Why is it, do you think, that some tyrants love show trials? Why not, as death squads did in Argentina and Chile kidnap, torture and murder at midnight? Why detain & torture people, coerce confessions, rig kangaroo courts (my apologies again to the kangaroos who, after all are innocent unlike our Decider-in-Chief) and bar lawyers from representing them effectively?

As you may well know by now, Mr. Bush as decided to follow up on the show trial and hanging of Saddam Hussein (who may well have been guilty of something, but we’ll never know) by trying” six people in Guantanamo before military commissions and executing them. Their crime? A la little Rudy one-note, claimed involvement in the September 11 attacks.

In order to make acceptable the “evidence” extracted by Mr. Bush by torture (Did he watch the torture tapes?) a public relations campaign has launched to show that water boarding is just fine. Mr. Injustice Antonin Scalia loves torture , he tells us, rewriting the Federal Rules of Evidence with scenes Fox’s 24. (Do you think Mr. Justice S plans to recuse himself from deciding these issues? Me neither.)

The White House whitewash of water boarding, here and here is buttressed by a bizarre argument: after we tortured them, we interrogated them nicely, indeed treated them to Starbucks Coffee and they still confessed.

Victor Rabinowitz long time advocate on behalf of union labor, civil rights for minorities and civil liberties for dissenters, who represented Cuba, Alger Hiss and Benjamin Spock and who died in late November, will be remembered and honored at a memorial meeting Saturday, January 12, 2008 at 4PM at NYU Law School’s Vanderbuilt Hall, 40 Washington Square South. To read a moving personal memoir of Rabinowitz by one of his children, Mark Rabinowitz, click here

UPDATE: He's still dead, but for New Yorkers of a certain age and left persuasion, the meeting memorializing the life of Victor Rabinowitz was a time warp. Civil rights, civil liberties activists, war opponents, now grey-haired litigators some turned judges and law professors all looked much as they did when I first met many of them in the late 1950’s and early 1960’s. Chuck McDew, the first chair of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee looked more wrinkled and greyer (but no heavier) than he did in 1962, but he was just as warm and funny as then as he remembered how “Miss Ella” (Baker) sent him to meet “good white people:” Victor and his partner Leonard Boudin. Joni, Mark & Peter Rabinowitz remembered their father’s loyalty, devotion and humor as well as a few of his difficult moments. Some of the speeches were dull with left-speak, of course, but the real remembering of Victor Rabinowitz took place as we schmoozed before and after, reaffirming links between us forged in struggles which (for me at least) were quite frightening. His was quite a time.

But you can do more. Following the memorial meeting, a few steps East at Judson Memorial Church 55 Washington Square South the, Domestic Workers United , an organization of largely immigrant women of color, is hosting a benefit dinner dance 6-11:30PM. It will feature home cooking. I’ve eaten their food and it’s wonderful.

When the 18 and 1/2-minutes of Nixon-tape turned up missing, it was the beginning of the end for his presidency. Will the destroyed tapes of CIA torture end Mr. Bush and Mr. Cheney’s Gestapo-like torture careers? (Check Washington Post story here )Perhaps not unlike Sgt. Shultz of Hogan’s Heroes, Mr. Bush "knows nothing, remembers nothing" His mouthpiece press spokespinner: "He has no recollection of being made aware of the tapes or their destruction before yesterday." So far as I’ve read Scott Horton’s take at Harpers is the most focused. But if you want a full scream-by-scream review try Dan Froomkin’s chronology with hot-links from the Washington post. Update: The White House now claims it tried to stop the CIA from destroying evidence; before they claimed destroying the videos was just peachy. I could give you a dozen hot-links but Scott Horton has already collected them with a Sgt. Shultz reference to spare.

An interesting tidbit via Daily Kos: it appears that a group of people decided to show their lack of amusement at Chuck Schumer's vote for Michael Mukasey by staging a protest in front of his office.

Imagine, there's even a video.

What's interesting about this simply this: New York electeds are used to essentially doing whatever they want without consequence. Support a bigot for a judgeship, no biggie. Support someone who can't say that waterboarding is torture, or that the law binds even the President, equally, it appears, not a big deal.

Guess these folks didn't get the memo titled Shut Up and Clap. Good for them.

And still they wonder where their approval ratings have gone.

The New York Times reports that Judge Michael Mukasey of New York has been confirmed to the post of Attorney General, to which he was originally nominated on the advice of New York's senior Senator, Charles Schumer. Forty Democrats voted against the nomination; fifty three Senators, including Schumer, voted in favor; and all five members of the august chamber who are currently running for President absented themselves from the vote.

