Political Bloviation

Tortures Blowback – washingtonpost.com
THE GHOSTS of interrogations past have come back to haunt the Bush administration. This week, the legal officer supervising the military trials at the U.S. detention center at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, dismissed capital charges against Mohammed al-Qahtani, who allegedly would have been the 20th hijacker during the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks [...]

Sources: Top Bush Advisors Approved ‘Enhanced Interrogation’
They should be in jail, but you know they’ll never see the inside of a court as defendants.

Pelosi will stop fast-track clock – The Crypt’s Blog – Politico.com
Political hardball played in response to Bush’s imperious dealing with Congress. Peolsi’s response is appropriate and long overdue. Better late than never.

then this should really piss you off. Read the whole thing. It’s a view of the lawlessness that the Bush administration has dragged this nation to. These are not the principles that America was founded on. It shames and demeans us as a people. These people are guilty of numerous crimes and should, but probably [...]

Despite the Fighting in Basra, Bush Emphasizes Progress – washingtonpost.com
An honest editor might change that to:
Despite reality, Bush continues to lie.

E. J. Dionne Jr. – The Street on Welfare – washingtonpost.com
Never do I want to hear again from my conservative friends about how brilliant capitalists are, how much they deserve their seven-figure salaries and how government should keep its hands off the private economy.
The Wall Street titans have turned into a bunch of welfare clients. [...]

I guess it wasn’t lives he cared about or his treasure that was sacrificed. After all, sacrifice is for the little people:
Five years on, Bush again talks of Iraq victory | U.S. | Reuters
President George W. Bush said on Wednesday he had no regrets about the unpopular war in Iraq despite the “high cost in [...]

Bush Warns House on Surveillance – New York Times
With the House moving toward a vote on electronic surveillance legislation that the White House has said falls far short of its requirements, President Bush warned legislators strongly Thursday morning against passing what he called “a partisan bill that will undermine American security.”
There is no issue affecting [...]

No Torture. No Exceptions
The Washington Monthly sets out to end the debate on torture by presenting a series of short essays from people across the political spectrum on why torture is, in fact, bad. The real tragedy here is that is necessary to make this point in the USA in the 21st century.
Here’s a quote [...]

Bush Poised to Veto Waterboarding Ban – washingtonpost.com

The Daily Dish | By Andrew Sullivan
Basically: borrow around a trilllion from the Chinese to give Iran a new client state next door, occupy it for the next thirty years, and still keep oil at $106 a gallon barrel. Yes: lots to debate.
Death, strategic and financial disaster, way to go Bushie.

They lost intelligence, possibly congenitally, then decided that telcos would cooperate anyway, despite their best sky is falling bullshit rhetoric. It’s hard being part of BushCo these days. I’m not sure I’m down for a witch hunt in the federal civil service ranks like dday, but I am down for the American public coming to [...]

Firedoglake – Firedoglake weblog » FISA: President Specious Opens Yap, Petulantly Stamps Foot…Again

Hullabaloo- tristero
I find my reaction is much the same, why is bush still in office?

John Aravosis on Bush’s recent signing statement:
Bush will ignore more of Harry Reid’s and Nancy Pelosi’s laws
No, in America we go to court to determine if laws unconstitutionally infringe on the president’s powers. The president doesn’t just get to decide by himself, especially when he’s a blithering idiot. No one in America gets to decide [...]

You have to question the sanity of anyone who wants this:
McClatchy Washington Bureau | 01/30/2008 | Commentary: Only 11 months to go
Meantime, out on the campaign trail, what pass for the political heavyweights in both parties are busy bashing each other around the head and shoulders in a desperate battle to win the White House [...]

Bush tells Congress about his willingness to ignore the law – The Carpetbagger Report
He believes he’s simply not bound by the constitution (over congressional oversight) in any meaningful way.

The Daily Dish | By Andrew Sullivan
Sully points out that there was an HIV positive woman at the SOTU address whose very presence is a violation of US immigration laws barring HIV positive people from entering the country. Naturally since the Shrub needed a prop the let her come in to be a cute cut [...]

There’s a good round up of what happened over at C&L:
Crooks and Liars » Jay Rockefeller on FISA: Bush is committing Political terrorism: Cloture vote fails
Short story is that the GOP fell well short of their pathological attempt to play a national security issue for political advantage. The cloture vote in the Senate failed, so [...]

Negotiating Our Future in Iraq | The American Prospect
Bush would like to negotiate a long term agreement with Iraq, including security and training assurances without going to the Senate for ratification of a formal treaty between the nations. Why would he want to do that (other than a long standing hatred of anything that smells [...]