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I've been listening to the talking heads on the right rant and rave all week that Democrats are hypocrites because they didn't speak up about this drone program from the Obama administration, and that is somehow equal to George W. Bush sanctioning torture. That if everyone is not equally outraged and calling for accountability or impeachment, they should just shut up because they're just partisans who don't really care about any of this if it means speaking out against their own party.

Examples like this one aren't helping the cause any. As Digby noted, we had Fox on the attack, quoting John Yoo and calling the Obama administration hypocrites, and then we were treated to Krystal Ball proving their point:

Today's Fox News Special Report showed footage of Candidate Obama in 2008 hotly condemning the Bush administration's extra-judicial terrorism policies and then the "all-stars" debated whether President Obama and all his supporters are hypocrites. It's hard to argue that there isn't some serious hypocrisy going on here. Unless you are Stephen "those WMD are there somewhere I swear it" Hayes who insisted that he is not a hypocrite, he's nothing but a pansy who's letting terrorists run free, I tell you, free! Everyone nodded solemnly. [...]

Meanwhile on MSNBC, Krystal Ball proves their point. She starts off saying that she's mostly "ok" with the drone program but thinks it needs more transparency and oversight. And then she discusses what really bothers her about the debate: the idea that we should have the same standards for all presidents. No, I'm not kidding:

Look, I voted for President Obama because I trust his values and his judgment and I believe his is a fundamentally responsible actor. Without gratuitously slamming ex-president Bush, I think he displayed extraordinary lapses in judgement in executing his primary responsibility as commander in chief and put troops in harms way imprudently.

President Obama would have exercised better judgment and he has exercised better judgment. The way it stands now the drone program is exclusively within the domain of the Executive. Their protocol, their judgement. So yeah, I feel a whole lot better about the program when the decider, so to speak, is President Obama. That's not to say that again the process shouldn't be codified, that there shouldn't be oversight.

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Joe Scarborough is back at it again, apologizing for torture and telling lies about whether it works. Every time I think this show can't get much worse, I turn it on like I did this morning and realize I'm wrong. This had to be one of the more disgusting segments I've watched in a while, and that's saying a lot for this show. Scarborough and his panel members, David Ignatius and Jon Meacham, did their best to help revise history and help Scarborough play torture apologist while discussing the new film coming out this month, Zero Dark Thirty.

Glenn Greenwald has more on the problems with the premise of this movie: Zero Dark Thirty: new torture-glorifying film wins raves:

Earlier this year, the film "Zero Dark Thirty", which purports to dramatize the hunt for and killing of Osama bin Laden, generated substantial political controversy. It was discovered that CIA and White House officials had met with its filmmakers and passed non-public information to them - at exactly the same time that DOJ officials were in federal court resisting transparency requests from media outlets and activist groups on the ground that it was all classified.

With its release imminent, the film is now garnering a pile of top awards and virtually uniform rave reviews. What makes this so remarkable is that, by most accounts, the film glorifies torture by claiming - falsely - that waterboarding and other forms of coercive interrogation tactics were crucial, even indispensable in finding bin Laden.In the New York Times on Sunday, Frank Bruni wrote: "I'm betting that Dick Cheney will love the new movie 'Zero Dark Thirty.'" That's because "'enhanced interrogation techniques' like waterboarding are presented as crucial" to finding America's most hated terrorist. [...]

The claim that waterboarding and other torture techniques were necessary in finding bin Laden was first made earlier this year by Jose Rodriguez, the CIA agent who illegally destroyed the agency's torture tapes, got protected from prosecution by the DOJ, and then profited off this behavior by writing a book. He made the same claim as "Zero Dark Thirty" regarding the role played by torture in finding bin Laden.

That caused two Senators who are steadfast loyalists of the CIA - Senate Intelligence Committee Chair Dianne Feinstein and Armed Services Committee Chair Carl Levin - to issue statements definitively debunking this assertion. Even the CIA's then-Director, Leon Panetta, made clear that those techniques played no role in finding bin Laden. An FBI agent central to the bin Laden hunt said the same.

