· Ralph Nader Flirts with Presidential Bid. With Harsh Words for Current Field, Nader Says Candidacy as Urgent as Ever
· Ralph Nader's presidential bid exploratory site
Democracy NOW! DISH channels 9410 & 9415, DirecTV channel 275:
Ralph Nader Launches Presidential Exploratory Committee to Mull ’08 Run
The same day John Edwards exited the race, longtime consumer advocate Ralph Nader launched a presidential exploratory committee to decide whether to run as an independent candidate. Nader joins us to talk about his potential run and gives his assessment of the remaining candidates in the presidential field.
RALPH NADER: Well, I’ve launched the exploratory committee with a website, naderexplore08.org, for those who want to get more details, in order to test the waters in three areas. One is to see if we have an adequate number of volunteers to run a robust fifty-state campaign that would include a network of pro bono lawyers to deal with the obstruction to ballot access that the Democrats engaged in in ’04, filing twenty-three lawsuits against us in just twelve weeks in that year, most of which we won. And second, to get adequate resources, contributions, donations—obviously, we’re not taking any money from corporate sources or political action committees. And that’s possible on the website naderexplore08.org. And finally, to get a talented, committed staff that connects with people’s daily lives and that can help organize one thousand people in each congressional district, not just for ’08, but also for ’09 and later. Congress really is the pivot institution that is most susceptible to change by popular forces, and, of course, it’s the most powerful branch of our government, if they care to use that power, like the impeachment power or the war declaration power under our Constitution.
DN! transcript or DN! video
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
· Daily Kos' Markos Moulitsas Attacks Election Integrity, Irresponsibly, Yet Again. The World's Most-Read 'Progressive' Blogger Continues to Misinform His Readers, Seems to Have No Understanding of How Our Electoral System Works (or Doesn't)...
· MAYHEM EXPECTED IN CALIFORNIA ON SUPER TUESDAY, ACCORDING TO MEDIA REPORTS! Election Results May be Delayed Until the Next Morning After the Election! County Registrars Help Sound the Alarm!
· Citizen's Guide to Following Vote Transport Vehicles
· Battle for Election Integrity 'Fought and Won by Activists' Says LATimes in 2,800-Word, 2-Part Series Which Doesn't Bother to Quote a Single One of Them...
· Diebold Issues 'Product Advisory' in Florida About Malfunctions with Optical-Scan Voting Systems. Same Model Used in New Hampshire and Hacked in HBO Documentary, as Other Reported Voting System Problems Crop Up Around the Sunshine State During Today's Primary Election...
· RUSH LIMBAUGH ENCOUNTERS TOUCH-SCREEN VOTING FAILURE IN PALM BEACH, FL. Sequoia Voting Machine Freezes While Rightwing Radio Host Tries to Vote in Republican Primary in Sunshine State...
· HORROR: VIDEO REVEALS ABUSE OF SICK COWS AT U.S. PLANT THAT REPORTEDLY SUPPLIES MEAT TO SCHOOLS
· A town petition making President Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney subject to arrest for crimes against the Constitution has triggered a barrage of criticism from people who say residents are "wackjobs" and "nuts.".
· 'Sexy' MySpace mayor faces recall
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Democracy NOW! DISH channels 9410 & 9415, DirecTV channel 275:
At Senate Hearing, Attorney General Michael Mukasey Refuses
to Say if Waterboarding is Torture, Illegal
Testifying before the Senate Judiciary Committee for the first time since the Senate confirmed his nomination, Attorney General Michael Mukasey refused again to say whether waterboarding is a form of torture or is illegal. Mukasey admitted waterboarding would feel like torture if it was done to him but refused to say whether it would be illegal for a foreign country to waterboard a U.S. citizen. During the hearing Mukasey repeatedly came under harsh questioning from both Democrats and Republicans.
Attorney General Michael Mukasey has refused again to say whether waterboarding is a form of torture or is illegal. On Wednesday Mukasey testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee for the first time since the Senate confirmed his nomination to be Attorney General.
