CIA historian: “The debate’s over, Torture stained the honor of the United States.”

By GottaLaff

Former BushCo employee Marc Thiessen has been publicly ripping President Obama's national security/terrorism policies, and builds a verbal shrine to those of the Bush crime family.

Watch the video of Thiessen get a royal smackdown by Lawrence O'Donnell here. Then watch it again, because it's that good.

Now read about another evisceration of Thiessen, this time by a Pulitzer Prize-winning CIA historian:

“It was not the most successful intelligence program in the history of the CIA by a long shot,” he emails. Weiner added that by the long view of the CIA’s history, there is no more debate.

“The debate’s over,” he said. “Torture stained the honor of the United States.”

Weiner also strongly contested the notion that Obama’s approach represents a dialing back to a pre-9/11 mentality. “The Obama administration has some pretty robust programs going on, killing suspects all over Afghanistan and Pakistan with armed drones,” he said.

Weiner also contested another Thiessen chesnut: That the Obama administration is killing too many terrorists, rather than subjecting more of them to enhanced interrogation. Weiner dismissed Thiessen’s case as tantamount to arguing that targeting terrorists abroad “more closely resembles treason than counterterrorism.”

Treason indeed.

Of course, Dickless McHeartStent needs to sell his future book, so he'll join Thiessen's irrational, drool-stained love affair with torture, and continue to sputter and stammer about his man crush on waterboarders and how he and his band of thugs saved America. ... after they allowed 9/11 to happen.

Gradually, we will eradicate the toxic Bush stain.

Tom DeLay's new reality as... the "Expert". At what? Drinking?

By GottaLaff

"Dancing with the Felons" didn't quite work out for Two Left Mouths DeLay, so he's taking another crack at the Tee Vee Machine, this time as an employee of, of all companies, Disney:

On Friday, Disney-ABC Domestic Television announced they'd found another reality-TV home for DeLay. He will sit in as the "Expert" in the "Ask the Expert" lifeline for episodes of the syndicated show "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire" airing all next week, Oct. 26-30.

More like the "Expired".

Contestants who have correctly answered the $5,000 question can ask to be connected to a pre-determined "expert" via Skype.[...] He told contestants ahead of time he knows a lot about politics, sports, history, and science. He also warned contestants he's weak on pop culture [...] celebrities, and literature.

An expert on science? Really? As for literature, maybe if he acquires some actual reading skills, he'll be able to add lit to his "expertise" column. He does have an aptitude for drinking, but unfortunately, that's not one of the topics.

And when it comes to history, well, let's just say his is troubled.

Obama's stimulus package should help economy, experts say

By GottaLaff

President Obama's doing such a terrible job. Impeach him now. He's expanding security efforts to include both of our borders, he's restoring the rule of law, he's protecting the environment,he's supporting women's rights, he's inclusive, and now... of all things, he's devising a recovery plan for our flatlining economy. Is he nuts, or what?

Economists think the stimulus plan that the House of Representatives will vote on Wednesday, while far from perfect, will help stimulate the moribund U.S. economy. [...]

[M]ost leading economists who are experienced in public policy generally favor the stimulus plan that the House is considering because through it the government will step up spending at a time when private-sector spending has fallen off sharply.

Some economists are ideologically opposed to any such massive government plan. The Cato Institute, a libertarian research center, has organized a list of dozens of academic economists who oppose the plan, urging instead tax cuts and smaller government, in favor of free markets and lower taxes over big government activities. Cato will advertise its list in coming days. However, that isn't where the balance of expert opinion comes down today.

The House legislation would erect four pillars of economic stimulus. It would provide income support to the poor and recently unemployed, distribute aid to state governments, seek relatively quick employment gains through public works spending and aim to spark consumer and business spending through targeted tax cuts.

"I think it's a reasonably well-designed package," said Mark Zandi, the chief economist for forecaster Moody's Economy.com and a former adviser to the presidential campaign of Republican Arizona Sen. John McCain. [...]

House Republicans have lampooned some modest spending provisions in the package that have little to do with stimulating the economy, but those measures account for only a small portion of the money. [...]

The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office, in an analysis released Monday and in congressional testimony Tuesday, said that the Democratic stimulus plan generally would get government money into the economy quickly, with 65 percent of it spent by October 2010. [...]

Private-sector economists who support the stimulus plan say that it could be made better, and, yes, bigger.

"I would make the package bigger . . . increase the package to over $1 trillion," Zandi said.

One change, he said, could be to take the $7,500 tax credit being proposed for home purchases by first-time buyers and apply it to all home purchases, payable at closing. This would help reverse the deep slide in the national housing market.

Zandi also proposes a bigger payroll-tax holiday, which would provide temporary relief for workers and their employers, getting more cash into the economy.

Drawbacks are outlined in the piece, too, but, generally, the consensus is positive... despite what Campbell Brown and Ed Henry are trying to sell us. No bias, no bull from those two, uh-uh. And if you believe that...