Let's review. Nine hundred thousand years ago when I was a kid, back in the 1950s, I was taught anyone engaging in slavery would face the full force of the law's vengeance. In those days, someone engaging in torture would have been tossed in a cage and the key thrown away. Tapping a phone was good for years in a federal penitentiary. If that sounds like a dream world, consider this. A man with a lower middle-class income could support himself, a wife and three kids, buy a house and a new car with cash every two or three years, get a vacation and go anywhere he and the family wanted because fuel was cheap, adjusted for inflation.
Fast forward to the George W. Bush twenty-first century. I was used as slave labor by a company that had done it to many thousands of people. State and federal law enforcement and tax authorities knew all about it, yet no one lifted a finger to stop it. Congress recently made the government's listening to every phone call and reading every keystroke and bit of data sent on the internet perfectly legal. Today, if you have a middle middle-class income, you can afford to buy a cheap, 20-year-old car and live in it, and that's all you can afford.
The Military Commissions Act of 2006 made torture perfectly legal. The discussion of Bush's super-duper secret torture program is headed only one place, inevitable victory by the president, who's keeping you busy with this shiny object as he puts the finishing touches on preparations to kill many more millions of people. And, because republicans are so powerful and important, there is no evidence of this completely legal practice. My, my, how things have changed.
Congress wants to see the memo Alberto Gonzales approved after he became attorney general. They say they weren't briefed. Maybe they were and maybe they weren't. But face the facts. They were informed. Every member of Congress has known all along what was going on, and while more than willing to write the accommodating legislation, didn't because they knew Bush and Cheney aren't guys who ask permission. The executives wondered if they could be prosecuted, and instantly received the gift of the Military Commissions Act, granting everyone retroactive immunity. Congress passed the law. So, why the discussion? To take your attention away from the approaching horror of war, of course.
• President Dickface, briefly excerpted:
"...the American people expect us to find out information—actionable intelligence so we can help protect them. That's our job."Translation: Bush knows his sworn oath of office is to uphold the Constitution. He isn't sworn to protect anyone. When he says "ah gotta perteck them childurns," he's saying, "I'm still using the Constitution as toilet paper, and rigging the system to make it work this way in perpetuity."
But his comments only provoked another round of recriminations on Capitol Hill, as Democrats ratcheted up their demands to see the classified memorandums, first reported Thursday by The New York Times.Translation: we want to take your attention away from the Bush war-spending chasm-death march-black hole about to expand into Iran (which we applaud and will fund without argument) talking about things we all knew were happening, and approved so much we made it all legal and granted everyone retroactive immunity, closing the matter. We knew what was happening. We want it in writing on their letterhead. We won't get it, but if we did, the Military Commissions Act made it legal and protects everyone who participated. We can't win, but that isn't the point. It's a fake contest to shore up Bush's perceived power.
"The administration can't have it both ways," Senator John D. Rockefeller IV, the West Virginia Democrat who is chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, said in a statement after the president's remarks. "I'm tired of these games. They can't say that Congress has been fully briefed while refusing to turn over key documents used to justify the legality of the program."
"I've had the awful responsibility to have to work with The New York Times and other news organizations on stories that involve the release of classified information," Mr. Fratto said. "And I could tell you that every time I've dealt with any of these stories, I have felt that we have chipped away at the safety and security of America with the publication of this kind of information."Translation: "We pee in your faces," Tony Fratto said, "and we giggle like three-year-olds while we do it. You have no rights, and it's your own damn fault. If you don't stop asking questions, we will have you killed. Be afraid of our God-given, legendary power. It was inevitable. You cannot resist. We command and you obey. Bow in submission, and respect our authoriteye. Pigs."
• Classic Dana Perino:
"This country does not torture," White House spokeswoman Dana Perino told reporters. "It is a policy of the United States that we do not torture, and we do not."Translation: "I'm lying to you," Dana Perino said. "See my mouth move? That's how you can tell I'm lying. When my mouth moves, I'm telling lies. Well, that was the truth. No, really it was. I pee in your faces. Pigs."
"The program, which has taken account of changes in U.S. law and policy, has produced vital information that has helped our country disrupt terrorist plots and save innocent lives," [CIA spokesman George] Little said in a statement. "The agency has always sought a clear legal framework, conducting the program in strict accord with U.S. law, and protecting the officers who go face-to-face with ruthless terrorists."Translation: "We do whatever we want to everyone," George laughed. "What laws? Gonzales and Yoo write these memos with no statutory or case authority at all, just their twisted logic, then we write legislation that covers our asses. Americans are pigs, foreigners are murder victims and public policy be damned. I'm in it for one guy and one guy only—ME."
That's why expanding war is so important. There are lots of Iranians in the United States, and it's only a matter of time before desperate people fight back, and the neocons tell us, "we told you so." Unless, of course, they don't flinch. Then, the house of cards falls apart.
The publicity this discussion gives torture nurtures creeping acceptance and normalcy, aiding its greater prevalence. At least, so they hope. Pay no attention to those thousands of years of experimenting with authoritarianism. Ignore the inescapable fact authoritarian regimes die hard.
