Here's Your Change

President Obama's nominee to be U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Under Secretary for Intelligence and Analysis withdrew his name from consideration Friday after it became clear lawmakers would question his involvement in interrogation and detainee policies under President George W. Bush.

Philip Mudd, currently a top official at the Federal Bureau of Investigation, said he was bowing out because he knew "this position will require the full cooperation with Congress and I believe that if I continue to move forward I will become a distraction to the President and his vital agenda."

  ABC

We can’t have any more high profile questioning. THAT is not in the President’s agenda, for sure. And we certainly wouldn’t want the fact that we tortured people to death and are harboring dozens of war criminals to distract us.

Democrats on Capitol Hill had signaled their intention to probe Mudd's knowledge of and role in approving brutal interrogation techniques -- some of which qualify under international law as torture -- used by CIA officials against detainees.

Well, hey, good for the Democrats for once. What’s their angle on this one? They sure aren’t smoothing the path for their leader the way the Republicans do. No wonder they aren’t very effective.

Mudd is the second potential Obama administration official to opt out of what was looking to be a grueling confirmatiom process because of ties to Bush-era interrogation policies.

And for the love of Pete, why does Obama insist on nominating these people? Change. Oh yeah, big man. Lots of change you’re bringing. Please, let me hear some Obama apologists say that he’s nominating these people knowing they won’t make it, just to “out” them.

....but hey, do what you want....you will anyway.

Good Times, Good Times

With jobs cuts continuing, we are now at an unemployment rate of roughly one in ten Americans — not including temp jobs or low wage service jobs.

The good news is that the loss of jobs is slowing.

However, we are now seeing the impact of our crushing deficit spending. The government has been pouring out money and it is now endangering recovery according to the Chinese who hold $768 billion in our Treasuries.

I’d keep on writing but the combination of these reports and the invention of a new robot teacher has led me to start a subsistence garden.

  Jonathan Turley

“Not including temp jobs or low wage service jobs.” Isn’t that most of our employment these days?

....but hey, do what you want....you will anyway.

Continuing the Gitmo B.S.

A plan under consideration by the Obama administration would permit Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, detainees facing the death penalty to plead guilty without a full trial, it has been reported.

  Raw Story

How nice!

This option would principally be aimed at a group of detainees accused of planning the Sept. 11, 2001 terror attacks, five people who have already indicated they prefer this resolution of the case, The New York Times said in a story posted late Friday on its Web site.

Prefer it because….? Prefer it to military commissions? Prefer it to just hanging around pretending they might someday get a trial? I want to know the what and the why of this alleged preference.

One advantage of permitting guilty pleas by defendants in the Sept. 11 case would be that the government would not have to expose harsh interrogation techniques during full trials that would otherwise have to be carried out, the Times said.

No kidding. It has great advantage to the government. But what’s the advantage to the detainee?

It said the proposal to permit guilty pleas — which are not allowed in the legal framework the U.S. military uses in trials for its own personnel — would in effect permit the Sept. 11 defendants to achieve a self-proclaimed desire for martyrdom.

Ah. Well, if that’s what they want…they can always try to attack a guard.

The theory behind the ban on such pleas in trials for U.S. military personnel is that prosecutors would have to prove their case in court against any individual facing such a serious charge.

What a stupid idea. Jeesh. This is America, in case you forgot. But let me get back to the whole thing about not permitting guilty pleas. A defendant in a U.S. court can plead guilty and waive a right to trial. This article tells us that the reason we don’t permit detainees to plead guilty is that they could then be considered martyrs. There we go, mixing religion and civil rights again. But…why can’t our own military personnel plead guilty in military trials?

U.S. military law, which is the model for the military-commission rules, bars members of the armed services who are facing capital charges from pleading guilty. Partly to assure fairness when execution is possible, court-martial prosecutors are required to prove guilt in a trial even against service members who want to plead guilty.

