Political Cortex: Brain Food for the Body Politic

How is that defined?  Well, one activity is waterboarding.  What is that?  That's a term that stands for simulated drowning.  Then there is also electrical shock to get a subject's attention and to coax information.

Hold it, isn't that type of conduct torture?  Shhh!  We shouldn't call it that since that is upsetting.

What it all boils down to is kidnap and torture.  How reliable is information derived from torture?  Information generated by force was routinely thrown out by courts.  

Then again, when we speak of courts we think of trial by jury.  These victims don't get trials, they just get indefinite incarceration while shut off from the rest of the world and subjected to torture.  

Remember how we needed that Patriot Act after 9/11?  

Also remember that we provide a label for someone we grab and throw into jail or some dark and isolated room that constitutes a substitute for jail without giving these individuals access to a lawyer.

Mind you, according to fashionable labeling these are not citizens.  We call these individuals that we are trying to convince to confess, we label them enemy combatants.  

I mean, doesn't that carry a less offensive ring than if we label them torture victims?

As we learned from Karl Rove and the Republican spin machine - Labeling is the thing!  

How much better it is to refer to interrogations of enemy combatants rather than resorting to those other unpleasant names that conjure up cruel dictatorships and the most barbaric methods of torture.

Remember, loyal citizens, to learn the correct labeling.

Above all do not question your masters since they are conducting wars and engaging in rendition and interrogation to make all of you safer.

Always remember these operative code words:  Perpetual War is a necessary means to achieve Perpetual Peace.

Some of us, no matter how hard you try, Mr. Bush and Mr. Cheney, think that all of this phraseology is nothing more than subterfuge, cruel and tragic subterfuge at that.

What does all of this really mean?  

It means that a government calling itself the beacon of democracy and the standard to be held up high for the entire world to follow resorts to preventive rather than pre-emptive war, ah, another labeling conflict, along with kidnap and torture, all in the name of preserving American democracy.

Shame on you, Congress, for not performing your constitutional duty.  

Shame on you, Congress, for not convening immediate hearings on the impeachment and removal from office of George W. Bush and Dick Cheney, who tirelessly and ruthlessly subvert the U.S. Constitution and defile international law.

Mr. Reid and Ms. Pelosi, your refusal to act as leaders of the respective bodies of Congress in the face of democracy's destruction will insure roles for you in historical infamy!