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Political observations
So, at work, when I'm not playing CDs or tapes, I listen to NPR. I always listen to Morning Edition, but today, I just kept it on, because at 10 AM, they were going to be broadcasting live coverage of the hearings before the state Supreme Court about whether the governor could be subjected to a subpoena to appear before the impeachement committee.
I was able to pay fairly close attention to the arguments, because, honestly, washing lettuce and making Southwest Chicken Salad wraps doesn't take a lot of brainpower.
As far as I could tell, that "separation of powers" argument that the governor's legal team is trying to use to say he can't be subpoena'd?
Totally and entirely specious.
I especially liked the part where the governor's team was trying to argue that being forced to testify would cause an undue burden on the governor and prevent him from attending to his other duties, and the committee's team pointed out that he would have to walk up exactly two flights of stairs, kthxbye.
We've had the hearings with other people testifying before the impeachment committee on in the past few days, too. "Are you saying it didn't take place or you can't recall whether it took place?" "I cannot recall whether it took place." I swear, shades of Iran-Contra. By the sixth repetition, Jen and I were catcalling rhe witness, saying "Dude, did you walk through the magnetic memory eraser on your way into the courthouse instead of the metal detector? Did the orbital mind control lasers zap you? WTF?"
And, on a federal level... the torture investigation? It's reminding me depressingly of the report I did in eleventh grade on the My Lai trial. Except it looks like the direct intent to do exactly what they did goes much further up. With My Lai, they definitely didn't chase the responsibility up as far as it extended, but I got the sense that the top guys at home were just waving their hands and saying "Will nobody rid me of this meddlingpriest population? And I don't want to know how you do it, either, just do it." And the next level down from them came up with a boneheaded plan that sounded good to them, and the people at Calley's level just went "Boneheaded plan, yes sir, doesn't make sense but nothing here has, whatever you say sir." Criminal incompetence, but eventually incompetence more than malice, on all levels, and it just got so ogly because nobody stopped to think about it. Or so I concluded when I did my report. It's been about half my lifetime ago, or a little more, so I have (happily) forgotten most of the detailed evidence, and if someone wants to present a different argument, I won't take it amiss.
But what I'm trying to say with that is, My Lai, as horrific as it was (and it was far more pervasive than just what came to trial, too, I got the impression), grew out of top-level indifference, mid-level incompetence, and a sense of futility at the closest levels to the action.
The Abu Ghraib business?
It's looking more and more like the absolute top levels came up with the direct idea of doing exactly what got done all the way down the hierarchy, with the argument "I think we have a loophole that lets us get away with this."
Now THAT is what I call depressing.
I was able to pay fairly close attention to the arguments, because, honestly, washing lettuce and making Southwest Chicken Salad wraps doesn't take a lot of brainpower.
As far as I could tell, that "separation of powers" argument that the governor's legal team is trying to use to say he can't be subpoena'd?
Totally and entirely specious.
I especially liked the part where the governor's team was trying to argue that being forced to testify would cause an undue burden on the governor and prevent him from attending to his other duties, and the committee's team pointed out that he would have to walk up exactly two flights of stairs, kthxbye.
We've had the hearings with other people testifying before the impeachment committee on in the past few days, too. "Are you saying it didn't take place or you can't recall whether it took place?" "I cannot recall whether it took place." I swear, shades of Iran-Contra. By the sixth repetition, Jen and I were catcalling rhe witness, saying "Dude, did you walk through the magnetic memory eraser on your way into the courthouse instead of the metal detector? Did the orbital mind control lasers zap you? WTF?"
And, on a federal level... the torture investigation? It's reminding me depressingly of the report I did in eleventh grade on the My Lai trial. Except it looks like the direct intent to do exactly what they did goes much further up. With My Lai, they definitely didn't chase the responsibility up as far as it extended, but I got the sense that the top guys at home were just waving their hands and saying "Will nobody rid me of this meddling
But what I'm trying to say with that is, My Lai, as horrific as it was (and it was far more pervasive than just what came to trial, too, I got the impression), grew out of top-level indifference, mid-level incompetence, and a sense of futility at the closest levels to the action.
The Abu Ghraib business?
It's looking more and more like the absolute top levels came up with the direct idea of doing exactly what got done all the way down the hierarchy, with the argument "I think we have a loophole that lets us get away with this."
Now THAT is what I call depressing.
"I think we have a loophole that lets us get away with this."
I get closer and closer to crying revolution as I get older. I used to think that the people who wanted to tear it all down and rebuilt it were just crazy... but hell, I do so hate what we have become. It might be time.
Bumper sticker seen today:
If you aren't outraged,
you aren't paying attention.
Huh.
Now now...
Totally and entirely specious.
>>>>>>
Now, now... let us be fair... His legal team could not be billing him just *HOW* much per hour if'n they didn't at least get up there and say *something...* Denying them the chance to get up there and do that would be restraint of trade... or worse... if they couldn't stand up there and say it, they might spontaneously turn into mimes and do that "walking against the wind" stuff.
>>>>>>
But what I'm trying to say with that is, My Lai, as horrific as it was (and it was far more pervasive than just what came to trial, too, I got the impression), grew out of top-level indifference, mid-level incompetence, and a sense of futility at the closest levels to the action.
The Abu Ghraib business?
It's looking more and more like the absolute top levels came up with the direct idea of doing exactly what got done all the way down the hierarchy, with the argument "I think we have a loophole that lets us get away with this."
Now THAT is what I call depressing.
>>>>>>
Naw... depressing is that 80% of what happened at Abu Ghraib happens every year in the US at those locations euphemistically referred to as "teen sport camps," and is written off as "high-spiritedness" and "tradition" by a bunch of sloped foreheaded yahoos whose major claim to fame was being on the football or wrestling team in high-school...
Now *THAT* is depressing...
Re: Now now...
Now *THAT* is depressing...
Dude, I spotted that the day the story broke. It's all stupid killer chimp behavior. I swear, I'm resigning my membership and joining the bonobos instead.