Wednesday, December 17, 2008
Thomas Tamm and Another Bush Rant
A few days ago the latest issue of Newsweek revealed the source that led to the uncovering of the Bush administration's warrantless wiretapping. Thomas Tamm is his name, and he's been labeled by some as this generation's Deep Throat. I find that appropriate since so many of the current administration's key officials also worked for Nixon.
The piece in Newsweek can be found here. Tamm's anonymous tip to the New York Times eventually led to this Pulitzer-winning article.
I've had people ask me why in recent months and years I've gradually become more and more anti-Bush. That right there is one of the major reasons. Even if we disregard every other thing the administration has done (which I'll get to in a second), that doesn't change the fact that they wiretapped thousands of American citizens without a warrant. This broke the law, and thus by definition is an impeachable offense. Regardless of your feelings about Clinton, getting an extramarital blowjob is not a crime. Stuff like this is.
In light of the recent election (hooray!) and the fact that the Bush administration will most likely leave office without having to account for their actions, let's take a look back at the last 8 years:
1) 9/11 and the year afterwards. I'll freely admit that I thought Bush was an awesome president around this point in time. Heck, everybody did. His approval rating was enormously high. Why shouldn't it be? He successfully licked the wounded egos of American citizens as we struggled to deal with the fact that we weren't invincible after all. He gave us someone to blame in the form of Osama bin Laden. He promised to go after the evildoers that had done it. Of course, it was mostly all a bunch of BS so he could get away with things that under normal circumstances we wouldn't allow, but it worked. We loved him. The towers fell, and he was there to pull us out of the wreckage.
2) The war on terror. A brilliant bit of marketing if there ever was one. Attacked by terrorists? Don't worry, Bush is here to stop all terror everywhere! Oh, if only we had been able to look into the future and see how destructive this idea truly was. Or just stop and think about it for a second. Declaring war on a noun rarely works out well. Such wars are also impossible to win and go on forever. That's great if you're looking to grab supreme executive power and hold on to it forever (see below). Unfortunately, it sucks for everyone else.
3) Cheney and the consolidation of power. To understand the philosophy of the Bush administration, one really only has to look at the philosophy of Dick Cheney. Let's be honest: he's the one really running the country. Moreso than any vice president, he's been Bush's principal line of advice. And that's a very scary thing, when you consider his background. He was part of the Nixon administration and criticized Nixon after the Watergate scandal. Why? Because Nixon got caught. Cheney is a big supporter of unlimited executive power - basically, the idea that the president is the ultimate authority of the country, particularly during wartime. Never mind the fact that this is unconstitutional and completely undermines the system of checks and balances set up by the founding fathers. It is for this reason that he has adamantly opposed all efforts to make the president's actions transparent, arguing against (and many times disobeying) the Presidential Records Act, the Freedom of Information Act, and the War Powers Resolution, among other laws that limit the power of the executive branch.
How lucky he was, then, when 9/11 came along and gave him the perfect excuse to expand presidential power. After all, if Bush is going to save the world, he's going to need all the power he can get. Powers like the ability to wiretap without a warrant, torture prisoners, detain "enemy combatants" indefinitely and without charging them with a crime, declare war without the approval of Congress, etc.
If you think I'm being too hard on Cheney, check out this Pulitzer Prize-winning series of articles from the Washington Post. Then look me in the eye and tell me I've got it wrong.
4) Iraq. I would like to sleep tonight, so I won't go into details which most people probably already know. Bush said there were weapons of mass destruction. Not true. He implied Iraq was involved in 9/11. Not true. He suggested Iraq was harboring terrorists. Not true - they didn't come into Iraq until after we invaded and gave them the opportunity. And come on, are we really supposed to believe we went to war to overthrow Saddam Hussein and bring democracy? No. It was most likely for oil. Cheney knows all about that sort of thing.
5) Surveillance. As previously mentioned, it's been revealed that the administration has spied on American citizens without a warrant. The current FISA laws also give them the authority to listen in on phone conversations and read emails before even applying for one! What a crafty bit of legislation that was.
