Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2018/05/15/haspel-now-likely-to-get-cia-b.html
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Dear Democratic Party: ‘We’re less evil’ is not a motto that rallies voters.
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Just watch - next time we see her, she’ll have jackboots and a riding crop.
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Pretty sure you don’t need benefit of “hindsight” to realize that the Geneva conventions existed before 9/11.
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I believe that’s CenturyLink’s ad campaign.
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We should just change “Senate confirmation” to “Senate rubber-stamp”.
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She expresses regret, has shown restraint throughout the circus of her nomination, and is a career CIA employee. If Democrats block her, Trump could appoint Chris Christie or Devin Nunes who would be nominated, have no experience, are shills, and would be exponentially more likely to foster a culture inspiring macabre machinations.
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Yeah, one of those guys might do something awful, like torture and then cover it up.
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The Force wasn’t with us.
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We have an idea of what this would look like - see season 3 of Homeland (US).
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Or the torturer in Doctorow’s book Little Brother. In fact, I think Haspel climbed out of his book.
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Just makes me wonder what was in it for those 5. Why do this?
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And will have changed her name to Ilsa.
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The Pugs would call them “soft on terrorism” in the next election campaign, yada yada
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Lying is intrinsic to the functioning of the CIA. They are spies. If given a nod and a wink by whoever authorizes certain operations – even illegal ones – then they will proceed with those operations, deny having done or condoned them, destroy documents, and with the knowledge that their asses will be covered by whatever administration authorized the illegalities. Haspel’s word means nothing.
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Let 'em. Fuck, even Doug Jones intends to vote against her, and there is factually no more endangered Democratic seat in the entire country than his*. If someone is more afraid of being called soft on terrorism than refusing to confirm someone who oversaw fucking torture, their moral compass is not only broken but completely missing.
All five of these assholes deserve to lose their seat. I know this country has had a shaky grasp on moral authority throughout history, but the people actively striving to make it worse need to stop failing upward.
*I know he’s not up for re-election until 2020, but neither is Mark fucking Warner.
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IIRC Heitkamp is up for re-election in November, are any of the others? Vote these bums out!
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I don’t think people appreciate this idea much. They are too busy trying to find something wrong with every single Trump appointee. While not great, Haspel is a known quantity and we could do a ton worse.
Yes, the torture stuff is bad. But we have a competent public servant here who although we cannot trust them not to torture detainees, by all indications it won’t be done lightly. It is far worse to have the nomination be an incompetent fool who is likely to be as petty and vengeful as the person who appointed them.
ETA: Question: What alternate pick do we have that is experienced and not on board with torture?
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Can we please find another epithet? Pugs are too damn cute and friendly to be confused with Republicans. Admittedly they are not the smartest of breeds…
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