More evidence that we are living through Bush's third term

Remember this?



So that sixteen-month time frame has come and gone and now the AP reports today that the US is open to keeping troops in Iraq past the end of 2011 withdrawal deadline.

In other news, the Hill is reporting that a watchdog group is asking for a probe of Google's "unusually close" ties to Obama:

The National Legal and Policy Center (NLPC), a group that advocates for a smaller and more ethical government, wrote to leaders of the House Oversight Committee this month urging them to investigate a major privacy breach by Google. It wants to know if the company's ties to the administration helped it dodge penalties after the incident.

The article continues:

"Like Halliburton in the previous administration, Google has an exceptionally close relationship with the current administration," the letter says.

Is it 2012 yet?

President George W. Bush Admits to Authorizing Waterboarding

President George W. Bush, in his memoirs "Decision Points," reveals that he was asked for and granted permission to the CIA to waterboard Khalid Sheikh Mohammed. As you may or may not recall, KSM was reportedly waterboarded 183 times in March 2003.

President Obama announced in 2008 that he would not pursue charges against former President Bush or other government officials for war crimes related to waterboarding, even though waterboarding is generally accepted to be a form of torture. The Geneva Convention of 1949, ratified by the US, expressly prohibits torture. At the Tokyo Trials following WW II, Japanese soldiers were tried, convicted, and hanged for crimes committed against American POWs which included waterboarding.

President Bush gets blamed for a lot of things; some rightfully so, some not. With his stunning admission of authorizing waterboarding, this is one particular case where it is painfully obvious that Bush is deserving of whatever criticism he has coming. While I don't think that the former President should be hanged for his crimes and would likely be pardoned if convicted, the Justice Department would be remiss to fail to prosecute him.