Skirting the issue

Can anyone in this Administration answer a simple question?

Judging by the canned responses and talking points Scott McClellan delivered during yesterday's White House press briefing, the answer to that simple question would seem to be a resounding "NO". Scotty stuck to the disingenuous Party line of "we do not torture", despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary. I guess all those photos we've seen from Abu Ghraib, all that testimony we've heard about Guantanamo Bay, all of the CIA "black sites" revealed recently, all of the horrifying tales of "extraordinary rendition" which have been reported for years, and all those suspicious deaths of unarmed prisoners in our custody, were just figments of the collective imagination.

Did I say disingenuous? The statements coming out of this White House are bald-faced lies!

I'm also furious over the Administration's contention that its continued support of the use of torture (no matter what Messrs. Bush, Cheney, and McClellan spin to the contrary) is for the "protection" of me, you, and everyone we know. Scotty said Tuesday,

"I think the American people understand the importance of doing everything within our power and within our laws to protect the American people."

Well yeah, Scott, we do. But the point you seem to be missing is that it should not be "within our power" to resort to those very things we condemn in our opponents' behavior. Doesn't anybody on Pennsylvania Avenue understand that in order to claim the moral high ground in our alleged "War On Terror", we must walk the walk, and not just talk the talk?

So stop presuming to speak for the American people, boys. This refusal by our President and Vice President to take a stand for human decency is endangering every American at home and abroad. It is tacitly endorsing the mistreatment of prisoners by any government or radical organization that claims to be doing so to protect its "people". It is sending a message to the world that the ends justify the means.

And isn't that exactly the same philosophy espoused by every terrorist group we've righteously demonized from the Munich Olympics killers to the masterminds of 9/11?

I guess I'm also stunned by the political and public relations ineptitude of George and Dick's inexcusable stubbornness. To continue to lobby for CIA exemptions to the torture ban while stating flatly that they are not, to vigorously claim that the U.S. does not stoop to depravity and barbarity for "the greater good" while proof abounds to the contrary, is the same behavior exhibited by a chocolate-covered 9-year-old who insists that he hasn't touched that Hershey bar - and hates candy anyway, 'cause he knows it isn't good for him. It should be a terrifying realization for all of us that our nation is currently being governed by a group of petulant fourth-graders.

Take a look at that transcription again. Is it just me, or are we actually being led by a pack of demonstrable madmen? As Helen Thomas insistently repeated, the question of whether or not this Administration officially sanctions torture as a viable policy deserves a simple yes or no answer. When the Senate has already voiced a nearly unanimous condemnation of this practice, it is insulting that the President and Vice President stand up publicly and claim to speak for the American people while contending that physical cruelty and murder are sometimes OK.

We cannot allow the Bushies to skirt this issue - our real safety and security depend on forcing this White House to do the right thing.