I am impressed by the way Obama has rebuffed the leftist nagging to set up a "Truth" commission to investigate the enhanced interrogation techniques and the people who signed off on/employed them during the Bush Administration. To reject such a farce of a committee is not synonymous with condoning torture and the folks on the left fringe of the Democratic party need to stop making this dubious connection.
For Pelosi and company, this sort of commission is simply a way to rub Bush Administration lackeys' noses in the piss they left on the good name of this country. It's the most juvenile form of retribution; it's something that happens in a banana republic when one dictatorship overthrows another one. It's not something a democracy does, period. In the words of my father, "it's time for the Democrats to take their own advice and 'moveon.org'".
However, I don't think Obama's rejection of the panel completely comes down to clairvoyance; I think he understands that we have very pressing issues to deal with and a circus like Congressional Democrats are proposing is just that, a circus; a sideshow; a distraction. With so many "grey" issues (ie complicated), Congressional Democrats finally had something that was absolute. They cynically think they can sell this to their "dumb" constituents by getting in front of every television camera and spouting off against the transgressions of the evil Bush-Cheney empire. It's merely populist comfort food.
The fact of the matter is, this issue is not as clear-cut as Congressional Democrats think. Forget the conservatives out there who think God and Jesus give Amuricans the right to draw and quarter any Nazi-Commie-Jew-Abortion-loving tur'rist (ie anyone who doesn't like George Bush or Rush Limbaugh). But, many people out there who are ambivalent about politics are also ambivalent about "enhanced interrogation techniques". They rationalize that the people who are being interrogated want to kill as many people as they can so they can be Allah's rock star, so what's wrong with pressing them a little harder, so that maybe some innocent lives will be spared. They also rationalize with facts, like enhanced interrogation sometimes brings out "false" confessions, given in haste by the recipient so the pain will stop. They waver between thoughts like this, never really taking a side.
Obama and Emmanuel recognize this fence-sitting and wisely have not gotten wrapped up in the hysteria of this non-issue. After all, we've all pretty much known about this and pretty much gotten over it. Closing Guantanamo was a great step; making an announcement at the CIA was another and, in my opinion, a sufficient way to close the book on this dark chapter in our national history.
In taking both of these steps, the Administration is trying to take the spotlight off of this issue and direct it somewhere else. Because the bottom line is, we might not be taking as extreme an approach to interrogating suspects, but anyone who thinks we stopped all enhanced techniques is fooling themselves. In trying to let our interrogators fade back into the shadows, Obama is better enabling them to do what it is they are supposed to do and keep us safe. Please, let's moveon.org.
Friday, April 24, 2009
Thursday, April 23, 2009
OUTRAGE!
Sorry it's been so long. You would think with everything going on these past few months, I would have plenty to post about, but between the holidays, my new job, vacation, and other good news (;-)), I just haven't had the time. I have let you down and I am sorry. At least I am apologizing and admitting accountability, which is beyond most people's abilities these days.
Which is a perfect segue for today's post. So, according to yesterday's Washington Post, these same bankers who destroyed the international financial system with their leverage fetishes have been spending millions of the taxpayers' money (read "ours", as in "yours and mine") on lobbying Congress to stymie regulations on executive pay and "tougher financial regulations" (ie regulations which make it difficult for them to screw up the system in the future). The fact that these scumbags are using our money against us has made me reached my boiling point.
Despite my penchant for judgement and rage, I have to say that I have been pretty calm throughout this debacle. When the stock market tanked in late 2008, I said it would rebound; when the Marie-Antoinettes at AIG audaciously defended their ill-gotten bonuses, I thought they were stupid and beyond greedy, but I never joined the mob. But, now that Wall Street - the same Wall Street that screwed us all and never admitted any responsibility - is actively trying to screw us in the future, what else can I say rather than I...am...pissed.
That said, I will calm myself by thinking this through analytically. Unfortunately, my thought process arrives at some pretty somber conclusions. Number one, this is going to make it REALLY difficult for the Obama Administration to sell future bail-outs, as they will most likely have to, once the results of the "stress tests" come back. Furthermore, it severely jeopardizes the credibility of an Administration that was going to "end corporate lobbyists' stranglehold on doing business in Washington."
Which leads to number two, which concerns the already-diminished credibility on the US Congress. Based on a variety of root-causes, Congress is already highly mistrusted among the American people. Add to that stories about legislators like Chris Dodd - chair of the Senate Banking Committee - getting "VIP" treatment from problem-children like Countrywide, and people start connecting the dots: was Congress in on this when the "bon temps" were "rouler-ing"? The answer is unequivocally yes, and that is made all the more clear by the fact that our so-called representatives are now shaking a fist at these Wall Street types with one hand, and continuing to take money from them with the other. Add that to the already lengthy list of Congressional hypocrisy.
I am certain this is only the tip of the iceberg. Lobbyists are never going to go away, as long as Congress continues using them as ATM's.
Which is a perfect segue for today's post. So, according to yesterday's Washington Post, these same bankers who destroyed the international financial system with their leverage fetishes have been spending millions of the taxpayers' money (read "ours", as in "yours and mine") on lobbying Congress to stymie regulations on executive pay and "tougher financial regulations" (ie regulations which make it difficult for them to screw up the system in the future). The fact that these scumbags are using our money against us has made me reached my boiling point.
Despite my penchant for judgement and rage, I have to say that I have been pretty calm throughout this debacle. When the stock market tanked in late 2008, I said it would rebound; when the Marie-Antoinettes at AIG audaciously defended their ill-gotten bonuses, I thought they were stupid and beyond greedy, but I never joined the mob. But, now that Wall Street - the same Wall Street that screwed us all and never admitted any responsibility - is actively trying to screw us in the future, what else can I say rather than I...am...pissed.
That said, I will calm myself by thinking this through analytically. Unfortunately, my thought process arrives at some pretty somber conclusions. Number one, this is going to make it REALLY difficult for the Obama Administration to sell future bail-outs, as they will most likely have to, once the results of the "stress tests" come back. Furthermore, it severely jeopardizes the credibility of an Administration that was going to "end corporate lobbyists' stranglehold on doing business in Washington."
Which leads to number two, which concerns the already-diminished credibility on the US Congress. Based on a variety of root-causes, Congress is already highly mistrusted among the American people. Add to that stories about legislators like Chris Dodd - chair of the Senate Banking Committee - getting "VIP" treatment from problem-children like Countrywide, and people start connecting the dots: was Congress in on this when the "bon temps" were "rouler-ing"? The answer is unequivocally yes, and that is made all the more clear by the fact that our so-called representatives are now shaking a fist at these Wall Street types with one hand, and continuing to take money from them with the other. Add that to the already lengthy list of Congressional hypocrisy.
I am certain this is only the tip of the iceberg. Lobbyists are never going to go away, as long as Congress continues using them as ATM's.
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