General's office in 2006 that during the same period, interrogators at Guantanamo were under pressure to produce evidence of al Qaida-Iraq ties, but were unable to do so.

"The more frustrated people got in not being able to establish that link . . . there was more and more pressure to resort to measures that might produce more immediate results," Burney said, according excerpts of an interview published in a declassified Senate Armed Services Committee report released on April 22. . . .

More: http://emptywheel.firedoglake.com/2009/05/16/the-terrorism-intelligence-and-the-briefing-schedule/

A comprehensive review of torture, and why it is always wrong (thanks to Digby for the link) – with some excellent resources

http://vagabondscholar.blogspot.com/2009/05/torture-versus-freedom.html

More: http://www.mydd.com/story/2009/5/16/164619/173

Trying to sort out the Pelosi/CIA fingerpointing

http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/2009/05/did_matthews_even_read_the_memo.php
[Josh Marshall] I'm listening to Chris Matthews saying that CIA Director Leon Panetta just dished out some smackdown to Nancy Pelosi, claiming that the CIA records are accurate and that Pelosi is wrong. Only his memo doesn't say that at all. . . . Alas, Politico, CNN, AP and almost everyone else seems along for the spin.

http://theplumline.whorunsgov.com/torture/cia-please-dont-take-our-word-for-it-on-torture-briefings/
[Greg Sargent] Whoa, this is interesting. CIA chief Leon Panetta is now pushing back against Nancy Pelosi’s claims that the CIA misled Congress about who was told what and when about the use of torture.

But Panetta is also amplifying and repeating the agency’s refusal to promise that the recently-released documents offer a reliable version of how and when members of Congress were briefed on the use of torture techniques. . . [read on]

http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/2009/05/panetta_its_up_to_congress_to_figure_out_whether_o.php
Panetta: It's Up To Congress To Figure Out Whether Our Records Are Accurate . . .

http://www.mydd.com/story/2009/5/16/113536/360
Bob Graham Backs Up Nancy Pelosi on CIA Briefings

More: http://emptywheel.firedoglake.com/2009/05/16/the-two-torture-tape-suspects-the-pelosi-briefing-and-the-panetta-statement/

What matters

http://www.samefacts.com/archives/lying_in_politics_/2009/05/choosing_the_argument.php
[Mark Kleiman] In politics, winning the argument is less important than getting to decide what the argument is about. It doesn't matter whether, in the end, people believe that Nancy Pelosi was, or was not, accurately briefed about waterboarding by the CIA in 2002. (I might not believe Pelosi, there's not a stronger corroborating witness than Bob Graham, a compulsive note-taker with a reputation as a truth-teller.)

What matters is that as long as we're arguing about Pelosi we're not discussing that fact that Lawrence Wilkerson, a career Army colonel of no particular partisan coloration who was chief of staff to Colin Powell at the State Department, says that the purpose of the torture regime was to provide false information to help sell the war in Iraq.

Note that the argument against putting Cheney (and his assistants, including Bush) on trial is that they ordered torture — a felony under U.S. law, and a capital crime if the victim dies, as some apparently did — in order to protect the country. But Wilkerson says they tortured people to score political points. That's a different matter entirely. So Cheney & Co. need to make enough noise to drown Wilkerson out. That's what they're doing. Rebutting their charges about Pelosi is just playing their game.

http://tpmtv.talkingpointsmemo.com/?id=2529356
Graham: Attempt Under Way to Shift Discussion From What's Important . . .

http://yglesias.thinkprogress.org/archives/2009/05/conservatives-hoping-that-pelosi-attacks-will-keep-the-truth-about-torture-buried.php
Conservatives Hoping that Pelosi Attacks Will Keep the Truth About Torture Buried . . .

He’s right

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/17/opinion/17rich-5.html
[Frank Rich] To paraphrase Al Pacino in “Godfather III,” just when we thought we were out, the Bush mob keeps pulling us back in. And will keep doing so. No matter how hard President Obama tries to turn the page on the previous administration, he can’t. Until there is true transparency and true accountability, revelations of that unresolved eight-year nightmare will keep raining down drip by drip, disrupting the new administration’s high ambitions. . . .

On the Supreme Court: Obama’s not looking for a fight

http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/archives/individual/2009_05/018208.php

But the Republicans are: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/17/us/politics/17conserve.html
“It’s an immense opportunity to build the conservative movement and identify the troops out there,” said Richard A. Viguerie, a conservative fund-raiser. “It’s a massive teaching moment for America. We’ve got the packages written. We’re waiting right now to put a name in.”

Just don’t call it a “litmus test” - because, you know, Republicans REALLY don't believe in litmus tests

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/05/16/AR2009051602363.html
As President Obama prepares to name his first Supreme Court justice, conservatives in Washington are making clear that his nominee will face plenty of questions during the confirmation process on the legal underpinnings of same-sex marriage. . . .

Alberto Gonzales, impeccable legal commentator

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2009/5/16/731448/-Who-Knew-Alberto-Gonzales-Is-Empathetic-
Appearing on NPR’s Tell Me More yesterday, Gonzales claimed that "worried" that judges with empathy would make "decisions based on what they think makes them feel good":

GONZALES: I do worry a little bit, well, I worry, I worry about about justices on the court making decisions based on what they think makes them feel good. I don’t think it’s fair to expect society to anticipate the outcome of a case based upon what makes a justice feel good. In essence what you’re saying, I think, is that I’m going to, I don’t care what the law says, I’m going to come out, I’m going to pursue an outcome that I think is fair and just. I’m going to rewrite the law. And I think that’s dangerous.

Michael Steele tries to find a new reason to oppose gay marriage – see, it’s not about anti-gay bigotry any more

http://politicalwire.com/archives/2009/05/16/steele_says_same_sex_marriage_is_a_financial_issue.html
RNC Chairman Michael Steele said that Republicans "can reach a broader base by recasting gay marriage as an issue that could dent pocketbooks as small businesses spend more on health care and other benefits," the AP reports. . . .

What nonsense: http://www.mydd.com/story/2009/5/16/173121/275

A new book

http://firedoglake.com/2009/05/16/fdl-book-salon-the-eliminationists-how-hate-talk-radicalized-the-american-right/
David Neiwert, The Eliminationists: How Hate Talk Radicalized The American Right

Sunday talk show line-ups

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2009/5/2/727195/-Sunday-TalkSix-Degrees-of-Interrogation
NBC Meet the Press: DNC Chairman/Virginia Gov. Tim Kaine; RNC Chairman Michael Steele; Roundtable: Ron Brownstein (The Atlantic), President of the Council on Foreign Relations Richard Haas, Jon Meachem (Newsweek), and Peggy Noonan (The Wall Street Journal).

CBS Face the Nation: Rep. Peter King (R-NY); Executive Director of the ACLU Anthony Romero; Roundtable: John Dickerson (Slate) and Joan Biskupic (USA Today).

ABC This Week: Sen. Jon Kyl (R-AZ); Sen. Jim Webb (D-VA); Roundtable: Democratic Strategist James Carville, Cheney Propagandist Liz Cheney, McCain Campaign Adviser Steve Schmidt, Katrina vanden Huevel (The Nation), and George Will (ABC News).

CNN State of the Union: OMB Director Peter Orszag; House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-OH); Sen. Saxby Chambliss (R-GA)

***If you enjoy PBD and support what we are doing, you can help by forwarding a copy of this issue to your friends (using the envelope link below) or by sending them a copy of its URL (http://pbd.blogspot.com).

I don't get anything personally out of this project, except the satisfaction of doing it (I don't run ads, etc). The credit really all goes to the people whose material I copy and redistribute. But if I do have a "mission," it is to get this information into the hands of as many people as I can.***
- posted by Nick Burbules @ 8:04 AM

 
A TICKING TIME BOMB

This is going to ruin them

http://washingtonindependent.com/43240/ksm-was-asked-about-ties-to-the-iraqi-regime
[Spencer Ackerman] Apropos of this post about Lawrence Wilkerson’s charge that the torture apparatus built by the Bush administration was concerned with manufacturing an al-Qaeda/Saddam Hussein link as a pretext for invading Iraq, look what HuffPost’s Sam Stein pulls out of the memory hole. This is an account of the interrogation of 9/11 architect Khalid Shaikh Mohammed:

“CTC [Counter Terrorist Center] noted that the questions regarding al-Qaida’s ties to the Iraqi regime were among the first presented to senior al-Qaida operational planner Khalid Shaikh Muhammad following his capture.”

More: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/05/15/ksm-was-questioned-about_n_203898.html

Rachel Maddow has it all: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26315908/#30773553

More

http://www.salon.com/politics/war_room/2009/05/15/miller/index.html
[Mark Benjamin] It’s one thing if, as former Vice President Dick Cheney keeps saying, the United States brutally interrogated people to keep our kids safe from another strike by Osama bin Laden. If folks got tortured to provide a rationale for going to war with Iraq, though, that's a whole different story.

Recent news reports have suggested the possibility that the Bush administration might have endorsed torture to prove an Iraq-al Qaida link. And a recent report from the Senate Armed Services Committee shows that months after then-President Bush had declared Mission Accomplished in Iraq, an Army general working hand in glove with top administration officials tried, albeit unsuccessfully, to convince a unit charged with finding weapons of mass destruction to get tough on its prisoners.

In August and early September of 2003, Maj. Gen. Geoffrey Miller, the man in charge of the Pentagon’s torture laboratory at Guantanamo Bay, was dispatched to Iraq, allegedly to Gitmoize operations there.

It seems to have worked, at least in one place. Soon after Miller visited with officials in charge of Abu Ghraib, guards there began to use working dogs, stress positions, extremely lengthy interrogations, isolation, yelling and nudity in order to try to wring information from prisoners -- all techniques that had been used at Guantanamo and that the world would later see in photos released from an investigation in to what had gone on at the prison. . . .

Marcy Wheeler puts it all together

http://emptywheel.firedoglake.com/2009/05/15/dick-cheney-torture-iraq-and-valerie-plame/
Dick Cheney, Torture, Iraq, and Valerie Plame . . .

With a big assist from the press, the Bush gang somehow seems to be winning the torture debate

http://www.salon.com/politics/war_room/feature/2009/05/15/pelosi_and_cheney/index.html
[Mike Madden] [J]ust five days after Cheney admitted that George W. Bush personally signed off on the CIA's plans to extract information out of detainees by no matter how they got it, the debate in Washington isn't even remotely focused on the ethical and moral repugnance of torturing your enemies. Instead, the city is buzzing about what House Speaker Nancy Pelosi knew about waterboarding. There's a little side conversation going about whether torture is effective -- but not whether it's wrong. And the Obama administration, which is trying desperately not to get involved in an endless battle over what Bush officials were doing behind closed doors, is getting dragged into it, too, and infuriating liberal supporters in the process.

Pelosi gets most of the blame for her own problems. . . .

DID the CIA lie to Pelosi?

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/michaeltomasky/2009/may/15/nancy-pelosi-cia-torture-cheney

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/michaeltomasky/2009/may/15/nancy-pelosi-waterboarding-cia

http://digbysblog.blogspot.com/2009/05/modest-proposal-by-digby-nancy-pelosi.html

http://politics.theatlantic.com/2009/05/panetta_tune_out_the_noise.php

The press takes sides

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/16/us/politics/16cong.html
The deepening dispute over what Ms. Pelosi was told in September 2002 has challenged her credibility and raised new questions about whether she passed up an early opportunity to expose the Bush administration’s harsh treatment of detainees. . . .

http://theplumline.whorunsgov.com/torture/pelosis-claims-getting-much-more-media-scrutiny-than-cias-assertions/
Pelosi’s Claims Getting Much More Media Scrutiny Than CIA’s Assertions

More: http://www.americablog.com/2009/05/media-more-skeptical-of-pelosi-than-cia.html

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2009/5/15/731819/-Journamalism:-Iraq,-Torture,-and-Pelosi

http://digbysblog.blogspot.com/2009/05/all-now-about-her-by-dday-adam.html

The GOP sees an opening

http://politicalwire.com/archives/2009/05/15/gingrich_rips_pelosi.html
In an interview with ABC News, Newt Gingrich denounced House Speaker Nancy Pelosi in the harshest of ways on her claims the Bush administration lied to her about their use of interrogation tactics.

Said Gingrich: "I think she has lied to the House, and I think that the House has an absolute obligation to open an inquiry, and I hope there will be a resolution to investigate her. And I think this is a big deal. I don't think the Speaker of the House can lie to the country on national security matters."

He added: "I think this is the most despicable, dishonest and vicious political effort I've seen in my lifetime. . . . She is a trivial politician, viciously using partisanship for the narrowist of purposes, and she dishonors the Congress by her behavior."

More: http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/archives/individual/2009_05/018193.php

http://firedoglake.com/2009/05/15/republicans-suddenly-find-cia-credible-trustworthy/

Obama reverses course on using military commissions for at least some Gitmo prisoners

http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/2009/05/15/military_commissions/index.html

http://firedoglake.com/2009/05/15/obama-announces-new-improved-military-commissions/

DEMOCRATS block a DOJ appointee because of her pro-choice background

http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2009/05/in-limbo-dawn-johnsens-nomination-stalls-thanks-to-democrats.php

Is that really why she’s being blocked? http://christyhardinsmith.firedoglake.com/2009/05/15/olc-the-question-we-must-all-ask/

http://yglesias.thinkprogress.org/archives/2009/05/specter-waffling-on-dawn-johnsen-cloture.php

“Specter's Slow Move To The Left”

http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2009/05/specters-slow-move-to-the-left.php

How are you liking the New Republicans?

http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2009/05/steele-dems-want-to-take-away-our-guns-move-terrorists-into-our-communities.php
Steele: Dems Want To Take Away Our Guns, Move Terrorists Into Our Communities . . .

Hmmm . . . taking him out of the political mix?

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/05/15/AR2009051504022.html
Utah Gov. Jon M. Huntsman Jr. (R) will be introduced today as President Obama's choice as ambassador to China . . .

More: http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/archives/individual/2009_05/018202.php

Bonus item: Rush takes on McCain’s mother. Smart move

http://www.americablog.com/2009/05/limbaugh-fires-back-at-mccains-mom.html

***If you enjoy PBD and support what we are doing, you can help by forwarding a copy of this issue to your friends (using the envelope link below) or by sending them a copy of its URL (http://pbd.blogspot.com).

I don't get anything personally out of this project, except the satisfaction of doing it (I don't run ads, etc). The credit really all goes to the people whose material I copy and redistribute. But if I do have a "mission," it is to get this information into the hands of as many people as I can.***
- posted by Nick Burbules @ 7:36 AM

 
A SMOKING GUN

Ticking time bomb, my ass. Even if one accepts, in a coldly utilitarian, 24-style sense, that torture may be justified to detect and prevent a specific massive attack, we are learning that the Bush/Cheney regime was using torture to extract lots of other kinds of information as well.

But the most explosive suggestion has been that they used torture to elicit, falsely – and perhaps knowingly so – claims about an Iraq/Al Qaeda link, not out of immediate security concerns, but to help buttress their case for war. Today we learn that this was EXACTLY what happened

http://www.thedailybeast.com/blogs-and-stories/2009-05-13/cheneys-role-deepens/
At the end of April 2003, not long after the fall of Baghdad, U.S. forces captured an Iraqi who Bush White House officials suspected might provide information of a relationship between al Qaeda and Saddam Hussein’s regime. Muhammed Khudayr al-Dulaymi was the head of the M-14 section of Mukhabarat, one of Saddam’s secret police organizations. . . .

“To those who wanted or suspected a relationship, he would have been a guy who would know, so [White House officials] had particular interest,” Charles Duelfer, head of the Iraqi Survey Group and the man in charge of interrogations of Iraqi officials, told me. So much so that the officials, according to Duelfer, inquired how the interrogation was proceeding.

In his new book, Hide and Seek: The Search for Truth in Iraq, and in an interview with The Daily Beast, Duelfer says he heard from “some in Washington at very senior levels (not in the CIA),” who thought Khudayr’s interrogation had been “too gentle” and suggested another route, one that they believed has proven effective elsewhere. “They asked if enhanced measures, such as waterboarding, should be used,” Duelfer writes. “The executive authorities addressing those measures made clear that such techniques could legally be applied only to terrorism cases, and our debriefings were not as yet terrorism-related. The debriefings were just debriefings, even for this creature.”

Duelfer will not disclose who in Washington had proposed the use of waterboarding, saying only: “The language I can use is what has been cleared.” In fact, two senior U.S. intelligence officials at the time tell The Daily Beast that the suggestion to waterboard came from the Office of Vice President Cheney. . . .

Rachel Maddow puts the pieces together: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26315908/#30754007

More: http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/2009/05/neocons_gone_wild_1.php
[McClatchy] "There was constant pressure on the intelligence agencies and the interrogators to do whatever it took to get that information out of the detainees, especially the few high-value ones we had, and when people kept coming up empty, they were told by Cheney's and Rumsfeld's people to push harder," he continued.

"Cheney's and Rumsfeld's people were told repeatedly, by CIA . . . and by others, that there wasn't any reliable intelligence that pointed to operational ties between bin Laden and Saddam, and that no such ties were likely because the two were fundamentally enemies, not allies."

Senior administration officials, however, "blew that off and kept insisting that we'd overlooked something, that the interrogators weren't pushing hard enough, that there had to be something more we could do to get that information," he said. . . .

Colin Powell aide Lawrence Wilkerson

http://www.thewashingtonnote.com/archives/2009/05/the_truth_about/
First, more Americans were killed by terrorists on Cheney's watch than on any other leader's watch in US history. So his constant claim that no Americans were killed in the "seven and a half years" after 9/11 of his vice presidency takes on a new texture when one considers that fact. And it is a fact.

There was absolutely no policy priority attributed to al-Qa'ida by the Cheney-Bush administration in the months before 9/11. Counterterrorism czar Dick Clarke's position was downgraded, al-Qa'ida was put in the background so as to emphasize Iraq, and the policy priorities were lowering taxes, abrogating the ABM Treaty and building ballistic missile defenses.

Second, the fact no attack has occurred on U.S. soil since 9/11--much touted by Cheney--is due almost entirely to the nation's having deployed over 200,000 U.S. troops in Iraq and Afghanistan and not to "the Cheney method of interrogation."

Those troops have kept al-Qa'ida at bay, killed many of them, and certainly "fixed" them, as we say in military jargon. Plus, sadly enough, those 200,000 troops present a far more lucrative and close proximity target for al-Qa'ida than the United States homeland. Testimony to that fact is clear: almost 5,000 American troops have died, more Americans than died on 9/11. Of course, they are the type of Americans for whom Cheney hasn't much use as he declared rather dramatically when he achieved no less than five draft deferments during the Vietnam War.

Third--and here comes the blistering fact--when Cheney claims that if President Obama stops "the Cheney method of interrogation and torture", the nation will be in danger, he is perverting the facts once again. But in a very ironic way.

My investigations have revealed to me--vividly and clearly--that once the Abu Ghraib photographs were made public in the Spring of 2004, the CIA, its contractors, and everyone else involved in administering "the Cheney methods of interrogation", simply shut down. Nada. Nothing. No torture or harsh techniques were employed by any U.S. interrogator. Period. People were too frightened by what might happen to them if they continued.

What I am saying is that no torture or harsh interrogation techniques were employed by any U.S. interrogator for the entire second term of Cheney-Bush, 2005-2009. So, if we are to believe the protestations of Dick Cheney, that Obama's having shut down the "Cheney interrogation methods" will endanger the nation, what are we to say to Dick Cheney for having endangered the nation for the last four years of his vice presidency?

Likewise, what I have learned is that as the administration authorized harsh interrogation in April and May of 2002--well before the Justice Department had rendered any legal opinion--its principal priority for intelligence was not aimed at pre-empting another terrorist attack on the U.S. but discovering a smoking gun linking Iraq and al-Qa'ida.

So furious was this effort that on one particular detainee, even when the interrogation team had reported to Cheney's office that their detainee "was compliant" (meaning the team recommended no more torture), the VP's office ordered them to continue the enhanced methods. The detainee had not revealed any al-Qa'ida-Baghdad contacts yet. This ceased only after Ibn al-Shaykh al-Libi, under waterboarding in Egypt, "revealed" such contacts. Of course later we learned that al-Libi revealed these contacts only to get the torture to stop.

There in fact were no such contacts. (Incidentally, al-Libi just "committed suicide" in Libya. Interestingly, several U.S. lawyers working with tortured detainees were attempting to get the Libyan government to allow them to interview al-Libi....) . . . [read on]

http://www.gwynnedyer.com/articles/Gwynne%20Dyer%20article_%20%20Al-Qaeda%20and%20Iraq.txt
Colin Powell, US Secretary of State at the time, told the United Nations Security Council in February, 2003, when he was trying to get the UN to back the invasion of Iraq. He said that "a senior terrorist operative" who "was responsible for one of al-Qaeda's training camps in Afghanistan" had told US interrogators that Saddam Hussein had offered to train al-Qaeda in the use of chemical and biological weapons.

[NB: That was al-Libi, and that was not true. Now al-Libi is dead, unable to tell us about the circumstances of his questioning.]

