A Blog Named Sue

Dumb as paint

Via Think Progress, we learn that there is still some confusion over whether or not waterboarding is, in fact, torture:

VAN SUSTEREN: But you said a minute ago that it was torture, waterboarding...

GINGRICH: No, I said it's not something we should do.

VAN SUSTEREN: OK. Is it torture or not?

GINGRICH: I -- I -- I think it's -- I can't tell you.

VAN SUSTEREN: Does it violate the Geneva Convention?

GINGRICH: I honestly don't know.

I have only one question for anyone who is still unsure about whether or not waterboarding is torture: if it's not torture, then how the hell is it supposed to get anyone to talk?

I was surprised to see a Fox host actually press Gingrich on the issue; I think he was, too, which is why he seems to take a position that he doesn't know much about it but he's pretty sure it's bad. This, by the way, is pretty much how I feel about any movie directed by Michael Bay. Torture is a bit more important than Transformers 2, especially for someone like Gingrich who's been gurgling on about running for president in 2012.

Of course, one of the reasons Gingrich comes off looking like such a dolt in that segment is because, he, like everybody else jockeying for leadership of the Republican party, has to somehow reconcile the evidence before his own eyes with the knowledge that a huge chunk of his party's base thinks waterboarding isn't severe enough. Good luck with that, Newt.

Gingrich might be pinned down by electoral considerations, but there was absolutely no excuse for this stupidity:

In a series of high-level meetings in 2002, without a single dissent from cabinet members or lawmakers, the United States for the first time officially embraced the brutal methods of interrogation it had always condemned.

This extraordinary consensus was possible, an examination by The New York Times shows, largely because no one involved — not the top two C.I.A. officials who were pushing the program, not the senior aides to President George W. Bush, not the leaders of the Senate and House Intelligence Committees — investigated the gruesome origins of the techniques they were approving with little debate.

According to several former top officials involved in the discussions seven years ago, they did not know that the military training program, called SERE, for Survival, Evasion, Resistance and Escape, had been created decades earlier to give American pilots and soldiers a sample of the torture methods used by Communists in the Korean War, methods that had wrung false confessions from Americans. (Emphasis mine.)

In other words, they tore down what little moral standing America still had in the world without even researching if the techniques they were embracing would work. I can't get my head around that. Not at all. Was this some kind of mad game for them, some kind of sick role-playing? "Well, boys, we can't be serious about this unless we torture a few folks, right?" It didn't even seem to occur to them that soldiers receiving SERE training are subjected to waterboarding under medical supervision and have the option of leaving the program (admittedly, not without consequences to their military careers). They are not detainees, and therefore have a completely different legal status under the Geneva Conventions.

It was business as usual, in police room 619

Dan Froomkin, Digby, and Atrios have all linked to this Washington Post article about the brutal and ultimately ineffective treatment of Abu Zubaida, whom the Bush Administration claimed was Al Qaeda's "Chief of Operations" and a vital source of information that prevented further terror attacks and saved American lives. Problem is, like so many other things Bush claimed, it's all bullshit, and there's no evidence that the torture of Abu Zubaida provided America's intelligence agencies with anything other than stroke material for Dick Cheney.

Bush, Cheney, and the rest of those sorry bastards, with their constant verbal malaprops, perpetual scowls, cub-reporter-man-whores and old-man-buckshot-bukkake were easy to mock. Lord knows I did my share; I think that's because deep down I couldn't forget that these people were (and remain), for lack of a better term, monsters.  And now I can't help thinking that, just like the core of my mockery of Bush and his cronies was my fear and loathing of them, the root cause of some of Bush and Cheney's most absurd and laughable antics was, in fact, something horrible.

To wit: their periodic noodling with the color-coded terror alerts. It was always good for a few yuks when they nudged it up to orange, or told us to duct tape our household pets' orifices shut - usually and transparently because they needed a boost in their poll numbers. But then I read this:

Finn and Warrick reported that "not a single significant plot was foiled" as a result of Zubaida's brutal treatment -- and that, quite to the contrary, his false confessions "triggered a series of alerts and sent hundreds of CIA and FBI investigators scurrying in pursuit of phantoms."

Does anyone reading this have any difficulty imagining Cheney ordering a confession beaten out of someone in order to justify tweaking the terror alert, just in case someone called him on it? No, I don't either.

(The picture above is from a contemporary account of waterboarding as used by the Spanish Inquisition. One of my simple rules of thumb is that if the Spanish Inquisition did it, IT'S TORTURE.)

Using all the frightening little skills That Science has made available!

