Is Tim Rutten CIA?

He starts out okay in his recent column in the LA Times:

Apart from understanding how and why the Bush/Cheney administration tricked the American people into going to war in Iraq, no question is more urgent than how the White House forced the adoption of torture as state policy of the United States.

Then concludes with these astounding passages:

Part of the hysteria over all this that you see in places like the Wall Street Journal editorial pages stems from an anxiety that congressional inquiries, like that of Levin's committee, will lead to indictments and possibly even war crimes trials for officials who participated in the administration's deliberations over torture and the treatment of prisoners.

It's true that there are a handful of European rights activists and people on the lacy left fringe of American politics who would dearly like to see such trials, but actually pursuing them would be a profound -- even tragic -- mistake. Our political system works as smoothly as it does, in part, because we've never criminalized differences over policy. Since Andrew Jackson's time, our electoral victors celebrate by throwing the losers out of work -- not into jail cells.

The Bush administration has been wretchedly mistaken in its conception of executive power, deceitful in its push for war with Iraq and appalling in its scheming to make torture an instrument of state power. But a healthy democracy punishes policy mistakes, however egregious, and seeks redress for its societal wounds, however deep, at the ballot box and not in the prisoner's dock.

"POLICY DIFFERENCES"??????

"POLICY MISTAKES"??????

IT'S A "PROFOUND-- EVEN TRAGIC-- MISTAKE" TO PUNISH WAR CRIMINALS?

WTF?????

This sort of incoherent, blase mentality is so incredibly pervasive among "journalists", and benefits the PTB so much, you truly have to wonder if ALL these people are CIA, carefully crafting public opinion into a "manageable" form.

Yes, Bush is bad, but all you have to do is vote for "change", and EVERYTHING WILL BE SO DIFFERENT!!!! YEAH, THAT'S THE TICKET!!!!


Chris Floyd has more on Rutten and torture.