I have not written much on torture, after all, I once worked in operations for the Agency. I read so much about it, and even see fictionalizations on television, as in the ever-present Dirty Harry of our time....Jack Bauer on 24. Jack represents what is right. What is definitively right. Only television can allow such definitive right to be truly known. We get to actually see the bad guys and gals being, and intending to be, the bad guys and galls. With that definitive righteousness in hand, Jack can take drill bits, hack saws and other implements into his own hands....and do the actual cutting. And he gets the information that is so vitally necessary to save whatever city, or other large population center, is in peril.
And it is all poppycock. And Jack is forgiven, on screen and off screen. After all, we have seen the evil for ourselves. We can see that the torture applied really worked. And then we can carry this fiction over into reality. We can believe that the people we are having do the torture, those who are our own 'real' agents, are practicing this horrid unforgivable behavior on proven evil bastards and bitches.
And it is all poppycock. Here are some truths about real torture applied:
1. It is often applied to people who know nothing. They have simply been alleged to know something, or rumored to know something. We never ever get the scenario of 'We have the person who planted the bomb and knows where it is but won't tell us.' We instead get lots of rumors and snitching on friends, enemies or those who other people want out of the way. The information givers know that the person who is going to be tortured will probably never be seen again.
2. Real torture does not lend itself to having the tortured person left alive after it is administered. Real torture is not something that can even be told to the public! How about the simple fact that for real torture to work the subject must believe that he or she is not going to survive it, no matter what. They are made to 'talk' only so the pain can end. How do you induce that state of belief in a subject? Why, any number of ways; like cutting their limbs off, or other body parts. That is done just to get the subject's attention! Is this data that our public can stand to hear or know about? Not on your life. Not in the real world. Only on 24 is that okay.
3. People who do the torturing like to torture people. They are the same people who liked to spray cats with gasoline and then light them in grade school, or tear the wings off birds. They are out there. All one has to do is offer them a job. Do you think the Nazi machine had to force people to gas all those Jews? They simply asked for volunteers to serve in the crematoriums. They got plenty. And look at the record. Those people, killing Jews all day long, partied on into the night and on holidays, like they were building cars or making boxes. We actually reward deviant behavior by allowing, endorsing and applying physical torture. Then we bring these sickos back into our culture as honorably serving heroes.
4. Judges put people in prison much more readily if they don't like them. Cops give tickets and make arrests much more frequently if they do not like the victims. We all know this. We are all cowed in their presence, because we know this. People torture people they do not like. It is simple logic. Especially for the kind of people who want to do this sort sick thing. They are sick, and they are loosed upon a pack of victims by us. Some of the victims may have done terrible things, or know terrible information. We might even get it through torture. Then we can live as the dark black creatures we so abominate and decry. And what have we then saved?
5. People, like Charles Krauthammer, encourage torture, like combat, if they have no exposure to it. From back here it is all clear and distant. Like dropping bombs from forty thousand feet. How many air force guys suffer from PTSD? Not many. It is clean and very very distant, and also kind of unknown. And so it is with creeps like Krauthammer. He has not life experience at all. Gifted with money from birth. His only saving grace at all is his disability, but he has learned nothing from it. I encourage people to read his stuff. Although I never want to see anybody on this planet tortured, I sometimes harbor day dreams about people like Krauthammer being tortured, then allowed to write a column. Think it would be a little different?
6. We won't punish anybody for torturing in our name. We cannot have it come out what we really did. Obama knows this. He has all the data. He believes he is there to save us from ourselves. From knowing ourselves, even. Mythology is important. Read Joe Campbell. He sure has. Sometimes it is only mythology that gets us through. But Obama is wrong here. We will repeat our torturing period again, if we don't 'out' this mess. We will bring torture down upon ourselves in the future, if we do not proclaim the people who did the torturing as sick servants of our secretive intelligence culture, and then deny them a welcome return to our society. And that goes for each and every leader who supported or endorsed their actions.
7. We had physicians and psychologists who supported, and even applied, torture to many subjects. These people must have their licenses to practice pulled, at the very least. They are coming back here to work on this population. They are coming back to be you and your families doctors. You don't have to be afraid of combat veterans. If they were involved in real combat then they do not want to be involved anymore. But not so those sick doctors. They have come to know what works, and they will use those tools again, if they can find a way to.
8. Physical torture always works. Always. Nobody can stand against it. McCain did not. Why do you suppose he has remained so vitally opposed to POW investigations or searches? Think about it? He does not want any of those veterans left to reveal that he broke down a lot further than has been discussed. And I like John McCain! But John broke. Everyone breaks. Most just don't survive. Almost none survive. So where are the stories? On paper. Paper can be burned. And do not forget that torture always works, but with one single caveat. It must be applied to someone who has the information you want or need. That is what is uncommon. Most people tortured don't know the answer, and they die that way. The torturer simply tells his or her assistants: "next."
Argue with this essay, if you will. Krauthammer would, except I am too small for such a known pundit to bother with. Torture is another thing that I never ever would have thought that I would be writing about anywhere or at any time, in conjunction with the conduct of American Military or Intelligence Units. It is a subject of shame to me, as it should be to all Americans who consider themselves true patriots.
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Soon as we got a Democrat in the White House, a bunch of Senators claiming to be Democrats rushed to show how independent they are, declaring they won’t necessarily vote in support of the President’s agenda that he was elected to enact. As a Hoosier, I’ll put Indiana’s Evan Bayh (pronounced “Bye” or “Buy”) at the top of the list.