Mukasey is notable for being the first Attorney General of the United States to be sworn in after having refused to say whether he would prohibit torture, and after making an equally remarkable statement to the effect that the President can act outside of and contrary to the law.

Needless to say, this nomination was not subject to the ongoing republican filibuster that now requires the Senate to have sixty votes to pass much of anything.

Now, forty four Democrats did oppose this nomination, including all four Presidentials, ironically creating one of the few divergences of opinion between Senators Clinton and Schumer. Fine speeches were delivered, much high-sounding rhetoric echoed up to the high ceilings of the Senate chamber.

I am going on record as saying that my favorite NY newspaper is The Daily News. I read it I've never been too keen on Michael Goodwin. I am more of a EC Schipp kind of gal; although I also enjoy Michael Daly, Juan Gonzalez, Stanley Crouch, Errol Louis along with ... gasp! ... Gatecrasher. I mean, who doesn't love their gossip, right?

So Bob Fertik's email about boycotting New York City's newspaper of record came as a surprise. Here's what I got from Democrats.com :

UPDATE: Progressive Democrats of America, Brooklyn For Peace & others plan a protest at Sen. Schumer's Park Slope home Tuesday night. They write:

Senator Schumer's support of Mukasey for U.S. Attorney General is outrageous and we must respond.

New York Progressive Democrats of America joins with Brooklyn For Peace and other Neighborhood Peace organizations to protest Senator Charles Schumer's decision to support the nomination of Michael Mukasey for U.S. Attorney General.

PROTEST VIGIL - TUESDAY, NOV 6th, 6:00 pm
at Senator Schumer's residence: 9 Prospect Park West (corner of President Street in Park Slope)Brooklyn, NY

Protest Schumer's support of Michael Mukasey - who will support Bush's continued use of torture.
Protest Schumer's increasing support of military action against Iran and Bush's attempt to launch a new war.
Protest Schumer's continuing support of funding for the war against Iraq.

As Senate Judiciary power broker, Senator Schumer green-lighted the nomination of Michael Mukasey as Mr. Bush’s replacement AG to hit for Gonzo. The bad news of course is that Judge M cannot figure out whether waterboarding is torture. This put our senior senator in a spot. He now favors the Mukaseky. He may be a key to defeating it. What a sad situation.

Have you followed the most recent round of disclosures, lawyerly denials concerning President Bush mission to torture whomever he wishes? The story, that a secret Injustice Department memo authorized CIA torture, first appeared in The NY Times Thursday. Shock, dismay and outrage from Congressional Democrats followed as the night the day which were of course followed by Mr. Bush’s lawyerly, misleading statements that we don’t “torture.” Editorial condemnations here and here. Congressional Quarterly's report of persistent Congressional pique is here . Scott Horton writing at the Harper's Blog has this blistering torture essay which should not be missed.

The Eagle has landed Do you love tall sailing ships? The US Coast Guard training ship The Eagle has docked at the foot of pier 17, at the South Street Seaport. The ship is great (no signs of its Nazi origin), the coast guardsmen and women charming; tours from 9:00-6:30 Sat & Sun. If you go Sat. morning, check out the asbestos decontamination exercise run by Fire at the Sanitation garage at the foot of Montgomery Street.

After years of torture and harsh confinement, US officials have decided to allow some "high value" Guantanamo detainees to lawyer-up . (Although at least one of them, already represented by counsel, has not been allowed to get letters from her).

The poor get sicker than the rich. Great and serious congratulations are due to Comptroller William Thompson who (I guess with staff support) has produced a really smart interesting and important analysis of the NYC health impacts of class and cash. Surpise!

Cheer up. Joke 1 Saturday's Washington Post leads with the "Through The Looking Glass" story in which our Pentagon commissioned a $400,000 marketing study which believe it or else has concluded that the Iraq war has been misbranded: A brand sells itself to consumers (in this case Iraqis) and the brand the US has used, "show of force," isn't working
(the Iraqis don't buy it) The marketing geniuses concluded

"that the "force" brand, which the United States peddled for the first few years of the occupation, was doomed from the start and lost ground to (US Govt>) enemies' competing brands. While not abandoning the more aggressive elements of warfare, the report suggested, a more attractive brand for the Iraqi people might have been "We will help you."

War is peace.

Joke 2 George W. Bush has decided on a new torture policy. It's the same as the old policy: trust me, we don't torture. Actual interrogation methods are still secret but the President says they don't constitute torture. (The Red Cross should trust him too. It may not visit detainees.)

Joke 3 ( via Harper's Scott Horton )

Q: What does George Bush think of Roe v. Wade?
A: He really doesn’t care how people get out of New Orleans.