The July 30 issue of American Conservative contains a piece I did updating the latest twists and turns of the torture scandal. Here’s the lead paragraph:
From the first days after the Abu Ghraib photos hit the airwaves, the torture scandal has epitomized the worst of the Bush presidency. A timid media, a cowardly opposition party, and a refusal by most Americans to face the grisly facts has contained the damage since 2004. But the web of lies and lawlessness is rapidly unraveling. Leaks, foreign challenges, military officers revolting, and a pending Supreme Court case could shed overdue sunlight on the administration’s barbaric policies…..
and the final paragraph –
Bush torture policies were made in darkness by people who assumed that they would forever remain secret. As evidence leaked out, much of the world has been revolted at the U.S. government’s barbarism, but most Americans remain oblivious. The Supreme Court case could change that overnight. If the MCA is struck down, the get-out-of-jail-free card that the White House and Congress provided to torturers and torture policymakers will be null. And the Supreme Court cannot endorse the use of tortured confessions without destroying its own credibility.
The Bush team was able to punish Taguba, muzzle Hicks, intimidate Congress, and browbeat much of the media on torture issue, but its luck may be done….
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The full article may go online soon…
What is this “opposition party” whereof you speak? 🙄
I’ll check my records and get back to you on that.
I’ll bet you don’t find anything in the “Modern History” section. 😀
I checked my list under “Limited Government” but turned out it was expired.
Died of neglect, most likely.
—President George W. Bush on the issue of Torture: “We don’t torture.” Uh huh…Never entered your mind did it. Ya know, it seems that a simple, puerile lie from a simple and arrogant adolescent mind, is always the most insulting to someone’s intelligence. Never fails
…Hey Jim can The Decider do this kinda shit and get away with it? If you haven’t checked this out yet—Click on the link below! Bad as George III!
http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2007/07/20070717-3.html
With the possible exception of the Lincoln administration, has there been any other administration as bad as Bush’s when it comes to breaking or subverting the law?
I can’t believe how long the list of abuses has grown. And just yesterday, when asked by Sen. Herb Kohl why “…the administration of justice and the American people would not be better served by somebody sitting in the office who does not have all of the problems that you possess with respect to believability, credibility, confidence, trust?” AG Alberto “Jackboots” Gonzales responds, “Ultimately I have to decide whether or not it would be better for me to leave or just stay and try to fix the problems. I’ve decided to stay and fix the problems.” In other words, he telling Congress, “You can try to make me quit, but I’m refusing to leave.”
Absolute arrogance!
Roosevelt II comes to mind.
John Adams – John Quincy Adams
Andrew Johnson – Lyndon B. Johnson
Theodore Roosevelt – Franklin D. Roosevelt
George H.W. Bush – George W. Bush
William J. Clinton – ?
Except for the first two, isn’t there a lesson to learned there in not electing a President with the same last name as a previous one, particularly if they’re “family”?
…That would be Hillary Clinton Joe
The only possible “opposition” party in America would be “we the people”. The ADD “sheeple” can just sit back and watch.
semper fi
The president’s that conspired to murdered JFK.
Shrub is the worst of all of them. But people now do anything government tells them to do. Government can do no wrong – honest peaceful citizens are the terrorists if government says so.
Failure is success…defeat is victory…cowards are heroes…liars are honest…democracy is good/constitutionalism is bad.
Americans are raised and groomed to practice denial by the tv medium.
…Yeah, but not all of us
Tory, I suppose its all rather “Orwellian” when you think about it. Doesn’t take much of a leap but you’d be surprised how many people bumble along ignoring all the signs just so long as they can be “entertained” like dutiful slaves before their entertainment boxes. I can’t say I “miss” TV after pulling the plug on it over two years ago. Amazing how the peace and quiet helps you to reason things through.