You know who else won the 2014 election? The CIA.

[Judi Lynn]

You know who else won the 2014 election? The CIA.

With Republicans taking control of the Senate, there's a good chance the CIA won't be held accountable for its crimes during the Bush era


By Ryan Cooper | 6:03am ET

The Republican Party, as you may have heard, has taken control of the Senate, after fumbling chances to do so in 2010 and 2012. With President Obama's veto power safe for another two years, this means little for any positive Republican agenda, which barely exists in any case. But it does have enormous repercussions for one crucial area: civil liberties.

The defeat of Colorado's Mark Udall, in particular, is a disaster. He is possibly the most prominent and committed civil libertarian in Congress, which means President Obama will no longer have to deal with a high-profile opponent of due process–free assassination of American citizens. The NSA can say goodbye to an enemy of dragnet surveillance, while the CIA no longer has to worry about Udall pushing for the release of a long-awaited report on the torture the agency inflicted on terrorism suspects during the Bush years.

This was likely exactly what the CIA was hoping for. Remember that back in March, Dianne Feinstein, the chair of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, gave a dramatic speech detailing how the CIA has been attempting to sandbag the committee's 6,000-page report on the agency's illegal, pointless torture program, even accusing the CIA of attempting to intimidate her staff. Since then, the CIA has been stalling furiously by dragging its feet on the redaction process, and trying to censor the report into meaninglessness.

Now, with Republican control of the Senate, CIA lapdog Richard Burr will be the next chair of SSCI. He'll likely bury all the important parts of the report given half a chance. If the CIA can manage to run out the clock until the next congressional term begins, then we'll likely never see the torture report. And with that, we'll lose one of the few remaining chances to salvage some scraps of accountability for Bush-era war crimes.

More:
http://theweek.com/article/index/271319/you-know-who-else-won-the-2014-election-the-cia

[dixiegrrrrl]

1. Reality check: 2 Dems made sure no one would be held for crimes during the Bush era

Pelosi:" Impeachment is off the table"
She said with a Dem majority.

Pres. Obama..." we won't look back, our job is forward"

[Man from Pickens]

2. Because, as we all know, the CIA has been held oh-so-accountable by Democrats

the epic fail on this point is IMO one of the reasons why we lost the trust of the electorate. CIA = powerful = above the law. Unlike us peons who can go to jail for bleeding on an officer's uniform while taking an undeserved beating.

[blkmusclmachine]

3. "Impeachment is off the table."

And so is any accountability or acknowledgement of those high crimes.

[proverbialwisdom]

4. If he didn't campaign on the basis of these unique strengths, why not? He got bum advice, IMO.

EXCERPT: The defeat of Colorado's Mark Udall, in particular, is a disaster.

He is possibly the most prominent and committed civil libertarian in Congress, which means President Obama will no longer have to deal with a high-profile opponent of due process–free assassination of American citizens.

The NSA can say goodbye to an enemy of dragnet surveillance, while the CIA no longer has to worry about Udall pushing for the release of a long-awaited report on the torture the agency inflicted on terrorism suspects during the Bush years.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/the-fix/wp/2014/10/13/mark-udall-has-been-dubbed-mark-uterus-on-the-campaign-trail-thats-a-problem/

Mark Udall has been dubbed ‘Mark Uterus’ on the campaign trail. That’s a problem.

By Nia-Malika Henderson
October 13

Colorado Democratic Sen. Mark Udall has talked about contraception and abortion more than just about any other 2014 candidate. Roughly half of his ads are about women's issues. The focus has been so intense that Udall has been nicknamed "Mark Uterus," with local reporter Lynn Bartels of the Denver Post joking that if the race were a movie, it would be set in a gynecologist's office. In a debate between Udall and Rep. Cory Gardner last week, Bartels, who moderated, used the moniker to describe him.

For all of that focus — and the insistence from Democrats that Gardner's record on women's issues was the key to Udall's reelection — the incumbent has watched the race slipping from his grasp in recent weeks, an erosion that many strategists believe speaks to the limits of the "war on women" strategy.

Sure, the "war on women" approach paid huge dividends in 2012, but it worked partly (largely?) because GOP candidates made insensitive and tone-deaf comments about rape and abortion. But if you look at this chart detailing issues of importance to voters heading into the Nov. 4 election, abortion and birth control just aren't hot-button issues. At all. Voters view those issues with about as much urgency as climate change, which is to say with not much urgency at all.

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