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Morning Skim: Pot vs. Booze, Bank Loans, Waterboarding and More
Opinionator —
... that can’t. . . . [I]f Goldman pays back its TARP and the market punishes Bank Of America for not being able to do so, that’s fine. That’s what the market is supposed to do: Differentiate between “A” students and “D” (or worse) students. The moment you decree that, for the sake of the system, everyone has to be a “C-minus” student is the day you really have veered into socialism. Wall Street Journal : David B. Rivkin Jr. and Lee A. Casey say the four Bush memos released last week “ prove we didn’t torture “: The four memos on CIA interrogation released by the White House last ...
After Calling Waterboarding Torture In December, David Rivkin Pens Op-Ed Defending Its Use
Think Progress —
... — argue that the OLC torture memos released last week by the Obama administration “prove” that the Bush administration did not torture detainees. “Far from ‘green lighting’ torture…the memos detail the actual techniques used and the many measures taken to ensure that interrogations did not cause severe pain or degradation,” they write. ...
Torture? Just Walk On By …
Opinionator —
... !” he wrote in response to the news that Khalid Shaikh Mohammed had been waterboarded 183 times in a month. David B. Rivkin Jr. and Lee A. Casey opt for a more lawyer-ish approach in today’s Wall Street Journal, arguing that the memos “prove we didn’t torture.” How so? They “detail the actual techniques used and the many measures taken to ensure that interrogations did not cause severe pain or degradation”: An Aug. 1, 2002, memo describes the practice of “walling” — recently revealed in a report by the International Committee of the Red Cross, which suggested that detainees ...
WSJ
Sister Toldjah —
The Memos Prove We Didn’t Torture
Happy Hour Links
Weekly Standard Blog —
David Rivkin and Lee Casey: "The Memos Prove We Didn't Torture"
Jennifer Rubin on Obama's projection of weakness toward Iran.
Do you now, or have you ever, opposed gay marriage? The politicization of the Miss USA pageant.
The case for a 99 percent estate tax: CNN reports on Meghan McCain's Daily Beast column (yes, it's really come to this), in which the former presidential candidate's daughter writes that she totz finds it "creepy" that Karl Rove follows her on Twitter.
Gingrich on ...
Why Obama Won’t Release ALL the CIA Memos on “Torture”
Flopping Aces —
... a selected batch of memos detailing the Bush Administration’s scrupulous efforts to maintain humane, yet effective interrogations of the most vile Al Queda terrorists in our custody. That move was ...
Speaking Truth to Power (Privately)
The Corner on National Review Online —
... ... Gen. Michael V. Hayden, the director of the Central Intelligence Agency under Mr. Bush, said on Fox News Sunday last weekend that the use of these techniques against these terrorists made us safer. It really did work. Former Vice President Dick Cheney, in a separate interview with Fox, endorsed that conclusion and said he has asked the C.I.A. to declassify memos detailing the gains from the harsh interrogations. See also (if you haven't) David Rifkin and Lee Casey's piece here , Marc Thiessen's piece ...
May: Shock Therapy
Articles on National Review Online —
... severe mental or physical harm. Another memo makes clear that supervising physicians were empowered to stop interrogations if in their professional judgment the detainee may suffer severe physical or mental pain or suffering. What s severe? Again, circumstances matter and judgments may differ. Attempting to criminalize such differences is appallingly unethical not least when done by people who call themselves ethicists. Former Justice Department attorney David Rivkin has pointed out that the EITs described in the memos had been adapted from a U.S. military training ...
Meet the Cast of the Sotomayor Hearings
The American Prospect Articles —
... probably focus on the influence of foreign law on the Court -- a constant bugaboo for the right because it generally has a liberalizing effect on the high court. Justice Anthony Kennedy's move to the left on issues such as the death penalty had a great deal to do with his travels abroad and study of international law. John McGinnis, a professor at Northwestern and an outspoken critic of affirmative action, will likely also take on Sotomayor's Ricci ruling, while David Rivkin, who argued in the Wall Street Journal that the Bush administration's torture memos proved the ...
WaPo Peddles Baseless Constitutional Attack on Health Reform
Wonk Room —
... after it criticized widespread human rights abuses at Guantanamo Bay, and they recently claimed that Bush-era DOJ memos authorizing the use of torture “prove we didn’t torture.” Rivkin once claimed that President Bush had ...
