The Word is TORTURE

How many headlines like this have been pooping up since bin Laden's well-deserved death?

Bin Laden killing won’t settle debate over enhanced interrogations


Harsh Interrogation Tactics: Did They Work?


Did enhanced interrogation lead U.S. to Osama bin Laden? 
 
The word is torture. Waterboarding is torture. This has been established since at least the Philipine Invasion of 1898.  United States Military courts have convicted US Marines of torture for using what was then known as "the water cure." (link) 
 
On the way home from work today, some reporter on NPR was referring to "harsh interrogation techniques" and "methods some have referred to as being torture."
 
I don't get why we have to pussy-foot around this. Waterboarding is torture. Torture is a war crime. It's like if the press said the John Dillinger committed what some have called bank robberies. Or The Unabombers harsh anti-technology persuasion methods. It bullshit, and everyone knows it.
 
The word is torture. Why can't we just say it?

Sorry It Took So Long

(via Sober in a Nightclub)

Donald Rumsfeld Bitch-Slaps Peter King

Since the news of Osama bin Laden's death, Rep. Peter King (R-Douchebagington) has been all over the airwaves touting this line:

Rep. Peter King: We Should Still Use Waterboarding Because That’s How We Captured Bin Laden 

 

KING: Well I don’t know if everyone knows this or not, but you mentioned the fact that we obtained information several years ago, vital information about the courier for Obama [sic]. We obtained that information through waterboarding. So for those who say that waterboarding doesn’t work, who say it should be stopped and never used again, we got vital information which directly led us to bin Laden. 

Sounds impressive, no?

But then here comes creepy, evil Donald Rumsfeld with this statement:

“It is true that some information that came from normal interrogation approaches at Guantanamo did lead to information that was beneficial in this instance. But it was not harsh treatment and it was not waterboarding.” 

 

Oh, snap!

And this from a guy who defends torture the way the Pope defends pederasts!

 

Also, there's this from the NY Times:

Prisoners in American custody told stories of a trusted courier. When the Americans ran the man’s pseudonym past two top-level detainees — the chief planner of the Sept. 11 attacks, Khalid Shaikh Mohammed; and Al Qaeda’s operational chief, Abu Faraj al-Libi — the men claimed never to have heard his name. That raised suspicions among interrogators that the two detainees were lying and that the courier probably was an important figure. 

So basically, the two guys that we admit to waterboarding continued to lie under torture. So torture not only did not yield actionable intelligence, it really did just the opposite. It was only because interrogators  assumed that the guys being tortured were lying that they latched on to this courier.

Not that any of this is going to stop Pete King and the FOXies from spreading the lie that torture worked.

I was wondering how they were going to spin this.

As soon as I heard this morning that Bin Laden was finally dead (ding dong) I wondered how the wingnuts were going to spin this into an Obama did bad by killing Osama story. So far, I haven't seen that particular spin, but there have been some doozies.


Starting with FOX, who went with the "this story is really all about Bush" spin:





Which I guess I should have seen coming.

Then there's this:

 (via Think Progress)

Display Bin Laden’s Body At Ground Zero.

1. Display the body. The free world, particularly the United States, has a right to make sure Osama bin Laden is really dead. Every American has a right to walk right up to bin Laden’s corpse and view it. We are entitled to know for a fact that the witch is dead.
For us Doubting Thomases out there – we need to see in order to believe.
Bin Laden may be dead (I’ll believe it when I see it)

Oh, my god, really? We're going with the "bin Laden isn't really dead" spin?
This guy writes for one of Andrew Breitbart's ridiculous websites. And just to give you an idea of how seriously to take him, he also adds this:

I’m going to raise a mug of beer and munch a Hebrew National pork sausage to celebrate the brave CIA men who took bin Laden down.

Yeah. A Hebrew National PORK sausage. Wow!

And this lady is apparently an editor at the Moonie Times:

in reply to @RichP07 ↑

@EmilyMillerDC Emily Miller

@

@richp07 no photo of the body. that's what we need for proof.

And this is from the London Telegraph:

Why that photo of a dead Osama bin Laden is a photoshopped fake 

Hat-tip to the Telegraph’s Conrad Quilty-Harper and one sharp-eyed Redditpics user for spotting that the bottom half of the photo of a dead Osama bin Laden looks like one we already had (albeit the mirrored version). 

Yes, both picture appear to be of the same man. Trickery!

And I'm sure there are plenty more examples, but we're meeting friends for dinner, so I don't have the time. Yes, we do too have friends! Shut up!

 

So, Professor, Did You Meet Anyone Interesting at the Inman Park Festival?

Oh, only Missionary Mary L. Proctor, that's all!



Yes, noted American folk artist Mary L. Procoter was there selling her work. Of course, we forgot to bring our camera.

 .
.
I had been under the impression that she was no longer with us, but not only is she alive and well, she's not even very old.
 

Also, she doesn't seem nutty at all, which was surprising. 

 

 

For more info on Missionary Mary L. Proctor click here: http://www.missionarymary.com/index.htm 

or here: http://alumnus.caltech.edu/~dacrotty/proctor.html