Having seen Larry Summers defend banker bonuses by claiming that we're a nation of laws, and thus we couldn't possibly renegotiate or abrogate AIG contracts (not even a good legalistic lie: see previous link), despite the occasional demand for workers to do just that, namely those in the auto and airline industry, I was reminded of Mark Danner's piece on torture, Voices from the Black Sites. Yeah, we're "a nation of laws"...but only when it's most convenient. Add it to the must-read section of your To-Do List, especially if you don't have the time or the inclination to read Jane Mayer's book, The Dark Side.
This issue will not, and should not, go away until we have the full measure of justice: and not just a righteous historical verdict ten years from now. Interestingly, Republicans have strategically shut up Tricky Dick II after he went on the airwaves spouting the typical fear-mongering that Obama's detainee policies make us less safe. What he also brazenly claimed was that the Bush detainee policies "were absolutely essential to the success we enjoyed of being able to collect the intelligence that let us defeat all further attempts to launch attacks against the United States since 9/11." Ok, let's look into that. That is either true or false; let's investigate to see which one. He went on: "It [meaning torture] was done legally. It was done in accordance with our constitutional practices and principles." Again, let's see, shall we? What are you...scared, Republicans?
Not only can we see the conspicuousness of the corporatist nanny state with all their water carrying apparatchiks, like Mr. Geitner and the Mr. Summers, we are also overtly reminded that torture----defined rather liberally as "constitutional practices and principles"-----has kept us safe. What those two hard realities of the state of this "republic" have in common, we are told, is "the rule of law." Keep talking, Mr. Cheney----and you too, Mr. Summers....Keep talking: A discussion about our laws, principles, practices---and let's not forget contracts----is long overdue.
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