Senate passes anti-torture bill, Bush to veto

I finally got around to seeing Taxi to the Dark Side, and if you haven’t I would definitely suggest you do. Don’t expect the ironic humor and kind of “rallying cry” that a Michael Moore documentary puts in you, this is downright harrowing stuff. No jokes and funny music, cartoons and absurd interviews. Just an uncompromising look at the torture that’s happened on Bush’s watch.

The president himself didn’t show up in the film much, but when he did he just reminded me of how bizarrely callous he can be when it comes to treating people as, y’know, people. So you can imagine my depression, lack of surprise, and then depression due to my lack of surprise at reading that Bush is going to veto a bill passed by the house which would explicitly ban torture, including waterboarding.

In a 51 to 45 vote, the Senate approved an intelligence bill that limits the CIA to using 19 less-aggressive interrogation tactics outlined in a U.S. Army Field Manual. The measure would effectively ban the use of simulated drowning, temperature extremes and other harsh tactics that the CIA used on al-Qaeda prisoners after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.

President Bush has vowed to veto the legislation, which the House approved in December, and Congress does not appear to have enough votes to override a veto.

I want you to stop for a moment. Don’t form opinions yet, or collate this with other information, anything like that. Just go over those two paragraphs again, and realize that we are talking about the Congress being unable to overturn a veto on banning torture.

Okay? We’re not talking fucking tax codes here, folks. This isn’t a new Medicare plan or new regulations on the production of sugar substitutes. The question is “should we torture people?” and apparently not enough in Congress can say “why of course not, that would be batshit insane to condone such a thing.”

In 20 years or so, it’s gonna be fun explaining to our children and/or grandchildren what was going on in the early years of the 21st century.

Insight on Iraq, but only when it's not about us or Iraq.

When people say satire is dead, these are the instances being referred to. President Bush’s trip to Africa took him by way of a museum in Rwanda, where this gem managed to slip out of his mouth.

“A clear lesson I learned in the museum was that outside forces that tend to divide people up inside their country are unbelievably counterproductive.”—after touring a genocide memorial, Kigali, Rwanda, Feb. 19, 2008 (Thanks to Hellyn Sher.)

As cynical as I am, as jaded as I am about this man, I refuse to believe that those words fell out of his mouth without him noticing any problem with them. If this was a television show or a movie, that would be the part when the camera shoots to the good guys watching him on television and one of them grits his teeth and says “the bastard’s mocking us.”

But just in case your balls don’t hurt too much from the irony, I’ve got more. Turkey’s had troops in Northern Iraq for a little while now, due to a rather legitimate quarrel with the Kurdish PKK radicals. Sort of like how Al Qaeda was in Iraq, except if they were actually in Iraq.

Well, Defense Secretary Robert Gates had some words of advice for Turkey concerning their mission:

“It’s very important that the Turks make this operation as short as possible and then leave, and to be mindful of Iraqi sovereignty,” Gates told reporters in New Delhi on Wednesday before leaving for Ankara.

“I measure quick in terms of days, a week or two, something like that. Not months,” he said.

If these people were on Who Wants to Be a Millionaire and all the questions were about Iraq, they’d have used up all their lifelines before they broke $2,000.

Insight on Iraq, but only when it’s not about us or Iraq.

When people say satire is dead, these are the instances being referred to. President Bush’s trip to Africa took him by way of a museum in Rwanda, where this gem managed to slip out of his mouth.

“A clear lesson I learned in the museum was that outside forces that tend to divide people up inside their country are unbelievably counterproductive.”—after touring a genocide memorial, Kigali, Rwanda, Feb. 19, 2008 (Thanks to Hellyn Sher.)

As cynical as I am, as jaded as I am about this man, I refuse to believe that those words fell out of his mouth without him noticing any problem with them. If this was a television show or a movie, that would be the part when the camera shoots to the good guys watching him on television and one of them grits his teeth and says “the bastard’s mocking us.”

But just in case your balls don’t hurt too much from the irony, I’ve got more. Turkey’s had troops in Northern Iraq for a little while now, due to a rather legitimate quarrel with the Kurdish PKK radicals. Sort of like how Al Qaeda was in Iraq, except if they were actually in Iraq.

Well, Defense Secretary Robert Gates had some words of advice for Turkey concerning their mission:

“It’s very important that the Turks make this operation as short as possible and then leave, and to be mindful of Iraqi sovereignty,” Gates told reporters in New Delhi on Wednesday before leaving for Ankara.

“I measure quick in terms of days, a week or two, something like that. Not months,” he said.

If these people were on Who Wants to Be a Millionaire and all the questions were about Iraq, they’d have used up all their lifelines before they broke $2,000.