What this film does, then, is uncritically presents as fact the highly self-serving, and factually false, claims by the CIA that its torture techniques were crucial in finding bin Laden. Put another way, it propagandizes the public to favorably view clear war crimes by the US government, based on pure falsehoods.

And Mediaite's Tommy Christopher did a nice job of breaking down just how dishonest this Morning Joe segment was: Joe Scarborough Claims Zero Dark Thirty Torture Scene True, Screenwriter And Facts Disagree:

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ABC News global affairs anchor Christine Amanpour on Sunday threw cold water on one of her colleagues, Brian Ross, who had reported that Iran could have a functional nuclear weapon in as little as four weeks.

During a panel discussion on ABC, host Jake Tapper asked Ross how quickly Iran could build a nuclear device.

"Four to six weeks away, if they made the decision to do it," Ross claimed. "That’s some of the intelligence. They haven’t made that decision, that’s the key."

"That is so vastly disparate," Amanpour pointed out. "Other's say it could be a year. So, this is a guessing game that's gone on for years."

"It could be two years," ABC Senior Foreign Affairs correspondent Martha Raddatz agreed.

"That's the latest claim," Ross argued.

While Ross has won awards and broken many major stories during his tenure at ABC News, he is also renowned for making some of the biggest and most embarrassing mistakes in mainstream journalism.

In 2001, ABC's senior investigative reporter falsely claimed that Iraq and Saddam Hussein were behind anthrax attacks in the U.S. He reported in 2009 that Ft. Hood shooter Nidal Malik Hasan had made an "attempt to reach out to al Qaeda." Gawker found that Ross had edited footage in 2010 to make spontaneous acceleration in Toyota cars appear worse than it actually was.

Most recently, Ross was blasted by conservatives when he wrongly reported that Jim Holmes -- the 24-year-old accused of a shooting rampage at a theater in Aurora, Colorado -- had been associated with the tea party.

"Brian Ross is responsible for several of the establishment media’s most shameful and reckless journalistic falsehoods of the last decade," The Guardian's Glenn Greenwald told Politico. “His reporting philosophy seems to be to go on TV and say whatever he thinks will garner attention and create ‘scoops,’ without the slightest concern for whether it’s actually true.”

(h/t: Think Progress)

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The former chief of staff to Secretary of State Colin Powell pledged Tuesday to testify against former Vice President Dick Cheney if he is ever tried for war crimes.

Col. Lawrence Wilkerson told Democracy Now's Amy Goodman that he would participate in a trial even if it meant personal repercussions.

"I, unfortunately -- and I've admitted to this a number of times, publicly and privately -- was the person who put together Colin Powell's presentation at the United Nations Security Council on 5 February, 2003," Wilkerson said. "It was probably the biggest mistake of my life. I regret it to this day. I regret not having resigned over it."

In an interview that aired on NBC Monday, Cheney told Jamie Gangel that unlike President George W. Bush, he did not have a "sickening feeling" when they discovered there were no weapons of mass destruction after the invasion of Iraq.

"I think we did the right thing," Cheney said.

Joining Wilkerson and Goodman to discuss Cheney's new book "In My Time," Salon's Glenn Greenwald said that it was disturbing to see the former vice president treated simply as an "elder statesman."

"The evidence is overwhelming... that Dick Cheney is not just a political figure with controversial views, but is an actual criminal, that he was centrally involved in a whole variety not just of war crimes in Iraq, but of domestic crimes, as well, including the authorization of warrantless eavesdropping on American citizens in violation of FISA, which says that you go to jail for five years for each offense, as well as the authorization and implementation of a worldwide torture regime that, according to General Barry McCaffrey, resulted in the murder -- his word -- of dozens of detainees, far beyond just the three or four cases of waterboarding that media figures typically ask Cheney about," Greenwald explained.

"And as a result, Dick Cheney goes around the country profiting off of this, you know, sleazy, sensationalistic, self-serving book, basically profiting from his crimes, and at the same time normalizing the idea that these kind of policies, though maybe in the view of some wrongheaded, are perfectly legitimate political choices to make. And I think that’s the really damaging legacy from all of this."

