We Waterboard US Soldiers?

In a discussion on MSNBC's Hardball program about whether the government ought to consider prosecuting people involved in enhanced interrogation techniques used on some terror suspects, former U.S. Rep. Duncan Hunter, a Republican from California, argued that the issue really comes down to waterboarding.

"And," he said, "waterboarding is not torture."

In fact, said Hunter, a Vietnam veteran and former candidate for president, "We waterboard, incidentally, hundreds of our own military personnel. They waterboard themselves in training to toughen themselves up."

He added, "The Geneva Convention .. .was analyzed by the lawyers in place, and they came to the conclusion, especially about waterboarding, because that's the primary thing, that, since we do it to our own soldiers, by the hundreds, incidentally, and it doesn't hurt them, and they — and it makes them tougher, and it doesn't hurt anybody — Khalid Sheikh Mohammed gained weight after he was waterboarded — we decided that, since we do that to our own soldiers in training... we‘re not going to consider that torture. "

Hunter later challenged host Chris Matthews saying, "But the point is, if we do it, are we torturing American soldiers? You have to answer yes if you consider waterboarding to be torture."

Matthews said the difference is that U.S. service people know they are in training. They know they aren't going to be killed. "That captured person who is one of our enemies has no idea what we‘re doing when we submit him to water torture."

Said Hunter: "If we use it with our own soldiers in training, as we do waterboarding, then it should be allowed with people who have killed thousands of Americans."

We decided to examine Hunter's claim about waterboarding our service personnel as part of their training and found that he is right.

U.S. special operations troops have, in the past, sometimes used a form of waterboarding as part of survival exercises, called Survival, Evasion, Resistance and Escape training. The idea is to prepare them in the event they are ever captured and interrogated with such means.

According to reports in the New York Times and Vanity Fair, the CIA adopted some of the interrogation techniques used on terror suspects from that SERE training, including the use of waterboarding.

According to the Vanity Fair story, three-week SERE training for the U.S. soldiers included waterboarding, forced nudity, extreme temperatures, sexual and religious ridicule, agonizing stress positions, and starvation-level rations. The story quotes Michael Rolince, former section chief of the FBI's International Terrorism Operations: "You're not going to die, but you think you are." - Politifact

Harry Reid in Fight for his Career in Re-Election Bid

NORTH LAS VEGAS — Four years ago in this sprawling desert town, a powerful labor union abruptly withdrew its endorsement of Republican Mayor Mike Montandon.

The reason, relayed to Montandon by a top union official: “Harry told us to.”

Harry Reid’s power is the stuff of legend in Nevada. But as the Senate majority leader prepares for his 2010 reelection run, voters back home are beginning to ask what’s in it for them.

Nevada’s unemployment rate is 12.7 percent, 3 percentage points higher than the national average. Las Vegas has the highest foreclosure rate of any big city in the country. And economic forecasters are sounding the alarm about an impending crash in the state’s commercial real estate market.

It’s all taking a toll on Reid. While Reid may be at the peak of his power in Washington, a Daily Kos/Research 2000 poll out earlier this month showed him trailing two potential GOP challengers. And Reid’s in-state approval rating stands at just 36 percent — statistically indistinguishable from the 35 percent approval rating of his adulterous Republican colleague, Sen. John Ensign.

Reid dismisses the polling, complaining that reporters “run to it like it’s sugar coming from some place.” But he admits he’s not “boasting” about his own private polls — which Democratic sources say show him with just single-digit leads over his likely GOP challengers — and his campaign is looking like the work of a man running to save his career. - Politico Story

Health Care Trigger just a Gimmick?

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell is warning Republicans that Democrats will indeed pull that trigger eventually if they get their way on the public option in health reform.

In a speech he'll deliver later this afternoon as a prebuttal to President Obama's prime time address, McConnell dismisses the trigger idea as a gimmick that still gives Democrats a chance to eventually push through a "government takeover" of health care.

“A government takeover on the installment plan — or a ‘trigger’ as some are calling it — is still a government takeover," McConnell will say in his Senate speech. "It’s a bad idea now. It’ll be a bad idea whenever the trigger kicks in. Proponents of a trigger say that it might not be needed.

"But you can be sure of this: if Democrats are in charge, they’ll pull the trigger at some point. Let’s be honest. Letting Democrats decide whether to pull the trigger on government-run health care is like asking the pitcher, not the umpire, to call the balls and strikes."

McConnell's speech is also designed to draw a clear line of reasoning for the 40 Republicans in the Senate to oppose the health care proposals. Democrats have now put a ton of stock in luring Maine Republican Olympia Snowe to support some form of a public option -- with a trigger -- so that they can reach 60 votes.

McConnell, like many Republicans, are asking for a more incremental approach to health reform -- but he's still playing to his base in this speech, asking for an end to "junk lawsuits" and reforming medical malpractice laws. - Politico Story

Pelosi's Trump Card - Public Option or No Bill

Nancy Pelosi finally has a trump card.

Tired of watching helplessly as House bills are carved up to win support from conservative Democrats and moderate Republicans in the Senate, the speaker has a message for President Barack Obama and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid: Take the public option out of health care reform, and you may not have a bill at all.

“Every time we have had a negotiation, Reid and [White House chief of staff] Rahm [Emanuel] say you have to accept this or that because we need the 60 votes [for cloture],” says a senior Democratic aide in the House. “That’s true this time. The difference now is that Pelosi can turn right back at them and say, ‘I can’t pass this in the House without the progressives.’ And that will be true, too.”

