The confirmation of Eric Holder, Jr. is running into some trouble with the planned appearance of witnesses about his role in some of the infamous pardons by Bill Clinton. Some of the greatest abuse of the pardon power occurred in the final week of the Clinton administration, including his use of official power to benefit a family member with the pardon of Roger Clinton. Ironically, however, it is not the most abusive pardons that is attracting the ire of Republicans.
It is hard to feel sympathy of Clinton officials who assisted in the pardons of Roger Clinton, Marc Rich and others. The pardoning of campaign contributors and a family member was shameful abuse of power by Clinton. Holder should be questioned about his role in these abuses. I would personally like to know if Holder was aware of the Roger Clinton pardon and sought to discourage the President in the use of official power to benefit his own family or whether he raised questions on the other pardons like Marc Rich — who seems completely without a meritorious basis for a pardon.
However, the GOP is focusing on the 1999 grant of clemency to members of a Puerto Rican terrorist organization, which was not viewed as abusive but simply unpopular. Former pardon attorney, Roger Adams, has gone public with allegations that Holder pressured staff to drop their opposition to the pardon. However, there was nothing in this pardon (supported by members of Congress, religious groups and President Carter) that was done for personal or political gain — unlike Clinton’s other pardons.
It just shows that politicians can accidentally stumble on an issue of merit and find the one issue that involves not principle but politics.
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There is a bigger philosophical question that many on the Repub. right forget (or chose to do so I suspect) is that torture and super harsh methods yield poor intelligence data. You might as well flip a coin and write up an opinion. Humans talk nonsense when in pain, and leading questions at that time gives what one might charitably call B.S. not hard evidence. (The “non-violent” Polygraph is big lie as well) So it seems the aim then is mindless revenge and sadism. How are we different then from radical Islamic countries like Saudi Arabia and Pakistan? Maybe people like Bell above want just that, but call it “defense, freedom, patriotism” etc. If the tide were to turn one of these days, you Mr. Bell could be at the wrong place and time and will be subject to extraordinary rendition. Keep the phone numbers of leftist lawyers handy, (JT would be your best) for they are the ones who will defend you.
Kennyboy,
The real last thing our President Elect wants to do is listen to the guys who were warned by the CIA in 8/2001 that Bin Laden was going to attack us with planes and ignored it because they were on vacation. However, what should one expect from cowardly draft dodgers who attained success solely through corruption and lies.
Last thing Barry Obama wants to do is go down in the history books as the guy that failed to listen to Dick Cheney’s advice and allowed America to get hit again.
There is nothing either colloqially or medically counter factual in my use,
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wrong again.
Mespo,
I can’t even pronounce etymologist.
rafflaw:
It’s a tough call I agree. Seems to me it does imply death with the term suffocation but I think suffocation can also mean discomfort through lack of oxygen. As you can see I am no etymologist.
Mespo,
It is isn’t a big deal, but your definition didn’t mention death, but I did see another that indeed did call drowning as “death by suffocation”, so I stand corrected.
It looks like our resident Troll has a new name. Ken, I didn’t know that you were on a first name basis with our President-elect. Don’t worry, President Obama will never worry about listening to a future felon, Dick Cheney.
I must say that I agree with Jill when she says that the use of the phrase, “simulates drowning”, does water down (sorry about that pun) the ominous and torturous technique that the Bush regime has hung its hat on. The long and short of it is that waterboarding is illegal domestically and under international law.
“to suffocate by submersion” is exactly what happens during waterboarding. Remember, people have died from waterboarding. We often see articles about people who were drowning and then were saved by a rescue worker or family member. There is nothing either colloqially or medically counter factual in my use, nor in the use presented by the SERE trainer who was waterboarded. My actual point is something you are missing entirely. The media is downplaying what really happened to our prisoners. This misrepresentation makes our populace more willing to accept torture. I am sorry my point wasn’t clear to you the first time.
I am sure wateboarding will be renamed shower-planking when Obama has to admit his CIA is doing it to those that pose as imminent threats to us. Last think Barry wants to do is go down the history books as the guy that never listend to Dick Cheney’s advice.