Panetta: Sicilian for "I have no testicles......"?

You could look it up..... My Sicilian isn't that good.

I am a pretty old guy....born just four years after Truman dropped the atom bombs and ended World War II. I remember the first TV's....tiny fuzzy things in giant mahogany boxes that mostly showed pro wrestling and ice hockey and boxing from the Olympic Auditorium in LA.

And war movies.....I always tell my fussy Republican clients that we are not Martha Stewart, we are Jimmy Stewart: and it is a WWII black-and-white bombing movie.

We played as kids in the orange groves of Orange County (you probably thought the name of the County came from bad tanning salons, huh?) with stick rifles and machine pistols. We had little plastic army men we would melt with magnifying glasses when we ran out of ants.

I spoke some German long before Frau Sigrid found me: "Raus!" "Hande hoch!" "Unterzeeboot."

And we knew all the ditties that somehow kids always teach each other. Do sociologists track this stuff?

"Great green gobs of greasy, grimy gopher guts........"

And: "Nobody likes me, everybody hates me....I'm going to go to the garden and eat some worms!" sung by kids who have no idea what a "garden" is.

The Bosco Song is probably more obscure: "I hate Bosco....Bosco's bad for me; Mommy put it in my milk to try and poison me; I fooled Mommy.....I put it in her tea; No there's no more Mommy left to try and poison me!"

And the war stuff: "Whistle while you work; Hitler was a jerk; bit his weenie, tiny eeny; now it will not work....."

And:

"Hitler had one big ball.....
Goering had two but they were small.....
Himmler had something similar....
And Goebbels had no balls at all!"

Even six year olds in Orange County knew that Hitler had one testicle bit off while trying to piss on a goat as a ten year old (there is a pretty interesting "One Nut Club" in history....JFK for instance); Goering ran the Luftwaffe that tried to shoot down Jimmy Stewart; Himmler killed the Jews; Goebbels told the lies that made it all possible.

I am reflecting on this as I read about our dear local Neon Leon Panetta once again tracking back into Torture Land. Neon Leon is the point man in the Obama Administration's efforts to put oil on the waters.....and deflect inquiry into and criticism of an American President's having acted.....well, like a Nazi. Concentration camps. Horrific torture leading to deaths.

That kind of thing.

Routine horrific torture leading to deaths.

Amongst all our other problems.....most Americans, me included.....could give a rat's ass about more embarrassing photos of prisoner abuse at Abu Ghraib or Guantanamo coming to light.

Why stir up the natives, after all......Fuck those raghead motherfuckers.

Trust me.....Sigma Chi's fraternity intiation was much worse.

Abu Ghraib had Dobermans.

Sigma Chi had DG's....If Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned.....DG's come pre-scorned, in their own minds.....

At eighteen, fresh from the Jersey suburbs.......I was dosed with Ex-Lax, handcuffed to a similarly dosed DG (Delta Gamma for you non-Greeks.....blonde, rich, connected) and dropped off miles into the Upstate New York countryside with only a role of toilet paper and a Hearty Hi Ho Silver!

Believe me......I would have confessed to 9/11, given the opportunity to escape that experience. There is a play in it....but Samuel Beckett is dead.

Anyway......I hate it when I actually read the news........

Facts are so annoying. Here is a post from my friend Greg Palast......feel free to read it if you are really bored and low on Ambien.

Greg is one of those guys....a horse-fly....who keeps us all honest. Completely annoying....the kind of fellow you back away from if you meet him at The Rio bar after 10pm and he is on a rant. Never mind that he is always right, and always has his facts in order. Who needs to hear this shit?

I think they used to call these guys "journalists" or something. I know one other actual journalist.....

Neon Leon is now in charge of the CIA...and probably no longer running to Kasey's for cigarettes for Sylvia as he used to do, back in the day. I am sure the CIA has people for that....(and apparently robustly heterosexual people for that kind of duty....since the fags have all been shit-canned, whatever their other skills....like speaking actual Arabic).

Here is the old Neon.....Monterey Herald: March 8, 2008:

"Americans Reject Fear Tactics"

Panetta wrote that "all forms of torture have long been prohibited by American law and international treaties respected by Republican and Democratic presidents alike."

"Our forefathers prohibited 'cruel and unusual punishment' because that was how tyrants and despots ruled in the 1700's. They wanted an America that was better than that. Torture is illegal, immoral, dangerous and counterproductive. And yet, the president is using fear to trump the law."

And....in The Washington Monthly last summer:

"No Torture, No Exceptions,"

Panetta wrote, "there are certain lines Americans will not cross because we respect the dignity of every human being. That pledge was written into the oath of office given to every president, 'to preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution.' It's what is supposed to make our leaders different from every tyrant, dictator, or despot. We are sworn to govern by the rule of law, not by brute force."

And here is President Obama......the guy many of us busted our humps and embarrassed our selves publicly to try to get elected.....two days after his inauguration:

"The Government should not keep information confidential merely because public officials might be embarrassed by disclosure, because errors and failures might be revealed, or because of speculative or abstract fears," Obama's order said. "In responding to requests under the FOIA, executive branch agencies should act promptly and in a spirit of cooperation, recognizing that such agencies are servants of the public."

Well....it turns out that the embarrassing photos the Government are seeking to withhold from publication this month are NOT all more boring shots of Iraqis with Dobermans and Iraqis in naked dog piles.

There are videotapes of waterboarding and other "enhanced interrogation" techniques of guys like Abu Zabaydah and this other scumbag Abd al-Rahim al Nashiri.

Both these guys suck, are murderers.....and should be gassed, zapped, or locked in a box forever.

After a trial.

That is how we roll over here. Or....how we used to roll.

Right?

All the pros....professional interrogators....agree that torture is bullshit, and results in no credible, actionable intelligence. Our finest, bravest and most loyal military veterans from both sides of the political spectrum (John McCain and Phil Butler come to mind) agree that torture is bullshit.

As a nation we...... each and everyone of us through our representatives...... signed the Geneva Conventions declaring that such actions and techniques are against the law of God and the law of Man.

Here is Neon Leon on the subject now:

"The information in these documents would provide future terrorists with a guidebook on how to evade such questioning," Panetta's declaration said. "Additionally, disclosure of explicit details of specific interrogations where [enhanced interrogation techniques] were applied would provide al-Qa'ida with propaganda it could use to recruit and raise funds."

Correct me if I am wrong.....

If we have all agreed that torture is a crime and useless as a military technique....why would we want to deny Al Qa'ida the opportunity to train against techniques that we have all agreed we will never use?

Waterboard away, motherfuckers! Practise that shit all damn day!

That ought to thin the ranks of volunteers.......

If we have walked away from and denounced this kind of activity....how does this ancient history help Al Qa'ida recruit and fundraise?

I have read that power corrupts....and absolute power corrupts absolutely.

I did not think it applied under our Constitution.

And not to Democrats.

What a dummy.

I voted for this crew because I thought they had balls, courage, integrity....and a brighter vision for our future that reflects the values of our past.

Oh, well.

Unlucky.

"Panetta" really means "tiny little bread".

So.......Why is this guy taking out his tiny little bread......

And pissing all over my Constitution?