An Endless Limbo Of Injustice

Is torture more important to the United States than justice? The ultimate legacy of the Bush administration has been the redefinition of what it means to be an American. We don’t do justice anymore, we do torture instead. What have we gained from this? Safety? I don’t think so. We have lost our humanity, and gained nothing.

From The Red Cross Torture Report: What it Means by Mark Danner:

That is the central, unanswered question: What was gained? We know already a good deal about what was lost. On this subject President Obama in his 60 Minutes response was typically eloquent:

I mean, the fact of the matter is after all these years how many convictions actually came out of Guantánamo? How many terrorists have actually been brought to justice under the philosophy that is being promoted by Vice President Cheney? It hasn’t made us safer. What it has been is a great advertisement for anti-American sentiment. Which means that there is constant effective recruitment of Arab fighters and Muslim fighters against US interests all around the world…. The whole premise of Guantánamo promoted by Vice President Cheney was that somehow the American system of justice was not up to the task of dealing with these terrorists…. Are we going to just keep on going until the entire Muslim world and Arab world despises us? Do we think that’s really going to make us safer?

This is as clear and concise a summary of the damage wrought by torture as one is likely to get. Torture has undermined the United States’ reputation for respecting and following the law and thus has crippled its political influence. By torturing, the United States has wounded itself and helped its enemies in what is in the end an inherently political war—a war, that is, in which the critical target to be conquered is the allegiances and attitudes of young Muslims. And by torturing prisoners, many of whom were implicated in committing great crimes against Americans, the United States has made it impossible to render justice on those criminals, instead sentencing them—and the country itself—to an endless limbo of injustice. That limbo stands as a kind of worldwide advertisement for the costs of the US reversion to torture, whose power President Obama has tried to reduce by announcing that he will close Guantánamo.

The Bush Administration Still Exists

The Bush Administration is still capable of doing damage to the average citizen of the United States. They are still out there. They are still capable of influencing government policy. Many have simply morphed into lobbyists.

From Watchdog: Bush ex-officials used leverage in private sector by Greg Gordon:

All told, 17 of 24 former Bush Cabinet members have taken positions with at least 119 companies, including 65 firms that lobby the government and 40 that lobby the agencies they headed, a liberal-leaning watchdog group said in a report Monday.

Melanie Sloan, the executive director of the Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, said that the group's six-month investigation "has shown that most of these former Bush administration officials have cannily leveraged their time spent in the public sector'' and "made a mint on the backs of American taxpayers."

"It may be legal, but it is certainly not honorable," she said.

This should be against the law. Lobbyists have destroyed democracy in the United States. Bribery has replaced democracy.

Looking All Around

When I look forward I see hope. I don’t see as much as I would like to, however. I would have more hope if we didn’t have a president-elect who seems intent on wanting us to blindly go forward. If all you do is look forward, then you end up having tunnel vision. Obama wants us to put the blinders on and not look back. Never mind looking from side to side. The Bush administration needs to be held accountable!

From Forgive and Forget? by Paul Krugman:

Now, it’s true that a serious investigation of Bush-era abuses would make Washington an uncomfortable place, both for those who abused power and those who acted as their enablers or apologists. And these people have a lot of friends. But the price of protecting their comfort would be high: If we whitewash the abuses of the past eight years, we’ll guarantee that they will happen again.

Meanwhile, about Mr. Obama: while it’s probably in his short-term political interests to forgive and forget, next week he’s going to swear to “preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States.” That’s not a conditional oath to be honored only when it’s convenient.

And to protect and defend the Constitution, a president must do more than obey the Constitution himself; he must hold those who violate the Constitution accountable. So Mr. Obama should reconsider his apparent decision to let the previous administration get away with crime. Consequences aside, that’s not a decision he has the right to make.

I am already growing tired of Obama’s evasive and indecisive statements that don’t really say anything at all.

The Good Old Days

From The Bush Years -- Then and Now by Mark Murray:

With President Bush set to leave the White House less than two weeks from now, here's a "Then and Now" to show what the United States looked like when Bush was entering office and what it looks like now as he's leaving. The "Then" is the best-available figure as Bush was taking office in 2001. The "Now" is the most recent figure.

