Amnesty International USA offers a great rebuttal to the "we can't hold Bush administration officials accountable for crimes because it is too divisive" argument. Also, they urge you to join their letter writing campaign on behalf of those whose rights are currently being violated.
And, lots of media reaction today to Obama's potential education secretary and news on who Obama may announce next week.
Oh, and add another $110,000 to Sarah Palin's tab.
Amnesty International USA released a report yesterday calling for accountability for human rights violations that occurred during the war on terror. The (quite lengthy) report details why accountability on this issue is so important and refutes the argument that it would be too "divisive" to conduct criminal investigations:
But why dig over the past, some may ask. At a time of political transition and promise of change, would not investigations and prosecutions be unnecessarily divisive? Surely what matters now are future policies and current security, not past conduct? Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld took such a line two years after the Abu Ghraib torture revelations, when a congressional committee was seeking documents from him as part of a probe into the abuses. He said: "I can't imagine, frankly, why the people want to go back over those things at this stage."8 It is difficult to imagine a more appropriate response than that given by retired US Army Major General Antonio Taguba, who led a military investigation in 2004 into detainee abuse at Abu Ghraib. In the preface to a 2008 report on abuse of detainees in US custody in Afghanistan, Guantánamo and Iraq, Major General Taguba wrote:
"Our national honor is stained by the indignity and inhumane treatment these men received from their captors... After years of disclosures by government investigations, media accounts, and reports from human rights organizations, there is no longer any doubt as to whether the current administration has committed war crimes. The only question that remains to be answered is whether those who ordered the use of torture will be held to account. The former detainees in this report, each of whom is fighting a lonely and difficult battle to rebuild his life, require reparations for what they endured, comprehensive psycho-social and medical assistance, and even an official apology from our government. But most of all, these men deserve justice as required under the tenets of international law and the United States Constitution. And so do the American people."9
Amnesty also warns Bush about issuing any preemptive pardons:
If President Bush were to issue the rumoured pardons, it would compound the gross violations of international law, and human rights in particular, already committed in the name of national security.
From December 5-14, Amnesty USA is hosting the world's largest letter writing event on behalf of people whose human rights are currently being violated. You can register for the letter writing campaign on their website.
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The City of Berkeley will vote next week on whether to demand that the U.S. charge John Yoo (who is a Berkeley resident) with war crimes:
Yoo, a tenured professor at UC Berkeley's Boalt Hall School of Law, wrote the memos offering legal justification for torture while he worked for the White House from 2001 to 2003.
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Interestingly enough, there are two opinion pieces this morning that take almost exactly the same position on Obama's potential picks for Secretary of Education. David Brooks looks at Obama's choices for education secretary, with an emphasis on "reform":
The candidates before Obama apparently include: Joel Klein, the highly successful New York chancellor who has, nonetheless, been blackballed by the unions; Arne Duncan, the reforming Chicago head who is less controversial; Darling-Hammond herself; and some former governor to be named later, with Darling-Hammond as the deputy secretary.
The Washington Post has a similar editorial this morning on the need for a reformer in the Education Department. While they say they are not promoting any candidate, they do say this of Linda Darling-Hammond:
The choice of Stanford University professor Linda Darling-Hammond to head the education policy transition group, along with speculation that she is a candidate for secretary or deputy secretary, is not reassuring to those in the reform movement.
The Post also argues that Obama should not let "the forces of the status quo" scare him away from considering Joel Klein. You might be interested to read what respected Kossack teacherken thinks of these options for education secretary.
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There are also many Democrats who are advocating on behalf of Darling-Hammond, according to Dana Goldstein at the American Prospect:
If Democratic education policy seems to you like a bit of a playground brawl right now ... well, then you must be paying attention. Social justice, union, and anti-testing activists are lauding Obama's choice of teacher quality expert Linda Darling-Hammond as the head of his transition education team. Darling-Hammond has been a vocal critic of Teach for America -- the program in which Rhee began her career -- and speaks frequently about inequality between rich and poor schools. One coalition is even circulating a petition asking Obama not to name "a corporate executive such as New York City’s Education Chancellor Joel Klein or Chicago [schools] CEO Arne Duncan" to lead the DOE. They "have demonstrated their vision of privatized, corporatized, and anti-democratic schools," the petition reads.
