big microscope » politics

he hit me, and it felt like a kiss

litmus — Wed, 18 Mar 2009 06:23:40 +0000

the analogy has been made before, but it bears repeating. we, the people, are behaving like a battered spouse who forgives his/her abuser. it’s sickening to watch us. and we know it. we can’t bear to actually act on what we know must be done. we ought to be punching back. hard.

this ought to be required reading for every american. mark danner lays out the facts and they aren’t pretty. an excerpt from the ICRC Report on the Treatment of Fourteen “High Value Detainees” in CIA Custody by the International Committee of the Red Cross:

The result is a document—labeled “confidential” and clearly intended only for the eyes of those senior American officials to whom the CIA’s Mr. Rizzo would show it—that tells a certain kind of story, a narrative of what happened at “the black sites” and a detailed description, by those on whom they were practiced, of what the President of the United States described to Americans as an “alternative set of procedures.” It is a document for its time, literally “impossible to put down,” from its opening page…

...to its stark and unmistakable conclusion:

The allegations of ill-treatment of the detainees indicate that, in many cases, the ill-treatment to which they were subjected while held in the CIA program, either singly or in combination, constituted torture. In addition, many other elements of the ill-treatment, either singly or in combination, constituted cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment.

Such unflinching clarity, from the body legally charged with overseeing compliance with the Geneva Conventions—in which the terms “torture” and “cruel, inhuman, and degrading treatment” are accorded a strictly defined legal meaning—couldn’t be more significant, or indeed more welcome after years in which the President of the United States relied on the power of his office either to redefine or to obfuscate what are relatively simple words.

please read the entire piece. it will make you shake your head in disbelief, cry. and cry out in anger. if you think of yourself as a law-abiding, patriotic american who believes this country stands for something more than military might and unrestrained greed, you will shudder. and if you have a heart, you will realize down to your core that we’re in a very dark period of our history here…and if we aren’t able as a society to look at what happened, prosecute those who perpetrated and allowed it, and make it very clear through word, deed and law that it will never happen again, then we do not deserve to call ourselves americans. at least not in the traditional sense of that word. the sense that used to connote honesty, integrity, gumption, persistence and honor. because we will collectively be in possession of none of the above. it’s a big challenge: how do we become america again?

vituperating vitter

litmus — Thu, 12 Mar 2009 05:04:36 +0000

after reading about senator david vitter’s latest bout with bad behavior (he’s a naughty little boy, for those who aren’t aware), i dashed off a quick note to him via his senate site.

subject: your behavior

yo davy:

i heard about your unfortunate episode at the airport last week and thought i’d offer a couple of pieces of advice:

read those guidelines the airlines publish, particularly the one about arriving for your flight at least two hours before departure. surprisingly, they apply to all travelers, including self-righteous assholes who hold public office and are members of the party that created so many fake ‘terror’ threats for political reasons that the entire security system is now bogged down with unnecessary and expensive routines.

if an airline employee doesn’t recognize you from your cute little ‘senator’ pin, just tell them you’re the republican guy who likes to pretend he’s a family man and a good role model for his three daughters while paying for sex with hookers who let you wear diapers. that will help differentiate you from the republican senator who likes to troll for anonymous blow jobs in airports. i know, i know: it’s hard to keep up with all of you hypocrites, but most people are pretty sharp and will be able to remember your particular set of identifying characteristics if just reminded of them.

stop giving louisiana a bad name with your unfortunate behavior. it would be one thing if you actually did something worthwhile for the fine folks of your great state to offset your antics. but barring that unlikely occurrence, it’s probably best that you follow the lead of that classic cartoon character, snagglepuss, (oh the irony) and “exit stage left!”

all my best,

it’s not even close

litmus — Thu, 16 Oct 2008 07:12:43 +0000

great little montage of senator loser mcangry at tonight’s debate.

