Our Foreign Country, or How to Think like a "Conservative"

By giving its advice and consent to ratification of this Convention, the Senate of the United States will demonstrate unequivocally our desire to bring an end to the abhorrent practice of torture.

This is great! Looks like Congress and the Executive got their shit together and finally ratified some new anti-torture law to deter future "infractions" after the Bush debacle(s). This is a relief because now U.S. officials can't claim there's no existing domestic laws binding us to international standards of humane treatment, like the those someone would find perusing through the Geneva Conventions (and I guess maybe our 8th Amendment, of course).

Wait. Ooops...This is from 1988.

But surely it must have been some Democrat that signed such an unpatriotic law. Those pussies. They're not allowed to carry out the law.

No? IT WAS RONALD REAGAN who signed this?

He signed the U.N. Convention Against Torture?

Well...he was a pinko in his younger years. No strong Republican would dare sign such a law these days. Everything's changed. In fact, everything's changed so much that pre-9/11 is a foreign country. Richard Cohen sagely opines:

"The past is a foreign country; they do things differently there." So goes an aphorism that needs to be applied to the current debate over whether those who authorized and used torture should be prosecuted. In the very different country called Sept. 11, 2001, the answer would be a resounding no.

Well, even if we can't get past The Gipper's signature on the U.N. Convention, it still wouldn't be binding: At least as long as we casually disregard this little insignificant, "foreign country" of a founding document:

This Constitution, and the laws of the United States which shall be made in pursuance thereof; and all treaties made, or which shall be made, under the authority of the United States, shall be the supreme law of the land; and the judges in every state shall be bound thereby, anything in the Constitution or laws of any State to the contrary notwithstanding.

They're hoping so much that people like Cohen will win the day that they're starting to pre-empt even the Attorney General in declaring his decision not to prosecute. They really mustn't worry; the prosecution hasn't got a case, and the American people just wouldn't stand for it.

People like Glenn Greenwald are simply fanatics.

Tom Tomorrow's got our foreign country pinned down rather succinctly, here.

And here's an ironic and tragic symbol of a backwards country. This man was a WWII vet. Who really needs social welfare?

*For a true conservative viewpoint, see Bruce Fein.

*The worst part about Mr. Schur's passing:

Schur died a slow, painful death. "He probably had a lot of burning pain in his fingers and toes. Gradually his body gave out," he said. "It takes many, many hours to come
to the end."