GRANTING IMMUNITY JUST MAKES US LOOK WORSE
By Schuyler ThorpeAuthor and Political ActivistWe all saw this one coming.
I mean–after all–the US government is
always looking out for its movers and shakers–even if the majority of them are scum and corrupt to the core.
Why should it matter if it’s just some lawless mercs? Nothing’s wrong with that, right?
Condoleezza Rice says that the Blackwater gang is desperately needed to protect US diplomats and other high-target officials in a war zone.
The head of the security company claims that no one died under their tenure.
So why the
secret deal to grant these killers immunity–from killing Iraqi civilians out of spite?
Doesn’t the State Department realize that it’s damning itself by doing so and impeding a federal investigation into the criminal acts by these barbarous individuals who care little for human life–except for the almighty dollar?
And how will granting immunity portray the US’s old desire for truth and justice?
I seem to recall a time when our nation stood for that: Truth, Justice, and the American Way.
With the war on terror, I guess that no longer matters.
Everybody has their price these days. Schuyler Thorpe is an author, a political activist, and a frequent letter writer to The Everett Herald of Snohomish County. He can be reached at: starchildalpha1 at yahoo.com
Labels: blackwater, immunity, Iraqi civilians, justice, money, price, Rice, State Department, truth
World War III Is Going To Be Hilarious
Have to post this!Your president giggled and grinned while
discussing World War III today.
"But this -- we got a leader in Iran who has announced that he wants to destroy Israel. So I've told people that if you're interested in avoiding [grinning] World War III [end grinning], it seems like you [begin giggling] ought to be interested in preventing them from have the knowledge [end giggling] necessary to make a nuclear weapon."
Hahahaha! Yeah! Zinger! That's funny shit. For the record, here's his expression while saying the words "World War Three":
To the rest of the known world, however, World War III a scary thing. It's just below abortion and above rape on the list of the all time unfunniest topics.
Let's break it down.
1. Iran doesn't have a nuclear weapon, and if they ever developed one, they'd be smart enough to know (despite how we caricaturize Ahmadinejad) that using it would invite their own destruction a thousand times over. Thus, there is no Iranian nuclear threat.
2. Yet the administration is drawing up plans to illegally and preemptively attack anyway, based on the lie that Iran is a nuclear threat.
3. Congress, despite the president's 24-percent approval rating, won't stop the White House because of, 1) The Fear, and 2) because Congress has allowed the president and vice president to seize unprecedented power which almost entirely circumvents Article I of the Constitution (among other things).
4. Meanwhile, if we do attack, it appears as if Pooty-Poot might bring Russia in on the Iranian side.
5. And there you go. Knee slapping boners all around. Milk just came out of my nose.
They're marketing Iran with more psychotic voracity than Michelle Malkin attacking an injured baby -- and no one can stop them.
As near as I can tell, there doesn't appear to be a governing body or citizen group who can stop them from carrying this out. Congress won't and, honestly, they can't. Last night's Frontline episode, "Cheney's Law," underscored what we've all been worried about: Congress has been rendered ineffectual against the current power madness of the executive.
For example, has Congress clamped down on the president's rampant use of torture? Sure. (Torture is number five on the unfunny syllabus.) The Republican controlled Congress did this, but the president rendered the law pointless with a signing statement.
Ah yes. Torture. Not to digress too far into this thing, but you know how the president can look us in the eye and say, "we don't torture," as he did in today's press conference? He can say this with impunity because the administration has authored its own definition of torture which is so narrow that anything else -- anything you and I would consider to be torture -- isn't.
If it don't cause organ failure, it ain't torture, Stretchy McStretch-o-rama-funny-pants. In a sense, the president isn't lying when he says "we don't torture." It depends on what your definition of torture is.
This excuse, of course, is the same excuse future enemies will use when they torture... us.