watching these two together is truly fascinating; the contrast could not be more stark. and the choice could not be more obvious. more fascinating still is the fact that there are actually people out there who believe mccain would be a better leader of this country.

no meaningful comparison between the two would lead one to that conclusion. not a comparison of intellect. nor of temperament. nor of judgment. obama is clearly – to anyone with eyes, ears and a brain – the smarter, more even-keeled, wiser, thoughtful, empathetic, and POSITIVE candidate. it’s not even close.

in fact, it is becoming more and more clear that people who plan on going to the mat for john mccain on november 4th can truly only fall into some simple categories:

racists. of course they’re out there. sad but true. real support of education policy in this country will go a long way toward eradicating this problem. but until we fix the root cause, we have to turn over the rocks and let them scurry out into the light, exposed for what they are. a black president. get over it. get used to it. understand why it doesn’t matter.

selfish ‘financialists’. this group can’t see beyond the faux ‘robin hood’ argument put forth by mccain and the republicans about ‘spreading the wealth’. paying one dollar more (regardless of how many dollars one might already have) is “un-american” and “antithetical to the beliefs of our capitalist system.” this group generally has little understanding of macroeconomics or the concept of the greater good.

the incredibly stupid. exhibits A and B: gayle quinnell and jonah goldberg. there are many others, unfortunately. they watch fox news. they think jerome corsi is a journalist. they think barack obama is a muslim. they think the republican party is actually looking out for them but they’ve never bothered to actually see if that’s true or not.

‘down with the ship’ republicans. often, but not always, a subset or matching set of the ‘selfish financialists’, this group just loves being republican. it’s like a frat. or sports team fan club. USA! REPUBLICAN! there are chants, bumper stickers, and a desperate need for a party with which to identify. republicans to the death, the ‘country first’ mantra of the mccain campaign is a bitter joke. nobody believes that for a second; it’s party first and always has been.

single-issue voters. gay marriage. gun control. prayer in school. abortion. this group can’t see the forest for the trees. and in most cases, the single issue is one that is not a majority-held position, but rather a morality-based issue of personal choice favored by a few. given most of these ‘wedge’ issues have some association with religious beliefs, the republican party is the only one willing to meld church and state to lock down the voting bloc.

it’s possible there may be more. i’m sure a mccain voter would never want to be put into any of the above buckets, but any arguments made with regard to “better policies” or “higher integrity” or “he was a POW” are easily swatted down like horseflies in 105-degree heat.

i long for a thinking, feeling adult in the white house. we can’t afford to elect a me-first asshole of the first degree like john mccain.

from hero to zero

litmus — Tue, 07 Oct 2008 07:04:07 +0000

nobody’s calling this pathetic excuse for a human being a “hero” these days. here’s mr. “country first” at one of his nuremberg – er, campaign – rallies today with what is obviously a sizable chunk of the low-information voter bloc in attendance.

mccain has neither the guts nor the moral compass to denounce the supporter who yells out “terrorist!” in response to mccain’s question “who is the real barack obama?”

this is today’s republican party in a nutshell: ignorant, living in fear of manufactured threats and enemies, selfish and self-serving, and utterly incapable of acting with civility, compassion or grace. i imagine that true self-described ‘fiscal conservatives’ and/or ‘goldwater republicans’ (commonly mistaken for libertarians) have already abandoned the shitheap that is their party. but those who continue to claim proud membership in the republican club are either incredibly and willfully stupid – or morally bankrupt.

i laughed. i cried.

litmus — Tue, 09 Sep 2008 16:23:34 +0000

why do we have to rely on our comedians to tell the truth about our politicians? this has to be one of the bravest (and funniest) things i’ve seen in a long time. pretty much nails the essence of john mccain in just over four minutes. if only mccain could watch this, realize what a fraud he is, and slink away quietly from the national stage. a man can dream, can’t he?

