portia at 89 — well, the first appointment was one that required no Congressional oversight or approval whatsoever. Not certain about the second one, but it may have been a recess appointment, just based on the timing of the announcement — does anyone remember for certain how he obtained the second position from Bush?

Does it have to pass through Congress for Democrats to raise some dust? Abrams has been sitting under the radar since 2001. WE knew he was there but what about the rest of the country? I know Iran-Contra was hard to follow for most Americans but if no one knows that one of the bad guys is back, nothing can be done to prevent any damage he might cause.
And what did our paragons of virtue say? Nothing.
Isn’t that one of the ways evil is supposed to flourish? When men of good will do nothing?

One more thing from the last thread that I need to throw in here (and I EPU’d it there)

The inquiry – “you do know this happened in Iraq, right?”

Everyone really needs to understand how little difference that makes. Unlike any other war, where there was a differentiation with respect to war zones, the powers claimed by this administration are worldwide and exist without regard to surroundings. The same powers to do what was done the the US citizen in Iraq have been claimed and EXERCISED here in this country, in Italy, in Macedonia, etc.

The “war” is everwhere under this administration’s approach. Everyone, everywhere is subject to the same treatment as the US detainee And if they had only thought to waterboard him and he had never had any contact with his fiance or she had not had any with members of Congress, he could have been very permanently declared to be an enemy combatant. Or if any Iraqi against whom he had turned evidence had thought to implicate him – or had been tortured to implicate him. After all, why shouldn’t he be declared to be an enemy combatant based on an Iraqi’s tortured to order statement? He would have had an acceptable CSRT hearing.

And that would get Judicial review – bc the MCA allows review of CSRTs. Of course, that judicial review is limited to deciding whether the CSRT tribunal followed its own rules – which allow “stress” statements or not. And oh yeah, someone would have to file for that review. Who? Why not a civilian lawyer, they can’t talk to anyone at GITMO now. The JAG lawyers – well, as Swift explained, they get orders to only speak to their client to get a guilty plea. And they are now GAGGED by military order against speaking about anything else.

Congress sure did a fine job.

Habeas, standing – they are all about the concept that we have a prosecutorial and justice system that steps in when people are being wronged and abused and does something about it. Individuals don’t get standing to enforce things like anti-torture provisions bc we have prosecutors who do that.

It’s a great end game when you can both solicit and coverup the crimes and then decide whether or not you will prosecute them.

Dred Scott Court – meet the MCA Congress. I’ll leave you alone, you obviously have a lot in common.

WooHoo Mary in da house! And in fine form to day.

Between you and Redd, i’m having a good time.

Is today’s news giving anyone else a raging headache today, or is it just me?

You’re obviously not the only one, Christy. I can’t believe Elliott Abrams is on TV again, and working for my government. Just thinking of him makes my blood pressure go up. I watched and listened to that smug, contemptuous AND contemptible, felonious b*****d for weeks during the Iran-Contra hearings, after which I had to establish a no-Republicans policy, for fear of dying in an apoplectic fit of rage. For years I haven’t listened to any Republican politicians talking on TV or radio (I rely heavily on the newspapers and the internet). It was really Elliott Abrams who put me over the edge, more than even Bush Sr or Reagan. The very fact that Abrams is allowed to work in government demonstrates that our system is beyond corrupt. Now I have to go drink some nice herbal tea and decompress or my head will explode with fury.

Again, we hear from every Republican this Post Mortem CPR policy of continuing to do the things we know won’t work – pounding on the patient’s chest long after the body has started to decompose — and hoping that by continuing to refer to the rotting body at our feet as a “patient” and not a “corpse” we will miraculously get different results.

Hee hee. Driftglass has one of his better days.

one of his better days? don’t get yer hyperbole all pumped up! he’s gone and set his hair on fire again! and he also says “one friedman” at times instead of “one friedman unit”. i like that in a man, or a woman or a transsexual of either persuasion for that matter.
driftglass is golden. case closed.

You’d think that there was a white woman missing on Mt. Hood.

That story is a powerful metaphor, if you but read between the lines a bit.

The “war” is everwhere under this administration’s approach. Everyone, everywhere is subject to the same treatment as the US detainee

That’s because BushCo has defined the War on Terror as stateless, traversing borders, and more or less without boundaries. The war theater is now a flat world (to misquote Friedman), an open field, gridless…