Republican cowards who demand security at the expense of liberty/honor/law have facilitated the Bush executive branch with extraordinary power. Now we're trapped in the shadow of the White House's unprecedented strength, and there doesn't appear to be any conceivable way to stop these people. If Cheney wrangles the military hardware to attack Iran, the air strikes will commence with lightning zealotry. Bet on it. Congress can try to stop him, but they don't have the power any more. According to the Bush administration, Article II is Article II and the Commander in Chief rules.
It's as simple as that. Just try telling him he's wrong on this. You could be the most conservative wingnut ever and you'd lose that debate -- not for a lack of rational arguments either.
Is it any wonder why we occasionally succumb to outrage fatigue: that deflated, windless sense of numbing futility we feel when confronted with the illogical and the absurd? We've only begun to dig into the upper strata of lawlessness this regime has perpetrated over the last seven years. And now, in this desperate dying twilight of their existence -- now that they're gravely unpopular and on their way out the door -- reckless and without anything to lose -- why shouldn't they do all the crazy shit they've talked about? Bomb Tehran? Yeah, that'll be awesome and hilarious. More war means more war powers. If you thought the administration's war powers were crazy huge, just imagine their World War powers. Score!
The president always says that history will vindicate him. 15 months from now, he'll be done. Pretending to be a cowboy down there -- raising melanomas in the harsh Crawford sunshine, laughing at the third hilarious war he started all by himself.
Once he's done, by his twisted reasoning, it's someone else's problem. By "someone else" he naturally means "everyone else."
Just like so many powerful men, he appears to be able to switch off his conscience (if one exists in the first place). It's the same switch that allows him to say "we don't torture," or to smirk and laugh while discussing Iraq casualties and World War III. "Everyone else" won't include him because he'll always be safe. He'll always have Crawford and the twins; his fake accent and his delusional view of history; his nicknames and his eh-eh-eh laugh.
The rest of us -- unless we can find a way to stop this Iran drumbeat -- won't be laughing so much.
Labels: Bush, drumbeat, Iran, laughing, World War III
RUSSIA’S POWER GRAB SHOULDN’T ALARM U.S.
By Schuyler ThorpeAuthor and Political ActivistIt’s official: Vladimir Putin’s power grab seems–by all accounts–a threat to democracy and the freedom of the press.
But before we start harping on what Russia is doing, maybe we should–instead–take a look at what we are doing to our own country:
Bush and Cheney have made it a point to disregard the powers of the Oval Office since taking the reins in 2001.
In doing so, they have usurped the power of the government, Congress, and the people–in a concentrated (and
visible) effort to build themselves an
imperial democracy that pretty much runs parallel to something you see in any of George Lucas’s movies.
The Patriot Act was created to destroy many of the protections afforded by the US Constitution. It allows the government to search and seize personal property with any of us knowing.
It also lets the government consider any one of us a
threat to the US and its fight for democracy and freedom (commonly known as the
war on terror). This in turn let’s the US seize American citizens and charge them as being an “enemy of the state”.
Holding them indefinitely without charge.
Coupled with the illegal spying, media censorship, torture of prisoners (also known in the CIA as “rendition flights”), why is Condoleezza Rice so up at arms over what Putin is doing in his own country?
After all, he pretty much has seen what
we’ve done here in the United States.
Why should he have any worry about what we say and do? After all, one only has to look into the infamous history of the Soviet Union during the Cold War–and you will easily see how the US and Russia are now kindred spirits.
A chip off the ol’ block as it were.
It just took 50 years for the U.S. to finally do what the USSR had done for that long:
Become a mirror image of its former enemy. Schuyler Thorpe is an author, a political activist, and a frequent letter writer to The Everett Herald of Snohomish County. He can be reached at: starchildalpha1 at yahoo.comLabels: Cold War, Constitution, democracy, enemy, George Lucas, illegal detention, illegal spying, imperial presidency, power grab, Russia, Star Wars, unlimited power, US, USSR
