Still Utterly Clueless

There must be a certain calmness in it.

Walking around, in the new bubble, out of office, almost universally heralded as the WORST PRESIDENT EVER.



Earlier this week, the former Court-Appointed President gave an interview with the Dallas Star-Telegram, and added to his roster of The Commander Guy, The Decider Guy, Ek-A-Lec-Tic Reading Guy, a new one;

Former President Bush says his new title is 'retired guy'

And this portion of the interview stuck out like a like a neocon at a peace rally;

Time in office: "Some days were good, some days weren’t so good," Bush said. "Every day was a glorious experience of serving our country. . . . When we lost a soldier, it was a dark moment." But even then, "I could always see light."

[snip]

Nervous moment: Standing on the mound in Yankee Stadium, getting ready to throw out the ceremonial first pitch of a game in October 2001. He said Yankees infielder Derek Jeter asked whether he’d be throwing from the mound or from in front of it. Bush said he told Jeter that he’d throw from the mound. "He said: 'Don’t bounce it. They’ll boo you,’ " Bush said, adding that he was nervous. "I got it across the plate and it was a fantastic moment, a moment of relief, then a moment of high energy."

He could "see the light?"

His most nervous moment was throwing a baseball?

It wasn't about lying, and orchestrating the lying, and fabricating the evidence, to invade and occupy Iraq?

It wasn't that his Vice President, and staff, purposefully, and blatantly, exposed the identity of an undercover CIA agent?

Or, that he illegally spied, and wiretapped, innocent American citizens?

That his policies of war, and giving tax cuts to the wealthy, and doing all he could to end oversight and regulation, his warped vision of an "Ownership Society" all but plunged this country (well, nearly the entire planet) into a second Great Depression?

No, his biggest worry, the thing that made him most nervous, was throwing a baseball.

Only the WORST PRESIDENT EVER could maintain that level of clueless consistency.

Must Read: Why I threw the shoe

Remember when The Commander Guy was over in Iraq, giving some kind of press conference, and the Iraqi journalist who stood up, likely knowing his fate for the act he was going to commit, threw his shoes at the War Criminal Court-Appointed President?



Muntazer al-Zaidi is his name, and he has a post up on the Guardian UK, a tremendous read, from the heart, from the perspective we have had too little of, from our own, warmongering, cheerleading Corporate media.

Why I threw the shoe - I am no hero. I just acted as an Iraqi who witnessed the pain and bloodshed of too many innocents

I say to those who reproach me: do you know how many broken homes that shoe which I threw had entered? How many times it had trodden over the blood of innocent victims? Maybe that shoe was the appropriate response when all values were violated.

When I threw the shoe in the face of the criminal, George Bush, I wanted to express my rejection of his lies, his occupation of my country, my rejection of his killing my people. My rejection of his plundering the wealth of my country, and destroying its infrastructure. And casting out its sons into a diaspora.

If I have wronged journalism without intention, because of the professional embarrassment I caused the establishment, I apologise. All that I meant to do was express with a living conscience the feelings of a citizen who sees his homeland desecrated every day. The professionalism mourned by some under the auspices of the occupation should not have a voice louder than the voice of patriotism. And if patriotism needs to speak out, then professionalism should be allied with it.

I didn't do this so my name would enter history or for material gains. All I wanted was to defend my country.

Muntazer al-Zaidi is an Iraqi reporter who was freed this week after serving nine months in prison for throwing his shoe at former US president George Bush at a press conference. This edited statement was translated by McClatchy Newspapers correspondent Sahar Issa www.mcclatchydc.com

We covered it here, on The Garlic;

"Son of A Dog!"

Leave it to The Commander Guy, to go off on a "Mission Accomplished" victory lap and be greeted, as The Bush Grindhouse long propagandized, like a "liberator".

It would be fitting, especially with the Court-Appointed-President's party attempting to kill off unions, to stand by and watch Detroit sink (reprising their positions of Katrina-battered New Orleans), if the UAW workers, as well as all American, sent their old shoes to Dubya, in a symbolic gesture of supporting the sentiments of the Iraqi journalist, Muntathar al Zaidi

[snip]

I'll be waiting, watching, to see how soon The Worst President Ever makes another one of those mocking videos, ducking shoes, much like he pretended to look for WMDs under his desk.

For all the lies, the deception, the careless disregard for all things good, the White House should have turned into a veritable shoe warehouse.

Instead, our media all but got on their hands-and-knees, and fit them with velvet slippers.

With all the troops still stationed in Iraq, and the call for more troops to be rushed into Flintstonesville (aka Afghanistan), perhaps we should emulate Muntazer al-Zaidi, or, at least, in spirit, start practice whipping off the shoes and flinging them.

(H/T to Jeremy Scahill, for his Twitter post on this)

It Will Never Be A Happy "Mission Accomplished" Day

We wonder how The Commander Guy celebrated yesterday.

Did he strut around in his his new Dallas neighborhood in the flight suit? ... Stand on his back porch, reliving the moment on the deck of the U.S.S. Abraham Lincoln? ... Or, simply remain obtuse, as dense as he has ever been.

