Priorities

January 26, 2009 10:53 am Paul politics

Ken Starr’s Clinton/Lewinsky investigation divided the country, took several years and cost millions of taxpayer dollars.

But we’re being told that an investigation into the Bush administration’s torture policies (you know, where actual laws were broken) would be “too partisan,” “take too long,” and “cost too much.”

Now, I know the country is in a financial bind right now; we clearly aren’t as well-off as we were during Clinton’s term (*sigh*). But surely an issue as important as the torture of another human being by agents of the United States merits at least a look-see.

3 Responses

  1. mpmmclaughlin Says:
    February 4th, 2009 at 2:43 pm

    Ugh, so tired of the argument that the Starr investigation cost so much money. If Bill hadn’t lied and tried to cover up the affair, the whole thing would have been over a YEAR earlier … so Bill is partially to blame for the cost.

    That being said, I always found the whole Whitewater investigation (and most Congressional investigations for that matter) to be much to do about nothing. Just tempers boiling over because of lost elections.

    So we used water boarding on some f-ing terrorists, and the information helped us gather up more terrorists and prevent other attacks … and you have a problem with this?

  2. Paul Says:
    February 4th, 2009 at 4:03 pm

    By that same logic, why not go back further and ask why the Republicans made such a whoopty-do about the president getting a beej?

    It was not Clinton’s responsibility to stop the investigation before it got too costly, it’s the responsibility of the people who started the investigation in the first place. (In fact, if he had tried, the wingnuts would have hollered like monkeys that he was abusing power and interfering with a federal investigation.)

    As for the waterboarding thing, yes, I do have a problem with it. Several, actually.

    #1. We have a process, handed down from centuries ago, of determining the guilt of someone who commits offenses against our laws. We are supposed to do this BEFORE we punish them.

    #2. There is absolutely no credible evidence to date that the information gathered in torture sessions has prevented further attacks. In fact, it’s quite the contrary; several experts who have been present during waterboarding of detainees have said the information gathered is rarely useful at all.

    #3. I was raised to believe that we were a nation of laws and justice, and that only bad guys torture people. We are not the bad guys, are we?

  3. Paul Says:
    February 4th, 2009 at 4:05 pm

    Basically, it is my opinion that torture is about revenge, which is quite different from justice.