On Thursday night, the Senate worked late so they could confirm the nomination of Michael Mukasey as Attorney General. The confirmation passed by a vote of 53-40.
Six Democrats voted for the confirmation: Bayh (IN), Carper (DE), Feinstein (CA), Landrieu (LA), Nelson (NE), and Schumer (NY). And, not surprisingly, former Democrat Joe Lieberman (CT), now an Independent but almost always sympathetic to the Republican agenda, voted in favor of Mukasey. Not a single Republican senator voted against Mukasey. Remember this vote the next time these folks are up for reelection.
They endorsed a man who refuses to say that waterboarding is torture, even though experts in the field have agreed that waterboarding violates the U.S. anti-torture statute.
And they endorsed a man who seems to believe that the president is above the law.
I fear that Alberto Gonzales's departure was nothing more than just another photo op staged by the White House for dramatic effect. I fear that Gonzales's legacy will live on through Mukasey for the next 14 months.
How many more people will be tortured in that time?
Our only hope is that Congress will quickly pass legislation that will expressly outlaw the use of waterboarding. (Sen. Ted Kennedy has introduced bill S.1943 to accomplish this.) And our only hope is that the torturers will comply with that legislation, and not choose another method that they don't believe is expressly forbidden.
I am not optimistic.
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http://www.maryshawonline.com
Mary Shaw is a Philadelphia-based writer and activist, with a focus on politics, human rights, and social justice. She is a former Philadelphia Area Coordinator for the Nobel-Prize-winning human rights group Amnesty International, and her views appear regularly in a variety of newspapers, magazines, and websites. Note that the ideas expressed here are the author's own, and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of Amnesty International or any other organization with which she may be associated.
I don't recall him refusing to say anything... I remember him saying something to the effect that he did not know enough about the practice of waterboarding to be able to offer an educated opinion...
This statement has had him called a facist... His service as a judge is irrelevant... it is the fact that he did not want to answer a question given that he did not know enough about the subject to give an answer that is important...
I did not know a thing about Mukasey until today.. Never really cared that much to learn more than what was being told by the "news"
Interesting stuff.....
He received Federal Bar Council’s (an organization that was created because the "NATIONAL Bar Council" refused to admit Black members,) Learned Hand Medal for excellence in federal jurisprudence.
Of course this is meaningless...
Last year, he ordered a mentally ill woman released from jail after she was charged with helping an Iraqi spy agency under Saddam Hussein. - - NPR
Of course this is equally meaningless...
Ciao, CZ
by
steve scheetz (1 articles, 0 quicklinks, 1 diaries, 482 comments)
on Friday, November 9, 2007 at 3:31:07 PM
TO FIND OUT WHY THINGS ARE THE WAY THERE ARE, A LITTLE TIME TRAVEL IS NEEDED, IN OCTOBER 2 2001 THE PATRIOT ACT IS INTRODUCED IN CONGRESS,BUT NOT WELL RECEIVED BY ALL. AND THE TWO SENATORS WHO HAD THE POWER TO STOP THE BILL OR SLOW IT, BY A PICK OF THE TERROREST,IN A CAVE IN SOME FAR AWAY LAND, TOM DASCHLE AND PATRICK LEAHY RECIVED ON OCTOBER 9 2001 LETTERS WITH WEAPONS GRADE ANTHRAX, AND AS THEM BEING TERRORS AFTER KELLING 3,000 AMERICANS TO WARN DASCHLE AND LEAHY THAT THE PATRIOT ACT BILL WILL BE PASSED ON TIME, THATS IF YOU ARE AROUND TO VOTE, AND IF NOT THE REST OF YOUR FELLOW SENATORS GET THE MESAGE . SO ANYBODY WITH THIS IN THE BACK OF THEIR MIND IS NOT GOING TO ROCK THE BOAT,
by
RICHARD SHADE (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 460 comments)
on Sunday, November 11, 2007 at 7:41:59 AM