Yesterday, if you recall, was the 6th Anniversary of "Mission Accomplished".

You remember, when the invasion and occupation was all wrapped up, all that "stuff happens" happened, the cheering crowds of liberated people, fading in the deep crevices of The Bush Grindhouse, a few stray rose pedals, and flowers, drifting aimlessly..

As egregious (and, perhaps, criminal) as this was, it was more horrific, the complete submission, and full-throated cheerleading, of our dunce-capped media.

So many were so, so wrong.

Greg Mitchell has captured that, in his book, "So Wrong For So Long", and has a piece up on Huffington Post, "On 6th Anniversary of 'Mission Accomplished' -- How the Media Blew It";

Chris Matthews on MSNBC called Bush a "hero" and boomed, "He won the war. He was an effective commander. Everybody recognizes that, I believe, except a few critics." He added: "Women like a guy who's president. Check it out. The women like this war. I think we like having a hero as our president. It's simple."

PBS' Gwen Ifill said Bush was "part Tom Cruise, part Ronald Reagan." On NBC, Brian Williams gushed, "The pictures were beautiful. It was quite something to see the first-ever American president on a -- on a carrier landing."

Bob Schieffer on CBS said: "As far as I'm concerned, that was one of the great pictures of all time." His guest, Joe Klein, responded: "Well, that was probably the coolest presidential image since Bill Pullman played the jet fighter pilot in the movie Independence Day. That was the first thing that came to mind for me."

Ahh .... Dwarf, finks, phonies, and frauds, the bunch of 'em ...

Go check out, for a head-shaking chuckle, our elite media, in Mitchell's "On 6th Anniversary of 'Mission Accomplished' -- How the Media Blew It"


Bonus Links

Bush Remarks on "Mission Accomplished" Banner Embarrass White House

Top Ten Cloves: Lengths White House Staff Will Go Today To Avoid Reminding President Of "Mission Accomplished"

Oh Boy, Another One ...

Yesterday, we told you about Jon "Let'em Go" Meacham, and his "Hear/Speak/See No Evil" approach to holding the Bush Grindhouse accountable for their war crimes.



Today, it is, none other, than Thomas "My Head Is Flat", "Suck On This" Friedman, proud creator of the infamous "Friedman Unit".

The president’s decision to expose but not prosecute those responsible for this policy is surely unsatisfying; some of this abuse involved sheer brutality that had nothing to do with clear and present dangers. Then why justify the Obama compromise? Two reasons: the first is that because justice taken to its logical end here would likely require bringing George W. Bush, Donald Rumsfeld and other senior officials to trial, which would rip our country apart; and the other is that Al Qaeda truly was a unique enemy, and the post-9/11 era a deeply confounding war in a variety of ways.

[Snip]

First, Al Qaeda was undeterred by normal means. Al Qaeda’s weapon of choice was suicide. Al Qaeda operatives were ready to kill themselves — as they did on 9/11, and before that against U.S. targets in Saudi Arabia, Kenya, Tanzania and Yemen — long before we could ever threaten to kill them. We could deter the Russians because they loved their children more than they hated us; they did not want to die. The Al Qaeda operatives hated us more than they loved their own children. They glorified martyrdom and left families behind.

We think Mister My Head Is Flat shoots down his own argument, right here.

"Al Qaeda’s weapon of choice was suicide. Al Qaeda operatives were ready to kill themselves ..."

Since Al Qaeda was "undeterred by normal means", fearless of suicide and "ready to kill themselves", why then, would we want to play into all that with torture?

It would seem to be a wiser choice, to do proper interrogations with them, dispelling the myths, and building rapports that trained interrogators say produce better results.

Sorry there Mister Suck-On-This, you don't get to pass Go, and collect your, apparently much-needed, $200.

And, can we start tearing down this meme, that holding criminals accountable for their crimes will "tear the country apart."

Who says so? ... When has this happened, what factual documentation do these people have?

Ford screwed the pooch with pardoning Nixon for the same rationale, choking off the display of democracy, with having the Congress impeach the sitting, criminal President.

So, why is it that, in "enforcing the laws that are on the books" (a favorite Freak Show lament, when it comes to gun control, and immigration), will "tear the country apart", rather than stand out, showing our fellow citizens, and the world, that we are big enough, and strong enough, to take care of our business, orderly, and with respect.

I expect this will get a lot more voicing, as we crawl towards the War Crime Trials, awaiting, hopefully, not in the distant future.

So, Suck On That, there Mr. Friedman Unit.


Bonus "My Head Is Flat" Riffs

Barrett Brown: Thomas Friedman’s Five Worst Predictions

Delawareliberal: Tom Friedman and Me - Or - Calling Friedman out Near the Coat Check at Sardi’s

Wonkette: Thomas Friedman Assaulted By Rhode Island Pies!

Thomas Freidman, Clearly, Is Eating Lead-Painted Toys From His Flat World Economy!

Happy 5th Anniversary of "Suck On This" Day!

Jon Meacham, Phone Home

This goes, far, far beyond merely Jon Meacham's head stuffed up, deep, in his butt.

