Answers from the past haunt B. Hussan Obama

An old questionnaire that Obama submitted as a candidate for the state Senate in Illinois in 1996 has re-appeared.

 

He answered that he opposed any form of capital punishment as well as any restrictions on abortion and supported an effort to ban the manufacture, sale and possession of handguns in the state.

Obama has blamed it on a campaign staff member, and disavowed most it.
 

This will play well in the Northeast and California but not in Fly Over land.

 

Pelosi briefed on Waterboarding in 2002, No Objections

thanks to captain ed for exposing the congressional dems as lying sacks of stuff who can't be trusted to tell the truth even on matters of national security.

 

Pelosi Briefed On Waterboarding In 2002, No Objections

Captain's Quarters ^ | Dec. 09, 2007 | Ed Morrissey

The CIA briefed four Congressional leaders, including Nancy Pelosi, on the controversial practice of waterboarding over five years ago. Not only did no one object to the practice during the September 2002 briefing, but one attendee asked the briefer whether the technique was tough enough:

In September 2002, four members of Congress met in secret for a first look at a unique CIA program designed to wring vital information from reticent terrorism suspects in U.S. custody. For more than an hour, the bipartisan group, which included current House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), was given a virtual tour of the CIA's overseas detention sites and the harsh techniques interrogators had devised to try to make their prisoners talk.

Among the techniques described, said two officials present, was waterboarding, a practice that years later would be condemned as torture by Democrats and some Republicans on Capitol Hill. But on that day, no objections were raised. Instead, at least two lawmakers in the room asked the CIA to push harder, two U.S. officials said.

"The briefer was specifically asked if the methods were tough enough," said a U.S. official who witnessed the exchange.

Congressional leaders from both parties would later seize on waterboarding as a symbol of the worst excesses of the Bush administration's counterterrorism effort. The CIA last week admitted that videotape of an interrogation of one of the waterboarded detainees was destroyed in 2005 against the advice of Justice Department and White House officials, provoking allegations that its actions were illegal and the destruction was a coverup.

Yet long before "waterboarding" entered the public discourse, the CIA gave key legislative overseers about 30 private briefings, some of which included descriptions of that technique and other harsh interrogation methods, according to interviews with multiple U.S. officials with firsthand knowledge.

This puts a completely different light on the controversy. While Democrats -- and a few Republicans -- in both chambers of Congress have railed against the White House for supposed torture, in reality Congress willingly supported the procedure in over two dozen briefings. Only one person raised any objection during two years of using the procedure.

That doesn't settle the question as to whether waterboarding constitutes torture, but it certainly calls into question the notion that politics has nothing to do with the debate. The CIA stopped using waterboarding after 2003, and apparently have only used it on three detainees: Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, Abu Zubaydah, and an unidentified al-Qaeda prisoner. Only well after the practice had been abandoned did Congress raise objections to its use, and then never acknowledging their own acquiescence to it earlier. That lack of honesty allowed them to paint themselves as shocked, shocked! that waterboarding had been used as an interrogation technique.

Given that the CIA ended the practice at about the time that one member of Congress in 30 briefings complained about it, I'd call this a wash in terms of responsibility. The reason the CIA briefs the selected few on highly classified covert matters is not to get a rubber stamp on their activities, but to allow oversight and get approval for their covert activities. If Congress couldn't find it objectionable when waterboarding was employed, they have little to complain about years afterward.

Bredesen: Dems Corrupt - Been in Power a Long Time

Bill Hobbs reports:

 

Bredesen: Democrats Corrupt Because They've Been in Power A Long Time

 

Bribery. Theft. Fraud. Drunk Driving. Corruption. That's the face of the Tennessee Democrat Party these days, and the lead Tennessee Democrat, Gov. Phil Bredesen, says the root of the culture of corruption gripping his party's state legislative caucus is the long time that they have been in power. Really. He said that.

"The Democrats have been in power longer," Bredesen said. "And I think anytime you have anybody in power longer, these kinds of things develop with a few people."

A few? A fourth of the Democratic Senate Caucus has had to resign due to corruption charges. Kathryn Bowers took a bribe. Ward Crutchfield took a bribe. John Ford took a bribe. Jerry Cooper - the most recent to resign - took $95,000 that didn't belong to him. Three bribe-takers and a thief. A quarter of the Democrat Senate Caucus.

If Tennesseans want less corruption in their state legislature, they need to vote for a Republican majority in November 2008. Just ask Gov. Phil Bredesen.

Govenor's Wife lies about renovation costs to mansion

For Immediate Release: December 3, 2007

December 03, 2007

For Further Information, Contact:
Nicole Williams, (615) 383-6431, Ext. 1003
editor@tennesseepolicy.org

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Conte Dishonest about Governor's Mansion Renovation Costs
Tennessee Center for Policy Research exposes true price of project

NASHVILLE – A State Building Commission document obtained by the Tennessee Center for Policy Research shows that Tennessee's First Lady Andrea Conte deceived Tennesseans about the cost and funding sources related to renovations of the Governor's Mansion.

Initially, renovating the Governor's Mansion and bringing the house into compliance with provisions of the Americans With Disabilities Act was to cost less than $10 million. Today, the price tag has ballooned to $19.2 million, over 20 times the $900,100 appraised value of the house.

Despite the First Lady's pledge that she would "raise 60 percent to 80 percent of the total cost privately," state taxpayers are on the hook for $12.8 million, according to the State Building Commission document. Only a third of the cost of the project has been raised privately.

"The First Lady has turned the Governor's Mansion into a house of horrors for taxpayers," said Drew Johnson, President of the Tennessee Center for Policy Research. "Tennesseans have already been tapped for nearly $13 million to renovate the Mansion and I have a feeling that the First Lady isn't finished raiding our pockets."

In November 2005, Conte declared that $6.7 million had already been privately raised for the renovation. Now, State Building Commission documents show that she only raised $6.4 million in private funds—even less than she claimed to have in-hand two years ago.

To make matters worse for taxpayers, Conte has added an underground entertainment facility to her wish list of projects for the mansion. The total cost of the party bunker is not fully included on the State Building Commission document and is likely to cost millions in additional public funds.

"If this bunker is built, it will become an underground fundraising Mecca for incumbent governors and their political parties," Johnson said. "It will go down as the single most inappropriate use of tax dollars in the history of Tennessee."

Despite their eagerness to spend tax dollars on the Governor's Mansion, Conte and her husband, Gov. Phil Bredesen, do not actually live there, preferring instead to reside in their own mansion in the Forest Hills area of Nashville.

A PDF of the State Building Commission document outlining the cost of the renovation of the Governor's Mansion can be found at: http://www.tennesseepolicy.org/files/pdf/SBC.pdf

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