Happy Mother's Day!

The US Military has been carrying on an illegal, covert, and widespread system of deliberate propaganda in support of the war (and of course torture) for years now. Oh, and the MSM refuses to so much as breathe a word about it now that the story has broken.
Yawn...oh what? Sorry, were you talking? I was busy reading about Obama's bowling score and his really scary black preacher who hates America.

UPDATE: Reid promises hearings, bless his little heart.

I Suppose I Should've Expected This...

Evidently, John Yoo's legal memorandum on the President's absolutely unfettered authority to torture children (but only if he thinks it's REALLY important) relies at least in part on the US Army's history of hunting down and summarily killing Indians who refused to be herded into concentration camps (reservations).

Maverick, Shmaverick!

John McCain, already acting like a Republican presidential nominee, abandons his last remaining moral principle and votes against a ban on the use of the "waterboarding" torture procedure. Maybe this will make the Right Wing Howler Monkey Media Chorus happy.

Director of National Intelligence sez...

...waterboarding is only torture if it's done to me...

Another proud moment for the rule of law.

Hissy Fit

The Deciderer has decreed that if Michael Mukasey (whose nomination is floundering because the White House demands that he tow the line on cheerleading for torture) then there will be no Attorney General at all. This is in line with other recent temper tantrums by a Dear Leader infuriated that Congress will no longer prostrate itself at his feet. I'm sorry, but could we get a grownup President anytime soon?

Sympathy for the Devil

Kevin Drum over at Washington Monthly notes outraged Ohio Democrats claiming they won't support Sherrod Brown or Ted Strickland because they voted for the White House Torture and Permanent Detention Act.
We've had a similar meme running through the party here over Chet Edwards, finally culminating in:

Chet is a practically Republican. He votes with Democrats only on the amendments to resolutions, but he votes with Republicans 80% of the time on passage (when it actually counts). This is one of many reasons why I will not vote for him! I am a Democrat, and I will only vote for people that support a Democratic agenda. Chet Edwards and Van Taylor do not meet this criteria thus, I will leave this portion of my ballot blank on November 7th. I encourage real Democrats, and people that believe in the Democratic party principals (not just flag wavers) to do the same.
LEAVE IT BLANK!!!!


My response:

Then you are voting FOR Nicholas Vancampen Taylor and if he wins, we will have YOU to thank, just like we have that preening narcissist Ralph Nader to thank for George W. Bush.
And, second, I resent your statement that I am somehow not a "real Democrat" because I choose to live in the real world of politics and not some liberal Candyland. There are several "real Democrats" on this list who were nowhere to be seen when I was running for office and whose sole contribution to the party appears to be sitting in the cheap seats and throwing spitballs. By your standard, we should've refused to vote for Ralph Yaborough because he started out supporting LBJ on Vietnam or refused to vote for JFK because he supported nuclear testing or refused to vote for Ann Richards because she supported the death penalty. If you cannot accept the basic reality that politics requires compromise, then electoral politics is not for you. I recommend blogging, where you can happily spend all day criticizing while the rest of us actually go out and win elections.

Once again, Democrats threaten to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory. Do you not think that Karl Rove (the evil genius) planned this vote? If Democrats vote AGAINST it, then the GOP blasts them as "soft on terror." If they vote FOR it, then pissy liberals stay home. Either way, Karl Rove wins. Friends, I have said it before and I will say it again: in politics, winning isn't everything, it's the ONLY thing. Unless we win control of (at least) the House, the GOP will continue its agenda of eradicating the Constitution. If you withhold your vote from Chet Edwards, make no mistake: you are voting FOR that weasely, crypto-fascist ankle-biter, Nicholas Vancampen Taylor.

A Proud Moment for the Republic

"The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing."
--Edmund Burke

The only thing worse than the GOP Senate passing a bill that allows the President of the United States to arrest American citizens on American soil and subject them to TORTURE for the rest of their lives with no access to the courts is the number of cowardly Democrats who voted with them. More from Glenn Greenwald.

It Really Says Something...

...about how far the public morals of this country have fallen after five years under this vicious, mendacious and venal Administration that we are having a serious debate over TORTURE. And it says even more about the utter moral bankruptcy of the Republic Party that some of its more repulsive adherents actually think TORTURE is a winning campaign issue.

WWJD?

Apparently He would call for the torture of prisoners, at least according to the despicable heretics and blasphemers who have hijacked evangelical Protestant Christianity in this country. I know I shouldn't, but I take comfort in the thought of the look of sheer surprise of the faces of the tele-Pharisees when they arrive at the Pearly Gates only to hear, "I never knew you! Depart from me, ye that work iniquity!" (Matthew 7:23)

Tsi-sa a gi ge yu hi*

Blue Gal contemplates religion, torture and the President. Puts me in mind of the debtate James A. Morone discussed in his excellent book "Hellfire Nation," which I reviewed here.









*"Jesus Loves Me"