Category Archives: Bush

Torturing The 'Torture' Issue

Bush, Crime, Democrats, Iraq, War, WMD

Ever wonder why the Democrats and their media lapdogs never shut-up about the issue of torture, when Bush’s decision to wage an unjust, illegal war ought to be the focus of their Ire? The matter of torture is, after all, subsumed within the broader category of an unjust war. Moreover, one can make the case for torture in desperate, dire situations. (I’m not making the case, I’m saying that one can attempt to justify incidents of torture: you were not thinking clearly, you were desperate to avert another disaster, you wanted to save hostages; you worried you’d be blamed if you didn’t extract crucial information.) But how on earth do you justify lugging an army across the ocean to occupy a third-world country that is no danger to you and has not threatened you? You don’t, you can’t.

Democrats are nearly as culpable as Republicans on the matter of the war on Iraq. So they stick with their limited, safe mandate of torture. MSNBC’s Maddow and Olbermann, and their constitutional scholar, are thus careful to skirt the need to prosecute Bush and his bandits for invading Iraq. Instead, they stick to waterboarding.

CNN confirms that “Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy has called for a commission on torture allegations”:

The Senate Judiciary Committee chairman called Wednesday for the establishment of a nonpartisan “commission of inquiry” to investigate allegations of wrongdoing against former Bush administration officials in their prosecution of the war on terrorism.

Nothing “did more to damage America’s place in the world than the revelation that our great nation stretched the law and the bounds of executive power to authorize torture and cruel treatment,” Sen. Patrick Leahy said at the start of a committee hearing.

American “detention policies and practices from Guantanamo Bay [Cuba] and Abu Ghraib [Iraq] have seriously eroded fundamental American principles of the rule of law,” he added.

Leahy, D-Vermont, called for the “truth commission” to have a “targeted mandate” focusing on issues of national security and executive power. He said it should look specifically at allegations of “questionable interrogation techniques,” “extraordinary rendition” and the “executive override of laws.”

He added that the commission should have the power to issue subpoenas and offer immunity to witnesses “in order to get to the whole truth.”

Leahy refused to rule out of the possibility of prosecutions for perjury committed during the commission’s hearings.

U.S. To The World: ‘Don’t Worry Be Happy’

Addiction, Barack Obama, Bush, Economy, Europe, Federal Reserve Bank, Inflation

“World worries how US will pay for stimulus,” blared a headline in The International Herald Tribune.

But, like the lyrics to that 1988 drone, the US’s message to the world is: “Don’t Worry Be Happy.”

Obama’s cool with spending more than even “W” the wastrel managed to spend. What does it say about galloping central planning in the US, when even statist France, where 2.5 million protesters took to the streets, is refusing to go beyond its Keynesian comfort zone:

“Prime Minister François Fillon on Monday rejected demands that the French government seek to stimulate consumer spending … to lift France out of its economic slump”:

‘It would be irresponsible to chose [sic] another policy, which would increase our country’s indebtedness …,’ Fillon said in a speech in Lyon.”

To cure the addict, the world must stop enabling the American government: dethrone the dollar as the world’s reserve currency—a status that comes with a license to print money promiscuously. Successive American governments have abused this status and debased their country’s coin.

The American people refused to stop the madmen in change (they could have, by electing Ron Paul, the only sane representative running). Maybe the world must stop enabling the madmen and the addicted American electorate.

U.S. To The World: 'Don’t Worry Be Happy'

Addiction, Barack Obama, Bush, Europe, Federal Reserve Bank, Inflation

“World worries how US will pay for stimulus,” blared a headline in The International Herald Tribune.

But, like the lyrics to that 1988 drone, the US’s message to the world is: “Don’t Worry Be Happy.”

Obama’s cool with spending more than even “W” the wastrel managed to spend. What does it say about galloping central planning in the US, when even statist France, where 2.5 million protesters took to the streets, is refusing to go beyond its Keynesian comfort zone:

“Prime Minister François Fillon on Monday rejected demands that the French government seek to stimulate consumer spending … to lift France out of its economic slump”:

‘It would be irresponsible to chose [sic] another policy, which would increase our country’s indebtedness …,’ Fillon said in a speech in Lyon.”