The White Whale

http://digbysblog.blogspot.com/2009/05/still-all-about-iraq-by-dday-among-many.html
[Dday] Over and over again, we have seen Iraq as the white whale to the Bush Administration, as their sole focus through much of the first term appeared to be laying down the basis for invasion and occupation. Everything flows from this original sin. And we can now say with a good degree of surety that the torture programs rose from a desire to link Iraq with 9/11 and Al Qaeda. if you want to know why Dick Cheney has been on the teevee more than American Idol lately, throwing up roadblocks and confusion and assorted nonsense, it's because he doesn't want this fact, which apparently came from his office, revealed.

http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/2009/05/bubbling.php
[Josh Marshall] Sen. Whitehouse (D-RI) was just interviewed on MSNBC and he talked about the new reports that Vice President Cheney tried to get the Iraq WMD investigators -- after the invasion -- to waterboard an Iraqi intelligence official to try to pump him for information about Saddam's alleged alliance with al Qaida. Whitehouse noted that this would dramatically change the legal terms of the question since even the notorious OLC memos allow practices like waterboarding to avoid imminent threats to the US. But waterboarding this Iraqi guy about Saddam's relationship with al Qaida -- after the invasion -- would have been to get political information, proof of the purported but then largely discredited rationale for the war. (Also worth noting is that an Iraqi intelligence official captured during the invasion would, I think, very clearly be an old fashioned POW.)

More and more the timeline is raising the question of why, if the torture was to prevent terrorist attacks, it seemed to happen mainly during the period when we were looking for what was essentially political information to justify the invasion of Iraq.

More: http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2009/5/14/731410/-Wilkerson,-Cheney-and-the-Torture-Lies-that-Took-Us-to-Iraq

http://www.salon.com/opinion/conason/2009/05/14/cheney/

More questions

http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/2009/05/reader_musings.php
[RW] This torture thing looks like it has real legs. And it may ironically turn on the reverse of the famous Watergate question of "What did the President know and when did he know it?" Because if it turns out the President didn't get the full story from Cheney and the torture memos were after-the fact justifications, not explorations of policy options, we are looking at something far, far greater than we realized a week ago.

We always knew the Bush gang had an “us against the world” mentality. Turns out, they really did – and still do!

http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/2009/05/got_paranoia.php
Cheney: "We fail to recognize the fact that we're alone out there in terms of trying to achieve the objective of forcing the Iranians to give up their nuclear weapons. Everybody's in a giant conspiracy to achieve a different objective than the one we want to achieve."

Liz helps Daddy

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2009/5/14/731361/-Defending-Dick
He's got hundreds of people coming to him saying, 'Please keep doing what you're doing.' . . .

[NB: Hundreds!]

The CIA refuses to release the reports Cheney wants in order to show that torture was “effective”

http://www.salon.com/politics/war_room/2009/05/14/cheney_request/index.html

http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/archives/individual/2009_05/018179.php

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2009/5/14/731544/-Cheneys-Memo-Release-Denied

Is a torture investigation more likely now?

http://politics.theatlantic.com/2009/05/ten_reasons_why_a_torture_probe_is_more_likely.php

http://washingtonindependent.com/42873/hearing-lays-groundwork-for-torture-prosecutions

Nothing to hide?

http://emptywheel.firedoglake.com/2009/05/14/leahy-to-bybee-why-wont-a-federal-judge-testify-before-senate-judiciary-committee/
Leahy to Bybee: Why Won’t a Federal Judge Testify before Senate Judiciary Committee? . . .

The Republicans are in some weird space now in defending torture: we didn’t do it; even if we did do it, it was necessary; we are proud of doing it – I don’t know where they are any more. But the new twist is this: we didn’t torture, and there’s nothing wrong with it; but we told the Dems we were doing it and they didn’t stop us, so if you’re angry about it, blame them

http://foxforum.blogs.foxnews.com/2009/05/14/rove_karl_pelosi_torture/
[Karl Rove] Nancy Pelosi Was an Accomplice to ‘Torture’ . . .

Nancy Pelosi smashes that line of argument

http://blogs.abcnews.com/thenote/2009/05/pelosi-cia-lied.html
In her first public comments on the matter since an intelligence report contradicted her recollections, Pelosi, D-Calif., told reporters today that she was never told about the fact that waterboarding had been used on a terrorist suspect, even though terrorist suspect Abu Zubaydah had been waterboarded a month before she was briefed on the subject in Sept. 2002.

“The only mention of waterboarding at that briefing was that it was not being employed,” Pelosi said, reading from a prepared statement. “Those briefing me in Sept. 2002 gave me inaccurate and incomplete information.”

“At the same time, the Bush administration was misleading the American people about the threats of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq,” she added. “The CIA was misleading the Congress. At the same time, the administration was misleading the Congress on weapons of mass destruction in Iraq.”

Pelosi dismissed suggestions that she was in any way complicit in the Bush administration’s policies, just because she and others in Congress were briefed on the subject along the way. She asserted that Congress was powerless to stop the administration.

“This is a policy that was conceived and implemented by the Bush administration,” the speaker said. “Throughout my career, I have been proud to work for human rights and against torture around the world. . . . I unequivocally oppose the use of torture by our government, because it is contrary to our values.” . . .

More: http://emptywheel.firedoglake.com/2009/05/14/senator-bob-graham-the-cia-made-up-two-briefing-sessions/
Bob Graham just appeared on WNYC's Brian Lehrer Show. In addition to repeating earlier reports that he was never briefed on waterboarding, Graham revealed that the first time he asked the CIA when he was briefed on torture, it claimed it had briefed him on two dates when no briefing took place. . . .

[NB: Remember Graham? He of the notoriously detailed daily diary? http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2009/5/14/731433/-Pelosi,-Graham-and-the-CIAs-Lies]

The GOP is shocked – SHOCKED – by the implication that the CIA might be lying

http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/2009/05/boehner_lie_the_cia_thats_crazy_talk.php

http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/archives/individual/2009_05/018183.php

Hmm. . . if the release of photos documenting prisoner abuse and torture puts our troops in greater harm – maybe that’s a good reason not to do it, you think?

http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/2009/05/14/afghanistan/index.html

http://www.juancole.com/2009/05/obama-reversal-on-torture-photos-is-he.html

The Supreme Court may rule that they have to release those photos anyway

http://digbysblog.blogspot.com/2009/05/tortured-politics-by-digby-liz-cheney.html

Karl Rove to be interviewed by federal prosecutor. Here it comes?

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/05/14/AR2009051402816.html

You knew that Arlen Specter, running on the Democratic side, was going to have to find a way to reverse his previous reversal and end up back on the pro-union side of the EFCA issue again. Surprise, surprise, he’s had another change of heart

http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2009/05/specter-were-close-to-a-compromise-on-efca.php

http://www.salon.com/politics/war_room/2009/05/14/efca/index.html

Weird: http://politicalwire.com/archives/2009/05/14/specter_keeps_his_gop_consultant.html
Republican media consultant Chris Mottola "has decided to stick with Sen. Arlen Specter despite the fact that the Pennsylvania senator will be running for reelection as a Democrat in 2010” . . .

A party in denial

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2009/5/14/731347/-NRCC-looking-for-diverse-pro-choice-candidates
[Bloomberg] California Representative Kevin McCarthy, the chief recruiter for House Republicans, said he wants his party to select candidates based less on ideology and more on their chances of winning. The goal, he said, is to seek out prospects who are ethnically diverse, female, less partisan and even supportive of abortion rights. So far, these efforts are more concept than reality. . . . [read on]

Another senior Republican to step down

http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2009/05/cornyn-hutchison-could-resign-from-senate-this-fall.php

Oh good, maybe Norm Coleman’s appeal of the Minnesota voting will be upheld, and he’ll be seated just in time to have to resign in disgrace

http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2009/05/report-feds-investigating-further-on-coleman-kazeminy.php
The St. Paul Pioneer Press reports that the FBI has expanded its probe of ethics allegations that dogged Norm Coleman during the final days of the 2008 campaign . . .

More: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/05/13/fbi-investigating-coleman_n_203204.html

The kind of people they (still) are

http://yglesias.thinkprogress.org/archives/2009/05/arkansas-state-senator-calls-chuck-schumer-that-jew.php
Arkansas State Senator Calls Chuck Schumer “That Jew”

http://www.samefacts.com/archives/watching_conservatives_/2009/05/that_jew.php
[Mark Kleiman] Fearless predictions:

1. RSCC and conservative PACs will cheerfully pour money into this race if Hendren is the nominee.

2. No national Republican figure will criticize Hendren for his bigotry.

3. Neither will any Red blogger.

4. Nor Abe Foxman or any other right-wing professional Jew.

5. Hendren will never actually apologize to Schumer.

6. There will be zero fuss about this in the national press.

Bonus item: Looks as if Rush has finally met his match

http://www.salon.com/politics/war_room/2009/05/14/roberta_mccain/index.html

***If you enjoy PBD and support what we are doing, you can help by forwarding a copy of this issue to your friends (using the envelope link below) or by sending them a copy of its URL (http://pbd.blogspot.com).

I don't get anything personally out of this project, except the satisfaction of doing it (I don't run ads, etc). The credit really all goes to the people whose material I copy and redistribute. But if I do have a "mission," it is to get this information into the hands of as many people as I can.***
- posted by Nick Burbules @ 7:32 AM

 
DECLASSIFIED INTELLIGENCE

Highlights from the torture hearings

Graham

http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/archives/individual/2009_05/018157.php
[Lindsey Graham (R-SC)] "Here's what I think happened [after Sept. 11, 2001]: the nation was rattled. The administration went on the offensive and they looked at some statutes on the book as a way I wouldn't have looked at. They were very aggressive. They were going to make sure this didn't happen again, and they tried to come up with interrogation techniques, evaluating the law in a way I disagree with their evaluation. But there is not one iota of doubt in my mind they were trying to protect the nation.

“But they made mistakes. They saw the law, many times, as a nicety that we couldn't afford.

"So, they took a very aggressive interpretation of what the law would allow, and that came back to bite us. It always does.

"But that's not a crime. What we have to understand as a nation, is the fact that we embrace the rule of law is a strength, not a weakness."

[Steve Benen] I wish the second part of Graham's speech would take a closer look at the first part of Graham's speech. . . .

http://emptywheel.firedoglake.com/2009/05/13/lindsey-graham-cheney-put-people-in-gitmo-who-werent-military-threat/
[Emptywheel] Lindsey Graham spent much of the torture hearing trying to find a narrow ground from which he could condemn torture, yet prevent anyone from being held accountable for torture. But in an effort to admit past problems at Gitmo, he named names. One name--that of Dick Cheney. . . .

http://theplumline.whorunsgov.com/probes-of-bush-administration/whoops-lindsey-graham-cites-retracted-report-as-proof-torture-worked/
[Greg Sargent] Hmm, not a great moment. While directing hostile questioning at a witness during the Senate torture hearing, GOP Senator Lindsey Graham cited an infamous ABC News report from 2007 that said a terror suspect broke under minimal waterboarding, and suggested it undercut the claim that torture didn’t work.

But Graham didn’t appear to be aware that the report has since been debunked, and that ABC itself has since corrected the record. . . .

http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/2009/05/tried_and_true.php
[Josh Marshall] Fun new argument from Lindsey Graham: these torture methods have lasted from the middle ages because they work.

More: http://washingtonindependent.com/42810/soufan-vs-lindsay-graham

Zelikow

http://washingtonindependent.com/42819/zelikow-sums-it-up
[Daphne Eviatar] During this morning’s Senate Judiciary subcommittee hearing on torture, Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) who chaired the hearing, asked Philip Zelikow, the former state department adviser, about the reaction he received when he objected to the interrogation techniques approved by the Office of Legal Counsel. Whitehouse noted that “lawyers love to debate. It’s our nature to quarrel with other and exchange views.” So how did the Justice Department lawyers respond to Zelikow’s arguments?

“The arguments I was making were pretty profound,” answered Zelikow. “Because if I was right, their whole interpretation of the CID standard [the standard for "cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment," forbidden by the Convention Against Torture and by the U.S. Constitution] was fundamentally unsound.”

So they had “a few options,” Zelikow said. One is, “let’s take another look at this” and see if there’s any validity to the different opinion, or, “they could say, Zelikow, this shows how rusty you are in practicing law. We need to tell you why you’ve misunderstood this area of the law.”

But in fact, said Zelikow, “they didn’t do any of those things.” They chose a third option. “They just said, ‘we don’t want to talk about it.’”

And it’s that third option — intentionally burying your head in the sand — that demonstrates bad faith and an intent to ignore the relevant law, as the legal ethics expert David Luban testified.

http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/2009/05/zelikow_my_alternative_torture_memo_has_been_found.php
Philip Zelikow just offered a bit of news about the memo he wrote offering an alternative view on the legality of torture, which he said the White House tried to have destroyed.

Zelikow told the Senate committee that the memo, which had not previously been found, "has been located in State Department files and is being reviewed for declassification." . . .

More: http://politics.theatlantic.com/2009/05/zelikow_administration_wanted_to_torture.php

http://washingtonindependent.com/42849/zelikow-i-didnt-ask-rice-about-2002-torture-decisions

Soufan

http://theplumline.whorunsgov.com/torture/top-fbi-agent-will-detail-failures-of-enhanced-interrotation-contradict-claim-that-it-worked/
[Greg Sargent] A top FBI interrogator who witnessed CIA enhanced interrogations firsthand will offer a detailed explanation at a Senate hearing today of the ways the techniques were ineffective and even counterproductive — and will directly contradict claims that they extracted high-value information, according to an advance copy of his testimony.

The testimony by the FBI agent, Ali Soufan, is the most detailed explanation he’s yet offered about the failures of these techniques, and will sharply undercut the claims by Dick Cheney and other torture apologists that they worked.

The use of the techniques “taints sources, risks outcomes, ignores the end game, and diminishes our moral high ground in a battle that is impossible to win without first capturing the hearts and minds around the world,” he will say. “It was one of the worst and most harmful decisions made in our efforts against al Qaeda.”

Soufan, an F.B.I. supervisory special agent from 1997 to 2005, is set to testify today before the Senate Judiciary Committee. A copy of his testimony is here. The highlights of what he’ll say . . . [read on]

http://emptywheel.firedoglake.com/2009/05/13/soufans-narrative/
[Emptywheel] Ali Soufan didn't get to read his entire prepared statement in today's SJC hearing. But his prepared statement adds some more nuance to the narrative of how CIA started to torture Abu Zubaydah. . . . [read on]

http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/2009/05/soufan_challenges_torture_advocates_case.php
Ali Soufan is now making the point that torture advocates cite the interrogations of KSM and Jose Padilla as two cases in which torture produced results. But waterboarding wasn't approved until August 1, 2002 -- after the interrogations of those two suspects occurred. . . .

http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/2009/05/soufan_lawful_techniques_unlike_torture_got_key_in.php
What Soufan is saying is that when he used lawful interrogation techniques agaist Zubaydah, he got actionable intelligence within an hour, including the identification of Khalid Sheik Mohamed as the mastermind of the 9/11 attacks.

However, when a contractor came in and began using harsher techniques, Zubaydah clammed up. . . .

http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/2009/05/soufan_torture_is_amateurish_technique.php
Soufan: Torture Is "Amateurish Technique"

A summary

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2009/5/13/731125/-Whitehouse-Judiciary-Committee-Hearing-Round-up
[Sheldon Whitehouse, R-RI] There's so many points here that it's hard to pick them all apart. There's the point that it's wrong. There's the point that it's ineffective. There's the point that it's illegal. There's the point that in order to get there they had to disrupt and wreck a lot of American democratic process in order to get there. And then there's the final part which is . . . my focus on the lying, which is that there is a huge sales and spin campaign going on to misrepresent what took place....

We accomplished three things today. We showed that the factual predicates in the OLC memos about what had happened were false. We showed that administration lawyers who got a look at the OLC opinions were horrified and tried to push back, and instead of engaging in a debate to see if they were right or wrong they were just squelched and shut down. And we showed that by the standards against which attorneys should be judged for malfeasance experts agree that the OLC opinions don't cut the mustard and that they qualify for sanction. . . . [read on]

More testimony: http://emptywheel.firedoglake.com/2009/05/13/senate-judiciary-hearing-on-torture/

http://emptywheel.firedoglake.com/2009/05/13/senate-judiciary-hearing-on-torture-two/

More on the issue of torture briefings

http://emptywheel.firedoglake.com/2009/05/13/if-youre-trying-to-commit-a-crime-you-wouldnt-brief-democrats/
[Lindsey Graham (R-SC)] “Now. I don't know what Nancy Pelosi knew and when she knew it. And I really don't think she's a criminal if she was told about waterboarding and did nothing. But I think it is important to understand that members of Congress, allegedly, were briefed by ... about these interrogation techniques. And again, it goes back to the idea of what was the Administration trying to do. If you're trying to commit a crime, it seems to me that'd be the last thing you'd want to do. If you had in your mind and your heart that you're going to disregard the law, and you're going to come up with interrogation techniques that you know to be illegal, you would not go around telling people on the other side of the aisle about it.”

[Emptywheel] Ahem. . . . Yes. . . . That's the point now, isn't it?

More: http://emptywheel.firedoglake.com/2009/05/13/philip-zelikow-how-bushco-gamed-the-briefing-process/

http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/2009/05/whats_behind_cia_decision_to_release_torture_brief.php

Obama reverses himself, says he won’t release photos of prisoner abuse

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2009/5/13/730984/-Obama-Blocks-Release-of-More-Torture-Photos
President Obama has ordered government lawyers to object to the planned release of additional detainee photos, according to an administration official.

The Defense Department was set to release hundreds of photographs showing alleged abuse of prisoners in detention facilities in Afghanistan and Iraq.

"Last week, the president met with his legal team and told them that he did not feel comfortable with the release of the [Defense Department] photos because he believes their release would endanger our troops . . .”

Why? http://politics.theatlantic.com/2009/05/why_did_obama_reverse_court_on_the_torture_pictures.php

http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/2009/05/very_lame.php
[David Kurtz] Press Secretary Robert Gibbs is on TV now defending the move with what I have to say is an extremely lame rationale. He doesn't look like he's convinced even himself. . . .

http://digbysblog.blogspot.com/2009/05/danger-to-our-country-by-digby-come-on.html
[Digby] Come on. The administration is now refusing to release the remaining Abu Ghraib pictures because they have the potential to cause harm to our troops in Iraq and Afghanistan? Really?

It seems to me that we should probably get them out of a war zone, then. Talk about dangerous. Why, last I heard they are getting shot at every day over there. . . . [read on]

http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/2009/05/bad_sign.php
[David Kurtz] It's hard not to view today's reversal by the White House, announcing that photos of detainee abuse in Afghanistan and Iraq will not be released to the public, as a sign of how long and hard they think the slog is ahead in Afghanistan -- and how crucial the outcome there will be for the future success of this Administration.

Obama has installed a new commander in Afghanistan who is steeped in counterinsurgency doctrine and devoted considerable resources and political capital to a new strategy there. I'm speculating, but the White House and Pentagon must not have cherished the idea of having their new start in Afghanistan undermined by the release of pictures that would further inflame the Muslim world.

That's not a defense of the decision. I think it's a bad one. But it's an ominous decision for reasons that go beyond upholding the spirit of FOIA.

http://voices.washingtonpost.com/postpartisan/2009/05/obamas_sister_soulja_moment.html
[David Ignatius] President Obama’s decision this week to reconsider release of inflammatory Pentagon interrogation photos may mark a shift in his administration’s handling of politically charged national security issues -- upsetting his allies on the left but making some new friends among conservatives in the military. . . . [read on]

Obama explains: http://www.salon.com/politics/war_room/2009/05/13/obama_statement/index.html

Bloggers react: http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/2009/05/13/photos/index.html

http://politics.theatlantic.com/2009/05/bloggers_react_to_detainee_photos_decision.php

I don’t think you’ve ever heard me quote Jesse “The Body” Ventura, former pro wrestler and then governor of Minnesota. But I guess there’s always a first time

http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/2009/05/13/ventura/index.html
VENTURA: [I]t's a good thing I'm not president because I would prosecute every person that was involved in that torture. I would prosecute the people that did it. I would prosecute the people that ordered it. Because torture is against the law.

KING: You were a Navy SEAL.

VENTURA: That's right. I was water boarded, so I know -- at SERE School, Survival Escape Resistance Evasion. It was a required school you had to go to prior to going into the combat zone, which in my era was Vietnam. All of us had to go there. We were all, in essence -- every one of us was waterboarded. It is torture.

KING: What was it like?

VENTURA: It's drowning. It gives you the complete sensation that you are drowning. It is no good, because you -- I'll put it to you this way, you give me a waterboard, Dick Cheney and one hour, and I'll have him confess to the Sharon Tate murders.

Cheney isn’t limiting his (endless) Farewell Tour to defending torture policies and accusing Obama of selling us out to the terrorists – he’s offering lots of free foreign policy advice too

http://www.salon.com/politics/war_room/2009/05/13/cheney/index.html

Keep going, Dick!

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5is5VnvQUdDNozO5pjszrt6BK72LgD98571LG0
To the chagrin, perhaps, of Republicans looking to rebuild the tattered party, Dick Cheney has grabbed the spotlight. . . .

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/05/13/AR2009051303789.html
As Cheney Seizes Spotlight, Many Republicans Wince . . .

http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/2009/05/a_very_small_man.php
[Josh Marshall] Many people are clearly and understandably incensed by Vice President Cheney's on-going media campaign advocating state-sponsored torture and his making what appear to be all sorts of false claims about how effective his torture policies were. But though it's maddening and offensive, I'm more on the side of being heartened or at least glad to see the exposure he's getting -- not so much because it's politically damaging to the Republicans, which is probably true, but because he's (as is his puppet daughter) showing and can't help but show more and more about who he is. . . .

