Doing My Alma Mater Proud
April 26th, 2009The Banality of Bush White House Evil
Another winning column from Frank Rich. Of note:
“Judge Bybee’s résumé tells us that he has four children and is both a Cubmaster for the Boy Scouts and a youth baseball and basketball coach. He currently occupies a tenured seat on the United States Court of Appeals. As an assistant attorney general, he was the author of the Aug. 1, 2002, memo endorsing in lengthy, prurient detail interrogation ‘techniques’ like ‘facial slap (insult slap)’ and ‘insects placed in a confinement box.’
He proposed using 10 such techniques ‘in some sort of escalating fashion, culminating with the waterboard, though not necessarily ending with this technique.’ Waterboarding, the near-drowning favored by Pol Pot and the Spanish Inquisition, was prosecuted by the United States in war-crimes trials after World War II. But Bybee concluded that it ‘does not, in our view, inflict severe pain or suffering.’”
Mr. Bybee is a Brigham Young University graduate. Also: Mormon. Mormons seem to be all over Bush’s worst, most immoral judgments. Yay for conservatives (especially religious ones) AGAIN! o
UPDATE: From the Washington Post. Still. Bybee Should have stood up for what he believed was morally right. That he didn’t do so makes his impressive CV lose much of its luster.
UPDATE: The Salt Lake Tribune picked up the story on April 29. The comments are gold.
Tags: Bybee, George W. Bush, link, mormon politics, mormon torture, op-ed, torture
This is probably not the most intelligent contribution to the conversation but: what a giant jackass.
I realize we all live with certain hypocrisies, but thankfully most of mine are in the “I say I don’t like onions but can often be found eating them on a burger” category instead of the “I say I believe in a god who teaches fairness and kindness toward all living things, but I can often be found putting implements of torture in the hands of evil people” category.
I just listened to a wonderful interview on the Sunday Edition on CBC radio. Mark Danner was on being interviewed by Michael Enright about ‘The Torture Debate’. I would highly recommend checking it out – the Sunday Edition is still on but does podcast and stream on cbc.ca
http://www.cbc.ca/thesundayedition/index.html
I’m sorry, but any sense of discomfort he feels after the fact, or saying that the memo “got away from him,” just doesn’t cut it. It doesn’t explain the incredibly detailed and legally fallacious arguments arguments contained in the memo, and it doesn’t excuse the impact the memo had, on the inmates who were tortured using techniques he approved as well as on America’s self-image, international reputation, and on the American legal system. He ought to feel ashamed and guilty, but that doesn’t exculpate him or excuse him in the slightest.
I’m sure Bush is going to make Bybee the fall guy. He should really have thought that one through a wee bit better.
Plus, the hex tile? 1″ hex in that color available from American Olean.
On the site, you can find it under Residential > Designer Essentials >Unglazed Mosaics and Options
1″ x 1″ unglazed ceramic, probably Ice White or Vanilla Cream by the looks of the pic on Dooce’s site. It comes mounted on sheets and is easy to install. You can find it at American Tile in Salt Lake City.
Our use of it in the upstairs bath is here:
http://www.houseinprogress.net/archives/001457.html
Well, Hitler loved his dog and was a vegetarian, and many of the commandants of the campz were loving fathers and devoted husbands; so the fact that this creep has a family, kids, and volunteers for the boy scouts means precisely squat.
In fact, it’s frightening that this unconscionable scumbag is anywhere near children, his own included.
the cognitive dissonance is fantastical in this case, isn’t it? and although i’m not entirely fond of hitler parallels, if you get a chance, listen to amy goodman’s part two interview with noam chomsky (the parallels he draws are frightening). i would try n find n post the link but my burnt fingers r in a fat tub of water at the moment. the dissonance doesn’t end with this issue though. never has.