How likely is it that the CIA misled Pelosi about the use of waterboarding when interrogating prisoners?

20% Very likely
23% Somewhat likely
19% Not very likely
22% Not at all likely
16% Not sure

In other news, we’ve been watching too much “24″:

How likely is it that waterboarding and other harsh techniques helped secure valuable intelligence information?

40% Very likely
19% Somewhat likely
22% Not very likely
8% Not at all likely
12% Not sure

In still other news, there’s a bright, shiny Cheney we should pay attention to:

Robert Windrem, who covered terrorism for NBC, reports exclusively in The Daily Beast that: Two U.S. intelligence officers confirm that Vice President Cheney’s office suggested waterboarding an Iraqi prisoner, a former intelligence official for Saddam Hussein, who was suspected to have knowledge of a Saddam-al Qaeda connection.

OctoRush by Barry Blitt

Retired Republican Senator Chuck Hagel, during an appearance on MSNBC’s “The Rachel Maddow Show,” weighed in on recent antics certain high-profile Republicans.

He also criticized former Vice President Dick Cheney for claiming that the Obama administration has placed the nation in danger and noted that Cheney was partly responsible for the “mess” the Bush administration left behind.

On the show, Hagel took a shot at new Republican Party chairman Michael Steele. Asked about Steele’s threat to support primary challengers against Republican Senators Arlen Specter, Susan Collins, and Olympia Snowe, who each defied GOP leaders and voted for Obama’s stimulus package, Hagel called it “a very foolish, foolish move,” commenting, “there’s no room for that kind of silliness.” He added, “People expect serious people to deal with serious issues and to govern seriously. And when you don’t do that, you become irrelevant.”

Prior to the taping, he also let David Corn of Mother Jones know that there is no love lost between he and El Rushbo:

Rush Limbaugh is “the center of gravity” of the Republican Party, and “we need a new center of gravity,” Hagel told me on Tuesday night….Maddow did not ask Hagel about Limbaugh. But prior to the taping, Hagel was not shy about bemoaning Limbaugh’s drag on his party. He told me that Limbaugh was the opposite of what the Republican Party needs now. “We blew eight years of governing,” Hagel said, excoriating GOPers for having “run up” the national debt. “You can only blame Ted Kennedy for so much,” he remarked.

Hat tip: A Kleinheider Joint

After the 9/11 attacks, President Bush famously declared that he would capture Osama bin Laden “dead or alive.” However, less than a year later — in March 2002 — Bush said that he was “not that concerned” about the al Qaeda leader. Today on CNN’s Late Edition, host Wolf Blitzer asked Vice President Cheney, “How frustrating is this to you personally, knowing he’s [bin Laden] still at large?” Cheney hesitated, then simply replied that he would “obviously…like to solve that problem.” He added that it’s more “important” to “keep…this country safe,” indicating that bin Laden is inconsequential.

But should we be glossing over the first part of Cheney’s answer to the question of why hasn’t the administration captured Bin Laden yet? Does “well, we have a few days left, Wolf” mean that the “history will prove us right” spin of the Bush Legacy Project is foreshadowing the upstaging of the Obama inauguration with an Osama capture? Is that a Chesire Cheney we see in this interview?

If not, Cheney’s nonchalance and off the cuff retort does nothing but denigrate the memory of those lost on 9/11 and prove to the families affected by the tragedy just how much he really cares.

• I’m bitter that the news most people watch and the news most people read chooses to report on ill-chosen words of one presidential candidate rather than the disastrous foreign policy views of another (Oh, really, John McCain, Sadr’s “influence has been on the wane for a long time?” And is he a Sunni or a Shia, sir?).
• I’m bitter that the news most people watch and the news most people read chooses to report on ill-chosen words of one presidential candidate rather than the Bush administration’s deliberate attempt to cover their torture-monkey asses with legal briefs.
• I’m bitter that my government chooses torture over moral superiority.
• I’m bitter that five years ago “major combat operations” were declared over.
• I’m bitter that only 28 percent of Americans know the number of American casualties in Iraq.
• I’m bitter that no one knows the real number of Iraqi civilian casualties.
• I’m bitter that as the war in Iraq rages on, the guys in charge choose to represent “significant progress” with charts and graphs while ignoring the carnage on the ground.
• I’m bitter that 17 of the nation’s 50 largest cities have high school graduation rates lower than 50 percent.
• I’m bitter that 1 in every 100 Americans is incarcerated.
• I’m bitter that we spend $435 million a day, $3 billion a week, $12 billion a month, on the Iraq war and nothing to improve the education or the lives of our citizens.
• I’m bitter that I can’t be critical of our government’s policies and leaders – you know, the people that work for us – without being told that I should love my country more or move to Cuba.
• I’m bitter that I can’t get close enough to Dick Cheney to wag my finger in his face in response to “So?”
• I’m bitter that more people in Tennessee, including some legislators, choose to care about the integrity of the lottery instead of the integrity of our elections.
• I’m bitter that we’re still lagging behind (“studying the science?) instead of leading on global climate change.
• I’m bitter that there are still some adults in this country who believe it better to attack those who ask the hard questions about race rather than have meaningful conversations.
• I’m bitter that these adults have radio and televisions shows where they get to spew their nonsense to millions of people.
• I’m bitter that people have such short memories that Fox News can get away with this s**t.

