|
Gone, But Not Forgotten? What The Internet Will Look Like Under SOPA Fearsgiving Week Jesus Approves of Waterboarding Beware of Asteroids 
All links are current as of the date of publication. All content created by the author is copyrighted 2005-2010, except where held by the owners/publishers of parent works and/or subject materials. Any infringement of another's work is wholly unintentional. If you see something here that is yours, a polite request for removal or credit will be honored. |
� |
The Fault, Dear Brutus ...Thursday, Jan. 31, 2008 3:43 AMFollowing in the footsteps of DNI Mike McConnell, our shiny new Attorney General, Michael Mukasey, testified before the Senate that waterboarding would be torture if it were done to him, personally ... but it's not clear that it's torture at any other time. "There are numerous things I would differ with. You say waterboarding is obviously torture, and you use the example of taking something, bank robbery, obviously being stealing. That assumes the answer to the question � which is that waterboarding is in fact torture just the same way bank robbery is in fact stealing. I think there are numerous other things I would argue with," Mukasey replied to Senator Edward Kennedy. The Bush Administration has achieved a new low with this one. Mukasey effectively implies that since there's a question about whether waterboarding is torture, there's an equivalent moral fuzziness applicable to bank robbery. And this is the man that Senators like Dianne Feinstein chose to confirm, because they didn't want to do their job and exercise oversight of a recess-appointment alternative. Let me reiterate that - it's your fucking JOB to exercise oversight, and at every turn, this collection of Democratic poltroons and morons masquerading as a functional majority seems intent on capitulating to the whims of a petulant frat boy and his eminence grise. Case in point - Speaker Nancy Pelosi has fired off harsh criticism of President Bush's remarks about Iraq during his State of the Union address on Monday. Yet we continue to hear that 'impeachment is off the table,' despite evidence that Bush repeatedly lied about the reasons for the Iraq War, despite a consistent pattern of ignoring Congress, flaunting the law, and disregarding the Constitution. But instead of articles of impeachment, we see nothing but lame attempts at appeasement and concession after concession on issues as fundamental as our Constitutional protections and sound governance. To borrow from Shakespeare, the fault, dear Speaker, lies not in our stars, but in ourselves. The economy is doing so well, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke has announced a second rate cut within less than a week. Okay, it's no secret that I dislike President Bush. But in the video of his meeting with San Francisco high school student Richard Berwick - who received the President's Volunteer Service Award for his work with the group, "Building With Books," which helps establish schools in third world countries - as their brief meeting concludes, Bush turns and walks away. The President's expression and manner conveys 'ayup, glad that's out of the way' more than anything else. Why are you so relieved to be done with the event, Sir? Afraid someone would recognize you as the fraud you are? (Of course, Mr. Bush had to rush off to Hillsborough for a Republican fundraiser - gotta replenish the ol' coffers - so maybe he was just in a hurry.) And while Mr. Bush is busy trying to convince America that amnesty for the criminal acts that the telecoms are alleged to have performed is in their best interest, it's only a small step in a far more pervasive culture of surveillance, where nothing less than private thought is at stake. The War on Terror is becoming more and more like 'The Monsters Are On Maple Street.'
|