6) Torture. Under this administration, the United States has become a country that violates the Geneva Convention and uses torture - oh, I'm sorry, I mean "enhanced interrogation techniques" - on its prisoners. Never mind the fact that the vast majority of experts agree torture is an awful way to get reliable information. And to those readers who still think that waterboarding isn't torture, I suggest you research what the technique actually is and what its origins are. And if you don't believe Wikipedia, there are numerous other credible sources to back it up. Take, for example, the testimonies of Daniel Levin (see his memorandum) and Christopher Hitchens, who underwent the procedure themselves.
7) Detainment. This administration has authorized a covert CIA prison system. They operate using extraordinary rendition to ship prisoners to various black sites around the world. This basically gives them the ability to kidnap people off the street, take them to a secret prison in a country where the laws allows torture, and hold them there indefinitely. At no point are they required to inform the victims' families about what has happened, or to tell the person themselves what they've been charged with. Thank you, Military Commissions Act and similar legislation, for providing the world with more than a fair share of Jose Padillas and Omar Khadrs.
And then of course there's the economic policies, the racial profiling, the suppression of dissent, etc. But I'm not trying to write a novel.
This is what the USA has to account for after the past 8 years. This is what the Obama administration is going to somehow have to overcome.
What amazes me is that in light of all this, there's still a good 25% of the population that supports the Bush administration. Why? Because he claims to be a Christian and is a social conservative. Oh sure, he may be involved in a large number of illegal and immoral activities, but it's all for our safety and against those evil Muslims. He's pro-life and anti-gay marriage. What more do we need?
You know what the sad thing is? That in all likelihood Bush sincerely doesn't think he's done anything wrong. He is so far removed from reality that an Iraqi man can throw a shoe at him and he can shrug it off like it's no big deal. Go back and read the comments he made to the press after the incident a few days ago. Then think hard about the kind of mindset you have to have to say them with a straight face.
In a month, he and Cheney will leave the White House and go off to live the rest of his life in relative comfort. They will never have to face a jury. They will never have to come clean to the American people. They will never have to visit the Middle East again, or come face-to-face with Iraqi widows, or have to explain to a grieving Arab mother why her son randomly disappeared six years ago.
God bless America.
The piece in Newsweek can be found here. Tamm's anonymous tip to the New York Times eventually led to this Pulitzer-winning article.
I've had people ask me why in recent months and years I've gradually become more and more anti-Bush. That right there is one of the major reasons. Even if we disregard every other thing the administration has done (which I'll get to in a second), that doesn't change the fact that they wiretapped thousands of American citizens without a warrant. This broke the law, and thus by definition is an impeachable offense. Regardless of your feelings about Clinton, getting an extramarital blowjob is not a crime. Stuff like this is.
In light of the recent election (hooray!) and the fact that the Bush administration will most likely leave office without having to account for their actions, let's take a look back at the last 8 years:
1) 9/11 and the year afterwards. I'll freely admit that I thought Bush was an awesome president around this point in time. Heck, everybody did. His approval rating was enormously high. Why shouldn't it be? He successfully licked the wounded egos of American citizens as we struggled to deal with the fact that we weren't invincible after all. He gave us someone to blame in the form of Osama bin Laden. He promised to go after the evildoers that had done it. Of course, it was mostly all a bunch of BS so he could get away with things that under normal circumstances we wouldn't allow, but it worked. We loved him. The towers fell, and he was there to pull us out of the wreckage.
2) The war on terror. A brilliant bit of marketing if there ever was one. Attacked by terrorists? Don't worry, Bush is here to stop all terror everywhere! Oh, if only we had been able to look into the future and see how destructive this idea truly was. Or just stop and think about it for a second. Declaring war on a noun rarely works out well. Such wars are also impossible to win and go on forever. That's great if you're looking to grab supreme executive power and hold on to it forever (see below). Unfortunately, it sucks for everyone else.
