Laws, Treaties, and Human Rights are for Little People
Newsweek’s Stuart Taylor, Jr. wrote a column this week opining that, “to get a full accounting of how U.S. interrogation methods were used, the president should give those accused of ‘war crimes’ a pass.” Brad at Sadly, No! believes that Taylor should back away from the crack pipe.
There are few things that have happened over the past seven years that are as enraging as the basic human rights abuses that enablers in the Bush administration have perpetrated during the faux “global war on terror”. And, it’s become an article of faith that prior to the time that the moving vans pull up to 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. next January, George W. Bush will be issuing a list of preemptive criminal pardons that will read like a “who’s who” of his administration. (It’s unclear to me if he can pardon himself.)
Without further ado, allow me to direct you to a righteous rant from Brad at Sadly, No! While SN is one of my favorite politically snarky blogs, Brad takes a decided turn toward outrage at a call by Stuart Taylor Jr., writing in Newsweek, who recommends immediate blanket pardons for the perps in order to get to the bottom of the torture regime. Brad opines:
Question: why did we ever develop the Geneva Conventions in the first place? Why does the Constitution ban cruel and unusual punishment? Hell, for that matter, why did we ever sign the goddamn Magna Carta*? Because what Stuart Taylor, Jr. is telling us is that government officials should simply be able to break the fucking law. And not just the laws against lying about blowjobs under oath — we’re talking about laws against goddamn torture. We’re talking about laws that for years have prohibited the government from performing cruel and heinous acts on prisoners. This is important shit. But to Stuart Taylor? Pfffffft, yeah it’s bad, but so what? We’ll only learn the truth about this stuff if we just pardon everyone beforehand. Because fuck it, laws are only meant to be obeyed by the little people.
That’s just the start. If you read nothing else today, go refresh your memory at Sadly, No! and tell me once again, Speaker Pelosi: why is impeachment off the table? Why does the Bush administration refuse to sign off on international treaties that would allow American officials to be tried for war crimes in the Hague?
Richard, given what we now know about what the bush admin has been up to the last 7 or so years I think it’s fairly obvious why impeachment is off the table. The bush admin has been very busy collecting “embarrassing” data.
Who do you think were the targets of the wire tapping that admittedly went on PRIOR to Sept. 11? What about after? Who were the recipients of the anthrax?
It seems like if you take all the “programs” bush and the gop have been involved in the past 7+ years and look at them as parts of a whole, instead of separate individual programs you end up with all the tools to keep ANY opposition in check, whether it’s through blackmail, bribery, or the “justice” system.