Conservative talker suspended after blaming swine flu on the ‘millions of leeches’ from Mexico.
Conservative talker suspended after blaming swine flu on the ‘millions of leeches’ from Mexico.
Conservative talker Jay Severin was suspended indefinitely today by Boston’s WTKK-FM after using the current swine flu outbreak to attack Mexicans and immigrants. On his radio show, Severin blamed the swine flu on what he called “some of the world’s lowest of primitives in poor Mexico”:
So now in addition to venereal disease and the other leading exports of Mexico — women with mustaches and VD — now we have swine flu. … We should be if anything surprised that Mexico has not visited upon us poxes of more various and serious types considering the number of cimminalieans already here. [...]
[W]hen scoop up some of the world’s lowest of primitives in poor Mexico and drop it down in the middle of the United States. Poor, without skills, without language, not share our culture, not share our hygiene. … It’s millions of leeches from a primitive country. … Now they are exporting a rather more active form of disease which is the swine flu.
Listen to a compilation of his remarks:
Despite his comments, Severin’s agent believes that Severin “will be back on the air doing great radio soon.”
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Jindal spares money for New Orleans Saints while slashing health care and education funding.
Jindal spares money for New Orleans Saints while slashing health care and education funding.
Recently, Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal (R) released his budget for next year, calling for cuts in higher education and health care for the uninsured and disabled in order to plug a $1.3 billion shortfall in revenue. Already, hospitals are laying off workers. Yet Jindal is managing to spare some funds for his favorite football team:
The Jindal administration wants to use $85 million of a state surplus as well as pay up to $6 million a year to keep the Saints football team in Louisiana, lawmakers said Wednesday. The deal, described by legislators briefed on the offer, would require the state to pay far less than the $23.5 million the team is receiving in annual cash inducements. … Several lawmakers were critical of the proposal, which coincides with a budget crunch threatening health care and higher education with substantial reduction.
Jindal claims that the team generates millions in revenue every year, but he has pledged to preserve budget-busting tax cuts for upper-income individuals and businesses. State Rep. Karen St. German asked, “Again, behind closed doors, we’re supplementing a multimillionaire. When do we stop the madness and worry about education and health care?”
Secession-ready Texas has received most federal disaster assistance of any state.
Secession-ready Texas has received most federal disaster assistance of any state.
Just weeks after declaring that Texas might secede from the union because “the federal government has become oppressive,” Gov. Rick Perry (R) today asked for more federal aid when he “issued a disaster declaration” because of the swine flu. Mother Jones’ Jonathan Stein found that, since the beginning of FEMA’s record-keeping, Texas has actually received more federal assistance from FEMA than any other state:
A FEMA spokesman told Stein “that a major disaster declaration is issued when a governor ‘determines the state’s resources are overrun.’” FEMA reimburses at least 75 percent of the state’s recovery costs; currently, the federal govenrment is covering 100 percent of Texas’ Hurricane Ike recovery effort.
Fleischer: ‘I’ll be proud to testify if I get a subpoena.’
Fleischer: ‘I’ll be proud to testify if I get a subpoena.’
Today during a panel discussion for the IFC Media Project, former Bush press secretary Ari Fleischer argued forcefully against launching an in-depth investigation of the Bush administration’s torture program. However, he said that if it does happen, he’s ready for them to bring it on:
He argued that neither Congress nor anyone else is up to the task, and that any investigation would “lead to acrimony and blame-gaming” and “devolve into the worst type of partisanship.” While noting that “no one likes to get a subpoena,” Fleischer said, “I’ll be proud to testify if I get a subpoena. I’m proud of what we did to protect this country.” Those wanting to see Fleischer—or at least some of his former colleagues—on the witness stand include his fellow panelists Noonan, who called for a 9/11 Commission-style investigation, and Tina Brown, who quoted Senator Patrick Leahy’s contention that “before you can turn a page, you want to read it.” When moderator (and Media Project host) Gideon Yago brought up the idea of a special prosecutor, Fleischer sternly pointed out that “that assumes a crime has been committed.”
Today, Sen. Robert Byrd (D-WV) also demanded an investigation into Bush’s torture program. “To continue to ignore the mounting evidence of clear wrongdoing is a national humiliation,” writes Byrd.
