Nancy Pelosi is the new Dan Rather.

How to shut everybody up:

From the Office of the President
Statement from President Barack Obama*

In light of former Vice-President Cheney's recent appearances and statements and the confusion subsequently surrounding them - not to mention the intense political bickering that has ensued - I have informed the Justice Department that I hereby direct them, effective immediately, to appoint an independent Special Prosecutor, who shall retain full investigative powers, and begin a full and thorough investigation into the practices and policies of the former administration in regards to their handling of detainees held in our custody and in other countries abroad and other ancillary matters. I have told Director Holder personally to appoint someone of great integrity and who is free from political bias.

I simply cannot allow any alledged or suggested misdeeds of this nature of the former administration to stain my administration and slow us down or inhibit us from accomplishing the good work that I intend to accomplish. This was not an easy decision for me but no one can be above the law. There can be no excuses. The soul of our great country depends on our belief in and adherence to the law.

Thank you and God Bless America.

[*Not an actual statement from President Obama]

Sound kinda like, "I just love those lying bastards".

Most commentators here and in the media seem to have short memories. It was refreshing then to hear Richard Wolfe on Olberman provide a trenchant review and perspective.

The Bushies tried to get Congressional leaders pregnant in Sept 2002. Was part of their War Rollout. When the Dems took charge in 2007, the Republicans began a steady if not terribly subtle drumbeat of threats against any Congressional war investigations - "but the Democratic leadership knew". With the 2008 elections, the threats became more specific (GOP questioning of Holder and Panetta). When Obama released the torture memos and the Levin report was published out of armed Services (with Senate Intel readying their own), Pelosi became their target.

This isn't about torture. This is about torture being used to gin up a phony case for a phony war

That's what the GOP has been trying to stop for two years now, the trap they set back in 2002

Two Things:

One, has anyone done a time line on this crap from 2002?

two, a special investigation was set up & millions spent over an extra-marital affair. We can't even mount an investigation into actual criminal activities. What is wrong with this picture?

The Bush/Cheney gang has a new lawyer, Barack Obama.

Millions of commoners have been imprisoned in this nation for the past couple of centuries.

The crimes range from indecency and petty theft all the way up to torture and murder.

Of course, these were just unimportant commoners... easily forgotten and/or replaced.

We now are seeing just how unimportant and petty commoners are actually viewed by the REALLY IMPORTANT people who have decided that they will be our new rulers.

Be wary folks to support ANYBODY who attempts to split our justice system into separate factions... one for the rulers and one for the peons.

If you do not believe these scoundrels are ruling... their actions are PROVING it!

Rulers can be as friendly and beniggn as they wish to be. They can be honest whenever it pleases them. What distinguishes them as rulers is that... when they choose to be MONSTERS they can be so without little things like laws and penalties restraining them.

If anyone disagrees, please state so because I for one am beginning to envision just how far and fast this behavior can change the nature of this nation... and would like to be proven wrong...

Pelosi should make novenas in thanksgiving for having such dimwitted adversaries as Boehner, Limbaugh, Kyl and Lalo

STEPHANOPOULOS: That’s the irony here , Senator Webb, as Speaker Gingrich says, investigate. He wants a separate House investigation. Speaker Pelosi says, fine, let’s have a truth commission, the one that Senator Kyl doesn’t want. Where do you stand on this?

Early in September 2002 Senate Intel Committee member Dianne Feinstein publically proclaimed "seriious reservations" about CheneyBush's case for war in Iraq

Days later in September 2002 the yellowcaked CIA, the "slam dunk" CIA prepared a phony NIE and briefed selected congresspersons including Pelosi, Feinstein, and their GOP counterparts

Within days of that September 2002 CIA briefing, DiFi announced that based on intelligence the Bush admnistation provided her, in THOSE SEPTEMBER BRIEFINGS, she now believed that Iraq presented a grave threat to the security of the US

By all means ...Let us have a "truth tornado"

Of course the Republicans are leaking Pelosi's knowledge of the CIA torture briefings in order to force the Democrats to BACK OFF from instigating a Truth Commission - it would expose key DLC leaders as complicit.

The question is, do we back off even if Pelosi and other prominent Dems are implicated?

Of course not. We are ready to hold Pelosi accountable should it be proven that she is complicit.

Frankly, how could she not have known? There's been a half decade of abuses going on and as a ranking member of Congress, the CIA are obliged to brief her. No matter how Leon Pannetta's words are tortuously spun by die-hard Pelosi supporters, there is NO ambiguity in the statement that Pelosi was "truthfully briefed" by the CIA about waterboarding Zubaydah. What is particularly galling is her apparent, overt stance regarding human rights abuses in China and Tibet while silently acquiescing to human rights abuses at home.

In the end, I am committed to the more important goal of coming clean about this most nefarious period in US history. This should trump all other partisan considerations. It should also send a signal to current and future politicians that not only are the abusers and those who authorized them accountable and will be put on trial, but those who kept silent or turned a blind eye in order that they may continue are also held accountable in their complicity.