Enough with Nancy Pelosi

My colleagues are at it again, and by that I mean they are salivating over Republican talking points and ignoring the real issues.

This week's diversion, of course, is the dizzying discussion of what Nancy Pelosi knew and when she knew it, as if that actually matters. Whether Pelosi, or any other member of Congress knew or did not know about what the Bush administration was doing in the name of the American people but behind our backs is irrelevant.

What matters is what the Bush administration did and why did they hide it.

The second part of that is easily answered. They hid it because they knew it was wrong. They knew it was torture, and they knew it was wrong. Period. End of story. Despite my beloved colleagues game attempts to convince you otherwise, there is no gray area here. The "ticking bomb" scenario only happens on "24." So let me say this again.

Torture is wrong. The Bush administration tortured people in our names. Torture is wrong. Always.

So please. Let's shut up about what the CIA did or did not tell Nancy Pelosi in 2002. Let's talk about what the United States was doing to detainees in 2002. And 2003. And 2004. All the way up until George W. Bush left office. Maybe longer.

Let's talk about how many of the detainees who underwent torture -- and torture goes far beyond waterboarding -- were actually "terrorists" at all. And how many of them came to hate the United States after their treatment at the hands of U.S. interrogators.

And let's talk about how the vice president's office desperately wanted some connection between al-Qaeda and Saddam Hussein, and it didn't really matter if it was true or not. They only wanted to be able to say they had "intelligence" connecting them. What they didn't say, though, was that the "intelligence" was wrung out of detainees under torture. What would you tell an interrogator if you were waterboarded 83 times in a month? 183 times?

Let's talk about an administration that bent the Constitution to its will and wants it to stay that way so that no one will know the extent to which they undermined the very foundation of this country.

And let's launch an investigation of these things. An independent investigation that can look into everything -- including what Nancy Pelosi knew or didn't know, what she objected to or didn't object to.

But most of all, let's stop this insane game of speculation, coming up with document after document, each one appearing to contradict the one before -- but all of them being a very vague and incomplete record of a shadowy and hidden policy.

Nancy Pelosi isn't the problem here, and yet my colleagues have spent countless hours discussing her, and virtually no hours discussing why there's even a question about her role at all.

It's time to stop. Now.

It's time to stop being afraid, time to own up to what's been done by us and to us.

Time to stop pretending to be a moral giant among nations and actually become one.

Time to say the word "torture" and look it square in the face, to acknowledge that this is what we did.

Until we do, recovery from the disaster of the last eight years will elude us. This point is key. It is the very symbol of the depravity that follows when a nation's leadership believes the law does not apply to them, no matter how "great" that nation believes itself to be.

We must put it behind us. But before we do, we have to take it all in, embrace what we did, as distasteful as that is. Only then can we truly let it go and move on.

To do otherwise is to condemn ourselves to follow this destructive path again.

Enough with the distractions. Nancy Pelosi is not the issue. Nancy Pelosi is just a shiny object the Republicans are dangling in front of our ADHD eyes. And we, my colleagues and I, are jumping after it like a cat after a moth. Even if we catch it, the victory will be insubstantial because we've ignored the real issue.

Torture. That's the real issue -- the only one that matters in this discussion.


AWOP Political Contributing Editor
Author of Stop the Press!

Cross-posted at Stop the Press!

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Peace Y'all

Let's Talk About Conservative Pretense

As right-wing mouth-breathers continue to scream against Obama's so-called "socialist agenda" and his "pork-laden stimulus package," let's remind the Chicken Littles what 8 years of conservative leadership in Washington D.C. have wrought us:

* Misled the American people into an endless war in Iraq that has made the United States less safe, has resulted in the death and injury of thousands of American troops and Iraqis, has cost American taxpayers as much as one trillion dollars, has strained our military to the breaking point, and has prevented us from finishing the job in Afghanistan.
* Stood idly by while thousands of Americans lost everything during Hurricane Katrina – and still haven’t taken leadership to rebuild the Gulf Coast and help people return home.
* Allowed trickle-down, laissez-faire economics to help the rich get richer, while regular Americans struggle with soaring gas and food prices, a meltdown in the housing market, and exploding debt during today’s economic recession.
* Turned control of our country’s health care system over to insurance and pharmaceutical companies, leaving millions of Americans incapable of paying for the rising costs of health benefits and turning emergency rooms into primary care physicians.
* Broke their promise to America’s children, failing to fund early education programs and No Child Left Behind.
* Ignored the scientific reality of climate change, obstructing efforts to make our air and water cleaner so oil and gas companies and big business could achieve record profits.
* Turned their backs on America’s workers, assaulting workers’ rights and impeding regular Americans’ efforts to form unions and bargain for better pay and working conditions.

The reason why I bring this all up is because we still have conservative Republicans whining over earmarks in Obama's stimulus package, which contain solutions to the very same problems I listed above! The conservative grousing would be laughable if it weren't so damn hypocritical. Lady Rose of Sanity Rant gives a perfect example. She writes:

The Republicans whining over earmarks is just as silly and totally hypocritical because they load up a ton of earmarks into every spending bill. A prime example was Sen. Lindsey Graham's interview this weekend where he contradicts himself exceprt:

"We do need earmark reform," said Graham. "I wish [the president] would veto the bill, we'd get back together and come up with the earmark reform process." Seconds later, however, Graham was reminded that he himself had inserted 37 earmarks in the legislation, including $950,000 for "a convention center in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina." After defending the transparency and necessity of such an expenditure, Graham finally finished the 180, saying of the Myrtle Beach funding: "I voted to take all earmarks out, but I will come back in the new process and put that back in."

So he is basically saying, lets pretend to have stand for NO earmarks and stop this budget so the Republicans can claim victory, but later when no one is looking he will put back in his own earmarks.

But don't listen to us ramble on about the GOP sanctimoniousness...take a listen straight from the horses' mouths'!

Mark Bruno
AWOP Politics Contributor
Author of Left Of Center Blog

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