Short Stories, Long Odds

Spc. Graner was found guilty by a true jury of his peers, and may go to jail for around 18 years. Pfc. Lynndie England faces trial some time early this year.

These are the ghouls smiling in the all the famous pictures. England even recently gave birth to a child believed to be Graner’s. The argument these two and their colleagues have posed most often is that they were “just following orders.”

So, following orders absolves some people of some responsibility some of the time in some situations – if anything, soldiers not following orders based on any number of reasons in the current Politco-Military climate has become a regular thing. It also seems to be a foregone conclusion that gleeful, smiling snapshots don’t normally fall under the auspices of most ops, and certainly not in military corrections. It can be also assumed that commands wouldn’t lay along those lines.

On the absolute polar other end of the spectrum, you have Bush, Rumsfeld, and Gonzales. These are the guys who gave the big OK to the use of torture in the War On Terror. Based on a DoJ letter to White House Counsel, Gonzales made recommendations to the Bush Administration along these lines. This is information with which we’re all familiar. You may be less familiar with the White House’s smothering of a Senate bill that would have specifically regulated and forced disclosure of interrogation tactics, while prohibiting intelligence officers from torturing foreign prisoners.

So the quandry is this – where does the buck stop? We’ve all hooted and hollered about holding people high up the chain accountable for not only Abu Ghraib but an entire war based on lies. Rumsfeld and Bush will, barring some sort of legal Holy Grail, be totally bullet-proof at least until 2008. Its becoming common knowledge that the Bush White House is all but done with Rumsfeld, but, again, that pesky Politico-Military Climate comes into play. Firing Rumsfeld now would be the equivalent of admitting defeat, and that, of course, is unacceptable.

The buck doesn’t stop with Graner or England, and it obviously doesn’t make its way to Rumsfeld or Bush. The top legal authority in the United States is the Attorney General, so one might assume that the buck would stop there, but current evidence is to the contrary – Gonzales, the man who made recommendations to the White House as Special Counsel as to the legality of torture (not to mention how to get around the Geneva Conventions) is most likely going to be confirmed this week. The White House refused to make relevant communications available to Congress prior to his confirmation hearing.

The people who did the abusing and torturing are all going to go to jail, but the people who willfully created operating environmments in which that abuse and torture could take place are either immune or getting promoted.

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Sorry for the inconvenience.

I don’t always agree with MoveOn’s methods – sometimes they smack of a little more extremism than normally sits well with me. However, when they collect signatures and decide to go nuts about money or placing ads, they get things done. Hence, I recommend signing their petition against the GOP’s plan to slit Social Security up the middle.

Secondly, I’ve been hearing all kinds of ideas about protests taking place on January 20th. January 20th, in case you’d forgotten, is Inauguration Day. Many of them are impassioned, some of them are silly, and several of them require your presence in Washington D.C. The best protest I’ve heard of (and by far, the easiest one to participate in) is Not One Damn Dime Day. Some folks in Boston have decided that, if Bush will ignore millions of protestors and massive rallies, it is possible that he will pay attention to an economic boycott. So, they are encouraging everyone they can to not spend any money on January 20th.

The extreme of this idea is to avoid any economic activity whatsoever on Inauguration Day, such as not working or not paying travel costs. However, the simplest and easiest way to participate is to not spend any money. No gas, no groceries, no McDonalds, no Homies, nothing. Buy everything you’ll need for the 20th on the 19th.

Some of you might be saying that it seems silly, or that enough people won’t do it to make a difference. But I remind you that activism happens in all kinds of ways. A statement made in principle is something full of power.

Apologies for not providing something more indepth and thoroughly researched. Today I’m will simply link, and provide some angry rabble. I grew up with a belief that an act of compassion was not to be performed for self-gain. If any tangible or intangible compensation was received, humbly accept it.

Do not put on the trumpets utilizing media networks to declare, “Welp. This shure should fix us fucking some folks up.

Look at us we’re great!

Bush said U.S. aid efforts following Asia’s killer tsunami would improve America’s image in the Muslim world as fears receded that diseases and infections could kill many thousands of survivors.

“In … responding to the tsunami, many in the Muslim world have seen a great compassion in the American people,” Bush said in an interview with ABC News to be aired on Friday.

Any effort to assist the relief aid – should remain an act of compassion. Not the nervous farting hope of a royal fuck-up.

Its official, and the Burnt Orange Report had it before I did: Radnofsky sent her papers to Congress on the 10th.

According to the Burnt Orange Report article and a few other sources, Hutchison may not run for Governor after all, instead electing to retire and hang out with her kids.

Part of me wishes she would run just so I could watch the Thunderdome CageMatch between her and Governor Perry, but its nice that she’ll devote time to family and she’s been around Texas politics for years, so she’d be a strong opponent. We are seriously favored by a lack of an incumbent.

More candidates should be filing over the next three months, so we’ll see what the field grows up to be.