In considering it, I think Cheney has one primary goal: Cheney wants the inevitable torture prosecutions to appear politically motivated. Right now, basically every day, Cheney is out in the press picking a fight with the Obama administration. He’s goading them into a fight. He’s kicking dirt on their shoes. Calling them ugly. Claiming the administration’s policies are hurting our security. He’s like a baseball manager coming up face to face with the umpire just begging to be thrown out of the game. He’s figuring the fans will interpret more anger and more hopping around angry as some sort of yardstick to help determine whether he’s right: they’ll believe that the more he argues the more likely the umpire is wrong.

And when the Cheney goes too far and the umpire has enough and tosses him out, perhaps people will only remember the comic display he’s putting on and not the fact that 3,000 Americans died on 9/11 on their watch. And thousands more died in their Iraq boondoggle. And Al-Qaeda is still a threat to the U.S. after all they did.

My personal belief is that given the evidence of the law being broken that has already been released, the Justice department must appoint a Special Prosecutor and be done with it. I think once those wheels are in motion, you’re not going to hear anything from the lawyered-up Cheney, Yoo, Bibey or the others in the Torture Cabal.

And Congress should pass on holding hearings as they can’t help themselves when they get in front of the camera. The idea of letting the idiots in Congress grandstand and pretend to police this issue after they basically rolled over for years is pathetic.

If you watched the debate, it seems to me that the race is over. McCain has lost.

If you believe in equal rights and that all loving couples should have the right to marry and enjoy the benefits and challenges that such a union offers, please consider donating to the No On 8 campaign. The right-wing has chosen to make California a battleground for the nation on this issue and we cannot let such intolerance be advanced in the name of fear.

As the Santa Cruz Sentinal puts it in their editorial against Proposition 8:

It’s not about moral teaching. It’s about equal treatment for all people under the laws of our state.

Just to give you a sense of the scare tactics these folks are using, the subheading on their web site is:

Restoring Marriage and Protecting California Children

Oh, please… I hope that none of the children they’re supposedly protecting are actually gay or lesbian. Imagine having to have this conversation with your child:

“Sorry, Son, a long time ago I was scared of people who were gay so I voted to eliminate your rights so it would be impossible for you to live a life like the one your mother and I enjoy.

I believed that men and women chose to be gay so they could enjoy being beaten, mocked, marginalized and discriminated against. Your choice to get married would have no effect on me or our lives, but I was scared of people like you. Sorry about that.”

With the Presidential election only 3 weeks away, John McCain faces a stark choice: Will he go down in history as a principled conservative who lost an election standing on his convictions? Or will he go down as an opportunist who lost while bringing out the darkest elements in American politics?

John McCain is now at a crossroads. At this historical moment, he has virtually no path to win the Presidency. The question is whether he will lose with honor or lose with disgrace. Will his legacy be like that of his Arizona Senatorial predecessor Barry Goldwater, who ran a campaign of conservative principal in a liberal year and lost in a landslide, only to see his principals come to power 16 years in the form of Ronald Reagan? Or will his legacy be like some combination of Richard Nixon, Robert Dole and George Wallace, one of a man whom, in his overweening ambition for victory, took the low road and tapped the dark forces of American politics to his own everlasting shame and dishonor?

I highly recommend that you read Miles Mogalescu’s prescription for McCain’s ailing campaign. As someone who once respected McCain, I couldn’t agree more.

Finding Number One

For the reasons explained in section IV of this report, I find that Governor Sarah Palin abused her power by violating Alaska Statute 39.52.110(a) of the Alaska Executive Branch Ethics Act. Alaska Statute 39.52.110(a) provides

“The legislature reaffirms that each public officer holds office as a public trust, and any effort to benefit a personal or financial interest through official action is a violation of that trust.”

Given that the reports recommends that no criminal charges be pursued, the question is, “What should Alaska do now?”

It seems clear to me watching from the outside that there is only one course of action for the Alaska Legislature: the Alaska Legislature must impeach Sarah Palin.

Here is the rationale for pursuing this action, versus something more hand-slappy like a censure vote.