Nor, is it drinking gallons-and-gallons of the Freak Show Kool Aid.

The jig is up ...



He is an intergalactic alien, so benighted in the ways and customs of our country, that he, in his "Editor's Desk' column, in 'Newsweek', he blows his cover;

So we do not want that. Nor, I think, do we want to open criminal investigations into those who participated in brutal interrogation methods. And to pursue criminal charges against officials at the highest levels—including the former president and the former vice president—would set a terrible precedent. (The presidential historian Michael Beschloss suggests that the closest parallel to a president authorizing a probe of his predecessor can be found in the 1920s, when Calvin Coolidge appointed special prosecutors to investigate Warren Harding's role in the Teapot Dome scandal.) That is not to say presidents and vice presidents are always above the law; there could be instances in which such a prosecution is appropriate, but based on what we know, this is not such a case.

[snip]

The idea that our only options are to move on completely or to prosecute is a classic false choice.

Dig that?

"That is not to say presidents and vice presidents are always above the law; there could be instances in which such a prosecution is appropriate, but based on what we know, this is not such a case."

No, the "false choice" here, the false meme here is that, "based on what we know", based on lies, and fabricated legal advice to package those lies, that The Bush Grindhouse "kept us safe"

That the policy of torture "kept us safe"

Just the other day (and who thunk that Meacham would top this), we had Stumblin' Bumblin' John McCain advocating that, like Watergate, the Bush Grindhouse should get a pass.

Glenn Greenwald tears Meacham a new one, in Jon Meacham's subservient defense of monarchical power

And, the other day, his editor, Joan Walsh, of Salon, attempted to bang heads together, perhaps, hopefully, to dislodge that meme of "torture is okay".

I don't know what planet you are from Jon Meacham, but when you go back there, you can tell your people that, here, on Earth, torture is a crime and those responsible for it must be held accountable.

Either that, or pull your head out of your ass.

Jesus ....


Bonus Riffs

For The Want Of A Lie ...

Krugman: Reclaiming America’s Soul

The Narrative Continues To Build!

Retro Garlic: Dana Perino's Glass Still Half-Full

Ah, it's almost as familiar, as ubiquitous, as comforting, as Linus's security blanket.

We speak of the brilliant, and brimming, intellect of former Bush Grindhouse mouthpiece, Dana Perino.



Satyam Khanna, at Think Progress caught her recent interview with Chip Reid, and our Glass-Half-Full Dana served up "An investigation would be a "political witch hunt," Perino said, claiming the interrogation program was actually "safe, effective, and legal."

Perhaps she hasn't noticed that she isn't working in The Bush Grindhouse any longer, that she actually can have days where the glass is half-empty, or, really go out on-a-limb, and go sans a glass, completely winging it.

Khanna also called her out, on Dana's little fib, of never saying she answered the question, if Waterboarding was torture;

Except Perino has weighed in on the issue, and all indications are that she has said that waterboarding is not torture. When repeatedly pressed by reporters on whether the Bush administration tortured, Perino consistently and robotically responded, "We do not torture." She uttered the phrase until the very end of her tenure, well after the CIA publicly admitted in February 2008 to waterboarding three detainees:

-- "Let me just make sure it's clear, and I'll say it on the record one more time, that it has never been the policy of this President or this administration to torture." [1/14/09]

-- "We did not torture." [11/18/08]

-- "The United States has not, is not torturing any detainees in the global war on terror." [4/23/08]

Maybe Dana is just staying in character, for her new gig, working with the man who "Blew the Presidency" for Hillary Clinton.

That's right, boys and girls, Half-Glass-Full Dana is now working for Mark Penn.

Let's hope, she can read maps better than Penn.

Oh yeah, The Retro Parts;

In Dana Perino's World, The Glass Is Always, and Perpetually, Half-Full

Top Ten Cloves: Other Surprising Things White House Press Secretary Dana Perino Doesn't Know

Bonus Half-Glass-Full Dana Riffs

Sam Stein - Perino: Bush Deserves Credit For Recent Market Uptick

Steve Benen: WHEN THE QUESTION PROVIDES THE ANSWER...

Ben Armbruster: Defending Cheney, Perino Says Americans ‘Had Input’ On Iraq War In 2004

The Narrative Continues To Build!

"If you build it, they will come (to justice, hopefully)"

Yes, it's a bone we have latched on to, but one that continues to deny being buried.

More, and more, it is being obvious, to many, that the dots are being connected on how The Bush Grindhouse lied us into the invasion and occupation of Iraq, and, as an instrument of their odious, and evil tools, one of the items they used to sell it, was the implementation of their Torture Policy.



Frank Rich, today, with a monster column, weighs in, on-point, and on-the-money.

The Banality of Bush White House Evil

Yet we still shrink from the hardest truths and the bigger picture: that torture was a premeditated policy approved at our government’s highest levels; that it was carried out in scenarios that had no resemblance to “24”; that psychologists and physicians were enlisted as collaborators in inflicting pain; and that, in the assessment of reliable sources like the F.B.I. director Robert Mueller, it did not help disrupt any terrorist attacks.

