The Velvet StraitJacket

There has been a lot in the news about torture over the last few months. Did the US torture? If so, who authorized it? Do we punish the persons who actually did the torture? Do we punish the ones who authorized it? These are all questions that in all likelihood will piss people on both sides off when they are answered.

The “Jack Bauer” scenario is the most prominent reason given for torture.

A  bomb is about to detonate in a heavily populated metropolitan area, a person who knows the whereabouts of this bomb and other details of the plan is captured and he is not talking.

Pop-quiz asshole! What do you do?

Both sides answering this question have valid opinions.  One side screams to torture them until they spill every ounce of information they have. The other side points to this and says “But you don’t know if the information  is real. They could just be telling you anything and while you are out on that Easter egg hunt trying to confirm the information, valuable time will be wasted.” They are the ones who want to use tried and true interrogation tactics in this scenario because they believe those tactics work and they also believe that a time of stress and crisis is when it’s most important to stick to our values.

I agree with both sides.

I guess I’m in the ‘if all else fails‘ camp.

Obviously ‘normal’ police method interrogation works. We’ve seen it’s success across the country on a daily, if not hourly basis. When people are caught for their crimes they want to talk, they want to explain,  they want you to understand why they did what they did but they need to be nudged into it.  That’s where a seasoned detective comes in.  If this type of ‘non-enhanced’ technique did not work, no one would ever confess… but they do.

But does torture work? Dick Cheney says it does. In fact he says that we actually faced a ‘Jack Bauer’ scenario and torture is what stopped this ’second wave’ from happening.  The Head of the FBI says this is untrue, The CIA says this is untrue, and others who have seen the memo’s Cheney is quoting  say this is untrue.  Dick Cheney has also heralded the capture of KSM as proof of tortures value. That has  also been called into  question by the actual interrogator.

Look, it’s not that you won’t get someone to talk by torturing them, I don’t think anyone is debating that point. It’s just that you will get them to talk about everything they think you want them to talk about, whether true or not.

Every example that Dick Cheney uses as his proof has since been found to be lacking in the ‘proof’ arena, and just like he now says Saddam didn’t have anything to do with 9/11.. maybe sometime in the future he’ll change this ‘torture worked’ storyline. Since it looks like he could be tried as a war criminal though, I doubt he’ll ever say that. What he will do is make sure everyone and anyone is aware that this was George W. Bush’s plan.  That’s also  turning out to be just another of Cheney’s fantasies though.

SCHIEFFER: … somewhere down the line. Did President Bush know everything you knew?

CHENEY: I certainly, yes,have every reason to believe he knew — he knew a great deal about the program. He basically authorized it.I mean,this was a presidential-level decision. And the decision went to the president. He signed off on it.

The problem I have with any of this “torture question”, is the hypocrisy of it. The,

“We don’t torture because we changed the definition of torture so we could torture legally”…

…is where I call foul. What made it ok for Jack Bauer to torture the terrorists in 24(besides the whole “it’s a TV show”), was the fact that he was willing to stand up to Congress and lay it all out on the table and take whatever punishment they doled out. That’s when, in my opinion, it’s ok to torture someone for information in the “ticking time-bomb scenario”.If you feel that what you are doing is not only right, but your duty as an American and you are so sure of this that you are willing to face the consequences afterward, then have at it and get all the information you can.

But just like lying about a blow job got a president impeached, lying about torture and your role in it should at least get you a public hearing.

It’s not the acts themselves that bother people, I would wager that if a “Jack Bauer” situation was being played out in real life an overwhelming majority of Americans would either turn a blind eye or slap the interroagtor on the wrist for their actions. But when you lie about, mislead others into believing your lie and then try and cover up your lie.. then the jury isn’t the only one who knows you were committing a crime.

Of course I will be ask …

“What if someone had your child, wouldn’t you torture them to find them?”

Yes… yes I would and if they harmed a hair on my child I would follow them home and cut them up into little pieces….slowly. But, when the police came to arrest me it would only take that seasoned detective about a minute to get me to talk. I would want tell him why did what I did. I would explain what I did to him and my subsequent jury. I would make them live through the horror  I and my missing/harmed child lived through and I would hope for  jury nullification.

