The Constant Weader at http://www.RealityChex.com

‘Bosses’ – like Bush – otoh, don’t Lead from the Front by Courageous Personal Example.

Instead, what Bosses like Bush do is Drive from the Rear – Making Bargains, Writing Contracts – ‘trading’ their Positional Authority (as the Boss) in the form of ‘protection’ for Acts of Personal Loyalty by his ‘dirtied-in’ Middle-Level Henchpeople – that just happen to Violate the Law – at the ‘expense’ of the ’suckers’ on the front lines.

“Don’t worry about Leaking Plame’s CIA Identity, Dick, I’ve got you covered with my UE Declassification Authority and my ability to Compartmentalize Anything incriminating.”

“Oh! Don’t you worry your pointy little head about those poor little person-less Moslems, Bybee, there’s a Judgeship in this for you.”

“Now, all of you Telephone Companies just give it up – I want All of your Information – and I’ll get your asses some Immunity, too.”

“Hank, stop your silly fretting! Just have the Banks cook the books, and then I’ll get you a Big Windfall!”

For the last eight years – All of US – have been the suckers. We’ve been kept in the Dark, while Bush secretly did his deals with ‘those in the know’ – the Neocon Cabal of Colluders – Telling US, for instance -

“She’s fair game…” “The Enhanced Procedures are Legal and Safe…” “You don’t have anything to worry about if you haven’t done anything wrong…”

As you well know from your work, and ianapsych, Abuse almost always involves a Power Differential between the individuals – the classic One-Up/One-Down mode of ‘relationship.’ The physically stronger – the wealthier – those with Positional Power – Play Games to Take What They Want, and tell the Victims that ‘they brought it on themselves.’ That’s Bybee One and Two, in a Nutshell, imvho.

Bush has No Leadership Qualities to Speak Of – he’s always been an Empowered Bully and a Clever ‘Boss’ who Does Deals in Secret with Willing Colluders – whom he protects from Accountability to the Law by mis-using his “Inherent Powers” – and then he dumps the ‘cost’ on the suckers.

But, like any Abuser, he’s clever enough to ‘know’ he has to ‘keep up appearances’ – like the Appearance of the Rule of Law, for instance. So, Bush dirties-in Cronies and Loyalists – Secretly ‘politicizing’ the people/functions most important to Giving the Appearance of the Rule of Law – OLC, DoJ, PIN, etc, all the while cleverly disguising Beating-Up the People and Stealing from the Treasury.

Truly, the last eight years for US has been an Authoritarian Nightmare at the Hands of the Bush “Loyalty Wins When You’re In” Cartel.

And, I agree with you completely – it’s going to take Years to recover the People’s Trust in Government.

@42: I’d say a constant simmer is what’s needed here. I personally would like to see the public at large “engaged” but not enraged. As for those doing the heaving lifting, those here and others, I’d prefer to see all rage focused like a laser on dogged determination to not let go of this till it’s all out, all investigated, and the worst perpetrators have been dealt sentences.

Naturally we all have our moments of wanting to tear our hair out or feeling like our head’s going to explode or like white hot rays could shoot from our bodies, but in general I love to see that all placed into an effort, which may take us years. (That’s why I plead with anyone who might be reading and is in a position to rec’d Marcy for a MacArthur Fellowship to please do so ASAP. I’ve placed my bets. And my bets are on EW and this group.)

What is the possibility the CIA, in briefing a former spook, used “spook language” irt torture which would have been clearly understood by Goss in terms of the “to what extent of actions” inference on policy but was intended to be missed by Pelosi? Yet, the spooks in the room knew what they were saying and made their notes reflect such. This way, CIA can state Pelosi was briefed, Goss backs it up and then Pelosi comes back with essentially a, “Hold on, wait a minute…”extent” was not clear to me.”

Spooks have subtle language with depth of “extent” and “intentions.”

(Seashell, if you are reading, I left you a comment in the last post which is epu’d by now. Many others might enjoy the links and quotes too.)

For the record, Porter Goss, as an elected official, with his CIA background, should have never been allowed to fill the House Intel Com Chair capacity, due to conflict of interest and the “hoodwink” potential his leadership from that venue could present to Congress. His leadership probably played a key role in weakening the balance of powers if he operated more as an elected spook than a congressman.

1) Our gov’t used torture, violating our constitution and the Geneva conventions.

2) The president and vice president pressured the cia to use these methods despite evidence of protest. (mild but consistent evidence).

3) The pres. and v.p ignored concerns and found ways to go around and manipulate people to go along. They used a variety of strong arm tactics and coercion to force compliance in violating the law.

4) Cheney stated that the president knew and signed off on the program.

This is where we need to continue to focus our rage. What often happens is that we feel just as powerless as congress did…parallel process, and so we start to rage against the ones we feel we can impact, instead of the true perpetrators who fight back so furiously, and so effectively that “giving up” and becoming distracted is the preferred and hoped for outcome by the perpetrators. We, the people are as susceptible to the techniques as congress was.

TheraP at 17, I absolutely agree with your point about that statement. There is more.

This makes me so sad, but at the same time, it really validates a lot of what we know about human nature.

But the big news should be what it always has been–that the Bush Administration and the CIA did not give the legally required briefing on their covert ops to Congress.

here’s more big news;

WASHINGTON — The Bush administration applied relentless pressure on interrogators to use harsh methods on detainees in part to find evidence of cooperation between al Qaida and the late Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein’s regime, according to a former senior U.S. intelligence official and a former Army psychiatrist.

yet both the cia AND the fbt KNEW there was NO link, EVERYONE knew there was no link

this HAD to be called down from the top SINCE everyone in BOTH of these agencies knew with no doubt THERE WAS NO LINK

that’s the elephant in the room, these agencies were tasked with gathering information the agencies themselves knew did not exist, this is the ONLY reason you have policies of torture, to gather FALSE information

the mcckatchy article goes on;

Cheney’s and Rumsfeld’s people were told repeatedly, by CIA . . . and by others, that there wasn’t any reliable intelligence that pointed to operational ties between bin Laden and Saddam, and that no such ties were likely because the two were fundamentally enemies, not allies.”Senior administration officials, however, “blew that off and kept insisting that we’d overlooked something, that the interrogators weren’t pushing hard enough, that there had to be something more we could do to get that information,” he said.

they were informed in no uncertain terms there was no link, cheney instituted his house of pain for one reasn, to create information he knew was fasle