They've always loved torture:

Bennett, who was ambassador at the time of Motú's death, suggested that U.S. officials interested in Mba's background could have read the report he filed at the time; he said that he based his account on the statement of a witness who “described in very graphic detail how Motú over a period of several hours had been beaten, went comatose, was revived with buckets of water, and further tortured until he did not respond and those beating him left. The torture, as described, included full kicks to all parts of the body and beating with staves or cudgels.” Mba, said Bennett, has subsequently “been involved in continuing mayhem, including indications that he has continued to carry out his government's campaign in the physical elimination . . . of Guinean exiles as well as the continued torture, which in some cases led to death, of domestic opposition members.”

Equatorial Guinea's official report stated that Pedro Motú had committed suicide on August 23 when he realized the “enormity of his crimes.”

A few months ago, the State Department asked Bennett to provide a portrait-style photograph of himself to be displayed at the U.S. embassy in Equatorial Guinea along with portraits of other previous ambassadors. “At first I thought, ‘fine,’” he told me, “but then I thought, ‘Why in the hell would I want to have myself hang in the house of Manuel Nguema Mba?’” So Bennett declined to provide a photograph and instead suggested that the United States terminate its lease with Mba as quickly as possible and have the State Department Inspector General investigate how such a deal was made in the first place.

The United States is paying Mba, a man who has overseen the torture and murder of political dissidents, a monthly rent of $17,500.

The money doesn't just come from your tax dollars:

IN 1984, Congress taxed golden parachutes if over three times salary. Parachutes, rare before 1984, became the norm after 1984 for all companies at -- you guessed it -- three times salary. Now they are over three times salary and the companies pay the tax (gross up provisions). In 1992, the SEC forces companies to disclose more on pay packages; after 1992 salaries skyrocket as CEOs now know what each other make and all demand to be in the "top half", ratcheting up the pay scale. In 1993 Congress caps the deduction for cash salary at $1 million and exempts some kinds of "performance based" compensatory stock options. Before 1993 most executives did not get $1 million in cash, after 1994, all CEO salaries were at $1 million in cash. Now cash salaries over $1 million are common; companies do not worry about the deduction. Compensatory stock option grants soared. By 2001 Larry Ellison took home $706 million in a single year. When FASB finally required the expensing of stock options in 2003, companies began to distribute "restricted stock." Severance payments have soared and golden parachutes, a version of severance payments, are up. Kilts, from Gillette, took home $185 million when he sold Gillette to Proctor & Gamble (and was indignant when anyone suggested that it was too much). Indignant. There is the guts of the problem.

Even the relatively conservative branches of law enforcement can't stomach them:

The Justice Department has a little thing called the Public Integrity Unit. They're very busy investigating all the corruption that has been going on in Washington DC over the last six years. Of course, that doesn't make them very popular with Republican politicians. I doubt they get along very well with their boss, Alberto Gonzales. I still can't believe Congress confirmed the author of the torture memo to oversee our system of justice. Anyway...according to Roll Call, many Republicans are fuming mad that so many of their members are under investigation and that that information is leaking out just prior to an election. Wouldn't you like to know if your congressperson is under investigation before you decide whether to vote for them? I think that is kind of vital information if we are going to have an informed electorate. Per usual, however, an informed electorate is the worst enemy of the GOP.

"While a Justice Department run by Republican appointees who were nominated by a conservative Republican president would normally get the benefit of the doubt from GOP lawmakers and staffers, some party insiders are privately wondering whether 'rogue elements' within the department — and more specifically the Public Integrity Unit, where corruption cases are handled — are trying to tip the election to Democrats by leaking news of these investigations so late in the cycle," the article continues.
A top political operative for the GOP tells Roll Call that it appears as if "the Public Integrity Unit of the Justice Department is running wild," and that they are "trying to have some effect" on the midterm elections.

There is something hilarious about complaining that the 'Public Integrity Unit' is running wild. It's gives me a bit of a bellylaugh. And what does it say about the degree of corruption in the GOP Congress that a Justice Department staffed by Republicans would even consider throwing the election to the Democrats. I doubt it's true, but what if it is? What does that say?

I remember the first 55 years of the CIA where they were kind of known as a right-wing outfit, mainly concerned with stomping the balls of anything with even the whiff of a leftist attitude. That changed in 2002 when their analysts were bullied, accused of cowardice, and forced to deal with an endless supply of bullshit informants, forgeries, and stupid pronouncements by Cheney, Bush, Rice, and Rumsfeld. It got much worse the next year when they were blamed for the no-WMD fiasco, one of their counter-proliferation officers was outed in a pure revenge move, and Negroponte took away their reporting responsibilities. Giving them Porter Goss as Director just solidified their general antipathy for monkey-boy and his quail hunting sidekick.

I have no doubt that the intelligence community is now more sympathetic to the Democrats. It's no accident that several of their officers are running for Congress as Democrats. It's also no accident that almost all the Iraq War vets running for Congress are doing so as Democrats. It shouldn't surprise us too much that the people at the Justice Department that are responsible for investigating corruption have similarly soured on the GOP.

This truly has been the worst Congress ever.

I guess if I have a point here, it's that we really need a government that well, governs. Some of the resposiblities a government is enjoined to do
include things like oversight, regulation, and maintaining "moral values" when it comes to the people we deal with at home and around the globe. A Democratic congress is going to have a boatload of things to do, but investigating, trying and convicting murderous criminals and brazen cronies has to be at the top of that list.

It's not just out of outrage I say this, although I admit outrage has been my modus operandi for years now. It's also because I am an historian, and I know the lesson of history when it comes to out of control crony/criminal "government." Such societies always eventually collapse from the weight of immense fraud and mismanagement, and the results are never pretty- and everyone pays the price.

Actually, I have to amend that to say that "everyone" who is a little person pays the price. The rich cronies, if left to hoarde money and make connections for too long, usually escape the greatest ugliness that is the result of their filching a once rich and stable society. They move to France, while you and I are abused by violent torturers returning home from immoral wars. They enjoy wealth and comfort, while our banana republic struggles to improve its financial status upon the backs of the working and middle classes, shipping off our wealth and capital to pay for the excesses of the past to creditor nations and banking concerns. There is still time for us to avoid becoming some kind of cross between Argentina and Maynmar. But not much.

It's worth remembering that historically, there are few periods in American history which rival this one in terms of corruption and crime. Previous generations have found different answers during the clean up phase, and it's our duty to make sure the Democrats push hard, and apply generous amounts of sunlight to all the dark, nasty corners the Republican cockroaches have called home for six years and more. Those who love to torture, who act at the behest of the wealthiest, and who would decimate and scapegoat the law enforcement concerns of a nation for domestic gain cannot be allowed to go unpunished. For if we do, we send a message to future politicians that they can get away with it again, and again.

Things are too precariously balanced for that to happen; we'll need at least a full generation of responsible government just to clean up the mess made these last six years.