White House Watch-Washington Post

Friends,
Froomkin's White House Watch in the Washington Post. He has been exemplary in keeping Bush's illegal and immoral policies.
Rev O

The Memo
"Yoo's memo is a historic document. It is the ultimate expression of Cheney's belief that anything the president or his designates do -- no matter how illegal, barbaric or un-American -- is justifiable in the name of national self-defense. "
"It is also an example of how enabling zealots to disregard the rule of law and the customary boundaries of human conduct leads to madness. "
"Thomas J. Romig, who was then the Army's judge advocate general, said yesterday after reading the memo that it appears to argue there are no rules in a time of war, a concept Romig found 'downright offensive.'"
"Wilkerson -- the former chief of staff to secretary of state Colin Powell -- told NPR that he had uncovered a "visible audit trail" tracing the practice of prisoner abuse by U.S. soldiers to Vice President Cheney's office. "

Iraq Watch
"Having Iraqi forces take a leadership role in combating militias and Islamic extremists was crucial to U.S. hopes of withdrawing more American forces in Iraq and reducing the severe strains the Iraq war has put on the Army and Marine Corps.
"The failure of Iraqi forces to defeat rogue fighters in Basra has some in the military fearing they can no longer predict when it might be possible to reduce the number of troops to pre-surge levels."

Bush and Climate Change
The Washington Post editorial board writes: "The Bush administration never had any intention of doing what the Supreme Court commanded it to do a year ago today: regulate greenhouse gas emissions. We infer this because, even though President Bush ordered his agencies last May to work together to meet the court's directive, and even though the Environmental Protection Agency delivered to the White House last December its finding that those pollutants endanger public welfare, a prerequisite for regulation, EPA Administrator Stephen L. Johnson announced last week a plan to seek public input starting in the spring on how best to limit the emissions. Translation: punt to the next administration. This giant step backward is the starkest example yet of the chasm between the words and deeds of Mr. Bush on climate change."

Call It the Abu Ghraib Memo Washington Post
The Justice Department memo released yesterday is a key link in the chain of evidence connecting the monstrous abuse of detainees at the Abu Ghraib prison and elsewhere straight to the White House.