Ending Torture And Putting Mukasey Out Of His Misery

It's one thing to vote against a torture enabler only to see that torture enabler confirmed anyway, but it's another thing to actually kill the nomination.

Who among the Senate Democrats is willing to end Michael Mukasey's nomination and confirmation process right here and now? Outright block it -- filibuster it -- stop it in committee or on the floor when (and if) it comes up for a full senate vote.

Some of the Democrats, including most recently Senator Clinton, have declared their intention to vote against Mukasey for attorney general. That's awesome, but so what. Many of the very same Democrats we're hearing from this week also voted against Alberto Gonzales. But Gonzales was confirmed despite widespread protest. And the president won the day... anyway. But at least they voted against Gonzales. That shut the president right the fuck up, didn't it?

And now, almost three years after voting to confirm the Gonzales Disaster for attorney general, we're staring down the barrel -- or in this case, the water jug -- of another attorney general who obfuscates the truth about torture, and who, once confirmed, will continue to subversively retain America's franchise of torture hostels.

For too many years now, we've watched the president in plain sight, and despite his reputation in certain media circles for "knowing where he stands," dance around both the English language and the rule of law in order to justify torture.

We've watched his administration erode any remaining dignity and honor our nation possessed.

We've watched this regime affirm many of our conspiratorial suspicions about the demons lurking in America's citadels.

We've watched them transform a decade of peace followed by a brief era of world unity into a dark age of fear, distrust, paranoia, hatred and corruption.

We've become Colonel Flagg from M*A*S*H.

It's no shocker that the president would nominate an attorney general who's perpetuating this humiliatingly shameful chain of events.

In his October 24 letter to Senator Leahy in which he was supposed to clarify his posture on torture, Mukasey employed the administration's sneaky language and referenced the McCain Amendment as a means to acknowledge that we don't torture:

"Congress further extended the prohibition with the McCain Amendment (enacted as part of the Detainee Treatment Act in 2005), which statutorily bars cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment and reaffirms our treaty commitment."

And in his October 30 letter to the Judiciary Committee, Mukasey makes this case again:

"...'waterboarding' cannot be used by the United States military because its use by the military would be a clear violation of the Detainee Treatment Act."

That's just super. It's a shame that it's such horseshit. First, note the repeated usage of the word "military" but no mention of the CIA or miscellaneous. Second, Mukasey failed to mention that President Bush rendered the Detainee Treatment Act and its McCain Amendment provisions quaint and obsolete with the following signing statement:

"The executive branch shall construe Title X in Division A of the Act, relating to detainees, in a manner consistent with the constitutional authority of the President to supervise the unitary executive branch and as Commander in Chief and consistent with the constitutional limitations on the judicial power, which will assist in achieving the shared objective of the Congress and the President, evidenced in Title X, of protecting the American people from further terrorist attacks."

In other words, if the president thinks it's in our best interest (like No Child Left Behind and Supreme Court Nominee Harriet Miers), he can use his Commander In Chief powers to do whatever the hell he wants as often as he wants. Screw the Detainee Treatment Act and the McCain Amendment -- McCain isn't the decider. The president gets to decide when and how often we torture the evildoers. By the same logic, it goes without saying that the president's signing statement would likely be duplicated for Senator Biden's new anti-torture legislation as well.

These references to the Detainee Treatment Act in Mukasey's letters are an insult to the intelligence of anyone who respects the rule of law -- or hell, anyone who respects reality.

On the insulting tip, Senator Leahy, according to TPM on Tuesday, is feeling the sting of yet another administration torture flimflam. This time, the administration released four "undisclosed documents" to the Judiciary Committee. Turns out, three of those four documents were already made public.

This is your Bush administration. And Mukasey has to be turned away.

It shouldn't be this difficult. Waterboarding is torture. Holy shit. How disgraceful is it that Americans have been forced to define waterboarding and various other torture techniques in the first place? Yet thanks to the Bush administration here we are anyway, and the Mukasey hearings haven't even really enumerated the syllabus of other enhanced interrogation techniques presently listed on the American torture menu.

Why is Mukasey and the White House being deliberately deceptive? Naturally because we're torturing detainees. Right damn now.

And if that makes you feel safer, then you're an idiot.

