barack and al, detroit, michigan

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From It Was Top Down, Stupid: The Bush administration's "bad apples" theory goes sour by Phillipe Sands, posted on Slate on Wednesday, June 18, 2008, at 1:19 PM ET:¹

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Unless the United States takes remedial actions, it is likely there will be criminal investigations abroad. Why? Because, as acting CIA General Counsel John Rizzo once told Congress, "a crime is a crime." The same point was made to me by a European judge and a prosecutor who have looked at the materials. There can be no doubt that the aggressive interrogation of Mohammed al-Qahtani (aka Detainee 063, alleged to be the 20th hijacker) amounted to torture and violated Common Article 3 of the Geneva Conventions (prohibiting cruelty and torture) and the 1984 Convention Against Torture. As a war crime and an act of torture, it can thus be prosecuted anywhere in the world.

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This is not good news for a nation that likes to pride itself on truth, justice, freedom and humanity.

It gets worse, of course:

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This is not just the story of a crime. It is also a cover-up—how the administration spun a false narrative, seeking to blame those on the ground at Guantananmo.

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Remember "It's not the crime, it's the cover-up" from the Nixon years? Read the whole article -- it's quite sobering.

For further information, here are two excellent write-ups about the latest revelations, particularly due to their multiple original source references:

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Clear Evidence of War Crimes: Stern Letters to Come? by Meteor Blades

WaPo: General Accuses WH of War Crimes (Update x2) by abundance

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Another excellent piece, this time showing how an old hand at GOP media manipulation tries to cover the collective exposed bottoms of the Bush Administration and the Republican party, comes from our very own Jeff Huber:

Newt the Impaler

This is an aggressively enhanced Open Thread.

¹ Hat-tip SaintMars.

Hat-tip to Theghostofkarlafayetucker for picking this up and expanding brilliantly on it.

Click image for source.

From the Associated Press,1 KANDAHAR, Afghanistan - Hundreds of Taliban fighters invaded villages just outside Afghanistan's second-largest city Monday, forcing NATO and Afghan troops to rush in while frightened residents fled. The Taliban assault on the outskirts of Kandahar is the latest display of prowess by the militants despite a record number of U.S. and NATO troops in the country.

Continuing from the article,

President Bush, speaking in London, said the United States can help calm the "testy situation." Bush said the U.S. mission remains to deny safe haven to extremists who want to kill innocent people.

[...snip...]

"The Taliban are losing the fight in southern Afghanistan," he said.

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Of course, noting the position of Kandahar on the map (marked in red, above), one could reasonably conclude that the President either meant "more south" than Kandahar, or that Kandahar itself didn't count and that it was the rest of southern Afghanistan that he was referring to.

This is an Open Thread.

As the End of Bush Days draws near, the desperation and insanity of the administration and its neoconservative policies become more and more apparent. One of the most recent examples is Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice's address to the American Israeli Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) on June 3, where she once and for all crossed over to the dark side and swore fealty to Lord Cheney's quest to start a shooting war with Iran.

With Boobs-on-a-Billy-Goat Rice onboard the Cheney train, can Armageddon be far behind?

Keystone Kondi Rice is back in the news. This time she's helping her boss make boo noise about what the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) calls Iran's "relentless pursuit of nuclear weapons."

On January 8, speaking at an AIPAC conference, Condi said that the Iranians, "continue to inch closer to a nuclear weapon." This despite the November 2007 National Intelligence Estimate finding (.pdf here) that stated, "We judge with high confidence that in fall 2003, Tehran halted its nuclear weapons program."

Condi and AIPAC and the rest of the neoconservative universe have treated the November NIE the way it treats all inconvenient facts; they've ignored it. And once again, the mainstream media, most notably the New York Times, have been their willing partner in crime.

Bumped -- GH. Originally posted 2008-06-12 21:07:33 -0500.

In Alchemy, there is a principle called "equivalent exchange" that comes into play in many areas of life, including politics.

