On the Contrary

I watched the two speeches on torture and detainees by President Obama, and Ex-Vice President Cheney, the media coverage of the event, and I was appalled.  President Obama laid out a path forward for us and unequivocally restated our values.  Although I found some things in his way forward I will take issue with such as continued use of tweaked military commissions and more fundamentally flawed, the idea of prolonged detention, I found his speech a restating of our basic values and a breath of fresh air.  Then came Dick Cheney’s speech which was full of basic assumptions and assertions that were flawed or have been thoroughly discredited, and yet the media played them over and over without pointing out their misrepresentations.  Thankfully MSNBC did do some fact checking.  You would think that after the rush to war in Iraq the media would learn not to be the bullhorn for misrepresentations wouldn’t you.

Here was Dick Cheney arguing an argument that he has already lost once.  First and foremost is his assertion that torture saved lives and he has the memos to prove it.  This is the man who had the memos to prove WMD in Iraq and a connection to Al-Qaeda.  I am sure there are memos that exist and they were written just as the memos documenting WMD in Iraq, culling only intelligence he wanted to hear and not presenting any of the information that might cast doubt on the veracity of the claims.  I am not going to g:o into all of the outright lies in his speech, but I would refer you to a McClatchy News report that did lay out his assertions and the reality.  Just click on this link: Cheney’s speech contained omissions, misstatements.   Sadly what we have here is a man who so denies reality that in his mind, everything he says is fact.  He will go to his grave grasping his precious memos that were written to make him happy, not find the facts.  Meanwhile his daughter continues to argue that we did not torture because they found some flunkies to say in legal memos it was not torture.  You have to wonder what twisted minds could still accept this as rational.

But there are two other events that really make this a giant step back.  First was the 24/7 cable news failing to debunk his statements as they were made.  In their attempt to entertain by having dueling speeches, they failed to properly vet his statements, playing one against the other as though this were an honest difference of opinion.  This was further magnified by the fact that most of the spectrum of American political thought is now in the Democratic Party.  That means when you put up a Republican against a Democrat to discuss who “won”, by saying the Republican argument is equal to the Democrat’s is lending credence to the Republican argument that it doesn’t deserve.  Since the Republican Party represents now the marginalized radical right, the veracity of their “facts” should not carry the same weight as more moderate members of our society.  In other words the press still treats the Republicans as having an equal and balancing opinion that deserves respect instead of a marginalized segment of our society.  The Public would be better served by a debate between conservative Democrats and Progressives as more representative of public opinion these days.

The second failure was by Democrats and it was huge.  This small group of radical Republicans who are not making any sense on any issue, except to say no, decided to try the fear card again with the scare tactics of bringing the detainees to U.S. prisons.  Note this is just another form of their primary policy statement of just saying no to any change.  Had the Democrats stood firm and laughed at them, it could have been the final blow in their failed politics of fear.  Instead the Democrats acted like frighten children who do not want to look weak on terrorism.  While the rest of us have moved on from reacting to this fear card, the Democrats in Congress cringed and ran for cover, validating the Republicans tactic and putting them back in the game.  It was shameful and disgraceful and it may signal their ultimate demise.  Had the Democrats stood tall and made the obvious arguments that President Obama had to make in his speech because they were so craven, they would now be leading the country.  Sadly they put the Republicans and their scare tactics, which might I add emboldens Dick Cheney, right back in the game.

So all in all in was a bad week for change and seeing the Democratic Party finally lead anywhere.  I don’t know why Congress is always the last to understand what the rest of us think is obvious.