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Straight Up | Jan Herman

Arts, Media & Culture News with 'tude

Take two aspirins and call us in the morning

April 20, 2008 by Jan Herman

The lead editorial in today’s New York Times — “The Torture Sessions” — makes some excellent points about the secret White House meetings revealed earlier this month by ABC News. Here’s one:

The amount of time and energy devoted to this furtive exercise at the very highest levels of the government reminded us how little Americans know, in fact, about the ways Mr. Bush [the Bullshitter-in-Chief] and his team undermined, subverted and broke the law in the name of saving the American way of life.

We’re glad The Times finally got around to chiming in. But the hope it expresses that “a new Congress and a new president” might provide “the full truth,” let alone hold the war criminals to account, is rosy at best.
The Times knows that, of course. Even so, it offers a bromide for the Pollyannas that “only by fully understanding what Mr. Bush [the Bullshitter-in-Chief] has done over eight years to distort the rule of law and violate civil liberties and human rights can Americans ever hope to repair the damage and ensure it does not happen again.”
What about the damage that is not repairable? Uh, take two aspirins and call us in the morning.
Meanwhile, better late than never, the front page investigates a not-so-hidden hand:

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Jan Herman

When not listening to Bach or Cuban jazz pianist Chucho Valdes, or dancing to salsa, I like to play jazz piano -- but only in the privacy of my own mind.
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