This week's political theatre over torture ended shamefully for my country as some top Democratic senators (including California's own Diane Feinstein) gave in to Mukasey's nomination.

For a brief moment it felt like the Democrats would act with honor and hold up appointing a new attorney general until he'd confirm that he wouldn't approve torturing people. Yeah, the confirmation hearings were mostly passive aggressive politics, but I thought maybe there'd be some principle behind it. Apparently not.

Waterboarding, such a friendly noun. Sounds like a fun new extreme sport, something the kids were doing this summer on the lake in the Hamptons. Even the description "simulated drowning" is misleading. It's not simulated, it's actual drowning, and the only reason the victim doesn't die is the torturers stop before complete asphyxiation. (Well, most of the time).

We can't even get the head lawyer for the US to agree he won't approve torturing people. Dissent within the DoJ is squelched. What is wrong with this country?

politics
  2007-11-03 15:32 Z