In the hallowed halls of the United States Senate today, the Judiciary Committee approved, by a vote of 11-8, to send the nomination of Michael Mukasey to the full Senate, where in all likelihood he will be anointed next week as the new Attorney General in the Bush Regime. Mukasey has become notorious in recent weeks as an apologist for continuing the Bush administration’s policy of torturing those it captures, and finding or concocting “legal” justifications for doing so. Mukasey, a polished and silver tongued butcher, will almost certainly, and very fittingly, join the gallery of war criminals leading the Bush Regime’s efforts to remake the world and this society into a state of permanent war and endless police state measures.
Those expecting Democratic Party leaders to stand up against this
blatant apologist for torture were, once again, disappointed by rude
reality. California Senator Diane Feinstein cast the first Democratic
vote for Mukasey, saying “Mukasey has really followed an independent
path. . . . Mukasey, in my view, is going to be a very different
attorney general” (different from the war criminal and Bush flunky
Alberto Gonzalez, she means). As she said this, a man in the gallery
injected some truth into the proceedings – shouting “shame on you” at
Feinstein, before police pushed him out of the room.
This is what things have come to. Torture is the “law of the land”.
Dungeons have been set up in this country and throughout the world
where captives are tormented beyond human endurance. Legal hired guns
are summoned to put a Constitutional seal of approval on the most
despicable and contemptible acts, which then become routine. In a
society of permanent war – war which will “last our lifetimes”, as Dick
Cheney once said – the supply of potential victims is endless. The
“opposition party” mumbles a few objections, insists we are good people
in a good nation, and the war/torture/repression/spying machine rumbles
on.
Courageous protests took place in D.C. on Monday and Tuesday as this
farce of a vote was taking place – protests that brought out some truth
about the abominations of the Bush Regime and its policies of torture.
But much, much more is needed. The millions of people throughout this
country disgusted, angered, and thoroughly opposed to everything Bush
and his regime of cruelty represent need to express it powerfully and
visibly. Wear and display orange – the color of the tortured detainees
– everywhere. Challenge everyone you see to do the same. Take part in
protests, speak outs, sit -ins, and other forms of protest. Join in,
build and organize a massive Orange Alert on November 16. Together, we
can be part of a mass political movement of resistance that drives this
criminal regime from power. This country is seething with discontent at
the direction Bush and Co. is taking the entire planet. As if anyone
needed more proof, waiting for the Democratic Party to stand up to
these war criminals means allowing them to continue their murderous
activities – and really, it means becoming a complicit partner in
crime. Resistance is needed, and we are the resistance we”ve been
waiting for.