(I think “good work… so, when are we going to impeach?” is a sentiment many on this site share, in the face of these two bits of good news… – promoted by odum)

The Senate voted Wednesdy to prohibit the CIA from using waterboarding and other harsh interrogation methods on terror suspects despite President Bush’s threat to veto any measure that limits the agency’s interrogation techniques.

The prohibition was contained in a bill authorizing intelligence activities for the current year. The bill would restrict the CIA to the 19 interrogation techniques outlined in the Army field manual. That manual prohibits waterboarding, a method that makes an interrogation subject feel he is drowning. The bill passed on a 51-45 vote.

The House had approved the measure in December, so Wednesday’s Senate vote set up a confrontation with the White House, where Bush has promised to veto any bill that restricts CIA questioning.

(Senate votes to ban CIA waterboarding, other harsh interrogations, Times Argus, 02/14/08)

Don’t stop now .. there’s more!

The House voted Thursday to hold White House Chief of Staff Josh Bolten and former White House counsel Harriet Miers in contempt of Congress for refusing to testify before a panel investigating the firing of several United States attorneys.

Ahead of the vote, Republicans had walked out in an effort to show that they want to work on a permanent update to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) rather than be part of a “partisan fishing expedition,” as House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) put it.

(House finds Bolten, Miers in contempt of Congress, The Hill, 02/14/08)

The House appears to be standing firm on the issue of not giving retro-active immunity to the telecoms.

Peace & war, criminal conduct in the federal adminsitration … these are all issues worth devoting substantial and substantive time on … even at the risk of not doing other things.

But then impeachment is still off the table.

The Senate voted Wednesdy to prohibit the CIA from using waterboarding and other harsh interrogation methods on terror suspects despite President Bush’s threat to veto any measure that limits the agency’s interrogation techniques.

The prohibition was contained in a bill authorizing intelligence activities for the current year. The bill would restrict the CIA to the 19 interrogation techniques outlined in the Army field manual. That manual prohibits waterboarding, a method that makes an interrogation subject feel he is drowning. The bill passed on a 51-45 vote.

The House had approved the measure in December, so Wednesday’s Senate vote set up a confrontation with the White House, where Bush has promised to veto any bill that restricts CIA questioning.

(Senate votes to ban CIA waterboarding, other harsh interrogations, Times Argus, 02/14/08)

Don’t stop now .. there’s more!

The House voted Thursday to hold White House Chief of Staff Josh Bolten and former White House counsel Harriet Miers in contempt of Congress for refusing to testify before a panel investigating the firing of several United States attorneys.

Ahead of the vote, Republicans had walked out in an effort to show that they want to work on a permanent update to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) rather than be part of a “partisan fishing expedition,” as House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) put it.

(House finds Bolten, Miers in contempt of Congress, The Hill, 02/14/08)

The House appears to be standing firm on the issue of not giving retro-active immunity to the telecoms.

Peace & war, criminal conduct in the federal adminsitration … these are all issues worth devoting substantial and substantive time on … even at the risk of not doing other things.

But then impeachment is still off the table.

What happens when you deploy troops who have seen high intensity combat time and time again with inadequate dwell time between tours? You see skyrocketing mental health issues.  

After months of investigative work, talking to our troops and veterans, we released a report on the situation at Fort Drum in Watertown, New York. Since 9/11, the 2nd Brigade Combat Team has been deployed for more than forty months, more than any other brigade in the Army, and we are seeing what is nothing short of a cry for help from the men and women on the base; a cry we will answer for the Guard and Reserve troops here in Vermont as well.

A cry for help that is also coming from the leadership on the base. In a New York Times article today about our report, Major General Michael Oates, commander of the 10th Mountain Division, says: “We recognize that there is stress on our force and their families from this conflict, but until recently, we have not fully appreciated the extent of some of the mental stresses and injuries or how to best identify them.” Please read the rest of the article here.

What is happening at Fort Drum — with Soldiers still on active duty suffering from PTSD, with Soldiers and their families in need of counseling, with Soldiers literally dying while still on duty — is going to happen all around America unless we begin to address some of the basic issues of this war.  As our report explains, DoD itself has stated that the likelihood of troops having mental health problems increases by 60% with every tour of duty. So, in short, through ourdeployment policies, we are consciously compounding the wounds of war.

This is unacceptable to us. Veterans for America’s Wounded Warrior Outreach Program will continue to address these problems from the bottom up.  

