of course i'm loving this editorial in the nyt

as well as my previous posting from wapo
The Torture Papers

The Obama administration has taken important steps toward repairing the grievous harm that President George W. Bush did to this nation with his lawless and morally repugnant detention policies. President Obama is committed to closing the Guantánamo Bay camp and creating legitimate courts to try detainees. He has rescinded the executive orders and the legal rulings that Mr. Bush used to excuse the abuse of prisoners. The Defense Department has taken the important step of reversing policy and notifying the International Committee of the Red Cross of the identities of militants who were being held in secret at camps in Iraq and Afghanistan. And Attorney General Eric Holder has appointed a prosecutor to investigate the interrogation of prisoners of the Central Intelligence Agency, whose inhuman treatment was detailed in a long-secret report written by the agency’s inspector general in 2004 and released on Monday..........

i'm not surprised AND i believe him as well

i think LOADS o' dirty deeds happened on the last watch. way more than this one - although one can't tell from what's happening at town hall meetings. it would almost seem as if THIS president started an unjust, illegal and immoral war (based on LIES LIES AND MORE LIES). it's almost as if THIS president encouraged torture and killing. it's almost as if THIS president allowed his own citizens to suffer after natural disaster. it's as if this president ONLY cared about big bid-nez.

listen, barack obama isn't a god. he has disappointed me time after time. HOWEVER, HE IS FAR FAR FAR better than king george. he strikes me as being more HONEST than king george. more INTELLIGENT than king george.

and barack obama got shafted the day he started. people are now blaming HIM for the wars in iraqafghanistan (yes, really).

wtf??????????????
Ridge Says He Was Pressured to Elevate Threat Warning

By Garance Franke-Ruta

Washington Post Staff Writer

Former Pennsylvania governor Tom Ridge, the first director of the Department of Homeland Security, says that he was pressured by other Bush administration department heads to raise the national security-threat level on the eve of the 2004 presidential election -- a move he rejected as having such uncomfortable political undertones that it could destroy the administration's credibility.

The disclosure comes in Ridge's new book, "The Test of Our Times: America Under Siege . . . and How We Can Be Safe Again," written with Larry Bloom and published by Thomas Dunne Books, an imprint of St. Martin's Press. It will not hit bookstores until Sept. 1, but a copy of the book was obtained Friday by The Washington Post...........

unclear?????????????

that my dears is a wicked understatement. i have no facts. i have no figures (that's obvious i know). i also know in my heart of hearts for every REAL terrorist they legitimately spied upon, there had to be at least 1,000 INNOCENT CITIZENS OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA (who have rights that were trampled upon)

wtf?????????? unclear?????????????? it's as clear as the (noble, roman) nose on my face

U.S. Wiretaps Were of Limited Value, Officials Report
By ERIC LICHTBLAU and JAMES RISEN
WASHINGTON — While the Bush administration had defended its program of wiretapping without warrants as a vital tool that saved lives, a new government review released Friday said the program’s effectiveness in fighting terrorism was unclear.

The report, mandated by Congress last year and produced by the inspectors general of five federal agencies, found that other intelligence tools used in assessing security threats posed by terrorists provided more timely and detailed information.

Most intelligence officials interviewed “had difficulty citing specific instances” when the National Security Agency’s wiretapping program contributed to successes against terrorists, the report said.............

we knew it

but he said it out loud. i guess it doesn't count when we say it because we don't have stars on our shoulders

US violated Geneva Conventions, Bush Iraq commander says

By John Byrne
The head of the US Central Command, General David Petraeus, said Friday that the US had violated the Geneva Conventions in a stunning admission from President Bush’s onetime top general in Iraq that the US may have violated international law.

“When we have taken steps that have violated the Geneva Conventions we rightly have been criticized, so as we move forward I think it’s important to again live our values, to live the agreements that we have made in the international justice arena and to practice those,” Gen. Petraeus said on Fox News Friday afternoon.

