An apparently undated letter responding to Wyden’s first lettter of August 8, 2007; this letter from Benczkowski is datestamped in September 2007; the quality of the pdf is poor, as if scanned from a photocopy with skew and dropouts; the date stamp is positioned carefully as if blending into the letterhead; the image is so degraded Acrobat does not see it as text but instead as a bitmap only. Yet the character font of the datestamp looks like it is the same as in the subsequent Benczkowski letter, see below. NB: August 27, 2007 was the date of Gonzales’ resignation.

An apparently undated letter datestamped in March 2008 responding to Wyden followup questions dated December 20, 2007. The pdf has only slight skew, as if scanned from the original; AdobeAcrobat can see the content as searchable text. The datestamp appears to have the same font as the prior letter fro Benczkowski but is positioned haphazardly floating between stationery letterhead and body of text of first paragraph.

A glance at SCSI’s website shows it is somewhat constrained about its public presentation. But sites of even more open committees in the congress have nearly as labyrinthine presentations. Though SCSI’s site makes little attempt to provide an easy way to locate any documents. Even its chronicling of its own public statements begins in reverse fashion, so the most current issues require the visitor to scan downpage instead of finding the current matters presented at the topmost spot. Predictably for a site of a somewhat junior member of a committee as buttondown as SCSI, Wyden’s own pleasant website addresses mostly constituency matters and has no apparent mention of these two letters which NYT has linked.

If the datestamps were placed by the sender instead of producing a computerfile which included the date in the body of the letter drafted, the second letter arrived at SCSI or at Wyden’s office, during Mukasey’s tenure; and the first letter perhaps was during the interregnum without an AG if sent at the end of August, but maybe that first letter from Benczkowski was material Gonzales oversaw while still there as AG. I would doubt Yoo’s reallyPoliticalLawyering workproduct would have been provided in courtesy copy form to the Gang of 8, but that might be an interesting datapoint to know. Declaratively, I take a more permissive view of JayR’s famed memo to file approach to participation in G8 than many in the liberalsphere, though it is nice to compare Harman’s somewhat more aggressive feedback style.

Yet the human kind is further understood to be driven by the urge to cause effects… any effect being better than no-effect. No-effect is rather equivalent to death, isn’t it?

Tyrantgeorge seems to specialize in causing effects that are harmful, as if past attempts to cause other kinds of effect were somehow stymied. The politics of governing offer endless opportunity to wheel and deal, manipulate, act covertly,trick,bait-n-switch,dominate and, through it all, without any hard lines of accountability. The results are confused,murky and defy easy measurement. Tyrantgeorge knows well who is causing the actions, so believes in a perverted way that he is acting responsibly.
Of course, this is just my opinion.

So Rivkind and Casey are clearly trying to misrepresent to the WSJ’s readers what’s at issue here.

No, they’re not: they’re providing a legalistic shit-screen for the WSJ editorial-reader’s gut feeling that torture is a-okay. A malodorous fog hangs over everything Rivkind does.

“… the whole atmosphere of every prison is an atmosphere of glorification of that sort of gambling in “clever strokes” which constitutes the very essence of theft, swindling and all sorts of similar anti-social deeds.” PKropotkin’s Memoirs, ca 1899

Alabama, haven’t you ever noticed the nicknames Bush gives people? Every one of them is insulting. He has to tear down everyone else so he can feel big. It’s a bad sign in a president.

Of course I do, behindthefall, and so do you!

Shall we eat up our time and energy trotting out the long, long list in all its sordid details?

If so, then I’ll let you start this parade by reviewing Bush’s performance as the Grand Executioner of Texas, enumerating each and every one of his delectable deaths, one by one by one. When you’ve finished–if ever you do–then I’ll pick it up from there.

Aha. I’ve seen this tactic before. No, alabama, it is not up to behindthefall to do your job for you. If you want to make a case, you have to do it. The ball, sir or madam, is in your court.

Bob in HI

Rivkin is another Victoria Toensing with pants. WHY would any reputable paper print anything this shill writes?