Not politics. Morality.

[heidi]

Was the Miami Herald the only paper to report on Dick Cheney's admission that the US has used water-boarding, and that Cheney thinks it's "a no-brainer" to allow that method in "interrogations"?
I didn't see it on dailykos or eschaton or any of the other blogs, and given that John Warner, John McCain and Lindsay Graham think it's a likely violation of the War Crimes Act, is this *really* something that should be happening in the name of all Americans?

Or is this another way of pandering to their base, but in a different way than, say, the racism by the Crocker camp in Tennessee?

Comments

[chromodynamics.livejournal.com]

It's one of the top stories on www.msnbc.com right now.

[heidi8.livejournal.com]

Good, I was starting to wonder if I was halucenating.

[royalmidnight.livejournal.com]

La Rhodes noted today that we jailed Japanese people for war crimes when they did this to our soldiers.

Guess it's okay if it's us ::rolleyes::

[heidi8.livejournal.com]

Well, technically, we jailed Japanese people for no reason at all, too, but still...

Yeah, evil hypocracy.

[nyourdrms.livejournal.com]

Just more proof that the Bush Administration has thrown away the Constitution with the bath water.

I have a quote at the bottom of my MSU email, that perhaps I will put on my gmail as well, it's from Thomas Jefferson:

"Those who desire to give up freedom in order to gain security will not have, nor do they deserve, either one"

There is a debate on one of our local college campus' tonight over "Impeachment". Can we take one more year of the present administration?

T

[empressov.livejournal.com]

I saw the headline on HuPo yesterday (or was it the day before?) but it was down the page and, like I said, just a headline.

Also, I think we need to examine the ability to impeach more than one person at a time...

[ginsu.livejournal.com]

As I recall, it was a "slam-dunk" case for hidden WMDs that justified the Iraq War in the first place.

This leads one to wonder how virtual certainties are ranked in the White House. I think it goes something like this:

1. Anything arranged by Karl Rove
2. Slam-dunk
3. No-brainer

[hedwig-snowy.livejournal.com]

Well, I haven't seen much of it on the news, but the blogs have been covering it. And, the denial by the White House today 'should' give it more publicity. This is the first paragraph of the story on Yahoo:

"The White House said Friday that Vice President Dick Cheney was not talking about a torture technique known as "water boarding" when he said dunking terrorism suspects in water during questioning was a "no-brainer."

I wonder if that was what they really said? That sounds so stupid that it seems impossible that someone that is capable of walking upright would utter it...

And, Tony Snow didn't actually deny torture, he just said that the VP isn't stupid enough to admit it:

"You know as a matter of common sense that the vice president of the United States is not going to be talking about water boarding. Never would, never does, never will," Snow said. "You think Dick Cheney's going to slip up on something like this? No, come on."

I guess they did say it...

[ginsu.livejournal.com]

You think Dick Cheney's going to slip up on something like this?

Yeah, I noticed that also.

Of course, you have to take Cheney's perspective into account. Dunking suspected terrorists in water is nothing compared to shooting your best friend in the face.

[hedwig-snowy.livejournal.com]

Exsqueeze me? What do you mean 'suspected' terorrist? EVERYONE is a terrorist until we torture waterboard teach them how to swim and they confess. Now, if they drown can't learn to swim, then they're not terrorists.

*Kind of like drowning a woman to see if she was a witch* :)

[ginsu.livejournal.com]

Well, I think the witch-drowners had, at least, a marginal interest in who was a witch and who was not (although the outcome was the same either way).

In the case of this administration, I don't think they care. What I see is a cold-blooded numbers game built on the same logic as bulk-mailing schemes -- you know you'll only get a small percentage of hits, so you maximize your mailing list.

To these guys, in other words, it's better that a hundred innocent people should be tortured than that one terrorist should escape justice.

This inversion of traditional American ideals is just par for the neocon course. The Iraq War was originally justified in the same peculiar way -- "we don't want the smoking gun to be a mushroom cloud." That is, we don't know they have done anything wrong, but best to be sure by invading.

The irony is that only once before has the smoking gun been a mushroom cloud, and in August 1945 it wasn't exactly Iraq that was to blame.

[hedwig-snowy.livejournal.com]

"To these guys, in other words, it's better that a hundred innocent people should be tortured than that one terrorist should escape justice."

That's exactly right. And, just how cowardly is that? To give up EVERY ONE of your principles, to go beyond fearmongering, to not even really keeping people safer, all in the name of what? Completely destroying the country and the Republican party for the next 20 years? Well, on that, they ARE masters...

[msbhaven.livejournal.com]

There was an article in the SacBee yesterday. Read it. The article did say something about it being considered a War Crime. Anyway the said article was not on the front page but pushed a bit int he back. Hmmm....