Time to warm up the cheerleader video. Malkin is hating on your pal Woolcott.

(Actually, maybe the cheerleader vid isn’t called for this time. Snarking on Woolcott is the blogospheric equivalent of getting drunk and going to “pet the kitty” at the zoo. It won’t end well.)

And yeah, I know. Wolcott. Not Woolcott.

Shut up.

Everything I’ve read so far suggests political calculation drove Obama’s decision not to prosecute CIA officials. That might be a bit too cynical, even for an angry old malcontent commie sympathizer like me. I blush to confess, I am honestly beginning to believe that our left-handed, fascist Muslim Overlord actually is, as inner directed, as some have claimed him to be. After he’s made a decision, I really don’t think he gives a rat’s ass how it the effects my opinion, much less the opinion of the under-medicated class on the right. It does however appear that he’s beginning to resent their gas-baggery, because it’s ultimate futility is makes it a waste of his, and the country’s time.

Yep, it’s got to be a political calculation. Actually the verbatim words he used about it indicate that.

But at a time of great challenges and disturbing disunity, nothing will be gained by spending our time and energy laying blame for the past.

He has concluded that nothing will be gained. Or rather that not enough will be gained. He’s gambling that even if the Bush administration gets away with breaking the law in this case, it will not tend to encourage future administrations to do the same. Frankly, I’d think he was old enough to know human nature better than that. But on the other hand, he’s got a better grasp of what it would really cost than I.

That crossed my mind as well. Considering how insane the right is acting now, can we all imagine how far around the bend prosecutions like these would send them? I’d much rather see some people pay, and pay dearly for these torture/war crimes, but if it would create a firestorm so large that healthcare reform gets sidelined then I reluctantly will settle for what we just got handed (like I had any choice in the matter anyway).

Actually, I think it is wiser to keep them as unfocused as they are now. With the general cluelessness we see with the teabagger protests, giving them a fat target might give them the cohesion they currently lack. Plus they are so much more fun to laugh at when they are like this. What will next month’s protest be, Tossed Salad for Tossing Out Big Gubmint?

If President Obama thinks he’s going to get an “attaboy!” from conservatives for deciding to not prosecute American torturers, he’s dreaming.

Someone at LGF said it would drive the lefties crazy, which is as close as they get to saying anything nice about Obama. Of course, as soon as they figure out that it isn’t pissing us off all that much, they’ll get around to the ‘weakens national security’ thing.

That said, I don’t think the opinion of conservatives was a factor at all. I think attitudes within the CIA were a factor, but I really don’t think Obama is seeking the wingnuts’ approval.

Christy discusses this in her thread. The whole point of these memos was to make this conduct quasi-legal.

Countdown to a wingnut (I have Mark Levin in my office pool) saying that releasing the OLC memos hurts America and makes us less safe

I can’t believe it. We’re almost three hours in and so far…nada! The best I’ve found so far is Jeff Emanuel at Redstate complaining that calling what we do “torture” means we have to share the same word for what they do.

Fox news is on the case. A couple of hours ago one of the second string fox anchors was talking to Andrew Napolitano, who to his credit kept saying that the torture described in the memos was torture, and should be prosecuted, until the lesser Hume ended the interview “with one last question”…almost verbatim “make America less safe” with a nice intro about all the brave men and women oversees in the military and “special services”.
I expect one of the big boys will be running with it soon enough..

What the HELL is he afraid of? The CIA is more powerful than the executive branch?

The scariest thing I’ve every heard is Obama is afraid to prosecute war criminals in the CIA. That certainly means that they now have more power than elected government.

Any hope that you might live in a progressive democracy now ends, and if I were you I’d get some powerful encryption software…

mikey

John Yoo must be air dropped over the Middle East alive in an insect-filled coffin.

Dick Cheney must be walked to a canned quail farm, tied to a tree and pummelled in the face and teabags with bird shot by Iraq War veterans for eternity.

George Bush must be tied to the back of an operating brush-clearing device until all the brush in Texas is cleared.

Alberto Gonzales must be sentenced to eat expired burritos until the food poisoning kicks in and he can vomit up a thousand apologies.

I think we have a winner:

In yet another America hating, revolting move, Obama released the memos that gives our enemies inside intel into how we conduct interrogations.

I’m not surprised by this at all. During the campaign, he seemed pretty lukewarm about prosecuting anybody. I don’t think he fears a right-wing firestorm, and he is too smart to think that right-wingers will ever pat him on the back. Rather, I think he is saving up his political beans for what is obtainable now. He has always struck me as a moderate left-of-center type who cares about immediate results over long-term ideals. He just seemed otherwise as a contrast to the right, which is currently so off the wall and ideologically stuck on crazy.

I was listening to this on BBC World Service on my way in to work tonight, and one of Bush’s former speechwriters said Obama had made America less safe because describing the interrogation tactics used means that bin Laden and others will now be training their people to resist them. Not sure what time that interview was (I heard it on-air at around 11:15 EDT), but that might’ve been your real winner right there.