Tag: Swiftboating

Tortured Logic: Scalia Says ‘Torture’ Is Not Unconstitutional Because It Is Not ‘Punishment’

Jon Ponder

The meaning of the Eighth Amendment to the Constitution could not be clearer:
“When [a government interrogator is] hurting you in order to get information from you, you wouldn’t say he’s punishing you. What is he punishing you for?”
— U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia

Excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted.

And yet, beginning in 2002, the most senior members of the Bush administration, including Dick Cheney, Sec. of State Colin Powell, National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice, Attorney Gen. John Ashcroft and others, met dozens of times to draft a set of torture guidelines for use by CIA interrogators. It’s no wonder that Jonathan Turley, a strong advocate of impeaching Pres. Clinton, called their actions a war crime and compared their sessions to a meeting of gangster Tony Soprano’s Bada Bing Club.

On “60 Minutes” Last Sunday, Supreme Court Justice Antonin “Nino” Scalia offered a new and, well, tortured rationale for the legality of what Bush has euphemistically called “advanced interrogation techniques”:

STAHL: If someone’s in custody, as in Abu Ghraib, and they are brutalized, by a law enforcement person — if you listen to the expression “cruel and unusual punishment,” doesn’t that apply?

SCALIA: No. To the contrary. You think — Has anybody ever referred to torture as punishment? I don’t think so.

STAHL: Well I think if you’re in custody, and you have a policeman who’s taken you into custody–

SCALIA: And you say he’s punishing you? What’s he punishing you for? … When he’s hurting you in order to get information from you, you wouldn’t say he’s punishing you. What is he punishing you for?

As often happens, Keith Olbermann speaks for every sane American:

The second most senior associate justice on Mr. Bush‘s Supreme Court, Antonin Scalia, on TV now repeating in essence what he said earlier, that torture is not really as the Constitution prohibits, cruel and unusual punishment…

So you can torture the innocent or not yet proved guilty but you can‘t punish the guilty with torture? You don‘t see any logical inconsistency in that idea? The concept of punishment being in and of itself, torture or vice versa, that isn’t very pretty obvious to you? You, still there, Justice buddy? OK. Not only do I want to see your diploma, now, I want to see your grade point average.

Media types and conservatives still deride Bill Clinton for saying in a deposition in a civil lawsuit a decade ago, “It depends on what the meaning of the word ‘is’ is.” And yet, here we have a Supreme Court justice playing semantics over the definition of torture — and the media has barely taken notice.

Campaign Report from Our Guy in North Carolina

Buck Banks

Here’s the latest report from our friend in the Tarheel state:

O.K., so they announce on Friday night that Barack will be in Wilmington on Monday, speaking at University of North Carolina-Wilmington on Monday. In order to attend, you need to go to Democratic headquarters to pick up a ticket.
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I head out on Saturday morning. Long lines (good) extending two blocks to get the tickets. But the reason for the lines was people have to register their name, provide phone number, e-mail address, etc. What a pain in the ass. There’s no way they did this ticket thing earlier in his campaign or their campaign would never have gotten off the ground.

Tickets were already gobbled up (Democratic headquarters opened at 8:30; I arrived at 10 a.m.) by the time I made it to the door. That’s pretty impressive because Trask Arena holds 5,000 people. The local TV stations pick it up with a general theme of he’s like a rock star, actually using that phrase; people want to go see him and are very disappointed to find they can’t. “Just like a real rock concert!” says the newscaster.

Hillary quickly announces she’s having an open-air gathering on the riverfront Sunday night to get to know the people — “I just hope the people of Wilmington will want to see me as much as I want to see them!” Barack does cell-phone interview with the lead local news station (Fox affiliate) for late-night news and comes off good. “People are concerned about health care, the war, gas prices, not distractions from real issues.” Hmmm. What distractions?

Beautiful weather on Sunday, big turnout (5,000 people) for Hillary Sunday night. She speaks in front of the battleship and indicates she’ll be back next Saturday to mark the launching of a nuclear submarine called the U.S.S. Carolina in Wilmington (apparently giving us fair warning to lock up our valuables). Her talk is a real snooze, average age of the audience is about 69; average profession is retired schoolteacher. Many of them actually do doze off as she deals with controversies like end of grade testing to show her mastery of the issues we typical folk all discuss at the dinner table before paying our bills. Her moment of passion: “Come debate with me, Barack Obama! Anytime, anywhere!”

