Awful In Every Regard
How much longer ’til we’re rid of Bush, again?
President Bush today demanded that Democratic lawmakers stop pressing his attorney general nominee for his views on a harsh CIA interrogation technique and called for a prompt Senate confirmation vote in the interests of battling terrorism.
Addressing the Washington-based Heritage Foundation, Bush used a speech on "the global war on terror" to lobby for former federal judge Michael B. Mukasey and defend the nominee’s refusal to comment in his Senate Judiciary Committee confirmation hearings about the legality of "waterboarding," a controversial interrogation technique that simulates drowning.
[…]
Briefing reporters on his speech this morning, Bush refused to say whether waterboarding is now being used or whether he considers it legal. He insisted that whatever methods the CIA is using to extract information from suspected terrorists are "within the law" and should not be "broadcast to the enemy."
You know, there’s a very good reason to not support someone who doesn’t know whether or not simulated drowning constitutes torture. The reason is because that man is obviously:
a.) An idiot
b.) A sociopath
c.) A ridiculous, Gonzo-esque hack who will say anything to weasel out of answering inconvenient or uncomfortable questions.
These three qualities are not ones that I find desirable in a prospective attorney general candidate. Mukasey could have easily cruised to a Senate confirmation if he’d only said something any morally sane person would have, such as "Well DUH waterboarding is torture! Have you ever drowned before? Do you think it’s an enjoyable experience?" But noes. He decided that such an obvious moral imperative might not fit in with the Commander Guy’s twisted and sick worldview. So he gave the equivalent of an "I never inhaled" answer. Only instead of BSing the nation about smoking spliff, he BSed us about torturing people. That’s a pretty bad thing.
In a healthy democratic society, such people would be considered mentally and morally unfit to serve in public office. In Bush’s America, though, they get nominated for Attorney General. A right sad state of affairs, it is.
“He insisted that whatever methods the CIA is using to extract information from suspected terrorists are ‘within the law’ and should not be ‘broadcast to the enemy.'”
How in the world could anyone think “the enemy” can’t figure out the interrogation techniques the CIA is currently using?
He insisted that whatever methods the CIA is using to extract information from suspected terrorists are “within the law” and should not be “broadcast to the enemy.”
What about deterrent effect and all that? Oh, he meant the enemy within
Addressing the Washington-based Heritage Foundation…
Talk about preaching to the choir. What a coward.
Bush has clearly decided that he’s getting nowhere with the Congress, and he thinks, despite his 24% approval ratings, that going over Congress’ head directly to the public will somehow be effective.
You can pretty much guess the rest. It involves a major blow to the head, a stretcher, and an ambulance. Dude’s going down HARD. Somebody pass the popcorn.
What’s worse though is that you know the spineless Dems will eventually cave in and approve the torture-mongering fascist.
I’m so disgusted with the Dems I’ve decided against any further “lesser evilism” this time around and will just vote my conscience (Green). We gave them a chance in 2006 and they’ve managed to cave in on almost every single Bushite demand to date. Fuck’em.
He decided that such an obvious moral imperative might not fit in with the Commander Guy’s twisted and sick worldview.
Well, it’s a bit more convoluted than that. If Mukasey comes out and sez it’s torture, that opens up lots of people to investigation and prosecution, for war crimes, up to and including the people who authorized the torture in the first place (i.e., Commander Guy himself).
If Muckassy isn’t confirmed, bushcheney will nominate someone even worse! Waaaay worse! I can’t wait to see who it is…
I had a thought last night watching Keith; if it isn’t torture, how’s about we set up a waterboard in the Senate chambers, right in front of the witness table?
It isn’t torture? Care to take it for a spin?
Anybody?
re: Johnny C.
Newt Gingrich was on the radio this morning and he was complaining along the lines of “dems won’t accept anyone who doesn’t label GWB a criminal.” (if they say that waterboarding is illegal then yadda yadda) It does seem like a tricky situation for any would-be AG.
He should be considered mentally and morally unfit, period, and put in a damn home. He needs it, the poor son of a bitch.
My father and I are at variance as to what his problem is. I’ve always thought of it as simple rich-frat-boy stuff, the kind most people grow out of out of necessity at age 24 or so (although most are not anywhere near as rich, so…). On the other hand, my dad thinks it’s brain damage.
