running scared

I became (what passes for me) politically active after the Abu Graib revelations. I was angry and disgusted that 1) that it even occured and 2) there was no swift and sure investigation/punishment for the bad apples the higher-ups all insisted were responsible. But that wasn't enough by itself. It was finally the reports of blackballing of the whistleblower in his home town that pushed me over the edge.

Here we had gone from an America I thought I knew to a rabid, war-mongering nation that at least winked at torture if not embraced it. And then bashed those who would object.

My activism remains limited to donations and letters to the editor in my local daily. When I started to publish letters critical of the Bush junta were few. Little by little a veritable firestorm occured in the letters section. The local daily decided they needed to institute a regular column "The Conservative Corner". Sure there were Bush defenders in the letter section but you know, you must balance legitimate reader opinion by paying someone to come up with the so-called conservative position. That's media balance for you, I guess.

Anyway that is all preamble. Like then torture is on my mind again. Thanks to George Bush, the Torturer-in-chief. He wants to make his actions retroactively legal. No doubt his whip-smart political team decided that by forcing the issue into the campaigning weeks of the by-elections he could get everyone Democrat and (of course) Republicans to acquiesce because migod who wants to oppose the great leader as he leads us from this savage wilderness into the islamofascist-free (or whatever the toothspitter phrase for the non-christian menace the wingnut chorus has rustled up this week) world'o'tomorrow.

Little did they expect - being the whip-smart politicos that they are - that actual real life Republicans whose future depends on them being NOT Bush would actually stand up and demand - DEMAND DAMMIT - that only a little ripping up of the Constitutiion would be acceptable.

Of course Mr. MyBike-MyBike Bush cannot accept that. After all as Keith Olbermann said when he went after Pinochet Jr, that George thinks thinking is unacceptable. Of course it is evident that it is unacceptable to him. But I guess as Dizzy Dean said (and George being a baseball man probably subscribes) "He who doesn't think too good shouldn't think too much." Unfortunately George - being George - twisted it from a bromide and turned it into a Presidential Rose Garden decree.

Pinochet Jr even said that it is urgent to pass his torturers-go-free bill now or he wouldn't interrogate any more terrorists anymore (God he really said that - sigh) and who knows he might eat worms.

So what is the point of doing it now? He clearly especially wanted no debate - or even what passes for debate in the rubber-stamp congress that gives Goerge whatever he wants and calls it compromise. (Are you listening Arlen?)

Did the Supreme Court's Hamdi ruling really finally get to him? Could it be that deep down Pinochet Jr and his boys know that there is a government bigger than Pinochet Jr. in all his exquisiteness. And that government may at some time in the near or medium future (you know. before the "I don't know. We'll all be dead" period kicks in) be a little upset over his actions as Torturer-in-chief?

Maybe Pinochet Jr. has found a new avenue to embrace the fear of god with the possibility that he could be held responsible for war crimes and crimes against humanity and you know all those things that bad people like, like, who am I thinking of.... let me see.... Oh yeah - Saddam Hussein - are ultimately put on public trial for. Presumably before they are legally executed under federal capital punishment laws. And that would be unseemly for an ex-president. You have one who builds houses for poor people and another that convenes BIG IDEAS conferences that your wife is invited to speak at and then there you are up on capital charges for crimes against humanity. What would Barb say? Not to mention Poppee.

I mean Nixon had his Ford to pardon him. Who would be Pinochet Jr's Ford? Not Cheney. He will be lucky to be allowed into a Post Office building to buy stamps after this disaster of an administration is finished.

Would a President McCain maybe get a chance at some payback for his South Carolina reaming and the grovelling he had to do to get Pinochet Jr to look at him back in the good times?

And Lieberman has a bright future doing something but whatever it is being President isn't it. I can't think of a person on the national scene that could do it - except maybe for President Hillary... hmmmm maybe that's why Pinochet Jr and the misses have been warming up to Bill after those reports that Poppee and Barb have taken a kinda parental fondness on the Big Pecker.