Being Informed Sucks

I did not think about the news at all on my vacation last week, and I did not have a single political conversation with anyone. This was all part of the pursuit of bliss. This morning, listening to Air America reminded me that my country has been hijacked by criminals and that there is little hope that they will ever be brought to justice.

Not one Republican on the Intelligence Committee would vote to investigate the illegal, unwarranted surveillance of Americans by the Bush Crime Family. Not one.

The victims at Guantanamo have a legal right to be free of torture but no ability to enforce that right in any court. They just have to trust the Bush Crime Family to obey the law. Any regard I had for Lindsey Graham (and it was not much) is lost for all time.

One long time victim at Guantanamo was picked up solely because he was wearing what US operatives regarded as an “Al Qaeda watch”, a cheap Casio model worn by lots of folks with no Al Qaeda connection. The USG still won’t let the poor sod go, just as they won’t release any of the estimated 80% of their victims for whom there is not even a remotely plausible reason at all for continued detention and torture. I am at a loss to explain this. The most elegant explanation is that the Bush regime is simply evil, that they are entertained by keeping and tormenting their victims for no apparent reason. Perhaps, they just don’t want any of their victims to tell their stories if they are released. I wonder if there is anything I might do as a private citizen to alleviate the suffering of detainees. I pray for them, but I wish that I could help them somehow. I am sickened that they are being held and mistreated as they are in the name of my country.

I am heartsick that my conspecifics, some of them otherwise seemingly decent people, don’t seem to care about the unjust detentions and mistreatment of the victims of Bush. In my opinion, the treatment of detainees should be governed by the principle of how one would want one’s son or daughter or other loved one treated if they were held by a foreign government.

I am dismayed and ashamed that the Bush Crime Family has been able to find so many willing henchmen and henchwomen willing to carry out and facilitate atrocious acts. Would that I lived in a society where Bush would be hard pressed to find anyone to participate in his wrongdoing. Then again, such a society would never have produced a President Bush.

I know that the American people are more decent than their rulers, and I hope that we will find a way to rescue our country from these villains. Alas, hope is not a plan.