QOTD, Col. Lawrence Wilkerson: "Cheney is a man who frightens easily. ... He's a man who lives on fear, and he's a fearful man."
In Veep Trouble April 24: Former Vice President Dick Cheney suddenly wants to declassify two documents in an attempt to show that "enhanced interrogation techniques" can't be considered torture if it works. Rachel Maddow is joined by retired Army Colonel Lawrence Wilkerson.
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I notice a new willingness of Dems and some in the media to call bullshit on stoopid repuglican tricks. Good. For example ....
from sgw: Waxman Comes Off The Top Turnbuckle
First rule of fight club is use credible sources. When Newt Gingrich cites the Weekly Standard to start off you know this is about to go left. From the video you can tell that Henry Waxman was pretty much hoping that Newt brought the weaksauce today and he wasn't dissappointed. I bet Newt won't be running his ass to the Hill to testify again anytime soon.
Do people at the Times laugh when they write drivel like this, or are they clueless? "even if it means a partisan fight?" Are you kidding me?
Obama Tactic Shields Health Care Bill From a Filibuster
By CARL HULSE
The president’s new stance suggests he may be much less willing to compromise on health care, his top legislative priority, even if it means a partisan fight.
Gore To Blackburn: If You Think It's About Greed, "You Don't Know Me"
DemfromCT's (Daily Kos): Your Abbreviated Pundit Round-up
Weekend punditry!
WaPo on swine flu:
"It's alarming and very concerning," said Sari Setiogi, a spokeswoman for the World Health Organization in Geneva, which began an investigation of the cause and scope of the outbreak.
President Obama has been briefed about the illness, spokesman Reid Cherlin said, adding: "The White House is taking the situation seriously and monitoring for any new developments.
We'll have an update later today. This public service announcement was brought to you by Daily Kos.
...The modern-day Republican Party is not so much a political party as it is a cautionary tale. Now we know exactly what a party looks like when it is out of gas, out of ideas, and flailing desperately for survival. At the same time, the current state of the GOP is an undiluted example of how quickly things can change in politics.
Do Americans think that congressional Republicans have a clear plan for solving the nation's economic problems? Nearly three-quarters of respondents in the CNN poll said no.
Obama is resisting pressure to toss spending on health care, education, and energy out of his budget to make it cheaper and easier to pass. Some of the pressure is coming from his own advisers. The president says that pressure is for "instant gratification," encouraged by shorter news cycles and shorter attention spans.
The president is defying that culture. He wants long-term thinking -- something radically different from the norm in American politics.
Right now, many voters are saying, "Spend what it takes to get us out of this horrible recession."
But will they remember that when the recession is over and the bills have to be paid -- or deferred? Could the needed medicine have so many unpleasant side effects that the recovering patient fires the doctor?
All of this is purely hypothetical, of course, because no bottom has yet been reached, no recovery begun, and no blame yet shifted.
Such uncertainty should not drive what Obama and his party are trying to do to get the country out of the recession. But it may explain why the president, in his speech at Georgetown University, gave such a painstaking explanation about what his administration is doing and why.
Deficits are dangerous for liberals, but especially hard for conservatives, to talk about sensibly. A mantra of conservative parties is that deficits are bad, but the way they govern invariably produces deficits, or at least weakens the fiscal position of the government.
...
Twenty years of Republican administrations under three presidents followed this formula: a political campaign based on lower taxes and an attack on "wasteful" spending, followed by lower taxes but higher spending, with resulting chronic deficits.
Sudbay: Bethesda's Walt Whitman High School students far outnumber and way outclass the Phelps whackos from Westboro
The Phelps clan was in Bethesda today to protest Walt Whitman High School -- because it's named Walt Whitman High School. Not kidding. But, the students at Walt Whitman High were having none of it. And, when school let out, the kids lined up to form a counter-protest. There were seven Phelps compared to over 500 students. It actually sounds like the Phelps clan did a good job of uniting Whitman:At the 2:10 p.m. dismissal, 500 students issued forth from the campus and lined up, several students deep, along the police tape, across Whittier Boulevard from the congregants. They alternately chanted the school name and "Go home!" -- drowning out voices from across the street.The Phelps clan can't compete with students. Today, it was the high school kids at Walt Whitman High. Last month, it was college students at the University of Chicago.
Whitman, a 19th-century poet with major influence on American literature, is generally regarded as having been gay or bisexual, but his sexual identity remains enigmatic.
The Westboro Baptist Church has gained national notoriety for its anti-homosexuality demonstrations, staged provocatively outside military funerals and at schools that are putting on the musical "Rent." Before heading to Whitman, they showed up at the funeral of the Middletown, Md., family killed in a murder-suicide last week, claiming that those deaths, like the military casualties, were God's wrath toward a godless people. Police asked them to leave.