3) Cheney and the consolidation of power. To understand the philosophy of the Bush administration, one really only has to look at the philosophy of Dick Cheney. Let's be honest: he's the one really running the country. Moreso than any vice president, he's been Bush's principal line of advice. And that's a very scary thing, when you consider his background. He was part of the Nixon administration and criticized Nixon after the Watergate scandal. Why? Because Nixon got caught. Cheney is a big supporter of unlimited executive power - basically, the idea that the president is the ultimate authority of the country, particularly during wartime. Never mind the fact that this is unconstitutional and completely undermines the system of checks and balances set up by the founding fathers. It is for this reason that he has adamantly opposed all efforts to make the president's actions transparent, arguing against (and many times disobeying) the Presidential Records Act, the Freedom of Information Act, and the War Powers Resolution, among other laws that limit the power of the executive branch.
How lucky he was, then, when 9/11 came along and gave him the perfect excuse to expand presidential power. After all, if Bush is going to save the world, he's going to need all the power he can get. Powers like the ability to wiretap without a warrant, torture prisoners, detain "enemy combatants" indefinitely and without charging them with a crime, declare war without the approval of Congress, etc.
If you think I'm being too hard on Cheney, check out this Pulitzer Prize-winning series of articles from the Washington Post. Then look me in the eye and tell me I've got it wrong.
4) Iraq. I would like to sleep tonight, so I won't go into details which most people probably already know. Bush said there were weapons of mass destruction. Not true. He implied Iraq was involved in 9/11. Not true. He suggested Iraq was harboring terrorists. Not true - they didn't come into Iraq until after we invaded and gave them the opportunity. And come on, are we really supposed to believe we went to war to overthrow Saddam Hussein and bring democracy? No. It was most likely for oil. Cheney knows all about that sort of thing.
5) Surveillance. As previously mentioned, it's been revealed that the administration has spied on American citizens without a warrant. The current FISA laws also give them the authority to listen in on phone conversations and read emails before even applying for one! What a crafty bit of legislation that was.
6) Torture. Under this administration, the United States has become a country that violates the Geneva Convention and uses torture - oh, I'm sorry, I mean "enhanced interrogation techniques" - on its prisoners. Never mind the fact that the vast majority of experts agree torture is an awful way to get reliable information. And to those readers who still think that waterboarding isn't torture, I suggest you research what the technique actually is and what its origins are. And if you don't believe Wikipedia, there are numerous other credible sources to back it up. Take, for example, the testimonies of Daniel Levin (see his memorandum) and Christopher Hitchens, who underwent the procedure themselves.
7) Detainment. This administration has authorized a covert CIA prison system. They operate using extraordinary rendition to ship prisoners to various black sites around the world. This basically gives them the ability to kidnap people off the street, take them to a secret prison in a country where the laws allows torture, and hold them there indefinitely. At no point are they required to inform the victims' families about what has happened, or to tell the person themselves what they've been charged with. Thank you, Military Commissions Act and similar legislation, for providing the world with more than a fair share of Jose Padillas and Omar Khadrs.
And then of course there's the economic policies, the racial profiling, the suppression of dissent, etc. But I'm not trying to write a novel.
This is what the USA has to account for after the past 8 years. This is what the Obama administration is going to somehow have to overcome.
What amazes me is that in light of all this, there's still a good 25% of the population that supports the Bush administration. Why? Because he claims to be a Christian and is a social conservative. Oh sure, he may be involved in a large number of illegal and immoral activities, but it's all for our safety and against those evil Muslims. He's pro-life and anti-gay marriage. What more do we need?
You know what the sad thing is? That in all likelihood Bush sincerely doesn't think he's done anything wrong. He is so far removed from reality that an Iraqi man can throw a shoe at him and he can shrug it off like it's no big deal. Go back and read the comments he made to the press after the incident a few days ago. Then think hard about the kind of mindset you have to have to say them with a straight face.
In a month, he and Cheney will leave the White House and go off to live the rest of his life in relative comfort. They will never have to face a jury. They will never have to come clean to the American people. They will never have to visit the Middle East again, or come face-to-face with Iraqi widows, or have to explain to a grieving Arab mother why her son randomly disappeared six years ago.
God bless America.
# posted by Andrew Johnson : 12/17/2008 03:05:00 AM 
