Cheney and Torture

We know how VP Cheney feels about torture. After Senator McCain's amendment specifically demanding that there to be no torture of detainees was passed in the Senate, VP Cheney went to the Senate and tried mightly to have it rescinded.

So, where do others who appeared on Sunday talk shows stand? Lets have a little looksee. Why don't we start with who might back VP Cheney? Senator Orrin Hatch (R) Utah, on CBS's "Face the Nation" said he supports the VP's efforts to gain a CIA exemption. He stated that the administration opposes torture, yet stated further, "They're going to do everything in their power to make sure that our citizens in the United States of America are protected."

Someone against? Senator Chuck Hagel (R) Nebraska on "This Week) on ABC gave us this. "I think the administration is making a terrible mistake in opposing John McCain's amendment on detainees and torture. Why in the world they're doing that, I don't know."

Now that we have the for and against, let us have a word from the person who submitted the amendment in the first place. Senator John McCain, (R) Arizona, on "Fox News Sunday" gives us this quote. "Our image in the world is suffering very badly, and one of the reasons for it is the perception that we abuse people that we take captive."

We would rather expect Hatch to spew the administration line. His ethics have, for many years been suspect partly because of his direct participation in the supplement world, hosted in large part in his home state of Utah. So, ethics isn't really his big issue anyway. It is interesting how he contends that the administration opposes torture, but VP Cheney is doing everything in his power to allow it. And, lest any should forget, this administration gave us the Gonzalez opinion telling us that torture was ok in some cases. Written by Mr. Addington, VP Cheney's replacement for I. Lewis Libby. That they had to rescind it after they had their asses handed to them by the nation at large, does not make me comfortable that these folks are here to protect my rights in any way.

Senator Hagel is using something called "Common Sense" when he wonders why the administration opposes the McCain amendment. Torture has been shown to be entirely ineffective in gathering information from detainees. Not just once, or just recently, but for many years by a host of nations and entities. Hopefully, he will continue to press on this subject and keep it before the public eye.

Senator McCain is the only one who could have given the weight necessary to make this amendment happen. Having been a POW for five years during the Vietnam debacle, he has the moral authority to carry the flag and state the case.

Remembering as I do the speeches, articles, television and radio pouring vile upon those who would torture, it seems to me that Bushco is trying its damndest to drag this country down the path taken by ocracy's and ism's since time immemorial. They do not seem to understand that the reasons for resisting torture of detainees is not for them as much as it is for us. When we see human rights as ok for me but not you, regardless of the reason, we have taken a step towards destroying the vary things that this country has stood for since it's inception.

That some of the above has already happened with the Patriot Act, the decision to take Food Stamps from 300,000 of the worst off among us, while funneling billions into the useless endeavor that is Iraq, makes me for one, very sad and concerned.

Bushco: Spreading Democracy Through Torture.