Do We No Longer Practice What We Preach?

Schieffer Wonders If Our Own Government Follows The Law Only When It Is Convenient

(CBS)  Weekly commentary by CBS Evening News chief Washington correspondent and Face the Nation host Bob Schieffer.

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Edward R. Murrow was one of the first to understand the power of worldwide communications.

But it was the message, not the power to reach so many, that concerned him.

His biographer Alexander Kendrick said that, like Thoreau nearly a century before him, Murrow asked himself "whether Maine had anything to say to Texas," and when he became head of the U.S. Information Agency, whether the United States had anything to say to the rest of the world.

Murrow concluded the answer was 'Yes.'

I thought about that as we learned more about the CIA's use of what our own Army and the Geneva Conventions define as torture, and how officials destroyed evidence when a federal judge demanded tapes of the interrogation episodes.

Is that our message to the world? That we are a government of laws except when it is "inconvenient"?

If so, then what was done in the name of security has greatly harmed security.

Weapons keep our enemies at bay, but our real security rests on whether the rest of the world comes to share our values, or the values of those who oppose us … and whether all people are better served by a government of laws or what someone decides the law ought to be at some particular moment.

Have we helped our cause witht he rest of the world when they come to believe we have sunk to using the tactics of those who hate us, when we no longer can be trusted to practice what we preach?

Is this what we want the world to know?

More importantly, is it what we want our children to know?

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E-mail Face the Nation.

[klutzak--2008]

thgdriver-

These comment sections are basically useless because idiots like you just post whatever vapid ignorant pre-programmed *** happens to pop into your tiny mind (and I use the term ''mind'' loosely.)

I wonder if a mentally challenged dork like yourself can even understand what it once meant to be an American; when the standards we set for OURSELVES were high. When we Americans could at least PRETEND that we didn''t torture, lie to start needless bloodbaths, and our leadership didn''t blatantly ignore the law.

If you can''t see the sad wisdom in Bob''s column, then that''s okay; it does speak to a higher moral stance than most of you right wing tools can understand, especially when you are cowering in fear from this administration''s constant hyped or blatantly false threats.

But spare us your non-related comments about subjects long ago decided beyond reasonable doubt.

How stupid does one have to be to continue falling for the ''attack the messenger'' strategy? I guess exactly as stupid as you.

Gore doesn''t advocate to never fly on airplanes, or not to live in houses that use electricity. So your comments were singularly ignorant as well as irrelevant to the topic.

Bob, Please retire, you are to old for this new world. Also good bye to the big 4 networks. You deserve to be put in the dust bin of history.

[thgdriver]

Do we no longer practice what we preach? That headline should be over on the Owl Gore story.

How did Owl (loser hypocrite Gore get to Oslo, Norway? He certainly did not fly in one of those big wasteful Air-O-Planes did he? I guess he sailed over in the hot air balloon he keeps inflated with the hot gas from his mouth and fat aiss.

I understand he fartted while giving his acceptance speech and three members of his losers club in the front row were severely stricken, Jimmy Carter, John Kerry, Mike Dukakis were all overcome, the three has be rushed to cleaner air.

[gaye5]

Whilst I abhor what has been done if true??, I am constantly at a wonder as to why our media and others constantly show the world the odd bad things that a few baddies do in America, yet never point out the many wonderful things that America does for the world. They have constantly been called in to help other nations when they are in trouble, giving of their men and money to help.. and yes they have gone in on a couple of occaisions when perhaps we think that they shouldnt have but on the whole they have tried to do their best.
They have also fought them on their ground instead of waiting until they come to us...
Why is it that the media has a show and tell to the world over these small bad things but leaves out the untold horrors that Muslims are doing to their own people and to non Muslims world wide... They say that it is to bad to show, but then they have no hesitation in showing the too bad that the odd American is supposed to have done..come on people wake up, your thinking is being controlled by the media.
We have non stop world wide Muslim violence, and their own wont stop them they encourage it.. let these America men do their job without the constant destructive media reports which are often over nothing causing our men to be put in danger..
I am an Australian so I can say this..

[compubomb]

Welcome to the age of corporatism. Once again, the robber barons will thrive, and our society will change for the worst. I vaguely remember reading an article somewhere which talked about how Mussolini Dictator of Italy wanted to call fascism Corporatism as a more kindly worded euphemism in how large government serves the needs and purposes of corporations. We need an apex moment to excite the hearts of our citizens to crave change. That is why i plan to Vote for Ron Paul and Possibly Dennis Kucinich.