I’m not sure what it is (and I don’t think he is either – he said Kleuver-Busey Syndrome, which doesn’t have the symptoms he described (although – shudder – it does include hypersexuality.) – so he’s probably got the name mixed up.) I think he was right about it being something to do with the man’s frontal lobe, though.
Frontal lobe trauma evidently causes a number of symptoms all too familiar to us after the last seven years: poor impulse control, poor judgement, poor control of temper and contrarian behavior.
In the Freudian terminology we’ve largely left behind but all know like the back of our hands, frontal lobe damage damages or destroys the superego, leaving the actions of the individual largely in the province of her or his id. In Bush’s case, it explains incredibly easily his occasionally absurd and violent behavior – trying to run down the press corps with a tractor, attempting to give Angela Merkel a back rub in public, his joking around in NOLA, and so on. You also get the feeling that it makes staying on-message and Presidential extremely difficult: talking about violence is pretty easy for him, and he excels at the parts of debates and speeches that involve bringing it on and shooting people, finds that real catarthic, but gets cranky, sullen, and bored when it comes to damned near anything else. If it’s a long-term problem, it’s probably only been with extensive coaching that his handlers have him under control at all on anything besides killing Haji.
This also helps explain the disparities in data: Bush gives every indication of being very intelligent (got an MBA from Harvard, and I’m sorry, your daddy could be Bill Gates and he couldn’t buy you one of those without a major scandal), ran exceedingly efficient money-laundering and shell-game company schemes, and has a real knack for finding loyal toadies to keep up a charade of respectability – and yet his random failures and gaffes have made America a laughingstock, and he gives little indication of being able to hold court on anything that doesn’t hold his interest.
Makes sense to me, and all the more so what with the booze and coke in his younger years. The scary thing is that a man with serious brain damage resonates on a personal level with a quarter of the electorate. Sure helps explain their similar fondness for Jesus.
Once an addict, always an addict, Alex.
All that coke and booze before he hit 40 damaged his never-that-great-in-the-first-place brain.
Another reason to appose Mulk.is his “cozy”relationship with Rudy “Nosferatu”Giuliani,RE.todays Village Voice.
Don’t do the crime if you can’t do the time.
Aren’t the Republicans supposed to the the “tough on crime” guys? You break the law, you pay the price – boo hoo.
Johnny Coelacanth’s got it. Ain’t no way any nominee is going to admit the current administration is guilty of torture. It would mean as AG, s/he would be forced to prosecute.
I’m so sick of this crap.
Everybody who supports waterboarding needs to either put up or shut up.
Either admit it’s torture, or demand a retroactive pardon for every Japanese POW camp guard who was convicted of torture for waterboarding POWs.
I’m serious. They need to shit or get off the pot at this point.
Apparently Mukasey had a great time with the Judiciary Committee during his testimony on tuesday, answering questions openly and impressing the Dems on the committee. Sometime Tuesday evening he must have been the victim of rendition, because when he came back on Wednesday he acted as if he’d had a brain meld with Gonzo.
Quote from Feingold via Americablog:
Russ Feingold, D-Wis., told Mukasey that “it sounds like, overnight, you’ve gone from being agnostic, as you and I have gone back and forth since our first meeting on this question, to holding what is a rather disturbing view.”
But I’m sure that whatever happened to Mukasey on Tuesday night was “within the law” AND should not be “broadcast to the enemy.”
It isn’t that defining waterboarding as torture “might not fit in with the Commander Guy’s twisted and sick worldview”. It’s that the Bush admin is clearly waterboarding people, torture is clearly illegal, and Mukasey as AG would be bound by the law and his oath of office to prosecute various administration figures, including Bush, for felonious acts. Or he would reveal himself to be just another supine Bush hack willing to cast the core tenets of our Republic into the fire in order not to inconvenience the Commander Guy.
Mukasey is ethical enough to see this as a problem, hence his reluctance to commit on the issue. Ethical behavior was simply not a concern for Gonzo.
Note that this is a problem for Mukasey right now. It will become everyone’s problem once Bush leaves office and it becomes apparent that a lot of the current administration have been committing clearly criminal acts.