[Snip]

In other words, the ticking time bomb was not another potential Qaeda attack on America but the Bush administration’s ticking timetable for selling a war in Iraq; it wanted to pressure Congress to pass a war resolution before the 2002 midterm elections. Bybee’s memo was written the week after the then-secret (and subsequently leaked) “Downing Street memo,” in which the head of British intelligence informed Tony Blair that the Bush White House was so determined to go to war in Iraq that “the intelligence and facts were being fixed around the policy.” A month after Bybee’s memo, on Sept. 8, 2002, Cheney would make his infamous appearance on “Meet the Press,” hyping both Saddam’s W.M.D.s and the “number of contacts over the years” between Al Qaeda and Iraq. If only 9/11 could somehow be pinned on Iraq, the case for war would be a slamdunk.

But there were no links between 9/11 and Iraq, and the White House knew it. Torture may have been the last hope for coercing such bogus “intelligence” from detainees who would be tempted to say anything to stop the waterboarding.

It is becoming clearer, that Cheney, some other Bush Grindhouse cronies, the Flying Monkeys (and George Will, who on Little Georgie's show this morning, was outraged that a new administration would go after a previous administration), are being blatantly obtuse, that they are looking to frame this as a policy witch hunt, versus the illegal war crimes that it is.

More, from that growing chain of dots ...

John Cole, at Balloon Juice, along with seconding Rich's column, delves into another can-of-worms that will, at some point, come to light;

BTW, something I was wondering. Didn’t one of the detainees we tortured claim to have been injected with drugs. Was that Padilla? Has that ever been verified? Were there any memos mentioning using pharmaceuticals?

Kevin Hayden, on American Street;

The mainstream media finally has gotten it right: the real reason for the torture was not national security, but to sell an unnecessary, immoral and illegal war in Iraq.

[Snip]

So in addition to the torture, we’ve killed a couple hundred thousand Iraqis, put all future US POWs at greater risk of being tortured, and Halliburton, Exxon, Blackwater and other companies run by Bush/Cheney cronies have been reaping the blood money from it all.

Of course the perps are busily denying it all. That’s what perps do. They know they’ll lose in a courtroom. Their best chance is to appeal to the court of public opinion to avoid the courtroom process completely.

They deserve to fail and to be adequately punished for their war crimes, if justice means anything.

Ron Beasley, at Newshoggers;

This makes the crime of torture even more heinous. Torture to get a false confession to justify a war that killed thousands of American soldiers and tens if not hundreds of thousands of innocent Iraqis. Sorry Mr Broder, if these crimes are not investigated and and the guilty held accountable the American people will also be just as guilty. If President Obama truly wants to improve the US standing in the world it will take more than talk about how we won't do it again. As it stands now the US is in no position to be critical of even the worst of the world regimes. There is only one way that can change. And by the way Mr Broder that's not called vengeance it's called justice.

Let the narrative continue to build.

Yes, let's follow Cheney's call to release more of the documents.

If it wasn't so seriously evil, and atrocious, it is almost ironic that Cheney wants defend his war crimes by cherry-picking from the torture memos and reports, the very ones, initially, made-to-order, "Here the info you wanted", tell-us-what-you-want-to-hear "legal" advice.

Despite the hue-and-cry, including that from the Obama White House, the only way this should end is with a thorough, independent investigation, and let the chips fall where the may.

It that leads to prosecution, and charges against acquiescing Democrats, so be it.

As Frank Rich ended his column today;

"What we must have are fair trials that at long last uphold and reclaim our nation’s commitment to the rule of law."


Bonus Links

Krugman: Reclaiming America’s Soul

For The Want Of A Lie ...

For The Want Of A Lie ...

It was clear, to a vast many, the lies told, repeatedly, and often, to justify the invasion and occupation of Iraq.

However, it is now coming out, the yeoman's work The Bush Grindhouse (and in particular, the sadists, Rumsfeld and Cheney) went to build a foundation for those lies.

They created, endorsed, and pushed, a Torture Program.



Jonathan Landy, of the McClatchy Newspapers (one of the very, very few news organizations, that didn't drink the Kool-Aid, and were like dogs-on-a-bone as to The Bush Grindhouse) has the narrative today.

Report: Abusive tactics used to seek Iraq-al Qaida link

The Bush administration applied relentless pressure on interrogators to use harsh methods on detainees in part to find evidence of cooperation between al Qaida and the late Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein's regime, according to a former senior U.S. intelligence official and a former Army psychiatrist.

Such information would've provided a foundation for one of former President George W. Bush's main arguments for invading Iraq in 2003. In fact, no evidence has ever been found of operational ties between Osama bin Laden's terrorist network and Saddam's regime

[Snip]

A former senior U.S. intelligence official familiar with the interrogation issue said that Cheney and former Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld demanded that the interrogators find evidence of al Qaida-Iraq collaboration.

[Snip]

"The main one is that everyone was worried about some kind of follow-up attack (after 9/11). But for most of 2002 and into 2003, Cheney and Rumsfeld, especially, were also demanding proof of the links between al Qaida and Iraq that (former Iraqi exile leader Ahmed) Chalabi and others had told them were there."