And so, is it surprising then that I cling to my martinis and my Constitution and my antipathy towards a government who doesn’t represent my values as a way to deal with my frustrations?

UPDATE: Thank you, Robert Reich (and hat tip to Freddie), for being more eloquent than I and spot on with your blog post, “Obama, Bitterness, Meet the Press, and the Old Politics.”

No End in Sight was a very different animal from Bush’s War. There was some overlapping footage. Both were bleak. But No End in Sight focused on how some very bad decision-making in the early days of the war led to an occupation that has been much more difficult than it might’ve been. The cast of characters was slightly different, too, as this documentary focused much more on the people who actually have been involved in the occupation and reconstruction efforts.

Considering the news out of the Green Zone this week and the abundance of films that have come out of Iraq in the past five years, I think it’s still a difficult argument to make that anything construed as negative ignores everything that’s positive. There have been positive developments in Iraq, and I’m optimistic that we won’t be there for John McCain’s 100 years. But I’m also optimistic that another generation has lost its stomach for war, which we should all come to view as much less necessary than Dick Cheney, with his One Percent Doctrine. But my optimism doesn’t mean there’s an end in sight. And the movie didn’t seem to share my optimism.

You can catch the final installment of the Iraq War Series on Sunday night at 7:00 p.m. at Sarratt, where they’ll be screening In the Valley of Elah.

One striking thing was the number of players who participated in the series. Colin Powell, L. Paul Bremer, John Yoo all played themselves. Any number of supporting members of the CIA and various branches of the military and federal government were involved. It was extraordinarily thoroughly sourced, with primary sources and carefully selected media footage galore. Considering the principals involved, it can hardly be described as a leftist smear job.

In some ways, the series might just as easily have been called “Bush’s Legacy.” I mean, honestly, when all is said and done, what else will there be? I count the Iraq war as the most significant piece of the Bush legacy by a long shot, and it has, in some ways, subsumed Afghanistan. After that, Justices Roberts and Alito, certainly. And after that, what? No Child Left Behind? The Ownership Society was never realized in a way that will live up to the New Deal, the Great Society, or other such presidential domestic agendas. The Department of Homeland Security, while a major overhaul of federal bureaucracy, under Bush has generated a string of failures. His immigration policy has been left in tatters. His goal of simplifying the tax code has gone nowhere. His attempt to reform Social Security was an abject failure. I guess there’s a prescription drug benefit, but it’s got so many strings attached that it’s not likely to be a lasting piece of our federal healthcare system in its current form.

The Frontline piece accurately depicts Bush’s war, and I hope it gives future administrations greater pause before rushing to war for any purpose whatsoever. This is Bush’s war, but, as the conclusion of the series notes, it will soon be passed on to someone new. Bush’s legacy, on the other hand, is his alone. But, hey, at least he isn’t embroiled in any sex scandals!

By Tom Toles

On Sunday, four US soldiers were killed by an IED in Baghdad, bringing the number of U.S. soldiers killed in Iraq to 4,000. To memorialize the day in which this grim milestone was reached, the Nashville Peace Coalition will gather in front of the Federal Building in Nashville today, Monday, March 24th from 5:30pm to 7:00pm to remember all those killed in the war, including an estimated 89,000 or more Iraqi civilians.

When: Monday, March 24th 5:30pm – 7:00pm

Where: Federal Building, 8th & Broadway

Who: Nashville Peace Coalition