CBS reported it tonight.

That’s on top of blocking additional embassy security funding requests by Secretary Clinton, cutting funding for embassy security that was already in place, and ignoring all of the lies and crimes committed by the Bush Administration with regards to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. (Including but not limited to exposing CIA agents, torture, renditions, and lying about the existence of WMD’s.)

And, to make things even worse in my eyes, these idiotic Congressional Republicans held yet another pointless symbolic vote to repeal HCR today. (That makes, what, fifty?  How many wasted hours does that make?)

What saddens me even more is the fact that Americans don’t give a crap about us dropping much bigger bombs over people who are every bit as innocent all across the world.

We only care when it happens in America, and that’s really sad.

You get a Presidential Medal of Freedom for helping your president lie our country into a personal war with Iraq that costs more than three trillion dollars, 4500 soldiers’ lives, hundreds of thousands of civilian lives, and our international prestige and good will. (Even if you helped them expose CIA agents to discredit their contention that the fictitious WMD’s didn’t exist.)

But, if you expose the lies of the US Government, such as proof that we are knowingly attacking civilians, torturing teens, the elderly, and the mentally infirm, operating secret prisons, and covering up our mercenaries’ contractors’ dealing in child prostitution, well, you get a more than a year of extra-judicial punishment bordering on torture without trial while our president and his security team come up with ever more unconstitutional ways to keep whistleblowers from revealing their dirty secrets.

This guy lives ten minutes away from me. (Or rather, lived.)

That fact isn’t really relevant to the story, but it just makes it feel that much worse to read his story.  Soon he’s going to be one of the thousands of kids who died to cover for George Bush’s lies and incompetence.

What saddens me more is the fact that so few in this country really give a crap about it.

I’ve been having some lively discussions about the recent statements the government has issued regarding drone strikes on American citizens, and I don’t think most folks around here are aware that we’ve already used drones on American citizens.  Anwar Al-Awlaki’s sixteen year old son was killed by a drone, and he (to my knowledge) was guilty of nothing more than unfortunate circumstances of birth and location. 

And some douche on Disqus asks me if this person would have made a meaningful contribution to society anyway, as if that’s of any relevance to his constitutional rights as a US citizen. (The kid was born in Denver, Colorado.)

Our history is littered with events where the US military was deployed to put down American citizens. (For an example, read up on the Bonus Army and the many general strikes of the early 1900’s. Heck, even George Washington deployed US soldiers against citizens.)

It’s nice that Obama insists he wouldn’t use drones on American citizens, and maybe he won’t.  Given our country’s history and Obama’s own disregard for human life and international law, I’m just a wee bit skeptical.

Now we won’t have to worry about these two dangerous Afghan children stealing precious firewood anymore, right?

I certainly feel safer.