Bond Proposes Rewriting Army Field Manual To
Expand Interrogation Options

Sen. Kit Bond (R-MO) hasn’t been known for criticizing the Bush administration’s interrogation techniques. In fact, his most famous comment on the issue came in December 2007, when he compared waterboarding to “swimming”:

GWEN IFILL: Do you think that waterboarding, as I described it, constitutes torture?

SEN. KIT BOND: There are different ways of doing it. It?s like swimming, freestyle, backstroke. The waterboarding could be used almost to define some of the techniques that our trainees are put through, but that?s beside the point. It?s not being used.

The AP reports that Bond appears to have had a change of heart and is searching for a “compromise” over how the CIA can interrogate prisoners. In a letter to fellow senators yesterday, Bond proposed explicitly outlining what tactics are banned, rather than which ones are allowed:

Rather than authorizing intelligence agencies to use only those techniques that are allowed under the AFM [Army Field Manual], I believe the more prudent approach is to preclude the use of specific techniques that are prohibited under the AFM. In this way, the Congress can state clearly that certain harsh interrogation techniques will not be permissible. At the same time, this approach allows for the possibility that new techniques that are not explicitly authorized in the AFM, but nevertheless comply with the law, may be developed in the future.

Specified prohibitions in conjunction with intelligence interrogations would include: forcing the detainee to be naked, perform sexual acts, or pose in a sexual manner; placing hoods or sacks over the head of a detainee and using duct tape over the eyes; applying beatings, electric shock, burns, or similar forms of physical pain; ?waterboarding?; using military working dogs; inducing hypothermia or heat injury; conducting mock executions; and depriving the detainee of adequate food, water or medical care.

Bond’s proposal isn’t much of a compromise. Sure, it would ban waterboarding. But it would also give interrogators an unprecedented amount of leeway and still permit acts such as religious desecration. What exactly constitutes “similar forms of physical pain”?

The AFM doesn’t need to be rewritten, as Bond proposes. Both FBI Director Robert Mueller and Lt. Gen. Michael Maples of the Defense Intelligence Agency have testified to Congress that the current AFM — which does not allow waterboarding and other enhanced interrogation tactics — provides them with “the tools that are necessary for the purpose under which we are conducting interrogations.”

Read The Full Article:
http://thinkprogress.org/2008/05/09/bond-torture/

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Where The Rubber Meets The Road (5/9/08)

As reported in last Sunday's Philadelphia Inquirer, here is how Philadelphia-area members of Congress were recorded on major roll-call votes last week.

Combustible-dust rules. Voting 247-165, the House passed a bill (HR 5522) directing the Occupational Health and Safety Administration to adopt rules for controlling combustible dust at factories. The regulations would preempt any state rules that do less to protect workers from dust explosions and fires. The federal rules would be in addition to existing OSHA regulations for grain silos. The bill would require interim rules within 90 days of enactment and final ones within 18 months. President Bush has threatened to veto the bill, which is now before the Senate.

A yes vote was to pass the bill.

Voting yes: Robert A. Brady (D., Pa.), Michael N. Castle (R., Del.), Chaka Fattah (D., Pa.), Tim Holden (D., Pa.), Frank A. LoBiondo (R., N.J.), Patrick Murphy (D., Pa.), Allyson Y. Schwartz (D., Pa.), Joe Sestak (D., Pa.), and Christopher H. Smith (R., N.J.).

Voting no: Charles W. Dent (R., Pa.), Jim Gerlach (R., Pa.), Joseph R. Pitts (R., Pa.), and H. James Saxton (R., N.J.).

Not voting: Robert E. Andrews (D., N.J.).

And why would President Highest Disapproval Rating In Gallup Poll History not veto this bill, given the following (from here)?

Since George W. Bush became president, OSHA has issued the fewest significant standards in its history, public health experts say. It has imposed only one major safety rule. The only significant health standard it issued was ordered by a federal court.

The agency has killed dozens of existing and proposed regulations and delayed adopting others. For example, OSHA has repeatedly identified silica dust, which can cause lung cancer, and construction site noise as health hazards that warrant new safeguards for nearly three million workers, but it has yet to require them.

?The people at OSHA have no interest in running a regulatory agency,? said Dr. David Michaels, an occupational health expert at George Washington University who has written extensively about workplace safety. ?If they ever knew how to issue regulations, they?ve forgotten. The concern about protecting workers has gone out the window.?

Here is a link to the OSHA site, by the way; good luck getting blood from the proverbial stone.