Torture for the use of  gaining information, in my opinion is a crap shoot. It might work and it might not. The worst part about this ironically is the ‘ticking time-bomb scenario’. In that scenario there is no time for proper interrogations to be used, no time because the bomb is set to go off at any minute. Yet, there is time to investigate the false confessions which all agree are a part of the torture process? I don’t think so. If there is no time for mistakes then why chose the path which will ensure the most mistakes? It’s for this reason I am going more and more to the side of a “No Torture” policy for information gathering purposes.

That is not to say I am against torturing for punishment..

I will have to turn in my ‘liberal’ card for a month by saying this, but I think there are actual justifications to torture people, but in my world those reasons have to do with their crimes and not to get information out of them. Don’t believe there is a crime that the deserved punishment is some form of exquisite  pain upon the person guilty of the crime?

NEW ORLEANS —  Authorities say a 17-year-old teenager was charged with aggravated rape and first-degree murder of an 8-month-old child.

This is not a ‘redeemable’ child, this animal (because he is most definitely not a man or a human) who at the ripe old age of 17, already has convictions for  “drug possession charges; obscenity; battery on a correctional officer; three counts of battery on a school teacher; theft; weapons charges; and assault” in my opinion is worthy of a life of exquisite pain upon his conviction.

Not ‘torture-worthy’ enough?

CASSVILLE, Mo. —  The two men charged in rape and murder of 9-year-old Rowan Ford had their first brief court appearance Tuesday.

These men, one the child’s step-father, have been charged with ” first degree murder, sodomy and rape charges in connection to the death of Rowan Ford of Stella.” Whose body they just dumped in cave like a piece of garbage that they were done with using.

I  think they could to with a little ‘waterboarding’ just for the fun of it.

Torture for investigative purposes won’t give us the real-time intelligence we need in a ‘ticking time-bomb’ scenario.. but it will damn well make us feel better when we use it for the sole purpose of… ‘pay backs are  motherfucking bitch!’

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Why do we need health care reform?

Robin Beaton found out last June she had an aggressive form of breast cancer and needed surgery — immediately.

Her insurance carrier precertified her for a double mastectomy and hospital stay. But three days before the operation, the insurance company called and told her they had red-flagged her chart and she would not be able to have her surgery.

The reason? In May 2008, Beaton had visited a dermatologist for acne. A word written on her chart was interpreted to mean precancerous, so the insurance company decided to launch an investigation into her medical history.

Even after the dermatologist talked with the insurance company, telling them ‘This is a misunderstanding. This is not precancerous. All she has is acne.”and begging them not to cancel her, they still rescinded  her coverage.

What kind of country allows this to go on day after day after day.  I won’t ask why Charles Manson has a dental plan while 45 millions American’s can’t even afford to go to the doctor,  that would be ignored like it always is. So I am phrasing it in a monetary way since money seems to be the only thing some people understand.

Why do criminals have better health coverage than the people who actually pay for coverage?

Why do the people who can make a difference think that this couldn’t be their daughter’s story? Is it because they’ve got more money than most small countries so it doesn’t matter if their insurance covers them or not?

It must be.

Until something like this happens to the wife, daughter, grandson or someone in the immediate family of those who can actually change this arcane system we call ‘health care’, these kinds of stories will grow.

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Really?

This is what the GOP senators office in Tennessee has to do all day? Send emails to the ‘right’ people. Is this was the people of Tennessee pay their state legislator  to do with the state-funded computers, state-funded office and a person’s time? This is their answer to the financial crisis,mortgage crisis, double wars overseas.. health crisis? This is the Tennessee GOP at work?

Is this the same GOP party that some within are demanding  David Letterman be fired?

...wants a Republican legislative aide fired for sending out a “reprehensible” e-mail depicting President Obama as two cartoonish white eyes peering from a black background.

Obama’s image is in the last square of a collage containing portraits of the previous 43 U.S. presidents. The e-mail, which was sent to other GOP staff members, was posted on the Internet Monday.

Sherri Goforth, an administrative assistant to state Sen. Diane Black, R-Gallatin, has admitted she sent the e-mail May 28 with the title “Historical Keepsake Photo.” She said, without elaborating, that she mistakenly sent it “to the wrong list of people.”

She sent it to the ‘wrong’ people?

umm.. who were the right people?

This woman will not be fired because she  has a ’stellar’ 20 year work history and she feels bad for what she did( which by the way,wasn’t sending out the email,, it was that she sent it to someone who was going to tell her for it.) Don’t most ‘criminals’ say “But I didn’t mean to” when they are caught also?

