Nov 09 2007

America Tortures – Good Bye to Daily Kos

This is my good-bye to Daily Kos, posted this morning:

———

This is not a Bipolar rant, followed by weeks of absence and then a sheepish return.

I’m done with Daily-Kos, because I’m done with America as it currently stands in the world of civilized peoples.


America tortures.  It’s now official.

The Democratic Party just allowed the approval of an Attorney-General who refused to call water-boarding torture or illegal.

The only explanation I can accept for this is that it’s now no longer a big deal.  America tortures…just don’t admit it in public…wink-wink…let’s move on the the spending bill…

Not this guy…I’m outta here.

I’m going to Docudharma and back to the Canadian blog A Creative Revolution, because this is a site that helps elect Democrats.

The Democratic Party is now my enemy, as the Republican Party has always been during my lifetime.

Maher Arar’s kidnapping on American soil by American government officials, rendition and torture due to America’s insistence on violating international law will never be addressed, obviously. 

For that, I turn my back on America as a nation.

There are still decent and good Americans, of course, but obviously not enough to prevent their nation from becoming a torturing, war-crime embracing and aggressively-warring pariah on the world stage.

I renounce, as a world citizen, American foreign policy, and I renounce America’s war crimes.

You haven’t learned the lessons of history, America, but I have no doubt you’re about to re-learn it the hard way…and you’ll reap what you have sowed.

Any decent Americans had better batten down the hatches, because when the Reaper comes, he shall not make distinction, just as the Allies did not distinguish between good and bad Germans at the end.  All Germany got fucked.  And good and decent Americans are going to find out very soon how badly good people can get fucked when they sit back and allow evil to be committed in their names.

And, since the Democrats have proven themselves complicit in America’s outlaw status, I renounce the Democratic Party of the United States as supporters and endorsers of the United States’ continuing (and illegal under every civilized law in this world) brutalizing of human beings under the false banner of “fighting terror.”

Rush Limbaugh, Dick Cheney and Bill O’Reilly have won.  They have helped destroy America’s soul.

And as long as Maher Arar is denied the justice owed him by America, I’m done with America and with this site.

———

I will not buy American-made products if I can find viable alternatives.  I will not travel to America.  I will not do anything to support this outlaw and rogue nation, and I shall pray everyday for the internationally community to finally cut loose the American Dollar as the international currency.

In short, as America has become Rome, I join the throngs awaiting its final collapse.  And perhaps then, the rest of the world can breathe a short sigh of relief before the next imperial world power emerges.

I do not hate America.  I hate what it has become.

———

American politicians, be warned.  Cross the border northward, and I’ll be waiting for you with protests, banners and civil demonstrations, if I can muster them.

American politicians, you are not welcome in my country.

Canada is a law-abiding country.  Yours is not.  Stay the fuck out of my country, or I’ll do my utmost to make your stay as embarrassing for both my and your politicians.  I do not consort with torturers, and I will suffer their presence in my nation only under extreme duress.

But I’ll make sure they hear me.

Canada does not torture.

Good Bye.

23 comments

Skip to comment form

    • Alma on November 9, 2007 at 17:25
    • #

    and I sure hope Canada doesn’t follow the USA down the hole.  It makes me sick, what my country has done.

    Can you really find American made products in Canada?  You can’t find hardly any here.  If I want to buy USA goods, I guess I need to take a sneak boat trip across the Detroit river.  I don’t have a passport, so I couldn’t get across the bridge or tunnel.

  3. and that was their undoing. We the people woke up. Not in my name is now the zeitguiste. (spelling!) And the America I know will not stand for this. Watch as those rose colored glasses all start tumbling and we turn inwards and question how we let this happen. A dark 20-30 year passage. But at the end – a chance to start over  welcome

  4. face of “what America has become.”

    I cannot begin to tell you what it feels like to be a Constitution loving American and seeing everything that is loathsome and despicable take the place of what once was a relatively decent country, based on its Constitution.

    Many of us Americans have, for a long time now, been writing to representatives, newspapers, calling, standing out on the streets, etc. in an effort to be heard and stop what we know is wrong — we have not been heard. 