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After all of us had a bit of fun with Michele Bachmann's gaffe on John Wayne this week, I think it's important to point out why even if she got confused over where John Wayne was born and where serial killer John Wayne Gacy carried out his serial murders, the issue that our corporate media refused to address is the fact that she was praising John Wayne as some role model that Republicans should be emulating in the first place, and her saying "That's the kind of spirit that I have, too" and completely ignoring how ridiculous propping that man up as some bastion of conservatism is to begin with.

That is if you want to actually look at how he actually lived his life and not the myth that's been propagated in our media about him and that Michele Bachmann apparently decided to embrace.

Salon's Glenn Greenwald wrote a really excellent book back in 2008 which I bought and thoroughly enjoyed reading shortly after it came out titled Great American Hypocrites: Toppling the Big Myths of Republican Politics. If you want to read more, go buy it but I'm going to share a bit of the preface here that explains in very clear terms why any praise of John Wayne as we heard from Bachmann should be ripe for mockery, but since it's our media that's been more than happy to participate in continuing that myth about Wayne and others that Greenwald addressed in his book, we're never going to hear any of them talk about this. If we do I'll be pleasantly surprised, but I'm not holding my breath.

Rough transcript of some of Glenn's opening to his book below the fold.

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Via Ed Henry at CNN:

WASHINGTON (CNN) - P.J. Crowley abruptly resigned Sunday as State Department spokesman over controversial comments he made about the Bradley Manning case.

Sources close to the matter said the resignation, first reported by CNN, came under pressure from the White House, where officials were furious about his suggestion that the Obama administration is mistreating Manning, the Army private who is being held in solitary confinement in Quantico, Virginia, under suspicion that he leaked highly classified State Department cables to the website Wikileaks.

Speaking to a small group at MIT last week, Crowley was asked about allegations that Manning is being tortured and kicked up a firestorm by answering that what is being done to Manning by Defense Department officials "is ridiculous and counterproductive and stupid."

Crowley did add that "nonetheless, Bradley Manning is in the right place" because of his alleged crimes, according to a blog post by BBC reporter Philippa Thomas, who was present at Crowley's talk.

Glenn Greenwald of Salon.com gives his acerbic take on the situation. Greenwald has been an outspoken critic of U.S. policy on torture and rendition, a policy he regards as duplicitous and hypocritical. Sadly, the Manning affair only reinforces that notion.

On Friday, State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley denounced the conditions of Bradley Manning's detention as "ridiculous, counterproductive and stupid," forcing President Obama to address those comments in a Press Conference and defend the treatment of Manning. Today, CNN reports, Crowley has "abruptly resigned" under "pressure from White House officials because of controversial comments he made last week about the Bradley Manning case." In other words, he was forced to "resign" -- i.e., fired.

So, in Barack Obama's administration, it's perfectly acceptable to abuse an American citizen in detention who has been convicted of nothing by consigning him to 23-hour-a-day solitary confinement, barring him from exercising in his cell, punitively imposing "suicide watch" restrictions on him against the recommendations of brig psychiatrists, and subjecting him to prolonged, forced nudity designed to humiliate and degrade. But speaking out against that abuse is a firing offense. Good to know. As Matt Yglesias just put it: "Sad statement about America that P.J. Crowley is the one being forced to resign over Bradley Manning." And as David Frum added: "Crowley firing: one more demonstration of my rule: Republican pols fear their base, Dem pols despise it."

John Amato:

When PJ made his remarks I mistakenly thought the administration wanted to get the overkill treatment Manning has been receiving by the military out there as they obviously try to break him so they can link Assange directly to the leaked documents, which can be used so Assange can be prosecuted in America without the President having to use his bully pulpit against the military. Obviously that wasn't the case. .

