Special Comment Video Here

In two parts.



The second.

Saunter To The White House 12 ; Giuliani Not Sure Waterboarding Is Torture

Yes, our man of the moment, Rudy Giuliani has stated that he is not sure if waterboarding can be classified as torture.

Now, really he just had to take a leaf or two out of the President's book and cover himself by :

1 . Firstly refuse to discuss specific torture techniques.

then...

2 . Get your attorney general to reclassify torture or anything that everyone else apart from you declares to be torture as not torture.

After that, you can sleep at night.

Tell The Truthiness ; First President Bush, then President Giuliani, that'll keep you awake.

War On Reality Part 58 ; They See A Standard & They've Just Got To Lower It

Torture, according to the Justice Department is "abhorrent", that word was used and many others in a December 2004 legal opinion giving the Department's stance on the issue.

Well, in true form, the Bush administration has shown it's wish and indication in black and white with this story that it pushed for torture to be carried out after former Attorney General Alberto Gonzales' document which was issued not long after he started his job in February 2005. This memo, was, as all of the best White House memos are, kept secret.

Click here for the New York Times story.

Tell The Truthiness ; Reason 653 to not trust George H W Bush and his gang.

We don't have the footage of him defending himself from the last few days, but here is last year's clip of him talking to Matt Lauer on NBC. The interview is very telling of how he defends the use of 'torture' to keep people safe and invoking terror to frighten people, he talks about 9/11 and he talks about Lauer's family several times. Frightening.

Holding Them To Account 10 ; Gonzales 'Al Be Going'

Alberto Gonzales left on Friday and was given a full send off by his office. And Jon from The Daily Show...



Tell The Truthiness ; Some staff didn't get him a leaving card, they just "did not recall" he was leaving.

Holding Them To Account 5 ; Patriot Act Proviso

That huge lump of legislation that was dumped on the US in late 2001 was initially believed to be for domestic security protection, dig deeper and you'll find concerning aspects.

The Los Angeles Times has found a piece in the PATRIOT Act which allows Alberto Gonzales to decide if the counsel given to death row inmates is appropriate and additional small print is being finalised to give him extra say in these ultimate decisions.

Tell The Truthiness ; Will Alberto be gone before he gets a chance to use these powers for evil?

Holding Them To Account 2.1 ; Don't Leave Town Rove

Despite his soon to be ex-employment at the White House, Karl Rove's past actions will still be under the microscope for a while. According to Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers and his response to today's weepy goodbye that is.

"The need for Karl Rove to explain his role in the firing of the U.S. Attorneys does not diminish when he leaves the White House. Our investigation to date has revealed the White House’s contempt for the rule of law and its interest in the politicization of the Department of Justice.

"While resignations at DoJ and the White House continue to mount, questions raised by this investigation remain. We will continue to seek answers to these questions and expect full cooperation from Mr. Rove and other officials regardless of whether they are employed by the White House."

Tell The Truthiness ; He may be about to leave the administration's employ, but that doesn't erase everything that's gone before. Get a good lawyer Mr Rove.

Holding Them To Account 2 ; Bush's Brain Resigns

In a teary farewell, the man anyone who likes the idea of democracy loves to hate resigned this morning.

Karl Rove will leave at the end of August, for, yes, that old chestnut, the sake of his family.

He's nicknamed 'Bush's Brain', can we expect the rest of the President's body to follow in the next couple of months?

Tell The Truthiness ; Rumsfeld, now Rove, could we have Gonzales next please?

We'll post footage of him announcing his departure once it's available, but in the meantime, here's an interesting film about the Houston Plan. We've never heard of it either.

War On Reality Part 30 ; We Don't Recall Having Any Respect For You For A Long Time

The ability to not recall any past events on Capitol Hill seems to be spreading from the Attorney General Alberto Gonzales to the Vice President Dick Cheney.

When asked by CNN's Larry King, Mr Cheney cannot recall authorising the hospital bed visit to John Ashcroft to push him to certify the intelligence gathering programme.

Tell The Truthiness ; 'I don't recall' is as worse than saying 'yes', have some guts Mr Cheney, if not, borrow some from Mr Chertoff, he's got plenty of guts (with feelings) to spare.

War On Reality Part 29 ; We've Only Scratched The Surface

It turns out the surveillance carried out by the Bush administration that we've all been outraged at is actually far deeper than we all thought.

Using once again that old chestnut, an executive order, in late 2001 increased snooping on anyone suspected of being connected with potential terrorists was ordered.

Tell The Truthiness ; Who is really that surprised at this?

War On Reality Part 27 ; It Always Comes Back To Bite You In The Ass

Charges of contempt are being made on Capitol Hill against those two staff who refused to cooperate with an investigation into the attorney firings.

The full outcome could be a year in jail and a $1000 fine.

Tell The Truthiness ; Where's the executive privilege now?

War On Reality Part 24 ; Ex-Aide Loyal After The End, It's Taylor Made

As she made a statement to a Senate Committee assembled to find out the truth behind the attorney sackings, Sara Taylor stuck to loyalty as a flimsy defence for refusing to answer questions about the firings.

The reason she's not telling is because she is compelled Mr Bush's executive privilege. There are areas though she can talk about without breaching the order.

Tell The Truthiness ; If you like court tv, for this administration, it's just the start.