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Don’t pay attention to the lofty words (without justice) that Obama said about torture.
As soon as Dick Cheney defended it, the responsibility shielded Obama administration people and CIA rushed to prove Dick right.
At first it was Obama’s national intelligence director singing praise to torture
President Obama’s national intelligence director told colleagues in a private memo last week that the harsh interrogation techniques banned by the White House did produce significant information that helped the nation in its struggle with terrorists.
Then came the good faith torturers from CIA producing this horrible headline
CIA Confirms: Waterboarding 9/11 Mastermind Led to Info that Aborted 9/11-Style Attack on Los Angeles
Yeah, right. I am sure it also prevented me from winning Miss Universe last year.
But now, it’s official: torture is no longer a matter of decency and civilization: it’s a political football..
Update
And now, politicizing torture has brought yet another undesired consequence
“Emanuel got far ahead of the process and described it in a way that clearly suggested that political judgment was driving the entire process,” one senior Justice official told me. “It was depressing and amateurish.”
Indeed, it’s not the POTUS’s place to decide who will be prosecuted and who will not.
The Widdershins has a great post about who is NOT a B0bot and how this should influence our attitude. I pretty much agree that we need to look for a common ground rather than needless “I told you so”s.
Recently, a gardener in my community garden who until recent was giving me the Obama News (“Did you watch the Greek Orthodox priest who compared him to Alexander the Great?”) told us “I am starting to agree with you on Obama” (we had told him of war, FISA & torture). We simply smiled and said nothing – to my knowledge, this guy was simply a fan.
Now, from a true Bobot who was bombarding my e-mail with trash throughout the year on behalf of Citizens for Legitimate Government is editorializing her torture article clip like this
*Mollycoddle your torturers: **Obama Urges C.I.A. Not to Be Discouraged by
Torture Memos
and then adds at the end of the quote
“Dont be discouraged by whats happened in the last few
weeks,” the president said. “Dont be discouraged that we have to
acknowledge potentially *we’ve made some mistakes*. Thats how we
learn.” [*Yeah,
and the only *bigger* mistake we made was allowing Obama to trick us into
voting for him.*]
Now, this one I took less kindly. Sure the media tricked a lot of the unsuspecting into believing this was someone worthy. But this particular B0bot was scouring the internet for alternate media and complete materials since 2001. Anyone who knew the truth about the 2000 election and kept informed since has no standing to claim they were “tricked”
Manipulated, maybe. But not tricked. And they used the Clinton hatred the right wing fostered to manipulate more. “They all hate her” was the excuse.
It’s funny to take B0′s (the 2 legged) defense, but he left plenty of clues to who he was.
His first speech in the senate (real, not mythical) was almost identical with the torture statement – only it had to do with the…Iraq war – “future, not past, who cares how we got there, etc”. The Reagan worship, the “Blackwater got a bad rap” remark, the FISA vote – all pretty big clues. But you got tricked anyway. All righty then.
for the commentary section:
Update
My mail updates from the aforementioned B0bot stopped coming in my mailbox. Yeay! – and who knew I had the audience?
Things look bright for the future of the gay marriage in NY with a new poll showing a majority favoring it. The Daly News may be formulating its headline in a question – but it’s quite significant
Has gay marriage reached a tipping point in New York?
A Siena College poll released Monday found that by 53% to 39% margin, those surveyed say the state Senate should pass legislation to legalize same-sex marriage, virtually ensuring it would become law.
What is fantastic news is that those numbers don’t even change with the political parties:
Democrats strongly support it by a 59% to 35% margin while Republicans oppose it by virtually the same tally, 59% to 31%.
although some funny 100% on the dems side..
All the poll had to do was take civil unions from the mix – as pollsters usually did it.
And where’s harmony, who else should appear but his Honor of perpetual ridicule, Rudi Giuliani
Rudy Giuliani, the thrice-married former New York City mayor, has come out strongly against Democratic Gov. David Paterson’s proposed gay marriage bill.
Giuliani’s opposition, articulated in an interview with The New York Post published Monday, was widely interpreted as an attempt by the moderate Republican to position himself for a possible run for the party’s 2010 New York gubernatorial nomination.
yeah, Rudy, you have about as much chance to be governor as you did to be POTUS
I think however gay rights activists as well as Governor Paterson should be glad for the gift they are getting.
Especially in the light of the poll numbers for the Republicans (who are sparse in NY as it is). Let Rudy make this
hot-button 2010 issue both in New York and nationally,
In NY at least, it will be the issue to keep Paterson in office.
here’s a sample od Rudy’s unerring political instinct:
Giuliani predicted that the push for gay marriage will spark “a grass-roots” backlash. “This is the kind of issue that, in many ways, is somewhat beyond politics.”
Yeah, I bet you’d like to ride such a wave. Only you’re in the wrong city for it..
from MrFish
When the torture memos got released and Obama made his “future not past” speech, it’s been implied by administration officials that
nothing said by Obama or Holder today should be understood to foreclose criminal prosecutions. For all the reasons Jameel describes, I agree with that assessment, and Marc Ambinder reports that senior Obama officials told him (anonymously, of course) that nothing Obama or Eric Holder said today was intended to foreclose prosecutions.
Well, that must have been lost in the editing room, because now, the administration officials do the talk show circuit announcing tweaking Obama’s statement
I asked Emanuel: “The president has ruled out prosecution for CIA officials who believed they were following the law. Does he believe that the officials who devised the policies should be immune from prosecution?”(asked Snafulopagus)
To which Emmanuel heed and hawed
He came up with this and worked on this for about four weeks. Wrote that statement Wednesday night after he had made his decision and dictated what he wanted to see. And Thursday morning I saw him in the office, he was still editing it.
(cue in the photo of W with glasses marking his speech that contained “the 16 words”- which he later claimed – he wasn’t aware of). So, the result of all Obama work? (amazingly, Snafi repeats the question)
What about those who devised the policy, I asked?
“Yeah, but those who devised the policy, he believes that they were, should not be prosecuted either,” Emanuel said.
Looks like for a second Rahm was trying to say that these people were also “good faith torturers” but gave up and simply declared that they also get off. Sooo…after all the masterful editing, what was the purpose of the “good faith” qualifier if everyone was going to get off anyway?
Which is lovely, considering this NY Times headline
Waterboarding Used 266 Times on 2 Suspects
Makes you consider this statement about Obama recorded in same NY Times
“The thing we still don’t know about him is what he is willing to fight for,
“The thing I worry about is that he likes giving good speeches, he likes the adulation and he likes to make people happy.” So far, he said, “It’s hard to think of a place where he’s taken a really hard position.”
That comes from an economist, but applies to civil rights and just about everything.
Which earns him an AP fluff piece based almost entirely on Axelrod’s declarations in which they praise Obama for
But Obama is outpacing even Gorbachev.
Wow! Even Gorbacev!(in distancing himself from predecessor internationally, that is). Well, if that’s what Axelrod says…
Update
More on no responsibility from Gibbs while CIA is patted on the shoulder – “there, there”
“Don’t be discouraged by what’s happened in the last few weeks,” he told employees. “Don’t be discouraged that we have to acknowledge potentially we’ve made some mistakes. That’s how we learn.
while Cheney is trying to make Obama look good by talking about “successes“
“It worked. It’s been enormously valuable in terms of saving lives,
…
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