ThinkFast: May 15, 2008
ThinkFast: May 15, 2008
Solicitor General Paul Clement, “the government’s voice at the Supreme Court, resigned Wednesday, a sign that the Bush administration’s legal agenda is fading as it prepares to wind down.” Clement served the entirety of the Bush administration in the solicitor general’s office, pushing a legal agenda that included issues such as limiting abortion rights and increasing executive powers.
Since 2002, the U.S. has “detained approximately 2,500 people younger than 18 as illegal enemy combatants in Iraq, Afghanistan and Guantanamo Bay,” according to a report filed by the Bush administration with the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child. Though roughly 2,400 of the underage detainees were captured in Iraq after the U.S. invasion, only about 500 of them still remain in custody.
As part of an overall effort to “boost benefits for service members and veterans,” the House Armed Services Committee approved a defense spending authorization bill early on Thursday that includes “a 3.9 percent pay raise for troops” and “a prohibition on increased health care fees” — benefits that are “more than President Bush wants.”
The California Supreme Court will today “rule on a series of lawsuits seeking to overturn a voter-approved law that defines marriage as a union between a man and a woman. If the court rules in favor of the plaintiffs, California could become the second state after Massachusetts where gay and lesbian residents can marry.”
At a meeting of the Academy of American Diplomacy yesterday, Defense Secretary Robert Gates said that the U.S. should engage Iran with “a combination of incentives and pressure.” We need to figure out a way to develop some leverage . . . and then sit down and talk with them,” Gates said. He added that the U.S. “can’t go to a discussion and be completely the demander.”
According to an “unprecedented study” by experts that included members of the UN’s intergovernmental panel on climate change (IPCC), “[g]lobal warming is disrupting wildlife and the environment on every continent.” The experts found that “at least” 90 percent “of environmental damage and disruption around the world could be explained by rising temperatures driven by human activity.”
According to AAA, “Alaska has become the first state” where gas prices are averaging more than $4 a gallon. On Wednesday, regular gasoline averaged $4.006 a gallon, up from $3.983 the day before. Nationwide, gas prices have risen about 67 cents since the end of December.
Leading legal defense groups yesterday of accused the Bush administration “foot-dragging on security clearances that would let civilian lawyers help their military counterparts defend the alleged plotters of the Sept. 11 attacks at Guantanamo.” According to the ACLU, none of the eight lawyers who applied for clearances in recent months have been approved.
McCain claims that that eliminating the Alternative Minimum Tax would save “more than 25 million middle-class families more than $2,000 every year.” “But McCain’s ‘middle class’ includes families making up to $200,000 per year,” according to Factcheck.org. “Those earning more money will see the lion’s share of the savings. McCain also leaves out the fact that the proposal could cost as much as $1.6 trillion over 10 years.”
And finally: A candidate for Senate moves mountains. Bob Schaffer, Republican candidate for Senate in Colorado, launched his campaign yesterday with an ad proclaiming, “Colorado is my life.” The snow-capped mountain appearing in the background, however, is a photo of Mt. McKinley, which is North America’s highest peak — and which sits in Alaska, not Colorado. Campaign manager Dick Wadhams insisted, “The message is still good.”
What did we miss? Let us know in the comments section.
Topic Cloud
ArchivesBlog Roll
School Military Recruiting Could Violate International Protocol
Pressed by the demands of the “global war on terrorism”, the United States is violating an international protocol that forbids the recruitment of children under the age of 18 for military service, according to a new report released Tuesday by a major civil rights group that charged that recruitment practices target children as young as 11 years old.
The 46-page report, “Soldiers of Misfortune“, which was prepared by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) for submission to the U.N. Committee on the Rights of the Child, also found that the U.S. military disproportionately targets poor and minority public school students.
The report, which also detailed Washington’s failure to protect foreign child soldiers being held by U.S. forces at the Guantanamo Bay detention facility and elsewhere around the world as part of its submission to the U.N. Committee on the Rights of the Child, assesses Washington’s compliance with the Optional Protocol on the Involvement of Children in Armed Conflict.
While the United States is one of only two countries — the other being Somalia — to have never ratified the Convention on the Rights of the Child, the U.S. Senate ratified the Protocol in 2002, making it binding under U.S., as well as international, law. Unlike most other industrialised countries that set their minimum recruitment age at 18, the Senate decided on 17 as the absolute minimum for the United States.