Mr. Obama is right to allow politicians to vote their “consciences” (oxymoron is obvious). Where he’s wrong is in promising to raise money for them. I won’t give one penny to support ANY Senator who fails to toe the line and earnestly help the President do what he promised. Many promises were made. If they’re not kept because Democrats in the Senate support powerful banks and other lobbies against the people who support Mr. Obama’s agenda, then Bayh-Bayh to them come the primary.
If self-described Democrats in the Senate refuse to push through the President’s agenda, then it’s up to us to FIND SOMEONE WHO WILL. I won’t give money to or raise money for Evan Bayh or Arlen Spector or any of the approximately eight others who have declared themselves “independent” of this cause.
They want our money and votes only to betray us to the powerful lobbyists who own them. We need to start work right now finding better people to run against them in the primaries and start raising the money they’ll need to win.
We kept McCain and Palin out of the White House. We certain can put Bayh, Specter and those other eight “independent” Democrats OUT of the Senate. CHANGE is coming to America.
Yebahca
Janud aaduansaku
Uadnaksn
The meeting in the Capitol's Strom Thurmond Room on March 11 was a Republican effort led by Sens. McCain of Arizona, John Thune of South Dakota, and Mel Martinez of Florida to reach out to Hispanics. But two people who attended the session say they were taken aback by McCain's anger.What began as a collegial airing of views abruptly changed when McCain spoke about immigration, according to these sources, who asked not to be identified for fear of retribution. Anonymity was also requested by a third source, who was not at the meeting but was told, independently of the other two, that McCain had displayed his notorious temper."He was angry," one source said. "He was over the top. In some cases, he rolled his eyes a lot. There were portions of the meeting where he was just staring at the ceiling, and he wasn't even listening to us. We came out of the meeting really upset."McCain's message was obvious, the source continued: After bucking his party on immigration, he had no sympathy for Hispanics who are dissatisfied with President Obama's pace on the issue. "He threw out [the words] 'You people -- you people made your choice. You made your choice during the election,' " the source said. "It was almost as if [he was saying] 'You're cut off!' We felt very uncomfortable when we walked away from the meeting because of that."
The meeting in the Capitol's Strom Thurmond Room on March 11 was a Republican effort led by Sens. McCain of Arizona, John Thune of South Dakota, and Mel Martinez of Florida to reach out to Hispanics. But two people who attended the session say they were taken aback by McCain's anger.
What began as a collegial airing of views abruptly changed when McCain spoke about immigration, according to these sources, who asked not to be identified for fear of retribution. Anonymity was also requested by a third source, who was not at the meeting but was told, independently of the other two, that McCain had displayed his notorious temper.
"He was angry," one source said. "He was over the top. In some cases, he rolled his eyes a lot. There were portions of the meeting where he was just staring at the ceiling, and he wasn't even listening to us. We came out of the meeting really upset."
McCain's message was obvious, the source continued: After bucking his party on immigration, he had no sympathy for Hispanics who are dissatisfied with President Obama's pace on the issue. "He threw out [the words] 'You people -- you people made your choice. You made your choice during the election,' " the source said. "It was almost as if [he was saying] 'You're cut off!' We felt very uncomfortable when we walked away from the meeting because of that."
Henry M
Oajdn
It is difficult for 'common' Americans to understand the mindset of the wealthy in our country. For one thing, we common folk do not encounter these people very often. They travel by private air, boat, and yes, sometimes, even private rail. They eat out at exclusive clubs or special parts of restaurants dedicated to them. They limo, or have drivers. They live in chateaus which are penetrable only by their coded limo devices or from the air, by their private helicopters. It is a sneaky quiet dimension layered above the dimension we ordinarily inhabit, so we just don't see them. Occasionally, very occasionally, they come out for public events. You will know them by the looks of discomfort on their faces. The forced good will. The nodding paternalistic smile downward toward the rest of us. That we allowed their creation, existence and continuance is never even mentioned, anywhere. It is a truly secret world they live in.
I know some of them. I work for Hollywood, so sometimes I am graced by their presence. It can be delightfully humorous to listen to their chatter about these tough economic times. I actually listened to one man discuss how he was going to fly to Florida on his G-5 Gulfstream jet (12 passenger) instead of his Canadair Challenger (28 passenger wide body). He honestly and openly stated that he was trying to do his part for the economy and to be more green. I did not laugh. I worked on my chunk of prime rib looking down. Here is another one. Different dinner. This time the host almost broke down and cried. We were dining in his five million dollar chateau, by the way, one of three which he owns that I know of. He was terribly emotionally upset about discharging his long time driver of his limo. I spoke up on this issue, and complimented him for his obvious discomfort over the driver's loss of his long-time job. The table went quiet. The man then went on to explain in detail that the driver was a good man. He would find another job. The grief the man was experiencing was due to the fact that everyone was going to know that he no longer had a driver. That he was having to drive himself.
Now can you understand why the executives flew to Washington for bailout money in their private jets? When they were called on it, what did the do in reaction? They were extremely angry! They do not live in our world. They do not even have any comprehension of our world anymore. They are like Regis Philben on Regis and Kelly in the morning t.v. show. Regis can't remember anything anymore. Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, Pelosi, Kerry, McCain, Kennedy...the party affiliation does not matter. What matters is the wealth and the overpowering "God meant me to have this because I am special" mentality. Those people feel that is is part of their obligation to God Himself that they be kept wealthy and, and this is the really hilarious part, that the rest of us be kept poor. Or in our place, at least. You see, God meant us to be poor. And there it is.
Watch closely, after reading this short article, and see what you can pick up about those people. You will begin to frown, then smile and maybe even snarl, if you watch long enough.
