Check this out. Yesterday, in case you missed it the, President appointed, Attorney General told the, elected by the people Congress, to F**K OFF and they took it.

Attorney General John D. Ashcroft told Congress yesterday that he would not release a 2002 policy memo on the degree of pain and suffering legally permitted during enemy interrogations, but said he knows of no presidential order that would allow al Qaeda suspects to be tortured by U.S. personnel.

In other words I don't have to give you, and the people you represent, what you ask for but trust me there was nothing bad in it. I would have filed the impeachment resolution this morning if I was in Congress. But the Democratic Senators have no one to blame but themselves for this. They knew this guy from working in the Senate with them. They knew he was a fascist and they confirmed him anyway. The Democrats in Congress decided his nomination wasn't worth fighting over. They laid down. This could have been the first big fight with, then, a weak President. Allowing this appointment without a fight just gave the President one of his first victories and gave him some legitimacy and they are still paying for it to this day. When are the Democrats going to learn that they will get further standing up for what they believe than deciding not to fight?

Juan Cole has two excellent posts
- Torturegate, G8, and the Greater Middle East
The revelations about the torture memos have cast a cloud over Bush's presentations at the G8 summit in Georgia. Since the Bush centerpiece at that conference was supposed to be promoting democracy in the Middle East, the Torturegate revelations pointed to US feet of clay. Wire services noted Bush's complete failure with Middle Eastern leaders at the summit:
- UN Resolution Passes Unanimously Sistani the Big Winner; Kurds Furious
The United Nations Security Council on Tuesday unanimously approved a new resolution on Iraq granting legitimacy to the caretaker government of Iyad Allawi. The resolution gives the new Iraqi government substantially more sovereignty than had been envisaged by the US in the initial draft, and the Bush administration essentially compromised in order to have an achievement for the election season.

A few quick things on the UN Resolution. Everything I've been reading keeps saying that it brings legitimacy to the interim Iraqi government. But as this article states, not really:

Yet even after several key revisions, the resolution remains ambiguous enough to allow both the United States and the so-called anti-war countries that remain wary of US intentions in Iraq to declare victory, experts say. At the same time, the lack of any real definition of a UN role in Iraq, along with continuing limits on the abilities of a new Iraqi government, mean the US will remain largely in charge.

In other words they passed a CYA resolution for everyone involved, especially the Bush administration. Our military stays, no military involvement by any other countries, our 14 enduring bases will still be built, and Iraq's new unelected Prime Minister is a former Baath Party member and has connections to the CIA and British Intelligence. I'm sure this will all make the Iraqi people feel occupation has ended. If it walks like an occupation, talks like an occupation and quacks like an occupation, guess what? It's an occupation.

And they think Soros is crazy?
Moon Over Washington
Why are some of the capital'?s most influential power players hanging out with a bizarre Korean billionaire who claims to be the Messiah?

How long is this going to simmer?
Soldier Described White House Interest
The head of the interrogation center at the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq told an Army investigator in February that he understood some of the information being collected from prisoners there had been requested by "White House staff," according to an account of his statement obtained by The Washington Post

- posted by Mom/Dad @ 12:29 PM