According to the ACLU report, however, the U.S. armed services “regularly target children under 17 for military recruitment, heavily recruiting on high school campuses, in school lunchrooms, and in classes.”
http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2008/05/14/8935/
May 15th, 2008 at 9:01 amI would have thought our American Leaders would have learned something from history. These recruiters are invading our schools all across the country. In 2005, there were nearly 300,000 JROTC cadets wearing military uniforms and performing drills. I believe in a strong military, but this is going way too far. One solution is to take the profit out of war, if only that were possible.
85% of Americans Want a Presidential Debate on Science
A new poll (charts, pdf, 3.1mb) shows that 85% of U.S. adults agree that the presidential candidates should participate in a debate on how science can be used to tackle America’s major challenges. The poll found no difference between Democrats and Republicans on this question. A majority (84%) also agree that scientific innovations are improving our standard of living.
Among the most serious long-term issues facing the country, 76% rate health care the most serious, followed by alternative energy sources (69%), education (67%) and national security (61%). Issues also considered serious by a majority of U.S. adults include global economic competition (55%), poverty (53%) and climate change (53%).
Other findings highlight a desire for public policy to be based on scientific evidence:
• 67% say that public policies should be influenced more by scientific evidence than by elected officials’ personal beliefs.
• 83% of U.S. adults – 88% of Democrats and 80% of Republicans – say it is important that the candidates talk about how science and scientific research will affect their policy-making decisions if they are elected.
• Only 19% say it is acceptable for elected officials to hold back or alter scientific reports if they conflict with their own views – 16% of Republicans and 21% of Democrats.
http://www.sciencedebate2008.com/www/index.php?id=32
It would be nice if we could just have a “real debate” for once.
Edwards endorses Obama
Democrat John Edwards endorsed former rival Barack Obama on Wednesday, a move designed to help solidify support for the party’s likely presidential nominee even as Hillary Rodham Clinton refuses to give up her long-shot candidacy.
Edwards has 18 pledged delegates.
Even if all of those people voted for Obama, and there’s no guarantee they would, it wouldn’t quite give Obama a majority in pledged delegates, but it would get him close. Edwards’ people are really loyal and might not vote for Obama or Hillary or whoever — even if Edwards tells them to.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/05/14/john-edwards-endorsing-ob_n_101749.html
May 15th, 2008 at 9:04 amAt a meeting of the Academy of American Diplomacy yesterday, Defense Secretary Robert Gates said that the U.S. should engage Iran
Tomorrow Mr. Gates will be speaking at the international warmongers conference, where he’ll be advocating bombing the hell out of Iran..,
May 15th, 2008 at 9:06 amSo gg finalyy abandons the rodent disguise?
May 15th, 2008 at 9:06 amDid everyone see Keith Olbermann’s Special Comment last night? BEST EVER!
Video and transcript here:
May 15th, 2008 at 9:08 amhttp://www.crooksandliars.com/2008/05/14/countdown-special-comment-to-president-bush-shut-the-hell-up/
Police Are ‘Brainwashed’ by Taser Maker; Psychologist Blames Instructions
A police psychologist blasted Taser International at the public inquiry probing the controversial use of Tasers, claiming Tuesday that Canadian police have been “brainwashed” by the manufacturer to justify “ridiculously inappropriate” use of the electronic weapon.
“It may be that police and medical examiners are using the term [excited delirium] as a convenient excuse for what could be excessive use of force or inappropriate control techniques during an arrest,” Webster said.
“My own opinion on this is that Canadian law enforcement, and its American brothers and sisters, have been brainwashed by companies like Taser International and the Institute for the Prevention of In-custody Deaths,” he added.
He specifically mentioned the case of Frank Lasser, an 82-year-old Kamloops man who was delirious in his hospital bed after heart bypass surgery last week when he produced a pocket knife and an RCMP officer gave him several jolts with a Taser.
http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2008/05/14/8958/
This is how bad it has become in my neck of the woods. Taser International is going after medical examiners. A Summit County Common Pleas judge ordered the county medical examiner to delete any reference that Tasers contributed to the deaths of three Ohio men.
All three men were in an ‘agitated’ state and ‘on drugs’ when police officers shot them with Tasers, and the judge ordered their deaths be ruled ‘accidental’ also that any reference to “homicide or “electrical pulse stimulation” should be deleted from death certificates and autopsy reports.”
As of mid-April, 68 wrongful-death or injury lawsuits have been dismissed or judgments entered in favor of Taser, according to the company. The company has not lost any product-liability lawsuits.
