Friday, April 17, 2009

Friday Tune


Steely Dan~ Do it again

7 comments:

Fran said...

Happy Friday People~ Hope all is well with everyone.
I was bummed to hear Obama released the proof of torture memos from Bush, but said he will not prosecute.
Michael Moore & Dusty have good writeups about it ( with a Keith Olberman editorial).

Why the hell are we letting a president get away with murder & torture?

This is no little thing & it sets precedence to allow torture in the future.

America is supposed to the the country that takes the high road, does not torture. Do we really want to do the same things communist China does, and be included in a list of countries with gross human rights violations.

When you open that door, other countries and factions then feel justified to retaliate.

It is so wrong on so many levels, I can;t really begin to express my disgust with it.

Prosecute!

Draw the line of standards & restore integrity & humanity into the foundational bottom line of this country.

TGIF!

D.K. Raed said...

Shuster & Turley today pointed out Obama has only closed the door on the lower eschelon guys who actually DID the torture. Nothing he said prevents prosecution of the torture policy legal eagles (like Yoo, Feith, Addington, Gonzo, etc). I need to go read what Michael Moore said because so far I am unable to follow that much fine-tuning.

ps, Happy Friday to you, too!

Fran said...

It's a slippery slope DK.... where does the buck stop?
Just the henchmen who carried out the torture or the evil masterminds who crafted & approved the torture?

I favor a zero tolerance for torture approach.

Someone along the line has to have a conscience to know it was wrong & illegal.

D.K. Raed said...

I don't like the "just following orders" defense either. But I understand a case could be made for someone indoctrinated in the CIA school of approved methods for extracting information (wow, talk about euphemisms), especially when they are handed legal opinions of the "best and brightest" lawyers telling them it is necessary in this or that particular detainee's case because of the time-bomb info he supposedly possesses. After all that indoctrination and legal mumbo-jumbo, they might feel if they did NOT use extreme methods, they were putting innocent lives at risk. Not saying I condone, just that a case could be made.

It is a differenct case for the policy-makers, starting with the people I mentioned in my comment above and following the stench of torture all the way up the chain of command to the commander-in-chief himself. If Obama cannot bring himself to appoint a special prosecutor or investigator, then he opens himself up to the same charges IMO. Congress, too. The dirty deeds done under the guise of national security need to have their day in court.

The main value of an investigation like this is where it might lead. To quash it is to deny the people the right to know. Just like what Conyers wanted to do about possible impeachable offenses, start the investigation and let it all come out. Let the people see what was done in our name. We need justice in order to put it behind us.

Distributorcap said...

this is a huge disappointment - basically giving them the Nuremberg/Eichmann defense of just following orders. and it sucks

and with this blanket immunity - they dont even have the leverage to get them to testify.

i am very saddened by this
very

enigma4ever said...

thank you for steely...
wonderful....

Fran said...

DK~ I'm just sick of it... all the levels of bullshit & concerned that now that the gates of lawfulness have been violated, there is no going back. It is not a waste of time & reestablish some semblance of the rule of law.

DCap~ Sure enough. I did not get a chance to read all the memos of what was allowed, but repeated head slaps, stress positions, waterboarding- and a formula for # of times the tactis are allowed to be done, with documentation the torturers exceeded
the prescribed torture methodology.

Please... we should not entertain the idea of where to mince the line of lawbreaking between those who sanctioned it, and those who robustly carried it out. It's all criminal, at least in an International court of law.

E~ Great tune. They were one tight band!