Stains From the Bush Era Won’t Fade

[laststeamtrain]

Stains From the Bush Era Won’t Fade
http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/20090715_reflection_no_longer_an_option/
Posted on Jul 15, 2009

By Marie Cocco

<snip>

The legacy of the Bush administration’s anti-terrorism tactics cannot be washed away in a tide of feel-good rhetoric about moving on, nor will it fade eventually if we apply President Barack Obama’s spiritual wisdom that this should be a time for “reflection, not retribution.”

<snip>

Far too many in official Washington see prosecution as a political distraction, and an incendiary one. But this is itself a measure of how thoroughly our moral compass has been shattered. It is Holder’s duty to prosecute those who have broken the law. Political calculation, even one that helps the president who appointed him, should not be the decisive factor.

Less bloody than the gruesome details of torture that are likely to come to light in any prosecution are the latest hints that the Bush administration’s warrantless surveillance program was far more extensive than what has been revealed. This came in a report from the independent inspectors general of the five agencies that have had some involvement in the surveillance, or in use of the information culled from it.

The details of the “other intelligence activities” undertaken through the presidential directives that allowed the surveillance remain “highly classified,” the inspectors say. They note the surveillance involved “unprecedented collection activities” and cautioned that the retention and use of this material should be “carefully monitored.”

Who and what were swept up in this vast net remain unknown. What we know, thanks to the report, is that the information has been kept in the bowels of the operation—for who knows what purpose.

<snip>

Congressional Republicans aren’t cooperating with Obama’s agenda in the first place. Deep differences among Democrats have slowed progress on many issues. If little or nothing gets done in the coming months, it will not be because those cranky civil libertarians, human rights activists and the few members of Congress bold enough to side with them have derailed the president’s agenda.

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http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/20090715_reflection_no_longer_an_option/

[Solly Mack]

1. K&R

"But this is itself a measure of how thoroughly our moral compass has been shattered"

Certainly a measure of the entrenched corruption in government

[rrneck]

2. Once you give up

personal information or power, it's almost impossible to get them back.

[Stinky The Clown]

3. The Shitstain on the Shortz of History

"Stain" ...... what a perfect word for this .....