I wanted to catch Dick Cheney on the Hannity Show last night.
We don't have cable (by choice) so I braved the thunderstorm at midnight to visit someone that did.
I thought the "interview" was fairly subdued for Hannity who is always trying to make his "points" through the somewhat loud leading questions he asks.
The whole thing which lasted around 20 or so minutes seemed scripted in it's lack of passion on both parts. I wondered what was going on, since neither of these people usually put me to sleep.
I also found that there is a part two tonight, don't know if it'll be any better.
Cheney stated:
"One of the things that I find a little bit disturbing about this recent disclosure is they put out the legal memos, the memos that the CIA got from the Office of Legal Counsel, but they didn't put out the memos that showed the success of the effort,"
and then he followed with:
"I haven't talked about it, but I know specifically of reports that I read, that I saw, that lay out what we learned through the interrogation process and what the consequences were for the country," Cheney said. "I've now formally asked the CIA to take steps to declassify those memos so we can lay them out there and the American people have a chance to see what we obtained and what we learned and how good the intelligence was."
That was the meat and potatoes of the first part of the interview. Defending torture (or at least his definition of it) as good because it got results...
Perhaps Cheney is right the results should be made public, then we could judge more accurately if Cheney is still redefining or not.
Regardless if there were any results or not... It doesn't let people off for torture.
Should police coerce and beat information and confessions out of their detainees?
Cheney gathered up the stormclouds outside the house and sent them towards the rest of the country. It will be of course be Obama's fault if we have problems now because he's weakened our country... This is 100% Cheney no doubt about that.
Let's just rewrite history: Bush greatest president ever. Obama evil in 95 days...
*
Jon Stewart weighs in on torture:
The same night the Daily Show was of course more animated. He started out with a segment that was funny while addressing serious material about our torturing prisoners.
"No one is upset about the fact that America tortures, they're just upset that they now know about it." He referred to the Obama suporters like Chris Mattnews as the "Yes, we can McChange a hope" crowd. Watch the segment it's relevant satire.
| The Daily Show With Jon Stewart | M - Th 11p / 10c | |||
| We Don't Torture | ||||
| ||||
Geneva Convention:
There seems to be enough banter about the definition of torture going on.
Is waterboarding torture? Of course it is.
Should we have done it? Not if we honor the Geneva Convention which we were a major part in.
We cannot change US laws or international laws by blatently ignoring them or redefining torture.
We cannot criticize and call for sanctions of others because of their disregard for such law and not seem hypocritically sanctimonious to the world.
It is sad to see our country willing to:
1) engage in torture and then try to redefine torture and international law.
2) let our engagement in torture go without prosecution and no accountability.
3) be willing to have the whole world see us as the "do as I say but not as I do" nation.
Obama said:we won't prosecute the lowly folk that engaged in torture because they were ordered to by higher ups... now it seems we won't prosecute the higher ups because we are "looking towards the future" not the past. What?
The president has the power to pardon those convicted of the crime of torture... but does he have the power to derail any investigation and criminal prosecution of those involved? Is that even legal?
I seem to remember president Clinton being impeached by congress and a special prosecutor (and Ken Starr was indeed "special") for lying about a blow job. You were willing to tear the country apart over that gleefully, but not over real crime against humanity?
Where exactly are our ethics and morals these days?
Law should not become a laughing stock.
We put young people in jail for smoking pot.
We talk of harsher illegal immigration laws.
But we allow torture to take place and then ignore the laws for prosecution?
How do we expect any of our own nations detainees abroad to be treated when charged with crimes if we pick and choose how we treat those we detained without regard to their human rights?
Way to go Obama/Biden, Way to go Cheney/Bush, I expected a big difference on this one.
I temporarily forgot my working definition of Politician: One who speaks with a forked tongue out of both sides of the mouth.
Most sadly disappointed.
There should be a special prosecutor and committee to look into how the torture happened and on what US authority was it carried out. It's that simple. Obama should stay out of it until the truth is known. If people are convicted then perhaps Obama in his infinite wisdom can convert their sentence or pardon those involved.
I know reading and education isn't necessarily the vogue these days... it apparently makes you either a liberal, cosmopolitan or even worse an "elitist" but please go to the library (they keep books there) or google the Geneva Convention there are summaries and read the damn thing.
I'm wondering if the same folk that are seeking to redefine "torture" are the ones that redefined "informed" to read "elitist?" Oh you betcha.
Does anyone care?
A very tired Laura
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