[…]

Campaign Report from North Carolina

Buck Banks

A friend in Wilmington sent this report on what’s happening in the Tarheel state as we slouch toward the primary:

O.K. newspapers in Raleigh and Wilmington have picked up on theme of Obama not being around much. Hillary and Bill energized and everywhere. Hillary’s TV ads on economy are sharper than his which are somewhat unfocused. But as the Raleigh paper said in an editorial, the truth is he’s concentrating on Indiana because it’s a closer race (mind you they are condemning him for this, saying North Carolina is a big state and shouldn’t be ignored, blah, blah).

So Obama sneaks into the state Monday night for a Chapel Hill speech before heading back to Indiana on Tuesday. Bill Clinton’s in town here again for a big military thing on the battleship in town. Essentially, Bill and Hillary are running around the mid-sized blue-collar cities; Barack shows up at various universities. Both shore up their base; she is undoubtedly cutting into his lead.

But Barack is probably doing the right thing by showing up at gas stations in Indiana. Thirty-eight percent of the registered democratic voters in Carolina are black; he ain’t going to lose that vote and he won’t lose this state even if he is the title of a Ralph Ellison book, so he may as well concentrate on Indiana. If he wins both primaries our pant-suited friend should have plenty of time on her hands to go back to her true love: duck hunting in Scranton.

Fortunately, the N.C. Republican party is making a mistake with the Wright adds. It appeals to Republicans, but gives Obama the edge in the victim outrage department that is essential to the Democrats very being.

Plus, his biggest advantage can be summed up in two words: Open Primary

Thanks to M.D. for the update.

UPDATE: Note that our friend from N.C. appears to be a little confused over the nature of the North Carolina primary, as was one of our commenters. North Carolina’s primary is closed, which means that only voters who have declared a party affiliation can vote. Independents (or fence-sitters, as Trish calls us) cannot vote in North Carolina’s primary. Oh, and they might have done away with the poll tax, but I’m not sure about that. — Buck

McCain Spiritual Adviser Recants Earlier Statement That God Damned New Orleans with Katrina

Jon Ponder

John McCain’s spiritual adviser, John Hagee, has apparently gotten the word from on high and has now recanted his assertions that Katrina was God’s curse on New Orleans because it hosted an annual gay event:
“Ultimately neither I nor any other person can know the mind of God concerning Hurricane Katrina. I should not have suggested otherwise.”
— Hagee

“As a believing Christian, I see the hand of God in everything that happens here on earth, both the blessings and the curses. But ultimately neither I nor any other person can know the mind of God concerning Hurricane Katrina. I should not have suggested otherwise. No matter what the cause of the storm, my heart goes out to all who suffered in this terrible tragedy. There but for the grace of God go any one of us.”

Hagee first declared that God damned New Orleans in September 2006:

“I believe that New Orleans had a level of sin that was offensive to God, and they are — were recipients of the judgment of God for that. The newspaper carried the story in our local area that was not carried nationally that there was to be a homosexual parade there on the Monday that the Katrina came. And the promise of that parade was that it was going to reach a level of sexuality never demonstrated before in any of the other Gay Pride parades.” He later added, “I believe that the Hurricane Katrina was, in fact, the judgment of God against the city of New Orleans.”

Just last week Hagee reaffirmed this assertion:

HAGEE: The topic of that day was cursing and blessing. Moses taught in the book of Deuteronomy that everything in life is either a blessing or a curse. There are days that things happen that at the time look like a curse. In the passing of time, they may become what appears to be a blessing. An illustration is Joseph, when he was sold into slavery it looked like a curse, it looked like the worse day of his life. When his brothers came into Egypt looking for food, what looked like a bad day 13 years before turned out to be a blessed day. What happened in New Orleans looked like the curse of God, in time if New Orleans recovers and becomes the pristine city it can become it may in time be called a blessing. But at this time it’s called a curse.

The timing of Hagee’s statement on April 22 was embarrassing for McCain because it pulled focus from his campaign stop in New Orleans two days later.