Rep. Broun Baselessly Speculates That The Child Who Died From Swine Flu In The U.S. Was An ‘Illegal Alien’
Rep. Broun Baselessly Speculates That The Child Who Died From Swine Flu In The U.S. Was An ‘Illegal Alien’
Yesterday, Rep. Paul Broun (R-GA) was on C-SPAN’s Washington Journal and talked about the outbreak of the H1N1 virus. When discussing the first death in the United States from the disease, Broun used the tragedy to rail against “illegal aliens”:
Q: What do you think happens next here? Or should happen?
BROUN: Of course, it’s sad to see a 23-month-old child die from this disease. We don’t have any specifics. I tried to find out this morning specifics about this child that has died — whether it was someone who is from Mexico, possibly an illegal alien who has been brought into this country.
One big problem we have in this country is an open border. The border is like a sieve, and so these illegal aliens are coming across, and I think a lot of the health care facilities throughout Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, and California are going to be overwhelmed by cases coming out of Mexico — Mexican citizens — putting a further strain on those facilities. So, I don’t know if this child was a Mexican, or if it was an American child — what the situation is — but it was sad that this child died.
Watch it:
In fact, the child was a Mexican citizen whose family was visiting relatives in the United States. “The family had traveled to South Texas. The child became ill and they transported the child to Houston for medical care,” said a Houston health department official. This case had absolutely nothing to do with undocumented immigration. Most of the U.S. cases are arising in people who legally traveled to Mexico for various reasons.
Media Matters and CAP’s Eric Alterman have also documented right-wing media figures blaming Mexican immigrants for the spread of the virus. On April 24, hate radio host Michael Savage said, “Illegal aliens are the carriers of the new strain of human-swine avian flu from Mexico,” and on April 27, Neal Boortz asked, “[W]hat better way to sneak a virus into this country than give it to Mexicans?”
Transcript: More »
Beck: ‘What a surprise,’ Obama didn’t call on Fox News during his press conference.
Beck: ‘What a surprise,’ Obama didn’t call on Fox News during his press conference.
On his radio show today, conservative talker Glenn Beck recycled a year-old talking point to complain about President Obama not calling on anyone from Fox News during his press conference last night. “What a surprise” he said sarcastically before asking, “I mean how can the guy face Ahmadinejad but he can’t face Fox?” Listen here:
It’s hard to suggest that Obama doesn’t want to “face” Fox News, given that its White House correspondent, Major Garrett, was called on at the two previous prime-time news conferences. When Fox suggested that they were not being given enough access to Obama during last fall’s presidential campaign, Garrett actually defended Obama. “[M]ay I point out Obama has done 5 interviews with me and one with Chris Wallace, one with Brit Hume and one with Bill O’Reilly,” Garrett wrote in an e-mail obtained by Huffington Post.
MoveOn calls for Bybee impeachment.
MoveOn calls for Bybee impeachment.
MoveOn released a video today calling for the impeachment of Jay Bybee. Watch it:
Since ThinkProgress launched our Bybee impeachment campaign 10 days ago, a few lawmakers have indicated support for such action. More support is needed, however. Last Sunday, CAPAF President and CEO John Podesta called for Bybee’s impeachment on CNN, arguing, “If he would do the right thing, he should just simply resign. If he doesn’t…I think a simple matter would be to remove him from office.”
Brownie Attacks Obama Administration’s Response To Swine Flu: Officials Are Just Crying ‘Chicken Little’
Brownie Attacks Obama Administration’s Response To Swine Flu: Officials Are Just Crying ‘Chicken Little’
Yesterday, former FEMA chief Michael Brown went on Fox Business to talk about the response of the World Health Organization (WHO) and the Obama administration to the H1N1 flu virus. Brownie, who gained infamy for his incompetent response to Hurricane Katrina, launched into a tirade accusing the WHO for addressing the H1NI virus in a selfish bid to gain “more attention” and said the Obama administration is recklessly overreacting:
BROWN: Well I think there’s one thing they’re legitimately worried about and that is this H1N1 is a new strain we haven’t seen before so we’re not sure how Tamiflu and everything will work against it. Here’s what I really think is going on. I think they want to raise this level because that gives them more attention, it gives them more, you know, more legitimacy, and allows them to get out there and say ‘oh look at us, we’re in control we’ve got this thing taken care of.’ It legitimizes what they’re doing. We shouldn’t be scaring the public. [...]
Neil, my theory always was after Katrina that the Bush administration and now the Obama administration will do it too. They will come out and they will do everything including the kitchen sink because they don’t want to get caught with their pants down. But what that does is, that’s the same as crying the sky is falling, chicken little. And next time people will be less inclined to believe it.