We are going to go to as many bases as we can afford to go to, see what is happening on those bases and see how we can help. If you can help us, we would greatly appreciate it.

We are going to continue our Wounded Warrior Registry Outreach — if you or someone you know needs help getting help with PTSD or TBI, please click here.

And above all, we are going to continue to serve and help those that serve and have served us with the same level of dedication and courage they have shown. Click here to learn more about what we are doing.

UPDATE: A reader emailed to make the point that this was NOT a fundraiser, and spent a sentence or two promoting the innate superiority of airport events… and then went on to complain about the Democratic presidential candidates. Whatever.

It’s the big day! GOP Presidential-nominee-lock John McCain is stopping by the Green Mountain State for another Vermont Republican-style fundraiser event. The kind he can walk to quickly from his plane and run back out as fast as possible without having to actually be in the state any longer than absolutely necessary. And while he is here, he’ll be safely bunkered away in the airport, secure in the knowledge he’ll be well insulated from Vermont and Vermonters.

I remember the last time there was such a GOP bunker style event – waaaaay back when VP Dick Cheney his-very-self was on hand, safely hidden away while about 200 of us protested at the gated entrance. Ah… good times.

And it was leaked footage from that Cheney event that was used in this little-seen campaign ad from the Clavelle for Governor campaign. Here, then, is that golden oldie, for your entertainment…

More news that the Vermont secession movement is history:

February 14, 2008

By John Curran Associated Press

MONTPELIER — Supporters of a campaign to get Vermont to secede from the nation failed to get the necessary signatures to put independence resolutions on Town Meeting Day ballots, but they say some people may introduce resolutions from the floor in hopes of airing the idea with voters. “We've got citizens in a number of towns interested in using Town Meeting as a way to advance this,” said Rob Williams, editor of Vermont Commons, a newspaper devoted to secession. “If it happens, it's going to come from the floor. But we don't know who's going to introduce it.”

 We've talked about this a lot here, and to get a lot of the back story you can also hop over to Vermont Secession. 

I didn't know this was happening, but apparently the neo-confederates and assorted shallow thinkers who've been dreaming about secession have been trying to get the idea on the ballot across the state for Town Meeting Day. You know, the organ of democracy, where the Bush/Cheney impeachment movement was advanced a couple of hears ago?

Yup, I didn't know about it and probably neither did you, even if, like me, you live in one of the sixteen towns they tried to get the issue on the ballot.

I guess this isn't surprising, since they could barely attract twenty people to their banquet last month. 

 If they do the right thing, and just fade away like any number of fringe movements, I can't say I'll miss them.

I’m just going to quote a bit from the Bradblog and provide the link, and I’m only doing this because I’ve watched this story unfold … as if it were encased in an invisibility cloak.

Former CIA operative Valerie Plame Wilson says the recent disclosures in the UK’s Sunday Times concerning the sale of U.S. nuclear secrets to the foreign black market, as aided by high-ranking government officials, are “stunning”…

The previously covert agent, who had worked in the agency’s counter-proliferation division for years monitoring traffic in the nuclear black market under the guise of a cover company named Brewster Jennings until being outed by Bush Administration officials, was asked about the recent series of explosive stories in the British paper during an interview this morning with Florida radio host Henry Raines of American AM.

Those disclosures include allegations that Brewster Jennings’ real identity as a CIA front company was outed to Turkish officials by then-Asst. Sec. of State for European Affairs Marc Grossman as early as 2001…

A text transcript of the interview, as well as the audio, is now posted at the end of this article.

The series of three Times stories so far has corroborated information detailed by former FBI translator Sibel Edmonds. Edmonds has been gagged by the Bush Administration’s Department of Justice in this country under the “State Secrets Privilege” since 2002, disallowing her from speaking about her work at the bureau. In a BRAD BLOG exclusive late last year, Edmonds announced she would disclose all of the information she’d be barred from revealing to any major U.S. broadcast media outlet that would allow her to tell the full story.

LINK HERE

Hey, we can only hope, right? This from CBS:

Huckabee called the next several weeks “very intense weeks where a lot of delegates are at stake and a lot will be decided as far as the long term impact of where this process is going.” He listed North Carolina, Ohio, Vermont, and Rhode Island on the short list of states he will be campaigning. He leaves for Wisconsin tomorrow.

A quick call to HuckHQ reveals that “there’s nothing set in stone yet,” but hey, things happen fast in this business. I know I’d love to see which Vermonters might show up at a Huckabee campaign event in Burlington. Somebody better alert the squirrels.