As a result of his “discomfort,” Roberts is considering taking the Scalia-Thomas route and just not going next year.  “I’m not sure why we are there,” he says.  Unless Roberts is talking about why he has a place on the Supreme Court, I do not share his confusion.  You’re there, Roberts, because you were invited.  And it’s not like being invited to an Edward Fortyhands party — this is a Constitutionally-mandated address by the President of the United States to both houses of Congress.  It’s really quite an honor that they let your sorry self in the door after that Citizens United debacle, if you ask me.

As for the “political pep rally” comment, that begs the question: who are the “cheerleaders,” exactly?  Roberts’s metaphor is both offensive and partisan.  After all, whether or not there is a “big game” coming up, the president is required (again, by the Constitution) to give a report to Congress.  And where is the crazed excitement for a common cause that characterizes a pep rally?  From where I sat behind the tube, the “pep” of the State of the Union was distinctly muted, and politically divided.  But by calling it a “pep rally,” Roberts impliedly paints Obama as the cheerleader to Bush’s dignified statesman — a distortion of reality perhaps appropriate to Roberts’s status as an elite, appointed-for-life justice.

And what about the partisan-pep-rally-of-one that was Justice Alito’s inappropriate reaction at the State of the Union?  Granted, the president’s statements were louder than the mouthed words of Justice Alito.  But then again, the president had, you know, the microphone as he was the official speaker.  Alito, by contrast, was just supposed to sit there quietly for once in his long life, isthatsomuchtoask?

It seems clear to me that, like most 5-year-olds, Roberts is simply upset that someone has told him that he is wrong.  The thing is, Roberts, you are wrong.  But I don’t think anyone will be that upset if you don’t show up next year.

- AS

-AR

My personal favorite place to fit Dick Cheney’s name is in findings numbered 231 and 232 on page 94:

“During the course of this Review, a number of Agency officers expressed unsolicited concern about the possibility of recrimination or legal action resulting from their participation in the CTC Program. A number of officers expressed concern that a human rights group might pursue them for activities [REDACTED].”

“One officer expressed concern that one day, Agency officers will wind up on some “wanted list” to appear before the World Court for war crimes stemming from activities [REDACTED].”

My “that were ordered by Dick Cheney” piece fits perfectly in the little black boxes at the end of both sentences. Coincidence?

If you want to play the game with a “President Bush” piece instead, that requires even less work. After all, “President Bush” appears on page 93, where the report quotes from his 2003 statement in observance of United Nations International Day in Support of Victims of Torture:

The United States declares its strong solidarity with torture victims across the world. Torture anywhere is an affront to human dignity everywhere. We are committed to building a world where human rights are respected and protected by the rule of law. Freedom from torture is an inalienable human right . . . . Yet torture continues to be practiced around the world by rogue regimes whose cruel methods match their determination to crush the human spirit . . . .

Notorious human rights abusers . . . have sought to shield their abuses from the eyes of the world . . . . The United States is committed to the worldwide elimination of torture and we are leading this fight by example.

If you’re having trouble finding that quote, it’s a few pages after all the stuff about putting prisoners inside boxes with insects, intimidating prisoners with power drills, how one prisoner was improperly subjected to waterboarding 183 times, and the description of how interrogators staged a mock execution and made a prisoner believe his female relatives would be sexually assaulted.

The only downside to the game is that so MANY names can fit in all those blacked-out boxes. Don’t bother printing out “Congressional Intelligence Oversight Committees,” though – the parts of the report detailing how the Oversight Committees made no objections to the use of these enhanced interrogation techniques have not been redacted.

-AS

-AS

So I understand the desire to grasp for any sign of hope. Just as I get thrilled when the Pirates start a season 11-7 and start convincing myself that this is the year, that the team’s for real, so Republicans find themselves overjoyed that Obama’s approval ratings six months into his presidency are slipping and that polls show him tied with Mitt Romney and barely ahead of Sarah Palin. But there’s a lot of baseball left to be played. (The Pirates, by the way, are now 42-52). The 2010 midterms, and likely the 2012 presidential election as well, are going to determined by two things: the success of the stimulus, and health care reform. The former hasn’t really had a chance to operate yet, and the latter hasn’t even been brought to the floor in Congress. Until we have some sense of how Obama has delivered on those two issues, polls are essentially meaningless.

-AR

-AR

-AR