Feb 8, 2009

Sometimes it feels like I'm in a small minority group of freakish people who've been given crazy pills in their water, non-stop. I mean ... I MUST be crazy.

Take for example the headlines and the news reports about 'over-paying' the banks while distributing TARP money (read, looted taxes), during the dying months of the former Bush administration, worth a whopping $78 billion.

The way this theft is reported, it is made out as if nothing can be done about it.

As if some fly-by operation run by aliens from another planet had sucked the money right out of our earthly banking system, and disappeared into the outer galaxy. As if these banks were not huge institutions with registered headquarters located on our very planet, to which the U.S. government can deliver a 'You Owe Us' notice, and ask for the money back! Or, just simply, banks whose assets the U.S. Congress has the authority to freeze.

I am sure that I am not the only one whose immediate question is: Well, why haven't the banks just returned the money?

[Anecdotal evidence of other solutions regularly applied on earth: I once received, by mistake, a paycheck for an additional month of service not rendered after I had stopped working for a certain educational institution. They contacted me and told me to give back the money, and I sent them a check for the amount. Done. Simple. Cannot the same simplicity be applied to the $78 billion overpaid funds, too? If not, why not exactly?]

Then there is the issue of canceling the 'torture policies' of the former, very bad and ugly Bush administration that was supposedly 'reversed' by the new, sweet hope Obama administration.

First, of course, as we all know, imperialists always cover all their bases, so there are some loopholes hinted at and other loopholes explicitly stated that make the 'reversal' look more like a gentle bearing to the left on the winding roads comprising the imperial super highway, heading mainly for the far right. Not a U-turn by any means, even if such were to be ill-advisedly considered a good turn of events.

But, more importantly, even if we were to believe that some sort of reversal of rules has happened, the new Obama administration can only pretend that they have done something positive. In fact, though, they have merely reminded the world that the U.S. knows and recognizes that it was acting not so nicely; they can't say 'illegally', for that would be going too far. Still, as for real actions, all is to be dealt with as if all else is, with just the 'stroke of the pen' deal, now A-OK. "Smile!" it is implied, "Keep up the smile, and pretend all is good. Just keep smiling and keep stepping away and past this icky 'issue' since it's now done and dealt with, and best be forgotten. Phew! So GLAD that's done!!"

And, my jaw is hanging down, right above the floor.

'Dealt with'? What, you mean, like it's not an 'issue' anymore? It has been resolved, all the legal ramifications dealt with and the ship of the U.S. State will now move on, continuing to act legally? Of course only somewhat, due to all the 'interrogation techniques' that may be needed, so must be retained or developed, for security reasons that cannot be discussed publicly, for such would aid and abet the terrorists. Ahem! 

So, yes, the U.S. is getting there, making progress towards that most difficult of all goal of all, i.e., acting legally, continuing to scramble in the generally well-considered direction willfully, methodically and of course patiently, excruciatingly slowly.

In fact, I wouldn't be surprised to see some Democrat apologists making a positive and hopeful case for the necessarily slow process: the pace is to ensure that no mistakes are made in the undoing of evildoing, never forgetting that it was the haste in their original coming about that brought so many oh, so wrong and evil consequences. In detoxifying the State Apparatuses left behind by that frat boy Bush and his sadistic, jerk friends, we must be patient.

It's as if there has been no egregious violations of the Geneva Conventions, the UN Charter, the U.S.'s own laws, not to forget relevant parts of the U.S. Constitution (the 8th Amendment) prohibiting 'cruel and unusual punishment' (remember that?). It's as if no crimes have been committed, and it's all been just one big misunderstanding.

To use a Malcolm X-like analogy, let's imagine that during the previous eight years, the administration of George Frat Bush had made it legal for people to rob others' houses, provided they met certain, newly legalized conditions. Now, after eight years of people getting their houses robbed, imagine that people are told that the new administration has reversed the rules, and it is no longer legal for people to rob others' houses, no matter what. This is then celebrated as huge progress and treated, in the corporate 'news' media, as a positive 'change'.

But, it is only restoring the status quo ante. This still does not address the wrong done during those eight years. To those thousands and thousands who got robbed, this is the epitome of justice evaded and denied. Getting their belongings back and getting compensated for having been violated all those years; that would be closer to justice, though not completely so yet.

People lost their lives and livelihoods due to those torture policies. Ask Jose Padilla, just for one case. And in matters of torture, one is already too many. What about prosecution of the perpetrators of torture? Or, those who authorized them? If those acts were reprehensible, then surely there should be some penalties for those authorizing and carrying out such reprehensible acts. But, is there any? Is there even a hint of any?

Am I on crazy pills not seeing any, or are there really none to be seen?

The whole matter is treated as if it was some kind of 'mistake' or a 'foolish' policy; on par with a drunken fool acting stupidly and annoyingly, swearing loudly, disturbing the public peace, flaying his arms about wildly, catching passers-by in their jaw, in their eyes, spitting on children while in slurred speech spewing lasciviously about their mothers.

The way Team Obama is behaving is more akin to reacting to an embarrassing moment, something over which you had no control, yet have to apologize for: "Well, well, well ..." (nervous yet broad smile) "Phew! Wasn't that something! Well ... Thank god the drunken fool is home sleeping off his hangover!" Or, like the police dispersing the onlookers hanging out at the scene of a crime long after all evidence of a crime has been removed: Nothing to see here, folks! Go on home! Be thankful the idiot's gone. Ha ha! Whatch you gonna do? Forget about it! C'mon, keep stepping!

Just like that?! And all the Obama zombies are like, 'Well, what more do you want?! He changed the laws back, didn't he? Duh!!'

'Duh', indeed ... These crazy pills are something else!