Well ..anyway, she’s apologized and she had an impeccable record, so we should just forget it… right?

New York State Assembly Minority Leader Brian Kolb, a Republican, is calling on the CEO of CBS to fire David Letterman for crude comments he made about Sarah Palin and her daughter.

In the letter to CBS chief Les Moonves, Kolb said he took Letterman to task for the “shockingly inappropriate” jokes.

Yeah, that’s what I thought

It’s time to leave David Letterman alone. Seriously, I’m a woman and a mother of 2 girls.. the joke wasn’t that bad and I’ve seen worse. The only problem with the joke was who it was about. Dave made a mistake because he underestimated the insatiability  of a needy ego.

Besides, haven’t you heard.. the joke was President Obama’s fault.

Sarah Palin doesn’t have a problem exploiting  children for her political gain, she only has a problem when someone else (insert ‘liberals’)  brings attention to them. I can understand not wanting your children involved, but at what point are you at fault for your children being the butt of late-night comic jokes?

“This is the enduring legacy of the Obama campaign. I’m not saying this to be inflammatory, I blame Barack Obama because he allowed his surrogates in the media and Hollywood and everyone else on the left to do this dirty talking for him.”

When you parade your pregnant  underage daughter out on stage with her paramour?

When you imply an adult male would be dangerous around a child?

When you turn an obvious joke about one daughter into a a joke about the unknown daughter and try to make into political fodder just to get your name out there again?

I keep hearing “You don’t see the Obama children being ridiculed this way” you’re right, you don’t but why is that? Is it their ages? 10 and 7? Or is it that they aren’t paraded out in view of the press at the drop of a hat? When Brian Williams did his inside look at the White House, it would have been completely natural to include Sasha and Malia in his program, hell he even had a minute with the dog  so a minute with the 1st children would have been a natural flow. But when he asked, Brian Williams was politely denied an interview with them.

Governor Palin on the other hand, brings her children up to stage with her during her rallies even when they are not invited, takes them with her while she’s stumping, schmoozing, or just hanging out at a baseball game. ..not too mention her oldest daughter goes out and speaks for abstinence only.. There is nothing wrong with any of this, let me be clear on that.. There is nothing wrong with any of this.. Sarah is a working mother so her kids come with her wherever she goes and you know that when you ask her to speak for you. The problem is, you can’t push your kids out in the spotlight and then ‘dare’ people to not talk about them.

There’s a fine line between doing it the Obama way and doing it the Palin way..One of main things that separate the two are their actions after something is mentioned by the press. Sarah acts like a wounded animal and then takes it 5 steps too far. Her insinuation  that David Letterman couldn’t be trusted with a 14 year old girl is proof of that. By saying something so inflammatory she is forcing people to take sides and respond, which is what her dwindling-star ego wants. The more ‘hurt’ and ‘outraged’ she can pretend to be, the more air-time she can be given. The end result for her is the spotlight and she really doesn’t care how she gets there.

On the other hand, the Obama’s just flatly deny the press entrance into their children’s  lives. It’s just that simple.

“One awkward moment, though, during the game.Maybe you heard about it, maybe you saw it on one of the highlight reels, one awkward moment for Sarah Palin at the Yankee game. During the seventh inning, her daughter was knocked up by Alex Rodriguez.” –David Letterman

David Letterman may have made an off-color joke about a young adult, but it takes a special kind of deprived ego to turn the joke into a pedophilia-like act against your young daughter.

Does anyone else see the pattern emerging? Yes, Letterman’s joke was bad, Yes the President shouldn’t have joked about bowling and the Special Olympics, but if these ‘real’ and relatively ‘ minor’ jokes are so inflammatory, degrading,disgusting and worthy of protest.. then where is the outrage,protests,phone calls demanding one be fired when people make jokes racial jokes with dead monkeys or a gorillas being a part of Michelle Obama’s ancestry? Where is Governor Palin on that joke? Where is her outrage and demands for a more ‘moral’ dialog for this country?

Sarah Palin is the one who keeps milking this cow and it’s time to give her the anonymity she’s asking for and just remove her name or the names of her children from our vernacular. I shouldn’t know the name of her 14 year old daughter and had her mother not been so hungry for attention, I never would have. David Letterman isn’t the one who made Willow Palin a household name and an internet ’search’ topic.. Her mother did.

