CIA Out To Get Dems?

I can't help but think about J. Edgar Hoover when thinking about how the CIA did business under Bush. The Democrats didn't seem to mind it so much, then. What goes around, comes around. We recently learned that Jane Harmon had been swept up in a phone tap. I can only imagine what goodies the spooks have on various pols. And that, more than anything, may determine their fate in this dust up.

Democrats charged Tuesday that the CIA has released documents about congressional briefings on harsh interrogation techniques in order to deflect attention and blame away from itself.

“I think there is so much embarrassment in some quarters [of the CIA] that people are going to try to shift some of the responsibility to others — that’s what I think,” said Sen. Carl Levin (D-Mich.), who sat on the Senate Intelligence Committee and was briefed on interrogation techniques five times between 2006 and 2007.

Comments

[runescape account]

Just wanted to say HI. I found your blog a few days ago and have been reading it over the past few days.

[MarkJ]

Memo for Carl Levin:

Payback is a motherf***er. Did you really think you and your good-time Donk buddies were untouchable? The First Commandment for the CIA is "Thou shalt justify thy own existence." The Second Commandment is "Thou shalt cover thine own a**."

Deal with it, Carl.

[PA]

Spooks don't like being hung out to dry by idiotic self-serving politicians. The CIA as an organization leans left, but its not going to "take one for the team" so a pol can save face.

If I were congressional democrats, I'd drop this like a hot potato lest other lurking agency "insurance policies" be leaked out. Any organization like CIA would have secret files of documented congressional peccadilloes that can be drawn on if needed. Not that they'd waste resources going out of their way to collect them, but over time certain thing will just fall into their lap and be tucked away.

[LOL]

"Any organization like CIA would have secret files of documented congressional peccadilloes that can be drawn on if needed."

The CIA's jurisdiction is outside of the USA. The FBI is the only organization which would have the files you imagine.

It's amazing how moronic wingnuts can be.

[John]

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[terry12]

it must of bin bushes fualt that the dems lie about all this.dont mess
with the cia

[Philip McDaniel]

***
"Any organization like CIA would have secret files of documented congressional peccadilloes that can be drawn on if needed."

The CIA's jurisdiction is outside of the USA. The FBI is the only organization which would have the files you imagine.

It's amazing how moronic wingnuts can be.
***
Ever heard of members of congress traveling outside the US? I agree it is amazing how moronic some people are.

[templar knight]

Phillip, everyone who posts here knows that LOL is both a moron and a hypocrite. Both in the first degree, if you will. He has been made to look the fool so often on this blog, I'm really surprised the idiot still comes here. Add masochist to his repertoire.

[Neo]

Did somebody call for the WAAMBULANCE?

[Lala]

I am thinking that "I Won" is cleaning house. He wants to get rid of Dodd, Murtha, Pelosi and is leaking information about them. They're old and they're defying him. And he's the boss.

Read about all the tricks and spying in Washington - "It Didn't Start With Watergate"

[IslamoLlama]

"-- Spooks don't like being hung out to dry by idiotic self-serving politicians. --"

Someone should have mentioned that to the Bush Admin right around the time of Valarie Plame.

"-- I can't help but think about J. Edgar Hoover when thinking about how the CIA did business under Bush. The Democrats didn't seem to mind it so much, then. --"

Haha. Yeah, absolutely no one had a problem with Hoover when he was blackmailing and commie-baiting straight through two decades. And the Democrats didn't have any problems with Joseph McCarthy either or, you know, they'd have done something about him.

How a guy can report on politics for years and still have absolutely no clue how politics actually works...

Oh gee, the minority in the House just didn't do anything to stop us. Almost as though they had zero political capital under existing rules when dealing with a hostile, unified majority GOP. Clearly, Nancy Pelosi was cool with it all, even when she was actively campaigning on an anti-torture platform virtually from the day the torture issue became public. What's a voting record?

[IslamoLlama]

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0509/22445.html

Good news, everbody! The RNC is finally fighting back!

"--
A member of the Republican National Committee told me Tuesday that when the RNC meets in an extraordinary special session next week, it will approve a resolution rebranding Democrats as the “Democrat Socialist Party.”

