Murder + Waterboarding ≠ Torture (when you're scared enough)
I originally titled this "No Hope, No Change."
First, "they" have won the debate. "They" killed around 100 people in the name of "interrogation", prisoners who will not come back. "They" shifted this interrogation to mean only "water boarding", not beating to death and mangling and psychologically destroying in various ways such as years of solitary, and now "they" have gotten us to accept that a little bit of water boarding and stress positions is okay, is a good thing, keeps us safe. And while "they're" at it, beat them against the wall a bit and string them up by the knuckles too, it's just an "enhanced" interrogation technique to find out what the enemy's plotting and keep us safe. Who are "they"? By latest polling, "they" appears to look an awful lot like "us". There were lots of humane doctors and nurses at these "enhanced interrogation" potential-murder sessions, ready to bring the patient, sorry, I mean incorrigible terrorist and threat to our freedom, back to consciousness/life so we can go Back Jack, Do it Again. Let's see, al-Libi we had killed in a Libyan jail - extraordinary rendition, remember? What's most extraordinary is Qaddafi was supposed to be an anti-American supporter of terrorism. Guess he turned out to be a good sport after all. When your enemies support you, can you be on the wrong track? Think of it as global bi-partisanship. Hey, even Garrison Keillor says don't look back, don't be so Woebegone.
Go read Digby now, for the last few days, Empty Wheel as well, depress yourself, then come back.
Did you get down to the part where we relabeled prisoner suicide "manipulative self-inflicted injurious behavior", SIB? A nation of marketers, we are. Sell sand to Arabs, sell ice to Eskimos (Inuit), sell torture to Americans (self-absorbed cowards).
We have Alan Greyson cross-examining the Inspector General over the Federal Reserve, and all she can say is they're doing a "review" to figure out what to study about general topics that may or may not address Federal Reserve actions that extended trillions in off-book credits 8 months ago.
(This is Obama's Inspector General. We're in mid-May now, honeymoon's over. Watch the YouTube if nothing else. Scary. And Obama just announced he wants to put the Fed in charge of managing systemic risks amongst the too-big-to-fails - it's in Digby, trust me.)
We have Harold Ford who defends torture, that it was okay in 2002-2003 because we were vewwy vewwy scared. They might have nukes!!! Laser beams!!! Anti-gravity force fields!!! He even defends Cheney, hoping that one day all of Dick's secret evidence will be released. Eric Holder is head of the DLC, Democratic Leadership Council, one of the driving forces of Democratic policy and philosophy. Torture apologist.
We have Harry Reid, the Senate Majority Leader, head of one of our two Legislative Branches, telling us it's the responsibility of the Executive Branch leaders to carry the burden of deciding when to torture and when not, when to break the law and when not. Politico reports today that our other Legislative Branch leader, Nancy Pelosi, deferred to Jane Harman to protest torture, without signing on, and when Harman's letter went nowhere? "Them's the breaks". (Pardon the pun). Let's just say I don't expect a lot of checks and balances out of these motherfuckers, not that I didn't get the hint some time ago. Official Administration policy remains, "Don't look back, look forward", which now, as reports Empty Wheel, means reviving the Guantanamo Military Commissions. More change!!! More hope!!!
We have the discharging of gays from the military continuing, even though we're ramping up the war in Pakistan now that Petraeus has declared the war in Afghanistan won. (I discussed this in part yesterday.) Presumably we'll need some gay Urdu and Pashtun speakers in the military? Guess not. But we have a letter on record that Obama feels their pain, decrying the policy his administration is forced to continue. (Until you've faced the scorn and ridicule of Rush and Fox News, don't laugh). A Hero ain't nuttin' but a sandwich.
We have Obama supporting a letter from health industry lobbyists, one that proposes savings through among other remedies cutting back on "overuse" of health care services. Let's see a show of hands out there, everyone who knows someone who has "overused" health care services sometime in the last 40 years. Don't everyone pipe up at once. And in case this support isn't enough, it looks like Obama is again signing on to "reforming" Social Security. Now, if his Federal Reserve IG doesn't have one specific piece of regulatory information on Fed dispersal of trillions since September, and if his FCC nominee is completely inept dragged upwards by her well-connected father, I don't see any room for optimism, though I am somewhat wondering if someone will have the chutzpah to bring back "private savings accounts" now that we're all so confident and trusting in our country's financial savings and mortgage institutions. Let's see a show of hands out there, who's ready to jump back in the stock market? Water's warm!!! Never mind the sharks circling!!! House, anyone? Cheap, and should I remind, location, location, location!!!
I don't know, there was something more as depressing, can't recall what it was. Guess that's enough for today, don't want to bring you down. Only love can break your heart.
PS - Digby does note a revealing if mostly overlooked statement from Cheney admitting coverup in Iran-Contra: "I went through the Iran-contra hearings and watched the way administration officials ran for cover and left the little guys out to dry. And I was bound and determined that wasn't going to happen this time." Glad to know Obama is doing his part as well, move the debate forward. Certainly the nation doesn't need self-recrimination and remorse and self-reflection and accountability at this dangerous crossroads in history. Tally ho!!!
PPS - And might I say, brilliant strategy, introducing bank "stress tests" to confuse our little brains from "stress positions", along with Geithner's repackaging results that originally were "suck big bags of rocks" into "firm as a rock". I bow before the feet of the master.
PPPS - Via Glenn Greenwald, Obama Administration threatens British court, British government on revealing details on Binyam Mohamed's torture - if they do, Britain will no longer receive US intelligence information. Obama is now Bush's water boy. Torture apologist, torture accessory. Our international human rights agreements are no only so much shitted toilet paper.
