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Conyers Releases Report on Bush’s “Imperial Presidency”
The Washington Independent - Washington,DC,USA
By Kate Klonick 1/13/09 3:26 PM This might take us a little while to get through — it’s almost 500 pages long — but House Judiciary Committee Chair John ...
This might take us a little while to get through — it’s almost 500 pages long — but House Judiciary Committee Chair John Conyers’ (D-Mich.) just-released report (pdf) documenting the “abuses and excesses” of George W. Bush’s presidency and recommending changes to the new administration is a must read.
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| Can Obama lead us out of the recession and become a great president? | January 13, 2009 Hotline After Dark -- Take A Bow Last night's TV talk primarily focused on Pres. Bush's "ultimate exit interview" at the WH. Newsweek's Wolffe: "What really struck me was the lack of awareness that he displayed throughout, the lack of self-awareness, the lack of understanding about the impacts of his policy, his position in the world, but even just about himself. I mean, it's very striking when you compare him to the incoming president who has this extraordinary capacity to look at himself and his surroundings. ... This was a president who came in believing that the presidency was about a performance and we saw the final act today" ("Countdown," MSNBC, 1/12). Syndicated columnist Charles Krauthammer: "He displayed his usual equanimity, and also generosity of spirit. He is a man who is not at all tortured by his years in office. ... I think he sees himself as a Truman president. ... Truman was scorned, excoriated, very low popularity, also in the middle of an unpopular war. But history has a different judgment. ... Ultimately history will judge him as the man who allowed us to achieve a victory" ("Special Report," FNC, 1/12). GOP strategist Ed Rollins, on Bush's defense of the Katrina response: "The idea that you can stand in a press conference, when the American public watched a major urban city collapse, crumble, people displaced, and be ashamed of it, and say, we did everything we could, I didn't land the helicopter because it would have taken police away, it was just an absurd statement" ("AC 360," CNN, 1/12). Philadelphia Inquirer's Rubin: "What fascinated me was the way he framed Iraq, talking about disappointments when it came to not finding WMD and Abu Ghraib, but then really not talking about mistakes, and focusing on the fact that the surge has brought results. ... He also didn't look at the repercussions on the region which President-elect Obama will have to deal with" ("NewsHour," PBS, 1/12). After the jump, goodbye Gitmo and hello Burris. (KATHERINE LEHR) Newsweek's Fineman, on why he loved the presser: "Because this is politics at its rawest level. This is a guy who's been there for eight years, finally, at the end, being asked in grand terms to defend himself. And his defense is a defiant one. It's based on the idea that he made a couple of big right moral decisions, by his lights, moral decisions to attack, not only in Afghanistan, but to attack in Iraq, even though he said it was disappointing" ("Hardball," MSNBC, 1/12). Time's Halperin: "I think the greatest thing ... was the palpable frustration he felt. It was one last chance to try to make this case in this forum, in a press conference. And I think he recognizes that he has alienated, if not half of the country, pretty close to it" ("No Bias, No Bull," CNN, 1/12). And part one of Bush's interview with FNC's Hannity aired last night. Bush, on his legacy: "One thing that I would hope, when it's all said and done, people say that he was the same man. In other words, I didn't try to change my principles or change my character in order to chase popularity" ("Hannity," 1/12). ACTIONS SPEAK LOUDER THAN EXECUTIVE ORDERS? Meanwhile, news that Obama is preparing to issue an executive order his first week in office to close Guantanamo Bay generated a fair amount of discussion. Dem strategist Bob Shrum: "It's the responsible thing to do. ... This isn't a left/right question. Secretary of Defense Gates recommended that Guantanamo be closed months and months ago. He lost the argument to, of all people,Alberto Gonzalez. ... I think John McCain would have closed it. ... Guantanamo Bay ... has become, along with Abu Ghraib and torture, a stain on the reputation of the United States, and that's hurt our security, not helped it" ("1600," MSNBC, 1/12). Weekly Standard's Hayes: "Making the announcement within the first week, I think, is the easy part. The tough part comes when we try, as you say, to figure out, what comes next with these folks? You have got the Obama transition team right now poring over the records of these detainees to try to figure out which ones we release, which ones we try to repatriate to other countries, which ones we try, which ones we hold here. And there are serious and very, I think, complicated issues involved in doing that" ("No Bias, No Bull," CNN, 1/12). Mother Jones' Corn: "It's a major campaign promise that Barack Obama made. I think, right away, it is a high visible promise" ("Hardball," MSNBC, 1/12). MAKE ME A MATCH, FIND ME A FIND, CATCH ME A CATCH And during an appearance on the "Rachel Maddow Show," Sen.