    Yes, you are quite right — we will reap what we have sown!

  5. I can’t blame you for being ill at ease there.  It seems to be a significant voice.

    I have had a little problem of late with certain things about that site (follow thread).  I have just spent the last hour+ transcribing the thoughts of Moultitsas on the CIA, which he trained to join (audio of his speech at the commonwealth club June 2, 2002). 

    Given the thoughts below I don’t see why torture would be outside his allowances.  Excerpt: 

    Q/moderator:  Not long ago liberals loathed the Central Intelligence Agency as the enemy of democratic governments and they installed dictators around the world, and these days you read the papers and people on the left are rallying to the defense of the CIA and indignified, uh, indignant when the CIA is politicized –  how did this come about, that some, suddenly liberals are championing the CIA?

    Moultitsas  Y’..I don’t know.  You know, I…

    Q – moderator  Isn’t it, do you find it strange or ironic that all of a sudden they’re wild for the CIA?

    Moultitsas:  You know I think that a lot of the people that did have problems with the CIA, I mean it was, it was a very vocal minority, I think most people didn’t really think about it that much.  It wasn’t really on their radar screens, umm, in the way that now it is because now we’re in this huge war, and it was the CIA that was warning, you know, the the administration against invading because there were no weapons of mass destruction.

    There’s a little secret I don’t think that I’ve ever written about, but in 2001 I was underemployed – unemployed, underemployed, you know, I was in that, you know, you all have been there, right, dotcom people?  Kind of like, between jobs and you do a little contract work, and, and uh, so, um, that’s where I was, in this really horrible netherworld of “will I make rent next month,” and so I applied to the CIA. And I went all the way to the end, I mean, it was to the point where I was going to sign papers to become employed within the services, and it was at that point that the Howard Dean campaign took off, and I had to make a decision whether I was going to kind of, join the Dean campaign – that whole process – or if I was going to become a – a spy. 

    [ laughter ]

    And it was, it was going to be a tough decision afterwards, but then the CIA insisted that if, if I joined that they’d want me to do the first duty assignment in Washington, D.C. and, I, I hate Washington D.C., and I – it was six years in Washington D.C. before they’d post me overseas and I was like, yeah!  That made the decision a lot easier. 

    But what was really amazing about that experience was that every single person I talked to in the CIA – and I must have talked to dozens of people – you know, psychologists and, and, you know, people in the leadership, and you go through this whole, like, six month process, really in depth.  Every single one of them was liberal – every single one of them – and, to the point where I was talking to somebody – we were talking about my website ’cause they knew about my website [clears throat] and she was agreeing with me on everything and, and um [cough] this is before the, the war, right, and she kept saying man,  they’re going to take us to war, and, you know, it’s… the evidence isn’t there, and this is crazy, and I, I was saying, is this just you or what, and she’s like no, we’re all like this here, we’re all, this is a very liberal institution. 

    And in a lot of ways it does attract people who want to make a better, you know who want to make the world a better place, I mean people who are internationalists in general really aren’t people who say ‘I want to go bomb the f&%# out of some other country, right, that’s, that’s not… do you have to bleep that out on the radio? 

    [Laughter.] 

    Moderator:  Let’s try to say that again.

    [laughter]

    Moultitsas:  It couldn’t be all that you’re bleeping out. 

    And, so it’s, I mean, and when you think of it in a more logical sense I mean that makes a lot of sense.  ‘Course they got their, their dirty ops and this and that, right, but as an institution itself the CIA is actually really interested in a stable world, that’s, that’s what their interested in, and stable worlds aren’t created by, by, destabilizing regimes and by, by starting wars, uh, they’re done so by other methods, assassinating labor leaders and – naw, I’m kidding – [laughter] eh, but that was really surprising to me.