Hagee is best known for espousing the belief that the Catholic Church is the Whore of Babylon referred to in the Book of Revelation.

Gov. Siegelman: ‘Karl Rove’s Fingerprints Were All Over’ My Conviction on Trumped up Political Charges

Jon Ponder

“Saying that Karl Rove is not involved in my prosecution is like saying George Bush is not involved in the war in Iraq,” former Alabama Gov. Don Siegelman told Dan Abrams on the MSNBC show, “The Verdict,” on Monday. It was Siegelman’s first live interview after being released on bail from prison, where he was serving a seven-year term on federal corruption charges.

“I think the House and Senate Judiciary Committee should subpoena Karl Rove and bring him before those committees.”
– SiegelmanSiegelman, a Democrat, was convicted by a jury on charges that he traded a seat on a state board for a donation to the state education lottery. Siegelman insists that “not a penny of that money” went into his own pocket (and we can assume that if prosecutors had found otherwise, we’d know it by now). So, on the face of it, the quid pro quo here is far less corrupt than when a newly elected president gives a major donor an ambassadorship to, say, Luxembourg — a trade off that happens approximately every four years in this country.

Seigelman insists Karl Rove masterminded the prosecution by U.S. Attorneys from the political office in the White House in an effort to suppress the Democratic Party in Alabama:

ABRAMS: How are you so convinced that Karl Rove and Alabama Republicans were behind your prosecution?

SIEGELMAN: Well, number one, Karl Rove‘s fingerprints were all over this case. And you know, if you ask me, do we have the knife with his fingerprints on it, no, but we‘ve got the glove and the glove fits. And here‘s how.

In 1994, when Karl Rove was in Alabama trying to steal his first election, I voluntarily testified against his client. In 1999, his client starts an investigation of me and this goes on until 2001 when Bill Canary, who is a business associate and political partner of Karl Rove, his wife is appointed as a U.S. attorney and she starts a federal investigation.

ABRAMS: … You‘re alleging that Rove talks to his friend, who‘s that Bill Canary who‘s married to the U.S. attorney and it‘s a serious allegation you‘re making that he then effectively gets his wife to go after you?

SIEGELMAN: Well, I‘m telling you, the facts of this are that Rove‘s fingerprints are all over here – all over this case because his client investigated me, one of his friends, social friends started an investigation and prosecution of me that was dismissed after just a couple of days in court.

They went after me again, this time with the wife of Bill Canary—the wife of Karl Rove‘s business client and political associate. And, you know, it continues from there. When those investigations were faltering, the people who were holding back the investigation, a career Department of Justice employee was replaced, was replaced with someone who was the wife of the campaign manager of one of Karl Rove‘s clients … And then when that investigation was slowing down, they were called to Washington and they were told to go at Siegelman again.

Siegelman says Rove has strong connections into Alabama Republican politics:

[…]

Poll: Clinton Moves Up to Statistical Tie with Obama in N.C.

Jon Ponder

Public Policy Polling (PDF):

Hillary Clinton has cut Barack Obama’s lead in North Carolina to one point, according to the newest survey from Public Policy Polling.

Obama leads 44-43 in the state, after leading by four points in a similar poll conducted by PPP two weeks ago. Clinton has particularly made gains with female voters, with whom she now has a slight lead after trailing in the previous poll.

“Some folks in the national media have been treating North Carolina as if winning it is a given for Barack Obama,” said Dean Debnam, President of Public Policy Polling. “The reality is that the state is pretty close, and either candidate could emerge with a victory.”

Recent PPP polls in Pennsylvania, Ohio, and Florida have shown Obama struggling in the wake of the recent controversy surrounding his pastor.

However, the North Carolina PPP poll cited here was conducted on March 17, the day before Obama addressed the controversy in a speech in Philadelphia.

Taegan Goddard says North Carolina’s primary rules may benefit Clinton: “Obama has done very well in states with open primaries because of his strong support from Republican and independent voters. But North Carolina has a closed primary with the exception of unaffiliated voters, who may choose which party’s ballot they want to cast. Right now they’re only making up 12 percent of the Democratic primary electorate.”

A poll from Rasmussen had Obama ahead by 17 percentage points in North Carolina just eight days ago. He has also lost 13 percentage points in a national poll from Reuters/Zogby.