A clear finding of wrongdoing in Palin’s abuse of power and violation of the ethics act

The report clearly shows an effort by Sarah Palin, her husband Todd Palin, and nearly all senior members of her administration to force Walt Monegan to violate his own ethics and the laws of the State of Alaska. For someone who ran on a reformer ticket, she seems less like a reformer and more like a typical corrupt politician. Even more than that, does it seem extremely inappropriate to Alaskans that within one month of her being sworn in, Todd Palin was holding official meetings in the Governor’s office?

A clear lack of understanding of what she did wrong

Sarah Palin does not understand what the phrase “public trust” means when the laws of her state clearly charge her with defending it. If she did, why, only days after the reports’ release, would she be rallying against “abuse of power” despite being found guilty of it on Friday?

Beyond that, despite being told by Walt Monegan that the case was closed on the complaints against her brother-in-law, she had her staff and her husband continue to pursue getting her brother-in-law fired. As Governor, she has the power to introduce legislation that might make penalties stiffer for State Troopers to violate rules or laws. It appears that she did not do that: she simply wanted her brother-in-law to be fired and would stop at nothing.

A lack of repentance for her actions and those of her administration

Governor Palin now claims:

I’m very very pleased to be cleared of any legal wrongdoing… any hint of any kind of unethical activity there.

Alaska State Legislators should hear in that phrase, “Not can I disregard questions put to me by debate moderators, I can also completely disregard the findings of a lawfully constituted investigation AND whatever that investigation said I did, I will do it again.”

Sarah Palin’s efforts to discredit, distort and manipulate the results of a legal and non-partisan investigation

Rather than support the investigation, Governor Palin directed members of her staff not to participate in the investigation. Governor Palin allowed the McCain campaign to sully the reputation of Branchflower, the investigator, and Monegan, a widely respected Alaska law enforcement figure. Governor Palin refused to answer any questions from the investigator, despite repeated promises that she would cooperate fully.

All of these efforts were done to prevent Branchflower from getting full and fair access to the facts of the case.

While it is obviously a serious action to take, I can’t find any reason not to support impeachment of Governor Sarah Palin. If the Legislature fails to take that action, its legislators should abandon all hope of future executive elected official following the rules that they craft for the protection of Alaska’s public trust.

From the AP:

Trying to head off a potentially embarrassing state ethics report on GOP vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin, campaign officials released their own report Thursday that clears her of any wrongdoing.

Not only that, the faux report blames Andrew Halcro, who now sarcastically admits, he was “the blogger on the grassy knoll.”

And as for the real report, TPM Muckraker is reporting that Palin’s lawyer is now complaining that the report cannot possibly be complete because Palin was never deposed.

Palin’s lawyer, Thomas Van Flein, tried to preemptively discredit the report, telling the ADN that it won’t be comprehensive because Branchflower didn’t interview Palin or her chief of staff, Mike Tibbles.

“They didn’t even try to interview the governor. You want to know why she reassigned Monegan, it would be nice to talk to her. They didn’t even try,” Van Flein said. “It’s a report that’s going to be half-done at best. And anything that’s half-done will likely be half-baked.”

What a friggin’ joke! She refuses to cooperate with the investigation and then complains she didn’t get a chance to tell her story. I hope Alaskans run a recall election for Governor up there.

I think we’ll wait for the real report.

Despite pledges by President George W. Bush and American intelligence officials to the contrary, hundreds of US citizens overseas have been eavesdropped on as they called friends and family back home, according to two former military intercept operators who worked at the giant National Security Agency (NSA) center in Fort Gordon, Georgia.

ROSS: Kinne says she listened to hundreds of Americans simply calling their families …
KINNE: Personal, private things with Americans who are not in any way, shape or form associated with anything having anything to do with terrorism. It was just personal conversations that nobody else should have been listening to.
ROSS: President Bush has reassured Americans again and again:
GEORGE BUSH: It’s phone calls of known Al Qaeda suspects making a phone call into the United States.
KINNE: I would say that that is completely a lie — I would call it a lie — because we were definitely listening to Americans who had nothing to do with terrorism…
ROSS: Kinne says she intercepted, recorded, and transcribed conversations with the military, journalists, and Red Cross and aid workers.

What a shock! Bush and his cronies in the NSA, CIA and Justice Department lied to us about what they were really doing.

Glenn Greenwald has the first salvo that one can only hope will lead to a criminal investigation of the most corrupt, lawless Administration in history.