First, "they" have won the debate. "They" killed around 100 people in the name of "interrogation", prisoners who will not come back. "They" shifted this interrogation to mean only "water boarding", not beating to death and mangling and psychologically destroying in various ways such as years of solitary, and now "they" have gotten us to accept that a little bit of water boarding and stress positions is okay, is a good thing, keeps us safe. And while "they're" at it, beat them against the wall a bit and string them up by the knuckles too, it's just an "enhanced" interrogation technique to find out what the enemy's plotting and keep us safe. Who are "they"? By latest polling, "they" appears to look an awful lot like "us". There were lots of humane doctors and nurses at these "enhanced interrogation" potential-murder sessions, ready to bring the patient, sorry, I mean incorrigible terrorist and threat to our freedom, back to consciousness/life so we can go Back Jack, Do it Again. Let's see, al-Libi we had killed in a Libyan jail - extraordinary rendition, remember? What's most extraordinary is Qaddafi was supposed to be an anti-American supporter of terrorism. Guess he turned out to be a good sport after all. When your enemies support you, can you be on the wrong track? Think of it as global bi-partisanship. Hey, even Garrison Keillor says don't look back, don't be so Woebegone.
Go read Digby now, for the last few days, Empty Wheel as well, depress yourself, then come back.
Did you get down to the part where we relabeled prisoner suicide "manipulative self-inflicted injurious behavior", SIB? A nation of marketers, we are. Sell sand to Arabs, sell ice to Eskimos (Inuit), sell torture to Americans (self-absorbed cowards).
We have Alan Greyson cross-examining the Inspector General over the Federal Reserve, and all she can say is they're doing a "review" to figure out what to study about general topics that may or may not address Federal Reserve actions that extended trillions in off-book credits 8 months ago.
(This is Obama's Inspector General. We're in mid-May now, honeymoon's over. Watch the YouTube if nothing else. Scary. And Obama just announced he wants to put the Fed in charge of managing systemic risks amongst the too-big-to-fails - it's in Digby, trust me.)
We have Harold Ford who defends torture, that it was okay in 2002-2003 because we were vewwy vewwy scared. They might have nukes!!! Laser beams!!! Anti-gravity force fields!!! He even defends Cheney, hoping that one day all of Dick's secret evidence will be released. Eric Holder is head of the DLC, Democratic Leadership Council, one of the driving forces of Democratic policy and philosophy. Torture apologist.
We have Harry Reid, the Senate Majority Leader, head of one of our two Legislative Branches, telling us it's the responsibility of the Executive Branch leaders to carry the burden of deciding when to torture and when not, when to break the law and when not. Politico reports today that our other Legislative Branch leader, Nancy Pelosi, deferred to Jane Harman to protest torture, without signing on, and when Harman's letter went nowhere? "Them's the breaks". (Pardon the pun). Let's just say I don't expect a lot of checks and balances out of these motherfuckers, not that I didn't get the hint some time ago. Official Administration policy remains, "Don't look back, look forward", which now, as reports Empty Wheel, means reviving the Guantanamo Military Commissions. More change!!! More hope!!!
We have the discharging of gays from the military continuing, even though we're ramping up the war in Pakistan now that Petraeus has declared the war in Afghanistan won. (I discussed this in part yesterday.) Presumably we'll need some gay Urdu and Pashtun speakers in the military? Guess not. But we have a letter on record that Obama feels their pain, decrying the policy his administration is forced to continue. (Until you've faced the scorn and ridicule of Rush and Fox News, don't laugh). A Hero ain't nuttin' but a sandwich.
We have Obama supporting a letter from health industry lobbyists, one that proposes savings through among other remedies cutting back on "overuse" of health care services. Let's see a show of hands out there, everyone who knows someone who has "overused" health care services sometime in the last 40 years. Don't everyone pipe up at once. And in case this support isn't enough, it looks like Obama is again signing on to "reforming" Social Security. Now, if his Federal Reserve IG doesn't have one specific piece of regulatory information on Fed dispersal of trillions since September, and if his FCC nominee is completely inept dragged upwards by her well-connected father, I don't see any room for optimism, though I am somewhat wondering if someone will have the chutzpah to bring back "private savings accounts" now that we're all so confident and trusting in our country's financial savings and mortgage institutions. Let's see a show of hands out there, who's ready to jump back in the stock market? Water's warm!!! Never mind the sharks circling!!! House, anyone? Cheap, and should I remind, location, location, location!!!
I don't know, there was something more as depressing, can't recall what it was. Guess that's enough for today, don't want to bring you down. Only love can break your heart.
PS - Digby does note a revealing if mostly overlooked statement from Cheney admitting coverup in Iran-Contra: "I went through the Iran-contra hearings and watched the way administration officials ran for cover and left the little guys out to dry. And I was bound and determined that wasn't going to happen this time." Glad to know Obama is doing his part as well, move the debate forward. Certainly the nation doesn't need self-recrimination and remorse and self-reflection and accountability at this dangerous crossroads in history. Tally ho!!!
PPS - And might I say, brilliant strategy, introducing bank "stress tests" to confuse our little brains from "stress positions", along with Geithner's repackaging results that originally were "suck big bags of rocks" into "firm as a rock". I bow before the feet of the master.
PPPS - Via Glenn Greenwald, Obama Administration threatens British court, British government on revealing details on Binyam Mohamed's torture - if they do, Britain will no longer receive US intelligence information. Obama is now Bush's water boy. Torture apologist, torture accessory. Our international human rights agreements are no only so much shitted toilet paper.
