Micromanaging torture from the White House basement (and the Texas connection)

There's no blaring headline in the Washington Post online about this story. Nothing even very significant that I can find from the source, ABC News, on their website. There is a story there, however about how "absolutely appalling" Dick Cheney thinks Rev. Wright's comments were.

(In the comparison between waterboarding and a minister's sermon quoting US Ambassador -- to Iraq, no less -- Edward Peck as saying the United States had abandoned its moral authority, I would have to say that Cheney's judgment is again demonstrated to be as full of shit as his cold, dark heart.)

Top Bush aides, including Vice President Cheney, micromanaged the torture of terrorist suspects from the White House basement, according to an ABC News report aired last night.

Discussions were so detailed, ABC's sources said, that some interrogation sessions were virtually choreographed by a White House advisory group. In addition to Cheney, the group included then-national security adviser Condoleezza Rice, then-defense secretary Donald Rumsfeld, then-secretary of state Colin Powell, then-CIA director George Tenet and then-attorney general John Ashcroft.

At least one member of the club had some qualms. ABC reports that Ashcroft "was troubled by the discussions. He agreed with the general policy decision to allow aggressive tactics and had repeatedly advised that they were legal. But he argued that senior White House advisers should not be involved in the grim details of interrogations, sources said.

"According to a top official, Ashcroft asked aloud after one meeting: 'Why are we talking about this in the White House? History will not judge this kindly.'"

Here's the video of last night's report by Jan Crawford Greenburg and a text version by Greenburg, Howard L. Rosenberg and Ariane de Vogue.

They write: "Highly placed sources said a handful of top advisers signed off on how the CIA would interrogate top al Qaeda suspects -- whether they would be slapped, pushed, deprived of sleep or subjected to simulated drowning, called waterboarding...."

"As the national security adviser, Rice chaired the meetings, which took place in the White House Situation Room."

Ashcroft again, the only member of the Bush adminstration with half a conscience.

So let's review: waterboarding is torture, and torture is a war crime under the Geneva Conventions (once described as "quaint" by Alberto Gonzales). The reason the US and several other countries agreed to be bound by the terms of Geneva way back when was so that our own soldiers captured as prisoners of war would never be subjected to such treatment.

And the reason why phrases such as "enhanced interrogation techniques" and "enemy combatants" were devised by the corporate marketing wizards running the nation's foreign policy was for no better reason than to attempt to evade prosecution as war criminals.

And so that we never forget that the roots of Bush administration evil can almost always be traced back to our beloved Lone Star State, James Ho -- who together with John Yoo wrote the original DOJ memo outlining the legal justification of torture -- has recently been named the solicitor general of Texas by Attorney General Greg Abbott.

Electoral disaster for the GOP

Somewhere back there I mentioned something about this. Here's a map.

Let's be charitable and give John McBush several states he probably won't win, like Pennsylvania for example. It's still nothing but gloom. Take away Ohio and give to the GOP (not at all likely they can get PA and OH both, not even with a terrorist attack a week before Election Day). It's still gloomy.

Think the economy is going to be improving by November? How about Iraq? Will health care be on the minds of many voters? McSame is wrong on all three issues.

I don't think McLame can run with God as his vice-president and get elected, frankly.

<p><strong>><a href='http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/politics/interactives/campaign08/electoral-college/'>Electoral College Prediction Map</a></strong> - Predict the winner of the general election. Use the map to experiment with winning combinations of states. Save your prediction and send it to friends.</p>

Baseball and cancer.

(Taxes are all but done, every deal I think I'm going to close ahead of the 15th is probably closed, shoulder's feeling better ... back to the blog. I never got around to writing anything about the NCAA tournament; my bracket had North Carolina over Texas anyway. I didn't think Kansas could beat Memphis either. So ... there's a new baseball season underway. Here's a great story about Doug Davis, the Arizona Diamondbacks pitcher currently undergoing treatment for thyroid cancer.)

Doug Davis arrived Tuesday afternoon with his cap on backward and sunglasses clamped to the back of his neck, saying a couple hellos to the boys in the lockers nearby, the usual routine.