  Denver Post

Partly to assure fairness makes little sense. If the defendant pleads guilty, where’s the unfairness? But, never mind…what’s the other part?

Update: Glenn Greewald Chimes in.

The primary reason to avoid trials upon a guilty plea is to prevent public disclosure of the details of the torture we inflicted on these detainees.

  Glenn Greenwald

Yes. So it makes me wonder whether their “preferences” for pleading guilty came about in a similar way as their confessions.

Change We Can Believe In

President Barack Obama has tapped an anti-abortion activist to a senior Health and Human Services "faith-based" position just a week after the murder of prominent abortion doctor George Tiller.

Alexia Kelley is executive director of Catholics in Alliance for the Common Good (CACG), and will head the Center for Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships at the Department of Health and Human Services.

According to The American Prospect, a liberal magazine, "Kelley is a leading proponent of 'common ground' abortion reduction -- only CACG's common ground is at odds with that of Obama. While the administration favors reducing the need for abortion by reducing unintended pregnancies, Kelley has made clear that she seeks instead to reduce access to abortion."

  Raw Story

What gives? I thought we were going to be a reality-based country now.

....but hey, do what you want....you will anyway.

All God's Children

Disgusting People - Part II

Glenn Greenwald indicates that a Dem refusal to pass the war funding bill might have more to do with the fact that that particular bill had the amendment granting Obama the right to suppress war crimes photos from Abu Ghraib. I'm still going with my original reaction to it - I think the story I quoted had it right - they're withholding votes in an effort to get something they want. I long ago gave up the idea that they might do something because it's the right thing to do.

....but hey, do what you want....you will anyway.

Go Cindy

Cindy Sheehan, who gave the Bush-era's peace movement a proper kick-off by camping out in a ditch down the street from the former president's ranch after her son died in Iraq, is still honing her protest craft.

Because really, to her, the Bush administration will never truly end until its key players are prosecuted.

On Monday, June 8, Cindy and friends will march on former President Bush's new home in the well-to-do Dallas suburb of Preston Hollow.

  Raw Story

And I have the day off. I should probably be there. But, Cindy, I’m more concerned about being sure I make it to meet my son who will be home on leave from Baghdad. Sorry. And good luck with that.

"Go away," resident Kathie Taub said. "Go back! Leave us alone!"

Taub said Sheehan had already protested and should "now leave everybody alone."

That’s the American spirit, Kathie. I defend your right to say something once. You had your say, Cindy. You lost. Go away.

I’m afraid Kathie, in her upper class womb, doesn’t understand the spirit of struggle. She probably never had to.

Of course, Cindy is quite comfortable being ridiculed by practically all sides (including her own). The "Peace Mom," as she became known, was hit by the right for criticising the invasion of Iraq and, eventually, by the left for being a perpetual spotlight-seeker.

Apparently “the left” doesn’t understand it either.

In spite of the sympathy I feel for her cause, I can't help but wonder what this is meant to accomplish ... Aside from, ah, annoying the neighbors. Looks like a lot of Dallasites feel the same.

Apparently neither do Stephen C. Webster and/or David Edwards who put together the Raw Story article.

Happily, there are a lot of comments to their article that set them straight about the right and reason to continue protesting when a war criminal goes unpunished and is allowed to live in luxury amongst us. I feel a bit encouraged.

Disgusting People

US House Democrats said Thursday they would not vote this week on a war supplemental spending bill after Republicans balked at funding for the International Monetary Fund.

  Raw Story

The terror of war, the great loss of life – and worse - that it is causing is nothing more than a bargaining chip to the House Dems.

Update

....but hey, do what you want....you will anyway.

Again, I Let Somebody Else Do the Hard Work

Whatever It Is, I'm Against It

“I’ve come here to Cairo to seek a new beginning between the United States and Muslims around the world, one based on mutual interest and mutual respect, and one based upon the truth that America and Islam are not exclusive and need not be in competition.” [...] I’m not sure if all this talk about the relationship between the US and Islam treats Islam as a nation or the US as a religion.