When I asked if such a resolution would force RNC Chairman Michael Steele to use that label when talking about Democrats in all his speeches and press releases, the RNC member replied: “Who cares?”
--"

"--
Two other resolutions — to urge Republican lawmakers to reject earmarks and to commend them for opposing “bailouts and reckless spending bills” — are also on the agenda, but language that would have denounced Sen. Arlen Specter, a Republican turned Democrat, and Republican Sens. Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins for voting for President Obama’s stimulus package has been dropped.

Steele didn’t want the special session to be held at all. The RNC will hold its regular summer meeting in July, and all matters could have waited until then. But the special session is being viewed by some in the party as a “comeuppance” for Steele and an implied criticism of his performance and behavior in his first 100 days in office.
--"

WOLVERINES!

[Jimbo]

*****
Phillip, everyone who posts here knows that LOL is both a moron and a hypocrite. Both in the first degree, if you will. He has been made to look the fool so often on this blog, I'm really surprised the idiot still comes here. Add masochist to his repertoire.

Posted by: templar knight

*****

Wow, coming from you that is quite the compliment. LOL probably comes here for the same reason I come here: To read what the last gasp 20%'rs think. You folks represent the bottom of the barrel. The most uninformed and uneducated lemmings within the blogosphere. It is interesting to hear Limbaugfh say something, and viola you folks start parroting the same BS. It is almost like magic. The bloated pig of a leader is telling you exactly how to become irrelevant for a very long time. You folks just crack me up. The GOP used to be the party of brave, strong Americans. Not any more. You represent the lowest form of patriot: All jingo when things are going your way, all traitor when you are in the minority. Just a pathetic group of nobodies, hell bent on doing Limbaugh's bidding.

[mark l.]

I heard obama doesn't want to release 44 photos of torture.

Can't help imagining that pelosi is in several, sometimes holding the 'dunk lever' and high-fiving the CIA interogators when the AQ operatives start sobbing.

She has been rather silent on glow sticks up the ass and naked pyramids.

[mark l.]

"It is interesting to hear Limbaugfh say something, and viola you folks start parroting the same BS."

This is why I bought NWS, or Newscorp.

Jimbo is out there listening to limbaugh, visiting conservative websites, and very likely bolstering fox news in audience numbers.

I used to listen to Howard Stern, who had a character very much like jharp, or Jimbo...
the woman would listen to his show becuase she found it so offensive that she needed to contact the fcc everytime he did anything that she could hope to get a rise out of.

"Just a pathetic group of nobodies"-doctor, heal thyself.

[mark l.]

"The CIA's jurisdiction is outside of the USA. The FBI is the only organization which would have the files you imagine.

It's amazing how moronic wingnuts can be."

unfortuately, the reports of the interogations were made to congress critters, inside the US. No chance you are suggesting that the FBI ran the interogations.

"It's amazing how moronic..."

[Lala]

Hmmm, I just drove my Iraqi war vet to the doctor and Rush was talking about Cheerios. So, everybody who's a Rush fan, get with the programmed agenda, it's Cheerios week. Don't let Rush down.

[mark l.]

http://www.lesjones.com/2009/05/12/unemployment-numbers-worse-than-projected/

obama predicted that his stimulus plan would stop unemployment at 8%.

http://forecasts.org/unemploy.htm

we are sooo heading for double digits, which means that the obama is underestimating unemployment by 25%.

I'm watching the market start to tank, but to be honest, the rally was almost exculsively dependent on banking stocks. With the exception of oil and banking, most other sectors are stagnant.

say it with me libtards...
"stagflation"

both stagnation and inflation can result from inappropriate macroeconomic policies. For example, central banks can cause inflation by permitting excessive growth of the money supply, and the government can cause stagnation by excessive regulation of goods markets and labor markets; together, these factors can cause stagflation. Both types of explanations are offered in analyses of the global stagflation of the 1970s: it began with a huge rise in oil prices, but then continued as central banks used excessively stimulative monetary policy to counteract the resulting recession, causing a runaway wage-price spiral.

(wiki-stagflation)

The gop is not capable of destroying the dems, only the dems can do it to themselves. The current policies that obama et al. have embarked on is going to embarass them worse than Carter.

[mark l.]

"Actually I'm cutting more than I'm spending so that it will be a net spending cut."
Obama, debate #3.

2009 budget/bush-3.1 trillion.
2010 budget/obama-3.6 trillion.

who knew that a 'net spending cut' means spending half a trillion more? It is only a one year/16% increase in the federal govt's budget. It took Carter 4 years to raise federal spending 17.2%.