Just before game time, he walked the length of the dugout, a white towel draped over his left shoulder, touching hands with every teammate, the usual routine.

He loped across the field – one long hop over the foul line – to the mound, the usual routine.

He looped a curveball for a strike to Rafael Furcal, the usual routine.

He struck out a couple in the first, got a bunt down in the second, drove in a run in the third, singled again in the fifth, and took a shutout into the sixth.

All routine (except for the hits). All, just baseball.

And now Doug Davis will go try to rid his body of the cancer.

Davis, who will undergo surgery to remove his cancerous thyroid Thursday, said good-bye for a month or more with six strong innings, a pump of his fist, a tight-lipped nod of his head and a wave of his cap.

The people here wished him luck with a standing ovation and a request for a curtain call, which Davis – appreciative of the gesture, regretting the circumstances – granted.

He is 32 years old. A family history of thyroid cancer found him a couple weeks ago. And in the seventh inning, his baseball done for a while and the rigors of surgery and extended treatment and some yet unanswered questions waiting, Davis sat on the bench and massaged his throat right about where they found the lump, and where the surgeon will cut.

More.

The Weekly Wrangle

Be sure and vote in tomorrow's run-off election (if you haven't voted early already).

Matt Glazer of Burnt Orange Report writes about how the TexBlog PAC shattered expectations to raise $3782.09 from 106 donors over the past week, putting the PAC in position to make a $5,000 donation to a Texas House candidate before the end of summer.

Refinish69 of Doing My Part For The Left gets election fever and decides to throw his hat in the ring in Elections 2008- Yet Another One.

Off the Kuff takes a look at where the early vote came from in the GOP runoff and hazarded a guess about what it might mean for the candidates.

The civil rights movement effected us all and continues to do so today. Over at Texas Kaos they're remembering the impact of Dr. Martin Luther King -- in ways both large and small.

Corn? Soy beans? Those are for eatin'! The Texas Cloverleaf looks at the next best Texas biodiesel crop-- algae!

XicanoPwr reports on Texas' Child Protective Services (CPS) removal of 183 young women, girls and boys, ages 6 months to 17 years, from the Fundamentalist LDS Church's compound near Eldorado.

Pete Olson, a Texas CD 22 candidate has elevated Hal's blog to that of a "prominent local Democrat blogger" In That's MISTER Half Empty, Bub, we get Hal's take on that.

WCNews at Eye On Williamson has the latest on a new GOP scheme to finance toll roads around the state in Sen. Ogden Wants To Gamble With Your Money.

John Coby of Bay Area Houston comments on the high cost of being a Republican.

McBlogger takes a look at a certain court case involving some SoftSoap and a naughty child.

Stace Medellin of DosCentavos writes about Harry Reid's statement on Cesar Chavez's birthday. Reid gave the strongest response among Democrats and pointed to GOP obstructionist tactics regarding various issues affecting Latino Americans.

The Seventh Congressional District of Texas draws national attention and PDiddie at Brains and Eggs has the linkage in Skelly Goes National.

Vince at Capitol Annex tells us that the recent uproar involving a criminal complaint filed over a blog is a wake-up call for bloggers' rights.

CouldBeTrue over at South Texas Chisme wants to be shocked that Michael Chertoff decided to bypass all laws to build that d*mn fence! Republican arrogance and incompetence knows no bounds!

Sunday Evening Funnies

Conservative presidential political developments

Bob Barr, Libertarian:

Former Georgia Congressman Bob Barr eased into presidential politics Saturday with an announcement that he has formed an exploratory committee to gauge voter interest in his candidacy as Libertarian.

If there are "sufficient numbers" of people behind a Bob Barr presidential race, he's running, the former Republican said.

His announcement brought whoops and applause from the audience of 130 Libertarians, mostly from Midwestern states.

"We are at a tipping point," Barr said, "in terms of the willingness of voters, in significant numbers, to consider alternatives to the major [political] parties."