[Snip]

"Cheney's and Rumsfeld's people were told repeatedly, by CIA . . . and by others, that there wasn't any reliable intelligence that pointed to operational ties between bin Laden and Saddam, and that no such ties were likely because the two were fundamentally enemies, not allies."

Senior administration officials, however, "blew that off and kept insisting that we'd overlooked something, that the interrogators weren't pushing hard enough, that there had to be something more we could do to get that information," he said.

[Snip]

The report, the executive summary of which was released in November, found that Rumsfeld, former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, and other former senior Bush administration officials were responsible for the abusive interrogation techniques used at Guantanamo and in Iraq and Afghanistan.

And, as to this Torture Program, is their classic Keystone Cops mindset, it came out yesterday, that no one in the Bush Grindhouse checked to see if such practices were effective, let alone, legal.

In a series of high-level meetings in 2002, without a single dissent from cabinet members or lawmakers, the United States for the first time officially embraced the brutal methods of interrogation it had always condemned.

This extraordinary consensus was possible, an examination by The New York Times shows, largely because no one involved — not the top two C.I.A. officials who were pushing the program, not the senior aides to President George W. Bush, not the leaders of the Senate and House Intelligence Committees — investigated the gruesome origins of the techniques they were approving with little debate.

Hollywood would be hard pressed to write a comedy script of this magnitude.

A H/T to Larisa Alexandrovna, who included in her post;

The public is not stupid (unless you count those who are hooked into an IV drip of Fox News and worship Dick Cheney as a hero) and they are beginning to see just the level of criminality the Bush junta engaged in. If Congress and AG Eric Holder do not act, I fear pitchforks will be the only path people see as viable - because it will in fact be the only path left. Know your history and understand that as things build and build, and horror drips and drips into the psyche of the populace, a small, seemingly inconsequential spark can ignite this entire powder keg. I am hoping Mr. Holder will act to make clear to the public that he is in fact on the side of justice and an independent broker on behalf of the law.

My other concern is that Bush and Cheney will use every tool at their disposal to exploit these tensions and set off this powder keg. They don't care about this nation and they will burn it down if they have to in order to escape punishment. Something very bad is brewing and if justice is not swift, the time purchased by these people is enough for them to manipulate and distort, even to create their very own and very dangerous distraction.

Yes, the ball is, very much, in Attorney General Eric Holder's court.

And, it will remain, to be seen, whether we see courage, or just another succession of Crony Generals.

As a side note, yesterday, cable news was dominated by the spigot of flooding torture news, segment-after-segment, a bevy of talking heads (and yes, the old,stale, one Democrat, one Republican format) and, as we were watching MSNBC, not one person, not the anchors, not the talking heads, as they droned on-and-on, mentioned, or discussed, that the United States is required, is obligated, by way of the treaties we have signed, to investigate the War Crimes of Torture.

It's almost as if they all never heard of Jonathan Turley.

Countdown- Jonathan Turley and Bush Admin War Crimes



Yes, it is one of those times, again ...

Help Me Mr. Wizard!


Bonus Links

Harsh Methods Approved as Early as Summer 2002 ... Holder Declassifies Timeline of Actions by Top Bush Administration Officials Regarding Interrogation

dday: Building A Fact Pattern

Anonymous Liberal: No One Could Have Predicted...

Amanda Terkel: Torture architect John Rizzo is still serving as the CIA's acting general counsel

Meteor Blades: Rumsfeld Began Post-9/11 Torture Long Before Abu Ghraib

BJ Bjornson: How Many American Lives Were Lost Because of Torture?

Garlic Poll Results - 'Sir, Will That Be A One-Way Ticket To The Hague?"

Our long national nightmare has come to an end.

Well, yes, The Commander Guy, but we refer to we finally got around to closing down this poll.

We put it up last Spring, for the 5th Anniversary of the Invasion and Occupation of Iraq, and a combination of getting a good response to it, wanting to leave it running while HE was still, even though it was a court-appointed deal, holding the office, and, the ever-present pressing duties on the homefront.



And, The Garlic's Poll isn't off-the-mark.

Just recently, over 40% of Americans polled support bringing Bush, and the rest of the cronies from The Bush Grindhouse, to justice.

Ahhh, but the new President waffles.

Glenn Greenwald pointed out the downside of not pursuing these charges, hightlighting a guy that is going to go hoarse, jumping up-and-down, all but setting his hair on fire, pointing out the painfully obvious, Jonathan Turley;

Jonathan Turley: These are war crimes. These are special categories. . . . The downside to all the [inauguration] pageantry -- and it is certainly well-deserved -- is that it's important for people who lift their hand in front of that building to understand the difference between the man and the mandate.

And the mandate here, as far as I understood it, is that we were going to have a true change, where people would be held accountable. And all this talk about civility makes it sound like it's just simply uncivil to investigate people for war crimes. . . .

All they have to do is say: "we're going to allow the law to be enforced." That's not a very difficult thing to say. But it's going to be inconvenient. But principles are always inconvenient. It's never a good time for principle. . . .

