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No longer interested in governing America from the Book of Scripture, President GW Bush is now running things according to the Book of Orwell. In a decision bordering on the comic, the U.S. Justice Dept. (aka Dept. of Irony) has prosecuted a fellow named Charles "Charlie" Taylor, Jr. on a charge of participating in torture.
About time, you say. The fiends that waterboarded suspected terrorists in Syria and Saudi Arabia should be made to answer for their crimes. Well, not so fast boys and girls. Mr. Taylor isn't being prosecuted for using thumb screws on Muslims. He is being called to account for crimes against the citizenry of Liberia while his father Charles Taylor Sr. was the dictator in residence. Taylor Jr. is a U.S. citizen and, amazingly enough, there is a law that allows the U.S. to prosecute Americans who torture people in other countries. (Dick Cheney might wish to consider retiring to that "undisclosed location" that he cowered in during 9-11.)
Naturally, America is on the side of the angels here. No one will rush to the defense of this creep. Between 1997 and 2003, Taylors pere and fils killed and tortured thousands of helpless citizens. In a part of the world famous for insane governmental behavior, the Taylor family makes the all star team. Nevertheless, the trial of Charles Taylor Jr. in the United States has the patina of stone-tossing in a house of glass.
The Bush Administration has used the Rendition Program as a smoke screen to torture suspected evil-doers in countries from Egypt to Indonesia. We can assume that "torture with a really good reason" will be the defense of choice in America should we decide to apply the law to senior associates of the CIA and NSA. However, as they say during those waterboarding sessions, don't hold your breath.
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President George W. Bush is apparently not satisfied with approval ratings in the teens. During his last few days in office (73 and counting) he seems determined to achieve the unachievable...single digit status. By the time he gets to Christmas, even the GPS device in his car will indicate that the country is headed in the wrong direction.
Our CinC is attempting to enact a wide array of federal regulations aimed at weakening consumer and environmental protection. The new laws would make it easier to overfish the oceans, pollute the atmosphere, increase the toxins in drinking water and blow the tops off mountains. This is the guy who supposedly had seen the light on global warning. The White House, in the person of Tony Fratto, calls the proposals "well reasoned". Sure! Assuming that your reason is to rape the environment and ensure that America continued its role as the Great Polluter. The country would be much better off if, like his predecessors, GWB just pardoned a few crooks and looted a few towels from the Oval Office toilet.
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And speaking of toilets...
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But the news isn't all bad for our departing President (Did I mention 73 days and counting?). Voters in San Francisco on Tuesday overwhelmingly defeated an effort to rename the local sewage treatment plant after Mr. Bush. Apparently even the citizens of the Peoples Republic of San Francisco were put off by the ad featuring a photo of the President and the slogan "Let's help put the number one guy on the number two building". Now that's poetry.
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Honorable mention for the Chutzpah award:
An aide to New York Governor David Patterson is blaming a $300,000 unpaid tax bill (his, not the Gov's) on a rare medical condition called late-filing syndrome. Apparently the patient, one Charles O'Byrne, is psychologically incapable of filling his tax returns on the 15th of April. And you thought "the dog ate my tax return" was weak. I am certain that the Internal Revenue Service will give this ailment all the consideration it deserves. Hint to Mr. O'Byrne: when you present your file from the Mayo Clinic attesting to your disease, attach a check for $300,000 just to be safe.
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And lest we forget, two MENSA candidates were arrested in Tennessee and charged with plotting to kill a bunch of black people including President-elect Barak Obama. The police were appaerntly put wise because the car they were driving was painted with swastikas. These sterling citizens, Paul Schlesselman of Arkansas and Daniel Cowart of Tennessee (why are these guys never from Boston or Milwaukee?) are being held without bond in a Memphis dungeon. They have pled not guilty to the conspiracy charges. If there's any justice in the world, these two geniuses will be sentenced to a lifetime of watching PBS and reruns of The Cosby Show.
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