For President

Under Duress, Body Language Speaks Volumes By Dana Milbank

[T]his much could be seen watching the tape of NBC’s broadcast

during Bush’s 14-minute pre-sunrise interview, in which he stood unprotected by the usual lectern. The president was a blur of

blinks, taps, jiggles, pivots and shifts. Bush has always been an active man, but standing with Lauer and the serene, steady

first lady, he had the body language of a man wishing urgently to be elsewhere. [mjh: need to go to the restroom?]

The fidgeting clearly corresponded to the questioning. … Bush blinked 24 times in his answer. … Bush

blinked 23 times and hitched his trousers up by the belt. … Bush blinked 37 times in a single answer — along with a

lick of the lips, three weight shifts and some serious foot jiggling.

Dead giveaway – smh.com.au

Another

supposed sign of lying is rapid blinking. It’s true that when we become aroused or our mind is racing, there’s a corresponding

increase in our blinking rate. Our normal rate is about 20 blinks per minute, but it can increase to four or five times that figure when

we feel under pressure. When liars are searching for an answer to an awkward question, their thought processes speed up. In this kind of

situation, lying is frequently associated with blinking. But we need to remember that there are times when people have a high blinking

rate, not because they’re lying, but because they’re under pressure. Also, there are times when liars show normal rates.

Fidgeting and awkward hand movements are also thought to be signs of deceit ….

How the Republicans Let It Slip Away By David Ignatius

What’s interesting is that most of these wounds are self-inflicted. They draw a picture of a party that, for all its

seeming dominance, isn’t prepared to be the nation’s governing party. The hard right, which is the soul of the modern

GOP, would rather be ideologically pure than successful. Governing requires making compromises and getting your hands

dirty, but the conservative purists disdain those qualities. …

Bush and the Republicans had a chance after 2004 to become the

country’s natural governing party. They controlled the White House and both houses of Congress. The Democrats were in utter disarray,

leaderless and idea-less. When Bush took the podium in January to deliver his soaring second inaugural address, the future seemed to

belong to the Republicans.

Bush squandered this opportunity by falling into the trap that has snared the modern GOP — of playing

to the base rather than to the nation. The Republicans behave as if the country agrees with them on issues, when that

demonstrably isn’t so. …

A CNN/USA Today/Gallup poll in late August found 54 percent describing themselves as pro-

choice and only 38 percent as pro-life, roughly the same percentages as a decade ago.

Knowing that the FBI and CIA can already spy on us

— without telling us and while sharing their discoveries — doesn’t make me any more enthusiastic about adding DIA to the alphabet

soup.

Remember what Martha Stewart went to prison for? For lying to a federal agent (but not while under oath). Now, even if the

agent doesn’t identify himself or herself as such, you’ll probably go to prison if you don’t tell them everything they want to know.

Welcome to Duhbya’s Amerika! mjh

Request for Domestic Covert Role Is Defended By Walter Pincus,

Washington Post Staff Writer

As part of the expanding counterterrorism role being taken on by the Pentagon, Defense Intelligence

Agency covert operatives need to be able to approach potential sources in the United States without identifying themselves

as government agents, George Peirce, the DIA’s general counsel, said yesterday.

“This is not about spying on

Americans,” Peirce said…. [mjh: of course, it is]

The CIA and the FBI already have such

authority, he added, and the DIA needs it “to develop critical leads” because “there is more than enough work for all of

us to do.”

The legislative proposal has been controversial on Capitol Hill and has drawn criticism from groups concerned

with privacy and civil liberties.

Cal Thomas

say “not in time of war,” knowing that we are in an endless war, guaranteeing the Republicans, and the Radical Right that controls the

GOP, power for a generation or more. Or, so they thought a year ago. The War President has become the Disaster President and the

Republican monolith shows huge cracks. mjh

Cal Thomas

Democrats think that by launching their vast left-wing

political and media conspiracy against Tom DeLay and Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist … they will elbow their way back into power.

That strategy occasionally worked for Democrats in the past, but not in a time of war.

Isn’t it fascinating that Bush needs absolute power over detainees. This President can’t stand any

interference or oversight. He’s worked very hard to distort the sacred “checks and balances” to absolute authority for the executive. He

might as well wish to be a dictator. mjh

Us soldiers barred from torture By Liz Sidoti

The US Senate delivered

a rare wartime rebuke to President George W Bush on Thursday by explicitly barring American soldiers from torturing or

maltreating prisoners. …

New strict US military interrogation guidelines were passed overwhelmingly by 90 votes

to nine in the Republican-controlled Senate despite White House opposition.

The senators approved an amendment that prohibits

“cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment” against anyone in US government custody, regardless of where they are held.

The proposal was sponsored by Republican Senator John McCain, who was held as a prisoner of war in North Vietnam.

It requires

all US military members to follow procedures in the Army Field Manual when they detain and interrogate terrorism suspects.

Bush administration officials say the legislation will limit the president’s authority and flexibility in war.

House GOP May Try to Weaken Detainee

Rules By LIZ SIDOTI

WASHINGTON — Leading House Republicans signaled Friday that they will try to weaken a Senate

effort to limit interrogation techniques that U.S. service members can use on terrorism suspects.

Their remarks made

clear that the language in the Senate-passed military spending bill faces uncertain prospects in bargaining between the Senate and House.

…

The White House said in a statement that advisers would recommend a veto of the spending bill if it includes language that

would hurt efforts in the war on terror by limiting the president’s authority and flexibility. Last summer, Vice President Dick Cheney

came to Capitol Hill to pressure McCain, Warner and Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., to drop the effort.

I’d like to think an evangelical Christian as worthy of the bench as a Jew, Muslim or Atheist

(knowing that an Atheist would never be nominated). Unfortunately, right now, the loudest, most noticeable evangelicals strike me as

dangerous, looney zealots who would despise me — or convert me — but never tolerate me. So, at the moment, nominating an evangelical

seems like nominating a zombie. I’m truly sorry to say that.

Nevertheless, I believe in diversity and recognize there are a lot

of views in America I don’t agree with but must tolerate, even views of people who in turn would condemn me. (This is why conservatives

beat liberals.)

What Bush’s vaunted Base^* is about to learn is just how bull-headed and doggedly

loyal he is to those he knows personally. They will not move him in the least. Only someone closer to him than Miers can do that, if

anyone can. mjh

^*Strangely,the translation of al Qaeda is “the base”.

HoustonChronicle.com – Dionne: Conservatives use religion when

it suits their aims By E.J. DIONNE

The use of Miers’ religion as a magnet for conservative support is not just the work of a

few religious voices. It’s part of the administration’s strategy. …

Let’s be clear: It is pro-administration conservatives,

not those terrible liberals, who are making an issue of Miers’ evangelical faith.

Liberals are not opposing Miers because she is

an evangelical. Conservatives are telling their friends to support Miers because she is an evangelical. …

And Ed Morrissey,

whose “Captain’s Quarters” is one of the most popular conservative blogs, said publicly what other concerned conservatives have said

privately. “The push by more enthusiastic Miers supporters to consider her religious outlook smacks of a bit of hypocrisy,” Morrissey

wrote.

“After all, we argued the exact opposite when it came to John Roberts and William Pryor when they appeared before the

Senate Judiciary Committee. … Conservatives claimed that using religion as a reason for rejection violated the Constitution and any

notion of religious freedom. Does that really change if we base our support on the same grounds?”