I could point to the growth under clinton, 4.3% in his first term, 8.1% in his second...

Funny how the gop lived off of reagan, for a time, while the dems have already divorced themselves from their most successful president they had going. Good luck on your long term crediblity. The gop held it together for 4 years, the dems will be lucky to make it for two years.

[LOL]

J Edgar hoover was head of the FBI not the CIA idiots.

If anyone had files on US citizens, such as congressmen, it would be the FBI, not the CIA. it's amazing how stupid yall are.

[Rick Smith]

Good...go get their self serving asses

[IslamoLlama]

"-- If anyone had files on US citizens, such as congressmen, it would be the FBI, not the CIA. it's amazing how stupid yall are. --"

CIA, NSA, FBI, SEC, DoJ, ... it's not like there are a shortage of investigative bodies in Washington. I can't see why any one would have a monopoly on Congressional blackmail.

That said, I think the comparison was between Hoover's FBI and Bush's generic intelligence apparatus. The idea being that Democrats never objected to the Hoover blacklists and strong arm thuggery, which made said thuggery perfectly OK. And now Pelosi has failed to object soon enough or loud enough to CIA torture memos, which means torture is now perfectly OK.

Anyone that votes for any Democrat for any reason is, by default, supporting Nancy Pelosi who, by default, at one point must have supported torture. Thus proving that all Democratic voters that complain of torture are hypocrites. Once you've dismissed your detractors as hypocrites, you can sit back and relax knowing that you are morally clear to commit all the torture you want.

Not that any of this even begins to matter, because a GOoPer will vote for anything, so long as there's a tax cut attached.

[mark l.]

"Bush's generic intelligence apparatus"

apparently, it is now 'Obama's generic intelligence apparatus'.

too many links to provide the scope of the defense that the obama admin is now using to keep the methods available and supress any discussion of how intel was gained.

http://yglesias.thinkprogress.org/archives/2009/04/obama_claims_state_secrets_privilege_to_defend_bush_era_warrantless_surveillance_program.php

not that the link itslef doesn't give the title/forum/author, but I'll make it easy...

think progress, yglesias,
"Obama Claims “State Secrets” Privilege to Defend Bush-era Warrantless Surveillance Program"

apparently, obama has grown up. you should do the same.

[mark l.]

"Hoover's FBI and Bush's generic intelligence apparatus"
shouldn't you have made the comparison between FDR and Bush?

oh that's right, a dem is incapable of holding his party's role model responsible.

[IslamoLlama]

"-- too many links to provide the scope of the defense that the obama admin is now using to keep the methods available and supress any discussion of how intel was gained. --"

Never let the perfect be the enemy of the good, Mark.

Actually, I take that back. Liberals will try and avoid letting the perfect be the enemy of the good. You guys keep pressing for party purity.

The left wing will keep pushing Obama to release information, just like we did under Bush. Eventually, with enough public pressure, he'll crack and we'll get what we want. Thus is the nature of politics.

[IslamoLlama]

"-- shouldn't you have made the comparison between FDR and Bush? --"

Well, Hoover was in some sort of federal police unit going back to 1919.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J._Edgar_Hoover#FBI_career

So I guess I could blame every President from Wilson to Nixon. You want me to single out FDR why now? Perhaps because if FDR said Hoover's illegal activities were legal than I would absolutely have to get behind them? After all, I have high opinions of the New Deal, and you can't have the New Deal without Hoover blackmailing "communists" from the FBI, right?

Do you have, like, a point? Or is this just the old Bush-will-look-more-favorable-in-the-history-books defense?

[WBestPresidentEver]

Wow....NANCY THE BOToX QUEEN just finished a press conference and boy did she tell a whopper this time. She accused the CIA of lying.
I hope this opens a can of worms that want go away until she goes away.
What a phony liar she is.
She is the most disgusting person we have ever had in congress.
I hope she goes DOWN with all the rest of these democrat crooks, tax cheats and lairs in our government. What a mob we have these days.
Chicago style !

[IslamoLlama]

"-- Wow....NANCY THE BOToX QUEEN just finished a press conference and boy did she tell a whopper this time. She accused the CIA of lying. --"

That's impossible! The CIA would never lie about anything except which of their agents were or were not undercover at the time Dick Cheney started yapping his jawbone about them. The CIA cannot tell a lie, except for the above said lie.