But at Whitman, the protesters arrived to palpable excitement. Faculty had spun the event into an interdisciplinary lesson. English teachers spent the day on Whitman's verse. Social studies teachers led a unit on tolerance. Math teachers fanned through the crowd, attempting a head count.
It was the first taste of protest for many Whitman students, and perhaps the first time they had paid much mind to their namesake.
Thank to my friend, Craig, who tipped me off about the possibility of these protests a couple weeks ago. He was very proud that his niece and nephew, who are students at Whitman, were on the front lines today.
Benen: A TOUGH ONE TO SPIN...
It's the job of the parties' campaign committees to put as positive a spin on election results as possible. But now that the results are final in the special election in New York's 20th, I think the NRCC will have to do better than this.Rep. Pete Sessions (Texas), chairman of the National Republican Congressional Committee, said that although Tedisco came up short that his message of fiscal discipline provided GOPers a blueprint on which to run next year.
"Since Election Day, we continue to hear the growing chorus of frustrated and concerned citizens who demand more from their government than profligate spending and mountains of debt that will be paid for in higher taxes by our children and grandchildren," said Sessions. "Although Jim was unsuccessful in his hope to change Washington, he has shed light on our Party's efforts to win back the majority in the House."
Frankly, if I worked for the NRCC, I'm not sure what I would have come up with, but suggesting a failed strategy in a Republican district can be duplicated for success elsewhere seems rather foolish.
Tedisco started out with a big lead in the polls, a huge advantage in name recognition, and a built-in benefit thanks to the Republicans' sizable registration advantage in the district. He embraced the national party's economic message and lost.
It doesn't sound like much of a "blueprint."
The day before the election, the Weekly Standard had a piece noting, "[I]f Republicans can't make it in New York's 20th, they can't make it anywhere." No wonder Pete Sessions is at a loss.
Life of the party? April 24: The Republican Party fights to find meaning in the political minority, but it might be a losing battle. Rachel Maddow is joined by Daily Beast Contributor Ana Marie Cox.
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hilzoy: Make It So
From the LATimes:
"The Obama administration is preparing to admit into the United States as many as seven Chinese Muslims who have been imprisoned at Guantanamo Bay in the first release of any of the detainees into this country, according to current and former U.S. officials.
Their release is seen as a crucial step to plans, announced by President Obama during his first week in office, to close the prison and relocate the detainees. Administration officials also believe that settling some of them in American communities will set an example, helping to persuade other nations to accept Guantanamo detainees too.
But the decision to release the Chinese Muslims, known as Uighurs, is not final and faces challenges from within the government, as well as likely public opposition. Among government agencies, the Homeland Security Department has registered concerns about the plan.
The move would also incense Chinese officials, who consider the Uighurs domestic terrorists and want those held at Guantanamo handed over for investigation. U.S. officials no longer consider the Chinese Muslims to be enemy combatants and fear they would be mistreated in China."
Dear Obama administration: as a member of the public, let me assure you that you need fear no opposition from me. On the contrary: by being willing to step up and do right by some of the people we have imprisoned, you would earn even more of my respect than you have already.
Even the Bush administration tribunals found that the Uighurs were not enemy combatants. They have been imprisoned for seven and a half years. It is long past time to set them free.
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Sully: Quote For The Day
"The unintended consequence of a U.S. policy that provides for the torture of prisoners is that it could be used by our adversaries as justification for the torture of captured U.S. personnel," - an unsigned two-page attachment to a memo by the military's Joint Personnel Recovery Agency in July 2002.
So the military knew it was torture and said it was torture. Because it was torture. And the United States has statutory and treaty obligations to investigate all charges of torture and to prosecute the guilty. Or are we to withdraw from the treaty that Ronald Reagan signed and championed?
Sully: Yes, The Democrats Are Guilty Too
Punishing politically powerful criminals is about vindicating the rule of law. Partisan and political considerations should play no role in it. It is opponents of investigations and prosecutions who are being driven by partisan allegiances and a desire to advance their political interests. By contrast, proponents of investigations are seeking to vindicate the most apolitical yet crucial principle of our system of government: that we are a nation of laws that cannot allow extremely serious crimes to be swept under the rug for political reasons. That's true no matter what is best for Obama's political goals and no matter how many Democrats end up being implicated -- ethically, politically or even legally -- by the crimes that were committed.For me, this has absolutely nothing to do with party. I'd be as insistent with any president who authorized torture of whatever party. And there is very good reason to believe that Pelosi knew a lot more than she has said. She should be investigated as well.
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