Gonzales Backs Holder Torture Investigation

This is so hard to believe, I wouldn't believe it unless I heard it, via this audio clip. Today, in an interview with the Washington Times, Alberto Gonzales defended current Attorney General Eric Holder Jr.'s decision to investigate alleged prisoner abuse by CIA interrogators over President Obama's desire to look forward, rather than backward.

"We worked very hard to establish ground rules and parameters about how to deal with terrorists. And if people go beyond that, I think it is legitimate to question and examine that conduct to ensure people are held accountable for their actions, even if it's action in prosecuting the war on terror."

Annoyingly, however, the interviewers asked who would hold AG Eric Holder accountable if the U.S. missed out on some vital information because we no longer torture. Oh, brother.

Listen to the clip.

Dick Cheney in 2012? It Could Be

Former VP Dick Cheney expressed no interest in running for the Presidency in 2008, and speculation was that a great deal of it was because of his past health issues. He has a long history of cardiovascular disease. In 2012, he would be 70.

Despite this, on Monday, WSJ columnist James Taranto wrote an op-ed that if the 2012 election were to focus on national security, "it's hard to think of a better candidate--assuming, of course, that he could be persuaded to run--than Richard B. Cheney."

It's clear that the Bush Administration did some things that would be called inhumane, and against the Geneva Conventions, including torture. It's also relatively clear that Dick Cheney had a bigger part in that than one would have expected, as he turned the post of VP into something with some punch.

Some have called him "Darth Vader," in fact.

HuffPo did some polling of pundits, and conservatives aren't against it.

John McLaughlin said he sees an opening for a Cheney candidacy if there's a national security error from the Obama administration. Great, the GOP hoping for a terror attack. As I've said before, there's no way to absolutely prevent an attack in the future. It just can't be done; the country is too big and the borders too wide.

"Although right now a lot of people are focused on the economy, if there ever was some sort of foreign policy crisis people will look to Dick Cheney and say he had it right."

Craig Shirley, a longtime Republican strategist said:

"In 2009, there are few absurdities left in American politics. Anything is possible and the mere fact that Cheney's name is being floated accomplishes several things including striking fear in the heart of President Obama, especially in light of the crumbing American position in Afghanistan, which could become Obama's Vietnam.

"It also gives aid and comfort to a still battered Republican Party as he is the only GOP leader besides [Newt] Gingrich uncowed by the dominate liberal elites manning the batteries in the nation's capital. They are about the only two politicians on the right who are willing to make a fight of it."

Stephen Wayne, a political science professor at Georgetown University had a more pointed view of the issue:

"The Republican Party today consists of people who are conservative, religious, white and predominantly male. And, you know, if those are the only people who participate and you don't have a lot of other very conservative candidates it is conceivable Cheney could win the Republican nomination. But I don't think it is likely."

The Duggars Announce Their 19th Child

In terms of the issue of overpopulation, the only possible news worse than this would be if Nadya Suleman announced another set of octuplets. The Duggar family has announced they are expecting another baby.

The lives of the Duggar family are detailed on the TLC show "18 Kids and Counting" (nee "17 Kids and Counting." Jim Bob and Michelle Duggar are the parents, with 18 children, at least until now: Josh, Jana, John-David, Jill, Jessa, Jinger, Joseph, Josiah, Joy-Anna, Jedidiah, Jeremiah, Jason, James, Justin, Jackson, Johannah, Jennifer, and Jordyn-Grace.

There is an obvious trend toward J-named Duggars there. This news comes only a few months after the eldest Duggar child, Josh, 21, announced that he and his new wife Anna are expecting their first child. One has to wonder if Anna is looking that possible devastation of her body in the future.

Michelle Duggar is 42, while Jim Bob is 44, if any are wondering about how much longer this can continue. Unfortunately for the world and natural resources being sucked into this one family in particular, the Duggars appear to have plenty of time to continue adding to their brood.

While obviously they are free to do what they want, one has to wonder why they continue to churn out kids. At any rate, they appeared on "The Today Show" and Michelle Duggar said:

“I love all of this, it is so fun. Anna and I will have babies five months apart. My mother and my sister were pregnant at the same time and it was really wonderful. The kids were really close and still are. I have a nephew who grew up with me, we’re just three months apart.”

Watch the Duggar family on "The Today Show."

Ex-Teacher Turns to Adult Films After Firing Over Bikini Photos

Tiffany Shepherd, 31, who was fired from her teaching job at Port St. Lucie High School last year (coincidentally after pictures of her as a bikini-clad "mate" for a charter fishing boat operation were discovered), has given up finding a new teaching position after thousands of resumes have been rejected. She's changed her name for her new career, as well: Leah Lust.

While Tiffany Shepherd (AKA Leah Lust) lost her teaching position, the school district originally said it wasn't related to the bikini pictures. In fact, they said, the termination was because of more than 30 unexcused absences from work.

Although the charter she worked for advertised that some "mates" worked topless, Tiffany Shepherd insisted that she did not do her mate's job topless.

Quite obviously, you might surmise with the moniker Leah Lust that Tiffany Shepherd has entered the world of adult films, and you'd be right. She turned to adult films, she said, after sending out 2,500 resumes without landing a new teaching job. Also, since her firing, not only has Tiffany Shepherd been unemployed, she's lost custody of two of her children.

Interestingly, despite her claims that she never appeared topless for her charter boat gig, it's the boat's captain that claims to have introduced Leah Lust, er Tiffany Shepherd to the biz.

Gil Coombes, and his wife Kat, besides owning the charter boat Smoking 'Em, own a porn webcam studio, KLC Productions.

“We sat down with her and told her she’d never get a teaching job again. So I told her, use ‘em before they fall to the ground. But God, does she need to work on her acting!”

Tiffany Shepherd says she's not proud of her new career as Leah Lust, but I'd have to ask: you were OK w/ the bikini-first-mate gig? At any rate, she said:

“I’m not particularly proud of it. To be honest, I hate it. I’m an educated woman, but I never thought it would come to this. No one gets brought up thinking they’ll be a floozy.”