Mukasey admitted waterboarding would feel like torture if it was done to him but he refused to say whether it would be illegal for a foreign country to waterboard a U.S. citizen.
He told Senator Joseph Biden, that the cruelty of torture must be balanced “against the information you might get.” During the hearing Mukasey repeatedly came under harsh questioning from both Democrats and Republicans.
We play selected excerpts of the hearing
SEN. PATRICK LEAHY: Do you agree with them—and with me, for that matter—that waterboarding an American citizen anywhere in the world is torture and illegal—waterboarding an American citizen anywhere in the world is illegal and torture?
ATTORNEY GENERAL MICHAEL MUKASEY: Senator, without going into detail about what they said, I understood what they said to express their personal points of view.
The one thing that separates me from them is that I’m the attorney general and they’re not; that when I pronounce on the reach of general legal principles, that is taken as a statement of how far those principles…
SENATOR EDWARD KENNEDY: So, I won’t even bother to ask you whether waterboarding counts as torture under our laws, because I know from your letter that we won’t get a straight answer. So, let me ask you this: Would waterboarding be torture if it was done to you?
ATTORNEY GENERAL MICHAEL MUKASEY: I would feel that it was.
SENATOR DICK DURBIN: If the Detainee Treatment Act, I think, is clear, in terms of the law of the land and the expression of this chamber, and even went so far as to offer amnesty, immunity to employees of the government who have been engaged in it, you still think that the jury’s out on whether the Senate believes that waterboarding is torture?
ATTORNEY GENERAL MICHAEL MUKASEY: The question is not whether the Senate is out on this or that technique. The question is whether the Senate has spoken clearly enough in the legislation that it has passed and that the Congress at large has passed and that the president has signed, which is all anybody’s really got to work with.
SENATOR DICK DURBIN: So, where is the lack of clarity in the McCain legislation?
ATTORNEY GENERAL MICHAEL MUKASEY: The words of the legislation, of all the legislation that’s thus far been passed, are words that are general and upon which, as I said, people on both sides of the debate have already disagreed.
To point to this language or that language, it seems to me, is to pick—is to pick nits at this point. People have disagreed about the generality of the language and have said that it can be read two ways.
SENATOR DICK DURBIN: I might just say that, as the chairman has noted here as a matter of record, Senators McCain, Warner and Graham, the lead sponsors of this legislation, have said that under the Military Commission Act waterboarding is a war crime. It is unequivocal.
How do you—at this moment in time, you have employees of your department in Iraq counseling the police and army there not to use waterboarding and torture. And their standard, unfortunately, at least leading up to this moment, has been that it depends on the circumstances.
Do you see the problem with your ambivalence on this issue when it comes to setting a standard that we are trying to teach to the world, a standard we want our own people to be protected by?
ATTORNEY GENERAL MICHAEL MUKASEY: The standards—the problems posed by what you call ambivalence, which I don’t think is really ambivalence, but rather a due caution for the reasons that I outlined, are already matters of record.
DN! transcript or DN! video
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
NEPA news:
· Billionaire accused of lying about alleged ties to mafia. Billionaire casino owner Louis A. DeNaples was charged with perjury Wednesday and accused of lying to state gaming regulators about his alleged ties to organized crime figures. The Dauphin County grand jury that recommended the charges also recommended that regulators revoke DeNaples’ license to operate the Mount Airy Casino Resort and order him to forfeit the $50 million license fee he paid to the state.
· More than 300 show support for Catholic teachers
· Grier’s fight with county continues. Wilkes-Barre man wants to stop officials from continuing with borrowing while challenges persist.
· Wyoming police search wrong apartment. Borough police busted open the wrong door last week when serving a search warrant at a three-unit apartment building at Eighth Street and Susquehanna Avenue.
· Remains found on interstates result of homicide, officials say. She stood 5 feet, 7 inches tall and was heavyset. Her white skin was likely a contrast to her dark hair, which was highlighted by strands of gray.
