Specter of Change - GOP Senator Becomes a Democrat

B. Thomas Cooper - Editor

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National News wire - The Infinite Echo

Arlen Specter, long time Republican senator from Pennsylvania, has announced his intent to change party affiliation, bringing the Democrats closer to a much wanted, 60 seat, filibuster-proof Senate majority.

Specter, facing an uncertain future among fellow Republicans in Pennsylvania, has seen his favorability rating drop in recent polls. More than half of those Republicans polled said they preferred a change in leadership. Polls show Specter trailing in hypothetical senate primary match-ups.

Specter has been under the gun from Republicans since supporting President Barack Obama's $787 billion stimulus plan. He was one of only three Republicans who voted in support of the plan. Specter, the fifth oldest senator in Congress was first elected to the Senate in 1980, and is the senior senator from Pennsylvania.

The Democrats having been awaiting the final results of the highly contested Minnesota Senate race between former comedian Al Franken, Democrat, and Republican incumbent Norm Coleman. Franken currently holds a 225 vote lead, and is ultimately expected to win the seat. With Arlen Specter switching to the Democratic party, their long sought after filibuster-proof Senate majority may suddenly be within grasp.

B. Thomas Cooper - Editor

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Skate the Razor Blog - blogment

CIA Torture Probe to Continue

B. Thomas Cooper - Editor

blogment - National News wire - The Infinite Echo

Peter Hoekstra, ranking Republican on the House Intelligence Committee, has expressed dismay with the Justice Department, insisting his panel will indeed probe into the destruction of CIA videotapes of secret interrogations, contrary to a request by the Justice Department to suspend any pending congressional inquiries.

"It's important for Congress to hold this community accountable," Hoekstra is quoted as saying. "The CIA did not tell us about the existence of these tapes. They did not tell us that they were going to be destroyed."

Others on the committee agree. "Congress and the Justice Department have conducted parallel inquiries many times in the past," stated California Rep. Jane Harman, the former ranking Democrat on the committee. "So I am worried. It smells like the cover-up of the cover-up."
Harman says she sent the CIA a letter in 2003 warning them not to destroy the tapes.

In a joint statement Friday, Hoekstra and committee Chairman Silvestre Reyes said they were "stunned that the Justice Department would move to block our investigation."

"The executive branch can't be trusted to oversee itself. There's a constitutional responsibility for them to keep Congress informed, and they have not."

"You've got a systemic problem here," Hoekstra said on "Fox News Sunday."
The leadership of U.S. intelligence agencies "is incompetent, it is arrogant" and has "become political,"

"I think that we're going to hold Mike Hayden accountable, because some of these misleading statements to Congress occurred on his watch," Hoekstra stated.

The videotapes, destroyed by the CIA in 2006, purport to have shown agents interrogating terror suspects using a banned torture technique known as ‘Waterboarding’ which simulates drowning, causing panic, brain damage and sometimes even death. In the past, the US has successfully prosecuted individuals accused of ‘Waterboarding’. The Bush administration however, has been less than forthright, denouncing ‘Waterboarding’ in one breath, and embracing it with the next. Bush’s behavior on this issue doesn’t really qualify as flip-flopping, however. It’s been more akin to the kid with his fingers crossed behind his back.

Ultimately, ‘Waterboarding’ is torture, and those who have been subjected to ‘Waterboarding’ have been done so in clear violation of US and international law. Once again, George W. Bush and his administration have gone to unparalleled lengths to circumvent justice and the law. This latest revelation and the prerequisite cover-up is business as usual, for an administration that knows no boundaries.

B. Thomas Cooper - Editor

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