Read this, then check a map.
by Kagro X
Fri Nov 09, 2007 at 06:27:54 AM PST
Glenn Greenwald on the vote to confirm Michael Mukasey:
The most amazing quote was from chief Mukasey supporter Chuck Schumer, who, before voting for him, said that Mukasey is "wrong on torture -- dead wrong."
Marvel at that phrase: "wrong on torture." Six years ago, there wasn't even any such thing as being "wrong on torture," because "torture" wasn't something we debated. It would have been incoherent to have heard: "Well, he's dead wrong on torture, but . . . "
Now, "torture" is not only something we openly debate, but it's something we do. And the fact that someone is on the wrong side of the "torture debate" doesn't prevent them from becoming the Attorney General of the United States. It's just one issue, like any other issue -- the capital gains tax, employer mandates for health care, the water bill -- and just because someone is "dead wrong" on one little issue (torture) hardly disqualifies them from High Beltway Office.
Are you still in the country you thought you were in?
http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/2007/11/09/filibuster/index.htmlThis is a watershed moment.
It's now possible to be "wrong on torture" and survive. Not just survive, though. Thrive. Win high office. Be the chief law "enforcement" officer of the United States of America.What standard does this set? What practices, if any, are and will forever be out of bounds?
Chuck Schumer's logic is just another step toward the day when campaign ads of the future will deliver as a straight line the news that the opposition is, "Wrong on cannibalism. Wrong for America."http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2007/11/9/92119/7549