Appropriating the Rovian Tropes

Obama’s War on Terror [Joann Mariner, 2/25/09] http://writ.news.findlaw.com/scripts/printer_friendly.pl?page=/mariner/20090225.html

“[…] Disappointing many who expected the Obama administration to mark a clean break from the Bush presidency's world view, the attorney general-designate signaled his apparent approval of the "war on terror" paradigm. A month later, in a set of four cases involving detainees held at the US military prison in Afghanistan, the views he endorsed were reflected in government papers filed in federal court in Washington. […]”

Mariner suggests the Administration read : Assessing Damage, Urging Action by the International Commission of Jurists

http://ejp.icj.org/IMG/EJP-Report.pdf

"The ‘war paradigm' is misconceived, and has been applied in ways that have violated core principles of international humanitarian and human rights law."

This is NOT just semantics. The US holds thousands of Humans around the world in INhumane circumstances because of these Authoritarian paradigms and positions STILL advocated by US.

The descriptions of ongoing, severe solitary confinement, other forms of psychological abuse, incidents of violence and the threat of violence from guards, religious abuse, and widespread forced tube-feeding of hunger strikers indicate that the inhumane practices of the Bush Administration persist today at Guantánamo, despite President Obama’s Executive Order, and should be remedied immediately.

Report: Current Conditions of Confinement at Guantanamo, Still in Violation of the Law, 2/23/09

http://ccrjustice.org/files/CCR_Report_Conditions_At_Guantanamo.pdf

But the ironically named Department of Defense defines “humane” differently:

“The U.S. military's Guantanamo Bay prison camp currently complies with the Geneva Conventions' standards for humane treatment, a top U.S. Navy officer concluded on Monday in a review ordered by President Barak Obama […]”.

U.S. says Guantanamo complies with Geneva treaties http://www.reuters.com/article/domesticNews/idUSTRE51M77C20090224

Lewis Carroll knew the power of words:

“When I use a word,” Humpty Dumpty said, in a rather scornful tone, “it means just what I choose it to mean, neither more not less.”

“The question is,” said Alice, “whether you can make words mean so many different things.”

“The question is,” said Humpty Dumpty, “which is to be master-that’s all.”

"neither more nor less"

Accusing others of that which you yourself are doing or have done.

Thanks for that heads-up, Pedinska. What will the answer be?

That sounds like an interesting connection to the topic, Anonymust. Thanks for that.

"[...] or even under a new and as yet undetermined procedure like a modified version of the heavily criticized military tribunal system established by the Bush administration or an altogether new system like a civilian national security court."

I used to wonder how Bush-and-the-Cheney-Gang could have been placed in power when they had such obvious and utter disdain for the institutions of our Government. [Need I say more then "huckuvajob, brownie!"?] They obviously thought they could construct a tribunal system to adjudicate the[ir] laws in a couple of months...presumably because we can't "go to trial with the courts we have" in the GWOT. More than two centuries of effort to construct a nation of laws...but THEY could break the whole thing and figure it would take about three months months to come up with a superior plan.

Now, it looks like we may have accidentally hit replay.

From MotherJones [and odelette]:

"[...] And North Korea is small potatoes compared to Iran. "We have lost the race with Iran on the nuclear front," said Bolton. [...] Bolton expressed disappointment that the Bush administration did not use force against Iran. Judging from the enthusiastic crowd reaction, there are plenty of conservatives who think that Bush's foreign policy failing was not preemptively attacking enough Middle Eastern countries.

Looking back:

May 2, 2003-Iran sends to Washington “the grand bargain” for negotiating differences, just before a meeting in Geneva between Iran's U.N. ambassador, Javad Zarif, and neocon Zalmay Khalilzad, then a senior director at the National Security Council. “According to a report by Gareth Porter in The American Prospect, Iran offered to take ‘decisive action against any terrorists (above all, al-Qaeda) in Iranian territory." In exchange, Iran wanted the U.S. to pursue "anti-Iranian terrorists’—i.e., the MEK. Specifically, Iran offered to share the names of senior al-Qaeda operatives in its custody in return for the names of MEK cadres captured by the U.S. in Iraq.”… the Bush administration simply declined to respond. "We're not interested in any grand bargain," -Undersecretary of State for Arms Control and International Security John Bolton

From the Wonderful Folks Who Brought You Iraq, by Craig Unger, March 2007

http://www.vanityfair.com/politics/features/2007/ [...]

yesterday for this sort of thing: http://www.dailyhowler.com/dh022609.shtml

“Let me quote [Shelby] in full again,” Olbermann said—despite the fact that he plainly didn’t know if he was quoting Shelby in full. Duh! That was the point in dispute! But eventually, Batman asked Robin a basic question: Where do we “find the confidence in that quote”—the quote which Shelby’s office had challenged? Who was right about what Shelby had said—Shelby’s office, or the newspaper? And rubes, put on your running shoes, and dial your IQ back many points. Here’s the way Olbermann’s favorite stooge pretended to answer that seminal question. Here you see what you see every night—the “liberal” world running on dumb:

And later:

Many readers may dislike Shelby’s politics. For us, he’s been a figure of fun ever since his party switch, on the morning after. But what we’ve written here ain’t about Shelby; it’s about a country running on dumb. For years, it was Hannity and Drudge and Maureen Dowd who were running your country on dumb. Now, the liberal world is adopting this culture, as you can see (or not) in that segment with Wolffe. But alas! A modern nation can’t run on dumb! If the liberal world decides to go dumb, prepare yourselves for more disasters.