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Hullabaloo — ... .) Today, Taylor himself has a cover story on this week's Newsweek called "What Would Dick Do?, expanding on his earlier views that the president simply must be at least a little bit of a torturer (or perhaps a torturer only part of the time) in order to keep the babies safe. And he's joined by smarmy, super insider Evan Thomas in his assessment. ...

A Words
N/A — Arguably, there has been an overreaction? Oh, yes!  Oh, no! Arguably, there has been an overreaction to the alleged arrogance and heedlessness of Bush and Cheney—especially Cheney, who almost seemed to take a grim satisfaction in his Darth Vader-esque image. The courts, at first slow to respond to arrogations of executive power after September 11, have pushed back. Arguably and alleged are words for apologists for awful things done in the passive voice when actors ...

I Keep Waiting For The Backlash . . .
A Chequer-Board of Nights and Days — ... harsh interrogation techniques like the excessive use of isolation, sleep deprivation, cultural and sexual humiliation and other techniques in combination. In a 2005 interview on PBS' "The NewsHour With Jim Lehrer," Brennan defended rendition as "an absolutely vital tool." In 2007, he told CBS News that the CIA's harsh interrogation program, which included waterboarding on at least three prisoners, produced "lifesaving" intelligence. And now, funny enough, we are being told that perhaps the Presidency has been weakened far too much and maybe some of those Bush Administration ...

I Keep Waiting For The Backlash . . .
RedState: Conservative News and Community — ... And now, funny enough, we are being told that perhaps the Presidency has been weakened far too much and maybe some of those Bush Administration interrogation procedures aren’t that bad and should be kept around by Team Obama. Obamaphiles should be terrified and deeply upset that the Imperial Presidency may suddenly have a new lease on life but somehow . . . they just aren’t. ...

Shorter Newsweek: Except For All The Terrorist Attacks, Terrorism Is Down
Firedoglake — ... Newsweek has one of those spectacularly wrong cover stories entitled "Obama's Cheney Dilemma," which concludes that because there hasn't been another major domestic terrorist attack since 9/11, Dick Cheney's tough-guy tactics and extra-legal efforts must have been successful.  Thus Obama must "try to find a middle road that will protect civil liberties without leaving the nation defenseless." ...

Newsweek Reporters: Obama Should Keep Torture
Politics on HuffingtonPost.com — ... A Newsweek article, detailing the legacy that Dick Cheney is leaving for the incoming Obama administration, contains a description of a scene that I think may be steeped in apocrypha: ...

Newsweek Reporters: Obama Should Keep Torture
The Huffington Post | Full News Feed — ... A Newsweek article, detailing the legacy that Dick Cheney is leaving for the incoming Obama administration, contains a description of a scene that I think may be steeped in apocrypha: ...

Newsweek: Maybe BushChimpHitlerCo Got War on Terror Right
RedState: Conservative News and Community — ... Newsweek’s Stuart Taylor and Evan Thomas take a look at Obama’s promises to roll back the ‘excesses of Executive Power’ that were the hallmark of the Bush administration (at least in the eyes of liberals like the writers at Newsweek). They conclude that Obama might not be able to take us back to September 10, because those ‘excesses’ might just be necessary to keep us safe: ...

Newsweek Defends Abu Ghraib
The Daily Dish | By Andrew Sullivan — Take one paragraph from the cover-story by Stu Taylor and Evan Thomas now on newsstands: The issue of torture is more complicated than it seems. America brought untold shame on itself with the abuses at Abu Ghraib. It's likely that the take-the-gloves-off attitude of Cheney and his allies filtered down through the ranks, until untrained prison guards with sadistic tendencies were making sport with electric shock. But no direct link has been reported. Let's unpack this. They start by telling the reader that ...

ChangeWatch
Stones Cry Out — ... Interrogation techniques that Obama campaigned against may actually get a new lease on life.  Newsweek tells us: ...

Newsweek Writer’s Story Claiming That Torture Might Work Contradicts His 2006 Article Saying That It Doesn’t
Think Progress — ... In Newsweek’s cover story this week, Evan Thomas and Stuart Taylor, Jr., argue that President-elect Barack Obama should embrace Vice President Dick Cheney’s movement for the expansion of executive power. They conclude that Cheney’s work, especially with respect to torture, may be a necessary evil: ...

Darth Obama
Flopping Aces — ... Slowly but surely, what Scott and FA have been pointing out for months now is creeping into the mainstream media consciousness. From Newsweek’s cover story (By Stuart Taylor Jr. and Evan Thomas): ...

A Pictorial Tribute to Dick Cheney:
Flopping Aces — ... the act: Vice President Dick Cheney’s Labrador retrievers Jackson, left, and Dave, right, prepare for Halloween, Tuesday, Oct. 30, 2007, as they sit for a photograph at the Vice President’s Residence at the Naval Observatory in Washington, D.C. Jackson is dressed as Darth Vader, Dave is dressed as Superman. White House photo by David Bohrer The Cheney Legacy: The cover for the Inaugural edition of Newsweek speculates that Obama may very soon wish Dick Cheney was around to ...

The Outgoing President Bush: Not As Wrong As First Thought
Stones Cry Out — ... Which is why Obama is consciously creating a gulf between what he now dismissively calls "campaign rhetoric" and the policy choices he must make as president. Accordingly, Newsweek — Obama acolyte and scourge of everything Bush/Cheney — has on the eve of the Democratic restoration miraculously discovered the arguments for warrantless wiretaps, enhanced interrogation and detention without trial. Indeed, Newsweek’s neck-snapping cover declares, "Why Obama May Soon Find Virtue in Cheney’s Vision of Power." ...

Did Cheney Succeed?
The Volokh Conspiracy — Dick Cheney famously advocated strong executive authority, ruing the collapse of presidential power that he witnessed in the era of the Ford administration and the post-Watergate Congress. One of his goals as vice president was to “leave the presidency stronger than we found it.” Did he? Here’s Jack Goldsmith (quoted in Newsweek article ): “The presidency has already been diminished in ways that would be hard to reverse” and may be losing its capability to fight terrorism, he says. He argues that Americans should now be "less worried about an out-of-control presidency than an ...

CIA Refused To Evaluate Efficacy Of Torture
TalkLeft — ... Stuart Taylor, along with his Newsweek accomplice Evan Thomas, famously urged President Obama to do what Dick Cheney did on torture. What is it about these people? Are they so afraid that they insist on the United States following them into depravity and war crimes? Of course today they, like much of the Village, excuse a policy of war crimes - but when it came to private conduct of President Clinton, they wanted the President removed from office. There has been no contrast more demonstrative of the utter depravity and banality of the Media than this. ...