I do not know what is stranger — the fact that Britney is in another relationship?   Donald Trump firing of Miss California? Or the fact that Anti Abortion activitists want to purchase the Abortion Clinic that was owned by Dr. Tiller, who was recently killed by Scott Roeder?   I am completely baffled by the news of the afternoon.   Meanwhile, the Feds are saying the economy is recovering and that the worst of the recession is behind us.

– AC

Afternoon Mashup:

Donald Trump Ousts Pejan as Miss California — AP
Fed Survey Sees Signs Recession Is Easing — AP
Neb Docs Offers 3rd Term Abortions in Place of Tiller — AP
Anti Abortion Leader May Try to Buy Tiller Clinic — NY TIMES
Enthusiastic Supporters Take To the Streets in Building Up To Iranian Elections — Voice of America
Britney’s New Agent Boyfriend Confirms Relationship — Suntimes

Watch for a Republican meltdown over the next few days regarding “Wall Street Pay Curbs”, which appear to be forthcoming from the Obama Administration.  According to the Associated Press’s Jim Kuhnhenn, the Obama Administration plans to cap bonus pay at a third of executives regular salaries.  Many firms are striking back by reiterating to the Obama Administration that this would limit the amount of “talent” they could hire and drive employees to foreign financial firms.   This should be an issue all over the cable news tonight — but then again — except for Rachel Maddow, who really discusses any important issues anymore?  Got a snake on your lap yet Keith?
– AC

Morning Papers:

Fiat Closes Deal To Take Chrysler’s Good Assets — AP
Administration To Issue New Wall Street Pay Curbs — AP
Is An American Gay Idol Really News?  The Sexualization of Adam Lambert -- Rolling Stone
Obama’s Push For Health Care Plan Stirs Controversy — FOX News
US Mortgage Demand Withers as Loan Rates Spike – Reuters
NY Governor Unpopular With Voters — NY TIMES
Democrats Nearing Consensus on Health Plan — NY TIMES
Oil Prices Begin to Climb Again — Wall Street Journal

The Breakfast Club:

On todays menu is Coffee, bagels, waffles, death, destruction, nuclear stand off and all sorts of other assortments and condiments of the world we live in.

Todays morning headlines range from a New Korean War to the mysteries of Air France Flight 447.

In todays news Time discusses how the North Koreans could draw the South and the US into a second Korean War. While in other parts of the world the death toll from a suicide bombing in Pakistan has currently left 17 people dead.

In downtown Iran, one of the nations senior most politicians, has called out Ahmadinejad accusing him of “Lies and distortions”. No really??. While in London allegations of torture not by terrorism suspects but by drug suspects accusing members of the Metropolitian Police.

– SJ

London police officers accused of water torture – CNN

At least 17 dead in Pakistan hotel blast – CNN

Could the US Be Drawn into a New Korean War? – Time

Iran’s Ex President Lashes out – CNN

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Related posts:

1. Top Stories — June 18, 2009
2. Top Stories — June 15, 2009
3. Top Stories — June 9, 2009

As I am writing this, the U.S. Supreme Court (SCOTUS) has handed down a decision that a lawsuit filed against FBI Director Robert Mueller and former Attorney General John Ashcroft cannot go forward because nothing “linked” Mueller and Ashcroft to the abuses against Javaid Igbal a former (as in is no longer) September 11th detainee.  Although, I have not read the decision of the High Court (yet), it appears that unless a government official is directly (even though they are responsible for the policy) involved in abuses that they are not held to the same standards as other Americans.

Case in point — Linda Chavez wrote an opinion that I have included here commending President Obama’s decision not to release “torture” photographs.   Chavez writes,  ”The soldiers who engaged in this rogue, illegal conduct were tried, convicted, and went to prison.”  However, she misses the point that no “officer” involved in the scandal received Judical punishment — AT ALL!

Chavez like most “right” minded political activists continue to refer to the Iraq War as “The War on Terror” despite the fact that no evidence of weapons of mass destruction or connection between Iraq and Al-Qaeda has ever existed.  She continues to espouse the rhetoric of misinformation and the politics of hatred.

For most Americans, myself included, the question is when will high ranking and highly elected people of power be held responsible for anything — EVER? Although, I do not believe pursuing the Bush Administration is the most pressing matter at hand for President Obama, I do believe that understanding what actually occured that led the U.S To War, why the U.S participated in enhanced torture techniques, and how to prevent this from occuring in the future is the responsibility of the President.  

We invite you to defend your vote!

Do You Get The Millenial Generation –  Morley Winograd and Michael D. Hais
Impeachment Is Not the Answer for Judge Bybee – Burt Brandenburg 
Is that your work — or a pills?  – Christian Science Monitor 
Obama Gets It Right For Once — Linda Chavez 
The Speaker Speaks — Susan Estrich 
Obama’s Risky Debt — Robert J. Samuelson

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Related posts:

1. Must Read Blogs And Op-Ed’s — September 13, 2009
2. Must Read Blogs and Op’Eds — January 21, 2009
3. Must Read Blogs and Op-Eds — April 25, 2009

Delay in Holder Confirmation Illogical and Unreasonable, Whitehouse Says

January 23, 2009

Washington, D.C. – U.S. Senator Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI), a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee and a former U.S. Attorney and Attorney General for Rhode Island, today sharply criticized the argument some Republican members of the Committee are making for delaying a vote on the nomination of Attorney General-Designate Eric Holder:

“Republicans on the Judiciary Committee have asked Eric Holder to make a commitment, before he is even confirmed, that he will not prosecute any Bush Administration officials for their involvement in acts of torture during the last administration.

