America’s necessary dark night of the soul
Salon
by Gary Kamiya
05/01/09
Those opposed to reopening the book on the Bush years argue that doing so would tear the country apart. They’re right — but they forget that the country is already torn apart. The gulf between Democrats and Republicans has never been wider. The Republican Party, the home of those who still defend the Bush years, has become a reactionary and increasingly marginal movement that is in fealty to crude demagogues like Rush Limbaugh and whose hysterical denunciations of Obama sound more and more unhinged. What this means is that those Americans who would be truly outraged by an investigation are already outraged. It could not make them any angrier or more bitter than they already are. And even if it did, how much difference would that make? The GOP base already regards Democrats as terrorist-coddling communists. Are they going to all join militias?
https://tinyurl.com/dc3j3l
Do conservatives understand torture?
The American Prospect
by Matthew Yglesias
04/30/09
The current conservative line on the forms of torture used by the Bush administration — from waterboarding to stress positions that produce ‘muscle fatigue’ that manages not to rise to the level of ’severe pain’ — leads to an obvious question. Why don’t we do more of it? According to the right, this kind of physical and psychological torment doesn’t meet the standard for illegal torture. And according to the right, it’s also highly effective at producing information. And a legal, highly effective method of acquiring information from prisoners or captives sounds like a useful thing indeed. It seems to me that people who genuinely believe this stuff — those who, like moral cretin and Weekly Standard blogger Michael Goldfarb want to call torturers ‘American heroes’ and make light of waterboarding by calling it ‘dunking’ — ought to believe in making its use widespread. And yet somehow, I don’t hear the calls...
https://tinyurl.com/cgcs6t
Torture and treason
Common Dreams
by Robert Koehler
04/30/09
The question of the moment is now, no longer: Is torture un-American? It is: Are we, as a nation, bigger than our transgressions? Can we establish a commission or an investigation with a moral force greater than the trust that has been debased? Can we face up to what has been done in our name, establish accountability and find a way to atone and change?
https://www.commondreams.org/view/2009/04/30-6
Informant: Thomas L. Knapp
https://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Bush+legacy
https://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Obama
https://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Rush+Limbaugh
https://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Michael+Goldfarb
https://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=GOP
https://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=torture
https://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=waterboarding
https://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Gary+Kamiya
https://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Matthew+Yglesias
https://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Robert+Koehler
by Gary Kamiya
05/01/09
Those opposed to reopening the book on the Bush years argue that doing so would tear the country apart. They’re right — but they forget that the country is already torn apart. The gulf between Democrats and Republicans has never been wider. The Republican Party, the home of those who still defend the Bush years, has become a reactionary and increasingly marginal movement that is in fealty to crude demagogues like Rush Limbaugh and whose hysterical denunciations of Obama sound more and more unhinged. What this means is that those Americans who would be truly outraged by an investigation are already outraged. It could not make them any angrier or more bitter than they already are. And even if it did, how much difference would that make? The GOP base already regards Democrats as terrorist-coddling communists. Are they going to all join militias?
https://tinyurl.com/dc3j3l
Do conservatives understand torture?
The American Prospect
by Matthew Yglesias
04/30/09
The current conservative line on the forms of torture used by the Bush administration — from waterboarding to stress positions that produce ‘muscle fatigue’ that manages not to rise to the level of ’severe pain’ — leads to an obvious question. Why don’t we do more of it? According to the right, this kind of physical and psychological torment doesn’t meet the standard for illegal torture. And according to the right, it’s also highly effective at producing information. And a legal, highly effective method of acquiring information from prisoners or captives sounds like a useful thing indeed. It seems to me that people who genuinely believe this stuff — those who, like moral cretin and Weekly Standard blogger Michael Goldfarb want to call torturers ‘American heroes’ and make light of waterboarding by calling it ‘dunking’ — ought to believe in making its use widespread. And yet somehow, I don’t hear the calls...
https://tinyurl.com/cgcs6t
Torture and treason
Common Dreams
by Robert Koehler
04/30/09
The question of the moment is now, no longer: Is torture un-American? It is: Are we, as a nation, bigger than our transgressions? Can we establish a commission or an investigation with a moral force greater than the trust that has been debased? Can we face up to what has been done in our name, establish accountability and find a way to atone and change?
https://www.commondreams.org/view/2009/04/30-6
Informant: Thomas L. Knapp
https://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Bush+legacy
https://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Obama
https://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Rush+Limbaugh
https://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Michael+Goldfarb
https://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=GOP
https://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=torture
https://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=waterboarding
https://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Gary+Kamiya
https://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Matthew+Yglesias
https://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Robert+Koehler
rudkla - 1. Mai, 09:38