You're an idiot for fearing Filet-O-Fascism in the first place, since, despite what Rick Santorum and Mike Huckabee say, the Filet-O-Fascists are absolutely not the biggest threat America has ever faced. Not by a long, long, long shot. Giuliani, Huckabee and the other fear-merchants are, in effect, inflating the egos of al-Qaeda by elevating their strength and capabilities to a level more dangerous than Nazi Germany or the Cold War Soviets. Talk about emboldening the enemy.

So the Democratic Majority has a choice to make here. They can allow another Bush administration torture enabler to pass on through an ineffectual gauntlet of protest, but pass on through nonetheless. Or the Democrats can use their majority status to render the Bush administration's torture policy quaint and obsolete.

_____
UPDATE: Here's a classic video from FOX & Friends, circa one year ago. Since waterboarding is just "splashing water on them," I wonder if Steve Doocy would be open to showing us how it's done.

And I think Republican candidates should take Kilmeade's advice. Run on a pro-torture, pro-waterboarding platform. See how that works out next November.

Comments

[ReHoover51]

I think water boarding is great! i love the feel of the water hitting my face as the waves careen over me and my board - i am flying high!!
This is a special treat for me each day!!!
How is this torture and what is the big deal!
I guess most of you arent pisceans!
Try this sport before you knock it!

[ReHoover51]

thanks for this article ...

[rboylern]

It's time to face the fact that George W. Bush doesn't give a shit about anything except himself and what he wants. He wanted to be a war president and he got his wish by violating the borders of a sovereign nation. If he can get away with this - and Congress let him - then he can do just about anything he wants, according to him. And Congress stands by and just lets him get away with all this crap.

[Katbee]

I wonder if Bin Laden knew he needed to do nothing else after 9/11 to cause such change in this country? Our freedoms, Constitution, the things we've cherished and prided in ourselves as a country. No, he needs do nothing else, we've changed.

[Kirby]

So totally right you are, but I think that this deterioration began before 9/11. I saw the writing on the wall within, at the most, two weeks after the decider' inauguration what he had already decided to do.
Of course, I must say that as a loyal life-long Republican, I have been very dismayed, disappointed, and disgruntled. I now believe that George W. Bush is the worst president we've ever had.
Would to God, that he could be impeached along with the other disaster of a human being.

[PepperzMom]

Link to a site with a report about a 1947 WAR CRIMES trial against a Japanese enemy who waterboarded "us". Get that, folks - a WAR CRIME!

http://www.pensitoreview.com/2007/10/29/mukasey-wont-say-waterboarding-is-torture/

[Parish]

We the Americans have such a short and near-sighted memory. We should know that the whole world still remember and compare how Saddam, the dictator, treated our POW according to Geneva Convention. the whole world is wondering now how in the hell America became a nation that support torture. We have our citizens all over the world, so how would we feel if an American was taken from any place in the world and tortures because he was thought to be a spy, just a thought. Moreover, we qualify Iran republican guard as a terrorist organization, well how if the whole world qualify the CIA as a terrorist organization. We all know that the CIA is implicated in so many plots all over the world, from Africa to south America, and passig by Asia. The right wing in our country has made every American a hated creature, we better shut down the door of our country and wait for our decline. We should know that no country stays on the top of the world forever. History is so obvious but we prefer to ignore it out of stupidity or out of conspiracy. Wise up America.

[Tom Gerosolina]

Torture is wrong and we as Americans are above the use of Torture for any reason. If we condone Torture as a policy we loose the moral high ground which is more important than what may be gained by it. The administration said they stop a lot of terrorist with the use of torture, and then tell me how many convictions did we get? Torture is a slippery slope which we cost us dearly. With Michael Mukasey as our chief law enforcement office we can slip right into a dictatorship

[SamSeven]

I think that the US is continuing down it's slippery slop. Once you get comfortable for what's 'normal' torture then it's ok. But in reality, Torture is wrong. Any country that is favours torture deserves what it gets. Canada is no different in aiding and abetting the Afganis police force in taking prisoners off to be tortured.
Oh the mighty have fallen!

[tomsthumb]

This country is in far too fragile a condition to impeach the president. We were much stronger and had much more conviction with Bill Clinton; he lied to congress. How can we ever forgive souch an outlandish offense? But we are in a different state now, right?

[richfair]

Tomsthumb, you need to get 4 fingers so you can add the lies Bush has made to the Congress.... Will you people ever give up on slamming Bill for lieing about adultery?
Since when has adultery been a political offense? Oh, sorry, I know, since we could find something that Bill Clinton did wrong as a President.