(x-posted at Pax Americana)

Recieved this in my Gmail box the other day. If you can't figure out why this is twenty different kinds of wrong I can't help you:

Webmaster,

My name is [redacted by this post's author, even though it's more than I deserve, gosh, he must be a nice fella], and I’m the Outreach Manager for [redacted; they're not getting any hits off of this]. I’m writing to you because I think that the new RealPlayer® might be of value to you and A Blog Named Sue: Iraq War’s readers. As a blog that covers the war, the new RealPlayer would make be a great tool for saving the latest news clippings, front line videos, or any other media related to Iraq.

The new RealPlayer (www.realplayer.com), has changed quite a bit since the last version.  The new version is now more of a video tool and utility that enables a user to instantly download streaming videos in the most popular formats (except DRM-protected videos) to their hard drive and to share the links with friends from the library they are creating. The player also enables users to watch videos without an Internet connection.

Once the player is installed, a user watching videos on YouTube, Break, Metacafe and other similar sites will see a “Download This Video” button automatically appear directly above the video, enabling them to save it to their hard drive with a single click. 

With the new RealPlayer Plus, a user can transfer downloaded videos to their iPod and burn them to DVD to watch whenever and wherever they want. 

I’d love to send you a complimentary copy of RealPlayer Plus (which is normally $39.99) for you to check out, and if you like it, write a review.  If you’re interested, please email me back and I’ll send you the download URL, username and password for such.

We have also developed a backend electronic press kit for the RealPlayer containing a how-to slideshow and videos (including a Zombie demonstration of the RealPlayer), banners, press releases and much more for your convenience. You can find this at  [redacted; buy an ad next time, OK?].

Please confirm receipt of this email and let me know if you would like to receive a complimentary copy of the player.  Thanks.

Respectfully,

[Redacted - see above]

Gandhi famously said, "First they ignore you, then they ridicule you, then they fight you, then you win." I'm not sure where "Then they use you as an unwitting pawn to help them sell stuff" fits into that process. I can only imagine how that form letter would have read if I was a porn blogger.

I'm a video production professional; I rely on advertising, PR and marketing people in order to feed my family. The art just won't do that for me, at least not yet, and most likely not ever. I have nothing against advertising and marketing per se...but goddamn it, shit like this makes me want to take the last fifteen years of my life, shout, "Fuck it all!" and throw them out the window. Maybe I should open a bike shop. I don't really know how to fix a bike, but come on, two wheels and a couple of gears - how hard can it be?

My point is this: even though we all have to advertise and market our stuff to get by in this world - hell, most blogs take ads - there are things that just are not done. I say no to stuff all the time, and I catch hell for it. Most people I know in the field do the same. I just worked with a client whose career at a certain agency took a big hit because she wouldn't work a fast food account. You're never obliged to do something that is in the worst taste imaginable, even though it seems someone else is always willing to do so. Obviously, using the war to help sell your crap media player falls into that category, although I guarantee you the people who dreamed up this campaign will see my protest as a sign that they're "gutsy" and "willing to push the envelope" to "get the job done."

Whatever. I suppose it's encouraging that us dirty fucking hippies are now seen as a desirable demographic. Or something.

Mainly Jesus, And My Hot Rod

Two items to file under "Things That Scare the Living Crap Out of Me":

VIa Warren Ellis, we discover that Fred Phelps ("Thank God for IED's") has covered "We Are The World." He has apparently done so in order to inform us that "God Hates The World":

God Hates the World - Watch more free videos

Also, Ellroon of Rants From The Rookery  treats us to this lovely postcard  from the heart of  Jesuschristostan:

Good thing I'm drinking right now, otherwise this stuff might really bother me.

Blogger Determined to Strike at Your Short Memory

Ripley at Zen Cabin reminds us that today is the day President Bush was presented with the security briefing entitled "Bin Laden Determined to Strike at U.S.", which as near as we can tell he set aside until after his mountain bike ride and then forgot about because there was some brush to clear. Ripley's even whipped up a special commemorative graphic for the occasion:

Click on the image for a downloadable, full size version and feel free to distribute it far and wide.

We Believe in Nothing, Lebowski. Nothing. And Tomorrow We Come Back and We Cut Off Your Johnson.

The AP is pondering whether or not Bush will face a public opinion backlash for springing Scooter Libby from the hoosegow. Isn't that so adorable? They think Bush still gives a damn.

He doesn't. None of them do. They've made their money and convinced themselves that they don't care what history thinks of them. From here on in, it's all about them. Good luck, GOP candidates - they don't care about you, either. You won't be able to put enough daylight between you and the Bush White House come 11/08.

My God - we're living in a nuclear-armed superpower governed by complete freakin' nihilists. Scary.