Cheney's conceit is that he's tough enough, perhaps best to say, icy enough to make the trip to what he calls 'the dark side' to protect America. But the picture emerging even from his own comments is very different. It's of a small and paranoid man, a half-comic character off the pages of mid-20th century anti-totalitarian fiction, with a seemingly inordinate protectiveness for torture practices that seem to have been only marginally effective at best. And yet here he is with the classified memo he keeps in a special folder in his desk making the case for his torture policies. Here he is at another moment metaphorically tightening the screws on this or that detainee trying to get confessions about the fairytale al Qaida-Iraq link, though it's worth wondering whether he's really sure it's there or is open to getting false confessions that can then be leaked to this or that journo at the Washington Times or, sad to say, The New York Times. . .

So by all means let him keep talking. As TPM Reader BH notes, he seems unable to maintain his famed self-discipline and indifference to public opinion as his own sorry record dribbles into the public record. The more that comes out about him, the more pathetic he seems. Paranoia, serial poor judgment, inability to distinguish desires from facts and an almost adolescent inability not to get drawn into the thrill of the 'dark side'.

http://theplumline.whorunsgov.com/probes-of-bush-administration/happy-hour-open-thread-feingold-says-cheneys-got-nutin/
There was another key moment from today’s torture hearings that didn’t get the attention it deserved: Russ Feingold said explicitly that he’d seen the CIA docs that Dick Cheney wants declassified, and claimed they aren’t the bombshell Cheney has been promising . . .

Feingold didn’t contest Cheney’s claim that the docs will prove that torture extracted important information. He merely said they won’t prove torture was “necessary” or prove that “they were the best way to get information out of detainees.” . . .

Lawrence Wilkerson, former Colin Powell aide, does a number on Cheney

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2009/5/12/730778/-Fmr.-Powell-deputy-unloads-on-Cheney

Good one

http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2009/05/bill-clinton-i-do-hope-cheney-gets-some-more-target-practice.php
[Eric Kleefeld] Former President Bill Clinton has a clever response to former Vice President Dick Cheney's public criticism of the Obama Administration, CNN reports.

"I wish him well," Bill said, adding that "it's over," presumably a reference to the Bush-Cheney years being done with.

Bill added: "But I do hope he gets some more target practice before he goes out again."

Are the Dems afraid of a Truth Commission on torture, because their own culpability will be revealed?

http://www.salon.com/politics/war_room/2009/05/13/pelosi_waterboarding/index.html

Jesus Christ!

http://washingtonindependent.com/42853/would-jesus-authorize-torture
The Associated Press asks prominent evangelicals and leaders of the religious right if Jesus would condone torture. Some evangelicals say every life is sacred and torture is not peaceful and therefore incongruent with Christian teachings. But religious right leader Gary Bauer says that while Jesus wouldn’t torture, he would permit his followers to do so.

Just a reminder of why new Philadelphia Inquirer columnist John Yoo is a monster

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2009/5/13/730814/-Philadelphia-Inquirer-Explains-Why-It-Hired-John-Yoo
[2005] Cassel: If the president deems that he's got to torture somebody, including by crushing the testicles of the person's child, there is no law that can stop him?

Yoo: No treaty

Cassel: Also no law by Congress -- that is what you wrote in the August 2002 memo . . .

Yoo: I think it depends on why the President thinks he needs to do that.

[NB: Let's be very clear about this. For all the explaining that "waterboarding isn't torture," the actual position of the Bush gang was that it wouldn't matter even if it WERE torture. The President can do anything he deems necessary, even the brutal and illegal, if he deems it necessary to protect the country.]

Obama doesn’t even have a Supreme Court nominee yet, and already the GOP is lining up to oppose them

http://www.politico.com/blogs/bensmith/0509/GOP_PAC_warns_Senate_Republicans.html
The National Republican Trust PAC, currently the best-funded and most aggressive independent Republican group, has dispatched a round of letters to Republican senators threatening to go after senators who back President Obama's judicial nominees. . . . [read on]

More: http://www.mydd.com/story/2009/5/13/1740/63855

Turning “empathy” into a bad word

http://www.slate.com/id/2218103/

http://www.samefacts.com/archives/law_notes_/2009/05/judging_and_empathy.php

http://yglesias.thinkprogress.org/archives/2009/05/the-case-against-the-case-against-empathy.php

The Repubs manage to block the appointment of the number two official in the Interior Dept. Why?

http://www.salon.com/politics/war_room/2009/05/13/filibuster/index.html
Senate blocks its first Obama nominee

http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2009/05/why-did-republicans-filibuster-david-hayes.php
Why Did Republicans Filibuster David Hayes?

http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2009/05/hayes-cloture-vote--where-were-three-key-democrats.php
Hayes Cloture Vote--Where Were Three Key Democrats?

http://politicalwire.com/archives/2009/05/13/reid_uses_franken_as_threat.html
A "very ticked-off" Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) predicted that the nominee for the Interior Department's number two post "will be approved despite the lockstep opposition" of Senate Republicans, reports Politico.

Said Reid: "We will confirm David Hayes. If I have to wait until Al Franken comes, we will confirm David Hayes." . . .

They’re looking to block another, too

http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/archives/individual/2009_05/018153.php
[Steve Benen] Let's acknowledge at the outset that allowing a shrinking Senate minority to mandate 60 votes for confirmation is itself absurd. No president in American history has had to deal with this kind of obstructionism to put together the team he wants, staffing relatively unknown administration posts. It's obstructionism on an unprecedented scale and it's an unsustainable way for the political process to operate.

Let's also take a moment to note that Johnsen is an exceptional nominee, who is unquestionably qualified, and clearly deserves confirmation.

That said, what kind of show is Harry Reid running here? His caucus has 59 members, and Sen. Dick Lugar of Indiana, a conservative Republican, has already endorsed Johnsen's nomination. We have Democratic senators who won't even let the president's choice for the OLC get a vote because she's pro-choice?

http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/2009/05/13/dawn_johnsen/index.html
Dawn Johnsen's belief in the rule of law disqualifies her from Senate confirmation

http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2009/05/reid-admits-it-i-dont-have-votes-for-johnsenyet.php
Reid Admits It: 'I Don't Have Votes For Johnsen...Yet' . . .

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2009/5/13/730944/-A-leadership-failure-on-Dawn-Johnsen
A leadership failure on Dawn Johnsen

http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2009/05/what-democrats-inability-to-move-johnsen-forward-says-about-democrats.php
What Democrats' Inability To Move Johnsen Forward Says About Democrats

More: http://christyhardinsmith.firedoglake.com/2009/05/13/olc-make-that-a-stick-harry/

http://yglesias.thinkprogress.org/archives/2009/05/obstruction-of-well-qualified-obama-nominees-succeeding.php

The GOP continues its downward spiral into parody and self-destruction. Failing mightily in their efforts to rebrand themselves, their latest burst of genius is to rebrand the Dems instead

http://dyn.politico.com/printstory.cfm?uuid=374BB348-18FE-70B2-A809C8AB9B015B33
[Roger Simon] A member of the Republican National Committee told me Tuesday that when the RNC meets in an extraordinary special session next week, it will approve a resolution rebranding Democrats as the “Democrat Socialist Party.”

When I asked if such a resolution would force RNC Chairman Michael Steele to use that label when talking about Democrats in all his speeches and press releases, the RNC member replied: “Who cares?”

Which pretty much sums up the attitude some members of the RNC have toward their chairman these days.

Steele wrote a memo last month opposing the resolution. . . .

http://firedoglake.com/2009/05/13/late-night-the-republicans-have-an-ingenious-plan-to-make-everyone-forget-the-past-eight-years/
[Watertiger] Okay, stop laughing. They're SERIOUS about this! . . .

In the face of Godzillian deficits, an economy face down in the dirt, and two blood- and money-sucking, never-ending sand wars, the best the Party of Old Rich White Goiters can come up with is . . . name-calling.

More: http://digbysblog.blogspot.com/2009/05/socialist-schmocialist-by-digby-theyre.html

http://washingtonindependent.com/42821/rnc-member-media-is-missing-the-point-on-democrat-socialist-resolution

http://www.mydd.com/story/2009/5/13/165056/081

Michael Steele, can’t get no respect

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2009/5/13/730700/-CNN:-Republicans-bashing-Republicans

GOP hardliners really seem to believe that their chances are improved by a closer embrace of Rush Limbaugh – a notion that Rush does everything in his power to encourage. The problem is . . .

http://yglesias.thinkprogress.org/archives/2009/05/rush-rules-their-world.php
[Matt Yglesias] I just find the whole thing kind of mind-boggling. Rush’s defenders understand, I hope, that painting Rush as the all-powerful lord of conservatism before whom all else must submit was, in its origins, a political strategy devised by their enemies, right? So why are they jumping so quickly to prove that the argument is dead-on? . . . [read on]

Here’s another first-time PBD quote, from Camille Paglia

http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/2009/05/13/levin/index.html
Camille Pagila writes today about the bile and deranged hate-mongering routinely spewed by right-wing talk radio. She writes about it as though it's a new phenomenon when that's what it's been doing for several decades now, though perhaps she's right that it has worsened since Obama's election. . . . [read on]

In Florida, more self-destruction

http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2009/05/dems-hope-for-messy-gop-senate-primary-in-florida-gopers-predict-smooth-road-for-crist.php
[Eric Kleefeld] The big question in the 2010 Florida Senate race, where moderate Republican Gov. Charlie Crist has just declared his candidacy for his open GOP-held seat, is just how much of a frontrunner he is -- and whether the GOP primary could get messy.

For example, the conservative blog RedState.com is already telling readers to not give any support to the NRSC because of their immediate endorsement of Crist: "We can disagree with the NRSC on many things, but this one is a bridge too far." And the Club For Growth is calling on Crist to reject a state budget plan that includes tax and fee increases.

A Florida Democratic source confidently predicted to me that Crist, who supported the stimulus bill and has taken other moderate positions, will face a divisive primary against former state House speaker Marco Rubio, running on the right. "It's already happening," the Dem source said. "Before he [Crist] was even in the race, his last campaign manager and former chief of staff was already taking shots at Rubio, and Rubio obviously took a lot of shots at him yesterday. So it's already ugly. They're not even waiting."

http://www.openleft.com/diary/13338/help-redstate-banish-republicans-from-power-for-50-years
RedState.com has a mission: reduce the Republican Party to literally one red state. . . .

More: http://www.salon.com/politics/war_room/2009/05/13/redstate/index.html

http://theplumline.whorunsgov.com/campaigns/top-conservative-blogger-calls-for-boycott-of-nrsc-over-crist/

More cult-like qualities

http://yglesias.thinkprogress.org/archives/2009/05/the-rights-reagan-fixation.php
[Matt Yglesias] As all normal people understand, contemporary American conservatism has a bizarre cult-like obsession with Ronald Reagan. . . . [read on]

Bonus item: Miss California, gay-bashing breast-enhanced soft-porn-posing fundamentalist Christian, keeps her crown and proclaims her right of free (hate) speech. But that’s not the best part – the best part is Donald Trump, moral arbiter, saying that he’s reviewed the photos personally (uh-huh) and they’re not so bad. In fact, "she's very beautiful." There, now go wash your brain out with soap

http://thelede.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/05/12/the-donald-carrie-prejean-and-the-tiara/
Donald Trump just declared that Carrie Prejean will remain as Miss California USA. He said that she had given an honest answer to a tough question, and that there’s nothing wrong with the pictures of her. “We’re very proud of her,” he said, calling her strong, tough, smart and very beautiful.

More: http://www.americablog.com/2009/05/olbermann-on-miss-californias-latest.html

***If you enjoy PBD and support what we are doing, you can help by forwarding a copy of this issue to your friends (using the envelope link below) or by sending them a copy of its URL (http://pbd.blogspot.com).

I don't get anything personally out of this project, except the satisfaction of doing it (I don't run ads, etc). The credit really all goes to the people whose material I copy and redistribute. But if I do have a "mission," it is to get this information into the hands of as many people as I can.***
- posted by Nick Burbules @ 5:47 AM

 
DEFENDING THE INDEFENSIBLE

The Bob Schieffer interview with Dick Cheney was one that had me yelling at the t.v. The obvious questions Schieffer didn’t ask were maddening – and Cheney relies on that opportunity to calmly and reasonably assert complete b.s. without fear of being contradicted or pressed on it. Gah!

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/05/11/AR2009051102670.html
[Eugene Robinson] "It's good to go back on the show," Cheney told host Bob Schieffer at the beginning of the interview. "It's nice to know that you're still loved and are invited out in public sometimes."

I don't know about the love, but I do know why Cheney gets asked to appear on talk shows so regularly. Unrestrained by protocol or objective reality, he's pretty much guaranteed to say outrageous things. He requires no prompting or coaxing. As far as he's concerned, issues have just one side -- his -- and anyone who disagrees must secretly wish to deliver our nation to al-Qaeda.

So when Schieffer asked if Cheney "literally" meant to say that the Obama administration has "made this country more vulnerable" to terrorist attacks by repealing Bush-era policies on torture and detention, the former vice president didn't pause for a nanosecond. "That's my belief," Cheney said, "based upon the fact, Bob, that we put in place those policies after 9/11. . . . It was a time of great concern, and we put in place some very good policies, and they worked, for eight years."

Cheney added that "to the extent that those policies were responsible for saving lives, that the administration is now trying to cancel those policies or end them, terminate them, then I think it's fair to argue -- and I do argue -- that that means in the future we're not going to have the same safeguards we've had for the last eight years."

This is the crux of Cheney's "argument," and I put the word in quotation marks because it isn't really a valid argument at all. After the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, the Bush administration approved programs and methods that previously would have been considered illegal or unacceptable: arbitrary and indefinite detention of terrorism suspects, waterboarding and other abusive interrogation methods, secret CIA prisons, unprecedented electronic surveillance. Since 2001, there have been no new attacks on what the Bush administration creepily called the "homeland." Therefore, everything that was done in the name of preventing new attacks was justified.

The fallacy lies in the fact that it is impossible for Cheney to prove that anti-terrorism methods within the bounds of U.S. law and tradition would have failed to prevent new attacks. Nor, for that matter, can Cheney demonstrate that torture and other abuses were particularly effective. . . . [read on]

http://emptywheel.firedoglake.com/2009/05/12/dicks-presidential-level-torture-decision/
[Emptywheel] I'm just now catching up to Dick's appearance on CBS yesterday. And I gotta say, I'm not sure who comes off as more obtuse in this exchange, Cheney or Bob Schieffer. . . . [read on]

Liz Cheney goes on t.v. (again) to defend her Daddy. What kind of man puts his daughter in the position of defending his own decision to promote torture?

Watch: http://tpmtv.talkingpointsmemo.com/?id=2512026

http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/archives/individual/2009_05/018143.php
[Steve Benen] I don't blame Eugene Robinson for not having all of the possible responses right on the tip of his tongue; dealing with Cheney's absurdities can be disorienting. But I wouldn't mind hearing Cheney (either of them, actually) respond to the question Steve Chapman recently posed: "[I]f effectiveness is the only gauge, why even debate whether these techniques fit the definition of torture? The problem with using "it worked" as an argument is that it justifies too much. By that rationale, we can justify subjecting enemy captives to every form of torture ever devised. We can even justify torturing and killing their spouses, siblings, parents and children, right in front of them."

If Cheney were to argue that this is a bridge too far, we end up right where she left us: If she knew that Khalid Sheikh Muhammad had information about an imminent threat on the United States, information that would result in the death of her family members, the death of people she cares about and loves, and that if we were to shoot KSM's children in front of him, we would be able to get that information and prevent the attack, she wouldn't do it? She would let him go ahead and launch the attack?

It's a ridiculous game.

http://digbysblog.blogspot.com/2009/05/very-slow-ticking-time-bomb-scenario-by.html
[Dday] Liz Cheney ran interference for her dear old dad today on Morning Joe, pushing that "ticking time bomb" scenario talking point we've all come to know and love. Apparently she found somewhere in those memos the insistence that the torture techniques were only supposed to be used in the event of imminent attack, which to her dad, is all the time, so I don't get the distinction.

http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/2009/05/they_play_to_win.php
[Josh Marshall] I know others have ridiculed this nonsense. But I truly cannot believe that Liz Cheney keeps going on the air to say that waterboarding cannot, by definition, be torture since we do it to our own people to prepare them for the experience of being tortured. Setting aside the elementary point that we're doing it to prepare for them for the experience of being tortured (which suggests it is torture) is it not the most obvious thing in the world that being waterboarded by your fellow soldiers, knowing that you won't be injured and that the whole experience will be very short, is nothing at all like being waterboarded by captors dozens of times with no reason to believe it will ever end?

Yesterday Liz and Dick brought their show to Fox

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2009/5/12/730605/-Liz-Cheney:-White-House-siding-with-the-terrorists
Liz Cheney: White House siding "with the terrorists" . . . [read on]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/michaeltomasky/2009/may/12/liz-cheney-torture-memos-barack-obama
Liz told Fox that she believes the Obama administration is only "interested in releasing things that really paint America in a negative light." . . . [read on]

http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2009/05/cheney-i-dont-think-we-should-just-roll-over.php
Appearing on Fox News with Neil Cavuto, former Vice President Dick Cheney strongly responded to those who have criticized him for his public campaign against the Obama administration's decisions about interrogation/torture programs. . . .

More: http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2009/5/12/730667/-Darth-Cheney-on-Fox-(again)

http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/archives/individual/2009_05/018146.php
Next week, he's delivering a speech on national security at a Washington think tank. . . .

Another Democratic Senator says CIA accounts of who was briefed about Bush/Cheney torture policies were wrong

http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/2009/05/rockefeller_cia_doc_is_wrong_--_agency_never_brief.php

More: http://emptywheel.firedoglake.com/2009/05/12/mccains-tortured-briefing-memory/

http://emptywheel.firedoglake.com/2009/05/12/dick-cheney-the-not-available-briefer/

I guess it’s not hard to argue both sides of a case when you don’t care about the truth. Compare:

Kit Bond (R-MO): http://theplumline.whorunsgov.com/torture/top-senate-republican-appears-to-admit-that-torture-helps-al-qaeda-recruitment/
In the course of attacking Obama’s decision to release the torture memos, GOP Senator Kit Bond appears to have admitted that the image of the U.S. torturing terror suspects actually helps terror recruitment and hurts our national security . . .

Karl Rove: http://www.motherjones.com/kevin-drum/2009/05/rove-torture
On Fox News last night, Karl Rove suggested that President Obama's decision to treat captives decently will become an incentive for terrorists to join al-Qaeda . . .

[NB: It doesn’t matter, just so you can pretend that Obama’s to blame.]

Hearings today on torture

http://emptywheel.firedoglake.com/2009/05/12/whitehouse-laying-the-groundwork-for-the-torture-case/
[Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI)] I hope what America will learn is that the facts that were alleged in the torture memos are very likely not true, the legal theories were contested even by Bush Administration lawyers who weren't in on the fix, and a little bit about what the consequences are for lawyers who commit professional malfeasance. , , ,

The GOP denies that they’re hostile to bipartisanship, as they vote unanimously against every Obama initiative. But here’s how you know where they really stand: Charlie Crist, one of their few national hopes, is being savaged by his right-wing opponent for being too friendly with Obama

http://theplumline.whorunsgov.com/campaigns/its-war-conservative-candidate-uses-image-of-obama-to-attack-moderate-goper/
[Greg Sargent] Barely moments after the news broke that Governor and stimulus-supporter Charlie Crist has entered the Florida GOP primary, his conservative opponent already has a new ad attacking him — with an image of President Obama . . .

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2009/5/12/730550/-FL-Sen:-Marco-Rubio-took-my-advice
[Kos] Yesterday, I sent the Club for Growth some advice on how it can stop the Charlie Crist candidacy in Florida. Like our conservative friends, we also have a vested interested in stopping a "moderate", highly popular, and electable Republican from reaching the general election. The thought of that Florida seat remaining Republican is apparently equally horrifying to all of us . . . [read on]

http://www.salon.com/politics/war_room/2009/05/12/crist_rubio/index.html
In Florida, a battle for the GOP's soul . . .

More: http://www.americablog.com/2009/05/floridas-hard-core-gopers-take-aim-at.html

Michael Steele does it again, slamming Mitt Romney for his Mormonism – then has to apologize

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2009/5/12/730341/-Steele-apologizes-after-calls-for-him-to-quit
“Remember, it was the base that rejected Mitt because of his switch on pro-life, from pro-choice to pro-life. It was the base that rejected Mitt because it had issues with Mormonism. . . “ [read on]

[NB: And then that perfectly Republican form of “apology”: “Chairman Steele regrets the way his comments have been interpreted. . . .”]

“An accidental moment of candor” about the GOP plan to string out Norm Coleman’s hopeless appeal process as long as possible

http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2009/05/an-accidental-moment-of-candor-from-judd-gregg-with-franken-tied-up-we-can-do-a-lot-with-40-votes.php
[CQ] Acording to the piece, Republicans "have vowed to block, reshape or defeat a number of Democratic initiatives in coming months, even though Specter's defection has left the Senate Republican caucus with just 40 members."

But in a 99-member Senate, 40 votes are enough to keep Democrats from cutting off debate on major legislation. "Usually you need 41 votes to get anything done around here. But right now, you can do a lot with 40 votes,'' said Judd Gregg . . .