Regulations delay. Voting 178-237, the House refused to delay action on new federal dust regulations until after completion of a government probe into causes of an explosion Feb. 7 at the Imperial Sugar refinery near Savannah, Ga., that killed 13 workers. The amendment was offered to HR 5522 (above).

A yes vote was to delay the bill.

Voting yes: Castle, Dent, Gerlach, Pitts and Saxton.

Voting no: Brady, Fattah, Holden, LoBiondo, Murphy, Schwartz, Sestak and Smith.

Not voting: Andrews.

Here?s more on the Imperial Sugar refinery explosion; I?m sure the families and friends of those who were killed or injured will be happy to know that the sickening Repug obstruction here was defeated (though kudos to LoBiondo and Chris Smith once again ? another good vote).

Highway, transit spending. Voting 358-51, the House sent President Bush a bill (HR 1195) that would speed the release of billions of dollars previously authorized for highway and transit projects. The bill gives a green light to hundreds of earmarked projects and makes technical changes to expedite spending on other projects.

A yes vote was to pass the bill.

Voting yes: Brady, Castle, Dent, Fattah, Gerlach, Holden, LoBiondo, Murphy, Pitts, Saxton, Schwartz, Sestak and Smith.

Not voting: Andrews.

I can?t believe Joe Pitts forgot to vote ?No? here; I hope he?s feeling OK (and to help Bruce Slater, click here).

Senate

Federal aviation budget. Voting 88-0, the Senate took a preliminary step toward debating a bill (HR 2881) authorizing $51 billion for Federal Aviation Administration programs through fiscal 2012. A threatened GOP filibuster rooted in disputes over amendments then delayed the bill. The Senate conducted no other votes during the week.

A yes vote was to pass the bill.

Voting yes: Thomas Carper (D., Del.), Bob Casey (D., Pa.), Robert Menendez (D., N.J.), and Arlen Specter (R., Pa.).

Not voting: Joseph R. Biden Jr. (D., Del.) and Frank Lautenberg (D., N.J.)

This week, the House took up bills to ease the U.S. housing crisis, while the Senate continued to debate federal aviation programs (and the farm-bill conference report may have come to a vote, but we'll find out...can you contain your excitement? :-).

Read The Full Article:
http://liberaldoomsayer.blogspot.com/2008/05/where-rubber-meets-road-5908.html

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Clinton Screws Granholm and Her Other Supporters
in Michigan

Michigan offered up a plan for seating its delegates:

Under that proposal -- hammered out weeks ago by Sen. Carl Levin, Rep. Carolyn Cheeks Kilpatrick, UAW President Ron Gettelfinger and National Committeewoman Debbie Dingell -- Sen. Hillary Clinton would get 69 of the state's delegates and Sen. Barack Obama, 59.

The compromise would cut only slightly into Obama's lead. The Illinois senator has 1,846.5 delegates to Clinton's 1,696, according to the Associated Press.

The proposal also would seat the state's 29 superdelegates.

The proposal essentially splits the difference between the 73 delegates Clinton won under state party rules in the disallowed primary -- Obama had taken his name off the ballot -- and an Obama proposal to award each candidate half the delegates.

State Party Chairman Mark Brewer said he was directed during a conference call with the state party's 80-member executive committee Wednesday night to bring the plan as a challenge to the Democratic National Committee's Rules and Bylaws panel when it meets May 31 in Washington.

Brewer said support for the compromise was sizable.

Among those supporting the plan:

DNC member Joel Ferguson, a co-chairman of Clinton's Michigan campaign who said he could support the 69-59 plan.

"While we compromised on how many delegates we get, we still recognize the plurality of the election," Ferguson said, noting that proposal lets Clinton keep a 10-delegate lead in light of her primary victory.

Ferguson said Thursday that he would withdraw a plan he and DNC member Jon Ausman of Florida -- both superdelegates -- submitted to the DNC's Rules and Bylaws Committee. Their plan would have allocated the delegates based on the primary election results, but given each just half a vote. The superdelegates would have had full voting rights.

There's no way the plan would have been brought before the state central committee without the support of Governor Jennifer Granholm, a Clinton supporter.  There's no way that Granholm and Ferguson would have supported the plan unless they had been told by the Clinton campaign that it was OK to move forward with the proposal.  So that means that Hillary Clinton accepts the plan, right?

Wrong:

On Wednesday, Clinton called again for Michigan's votes to be counted -- mentioning it at an appearance in West Virginia, which holds its primary Tuesday, and, according to her staff, greeting protesters outside the DNC who were demanding the state's delegates be seated.