“Anyone familiar with the criminal justice system – especially those with experience as prosecutors or judges – should know that a prosecutor should make no determination about who to prosecute before he or she has all the facts, and particularly not in response to legislative pressure.

“After all we have recently been through at the Department of Justice, I would hope and expect that upon calm reflection, no one on our Committee would expect the Attorney General of the United States to make prosecutive decisions based on legislative pressure.”

Source:  Senate Press Release

–

I have three letters for this:  WTF

– AC

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1. Senior Bush official says Gitmo detainee was tortured
2. Eric Holder Becomes America’s First Black Attorney General
3. Treasury Secretary Scandal Hits Obama Administration

It was an amazing day in America! Barack Obama became the 44th President of the United States, and our nightmare of the last 8 years is finally over.   Many are beginning to question what Barack Obama will do, especially with the left wing wanting to pursue prosectution of Bush/Cheney for torture and other high crimes.   However, the real nightmare may have just begun!   Will Barack Obama listen to the left wing and pursue the Bush Administration?   Or will he make a pragmatic choice to avoid confrontation with the former administration in order to pursue passage of his policies.   K.O special comment on Jan 19 was spot on and cutting, however we will see if Barack Obama can rise to the cause of being anything but the appeaser Chuck Todd accused him off being.  The First 100 Days Begin!

href=”http://news.yahoo.com/s/csm/20090120/cm_csm/ykrogh/print;_ylt=AqMnH9mhfwmGUFk2lLmz_8.7e8UF”>For Obama And Other Public Servants, Three Tests of Integrity — Egil Krogh

An Inaugural Bow to the Constitution — The Nation

The Paradox of Bush and Obama — Cathy Young

President Obama — NY TIMES

Radical In the White House — Thomas Friedman

Sometimes A Great Nation — Kathleen Parker

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Related posts:

1. Must Read Op-Ed’s and Blogs — January 15, 2009
2. Must Read Op-Ed’s — January 7, 2008
3. Must Read Blogs and Op-Ed’s — Feb 10, 2009

WASHINGTON (CNN) — For the first time, a senior Bush administration official has publicly described a detainee’s treatment at the U.S. Navy Base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, as torture, according to a published report.

The detention of terror suspects at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, has been a source of controversy.

Susan Crawford, the retired judge in charge of determining which Guantanamo detainees should be tried by a U.S. military commision, has refused to refer the case of Mohammed al-Qahtani to prosecutors because of that assessment, The Washington Post reported Wednesday.

“We tortured (Mohammed al-) Qahtani,” Crawford told the Post. “His treatment met the legal definition of torture. And that’s why I did not refer the case” for prosecution.

Military prosecutors have accused al-Qahtani of helping to plan the September 11, 2001, terror attacks, and believe he may have sought to participate, possibly as the “20th hijacker.”

The United States had been seeking the death penalty against al-Qahtani and five other men in connection with the 9/11 attacks. Crawford approved charges against the other five.

She told the newspaper she came to her decision based on the combination of the interrogation techniques, their duration and the effect on al-Qahtani’s health.

“The techniques they used were all authorized, but the manner in which they applied them was overly aggressive and too persistent,” she said.

“You think of torture, you think of some horrendous physical act done to an individual. This was not any one particular act; this was just a combination of things that had a medical impact on him, that hurt his health. It was abusive and uncalled for. And coercive. Clearly coercive. It was that medical impact that pushed me over the edge” to call it torture, she told the paper.

When asked later Wednesday about the report, White House Press Secretary Dana Perino responded, “It has never been the policy of this president or this administration to torture.

“Because of command influence concerns, I have not commented about individual cases from this podium and … that’s as much as I can say about it.”

Pressed further on the issue, Perino said, “The commander-in-chief should not be commenting on cases where the government is bringing a case against a detainee. It would be inappropriate to do so from the White House.”

The Department of Defense issued a statement Wednesday defending the military treatment of al-Qahtani.

“We have conducted more than a dozen investigations and reviews of our detention operations, including specifically the interrogation of al-Qahtani, the alleged 20th hijacker.

“The investigations concluded the interrogation methods used at Gitmo (Guantanamo), including the special interrogation techniques used with Qahtani in 2002, were lawful.

“However, subsequent to those reviews, the department adopted new and more restrictive policies, and improved oversight procedures for interrogation and detention operations.

“Some of the aggressive questioning techniques used on al-Qahtani, although permissible at the time, are no longer allowed in the updated Army field manual.”

In November, military prosecutors said they would try to refile charges against al-Qahtani based on later interrogations that did not use harsh techniques, the paper reported.

Crawford, who dismissed war crimes charges against al-Qahtani in May 2008, said she won’t let the prosecutors pursue other charges.

His interrogation took place over 50 days — from November 2002 to January 2003, and he was held in isolation until April 2003, she said.

“For 160 days, his only contact was with the interrogators,” she said.

Crawford, who studied interrogation and other military records, said al-Qahtani was forced to stand naked in front of a female agent, threatened with a military dog named Zeus, “forced to wear a woman’s bra and had a thong placed on his head” during questioning, and “was told that his mother and sister were whores,” the newspaper reported.

Al-Qahtani, a Saudi national, was denied entry to the United States by an immigration officer in August 2001, and later was captured in Afghanistan. In January 2002 he was sent to Guantanamo, where he has remained in custody as an enemy combatant.

The agency said it is now focused on ensuring the proper treatment of detainees.

Source

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1. Obama to close Gitmo in One Year
2. Republicans Ask For No Prosecutions of Bush Administration
3. Game ON! Obama launces official 2012 campaign #tcot #p2 #opinion