Remember when conservatism was actually viewed seriously as a political philosophy? When respected intellectuals like Richard Posner gave weight and substance to conservative arguments? Ask him now

http://yglesias.thinkprogress.org/archives/2009/05/richard-posner-throwing-in-the-towel-on-the-conservative-movement.php
“My theme is the intellectual decline of conservatism, and it is notable that the policies of the new conservatism are powered largely by emotion and religion and have for the most part weak intellectual groundings. That the policies are weak in conception, have largely failed in execution, and are political flops is therefore unsurprising. The major blows to conservatism, culminating in the election and programs of Obama, have been fourfold: the failure of military force to achieve U.S. foreign policy objectives; the inanity of trying to substitute will for intellect, as in the denial of global warming, the use of religious criteria in the selection of public officials, the neglect of management and expertise in government; a continued preoccupation with abortion; and fiscal incontinence in the form of massive budget deficits, the Medicare drug plan, excessive foreign borrowing, and asset-price inflation.

By the fall of 2008, the face of the Republican Party had become Sarah Palin and Joe the Plumber. Conservative intellectuals had no party.

And then came the financial crash last September and the ensuing depression. These unanticipated and shocking events have exposed significant analytical weaknesses in core beliefs of conservative economists concerning the business cycle and the macroeconomy generally. Friedmanite monetarism and the efficient-market theory of finance have taken some sharp hits, and there is renewed respect for the macroeconomic thought of John Maynard Keynes, a conservatives’ bête noire. . . .”

More: http://www.mydd.com/story/2009/5/12/1929/06530

The GOP’s problem

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/13/us/politics/12web-nagourney.html
The Republican party’s difficulty in finding something forward-looking to say— as well as the right people to say it — has been on display for much of the six months since Mr. Obama defeated Mr. McCain.

Yet recent days have underlined the extent to which Republicans have another challenge: How to say it.

A party that has over the years been the home of a series of optimistic figures in American politics — from Ronald Reagan to Jack Kemp, who died last week, to (at times) George W. Bush — is increasingly coming across as downbeat or angry. And it is something that has Republicans increasingly worried. . . . [read on]

More: http://firedoglake.com/2009/05/12/republican-charm-offensive-gets-it-half-right/

More internal fights over the GOP’s efforts to rebrand itself

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2009/5/12/730576/-Huckabee-Mocks-Eric-Cantors-National-Council-for-a-New-America
[BarbinMD] The latest effort by the Republican Party to become relevant again, with the launching of the Eric Cantor-led National Council for a New America (NCNA), continues to crash and burn, today, courtesy of Mike Huckabee . . . [read on]

Richard Cohen, Washington Post columnist, is a moral moron

http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/archives/individual/2009_05/018140.php
"Blogger Alert: I have written a column in defense of Dick Cheney . . .” [read on]

More: http://firedoglake.com/2009/05/12/americas-concern-troll-2/

http://www.eschatonblog.com/2009/05/monsters_12.html

Why, why, WHY is John Yoo being rewarded with a regular column at the Philadelphia Inquirer?

http://digbysblog.blogspot.com/2009/05/failing-upwards-by-dday-i-almost-have.html

http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/archives/individual/2009_05/018139.php

http://www.salon.com/politics/war_room/2009/05/12/yoo/index.html

http://theplumline.whorunsgov.com/torture/john-yoo-used-newspaper-gig-to-attacks-critics-calling-for-torture-probe/
John Yoo Used Newspaper Gig To Attack Critics Calling For Torture Probe . . .

Edwards vs. Gingrich

http://yglesias.thinkprogress.org/archives/2009/05/why-does-adultury-only-matter-for-democrats.php

Bonus item: “Ask a wingnut”

http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/archives/individual/2009_05/018142.php

***If you enjoy PBD and support what we are doing, you can help by forwarding a copy of this issue to your friends (using the envelope link below) or by sending them a copy of its URL (http://pbd.blogspot.com).

I don't get anything personally out of this project, except the satisfaction of doing it (I don't run ads, etc). The credit really all goes to the people whose material I copy and redistribute. But if I do have a "mission," it is to get this information into the hands of as many people as I can.***
- posted by Nick Burbules @ 6:34 AM

 
KILLING THEMSELVES

Keep talking, Dick

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2009/5/11/730161/-Lt.-Col.-Oliver-No-Regrets-Cheney
[Meteor Blades] Now that Dick Cheney has said in his "no regrets" interview with Bob Schieffer on "Face the Nation" that he would go before Congress to make his case that "enhanced techniques of interrogation" saved hundreds of thousands of lives, it would well to remember amid the snickering that Cheney does have some reason for believing he can shape the national narrative.

Progressives rightly ridicule this chickenhawk neoconservative for being the worst possible spokesman of an already battered Republican Party, who, after all, has a popularity rating that barely moves the gauge. But, as mockable as a guy who drunkenly shoots a friend in the face at a hunting zoo can be, Cheney still makes for a wily, dangerous opponent. And I think that he secretly thinks he could pull off an Ollie North seated in front of Congresspersons for whom he has so much contempt. . .

http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/2009/05/is_the_most_forceful_advocate_for_probing_torture.php
Is The Most Forceful Advocate For Probing Torture ... Dick Cheney?

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2009/5/11/730054/-Cheney-Testify-Not.-Gonna.-Happen.
Cheney Testify? Not. Gonna. Happen.

More avuncular lies from Cheney

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2009/5/11/730067/-Cheneys-Guantanamo-Lies

Keep talking, Rush

http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/archives/individual/2009_05/018126.php
"What motivates Dick Cheney? He doesn't need the money. He has no further political ambitions. He is not hot for interns. He is not a torture freak. He knows that he is toxic and despised by the drive-by media and the Democrat party and the left in this country.

“What motivation does Dick Cheney have to go out and say these things? Is it possible that Dick Cheney is motivated by national interest? Is it possible that Dick Cheney is motivated by love of and for his country? Is it possible that Dick Cheney is speaking from his heart and is not speaking politically?"

http://www.salon.com/politics/war_room/2009/05/11/limbaugh_cheney/index.html
“Dick Cheney's not concerned about legacies. He's smart enough to know that the legacy that's written about the Bush administration is gonna be BS until this generation of writers has assumed room temperature and moved on. So he's not -- he knows he can't correct the historical record. He's going on these shows to talk to the American people. He's one Republican voice. He's also saying we shouldn't moderate as a party. We only win when we are conservatives ... Dick Cheney knows that people in the middle of the road get run over. . .:”

Watch: http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2009/5/11/730263/-Rush-Limbaugh-repays-the-favor,-salutes-Dick-Cheney

Robert Gibbs makes the most of it

http://tpmtv.talkingpointsmemo.com/?id=2507481

Cheney wants two reports released that he says will document all the valuable intel gained through torture. He doesn’t say who commissioned those reports (himself?) or why. But HERE’S the report that’s really going to damn him

http://theplumline.whorunsgov.com/torture/white-house-to-declassify-holy-grail-torture-report-that-could-undercut-cheney/
[Greg Sargent] The White House has decided to declassify and release a classified 2004 CIA report about the torture program that is reported to have found no proof that torture foiled any terror plots on American soil — directly contradicting Cheney’s claims. . . .

Dem Congressional staffers tell me this report is the “holy grail,” because it is expected to detail torture in unprecedented detail and to cast doubt on the claim that torture works — and its release will almost certainly trigger howls of protest from conservatives. . . .

More: http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/michaeltomasky/2009/may/11/cia-report-torture-dick-cheney

A man dies

http://www3.signonsandiego.com/stories/2009/may/12/1n12libi004041-bogus-source-iraq-dies-libyan-priso
[WP] A former CIA high-value detainee, who provided bogus information that was cited by the Bush administration in the run-up to the Iraq war, has died in a Libyan prison, an apparent suicide, according to a Libyan newspaper. . . .

http://www.juancole.com/2009/05/al-libi-case-eloquent-testimony-against.html
Al-Libi Case Eloquent Testimony against Torture . . .

Who approved torture?

http://www.salon.com/politics/war_room/2009/05/11/cheney/index.html
[Alex Koppelman] Who can even begin to guess at what's motivating former Vice President Dick Cheney to continue to go on all the Sunday shows in order to defend waterboarding and slam the Obama administration? . . .

There was one new bit of information from Cheney, though, an admission of something that was basically known already, but is still significant: Bush personally approved the CIA's interrogation methods.

"I certainly, yes, have every reason to believe he knew -- he knew a great deal about the program. He basically authorized it. I mean, this was a presidential-level decision. And the decision went to the president. He signed off on it," Cheney said.

http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/2009/05/get_me_the_information.php
[RW] Several interesting things just connected in my mind. Saw Jon Stewart show a clip of Cheney saying that Bush "basically approved" of the interrogation program. His answer was as woozy as it gets. Then on the replay of Hardball, watched Lawrence O'Donnell answer Chris Matthew's musings on a Cheney prosection by suggesting it would be for "usurping" Bush on the issue.

Really, where the torture scandal could break open is the exact nexus of who actually authorized the program and Cheney's frantic efforts to get information linking Saddam Hussein to the Iraq war. Wherever Iraq touches the torture question is going to be the flashpoint--it undercuts the "ticking time bomb" rationale for the program. Its also where politicals are going to have their deepest interactions with the program. That's where people need to look. Somebody needs to superimpose the timeline of the Iraq run-up over what we know about the timeline of the torture program. Anywhere Cheney, Iraq and torture meet is going to be radioactive.

Who was briefed on torture? Two leading Dems say, not them

http://theplumline.whorunsgov.com/probes-of-bush-administration/questions-questions-and-more-questions-about-torture/

This man must be stopped!

http://www.salon.com/politics/war_room/2009/05/11/sessions/index.html
When Republicans try to retake the House of Representatives next year, Rep. Pete Sessions, R-Texas, will be the man leading them. So he might want to come up with a more convincing message.

Sessions, who heads the National Republican Congressional Committee, doesn't just think President Obama's policies will harm the country. He thinks that's actually part of the president's plan . . .

Sessions said that the current administration wants to "diminish employment and diminish stock prices" in a "divide and conquer" strategy that's part of a power grab. He added that Obama's plans are "intended to inflict damage and hardship on the free enterprise system, if not to kill it" . . .

http://www.usnews.com/blogs/peter-roff/2009/05/11/obama-must-stop-blaming-bush-accept-responsibility-for-failing-economic-policies.html
[US News] According to White House Budget Director Peter Orszag, as Reuters reported Monday, "High U.S. budget deficits are being driven by an economic crisis that President Barack Obama inherited." . . .

It is true that the U.S. economy was in bad shape when Obama came into office. But he and his top appointees want us to believe that their preferred solution—pushing huge increases in federal spending in his so-called economic recovery act and his budget for the upcoming fiscal year though Congress to prime the Keynesian pump, putting money in the hands of their political constituencies—are in no way related to the just announced record $1.8 trillion federal deficit. . . .

A breakthrough on health care reform?

http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2009/05/health-care-kumbaya--how-big-a-deal-was-todays-white-house-event.php
Health Care Kumbaya--How Big A Deal Was Today's White House Event

Analysis: http://yglesias.thinkprogress.org/archives/2009/05/the-significance-of-todays-health-care-announcement.php
The Significance of Today’s Health Care Announcement . . .

http://www.mydd.com/story/2009/5/11/15143/3746
Two ways of looking at today's health care reform news . . .

http://politics.theatlantic.com/2009/05/a_new_beginning_for_health_care_reform_1.php
A New Beginning For Health Care Reform?

http://theplumline.whorunsgov.com/president-obama/the-incredible-shrinking-opposition-to-health-care-reform/
The Incredible Shrinking Opposition To Health Care Reform . . .

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/michaeltomasky/2009/may/12/obama-administration-congress
The healthcare breakthrough (or is it?)

Krugman’s happy: http://www.americablog.com/2009/05/krugman-praises-obama-over-health-care.html

Reich’s not so happy: http://tpmcafe.talkingpointsmemo.com/talk/blogs/robert_reich/2009/05/obama-on-health-reform-the-dog.php
The only troubling thing about the President's statements today concerning health care reform was what he did not say: that he wanted a any health plan that emerges from Congress to include a public insurance option for Americans who do not want to buy private insurance . . .

http://www.openleft.com/diary/13294/the-move-away-from-singlepayer
The Move Away from Single-Payer . . .

http://yglesias.thinkprogress.org/archives/2009/05/free-market-health-care.php
[James Kwak] I happen to think that a free market for insurance works pretty well in most circumstances (and I did co-found an insurance software company); for example, if you can afford the house, you can generally afford the insurance for the house. But it doesn’t work very well for health care, because many people are simply uninsurable under free market principles (expected health care costs exceed their income, let alone their ability to pay), and hence would be left to die. We think we have a private, for-profit insurance system today, but we can only avoid its disturbing implications by hedging it in with public backstops and regulations. . . . [read on]

“Some say” – more anonymous slurs against Sonia Sotomayor

http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2009/05/the-secret-sotomayor-scotus-slanders-continue.php
[WP] Raised by her mother in a Bronx housing project after her father died, Sotomayor rose to the highest academic achievements at Princeton and then Yale Law School. Some say, though, that she has not distinguished herself on the appeals court. . . . [read on]

David Souter gave long and distinguished service as a Supreme Court justice – and his departure from DC is being almost entirely ignored (except for the question of who will replace him). Why the disrespect?

http://digbysblog.blogspot.com/2009/05/village-in-nutshell-by-dday-bob.html

Mitt Romney is one of the last best hopes for the GOP in 2012 and beyond. I’m not worried about him, but he has a lot in his favor, he has a ton of money, and he’s definitely running. So what does Michael Steele do, but go out of his way to tear him down? More brilliant leadership from the head of the party

http://www.salon.com/politics/war_room/2009/05/11/steele_romney/index.html

Another promising GOP hopeful is Charlie Crist, popular former Florida governor, now running for Senate. Will Steele backstab him too? Just watch

http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/archives/individual/2009_05/018136.php

Roxana Saberi is released from an Iranian prison. What kind of brutal, dictatorial state imprisons innocent journalists like that?

http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/2009/05/11/journalists/index.html
[Glenn Greenwald] But imprisoning journalists -- without charges or trials of any kind -- was and continues to be a staple of America's "war on terror," and that has provoked virtually no objections from America's journalists who, notably, instead seized on Saberi's plight in Iran to demonstrate their claimed commitment to defending persecuted journalists.

Beginning in 2001, the U.S. held Al Jazeera cameraman Sami al-Haj for six years in Guantanamo with no trial of any kind, and spent most of that time interrogating him not about Terrorism, but about Al Jazeera. . . .

In Iraq, we imprisoned Associated Press photographer Bilal Hussein -- part of AP's Pulitzer Prize-winning war coverage -- for almost two years with no charges of any kind. . . .

Right now -- as the American press corps celebrates itself for demanding Saberi's release in Iran -- the U.S. continues to imprison Ibrahim Jassam, a freelance photographer for Reuters . . . [read on]

Poor, poor Rush

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/05/11/AR2009051103385.html
[Dana Milbank] Rush Limbaugh was halfway through his second hour of broadcasting excellence yesterday when he paused for a moment of self-pity. . . . [read on]

Bonus item: There are different views over whether Wanda Sykes “went too far” in her jokes the other night. (I remember Don Imus too.) But can anyone doubt that this was the crudest, most tasteless attempt at humor EVER at the WH Correspondents Dinner?

http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/2009/05/yeah_those_were_the_days.php
[PJ] Remember GW Bush joking about the "missing WMD's" when he appeared at the same event a few years back? IMHO, that was a truly low point for our nation-- a President laughing about the fact that nobody could find the nuclear weapons that provided the central rationale for his assault on Iraq, which resulted in hundreds of thousands of deaths.

Watch: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nKX6luiMINQ

***If you enjoy PBD and support what we are doing, you can help by forwarding a copy of this issue to your friends (using the envelope link below) or by sending them a copy of its URL (http://pbd.blogspot.com).

I don't get anything personally out of this project, except the satisfaction of doing it (I don't run ads, etc). The credit really all goes to the people whose material I copy and redistribute. But if I do have a "mission," it is to get this information into the hands of as many people as I can.***
- posted by Nick Burbules @ 7:48 AM

 
CULT-LIKE QUALITIES

http://www.motherjones.com/kevin-drum/2009/05/quote-day-51009
[Bill Schneider] "The Republicans aren't a party, they're a cult." [read on]

More: http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/archives/individual/2009_05/018114.php

The GOP has decided to run the line that the Obama administration is more or less knowingly enabling terrorists to take over our nation

http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/2009/05/tpmdc_sunday_roundup_12.php
Dick Cheney speaks up again, says his political opponents are "prepared to sacrifice American lives."

More: http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/archives/individual/2009_05/018116.php
[Hilzoy] Dick Cheney forfeited the right to lecture anyone on their willingness to sacrifice American lives the day he decided to deceive us into an unnecessary war. . . . [read on]

http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/archives/individual/2009_05/018113.php
[Newt Gingrich] Sitting down with Chris Wallace on Fox News Sunday, Gingrich claimed that the former firm of Attorney General Eric Holder had represented 17 alleged terrorists on a pro-bono basis. "For no fee," he added, for good measure. "It is the largest single thing they were doing for free, defending Yemenis."

Firms like Holder's Covington & Burling, of course, have represented alleged terrorist under the notion that everyone deserves a legal defense, not out of some shared ideology or political sympathies. But context and clarification weren't Gingrich's order of business on Sunday. There was, he claimed, a "weird pattern" of Democratic administrations "defending alleged terrorists," as opposed to Bush officials, who "defend[ed] Americans."

"You look at the Obama administration," he said, "the number of attorneys that have been appointed who were defending alleged terrorists. There's this weird pattern where the Bush people wanted to defend Americans and were pretty tough on terrorists. These guys are prepared to take huge risks with Americans in order to defend terrorists."

No doubt about it – this is a party in deep trouble. Dick Cheney says he’d rather have Rush Limbaugh in his party that Colin Powell

http://www.politico.com/blogs/politicolive/0509/Cheney_on_Colin_Powell_I_didnt_know_he_was_still_a_Republican.html
Former Vice President Dick Cheney took an extraordinary public swipe at Colin Powell Sunday, questioning in a TV interview whether the former Bush administration secretary of state was even a Republican anymore.

Cheney, appearing on CBS's Face the Nation, said he was taking the side of Rush Limbaugh over Powell in the ongoing dispute in the GOP between the conservative talk show host and moderate retired general.

"Well if I had to choose in terms of being a Republican, I’d go with Rush Limbaugh," Cheney told moderator Bob Schieffer. "My take on it was Colin had already left the party -- I didn't know he was still a Republican." . . .

http://www.americablog.com/2009/05/cheney-chooses-rush-limbaugh-over-colin.html
80% of voters have a favorable view of Colin Powell.

19% have a favorable view of Rush Limbaugh.

John McCain isn’t much for logic

http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/archives/individual/2009_05/018112.php
“I believe America is a right of center nation. I believe the Republican Party is a right of center party. We have to get in sync with the American people." [read on]

A party of whiners

http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/2009/05/dont_say_they_lack_a_sense_of_humor.php
[Washington Times] Yet in one area of foreign policy, Mr. Obama has taken an approach as - if not more - unilateral than that of the Bush administration. On other nations' tax and financial privacy policies, the Obama administration has taken an aggressive, almost bullying, stance in denouncing some countries as "tax havens" or lax regulators. . . .

Obama backtracks on “Don’t Ask Don’t Tell”

http://www.americablog.com/2009/05/obama-national-security-adviser-doesnt.html

More: http://www.americablog.com/2009/05/sldn-accuses-obama-of-caving-to.html

Obama’s Gitmo problem

http://politics.theatlantic.com/2009/05/the_gops_right_the_dems_have_a_gitmo_connundrum.php
[Marc Ambinder] Barring an exceptional intervention by the Courts, President Obama's three ongoing prisoner status review commissions will probably conclude that a substantial number of Gitmo prisoners ought to be released. The Attorney General, Eric Holder, spent a week in April trying to persuade European governments to accept some of them. Others might be rendered to detention camps in Saudi Arabia, or maybe Yemen. And others, particularly those for whom there is little evidence that they were complicit in anything beyond being at the wrong place at the wrong time, may well be released into the United States, perhaps under some form of supervised custody, perhaps not. Others, if convicted in regular or new military courts, will be sentenced to life in prison. Given that the government no longer has extra-territorial prisons (with the exception of its Afghanistan war detention facility at Bagram and some places in Iraq) - these bad guys will spend the rest of their days in supermax facilities like Fort Leavenworth, in Kansas.

A lot could go wrong . . .

Did the “stress tests” work?

http://www.americablog.com/2009/05/more-signs-that-stress-test-was-joke.html
[Chris in Paris] The troubled banks "haggled" to get the bad figures reduced so they did not have to report even worse numbers. This continues to show how much power and influence those most responsible for our economic crisis hold even today. No change, just more of the same. . . .

Harry Reid, worse than useless sometimes

http://digbysblog.blogspot.com/2009/05/if-homicide-is-wrong-i-dont-wanna-be.html
Reid: What went on, waterboarding, torture, of course it was. I don’t want to be drowned. I think that as afraid of – as afraid of – as afraid as I am with water, frankly probably you could drown me and I would confess to a lot of things that weren’t true . . .

No matter how I personally feel about torture, I think that we as you’ve indicated that we are a nation of law. And that’s why we have to get the facts and then have people render legal decisions which certainly don’t take very long, render opinion as to whether or not what was done was wrong, illegal, immoral, and you know all the other issues. . . .