Barr conceded it was unlikely he could win, but he said his potential candidacy would be an opportunity to preach the Libertarian philosophy.

"I don't think any past performance by a Libertarian candidate is any benchmark," he said. "Are my expectations that the Libertarian candidate will win [the White House]? No. But with a credible candidate, anything is possible."

Barr does McCain considerably more damage than Nader could possibly be to Obama. Word also today of KindaSleazy Rice's interest in "running" for vice-president:

U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has exhibited interest in becoming John McCain's vice presidential running mate, a Republican strategist says.

Dan Senor revealed during Sunday's edition of ABC's "This Week with George Stephanopoulos" that Rice has been seeking support to be considered for the No. 2 spot on the Republican ticket this fall.

"Condi Rice has been actively, actually in recent weeks, campaigning for this," Senor said.

Absolutely fantastic news if he picks her. There would be no escaping the "four more years of Bush" label. And since McSame is so absurdly wrong on the three most important November issues -- Iraq, health care and the economy -- the Republicans' electoral disaster looms larger each passing day.

Now if we can just get Mrs. Clinton to hurry up and take a hint ...

Sunday Funnies (liar, liar, sniper fire)

Charlton Heston 1924 - 2008

Once a progressive:

Heston was always able to channel some energies into the public arena. He was an active supporter of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., calling him "a 20th-century Moses for his people," and participated in the historic march on Washington in 1963. (Right), he joined civil rights protesters picketing a whites-only restaurant in Oklahoma City in 1961.

Ben-Hur was released fifty years ago and won eleven Oscars (a record, now tied by Titanic and and the third film in the LOTR trilogy, The Return of the King). Heston also won the heart of every woman of my mother's generation. My mother-in-law in particular occasionally mentioned his name in a tone approaching lust.

He had many script lines chiseled into popular culture but for my generation his signature will be "Take your stinking paws off me, you damned dirty ape".

His evolution into a conservative nearly overshadowed his considerable body of cinematic work, and his virulent gun-rights activism toward the end of his life -- as well as his creeping Alzheimer's -- was laid bare by Michael Moore in Bowling for Columbine.

Heston was a stellar actor and and an enthusiastic political activist on both sides of the political spectrum. He will always be a mythic figure, and to some a reverential one.

In the name of love

Early morning, April 4

Shot rings out in the Memphis sky

Free at last, they took your life

They could not take your pride

In the name of love

What more in the name of love



Forty years ago, Dr. King was assassinated by a sniper named James Earl Ray* while standing on the balcony of the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tennessee. He was there to support a strike by the garbage workers in that city. You may hear that in the stories of remembrance told today in the media.

However you will probably not hear what started the strike. It was not started over wages, vacation pay, work hours, or anything resembling benefits. The strike resulted from the deaths of two sanitation workers.

In February of 1968 two men named Echol Cole and Robert Walker were crushed to death in the back of a garbage truck. They had taken refuge in the compactor section, the gaping mouth in the back that eats the garbage poured into it, and via a hydraulic ram compacts the trash into the truck. On that day, as they collected the refuse of Memphis, there came a heavy rain storm.

Which is why they crawled into the loader/compactor section. While they were there, the ram was activated by electronic malfunction and the two men were crushed to death. The city paid the families one month's pay plus $500. Not one official from the city attended either of the men's funerals.

Cole and Walker were black, like nearly everyone else working in sanitation -- except the white bosses. Memphis assigned garbage collection to blacks only and relied on cheap wages and the dictatorial rule of white supervisors to win its awards as one of the nation’s cleanest cities.

The strike among the black sanitation workers of Memphis arose out of their attempts to organize a labor union, which the mayor and the city council fiercely resisted. Unionization, they feared, would open up the floodgates of demands by African-Americans, who comprised nearly 40 percent of the local population of 500,000 in the mid-1960s.

In fact, no one needed unions more than black workers in Memphis. The constant threat of getting fired forced them to take what the white man dished out. Segregation denied them adequate education, training, and promotions. They routinely endured police brutality and unjust incarceration. The strike of black sanitation workers in 1968 thus embodied a larger struggle for the human rights of all black workers in their community.

