Instahoglets 23rd Sept. 06

I've not done one of these for a while, so what the heck...

What about those Senators flip-flopping on Bush's torture bill? The Moderate Voice has the definitive roundup of reporting and opinion from the MSM and blogs. All I can say is that Jefferson and others are probably spinning at high speed in their graves.

TPM Muckraker has a closer look at the proposed bill and finds that it would grant immunity from prosecution under the War Crimes Act - not just in future but retroactively back to Nov. 26, 1997!

Next week marks 60 years since the Nuremberg sentences. I wonder if the Senate can manage to pass that torture bill on the same day? It would make it easier for historians to chart the 60 years when American administrations (even conservative ones) believed the rule of law should be international and humane.

Bill Clinton gets it, even if most in the current Dem leadership seem to have taken a vow of silence over the issue.

Osama bin Forgotten or Osama bin Decomposin'? AmericaBlog has been checking out the story that the guy Bush recently remembered was the enemy died last month of typhoid.

Crooks and Liars watches in amazement as rightwing mouthpiece Rush Limbaugh drops all pretense and encourages Republican efforts to cook the vote by disenfranchising Democrats.

An October Surprise? Gary Hart thinks so - an attack on Iran.

The Arms Control Wonk notes that the Pentagon's new Iran Desk is staffed by old hands from the Office of Special Plans, who did such sterling work fixing intelligence around the policy over Iraq and wonders how Elizabeth Cheney is doing now that she is “Coordinator for Broader Middle East and North Africa Initiatives", in charge of a $75 million budget for bringing about ‘regime change’ in Iran.

Bush's last misadventure - Iraq, where the situation is still one of violent civil war - didn't make him too popular. To the point where even GOP candidates don't want to appear in public next to him.

It didn't help Tony Blair either. Today he was met at the Labor party conference in Manchester by a crowd of up to 50,000 anti-war protestors. Rupert Murdoch's Sunday Times and Sky News are reporting a poll that says 64% of Brits want Tony gone by spring. And thus ends the era when Murdoch backed Labor. Cameron's tories will win the next UK General election and that will inevitably further boost strong Scottish support for a break-up of the United Kingdom.

Yet more Bush administration cronyism. Hot on the heels of allegations that jobs in Iraq's Coalition Authority were dependent on political support for Bush, the Inspector General for the Department of Housing and Urban Development has a 304 page report which throws a spotlight on Housing Secretary Alphonso Jackson's awarding contracts based upon political affiliation.