[quatrops]

Sixty-six comments and counting! Anyone learned anything new? Any minds changed? Do any of us think that ANY of the politicians we elected are going to change their thinking or their vote as a result of all the hours we spent trying to "one-up" each other?

How many of us wrote, called, or e-mailed their senator or representative today? This week? This month? I have no expertise or any way of quantifying how much influence such input from the electorate has, but at least it has more of a CHANCE of making a difference than the ego-trips we engage in here.

My personal discipline is that, on any given day, I don''t avail myself the opportunity to show how clever, or how ticked-off I am in these comments sections until I''ve e-mailed my senator or rep..

If all of us did that, regardless of what we have to say, maybe these jokers in DC would discover there is an interest and concern out here in addition to what they hear from their good buddies on K street.

[dmgenet]

Corporate AmeriKa has permeated the governing bodies of this land. It is disgusting to see it''s result. Many CEO''s have always said they could run the country more efficiently than the politicans. What corporate America does is put business in front of ALL the agenda and does not balance the best for this nation. They *** and moan as they move jobs over seas and to Mexico, ONLY because their profits have shrunk. I''m no socialist but there needs to be people in government that are committed to this nation as a whole not as a ***.

[soundboy123]

Review the powers of the President and what he can do without the approval of congress. Our obscene congress-critters must share the blame, despite their assertions that they "didn''''t know".
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Posted by darjon38 at 12:53 PM : Dec 10, 2007

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while I agree with you that the chimp in charge is an idiot... you''re deluding yourself if you don''t think cheney has expanded presidental powers to the point of being above the law, using ''a time of war'' as his means for a power-grab. signing statements are ALSO another way of chimpy going beyond the laws of our country, just look at his signing statement on the McCain anti-torture bill http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2006/01/04/bush_could_bypass_new_torture_ban/

that had nothing to do with Congressional approval.

[michellem99-2009]

No the US of A does not. America has not for years, and won''t.

[darjon38]

I am not a blind bushie nor a supreme supporter of Bush. I just tend to want to punish or expose the guilty parties and not just lay the blame all on bush. Our congress-critters knew what was going on but suffered clintonitus (temporary amnesia), and those not on the oversight panel feel free to say anything they like, true or false, as long as it gains political points for their party (they didn''t know-weren''t informed).
Lord knows, we can''t trust those blathering idiots not to help our enemies by divulging secret methods of intel gathering. They feel the need to give terrorists an "equal chance" to kill us.
Don''t feel so passionate about blaming one man, there is PLENTY of blame to go around, and our obscene congress-critters flip-flopping on the issues doesn''t escape revelation, unless you want it to.

[darjon38]

And another addendum, Bush admin warned against destroying the tapes as did Tenet.

CIA Chiefs Nixed Destroying Tapes

Dec 08, 2007



When the CIA%u2019s clandestine service asked permission to destroy video tapes showing waterboarding and other coercive interrogation of two terrorists, Directors George Tenet and later Porter J. Goss turned them down, Newsmax has learned.

Despite that, when Goss was running the agency in November 2005, Jose A Rodriguez, Jr., the head of the CIA%u2019s Directorate of Operations, ordered the destruction of the tapes showing the interrogation of al Qaeda operatives Abu Zubaydah and Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri.

CLICK HERE FOR THE FULL STORY

[darjon38]

With one known exception, no formal objections were raised by the lawmakers briefed about the harsh methods during the two years in which waterboarding was employed, from 2002 to 2003, said Democrats and Republicans with direct knowledge of the matter. The lawmakers who held oversight roles during the period included Pelosi and Rep. Jane Harman (D-Calif.) and Sens. Bob Graham (D-Fla.) and John D. Rockefeller IV (D-W.Va.), as well as Rep. Porter J. Goss (R-Fla.) and Sen. Pat Roberts (R-Kan).

this revelation however completely demolishes the accusation that the administration was secretly waterboarding terrorist suspects left and right and hiding it from congress. They knew all along and in a few cases called for more. This shows that in fact the administration was above board (sorry) on interrogation techniques. [%u2026]

We saw the same thing yesterday when in fact we found out that it was one individual who called for the destruction of agency tapes showing interrogation (again, no proof they contained waterboarding lessons), all while the BUSH ADMINISTRATION cautioned against it.

from an article on Macsmind page, it again reiterates what I have been saying. Our obscene congress-critters knew all along, but they claim Clintonitus, don''t remember.

