Another week. And another week of weak news. Let’s have a look at some of the highlights.
1. Yoo-hoo, wake up and smell the torture
Sorry to start on such a downer. But let’s get the bad news out the way first. We now know the author of the “torture” memo. John Yoo. No, not John Woo. He makes torture movies – completely different thing. Some of his movies can be used to torture us if we paid the bucks to watch it, but the outcome is generally much less dramatic than the ending… Anyway… John Yoo, author of such brilliant lines that said interrogators could legally use a number of unspecified techniques as long as they did not violate his definition of torture, which was “intense pain or suffering of the kind that is equivalent to the pain that would be associated with serious injury so severe that death, organ failure or permanent damage resulting in a loss of significant body functions will likely result.” Poetry. Isn’t it… Anyway… To torture or not to torture, that is not the question. My two sets of questions to Mr Yoo and to President Bush: (i) Mr Yoo-hoo, so it’s okay to torture in “Gitmo” and not elsewhere? But you didn’t give the opinion on whether it is acceptable to torture in places like Iraq? You assume it isn’t, but you never gave a legal opinion on that. Also, Mr Yoo, leaving your legal counsel aside, do you think it is morally acceptable? Before your answer, isn’t the law our societal way to define what is morally acceptable or not? Mr Yoo, Yoo-hoo, wake up and smell the torture. I hope you like the blood on your hands. My second set of questions – to President Bush. (ii) President Bush, you think this is morally acceptable? I know you think it is legally acceptable, but is it morally acceptable? If not, then what do we do? And the same as what I ask Mr Yoo – should the legal system not reflect what society wants as boundaries of morality? Also, I am sure you did not make a decision to allow torture lightly, but can you explain to me the answer you gave at a G8 meeting in 2004 (transcript) to these questions?
Question: “Mr. President, the Justice Department issued and advisory opinion last year declaring that, as commander in chief, you have the authority to order any kind of interrogation techniques that are necessary to pursue the war on terror. Were you aware of this advisory opinion? Do you agree with it? And did you issue any such authorization at any time?”
President Bush: “The authorization I issued was that anything we did would conform to U.S. law and would be consistent with international treaty obligations. That’s the message I gave our people.”
Question: “Have you seen the memos?”
President Bush: “I can’t remember if I’ve seen the memo or not, but I gave those instructions.”
A decision on whether torture is allowed or not and you didn’t read the memo? A memo that would tell you that you can or can not allow someone to e tortured and you can’t remember if you read it? I am sure that most people would remember if they read a memo that just said that they can torture people. I will give you the benefit of the doubt. Even if you didn’t read the memo – did you know about the content of the memo and what it meant or did you give an order based on a memo you did not read or know the substance of?
Yoo-hoo. Wake up and smell the torture.
This one makes my head hurt a bit. Mike Jerkoff – sorry, I mean Michael Chertoff, Homeland Security Secretary - is acting slightly insecure by waiving more laws than at any other stage since they started building the fence. 36 of them. Good logic. Let’s break a few laws to keep them. Laws being waived include National Park Service Organic Act, the Safe Drinking Water Act, the Clean Air Act, the Antiquities Act, and the Native American Graves Protection Act. Ouch. Stuff the water, vegetation, graves and wildlife. Just to make it easier to build a fence and keep people off the grass. I know how he feels though. I have so much red tape to go through to keep the bloody neighbour’s dog from sh*tting in my yard. But he reminded us that we should, of course, obey the law at all times. Just not him. But here is the clincher. He also stated that we need to remember that people who are here illegally should comply to the law. Huh? Duh! So, let me get this straight… He is breaking the law to ensure no one is breaking the law and him breaking the law won’t really stop people from breaking the law and he is breaking the law to stop people who have broken the law and we must not break the law he is breaking and we must remember to not break the law if we break the law. I wish we had a law for logic. But I guess that one is broken too…
Mac is the man. He is against pork. Oh, yes he is. And he don’t lie mista. He railed against earmarks and “pork barrel projects” on Fox and Friends as “an egregious process.” “It’s symptom of the problems in Washington that people exercise their political clout to get things done that they otherwise wouldn’t,” said McCain. That’s our man – protecting the taxpayers money. Thanks Mac, I might not need that $300 at all if you carry on the way you do. Just wait a stinking minute there Mac. Where did you make the speech again? Cecil Field hey? Is that burning pork chops I smell? Between 2001 and 2005 Cecil Field got almost $10 million dollars in earmarked funds – a pork-proud venue. Hey, you weren’t responsible right? Of course you aren’t. But it is odd that you voted for those Defense Appropriation Conference Reports that contained those earmarks in 2004 and 2005. I just hope that you show a little bit more insight (or foresight) if you become President. The last thing I would want you to do is step into a place and opening your mouth without knowing what is actually going on in that place. Can you say Iraq?