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart

Mon – Thurs 11p / 10c

John McCain: Reformed Maverick

www.thedailyshow.com

Daily Show Full Episodes

Political Humor

Health Care Reform

pain in the mccain

litmus — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 22:29:20 +0000

it’s hard to imagine loathing someone more than i loathe dubya bush, but i’m almost there with john mccain. i’ve written before about what a pandering, lying, self-serving pathetic shell of a man he is—and that was in a letter written directly to the man. mccain’s mendacity is really no secret to anyone who does even a modicum of digging into “the real mccain.” but his actions and words of late are enough to make you wonder: just who are the idiots out there who would consider electing this man our president?

a few recent mccain highlights:

his inability to recall the past 15 years of eastern european history

his siamese-twin relationships with lobbyists—who have made some pretty coin while screwing americans—and the extent of those relationships dictating his policy positions on the russia/georgia conflict and the home mortgage crisis

his complete and utter failure to run an “honorable” campaign

his laughable claim to any moral character (and his charming wife’s ‘family values’)

sometimes it feels as if we’re down the rabbit hole when it comes to mccain. what is so obvious to anyone with a brain just doesn’t seem to register with nearly 40 percent of americans. that’s partly due to the abdication of responsible reporting by the traditional media. but it’s also apparently due to the fact that we really are a nation of idiots.

andrew sullivan, who apparently has grown very very tired of trying to defend any of his fellow conservatives, wrote a brilliant piece in the atlantic yesterday. here’s an excerpt, but please read the whole post. his logic is infallible. his points are devastating. and his apparent loathing of mccain very nearly matches mine.

In all the discussion of John McCain’s recently recovered memory of a religious epiphany in Vietnam, one thing has been missing. The torture that was deployed against McCain emerges in all the various accounts. It involved sleep deprivation, the withholding of medical treatment, stress positions, long-time standing, and beating. Sound familiar?

According to the Bush administration’s definition of torture, McCain was therefore not tortured.

Cheney denies that McCain was tortured; as does Bush. So do John Yoo and David Addington and George Tenet.

so, since mccain agrees with bush/cheney on torture, can we please stop talking about mccain’s time as a POW? according to the man himself, what he endured wasn’t really torture after all. what is torturous, however, is watching mccain’s sorry excuse for a campaign. hell, at least one of his fellow POWs thinks he’d make a horrible president.

oh FISA, dear FISA

litmus — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 06:14:31 +0000

as disappointing as some of obama’s recent moves to the middle have been, none is as galling as the decision to support the FISA bill currently in the senate. i understand the political expedience of shoring up against that faux "he’s not tough on national security" argument the idiots across the aisle are determined to gin up should obama vote against the bill. i get it.. i really do.

but i just wish that the one candidate we have who represents even a modicum of honesty and integrity (and obama clearly has more than that) would just stand up and tell it like it is. bush broke the law and has been spying on us. with the help of the telecom companies. who have, in turn, given lots of money to elected representatives to keep their mouths shut. and the american people deserve to find out exactly what has transpired over the past seven years. period. paragraph.

no bill gets passed until bush is out of office and the facts can be brought into the sunlight. that’s it. no compromise. skip the speeches on patriotism and the mild smackdowns of truthtellers like wes clark. save the discussion of faith-based initiatives for another day. stand up (and bring russ feingold with you) and tell us that truth and honesty still mean something. anything. even in a quixotic situation that, may they burn in hell for it, democrats have enabled.

barring the unlikely scenario of the above unfolding, olbermann seems to have taken in at least some of glenn greenwald’s points and internalized them into a pretty compelling if/then/else statement. you can see it here:

keith olbermann is a big meany! waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!

litmus — Wed, 21 May 2008 22:33:12 +0000

if you haven’t seen steve doocy—one of fox news’ talking douchebags (or is that doochebags?)—in action before, this should serve as a wonderful introduction. i enjoy dashing a letter off now and then and felt inspired to write after seeing the clip below. enamored as i am with my own deliciousness, i have decided to share said letter with my loyal big micro readers. (the original keith ‘worst person’ clip that doocy finds so offensive—oh my!—follows the letter text below. happy wednesday.