What I think the new Barack Obama -- President Obama -- is going to find it very hard to do is go around the world and say: "we're now again a nation of laws," if the first act he commits as President is to walk away from confirmed war crimes.

Rachel Maddow: If the administration has confirmed that they tortured people -- and they have, they have used the "t" word; they have described what they have done, which is recognized as torture, it is something for which we have prosecuted people -- are we literally looking at the possibility where administration officials from this administration cannot travel abroad to the other 145 countries that have signed the torture treaties because they might get arrested?

Jonathan Turley: Most certainly. The status of George Bush is not that different from Augusto Pinochet. They've both been accused of running a torture program. Outside of this country, there is not this ambiguity about what to do about a war crime. There are four treaties that make this an international violation. So if you go abroad, and try to travel, most people abroad are going to view you not as "former President George Bush" -- they're going to view you as a current war criminal.

Rachel Maddow: And they're going to view us as an outlaw regime for not arresting him on our own soil. 

Jonathan Turley: I think so, unfortunately. A lot is at stake.  

Let's just repeat two sentences. Turley: "President Obama is going to find it very hard to go around the world and say: 'we're now again a nation of laws,' if the first act he commits as President is to walk away from a confirmed war crime." Maddow: "And [people around the world] are going to view us as an outlaw regime for not arresting him on our own soil."

So, let’s get it on!

Especially, since no one picked up The Garlic's call for a Citizen's Arrest.

Slap on the cuffs, do the perp walk, and book'em with a one-way ticket to The Hague!

Our Garlic Poll voters concur ...

The Results

For the 5th Anniversary of the Bush Grindhouse invasion and occupation of Iraq, we should give the gift of ...

1. Charges of War Crimes in the World Court    Tally 53% 

2. Reactivate his military service and ship him to Iraq    Tally 26% 

3. Impeachment    Tally 16% 
 
4. Since Wood is the tradition, a good paddling    Tally 5% 


This Weeks' Poll: For his "Presidential panel on the auto industry", Obama should include ...

Go over to the leftside column and place your vote!

Top Ten Cloves: Possible Things Obama Administration Can Do With The Gitmo Prisoners

News Item: President Obama Takes First Steps on Gitmo, Considers How to Go About Re-Balancing the Scales (News & Commentary Round-Up)

10. Letting them keep those orange jumpsuits, trash pickers through the entire U.S. Highway System

9. Have them work the Security Gate, of the Purple Section, at the next Obama Inauguration

8. If you can put about 50 of them together, some city must want a new NFL franchise

7. New Fox Program - Terrorist Idol

6. NBC copycat program - Superstars of Terrorism

5. For the ones profoundly tortured, screen Tyrone Powers' 'Nightmare Alley', and pitch the benefits of being a carnival geek

4. Teach'em to sing, form a choir, and give the San Francisco Gay Men's Chorus a run for-the-money

3. Let them all go, using the only five words that will keep them straight - Chuck Norris Will Get You!

2. Hmmmm ... Can you say Mariel Boatlift - The Sequel?

1. Train them, to guard President Obama's Blackberry


Bonus "Shut It Down" Riffs

Media Matters: Media advance falsehood that Pentagon has confirmed that 61 former Guantánamo detainees have returned to battlefield

Dana Priest: Bush's 'War' On Terror Comes to a Sudden End

Myca: President Obama Did Something Good Today - 1/21

bmaz: Obama Drafts Order To Close Gitmo; Suspends Habeas Cases In DC Circuit

Down Here On The Ground

Yeah, when you listen to the tune below, it was that kind of day.

It started off, reading about the Oscar Grant shooting, out in Oakland.

Man, it is sick-to-the-stomach incomprehensible what went down there.

In one of the two video angles of the incident, you can see the BART Cop, with another pinning Grant down, knee-on-neck, pull out his gun and shoot him.

Unbelievable ...

That was followed by seeing the latest revelations of the Bush Grindhouse Torture Program.

And then, the other stuff took over.

Actually, it's been a carry-over, from the past few days.

Last month's troubles with the Aunt, produced a blood test where all was not right, and her primary Doc was a bit concerned about it.

So, last week, we followed up, and had another run, and the same aspect of the blood work is still showing something not quite right.

With remnants of the head cold stirring up, for the past two days, we have been playing phone tag with the Doc, detailed discussions and a call to get the Aunt in for a check, from, preferably a Rheumatologist, or, a neurologist, for possible (more to rule out) Temporal Arteritis.

Which will be tomorrow.

Naturally, such took up a big chunk of creative and writing time, and not sure how tomorrow will play out (assuming all goes well, you can bet-your-booties that Friday, I will be anchored, writing, with the temps down near zero)

So, for tonight, another gem.

Killer, monster rendition of the classic 'Down Here On The Ground' (coming from the movie 'Cool Hand Luke').

Of the bevy of people who have recorded this, Grant Green's is the favorite here

Kick back and groove with it!

Down Here on the Ground - Grant Green

It's A Rummy World, After All ...

I suppose, we can update this now;

“You go to war with the torture program you have—not the torture program you might want or wish to have at a later time ..."

