At least Johnson didn’t actually torture Stanton
When I was a child I had a little kiddie book on the Presidents of the United States, with brief biographies and pictures of each one. I remember being bewildered by the fate of Andrew Johnson. Congress impeached him because he fired Stanton? Wasn’t that a bit of an overreaction? The book, you see, omitted to explain the politics surrounding Reconstruction, the bitter divide between the Radical Republicans and the racist Southern Democrats, and the fact that Johnson was an intolerable twit.
(Note for you young folks: in my youth we didn’t have no computers or none of them there intertubes, and a six-year-old was pretty much stuck with the information in whatever books were available.)
At any rate, this whole business with Attorney General Torquemada reminds me a little of that. He’s in deep shit because he fired a bunch of U.S. attorneys, which indeed was a very bad thing and a gross abuse of power, but it actually pales beside the bigger truth that Torquemada is a goddamn psychopath who believes the President is above the law, treaties we’ve signed don’t apply to us, and torture is A Good Thing. That this man is Attorney General at all is one of the most astonishing facts of modern American life. In a sane world, the memos he issued as White House Counsel would have acted as a permanent prophylactic against his ever becoming Attorney General, a kind of reverse-CV alerting everyone in the universe that this person was unsuitable for any goverment job at all. But then, in a sane world Bush wouldn’t be President in the first place. This is a guy whose big achievement as governor was to execute retarded people, for chrissake — and as a matter of fact, Torquemada helped him out with that, too. Bush and Torquie are like the Bobsey Twins of Sadism: started out relatively small in Texas, frying prisoners for fun, then made it all the way to the White House where they could groove by proxy on the rape, torture, and organ failure of hundreds of people. I bet they watch the Abu Ghraib slides down in the White House theatre for shits and giggles on Saturday nights. Kick back with some booze and blow and run those slides. Yee haw.
But what was I saying? Oh yeah, the firing thing. Hey, if that’s what it takes to bring the fucker down, that’s fine with me. Whatever.
10 Responses to “At least Johnson didn’t actually torture Stanton”
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dav says:
It does kinda boggle the mind that after all the shit he’s done, it would be the Attorney firings which we bring him down…
March 14th, 2007 at 11:32 pm EST -
j0lt says:
This time he tried to mess with people that actually have some power of their own – I think that’s what’s made the difference. And the fact that by firing people who worked hard and had to build alliances to get to the U.S. Atty position in the first place made a lot of other people realize that Torqui wasn’t just going after “other people”, but going after people like themselves.
Definitely, what ever takes him down, as long as he’s taken down, is fine with me. -
John M. Burt says:
What the heck. They got Al Capone for tax fraud. They hanged Captain Kidd for a ship he never robbed. They got Henry Kissinger — oh, right, they haven’t gotten him yet. Well, he’s still alive, so there’s hope for mortal justice yet.
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will says:
Tell us how you really feel.
I am tired of you holding back.
I remain in a constant state of amazement. If a quarter of these events happened to a Democrat, impeachment proceedings would have been started two years ago.
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Infidel says:
No way. This is par for the course. Any and every initiative or act from the Executive will in any administration, Dem or Rep, result in the legislative, or a portion, opposing, fighting, and pontificating, call it what you will, politicizing, criticizing, debating.
What strikes the most repugnant chord is how the current executives’ actions consistantly try to subvert the constitution and rule the people under the guise of security, protection, and morality. If we don’t do what George Bush says, or allow George Bush to do what he must do, we will live in fear and self loathing. God bless George Bush. -
Kaitlyn says:
They’re saying every president does it, Clinton did it, so shut up, you terrorist loving freak.
If Bush does a Nixon, Cheney’s in charge.
Do we want that?
Unless you think Cheney’s got the brains of Agnew and will quit before the shit hits the fan.
Then we’d get Pelosi.
Hmm.
John Bolton was on the Daily Show last night, and he said when we elect the president, we give him permission to surround himself with “loyal Bushies” or else he can’t do his job and start wars and stuff.
I didn’t elect Bush. I couldn’t vote until last November.
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simply wondered says:
you mean if you had been eligible you woulda???only joking, i promise – i would never accuse anyone with the brains to find this site and the wit to post her of being a ‘bushie’ – funny how cute they sound in isolation – then they breed and ohmigod…
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Mamacita says:
He’s loyal as a dog, and it’s no surprise, is it?