UNEMPLOYMENT RATE
Then: 4.2% (Bureau of Labor Statistics, January 2001)
Now: 6.7% (Bureau of Labor Statistics, November 2008)

DOW JONES INDUSTRIAL AVERAGE
Then: 10,587 (close of Friday, Jan. 19, 2001)
Now: 9,015 (close of Tuesday, Jan. 6, 2009)

BUSH FAVORABILITY RATING
Then: 50% (1/01 NBC/WSJ poll)
Now: 31% (12/08 NBC/WSJ poll)

CHENEY FAVORABILITY RATING
Then: 49% (1/01 NBC/WSJ poll)
Now: 21% (12/08 NBC/WSJ poll)

CONGRESS APPROVAL RATING
Then: 48% (1/01 NBC/WSJ poll)
Now: 21% (12/08 NBC/WSJ poll)

SATISFIED WITH THE NATION'S DIRECTION
Then: 45% (1/01 NBC/WSJ poll)
Now: 26% (12/08 NBC/WSJ poll)

CONSUMER CONFIDENCE (1985=100)
Then: 115.7 (Conference Board, January 2001)
Now: 38.0, which is an all-time low (Conference Board, December 2008)

FAMILIES LIVING IN POVERTY
Then: 6.4 million (Census numbers for 2000)
Now: 7.6 million (Census numbers for 2007 -- most recent numbers available)

AMERICANS WITHOUT HEALTH INSURANCE
Then: 39.8 million (Census numbers for 2000)
Now: 45.7 million (Census numbers for 2007 -- most recent available)

U.S. BUDGET
Then: +236.2 billion (2000, Congressional Budget Office)
Now: -$1.2 trillion (projected figure for 2009, Congressional Budget Office)

I Won't Howl When Bush Leaves Office

I’ve been howling for exactly one year online about the atrocity that is George W. Bush. Offline, I’ve been howling about him even before he was president. (Thank you, Molly Ivins.) And yes, many others have been howling about Bush for quite some time now.

From Add Up the Damage by Bob Herbert:

When Mr. Bush officially takes his leave in three weeks (in reality, he checked out long ago), most Americans will be content to sigh good riddance. I disagree. I don’t think he should be allowed to slip quietly out of town. There should be a great hue and cry — a loud, collective angry howl, demonstrations with signs and bullhorns and fiery speeches — over the damage he’s done to this country.

What Mr. Herbert proposes strikes me as too little, too late.

In the rest of his column Mr. Herbert does a very good job of summing up what many of us already know. The Bush administration really, really sucked.

Let’s start with the first comment I read in response to this segment of Herbert’s column:

The Bush administration specialized in deceit. How else could you get the public (and a feckless Congress) to go along with an invasion of Iraq as an absolutely essential response to the Sept. 11 attacks, when Iraq had had nothing to do with the Sept. 11 attacks?

Here is the comment (by M. Fox):

Well, perhaps that question should be asked of Judith Miller and the rest of the staff at the Times. Perhaps, that question should be answered by all members of the mainstream media. You were all complicit in the deceit. Yes, the Bush administration played on the fears and false patriotism of the citizens but where was the press? The press/mainstream media was cowering in a corner...afraid to appear as if they were not supporting the troops. The Times was afraid of The Post and television and cable news was afraid of Fox news. No one wanted to lose readers/viewers by questioning any of the rash statements made by the Bush administration. You went along with it. The press made a choice. You chose cash over courage. You abdicated your responsibility as members of the fourth estate. Where is this mentioned in your article? You assign justifiable blame to Bush and to the people but where in your article do you accept blame for your actions and your lack of actions?

This is the problem with the press. You keep score of your own game and by your reckoning you are never to blame...

Yes, the Bush administration really, really sucked. Many say that he is the worst president we have ever had. The problem is that the terribleness of the Bush (Bush the Terrible, I like that) administration did not happen in a vacuum. Along with the Bush administration, the press (as M. Fox pointed out) and the media really, really sucked. The Congress (the worst in our history, 2nd only to the Congress that impeached Bill Clinton) really, really sucked. The American people (voting for Bush for a second term) really, really sucked.

Why do something as trivial as howl when Bush leaves? Bush should have been impeached years ago, and he wasn’t. I’m still howling about that.

Why do something as trivial as howl when Bush leaves? Bush should be tried for war crimes. I’m still howling about that, also.

Why do something as trivial as howl when Bush leaves? We should be holding all those who enabled him accountable. I’m still howling about that, as well.

Why do something as trivial as howl when Bush leaves? We should be examining why we have a military that is so willing and able to attack and invade other countries. I’m still howling about that, too.

For some reason, I can't seem to get the image of Allen Ginsberg out of my head right now.

Update:
Perhaps Mr. Herbert should howl at himself before he howls at others, because the complicitness in deceit of the New York Times is still going on.