Read this and you’ll understand why Judge Michael Mukasey won’t say that waterboarding is illegal torture. If he were to say it is, he might get stuck actually doing his job and have to prosecute Bush administration officials – perhaps even Bush and Cheney themselves. GS

More Bush secret torture memos

By Adel Safty, Special to Gulf News
Published: November 05, 2007, 00:13

In its so-called war on terror, the Bush administration has shown an astonishing disregard for the rule of law in its consistent violation of American and international laws banning torture.

The Bush administration's approach, unprecedented in American history, relied on secrecy and deception - shameful attributes that, along with torture, Bush has harshly criticised in other countries which he described as authoritarian and evil.

Bush had famously dismissed, in May 2005, Amnesty International's accusation of war crimes and torture of detainees in US custody as "absurd".

Recent front-page revelations made by the New York Times show that the Bush administration has in fact relied on two secret memos justifying its torture policy.

The revelations show that the White House ignored critics of its policy and encouraged appointments of cooperative counsels at the Justice Department who could be ...   more »

And, guess which presidential candidate has missed the most votes? Barack Obama

 November 1, 2007

CONCORD, N.H. --Democratic presidential hopeful Joe Biden is cutting short a trip to New Hampshire today so he can return to Washington for a vote on the children's health insurance program.

Biden cancels Concord event to return to Senate for SCHIP vote - Boston.com.

Barack Obama gave a civil rights speech in South Carolina in which he only addressed civil rights for blacks. There’s a reason for this: He didn’t mention for civil rights for gays, lesbians, bi-sexuals, and transgender people. Watch. He will be questioned about this speech and he will say, “This particular speech was about blacks, so I didn’t mention any other groups.” He scrupulously didn’t mention anything about anyone except blacks so that he would have an excuse for not mentioning gays and lesbians — in the same state where he invited an anti-gay bigot on his campaign tour and then allowed him to attack gays and lesbians from the stage.

I guess it just slipped Obama’s mind that gays and lesbians don’t have the civil rights protections that blacks, and  all citizens in the United States enjoy – Except for GLBT folk. GS

Barack Obama | Clarendon, South Carolina | November 7^th, 2007

It’s a special honor to be here in Clarendon County. Because Clarendon County is the place that showed me and showed America that when ordinary people come together, they can do extraordinary things.

That’s the Clarendon County I know.

I know how sixty years ago, the NAACP’s James Hinton dared to ask why white children could ride ...   more »