Pruning Shears

No Associated Press content was harmed in the writing of this post

Andrew Sullivan pointed out the perfectly obvious discrepancy between how a couple of citizens were charged with torture for abuses far milder than the ones CIA officers inflicted on detainees. I read the same story Sullivan did before he posted on it, and my reaction was immediate and identical. This is where we are now - any action taken by us or urged on others in response to maltreatment is instantly, and I mean instantly, framed in comparison to the torture US officials have gotten away with. Washington DC (and Eric Holder in particular) does not seem to appreciate what a sickening joke the Department of Justice is becoming by turning such a resolutely blind eye to torture. Oh, and Muriel Kane reported that the CIA didn’t kill as many detainees as the military because they wanted to maximize the opportunities to brutalize them. Considered from the perspective that they didn’t go ahead and off them completely I guess that qualifies as a certain kind of solicitousness. Maybe we should start grading on a curve.

Along similar lines, it’s hard to miss how destruction of evidence is treated when the CIA does it versus when another body does. I just can’t emphasize this strongly enough: the discrepancy between how Justice is treating the CIA and how everyone else gets treated is turning the JD into an object of contempt and ridicule.

Sullivan also had a great post about why conservative activists are impossible to take seriously. A lot of us were wondering where the deficit hating, Constitution loving patriots were during the Bush years. Maybe they went Galt.

You’ve probably already seen this, but it’s really a bombshell. CIA covert ops really aren’t much of a bargain. I wish they’d just stick with analysis.

Marcy got a hold of the Cheney interview materials and went to work. The best way to keep up - she’s really posting at a good clip - might be to go to the bottom of the page to the “Cheney Refused to Release the Journalists” link, click on it and make your way forward post by post from there. If you don’t have time then at least be sure not to miss this.

Here’s your Raw Story hat trick:

• The CIA has lied to Congress five times since 2001. The Agency might not be so completely out of control if Congress showed more interest in oversight. And repeat after me, John Boehner: I’m sorry, Nancy Pelosi.
• You might think drone strikes would be a splendid way for America to continue its adventures in quasi-empire building without too many Americans dying (the deaths of non-Americans remain perennially irrelevant). You would be wrong.
• George Bush’s Pentagon propaganda program appears to still be humming along under Barack Obama.

Obama is a big fan of W’s expansive take on state secrets too. This week John Cole wrote:

I will, on the other hand, mock you repeatedly if you tell the world that Obama is worse than Bush because Gitmo is not closed yet and because he hasn’t completely altered the overall outlook of the national security machinery. I will mock you endlessly if you scream that Obama sucks because Gitmo still has prisoners, when the Senate has repeatedly screwed Obama. Hell- remember the 96 to nothing vote a couple months ago about “freeing terrorists on domestic soil.”

Michael Mukasey is still a jackass. By the way, Cynthia Kouril is terrific. I hadn’t read her before she started at FDL but I really like what I’ve read from her there.

TDTR FTW.

I’m not a Schwarzenegger fan, but as political needling goes this is pure comedy gold. Note to politicians: This kind of thing only works once. If you try it you will come across as a lame and unimaginative imitator.