olbermann and brig. gen. karpinski

Okay just a couple of quick posts. I'm working hard at working on writing instead of spending ridiculous hours screwing off on the net.

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I saw this on Olbermann's show last night, and the piece literally sent shivers up my spine. This woman is pissed. She is the retired brigadier general who, I believe, was in charge of our prison system in Iraq. She takes Cheney et al to task for coming out now and saying things like these acts of torture were necessary, and that we 'got good intel' out of tormenting people (not that i agree with that statement). Her question is, then where were they five years ago when all the supposed 'bad apples' were being prosecuted for doing what they were told?

Uh, short answer, they were letting nobodies take the fall for the illegal acts they authorized. Nobodies, it should be noted, who are still serving time.

Not that this woman is a saint, although she says she took the directives on torture--that were brought in directly from Guantanamo, btw; remember who ordered that these tactics be used down there?--and took them up the chain of command repeatedly, asking if this was really, really what we wanted to be doing.

At any rate, watch the piece. It's quite moving.

Here's a quick one (scroll down to the lower clip for the short version): Shep Smith, of Fox News, freaking out on live tv and pounding the table saying what thinking Republicans should have been saying since 2003: "We are America! We do not fucking torture!"

Yep, unless we're so hopelessly blinded by partisanship that we follow wherever our Great Leader tells us to go. And do not dare make the argument that this is the same on the left as it is on the right. Bush's supporters followed him mindlessly; at least Obama's supporters have the gray matter available to occasionally raise questions.