Petraeus: Bush Administration Violated Geneva Conventions – Harper’s. i find it funny that the Fox reporter at the end saying that “values” are something that are malleable. i’m sure it would take the Daily Show 5 minutes to find a clip of the guy saying something like “Bush can’t compromise on values”. via ram.

Torture Report Could Be Trouble For Bush Lawyers | Newsweek Periscope | Newsweek.com. if no one’s going to jail, can we at least get a disbarment? via ram.

Cheney Dunk Tank Raises $800 Billion For Nation | The Onion. too funny.

White House Unbuttons Formal Dress Code – NYTimes.com. interesting contrast of the obama/bush work culture.

Harper’s Index: A retrospective of the Bush era. It’s a long one. via ram.

Once Elected, Palin Hired Friends and Lashed Foes – NYTimes.com. secretive and vindictive… i think her and cheney would get along quite nicely.

Did Bush think McCain was tortured. by his definition of torture, no. via ram.

The Tax Cut That Neutered Congress. Former Republican Senator Lincoln Chafee gives an overview of Cheney and Bush, a jackass and a punk.

Daily Show interview with Aram Roston. who recently published a book about Ahmed Chalabi entitled The Man Who Pushed America To War

Go Fox Yourself | MetaFilter. the daily show’s jon oliver gives fox news a lambasting. hilarious.

This American Life – The Audacity of Government. “Stories of the Bush Administration, its unique style of asserting presidential authority, and its quest to redefine the limits of presidential power.” via ram.

The Surge is Not Sustainable: Augustus Richard Norton explains why. it’s amazing how many year we can waste in iraq. via ram.

Senate Passes Bill to Expand U.S. Spying Powers – New York Times. this bill also gives telco’s immunity for breaking the law and essentially allows warrent-less wiretaps. way to go democrats!

The Raw Story | Bush ‘kills’ Freedom of Information Act compliance officer. bush, still fucking things up in ‘08.

RFK Jr on conservatism

These two videos are of a speech Robert Kennedy Jr during a panel about the republication of Barry Goldwater’s The Conscience of a Conservative. He talks about the meaning of Goldwater’s conservatism and it’s perversion by the modern day conservative movement. There’s some really choice quotes amongst the whole speech. Here’s the youtube links for both part 1 and part 2.

The Politics of Posters | MetaFilter. it is pretty crazy how long the list of bush fuckups is. via ram.

supreme court on guantanamo

Anton just sent me an NPR write-up on yesterday’s Supreme Court oral arguments on the habeas rights of Guantanamo prisoners. In summary, it seems the court is divided 4-4 along party lines with Justice Kennedy, as usual, holding the swing vote. There’s one part from the end of the write-up that I found really interesting and very troubling. It’s a comment from the defense attorney…

To illustrate his point, Waxman pointed to a case in which he said a detainee was finally released after four years in detention because the detainee, a German man, had “what other detainees have not had — a lawyer.” And when the lawyer filed a habeas petition in the federal courts, and the government filed a reply with its evidence, the lawyer saw that the government claimed the detainee had associated with a named terrorist who had blown himself up.

“Within 24 hours, his counsel had affidavits not only from the German prosecuter, but from the supposedly deceased Mr. Bilgen, who is a resident of Dresden, never involved in terrorism, and fully getting on with his life,” Waxman said.

US spies give shock verdict on Iran threat | Guardian Unlimited. A National Intelligence Estimate report says Iran stopped it’s nuclear program in 2003. Can someone please get the President a video game or anything that might occupy his time until 2008.

FRONTLINE: the storm. just watched this report from 3 months after Katrina. I’m just flabbergasted at the stupidity. bush and company really managed to get just about everything wrong with FEMA.

Let the Eagle Soak | MetaFilter. just in case you needed to hear more insanity about waterboarding and the bush administration. via ram.