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Not "torture techniques." Just "techniques." It had kind of a nice sound--like a lover's "technique" for giving pleasure to a partner, or artistic "techniques" for creating particularly vivid color in a painting of the sunset.
Techniques. Even the good guys did it. This cleansing.
So now, we don't have a choice, like we used to, between a political party that favors business interests and strict adherence to Constitutional principles, and opposes government spending, deficits and "foreign entanglements" (the old Republican Party), and a political party that favors the workers and the poor, improving the Constitution to expand democracy ("one person/one vote"), and to reflect modern social values (the Equal Rights Amendment), and that believes in collecting taxes and spending that money to compensate for the irresponsibility of big business, and for the common good (the old Democratic Party--led by FDR, who said, "Organized money hates me--and I welcome their hatred!")
Those political parties are gone. Now we have a choice between merely decent, competent government, and...torture, slaughtering a million innocent people to get their oil, shredding of the Constitution, massive thievery by the rich, use of the Dept. of Justice for political prosecutions, spying, out-of-control presidential power, tyranny.
And some leaders of "our" political party--the only one left that represents anything close to the interests of the American people and the principles of our Founders--are not even sure about torture, and slaughtering millions to get their oil, et al. They kind of like the idea of the president being able to torture people, and imprison them for 3 to 5 years (or forever) without charge, without being able to know who their accusers are, without trial. They help the fascist tyrants to whitewash torture by calling it "techniques." They have put impeachment "off the table," cuz they really don't think that torture, treason, heinously unjust war, and the shredding of the Constitution, are crimes--or, if they do, they don't have the guts to do what's right, under the Constitution.
We get a choice between outrageous tyranny, and forgetting. We get a choice between war criminals running our government, and Democrats running it, who think that we should accommodate ourselves to fascist tyrants with "win/win" corporate P.R. We can all "win"--the torturers, the thieves, the liars, the spyers, the blackmailers, the murderers can now become the "opposition" and we can "compromise" with them, and "reach across the aisle" to the blood-drenched killers of our democracy.
I give Nancy Pelosi and Barack Obama and similar Democratic politicians points for fear--for being understandably afraid of this fascist junta and its extremely dangerous leaders. And, frankly, I don't think we can really know what's going on with our government, so much is occurring behind the scenes, shrouded in secrecy. Quite possibly the things that make us so angry--"impeachment is off the table," etc.--are not what they seem. They could be part of a "deal" to get these criminals to relinquish power peacefully, when the time comes. These are NOT normal times. And even given the evidence of Democratic Party leadership COMPLICITY on war and utter lawlessness (and their worst betrayal, in my opinion--electronic voting systems run on 'TRADE SECRET,' PROPRIETARY programming code, owned and controlled by RIGHTWING BUSHITE corporations), I don't think it's easy to judge them, in the current situation. Pelosi may end up being regarded as a hero, some day--for her part in ousting this junta (and having to endure the outrage of the citizenry, in order to do it). And Obama may end up being regarded as the smartest politician ever to run for president, by outwitting the tyrannical forces in our own party, as well as the vicious, fascist corporate 'news' monopolies, and the Bushite election theft corporations, and creating such a landslide that there is nothing they can do to prevent him from becoming president.
But, in the meantime, this respectability that is given to torture--as a "technique," and as a subject for reasonable discussion among reasonable people, and as a "choice" of this society, rather than cause for the rending of garments and the wearing of "sackcloth and ashes," and for puking one's guts out on the floor in disgust, and rather than a bill of impeachment for "high crimes and misdemeanors"--is excruciatingly painful to any of us who remember the Old Republic, when all of us were agreed on the rule of law.
Torture is not a "technique" and it is not a "choice" in this society. It is a heinous CRIME--and yet it is being talked about as if it were the Republican Party platform. Torture and shredding of the Constitution are now Republican Party POLICY. Somehow we've gone from Nixonite burglaries--which our Congress felt obliged to condemn, and to draw up an impeachment bill to punish--and Reaganite illegal war on Nicaragua--concerning which our Congress at least felt obliged to punish some people--to this...to horrendous criminal conduct by the Executive that cannot be impeached. The Constitution has been put "off the table"--and with it goes any accountability for any presidential crime, including the worst of them.
IF this was the price that was paid for no nuking of Iran, and/or for getting rid of Donald Rumsfeld, and/or for Bush/Cheney going peacefully, it may be understandable, but it is NOT acceptable, and it MUST be fully examined and vetted by the American people, and our Constitution MUST be restored, along with vote counting that everyone can see and understand.
This spectacle of egregious "high crimes and misdemeanors" being exposed and not prosecuted must be explained.
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