-designate/ex-IL AG Roland Burris (D) was asked when he will take the oath of office. Burris: "It's between getting my family together and Vice President Cheney. We are trying to match our schedules. It will be on Wednesday or Thursday. ... If we can't get Vice President Cheney, then we will use another distinguished senator to swear us in." Burris, on his first priority: "My first priority is to learn the rules and regulations of the august body. And, of course, in terms of legislation and problems with the country, is to certainly look at what President Obama would have sent to us and then begin work on the stimulus package." Burris, asked if IL Gov. Rod Blagojevich (D) should resign: "The governor should suffer the consequences of his actions should they be proven. But we also understand that you are innocent until you are proven guilty. ... But that does not, in any way, cause me to, you know, condone his actions. ... They were reprehensible." Burris, asked if he agrees with the decision to impeach Blagojevich: "Oh, yes. The House had to take on this constitutional responsibility. ... I think they took what position they had to take based on what information they had, to follow the law with the impeachment process" (MSNBC, 1/12). A powder keg is what the terrorists want it to be, but the Middle East can be seen as a region practicing crisis management on an international scale. The Hamas government is under fire from the IDF, and insurgents in Kashmir are planning their next attack in India or anywhere else they can raise a headline or bury a corpse. Iraq isn't as quiet as it may seem either; car bombs are still going off at a rate deemed no longer interesting by the main stream press, and Afghanistan is slipping back into the abyss of tribal faction plus Kabul. All of these events are not necessarily noteworthy, and none are original by any means. What is perhaps not often said is that the motives of these groups have much in common, despite their autonomous and unrelated coordination attempts. They all seek to destabilize existing governments, and the end goal is clear: all out war, the final battle, Armageddon. Gaza/Hamas. Without violence, Hamas hasn't a chance at uniting the Palestinians in their territory. They might have been able to build a few schools and hospitals with foreign support, but the day-to-day grind of governing for the people isn't interesting to Hamas, and its too much work anyway. For months Hamas has been provoking Israel with rocket attacks, and while the Israelis aren't known for their restraint when pushed, they have been docile through the summer despite the obvious plans of Hamas to provoke conflict. Can it be said that Hamas is now happy? It might not be the right word, but once again they have a cause, and they are exploiting the current Israeli attacks to unite Gaza where good government has failed. They, too, would prefer nothing more than all-out war, but alone there is little to hope for than a relief from the human suffering that they have brought upon their people. |
Are Anti-Gaza-Attack Protesters Helping Israeli Right-wingers Justify More Attacks on Palestinians?"
OH NO! Not Oil In Gaza!!! | http://www.rense.com/general84/guess.htm
Against the backdrop of President-elect Obama endorsing the move of 30,000 additional troops to Afghanistan, and the horrifying assault on civilians in Gaza, we marked the 7th anniversary of the US "interrogation camp" in Guantanamo with protests. All over the world, people demand that Guantanamo be closed, and that torture by the U.S. END.
In San Francisco, World Can't Wait did street theater, with coverage on CBS and in the SF Chronicle. In New York, 20 of us, including young Palestinians, marched Sunday. Witness Against Torture continues its fast near the White House through inauguration day, January 20.
George Bush, in an exit interview Sunday, stepped up his specific endorsement of torture, and the "tools" the CIA presented him for using in 2002/2003, which were "vetted" by John Yoo, David Addington, and the whole torture team in the White House. Watch Bush here
Obama and the US torture state: Reports today say Obama will issue an executive order closing Guantanamo, although his team says that could take years. Here are his words from this weekend, when asked about Guantanamo and torture:
"We're still evaluating how we're going to approach the whole issue of interrogations, detentions, and so forth," Obama said. "And obviously we're going to be looking at past practices, and I don't believe that anybody is above the law. On the other hand I also have a belief that we need to look forward as opposed to looking backwards. And part of my job is to make sure that, for example at the CIA, you've got extraordinarily talented people who are working very hard to keep Americans safe. I don't want them to suddenly feel like they've got to spend all their time looking over their shoulders and lawyering [up]."
Extraordinarily talented people who torture??!! World Can't Wait and many other resisters, including through dozens of books and legal challenges, have exposed the torture state put together under the Bush Regime. It is no secret, and has been strengthened by the Military Commissions Act, the USA PATRIOT Act (which Obama voted to re-authorize in 2006), and more recent legistlation criminalizing political protest. See BBC Reports on Guantanamo. and Seven Years of Guantanamo; Seven Years of Torture & Lies by Andy Worthington
This must end!
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