Eugene Robinson names one of the twisted paths the Bush administration trod in his op-ed "A Torture Paper Trail." (WaPo)
Robinson decries The Decider's eight years of moral blindness, finding it hard to believe "that George W. Bush, to his eternal shame and our nation's great discredit, made torture a matter of hair-splitting, legalistic debate at the highest levels of the U.S. government. But that's precisely what he did.
"Waterboarding, a technique of simulated drowning, is considered torture virtually everywhere on Earth except in the Bush administration's archive of self-exculpatory memos, directives and opinions."
These directives are typical of this administration's smokescreen maneuvers to hide the awful truth of their monstrous policies and nation-rending failures. Like, a strangling national debt that doesn't even include the almost trillion dollar cost of the invasion of Iraq. Or, reported growth-crippling inflation that doesn't even include energy and food costs.
The Bush government needs money?.... print some.
After eight years of this fiscal recklessness, Bush's U.S. dollar is the Monopoly currency of world markets.
The Decider mouthed "family values" and rattled terrorism bones, hiding behind religious zealots as his bully boys picked our pockets, enriching themselves and their corporate buddies, leaving taxpayers to absorb their financial mess.
As we dig ourselves out of the morass of the Bush legacy, we need to also rescue our sewer-soaked standards of integrity. Justifying torture is just the tip of the Bush administration's moral-failings iceberg, but it's the one all the world can measure us by.
Robinson calls for accountability, asking the next president to expose the Bush administration's torture policy.... "Only when we learn the full story of what happened will we be able to confidently promise, to ourselves and to a world that looks to this country for moral leadership: Never again."
Tuesday, July 29, 2008
Monday, July 14, 2008
The New Yorker Ambushes Obama
The New Yorker tries to justify this July 21 cover by calling it satire. Lampooning the politics of fear. They say their readers will get it.
Obama as a Muslim. Michelle a black radical. Burning the flag.
Don't the editors realize that this cover will give a veneer of credibility to the haters who circulate their character-assassination filth about Obama as fact, and further confuse the gullible.
In the name of increasing readership and circulation The New Yorker has thrown the dogs of hate red meat.
Shame on The New Yorker.... a once-great opinion maker.
Friday, July 04, 2008
Obama Explains, McCain Games
OK, Obama supporters, let's think things through. Is Barack Obama actually going back on promises and taking new positions as charged by the McCain campaign and an obliging media?
Is it a surprise that Obama is articulating the middle ground and willing to compromise.
After all, he said he would be a new kind of leader, a leader for all.... not just the left.... and that we must come together in order to overcome the devastation wrought by years of extremism on both sides, and a Decider who stubbornly stuck to his radical ideology regardless of the abject failure of his policies.
Remember Obama's background as a community organizer, as someone who wants to bring people together to solve their problems.... not as just another political brand like a "compassionate conservative" full of sound and fuzzies and signifying nothing.
Yet, many Obama supporters are angry with him.... because he's compromising on the FISA bill in order to move forward and put in place needed safeguards.
Yesterday Obama released a statement regarding his position on the FISA bill that passed the House and will now go to the Senate. He admits that the legislation is far from perfect and hopes to remove the Title II portion that grants retroactive immunity to telecommunications companies involved in warrantless wiretapping for the Bush administration.
Still, Obama stands by his general support of this bill because, as he says, "the compromise bill is far better than the Protect America Act that I voted against last year. The exclusivity provision makes it clear to any President or telecommunications company that no law supersedes the authority of the FISA court.... This compromise law assures that the FISA court has that responsibility."
This bill gives a real mechanism for accountability while still allowing the government to monitor and track individuals who want to attack the United States, which Obama feels "is a vital counter-terrorism tool."
While supporting this bill, Obama promises that once he is sworn in as President, he will have his Attorney General "conduct a comprehensive review of all our surveillance programs, and make further recommendations on any steps needed to preserve civil liberties and to prevent executive branch abuse in the future."
In the meantime, expect a lot of distortions of his positions by an increasingly devious McCain campaign and a Straight-Talk-fumes-sniffing media.... any utterance of Obama or his spokesmen that can be turned on its head, will be, and then it will be repeated over, and over, and over until.... presto, it's fact!