Watch it:
Host Neil Cavuto tried to rehabilitate Brownie’s image by telling him that he was a “sacrificial lamb” for the Bush administration’s Katrina failures. But just as Brown was woefully unqualified to take the job of FEMA director, it is unclear that he knows anything more about reacting to a possible pandemic.
After all, Brown (aka “Brownie“) was a central figure in the Bush administration’s dismissive, inadequate response to the disaster. He waited days after Louisiana had declared an emergency to even request DHS personnel to the Gulf region. As officials attempted to inform Brown that people were dying at the New Orleans Superdome, his press secretary responded that Brown needed “much more that (sic) 20 or 30 minutes” to eat at a restaurant. Brown told the press he had just learned about the situation at the Superdome four days after Katrina made landfall and a day after his colleagues had tried to tell him. He later resigned in disgrace.
Despite Brown’s attacks, the Obama administration has been praised by experts for its response to the flu outbreak. Officials have made rapid moves to dispel “unjustified fears about the flu virus,” while “stressing the need for precautions, such as washing hands, covering sneezes and seeking medical attention for flu-like symptoms.” The WHO has raised its global alert level to phase 5 because the virus appears to be spreading easily person-to-person, and cases are appearing that have no link to Mexico.
Banking lobby successfully defeats mortgage cram-down provision.
Banking lobby successfully defeats mortgage cram-down provision.
Today, a proposal to change bankruptcy law and allow bankruptcy judges to cram-down mortgage payments for troubled homeowners failed in the Senate by a vote of 45-51. The provision, which was introduced as an amendment by Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL), required 60 votes to pass. In recent weeks, support for the measure evaporated in the face of furious lobbying by the banking and mortgage industries. Prior to the vote, Durbin — who this week said that bankers “are still the most powerful lobby on Capitol Hill” — took to the floor to decry the banking industry’s influence in the cram-down debate:
At some point the senators in this chamber will decide the bankers shouldn’t write the agenda for the United States Senate. At some point the people in this chamber will decide the people we represent are not the folks working in the big banks, but the folks struggling to make a living and struggling to keep a decent home.
Watch it:
The American News Project noted that the Mortgage Bankers Association was “in a celebratory mood” at its annual meeting this week because “a massive lobbying campaign” against cram-down appeared to be working.
Rep. Foxx backtracks: My Matthew Shepard comments were ‘a poor choice of words.’
Rep. Foxx backtracks: My Matthew Shepard comments were ‘a poor choice of words.’
Yesterday, Rep. Virginia Foxx (R-NC) generated intense controversy when she railed against The Matthew Shepard Act, which would expand the definition of hate crimes to “those motivated by gender, sexual orientation, gender identity and disability.” Foxx claimed that Shepard’s horrific murder was a “hoax.” “We know that that young man was killed in the commitment of a robbery. It wasn’t because he was gay,” she said. Watch it:
Today, Human Rights Campaign President Joe Solomnese — who was sitting in the House gallery with Shepard’s mother yesterday when Foxx made her comments — wrote the congresswoman a letter calling on her to make a full apology. Foxx’s office has now released a statement, saying that “hoax” was a “poor choice of words.” “I am especially sorry if his grieving family was offended by my statement,” she added. However, she said she still stands by her belief that Shepard’s murder may not have been motivated by hate.
Steele: Moderates Are Welcome In The GOP As Long As They Vote Like Right Wingers
Steele: Moderates Are Welcome In The GOP As Long As They Vote Like Right Wingers
This morning on CBS’s Early Show, RNC Chairman Michael Steele strongly endorsed Rush Limbaugh’s reaction to Sen. Arlen Specter’s (PA) decision to leave the Republican party. Limbaugh had responded to Specter’s departure by calling him “dead weight” and claiming that it said “nothing about the state of the GOP.” Steele said that he agreed with Limbaugh. Asked why he wasn’t phased by Specter’s departure, Steele cited Specter’s “debilitating” vote in favor of President Obama’s economic recovery package. “It went against core principles. … I’m not weeping here. I’m sorry,” Steele remarked.
Moments later, however, Steele insisted that the GOP still remained a hospitable place for moderate conservatives:
SMITH: Is there room for moderates?
STEELE: Absolutely. There’s room for everybody who wants to be a part of a party that believes, first and foremost, in the value of the individual to make decisions that empower him or herself. … This notion that somehow, you know, because we’re conservatives, our doors are closed and we only take certain types of people is just crazy. This is not — never been the nature of this party.
