With surprising ease, President Bush\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s nominee for attorney general, to replace the beleaguered Alberto Gonzales, won the necessary votes to gain confirmation. That was last week, not long after the president submitted Judge Michael B. Mukasey\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s name.<\/p>\n
The retired federal judge went through the ritual screening, most of which centered on torture, a definition that obviously eluded Mukasey\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s predecessor.<\/p>\n
On the day the Democrats joined with Republicans for a 53-40 vote in favor of confirmation, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Washington Journal,\u00e2\u20ac? a public-affairs program on C-Span, invited callers of all political persuasions to opine on the prospects for Mukasey\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s expected confirmation a few hours later.<\/p>\n
Torture dominated. The practice of waterboarding appeared to be on everyone\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s mind. One caller railed Mukasey over not categorically declaring waterboarding torture, and therefore illegal. Another caller gave her opinion: \u00e2\u20ac\u0153I see nothing wrong with splashing a little water on a prisoner\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s face.\u00e2\u20ac?<\/p>\n
Well, that categorization brings waterboarding almost to a harmless game at a family picnic, in which a water-gun-toting kid squirts others. Or like a water sport enjoyed with a set of skis and an outboard motor at Storrie Lake.<\/p>\n
How did such a heinous torture come to be euphemized in a way that reduces the potentially lethal practice to a simple summer activity or a squirt of water?<\/p>\n
Waterboarding is defined by Wikipedia as \u00e2\u20ac\u0153a torture technique that simulates drowning in a controlled environment. It consists of immobilizing an individual on his or her back, with the head inclined downward, and pouring water over the face to force the inhalation of water into the lungs.<\/p>\n
Waterboarding has been used to obtain information, coerce confessions, punish, and intimidate. Waterboarding elicits the gag reflex and can make the subject believe death is imminent.\u00e2\u20ac?<\/p>\n
Given this technique, which has \u00e2\u20ac\u00b9 or has not \u00e2\u20ac\u00b9 been used against suspects in U.S. custody, depending on who\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s talking, why did Mukasey, an experienced jurist, perform such an elaborate tap dance around the issue?<\/p>\n
As the highest-ranking judicial official in the executive branch, Mukasey will wield considerable clout. Numerous legislative inquires failed to exact definitive answers from Alberto Gonzales, who obfuscated waterboarding by skillful bobbing and weaving. Mukasey did the same: If it is torture, then it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s illegal. But why the if?<\/p>\n
The real danger of employing torture techniques, in addition to inviting other countries to return the favor against our own troops, is that torture undermines our status as a once-vaunted exemplar of human rights.<\/p>\n
Experts point out that suspects may confess to anything just to stop the pain. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not as if torture, to the point of exacting the kind of words we want to hear, has a way of bringing forth a more acceptable version of the truth.<\/p>\n
And if, as supporters say, this fraternity-prank-type of practice is really just fun-and-games, I suggest having members of Congress and the administration undergo the same kind of waterboarding that prisoners receive. That would help to spread the fun and keep politicians in tune with what so many of them approve.<\/p>\n
We\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve posited a host of reasons for beginning the Iraq War. Wasn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t it first to stem the production of weapons of mass destruction? No weapons being found, the cause then became to rid the world of Saddam Hussein. But that mission accomplished, our invasion was ostensibly to bring democracy to that oppressed country, where we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d be \u00e2\u20ac\u0153greeted as liberators.\u00e2\u20ac? And later the reason followed the illogic that \u00e2\u20ac\u0153It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s better to fight \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcem over there than to fight \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcem here.\u00e2\u20ac?<\/p>\n
Shortly before the 2008 general election, politicians assuredly will have come up with justification for our flirtations with World War III.<\/p>\n
\u00e2\u20ac\u00a2 \u00e2\u20ac\u00a2 \u00e2\u20ac\u00a2<\/p>\n
Judy Long, with whom I play e-mail tag, sent an interesting item which elucidates the concept of time and money and why it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s so easy to confuse millions with billions.<\/p>\n
A billion, you will remember, contains nine zeroes, a million only six. Yet, politicians toss out figures as if millions and billions were synonymous.<\/p>\n
For example, Sen. Mary Landrieu, D-La., has asked the Congress for $250 billion to rebuild New Orleans. The e-mail points out that if you are one of 484,674 original residents of New Orleans you each get $515,810.<\/p>\n
Or, if you have one of the 188,251 homes in New Orleans, your home gets $1,328,014. Or, if you are a family of four, your family gets $2,063,014.<\/p>\n
Other examples:<\/p>\n
One million seconds is only 5 days, 18 hours, 53 minutes and 20 seconds. But a billion seconds is 15 years, 308 days, 9 hours, 41 minutes and 50 seconds.<\/p>\n
A billion seconds ago it was 1992.<\/p>\n
A billion minutes ago, Jesus walked on Earth.<\/p>\n
A billion hours ago our ancestors were living in the Stone Age.<\/p>\n
A billion dollars was only 8 hours and 20 minutes ago, at the rate our government is spending it.<\/p>\n
\u00e2\u20ac\u00a2 \u00e2\u20ac\u00a2 \u00e2\u20ac\u00a2<\/p>\n
Judy\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s husband Michael Long spent last week undergoing open-heart surgery.<\/p>\n
He\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s doing well.<\/p>\n
And we all hope his ticker is good for several billion more beats.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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