At the White House, Joking about a Torture Investigation?

All I have to say, as an Ex-USAmerican and now very proud resident of a much more progressive and intelligent Spain and European Union, is VIVA ESPANA! Go get 'em! And, Abby, I have to say I'm soooooo tired of hearing about the US as the "Leader of the Free World". How can you lead anything when you are behind the group? Behind in just about every advanced/progressive way of thinking in the developed world - Climate Change, universal health care, human rights, death penalty, civil rights, equal rights for LGBT people, environmental protection, militarism, neo-colonialism, state sponsored terrorism, corruption by a free market vulture economic system (witness the economic collapse caused by this bankrupt ideology) etc. The US lags behind anything the rest of the progressive, developed western world stands for. The US voted against the Kyoto plan to tackle Global Climate Change (greed, the reason, as usual and this by the great environmentalist Al Gore and his neo-lib buddy, Clinton), voted against UN resolutions to ban land mines, child labor, cluster bombs ad nauseum and always to protect profits of corporations. Uncle Sam led the way again by joining with the usual suspects, Iran, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Lybia and all those medieval countries to vote for some of these most offensive of votes. The US joined with these, and other backward countries, against a Euorpean Union sponsored resolution to ban the persecutions and executions of homosexual people around the world too last December. Some leader, huh?! If you, like so many other brainwashed USAmericans, believe this propaganda that your successive governments have blinded you with (along with the "Oh poor USAmerica, everybody hates us even after all the wonderful and benevolent things we have done for them", but should read "to" them) then no wonder you find yourself confused with the hostility the US is greeted with around the world. I can assure you as a now resident of the more advanced in every way that matters EU, the US is looked at with disdain and disappointment. We get a better look at US actions than you do from your Corporate-owned US "news" media, who act more like cheerleaders for US policy (which, of course mirrors that of their corporate owners), and it isn't pretty. The US is seen as a bully, sponsor of State Terrorism and neo-colonialist by just about everyone in the world. You should ask yourself why. This isn't for no reason. Do some thinking. The US is the only country in the world that has actually USED WMDs - it dropped two! nuclear bombs on two! civilian cities, not war targets, it has blackmailed, assassinated leaders, sent in CIA Economic Hitmen & assassins, applied great economic pressure, launched military invasions etc. to advance US Corporate Capitalist "Interests" and "Values" all over the world from Chile, to Nicaragua, to Iran for decades (don't you notice how often those two words are used by US leaders, but are never actually defined?) If you really want to know what your country and its Corporate backed leaders have done to the world for a very long time (look back at the Spanish-American War and the War with Mexico, where the US stole 1/2 of Mexico and Spain's remaining colonies under bogus "wars" and pretexts for a couple of good examples) then there are many good books out there like "Confessions of an Economic Hitman", by John Perkins and my all time favorite "The Shock Doctrine", by Naomi Klein which is thoroughly referenced and reads like a good thriller once you get into it. Read that and you can never think about things the same again ever. See the murders and sufferings of millions of victims of US corporate/government policy on countries all around the world for decades to make the world safe for US style Vulture, Free Market, Unregulated Capitalism and profit for the very few at the expense of the vast many. It is the story of evil cloaked in words like "democracy", "values" and "human rights", but there is NO evidence to back this cynical view up and only the brainwashed, ignorant, average USAmerican believes it, but then, they're the ones who "vote" in the leaders and actually pay for all this brutality, bullying and mayhem so they're all that counts. Why do you think the US has thousands of bases (the pentagon prefers the word "sites") in foreign countries when the US and its people would never allow another country to place military "sites" on US soil (not fair, is it?). According to the Pentagon report of 2008 the US maintains 761 "active military sites" in foreign countries. Counting domestic military bases and those on US "Territories" (colonies to anyone else) there are a total of 5429!!!! Is that Defense? NO! That is for Offensive military policy. Think about it. The US is, and has been, always at war somewhere with someone - always they're the bad guys of course, "terrorists", and you poor sucker taxpayers are always paying through the nose for all of this military invasions etc. to enrich the military-industrial complex that Eisenhower warned about 50 years ago, like Haliburton, Bechtel, Lockheed, Boeing, The Carlyle Group (the Bush group), Blackwater et al. And look at how many of those war-profiteers and robber barons produce presidents and vicepresidents, reps and senators etc. - Cheney and Rumsfeld have revolved in and out of US government jobs then right back into high paying jobs with several of the above named corrupt companies. Meanwhile USAmericans live in the most stressful, violence prone of "developed" societies where 47 million have no health care, 36.5 million (and growing) live in poverty, 1% of the population owns over 60% of the wealth, the infrastructure is crumbling, and the infant mortality rate of a third world country. It is shameful! There will never be Real Change until this corrupt system of government by, for and of the Corporate Vultures, Robber Barons and War-Profiteers ends. Inform yourself and then act.