Something everyone has to weigh is this, we’re a nation of laws and no one can dispute that, but I think what we have to, the hurdle we have to get over is whether we want to go after people like Cheney. That’s a decision that has to be made….

There are a lot of decisions that are made that are right that may not be absolutely totally within the framework of law. For example with President Nixon . . . I mean . . . should he have been impeached or did President Ford do the right thing? . . .

Theocracy watch: seeking a reasoned debate on creationism (if that’s possible)

http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/archives/individual/2009_05/018111.php

Bloggers and the traditional media are in more of a symbiotic than adversarial relation – but that doesn’t mean there aren’t tensions

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/10/opinion/10rich.html
[Frank Rich] If you wanted to pick the moment when the American news business went on suicide watch, it was almost exactly three years ago. . . .

http://www.americablog.com/2009/05/frank-rich-someone-needs-to-pay-to-keep.html
[John Aravosis] Almost every post we write on this blog is based on a story in the traditional media. Usually there's some value-added, sometimes, as in this post, there's a lot of value-added. We use the traditional media's story as a starting point to discuss a larger idea. We excerpt the story, link to it, then add our own unique, original analysis. Rather than stealing the news, I believe we enhance it, and help it by linking back, sending our readers to, and overall promoting the big stories of the big media. That's why many journalists today SEND US their stories, hoping for a link. And we send our stories, and even our tips, back to them. . . . [read on]

More: http://www.dailykos.com/story/2009/5/9/729743/-This-Is-Why-We-Need-A-Blogosphere

Bonus item: How Davids beat Goliaths

http://www.mydd.com/story/2009/5/10/175944/910

***If you enjoy PBD and support what we are doing, you can help by forwarding a copy of this issue to your friends (using the envelope link below) or by sending them a copy of its URL (http://pbd.blogspot.com).

I don't get anything personally out of this project, except the satisfaction of doing it (I don't run ads, etc). The credit really all goes to the people whose material I copy and redistribute. But if I do have a "mission," it is to get this information into the hands of as many people as I can.***
- posted by Nick Burbules @ 6:55 AM

 
LET’S NOT KID OURSELVES

Was the Democratic leadership in Congress briefed about the Bush/Cheney torture policy?

http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/2009/05/lets_not_fool_ourselves.php
[Josh Marshall] If it turns out that the Democrats in leadership were really kept wholly in the dark about this stuff, that'd be nice to know, I guess. I'd like to think they're not compromised. But expecting or hoping for that strikes me as a recipe for disappointment and eventual special pleading in their defense.

To me, though, this is precisely why we need some version of a Truth Commission, probably one that at least on first blush is not about assigning blame or recommending punishment but simply finding out, in as disinterested a manner as possible, just what happened and who knew and okayed it.

I just think we're fooling ourselves if we don't see that many, many people -- even a lot of the "good guys" were and are compromised by what happened.

http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/2009/05/record_suggests_pelosi_did_little_in_response_to_tort.php
Record Suggests Pelosi Did Little In Response To Torture Briefing . . .

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2009/5/9/729626/-Is-who-knew-what-about-torture-in-Congress-important
[David Waldman] [H]ow fascinating that Republicans, who have all along insisted that the torture scandal was merely a matter of "policy differences" should now propose an executive branch probe into the particulars of how that policy was debated in the legislative branch. . . . [read on]

More: http://emptywheel.firedoglake.com/2009/05/09/why-is-pat-roberts-so-quiet/

There – is that so hard?

http://www.ajc.com/opinion/content/opinion/tucker/stories/2009/05/10/tucked_0510.html
At long last, a prominent Christian conservative has called waterboarding what it is: torture. Last week, Richard Land, an official with the Southern Baptist Convention, said the practice is unethical and “violates everything we stand for.”

“There are some things you should never do to another human being, no matter how horrific the things they have done. If you do so, you demean yourself to their level,” said Land . . .

Calling torture “torture” – when the other guys do it

http://digbysblog.blogspot.com/2009/05/exceptional-dissonance-by-digby-both.html

Don’t forget

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2009/5/9/728624/-Torture-Defensible-How-about-Homicide
[McJoan] Lost in much of the debate over whether or not torture is effective (never mind that it's still illegal) is the part true gruesome for most of us to want to think about, to talk about. But at The Daily Beast, lawyer and investigator for law firms and human-rights groups, John Sifton has the grim reminder of the nearly 100 men who died during interrogations. . . .

Cheney says that Reagan/G.H.W. Bush sacrificed “the little guys” to protect their own posteriors over Iran/Contra, but that he and G.W. didn’t do that. Oh, really?

http://digbysblog.blogspot.com/2009/05/hung-out-to-dry-by-digby-lot-of-people.html

Obama to retain military tribunals for Gitmo detainees?

http://emptywheel.firedoglake.com/2009/05/09/obama-to-git-mo-better-military-tribunals/

Progressives are pretty excited about Joe Sestak possibly challenging Specter in the Democratic primary in Pennsylvania – the reality is a lot less encouraging

http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2009/05/sestaks-voting-record-how-does-he-stack-up-to-arlen.php
Sestak told me that he'll be inclined to primary Specter if he doesn't prove a reliable Democratic vote on all major Democratic issues. But how reliable is Sestak?

Pretty reliable on the whole. According to the Washington Post votes database, Sestak has voted with his party 97.8 percent of the time.

But he has bucked his party on a number of key votes, particularly on national security issues. . . .

http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/2009/05/cold_water_on_the_sestak_boomlet.php
[From a longtime TPM Reader] There's some sort of weird, collective spate of wishful thinking/lunacy going on. Sestak will not be running for the Senate in 2010. . . .

First, Sestak's claim that he somehow took on the entrenched powers when he ran in 2006 is ridiculous. There was a Democratic candidate already in the race, Bryan Lentz. Lentz, unlike Sestak, actually lived in the district. He had been in the Army Reserves in Iraq. When Sestak left the Navy and started talking about moving back to the area and running for the House, the local Democratic party pushed Lentz out of the race. . . .

Also, Sestak had Bill Clinton behind him, from his time working at the White House. This was a huge plus in terms of both fundraising and name recognition; Clinton did at least one fundraiser in the area for Sestak. Not too many insurgents have a former president behind them. . . .

[H]ow is Sestak going to beat Specter in the Democratic primary? Let me give you four names: Obama, Biden, Rendell, Casey. They've all put themselves on the line for Specter. There's no way they're going to let Specter lose. They'll shut off the money for Sestak, and Joe can't count on the Clinton connection for fundraising help this time. Plus Specter is very well known statewide, and Sestak isn't.

Finally, think about about this from the national party's point of view. They would love to get Snowe and/or Collins to switch over. A big Democratic win in 2010 makes that more likely. But not if they see Specter going down to defeat in a Democratic primary. . . . [read on]

Why do people think they can get away with this? Arlen Specter puts up a fundraising site that looks like a donation to help find a cure for cancer – but which actually funnels money into his re-election campaign (then changes it when he gets caught)

http://openleft.com/diary/13250/breaking-specter-quietly-changes-cancer-cure-fundraising-site-after-denying-it-was-a-scandal

http://www.mydd.com/story/2009/5/9/144456/4702

A comeback for the Employee Free Choice Act?

http://campaignsilo.firedoglake.com/2009/05/08/feinstein-specter-compromises-pave-the-way-for-passage-of-employee-free-choice/

This should hardly be news – but YouTube is changing the process of judicial confirmation

http://www.slate.com/id/2218000/

A problem with competent women . . .

http://www.eschatonblog.com/2009/05/stupid-bitches-on-bench.html
[Dahlia Lithwick] Emily, you are so right that Jeff Rosen’s unsupported whispers about Judge Sotomayor have become the conventional media wisdom in three short days. But more troubling still, he seems to have been arguing that female jurists are by definition “mediocre” for more than a decade! Here’s a piece he did for the New York Times in 1995, arguing that President Clinton’s “single-minded pursuit of diversity, combined with an eagerness to avoid controversy, has kept him from appointing the best available legal minds to the courts.” . . .

Instead of appointing a serious intellectual heavyweight to the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals (a/k/a “The scholars Court”), Clinton tapped “Diane P. Wood, a little-known professor of antitrust law at the University of Chicago, who is currently an assistant to Deputy Attorney General Anne Bingaman.”

That same mediocre Diane Wood is not only on every shortlist for the Supreme Court today. She’s also widely regarded as one of the finest judges on the bench, to whom other brilliant judges turn for reviews of draft opinions. . . . [read on]

http://www.americablog.com/2009/05/orrin-hatch-two-of-obamas-potential.html
[Sam Stein] A top Republican Senator on the Judiciary committee suggested on Thursday that two of the people widely believed to be under consideration for a Supreme Court appointment would present "a real dilemma" for his party to oppose.

During an interview with Scott Hennen, a conservative North Dakota radio host, former Senate Judiciary Committee chairman Orrin Hatch praised Solicitor General Elena Kagan for having a "brilliant" legal mind, and called Sonia Sotomayor, a judge on the second circuit Court of Appeals, a liberal but "tough prospect."

"You have to admit Elena Kagan is a brilliant woman," said the Utah Republican. "She is a brilliant lawyer. If he picks her, it is a real dilemma for people. . . . [read on]

More: http://digbysblog.blogspot.com/2009/05/village-style-character-assassination.html

It’s never “judicial activism” when conservative judges do it

http://www.openleft.com/diary/13215/judicial-activism-done-rightreligious-right-that-is

Since the 2008 election debacle, there have been at least seven new “rebirths” for the Republican party -- and they’re gonna keep doing it until they get it right!

http://washingtonindependent.com/41799/a-peoples-history-of-the-republican-comeback

The Repubs are all excited about their new rallying cry

http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/archives/individual/2009_05/018096.php
The “"Keep Terrorists Out of America Act"

More: http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/archives/individual/2009_05/018103.php

Ouch! It’s rough getting chastened by Atrios

http://www.eschatonblog.com/2009/05/you-know-it-really-wasnt-that-long-ago.html
Media types were loving the "permanent Republican majority" storyline Uncle Karl fed them. It was stupid then, and it's stupid to talk about them going extinct, now, too.

Extinct? I don’t know – the numbers look very discouraging for them

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2009/5/9/729631/-Gallup:-Party-ID-And-Future-Voters

http://yglesias.thinkprogress.org/archives/2009/05/the-gender-gap-in-party-id.php

Michael Steele’s first 100 days!

http://thinkprogress.org/2009/05/08/steele-100-days/

Mike Huckabee: Republicans need the social conservatives, and can’t deviate from their pet issues

http://www.mydd.com/story/2009/5/9/15523/31962

http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/archives/individual/2009_05/018105.php

Sick, but oh-so revealing. Jonah Goldberg, living proof that the punditocracy is no meritocracy, says all the Republicans need is an “Hispanic Ward Connerly”

http://firedoglake.com/2009/05/08/jonah-goldberg-all-republicans-need-is-a-really-popular-hispanic-guy-who-bashes-immigrants/

The kind of man he is (Rush Limbaugh edition)

http://digbysblog.blogspot.com/2009/05/swine-screw-by-digby-this-pretty-much.html
[Digby] Last night, Rush Limbaugh came to Washington, D.C. to address the President’s Club Dinner, a meeting of wealthy donors and supporters of the Heritage Foundation. The audience included Supreme Court justice Clarence Thomas, Sen. Jim DeMint (R-SC), as well as various millionaire trustees of the Heritage Foundation, like Thomas Saunders.

After more or less reprising his radio show routine, Limbaugh went on to brag about his $400 million contract with Clear Channel Communications. . . .

LIMBAUGH: But during all this growth I haven’t lost any audience. I’ve never had financially a down year. . . .

I'd love to hear him say that on the air.

Meanwhile, as he's bragging to a bunch of fat cats about how he avoids recession by being a rapacious, greedy pig Rush's employer, Clear Channel, is laying off people by the thousands. . . .

Blogs and the traditional media

http://www.motherjones.com/kevin-drum/2009/05/civic-function-blogs
[Andrew Sullivan] A good blog, with a tenacious blogger, on a difficult subject, can keep at a subject with intensity newspapers are hard-pressed to match. And as long as there are meta-blogs or aggregators or edited blogs that can highlight niche blogging on important, less-read subjects, these issues can be brought to the fore. Ideally, blogs and newspapers form a helpful nexus. But both can and will evolve to save the old civic function of the press.

[Kevin Drum] I don't disagree with this. Still, even as recently as the 2008 campaign, it was striking how little impact most net-based feeding frenzies had until they were picked up by someone in the mainstream press. So far, at least, it's still the MSM that mostly provides legitimacy to stories and forces public officials to react to negative publicity. I wonder how long that will continue to be true?
image

Sunday talk show line-ups (a broad spectrum of opinion this week)

http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2009/05/the-sunday-show-line-ups-5.php
• ABC, This Week: Gen. David Petraeus, Commander of CENTCOM; Sen. John McCain (R-AZ).

• CBS, Face The Nation: Former Vice President Dick Cheney.

• CNN, State Of The Union: Gen. David Petraeus, Commander of CENTCOM.

• Fox News Sunday: Gen. David Petraeus, Commander of CENTCOM; former Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-GA).

• NBC, Meet The Press: Hamid Karzai, President of Afghanistan; Asif Ali Zardari, President of Pakistan.

[NB: Now, this may just be a diabolical ploy by the liberam media, because they know that the more exposure Cheney, Newt and McCain get, the worse it is for the Republicans: http://www.mydd.com/story/2009/5/8/13512/06768]

Bonus item: We finally get to see the plans and layout for the new G.W. Bush Presidential Library (thanks to John Aravosis for the link)

http://www.goodnightbush.com/librarium/

Extra bonus items: from the WH Correspondents Dinner

Obama: http://www.americablog.com/2009/05/obama-at-correspondents-dinner.html

Sykes (a little over the top? I thought so – and I hear boos): http://www.americablog.com/2009/05/wanda-sykes-abused-rush-and-hannity-at.html

***If you enjoy PBD and support what we are doing, you can help by forwarding a copy of this issue to your friends (using the envelope link below) or by sending them a copy of its URL (http://pbd.blogspot.com).

I don't get anything personally out of this project, except the satisfaction of doing it (I don't run ads, etc). The credit really all goes to the people whose material I copy and redistribute. But if I do have a "mission," it is to get this information into the hands of as many people as I can.***
- posted by Nick Burbules @ 7:13 AM

 
THE BLAME GAME

This whole dispute about whether some Dem leaders were secretly briefed on the Bush gang’s torture techniques is starting to bore me. So what if they were? I’m happy to share the blame, and anyone who knew what was going on and okayed it is culpable as far as I am concerned, but in what way is it an excuse for what was going on? The torture regime was 100% a production of the Bush gang, led by Cheney and Addington, and they wouldn’t have listened to Democratic objections even if there were any

http://theplumline.whorunsgov.com/torture/the-key-waterboarding-question/

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2009/5/8/729204/-CIA-and-Pelosi:-Still-No-Proof-She-Was-Briefed-on-Waterboarding

http://emptywheel.firedoglake.com/2009/05/08/breaking-news-cia-manipulating-briefing-process/

http://politics.theatlantic.com/2009/05/pelosi_torture_and_the_wilderness_of_mirrors.php

http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/2009/05/record_suggests_pelosi_did_little_in_response_to_tort.php

Dick Cheney’s torture talking points tour

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3036677/#30649784

The NYT weighs in on the nasty whispering campaign against prospective Supreme Court nominees

http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/2009/05/08/nyt/index.html

http://www.salon.com/politics/war_room/2009/05/08/scotus/index.html

More: http://washingtonindependent.com/42300/the-attack-on-sotomayor
[Daphne Eviatar] At first glance, Sonia Sotomayor would seem to be the ideal Supreme Court candidate for President Barack Obama. A highly respected judge on the prestigious Second Circuit Court of Appeals, she was first appointed to the federal bench by a Republican, President George H.W. Bush. Raised in a housing project in the South Bronx to a family of Puerto Rican descent, she went on to graduate summa cum laude from Princeton University and become a law review editor at Yale Law School, mirroring Obama’s own unlikely yet quintessentially American success story. So Sotomayor would certainly seem to embody the bipartisanship, intellectual prowess and capacity for empathy that Obama has suggested are key traits for this first Supreme Court pick. . . .

Michael Steele, a growing embarrassment

http://politicalwire.com/archives/2009/05/08/steele_leaves_everyone_speechless_again.html
"Good morning y'all, we're back in the house. We're talking a little bit of Constitution and a little bit Supreme Court. And a whole lot of saving America's judicial system and saving our rights as citizens and not having empathetic judges decide cases, but rather judges who are actually understanding the rule of law and what the Constitution and those laws are all about. And how to apply the facts to the law and the law to the facts. And adjudicate my case. I don't need some judge sitting up there feeling bad for my opponent because of their life circumstances or their condition. And short changing me and my opportunity to get fair treatment under the law. Crazy nonsense empathetic. I'll give you empathy. Empathize right on your behind. Craziness."

http://www.salon.com/politics/war_room/2009/05/08/qotd/index.html
[Alex Koppelman] Ben Smith observes, "I'm not sure the politics of directly opposing empathy are really going to work outside [legal blog] Volokh Conspiracy circles."

True enough, but I think the more important thing to note here is this: Steele has a law degree from Georgetown.

More terrible demographic indicators for the future of the GOP

http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2009/05/gallup-age-demographics-show-strong-democratic-advantages.php

More: http://firstread.msnbc.msn.com/archive/2009/05/08/1926402.aspx
[Domenico Montanaro] Could the Republican Party have gotten off to a rougher start in the Obama era? It's hard to think so. Even with Bush and Cheney no longer heading the party, the GOP finds its favorability ratings at or near all-time lows. Despite their enthusiasm for their unified opposition to Obama (on the stimulus, the budget), they're blamed more for the lack of bipartisanship in DC. While starting out with all the advantages in NY-20, they still found a way to lose that race. Despite the initial positive reaction to his victory as RNC chair, Michael Steele's reign has been, shall we say, not good. And holding on to 41 votes in the Senate, they enabled a Republican who proved he could win in the increasingly blue state of Pennsylvania to switch parties, giving Dems the prospect of a filibuster-proof majority. Yes, Obama is popular right now. And, yes, the GOP is still paying for the sins of Bush and Cheney. But what has to disappoint Republicans right now is that most of their recent problems have been self-inflicted. And to top all of this off, an effort to re-brand the party ends up causing an internal fissure between one of the party's supposed rising stars, Eric Cantor, and many of the leading conservative voices, including Rush Limbaugh. Never mind the silly debate over whether Reagan should be used as an icon or not. The issue of Reagan reminds us of the Kennedy-obsession Democrats had for decades. One could argue it took the Democrats nearly 30 years to kick the Kennedy habit (maybe longer). So, this Reagan issue may take the Republicans another 10 years to get over.

http://www.openleft.com/diary/13244/quitting-the-republican-party-a-timeline
[Tremayne] The Republican Party reached its highpoint this decade probably on September 12, 2001 or shortly thereafter. They managed to hang onto that mood (i.e. fear) through the 2004 elections and have been in freefall ever since. Here are some prominent GOP departures . . .

Mitt Romney doesn’t want to be associated with Utah or Massachusetts, so he’s selling his homes there and moving to . . . New Hampshire. This guy’s obviously running for something

http://firedoglake.com/2009/05/08/all-the-subtlety-of-the-anvil-chorus/

Theocracy watch: Are churchgoers nicer?

http://www.motherjones.com/kevin-drum/2009/05/are-churchgoers-nicer

The last word on gay marriage?

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/05/07/AR2009050703055.html
[Eugene Robinson] Thinking about some issues involves discerning among subtly graded shades of gray.

On some issues, though, I really don't see anything but black and white. Among them is the "question" of granting full equal rights to gay and lesbian Americans, which really isn't a question at all. It's a long-overdue imperative, one that the nation is finally beginning to acknowledge. . . .

Another phony baloney “outrage” c/o of the usual Drudge echo chamber

http://washingtonindependent.com/42282/drudge-in-action
[WP] First lady Michelle Obama called her “current life” in the White House “a very blessed situation, because I have what most families don’t have — tons of support all around, not just my mother, but staff and administration. I have a chief of staff and a personal assistant, and everyone needs that.”

“Everyone should have a chief of staff and a set of personal assistants,” Obama said with a laugh as she spoke before a crowd of business executives . . . [read on]

I think this is dumb politics

http://www.salon.com/politics/war_room/2009/05/08/cuts/index.html
Dems already fighting Obama's budget cuts
The $17 billion in planned budget cuts that President Obama announced on Thursday isn't, in the scheme of things, all that much money -- it's only about one-half of one percent of the proposed budget. But congressional Democrats are already pushing back, hard, against the proposals, and they seem likely to succeed, at least in part. . .

What Citigroup is doing with the government money we’ve all shared with them

http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/2009/05/if_citigroup_--_recipient_of.php
Citibank The Student Loan Corporation

May 7, 2009

Dear [Redacted]. . .

Why Does Competition And Choice Matter?
Without private lender involvement through the Federal Family Education Loan Program, students and their families will not enjoy the benefits that competition has made possible for more than 40 years. . . . .