The attorney from the prosecutor’s office representing the medical examiner said of the case: “It was an interesting case and an uphill battle,” said Manley. “Taser is quite a force to be reckoned with and does everything to protect their golden egg, which is the Model X26.”
Whether the Taser shocks contributed to the death of Hyde — and two other Akron men in separate incidents — is the central question in a civil case this week in Summit County Common Pleas Court.
The Taser International Co. is suing Summit County Medical Examiner Lisa Kohler, who ruled the use of the stun gun-like weapons were a contributing factor in the deaths. Akron still has police officers using Tasers. The city is siding with the company against the county, which is defending Kohler. The results of the lawsuit could have broad implications. Civil and criminal cases are pending in the local cases, and Tasers have been linked to dozens of other deaths across the United States.
Jeffrey Jentzen, president of the National Association of Medical Examiners, an organization that represents the majority of medical examiners in the United States, has warned that the actions of Taser International and the court ruling have set a dangerous precedent.
More recently, a UN Committee said the stun gun “causes acute pain, constituting a form of torture”. Deaths occurring where tasers have been used are now a daily occurrence, yet police and private security forces worldwide continue to be equipped with the weapons.
May 15th, 2008 at 9:11 amwrong thread, gigi
May 15th, 2008 at 9:12 amG00D_G0LLY Says:
——————————————————————————–
jb Says:
——————————————————————————–
If Saddam did not have a right to exist, does Bush? Does Cheney?, Rumsfeld, How about those murders that work for Blackwater? Who decides? I know how about me, I’ll decide who has a right to exist. I’m taking my shotgun to the golf course.
May 15th, 2008 at 1:42 am
_______________________________________
A “progressive” terrorist uses ThinkProgress to threaten to assassinate the U.S. President, and ThinkProgress does nothing about it. Typical.
—————————————–
The only thing typical gone goffy is you taking a statement out of context. jb never said bush should be assisinated. You just twist this shit for your own advantage.
May 15th, 2008 at 9:13 amHere asshole, let me help you understnad my thinking:
Precedent DINKCLEDOOFUSS is neither President, nor a human. He is a sack of protoplasm that does not deserve the sunlight that hits it. The only thing between it and a crazed mob ripping it to pieces is a bunch the unconsitutional SS with their ear pieces and machine guns. I don’t give Dinkledoofuss 6 months out of office, even in Paraguay. We have computer guided missles now you know. You should shut the fu(k up, put you head down, and TRY to blend in, becasue when we come, and we will be coming, Justice’s Mighty, swift sword will not be kind.
Is that clear enough for you you fu(king traitor?
[Gasp] OMG! Surely the Right Wing Wurlitzer will be clutching its pearls all “Dear Lawdy” like some Tennessee Williams dame and shrieking from the rafters for a fortnight ’bout how sittin’ down with terrists is treasonous…. You know, like they did about Jimmy Carter six weeks or so ago.
May 15th, 2008 at 9:14 amGotta watch this video
May 15th, 2008 at 9:14 amhttp://youtube.com/watch?v=d3xlb6_0OEs
G00D_G0LLY Says:
Hopefully, the Secret Service will track jb and pay it a visit for making such foolish threats.
Have you looked over your shoulder today?
May 15th, 2008 at 9:15 am#6 Fritz Says:
Did everyone see Keith Olbermann’s Special Comment last night? BEST EVER!
I watched it on TV, it was Keith’s best Special Comment Segment. I wish the rest of the mainstream media would go after Bush for his lies and comments, I do believe more people would have caught on alot sooner.
May 15th, 2008 at 9:16 amNevar Says: wrong thread, gigi
You are being too kind, nevar. gg has actually spent its entire life in the wrong universe.
May 15th, 2008 at 9:17 amAt a meeting of the Academy of American Diplomacy yesterday, Defense Secretary Robert Gates said that the U.S. should engage Iran with “a combination of incentives and pressure.”
Why would Iran want to talk to a country that is acting like a big gorilla thumping it’s chest. We have warships off their coast and our government is ginning up the lies daily about how Iran is “killing our soldiers”. That was, once again, proven to be a lie the other day when the military had to cancel their “show and tell” of Iranian arms found in Iraq. Oops…none was from Iran. So, we still only have the word of our government that Iran is meddling in Iraq. We all know how much our government’s word is worth today.
May 15th, 2008 at 9:20 am“Hopefully, the Secret Service will track jb and pay it a visit for making such foolish threats.”
