Remember this article from May, 2004?
…One key advantage of declaring that Taliban and Al Qaeda fighters did not have Geneva Convention protections is that it “substantially reduces the threat of domestic criminal prosecution under the War Crimes Act,” Gonzales wrote.
“It is difficult to predict the motives of prosecutors and independent counsels who may in the future decide to pursue unwarranted charges based on Section 2441 [the War Crimes Act],” Gonzales wrote.
“Your determination would create a reasonable basis in law that (the War Crimes Act) does not apply which would provide a solid defense to any future prosecution,” Gonzales wrote.
The memo—and strong dissents by Secretary of State Colin Powell and his chief legal advisor, William Howard Taft IV—are among hundreds of pages of internal administration documents on the Geneva Convention and related issues that have been obtained by NEWSWEEK and are reported for the first time in this week’s magazine.
In the annals of American history I’m not sure we’ve ever before seen a memo telling the President how to avoid the death penalty.
What’s more important, abortion rights, or standing up to this outrage?
Take the poll:
…but don’t have much hope that our clueless preznit will be smart enough to avoid more of the partisan wrangling over his endless enthusiasm for forcing his extremist agenda down the throats of the American people — even though it IS such a factor in his growing unpopularity.
Dear Batshit Loopy President:
If you want less people to feel like killing you, try nominating a sane person to replace Justice O’Connor. But, then again, why do that when you can continue to paralyze the U.S. government while you inject your lethal toxins, plus keep issues like your eligibility for the death penalty under American law off the front pages?
Choices, choices!
Is the second choice supposed to be:
that our next Supreme Court judge opposes torture?
Because I think that even if Abu gets onto the SCOTUS, they’ll still be 8-1 against torture on the whole.
I should have had the word ‘judge’ in both lines.
otherwise it makes it a lot easier to answer since the 2nd isn’t really possible with one or two new judges.
7-2, Thomas has already come out for a very limited reading of cruel and unusual.
That poll is too hard. Give us an easier one.
it’s supposed to be an impossible poll. That’s kinda my point.
Uh oh. I just read an article that research has shown that people who have frontal lobe damage can’t detect sarcasm and irony!
But if you drink fruit or veggie juices more than 3 times a week you’re risk of Alzeimer’s is reduced 75%!
Think I’ll make myself a Mimosa…Ha!
What site is this again?
I want the next Supreme Court Justice to affirm that the preservation and expansion of human liberty and autonomy are the highest purpose of our legal system.
I think that covers BOTH of your options.
Isn’t it just insane that we the American people should even have to have this discussion? There are days I wonder if I will ever wake up from this nightmare?
I want a judge who believes the government should keep their mitts off everyone’s body — are there any of those any more?
What a great poll. It truly indicates how ridiculous the triangulation strategy is with our current opponents.
thanks for a sad reminder.
Anyone considering Gonzales as better of evils should read this first.
Oy. When am I going to wake up and find out this was all just a bad dream, or a bad horror flick?
I can’t believe I’m saying this, but I am starting to think seriously about becoming an expatriate…
I know that anyone Bush picks will be 10x worse than we could ever dream…it’s the only thing W excels at.
I did not not vote because it is a false choice we are being offered here. Gonzales is likely to vote against a woman’s right to privacy with respect to her reproductive choices imo. I don’t buy the meme that he will save Roe from the Christian Reconstructionists. A man with morals this low, who sucks up to power the way he does, will always vote to diminsih personal freedoms.