ATTACKERMAN » No Truce, No Mercy, No Surrender, No Rest, No More, This Is War

By: Spencer Ackerman Saturday July 26, 2008 11:13 am

I never, ever, ever endorse candidates. It’s appropriate for a journalist, at least not for me. I mean, I try to be up front about where my biases lie, but I still have that voice in my head whispering: don’t endorse. That said: Alan Grayson, running for Congress in Florida’s eight congressional district, is exactly the kind of politician I want to see in office. Someone who won’t just hold this administration’s bastards accountable, he’ll have them wearing orange jumpsuits and sharing showers. Check out what he told Matt Stoller:

When I’m in Congress… the Bush administration’s worst nightmare is going to be me with subpoena power because I know everything that they’ve done, and I’m going to hold them accountable for it. … We don’t need truth and reconciliation, we need punishment. We need people to be held accountable for all the mistakes that they made that have screwed us up in this war and screwed us up in this economy. The economy is falling apart, the chickens are coming home to roost. You cannot spend $10,000 for every man, woman, and child in America for a war that never should have taken place in the first place.

Matt Stoller: But be specific, what do you mean by punishment?

Alan Grayson: We’ll put people in prison. We’ll take away the thing that they care about the most, their money. They stole, they hurt the troops, they killed people, they hurt the taxpayers year after year and they’ve destroyed this economy. They’re not going to get off scot-free.

Your kids are gonna have tatted tears. Your commissary is going to get stolen. Your new boyfriend is going to be Adebisi. Do you know what they do to guys like you in jail?

6 Comments

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6 Responses to “No Truce, No Mercy, No Surrender, No Rest, No More, This Is War”

WilliamOckham July 26th, 2008 at 12:41 pm

Tell that voice to shut up. Seriously, despite what our press culture has become, the job of a journalist has never been to be non-partisan or merely objective. Your job is to tell the truth. The truth may have a partisan outcome and it is always more than objective. When our country has been hijacked by venal, torture-loving, warmongering tyrants, the biggest lie is to remain silent. Not taking sides is an immoral choice.

Speak truth to power.

Spencer Ackerman July 26th, 2008 at 12:56 pm

I think I clearly take sides; the question is about endorsement.

WilliamOckham July 26th, 2008 at 2:28 pm

In response to Spencer Ackerman @ 2

The truth is that our country will be better off with more people like Alan Grayson in office. How can you not endorse?

The ‘no endorsement’ rule is a dodge used by the media to pretend they aren’t players in our political system. If you take it to its logical conclusion, like Len Downie you wouldn’t vote either.

Even if you don’t endorse, those guys will still think you’re covered in Cheetos dust.

vmaverick July 26th, 2008 at 2:38 pm

Spencer, I call foul. It’s entirely appropriate that these people should be brought to justice — charged, tried, convicted, imprisoned. To fantasize about the violence other prisoners will do to them, though, crosses the line. Don’t go there. Being locked up should be punishment enough — the mutual rape, torture and murder prisoners visit on each other is a tragedy, not a cockfight for our vicarious pleasure.

Rayne July 26th, 2008 at 5:45 pm

In response to vmaverick @ 4

Here, here. Is it really that you’re wrestling with endorsement, or wanting justice?

Personally, I’m for justice. Long, drawn out hearings, all the gory details, plenty of messy subpoenas and handcuffs and frogmarching and ultimately justice.

TheOtherWA July 26th, 2008 at 8:49 pm