Michael Bernard Mukasey is an impressive man. His alma mater is Columbia University and Yale Law School. In 1987, Mukasey was nominated as a federal district judge for the Southern District of New York in Manhattan by President Ronald Reagan. He served in this position for 18 years, including tenure as Chief Judge from March 2000 through July 2006. Mr. Mukasey is also is a teacher. He began teaching at Columbia Law School in the Spring of 1993 and has taught there every Spring semester since. In addition, he is well-connected politically. Mukasey and his son are justice advisers to Rudy Giuliani’s presidential campaign. And, on top of all this, as of yesterday, November 6, 2007, Michael Mukasey has been appointed by our “democratically-led” Congress as 81st United States Attorney General.
For those who are not familiar with the title, The United States Attorney General is the head of the United States Department of Justice concerned with legal affairs and is the chief law enforcement officer of the United States government.
Quite a notable resume, don’t you think? Yet, despite all of Mr. Mukasey’s accomplishments, you might be surprised to learn that he, The United States’ top law official, doesn’t know how to use the internet. When Mr. Mukasey was asked by Senator Whitehouse, “Is waterboarding constitutional?” Mr. Mukasey replied, “I don’t know what’s involved in the technique. If waterboarding is torture, torture is not constitutional.”
But, he said, “if.” Which means, he can’t be sure.
Mr. Mukasey, I can help. Go to your computer and type in “waterboarding” on any search engine. Here’s what comes up on Wikipedia:
“Waterboarding is a technique that simulates drowning in a controlled environment. It consists of immobilizing an individual on his or her back, with the head inclined downward, and pouring water over the face to force the inhalation of water into the lungs. Waterboarding has been used to obtain information, coerce confessions, punish and intimidate. In contrast to merely submerging the head, waterboarding elicits the gag reflex and can make the subject believe death is imminent.
Waterboarding’s use as a method of torture or means to support interrogation is based on its ability to cause extreme mental distress…Although waterboarding in cases can leave no lasting physical damage, it carries the real risks of extreme pain, damage to the lungs, brain damage caused by oxygen deprivation, injuries as a result of struggling against restraints (including broken bones), and even death.”
Wikipedia also states that, “Numerous experts have described this technique as torture.” Funny, but somehow I don’t think it tales an expert to figure that out, which is why I can‘t understand why Mukasey is having so much trouble with it. Some nations have criminally prosecuted individuals for performing waterboarding. In the past, The United States has been one of those nations.
Why am I talking about this? “Waterboarding” – a euphemism that sounds like a fun sport, instead of what it actually is, got renewed attention September 2006, when reports claimed that the Bush administration had authorized the use of waterboarding on extrajudicial prisoners of the United States. ABC News reported that current and former CIA officers stated that, “there is a presidential finding, signed in 2002, by President Bush, Condoleezza Rice and then-Attorney General John Ashcroft approving the ‘enhanced’ interrogation techniques, including water boarding.”
Waterboarding became an issue in the nomination of Michael B. Mukasey to be the next U.S. Attorney General because of his wishy-washy stance on whether he approved of waterboarding or not. Several Senators indicated that they would not vote for him without a more definitive answer.
Yet, his nomination was confirmed by the Senate yesterday.
My thanks to Wikipedia for providing most of the material for my VOX blog this week. But my biggest thanks goes to The United States Senate for upholding my beloved Constitution.
Good job, people.
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Good one, Patricia. Our guy is still leading in polls here with two weeks to go. Keeping fingers crossed.
I am keeping my fingers crossed. I only hope you are not disappointed with your team when they win as we have been here with our 'new' Congress. I'm hoping for your best.
How anyone can still support this administration is mind-boggling.
I hope it's that people just don't like to feel they were wrong. I tell you,this has honestly affected me. I know there's nothing I can do, personally to fix it. I think of all those photos from Abu Ghraib and I can't believe all of this is being done in my name. So I 'm actually thinking of writing another pos tthis week , something more cheerful because it just upsets me so much.
He's committed to pulling our troops out of the disaster in Iraq, so that will be a good start. Polls are showing a landslide win to him. I bought a bottle of whisky today in anticipation of the celebration. Be prepared for a rather garbled post on 24th November…
Perhaps he was confused and figured he better not upset the surfers
lobby…:)…I hope for the day when a real person instead of a
politician makes it into office…Thanks, Patricia – this was great!
"Perhaps he was confused and figured he better not upset the surfers lobby.."
You have no idea how much I wish I'd thought of this line and put it in my post! Great one!
You actually bought instead of cooking up your own? I can see you really do view this win as momentous. In that case, I look forward to your garbled post and hope that we get a pol in who will do the same for our troops….
take it away – hahaha – would have been great to see what was flashing across his confused brain when they asked the question!!!
I actually saw his reply on videotape when I was researching this blog. Are you familiar with "The Daily Show?" Jon Stewart did a whole spoof on this. It was hilarious. If you like I can find the link and send it to you. My true thoughts are Mukasey wanted the nomination and knew he wouldn't get it unless he supported Bush's administration. So, he allowed himself this out of, " I don't know the method" because he couldn't come out and say it was torture without angering Bush and Cheney. I am not really sure he'll do such a bad job as attorney general, his record in the past indicates he is, for the most part, a reasonable man. I am just so upset by what's happened to our country's ethics. We used to be the country people looked to for benevolence and tolerance and now we are as bad as Russia was during the ColD War. This administration has turned every American into world bullies.
Patricia,
What a charming thing to say. Thank you. I'm glad we're neighbours now. : )
if you have the link, I will take a peek for sure!Frankly, politicians have made a mockery of Democracy, imho -there are not many good choices out there at all.
http://rawstory.com/news/2007/Jon_Stewart_Lets_drink_some_Mountain_1102.html
Good Morning LY. I believe this is the link. I hope it works for you. Let me know and let me know what you think.
excellent – I will let you know! Thanks!
What a hideous pack of hairsplitting monkeys! And what ploy; refuse to acknowledge the obvious by being willfully vague.Nice write up Patricia.J.
I missed this excellent contribution when you posted it. (Probably due to an
overload of Aussie politics. Some times you have to call Time Out.)
I saw a background piece on the Lehrer News Hour where the expert challenged
the term "simulated".
He said it's not simulated drowning, it's real drowning. They just stop before
you die. He also said people have drowned from it when the torturer gets the
timing wrong.
Horrible stuff. And it dishonors the American people. Unfortunately your
pollies are showing the same disregard for the Voters that ours are.
This has been a particulalry difficult week for me regarding US foreign policies. I know there are lots of people here who are against this, and even some 'bigshots' fighting through the court systems to prove that these actions are unconstitutional, but still I feel the response by fellow citizens has not been nearly strong enough. yes, I know things are heating up over there. November 24 is the big day, isn't it? I'll be thinking of you all.
Keep the blog pressure on, Patricia.It's very encouraging to the rest of us earthlings to see US folk with hearts and brains.
Thank you truly for that comment, Peter. It meant a lot.