Bill Bennett should stick to the slot machines. Exposing a deep cover CIA operative for political payback and future whistleblower intimidation is bad behavior. Opening secret gulags into which anyone deemed an opponent of this administration may disappear is also bad behavior. The exposing of bad behavior is not bad - it is a good thing. I refuse to believe that any administration must resort to tactics like this in order to do their jobs. At the very least, Bush should re-evaluate his administration's methods. We both know they need to go to Oz and find a soul.

- the blogger formerly known as boloboffin

Sooner or later were going to have an American service member captured. The chances of them receiving horrendous treatment by their captors as retaliation against American treatment of prisoners has significantly increased. My government is doing things in our names that will give justification to future terrorists. How will history look upon our times? Bennet is justifying torture. He says we should be outraged because of a whistleblower? That’s not what Judy Miller was!!!! We are not the good guys in this case… we’re hypocrites! Our leaders choose torture over doing the right thing. We have weapons of mass destruction yet lecture everyone else. We claim to be bringing democracy to the world yet set up ‘free speech zones,' spy on our own citizens, give the police ways to get around due process of law. Damn, are these people studying the Third Reich or what? Sorry, but sometimes patriotism isn't good enough.

Secret prisons, gulags, suspending (or "limiting") habeus corpus... it's like being in Romania again.

Everyone seems to be missing the reality of what has occured. Cheney and all the group who met to develope a strategy to come up with propaganda to decieve the American people and go to war based on a series of lies and misinformation,have committed TREASON against the American people. No Congressman or Senator is willing to make that charge. They are willing to look blindly the other way. All are in denial and defensive of the truth because all are in total disbelief and fear of a trial of those at the highest level. Since the lawmakers and leaders of both the Republican and Democrats prefer to lay low and take no action the thugs are becoming bolder, the whole rash of threats and loud mouth schoolyard bully threats of "bring it on" and " no option is off the table.", is leading Bush to,"as an old saying goes, let his allegator mouth overload his tadpole ass,and leads him to have to carry out his threats of preemptive attack just to prove he will do it. The Senate and Congress remind me of the Movie " Oh brother", where George Cluney ( Everitt)- sits stupidily watching the Bible salesman swat the crap out of Delmar with a tree limb.
I often wondered how Hitler could have amassed such an army of people to go to war to try and conqure all of Europe. I no longer wonder about that since the lie used by the Bush administration is as obvious as the lie Hitler used to gain power of the German government. Everyone then knew Hitler's claim was a lie and half of the American people knew Bush's claim was a lie. I am seeing every day how our government and half the population are giving up our freedom in the belief that they will be able to deny other people theirs. America cannot win a World War Three. Once a country become a mad dog on the loose other countries will rise up and destroy it. A word to the neocon christians,your armagiddon will be of your own making, god will have had nothing to do with it.

Jo,

It is because of mr. & mrs. joe-six pack (aka the sheeple)that we got the Krawford Klutz a second time around. Still, much blame should go to the rubber stamp, he-said-she-said corporate media that did NOT do their job.

Oh, and Bill Bennett is a whack job. Hasn't he been totally discrdited? Why won't he shut up and go away?

To Bill Bennett: Hey Bill! It's not true what they say about Vegas. Your dirty little secret gambling problem didn't stay in Vegas, did it? Assclown.

I'm just say'n

"Sooner or later were going to have an American service member captured. The chances of them receiving horrendous treatment by their captors as retaliation against American treatment of prisoners has significantly increased."

Yes because we all know that had an American been captured before the abu ghraib story broke they would have been treated wonderfully! Give me a break. The terrorists chop off the heads of people who have nothing to do with the military, you somehow think that they ever had a sense of mercy or compassion? Did the Vietnamese torture our captured soldiers because we were cruel to them? No. Did the Japanese? no. The Koreans? No. The Nazis? No. All of these groups were basically evil and thus they carried out evil deeds. They do not need a reason. They may use the abuse at abu ghraib as an excuse but its not the reason. The real reason is they are crazy extremists that would cut the head off of a baby if it would further their cause.

"The terrorists chop off the heads of people who have nothing to do with the military, you somehow think that they ever had a sense of mercy or compassion? Did the Vietnamese torture our captured soldiers because we were cruel to them? No. Did the Japanese? no. The Koreans? No. The Nazis? No. All of these groups were basically evil and thus they carried out evil deeds. They do not need a reason."

Torm, it's true that they did mistreat/kill prisoners in Iraq. It is also true that we had detainees in Gitmo before this happened. If I read your e-mail between the lines correctly, you support the torture of prisoners - period. Then you have to accept that our people WILL BE tortured. You insinuate that I think the enemy is compassionate. I do not. But please, labeling everyone 'terrorists' inplies, as least to me, that you are saying that these are the people that attacked us on 9/11. These are, in fact, people that are now attacking Americans because of this administrations blunder of getting us into a situation of their creation. By that I mean a) they sent the troops in, b) protecting oil assests is a major consideration of theirs, and c) it was the policies of the US government and US corporations that has led to our unpopularity in that region of the world in the first place! You said that these groups practice torture and are basically evil. We practice torture so what does that make us? Is torture morally right or wrong? As far as I'm concerned, torture is wrong no matter who does it. And if it is wrong then why do it? The Japanese tortured prisoners but, for the most part, the US did not. We still won the Pacific War. The evidence does not support the idea that if you torture you will win a war. You know that. If you're willing to use torture have you ever put yourself into a position that could possibly have resulted in yourself being tortured? Have you served in a combat arms position in the armed forces? I have. Do you have children of your own now serving in a combat position in the armed forces? I do, and he's heading back to Iraq again soon. How would you feel if a daughter of yours were to be captured? Seems to me that the main proponents of torture are the usual suspects – chickenhawks. Should every country just throw out the Geneva Convention for good?

Like the Cold War, the War on Terror is a war of ideas. We'll win because our values are better. But to do that we have to stick to our vaues.

Anyone who says different doesn't understand the nature of the conflict.

1. Timely
   
2. Strategery
   
3. Webb wins
   
4. Huh?
   
5. Bunnypants in Bagdad
   
6. Outage
   
7. Filthy Lucre Watch
   
8. Playing the numbers
   
9. My letter to Countdown
   
10. Jefferson's Nigerian Scams