That is why King was in Memphis. Yes there was a strike, but it was the result of the utter disregard for the dignity of human beings, either in life or in death.

That was segregation in this country. It was vicious, it was vile, and it was obscene. It cost many people their self-respect. And it cost some their lives.

Let's not whitewash that fact, today or any other.

In other news, 76% of Americans believe it is time for a black President. Personally, I think it's long overdue.

*Allegedly.

Skelly goes national

Politico:

Democrats have been increasingly bullish about their ability to win over suburban, ancestrally Republican House districts that have been trending in their party’s direction over the past decade.

But their party’s latest target shows just how confident Democrats have become. Democrats are eyeing one of the most reliably Republican seats in the heart of Texas — Rep. John Culberson’s suburban Houston district, once held by President Bush’s father — and have a candidate who is causing a stir due to his prolific fundraising.

Businessman Michael Skelly is positioned to be at the top of the Democratic fundraising list for the year’s first quarter, according to a Democratic operative, raising about $750,000 from individual donors without even tapping into his substantial personal wealth. Another Democratic operative said it could be the “best first quarter ever” for any House Democrat in his first filing period.

Daily Kos:

Texas' 7th District has historically been forbidden territory for Democrats, dating back to the 1960s when the suburban Houston district was first so numbered. It is the old district of former President George H.W. Bush, and was represented by conservative Republican Bill Archer for 30 years prior to the election of its current Republican representative, John Culberson. In other words, this has been a Republican district since the days when Democrats ruled Texas.

The district voted for President Bush by a margin of 64% to 36% in 2004, and sports a PVI of R+15.6. It is actually currently quite a bit more Democratic than it was in the '90s, when it was the third-most Republican district in the nation (this was due to clever gerrymandering by the then-Democratic majority in Texas).

Redistricting and a slight Democratic trend have made the district a bit friendlier to Democrats. Culberson received 59% of the vote in 2006 against an underfunded Democrat, not an especially impressive performance given TX-07's crimson hue. Still, this would be one of the last places where you'd expect an exceptionally strong Democratic challenge.

This year, you would be mistaken, as businessman Michael Skelly has managed to raise unprecedented amounts of money in preparation for the first serious run at this district in decades.

Those are the leads, but the real meat is deep within each article. Politico again:

Democrats, though, believe Culberson’s vulnerability stems from his hewing to conservative principles that they believe are out of touch with his district.

“What you’re seeing right now is educated suburban voters leaving the Republican Party because it’s not what they signed up for — and we’re open to give them an opportunity,” said (Skelly campaign manager Bill) Kelly.

Texas Democrats point to a state legislative race within the district, where a Democratic state legislator unseated a two-term Republican by 10 points. And they are encouraged by the roughly 88,000 districtwide Democrats (out of 410,000 registered voters) who participated in the Democratic presidential primary in March, with one Democratic operative calling the voter information a “gold mine.”

“The information we got from the primary, there is no other way we get that information. I can’t even put a financial figure on it,” said the operative.

And back to brownsox at Kos:

Skelly was born in Ireland, and immigrated to the U.S. at the age of two. He graduated from Notre Dame and Harvard Business School, served in the Peace Corps, and subsequently worked in ecotourism in Costa Rica. He made his money in the energy industry, like a lot of Texas millionaires...although Skelly did so as a top executive for a wind energy developer, now the third largest in the United States.

Does he have a shot? TX-07 is still an incredibly difficult district for Democrats to win. Only three redder districts in the country are represented by Democrats (the districts of Gene Taylor in MS-04, Chet Edwards in TX-17, and Jim Matheson in UT-02).

Still, there is some hope. Republican redistricting brought several Houston suburbs into the district which are generally wealthy and fiscally conservative, but not necessarily doctrinaire Republican. This includes Skelly's hometown of West University Place, where Democrat Ellen Cohen defeated Republican incumbent Martha Wong in her 2006 State House race. As previously mentioned, Culberson's margin of victory in 2006 was large, but not overwhelming, and he has shown signs of weakness ...