[zasu]

I do not understand the connection between George Bush and Bill Clinton. Clinton lied about something just about everyone in the world lies about at some time or other. That is not necessarily a good thing, but these questions should never have been asked of him to begin with. It was a personal matter between him and his wife. It was not the country's business.

George Bush II has lied us into a war. He has, with his signing statement, made his right to torture people legal, even though he signed legislation saying it isn't, and those are just two examples. It is offensive to the entire country to compare George Bush's lies with Bill Clinton's marital problems.

[Larry Buchite]

Yes whay you said it saves me typing.

[DoctorDoctor]

last i heard, dubya "exonerated" mukasey for his alleged ignorance of the specifics of waterboarding by noting that the "specifics" of waterboarding were "classified" and since mukasey hadn't been approved yet, he couldn't have access to that information. can't you just hear him giggling at how (fookin) CLEVER he is? score another for bubba. got another one over on them educated elite guys in congress.

maybe a note from mukasey's ever-so-clever pal would clear it up for him and he could answer the question. on the other hand, if dubya doesn't trust him to know the specifics of a practice the rest of the world knows all about, why should we?

reject him and anyone else who refuses to answer the legitimate questions of congress when the correct answer isn't the one sought by "the decider". hell, there are so many vacancies in dub's staff and the basic beaurocracy that keeps the trash getting picked up that we'll be lucky to have anyone on the job in 15 months. might as well include attorney general in that group.

as for being embarassed, about all that embarasses me at this point is how weak the democratic participants in this allegorical farce seem to be. jees. they're hopeless. no, that's not the worst. the worst is when you hold a press conference but forget to include the press. that's worse.

[Want4Change]

I think the reason that Mukasey will not say it is not torture is that the Bush Administration has tortured people and an admission that waterboardig is torture would open up the administration to possible legal action. In my opinion the administration should be tried as war criminals.

On another note all the controversy about this nomine has not focused on his stance about executive powers. He seems to belive that the president is above the law. Letting this guy be the AG would just be more of the same.

[bowserbois]

correct me if I'm wrong, but I do believe it was a democrat that suggested Mr. Mukasey for the position.

[nomorebombs]

kucinich would stop all this insanity....

[blankmw]

Thanks for this post. It's really creepy. It actually makes me sick that they giggle and laugh like high school kids when speaking about torture. I'd love to see the technique tried out on them.

[makesenseofit]

Try waterboarding on some Congressman who
are not convinced it is torture and see what
kind of results are received

[HippieChick]

I completely agree. If Mukasey is uncertain about whether waterboarding is torture, I believe that problem can be solved with a demonstration that invites Mukasey to personally experience the technique so he can make a more informed decision. No more debate required...problem solved.

[Changeizgood]

Yeah, a little Enhanced Interrogation must put some truth in them too.

[Oldekirk]

This whole article is so much horse droppings as long as the democrates do not have the guts to stand up against this farce of a goverment and say "enough is enough, we want our dignity back" and impeach this, the worst President the USA ever had. George W. Bush not only needs to be impeached but put on trial for torture and mass murder.
I live in Austria and I am amshamed to tell anyone that I am American.

[Redrose]

I am with you on being ashamed, we have lost our reputation and our moral compass in the eyes of the free world! Nancy Pelosi took
Impeachment off the table, the democrats are
either just plain cowards or are being blackmailed! Maybe they are afraid of meeting
an end like Senator Wellstone and others!
I have lost my enthusiasm to vote, I am saddened by the loss of the America I once knew. I blame those that voted for Bush in
2000 and then again voted for him in 2004,
I blame them for having blinders on, being
loyal to a Party and not voting for a President
of our Country. I didn't have blinders on then
switched Party's, I am big enough to admit
that the Democrats have been bought and paid
for and won't be voting for any of them!
Maybe Ron Paul is the answer, and if everyone
stops worrying about going for who they "think"
will win because the media tells them it is so,
and vote for who they the voter "THINKS" should
be President...maybe we have a chance!
Stop voting for a Party...vote for who believes
in the law of the land and the Constitution!!
Nancy Pelosi said she would "clean house" she
didn't, but we can!!

[jont191]

Do you think the scaredy cats have enough balls to turn down bushco's nominee?? Fat chance in hell. the scaredy cats are a friggin disgrace.