Panic on the Streets of London

Much is being made of the fact that the terror cell behind the abortive car bomb attacks in London and Glasgow this past weekend were doctors - gainfully employed, educated men. As an analyst at a British think tank put it:

"It's wrong to suggest al-Qaida are ignorant hill men. They are often middle or upper class and well educated..."

Educated they may be, but they appear to have skipped chemistry class and several seasons of MacGyver.

I don't know why we should be surprised that there are well-adjusted and financially secure individuals who have been roped into these putative terror cells - financial success and a promising career have never been ironclad bulwarks against alienation and despair. Right off the top of my head, I can think of at least a half-dozen people I know who are otherwise well off but complete basket cases mentally and emotionally. (Me? I have a different excuse.)

It's all well and good to have a laugh over the incompetence of these Osamawannabes and the various other low-hanging fruit DHS has of late adroitly plucked, but I find the whole thing rather depressing - the thought of someone who has abandoned all hope in anything other than the percieved transformative power of violence. While it seems highly unlikely these latest London bombers would ever have been able to pull off a mass casualty event (thank God), it's less unlikely that somewhere down the line they would have managed to kill one or a handful of people with one of their squalid, half-assed stabs at jihad. What grinds someone down to that point, where the only thing that could possibly make life less bleak is to commit murder? Where the mind's ability to reason has been so severly short-circuited that one can't realize that killing someone won't ease the pain - it will just make you a murderer who happens to be in pain? 

Of course, this phenomenon is not limited only to daydream jihadists - there's no shortage of folk here in the US who drift into militia groups and UFO cults. Thanks to some grim serendipity this morning, I happened to be reading Vonnegut's Mother Night when I heard the news about the car bombers' identities. Specifically, I was reading the chapter in which Bernard B. O' Hare confronts Howard W. Campbell, Jr., having decided the only way he can make sense of the mess he's made of his post-war life is to go to New York City and beat up an old man he hasn't seen in fifteen years. It's unavoidable. Written in the stars. Ordained by God - so much so that he shows up for his date with destiny, his confrontation with "pure evil," falling-down drunk and unarmed.   

Yeah, that sounds a bit like what went down in the UK this weekend. God, how depressing.

You Only Give Me Your Funny Paper

Oh, okay, I get it. Social Security is why the nation is drowning in debt. Got it.

Because for a minute there I thought maybe this had something to do with it.

God, what bullshit. I am so sick of these mendacious fuckers.

Face to Face With the Man Who Sold the World

Today's Daily News is making much hay out of a survey they conducted that indicates New Yorkers, by a wide margin, consider Mike Bloomberg to be a better mayor than Rudy Giuliani was, and believe he would be a better presidential candidate. Money quote:

"[Giuliani] did over his wife, he did over [New Yorkers] and he is not going to do it with the country," [Bushwick Brooklyn resident Sarah] Roberts said.

This jibes with what many of us who lived through Giuliani Time have been saying about him; sure, he seems like a prickly, authoritarian scumbag, but once you get to know him you realize he really is a prickly, authoritarian scumbag. I'm kind of hoping he makes it through the Republican primaries before he has the inevitable oh-my-god-what-the-f-did-he-just-do meltdown we all know is coming, but I'll take it whenever I can get it.

What disappoints me about the Daily News survey is the continuing general consensus that Mike Bloomberg is a decent guy. Look, Bloomberg is Giuliani with a human face. I became fully convinced of that watching the strong arm tactics he employed during the Republican National Convention, and the subsequent revelation that he used the NYPD intelligence unit to infiltrate such threats to national security as Billionaires for Bush did nothing to improve my opinion of the man. I don't think Bloomberg did that because he's the same sort of proto-fascist as Giuliani; I think he did it because he wasn't going to let anything make anyone think New York City wasn't a good place for that luxury condo or sports stadium you might be thinking of developing. But you know what? In my book, that makes it worse.

Maybe he did it because after eight years of Giuliani that sort of bullshit has just become accepted as the way things get done in New York; if that's the case, then the shame is on us New Yorkers, but the responsibility is still his.

Wild Loose Commas

A few random thoughts as we head into the weekend:

• I really thought they would brazen this one out. The White House is characterizing Secretary of State Rice's meetings with her Syrian counterpart as "informal," thus they are not hypocrites for bashing Speaker Pelosi for meeting with the Syrian government. Geez, they're off their game. Off the top of my head I came up with "Secretary Rice can meet with Syria because she speaks for the President, instead of undermining him," and "We had to meet with them to repair whatever damage Speaker Pelosi's irresponsible stunt might have done." Come on guys, you can do better than "informal."
• A-ha! A cunning plan. Apparently the GOP Presidential candidates are going to ward off the haircut and "earth tones" stories by the Maureen Dowds of the world by being bald and all wearing the exact same suit.

Images from AP Photo.