Watch it:
In reality, Steele’s Republican party is increasingly inhospitable to its moderate members. Asked on NPR’s All Things Considered if other moderate Republicans with similar voting records – including former Sens. Chuck Hagel (NE), Gordon Smith (OR), and John Warner (VA), would be “left of [the] Republican Party today” – Steele suggested that was the case. “They are to the left on some very critical issues that are fundamental to our- some of our core beliefs,” Steele said.
Indeed, when Congress passed the Recovery Act with the support of Specter and Sens. Susan Collins (R-ME) and Olympia Snowe (R-ME), Steele threatened to retaliate against them the next time they were up for reelection. Snowe wrote yesterday in the New York Times that in response to such threats from Steele and litmus tests imposed on them by the right wing, moderate Republicans often “get the distinct feeling that you’re no longer welcome in the tribe.”
Quinnipiac poll: Majority of Americans believe Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell should be repealed.
Quinnipiac poll: Majority of Americans believe Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell should be repealed.
In a new poll, the Quinnipiac Polling Institute has found that 56 percent of Americans, including 50 percent of voters with family in the military, believe that “the ban on openly gay men and women in the military should be repealed.” Respondents to the poll also rejected the idea that allowing gay men and women to serve openly in the military would be “divisive“:
White Catholics say 64 – 29 percent that gays in the military should be allowed to come out, while white evangelical Christians support “don’t ask; don’t tell” 53 – 40 percent. Voters reject 58 – 35 percent, including 56 – 39 percent in military households, the argument that allowing openly gay men and women to serve would be divisive, the independent Quinnipiac (KWIN-uh-pe-ack) University survey of 2,041 registered voters nationwide finds.
On MSNBC earlier today, Peter A. Brown, assistant director of the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute, explained why the poll is “one of the most extensive ever done.” “We did over 2,000 interviews, which is double the size of most national polls,” said Brown. Watch it:
Rice: Nazis were less of a threat to the U.S. than al Qaeda; SCOTUS wouldn’t let us try detainees.
Rice: Nazis were less of a threat to the U.S. than al Qaeda; SCOTUS wouldn’t let us try detainees.
Speaking with a group of Stanford students Monday, former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice declared that al Qaeda is a greater threat to the United States than Nazi Germany was because Germany “never attacked the homeland of the United States.” In a defensive exchange with a student, she also insisted that the Bush administration had always wanted to hold trials for detainees, but the Supreme Court wouldn’t let them:
RICE: Now, the ICRC [International Committee of the Red Cross] also had access to Guantanamo. And they made no allegations about interrogations in Guantanamo. What they did say was that indefinite detention, where people didn’t know whether they’d come up for trial — which is why we tried under the military commissions system to let people come up for trial. Those trials were stayed by who? Who kept us from holding the trials?
STUDENT: I can’t answer that question.
RICE: Do your homework first. … It was the Supreme Court.
Watch it:
Of course, the Supreme Court “stayed” the Bush administration’s military commissions because they were woefully inadequate. The Court — three separate times — required the administration to come up with meaningful judicial review of suspects’ detentions. Indeed, last June the court held that military commissions “are not an adequate and effective substitute for habeas corpus” and thus “operates as an unconstitutional suspension of the writ.”
GOP Leaders Shut Steele Out Of New Initiative To Revive The Party
GOP Leaders Shut Steele Out Of New Initiative To Revive The Party
Last night, CNN reported that leaders of the GOP are launching an initiative called the National Council for a New America as a “new effort to revive the image of the Republican Party.” The party heavyweights spearheading the group include the House and Senate Republican leadership, including Rep. Eric Cantor (R-VA); former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney; former Florida governor Jeb Bush; and Sen. John McCain (R-AZ).
Though the letter announcing the National Council promised an “open policy debate” with “not a Republican-only forum,” Cantor disputed the notion that the initiative is actually a move to shift the party away from far-right ideas. Speaking on CNN last night, Cantor admitted it is “not so much a rebranding effort,” but an avenue to “begin to lay out the solutions that Republicans have.” Watch it:
Conspicuously absent from the list of Republican heavyweights participating in the effort is current RNC Chairman Michael Steele. Steele was elected on a platform to rebrand the GOP, promising an “off the hook” public relations campaign. But after a string of missteps, conservatives are now pushing a resolution to revoke the Chairman’s power to dole out money.