Bush Fails First, Then Rice. Now It’s Cheney’s Turn to Make Things Worse in the Middle East

Trish

People who know about this stuff don’t expect much from Dick Cheney’s trip to the Middle East.

Cheney will reinforce the message from visits by President George W. Bush in January and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice earlier this month, in a stepped-up diplomatic push for Israelis and Palestinians to move forward on peace efforts dealt a blow by violence in Gaza and Israel.

Analyst: “He’s got nothing to offer. He represents a lame duck president, a floundering economy, a situation in which the U.S. for all its efforts in Iraq has no leverage on the government in Baghdad.”

“The mood has deteriorated incredibly in the last six weeks since the president was there,” Jon Alterman, director of the Middle East program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, said.

“From the outside it’s very hard to see that Secretary Rice was able to even arrest the slide let alone get things moving forward. My guess is the vice president will be able to arrest the slide if not necessarily put things on track,” he said.

Let’s be honest. Our interest in the Middle East isn’t about justice in Israel, for either the Israelis or the Palestinians. It is, and always has been, about one thing.

“I’m not sure he’ll seek anything more than a good and thorough discussion about the current situation in the global energy markets,” a senior administration official said.

That’s right, the big O: oil. After all, what else besides the subject of his past, current, and future business interests does Cheney have to talk about?

“I don’t think that he’s going to be able to bring back anything meaningful because he’s got nothing to offer,” Steven Simon, a senior fellow for Middle Eastern studies at the Council on Foreign Relations, said.

“He represents a lame duck president, a floundering economy, a situation in which the U.S. for all its efforts in Iraq has no leverage on the government in Baghdad,” Simon said.

Cheney Flies to Middle East to Push Allies on Peace Process

Jon Ponder

Oh yeah, this will work:

US Vice President Dick Cheney leaves for the Middle East Sunday, hoping to help revive the battered peace process and get Arab allies like Saudi Arabia to do more to curb Iran’s influence in Iraq. With just ten months left in US President George W Bush’s term, Cheney is expected to seek support for confronting Tehran over its nuclear program and push Israel and the Palestinians to fulfill past promises for peace.

His 10-day trip comes as the US presidential race is heating up and the world prepares to mark the fifth anniversary of the US-led invasion of Iraq, which falls March 19 in Washington and March 20 in Baghdad.

The political unrest in Lebanon, the situation in Syria, the violence in Gaza, and sky-high oil prices will all come up as Cheney visits Oman, Saudi Arabia, Israel, the West Bank, and Turkey, top aide John Hannah said Friday.

“It’s a very long list and rich agenda,” said Hannah, the vice president’s national security adviser. “He has quite deep relationships, and personal relationships, with a number of leaders in those countries.”

Cheney was not expected to press Saudi King Abdullah too much to boost oil output, or push OPEC to do so, in the face of sky-high oil prices that have fueled a bitter debate ahead of the November 4 US elections.

Poll: Obama Leads in North Carolina

Jon Ponder

The Tarheel state primary will be held on May 6, and for the first time in decades, the outcome in the nation’s 10th largest state may actually be meaningful.
Democrats have controlled the governor’s mansion for the past four terms and currently have majorities in both houses of the legislature.
Early numbers from Rasmussen show Barack Obama wth double digit lead over Hillary Clinton:

Obama, a U.S. senator from Illinois, is favored by 47 percent of likely Democratic primary voters, compared with 40 percent for Clinton, a U.S. senator from New York…

Obama leads by 14 points among men and 2 points among women, according to the poll. He has a 71 to 18 percent lead among African-American voters, while Clinton holds a 20-point lead among white voters.

While comparisons are not one-to-one by any means, North Carolina demographics are similar to those of Virginia, where Obama won handily. African-Americans make up 22 percent of the population, as opposed to 19 percent in Virginia. College-educated white collar workers dominate the \state’s two largest urban areas, Charlotte and Raleigh.

Both North Carolina senators are Republicans, and it has voted for the Republican presidential candidate in every election since 1976. However, seven of its 13 House members are Democrats, and Dems have controlled the governor’s mansion for the past four terms and currently have majorities in both houses of the legislature.

North Carolina will send 134 delegates to the Democratic Convention.