Pelosi’s leverage in her perpetual push-pull with Reid has been boosted by a rebellion among pro-public-option progressives, African-American and Hispanic House members, who say they are tired of being shortchanged by the White House and will vote no rather than OK a bill without the public option. - Politico Story

Palin - I Disagree that Increased Government Involvement can solve the Problem

(CNN) – For the second time since resigning the Alaska governorship more than a month ago, Sarah Palin is adding her voice to the fiery debate over health care. This time, Palin is hitting the pages of the Wall Street Journal as President Obama gets set to address a joint session of Congress on the issue.

"The answers offered by Democrats in Washington all rest on one principle: that increased government involvement can solve the problem. I fundamentally disagree," Palin writes in the 1,110 word op-ed in Wednesday's edition of the paper.

"Common sense tells us that the government's attempts to solve large problems more often create new ones," the former GOP vice presidential candidate continues. "Common sense also tells us that a top-down, one-size-fits-all plan will not improve the workings of a nationwide health-care system that accounts for one-sixth of our economy." - CNN Story

Obama's Speech Do or Die for Health Care?

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- After months of criticism that he has failed to outline a specific health care reform plan, President Obama will address a joint session of Congress on Wednesday night in a speech aides say will be to the point.

President Obama will lay out health care reform specifics in a speech before Congress on Wednesday.

At stake for the president: getting Democratic factions on board with his plan and convincing Americans of the need for health care reform.

"They will know the plan provides safety, security and stability to the millions of people that have health insurance each and every day, but watching their premiums skyrocket and double," spokesman Robert Gibbs said Wednesday on CNN's "American Morning." - CNN Story

"Secondly, for those who don't have health insurance, but need affordable coverage, he will lay out a plan for how people can get that, as well. He'll talk about the cost on government and why we can't afford to wait longer. We have to act now."

Obama to Give Details in Speech

In his highly anticipated address to Congress today, President Obama told ABC News that he would provide a much more detailed health care plan, saying that while he was still open to ideas, he is determined to get health care reform passed this year.

The president tells ABC's Robin Roberts he will not yield on core principles.

"So, the intent of the speech on [Wednesday] is to, A, make sure that the American people are clear exactly what it is that we are proposing," Obama told "Good Morning America" co-anchor Robin Roberts in an exclusive interview. "[And] B, to make sure that Democrats and Republicans understand that I'm open to new ideas, that we're not being rigid and ideological about this thing, but we do intend to get something done this year." - ABC News Story

After Months of the White House sitting on its hands and claiming that there is a lot of misinformation being put out, will finally try to step up and take a leadership role in the Health Care Debate.

My question is, if this is so important to the President, where has the leadership been all along. He just doesn't really seem to know what he wants. He changes with the opinion polls and then changes again when his own party parts ways with him. He changes his tune depending on who is listening. There is a drastic lack of leadership from this President.

Obama's Bailout of Auto Industry Most Likely never will be Paid Back

WASHINGTON - Taxpayers face losses on a significant portion of the $81 billion in government aid provided to the auto industry, an oversight panel said in a report to be released Wednesday.

The Congressional Oversight Panel did not provide an estimate of the projected loss in its latest monthly report on the $700 billion Troubled Asset Relief Program. But it said most of the $23 billion initially provided to General Motors Corp. and Chrysler LLC late last year is unlikely to be repaid.

"I think they drove a very hard bargain," said Elizabeth Warren, the panel's chairwoman and a law professor at Harvard University, referring to the Obama administration's Treasury Department. "But it may not be enough."

The prospect of recovering the government's assistance to GM and Chrysler is heavily dependent on shares of the two companies rising to unprecedented levels, the report said. The government owns 10 percent of Chrysler and 61 percent of GM. The two companies are currently private but are expected to issue stock, in GM's case by next year.

The shares "will have to appreciate sharply" for taxpayers to get their money back, the report said.

For example, GM's market value would have to reach $67.6 billion, the report said, a "highly optimistic" estimate and more than the $57.2 billion GM was worth at the height of its share value in April 2008. And in the case of Chrysler, about $5.4 billion of the $14.3 billion provided to the company is "highly unlikely" to ever be repaid, the panel said. - FOX News Story

Sen. Reid - Health Care is 90% Done

After meeting with President Obama and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said today that health care reform is 90 percent done and that Republicans still have a seat at the negotiating table.

President Obama has often said that Republicans and Democrats can agree on 80 percent of the health care reforms Congress should enact -- that it is the remaining 20 percent that has stalled legislation.

"In our conversations today, we think we're up to 90 percent," Reid said from outside the White House. "We have 10 percent to work on, and we can do that."

The majority leader also said the Congress is still taking a bipartisan approach to reform and would not consider reconciliation -- a voting procedure that would allow Democrats to bypass Republican opposition -- unless there was no other choice. - CBS News Story

Democrats Investigated Bush for Speech to School Students

Much has been made about the criticism surrounding President Obama's Tuesday speech to the nation's schoolchildren.

But when President George H.W. Bush delivered a similar speech in October 1991 to students at a junior high school in Washington, D.C., Democratic critics went much further and investigated the event, Washington Examiner columnist Byron York reported Tuesday.

Democrats, who controlled Congress at the time, ordered the General Accounting Office to probe the production of the speech and later summoned top Bush administration officials to Capitol Hill for a hearing, York wrote.

The Bush speech at Alice Deal Junior High School cost $26,750 -- an expenditure paid by the Department of Education -- and drew fire from Rep. William Ford, then chairman of the House Education and Labor Committee, who ordered the probe.

"As the chairman of the committee charged with the authorization and implementation of education programs, I am very much interested in the justification, rationale for giving the White House scarce education funds to produce a media event."

The GAO found no wrongdoing on the part of the Bush administration

But after Bush spoke, The Washington Post implied in a front-page story that the speech was staged for the president's political benefit, and Democratic allies continued to pounce on Bush for the cost of the event. - FOX News Story