Goofus golleri
Actually, the SS was busy in Albuquerque a couple of nights ago, busting a high end prostitution ring. Smooth sailing for them, now that the Madam has “bequeathed” the phone list to her former clients…
May 15th, 2008 at 9:20 amGot to wonder why the Secret Service is suddenly concerning themselves with vice…
Edwards endorses Obama
Democrat John Edwards endorsed former rival Barack Obama on Wednesday, a move designed to help solidify support for the party’s likely presidential nominee even as Hillary Rodham Clinton refuses to give up her long-shot candidacy.
I also read yesterday (can’t find it now) that the DNC is holding a fundraiser with both Clinton and Obama attending. This fundraiser will be to help Hillary retire her debt. I believe that this spells the beginning of the end for Hillary.
May 15th, 2008 at 9:23 amDrug-war violence in Mexico spills across U.S. border
Three Mexican police chiefs have requested political asylum in the U.S. …
Ahmadinejad says Israel doomed
Iranian president says Israel is dying and that its 60th anniversary celebrations are an attempt to prevent its “annihilation” …
Approval of Congress ties record lows
The approval rating of Congress dropped to near-record levels and is lower than President Bush’s mark, a Gallup poll indicates …
University official fired for column on homosexuality
May 15th, 2008 at 9:24 amWoman wrote a newspaper commentary that questioned whether homosexuality is a civil rights issue …
RUCerious Says:
So gg finalyy abandons the rodent disguise?
I’m not convinced this is the previous goon_golly (mouseturd20) but rather a familiar namejacking, urine-soaked troll that needs to be scraped off TP’s sole.
May 15th, 2008 at 9:27 amForeclosures take toll on mental health
Raymond and Deanna Donaca faced the unthinkable: They were losing their home to foreclosure and had days to move out.
For more than two decades, the couple had lived in their three-level house, where the elms outside blazed with yellow shades of fall and their four golden retrievers slept in the yard. The town had always been home, with a lazy river and rolling hills dotted by gnarled juniper trees.
Yet just before lunch on Oct. 23, the Donacas closed all their home’s doors except the one to the garage and left their 1981 Cadillac Eldorado running. Toxic fumes filled the home. When sheriff’s deputies arrived at about 1 p.m., they found the body of Raymond, 71, on the second floor along with three dead dogs. The body of Deanna, 69, was in an upstairs bedroom, close to another dead retriever.
“It is believed that the Donacas committed suicide after attempts to save their home following a foreclosure notice left them believing they had few options,” the Crook County Sheriff’s Office said in a report.
http://www.usatoday.com/money/economy/housing/2008-05-14-mortgage-foreclosures-mental-health_N.htm?loc=interstitialskip
**I suspect that stories like this are taking place all over.
May 15th, 2008 at 9:30 amgummitch Says:
I’m not convinced this is the previous goon_golly (mouseturd20) but rather a familiar namejacking, urine-soaked troll that needs to be scraped off TP’s sole.
good_golly always posted her/his name in lower case and had a bit more intelligence than the current goony.
May 15th, 2008 at 9:33 amTo beat goes on –
That foreclosure/suicide story is depressing. I am frankly surprised that there hasn’t been a noticeable increase in arson. I really expected desperate homeowners would also begin torching their own homes in the face of losing them.
May 15th, 2008 at 9:35 amBilbo Hussein Baggins Says:
Edwards endorses Obama
Democrat John Edwards endorsed former rival Barack Obama on Wednesday, a move designed to help solidify support for the party’s likely presidential nominee even as Hillary Rodham Clinton refuses to give up her long-shot candidacy.
I also read yesterday (can’t find it now) that the DNC is holding a fundraiser with both Clinton and Obama attending. This fundraiser will be to help Hillary retire her debt. I believe that this spells the beginning of the end for Hillary.
I would contribute to that.
May 15th, 2008 at 9:36 amYou don’t get it gg. When the people of a country get no justice for crimes committed by their ruling party, justice is sought out on their own. Think about that when you fall asleep at night.
May 15th, 2008 at 9:40 amtom Says:
That foreclosure/suicide story is depressing. I am frankly surprised that there hasn’t been a noticeable increase in arson. I really expected desperate homeowners would also begin torching their own homes in the face of losing them.
I hope that arson isn’t something people are thinking about. I have several bank owned homes in my neighborhood already. I would suspect that you would find arson to be something that happens in the commercial market which I’m sure will be the next phase of the foreclosure fiasco.