I predict Bush will issue a blanket pardon for his entire administration immediately before leaving office.
Apparently Mukasey had a great time with the Judiciary Committee on Tuesday, answering questions openly and impressing the Democrats on the committee. However, sometime Tuesday night he must have been subjected to a rendition because when he came back on Wednesday he testified as though he had been subjected to a mind meld with Gonzo.
Wednesday Feingold quote from Americablog:
Russ Feingold, D-Wis., told Mukasey that “it sounds like, overnight, you’ve gone from being agnostic, as you and I have gone back and forth since our first meeting on this question, to holding what is a rather disturbing view.”
But I’m sure that whatever happend to Mukasey on Tueday night was “within the law” AND should not be “broadcast to the enemy.”
Congress (Dems, yes, but also any Rethug who values his career as a D.C. “representative”) should just stonewall any candidate for anything the Retard-in-Chief puts up over the next 12 months. Seriously. Who gives a fuck? AG? For what? Oversight of the law of the land? Please, don’t make me vomit. It’s not as if this fascist (yes. fascist.) gang o’ thugs gives a flyin’ fuck what the Constitution requires, or anything that vaguely resembles the will of the people, or anything else other than their own enriched white asses. The little fucker is gonna do whatever he wants anyway. Let’s face it, the best we can hope for at this point is that the damage this insane child continues to inflict will be as minimal as possible. There seems to be no real way to get rid of him, so just ignore anything and everything he wants until we have at long, long fucking last seen the end of this reign of terror. Could things be any more fucked up than they are now if that were to happen?
MzNicky: well, in terms of Bush’s administration, sure, no. But in terms of the United States starting to rehabilitate itself? Having public officials return to the status quo ante — “torture is bad, and America is against it” should happen ASAP. Nothing to do with Bush, everything to do with taking the country back.
In Bush’s America, though, they get nominated for Attorney General. A right sad state of affairs, it is.
Oddly, this is simultaneously too harsh and not harsh enough. I’m certain that in a normal world, mukasey would have had no problem defining waterboarding as torture. In other words, he has a working moral compass in that regard.
But his even worse immorality is not that he’s pro torture – I’m convinced he is not. What’s worse is that he knows that if he defines any form of torture, he puts a great many people at risk, however slight, of criminal prosecution. So his moral compass is completely defective, as he is willing to publically humiliate himself rather than expose the criminal torturing thugs and their venal bosses to prosecution for war crimes.
Mukasey – anti – torture, pro – omerta…
mikey
I like this thread. It’s so saul-free.
Oops. Probably jinxed it, didn’t I?
“Well DUH waterboarding is torture!”
In fact – as I learned from somewheres else, can’t remember where – it was. in fact, prosecuted as a war crime @ Nuremberg – which Mukasey would certainly have to be aware of.
No, the honorable thing would be for Mukasey himself to withdraw his nomination – GAWD, what was I thinking? (slaps head) Somebody Stinkin’ Shrub would nominate to fill the squelchy shoes of the AGAG, doing something honorable?! (sticks pencil in ear, roots around a little to silence voices…)
My father and I are at variance as to what his problem is. I’ve always thought of it as simple rich-frat-boy stuff, the kind most people grow out of out of necessity at age 24 or so (although most are not anywhere near as rich, so…). On the other hand, my dad thinks it’s brain damage.
Paul Minot suggested it’s Narcissistic Personality Disorder.
Justin Frank votes for dry drunk syndrome, or whatever the official term for it is.
Me? I personally go for “Evil Elitist Asshole Syndrome”.
Perhaps if you’re mad at the Democrats… Could you take it out on the spineless ones, and not all of them?
‘Cause throwing the baby out with the bathwater doesn’t sound like it’d work. Unless you want another W-type in office when you could make the choice to, you know, NOT have one.
I like this thread. It’s so saul-free.
Saul-Free! Low in Tedium!
Addressing the Washington-based Heritage Foundation…
I’d call it the Richard Mellon-Scaife debased-Chickenhawk Foundation.
That reminds me: http://www.itisdancing.com/archives/33
This is probably the most awesome thing I’ve ever come up with.
FREE AS IN WILLY, NOT AS IN BEER, THEY HATE US FOR OUR FREE WILLY, etc.
