Saturday Open Thread [8.2.14]

It’s August, y’all, and the southbound portion of I-495 is OPEN for traffic, one month early. Thank DelDOT and union workers today.

The Senate committee report on the BushCo rendition and interrogation program is about ready to be released (finally), and President Obama told us yesterday that it will show that “We tortured some folks. We did some things that were contrary to our values.” Obama has used the word “torture” in association with this program before, but don’t expect the torture apologists to remember that. And apparently the report itself won’t use the word “torture“. Still, the recognition is important as is making certain that the CIA and others get that they won’t get a fig leaf when they take these ineffective short cuts.

The comments reflect the line the president is preparing to walk as he gets ready for the release of a Senate committee report on the Bush-era rendition, detention and interrogation program.

The report, which is expected to be released as early as next week after five years in the making, details the CIA’s treatment of terrorism suspects and, according to officials who have seen the text, concludes that the sometimes-grisly tactics did not yield information that significantly helped the U.S. in its fight against Al Qaeda.

The White House for months has been refereeing a fight over the report between CIA Director John Brennan and Senate Intelligence Committee chair Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA). Feinstein and her Democratic colleagues on the committee have clashed with Brennan over access to documents, the procedures used by Senate investigators and, ultimately, the conclusions of the panel.

And how about this bit of torture from Arizona:

During the nearly two hours it took for an Arizona death row inmate to die last week, executioners injected him with 15 times the amount of a sedative and a painkiller that they originally intended to use, according to documents released Friday.

Records released to Joseph Rudolph Wood’s attorneys show he was administered midazolam and hydromorphone in 50-milligram increments 15 times between 1:53 p.m. and 3:45 p.m., for a total of 750 milligrams of each drug. He was pronounced dead at 3:49 p.m. after gasping more than 600 times while he lay on the table.

Arizona’s execution protocol calls for 50 milligrams of each drug, although some states use as much as 500 milligrams of midazolam in their execution procedures.

This is the exact picture of what the death penalty is in the US — it is a vehicle for revenge and torture, because there was no justice in what was going on here.

What’s going on for you today?