dearest fox friends:

i’ve seen the clip of little peter doocy and his sad, smirk-laden attempt at ‘reporting.’ apparently peter is an apt pupil when it comes to aping his father’s dubious ‘journalistic’ style. the apple doesn’t fall too far from the tree when it comes to regurgitating GOP talking points and framing questions in that oh-so-familiar faux news manner.

doocy senior should be less concerned with what olbermann thinks and says about his son and pay a bit more attention to his own parenting responsibilities. after all, it was daddy that set up his kid for ridicule and then had the subsequent effrontery to get his panties in a bunch when the inevitable ridicule occurred. peter is certainly entitled to act like an idiot; it’s de rigeur for many college-aged kids. but dressing up that idiocy as “youth-oriented commentary” under the guise of objectivity deserves to be called out for what it is: a transparent act of nepotistic parroting. and papa doocy’s outrage would be merely laughable if it weren’t so pathetic in its tin-ear shrillness.

here’s a fact (and i realize that facts don’t have much currency over there): olbermann’s comments were far more fair and balanced than peter’s ‘broadcasting’ debut or steve’s ongoing parade of blowhard punditry. as long as nepotism and/or cronyism remain the guiding principles for both faux news and the bush administration, doocy shouldn’t be surprised when incompetence and spin are identified as such. if steve doesn’t want someone to “pick on his kid,” then he shouldn’t be putting that kid on the airwaves.

certainly there’s an element of schadenfreude for those of us out here in the reality-based community in watching the murdoch lemmings get apoplectic as the propaganda machine becomes more and more exposed for what it is. but protestations like doocy’s are what generate the real belly laughs and guffaws.

keep it up. you’ve helped to create the dire situation in which this country finds itself; you owe us a few laughs at the very least.

and here’s keith’s ‘worst person in the world’ segment honoring smirky pete.

war is peace

litmus — Thu, 20 Mar 2008 00:44:16 +0000

freedom is slavery.

ignorance is strength.

most of us know, instinctively, that these three statements are absurd. yet these are all things republicans believe. how else can one explain the past five years of war in iraq? the bush administration would like you to believe that through war, we can achieve peace and ‘democracy’ in the middle east. they’d like you to think that freedom in this country will be protected by making us all slaves to the watchful eyes and ears of data-devouring, privacy-eviscerating government ‘security’ programs. and they want you to put those goddamn stubborn facts aside and just trust them to ensure america stays strong in the face of grave threats ‘out there’. truth be damned; dogma be praised.

eric blair was more than eerily prescient when he wrote 1984 back in 1949â€”he was keenly observant. blair had just lived through world war II and had seen the ugly face of totalitarianism up close. and though ‘democracy’ carried the day to defeat hitler and those who had rallied around him, it wasn’t too hard to extrapolate a future in which a more insidious form of fascism could take root underneath the fertile ground of post-war prosperity.

fast-forward to 2008. today marks the fifth anniversary of the iraq invasion and occupation. as many others have written, this military disaster has gone on longer than world war I, world war II and the civil war. it has cost us dearly in human life, dollars, reputation and our ability to make sound judgments as a nation. it has been, arguably, the single greatest foreign policy disaster in our history. and we’re nowhere near close to ending it. that pathetic shell of a man, mccain, wants to keep us there for another 100 years. he claims it’s inevitable. the only thing that’s inevitable about iraq is that it will take us decades to recover from our blunders there.

it didn’t have to be this way. and it better not be this way in the future. because if we can’t learn from this colossal mistake, then we are truly ignorant. truly slaves to immoral so-called leaders. and truly locked in a never-ending warâ€”with ourselves.

this is what leadership looks like

litmus — Wed, 19 Mar 2008 00:05:34 +0000