War Pigs

Chapter 23: Where our semi-anonymous hero tries to prevent his semi-anonymous head from literally spinning off his body and bouncing off the ceiling as a response to excessive disgust and anger. Again.

The question at hand is simple. What needs to happen before you think that we have a real problem with the current administration. Really think about it. Most of the people I know who are reading this (all three of you!) share in the belief that there is something unseemly about the current state of affairs with the government. There seems to be no real debate about:

• Suspension of Habeas Corpus for citizens on the decree of the executive branch
• Human rights abuses - like killing and torture. Crimes against Humanity.
  
• Illegal War(s)
• Ignoring Congressional over site
• Illegally monitoring US citizens communications
• Fiscal impropriety
  
• No responsibility for failed actions

This list is in no order, and represents small fraction of the Crimes against the Government and Citizenry of the Unites States and indeed the world.

So what? I have been down this road so many other times you are probably beginning to wonder if I am capable of breaking out of this rut. Probably not, but I do have a point. Let me start with:

“I find it unfathomable that the committee tasked with oversight of the C.I.A.’s detention and interrogation program would be provided more information by The New York Times than by the Department of Justice,” Mr. Rockefeller wrote.

The ranking Republican on the panel, Senator Christopher S. Bond of Missouri, said Thursday night in a statement that the committee had been briefed on the administration’s “legal justifications” for interrogation.

Mr. Bond said he understood that the administration did not want to turn over the opinions themselves because they had confidential legal advice.

(link)

My question to you is: who are these people? "Confidential legal advice" rather offends me. From what I understand, this represents the attorney client privilege (which this administration has been quite comfortable in ignoring for other people) which exists between an individual and their lawyer. In this case it would be between one (sub) branch of the government and their legal staff where communications probably indicate a desire to commit illegal acts. For the rest of us, that would probably be felony conspiracy - and not the tinfoil hat kind either.

What is really being said here? in summary:

One 2005 opinion gave the Justice Department’s most authoritative legal approval to the harshest agency techniques, including head slapping, exposure to cold and simulated drowning, even when used in combination.

The second opinion declared that under some circumstances, such techniques were not “cruel, inhuman or degrading,” a category of treatment that Congress banned in December 2005.

Administration officials said Thursday that there was no contradiction between the still-secret rulings and an opinion made public by the Justice Department in December 2004 that declared torture “abhorrent” and appeared to retreat from the administration’s earlier assertion of broad presidential authority to conduct harsh interrogations.

These are word games that they are playing. The Justice Department (sigh) declares torture abhorrent and then secretly says that you can waterboard people in freezers because it is not cruel.

It is the smug condecention of this which angers me so.

Everything these morons touch falls to dust, except the money taken out of our pockets. That I am afraid seems to be the only thing incapable of tarnish. I do not have an answer for the question posed.

I leave you with this.

Come you masters of war You that build all the guns You that build the death planes You that build the big bombs You that hide behind walls You that hide behind desks I just want you to know I can see through your masks You that never done nothin' But build to destroy You play with my world Like it's your little toy You put a gun in my hand And you hide from my eyes And you turn and run farther When the fast bullets fly Like Judas of old You lie and deceive A world war can be won You want me to believe But I see through your eyes And I see through your brain Like I see through the water That runs down my drain You fasten the triggers For the others to fire Then you set back and watch When the death count gets higher You hide in your mansion As young people's blood Flows out of their bodies And is buried in the mud You've thrown the worst fear That can ever be hurled Fear to bring children Into the world For threatening my baby Unborn and unnamed You ain't worth the blood That runs in your veins How much do I know To talk out of turn You might say that I'm young You might say I'm unlearned But there's one thing I know Though I'm younger than you Even Jesus would never Forgive what you do Let me ask you one question Is your money that good Will it buy you forgiveness Do you think that it could I think you will find When your death takes its toll All the money you made Will never buy back your soul And I hope that you die And your death'll come soon I will follow your casket In the pale afternoon And I'll watch while you're lowered Down to your deathbed And I'll stand o'er your grave 'Til I'm sure that you're dead Masters of War Bob Dylan