Friday, March 16, 2007

BUSH THE TORTURER Borowitz: "In response to what he called a 'significant increase in the amount of misinformation about our enemies', President George W. Bush today announced that he was establishing a new Cabinet-level agency devoted solely to faulty intelligence. By creating the Department of Faulty Intelligence, Mr. Bush said, 'The United States will be able to respond swiftly and preemptively to false threats before they don't develop'." The poor sod of an Emperor, George W. Bush La-Loi-C'est-Moi-Dubya, is having a hard time. And Bush isn't ignoring Latin America; he'll soon give it a good going-over. Just wait until he has disentangled himself from all banana peels. McClatchy: "President Bush denied Wednesday that partisan politics played a role in the firings of eight U.S. attorneys, and he characterized the controversy over the dismissals as a big misunderstanding. But before the day was out, a Republican senator joined the call for Attorney General Alberto Gonzales to step down, and Senate Democrats declared their intention to compel testimony from top White House officials by subpoena. Congressional Democrats and some of the ousted U.S. attorneys said the firings appeared to be an effort to purge prosecutors who resisted political interference with their work." Reuters: "Brushing aside a veto threat, the House of Representatives voted on Wednesday to overturn a 2001 order by President George W. Bush that lets former presidents keep their papers secret indefinitely." GAP: "The Government Accountability Project (GAP) hailed this evening's House of Representatives floor vote approving H.R. 985, the Whistleblower Protection Enhancement Act, legislation that overhauls federal whistleblower law. The vote was 229-0 by Democrats, and 102-94 among Republicans. The margin of victory is large enough to overcome a threatened veto the administration released yesterday. GAP Legislative Representative Adam Miles commented, 'Whistleblowers are employees who exercise freedom of speech to challenge abuses of power that betray the public trust. This reform is simply a composite of best practices in current whistleblower laws. The President's intolerance raises an obvious question: Why? There is no excuse to veto a breakthrough codifying measures that have proven most effective for government accountability.'" WashingtonPost: "The National Association of Evangelicals has endorsed an anti-torture statement saying the United States has crossed 'boundaries of what is legally and morally permissible' in its treatment of detainees and war prisoners in the fight against terror." 10:09:46 AM

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