Make Your Voice Heard
If you value the ability to shop for, evaluate and choose your student loan provider, make your voice heard by contacting your Members of Congress and by signing one of the online petitions that support borrower choice and competition in federal student lending. . . [read on]

Always reminded by loyal readers that I need to keep the heat on Obama and the Dems too, here’s a contrarian take on Obama and corporatism (thanks to Elaine N. for the link)

http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/20090503_buying_brand_obama/
[Chris Hedges] Barack Obama is a brand. And the Obama brand is designed to make us feel good about our government while corporate overlords loot the Treasury, our elected officials continue to have their palms greased by armies of corporate lobbyists, our corporate media diverts us with gossip and trivia and our imperial wars expand in the Middle East. Brand Obama is about being happy consumers. We are entertained. We feel hopeful. We like our president. We believe he is like us. But like all branded products spun out from the manipulative world of corporate advertising, we are being duped into doing and supporting a lot of things that are not in our interest. . . . [read on]

Three good reasons to sleep in late on Sunday

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2009/5/8/729293/-GOP-brings-out-A-team-for-Sunday-spin
The GOP's talking heads for Sunday: Newt Gingrich on Fox News Sunday, John McCain on ABC's This Week with George Stephanopoulos, and Dick Cheney on CBS's Face the Nation. . .

Bonus item: The D-Kos crowd has been having a lot of fun with their “Goposaur” – and so I suppose this was inevitable: “Goposauric Park”

http://www.dailykostv.com/w/001296/index.html

***If you enjoy PBD and support what we are doing, you can help by forwarding a copy of this issue to your friends (using the envelope link below) or by sending them a copy of its URL (http://pbd.blogspot.com).

I don't get anything personally out of this project, except the satisfaction of doing it (I don't run ads, etc). The credit really all goes to the people whose material I copy and redistribute. But if I do have a "mission," it is to get this information into the hands of as many people as I can.***
- posted by Nick Burbules @ 7:21 AM

 
NEARING EXTINCTION?

The Republicans are finding out how difficult it is for them to reinvent themselves, when there are powerful groups (and talk radio voices) behind every piece of GOP dogma, refusing to let them go

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2009/5/7/728824/-National-Council-for-a-New-America-Cant-Catch-a-Break
After attacks by Rush Limbaugh and Tony Perkins, the National Council for a New America gets hit again for not focusing on the so-called value voters agenda . . .

http://washingtonindependent.com/42218/grover-norquist-its-foolish-to-declare-the-end-of-tax-cut-politics
Norquist: It’s ‘Foolish’ to Declare the End of Tax Cut Politics . . .

http://www.americablog.com/2009/05/cheney-no-need-for-gop-to-moderate.html
Cheney: No need for GOP to moderate . . .

http://yglesias.thinkprogress.org/archives/2009/05/conservatives-against-being-against-racism.php
Conservatives Against Being Against Racism . . .

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2009/5/7/728855/-Republican-Says-Reagan-Era-Is-Over-
Republican Says Reagan Era Is Over . . .

The Rush Limbaugh faction of the party should be calling for his head and demanding an apology in five, four, three . . .

Time magazine writes the obit

http://www.time.com/time/politics/article/0,8599,1896588,00.html
These days, Republicans have the desperate aura of an endangered species. They lost Congress, then the White House; more recently, they lost a slam-dunk House election in a conservative New York district, then Senator Arlen Specter. Polls suggest that only one-fourth of the electorate considers itself Republican, that independents are trending Democratic and that as few as five states have solid Republican pluralities. And the electorate is getting less white, less rural, less Christian — in short, less demographically Republican. . . . [read on]

More: http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2009/5/7/728868/-Time-examines-the-goposaurs,-finds-them-near-extinction

Even Joe the Plumber

http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2009/05/joe-the-plumber----quitting-the-gop.php
"Samuel Wurzelbacher, better known as Joe the Plumber, tells TIME he's so outraged by GOP overspending, he's quitting the party -- and he's the bull's-eye of its target audience," the article says.

The path back?

http://www.mydd.com/story/2009/5/7/192313/9772
CNN has a rather odd commentary from GOPer John Feehery outlining five reasons why the Republican Party will rebound. Feehery drops insightful nuggets on us like "Crisis breeds renewal" and "Talent senses opportunity" which are just longer ways around to essentially arguing that eventually things just can't actually get any worse. Trouble is, that talent that's supposed to be sensing an opportunity isn't getting much traction.

Eric Cantor's "New America" is getting killed all over the place . . .

More: http://firedoglake.com/2009/05/07/late-night-you-cant-catch-up-running-in-clown-shoes/

Politically, they’ve lost almost every tool in their arsenal except the politics of fear

http://digbysblog.blogspot.com/2009/05/terrorizing-rule-of-law-by-dday-gops.html
[Dday] The GOP's resident geniuses think they've found an issue they can run with. This has slowly built over the past several weeks, but now they've done a full rollout. It starts with the movie trailer, a preview of coming attractions. . . .

Of course, it’s a ridiculous lie: http://washingtonindependent.com/42238/holder-terrorists-wont-be-released-into-united-states

No one wants to work for Michael Steele over at the RNC

http://www.americablog.com/2009/05/gop-chair-michael-steele-still-cant-get.html

Let’s just pretend it never happened

http://washingtonindependent.com/42206/lieberman-and-graham-urge-obama-to-keep-hiding-detainee-abuse-photos
Sens. Joseph Lieberman (I-Conn.) and Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) wrote to President Obama yesterday urging him to block the impending release of photographs showing detainees abused by U.S. military personnel . . .

http://emptywheel.firedoglake.com/2009/05/07/cia-lying-to-abc-about-torture-again-abc-reporting-it-uncritically-again/
CIA Lying to ABC about Torture. Again. ABC Reporting It Uncritically. Again. . .

Impeachment for Bybee?

http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/2009/05/with_impeachment_talk_swirling_bybee_reaches_out_t.php

Rove testimony coming in June?

http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/2009/05/rove_lawyer_likely_early_june_for_us_attorneys_tes.php

An openly gay Supreme Court justice?

http://blogs.tnr.com/tnr/blogs/the_plank/archive/2009/05/06/a-gay-supreme-court-justice.aspx

http://tpmtv.talkingpointsmemo.com/?id=2486891

Jeff Sessions will be a great point person for the Republican Supreme Court opposition

http://firedoglake.com/2009/05/07/jeff-sessions-claims-he-doesnt-know-what-empathy-is/
Q: When you hear President Obama talk about nominating someone to the court who has empathy and real-world experience, do you understand what he means?

Sessions: I don't know what he means. And it's dangerous, because I don't know what empathy means. . .”

Jeffrey Rosen at TNR defends his vicious hit piece on Sonia Sotomayor

http://www.tnr.com/politics/story.html?id=6168aeb7-9869-43eb-b401-2204a0d84478
I've just returned from London to find that my piece on Sonia Sotomayor has provoked an energetic response in the blogosphere.

Many people have mischaracterized my argument . . .

http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2009/05/rosen-backs-off-on-sotomayor-calls-her-able-candidate.php
Rosen defends all aspects of his piece beyond its title, which he says was assigned without his knowledge by TNR's editors, and which he regrets. . . .

http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/2009/05/07/rosen/index.html
[Glenn Greenwald] Jeffrey Rosen and The New Republic really are owed a debt of gratitude for shining a light on how shoddy, arrogant, non-responsive and deliberately misleading so much of our establishment "journalism" really is. Rosen purports to respond today to what he condescendingly refers to as the "energetic response in the blogosphere" to his anonymity-dependent attack on Sonia Sotomayor's intellect and judgment. Rosen doesn't deign to name any of the critics and links to only a couple in passing, and is thus free to ignore many of the serious ethical problems and factual errors in his "reporting" raised by numerous commentators and to distort that which he does address. . . .

Af-Pak

http://www.slate.com/id/2217900
The good news: Obama understands what's wrong in Afghanistan and Pakistan. The bad news: He can't fix it. . . . [read on]

The Specter runaround continues

http://theplumline.whorunsgov.com/senate-dems/reid-specter-will-always-help-us-break-gop-filibusters/
Reid: Specter Will Always Vote To Break GOP Filibusters . . .

http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2009/05/specter-im-going-to-have-to-talk-with-reid-about-claim-ill-be-there-on-procedural-votes.php
Specter: "I'm Going To Have To Talk" With Reid About Claim I'll Be There On Procedural Votes

Sarah Palin, losing popularity even back in Alaska

http://www.salon.com/politics/war_room/2009/05/07/palin_popularity/index.html

Mark Kleiman reminds Christians to read their Bible

http://www.samefacts.com/archives/religion_and_politics_/2009/05/thou_shalt_not_be_as_the_hypocrites.php

More: http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2009/5/7/728160/-Beck-calls-government-Lucifer...the-devil
Now that Barack Obama is president, Glenn Beck is . . . saying the government is "acting in the role of Lucifer" and "is the devil." . . .

John Edwards vs. Newt Gingrich

http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/archives/individual/2009_05/018078.php

Bonus item: The new news (Colbert, Stewart, Olbermann, Maddow) – laced with postmodern irony

http://www.cjr.org/essay/the_sarcastic_times.php

***If you enjoy PBD and support what we are doing, you can help by forwarding a copy of this issue to your friends (using the envelope link below) or by sending them a copy of its URL (http://pbd.blogspot.com).

I don't get anything personally out of this project, except the satisfaction of doing it (I don't run ads, etc). The credit really all goes to the people whose material I copy and redistribute. But if I do have a "mission," it is to get this information into the hands of as many people as I can.***
- posted by Nick Burbules @ 7:00 AM

 
SELECTIVE OUTRAGE

The DOJ Office of Professional Responsibility report calls for sanctions against torture memo authors Yoo and Bybee, but not Bradbury. Why?

http://emptywheel.firedoglake.com/2009/05/06/the-opr-report-why-no-sanctions-for-bradbury/

Are the called-for sanctions enough?

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/05/06/AR2009050603182.html
Efforts to impose professional sanctions on Bush administration lawyers who drafted memos supporting harsh interrogations of terrorism suspects face steep hurdles, experts on legal ethics said yesterday. . . .

More: http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2009/5/6/728422/-Disbarment-wont-do-it

Philip Zelikow’s anti-torture memo memo: Who tried to get it destroyed? Will we ever get to see a copy?

http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/2009/05/zelikow_i_think_cheney_tried_to_destroy_my_torture.php

http://www.motherjones.com/kevin-drum/2009/05/who-ran-memory-hole

More on the military talking heads in the media who were secretly being paid by the Defense Dept to promote the party line

http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/2009/05/bush_dod_officials_mum_on_using_tv_military_analys.php

http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/2009/05/rumsfeld_allies_who_trashed_pulitzer-winning_story.php

Af-Pak

http://www.mydd.com/story/2009/5/6/231846/3830

http://washingtonindependent.com/42012/send-warlords-guns-and-money

http://www.mydd.com/story/2009/5/7/31843/50284

http://yglesias.thinkprogress.org/archives/2009/05/pakistan-us-relations-are-upside-down.php

How the GOP will try to kill health care reform

http://www.salon.com/politics/war_room/2009/05/06/luntz/index.html
“Humanize your approach. Abandon and exile ALL references to the "healthcare system." From now on, healthcare is about people. Before you speak, think of the three components of tone that matter most: Individualize. Personalize. Humanize. . . .” [read on]

More: http://digbysblog.blogspot.com/2009/05/steny-and-luntzy-by-digby-so-frank.html

Where does the incredible hostility to Sonia Sotomayor (who hasn’t even been nominated for the Supreme Court) come from?

http://www.motherjones.com/kevin-drum/2009/05/sonia-sotomayor

http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2009/05/anatomy-of-a-sotomayor-scotus-whisper-campaign.php

By the way: no gay nominees either, warns the GOP

http://www.mydd.com/story/2009/5/6/16244/95568

http://christyhardinsmith.firedoglake.com/2009/05/06/scotus-straight-talk-with-sen-thune/

Jefferson Beauregard Sessions (R-AL) defends his racial record

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0509/22165.html
By elevating Alabama Sen. Jeff Sessions to their top spot on the Senate Judiciary Committee, Republicans have selected their chief inquisitor for President Barack Obama’s first Supreme Court nominee: a Southern, white conservative man who has drawn fire for racially insensitive comments in the past. . . [read on]

Theocracy watch: California h.s. history teacher found in violation of the First Amendment over THIS?

http://digbysblog.blogspot.com/2009/05/first-amendment-by-digby-excuse-me.html
A federal judge has ruled that a history teacher at a Southern California public high school violated the First Amendment when he called creationism “superstitious nonsense” in a classroom lecture. . . . [read on]

Eric Cantor, the Cassius of the GOP: young, ambitious, and ruthless

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2009/5/6/728498/-McCain-Camp:-Cantors-No-Sarah-Palin
[Arjun Jaikumar] Virginia Republican Eric Cantor, the House Minority Whip (whip it good!) fancies himself the present and future of the Republican Party, especially since according to polls (such as ours), his boss John Boehner is the most unpopular politician in the United States of America.

So he's been going around merrily helping to spread the rumor that he, Eric Cantor, was on the short list of vice-presidential nominees for former presidential nominee John McCain.

The amount of truth to this assertion is approximately nil, according to McCain's people . . .

When will David Broder be finally put out to pasture?

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/05/06/AR2009050603318.html
On the very day last week that Jack Kemp, the former quarterback, congressman and 1996 vice presidential candidate, succumbed to cancer, other Republicans were honoring the example of his life by launching a search for new ideas and broader constituencies.

Eric Cantor, the young Virginian who may come closest to Kemp's level of intellectual ambition and political energy in the current Congress, played host at the first of a promised series of policy sessions, along with former governors Jeb Bush of Florida and Mitt Romney of Massachusetts.

Welcome as their enterprise is in a landscape notably barren of GOP ideas, they were a pale carbon copy of what Kemp provided an earlier generation of Republicans. . . .

[NB: “Welcome”?]

GOP pollster: the GOP looks “out of touch and irrelevant” (Gee, how much did they have to pay him to come up with that brilliant insight?)

http://theplumline.whorunsgov.com/terrorism/gop-pollster-our-national-security-attacks-on-obama-make-us-look-irrelevant/

Michael Steele said, "No RNC chairman has ever had to deal with this, and I certainly have no intention of putting up with it either." Guess what? He has to put up with it

http://www.salon.com/politics/war_room/2009/05/06/steele/index.html
With less than six months in at his post, Republican National Committee Chair Michael Steele has already faced an unprecedented challenge to his power -- and lost. . . .

Rush throws his oh-so considerable weight around

http://www.rushlimbaugh.com/home/daily/site_050409/content/01125109.guest.html
“[H]ere you have the most liberal, far-out radical liberal president and Democrat Party ever, at least in any of our lifetimes -- and as I said last week, the opportunity to contrast the Republican Party and conservatism with what Obama is doing is great. It's easy! It's profound. Fifty-eight million people voted against Barack Obama. Can you imagine? We would have won this race if we would have had a candidate who could mobilize a couple or three million more. It was just that simple. Fifty-eight million people vote against Obama. That number would have been enough to defeat every successful candidate in history except Bush in '04. Fifty-eight million people were with us, the Republicans running the worst, weakest, least conservative guy we coulda nominated . . .

The Republicans can't stop anything. I mean, they can't get more powerless than they are. Their apparent desire, their drive to regain power here is to become more like Democrats and liberals . . . You're hearing them say, "We must moderate. We must become more like Democrats. We must move to the center. We've got to get rid of our conservative identity." And I'm telling you, when they say that, they mean two things: abortion and illegal immigration opposition. They've got to get rid of those two issues. . . .

This is what they think. So I don't care about the demographics. They say the demographics are changing. (interruption) What do you mean by that, it's getting younger? What do you mean, demographics? (interruption) Mmm-hmm. There's more Hispanics. Yeah, I've been hearing this, too. I've been hearing we can't win without a black vote. I've been hearing that all my life. We can't win without the black vote, can't win without the women's vote, and we've won without majorities of both for a while. Now here's a new One: "We can't win without the Hispanic vote." I guarantee you, getting Hispanic vote, the Democrats already have it if you're going to promise big government and ever increasing welfare state. We can't outdo them! . . .

Conservatism is what would have won. We tried the non-conservative approach. We tried the, "Well, we'll tell our conservative base we're conservatives, but we're really going to make an appeal to moderate, middle-of-the-roaders, independents," and we got shellacked. . . .

Look, folks, it's this simple. We do not need a listening tour. We need a teaching tour. That is what the Republican Party, or, slash, the conservative movement needs to focus on. Listening tour ain't it. Teaching tour is more apt.”

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2009/5/6/728576/-Rush-Limbaugh-proves-hes-Eric-Cantors-boss...again
Eric Cantor, the second-ranking House Republican, has done it again, caving to Rush Limbaugh after the talk show titan attacked Cantor’s plan to hold a series of town halls to listen to the concerns of regular Americans. . . .

http://theplumline.whorunsgov.com/republican-party/limbaugh-blasts-colin-powell-suggests-he-should-leave-gop/
Limbaugh Blasts Colin Powell, Suggests He Should Leave GOP . . .

Idiots! The latest GOP lie: Obama wants to turn Gitmo terrorists loose in your neighborhood

http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/archives/individual/2009_05/018068.php

Lindsey gets the vapors over those mean old bloggers

http://digbysblog.blogspot.com/2009/05/huckleberry-howls-by-digby-were-going.html
[Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.)] “My hope is that our Democratic colleagues — if you start listening to the bloggers — if we’re going to let the bloggers run the country, then the country’s best days are behind us.”

[Digby] That's so true. Everybody knows the country should be run by radio talk show hosts.

Bonus item: Outrageous! Unacceptable! (except when they do it) – the Republicans’ highly selective sense of outrage

http://digbysblog.blogspot.com/2009/05/dont-go-there-by-digby-blogger-mark.html
[Digby] It's very nicely done, I think. It's true that the artist is probably a liberal having a little bit of fun (although it could be a Republican too, at this point) but it certainly doesn't seem like something that would terribly upset anyone. And considering the current state of the GOP, it's quite uncontroversial.

Alas, some conservatives were mighty peeved evidently. Liberals are awful depraved human beings for creating such a disrespectful image. So, being a fair and balanced guy, this prompted Frauenfelder to feature the kind of harmless political illustrations conservatives favor . . . [read on]

***If you enjoy PBD and support what we are doing, you can help by forwarding a copy of this issue to your friends (using the envelope link below) or by sending them a copy of its URL (http://pbd.blogspot.com).

I don't get anything personally out of this project, except the satisfaction of doing it (I don't run ads, etc). The credit really all goes to the people whose material I copy and redistribute. But if I do have a "mission," it is to get this information into the hands of as many people as I can.***
- posted by Nick Burbules @ 7:30 AM

 
A LITTLE DISCIPLINE

This is serious. The DOJ Office of Professional Responsibility is producing a report on the lawyering of Yoo, Bybee, and Bradbury, chief architects of the torture memos. Apparently the report is devastating, saying that they bent and twisted legal reasoning to rationalize Bush/Cheney policies. The report calls for two of them to be disciplined by state Bar Association reviews – but now there’s a full-scale pushback against the report, and former Bush officials are fighting hard to get it softened. Will Eric Holder go along?

http://www.salon.com/politics/war_room/2009/05/05/probe/index.html
[Alex Koppelman] The Washington Post is reporting that, with the Department of Justice's probe of torture memo authors Jay Bybee, Steven Bradbury and John Yoo all but complete, former Bush administration officials are "launching a behind-the-scenes lobbying campaign to urge Justice Department leaders to soften" the final product. "[A]ttorneys for the subjects of the ethics probe have encouraged senior Bush administration appointees to write and phone Justice Department officials," the Post's Carrie Johnson writes.

It's not too surprising that there'd be this kind of pushback, especially as reports like this one, at least when done by the various department inspector generals, typically include feedback from the subjects. (Admittedly, what the Post is describing is somewhat different.)

It seems to me, actually, that Johnson, to use a little industry parlance, buried her lede -- that is, there's another part of the story that's not given the same amount of emphasis but might ultimately prove more important. She says the report "recommends disciplinary action by state bar associations" against Bybee and Yoo, though not, apparently, against Bradbury.

That means the two men could face the suspension of their licenses to practice law, or perhaps even disbarment. But that's probably as far as the punitive action taken against them will go. The Obama administration, which is resistant to the idea of prosecutions anyway, has been waiting on the release of this report before announcing the DOJ's decision about whether to prosecute Bybee, Bradbury and Yoo. This conclusion will probably provide the administration's rationale for the final decision not to pursue criminal penalties.

According to Johnson, the full report could be made public as early as this summer.

More: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/05/05/AR2009050502219.html

http://digbysblog.blogspot.com/2009/05/torture-lobbyists-by-dday-heres-little.html

http://washingtonindependent.com/41950/durbin-and-whitehouse-raise-concerns-about-pending-opr-report

Will the Senate conduct the investigation into Bush/Cheney torture policies as a closed-door hearing?

http://digbysblog.blogspot.com/2009/05/turning-mirrors-by-digby-i-too-have.html

More evidence that part of the purpose of torture was to document the nonexistent Iraq/Al Qeada link

http://emptywheel.firedoglake.com/2009/05/05/dougie-feiths-little-shop-of-tortures/

Things that make you go hmmm . . .

http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/2009/05/bizarro_vindication.php
[NYT] In a highly unusual reversal, the Defense Department's inspector general's office has withdrawn a report it issued in January exonerating a Pentagon public relations program that made extensive use of retired officers who worked as military analysts for television and radio networks.

