According to The Washington Post George W. Bush explicitly endorsed the CIA’s use of torture interrogation techniques such as waterboarding against al-Qaeda suspects, despite his repeated assertions that “The United States Doesn’t Torture”.

Even though it’s common knowledge, “George W. Bush is a liar” is really becoming a boring explanation for why the credibility of his statements doesn’t hold up.

So here’s a new explanation: George Bush was telling the truth, in a manner of speaking. The reason that President Bush’s explicit endorsement of waterboarding doesn’t contradict his assertion that the “United States Doesn’t Torture” is that he misunderstood what “waterboarding” meant when he approved of it.

This is what George W. Bush imagined when he approved of “Waterboarding”:

John McCain has recently complained about YouTube’s policy of removing campaign videos that infringe upon copyright protection laws is unfair.

As John McCain sees it, removing these videos (which frequently use televised debate footage and pop songs before negotiating the rights to them) ’stifles free speech’.

John McCain has no right to cry about the fair usage in the Media. He didn’t see any problem in using songs by The Foo Fighters, Bruce Springsteen, John Mellencamp, Jackson Browne, Frankie Valli, Van Halen, and Heart without their permission.

In fact, the McCain Campaign continued to use Heart’s song “Barracuda” after they expressly asked him to stop, and Jackson Brown even had to sue the Republican Party to stop John McCain from using his song.

If John McCain wants to cry to youtube, perhaps he should listen to the pleas of the musicians he’s tried to exploit first.

Christopher Buckley, the son of the conservative icon William F Buckley, has resigned from The National Journal, the political journal that his father founded in 1955.

Mr. Buckley said he had “been effectively fatwahed by the conservative movement” after endorsing Barack Obama in a blog posting on TheDailyBeast.com.

In response to his endorsement of Barack Obama, conservatives bombarded Mr. Buckley with hate mail, both at the blog and at the National Review. In statements concerning his resignation, Mr. Buckley decried the conservatives’ difficulties in accepting ability and their “angry” discourse that followed his endorsement of Barack Obama.

As a final “Fuck You” to conservatives, Mr. Buckley spun Ronald Regan back at them by repeating his ironically appropriate quote: “I haven’t left the Republican Party. It left me”.

Mexican President Felipe Calderón recently proposed legislation to decriminalize drug possession. This legislation, which is supported by Mexico’s Attorney General, is intended to address Mexico’s growing problem with Drug Addiction; the number of drug addicts in Mexico is estimated to have doubled in the last six years.

Under President Calderón’s legislation, people arrested for drugs would have to agree to a drug treatment or prevention program. Those who refused would be fined.

Similar legislation was proposed by President Calderón’s predecessor, Vincente Fox. However, Senór Fox was forced to abandon this effort due to relentless pressure from the White House and the Office of National Drug Control Policy

Despite Calderón’s US-backed, militarily-style anti-drug offensive, Mexico still has a problem comparable to the Mafia’s influence during the Prohibition Era, because the flawded “Kick in the Door” policies practiced, endorsed, and financed by The United States (at the most recent cost of over 400 Million Dollars a year) aren’t working.

The More Shocking Details of Mexico’s Drug Crime Problem Include:

- 3,500 drug-related murders in 2008 (up from 2,500 last year). This figure includes the murders of over 500 Politicians, soldiers, cops, judges, and their families

- More than 20 deaths of male and female inmates in one week due to two huge riots at the vastly overcrowded Tijuana State Prison. Tijuana State Prison Guards also have a horrific reputation for rape, torture, and murder.

- A chronic plague of gruesome acts of murder, including the Mass Murder of 11 people in a Chihuahua bar and the dumping of 5 decapitated heads onto a crowded dance floor.

Mexico has realized the lesson that the United States has refused to accept:

criminalizing personal vices creates a Black Market for them, and a Black Market takes power away from the Government and gives it to Criminals.

By now, most Americans have heard the vicious rumors that Barack Obama is a Muslim, Arab, and/or Terrorist. Unfortunately, most Americans are unaware Andy Martin, a psychologically unhinged conservative blogger is responsible for these rumors.  Thankfully, the New York Times has exposed him.

Andy Martin was denied admission to the Illinois Bar because of concerns about his sanity. The findings of the Psychological Examination conducted on behalf of the Illinois Bar was that Mr. Martin has:

“a severe character defect manifested by well-documented ideation with a paranoid flavor and a grandiose character.”

Mr. Martin’s colorful legacy includes Quixotic gems such as:

- Filing so many frivolous lawsuits that he was barred from filing law suits in Federal Court without preliminary approval

-Listing “Exterminate Jew Power” among his purposes for running for a Connecticut Senate Seat.

- Suing the chairman of the Florida Republican Party for refusing to support him in his campaign for a Florida Senate seat.

While it may seem bizarre that a lunatic like Mr. Martin has been afforded so much credibility, the reality is a bit more tangible when you consider the role the Conservative Media has had in promoting him.

In 2004, the conservative website FreeRepublic.com published one of Mr. Martin’s press releases in which he suggested that  “Obama is a Muslim who has concealed his religion”. For the last 4 years, the freepers (avid contributers to freerepublic) have fervidly spread and exaggerated these claims.