David Letterman has explained the joke and apologized at the cost of looking like he’s caving under the pressure.. If  Gov. Palin  really was upset she would end it now while she has the upper hand… But only time will tell if she does take the high road. One thing I know for sure, to make sure she keeps herself in the public eye, she will take every advantage she can to remind us about sex acts with minor children, because if we are talking about that, we won’t be talking about her shrinking  popularity, her bridges to nowhere, or her socialist state that spreads the wealth of the oil business to  the people who live in the state..No, the issue she wants us focused on is her family who we are not allowed to comment on..

***UPDATE***

Palin accepts Letterman’s apology..

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Have you ever wished you could have a ‘life-rewind’ button. I’m not talking about rewinding back to when you were a teenager smoking a bong on a Saturday night before finals and changing that to being home, eating a good dinner with the family and studying hard for those grades that now you know you needed. No, I”m talking about a quick ‘30 sec’ rewind.

I’ll bet GOP activist and former chairman of his state’s elections commission, Rusty DePass wishes he had one right now..

Commenting on a report posted to Facebook about a gorilla escape at a zoo in Columbia, S.C., Friday, longtime GOP activist Rusty DePass wrote, “I’m sure it’s just one of Michelle’s ancestors – probably harmless.”

Rusty of course blamed Mrs. Obama for that comment he made, saying that it was “clearly in jest” and that  “The comment was hers, not mine,” since she supposedly spoke about evolution recently.

Seriously.. did he think this was a good idea to say on his FaceBook page for all the world to see?

huh, insanity is  spreading…

Props to Fitsnews.com for the screen-grab

It’s about time someone said it…

“It’s almost, a little bit, gallows politics. When you read behind it, it’s almost as if he’s wishing that this country would be attacked again, in order to make his point.”

“CIA director Leon Panetta says it’s almost as if former vice president Dick Cheney would like to see another attack on the United States to prove he is right in criticizing President Barack Obama for abandoning the “harsh interrogation” of terrorism suspects.”

Seriously, What is Dick Cheney’s point? What is his goal? For years he has done nothing but promote  “Me and my policy are all that keeps you safe at night” and bloviate how  we will be attacked again without him. Now his rhetoric is almost like a ‘code word’ for anyone who is against the Obama administrations National Security policy.  It’s like he’s talking to one or two lone nuts out there into proving that Bush/Cheney were right for the last 8 years.

Ironically, we were attacked while Dick was in office and after Dick ignored the pleas of those in the intelligence field to heed their warnings. So why would anyone take anything he has to say about keeping America safe as gospel is beyond me.  How about we listen to the ones who actually have kept us safe.

and stop giving Dick the pat on the head he’s looking for.

President Obama, you were not given the Oval office and the Congress solely for the purpose of trying to appease or make friends with the party that shut out an entire political section of the country for 8 years. It’s time to start acting like the majority elected you to act.

Yes we can!

You were elected and given the keys to your success because you promised us change during your campaign. You were given a friendly congress because we knew the losing party would do everything in their power to discredit and demonize you. To prevent the loss of any political capital, you were given massive support, money, votes and Congress… so what are you waiting for? Use the tools you’ve been given already! You have tried and failed at extending your hand across the aisle and now it is time to give them the finger. This failure, like the disastrous condition of every aspect of the government, foreign and domestic, is not your fault. You were given a ‘Handy-man’s special’ and while you’ve made some improvement just by being there, you have a long way to go before this country is back up to ‘code’

Mr. Obama, you expected to come into Washington and work with adults, only to find nothing but spoiled children running through the aisles.  Every day you spend trying to bring your opponents into your circle, they are spending theirs  eating your political capital  like a fat girl eating chocolate flavored bacon-bits.

Change you can believe in!

Had the Holocaust Museum shooter been Muslim, your presidency would have been over. You would have not only been the country’s 1st black president, but after weeks of allowing Dick Cheney to call you every form of dangerous and venting about  your lack in the ability to keep us safe, you would have become the country’s fastest Lame Duck President ever.You have let this kind of abuse go on for too long and now you are seeing a drop in your poll numbers.

I understand your strategy of letting them become the party of “NO”. I understand that the more ‘right’ they go the more ‘centered’  you look and the more Independent voters you pick up.  But what I don’t understand is this need for all ‘political correctness’( so to speak) in the face of such outrageousness.

“It may include groups and individuals

that are dedicated to a single-issue,

such as opposition to abortion or immigration,”

the warning says.”

