Like torture? Vote Republican (Updated) again!

What a thought, eh? But true. That is what Bush has created. My Texas friend told me that he would evaluate the candidates on an individual basis and vote for who was best. In any other year, I would agree completely and simply hope that he would truly hold those Republicans to their word.

But this is not any normal year. It is a referendum on Bush's policies. Voting Republican means that you don't want accountability. Think that is too strident? If you could just show me accountability during the last 6 years I might agree with you. But you can't. My values include a belief in checks and balances--and simply asking our President to follow our Constitution.

Voting for any Republican at this point means that you don't mind torture, are ok with signing statements, think that habeas corpus is a luxury we can't afford, and that you don't mind the Republican congress rubber stamping whatever Bush wants.

The Vice President just admitted that we use water to torture, and as Jonathan Turley noted on Countdown, the only reason to use water during interogations is to waterboard them. Anything else is just getting them wet.

The President also showed himself incapable of telling the truth when he said that he had never been about "stay the course." When he says that we don't torture, who can believe him?

Oh, and we waterboard people and incarcerate them without trial. Time to vote Democratic and return to something approaching accountability.

Update Not only do we torture, but our administration is corrupt and inept. Does anyone find this surprising?

Report: Halliburton unit exploited rules on Yahoo! News: "The Halliburton subsidiary that provides food, shelter and other logistics to U.S. troops in Iraq and Afghanistan exploited federal regulations to hide details on its contract performance, according to a report released Friday.

The special inspector general for Iraq reconstruction found that Halliburton's Kellogg, Brown & Root Services routinely marked all information it gave to the government as proprietary, whether it was or not. The government promises not to disclose proprietary data so a company's most valuable information is not divulged to its competitors.

By marking all information proprietary — including such normally releasable data as labor rates — the company abused federal regulations, the report says."

Oh, and we waterboard people and incarcerate them without trial. Time to vote Democratic and return to something approaching accountability.

Updated again Conservatives show their lack of character. And this time, it does not surprise. Lynne Cheney has always been shrill and indefensible.

Shakespeare's Sister
In the past couple of days, Lynne Cheney has directed this question at Wolf Blitzer and Bill O’Reilly has directed it at David Letterman, two good little soldiers who have in their debate arsenals nothing but rejoinders issued straight from GOP Talking Points Headquarters. Any attempt to point out the question is ludicrous on its face is met with some variation on what O’Reilly lobbed back at Letterman: “It’s an easy question.” To his credit, Letterman didn’t back down, but instead replied, “It's not easy for me because I'm thoughtful.”

Amen, brother.

I despair that patriotism and pragmatism have become mutually exclusive. Before that “easy” question can be answered by anyone with two brain cells still knocking together, a few other question have to be answered, like What is the definition of winning? and Can we win it? and If so, how are we going to? You know, the kind of questions that certain people resistant to the hypnotic combination of flag-waving and fear-mongering were asking before the war, people who were dismissed as unpatriotic cuckoos. To continue to question whether a person with legitimate questions and concerns wants to win is to obfuscate the frustrating reality that those other questions still have not been answered, three years on.

Oh, and we waterboard people and incarcerate them without trial. Time to vote Democratic and return to something approaching accountability.

Update

Andrew Sullivan | The Daily Dish: The GOP Vs Freedom: "'"'I am a Republican and have traditionally voted that way,' Tony Schuler, an operations services manager at Microsoft with a Harvard M.B.A., said as he sat with his wife, Deanna, in their home above Lake Sammamish. But Mr. Schuler abhors what he sees as a new Republican habit of meddling in private affairs. 'The Schiavo case. Tapping people without a warrant. Whether or not people are gay,' he said. 'Let people be free! It’s not government's job to interfere with those things.'" - from the New York Times today.

American freedom and Bush-Rove Republicanism are increasingly at odds. Don't let them intimidate you. If you're a conservative who actually values the constitutional freedoms these people are stripping away, vote Democrat or abstain. If today's GOP wins, they will take it as vindication for their authoritarian streak. And the path we have already embarked upon will only get darker."

Oh, and we waterboard people and incarcerate them without trial. Time to vote Democratic and return to something approaching accountability.