Donald M. Horstman, the Pentagon's deputy inspector general for policy and oversight, said in a memorandum released on Tuesday that the report was so riddled with flaws and inaccuracies that none of its conclusions could be relied upon. In addition to repudiating its own report, the inspector general's office took the additional step of removing the report from its Web site. . . .

Arlen Specter begins his life as a Democrat by (a) denying he ever told Obama he would be “loyal,” (b) voting against Obama on every issue so far, and (c) saying he hopes Republican Norm Coleman will pull out the election in Minnesota. Uh, Arlen . . .

http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/2009/05/just_too_cocky.php
[Josh Marshall] Last week Arlen Specter's election as a Democrat in 2010 seemed more or less a given. The big man in Pennsylvania politics (Ed Rendell) and the big man in US politics (Barack Obama) both put down their finger and said they were behind him.

But the certainty of that outcome now seems genuinely in doubt. . . .

More: http://digbysblog.blogspot.com/2009/05/good-kind-of-kabuki-by-dday-this-arlen.html

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2009/5/5/727802/-PA-Sen:-Sestak-fires-warning-shot

http://theplumline.whorunsgov.com/labor/train-wreck-on-the-horizon-for-dem-establishment-and-specter/

Oops

http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2009/05/specter-wants-coleman-to-win-in-minnesota.php
In an interview with the New York Times, Specter stated in no uncertain terms that he wants Norm Coleman to win the disputed Minnesota Senate race: "There's still time for the Minnesota courts to do justice and declare Norm Coleman the winner." . . .

http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/2009/05/wheels_coming_off.php
[Josh Marshall] So was Specter somehow joking when he said he still supports Norm Coleman? A few asked. And we were curious. So Eric Kleefeld asked interviewer Deborah Solomon. And she was sure Specter meant it.

But just as Eric and I were doing the edit we saw a new report that Specter was taking it back, saying he'd misspoken -- or to put it in his words, which really defy elaboration: "I have to get used to my new teammates."

Needing a little discipline

http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/2009/05/testing_his_limits.php
[TF] Specter is testing his limits, just like a little kid. But one of two things will happen; he will either swing more into line (with his political tone-deafness, probably inelegantly) or he will push too far, which will allow Obama to be released from any deal. (Reid, not so much--if Reid can stand up to an aggressive ant, I would be surprised.)

If Specter pushes too far, Sestak comes out fighting. (I guess that is already happening.) . . .

http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/2009/05/whatever_it_takes.php
[AK] Even if Specter has gotten off on the wrong foot with Dems, his defection in the first place shows that he's willing to do whatever it takes for political survival. He'll eventually do whatever is required to ingratiate himself to the party and to keep the blessings of Obama, Biden, Reid, etc.. That includes being on the right side of unions and health care. If he starts by playing ball with the coming supreme court nomination, Obama will send word from on high that Specter is not to be challenged.

http://voices.washingtonpost.com/capitol-briefing/2009/05/senate_democrats_deny_specter.html
The Senate dealt a blow tonight to Sen. Arlen Specter's hold on seniority in several key committees, a week after the Pennsylvanian's party switch placed Democrats on the precipice of a 60-seat majority.

In a unanimous voice vote, the Senate approved a resolution that added Specter to the Democratic side of the dais on the five committees on which he serves, an expected move that gives Democrats larger margins on key panels such as Judiciary and Appropriations.

But Democrats placed Specter in one of the two most junior slots on each of the five committees for the remainder of this Congress, which goes through December 2010. Democrats have suggested that they will consider revisiting Specter's seniority claim at the committee level only after the midterm elections next year.

Sonia Sotomayor must really be a serious candidate for the Supreme Court vacancy – the usual suspects are already trying to slime her

http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/2009/05/05/tnr/index.html

http://www.samefacts.com/archives/law_notes_/2009/05/on_sotomayor.php

http://yglesias.thinkprogress.org/archives/2009/05/sonia-sotomayor-and-affirmative-action.php

http://oxdown.firedoglake.com/diary/5151

What the hell is Chris Matthews talking about?

http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/archives/individual/2009_05/018045.php
Matthews: Will [Obama] go to the usual cookie cutter. He's supposed to pick a Latina, a Hispanic woman, would be a woman. . . .

[Steve Benen] But the "usual cookie cutter" line is even more bizarre. Adam Serwer noted last week, "There have been 110 Justices on the Supreme Court. Of those, two have been women, and two have been black. The other 106 have been white men. That means that around 96 percent of Supreme Court justices have been white men."

When Jeff Sessions, new GOP point man against Obama’s SC nominee, tried to become a judge. . .

http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/2009/05/throwback.php
Last night Rachel Maddow had some of the video of the failed 1986 confirmation hearing of then-judge wannabe Jefferson Beauregard Sessions III -- now Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL) -- including his sorta kinda reluctant admission that he might have called the NAACP a "commie" organization . . . .

More: http://firedoglake.com/2009/05/05/early-morning-swim-special-rachel-takes-down-jeff-sessions-edition/

http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/archives/individual/2009_05/018041.php

http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2009/05/grassley-sessions-statements--if-he-even-made-them--dont-matter.php
Grassley: Sessions' Statements--If He Even Made Them--Don't Matter . . .

http://www.americablog.com/2009/05/jeff-sessions-is-disgrace-to-his-race.html
The "new" Republican party, it's a lot like the old Republican party.

Is the Chuck Schumer “compromise” saving health care reform, or killing it?

http://oxdown.firedoglake.com/diary/5142

http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/archives/individual/2009_05/018043.php

Theocracy watch: Obama went out of his way to mend fences with the religious right, far beyond what his supporters wanted him to do. But of course, it wasn’t enough . . . it’s never enough

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2009/5/4/727839/-Religious-Right-Wants-Old-Time-Religion-from-Obama

More advice for the big GOP comeback: watch more Westerns

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/05/opinion/05brooks.html
[David Brooks] Republicans generally like Westerns. They generally admire John Wayne-style heroes who are rugged, individualistic and brave. They like leaders — from Goldwater to Reagan to Bush to Palin — who play up their Western heritage. Republicans like the way Westerns seem to celebrate their core themes — freedom, individualism, opportunity and moral clarity.

But the greatest of all Western directors, John Ford, actually used Westerns to tell a different story. Ford’s movies didn’t really celebrate the rugged individual. They celebrated civic order. . . .

Brilliant! The new Rush/Palin axis within the GOP

http://www.americablog.com/2009/05/finally-palin-is-in-she-joined-new-gop.html

http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/archives/individual/2009_05/018044.php

You have to give the Republicans points for chutzpah – Norm Coleman has been basing his Minnesota appeal on the principle of “counting every vote” (a principle his campaign was arguing against earlier in the process). But now they find it convenient to reverse strategy. So who’s arguing for Coleman’s new approach now? Hans von Spakovsky, GOP operative with a specialty in SUPPRESSING votes. Good luck with that

http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2009/05/von-spakovsky-to-the-rescue-voter-suppression-guru-backs-colemans-appeal.php

Look at this chart on Obama’s popularity vs the Repubs, and ask, Why the sudden jump on April 1?

http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/2009/05/for_the_gop_a_sobering_trend.php

Here’s why: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/04/01/white-house-house-gop-bud_n_181687.html

Another endangered Republican Senator

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2009/5/5/728069/-KY-Sen:-The-Jim-Bunning-Comedy-Hour

I don’t see this happening, but here’s the Republican the Democratic pros are worried about for 2012, and beyond

http://www.mydd.com/story/2009/5/5/122056/6325

Eric Boehlert’s new book, “Bloggers on the Bus” (no, PBD’s not in it)

http://www.motherjones.com/kevin-drum/2009/05/bloggers-bus

Oh, ho ho ho ho. Fox’s laughable slogan, “fair and balanced,” wasn’t oxymoronic enough, apparently

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2009/5/4/727832/-Fox-adds-accurate-to-fairslogan
"fair, balanced, and accurate"

Bonus item: Name the Goposaur!

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2009/5/5/727801/-Name-the-Goposaur,-Round-1

***If you enjoy PBD and support what we are doing, you can help by forwarding a copy of this issue to your friends (using the envelope link below) or by sending them a copy of its URL (http://pbd.blogspot.com).

I don't get anything personally out of this project, except the satisfaction of doing it (I don't run ads, etc). The credit really all goes to the people whose material I copy and redistribute. But if I do have a "mission," it is to get this information into the hands of as many people as I can.***
- posted by Nick Burbules @ 6:58 AM

 
GOPOSAURS

Here’s your New Republican Party

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0409/21790.html
Resurgent Republic will promote market-oriented policies, lower taxes and economic growth, and strong national security policies. . . .

http://www.mydd.com/story/2009/5/4/18252/58214
[Lucas O’Connor] The Republican Party is in the midst of some top down grassroots rediscovery, trying to find their way out of their particular wilderness. The trouble is, every available direction has serious problems.

The natural inclination (and the most popular thus far), is to run to the base, regroup, and build from ideological strength (such as it is). The cynical version of this is the old adage that people in positions of institutional power protect their personal power at the expense of the institution. The slightly less cynical version of this is that if you try to just be a kinda-sorta-not-really-but-just-enough version of the guys who just whooped you in an election, you're giving the electorate a choice between the real thing and a knockoff and they'll choose the real thing. . . . [read on]

The brain trust

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0509/22054.html
Republicans looking to recover from Bush-era defeats are turning to an unlikely source for advice: top aides to former President George W. Bush. . . .

Michael Steele welcomes moderates into the GOP – so long as they agree with the strict right wing agenda

http://www.jsonline.com/news/statepolitics/44203877.html
"All you moderates out there, y'all come. I mean, that's the message," Steele said at a news conference. "The message of this party is this is a big table for everyone to have a seat. I have a place setting with your name on the front.

"Understand that when you come into someone's house, you're not looking to change it. You come in because that's the place you want to be."

More: http://www.americablog.com/2009/05/gop-rep-michelle-bachmann-talks-about.html

Even Sarah Palin can see this isn’t gonna work

http://theplumline.whorunsgov.com/republican-party/is-sarah-palin-snubbing-gops-new-relaunch-effort/

http://www.americablog.com/2009/05/palin-may-be-snubbing-gop-effort-to.html

"Where are we?"

http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/archives/individual/2009_05/018029.php
[Steve Benen] As part of the Republican Party's rebranding effort, House Minority Whip Eric Cantor (R-Va.) hosted a National Council for a New America event at a pizza shop over the weekend. Roll Call reported, "Cantor said the idea of the road show is to gather ideas from outside the Beltway to shape the Republican agenda." . . .

At the risk of sounding picky, it's probably worth noting that Republicans started gathering ideas "from outside the Beltway" at an event inside the Beltway.

Good news everywhere

http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2009/05/inhofe-specter-switch-is-evidence-america-is-rebelling-against-far-left-agenda.php
[Sen. James Inhofe (R-OK)] “There is no evidence more visible that the American people are already rebelling against the far-left agenda than Senator Arlen Specter switching parties to become a Democrat” . . .

http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2009/05/inhofe-specter-switch-is-evidence-america-is-rebelling-against-far-left-agenda.php
[Lindsey Graham (R-SC)] “I know this; our party's politics is closer to America ideologically than President Obama” . . .

See? It’s just a media problem

http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/archives/individual/2009_05/018030.php
[Steve Benen] Despite the half-hearted talk about substance and rebranding, quite a few GOP leaders believe the way to get the party back on track is to focus on a better communications strategy. Consider this advice, for example. . .

In November, after Republicans lost 21 seats, Conference Chairman Mike Pence [R-IN] went so far as to urge members to cut their legislative staff to make room for communications aides.

I realize that Pence isn't exactly a policy wonk, despite his role as the #3 Republican in the chamber, but this advice only helps reinforce the notion that the minority party is fundamentally unserious about public policy. Legislative staffers tend to work on substantive issues, including constituent services. Pence encouraged his GOP colleagues to get rid of these aides in order to hire staffers to focus on media? . . .

Did the GOP push Specter out of the party?

http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2009/05/demint-told-specter-hed-support-toomey-shortly-before-specter-switched.php

More brilliant strategy from the Rush Limbaugh party: who do they get to serve as the front man against Obama’s Supreme Court nominee (who might very well be a person of color)?

http://www.samefacts.com/archives/watching_conservatives_/2009/05/note_to_republicans.php
[Mark Kleiman] If you don't want people to think of your party as a collection of racists, how about not putting racists in important positions? Jeff Sessions as Ranking Member on Senate Judiciary, for example. He once told a white civil rights lawyer that he was "a disgrace to his race" for litigating voting-rights cases.

More: http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/archives/individual/2009_05/018027.php

http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/archives/individual/2009_05/018025.php

http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2009/05/senator-who-praised-segregationist-judges-will-lead-opposition-to-obama-nominees.php

http://www.tnr.com/politics/story.html?id=8dd230f6-355f-4362-89cc-2c756b9d8102

http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/2009/05/we_were_trying_to_get_the_right_to_vote.php

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/michaeltomasky/2009/may/04/jeff-sessions-senate

We might not ever see the internal memo Philip Zelikow wrote complaining that the legal documents designed to rationalize the Bush gang’s torture were specious, but it looks as if we will finally hear him testify about it

http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/2009/05/congress_seeking_zelikows_alternative_torture_memo.php

http://attackerman.firedoglake.com/2009/05/04/full-disclosure/

A new approach on prosecuting Bush officials – not for the torture memos, but for perjury

http://washingtonindependent.com/41679/dems-may-investigate-bush-officials-lies-to-congress

The scapegoats

http://politics.theatlantic.com/2009/05/tortures_scapegoats.php
In the upcoming issue of The New Yorker, Philip Gourevitch notes that the only Americans ever prosecuted and sentenced for Bush-era detainee policies are ten low-ranking military personnel involved in the Abu Ghraib abuses. These people, Gourevitch argues, are scapegoats, painted by the American government as rogue individuals whose behavior was caused more by a lack of supervision than by American military policy. . . . [read on]

More: http://www.newyorker.com/talk/comment/2009/05/11/090511taco_talk_gourevitch

A shocking thought experiment, comparing torture and rape

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2009/5/4/727732/-A-torturous-thought-experiment

Theocracy watch

http://www.mydd.com/story/2009/5/5/03317/06296
[Charles Lemos] Of all blunders to commit, this one is beyond the pale and only sure to arose the ire of the Islamic world unnecessarily. US soldiers at Bagram Air Force Base in Afghanistan have been filmed with local language Bibles and urged to be "witnesses for Jesus" despite anti-proselytizing rules.

In the video obtained by Qatar's Al Jazeera, Lieutenant-Colonel Gary Hensley, the chief of the US military chaplains in Afghanistan, is shown telling US soldiers that as followers of Jesus Christ, they all have a responsibility "to be witnesses for him."

"The special forces guys - they hunt men basically. We do the same things as Christians, we hunt people for Jesus. We do, we hunt them down," he says.

"Get the hound of heaven after them, so we get them into the kingdom. That's what we do, that's our business." . . . [read on]

See? And we thought Ann Coulter was kidding when she said:

http://www.eschatonblog.com/2009/05/invade-their-countries-kill-their.html
Invade Their Countries, Kill Their Leaders, And Convert Them To Christianity . . .

Yes she did: http://www.christianaggression.org/item_display.php?type=NEWS&id=1112027063

Your fifteen minutes is UP

http://www.mydd.com/story/2009/5/4/211410/3035
Samuel Wurzelbacher aka Joe the Plumber, that reluctant and self-effacing, or is it self-impaling for at times I cannot tell, hero of the American conservative movement has given an interview to that erudite journal of evangelical conviction, Christianity Today . . . [read on]

Why the GOP needs the Christian right

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/05/04/james-carville-if-gop-aba_n_195716.html

Good

http://tpmcafe.talkingpointsmemo.com/talk/blogs/robert_reich/2009/05/why-obama-is-taking-on-corpora.php
Why Obama is Taking on Corporate Tax Havens

More good

http://www.mydd.com/story/2009/5/4/16359/97164
[WP] At stake is a plan to expand the Pell Grant program, making it an entitlement akin to Medicare and Social Security. . . .

Supreme Court nominee coming this week?

http://politicalwire.com/archives/2009/05/04/senator_sees_supreme_court_nominee_soon.html

***If you enjoy PBD and support what we are doing, you can help by forwarding a copy of this issue to your friends (using the envelope link below) or by sending them a copy of its URL (http://pbd.blogspot.com).

I don't get anything personally out of this project, except the satisfaction of doing it (I don't run ads, etc). The credit really all goes to the people whose material I copy and redistribute. But if I do have a "mission," it is to get this information into the hands of as many people as I can.***
- posted by Nick Burbules @ 6:45 AM

 
SETTLING SCORES

Hmmm . . . the other day Condi Rice issues a defense of torture that basically says “Bush made us do it,” and now this story leaks

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/04/us/politics/04detain.html
Yet even as interrogation methods were scaled back, former officials now say, the battle inside the Bush administration over which ones should be permitted only grew hotter. There would be a tense phone call over the program’s future during the 2005 Christmas holidays from Stephen J. Hadley, the national security adviser, to Porter J. Goss, the C.I.A. director; a White House showdown the next year between Ms. Rice and Vice President Dick Cheney; and Ms. Rice’s refusal in 2007 to endorse the executive order with which Mr. Bush sought to revive the C.I.A. program.

The real trouble began on May 7, 2004, the day the C.I.A. inspector general, John L. Helgerson, completed a devastating report. In thousands of pages, it challenged the legality of some interrogation methods, found that interrogators were exceeding the rules imposed by the Justice Department and questioned the effectiveness of the entire program.

C.I.A. officials had sold the interrogation program to the White House. Now, the director of central intelligence, George J. Tenet, knew that the inspector general’s report could be a noose for White House officials to hang the C.I.A. Mr. Tenet ordered a temporary halt to the harshest interrogation methods.

The report landed on the desks of some White House officials who were already having their doubts about the wisdom of the C.I.A.’s harsh methods. John B. Bellinger III, who, as the National Security Council’s top lawyer, played a role in discussions when the program was approved in 2002, by the next year had begun to research past ill-fated British and Israeli use of torture and grew doubtful about the wisdom of the techniques.

Mr. Bellinger shared his doubts with his boss, Ms. Rice, then the national security adviser, who began to reconsider her strong support for the program. . . . [read on]

More: http://emptywheel.firedoglake.com/2009/05/03/rice-and-goss-turn-on-cheney/
Rice and Goss Turn on Cheney . . .

http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/archives/individual/2009_05/018017.php
"motiveless malignancy"

Let’s go to the tapes. . .

http://emptywheel.firedoglake.com/2009/05/03/torture-tapes-and-briefings/

http://emptywheel.firedoglake.com/2009/05/03/did-mitchell-and-jessen-have-the-three-other-torture-tapes/

http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/2009/05/03/torture/index.html

Why was Jane Harman being wiretapped?

http://yglesias.thinkprogress.org/archives/2009/05/new-developments-in-harman-wiretap-case.php

Frontrunners for the Supreme Court

http://politics.theatlantic.com/2009/05/souter_replacement_watch_master_list.php

Numero uno? http://christyhardinsmith.firedoglake.com/2009/05/02/scotus-do-signs-point-to-judge-sonia-sotomayor/

Orrin Hatch (R-UT) comes out against empathy

http://firedoglake.com/2009/05/03/orrin-hatch-conservatives-have-no-empathy/
“Usually those are code words for an activist judge... who is going to be partisan on the bench” . . .

How the GOP made itself into a marginalized national party

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2009/5/3/727462/-Republicans:-The-Indulgent-Parents

Revolutionaries?

http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2009/05/02/top-republicans-kick-off-campaign-to-reshape-their-partys-image/
Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney compared the GOP to Americans fighting the British during the Revolutionary War. "We are the party of the revolutionaries, they [Democrats] are the party of the monarchists," he told the overwhelmingly Republican crowd, saying the Republicans needed to "once again lead the American Revolution."

Yep, a 60 vote majority in the Senate and an intensely popular President – the Repubs have the Dems right where they want them

http://www.weeklystandard.com/Content/Public/Articles/000/000/016/449ketww.asp
[Bill Kristol] Having said all that, one has to acknowledge that the Souter and Specter developments are short-term victories for the left: Sixty votes in the Senate (assuming Al Franken is seated from Minnesota) will make liberal legislation harder to block or modify, and a younger (and probably cleverer) replacement for Souter isn't good for the cause of a constitutionalist Supreme Court.

On the other hand, if the fundamental Republican task is to pick up seats in 2010 and replace Obama in 2012--as it must be, for the sake of the country--and if the fundamental conservative task is to present alternatives to Obama's governance, then this week's news is not all bad.

With 60 Democrats in the Senate, it's Obama's Congress now. Republican obstructionism goes away as an issue and as a political talking point. . . .

The Repubs take the measure of Obama

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124112865488674761.html
[Peggy Noonan] President Obama's news conference Wednesday night was a bit of a masterpiece. The Obama Thinking Look was back, as he parsed questions, took notes, and offered up rehearsed answers in a way that made them seem not written by the Committee on Soundbites but natural to him, as if he were formulating answers in the here and now. On torture, he cited Churchill. He spoke of pro-lifers not with any of the appellations the left prefers but as pro-lifers. He dispatched the culturally radical Freedom of Choice Act as "not a top priority"; he said he doesn't want to run auto companies and banks and would prefer, in fact, a smaller portfolio. His presentation was low-key, authoritative, and had the look and feel of moderation. When you can give this impression while some of your decisions—for instance, on the legitimate cost and reach of government—are not, actually, moderate, you are demonstrating a singular political talent.

