Torture
The lawless murdering torturer - excuse me - the president of the United States has apparently reached a compromise with the obsequious rubber-stamp enablers - excuse me - the Senate. This 'compromise' is just that: a compromise of everything we believe in and stand for as Americans. So good for them.
It strikes me, from everything I've read about the Junta's approach to terror, that the hallmark of their evil reign of terror - excuse me - administration is not hatred and ignorance. Those are just side-effects.
No, the real hallmark of this administration is laziness. They are the most shiftless bunch in the history of American government.
Here's what I mean; they prefer to take the easy way out of every difficulty, no matter how bad that makes the outcome. And they subscribe, at least pay lip service, to a political philosophy that bars homework.
small government' - so you should do nothing and prevent others from doing anything. No need for all that careful disaster planning - government doesn't work anyway. How about levees? No need to check those - too much work.
How about policy research? No need - we know what we want, and no 'fact' will get in the way.
And that's how we became Syria. My guess is that when we captured a few bad guys after 9-11, they laughed at us. "You're Americans - what are you going to do to me? Cut my credit rating?"
When faced with difficult, intractable problems like that, a rational person would find a way to get to the bad guy's head without compromising the whole point of having America in the world. If it's Bubba or Gore in charge, they start looking for options and new non-torture methodologies.
But for this bunch there was never a question. They won't talk? Beat 'em. Waterboard them. Use stress positions, humiliation, anything goes. That's the easy answer. And really, what other answer is there?
Take the One Percent Rule of Dick Cheney's (from the recent book). Cheney says that if there's even a one percent chance that a thing could happen, than they have to take it as a certainty. They can't play around with those odds.
But instead of meaning that they'll address these one percent notions with any seriousness (research, options, expertise), the one percent doctrine is an excuse not to do any homework at all. If any of their NeoCon hatchetmen come up with any wild concept - itching powder in water coolers! - they react as if it just happened.
That alleviates any need to carefully study anything. And if everything is an emergency, than nothing is an emergency. So every preventative measure that we should take is lost in the white noise of the one percent doctrine.
That means that when Democrats chime on about port security - a real demonstrated need - that's just one other thing for NeoCons to consider along with the water cooler thing. Hey - we'll get to it.
But port security is also hard. You have all those containers and all the technology and all those monied interests that make the question too tough to deal with. So they don't deal with it.
Iraq was the same way. Don't do the homework, just hit the sand. And now - uh oh. How do we get out? Well, don't bother researching anything or studying the situation. If the answer isn't provided by the ideology - which has, as usual, failed miserably - than just 'say the course' until it solves itself. Nixon tried that strategy with Vietnam, resulting in the memorable images of the helicopters lifting people from the roof of the American Embassy in what was then Saigon.
Election campaigns are the same thing. It's too hard to argue actual facts and stuff. So just make everybody scared, yell insults at your opponent, and if fact are required just go and make them up.
The only thing this laziness accomplishes is the financial enrichment of their backers. The people who would cut and burn and despoil the earth for their own selfish pleasure are firmly in charge, and their well being is the only ideology that this government believes in.
Except for full slothful laziness.
It strikes me, from everything I've read about the Junta's approach to terror, that the hallmark of their evil reign of terror - excuse me - administration is not hatred and ignorance. Those are just side-effects.
No, the real hallmark of this administration is laziness. They are the most shiftless bunch in the history of American government.
Here's what I mean; they prefer to take the easy way out of every difficulty, no matter how bad that makes the outcome. And they subscribe, at least pay lip service, to a political philosophy that bars homework.
small government' - so you should do nothing and prevent others from doing anything. No need for all that careful disaster planning - government doesn't work anyway. How about levees? No need to check those - too much work.
How about policy research? No need - we know what we want, and no 'fact' will get in the way.
And that's how we became Syria. My guess is that when we captured a few bad guys after 9-11, they laughed at us. "You're Americans - what are you going to do to me? Cut my credit rating?"
When faced with difficult, intractable problems like that, a rational person would find a way to get to the bad guy's head without compromising the whole point of having America in the world. If it's Bubba or Gore in charge, they start looking for options and new non-torture methodologies.
But for this bunch there was never a question. They won't talk? Beat 'em. Waterboard them. Use stress positions, humiliation, anything goes. That's the easy answer. And really, what other answer is there?
Take the One Percent Rule of Dick Cheney's (from the recent book). Cheney says that if there's even a one percent chance that a thing could happen, than they have to take it as a certainty. They can't play around with those odds.
But instead of meaning that they'll address these one percent notions with any seriousness (research, options, expertise), the one percent doctrine is an excuse not to do any homework at all. If any of their NeoCon hatchetmen come up with any wild concept - itching powder in water coolers! - they react as if it just happened.
That alleviates any need to carefully study anything. And if everything is an emergency, than nothing is an emergency. So every preventative measure that we should take is lost in the white noise of the one percent doctrine.
That means that when Democrats chime on about port security - a real demonstrated need - that's just one other thing for NeoCons to consider along with the water cooler thing. Hey - we'll get to it.
But port security is also hard. You have all those containers and all the technology and all those monied interests that make the question too tough to deal with. So they don't deal with it.
Iraq was the same way. Don't do the homework, just hit the sand. And now - uh oh. How do we get out? Well, don't bother researching anything or studying the situation. If the answer isn't provided by the ideology - which has, as usual, failed miserably - than just 'say the course' until it solves itself. Nixon tried that strategy with Vietnam, resulting in the memorable images of the helicopters lifting people from the roof of the American Embassy in what was then Saigon.
Election campaigns are the same thing. It's too hard to argue actual facts and stuff. So just make everybody scared, yell insults at your opponent, and if fact are required just go and make them up.
The only thing this laziness accomplishes is the financial enrichment of their backers. The people who would cut and burn and despoil the earth for their own selfish pleasure are firmly in charge, and their well being is the only ideology that this government believes in.
Except for full slothful laziness.
posted by fiduciary at 11:38 AM
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