[andor3]

Lying to others is bad. Lying to yourself is fatal. Seems to be a lot of Americans lying to themselves about the destruction of the country happening while they watch (in some cases cheer and applaud). Bush & Co. are players in a long-running drama with an agenda to steal America from Americans by conning Americans into letting it happen. The tragedy is it seems to be working.

[darjon38]

And of course, you have definite PROOF that Bush himself (or Cheney)ordered the destruction of those tapes??? I think you give too much credit to Bush, or if you prefer, blame. He doesn''t appear to me to have that much control over anything, he is just a big dummy for everyone to *** on.
Review the powers of the President and what he can do without the approval of congress. Our obscene congress-critters must share the blame, despite their assertions that they "didn''t know".

[nor-one]

darjon38--Your doing a fine job as a "Judas Goat" keep defending bushit and nobody will look at his handler and controler. Cheney the troll. Either that or your the blindest bushie on record!!!

[inventagod]

I am getting used to the fact that the United States has slipped into a fascist state.
The news orginizations parrot the party line, the Justice Department is corrupt and the Pentagon has it''s hands in the deep pockets of the defense industry.
Congress also has their wallets filled continuously by those same businesses, and the CIA is truly in charge of them all.
It won''t matter who gets the presidential nod, they all work for the same bo$$e$.

[adventurepa]

The distruction of these tapes are just one more example of this administration thinking it is above the law.
It also points out that everyone is powerless to stop bush and his cronies in office.
When is enough -enough?
The answer is it has been enough for a while, but nothing can be done to stop what has been going on for far to long.
Impeachment papers should have been drawn up a long time ago.
What else will come out before the next president is in office?

[jncc1701]

Posted by darjon38 at 10:44 AM wrote

Talk about corruption? No one will ever be able to hold a candle to the previous Clinton admin, and if you follow the news, the Clinton running now is tainted from that and is constantly dogged by her own scandalous activities.
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While everyone is entitled to their opinion and I am not a HRC fan (the possibility of Clinton reflux bothers me)
I have to disagree with the previous statement. there is a lot invested in hating the clintons that I will never understand. But how can one compare lying about adultery and business deals with lying about war, violating the Constitution and wasting our tax dollars in Iraq. Bush does not want to be "like everyone else" well he may manage to do what no president has managed to do, permanently damage the Constitution. Makes me long for the good old days when all we had to worry about was White House interns.

I realize many are scared of terrorism, but honestly are we going to allow a bunch of cave dwellers to change our Republic?

Once the people of Rome gave up their Republic, Senatus Populusque Romanus they never got it back.

[darjon38]

Talk about corruption? No one will ever be able to hold a candle to the previous Clinton admin, and if you follow the news, the Clinton running now is tainted from that and is constantly dogged by her own scandalous activities.

Again Bush is not my favorite, he is what we have and IMHO he is doing the best he can with what he has. And you can take that either way.

[darjon38]

rafterman1: You seem to be taking the lame-stream media''s view of the situation in Iraq as total truth, it isn''t. Check your list and consider the answers given to those assertions. Walter Reid was a terrible oversight by PREVIOUS admins and the Bush admin, no doubt, it is being fixed after that exposure.
Katrina was impeded by a Mayor Nagin who didn''t follow his own plan for evacuation, a Governor Blanko who would not allow Bush to mobilize the states National guard, for fear of giving control to Bush, her and Bush''s petty bickering that disregarded immediate needs of storm victims. A costly learning experience for all concerned, FEMA, Homeland Security, Red Cross had absolutely no collaboration. And the lame-stream media reporting shootings, muggings, rape, looting dead bodies stacked in freezers, *** like that didn''t help.
US attorneys serve "at the pleasure of the President", and may be replaced at any time for no reason whatsoever. History, please.
The national debt is disgraceful, the labor market is steady, 4.7 unemployment, tax revenues are up very well under the Bush/congress okay-ed tax cuts.
Secret prisons? your solution is what?
WMD lies? Misled by previous admins and the lack of real on the ground intel, Saddam Hussein thought he STILL had the weapons, as did his Generals. Once again, Clinton like stupidity, all Saddam had to do was let the inspectors prove his "innocence" on those charges.