    So, so, coming from that, and of course I think a lot of conservatives would kind of take that as, you know, evidence that the CIA was out to undermine Bush or something ’cause they are a bunch of liberals, and they are, they were a bunch of liberals but, but ultimately that, that was, that was an eye-opening experience for me, and, and, because ultimately I, I don’t think it’s a very partisan thing to want a, a calm, stable world, and, ah, even if you’re protecting the American interests, I mean, you know that can get ugly at times, but, but generally speaking, I think, I think as an organization their heart’s in the right place, and, as little as before I’ve had a chance, you know this was before my time, I’d, I’d never had a problem with the CIA, and uh, it was just why I’d have no problem working for them, but, um, but I don’t know. 

    I mean, I, also,  keep also in mind I came to this country in 1980, um, so, I don’t, y’know, a lot of this more historical hostility towards the CIA by, by the left is, is before my time, so, I may be missing nuances or, or something that, but, but uh, from a modern perspective, you know, obviously things are a little different.

    I don’t know about anyone else but this bias, for a partisan blog, makes me uncomfortable. 

    While someone may be “anti-Iraq” it does not mean they take a stance against american corporatist police forces… including acts of torture.

  6. and now the LABD thinks it’s ok to map out where muslims live.

    http://news.yahoo.co…

  7. As the U.S. continued to be mired in the Great Depression in Republican Herbert Hoover’s last year as President in 1932, a sage of the day made an observation which seems to apply perfectly to our congresscritters of today:

    There is, in fact, no reason for confusing the people and the legislature: the two, in these later years, are quite distinct. The legislature, like the executive, has ceased, save indirectly, to be even the creature of the people: it is the creature, in the main of pressure groups, and most of them, it must be manifest, are of dubious wisdom and even more dubious honesty. Laws are no longer made by a rational process of public discussion; they are made by a process of blackmail and intimidation, and they are executed in the same manner. The typical lawmaker of today is a man wholly devoid of principle–a mere counter in a grotesque and knavish game. If the right pressure could be applied to him he would be cheerfully in favor of polygamy, astrology or cannibalism.

    –H. L. Mencken, “Mr. Justice Holmes,” from the American Mercury, May 1932

    Why should we expect our congresscritters to be anything other than cheerfully in favor of torture, indefinite detention in secret prisons, kidnapping/rendition, warrantless electronic surveillance, and wars of aggression justified by false pretenses? It just takes a little pressure, a few threats, and the promise of opened corporatist spigots for all who play along.

    You are fortunate to be living in a still-civilized country, but sharing a border with a bellicose hegemon to your south may not ultimately be the best of geographical choices. I’ve begun to look a farther afield and to brush up my language skills.

    It is also time for any rational observer to consider moving more personal capital out of the U.S.–perfectly legal, of course, as long as the taxes are properly paid somewhere and reported. Canada has attractive provincial investment programs for investors seeking Canadian residency status. The money is tied up for three years, but the program seems worth exploring for those of us still stranded south of the border.

    I’ll continue to watch for your always worthwhile postings and comments at this site.

  8. I like many I stand with you….
    only I for now stand here…
    unfortunately for all of us, we are headed for post technological feudalism….
    and global ecological transition….

  9. I’m staying behind. I’m fully infiltrated, too valuable a position to abandon at this critical juncture. Viva La Frontera Liberacion DKOS!

    • banger on November 10, 2007 at 16:28
    • #

    but like you I felt this last vote on Mukasey was a kind of last straw for me. I can tolerate corruption, bad policy, incompetence, lying, and so on; and, I believe in realpolitik and know that if you want to play politics you have to play “dirty”. But there is something about torture and condoning torture that makes me want to cheer what you said in this diary. Torture even more than killing is a sign of depravity too deep for me to excuse. My view is that torture has huge symbolic value in that its function is not so much to extract information but, as your compatriot the great Naomi Klein says, to intimidate the populace. My reading of the various writings of the Neocons in the 90’s that constitute a kind of Mein Kemp of their movement is that their goal was to be instill fear into the world by letting it be known that Americans are liable to do anything if they are crossed. One piece of writing, and I don’t know who it was, stated that the U.S. should overeact to fairly trivial situations so as to make people believe that we were crazy and unstable.

    As an American I’m not sure I can vote for someone who condones torture–that would have to be number one on my list of issues–because if a President condones torture that poisons everything–we have to draw the line there.  

Comments have been disabled.