Despite Steele’s historic election as the first African American to lead the GOP, the party appears to be marginalizing his power while building its image based on the recycled ideas of Newt Gingrich.
Obama on ‘state secrets’ doctrine: It’s ‘overbroad’ and should be ‘modified.’
Obama on ‘state secrets’ doctrine: It’s ‘overbroad’ and should be ‘modified.’
Though he was a critic of the Bush administration’s use of the “state secrets” argument as a presidential candidate, President Obama’s administration has pushed the same legal rationale in three ongoing lawsuits. During last night’s primetime press conference, when Time’s Michael Scherer asked Obama how his position differed from President Bush’s, Obama replied that he actually thinks that it should be “modified“:
OBAMA: I actually think that the state secret doctrine should be modified. I think right now it’s over-broad. But keep in mind what happens is, we come into office, we’re in for a week — and suddenly we’ve got a court filing that’s coming up. And so we don’t have the time to effectively think through what, exactly, should a overarching reform of that doctrine take. We’ve got to respond to the immediate case in front of us.
I think it is appropriate to say that there are going to be cases in which national security interests are genuinely at stake, and that you can’t litigate without revealing covert activities or classified information that would genuinely compromise our safety. But searching for ways to redact, to carve out certain cases, to see what can be done so that a judge in chambers can review information without it being in open court — you know, there should be some additional tools so that it’s not such a blunt instrument.
Watch it:
On Tuesday, the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals reinstated a lawsuit that both the Bush administration and the Obama administration had asked a trial judge to throw out using the “state secrets” doctrine. The New York Times editorial page wrote yesterday that the courts’ decision “tamed” the use of the “state secrets” doctrine.
Steele tells conservatives to stop pointing fingers on bailouts: “Do the ‘my bad’ and move forward.”
Steele tells conservatives to stop pointing fingers on bailouts: “Do the ‘my bad’ and move forward.”
Much of the right-wing “outrage” against the Obama administration has been over its willingness to grant “bailouts” to Wall Street companies. In fact, the RNC is currently encouraging supporters “to speak out against the bailouts.” Today on MSNBC, however, RNC Chairman Michael Steele candidly admitted that it is “disingenuous” for conservatives to blame Democrats for bailing out Wall Street, since the original bailouts were approved by President Bush:
STEELE: Look, we can’t go back out and start pointing fingers at Democrats and saying look how bad they’re performing, look at what they’re doing with the economy when we jump-started this thing. We were the ones that put the $700 billion on the table and said, all right, let’s start nationalizing the banking system. So now, for us to stand back and go, oh, that’s a bad thing to do is disingenuous. So let’s own up, do the my bad, and move forward.
Watch it:
(HT: FireDogLake)
You wear your hat one way. You like to wear it, you know, kind of cocked to the left, you know, because that's cool out West. In the Midwest, you guys like to wear it a little bit to the right. In the South, you guys like to wear the brim straight ahead. Now, the Northeast, I wear my hat backwards, you know, because that's how we roll in the Northeast.
Rice Channels Nixon: Since The President Authorized Torture, That Makes It Legal
Rice Channels Nixon: Since The President Authorized Torture, That Makes It Legal
Recently, former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice spoke with some students at Stanford University, where she is a Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institute. When a student asked whether Rice had authorized torture, she refused to take responsibility, saying only that she “conveyed the authorization of the administration.” She added that, “by definition,” once the president authorized “enhanced interrogations,” they were automatically legal:
Q: Is waterboarding torture?
RICE: The president instructed us that nothing we would do would be outside of our obligations, legal obligations under the Convention Against Torture. So that’s — And by the way, I didn’t authorize anything. I conveyed the authorization of the administration to the agency, that they had policy authorization, subject to the Justice Department’s clearance. That’s what I did.
Q: Okay. Is waterboarding torture in your opinion?
RICE: I just said, the United States was told, we were told, nothing that violates our obligations under the Convention Against Torture. And so by definition, if it was authorized by the president, it did not violate our obligations under the Convention Against Torture.
The Young Turks’ Cenk Uygur, who obtained the video, said Rice “absolutely pulls a Nixon” in her answer. Watch it (Rice’s answers come at 0:57):
Rice is attempting to hide her central role in approving torture, as the Senate Armed Services Committee report released last week highlighted. She gave verbal authorization to then-director of the CIA George Tenet to waterboard Abu Zubaydah in July 2002 — one month before the Office of Legal Counsel gave the legal justification for such torture.