In, what will be likely, just another one, in a long line of "I'm shocked ... Shocked to find gambling going on here", a Senate Committee Report lays the torture of detainees on the desk of ol' Mister Snowflakes.

Bipartisan Report: Rumsfeld Responsible for Detainee Abuse; Senate Committee Finds Officials Made Decisions That Led to Offenses Against Prisoners

A bipartisan panel of senators has concluded that former defense secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld and other top Bush administration officials bear direct responsibility for the harsh treatment of detainees at Guantanamo Bay, and that their decisions led to more serious abuses in Iraq and elsewhere.

In the most comprehensive critique by Congress of the military's interrogation practices, the Senate Armed Services Committee issued a report yesterday that accuses Rumsfeld and his deputies of being the authors and chief promoters of harsh interrogation policies that disgraced the nation and undermined U.S. security. The report, released by Sens. Carl M. Levin (D-Mich.) and John McCain (R-Ariz.), contends that Pentagon officials later tried to create a false impression that the policies were unrelated to acts of detainee abuse committed by members of the military.

"The abuse of detainees in U.S. custody cannot simply be attributed to the actions of 'a few bad apples' acting on their own," the report states. "The fact is that senior officials in the United States government solicited information on how to use aggressive techniques, redefined the law to create the appearance of their legality, and authorized their use against detainees."

Nice touch, using Rummy's own words to throw back in his face.

Can't you just see him, squinting, trying to understand this report, making one of his twisted faces, a real, harsh, "You don't know what you're talking about" distortion?

Likely, though Cheney's Weekend Armageddon partner saw this one coming.

That may be why, earlier this year, he called for a new U.S. Propaganda Agency.

Always The Thinker ... Gotta stay one step ahead of 'em...

Expect, in the coming days or weeks, for Rummy to make the grand Fixed News Network tour, touting up the failed policies, and defending his "enhanced interrogations".

They'll yuk it up, blame the report on some administration "dead enders" and shrug it off as "stuff happens".

Perhaps, at his future War Crimes Trial, stuff will happen, the prosecution using some "enhanced justice" against him.

How do ya like them apples, Rummy?


Bonus Rummy Riffs

Brilliant Juan Cole: Rumsfeld, Bush, Implicated in Torture by US Senate

Autumn Sandeen: It's Mostly Rumsfeld's Fault, Apparently

Brilliant at Breakfast: But after all, Jennifer Aniston posed naked and Oprah Winfrey is fat!

Jack Balkin: Armed Services Committee States Obvious: Detention Abuses Started at the Top

Garlic Exclusive! ... Rumsfeld Rolling On with Privatizing Forces ...Base Closings Tied To New U-Haul Self Storage Contract; Deal With National Vendors To Save Billions; Commissioned Officers Can Take Home Vehicles

“They’re coming here for the American experience” ...Rumsfeld Weighs In On Immigration Battle; Won’t Tie It To War With Iran; Suggests Army Recruiting Woes Could Be Solved With Mandatory Service By Illegal Aliens

Top Ten Cloves: What Would Be Different If Rumsfeld Was A Dog, But Still Secretary of Defense

Raymond, Why don't you pass the time with a game of solitaire?

Okay, we covered the obvious 'Manchurian Candidate' reference with the title and got that out-of-the-way.

Though it could be possible, some schlep-of-a-detainee got programed, with the Queen of Diamonds as his trigger, but that remains to be played out.













Better Dead Then Red, right?

Oh, was he ever in the wrong era ...

Think of what Senator Joe McCarthy could have done with this one;

China Inspired Interrogations at Guantánamo

The military trainers who came to Guantánamo Bay in December 2002 based an entire interrogation class on a chart showing the effects of “coercive management techniques” for possible use on prisoners, including “sleep deprivation,” “prolonged constraint,” and “exposure.”

What the trainers did not say, and may not have known, was that their chart had been copied verbatim from a 1957 Air Force study of Chinese Communist techniques used during the Korean War to obtain confessions, many of them false, from American prisoners.

The recycled chart is the latest and most vivid evidence of the way Communist interrogation methods that the United States long described as torture became the basis for interrogations both by the military at the base at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, and by the Central Intelligence Agency.

You think they would have been more discreet ... More hip ...

Like, if they going to go Chinese with the torture, they'd just have them brush their teeth with Chinese-made toothpaste, or, perhaps, put some Chinese-made toys in their mouths.

Or, since they were going global with the torture techniques, they beat them with one of Tom Friedman's books (hardcover, of course).

Just when you think the Bush Grindhouse couldn't go any lower ...

Hmmm ... I wonder if this record came with the program;

Dean Martin - On A Slow Boat To China




Bonus Links

Eric Martin: Unconscionable

PraireWeather: Commie sympathizers in US military, in US intelligence, and in the White House

John Cole: Durbin Was Wrong

Marty Lederman: Made in China: What We Have Become

Oh Yeah ...There'll Be Hard Karma A'Comin' ...

A short follow-up to last night's Yoo's Crossing.