Bill Kelly ran Ellen Cohen's race, and also Houston city councilman Peter Brown's and mayor Bill Whte's before that. He is as good as they come. The polling numbers are eerily similar to the Cohen-Wong matchup in 2006 at the same stage of the game.

This is my district, my neighborhood. As you can see by the numbers above, my 'hood turned out like never before for the primary voting and both the precinct and Senate district conventions. We're energized and motivated to replace Republicans, particularly Tom DeLay's old cabana boy.

Whatever happens in the presidential contest, this will be a race I am personally invested in, online and off.

Update: Booman adds a point about how this figures into the presidential campaign:

The long and competitive primary on the Democratic side is going to prove extremely valuable for the Get Out the Vote effort this November, and it will also provide a wealth of data on a county-by-county basis for the Democratic nominee. Barack Obama will be able to see exactly where he is strong and weak in every state, while John McCain will be flying blind in most of them.

The Co-Cathedral of the Sacred Heart

If you can't be downtown at noon today but you're able to tune in KTRK, they will be pre-empting the soaps and televising the dedication of Houston's new temple:

Roman Catholic leaders from across the country and the Vatican, including six cardinals, will gather today for a pageant of color, music and ritual to dedicate the new Co-Cathedral of the Sacred Heart in downtown Houston.

The ceremony will begin with a 30-minute procession of more than 200 deacons and 300 priests and bishops.

It's precisely the kind of event the $49 million co-cathedral was constructed to accommodate.

"In sign and symbol, the whole church is here," said Cardinal Daniel N. DiNardo of the Archdiocese of Galveston-Houston. "We can boast in Houston ... people of every nation here. I think we will see a multiplicity of ethnic groups and nations in the people who come."

Though the official opening is today, the pews of the co-cathedral were nearly filled Tuesday for an evening prayer service led by retired Auxiliary Bishop Vincent M. Rizzotto.

For some in the crowd, the vespers service was a first look at the inside of the co-cathedral after more than a decade of planning, fundraising, designing and building.

"There really are no words to describe it," said Elizabeth Gonzalez of Houston, who came with her husband, René. "It is peaceful. It is just beautiful. The pictures online don't do it justice."

That's saying a lot, because the pictures online (scroll down, on the left) nearly popped my eyeballs out of my skull. Make sure you go all the way to the end for the history of the Catholic church in Houston dating back to 1876.

Update (4/3): Here's the schedule for services and tours.

The final season for Yankee Stadium

Tradition is in transition, and maybe it’s maudlin to suggest tears. From Babe Ruth, thick and salty. From Joe DiMaggio, discreet and pure. From Mickey Mantle, carrying the heady stench of the night before.

Rain splattered onto Yankee Stadium for a second day, and again the 39th and last season opener here since 1923 was in jeopardy. OK, it’s sappy to suggest the guys in pinstriped paradise might have been responsible.

Yet even as the sellout crowd of 55,112 cheered the clouds away and the Yankees defeated the Toronto Blue Jays 3-2 Tuesday night, memories were inescapable. Even as construction crews finished up a day’s work next door on the nearly completed $1.3 billion new Yankee Stadium, melancholy was the pervasive theme.

“It’s what, 100 yards away? It’s not too far for the ghosts to go,” shortstop Derek Jeter said. “It will be up to us as players to start a new tradition at the next place.”

My wife wants to get me up there for a game this season for my 5oth birthday, but I made sure to emphasize that I would be fine just taking a tour of the old ballpark. I'm not as big a fan of the Bombers as Kuffner, but I've been to their spring training home in Tampa, which is a carbon copy of Yankee Stadium field-wise (right down to the sprinkler heads in the outfield). Billy Crystal's "61*" gave me a real sense of that '60's-era team, and when the comedian got an at-bat this spring I'm sure it completed the circle for him.

The Mets are getting a new playpen next season also, leaving Shea behind. Haven't heard if my fried Lyn, a fanatic of the Metropolitans, is going to go once more or not.