Rice’s opinion that a presidential authorization — “by definition” — grants something legality is deeply disturbing. In fact, the United States — and its president — are bound by U.S. statute and international treaties that ban the use of cruel, humiliating, degrading treatment, the infliction of suffering, and the attempt to extract coerced confessions.
Memo to Rice: Bush may have been “the Decider,” but he didn’t have the authority to make an illegal act magically legal.
ThinkFast: April 30, 2009
ThinkFast: April 30, 2009
The Commerce Department reported yesterday that the “American economy is contracting at its steepest pace in 50 years…but an unanticipated rise in consumer spending since January suggested to many economists that the worst of the recession might have passed.” Output fell at an 6.1 percent annual rate in the first quarter of this year after falling at a 6.3 percent rate in last year’s fourth quarter.
In an effort to rebrand the party, a group of Republican heavyweights “are launching a new group that will hold town halls around the country and look to produce GOP ideas on issues like education and health care.” The group, known as the National Council for a New America, will hold its first town hall session on Saturday in Northern Virginia, which will be attended by Jeb Bush and Rep. Eric Cantor (R-VA).
Former Bush budget director Jim Nussle expressed a lack of confidence in Michael Steele’s leadership of the RNC. “I don’t think we’ve found that yet in Michael or anybody else yet for the party,” Nussle said. “So we’re going to have to struggle through that for a while.”
In an angry e-mail to the RNC treasurer Randy Pullen, RNC Chairman Michael Steele declared Pullen’s attempt to wrestle control over RNC spending to be “nothing short of a completely unprecedented usurpation of the authority of the RNC chairman.” He added, “No RNC chairman has ever had to deal with this, and I certainly have no intention of putting up with it either.”
Dawn Johnsen “is undoubtedly qualified for the position” of Office of Legal Counsel head, the Washington Post editorializes today, “and she should be confirmed.” “Johnsen’s pledge to make public as many OLC opinions as possible…is a welcome change from the previous administration and another reason to confirm” her, the Post concludes.
Obama Hits Back Against Bybee’s Defense: ‘Legal Rationales’ For Torture Memos Were ‘A Mistake’
Obama Hits Back Against Bybee’s Defense: ‘Legal Rationales’ For Torture Memos Were ‘A Mistake’
In tonight’s press conference, ABC’s Jake Tapper asked President Obama if he believes “that the previous administration sanctioned torture,” in light of Obama’s recent release of Bush-era torture memos. Obama refrained from saying the Bush administration committed criminal acts, but he said, “I do believe that it [waterboarding] is torture.” The President added that the legal guidance that Bush lawyers provided were a “mistake”:
QUESTION: Do you believe the previous administration sanctioned torture?
OBAMA: I believe that waterboarding was torture. And I think that the — whatever legal rationales were used, it was a mistake.
Watch it:
Although Obama has repeatedly said that waterboarding is torture, his response saying that the “legal rationales” were “a mistake” is important because it discredits 9th Circuit Court Judge Jay Bybee’s recent claim that his flawed OLC memos were legally sound.
Yesterday, Bybee “broke his silence” and talked to the New York Times about his torture memos. While anonymous friends of Bybee said that the former OLC head regretted signing off on the torture memos, Bybee defended his memos as legally “correct“:
[H]e said: “The central question for lawyers was a narrow one; locate, under the statutory definition, the thin line between harsh treatment of a high-ranking Al Qaeda terrorist that is not torture and harsh treatment that is. I believed at the time, and continue to believe today, that the conclusions were legally correct.” [...]
“The legal question was and is difficult,” he said. “And the stakes for the country were significant no matter what our opinion. In that context, we gave our best, honest advice, based on our good-faith analysis of the law.”
Obama’s belief that the notorious memoranda written by Judge Bybee were legally flawed add further justification to the need for Bybee to resign his seat on the federal court.
Please join our campaign calling on Congress to begin impeachment hearings against Jay Bybee.
Fox not granted a question at Obama’s press conference.
Fox not granted a question at Obama’s press conference.
In tonight’s press conference, Obama spent nearly a full hour answering questions from reporters, who represented media organizations such as the Detroit News, the Associated Press, BET, and all three cable networks — ABC, NBC, and CBS. One outlet that didn’t get a question? Fox News, whose affiliate was the only network station that decided not to air the prime-time news conference. Obama called on Fox News White House Correspondent Major Garrett in his previous two press conferences.
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