What you have been witnessing are the political games of "Rove's Third Term." As Paul Krugman points out in his oped in today's NY Times, there is "increasing influence of veterans of Mr. Rove's shop in the McCain operation."
Like....the recent elevation in McCain's campaign of Steve Schmidt to campaign manager. Schmidt is a veteran of Bush's 2004 campaign and worked closely with Karl Rove.... the guru of political manipulation.
Look at what happened to Gen. Wesley Clark when he said that while John McCain's war service was heroic, it didn't necessarily constitute a qualification for the presidency. McCain's campaign went ballistic.... it "went beyond condemning General Clark's remarks; it went out of its way to distort them" Krugman points out.
Swiftboat star Col. John Day, no less, said of Clark's remark... "This backhand slap against John as not being a worthy warrior because he just got shot down is one of the more surprising insults in my military history." Of course, Clark said no such thing.
Hopefully the electorate will see through the distortions of Obama's positions and statements of his supporters.
Just remember, this Rovian propaganda is an attempt to divert attention from Bush's failed economic policies and disastrous war.... "both of which Mr. McCain promises he will continue if he wins."
Is it a surprise that Obama is articulating the middle ground and willing to compromise.
After all, he said he would be a new kind of leader, a leader for all.... not just the left.... and that we must come together in order to overcome the devastation wrought by years of extremism on both sides, and a Decider who stubbornly stuck to his radical ideology regardless of the abject failure of his policies.
Remember Obama's background as a community organizer, as someone who wants to bring people together to solve their problems.... not as just another political brand like a "compassionate conservative" full of sound and fuzzies and signifying nothing.
Yet, many Obama supporters are angry with him.... because he's compromising on the FISA bill in order to move forward and put in place needed safeguards.
Yesterday Obama released a statement regarding his position on the FISA bill that passed the House and will now go to the Senate. He admits that the legislation is far from perfect and hopes to remove the Title II portion that grants retroactive immunity to telecommunications companies involved in warrantless wiretapping for the Bush administration.
Still, Obama stands by his general support of this bill because, as he says, "the compromise bill is far better than the Protect America Act that I voted against last year. The exclusivity provision makes it clear to any President or telecommunications company that no law supersedes the authority of the FISA court.... This compromise law assures that the FISA court has that responsibility."
This bill gives a real mechanism for accountability while still allowing the government to monitor and track individuals who want to attack the United States, which Obama feels "is a vital counter-terrorism tool."
While supporting this bill, Obama promises that once he is sworn in as President, he will have his Attorney General "conduct a comprehensive review of all our surveillance programs, and make further recommendations on any steps needed to preserve civil liberties and to prevent executive branch abuse in the future."
In the meantime, expect a lot of distortions of his positions by an increasingly devious McCain campaign and a Straight-Talk-fumes-sniffing media.... any utterance of Obama or his spokesmen that can be turned on its head, will be, and then it will be repeated over, and over, and over until.... presto, it's fact!
What you have been witnessing are the political games of "Rove's Third Term." As Paul Krugman points out in his oped in today's NY Times, there is "increasing influence of veterans of Mr. Rove's shop in the McCain operation."
Like....the recent elevation in McCain's campaign of Steve Schmidt to campaign manager. Schmidt is a veteran of Bush's 2004 campaign and worked closely with Karl Rove.... the guru of political manipulation.
Look at what happened to Gen. Wesley Clark when he said that while John McCain's war service was heroic, it didn't necessarily constitute a qualification for the presidency. McCain's campaign went ballistic.... it "went beyond condemning General Clark's remarks; it went out of its way to distort them" Krugman points out.
Swiftboat star Col. John Day, no less, said of Clark's remark... "This backhand slap against John as not being a worthy warrior because he just got shot down is one of the more surprising insults in my military history." Of course, Clark said no such thing.
Hopefully the electorate will see through the distortions of Obama's positions and statements of his supporters.
Just remember, this Rovian propaganda is an attempt to divert attention from Bush's failed economic policies and disastrous war.... "both of which Mr. McCain promises he will continue if he wins."
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