Comments on: Defending Torture

By: cleek

cleek — Fri, 24 Apr 2009 17:45:31 +0000

aw come on!

maybe if we just squeezed his law license ? … or his ability to live a life outside of a jail cell ?

By: The Modesto Kid

The Modesto Kid — Fri, 24 Apr 2009 17:39:15 +0000

i’d be happy to see someone squeeze the beans out of Yoo.

Hey watch it dude — no endorsing torture…

By: cleek

cleek — Fri, 24 Apr 2009 17:36:42 +0000

i would lovelovelove to see Rice spill the beans. but yeah, you’re right: she’s probably too loyal to the Bushes to do it. on the other hand, i’d be happy to see someone squeeze the beans out of Yoo.

if i’d taken classes from those two, i’d be tempted to write a letter to the college asking them to refund that part of my tuition (rhetorically, of course).

As I see it, support for torture is fundamentally a right-wing position, because it assumes the rectitude of authority.

yup. obedience to a vengeful, punishing authority, especially seems like a conservative position – the Strict Father figure. maybe i’m blinded by my own prejudices (nah), but i can’t think of a lefty hero who fits that mold.

By: Cris

Cris — Fri, 24 Apr 2009 16:36:08 +0000

It’s also “a question of right vs left” in the sense that (right/left) != (Republican/Democrat). As I see it, support for torture is fundamentally a right-wing position, because it assumes the rectitude of authority. Protecting the rights of the accused and the detained is part of the left-wing tradition.

By: Ugh

Ugh — Fri, 24 Apr 2009 16:08:10 +0000

Also, the weak links here are Yoo and Rice (both of whom I’ve taken classes from, as it turns out). Yoo is a squish who might talk tough but if faced with the prospect of being put on trial for anything that might result in jail time he will squeal squeal squeal.
Rice is tougher, but I think she feels gamed by Cheney/Rumsfeld, who apparently treated her like sh1t the whole time (I recall one story where Bush asked her/Cheney/Rumsfeld and maybe Powell to work together to fix some problem that cheney/rumsfeld didn’t want fixed, and so when they had their first meeting they didn’t show and she ended up crying; also, apparently one/both of them wouldn’t return her calls until Bush specifically told them to). So, she’s ripe for spilling all the beans in exchange for immunity and getting back at the assholes who were constantly screwing her. In addition, I think she can rightly claim some (or maybe alot) of this shit went on behind her back (though she obviously eventually found out and went along). Plus, I think she’s very proud that there is an African American president and might be amenable to a personal appeal from him to come in and lay it all out for the good of the country (I recall from college that at some highly charged meeting with students some jackass questioned her commitment to African-American issues or her “blackness” because of her politics, which prompted a pretty harsh response from her; she lived in Alabama in the 50s and 60s).

The big factor on the other side is her loyalty to the Bush clan, to whom she owes the vast majority, if not all, of her career in politics.

Maybe I’m giving her too much credit (and Yoo too little), she did serve with that administration for 8 years.

By: Ugh

Ugh — Fri, 24 Apr 2009 15:03:27 +0000

Dems were complicit too

I think they’ve made a misstep with this, as it gives Obama cover to go after the Yoo/Bybee/Addington swine. If he can somberly say “well, Democrats knew about this and didn’t object, and deserve some of the blame/shame too”, then it’s harder for the GOP to call it a witch hunt (they’ll do it anyway).

But I really can’t believe all these guys are willing to tie themselves to the torture ship as it’s going down. I mean, really? You’re going to defend that just because it was done by one of your guys? And so they all go on records saying (i) it wasn’t torture; (ii) if it was torture it saved americans; (iii) if it didn’t save americans, they were all bad guys anyway; (iv) if they weren’t all bad guys, nineleven nineleven nineleven.

And I can’t help but think that, if Bush had ordered that fingernails be pulled out and genitals electrocuted, etc., and had OLC memos that said it was all ok, that these same GOP asshats would be defending that too.

It really all is just a game to them, fuckers.