"...the pleasure of the President" ?!

So the Republican "talking-point" attempting to stem the tide of public outrage about the political firings of the Attorneys General is that they "serve at the pleasure of the President". Not only is that incorrect, it is treasonous.

The Attorneys General, like all constitutional officers, are sworn to defend the constitution - not to defend the President, or Karl Rove, or Alberto Gonzales, or Randall Duke Cunningham, or Tom Delay, or "Kenny boy" Lay, or Mark Foley, or Jack Abramoff, or the Republican Party. In other words, they serve us - the people - not the President. This is precisely what is meant by "a government of laws, not of men". And no man is above the law.

On no other issue - not even the policies of torture, and rampant spying - have the neoconservatives made their contempt for the rule of law, and for the citizens of this democracy, more overt than this. Unless you are among the very few who are glad to see the entire apparatus of American Justice subverted and used as a weapon against "enemies" of the Ruling Party, the time to resist is NOW.

Impeach!

Ignorance is No Defense

According to a new AP-Ipsos poll, our fellow American citizens "woefully underestimate" the number of Iraqi civilians who have been killed in the war. The average BELIEF among those polled as to how many Iraqis have died was LESS THAN 10 THOUSAND.

Folks that's FIVE TIMES LESS than what GEORGE BUSH guesstimated the Iraqi death toll to be, and 60 TIMES LESS than the most comprehensive study, by The Lancet, has reported !

There's only two ways to explain this phenomenon:
1.) a coordinated disinformation campaign by our government and the media.
2.) sheer willful ignorance by our fellow citizens.

...talk about your "inconvenient truths"!

Is Torture U.S. Policy?

The photos from Abu Ghraib show absolutely consistent torture techniques: hooding, forced nakedness and sexual humiliation (especially homo-sexual), underware over the head, stress positions, dogs. Over and over again the same techniques across hundreds of photos.

If this were the work of "animal house" soldiers cutting loose on "the night shift", as the Sect. of Defense Rumsfeld has claimed, then how do we explain their disciplined use of consistent techniques? A frat party attitude would certainly lead to broader hodge-podge of hazing-style hijinks.

You can see from those photos themselves that that those torturers were carrying out a POLICY.