More Thoughts On Torture

h/t LiveU4

I have a bunch of musings on Dubya’s admission that he approved of his "principals’ " torture choreography, but none of them quite merits a full post, and I can’t merge them into a single coherent post, so I’m not even going to try…

The Only Virtue

One of the characteristics of Republicans in general, and the Bush administration in general, is their elevation of loyalty above all other considerations.  It trumps competence, it trumps the rule of law, it trumps morality and basic human decency.  The president just admitted to authorizing torture, and Republicans are all perfectly okay with it.  Just like they were okay with him manipulating intelligence to drag us into an unnecessary and disastrous war.  Just like they were okay with him blowing off the August 6 PDB and Hurricane Katrina.  Just like they were okay with warrantless wiretapping.  Just like they were okay with stacking the Justice Department with unqualified hitmen and purging anyone who wouldn’t play ball.

They didn’t even agonize over any of it, just took all of this blatant criminality and criminal negligence in stride as shining exemplars of executive behavior, getting upset only when Dubya threatened their sacred anti-immigrant cow.  I simply cannot imagine us making excuses for a Democratic torture president.  Evil is evil … unless you’re a Republican.

"We Do Not Torture"

Of course, what that really means is, "We don’t call what we do torture."  Once again, we see the Republican belief that words are more important than reality.  As long as they never actually call it torture, it isn’t torture. If Torquemada had been a Republican, the Inquisition would be remembered for "enhanced interrogations."

The Media Continue To Suck

Bush’s admission of torture authorization continues to be pretty much a non-story in the traditional media.  Ho-hum, no big deal, presidents voluntarily admit to torture every day.  Obama’s comments about rural Americans being "bitter" rated an in-depth exhaustive analysis of their potential impact by WaPo’s professional horse-race wanker blogger Chris Cilizza (Conclusion: It might totally destroy Obama’s campaign, or it might have no effect at all.  It depends.), but I don’t see a single word about how the torture revelations might affect McCain or any other Republican candidates who opposed the anti-torture bill.  I counted six posts about "Bitter-Gate," though.

Incompetent, lazy, intimidated, or complicit?  You be the judge.  The same could be asked of our Congressional Democrats, who are still content to leave impeachment off the table…

What Will Hillobama Do?

Will Bunch asked Obama if he would pursue criminal prosecution against BushCo. if he became president, and he offered up this rather underwhelming response:

What I would want to do is to have my Justice Department and my Attorney General immediately review the information that’s already there and to find out are there inquiries that need to be pursued.

That sounds pretty noncommittal to me, though still a damn sight better than saying prosecution is "off the table."

I don’t think Hillary has weighed in yet, but Clinton loyalist Wes Clark did predict that she would pursue investigations even after Bush was out of office.  So I’d say they’re both definite maybes at this point.

Take Action!

So, what to do?  Pastordan suggests going to aspiring religious right leader Mike Huckabee’s Huck PAC blog and asking him these two questions:

1. Will you affirm the Christian faith and the American principles of Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness by signing the Evangelical Declaration Against Torture?

1. Will you require the candidates supported by your campaign to take a stand against torture?

Meanwhile, Crooks & Liars is asking everyone to chip in with messages to Congress demanding a special prosecutor, and messages to ABC demanding that Charlie Gibson ask the Democratic candidates about torture in tomorrow night’s debate.

Let’s go be squeaky wheels.

(h/t Christy and TeddySF)

Related posts:

1. Ending Torture: Wrong Agency, Mr. President
2. Holder Names Durham Special Prosecutor for Torture
3. With His Children Still Missing, KSM’s Torture Continues
4. The CIA Asked to Destroy Torture Tapes on Same Day They Claimed They Didn’t Torture
5. Rock and Rap Stars Join FOIA Request to Reveal How Music was Used in Torture at Guantanamo, Other US Facilities