From Greg Mitchell who's been blogging on the WikiLeaks release at The Nation for the last month, CNN's Jessica Yellin responds to Glenn Greenwald -- inadequately:

Jessica Yellin responds to Glenn Greenwald critique (see below) at CNN blog -- but completely ignores his main point about her questions betraying a double standard on (or lack of awareness about) journalists routinely publishing top secret information thanks to leaks vs. WikiLeaks making such evidence available. Watch the video again -- claiming she was just asking provocative questions doesn't cut it.

Here's John's post from yesterday on the interview in case you missed it -- It's a sad day when journalists collaborate with the government, again!

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This was worth sitting through just to watch PNAC war monger Cliff May get called a war monger to his face by Salon's Glenn Greenwald.

I could not agree more with Glenn Greenwald on this one. What the hell is wrong with Howard Dean and any of the other Democrats who have lost their spine on this issue? If we don't have the Democratic Party standing up for the First Amendment, who the hell is going to? We sure as hell can't count on the Republicans to do it. This just disgusts me to no end as it did Glenn.

Howard Dean: "Mosque" should move:

Certain things are disappointing and surprising even for the most hardened cynics. Hearing Howard Dean -- the former liberal standard-bearer -- join Newt Gingrich and Sarah Palin by saying the following is definitely one of them. [...]

Making this more repellent is that he doesn't even have the "I-want-to-get-re-elected" excuse. Today, former Reagan Solicitor General Ted Olson -- whose wife, Barbara Olson, was killed on 9/11 -- said he saw no reason for Park51 to move. And Peter Beinart, expediting his ongoing transformation from TNR Seriousness Guardian into shrill liberal blogger, today called on Democrats to -- as he put it -- "Grow a Pair" by standing up to this increasingly toxic campaign. Yet here comes Howard "I'm-from-the-Democratic-wing-of-the-Democratic Party" Dean, advocating that the vicinity of Ground Zero be turned into a Muslim-free zone because some people don't want Muslims near it. It's episodes like this which breed increasing levels of pervasive disgust and even indifference about electoral outcomes.

Read on...

UPDATE: As aggravated as I was with Howard when I wrote this post before it went up for promotion to the front page and before he went on Countdown to explain himself, I respect that fact that he was willing to defend his stance and try to clarify it, but I agree with Keith, he's not doing the Democrats any favors by giving weight to the extremists in the right wing. He may not have meant to, but he did.

The victims of 9-11 are not the ones driving this or that need to be talked to. They already had a chance to have their positions heard when they had the local meetings in New York. The extremists he says should be left out of the debate are the ones pushing this.

I would not be as aggravated at Howard Dean as I am if I didn't think he was one of the good guys who's just dead wrong this time around and if I didn't think his comments were fueling those who want to spread hatred instead of tolerance. I'm sick to death of them using any Democrat to justify their bigotry.

You can watch the Countdown interview here.

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A Democratic congressman from North Carolina is coming under fire after a conservative Web site released video that appears to show him roughing up a college student.

Andrew Breitbart's BigGovernment.com posted the video of Rep. Bob Etheridge Monday. In the clip, the congressman is met by several young men who claim to be working on a college project.

"Do you fully support the Obama agenda?" asks one student.

"Who are you? Who are you?" demands Etheridge as he pushes the camera away.

The congressman takes a tight hold of the student's wrist and won't let go.

"Tell me who you are," he continues to demand.

"We're just here for a project, sir," the student responds but refuses to identify himself. "We're just here for a project. Will you please let go of my hand?"

"I have a right to know who you are," says Etheridge.

The congressman grabs the student by the neck and pulls him close. After a minor protest, he lets the student go.

The video was posted to YouTube by DCCameraGuy Friday. The poster described confrontation as an "attack."

Even liberals have condemned Etheridge's actions. "Rep. Bob Etheridge should be arrested for assault," wrote Salon's Glenn Greenwald.

But Mediaite's Colby Hall suspects that the congressman may have come out on top. "Yeah -- he comes off as a jerk, but…when in Rome. It will be interesting to follow how this story plays out in the news media. Will it be a big story? Probably not, but apparently being prepared for ambush interviews from eager college kids is the next phase of media training for many on Capitol Hill," wrote Hall.