Archive for February 12th, 2008
Louis Jordan
“Reet, Petite and Gone”
Conservative U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia said on Tuesday some physical interrogation techniques can be used on a suspect in the event of an imminent threat, such as a hidden bomb about to blow up.
In such cases, “smacking someone in the face” could be justified, the outspoken Scalia told the BBC. “You can’t come in smugly and with great self satisfaction and say ‘Oh it’s torture, and therefore it’s no good.’”
His comments come amid a growing debate about the Bush administration’s use of aggressive interrogation methods on terrorism suspects rights after the September 11 attacks, including the use of a widely condemned interrogation technique known as waterboarding.
Scalia said that it was “extraordinary” to assume that the U.S. Constitution’s ban on “cruel and unusual punishment” also applied to “so-called” torture.
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As QuestionGirl posted in the previous two posts here and here, it seems thugs and hooligans of America’s underbelly get preferential treatment from the Bush administration (and from Congress). Well, now they’re doing it again:
Fraud Crackdown Comes With a Loophole
WASHINGTON (AP) — A Bush administration plan to crack down on contract fraud has a multibillion-dollar loophole: The proposal to force companies to report abuse of taxpayer money will not apply to work overseas, including projects to secure and rebuild Iraq and Afghanistan.
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Critics including the watchdog group Taxpayers Against Fraud said the overseas exemption raises suspicions.
“I hate to sound cynical, but what lobbyist working for a contractor in Iraq wanted this get-out-of-jail card?” asked Patrick Burns, spokesman for the government watchdog group.
“I’m not saying that’s the way it went - I’m just suggesting that’s the most logical line to draw,” said Burns. “I think somebody’s got some explaining to do.”
Baucus (D-MT)
Bayh (D-IN)
Carper (D-DE)
Casey (D-PA)
Conrad (D-ND)
Inouye (D-HI)
Johnson (D-SD)
Kohl (D-WI)
Landrieu (D-LA)
Lieberman (ID-CT)
Lincoln (D-AR)
McCaskill (D-MO)
Mikulski (D-MD)
Nelson (D-FL)
Nelson (D-NE)
Pryor (D-AR)
Rockefeller (D-WV)
Salazar (D-CO)
Webb (D-VA)
Whitehouse (D-RI)
CLINTON WASN’T THERE TO VOTE
Like Chicher says…..fuck em all in half!
From the NY Times:
After more than a year of heated political wrangling, the Senate handed the White House a major victory Tuesday by voting to broaden the government’s spy powers after giving legal protection to phone companies that cooperated in President Bush’s warrantless eavesdropping program.
Senate rejected a series of amendments that would have restricted the government’s surveillance powers and eliminated immunity for the phone carriers, and it voted in convincing fashion - 69 to 29 - to end debate and bring the issue to a final vote. That vote on the overall bill was an almost identical 68 to 29.
The House has already rejected the idea of immunity for the phone companies, and Democratic leaders reacted angrily to the Senate vote. But Congressional officials said it appeared that the House would ultimately be forced to accept some sort of legal protection for the phone carriers in negotiations between the two chambers this week.
WASHINGTON (AP) The government says the federal budget deficit totaled $87.7 billion through the first four months of this budget year, double last year’s pace.
From the AP:
The federal budget deficit is running at a pace that is more than double last year’s imbalance through the first four months of the budget year.
In its monthly review of the government’s finances, the Treasury Department said Tuesday that the budget was in surplus in January, but totals $87.7 billion so far this budget year, double the $42.2 billion imbalance recorded during the same period in 2007. The new budget year started last Oct. 1.
The Bush administration sent its final budget request to Congress last week, projecting that the deficit for all of 2008 will total $410 billion, very close to the all-time high in dollar terms of $413 billion in 2004.
So far this year, federal spending is 8.3 percent ahead of last year’s pace, at $949.1 billion. That is far ahead of the 3.2 percent increase in revenues, which have totaled $861.4 billion in the current budget year.
For 2007, the budget deficit totaled $162 billion, a five-year low. However, the slowing economy is expected to stunt the growth of tax revenues while the $168 billion economic stimulus plan passed by Congress last week will swell the deficit.
He walks among us……..
From Huffington Post:
On the streets of Miami, Luis Posada Carriles might look like just one of the dozens of nice, elderly Cuban gentlemen who gather outside the Versailles Restaurant for a strong cup of java. But there is nothing nice or gentle about Posada Carriles. For starters, he is responsible for the 1976 downing of a Cuban passenger plane with 73 people on board — the first act of aviation terrorism in the Western hemisphere. In 1997 he orchestrated the bombing of hotels in Havana that resulted in the death of Italian businessman Fabio Di Celmo. In 2000 he arrested, and later convicted, in Panama for plotting to assassinate Fidel Castro by blowing up an auditorium full of students.
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It would be insane to waste time and energy worrying that somewhere, doubtless in a high-tech subterranean lair, Republican masterminds are cackling over their diabolical plot: The use of reverse psychology to lure unsuspecting Democrats into nominating Barack Obama, an innocent lamb who will be chewed up by the attack machine in the fall. Mwa-ha-ha-ha-ha!
-Eugene Robinson, WashingtonPost.com
Mr. Robinson does an excellent job at alleviating the fear of evil republican swiftboating of the democratic presidential nominee - whomever it may be.
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Wha..?
GM Has Biggest-Ever Automotive Co. Loss
DETROIT (AP) — General Motors Corp. is reporting the largest annual loss ever for a U.S. automotive company as it offers a new round of buyouts to 74,000 U.S. hourly workers.
[...]
The loss topped the previous record GM set in 1992, when it lost $23.4 billion. That’s according to Standard & Poor’s Compustat.
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(Ace ABC reporter Jake Tapper, hot on a lead.)
While I nodded, nearly napping, suddenly there came a tapping,
As of someone gently rapping, rapping at my chamber door.
” ‘Tis some visitor,” I muttered, “tapping at my chamber door;
Only this, and nothing more.”
Poe’s “The Raven.”
What the MSM lacks in accuracy, it makes up for in persistence.
You may have caught Jake Tapper’s atrocious rewriting of Bill Clinton not long ago. Sadly, No! has the best write-up I’ve seen, and I’d recommend reading it first, but I’ll provide a basic recap. Tapper’s headline was “What Did Bill Clinton Mean By “We Just Have to Slow Down Our Economy” to Fight Global Warming?” Tapper wrote:
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