I was running the Media Operations Center at Clark AB, Philippines, when McWar was returned to us and thought he was a hero when he walked out of the C-141 during Operation Homecoming. Now I have very little respect left. He suffers from exactly the same insecurity problem as Dubya, trying to live up to his father and grandfather's success. They have both proven that they will say or do anything to prove they are worthy and their means of achieving that has shown they have lost a lot more respect than they have gained.

How to Handle the Guantanamo Detainees by senators Graham and McCain (see sig)

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124157680630090517.html

MSNBC TV just made a report that according to UN investigators, the Taliban killed families with grenades to make it look like a US air attack did the killing. Hillary made this attack big news in her statement after meeting with the two presidents.

Clinton Expresses Regret for Civilian Casualties in Afghanistan

By William Branigin Washington Post Staff Writer, Wednesday, May 6, 2009; 1:33 PM (see sig)

Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton today expressed deep regret for civilian casualties caused by U.S. airstrikes in Afghanistan, telling the visiting Afghan and Pakistani presidents that the United States will work hard to "avoid the loss of innocent civilian life" even as it presses both governments to step up efforts to defeat Islamist extremists of the Taliban and al-Qaeda networks.

[...]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/05/06/AR2009050601851.html

Dodd Ridicules “Genius” In White House Who Won't Investigate Bush (video)

Sam Stein, HuffPo, 5-5-09 (see sig)

Sen. Chris Dodd took some noticeably hard shots at the White House in a recent interview with Connecticut bloggers, ridiculing the Obama officials who decided to release documents showing the Bush administration authorized torture without having the political will to follow up with an investigation or prosecution.

"I don't know who the genius was in the room that night when they were discussing this," the Connecticut Democrat said of the four torture documents declassified by the Obama White House. "But if you are going to make the decision to release the documents, I presume every one of us here would the have a follow up question, which is: Well, what are you going to do about it? And if the answer is nothing, we are just going to release the documents.... Some of us in the room would say, 'Well wait a minute, you have a problem. If you are going to release them then you are going to have to answer the next question, what are you going to do with them?'"

Dodd said that he definitively believed waterboarding to be torture and added that if "people did do something illegal it ought to be pursued." He did not have a preferred avenue for pursuing investigations into the matter, though spoke somewhat favorably of Sen. Patrick Leahy's proposal for an independent body to handle the matter.

But it was his comments aimed at the president that were the most biting. Though Obama noted that his hands were tied when it came to the document release -- his White House had to comply with a Freedom of Information Act request from the ACLU -- the fact that the president remains un-eager to pursue potential illegal activity struck Dodd as antithetical to basic American principles.

"I know people don't want to go back, because it is uncomfortable. The president has said I want to look forward," he said. "You know my father was a prosecutor at the Nuremberg trials. They were not a popular idea.... Nuremberg became a symbol of who we were. Even these thugs got a lawyer, even these thugs got a trial despite their acts. And so we became a symbol of jurisprudence and the rule of law."

[...]

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/05/05/dodd-ridicules-genius-in_n_197060.html

Since half of my ancestors came from Norway, why can't I come here every day and convince people that Norwegians are regular? I know more than anyone else about the truth behind this claim and anyone who thinks they are not regular, is an idiot that just won't face the facts. There is a Swedish conspiracy, and I know that because the other half of my ancestors are Swedish and you have no right to tell me I can't endlessly point that out. This is a free country. What kind of a blog are you running? What are you afraid of, the truth?

HuffPo, 5-5-09 (see sig)

WASHINGTON — The Justice Department is nearing the end of its probe into Bush administration lawyers who wrote secret memos approving harsh interrogation techniques.

The Associated Press obtained a copy of a letter from the Justice Department informing two members of Congress that a key deadline in the inquiry expired Monday.

The inquiry has become a politically-loaded guessing game, with some advocating criminal charges against the lawyers, and others urging the matter be dropped.

The letter did not indicate what the findings of the final report will be. Jay Bybee, John Yoo, and Steven Bradbury worked in the Justice Department's Office of Legal Counsel and played key roles in crafting the legal justification for techniques critics call torture.

The Washington Post reports that former Bush administration appointees have launched a lobbying campaign to water down the findings.

In recent days, attorneys for the subjects of the ethics probe have encouraged senior Bush administration appointees to write and phone Justice Department officials, said the sources, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the process is not complete.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/05/05/torture-memo-probe-by-doj_n_196781.html

In a brutally frank and at times contentious interview, former Attorneys General John Ashcroft and Alberto Gonzales had a discussion with Dan Abrams former MSNBC TV star of his own show. See sig for interview which has a full transcript link. The event on April 27 was part of a speaker series organized by the American Jewish University.

http://www.thedailybeast.com/blogs-and-stories/2009-05-03/bushs-lawyers-strike-back/full/