Pardon My Politics

Since the recent declassification of the John Yoo torture memos, there has been a heated debate among academics and others as to whether John Woo should continue to hold his position as a tenured professor at UC Berkeley School of Law. At issue is the freedom of expression that tenure was designed to protect vs. the despicable opinions Yoo espouses. Opinions that don’t merely reflect the misguided judgment of some low-level government functionary, but opinions that were provided for the expressed intent to give legal cover to the Bush administration’s torture regime and ultimately branding both Yoo and this administration as war criminals. Read the rest of this entry »

There’s a good chance that the House Intelligence Committee this week will hold closed-door hearings on Syria, at which time committee members would hear the Bush administration’s account of nuclear ties between North Korea and Syria, and also about Israel’s mysterious air strike against Syria last September. Several media outlets have reported that U.S. officials believe the Syrian facility had some potential to produce material for nuclear weapons—even though nuclear experts have called the Syrian program “rudimentary” and “nowhere near a program for nuclear weapons.” Read the rest of this entry »

In a national television interview on ABC News Friday night (April 11, 2008), President Bush directly admitted what we have suspected all along: The White House was deeply and intimately involved in decisions about the CIA’s use of torture.

For the first time, George W. Bush acknowledged that he knew his top national security advisers discussed and approved specific details of the CIA’s use of torture. “I’m aware that our national security team met on this issue and I approved,” he said. He also defended the use of waterboarding - simulated drowning where the victim feels like they are about to die. Read the rest of this entry »

On April 9, ABC News correspondent Jan Crawford Greenburgh broke an exclusive story on World News Tonight that provided new details surrounding how top Bush administration officials signed off on the use of harsh interrogation tactics in the “war on terror.”

Indeed, vice president Dick Cheney, secretary of state Colin Powell, attorney general John Ashcroft, CIA director George Tenet, and national security advisor Condoleezza Rice, grouped in the National Security Council’s Principals Committee, gave the U.S. military and the CIA a green light to torture suspected al-Qaeda operatives and other “enemy combatants.” Read the rest of this entry »

In an interview carried by CNN Monday April 15, 2008 McCain answered the questions about his age and whether he had the stamina for the job with an invitation for anyone who doubts his stamina to come along with him on his campaign. That silenced everyone.

The following day McCain outshined all his opponents in his bid for the White House by outlining his economic strategy for the country. In an Associated Press article April 15, 2008 the details of Sen. McCain’s plan look like the most practical short and long term proposals for the economy that anyone has heard of in a decade. McCain’s proposal has a raw common sense appeal that is garnering the interest of everyday Americans and some top economists for whom the economy is a strong suit. Read the rest of this entry »