Cheney's Cheney was also before the committee yesterday, and, if you didn't think David Addington was a royal asshole before the day began, you couldn't avoid thinking that by the time the sun set.

Just being labeled "Cheney's Cheney" covers a great deal.

I mean, that is the apex of assholiness!

Bush Policy Authors Defend Their Actions

The testimony from David S. Addington, chief of staff to Vice President Cheney, and John C. Yoo, a former senior Justice Department lawyer, was light on new details but heavy on rhetorical disputes with members of a House Judiciary subcommittee. Both witnesses avoided direct answers to a host of questions about their roles in preparing the legal ground for harsh interrogation tactics while arguing that such methods had been crucial in preventing another terrorist attack on U.S. soil after Sept. 11, 2001.

And Dana Milbank really nailed it, in his "When Anonymity Fails, Be Nasty, Brutish and Short";

He had the grace of Gollum as he quarreled with his questioners. In response to one of the chairman's questions, he neither looked up nor spoke before finishing a note he was writing to himself. When Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-Fla.) questioned his failure to remember conversations about interrogation techniques, he only looked at her and asked: "Is there a question pending, ma'am?" Finally, at the end of the hearing, Addington was asked whether he would meet privately to discuss classified matters. "You have my number," he said. "If you issue a subpoena, we'll go through this again."

Think of Addington as the id of the Bush White House. Though his hidden hand is often merely suspected -- in signing statements, torture policy and other brazen assertions of executive power -- Addington's unbridled hostility was live and unfiltered yesterday.

This lead Phillip Carter, in his Intel Dump column to notice "Crikey. No wonder they kept Addington in the shadows; public advocacy is clearly not his gig."

No, hardly.

He looked like a small child, refusing to eat his broccoli, and was going to sit there at the table, glowering, being nasty, cleverly, without actually using the language, saying, over-and over "Fuck you, I'm not eating that fucking broccoli ...!" ... For as long as it took, before Mommy and Daddy caved (and if this 110th Congress will be known for one thing, it is caving).

Tim F., over on Balloon Juice, sums that up pretty well, in his "Your Government In A Nutshell";

Fundamentally, the reason why Bush officials like Yoo and Addington show such total contempt for Congress is also the answer to the question that Conyers asked John Yoo: a rule without a penalty is no rule at all. If Congress won’t enforce the law when the President breaks it, then why should he pretend the law is there? For all intents and purposes it isn’t. Yoo’s answer to Conyers, then, is to lean back, smirk and ask what are you going to do about it?

Both sides of that conversation know the answer: nothing. Maybe Conyers will hold another hearing and invite another Bush official to crap on his desk.

When these cretins finally leave office (Yoo's out already, a law professor, if you can believe that!), you probably don't want to be standing next to them, or, even be in the same room with them ...

There's some seriously hard karma coming their way, and it will be absolutely ugly ...


Bonus Addington Assholiness

Think Progress: Addington won’t talk about torture because ‘al Qaeda may watch C-SPAN.’

Mustang Bobby: Torture? What's That?

Dan Froomkin: Contempt of Congress

Kate Klonick: Quote of the Day: Vice President Is a "Barnacle" on the Legislative Branch

John Cole: Priorities are Straight

Yoo's Crossing

I hope, that journalists around the world, are on their toes, tonight, and over the next few days.

Especially those stationed, and working, in Iraq, Guantanamo, Poland, Thailand, and wherever the Bush Grindhouse is keeping detainees, and/or has secret prisons.

More specifically, in the desolate areas, out-of-way locations, forests, etc.

And that they have cameras.

It would be poetically (and, sadly) ironic, if they caught sight of details in U.S. Soldiers, maybe MP's or CIA-types, arriving, with picks, shovels and body bags, and they began unearthing, well ... something ...

Courtesy of TPMMuckraker;

"But then it was Chairman John Conyers (D-MI) turn to ask questions. And he went toe to toe with Yoo, the former DOJ attorney and torture-memo author extraordinaire:

Conyers: Could the President order a suspect buried alive?

Yoo: Uh, Mr. Chairman, I don't think I've ever given advice that the President could order someone buried alive. . .

Conyers: I didn't ask you if you ever gave him advice. I asked you thought the President could order a suspect buried alive.

Yoo: Well Chairman, my view right now is that I don't think a President . . . no American President would ever have to order that or feel it necessary to order that.

Conyers: I think we understand the games that are being played."

Here's the video on it;

Conyers and Yoo: "The Games That Are Being Played"




Considering the track record of these NeoNitwits, why shouldn't we think that they haven't already done this? ... That it was "authorized" and "legal" ... Just another tool in the bag of "Enhanced Interrogation".


Bonus Yoo Yammering

Marty Lederman: John Yoo Testimony

Steve Benen: It depends on what you mean by, ‘Unitary Theory of the Executive’

Dan Froomkin: 20 Questions for David Addington - A proposed script for the vice president's chief of staff

Glenn Greenwald: John Yoo's ongoing falsehoods in service of limitless government power

Yoo Hooey

We Looked In the DIY Section, But Bob Vila Didn't Have A Handbook On It ...