Not all greenies are goodies. Or bright. Mr Dave Dick-son, sorry David Richardson, got arrested in California for trying to steal used cooking grease from a Burger King restaurant. He got caught while trying to pump it into his tanker truck – caught greasy-handed. Okay, maybe someone should tell the dude that Burger King would be more than happy to give it away for free if you just ask. No wait. They make my Whopper with that stuff – don’t they? But you could ask you know. You never know, they might give it away instead of trying to flush it down the toilet or dump it in the flowerbeds outside Whole Foods. Oh, he should also remember that although cooking grease is a green biodiesel, the future is all algae. But I guess McDonald’s were closed. What? You didn’t think they used real beef did you?
5. Angry African on the Loose makes Top 10 Bloggers List!
Yes, can you believe it. I made it at last! I am now officially one of the Top 10 Bloggers in the world! The world baby! Some of the reviews said, “Angry African on the Loose is the leading voice of the Socialist Conservatives on the web today”, ”Angry’s story on the quantum dynamics of Africanism is already a classic, and “Angry African is what every white guy in France wishes he could be”. The International Institute of Anarchists and the Socialist Society of Conservatives both gave good old me the top honor in this years BuggerAll Awards. Yes. I won bugger all – nada, nothing, zilch, zero. But I wish I could do what some guys on Facebook did. Rate themselves! Yes, application builders on Facebook found a new way to ensure they get positive reviews for their applications. They just did it themselves. Pure genius. Or maybe not. The people all came from the same company – Slide. And the “independent users” had names like Adora Slidesix, Adora Slideeight, Adora Slideeleven… Really people. Just let it slide. This isn’t rocket science you know. This isn’t even physical ed. This is what happened to the kids from “Leave no child behind”.
That’s all folks. See ya next week. Maybe.
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April 4, 2008 at 9:22 am
Congrats on the Top 10 listing!
On all the other issues you raised, thank you! These are tough questions that must be asked. It is unfortunate that there will be no answers forthcoming…
April 5, 2008 at 12:41 am
Congratulations on your recognition.
If President Bush’s lips are even slightly moving the lips are lying. It’s just his nature by now. And he knows how to pick those who surround him. This has been the Administration of Surrealism.
April 5, 2008 at 9:58 am
After 1-3, 5 came as wonderful comic relief.
LOL!
April 5, 2008 at 10:27 am
Congratulations on the Top Ten!
No pressure, but keep up the thoughtful work.
April 5, 2008 at 8:19 pm
This is not in defense of Bush, I have my many issues with him. Torture is a very serious issue, but do you realize how many memo’s float through his office and fly by his desk on a daily basis? A bit of a reality check here would not hurt. He probably honestly did not remember.
April 6, 2008 at 11:54 am
Ah, Torture. I happen to think that that the US is not torturing anyone. I am NOT going to believe Amnisty International. Those people never have had anything but hatred for this country. A country that has conducted itself better than anyone else in the world despite its mistakes, blunders that everyone seems to point out 15 times a day. Europe didn’t start playing nice until the 1700′s. Emphasis start the world continues to improve. I saw a special with interrogators in Afghanistan’s. Keeping people awake is the most brutal thing they did. Abu Grab was a fluke thankfully and was busted. I still think the solders got off way to lightly. The prisoners were not hardened terrorist and they were humiliated. I think they weren’t terrorist
I also saw a Fox news channel thing demonstrating water boarding. IF these things weren’t just propaganda pieces, and I have no evidence to think so, and IF this is a bad as it gets this is no where near torture. I could have that on my hands. We or those who I would order if I were in charge would lose any claim to being human.
