I’m So Ashamed to be American…

Lileks is at his screedy best today, fisking Time’s breathless exposé of “prisoner torture” at Gitmo. It’s a must-read. Excerpt:

And at one point the reader might assume that if something really bad had happened, we might have read about it by now. I know a little bit about modern journalism, and we tend to emphasis the splintery plunger up the butt over the mocking puppet show. In any case, this detail makes you almost want to weep in frustration; domestic politicians are posturing for the camera, huffing about then horrors of Gitmo, insisting that the rest of the world won’t forgive us until we close the joint down and pave it. Over what? A Punch and Judy show? If we gang-mimed the guy and had 17 men in striped shirts with white makeup pantomime falling out of a burning skyscraper, would the critics demand we not only let the guy go but pay him a per diem for his troubles? I’ve read the story twice, and I keep wondering if I missed the part where the suspected 20th hijacker spits teeth into a chamberpot rimming with own bloody urine while massaging the welts the jumper cables left on his groinal division. I mean, I take all that for granted, because our soldiers are all killbot brutes – except for the lower-class ones who got drafted against their will and can only hope Bruce Springsteen sings a monotonal account of their disaffection.

You’ve GOT to read the lyrics! And the rest of the piece, for that matter.

Wahabism delenda est. And we’re still using kid gloves.

UPDATE: Welcome Salon readers, especially those of you from the left side of the spectrum. I’m honored that The Daou Report saw fit to link to little old me. (Must’ve been the post title.) Take some time, peruse the site. And if you see anything that really irks you, drop me an email. Or leave an anonymous comment like you usually do. Be sure to read my invitation to my readers, though!