Tim Rutten from the Los Angeles Times writes that Apart from understanding how and why the Bush/Cheney administration tricked the American people into going to war in Iraq, no question is more urgent than how the White House forced the adoption of torture as state policy of the United States.

An investigation by the Senate Armed Services Committee, now partly concluded, already has gone a long way toward explaining the decision to place the United States among the world’s pariah states. In a statement delivered Tuesday, committee Chairman Carl M. Levin (D-Mich.) said: “Some have suggested that detainee abuses committed by U.S. personnel at Abu Ghraib in Iraq and at Guantanamo were the result of a ‘few bad apples’ acting on their own. It would be a lot easier to accept if that were true.” In fact, Levin said, senior U.S. officials “sought out information on aggressive [interrogation] techniques, twisted the law to create the appearance of their legality and authorized their use against detainees.”

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History will record the abuses of this administration in it’s own time and way. In the meantime, Mr. Rutten is right. let our time tested poltical processes play themselves out, and eventually the wrongs will be righted. That is the great thing about our country. We eventually get it and make things right.

But here is what can happen when you live in a country without oversight. Too bad it’s the US administration in charge…

The Daily Kos has an interesting read on the new FISA deal being readied for a vote in Congress.

Under the tentative agreement, a major sticking point until now would be resolved by a compromise that would allow a federal district court – not the secret FISA court – to decide about providing retroactive legal immunity to telecommunications companies being sued for their role in the Bush administration’s warrantless surveillance program.

It was not immediately clear, however, what standard the court would use to determine whether such immunity was justified.

If that standard is too low, immunity opponents maintain, the law will have been written so that companies are virtually guaranteed immunity – devaluing any claim of court scrutiny.

First reports are that that standard will be too low, and will be that way by design. The people who want this “deal” pushed through think you and the rest of the millions of Americans who don’t actually want to be spied on by what purports to be their own government will think it’s a victory if the “review” is conducted in federal district court instead of the secret Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC) established under the original FISA.

But the problem isn’t where the review is conducted, it’s what constitutes the review.

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Secrecy, instilling fear, uncertainty and doubt into the public discourse to protect companies that release subscriber data presumably protected by privacy laws on the books today, all in the name of protecting our national security. Another clear case of the current administration taking this argument to the extreme to open a door to circumvent current laws preventing spying on U.S. citizens. Of course we want our country to be secure. Of Course we want to catch bad guys talking to other bad guys overseas. Just do it with some level of accountability so that absolute power doesn’t rest exclusively with the Executive Branch. Write your congressman and senator to let them know we need accountability.

More here…

The president has been working this for months.

The Daily News website is reporting that the obscenity trial of a a Bronx-born porn king was put on hold today after the respected judge presiding over the case was caught with kinky fetish photos on his personal website.

The images on Judge Alex Kozinski’s site included a photo of naked women on all fours painted to look like cows and a video of a half-dressed man cavorting with a sexually aroused farm animal, according to the Los Angeles Times.

Kozinski is presiding over the trial of Bronx-born Ira Isaacs, who has been brought up on rare anti-smut charges for his hard-core videos – which include portrayals of bestiality.

The judge blocked access to the site after he was questioned by the Times and said he didn’t realize the images could be seen by the public.

Kozinski, a Reagan appointee who’s now chief judge of the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals, granted a 48-hour suspension of the closely watched obscenity trial after prosecutors said they needed time to explore a possible conflict of interest.

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Conflict of interest you say? How about hypocrisy? A “good” judge has porn pictures on his website, yet is presiding over the prosecution of a porn peddler? Now there is nothing illegal with adults watching (legal) porn. But, the good judge should have recused himself immediately before the trail even started, using whatever reason he wanted. It’s definitely none of our business what he watches (as long as it’s not child porn), but by not recusing himself, it adds to the level of public distrust in our government officials.

The BLT is reporting that A new report says disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff was held “in high regard” by some senior White House officials, and some administration officials considered Abramoff’s views when discussing appointments to some positions at the Interior Department. It also says White House records released to the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform show that Abramoff and other members of his lobbying team offered expensive meals and event tickets to White House staff.

The proposed report comes from the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform led by Rep. Henry Waxman (D-Calif.). The committee will meet on Thursday to mark up the report, which is not yet final.

The report can be read here: http://oversight.house.gov/documents/20080609101725.pdf

The 35-page Oversight Committee report documents a two-year investigation by the committee into Abramoff’s influence within the White House. It uncovered six photographs of the corrupt lobbyist and members of his family shaking hands with President Bush; the committee also found evidence of more than 70 previously unknown contacts between Abramoff and his associates and administration officials.

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More than 70 previously unknown contacts? Unknown by who? Us, that’s who. More secrecy from this administration. This president has devoted his entire presidency to making the executive branch of the government the most powerful, secret, and unaccountable of them all. It’s hard to fathom in retrospect that Congress, the media and citizens have all sat idly by and watched Bush, Cheney,  Rove, Gonzales and the rest of the cronies take the office of the president to a (legally) fortified retreat.

Let’s hope the tide turns in 2009.

CNN Money is reporting that oil prices shot up nearly $11 a barrel and settled Friday at a record $138.54 on geopolitical jitters, a dollar decline and a forecast that oil would hit $150 by July 4.

Friday’s spike in the July contract for light crude on the New York Mercantile Exchange marks the largest singe-day increase in oil prices on record. The contract hit an intraday record of $139.12, breaking the previous trading record of $135.09.

“The bulls are running rampant and the bears have panicked,” said oil industry analyst Stephen Schork, editor of the Schork Report. “It’s pure hysteria, absolute panic,” he added.

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It’s making money based on fear. Oldest trick in the book. Some fear may be justified, but not at these levels. The Middle East is volitale for sure, but Saudi Arabia is rock solid, as is the UAE and Kuait. There is also plenty of oil in the ground all over the world.

Once the Wall Street money folks took control over the oil futures, this upward trend of prices was inevitable. The only hope we have is that either we significantly reduce consumption, or the oil bubble bursts, much like the dot com and the housing bubbles.

Read more about the bubble here and look at a really cool chart here.

MSNBC is reporting that U.S. Navy ships are leaving Myanmar after failing to get the junta’s permission to unload aid to “ease the suffering of hundreds of thousands” of cyclone survivors, the top U.S. military commander in the Pacific said Tuesday.

Adm. Timothy Keating ordered the vessels to leave the Myanmar area Thursday, after the U.S. made at least 15 attempts to convince Myanmar’s leaders to allow ships, helicopters and landing craft to offload their aid.

Myanmar’s state media has said that it feared a U.S. invasion aimed at seizing the country’s oil deposits. But the junta has also forbidden use of military helicopters from friendly neighboring nations, which are vital in rushing supplies to isolated survivors.

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Fears of an invasion indeed. Secrecy is what this is all about. An all-powerful government in charge of all aspects of daily like of it’s citizens, refuses aid from well intentioned neighbors and far away governments alike, and invoking fear as an excuse for that decision. You do have to thank your Lord if you live in a country where at least you have the freedom to speak, and get the unvarnished information out, even if in the end, the result isn’t what you hoped for (read: New Orleans). Democracy may not be perfect, and our current administration may be holed up in their own secrets, but at least we can freely complain about it, and sometimes, those complaints result in action.

Pray for those in  Myanmar.

More here: http://worldblog.msnbc.msn.com/archive/2008/05/12/1010557.aspx