.... but it's a really good question.

Found over at Talking Poinnts Memo; http://tinyurl.com/24jsg4

A Last Thought Before the Senate Judiciary Committee Confirms Judge Mukasey; By John W. Dean

...Before the Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee completely cave-in to Bush, at minimum they should demand that Judge Mukasey appoint a special prosecutor to investigate if war crimes have been committed. If Mukasey refuses he should be rejected. This, indeed, should be a pre-condition to anyone filling the post of Attorney General under Bush....

I notice that you have dodged the ultimate issue in all this.... how do we get information out of people unwilling to talk. Contrary to popular opinion, coercion is not imposed for kicks, it's because someone knows something and we want to know what it is.

If someone refuses to answer questions, are you advocating that victims of future mayhem, quietly accept your decision about whose welfare is more important? It's the tradeoff that's implicit in the decision not to be "aggressive" about questioning.

If a prisoners comfort is more important than that of people whose fate may be impacted by what that prisoner knows, then the advocate of that prisoner's welfare bears the responsibility for any harm to others, that might have been avoided.

That's the problem with all this. The decision to torture or not isn't made in isolation. It is all part and parcel of war, sabotage, terror, and mass murder. Is one man's comfort or even sanity more important than trying to preserve other lives? I don't know how you can make that balance out in favor of people who have declared us unworthy of living, as part of their belief system.

how long is going to take. what going on is nothing but a grandstanding in futility. the reasonthe present occupant believe in what they want to accomplish while the rest of us we just give opiniones. they want power in any way shape or form to control. democrat spend their time setting up inevestigations that lead nowhere not becuase of lack of evidence but beacuase their are part of the same power . everything they do is for show. we read so and so

senator so and so congresseman but they by the most part empty suits shallow individual contrary to everything they claim to be they are empty suits unless we learn to try the spirit of everyone that we vote for we shouild not be surpriced at the results one thing tolearn about the religious right they demand a reversing of abortion for one and bush as worked fairly hard on the front for them but what about those dem that we vote for what have they done u can name anyone of them fill in the blank

Rather than an invocation of the Peter Principle as an explanation of what you see, perhaps you should consider the even more pernicious Iron Law of Institutions as that which accounts for these phenomena, as formulated by Jonathan Schwartz at his fabulous blog, tinyrevolution:

http://www.tinyrevolution.com/mt/archives/001705.html

I once was blind, but now I see. Those injected into positions of responsibility through the Peter Principle only labor in the vineyards of the Iron Law.

the inevitable cave-in on Telco immunity. Have the Dems won a single battle yet? I can't think of one. Well, as Glenn says this was just a distraction anyway. I am sure the honorable senators have been able to extract some additional money while pretending to give a shit about torture or anything else. I guess I am the fool for not figuring out how to get in on the action. Humping in the corporate accounts indeed.

patriotic,AMERICA-loving citizens of the United States must organize into an American Party! we must talk to dis-illusioned dems,repubs,indies,union people,green,blue,red,whatever!people of all political persuasions who love our country and what it stands for! let's get rid of the money-grubbing,screw-overs in power today. our constitution gives us the rights to force this unlawful,shameful administration out!

RE: DiFi pending response

Tahnks pantanal. If I knew the address of her 'house in the hills', I'd be sure to drop a fiery bag of my dog's daily on a ring and run. At least then she might ruin a shoe.

Shame on me for actually taking a participatory interest in our 'democracy'.

Barkeep!!! Better call me a cab!

What ever will shooter242 do...

...when he wakes up one day and realizes what a nightmare he's helped create.

Same as any modern-day right-wing authoritarian would do: blame Bill Clinton.

No way in hell. It's done.

I can tell you from personal experience that in about 6 weeks you will get an email from her. She will be very polite and will inform you that she has voted for the confirmation of Mukasey because the security of the American people had always been her most important priority and because she believes that Mukasey can work well with the legislative branch.

What she is really telling you of course is that she could care less whether you're dead or alive and that you can actually go and fuck yourself, but since Stanford educated Jewish/Catholic girls aren't supposed to talk that way, she, or rather her staffers, have to go through that bullshit each time they send a reply.

DiFi is a war profiteering republican disguised as a Democrat. She is not running for reelection and enjoys living in her 17 million $ mansion in Pacific Heights and the 100 million $ or so that she and husband have made off the Iraq war too much to give a damn about her constituency or anybody else. She, just like Joe Lieberman, is a lost cause and you need to give up the notion that she's in any way a Democrat.

It really does seem much of the time that the higher one looks in the echelons of any organization, the more stupidity and mendacity one finds. This seems especially true in government, and doubly so in the Congress.

I am dumbstruck daily at the idiocy and/or duplicity of the people perched on the uppermost rungs of power. And that's to say nothing of what I learn in the news.

Then again, American voters do seem to be gluttons for this unique kind of abuse.