Just last week, conservative news channel Fox News allowed Mr. Martin to assert that Mr. Obama had once trained to overthrow the government.

Nobody challenged him on this point. But when questions were raised about Mr. Martin’s appearance on Fox News, a Fox News executive defending by saying that “Mr. Martin was clearly expressing his opinion and not necessarily fact”

A Quick Tact Quiz for My Readers:

Question: You are a prominent politicians hosting a political rally. While talking about your opponent, your supporters yell “TERRORIST!”, “TRAITOR”, and “KILL HIM!”. Which of the following choices is the right course of action:

A) Calmly ask your supporters to refrain from such inappropriate language
B) Have security remove and detain the supporter who threatened the life of your opponent
c) Accuse your opponent of supporting and attacking your supporters.

If your answer was C, then you might be affiliated with the McCain Campaign.

Yes, the John McCain campaign issued the below statement in response to Barack Obama’s offense at being jeered as a terrorist and traitor (and having his life threatened).

“Barack Obama’s assault on our supporters is insulting and unsurprising….It is clear that Barack Obama just doesn’t understand regular people and the issues they care about.”

It’s inaccurate to say that John McCain took the low road in refusing to defend his opponent against hate speech and death threats. There isn’t a road low enough to describe John McCain’s attacks on Barack Obama’s righteous indignation.

John McCain is counting on the tactics of the Klu Klux Klan to win this election: encourage ignorant peoples’ hate speech and threats against Negroes and hope that he can surf the wave of emotion this causes.

In talking about the economy at a rally in Pennsylvania today, John McCain had a rather amusing gaff:

“Across this country, this is the agenda I have set before my fellow prisoners.“

As I see it, there are five possible explanations for this gaff:

1) He had been hoping to invoke his experience as a Prisoner of War (yet again) as one his credentials sometime during this speech.

2) This gaff is the result of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). The traumatic experience of campaigning, especially after last night’s rhetorical beat-down at the hands of Barack Obama, has been stressful enough to trigger random flashbacks. These flashbacks, in turn, are the subconcious basis for his Freudian Slip.

3) John McCain shares Ronald Reagan’s senility in addition to his values.

4) This is the latent result of Brain Damage that John McCain suffered during the Vietnam War.

5) This is a desperate cry for help, because Cindy McCain and Sarah Palin have secretly conspired to hold him hostage and force him to run for President.

According to a poll conducted by Faith in Public Life and Mercenary University, 57% of White, Southern Evangelicals think it’s justified for America to torture suspected terrorists into giving us information.

Although, Evangelicals have a Golden Rule exemption here: 52% said that the Enemies’ torture of American Troops is rarely or never justified.

Not that the Golden Rule really matters in the Evangelical mindset; less than a third of self-professed “Christians” said that their opinion on torture relied on Christian Teachings.

So, the irony of all of this is lost on Southern Evangelicals. Most Evangelicals would have had no-problem flaying and crucifying Christ, so long as they got to be the Romans.

The new Golden Rule for Today’s Evangelicals: Do unto others before they do unto you.

Jesus, Torture, Evangelical

According to this article from the New York Times, Sarah Palin offers more of the same, Bush-style politics that have plagued the United States for the last eight years.

Apparently, she appointed a former classmate to direct Alaska’s Division of Agriculture (a 2 Million Dollar Agency) on the sole basis of a stated “Childhood love of Cows”. I hope for the sake of the Alaska National Guard that none of Sarah Palin’s friends had a childhood love of G.I.Joe. At best, we can hope that her cronies will do a heck of a job.

Her penchant for injecting personal grudges into political appointments also mirrors that of George Bush. As the Mayor of Wisilla, Alaska, Sarah Palin fired the City Attorney after he put a stop-work order on a builder’s housing project. No surprise, that builder was one of her campaign supporters.

With Sarah Palin, we ironically risk getting yet another member of the “Ole Boys Club”; a hot-headed executive who will hire incompetent friends and fire competent (perceived) “enemies”. That’s a heckuva change.

It seems evident that Sarah Palin has no regard for the Intelligence of Americans. According to an article in The Washington Post, Sarah Palin recycled the tired and mythical “connection” between 9/11 and Iraq, an idea that most informed citizens have long-since dismissed as fantasy.

From the Article:

“Gov. Sarah Palin linked the war in Iraq with the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, telling an Iraq-bound brigade of soldiers that included her son that they would “defend the innocent from the enemies who planned and carried out and rejoiced in the death of thousands of Americans.”

So, Sarah Palin is assuming that Americans are still so wrapped up in “9/11″ emotion that we’ll conveniently forget the lessons we’ve spent the last 7 years sacrificing our troops to learn.

Worse than assuming that Americans are stupid is repeating the 9/11 myth to her own, Iraqi-bound son. This makes Sarah Palin a heartless mother, because no mother with respect for their childrens’ safety or intelligence would so willingly sacrifice them on the basis of a myth.

If Sarah Palin isn’t this cruel, then the alternative is that she’s oblivious to her own son’s well-being. If she lacks the judgment to care for her children, should we really trust her to care for ours?