Gitmo doesn’t need to be closed, where would these ‘people that are prisoners’ go. These who have lost their humanity would go to Eastern europe. Western europe wound not take them. The middle east, I shudder, let just hang them now it would be kinder. They can’t come to the US. The courts would then lay open all the ways we cacth terrorists. Then I would bet it 2 percent of the masterminds, and those shooting at our troops would be let go and none of those would learn there lesson they would kill again.
Mac is against pork, right. He is a senator they all have voted for the budgets, those budgets have pork. Huh all senators have voted for pork. I am not defending them. I cannot defend Mac. To stay constant I can’t defend Hillary or Obama. You keep pick en on Mac, Why? Mac seems no worse than Bush who seems no worse then Obama. Hillary I believe is a step below them. Yes I compared them. He is going to get into that office and look at the choices before him. I think he is going to chose a very similar set of choices. We are in Iraq. Obama has said he will pull out as soon as he can. I don’t think he relies his generals are going to tell him this bench mark needs to be there or we create chaos. And I believe that if Bush were in four another four years he would begin drawing down about the same time as Obama. Obama might just close Gitmo. A nice PR move. Where do the prisoners go.? Is Obama going to use military force against Iran? Next four years is when Iran could be able to build a Nuke. If not a Nuke. Then Iran will continue it’s proxy war/terror against Israel. What will he do? Is Obama going to expand Social Security or Medicare. Yea. Bush did that to. How are these people different? If they are where did I go wrong what did I forget.
Obama made me sit up a say wow! I was glued to the set 4 years ago when he gave a speech. Socialism never sounded so good. Bill Clinton was good but not that good. I honestly cannot remember on what he spoke on back then. I remember pick out the phrases that could lead to the government spending more money.
April 6, 2008 at 1:02 pm
I forgot to comment on the Boarder waveing fence story.
The fence is needed. It is needed to slow drugs and yes people. I want to issue many many many work visas after we take their finger prints after we have a way to stop people from thinking they can come up here change our politics to benefit them. They can learn our Constitution, and what it means “in English” and become citizens if they want a say. Otherwise they are just here for the opertunity to get money. I wish them well. Don’t steal ours.
As our those are the issues at stake those other laws can stuff it. I don’t know how building a fence endangers water, Antiquities, or native Americans, or there graves. I highly doubt that along that 100 feet wide corridor there are actual graves. If there were there would be a hugh and an outcries specifically saying such. Umm Grass I don’t know much about the dessert where I lived in Arizona but the grass and sagebrush at least a hundred feet of it doesn’t get my sympathy. There is a lot of that stuff down there. So I am feeling unmoved by the plight of the Dune runners, the weekend warriors, the sage and motley grass clumps, The native Americans who I suspect just don’t like the fence for other than their stated reasons, the Representative Raúl M. Grijalva, who definitly has other reasons then grass, the ranchers, etc etc,etc. And no I don’t think the Ocelot will be to greatly burdened either. Though I might have a little more sympathy for the Ocelot.
The Point: It’s Legal, CONGRESS WAVED THOSE LAWS. Without that fence I am never even going to suport or talk immagration reform. (exception I could be talked into fast tracking visas if I have a photo and fingerprint of the person. One mistake on a form and your at the back of the line, years doing paperwork, outrageous.) Hence we have a big incentive for building the fence. Last years bill might have gone through if that fence was complete. I doubt it but it would good.
April 6, 2008 at 8:51 pm
How are you? You’ve been silent ha.. Well, what can I say! I admire your blogging skills, so no doubt you made it to the top 10! Whooaaaa! great great! Could you share how did you make it there?
Best wishes, congratulations and good luck!
April 6, 2008 at 10:12 pm
Congrats on making the top ten!