What a World …
Posted: April 16, 2009 Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: Bush Administration and Torture, Obama administration and Torture, Torture 4 CommentsA year seems like such a short time for some many things to go upside down. Here it is. I’m just going to let this go where it may so you can see it. This is KO. ( Yes, I know, I can’t believe I’m posting him but listen to it.) This is KO saying he can’t believe POTUS basically punted on the torture thing. I have that same sick feeling I had when Ford pardoned Nixon and I was just a teenager back then. So, watch it and discuss, while I go grab a lot of booze to grok the idea of moral relativism in the 21st century as compared to the 20th century. Bottoms up my friends!
peej
Carissa
bostonboomer
ecocatwoman
mablue2
peggysue22
quixote
skydancingguestblogger
Mona (aka Wonk the Vote)
Sky Dancing 
dakinikat,
Unfortunately, our intuitions continue to be confirmed. Frankly, an analyst would have to be willfully blind to not intuit the potential for this outcome, given (1) the large segment of zealous [brownshirt-esque] supporters, (2) a campaign enthusiastically-willing to game the democratic process, (3) a candidate and campaign braintrust who are dedicatedly comfortable with lying to a population they do not respect [WORM], and (4) the creation of a cult of personality.
This said, knowing one is in a trap is the first step in getting out.
{Note: They are good at mixing the messages, three card monty-like, to make it diffcult to keep the eyes on the prize.
They also know how to play off substantive acts with symbolic gestures. For example, they work to withhold surveillance data and expand surveillance, while they release the Bush-Cheney interrogation legal opinions, which gives the air of being transparent.
On a different note, have a great weekend.
Yours,
SM
The things is that the Republicans have always considered Constitutional Rights to be marginally annoying. They throw Freedom of speech to the wind when it comes to burning flags or attacking religions. They find the right to privacy ends when they want to stick their noses into folks’ crotches to watch where the go and what the contents of a woman’s vagina contains. They find the idea of innocence before proven guilty to be spending to much money on thugs.
The Dems were supposed to be the ones that protected civil liberties. No more.
I said this on the confluence but I’ll say it here too
Every one that Voted for Obama doesn’t owe us an apology, they owe us a revolution.
They were screaming Impeach BUSH over these same damn things! Why are they accepting the loss of their rights from Obama?
My CV is going on the international market this fall. I don’t want to be around to see any more of this.
dakinikat,
I concur with your assesment of the status of civil liberties within the parties, as things now stand. Pick and choose constitutionality is not constitutionality.
I think your PUMA political project is well-suited for this time and circumstance. The spirit of the constiution is a good filter for discerning which “virtues” are vanities that deserve to stoke the bonfire (e.g. seeking profit must be segregated from its excess, greed: one can profit materially without sacrificing the commonweal: greed is a social pathology of the body politic: it consumes the social foundation of its profitability: greed is not good!)
Internationally-speaking, in my estimation, Norway is optimal.
Best wishes,
SM
OT: Naomi Klein is wiping the sand from her eyes.
http://www.opednews.com/articles/HopeOver-HopeLash-HopeBr-by-Naomi-Klein-090417-831.html