Sapere Aude!

Bush Ordered CIA to Spy on Juan Cole

The NYT reports:

WASHINGTON — A former senior C.I.A. official says that officials in the Bush White House sought damaging personal information on a prominent American critic of the Iraq war in order to discredit him.

Glenn L. Carle, a former Central Intelligence Agency officer who was a top counterterrorism official during the administration of President George W. Bush, said the White House at least twice asked intelligence officials to gather sensitive information on Juan Cole, a University of Michigan professor who writes an influential blog that criticized the war.

In an interview, Mr. Carle said his supervisor at the National Intelligence Council told him in 2005 that White House officials wanted “to get” Professor Cole, and made clear that he wanted Mr. Carle to collect information about him, an effort Mr. Carle rebuffed. Months later, Mr. Carle said, he confronted a C.I.A. official after learning of another attempt to collect information about Professor Cole. Mr. Carle said he contended at the time that such actions would have been unlawful.

It is not clear whether the White House received any damaging material about Professor Cole or whether the C.I.A. or other intelligence agencies ever provided any information or spied on him. Mr. Carle said that a memorandum written by his supervisor included derogatory details about Professor Cole, but that it may have been deleted before reaching the White House. Mr. Carle also said he did not know the origins of that information or who at the White House had requested it.

How come I'm not shocked.

Gitmo Files: A Few Bad Apples?

I recall a lot of people, er, my friends in the GOP, claiming that the problems at Gitmo were just the result of a few bad apples and claiming liberals were making a big deal out of nothing.

"The Lawyers Told Me It Was Legal"

George Bush is making the rounds promoting his new book. In this interview he discusses his decision to use waterboarding.

Bush's 'the lawyers told me it was legal' defense has renewed calls for investigating the Bush Administration.  Meanwhile, the Republicans are threatening to investigate the Obama Administration over health care.  It looks like there might be a showdown.

Stephen Colbert on the Expiring Bush Tax Cuts

The Colbert Report	Mon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c
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Andrew Napolitano on Bush/Cheney: "They Absolutely Should Have Been Indicted."

Andrew Napolitano - a Fox New contributor - commits Fox News blasphemy in this interview.

I wonder if that will cost him his gig at Faux News? 

Jon Stewart on Obama Blaming Bush, Bush Blaming Clinton

On lasts night's episode of The Daily Show, Jon Stewart took on the presidential blame game. As we all know, the Right is sooooo tired of Obama blaming everything on the Bush Administration. Queue Stewart.

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More Unemployment Talk from the Right

Rand Paul To Unemployed: Take a Pay Cut, Stop Asking For Handouts, And Get Back To Work (AUDIO).  Some of those folks are unemployed because of the sorts of economic policies the GOP favored over the last decade.  And, don't give me that "stop blaming Bush" line.  Bush owns the economic crisis so long as you pay attention to the facts.  Aside: I wonder if Rand Paul would accept a chicken as payment for services rendered?

Cheney on Bush and Public Sentiment

Dick does not seem to like Bush being in charge.

"When the president made decisions that I didn't agree with, I still supported him and didn't go out and undercut him," Cheney said, according to Stephen Hayes, his authorized biographer. "Now we're talking about after we've left office. I have strong feelings about what happened. ... And I don't have any reason not to forthrightly express those views."

According to the author of the Post piece, Barton Gellman, who earlier wrote a book on Cheney called "Angler," the former vice president believes Bush made concessions to public sentiment, something Cheney views as moral weakness. After years of praising Bush as a man of resolve, Cheney now intimates that the former president turned out to be more like an ordinary politician in the end, Gellman says.

"In the second term, he felt Bush was moving away from him," Gellman quoted a participant in the recent gathering, describing Cheney's reply. "He said Bush was shackled by the public reaction and the criticism he took. Bush was more malleable to that. The implication was that Bush had gone soft on him, or rather Bush had hardened against Cheney's advice. He'd showed an independence that Cheney didn't see coming."

So, he thinks that public officials should not really pay that much attention to the public?

Cheney on Bush and Public Sentiment

Dick does not seem to like Bush being in charge.

"When the president made decisions that I didn't agree with, I still supported him and didn't go out and undercut him," Cheney said, according to Stephen Hayes, his authorized biographer. "Now we're talking about after we've left office. I have strong feelings about what happened. ... And I don't have any reason not to forthrightly express those views."

According to the author of the Post piece, Barton Gellman, who earlier wrote a book on Cheney called "Angler," the former vice president believes Bush made concessions to public sentiment, something Cheney views as moral weakness. After years of praising Bush as a man of resolve, Cheney now intimates that the former president turned out to be more like an ordinary politician in the end, Gellman says.

"In the second term, he felt Bush was moving away from him," Gellman quoted a participant in the recent gathering, describing Cheney's reply. "He said Bush was shackled by the public reaction and the criticism he took. Bush was more malleable to that. The implication was that Bush had gone soft on him, or rather Bush had hardened against Cheney's advice. He'd showed an independence that Cheney didn't see coming."

So, he thinks that public officials should not really pay that much attention to the public?

Empathy and Judicial Activism: The Case of Justice Alito

Right-wingers that complain "empathy" is a code word for judicial activism should be rethinking their support of Sam Alito right about now.

(H/T: Salon.com).  Actually, I do not think right-wingers will be bothered by their cognitive dissonance on judicial empathy, I do not think they care about logical consistency.  They just want activist judges that will overturn Roe.