Emptywheel is my favorite political blogger. Her name is Marcy Wheeler, she used to be a comp lit professor, and she specializes in close reading of text from trials, Congressional hearings, and redacted documents. I started reading her a few years ago, around the time Judy Miller emerged from jail, bony, girlish and incongruously triumphant.
Marcy gained a large following live blogging the Libby trial, and has since expanded into a dizzying array of subjects, including the scandals at the Justice Department. Yesterday, she was live blogging Attorney General Michael Mukasey’s oversight hearing before the House Judiciary Committee. This exchange jumped out at me:
Schiff: You’ve said that if you were being waterboarded you would consider torture. Does it depend on who is being tortured?
MM: It would seem like torture to me. I would not use my own tastes and preferences.
I haven’t seen this quote confirmed in the news, but Marcy’s live blogging is usually pretty accurate, and the Attorney General is known for his love of Orwell. He even has a portrait of him in his office. People are starting to wonder why.
Jack Silbert, curator