May 15th, 2008 at 9:44 amLosers who can’t get into the White House seem to be endorsing Obama in spades.
May 15th, 2008 at 9:47 amOnly in the mind of a Republican is “the message still good.” Schaffer is telling everyone “Colorado is my life” with a picture of Mt. McKinley in the background. Good way to kick off a campaign with a lie. Another Republican that should come with a warning label.
May 15th, 2008 at 9:49 amSo is the loser the one who didn’t get in or is the loser the one who stole his way in? I forget.
May 15th, 2008 at 9:50 amcalibleu — I hope arson won’t catch on, either, but I am surprised nonetheless. Perhaps the reason we haven’t seen an increase yet is that there aren’t enough high-end, well-insured homes with mortgages that are under water yet. That is probably where the arson-as-exit-strategy will catch on.
But, then again, who knows? Maybe gg will set fire to its double-wide trailer before its month-end move-out date.
May 15th, 2008 at 9:51 amSTFU Troll. Go back to TP Watch.
May 15th, 2008 at 9:51 am#23 – G00D_G0LLY Says:
————————————————————-
“Yet anyone who dares dissent is a “piss soaked troll.” ”
May 15th, 2008 at 9:30 am
————————————————————–
ThinkProgress allows dissenting view, unlike Red State (an infamous right-whiner site) which regularly deletes any posts that stray from the approved right-whiner talking points.
GG’s posts remain available for ThinkProgress posters to see.
Typical double-standards of the right-whiners.
May 15th, 2008 at 9:52 amto perry logan –
Believe me, skid-mark. The next president will be one who has been “endorsed by losers who couldn’t get into the White House”.
And we will be better off than if McNumbNuts — who has been endorsed by a loser who did get into the White House (that’s GDumbya just in case you are specially dense) — had been elected.
May 15th, 2008 at 9:54 amStop feeding the troll. I hate seeing a fat, happy troll.
May 15th, 2008 at 9:57 amI think putting out names and faces of those affected makes these personal and more real. Think about it, one of the first things Bush told the media was to not publish pictures of the coffins. Didn’t want pictures of the fallen and their stricken families making it “personal.” Wallpaper the cells of these crooks with the faces of those who were destroyed by their actions. Oh….sorry, that’s right. We haven’t prosecuted them yey.
May 15th, 2008 at 9:59 amYeah, well, you gotta recognize that we have nothing to fear from dissenting viewpoints. Especially when they’re as moronic as this troll’s typically prove to be.
When all you’ve got to sustain your message is faith, propaganda, and talking points, reason is dangerous.
May 15th, 2008 at 10:01 amIn his speech, Bush said, “As Nazi tanks crossed into Poland in 1939, an American senator declared: ‘Lord, if only I could have talked to Hitler, all of this might have been avoided.’
That senator happened to be a Republican: William Edgar Borah from Idaho.
And since we’re on the subject of Nazi appeasers, what about Prescott?
May 15th, 2008 at 10:13 amG00D_G0LLY Says:
…My posts will be deleted by the Stalinist censors at ThinkProgress by the end of the day…
No, it’s called “taking out the trash.”
May 15th, 2008 at 10:18 amSo, Perry logan, is Naral “a bunch of losers who can’t get into the White House”?
The next president isn’t the little treasure you get to keep to yourself, psycho.
May 15th, 2008 at 10:21 amWe realize you’re trying to change the conduct on this board, G_G. Get to the point, tell us to pull our pants up, and go back to Little Green… (yuck). We’re only one of many commentary sections on the web, why do you invest your time attempting to force your vision on this one?
May 15th, 2008 at 10:28 amSounds like the troll takes this as a challenge to see that its comments are as odious and as offensive as possible so as to provoke yet another ban.
Odd, though, that the troll calls this “Stalinist” since it regularly banned posters from its own lame site, back when it had any traffic at all…
May 15th, 2008 at 10:29 amSo we should probably christen this new troll GiGiII..
May 15th, 2008 at 10:56 amralph ! would you be insinuating that GiGiII would be some sort of hypocritical jackass?
May 15th, 2008 at 10:57 amanymouse20 Says:
——————————————————————————–
11:40 a.m. and Kennedy appeared drunk already.
May 14th, 2008 at 3:36 pm
When your comments contain nothing but this kind of crap, the moderators flip the switch on the dumbass. Not censoring, just removing the stinking carcasses.
May 15th, 2008 at 11:02 amSigh.
