President Bush: Passionate About Torture
Paul Krugman asks a question in his column today that I've been wondering lately: Why is President Bush so enamored of the power to take detainees into a little room and torture them? What about this draws him on a psychological level? Most of us have a built-in revulsion to inflicting pain but there are those kids who show an early predilection to torturing animals. It has been reported that young George was one of them. So how does that translate into his actions as our Commander In Chief? I believe President Bush has waged a tireless struggle to attain limitless power for the executive branch, but not for some legalistic constitutional argument. Clearly that's not what's driving this. I believe he is one of those people who derives an extremely strong rush knowing that he has absolute power over other living creatures in a situation. This could be a little bird in his youth or one of the 14,000 detainees he has in a legal vacuum right now in secret prisons around the world. The thought that people he has ordered captured are now in little rooms somewhere screaming in intense panic as they believe they're being drowned, must be okay with President Bush. That power might even excite him. The whole argument about doing everything possible to make this country safe falls apart when you look at things he doesn't seem interested in: Secure borders and ports. He was presented with a number of areas and the one that really got him going was the subject of torture. He is passionate about it. He lies that the Geneva Convention and our laws need to be cleared up, but that is simply not true. They are extremely straightforward. America has outlawed torture.
Of course, you could argue that we're seeing an administration that is desperately trying to cover itself for crimes they've already committed. Maybe the point is to have these laws work retroactively and protect this administration from criminal prosecution. I suppose that's possible, but we have to rely on our sense of President Bush's psychological makeup - his inherent ability to do good or to inflict pain. I know if my actions had gotten tens of thousands of people killed and wounded I would show the weight of their suffering. You could argue that President Bush has held up so well physically because he honestly believes in what he's doing, but that doesn't explain it enough. Even if you also believed in what you were doing as much, it would affect most of us tremendously to know we had caused little children to burn to death in some horrible military attack. President Bush doesn't seem that weighted down by it. He seems downright effervescent as he rides his bicycle and stubbornly sticks to his agenda. He can get intense at times. In fact, I've rarely seem him get as worked up as he did Friday responding to questions about torture. He wants to continue torturing people very badly. This is one of his most prized powers - one he is fighting desperately to retain. The only conclusion I can reach is that among all the other negative traits such as his low intelligence, there is another problem that is really much worse: The President is a sicko.
posted by Bill McDonald @ 11:40 PM
17 comments
17 Comments:
Now, now. It's just the booze talkin'.
I'm not sure President Bush is drunk. Usually drunks have trouble speaking and act recklessly... Hmm.
Meanwhile, it's been nearly 23 years since I drank but if this administration keeps up, I'm thinking about joining him.
Bush's history of animal cruelty and abuse is well documented. At the time he was first running for president, his handlers dismissed such reports as childhood pranks (youthful indiscretion?). But most shrinks agree (no, not all) that kids who abuse animals grow up to be not so good adults.
I think Bush should be a poster boy for ASPCA. And AA too, for that matter.
He does seem sort of emotionless or as if he's reciting empotional reactions that's he's memorized.
Bush is beginning to remind me a bit of Nixon towards the end of his Presidency when people started to realize that Nixon wasn't just mean spirited he was friggin nuts. Time to declare a 'code squirrel' and haul out another one. It's not totally Georges fault it's a tough job that you would have to be unbalanced to want in the first place but even if you weren't the pressure itself could make a person crack. He is the perfect example of why the founding fathers wanted a division of power in this country.
Why is it that the left's hyperbole automatically goes into freakazoid mode whenever the polls go South on them and their election prospects dampen? Now its the 'young W tortured animals' meme? What's next? W drowned a woman when he was drunk and drove his car off a Massachusetts bridge?
"Most of us have a built-in revulsion to inflicting pain....." Yeah, and most of us have a built in revulsion to failing to stop terrorists from murdering us because our government was hog-tied and 'failed to connect the dots'.
Leave it to the right wingnuts (like Butchy) to reframe the topic to their fancy. When confronted with hard facts, Tony (FOX) Snow just says "that's old news." Gee, so is Ted's adventure. Ted, like George, was a drunk. Ted may have been responsible for a death. George (and his handlers) are responsible for tens of thousands of deaths. And those he killed probably never got a blow job.
The real horror of this administration is not just George (the front man), but his handlers. They have a long history of quietly planning to take power by whatever means they see fit.
Cheney, Wolfowitz, Bolton, Libby et al are committed to reducing the three branches to one -- theirs.
They of course forget that humble little document that includes these words:
"But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security."
LOL! Laurelhurstdad....where can I get me wunnah those ReynoldsWrap hats?
...and leave it to the Fox-educated children like Butch to think the Declaration of Independence is some sort of wacko document.
No, I hold great reverence for the document. Enough so that I recognize what the founding fathers actually considered "absolute Despotism". To trivialize it as you do because of your personal disdaine for a President trying to protect using every LEGAL means at his disposal is shameful........and a wee bit deranged. Don't worry dad, in 2 short years you'll have someone else to vent your vitriol on....
2 short years? How about 2 incredibly long years? And Butch: That crack about the Reynolds Wrap hats really hurt, especially since I had one on at the time.
Rat,
Why is discussion of the evil-doers in Washington a sign of 'going down hill?' Are you afraid to discuss what the neocons are up to? Do you have something to hide?
Some people are beginning to wake up and regain their minds. The rest of us have known since Ronnie's era that the right want all for themselves, regardless of the cost to the country as a whole.
Why, I'm pretty sure that Wolfowitz is responsible for the Tram boondoggle. Beware!
"Why, I'm pretty sure that Wolfowitz is responsible for the Tram boondoggle. Beware!"
Sad thing is.....I don't know if you are joking there. You probably thought it was a diabolical plot to discredit liberals in a liberal strong hold.
What's going downhill is America under President Bush.
This blog is soaring like an eagle. Okay, would you believe a turkey?
"Go ahead and claim that none of them has been proved, but doesn't just the sheer number of accusations against this "president" give you pause for doubt?"
No, I just look at who's making them. If I went to a Klan rally, I could find 100 people claiming the Jews killed JFK. I see no difference here.
Rat,
"This blog is going downhill fast.."
Just when you think the only way left to it is uphill...
"What is it that has caused the left to lose their minds?"
What minds?
"Some people are beginning to wake up and regain their minds."
Again. What minds?
"The rest of us have known since Ronnie's era that the right want all for themselves, regardless of the cost to the country as a whole."
Secure in this "knowledge", presumably laurelhurstdad is passing it on to his kid(s).
"Fair and Balanced" I'd say.
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