To cure the addict, the world must stop enabling the American government: dethrone the dollar as the world’s reserve currency—a status that comes with a license to print money promiscuously. Successive American governments have abused this status and debased their country’s coin.

The American people refused to stop the madmen in change (they could have, by electing Ron Paul, the only sane representative running). Maybe the world must stop enabling the madmen and the addicted American electorate.

Does He Cry? Is There A Twinkle In His Eye?

Barack Obama, Bush, Democrats, Economy, Political Economy, Republicans, Socialism

That’s the substance of press conferences with BHO’s press pimp. And: Where will He watch the Super Bowl? Who’s invited to His White House Super Bowl Bash? How late does He work? What’s He reading?

Seriously, when Obama screws you over, it just feels right. He has that certain je ne sais quoi.

Indeed, Obama governing means that at last a “moral” man is in charge of deficit and bankruptcy-based spending. We’re safe; someone good has assumed control of the printing press. And what a relief that is. You just know that Obama spending the country into oblivion is vastly different from the Republicans doing the same.

As proof, under Obama’s tutelage, the elites have already formed a new task force to minister to middle-class Americans. It’ll be chaired by Vice President Joe Biden (a millionaire whose charitable giving is a fraction of the much-maligned, middle-class, Palin family). Right there is an example of the new goodness at work, to say nothing of a classic government make-work scheme.

So far, Obama and the Obama Nation demonstrate that their understanding of government’s role is of a piece. And, frankly, not much different to that of the Republicans, who agree with the principle of stimulating in public, but prefer that it not be as vigorous as Obama likes to stimulate.

Only a few weeks back, the Republicans voted for the outgoing thug’s bailout bonanza. Of course, in highly discerning Republican minds–the kind of Ben-Stein discerning–there is a difference between stimulating the financial sector and lavishing stuff on any and all à la Obama. To those of us who want to return the debate to the proper, constitutional role of government, there isn’t.

One thing is manifestly clear: If the Republicans were in power, they’d be doing pretty much what Obama is doing.

Based on the Republican Party’s unimpeachable record as an engine of government growth over the decades, it is quite clear that any show of principles by the Republicans is politically expedient and certainly fleeting.

Come to think of it, in the Republican opposition to the “stimulus” I have yet to discern an abiding principle, except one that reiterates my characterization of them here:

“How much to hand-out; who to hand it to; which hand-out makes the best use of taxpayer money; do the Big Three submit a business plan with their bailout requisitions, or not—that’s the depth of the ‘philosophical’ to-be-or-not-to-be among Republikeynsians.”

For example, Susan Collins, a Republican,

said she wants to work “with my colleagues on both sides of the aisle to come up with a final stimulus package that will indeed jump-start our economy.” But she worries that not all of the proposed spending — an aide points to a proposal for research on pandemic flu — is appropriate for the stimulus package. “We need to try and achieve the right balance, the right size, and the right mix of tax relief and spending proposals,” Sen. Collins said. “I am not at all certain that we have achieved these goals in this bill.”

It is not that the opposing Republicans don’t approve of the Keynesian model being followed by Obama (and Bush before him); they do. But they’d prefer to find spending programs that are in line with their “values”: faith based initiatives, rather than planned parenting. Again, I don’t detect any fundamental shift in principles among the party that cheered Bush’s bailouts and his stimulus. Correct me of I’m wrong.

Incidentally, even for a commie Keynesian like our Kenyan, this path is not beyond reproach. The Economist makes the following point:

“Mr Bush and the Republicans in Congress repeatedly gave voters goodies without paying for them: tax cuts without tax reform, subsidised prescription drugs without Medicare reform, and so on. Mr Obama must not make the same mistake. His stimulus plans may include cherished giveaways such as tax credits for low-paid workers, expanded unemployment insurance benefits, and investments in alternative energy. [NOT] All have their merits; all will also increase the hole in the books. Despite some earnest waffle about addressing the long-term fiscal challenge, Mr Obama has been short on specifics.”