If you replace an ethically challenged President with another ethically challenged President, and ensure that they are fairly equal (roughly equivalent) in terms of their foreign policy, defense posture, economic planning and technological (in)competence, you aren't really doing much of anything to change the system.

John McCain insists that a McCain Presidency won't be a third Bush term -- that putting him into the highest office on the land isn't going to be an equivalent exchange.

Hat-tip to USArmyParatrooper.

There's no magic here, folks.

John McCain == George W. Bush == McBush == McSame

This is why John McCain and his right-hand minion man Joe Lieberman have a serious YouTube problem. This is why neither likes reality very much.

This is why, if McCain gets the Presidency, nothing will change. The country will continue on its way to hell in an elephant-shaped handbasket, adorned with a pretty ribbon and note from George W. reading "Smell ya later!"

This is why the GOP must lose both the Presidency and as much of their standing in Congress and in governerships, circuit courts and DA Offices across the land this election season.

They've gotten away with gaming the system for over 8 years. They came dangerously close to a "permanent" Republican majority, which would have permitted their destruction of the nation to continue apace.

This is why we must change the course our nation is on -- because if we don't force change, and a BIG one, then the destruction they've wrought will fester and spread.

Oh, yeah -- this is an Open Thread.

Alas, irony. White House Press Secretary Dana Perino calling former White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan “sad” is like McClellan calling Perino a “Bush administration whore.” They’re both right, but look who’s talking.

No, Scott didn’t really call Dana a Bush administration whore—not in public, anyway. Dana really did call Scott sad though, and she really is a Bush administration whore.

Dana should have taken it easy on Scott. He’s just the latest in a long line of former Bush liegemen who wrote books so they can make enough money to buy their way out of hell. Dana’s time will come. After her press secretary gig is over and people start calling her out for fibbing about the surge, she’ll get to dwelling on the fate of her immortal soul and boy, will her tune ever change.

A regular visitor at Pen and Sword posited last week that a naval blockade of Iran wouldn’t be an act of war if the UN sanctioned it. I replied that no, acts of war aren’t defined by whether or not the UN or any other international organization sanction them. Dropping a nuke on Tehran would be an act of war even if the UN, the Catholic Church and Oprah Winfrey combined sanctioned it.

That led me to thinking that Memorial Day 2008 would be a good time for a short study of war in the age of American hegemony. War can be a dry subject, but I’ll do my best to keep the discourse lively. I would promise you that the next several hundred words will be more entertaining by far than any lecture you’d ever hear from any professor at any war college in the country, but that promise is so easy to keep it’s not worth the trouble of making.

originally posted 2008-05-21 13:27:55 -- bumped, cho

George W. Bush appears to desire the complete destruction of the Republican Party for the next forty years even more ardently than he wants to fund his war in Iraq. Or so I am lead to believe by a recent spate of incomprehensible policy decisions. He has given the Democratic Party an arsenal of tools to use against both John McCain, and nearly every Republican incumbent up for re-election in the Senate. It is July 4 in May!

Democrats in the Senate have been unable to pass a series of extremely popular and necessary programs due to stiff opposition from the Bush Administration and Senate Republican leadership. Instead of giving up, Democratic Leadership has attached the programs to the Supplemental Appropriations Bill which funds the War in Iraq. The President, who has suddenly discovered "fiscal responsibility," is threatening to veto the bill unless the offensive amendments are removed. His water carriers, Mitch McConnell (R-KY) and Chuck Grassley (R-IA) are working hard behind the scenes to insure that Republicans uphold the President's veto.

Senate Republicans who are up for re-election in November (or ever) face an unsettling dilemma.

The Iowa Winners: The Obamas

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Barack Obama has taken us on an incredible ride. We are so high, that we are afraid to pinch ourselves because it may not be true. He is about to become the Democratic Nominee. And you want to know the best part about it? We put him there.