The Invisible Library

I haven’t written anything on the Torture Bill moving it’s way through Congress because of the simple fact that I shouldn’t have to state explicitly that I think torture is a bad idea. No one should. But that’s the level we’ve sunk to. So: for the record, I think torture is wrong, worthless, undemocratic and evil. I believe that the democratic freedoms upon which the US Constitution is based are Universal, Inalienable and apply to everyone, even those who wish to do us harm. Freedom is free. All you have to do is take it. And you can either take it for yourself or give it up for the illusion of safety. But if you give up your very real and tangible freedoms for a snuff of pixie dust in the form of a promise of safety than, as my hero, Ben Franklin said, you deserve neither.
Wil Wheaton elaborates on this sentiment:

What the House did yesterday, the Senate looks to do today, and the President will surely enact as soon as possible, is a direct assault on American values, and contrary to everything our country stands for. Though cynically and cowardly enacted as a purely political tool during an election, those who supported this bill do not speak for me, do not act in my name, and do not reflect my values.

Torture is not an American value. Torture is a totalitarian, sadistic value. Suspending access to courts and the right to face your accuser is not what Americans do. It is what tyrannical dictators and despots do, not a democratic republic like the one I was brought up in and love. Time and again, torture has proved unreliable to prevent or solve crimes, and it reduces our country to the level of the very terrorists we are supposedly fighting.

I believe in the right to a speedy and fair trial for everyone, even the most repugnant of defendants. No, especially for the most repugnant of defendants, because if we, as a society, can’t guarantee the most hideously accused among us that right, what is it worth to the rest of us?

George Bush and his enablers in the congress — Democrat and Republican — has done more damage to our country, and our once impeccable moral standing in the world than all the terrorists combined. President Bush and his Republican allies in congress like to say that “they hate us for our freedom,” but President Bush and his Republican allies in congress have spent the last five years working very hard to take that freedom away from the people they supposedly work for, and vest that power in something they call the Unitary Executive. If the Democrats won’t stand up to stop torture, what will they stand up for? If Congress won’t do its constitutional duty now, then when?

I don’t know when they will stand up, but if it isn’t soon than perhaps they deserve to loose their precious jobs and we’ll vote for some other party, as yet to be formed.

Update 11:09 PM:

As usual, the Onion puts things in perspective. You’ll cry laughing. Then you’ll just cry.

This little piece of GOP Astroturf has been circulating through people’s email inboxes for a few weeks now and my father-in-law sent it on to my wife:

Cindy & Chavez
Venezuela Dictator Vows To Bring Down U.S. Government

Venezuela government is sole owner of Citgo gasoline company

Venezuela Dictator Hugo Chavez has vowed to bring down the U.S. government. Chavez, president of Venezuela, told a TV audience: “Enough of imperialist aggression; we must tell the world: down with the U.S. empire. We have to bury imperialism this century.”

The guest on his television program, beamed across Venezuela, was Cindy Sheehan, the antiwar activist. Chavez recently had as his guest Harry Belafonte, who called President Bush “the greatest terrorist in the world.”

Chavez is pushing a socialist revolution and has a close alliance with Cuban dictator Fidel Castro.

Regardless of your feelings about the war in Iraq, the issue here is that we have a socialist dictator vowing to bring down the government of the U.S And he is using our money to achieve his goal!

The Venezuela government, run by dictator Chavez, is the sole owner of Citgo gas company.

Sales of products at Citgo stations send money back to Chavez to help him in his vow to bring down our government.

Take Action

Please decide that you will not be shopping at a Citgo station. Why should U.S. citizens who love freedom be financing a dictator who has vowed to take down our government?

Very important. Please forward this to your friends and family. Most of them don’t know that Citgo is owned by the Venezuela government.

To which my wife replied:

Ummm, dictator?
He was elected by a landslide by the people of the Democratic republic of Venezuela. He has angered a lot of US private companies and politicans in the government by taking away their profit from the oil they were exporting out of the country only giving back 10%. He may say stupid things, but so has Bush. But he is trying to do what is best for his country in keeping the money to create social reform which is so badly needed. He isn’t hurting our country by doing this, he’s hurting the private companies run by CEO’s who are making huge profits from his country and who have the US government giving them tax breaks because of the “oil crisis”, eventhough, they released reports showing a 30% profit this year.

Of course there are a lot of people in the US who want us to believe that he is a crazed lunatic. Of course he is, he is thinking of the social welfare of his people who have been taken advantage by their government and ours for years. This is not a capitalistic way of thinking, which is profit for profit sakes. Lay off your workers, but hire new CEOs. I would rather buy from CITGO than from BP, who knew about the problem in the pipeline in Alaska for years, but never addressed it until it cracked.

Don’t believe everything on the internet…there is always two sides to everything.

Chavez has, like most people of power, a strange and sometimes bewildering mixture of good intentions and completely absurd rhetoric. Calling Bush the Devil at the UN was a little over the top. Bush is mendacious, despicable, and a god damned liar but the devil he is not and we don’t need overheated religious imagery to make this point clear. But Chavez is very religious and that sort of hyperbole is innate to the religious mindset. But he is not trying to undermine the US government, just point out that Bush is bad for our country, something he and Sheehan (and myself and thousands of others) have in common. So yeah, if you think that US oil companies should pad their own wallets at the expense of the welfare of both US and Venezuelan people, than sure, boycot Citgo. But realize that your doing so, not as a patriot or a Christian but as a tool of Big Oil and the Bush Administration’s greed.