On Tuesday night, speaking in Indianapolis, she said: "I am running to be the president of all of America -- north, south, east and west, and everywhere in between. That's why it is so important that we count the votes of Florida and Michigan."

This means that we now have Clinton supporters who will either have to argue against the Clinton campaign at the Rules and Bylaws Committee, or they will have to retract their support for the proposal.  It's an awful place for a candidate to put her supporters.

This may have have been caused by a screw-up within the Clinton campaign, where some staff/leadership spoke with the Michigan supporters and expressed the acceptance of the compromise plan, but others within the campaign either didn't know about the plan or are sticking a shiv in others within the campaign, and in the process hurting Granholm, Ferguson et al.  Or maybe Clinton simply changed her mind, in which case the F.U. to Granholm and the Clinton supporters in Michigan is even worse.  

It's been obvious for 2 months that Clinton's only chance to become the nominee was to hang around and hope Obama blew up.  That's not going to happen, so now the only question is how the loser loses.  Screwing over your steadfast supporters in a key state isn't a good sign that she will be acknowledging her loss gracefully or quickly, and is evidence that Clinton's continued candidacy can still delay the movement toward unity and hurt our chances in November.  

Read The Full Article:
http://feeds.dailykos.com/~r/dailykos/index/~3/287103012/42971

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Barack Obama for President in 2008

This entire election, I've refrained from choosing between Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama (as well as John Edwards and Bill Richardson when they were in the race) for the Democratic Nominee. This was because I have tremendous respect for both. Barack[...]

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http://librocrat.blogspot.com/2008/05/barack-obama-for-president-in-2008.html

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Obama's Mama and A Mother's Day Thought

A BUZZFLASH NEWS ANALYSIS
by Christine Bowman

Why has Barack Obama avoided seriously attacking Hillary Clinton? Why hasn't he taken the gloves off when she attacked him? Could it be in part because he sees his mom in her? Here's how one associate of Barack Obama's mother describes the late Stanley Ann Dunham:

"She was stubborn, hard core, decisive, convincing, deep-thinking, rigorous in her analysis," says [Nancy] Barry.

Sound like anyone else we know?

Bookmark/Search this post with: buzzflash | delicious | digg | technorati Technorati Tags: Analysis Obama Stanley Ann Dunham Clinton Mother's Day Feminists

read more

Read The Full Article:
http://www.buzzflash.com/articles/analysis/289

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Ted Kennedy's Divisive Rhetoric

I am a big fan of Ted Kennedy but he does the Democratic Party a great disservice with this type of talk:

Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama isn't likely to pick rival Hillary Clinton as a running mate, according to one of his most prominent supporters. "I don't think it's possible," Massachusetts Senator Edward Kennedy said in an interview on Bloomberg Television's "Political Capital With Al Hunt," airing this weekend.

Kennedy, 76, without naming names, said Obama should pick someone who "is in tune with his appeal for the nobler aspirations of the American people. If we had real leadership -- as we do with Barack Obama -- in the No. 2 spot as well, it'd be enormously helpful," Kennedy said.

What a terrible terrible thing to say. The Obama camp should disavow it. Unless he said it at their behest. In which case, we are gonna lose in November.

By Big Tent Democrat, speaking for me only

Read The Full Article:
http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/TalkleftThePoliticsOfCrime/~3/287089644/80068

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Republicans vote down Mothers Day. No, really!

Have they no shame? Using mother’s all across America as a political tactic is pretty sad. Intially this resolution had passed unanimously, but maybe Rep. Tiahart just doesn’t like his mom. Dana Milbank says poor Boehner has been under a lot of stress lately. Yes he has, but to actually vote down Mother’s [...]

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http://www.crooksandliars.com/2008/05/09/republicans-vote-down-mothers-day/

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The Spin Im In: They Got the Silver

I finally got to see Martin Scorsese?s concert film of the Rolling Stones, Shine A Light last weekend. I?m sick of people talking about the Rolling Stones being old, looking old, whatever. Anyone should look so good at their age. In fact, most snipers[...]

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http://firedoglake.com/2008/05/09/the-spin-im-in-they-got-the-silver/

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Friday Philosophy: Judgment

I should be busting my ass grading the quality of work submitted by my students.  But I'm a bit under the weather.  I don't enjoy feeling like I can't catch my breath.  The new drug helps with that somewhat. but there is a dizziness factor[...]

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http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/Docudharma/~3/287114465/showDiary.do

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The Stagnation of Conservative Media

Seemingly everyday we get another piece of evidence that conservative ideology is on the wane. [...]

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http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/OpenLeft-FrontPage/~3/287125794/showDiary.do

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