Thursday, February 14, 2008

McCraven McCain: against torture before he was for it

The United States Senate voted 51-45 today to ban waterboarding (what the United States used to call Water Torture and execute people for) and other harsh interrogation torture techniques by the CIA . The law passed today would bring all interrogation practices by all agencies of the federal government in line with the Army Field Manual. It was passed by the House of Representatives in December. Bush promises a veto.

John McCain, who previously stood for American principles, has apparently abandoned his honor and voted for torture because that is what the bloodthirsty, amoral thugs that form the base of the Repugnant Party want, and he knows that he can't get elected without them.

How different Wednesday's vote is from the stand he took last November in a Republican debate.



Newsflash, Mad Jack - you can't get elected with them, either. Your particular brand of crazy is way past it's sell-by date.

Now...

I gotta get something off my chest. I am disgusted by the fact that we have come to the point as a society where we are even having this debate. It is abhorrent; it's sickening and disgusting. It's fucking insane that we have slid this far since we won the Cold War - less than twenty years ago! - by holding forth that we were Americans, and by virtue of that fact alone, we were simply above certain things. Gulags and torture among them. Now, we are infamous for them.

I am appalled that there are Americans among us who openly advocate for and debate the relative merits of the basic tenets of fascism. I remember a time when anyone advocating for the employment of torture (or domestic spying) would be ridiculed and driven from public life. The thought of a Supreme Court Justice absolving the practice was unthinkable.

What the fuck?

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