He has to go now, doesn’t he? When all the people directly associated with this debacle have quit or been fired, on what basis does he stay? He fronted the report. He stood by it. He took responsibility for it. On his watch, CBS News became a laughing stock. Is he really going to let everyone else take the hit? Has he lost all sense of self-respect as well as loyalty? For goodness’ sake, Dan. Go. Even Howell did eventually. People will remember the rest of your legacy. But if you hang on to your job as long as you hung on to that “story,” all you will prove is your pride.
GENE THERAPY: My own view is that gene therapy will turn out to be far more important in arresting HIV than the futile pursuit of an elusive vaccine. And we have just had a break-through. (Hat tip: Pacopond.)
TIME FOR HEALING WATCH: Red America, as seen by a Village Voice cartoonist.
THE LIMBAUGH DEFENSE: Rush Limbaugh saw nothing wrong with Abu Ghraib. Now we hear the sickening psychopath, Charles Graner, push the same vile arguments in defending himself from the charge of torture. “You’re keeping control of them. A tether is a valid control to be used in corrections,” Graner’s lawyer said. “In Texas we’d lasso them and drag them out of there.” Ah, the Texas defense. Let’s review just one incident, reported by the ICRC, in which Graner featured:
One of those days the guards tortured the prisoners. Those guards are Grainer [sic], Davis and another man. First they tortured the man whose name is Amjid Iraqi. They stripped him of his clothes and beat him till he passed out and they cursed him and when they took off of his head I saw blood running from his head. They took him to solitary confinement and were beating him every night… After they brought six people and beat them up until they dropped on the floor and one of them his nose was cut and the blood was running from his nose and he was screaming but no one was responding and all this beating from Grainer and Davis and another man… And after that they beat up the rest of the group until they fall to the ground. Every time one of them fell to the ground they drag them up to stand on his feet. Grainer beat up a man whose name is Ali the Syrian and he was beating him until he gotten almost crazy … They hanged him and he was screaming but no one helped him.
Well, as long as they weren’t actually torturing anyone, eh, Bybee?
The Dish 