On the plus side of all this, the English language will gain “Bush” as a new complex verb to describe someone or something as incompetent, dishonest, immoral, corrupt, and embarrassing all rolled into one.
Xerox. Kleenex. Coke. Bush.
Hey, if you’ve got to have a spineless, capitulating, dick-sucking authority weasel as AG, at least it’ll be someone you can legitimately greet with “Hey, Snot-face!”
Oh, and I’m allowed to make that joke because I, too, have a ridiculous surname. So there.
And hell, I wear utterly silly underpants…
mikey
In Bush’s case, it explains incredibly easily his occasionally absurd and violent behavior
alec, I kind of agree, I have never fallen for the ‘Bush is a think bastard’ line, but his strange idiosyncrasies were quite odd, until you put them in some context. he is one of these guys (and we all know one or two) who likes and fantasies about violence, only in this case, instead of sitting jercking off to ’24’, he gets to live the life. I bet he asks for videos and pics of torture from the black ops guys doing it. His opposition to ending the practice of waterboardng doesn’t stem from ‘the help the terrorists’ meme, its because he wont get any more pictures.
So his moral compass is completely defective, as he is willing to publically humiliate himself rather than expose the criminal torturing thugs and their venal bosses to prosecution for war crimes.
Mukasey – anti – torture, pro – omerta…
Yep. Mukasey gets confirmed, Bush gets to continue operating above the law for the rest of his term and pardon himself on the way out the door.
On the plus side of all this, the English language will gain “Bush” as a new complex verb to describe someone or something as incompetent, dishonest, immoral, corrupt, and embarrassing all rolled into one.
“Dude, you totally BUSHED that sales presentation!”
[Bush] insisted that whatever methods the CIA is using to extract information from suspected terrorists are “within the law” and should not be “broadcast to the enemy.”
Omigod. Don’t let on to “the enemy” that we refrain from dismembering suspects. When they’re threatened with amputation, we want them to BELIEVE IT!” I’m not sure how they prepare for this kind of torture during training, but dammit we don’t want them to be trained to resist it!
If we revealed that suspects were not subjected to waterboarding, they wouldn’t train their agents to resist waterboarding, and that would have a positive effect on the “enemy’s” budget, since they wouldn’t have to train agents to resist the technique of waterboarding. Which is expensive!
But what about electric shocks to the genitals? And gang rape? We can’t reveal our position on these “techniques” because it might help “enemies” train their folks on ways to overcome the natural tendency to succumb to unbearable pain and stress, and cooperate with captors.
Rejoice with me in your moral superiority as Americans!
/snark
I can’t stand it that this is being done in my name.
In terms of Bush’s personality and its elliptical nature, I think the entire world would have been better off had Gail Sheehy’s profile of Bush in the August 2000 Vanity Fair been more widely read.
Sheehy interviewed practically everyone in Bush’s life—teachers, relatives, school buddies, former girlfriends, you name it. And as you read it, at least one thing becomes clear about him:
He was an asshole LONG before he became a drug addict and a drunk.
Well, if it’s not from drugs or injury, it’s almost certain the frontal-lobe thing is congenital – probably from Bar Bush’s side, because Jesus Christ does that woman have a problem. (Well, they’re poor, so good for them!)
controversial interrogation technique
Bring back the rack!
Tell us about those underpants, Mikey. Go on, do.
Was Aleister Crowley Barbara Bush’s father?
http://www.metafilter.com/comments.mefi/56094
Visual proof?
http://img158.imageshack.us/img158/4927/808379766mvl5.gif
It’s not simulated drowning. It’s drowning.. Pints of water into the lungs. Not, “Oh noes, I can’t breathe because there’s a wet cloth across my face” — more like, “Holy fuck they’ve turned me into a fucking bong the only way I can get air into the non-flooded portions of my lungs is to bubble bubble bubble through this quart of water that’s steadily filling up ok I give up the secret map is behind the teevee and my boss is in a sleeper cell and my dog licked my balls because I put peanut butter on ’em and please please please stop this I’ll tell you anything Rudy would make a great president the WMDs are in Syria Fred Thompson reamed me with a fireplace poker anything anything anything to MAKE IT STOP.”
Yeah, more like that.
Vile. These people have lost their connection to humanity.