He is subtle and likes to kill softly. As such, he is something new on the political scene, which means he will require something new from his opponents, including, first, patience.

I am wondering once again if Republicans in Washington fully understand what they are up against. . .

***If you enjoy PBD and support what we are doing, you can help by forwarding a copy of this issue to your friends (using the envelope link below) or by sending them a copy of its URL (http://pbd.blogspot.com).

I don't get anything personally out of this project, except the satisfaction of doing it (I don't run ads, etc). The credit really all goes to the people whose material I copy and redistribute. But if I do have a "mission," it is to get this information into the hands of as many people as I can.***
- posted by Nick Burbules @ 7:06 AM

 
DESPERATE HOUSEWIVES

Obama’s first Supreme Court nomination: a job description

http://www.mydd.com/story/2009/5/2/11043/21205
[DesMoinesDem] I don't want Obama to use this opportunity to prove how bipartisan he is by nominating some middle-of-the-road judge. . . . [read on]

Let’s see: Lindsey Graham (R-SC) was part of the “Gang of 14,” a bipartisan group dedicated to the principle that a President deserves an up-or-down vote on his judicial nominees (when Bush was in charge). How long will it take him to reverse his position, blocking an Obama Supreme Court nominee from an up-or-down vote?

http://www.eschatonblog.com/2009/05/radical.html
[Atrios] Of course Lindsey's just going to be shocked when he discovers that whoever Obama nominates is a radical (not really, but to Lindsey!) and then, more in sorrow than in anger, is "forced" to block the nominee.

More: http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/archives/individual/2009_05/018001.php

More Republican nonsense

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2009/5/3/727229/-Sunday-TalkThats-Gonna-Leave-a-Mark
[Silly Rabbit] Like a magic bullet, Sen. Arlen Specter (D-PA) defied the laws of physics on Tuesday, moving back and to the left. In doing so, he delivered what might have been a fatal blow to the GOP, were it not for a team of highly-skilled spin doctors.

They have the technology. They have the capability to make the world’s first monochromatic party. The GOP will be that party. Better than they were before. Better. Stronger. Faster. . . . [read on]

More: http://www.mydd.com/story/2009/5/2/143341/7771

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/05/02/AR2009050202082.html

America waits breathlessly to see what the GOP's "National Council for a New America” does

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2009/5/2/726822/-The-National-Council-for-a-New-America-(aka-GOP-loses-election
"[A] forward-looking, grassroots caucus ... [that] will engage in a conversation with America that seeks to remove ideological filters . . . We do this not just to offer an alternative point of view or to be disagreeable. Instead, we want to ask the American people what their hopes and dreams are."

[NB: I think people already indicated their support for a New America – it was called the 2008 election.]

Looks like Obama will need to go the 50-vote reconciliation route to get health care through – Ben Nelson (D-NE) comes out AGAINST a public health care plan

http://digbysblog.blogspot.com/2009/05/president-nelson-makes-call-by-dday-so.html

http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/archives/individual/2009_05/018005.php

http://www.mydd.com/story/2009/5/2/21455/27238

The horrid legal reasoning in the DOJ torture memos – don’t tell me this fight is about good-faith policy differences. They were told to develop an ad hoc rationale for torture and they bent (or ignored) every legal principle in order to get to that conclusion

http://emptywheel.firedoglake.com/2009/05/02/zelikows-dissent-and-rockefellers-question/

Sunday talk show line-ups

http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2009/05/the-sunday-show-line-ups-4.php
• ABC, This Week: Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-VT) and Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-UT); Richard Besser, Acting Director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention; Sec. of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano; and Sec. of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius.

• CBS, Face The Nation: Sen. Arlen Specter (D-PA); Richard Besser, Acting Director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention; Sec. of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano; and Sec. of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius.

• CNN, State Of The Union: Richard Besser, Acting Director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention; Sec. of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano; and Sec. of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius.

• NBC, Meet The Press: Sen. Arlen Specter (D-PA); Richard Besser, Acting Director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention; Sec. of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano; and Sec. of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius; MSNBC host and former Rep. Joe Scarborough (R-FL), and former RNC chair Ed Gillespie.

Bonus item: Read and laugh

http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/archives/individual/2009_05/018006.php
[John Hawkins] Too often today, liberals are using below-the-belt tactics against conservatives and paying no price whatsoever. Meanwhile, those on the right like to pat themselves on the back for being above it all. . . .

While we conservatives don't have to stoop quite as low as the left has, we do need to start giving them a taste of their own medicine, if only to make them think twice about the way they're treating our side. . . .

Why don't conservatives do opposition research on the journalists endlessly running stories about Bristol Palin and Joe the Plumber? Have they ever been arrested? Whom do they own property with? Have they ever been paid to do a speech for someone and then run a favorable news story about him? Certainly Keith Olbermann's personal life is just as newsworthy as Joe the Plumber's, and the details of Maureen Dowd's life are just as noteworthy as those of Bristol Palin -- are they not? . . . [read on]

Extra bonus item: Read and laugh some more

http://www.americablog.com/2009/05/new-gop-people-learn-more-from.html
“People learn more from listening to Rush Limbaugh than they do in high school or college.” . . . [read on]

***If you enjoy PBD and support what we are doing, you can help by forwarding a copy of this issue to your friends (using the envelope link below) or by sending them a copy of its URL (http://pbd.blogspot.com).

I don't get anything personally out of this project, except the satisfaction of doing it (I don't run ads, etc). The credit really all goes to the people whose material I copy and redistribute. But if I do have a "mission," it is to get this information into the hands of as many people as I can.***
- posted by Nick Burbules @ 8:04 AM

 
A SUPREME COURT THAT LOOKS LIKE AMERICA

The GOP starts trying to frame the Supreme Court fight. Key one: is the nominee “to the left of David Souter”?

http://thehill.com/leading-the-news/conservatives-gear-up-for-high-court-fight-2009-05-01.html
Early front-runners for the bogeyman nod have cropped up: Darling mentioned Yale University Law School Dean Harold Koh, whom he called "very extreme." Sekulow specifically called out 2nd Circuit Appeals Court Judge Sonia Sotomayor, an early favorite for the nod, as "to the left of David Souter."

"This is not my ideal situation," said Kay Daly, president of the Coalition for a Fair Judiciary. "Obama could conceivably put a justice onto the bench that literally would make Souter look like [Associate Justice Antonin] Scalia." . . .

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2009/5/1/726792/-Goposaurs-start-framing-SCOTUS-debate-(ROFLMAO
Fox News host Steve Doocy claims "Obama would really have to appoint an outright Socialist for him to find somebody more to the left of Justice Souter." . . .

More: http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2009/05/01/obama-statements-reflect-populist-view-supreme-court-preview-choice-souter/

Key two: will the GOP filibuster? “Obama did”

http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/archives/individual/2009_05/017995.php

VP Joe Biden heads up the selection process

http://politicalwire.com/archives/2009/05/01/biden_heads_up_team_to_choose_new_justice.html

Some likely nominees to replace Souter – and how the right intends to attack them

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/05/01/AR2009050101144.html

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2009/5/1/726743/-The-Battle-Begins

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/michaeltomasky/2009/may/01/usa-supreme-court-republicans

http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2009/05/conservatives-gear-up-for-scotus-fight.php

http://digbysblog.blogspot.com/2009/05/engineers-of-train-wreck-by-digby.html

http://www.salon.com/politics/war_room/2009/05/01/souter_battle/index.html

Why does Time magazine let Mark Halperin peddle racially provocative nonsense like this?

http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/2009/05/they_really_do_rule_his_world.php
"White Men Need Not Apply"

More: http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/archives/individual/2009_05/017990.php

Will Arlen Specter’s defection make it easier or harder for the Republicans to block Obama’s Supreme Court nominee?

Easier: http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2009/05/01/specters-defection-help-republicans-block-souters-potential-replacement/

http://swampland.blogs.time.com/2009/05/01/why-lindsey-graham-is-the-guy-obama-needs-to-please-in-replacing-souter/

Harder: http://politicalwire.com/archives/2009/05/01/specters_defection_hurts_republicans_again.html

http://yglesias.thinkprogress.org/archives/2009/05/specter-and-souter.php

Republican reactions to Specter’s defection

http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/photofeatures/2009/05/party-in-chaos-arlen-specter-leaves-the-gop.php

George Bush: too liberal?

http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/2009/05/amazing_1.php
[Josh Marshall] It's truly amazing how much it has become an accepted truism, even among fairly sane people, that under George W. Bush the Republican party got away from its conservative roots.

http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/2009/05/conservatism_amnesia_and_denial.php
[MS] It's even more amazing that there were precious few voices on the right pointing out Bush's conservative heresy.

If only the right-wing had some sort of mass media outlets at their disposal - you know, a book publisher or wonkish magazines or a cable TV news channel, just to pull three totally hypothetical examples out of thin air - to get the word out during Bush's time in office - when something could have been done about this heresy, in real time - that he was betraying conservatism.

Reagan too? http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/2009/05/01/shifts/index.html

Michael Steele: sinking fast

http://politicalwire.com/archives/2009/05/01/michael_steele_vs_the_rnc.html
[Taegan Goddard] Just asking: If RNC Chairman Michael Steele is not involved in the GOP's rebranding effort and cannot freely use party resources, what exactly is his role? . . .

THIS is his role: http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2009/5/1/726909/-Michael-Steele:-Obama-A-Media-Created-Magic-Negro
Michael Steele: Obama A Media-Created "Magic Negro"

His first hundred days: http://www.mydd.com/story/2009/5/1/144753/4364

Tick tick tick: http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/2009/05/rnc_steele_spent_18500_to_redecorate_office.php
RNC: Steele Spent $18,500 To Redecorate Office . . .

Marcy Wheeler gives us a timeline of when the torture memos were produced – AFTER the U.S. had already started torturing

http://emptywheel.firedoglake.com/2009/05/01/the-gestation-of-bradburys-torture-memos/

More: http://emptywheel.firedoglake.com/2009/05/01/bradburys-bellybutton/

Welcome back Ann

http://mediamatters.org/countyfair/200905010047
Coulter compares waterboarding to hazing . . .

Can I chip in?

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5jADf7Acwh1ozkVvkjNQ9dkk7GQuQD97RPCCO0
[AP] The debate over torture is getting personal for two of cable TV's prime-time hosts. After Fox News Channel's Sean Hannity made a seemingly impromptu offer last week to undergo waterboarding as a benefit for charity, MSNBC's Keith Olbermann leapt at it. He offered $1,000 to the families of U.S. troops for every second Hannity withstood the technique. . . .

Theocracy watch: WWJD?

http://www.samefacts.com/archives/transition_20082009_/2009/05/religion_and_torture_polling_and_statistics.php
Steve Benen points to a Pew Center on Religion study about the relationship between religiosity and support for torture. Weekly churchgoers are more likely to support torture than those who attend occasionally, who in turn are more likely to support torture than those who never go to services. And white evangelicals are more torture-prone than mainline Protestants or non-Hispanic Catholics. Support for torture is lowest among atheists, agnostics, and those who claim no particular religious affiliation. . . .

More: http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/archives/individual/2009_05/017985.php

But is it our fault too?

http://www.samefacts.com/archives/torture_/2009/05/we_have_met_the_torturers_and_they_is_us.php
Mike Kinsley raises the point that our political system reelected George Bush in 2004 after the fact of waterboarding had been public, and suggests that culpability is more broadly shared than would be indicated by prosecutions of a few Bush officials. . . .

We don’t expect intellectual honesty from Charles Krauthammer, the master of the conclusion-driven argument. Here’s his latest, on torture

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/04/30/AR2009043003108.html
Torture is an impermissible evil. Except under two circumstances. . . .

The Republicans hate democracy. They really do

http://www.openleft.com/diary/13116/rnc-wants-out-of-consent-decree-prohibiting-them-from-voter-caging
On the eve of the Presidential election, facing an historic defeat, the Republican National Committee quietly filed a motion to dissolve an existing consent decree in which they'd agreed not to engage in voter caging or other types of voter intimidation. . . .

The kind of people they are

http://www.salon.com/politics/war_room/2009/05/01/severin/index.html
Radio host suspended; blamed Mexican "primitives" for flu . . .

More: http://mediamatters.org/items/200904270037

Michele Bachmann has a moment of clarity

http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2009/05/bachmann-dodges-question-on-alleged-swine-flu-democratic-presidents-connection.php
[Eric Kleefeld] Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN) appeared the other day on the Fox Business Channel, and during the interview she was asked exactly what she meant when she connected swine flu outbreaks to Democratic administrations. She immediately changed the subject . . .

Dick Morris: Why does ANY one pay ANY attention to ANY thing he says?

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2009/5/1/725898/-Dick-Morris,-par-excellence

Bonus item: QOTD

http://politicalwire.com/archives/2009/05/01/bonus_quote_of_the_day.html
"I had to do it twice, so now everyone has to do it twice."

-- President Obama, joking at the ceremonial swearing-in of Gary Locke and Kathleen Sebelius who had both already been sworn in.

***If you enjoy PBD and support what we are doing, you can help by forwarding a copy of this issue to your friends (using the envelope link below) or by sending them a copy of its URL (http://pbd.blogspot.com).

I don't get anything personally out of this project, except the satisfaction of doing it (I don't run ads, etc). The credit really all goes to the people whose material I copy and redistribute. But if I do have a "mission," it is to get this information into the hands of as many people as I can.***
- posted by Nick Burbules @ 7:28 AM

 
RECYCLING

Gonna be a war

http://blogs.wsj.com/law/2009/05/01/on-the-news-of-justice-david-souters-retirement/
Supreme Court Justice David Souter plans to retire from the Supreme Court. . . .

Why now? To court watchers, it’s been one of Washington’s best-kept secrets: that the 69 year-old jurist had over the years grown increasingly disenchanted with life in Washington and reportedly longed to return to his home state, New Hampshire. Souter had reportedly sussed out whether two other members of the more liberal wing of the court — Justice John Paul Stevens and Justice Ruth Ginsburg — had plans to retire in the next year, and feeling confident enough both in Justice Stevens’s desire to stick around for another year and in Justice Ginsburg’s health prognosis, felt that the time was now. . . .

The politics of it: http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/2009/04/a_few_more_thoughts.php

Who’s it gonna be? http://politics.theatlantic.com/2009/04/souter_said_to_be_retiring_who_would_replace_him.php

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2009/4/30/726618/-Some-Photos-of-David-Souters-Possible-Replacement

“Elections have consequences”

http://www.openleft.com/diary/13122/conservatives-react-to-supreme-court-vacancy

No one is ever going to title Condi Rice’s memoir, “Profiles in Courage”

http://digbysblog.blogspot.com/2009/04/condi-invokes-nixon-defense-by-dday.html
Q: Is waterboarding torture?

RICE: The president instructed us that nothing we would do would be outside of our obligations, legal obligations under the Convention Against Torture. So that's -- And by the way, I didn't authorize anything. I conveyed the authorization of the administration to the agency, that they had policy authorization, subject to the Justice Department's clearance. That's what I did.

Q: Okay. Is waterboarding torture in your opinion?

RICE: I just said, the United States was told, we were told, nothing that violates our obligations under the Convention Against Torture. And so by definition, if it was authorized by the president, it did not violate our obligations under the Convention Against Torture. . . .[read on]

http://attackerman.firedoglake.com/2009/04/30/did-rice-just-implicate-bush-for-torture/
Did Rice Just Implicate Bush For Torture? . . .

More: http://emptywheel.firedoglake.com/2009/04/30/condis-position-of-responsibility/

The GOP announces (ha ha ha) a new “rebranding effort” to change their image – and who do they put in charge? The same old tired faces that got them where they are today. Brilliant move guys

http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/2009/04/gop_to_rebrand_as_whig_party.php
[Josh Marshall] You know things are really humming along when your 'rebranding' effort is led by your recently crushed presidential nominee and your discredited party leader's brother. . . . [read on]

More: http://www.americablog.com/2009/04/palin-gingrich-and-steele-cut-out-of.html

Rebranding?

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2009/4/30/726500/-Republican-Party-rebranding-fail
According to House Republican Leader John Boehner, the GOP’s brand has been "tainted," so when House Republican Whip Eric Cantor unveiled the GOP’s much anticipated rebranding strategy on Thursday morning, there was much excitement. . . .

http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2009/04/cantor-its-not-a-rebranding-effort.php
Cantor: "It's Not A Rebranding Effort"

They launch their effort by releasing an ad that recycles the same old “Obama can’t keep America safe” rhetoric that they’ve been relying on for years.

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2009/4/30/726377/-GOP-reminds-us-9-11-was-under-their-watch

http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/archives/individual/2009_04/017978.php

http://theplumline.whorunsgov.com/terrorism/house-gop-unveils-new-rebranding-effort-then-attacks-obama-with-911-imagery/

I love the advisors who tell the GOP that their only problem is that they haven’t been conservative ENOUGH

http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/2009/04/please_put_him_in_charge.php

Doh!

http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2009/04/the-gop-not-a-national-party.php
"I will tell you that in 2010 we are working very hard to make sure that we have the kind of candidates across the country on a national scale," said Cornyn, "that will allow the Republican Party to regain our status as a national party . . .”

“The Incredible Shrinking GOP”

http://theplumline.whorunsgov.com/republican-party/the-incredible-shrinking-gop-party-shrunk-by-one-fourth-in-five-years/

Disarray

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2009/4/30/726223/-Republicans-In-Disarray

http://digbysblog.blogspot.com/2009/04/captives-of-crazies-by-digby-theyve-got.html

Michael Steele still tries to sound hip (and relevant) - but just keeps doing damage in the process

http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2009/04/steele-i-wear-my-gop-hat-backwards-thats-how-we-roll-in-the-northeast.php
Steele: I Wear My GOP Hat Backwards, "That's How We Roll In The Northeast" . . .

http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/archives/individual/2009_04/017970.php
STEELE TAKES GOP TALKING POINTS OFF THE TABLE . . .

http://politics.theatlantic.com/2009/04/did_consultants_who_helped_michael_steele_get_rnc_contracts.php
Did Consultants Who Helped Michael Steele Get RNC Contracts?

More: http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2009/04/steele-responds-to-rnc-members-plot-against-him.php
The Washington Times reports that Steele has fired off an e-mail to the proposal's five main sponsors. "No RNC chairman has ever had to deal with this," Steele wrote, "and I certainly have no intention of putting up with it either." . . . [read on]

http://politicalwire.com/archives/2009/04/30/gingrich_rips_into_rnc.html
Gingrich Rips Into RNC . . .

The Twitter FAIL

http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2009/04/top-conservatives-on-twitter-fail.php

More Bush cronyism, corruption, theocracy – this story’s got it all

http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/2009/04/best_practices_3.php
[Josh Marshall] The Justice Department's Inspector General has found that a former Bush administration grant administrator, J. Robert Flores, violated departmental ethics rules (though prosecutors subsequently declined to prosecute). There were a flurry of cronyish grants given out in 2007 by Flores and his boss Regina Scholfield -- perhaps revealingly because that year there were no congressional earmarks constraining the administrators' discretion. But Flores got dinged for a particular series of contracts for anti-gang programs.

Flores issued contracts worth about $281,000 to Hector Rene Fonseca for anti-gang work over three years. Flores repeatedly tried to hire Fonseca on sole source contracts, even after higher level DOJ officials repeatedly tried to stop him from doing so.

The Post identifies Fonseca as a "former Columbian military official" who Flores says he repeatedly tried to hire because of his "ties to the faith-based community through a group called Samaritan's Purse." . . .

Did former CIA head Porter Goss stick the knife into Jane Harman?

http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/2009/04/evidence_growing_that_goss_camp_is_behind_harman_leak.php

http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/2009/04/harman_and_goss_not_good_friends.php

More: http://www.warandpiece.com/blogdirs/009191.html

The kind of people they are (thanks to AG for the link)

http://www.politicsdaily.com/2009/04/30/north-carolina-congresswoman-believes-matthew-shepard-story-was/
On her way to casting a shameful vote against hate crimes legislation, Representative Virginia Foxx (R-NC) managed to prove that not only is she intolerant, she's unbelievably ignorant. . . .

Norm Coleman’s legal brief to the Minnesota Supreme Court: recycling already-discredited arguments

http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2009/04/colemans-appeal-brief-count-more-of-my-votes----or-maybe-nullify-the-election.php

Are the Republicans losing patience? http://theplumline.whorunsgov.com/republican-party/gop-leaders-publicly-divided-over-whether-to-concede-franken-victory/

Fox News is oh-so unhappy that they didn’t get to ask a question at Obama’s press conference. There are several good reasons, but here’s the best: they weren’t bothering to telecast it

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2009/4/30/726208/-Fox-wants-to-know-why-they-didnt-get-a-question

Sarah Palin recycles a page from John McCain’s book, tries to nail down the all-important biker vote

Palin: http://politics.theatlantic.com/2009/04/palin_on_american_chopper_preview.php

McCain: http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/08/04/politics/main4320653.shtml

http://zennie2005.blogspot.com/2008/08/john-mccain-offers-wife-for-miss.html
John McCain Offers Wife For "Miss Buffalo Chip" Topless Beauty Contest

Bonus item: What a boob

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/michaeltomasky/2009/apr/30/miss-california-gay-marriage-freedom-of-speech
Carrie Prejean, the anti-"oppo