Mom, Apple Pie and Torture. Symbols recognized world-wide representing our former democracy - and the most predominant of these is torture. George Bush prefers the Newspeak term enhanced interrogation, but torture, by any other name, is still torture.
It is also a major point of contention for federal judge Michael Mukasey, Bush’s choice for attorney general. At confirmation hearings on Capitol Hill, Mukasey stymied his democratic interrogators by refusing to admit that waterboarding is torture.
When asked if he thought the torture technique was constitutional, Mukasey said, “If it amounts to torture, then it is not constitutional.” He dodged every attempt to define torture and what appeared to be an easy confirmation came to a halt.
Waterboarding places a prisoner on his back with his head inclined downward. His head is covered with plastic or a wet rag. Water is poured over his face, forcing the inhalation of water, inducing the gag reflex, and produces the terrifying sensation of imminent death by drowning. CIA test subjects last an average of about 14 seconds.
Waterboarding can cause extreme pain and lung damage and sometimes brain damage, and broken bones. Repeated incidents have been known to cause death and some victims remain psychologically traumatized for years. By any definition of the word, waterboarding is torture.
More than 100 law professors sent a letter to then Attorney General Alberto Gonzales stating that waterboarding is torture and a felony punishable under the federal criminal code.
Judge Mukasey, of course, has to protect the President. He can’t say that he believes waterboarding is against the law - if, indeed, that is what he believes - because Bush broke the law by approving the torture of detainees and prisoners. Bush, in turn, defends his nominee, saying that we don’t torture anybody - a quick, throw-away phrase delivered with the sincerity of the master lier he is.
This is an individual who should be hooked up to a polygraph to reveal exactly what he is, every time he opens his mouth. Bush declares that whatever we’ve done has been legal. There may have been instances of legality occurring in this most corrupt administration in our history, but the subject of torture wasn’t involved in any of them. Bush went on to compare democrats opposing the nomination to appeasers who enabled Hitler.
Democrats congratulating themselves on apparently blocking the nomination, were in for a surprise. Two quisling senate democrats, Charles Schumer of New York and Diane Feinstein of California, declared their support of judge Mukasey, providing the votes needed to win approval of the judiciary committee.
Neither Schumer or Feinstein thought to offer a demonstration of Waterboarding, that harmless parlor board game - offering instead their tortuous explanations of why they believe judge Mukasey would enforce a law that bans waterboarding. Should such a law ever come about! Keep your eyes peeled for flying pigs: that’s when it will happen.
From the looks of things as I write this, Mukasey will be confirmed, even though he can’t identify waterboarding as torture - an act of ommision making him every bit as dangerous as
Gonzales, his predecessor. Torture will continue. Along with Mom and Apple Pie.Two symbols
of better, more hopeful times. One symbol of shame and disgrace. What we have lost in this country is incredible. Those responsible should be made to pay a price.
Our vaunted Constitution is being shredded without objection. As George Bush, our deranged boy dictator, once famously said, “It’s just a Goddamn piece of paper.”
Our rights and freedoms, once the envy of the world, slip away every day without objection. We launch wars of conquest and destruction - killing millions - to steal their natural resources and to further the interests of a demanding alien country that all but completely controls every aspect of American life. Without objection serious enough to effect any change.
There is more - much more - but this is a blog post, not a 100 page diatribe.
The point? We are an indifferent society. We don’t care. Torture? As long as it doesn’t happen to you, what’s the big deal? Reality? Been to an airport lately? Or a protest rally? Perhaps you enjoy being brutalized and treated like a terrorist or a sub-human species.
I think of torture as a line in the sand. Once crossed, it will be difficult, if not impossible, to go back. We crossed it, thousands of innocent victims ago. We demonstrated to the world that we are no longer interested in basic decency and the humanity of our fellow man. And that we are therefore deserving of treatment in kind.
We have given up, perhaps permanently, the moral high ground. We no longer have the moral authority to dictate anything to anybody for any reason. Our hypocritical demand for “Democracy” is seen for exactly what it is - a means of control having nothing to do with the concept of freedom. We torture - and have slipped back a rung on the ladder of civilized society.
While Mukasey’s appointment is all but a done deal, here are a few tidbits about the gentleman you may find interesting.
Mukasey was accused of bias in his conduct of the 1993 World Trade Center case. A defendant moved to remove him on grounds that his extreme allegiance to Israel would lead to bias against Muslim defendants. Defying all reasonable logic, the motion was dismissed as irrelevant.
He was involved with the favorable ruling for Larry Silverstein in the insurance controversy about the 9-11 attacks. Silverstein claimed double benefits since the WTC was destroyed by “two” seperate terrorist attacks. Nice. Friends in high places seems to work every time.
Remember the five dancing Israelis arrested by the FBI as they filmed the burning WTC towers? They turned out to be Israeli Mossad agents carrying multiple passports and large amounts of cash. They were arrested, detained, then secretly transported to the safety of Israel. Mukasey was the presiding judge at the time.
Mukasey’s son Marc is a partner at the bracewell & Giuliani law firm. Should Giuliani win the presidency, Mukasey would undoubtedly remain as attorney general. Mukasey is known to be an ardent Zionist, and it is certain that he will represent his country to the best of his ability. One guess as to which country that might be.
We are at a crucial crossroads in this country. Martial Law and a full-fledged police state are just around the corner. Total financial collapse is just around the corner. Nuclear War with Iran - and quite possibly Russia and China - is just around the corner. To name just a few of the imminent disasters we face.
Does anyone care? Maybe it’s the fluoride in the water - the old Nazi drug of choice to sedate crime victims. Maybe it’s the Chemtrails, criss-crosing every inch of our skies, dropping who-knows-what poisonous toxins on our heads. Whatever the cause, an excellent case can be made for the fact that no one - at least hardly anyone - actually cares.
I have a picture in my head. A post-apocalyptic scene sometime in the future. Humanlike creatures discovering a huge, abandoned monument. The inscription says:
EPITAPH : AMERICA - DEAD FROM INDIFFERENCE
Hey there Otto! You know me from Robs EWTW group.
Loved the blog. So true how politicos shade the truth. I agree, torture is torture and the geneva convention is there for a reason. I wonder if the high ups would call it enhanced interro if it were them? Also, I was thinking the last few lines would make a great SF novel that you can write. Although it is very predictable of reality, which SF often is.
Posted by: cibugg | November 08, 2007 at 11:26 PM