A few weeks ago your Head of Homeland Security had to  apologize for a report that said ‘right-wing extremists’ were on the rise and their chatter was reaching higher levels.   The GOP went apoplectic in its anger over such extreme “Liberal MSM-type” spin and accusations. Even some Democrats screamed about being ‘dumbfounded’ by this report. Michael Steele of the R.N.C told Fox news

“This is the height of insult here,I mean to segment out Americans who dissent from this administration, to segment out conservatives in this country who have a different philosophy or view from this administration, and labeling them as terrorists and then to call into question the service of the men and women who are right now standing on that wall defending our freedom and linking them to terrorism while you refuse to call the terrorists — the real terrorists — terrorists, to me it’s the height of insult.”

In the height of irony, not “insults” as Mr. Steele put it, this report that the GOP went into seizures over, warned  that

The Department of Homeland Security is warning law enforcement officials about a rise in “rightwing extremist activity,” saying the economic recession, the election of America’s first black president and the return of a few disgruntled war veterans could swell the ranks of white-power militias.

A footnote attached to the report by the Homeland Security Office of Intelligence and Analysis defines “rightwing extremism in the United States” as including not just racist or hate groups, but also groups that reject federal authority in favor of state or local authority

Since that report and the GOP’s temper tantrum over it, we’ve seen not one, but  two atrocious acts that we were warned about. While the party of “NO” has a record in ignoring threats and warnings when given to them,  that doesn’t mean you, Mr. President, should have your people apologize to them for being right.

Doctor Tiller was murdered in a sanctuary, his place of worship by exactly the person the report warned against. A week later, James Von Brunn, who was a Navy officer during World War II and after leaving his notebook with a list of places he planned to hit and a statement saying “You want my weapons – this is how you’ll get them. The Holocaust is a lie. Obama was created by Jews,” decided to shoot anyone in his way.

I know saying “We told you so” is not the politically savy thing to do, but had Mr. Brunn been of Arab decent, how fast do  you think Dick Cheney would have been on Fox news saying exactly that?

Misters Brunn and Roeder, Dr. Tiller’s murderer, are not the first extremists to meltdown since you took took office. As I’ve blogged about before, another unstable radical believed in the same insane,violent and dangerous rhetoric of the Right when they said you were going take  away his guns. So he went out and murdered 3 police officers.

“Friends said 23 year-old Richard Poplawski feared the Obama administration was poised to ban guns.”

Mr. President, it’s time to put an end to this trying to reach across the aisle.  As PAUL KRUGMAN of the New York times says; There is an ‘upsurge of right-wing extremism’ that is being “fed by the conservative media and political establishment.” Your ideal world in which Republican and Democrats can live in harmony is a wishful Utopia that will not exist until a generation has passed from the extreme partisanship the Bush Administration spread throughout this country.

There are some of course, like Shep Smith on the FNC channel, who see this hate and are fearful of the level in which it is being amped up to.

But just as fast as he can bring attention to this hate and anger, others paint over it by saying Smith is ‘”whining and moaning and complaining about emails”, while making it about themself and in then  justifing  the hate they and others  spread throughout this country. You cannot reach out to these types of people. Their motives are clear, with blood on their hands from their ‘hate speech’ they only speak louder,harder, angrier. They put their hands up and say “Wasn’t me” like they haven’t been the one rattling the cages of most extreme of their extremists. They are spoiled and dangerous children who cannot be appeased by rational thought and/or actions. These are not the moderate GOP persons you want in your circle. Even those people see what is being done and are appalled by it, but they cannot stop it because they understand this ‘hate’ will spread to them next.

“If I had to choose in terms of being a Republican,

I’d go with Rush Limbaugh.

I admire your tenacity in continuously  trying  to bridge the partisan gap in the face of such mounting and dangerous rhetoric, but there comes a time when it’s OK to use the popularity you’ve been given. You promised change, you have been given all the tools necessary to bring about this change, you do not need 100% cooperation when 51% wins the race. We who you convinced to  stand behind you, who believed in you and voted for you are still standing here waiting to support you. We are waiting for you to remember what you promised us…. Yes we can Mr. President… Yes we can.

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something new and exciting..

unlike anything you’ve ever seen before..

something we all need, even if we don’t know it..

‘Why,’ you ask?

Because Insanity Should Be Comfortable..

are you ready?