Saturday, November 20, 2004
Why Kerry lost: the punditocracy has a free-for-all of competing theories.The New Republic Online: Explain Away
Wednesday, November 10, 2004
Bringing Abu Ghraig home: Gonzales's secret plan for U.S?> George Bush has officially launched his "screw 'em, I won" approach to governing by picking Alberto Gonzales, the legal mastermind of the U.S. strategy to permit torture and ignore the Geneva Conventions, to be the new Attorney General. Concerned civil libertarians, liberals and even outright paranoids will have plenty to worry about now. Remember, even American citizens can be labelled "enemy combatants" and stripped of their rights under the Bush administration's anti-terrorism plans, even if the plans have been reined in slightly by court decisions. As Human Rights Watch pointed out in its comments today, " As White House counsel, Gonzales was the architect of the Bush administration's policy of placing detainees captured in the fight against terrorism beyond the protection of any law. That policy opened the door to brutality against detainees in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Guantanamo Bay and unfair legal proceedings against them.
"The Attorney General should enforce the law," said Jamie Fellner, director of the U.S. Program of Human Rights Watch. "Gonzales has helped the president circumvent it. His record suggests that he would be more likely to defer to the President than to uphold basic rights."
As White House counsel, Gonzales is known to have done the following:
He drafted the original military commission order signed by President Bush on November 14, 2001, which would have allowed suspects apprehended in the global campaign against terrorism to be secretly charged, tried, and even executed without the most basic due process protections. This week a federal court halted military commissions because they violate the Geneva Conventions and fair-trial standards.
He provided the legal basis for President Bush's decision on February 7, 2002, claiming that, as the president, he has the constitutional authority to deny protections of the Geneva Conventions to persons picked up during the war in Afghanistan. In his January 25, 2002 memorandum, Gonzales argued that the Geneva Conventions protections-including its "strict limitations on questioning enemy prisoners"-were rendered "obsolete" and "quaint" by the war on terror. Gonzales ignored the warnings of senior military officers that his position on the Geneva Conventions would undermine respect for law in the U.S. military.
He solicited the August 2002 torture memo from the Justice Department, which contended that the President has "commander-in-chief authority" to order torture and proposed potential legal defense for U.S. officials accused of torture. Gonzales has never publicly revealed his views about the memo. "During confirmation hearings, Gonzales must account for the positions he took and the decisions he helped make as White House counsel," said Fellner.
Sy Hersh, start your engines!Yahoo! News - Bush Names Gonzales to Succeed Ashcroft
"The Attorney General should enforce the law," said Jamie Fellner, director of the U.S. Program of Human Rights Watch. "Gonzales has helped the president circumvent it. His record suggests that he would be more likely to defer to the President than to uphold basic rights."
As White House counsel, Gonzales is known to have done the following:
He drafted the original military commission order signed by President Bush on November 14, 2001, which would have allowed suspects apprehended in the global campaign against terrorism to be secretly charged, tried, and even executed without the most basic due process protections. This week a federal court halted military commissions because they violate the Geneva Conventions and fair-trial standards.
He provided the legal basis for President Bush's decision on February 7, 2002, claiming that, as the president, he has the constitutional authority to deny protections of the Geneva Conventions to persons picked up during the war in Afghanistan. In his January 25, 2002 memorandum, Gonzales argued that the Geneva Conventions protections-including its "strict limitations on questioning enemy prisoners"-were rendered "obsolete" and "quaint" by the war on terror. Gonzales ignored the warnings of senior military officers that his position on the Geneva Conventions would undermine respect for law in the U.S. military.
He solicited the August 2002 torture memo from the Justice Department, which contended that the President has "commander-in-chief authority" to order torture and proposed potential legal defense for U.S. officials accused of torture. Gonzales has never publicly revealed his views about the memo. "During confirmation hearings, Gonzales must account for the positions he took and the decisions he helped make as White House counsel," said Fellner.
Sy Hersh, start your engines!Yahoo! News - Bush Names Gonzales to Succeed Ashcroft
Wednesday, November 03, 2004
The right-wing's moralistic mandate, as they see it.Bill Bennett on Election 2004 on National Review Online
Don't give up all hope yet -- maybe those provisional ballots will do the trick.CNN.com - Presidential race focuses on Ohio - Nov 3, 2004
Tuesday, November 02, 2004
Military admits (privately): We're in a quagmire.The New York Times > International > Middle East > In Iraq, U.S. Officials Cite Obstacles to Victory
Track the latest polling with this expert's take.Mystery Pollster
