President Bush’s pick for attorney general, Michael Mukasey, enjoyed a lovefest at initial Senate confirmation hearings this week, but his responses to specific questions on torture and other civil liberties issues Thursday rightly raised eyebrows and concerns.
Mukasey wouldn’t give a straight answer when asked if water-boarding was torture. The closest he got was this: "If water-boarding is torture, torture is not constitutional."
You could drive a truck through the legal gap created by that "if."
"The United States’ chief law enforcement officer should be able to say — without hesitation — that strapping someone to a board, stuffing a rag in his mouth, and pouring water over his head so he fears drowning is torture," said Jennifer Daskal, a lawyer with Human Rights Watch.
That this administration seems incapable of moral clarity should trouble America’s conscience.
Posted by Randy Scholfield
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31 Comments
Note to Leahey: red flag.
“Mukasey wouldn’t give a straight answer ”
Yep. Sounds like a BushBot!
Bush’s problem naming people to these various posts seems to be he doesn’t know of a pool of both competent and honorable candidates to draw from. Or, maybe people that process both of those qualities don’t want to be associated with his administration.
gster – those qualities are considered disqualifications from the Bush administration.
“Bush’s problem naming people to these various posts seems to be he doesn’t know of a pool of both competent and honorable candidates to draw from. Or, maybe people that process both of those qualities don’t want to be associated with his administration.”
Posted by: gster | October 19, 2007 at 12:39 PM
So gster, you are saying that Judge Mukasey is a dishonorable man and those who support him like Leahy and Schumer are dishonorable as well?
There is something really sick about people who can’t say that waterboarding is torture.
That is people who are in their right mind.
Kansas, Judge Mukasey is not necessarily dishonorable, just sick enough to need help.
No, to the contrary , this guy might be a bright spot in the dreary list of earlier postings that fit the ilk of my statement. I’m not sure if that’s a good thing or not.
Kansas – I have just captured a crow. What color is it? And how might you determine that without actually seeing the crow?
“No, to the contrary , this guy might be a bright spot in the dreary list of earlier postings that fit the ilk of my statement. I’m not sure if that’s a good thing or not.”
Posted by: gster | October 19, 2007 at 12:53 PM
Well thanks for the rock solid commitment to the muddy waters of your statement.
Hopefully, decision making isn’t involved in any processes for you today. :)
gster – and maybe I captured an albino crow. But I ain’t betting on it!
If Bush wants him, he must be sh*t.
How long do you have to look at a pattern before you see the pattern?
Kansas- Thanks.. if you don’t agree or understand my post, I must be on the right track!
Caveat Emptor.
Kansas – I have just captured a crow. What color is it? And how might you determine that without actually seeing the crow?
Posted by: Ben | October 19, 2007 at 12:53 PM
I would say there is a high probability that the crow is black, because the color black or other darker color spectrum that provides for the crow natural stealth from raptors like hawks and larger predators eagles.
I would determine that there will be crow fecal droppings in great quantity as the stress upon a capture animal will cause it lose control of its normal bodily functions.
Perhaps a crow feather or two will drop and while it is wafting to and fro in the air, the crow will peck at your hands.
If the crow “caws” I can pick up the sonic disturbance to doppler the crow and through the use of feedback radar determine the scatter of noise spectrum that the color of the crow will be some shades of gray if indeed black.
Finally, being as you didn’t have a camera present to take a photo of the off colored crow (an albino) I would have to exclude the possibility that the crow was unremarkable in its color, anatomical physiological attributes and therefor a normal crow color.
:)
I agree Kansas. So, since there is a 99.99999999999999% statistical probability that a crow will be black i would conclude the captured one is as well.
Similarly, since there is a 99.99999999999999% statistical probability that a Bush appointee will be a crook I would conclude similarly.
Similarly, since there is a 99.99999999999999% statistical probability that a Bush appointee will be a crook I would conclude similarly.
Posted by: Ben | October 19, 2007 at 01:11 PM
To paraphrase from “The Godfather.”
Gentlemen, this is a business, let us conduct ourselves like gentlemen.
I suppose Ben, that “crookedness” would be relative to the victims of said phrase “being a crook.”
However, participants in similar activities such as politics may classify it as a business where they “try” to conduct themselves like gentlemen. :)
Bush isn’t going to nominate anyone that will convict his sorry ass, and force him to pardon himself. However, having said that, I think bush may issue a blanket pardon for himself and underlings for any crimes that have, or may have been committed during the past 8 Yrs. by his administration and flunkies.
Phant,Has there ever been an instance where a president pardoned himself? Even Nixon got Gerald Ford to pardon him. If he can’t issue his own pardon, there’s not likely to be anyone in the next administration who will. He may end up being charged and likely convicted.
We’ve never had a pres. like bush.
Just a late ornitholigic note. Members of the genus Corvidae, including crows, ravens, jays and magpies love to harass raptors whenever they can catch them. But I doubt that black helps them to stealthily sneak up. They don’t kill hawks–I don’t think– but they pester the heck out of them.
Wouldn’t one have to wonder about anyone who would accept the A.G. job for the last year of the Bush administration?
Mukasey’s predecessor may have commited crimes, there are a number of personnel problems in the Dept of Justice, there are ongoing congressional investigations where Bush/Cheney claims of executive privilege may be quite dubious at best.
In short, it sounds like an awful job. One, most sane people would run from, not seek out.
From reading the article, Mukasey’s answers pleased the Dems on day one. But the Dems evidently wanted someone who would agree with them on everything. Judge Mukasey sounds like he is his own man. He is a respected jurist. What more do you want?
Moot point, he is going to be confirmed.
“But the Dems evidently wanted someone who would agree with them on everything.”
Yes, those pesky Dems insisting that torture should not be U.S. policy. They want everyone to agree with them on that one – how unrealistic…
What the Dems DON’T want and will not allow by the way is another bush stooge.
And this guy has all the earmarks.
I don’t think he’ll get the nod him hawing on whether water boarding is torture. They sure aren’t talking about surfing!
Did the thought occur to anyone that Judge, soon to be AG, has only heard of water boarding through the news and doesn’t really know what it involves or if it is done.
What other answer could he give than he did?
Explain waterboarding, then I’ll address the question. That’d worked.
WHEN is one of the Democrats going to ask one of these neo-con stooges if the unitary executive theory, and all of its concomitant powers, privileges, and monarchical rights, will apply when a DEMOCRAT is the president?????????
No, no, no, and NO on more Bush Yes-Men!!!!!!!!
Water boarding is torture, now can I be A.G.? Yes his answer was far from even being reasonable, unless he has lived in a cave by now everyone at knows what water boarding is or at least has a concept of it.
Ben, you captured the Crow, it is in your control and has no choice in the matter. There for it is any color you wish it to be.
I was not going to add this but it goes with the crow question: The village had a wise man and one day the town thug came to him with a sparrow in his hand he had captured. He held the small bird behind his back and asked “Wiseman I have a sparrow in my hand, is the bird alive or dead?”. The thug had a plan, if the Wiseman said the sparrow was alive the thug would crash the bird and then show the body to the Wiseman.But if the Wiseman said the bird was dead, the thug would bring the hand around and open it to allow the bird to fly away. Either way he hope to embarrass the Wiseman and prove he was not so wise.
The Wiseman said, “the sparrow is in your hand, it is what ever you wish it to be!”.
“That this administration seems incapable of moral clarity should trouble America’s conscience.”
I’m sure it troubles us. What ought to trouble us more is the fact that, by now, it shouldn’t surprise us.