But this does raise a question. If Pelosi is lying, shouldn't we investigate all these claims and finally settle once and for all who knew torture was authorized and who authorized it?

Sounds like Republicans and Democrats are all on board for a truth commission. So let's getter dun!

[mark l.]

"You guys keep pressing for party purity."

say what?

personally, I have never given a dime to ANY politician.

"Never let the perfect be the enemy of the good, Mark."

the gop is right about 40% of the time. the dems, roughly 20%.
This isn't a matter of looking for perfect, it is just trying to avoid stepping in sh*t.

[mark l.]

"If Pelosi is lying"

she is. it seems she is recanting this week.

here's the problem-dems knew and did nothing.

how does one prosecute those 'responsible'-republicans, while simultaneously protecting those 'responsible, but associated with the party'-democrats.

much as I'd love to let you guys pursue defining a crime which has no punishment, there are better things to focus on. although...it is entertaining to watch the dems split into camps.

I've been a jane harman fan for a long time. Pelosi and murtha did a great job of smearing her, but she is going to be the one walking out on top. The longer the torture investigation continues, the more it weakens the overall crediblity of the party as a whole.

"shouldn't we investigate all these claims and finally settle once and for all who knew torture was authorized and who authorized it?"
go after a minority party and an ex pres, while throwing the speaker of the house in front of the klieg lights?

faster...

[seekeronos]

Thoughts from beyond the grave of H.L. Mencken on Obama:

"---
The larger the mob, the harder the test. In small areas, before small electorates, a first-rate man occasionally fights his way through, carrying even the mob with him by force of his personality. But when the field is nationwide, and the fight must be waged chiefly at second and third hand, and the force of personality cannot so readily make itself felt, then all the odds are on the man who is, intrinsically, the most devious and mediocre — the man who can most easily adeptly disperse the notion that his mind is a virtual vacuum.

The Presidency tends, year by year, to go to such men. As democracy is perfected, the office represents, more and more closely, the inner soul of the people. We move toward a lofty ideal. On some great and glorious day the plain folks of the land will reach their heart's desire at last, and the White House will be adorned by a downright moron. ---"
(Baltimore Evening Sun, July 26, 1920)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/H.L._Mencken

[LOL]

i thought obama was an elitist. Now you're telling me he's a man of the common people? i never knew!

[IslamoLlama]

"-- Thoughts from beyond the grave of H.L. Mencken on Obama: --"

I love how conservatives, lacking any living intellectuals to quote favorably, must go back nearly 90 years to find someone they think would agree with them.

If only we had more H.L. Menckens today, perhaps that brave patriot John McCain would be President. *sigh* But on that we can only dream.

"-- she is. it seems she is recanting this week. --"

Good. Let's get a truth commission on that so we can make it official. Wouldn't want the liberal media tricking the sheeple into voting for her or her party a few years down the line. Better to have a formal investigation that indicts her in ink.

"-- here's the problem-dems knew and did nothing. --"

I remember when you played this card during the Mark Foley affair. The problem wasn't that Foley was perving on Congressional pages. It wasn't that Foley's sexual inclinations were well known throughout Capital Hill even as he sat at the chairman of the House Caucus on Missing and Exploited Children. The problem was that Nancy Pelosi didn't somehow magically convince Dennis Hastert to open up an ethics investigation on the matter.

Lather, rinse, repeat.

The torture that the Bush Administration repeatedly denied it was performing but which Cheney and Co fervently insisted was necessary for national security, which was authorized and implemented without any consent from Congress or even any formal legal opinion being written, is a problem because Democrats - who have been actively campaigning on the "no-torture" platform for the last six years - knew that torture was taking place in 2002, during the height of terrorist hysteria, and did not act aggressively enough from their minority positions in House and Senate to stop it.

If I am to understand this logic correctly, any action by the Republican majority that is not investigated and successfully defeated by the Democrat minority is a problem because the minority party did not properly investigate and stop it.

And, if I remember my history correctly, the Democrats were punished in 2006 and 2008 by having their minority party status stripped from them and being burdened with the White House leadership positions. Now they appear to be doing penance for their crimes by doing what they should have done in a crippled minority position.

So you guys have nothing to complain about except, I suppose, the fact that Democrats didn't do what they are currently doing sooner. :-p

[seekeronos]

Oh, I know that H.L. Mencken was a godless elitist... I used that quote especially on account of its irony, in reference to the circumstances involving the sheeple of America electing that boob to office.