Politico, following on ABC’s report, tells us:
An intelligence report sent recently to Capitol Hill shows that members of Congress were briefed 40 times since 2002 on aspects of the so-called “enhanced interrogation” program. Many have decried the techniques used in the program as torture.
The list seems to contradict the claim by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), then-minority leader and ranking member on the House intelligence committee, that she was never told at a 2002 briefing that waterboarding had been used or would been used, only that legal opinions approving of its use had been issued.
And on the handy chart that is now available, we see Jay Rockefeller’s name on the list for multiple briefings. It seems we’ve had a widespread and unseemly charade going on. As Congress calls for a witch hunt for those who drafted and carried out policies that protected us, they should consider just how abhorrent the public may find their feigned outrage.
Administration attorneys who are contemplating bar complaints against the Bush administration lawyers who drafted the interrogation memos on the premise that “of course” they knew their advice was ill-founded (and that the methods ”obviously” met the definition of torture) might want to consult with members of Congress as to whether the techniques on which they were briefed “shocked their conscience.” Notes of those sessions might be illuminating. But the nature of the investigative techniques have ceased to be the most shocking thing about this entire tawdry effort to vilify those who sought to protect their fellow citizens when they needed it most.
And people want to let these clowns and nincompoops handle our healthcare?!
I’d trust my life and my family’s health to an HMO.
Having been opposed to the bailout from the first, I have no problem with the bonuses. You get what you pay for.
If it was so blame-awful important to eliminate bonuses at AIG, it would have been much, much, much — MUCH — more effective to let AIG go bankrupt and be broken up and sold off. I’m betting any employees due bonuses would be seeing about 6 cents on the dollar in the bankruptcy settlement, if that.
Now we’re hearing Democrat lawmakers bloviate about how they OWN AIG, and they’re not going to let this happen!
I’m afraid we ain’t seen nothin’ yet. Four years from now, when the federal government is controlling the terms under which we borrow money and purchase insurance, a whole lot of people are going to wish to God we had just let AIG go bankrupt in 2008.
Here’s a fun pic. Who’da thunk Che would be so popular amongst the AIG elites?
http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/2009/03/che.php
Josh Marshall even sort of gloats about the fall of capitalism being an “inside job”. Is it just me or does the Che shirt look like a Planet of the Apes poster? In any event the unfortunate star on the headband means he wasn’t fighting Cornelius or Zera to kill the evil Bright Eyes.