"We'll torture to keep you safe. Vote Palin/Bachmann 2012"

[krispos42]

Immunity corrupts, and absolute immunity corrupts absolutely.


If there is no punishment for torture, then torture will continue. It becomes a partisan issue. Democrats are anti-torture, ergo Republicans will be pro-torture. And with no punishment for those that torture, there is no reason that pro-torture material can't be in the Republican party's platform in future years. No reason that bumper stickers and political ads can't be like the subject line.

Obama is apparantly figuring that public shame will be punishment enough. However, those that ordered and maintained the torture for the better part of a decade are beyond shame. The torture was not done in a moment of panic or crisis (the "ticking time bomb scenario", for example). No, this was done with full knowledge of what was entailed, and zero emphathy.



Tom Tomorrow states this well. Observe, if you please, the first panel of this cartoon from January 27, 2009.







This will never, ever happen to the people that need to be prosecuted. Obama and Holder apparantly don't, or won't, acknowledge this fact because, sadly, it looks like the panels 2 through 4 of this cartoon will also never, ever happen.



AG Holder needs to go to President Obama, look him in the eye, and say:

"Mister President, I've seen the torture memos, the reports, the videos, the pictures. I know with every fiber in my being that crimes against humanity were committed. I know, I can feel, the injustice of these events on my soul. And I can also sense the satanic glee which those that committed and ordered these acts feel. I can feel their ruthlessness, their arrogence, their utter contempt for the laws of man and civilization.

"Mister President, if you will side with these people, if you will choose the easy path instead of the right one, then I'm afraid I cannot be your attorney general, for being such entails breaking my oath of office and betraying the trust of the American people.

"Mister President, if you will not chose the right path, then it is at this fork in the road that I leave you."



:rant:

[southerncrone]

1. Thanks a lot, Krispos42! Now I won't be able to sleep thinking about the

possibility of those two anywhere close to having ultimate power!!

It's all too scary!:hide:

[krispos42]

2. I have stock in the Depends undergarment company

Gotta watch my investment, yanno...

[BlooInBloo]

3. "Obama is apparantly figuring that public shame will be punishment enough."...

Bullshit.

[krispos42]

4. I don't really believe we'll ever see anybody do a perp walk.

Not Rove, not Gonzo, not Ashcroft, not Bush, not Cheney.

[BlooInBloo]

5. That could be true - but that's very different from the statement of yours I quoted.

[krispos42]

6. Without jail time, there is no punishment.

I doubt very much that Cheney is losing an iota of sleep over the idea of waterboarding somebody six times a day for a month.

[stillcool]

7. Am I the only one who sees..

the release of the Senate Armed Services Committee Report on Torture a big deal? Am I the only one who sees Cheney trying to get out in front of the shit-storm telling? Am I the only one who sees the article coming out of Germany about the Europeans prosecuting if the Americans don't telling? Am I the only one who sees Carl Levin dumping this in Holder's lap telling?

[krispos42]

8. I hope you're right

But the Europeans won't slip in a special-ops team and rendition Cheney across the Atlantic, and I doubt Obama will just order Cheney's Secret Service bodyguards to slap on the cuffs and frogmarch him down to the nearest US Marshal's office.


No impeachment, despite high hopes, obvious criminal acts, and the clamoring of millions. And impeachment was punishable by removal from office!

These kinds of criminal acts have serious jailtime or even a hangmen's noose for punishment. If the American political process couldn't return these guys to private life, it's not going to send them to Europe for trial and punishment.



I see movies like "Clear and Present Danger" and those give me futile hope, because you know that the ending of that movie is nothing like real life. :-(

[stillcool]

9. I don't think we've been here before...

at least I haven't witnessed anything like this. I'm not sure if it can be as controlled as our other criminal fiasco's. Maybe it's too big to fail.

[krispos42]

10. The bigger it is, the more high-powered people it involves

Too many may have gone along intially and be unwilling to face the consequences themselves, even if they nail Cheney et. al. to the wall.


We're constantly told that the American people can't take another scandal... and this mindset is cynically used to cover up misdeeds.


It's like a man raping his sister-in-law, then keeping her silent by telling her "Don't tell; she'll divorce me or have the police arrest me. Think of the pain you'll cause your sister and your nieces and nephews."


Damn it, we live SURROUNDED in artificial high drama. Sports, soaps, a bevy of crime dramss, daytime talk shows... but we can't handle seeing Gonzo in an orange jumpsuit?


Fuck........ :-(