Petraeus made the comment in the context of being asked about the Bush administration’s so-called “enhanced interrogation techniques.” ...........

why isn't anyone else reporting this?

and by anyone else, i mean the msm of course

click on the link below and read the WHOLE article. it's well worth it
Cheney's speech ignored some inconvenient truths

By Jonathan S. Landay and Warren P. Strobel | McClatchy Newspapers

WASHINGTON — Former Vice President Dick Cheney's defense Thursday of the Bush administration's policies for interrogating suspected terrorists contained omissions, exaggerations and misstatements.

In his address to the American Enterprise Institute, a conservative policy organization in Washington, Cheney said that the techniques the Bush administration approved, including waterboarding — simulated drowning that's considered a form of torture — forced nakedness and sleep deprivation, were "legal" and produced information that "prevented the violent death of thousands, if not hundreds of thousands, of innocent people."

He quoted the Director of National Intelligence, Adm. Dennis Blair, as saying that the information gave U.S. officials a "deeper understanding of the al Qaida organization that was attacking this country."..........

human rights?

what are they? i seem to have forgotten in the PAST EIGHT LONG HARD YEARS

it won't solve all the ills in the entire cosmos, but it's a baby step and that's how to start

(now ask yourself, how could anyone be AGAINST human rights?)

U.S. to Join U.N. Human Rights Council, Reversing Bush Policy

By Colum Lynch

Washington Post Staff Writer

UNITED NATIONS, March 31 -- The Obama administration decided Tuesday to seek a seat on the U.N. Human Rights Council, reversing a decision by the Bush administration to shun the United Nations' premier rights body to protest the influence of repressive states.

"Human rights are an essential element of American global foreign policy," Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said in a statement. "With others, we will engage in the work of improving the U.N. human rights system. . . . We believe every nation must live by and help shape global rules that ensure people enjoy the right to live freely and participate fully in their societies."

The United States announced it would participate in elections in May for one of three seats on the 47-member council, joining a slate that includes Belgium and Norway........

because she's OUR earth

not a democratic earth or a liberal earth. she belongs to ALL of us everywhere. we MUST take care of her or we'll lose her and along the way, ourselves as well

i just never understood the actions of the former administration. ignoring or burying all of the warnings we've gotten thus far. turning around laws we already had in place to protect the environment and allowing big bid-nez to spew their filth into our water supplies.

Winds of Change Evident in U.S. Environmental Policy

By Juliet Eilperin

Washington Post Staff Writer

Daniel Reifsnyder, a 25-year State Department veteran, knew even before President Obama was elected that U.S. environmental policy was going to change. So in early November, he called a couple of his Environmental Protection Agency counterparts about drafting documents to lay the groundwork for endorsing a treaty to curb global emissions of toxic mercury.

The Bush administration had resisted proposals for a United Nations-sponsored mercury treaty since at least 2005 on the grounds that voluntary measures were sufficient, but Reifsnyder told his fellow career officials that they had an opportunity to quickly formulate a new U.S. position in time for an upcoming meeting in Nairobi. They knew that as a senator, Obama had sponsored legislation banning the export of mercury overseas and that he was likely to be sympathetic to the treaty proposal.........

hmmmm

are we shocked and/or surprised? goddess no!

i'd be shocked and surprised if someone was actually PUNISHED for this or for ANY effing illegal, immoral or evil thing this administration is responsible for

Study Finds Ideology Fueled Justice Dept. Hirings
By Carrie Johnson
Washington Post Staff Writer

Ideological considerations permeated the hiring process at the Justice Department's civil rights division, where a politically appointed official sought to hire "real Americans" and Republicans for career posts and prominent case assignments, according to a long awaited report released this morning by the department's inspector general.

The extensive study of hiring practices between 2001 and 2007 concluded that a former department official improperly weeded out candidates based on their perceived ties to liberal organizations. Two other senior managers failed to oversee the process, authorities said.

The key official, former Deputy Assistant Attorney General Bradley Schlozman, favored employees who shared his political views and derided others as "libs" and "pinkos," the report said. .....