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Kaitlyn says:
Actually, Simply Wondered, in 2000, I would have voted for Bush.
I did not give a rat’s ass about politics at all that election year, except to note that Clinton’s impeachment trial happened the same year my mom kicked my dad out for cheating on her – why wasn’t dad impeached from the police force? He lied all the time – told the military he had a substance abuse problem so he could get rehab instead of actual punishment for something idiotic he did in Iceland.
In 2004, it would have been for Kerry, that’s who I voted for in our school’s election. (He won the elementary and high schools in the town, but lost the middle school. Apparently the 11-14 year olds dictate the national election results.)
But as I became politically aware of the rest of the world, I knew I’d never vote Republican on a national level.
Besides. This is Tennessee – Gore’s home state. I don’t think he even won it in 2000.
So, if I could vote at 12 in 2000, it would have been for Bush, if I’d gone with the political knowledge I had then (none). However, 2004 had me wishing 16 year olds could vote somehow – we can drive, can’t we take a political IQ test. I wanted to vote so badly in ’04. My mom took me with her to early voting (long ass line, but not too bad) and she let me hit the Kerry/Edwards button.
But, again, this is Tennessee, so our (I touched the screen, dammit!) vote was moot.
Mom voted for Bush in 2000, as did my father. She didn’t care much either. But September 11th and the Catastrofuck in Iraq changed her mind about Bush, and opened me up to the world of politics. (And the Daily Show, always a plus!)
It did not, however, change my dad’s mind, as he has promised me he would vote for Dixie (my beloved chow mix) before voting for a Democrat. As would I, she’s got more brains than any politician I’ve ever seen.
Actually, Bush pissed me off before he left office. The coverage of the whateverthehell in Florida (I did not know what happened there, I did not care until 2004) about the election preempted an awesome episode of the X-files. And this was Season 8, Mulder was gone, the new guy was there, so awesome was hard to come by. But this one had a cult that believed (correctly, I assume) that Jesus had returned to earth in the form of a parasitic slug and decided Scully was the perfect host for the Heavenly Slug.
But no! Fox News brings you a special report!
I watched the war coverage 4 years ago (home sick – March ’03 – recovering from thyroid surgery) on Fox. (No cable, Mom called, “TURN THE TV ON!”)
Just in awe.
And I remember talking to someone at the skating rink at the base (the side that let civilian cars on after Sept. 11th) about the “War on Terror” in late 2001. I said something along the lines of, “He (Bush) declared war on Oct 8th, a Monday”, and the lady who doled out skates said no, honey, that was a Tuesday. September 11th.
Also, Mad magazine’s to blame as well. And being sick and stuck at home for all but my junior year of high school. (04-05) My US History teacher told us, “if your candidate loses, it’s not the end of the world.” And I remember thinking, “Ha!”
He also refused to tell us his political beliefs, but come on, he taught History at a public high school. And he taught it well, he was getting his Masters in it at the U of M while teaching us. In addition to the history classes, he taught African American History and a glass on genocide. (I took it, but I can’t remember the name – amazing class, and yes, he was definitely a liberal.)
My mom works in education, by the way. Special ed kids. Who have to comply to NCLB like the others.
That didn’t help her opinion of Bush, as you can imagine.
Sorry for rambling violet, it’s 1:30, I just watched the Colbert Report and I am sleepy.
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Infidel says:
The provisions in the Patriot Act giving the power to The Attorney General to appoint interim U.S. attorneys without consent or advise from Congress are the law of the land…for the specific purpose to grant extra power during a time of need. That extra power was needed and exercised because attorneys were fired and a vacancy had to be filled. The attorneys were fired in the first place, so that there would be vacancies that had to be filled. The purpose of the firings was to exercise a law whose purpose is to protect. Now it seems, to protect, we need to stop the firings in the first place.
And all this testing for no child left behind that is being done in schools isn’t to achieve academic excellence, its in order to build a database that can be mined and identify who’s with Dubya and who’s against Dubya. Then obstacles can be put in the way of those against and assistance can be granted to those for. Isn’t that the way the Republican party works?
We are not citizens of the United States. We are citizens of the Republican United States. Moreso prior, but still, and that is changing.