Hey check this out:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/celebritynews/1955538/Sean-Penn-endorses-Barack-Obama-at-Cannes-Film-Festival-opening.html
How big an idiot can Sean Penn be?
May 15th, 2008 at 11:29 amGood morning! What a great day yesterday – the Dems win a solidly Republican seat in MS (3rd in a row!!), Edwards endorses Obama – AND a Special Comment from Keith Olbermann.
Ah…what an O-gasm!!! ;o)
May 15th, 2008 at 11:29 amAh Keltoi, you just don’t like Sean Penn because he’s smarter and better looking than you are.
May 15th, 2008 at 11:30 amFreedom Rebel @ #1;
Glad you posted that, it needs to be given the widest publicity possible. I posted a link about that yesterday on a TP thread.
I thought it was creepy having JROTC in high schools back in the Vietnam era, it’s far worse now. Recruiters setting up tables in school lunch rooms 3-4 times each month, and getting kids as young as 11 into military programs. They were not in any of the schools I attended, but I have seen it in other schools at the time and it creeped me out.
In the 1930s, Japan assigned military officers to every school, even their elementary schools. Now, more than ever, we have Militarism USA.
May 15th, 2008 at 11:40 amLeftside Annie Says:
Ah Keltoi, you just don’t like Sean Penn because he’s smarter and better looking than you are.
Now that is just plain mean, girl. I am no looker but all I can say about Penns looks is it is a good thing he is a gifted actor. As for his intelligence, see if you can figure out these two gems:
”I don’t have a candidate I’m supporting and I’m certainly interested and excited by the hope that Barack Obama is inspiring,” he said, but went on to accuse him of a “phenomenally inhuman and unconstitutional” voting record.
He is excited by the hope generated by an inhuman violater of the Constitution? And just what the hell is he talking about re Obama’s record, anyway?
And this:
”I hope that he will understand, if he is the nominee, the degree of disillusionment that will happen if he doesn’t become a greater man than he will ever be,” Penn said.
????
He will cause disillusionment if he doesn’t become a greater man than he will ever be? So…Obama seems pretty well doomed to cause disillusionment according to Penn.
The guy is a total idiot who should only speak when reading off a script if he wishes to avoid being exposed as such. Yet his wild sense of self importance won’t allow him to STFU. What a contrast with someone like Tom Hanks or Mike Farrel, who are both liberal activist celebrities but don’t have such titanic egos that the whole world revolves around them.
May 15th, 2008 at 11:48 amLeftside Annie Says:
Good morning! What a great day yesterday – the Dems win a solidly Republican seat in MS (3rd in a row!!), Edwards endorses Obama – AND a Special Comment from Keith Olbermann.
Ah…what an O-gasm!!! ;o)
Annie, was it as good for you as it was for me? :)~
May 15th, 2008 at 11:50 amJust keep laughing at the Republicans. LOL.
May 15th, 2008 at 11:53 amKeltoi, do you have a link to the first Sean Penn pull quote? I’ll be very interested to see how these two statements relate to one another.
And a full-context link to the second would help as well.
Lord knows how easy it is to isolate a few sentences, even from an intelligent speaker, and then point out how ridiculous they sound when framed properly. I find that often, more context dissolves the confusion and makes the quote less ridiculous than first claimed.
May 15th, 2008 at 12:30 pmFrom HuffPo: Another flip-flop to add to the list.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/05/15/mccain-sets-timetable-for_n_101871.html
McCain Sets Timetable For Getting Out Of Iraq
Senator McCain’s speech today gives a timetable for when US troops will leave Iraq if he becomes President. McCain went after former GOP rival Mitt Romney during the Florida primary, claiming his mention of timetables was equivalent to putting defeat into the hands of terrorists. Now the Senator is changing his tune.
May 15th, 2008 at 12:32 pmSen. John McCain will pledge today that most American troops will return home from Iraq by 2013 if he is elected president, a position that closely resembles the promises made by both of his potential Democratic rivals.
In a speech here this morning, McCain will say that only a small contingent of troops would remain in Iraq in non-combat roles beyond that date. He predicts that the drawdown will be possible because al Qaeda in Iraq will be defeated and a democratic government will be able to thrive in the war-torn country.
Regarding the detention of underaged, so-called, “enemy combatants”.
Gitmo logic justifies torture as an effective way of tearing down a person to get information,
would not the same logic dictate that youth are more pliable and therfore the best targets to use torture on ?
May 15th, 2008 at 1:13 pm