Hey, Saddam Hussein’s pre-Nov. 7th sentencing was only good enough for midterms. News about Osama bin Laden’s capture (or killing) is pre-presidential election material. Therefore, Karl Rove’s and the Republican’s October Surprise for October 2008 will be a “shocking” announcement involving Osama bin Laden.

And this is one of the reasons why Gates was selected as Rumsfeld’s replacement…to keep a lid on this ultra top-secret internment…because you see, bin Laden must be being held at a U.S. military facility, but his handlers are CIA…probably the U.S. military facility at the island of Diego Garcia in the middle of the Indian Ocean.

Thus, Gates’ former CIA experience in combination with his heading the Pentagon go hand in hand with keeping as few people as possible “in the know” about bin Laden being captured and detained somewhere by the Bush administration…until the “right” moment arrives for releasing this information.

CNN — Speaker-to-be Nancy Pelosi just gave the most intelligent, gracious and non-threatening interview to Wolf Blitzer. Pure class.

I’m sure it scared the hell out of the wing nuts that she sounded so reasonable.

btw, I guess we can now retire the slogan, “no matter what happens, it’s good for the Republicans.” Losing isn’t.

Is this gonna be on C&L? Let me know, I’d like to send it to a right leaning friend of mine.

If the presidents orders to you should ever conflict or appear to conflict with the Constitution, what would your response be?

Get a memo from Haynes & Gonzales.

Works every time.

The Gates confirmation hearing can be the first test case for the Democratic members of the Senate to express their willingness to hold the executive branch accountable. In the last six years, the DOD has gained considerable power while ducking all attempts at accountability for the use of that power.

The Dems should use the confirmation hearings as the first “accountability moment” of many to come. Here’s a taste of what some nice questions might sound like:

1) As one who has headed the CIA, do you believe that information extracted by use of torture is credible? Put another way, does torture work, or do those who are tortured merely say whatever they think their captors want to hear?

2) As one who was part of the intelligence community of the executive branch during the Iran-Contra episode, you have a certain insight into the balance of powers between the legislative and executive branches. Given that experience, what are your views on the power of the executive to set aside the expressed will of Congress by using the cover of a “signing statement” instead of the constitutionally-vested power of the veto? Can the Executive branch simply ignore laws (or portions thereof) that they don’t like?

3) What are the limits, if any, of the military when it comes to seizing American citizens or anyone else and holding them indefinitely, without trial or even the filing of charges, without showing them the evidence being used to
justify their detention, and without providing them a recourse to challenge the legality of their detention before an impartial court?

There are so many other subjects to explore . . . Other questions, anyone?

What, in your opinion, is the legitimate use of US troops with respect to US citizen in the US? How do you interpret posse comitatus? If the presidents orders to you should ever conflict or appear to conflict with the Constitution, what would your response be?

montag – “It bothers me that Bush would even consider a spook (although they are showing up in all the nooks and crannies of government these days) for DoD.”

It completes that weird yin-yang thing from appointing a General head of the CIA (remember Gen. – why should a uniform and an oath stand in the way of fibbing to Congress – Hayden)

Bob “Scooter” Gates has a memory problem.

Accordingly, the evidence was clear that Gates’s statements concerning his initial awareness of the diversion were wrong: Kerr brought him the information from Allen over a month earlier than Gates admitted. This would have been material because it suggested that the CIA continued to support North’s activities without informing North’s superiors or investigating. By October, when Gates claimed he first remembered hearing of the diversion, Casey ordered an inquiry and later made a report to Poindexter; but, by then, the Hasenfus aircraft had been shot down and Casey and Gates were beginning to cover.

14 Kerr, FBI 302, 7/31/91, p. 5. Kerr admitted that he and Gates had reviewed the incident several times since. (Ibid.)

Gates’s defense was that he did not recall the Kerr meeting.

OTOH – if Congress blocks him, what if Bush names Leiberman? Then there’s the double screw of also losing the Senate majority.

Leiberman is a spoiled spoiler and Reid and Schumer own him as their problem.

GrandmaJ @ 197

Let me guess — Virginia has a republican Sec. of State who controls the machines. And now the machines are going backwards. And mysterious precincts are becoming uncounted.

Yup, they are messing with the machines. Webb should put people into all the meetings and watch them like a hawk. Pretty soon, Webb will be losing by big bunches. They really don’t want to lose Virginia.

Nope. Virginia voting is governed by the State Board of Elections, not the Secretary of State, and they’re appointed, not elected. Since we’ve had two Democratic governors in a row, no matter the length of their terms, they should all have been appointed by Democrats.

Trust me, they won’t let them mess with the machines. As egregious said, the only reason the percentage reporting went down is that they’re now including provisional ballots, which are only validated and counted if they might affect the result.

Keep calm, everyone.

Thanks, I’ll redeem the bus ticket soon.

DEMS…either get with it or get run over.

Again.

Okay gang, have another quick call and then I’m on my next flight. You guys play nice until I see you in the morning. And thanks mucho from me as well. We truly have the best damned community in the blogoverse.

Bon voyage, Christy. Way to go. (Dunno about playing nice, I’m feelin’ pretty frisky.)

MarcLord @
88

Hugh and scarecrow from a previous thread today:

To Baker, Israel has jumped the fence and is more part of the problem than the solution. So he will deal with Syria, and with Iran, and Olmert will be shaken up or shipped out. And as for the Kurds,

“U.S. building huge military airfield in Kurdish Iraq:”

http://www.informationclearing…..e15344.htm

Another aerial evacuation point/way to shorten the supply line until the main force leaves? Looking back before 2003, I think even a lot of the big oil folks (not Halliburton, but the actual oil men) did not agree with the idea that the best way to control Mid-East oil was by planting several American divisions on top of it.

As of the Vanity Fair pre-release, I think even Cheney could figure out he was in deep shit all of a sudden—didn’t he say something about not knowing in advance that all those neocons were dumping him like a prune overdose “changing their minds” about Iraq? Now with Rum being fired, Bechtel skying up, and moves that might lead to a much lighter force in Iraq, he must really have his cardiologist on speed-dial.

The cardiologist might just block his call.