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[Brentai]

The Geneva Conventions don't say "no torture -- unless somebody just blew up a few thousand people in a surprise attack and you're really really scared."

If we wanted to amend that, though, we could probably get every single person in Baghdad to sign off on it.

Not to mention Japan.

[Catloaf]

Pelosi stands for the right ideas.  But she is an awful person and a horrible politician (not horrible at being a politician, but horrible because she's a politician) with no chutzpah to speak of and that lack of chutzpah is precisely why I've been irritated with her for quite some time.

[Royal☭]

The same can be said of all Democrats!

Seriously, though, despite pretty much getting a mandate in the last election, Democrats have been failing to take advantage and assert themselves.  They're supposed to leading us, describing why their bills are necessary and why they can't be weakened.

Instead, they've opted to continue to let a minority of whack-job Republicans frame the debate on most issues and cede to that minority for no gain whatsoever.  They're trying to appease a group of people who will never vote for them and will never support key Democratic legislation.  The fact that they only represent less than a quarter of the population seems to mean nothing.

Bipartisanship isn't working.  All it's doing is weakening Democratic bills and allowing the Republicans to rule from the minority.

[Brentai]

So the Big Issue has moved on to health care, right?  We don't need to hear the word "waterboard" anymore, right?

lol, shoe guy

[Mongrel]

23 Americans convicted In Absentia in Italy for Extraodinary Redition case.

Well now. This probably won't amount to a hill of beans, but that's 23 Americans who now have to be as careful leaving their home country as the folks they sent up the creek (as flippiant as that may seem, they risk being apprehended in any country with an extradition agreement with Italy and an axe to grind with the US).

I love how the Italian collaborators weren't tried though. That's just gas.

[Transportation]

I can't think of any cases where any American government types have been arrested on foreign soil. I mean, they tried with Kissinger, but it would've been a bit different if they succeeded.

Would be an amusing shitstorm at least, considering the absurd resistance any nation puts up when citizens are to be tried abroad.

[Mongrel]

[Roman Polanski joke goes here]

[Thad]

So uh okay.

Someone care to explain to me why there's an 8-year statute of limitations on torture and a 5-year one on obstruction of justice?

Oh right, so the CIA can torture people, destroy the tapes, and wait for the clock to run out so they're not liable for it.

NYT: No Charges in Destruction of C.I.A. Interrogation Tapes

[Thad]

Just heard NPR play McCain's remarks from the Senate floor today.  He criticized the Bush Administration's recent push to claim Bin Laden's death as a vindication of waterboarding.  McCain decried the information as false, saying that the information that led to Bin Laden's whereabouts was given under standard interrogation, and saying that torture is both ineffective and morally wrong.

For a minute there, he was the old McCain, the guy I respected and liked even though I didn't agree with him on very many things.

I agree with him on fewer things than ever, but let's give credit where it's due: today he stood up for what's right and fuck anybody in his party who disagrees with him; he is a man who believes America should treat its enemies better than its enemies treated him.

[Thad]

Rick Santorum on John McCain: "he doesn’t understand how enhanced interrogation works."

"Dumbest thing Rick Santorum has ever said" is a pretty tough call to make, but this is definitely in the running.

[Friday]

UPDATE: Greg Sargent asks McCain's spokeswoman for a response to Santorum, and she emails a single word: "Who?"

haha fucking amazing

[Thad]

NYT: No Charges in Destruction of C.I.A. Interrogation Tapes

In fact, she's being promoted.