Bush Speaks

I hate to say it, but I believe part of what Dubya is saying today. He's talking about how congress isn't doing anything really productive. To me, this is a part of the extended extended campaign season for presidency. Congress is using its Democratic majority to keep anything from getting done. Partly this makes Bush look bad because nothing's happening, but at the same time it makes the Dems look bad because they're blocking things from happening in their passive-aggressive way.

But I actually like the way Bush is using his press address power to call out congress in their attempts to hold up meaningful work.

Now it is possible that he's just spinning the situation, and that there have been meaningful bills passed. If you can inform me of some progress made this session by congress, please set me straight. I would much rather feel that Democratic congress is good.

And now of course in the Q&A he is getting really defensive and impatient. I like it when that happens. The press keeps trying to trick him into commenting on something, and he keeps saying "you're trying to trick me", then he ends up frustrated.

Happy Wooden Anniversary!

Today is the fifth anniversary of the day that Bush authorized the war in Iraq.

Wow. I guess this is what he meant when he said "hard work". It's hard work not restoring electricity or water to the people. It's hard work trying to fight every battle in the world. It's hard work getting your name in the history books. It's hard work knocking down regimes we created in the first place.

Definition of Torture

I am sick of all this torture nonsense. It is so obvious that the we (the US) use torture to extract information. Even though Bush says we don't do torture, we have memos authorizing humiliation tactics, stress positions, and other crazy interrogation techniques. In fact, it turns out that the things we saw in photos at Abu Ghraib weren't just the work of a few rebels. They were actually what the soldiers were told were OK to do. They were commonplace at our prisons all over the world (maybe not here in the US). But Bush said that "this isn't how we do it" and "we're going to get to the bottom of it". But then the memos show that the photos showed the normal behavior.

Now I am not so sure that scaring people with dogs, or parading them around naked is really that bad of a treatment that it should be outrageous and considered torture. But I do think it is a really dumb way to try to get information. I think it is more of a retaliation, or vengance from the soldiers and even our whole government to get back at this enemy that we can't quite pin down. HOWEVER, Bush came out and said "wow, that's not right" while all along, it was what the administration was specifically authorizing. In other words, our government was instructing our interrogation officers to act in a way that it did not believe was the right way. When discovered, lies were used to act as if that isn't the way that we do it.

I thought Bush was supposed to be this great religious guy. Now I am not a religous expert, but it seems to me that acting in a way that you believe to be wrong is not the most direct way for a Christian to "get to heaven". (A side note, I don't buy the vengeful God thing, and I don't think you need to do anything special to get to heaven, except for die)

Now finally, the point from the title. Amidst all these memos, and "we don't do torture" talk, the right has done a pretty good job of shifting the debate to the "definition of torture". That's just a bunch of BS! It is a tactic that the administration is using in other areas of its policy. It is a redirection strategy. Just like offering a baby his pacifier when he's crying about something else, the administration is leading us away from the thing it doesn't want us to think about. It is like when you do two bad things - one really bad and one not as bad - then you admit to the less bad one, and get off the hook for the really bad one. (I wish I had a good example - maybe I can think of one later and edit this post).

Some retired General that used to do all the interrogation said it best on the radio the other day. (I'm paraphrasing) "If in the old days you would have told us that we should use force to extract information, it would have been a big joke. We relied on our wits and knowledge of psychology to get information." Now that is something that makes sense. Too bad we lost our wits and knowledge of psychology once we became obsessed with TV 97 hours a day. Or maybe it was using Doom to train soldiers that got us a bit over violent.