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Friday, November 2, 2007 12:00 AM

Mukasey's nomination and the sudden opposition to "waterboarding"

The same Congress that allowed and enabled Bush's excesses for years now claims to find Mukasey's support for those abuses intolerable.

The letters thread is now closed.

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Friday, November 2, 2007 05:29 PM

@Trident The short answer

No way in hell. It's done.

Friday, November 2, 2007 05:30 PM

WWSD

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.

Friday, November 2, 2007 05:40 PM

thanks for the update...

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!

Friday, November 2, 2007 05:50 PM

AMERICA

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!

Friday, November 2, 2007 06:05 PM

I suppose this sets up...

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.

Friday, November 2, 2007 06:42 PM

DCLaw1...

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.

Friday, November 2, 2007 06:57 PM

disgusted

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

Friday, November 2, 2007 07:00 PM

@ Ondelette

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.

Friday, November 2, 2007 07:08 PM

Probably too late to pull this off...

.... 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....
Friday, November 2, 2007 07:09 PM

@JerseyJeffersonian

Thanks. That principle is very important and illuminating if you want to understand Beltway thinking and why we get so frustrated with the Dems.

Friday, November 2, 2007 07:17 PM

Okay, Festus, I finished my beer.

Is one man's comfort or even sanity more important than trying to preserve other lives?

The answer is that every person is worthy of being treated with respect for their inherent human rights.

Coercion may give you an answer, but in the time that it takes to determine the validity of the answer given, independent intelligence work will always give a more reliable answer. No matter how many times you repeat it, the ticking time bomb scenario is a work of fiction and has absolutely no bearing on interrogation in real life.

Torture, on the other hand, only and always will serve to produce more enemies. In your enthusiasm to torture those who are different than you, you are only assuring that every soldier of ours who happens to fall into enemy hands is much more likely to be tortured. Why do you hate our troops and want to see them tortured?

Treatment with dignity and respect, on the other hand, defuses the spiral of hatred. Sadly, today, that spiral has accelerated to a sickening pace.

Now buzz off and play with your putter like a good little warperv fascist.

Friday, November 2, 2007 07:17 PM

ACLU Action Link

Re: John Dean's take on Mukasey's confirmation

The ACLU has an Action Center page. One of their 'take action' items is a link on Mukasey's confirmation. It contains a message that will be sent to your representative on your behalf. There is an editable portion of the message which the ACLU encourages you to personalize. It occurs to me that John Dean's request for a special prosecutor might be just the thing to insert into that editable portion of the message.

Click my sig or try: http://tinyurl.com/yuo945

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