The Dark Side

 Dick Cheney said 5 days after 9/11

"We also have to work, though, sort of the dark side, if you will. We've got to spend time in the shadows in the intelligence world. A lot of what needs to be done here will have to be done quietly, without any discussion, using sources and methods that are available to our intelligence agencies, if we're going to be successful. That's the world these folks operate in, and so it's going to be vital for us to use any means at our disposal, basically, to achieve our objective." 

 He then had the Department of Justice concoct a (now repudiated) legal justification to sanction torture.  Despite the reluctance of the current Obama Administration to cooperate, the Constitution Project sponsored a bipartisan blue ribbon panel to document torture during the Clinton, Bush and Obama Administrations.  They took the better part of three years, interviewed hundreds of people all over the world, and documented it all in a 575 page report that is a black eye for the United States government's disregard of the rule of law for 2 decades, and continues today.

The three administrations did it all, torture - many times torturing people to death, "suspending" the Geneva Convention rules against torture whenever they pleased, kidnapping suspects and sending them to countries that tortured them, and of course we still incarcerate them at Guantanamo without charges or trial or due process.

There were the torture instigators, Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, Gonzales, and Yoo.  There were a number of principled people who opposed them, Alberto Mora, John McCain and Nance Pelosi to name a few.  One quote from Alberto Mora, General Counsel for the Navy (Retired) in a later interview stood out,

The argument that we have to apply abuse to detainees in order to protect American lives I find to be violative of our deepest values and to the very safety of our country. We fight not only to protect lives, we fight to protect our principles.

Well said.

Massive US Government failure

The word "Sequestration" doesn't evoke visions of widespread calamity today, but it is a disaster in the making.  This will be a worst-case outcome if it isn't reversed soon.  The Obama administration hasn't made a strong enough statement on what effects will be on the poor and disabled.

Homelessness will be more widespread than it already is as HUD's estimate is that approximately 125,000 individuals and families could lose assistance, people living on the edge of homelessness will fall over the edge.  HUD has sent letters to municipal housing authorities, telling officials to expect less funding for Section 8 rental assistance all across the country.    FHA mortgage assistance and housing will also be affected, with a wide ripple effect in the future.

Education programs will be shredded, in Oregon, Head Start preschool, full-day kindergarten and special education are all at risk, officials said.  Crater Lake, forestland firefighting, child immunizations and air traffic controllers at small airports are also likely to be affected.

Up to 766,000 - Number of health care-related jobs that could be lost or eliminated due to 2% cuts in Medicare spending under sequestration.

 The reaction from Republicans is predictable.  "I don't like the sequester. I think it's taking a meat ax to our government, a meat ax to many programs that will weaken our national defense," House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, said Wednesday. But, he added, "Americans do not support sacrificing real spending cuts for more tax hikes."

We'll see, Mr Boehner, we'll see.

Don't mess with Ron Wyden

Our defender of rights has taken on the Obama administration, which wants to keep secret their justification on assassinating people around the world, including American citizens abroad and frequent innocents caught in the "collateral damage".  Many of the policies originated With George W Bush, but are now the modus operandi of the current administration

In the process, he has picked up allies on both sides of the aisle, with Rand Paul (KY-R), Mike Lee (UT-R), and Mark Udall (CO-D) joining in the demands of more transparency on the arbitrary use of lethal force thousands of miles away.

Is the rule of Law in the US Inoperative?

It was Richard Nixon's press secretary Ron Ziegler that made the word "inoperative" a part of American history (it was a euphemism for "We Lied").  Now during the Senate confirmation hearings for John Brennan as head of the CIA we hear echos of inoperative.
SEN. RON WYDEN: Let me ask you several other questions with respect to the president’s authority to kill Americans. I’ve asked you how much evidence the president needs to decide that a particular American can be lawfully killed and whether the administration believes that the president can use this authority inside the United States.

Brennan answers with total gibberish.

JOHN BRENNAN: I have been a strong proponent of trying to be as open as possible with these programs, as far as our explaining what we’re doing. What we need to do is optimize transparency on these issues, but at the same time optimize secrecy and the protection of our national security. I don’t think that it’s one or the other. It’s trying to optimize both of them. And so, what we need to do is make sure we explain to the American people what are the thresholds for action, what are the procedures, the practices, the processes, the approvals, the reviews. The Office of Legal Counsel advice establishes the legal boundaries within which we can operate. It doesn’t mean that we operate at those out of boundaries. And, in fact, I think the American people will be quite pleased to know that we’ve been very disciplined, very judicious, and we only use these authorities and these capabilities as a last resort.

If ever there was the epitome of obfuscating bureaucratic blather, Brennan achieved it in pointedly not ruling out the killing of US citizens on US soil.

So what is the answer to Wyden's question?  What are the rules?  Will they just kill anyone they deem dangerous, no matter where?