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Dave Demerjian at Wired argues Obama needs a "visionary" in the role of Secretary of Transportation and offers Minneapolis Mayor R.T. Rybak as the best guy for the job:
He's made sensible and sustainable transportation policy a hallmark of his tenure. His Access Minneapolis transportation plan calls for bringing streetcars back to the city, building a robust pedestrian network, increasing transit access and capacity and making city streets more bike-friendly. When the Minneapolis bridge collapsed, he insisted that its replacement have the capacity to support light rail. His progressive transportation policies have nearly doubled the number of cyclists and, more impressive, made downtown Minneapolis one of the few urban areas to return to the population levels it saw before the flight to the suburbs that followed World War II.
Obama has described Rybak as "the person who knew I was running before I did." Indeed, Rybak was working on convincing Obama to run in 2005 and was a strong supporter throughout the election. However, he says he "does not anticipate" a job offer.
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It looks like Obama may announce the nominees for energy, interior and the EPA as early as next week. Surprisingly - given how early the other cabinet positions were leaked - there is still a lot of speculation swirling around each of these posts:
There's been a very crowded field in the running for interior secretary. Inslee seems to have faded in the stretch, while former Oregon governor John Kitzhaber and Richard Moe, former vice presidential chief of staff to Walter Mondale and now president of the National Trust for Historic Preservation, appear to still be contenders.
Rep. Raul M. Grijalva (D-Ariz.), had been edging up a bit, but his rise may now have stalled. There's talk that Rep. Mike Thompson (D-Calif.) may be making a move and could land the job.
I hope the rumor is not true that Grijalva is fading from consideration. The AP still mentions him as a top candidate for the job. As I've mentioned a few times, I think he would be a valuable progressive voice in the administration. There are a whole host of names mentioned for energy secretary, including Kathleen Sebelius.
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The top news from the Associated Press this morning is a lengthy story suggesting that Democrats think Obama is abdicating his responsibility on the economy:
Democrats are growing impatient with President-elect Barack Obama's refusal to inject himself in the major economic crises confronting the country. Obama has sidestepped some policy questions by saying there is only one president at a time. But the dodge is wearing thin.
I thought the word choices (especially those I bolded) were very interesting. If anyone is refusing to act or dodging, it is the Bush administration and Congress. Obama has no authority right now. But you know who does have authority right at this very moment? Congress. And our Democratic leaders in Congress are showing anything but leadership right now. And this passing the buck makes them look even worse, in my humble opinion. If anything, they should be blaming the current President. Your thoughts?
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Chris Matthews may have some competition if he decides to run for Senate in Pennsylvania:
Roll Call's Shira Toeplitz reports that Rep. Patrick Murphy (D-Pa.), one of the few Iraq war veterans in Congress, is "very strongly" considering running against Sen. Arlen Specter (R-Pa.) in 2010, according to one of his advisers.
And Republican Senator Kay Bailey Hutchinson has formed an exploratory committee for a potential gubernatorial run in Texas.
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The latest ridiculous media frenzy is over Obama's choice of MP3 player. OMG! The Chicago Tribune breathlessly reports that Obama seen using Zune music player, not an iPod:
Fans of the iPod want proof of what they consider betrayal by the president-elect, who is known to use that brand. An Obama spokeswoman confirmed he typically uses an iPod and said she didn't know where the Zune came from.
I guess this has been going on for a few days. The Wall Street Journal calls it ZuneGate. I think I've been out of the country for too long, because I didn't even know what a "Zune" was until reading this article.
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Yesterday I mentioned that the RNC was disclosing additional spending on Sarah Palin's accessories - $30,000 worth, for a total of $180,000. This morning we learn that the McCain campaign spent $110,000 on Palin's stylists - that's two people, for two month's work. Man, I went into the wrong business!
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So what's on your mind this morning?