  WIIIAI

Precisely. The whole approach is offputting and erroneous. And sadly ubiquitous around the globe.

“Palestinians must abandon violence. Resistance through violence and killing is wrong and it does not succeed.” George Washington, War of Independence, ring a bell at all? “For centuries, black people in America suffered the lash of the whip as slaves and the humiliation of segregation. But it was not violence that won full and equal rights. It was a peaceful and determined insistence upon the ideals at the center of America’s founding.” Abraham Lincoln, Civil War, ring a bell at all? Really, did he just tell us that slaves shouldn’t have resisted slavery with violence?

That’s what I heard.

Jesus.

Please read the whole post if you didn't hear the speech.

....but hey, do what you want....you will anyway.

Meanwhile in Pakistan

A suicide bomber killed 30 people attending Friday prayers at a mosque, while a roadside bomb left four soldiers dead in Pakistan's tribal belt — the latest violence to rock the country's northwest as the army says it is beating back the Taliban in the Swat Valley.

The attacks came as U.S. envoy Richard Holbrooke met with top Pakistani officials after evaluating the plight of some of the nearly 3 million Pakistanis made refugees by the Swat offensive. Hundreds trying to return home to Swat on Friday were stopped by troops.

  Yahoo

I'd say it's pretty well entrenched.

....but hey, do what you want....you will anyway.

Yep, That's My Galveston

Galveston's Judge Kent to quit next year

Prison- bound U.S. District Court Judge Samuel Kent told President Barack Obama on Tuesday he fully intends to keep his $174,000-a-year post for another year — a notice that further fueled the angst of members of Congress who vowed a fast-track impeachment.

“I hereby resign from my position as United States District Judge for the Southern District of Texas effective June 1, 2010,” Kent wrote the president, putting the effective date in italics. Until that date — or his impeachment — he will continue to draw a salary from taxpayers.

[...]

The 59-year-old jurist admitted in the plea deal that he had non-consensual sexual contact with two female court employees between 2003 and 2007.

[...]

Kent was sentenced on May 11 after pleading guilty in February to obstruction of justice for lying to a judicial inquiry looking into allegations that he had repeatedly sexually harassed and assaulted a court employee.

[...]

Rep. Gene Green, D-Houston, said Congress will impeach Kent “well before the end of that year because he’s taking up a position on the bench and we need a judge sitting on that bench.”

  Houston Chronicle

Well, I hope.

The date is designed to milk the system of as much benefits as possible — only to resign shortly before any completion of impeachment.

Absent a voluntary resignation or impeachment, Kent can continue to receive his judicial salary. To engage in such open pilfering of the public fisc adds yet another ignoble fact to Kent’s disgraceful end to his judicial career.

[...]

[Kent’s lawyer Dick] DeGuerin insisted that Kent wanted to avoid a “spectacle” and had decided “to try to save the embarrassment that these useless hearings would have. That’s embarrassing for the judicial system as well as everybody involved.” Hmmm, and milking the system to the very last minute is testament to the judicial system? Of course, since Judge Kent is himself the spectacle, the best way to avoid the embarrassment is for him to resign immediately and go off to jail.

  Jonathan Turley

Kent and his lawyer are both Dicks.

....but hey, do what you want....you will anyway.

There Goes the Neighborhood

New Hampshire's governor has signed legislation making the state the sixth to allow gay marriage.

[...]

The revised bill added a sentence specifying that all religious organizations, associations or societies have exclusive control over their religious doctrines, policies, teachings and beliefs on marriage.

  Yahoo

They were afraid the gays would try to make laws that forced them to give up their prejudice and dogma? I guess "God-fearing" people just naturally live in fear.

....but hey, do what you want....you will anyway.

P.S. It's nice to see that human rights are alive and well somewhere.