When I heard Ashcroft was resigning, like most of non-rightwing-extremist America, I was cheering. My friends and I thought that with Ashcroft out of office, maybe the Bush Administration would be something close to tolerable. None of us had heard of Alberto Gonzales, but the general concensus was that he couldn't possibly be as bad as Ashcroft.

We were wrong. I'd like to share with you all this portion of an article by Ted Rall:

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Gonzales is the author of the infamous August 2002 "Standards of Conduct for Interrogation under 18 U.S.C. 2340-2340A," a legal opinion issued while on his current job as White House Counsel. The 50-page "torture memo," which provides government interrogators justification to torture suspects in the war on terrorism, isn't just another memo. It's a benchmark position paper, a document that Administration figures from Bush and Rumsfeld down to CIA interrogators at Guantánamo and Abu Ghraib still rely upon to protect themselves from possible future prosecution for war crimes.

First and foremost, Gonzales argues for a definition of "torture" that omits the most commonly used tactics banned by the Geneva Conventions. (Gonzales calls Geneva as a "quaint" anachronism.) To qualify as torture, he writes, the agony "must be equivalent in intensity to the pain accompanying serious physical injury, such as organ failure, impairment of bodily function, or even death." Abuses previously banned by the Army--"pain induced by chemicals or bondage, forcing an individual to stand, sit or kneel in abnormal positions for prolonged periods of time, food deprivation, mock executions, sleep deprivation and chemically induced psychosis," according to The Washington Post--are now A-OK, according to Gonzales. As long as Bush orders it.

Even the extreme mistreatment Gonzales still calls "torture," says Gonzales, is permitted--up to and including the death of the victim. This is because a post-9/11 torturer "would be doing so in order to prevent further attacks on the United States by...Al Qaeda."

The military's judge advocate generals (JAGs), not known for squishy liberalism, say that Gonzales is nuts. "It's really unprecedented," says a senior military attorney. "For almost 30 years we've taught the Geneva Convention one way. Once you start telling people it's okay to break the law, there's no telling where they might stop."

Gonzales' torture memo has already cost the lives of innocent--i.e., never convicted, never charged and likely totally unconnected to terrorism--detainees. Two Afghan detainees died in U.S. custody at Bagram airbase in Afghanistan during the same week of December 2002; though their deaths were ruled homicides, no one has been charged. In April 2004, a captured Iraqi general was murdered by "blunt force trauma to the torso and positional asphyxia." The Pentagon says that there have been at least 127 homicides of POW detainees.

Taking his cue from the Nazis' "führer principle," Gonzales posits that Bush, by virtue of his "commander-in-chief authority," can authorize torture. But American law doesn't include any such concept.

Thanks to the Democratic wimps in Congress, this pseudointellectual monster is coasting to confirmation. Noting that as a Texas judge he once "let a teenager get an abortion without her parents' knowledge," the New York Times' liberal editorial page signaled that it is resigned to Gonzales' ascension to the top gig at Justice. The Bushies shrewdly calculated that Democrats wouldn't want to be seen blocking the nomination of a Hispanic. Again demonstrating the bankruptcy of identity politics, traditionally progressive Latino groups are pleased as punch that one of their own--albeit a psychopath--has gotten the nod. "This is probably the most meaningful nomination ever for the Latino population," said Brent A. Wilkes of the League of United Latin American Citizens.

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I go through horror novels at a fast rate, and this is the scariest thing I've read in months. Quite contrary to his promise to "reach across the party lines", the first thing Bush does after winning a second term is appoints this guy to be our Attorney General.

I love you Celtic.

hehehe . . . .

Don't panic, we're just Hispanic.

I felt the need to say that, I am sorry for any inconvenience.

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Experience was definitely considered when Bush was making his choices. Unfortunately, so was certainty that the potential member would go along with Bush's plans. After all, who needs moderates now that they have a significant Congress majority?

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Well I had hoped that Bush would have realized his err in the last administration and would have tried to work for the people, I dont care if he appoints conservatives to his cabinet, It's his perogative after all, But leave the fundamentalists at home.

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Originally posted by redrepublican:
im sure youd be scared of anyone Bush appoints. i thought i might acorss a board like this from ne of you guys.

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You guessed it, red: I'm really only bothered by him because Bush appointed him. The relaxed torture rules that completely disregard the Geneva Convention and will undoubtedly reaffirm the terrorist's and potential terrorist's belief that we are the truly barbaric ones is just so much arbitrary fluff. Just to fully eliminate any doubt, I'll also admit that I disagree with severe torture not because of any sense of decency I possess, but simply because Bush believes it is necessary in this war.



Your pseudo-psychology amuses me, red.

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Originally posted by Hydrok:
By loyalty above all else I mean that, GWB has not picked his new cabinet based on experience in any given field

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Experience was definitely considered when Bush was making his choices. Unfortunately, so was certainty that the potential member would go along with Bush's plans. After all, who needs moderates now that they have a significant Congress majority?

By loyalty above all else I mean that, GWB has not picked his new cabinet based on experience in any given field... He has used trusted aids to fill vacancies, No who will become the new Homeland Security Director, now that Tom Ridge is gone? Aaaahhhnold?

im sure youd be scared of anyone Bush appoints. i thought i might acorss a board like this from ne of you guys.

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Originally posted by Hydrok:
Loyalty above all else

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And by this you mean...?

Loyalty above all else

At least we now know why Bush selected him.