When Waterboarding isn't Waterboarding...in the press.

This Harvard study should tell us all we needed to know about a compliant press, and the real loss of our freedom to be informed.

Examining the four newspapers with the highest daily circulation in the country, we found a significant and sudden shift in how newspapers characterized waterboarding. From the early 1930s until the modern story broke in 2004, the newspapers that covered waterboarding almost uniformly called the practice torture or implied it was torture:

The New York Times characterized it thus in 81.5% (44 of 54) of articles on the subject and The Los Angeles Times did so in 96.3% of articles (26 of 27).

By contrast, from 2002‐2008, the studied newspapers almost never referred to waterboarding as torture. The New York Times called waterboarding torture or implied it was torture in just 2 of 143 articles (1.4%). The Los Angeles Times did so in 4.8% of articles (3 of 63). The Wall Street Journal characterized the practice as
torture in just 1 of 63 articles (1.6%).

USA Today never called waterboarding
torture or implied it was torture.

Cheney's America: War Crimes and Justified Illegalities

Dick Cheney openly admitted over the weekend, that he supported waterboarding. As Jonathan Turley writes, "It is an astonishing public admission since waterboarding is not just illegal but a war crime. It is akin to the Vice President saying that he supported bank robbery or murder-for-hire as a public policy."

Video is available, despite black screen


CHENEY: We had -- I can remember a meeting in the Roosevelt Room in the West Wing of the White House where we had a major shootout over how this was going to be handled … as an act of war with military commissions.

KARL: Did you more often win or lose those battles, especially as you got to the second term?

CHENEY: Well, I suppose it depends on which battle you're talking about. I won some; I lost some. I can't...
(CROSSTALK)

KARL: ... waterboarding, clearly, what was your...

CHENEY: I was a big supporter of waterboarding. I was a big supporter of the enhanced interrogation techniques that...

KARL: And you opposed the administration's actions of doing away with waterboarding?

CHENEY: Yes.

Sen. Mitch McConnell Declares, Civil Trials for Terrorists "We Now Know as a Mistake." Why.....? Daily Show Digs a little Deeper.

He just making this stuff up, isn't he?

Wyatt Cenac, from the Daily Show, gets the "mildly inconvenienced" man on the street opinion.

Jack Bauer Takes on Santa

John Yoo Confronted

Isn't it about time someone took on the genius of "enhanced interrogation" creator Prof. John Yoo?

Media, Democrats Now Piling on Barack Obama with "Straw men."

After a little over four months in office, President Barack Obama has been abandoned by the Democratic Party on Gitmo and health care, two major issues that required guts and conviction. We are now treated to a public policy that continues to serve the power elite and phony wedge campaigns by the GOP. I know, it sounds clichéd, but what else can you say about the way things are turning out. For instance, in the NY Times:

Democrats often complained about President George W. Bush’s frequent use of a rhetorical device as old as rhetoric itself: creating the illusion of refuting an opponent’s argument by mischaracterizing it and then knocking down that mischaracterization … guess who is knocking down straw men left and right? To listen to President Obama, a veritable army of naysayers has invaded Washington, urging him to sit on his hands at the White House and do nothing to address any of the economic or national security problems facing the country.

“There are those who say these plans are too ambitious, that we should be trying to do less, not more,” Mr. Obama told a town-hall-style meeting in Costa Mesa, Calif., on March 18. “Well, I say our challenges are too large to ignore.” Mr. Obama did not specify who, exactly, was saying America should ignore its challenges.

Good god! I thought even a simpleton would be able to grasp the idea that Republicans have for the last eight years ignored everything that has now crumbled around us in this recession. “The party of NO.” THE NAYSAYERS. The same Republicans who are complaining the president is taking on too many issues. Am I hallucinating or are the writers of this Times piece completely out to lunch? Then another article had this bogus topic:

If there was one thing both presidential candidates agreed on last fall, it was the need to close the prison camp at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba. Now the consensus from the campaign trail has dissolved, leaving Congressional Democrats and Republicans alike at odds with the White House. Talk radio and cable news hosts warned viewers that dangerous terrorists might end up in a neighborhood jail, Senate Democrats, who last week broke with their president to join a 90-to-6 vote against funds to close Guantánamo, faulted the White House for failing to provide political cover by reassuring the public that he had a clear plan the for the prisoners.

It appears the Democrats left Obama dangling with one of the parties biggest campaign cries, close Gitmo. Brilliant. Now we can debate this ridiculous emotional wedge issue for months while health care reform slips to the back burner. Didn’t we just have eight years of kicking the can down the road with psycho babble delay tactics.

What the hell are the Democrats doing? The blue dog Democrats are just as big an obstacle to the liberal agenda as the GOP.

Wilkerson on Cheney: "It's clear that he's frightened...the Church of Cheney"

Here are a few very short clips of Dick "crazy" Cheney's twisted view of reality. What follows is this quick hit from Sen. Tom Harkin: "..almost a pathetic figure, I mean this person must live in fear every day...what a terrible way to spend your life." But don't stop there.

You really have to listen to Col. Lawrence Wilkerson's analysis of Dick Cheney. In fact, search this blog for everything "Wilkerson" and you will be entertained by his smash mouth description of our former vice president and current psychopath, Darth Cheney. Remember, not only is Wilkerson a Republican, but he was also Colin Powell's chief of staff. He knows this guy.

Liz Cheney Defends the Indefensible: Her Father and Torture. GOP's Philosophical Argument Baffling.

Two clips in the defense of torture, a winning strategy for Republicans. This clip offers offers up a lesson in relativity, where everything is equal, and a ploy by the GOP to obfuscate and muddy the waters on every problematic issue they refuse to solve. Republican strategist Karen Hanretty promotes, without blinking, the idea that nothing is right or wrong.

The Center for Competitive Politics wrote:

"A falsely flat statement in one person's eyes is a modest exaggeration in another person's eyes is the honest truth in yet a third person's eyes."



In yet another case of defending torture ( I can't believe their doing this), Liz Cheney steps out to defend her psychopathic daddy, Dick. While Jessie Ventura offers a solution to the debate we all could agree with, Chris Matthews adds his own reaction to Liz Cheney's stunningly ridiculous statement.

GOP: Party without Substance. Smear Pelosi and Support CIA Torturers.

I like the idea that the Democratic Party has chosen to oppose torture. It fun, in a surreal way, to listen to sadistic Republican torture advocates seek support and affirmation for the most un-American form of information gathering known to man. For instance, Sen. Kit Bond's response to Pelosi’s recent comments:

AP - Congressional Republicans are rushing to defend the CIA after House Speaker Nancy Pelosi accused the spy agency of misleading her and other lawmakers about its use of waterboarding during the Bush administration. "I think it's a tragedy that we are seeing this massive attack on our intelligence community which has kept us safe," Sen. Kit Bond of Missouri said in an interview on NBC's "Today" show where he questioned why Pelosi was "going after the agency and calling them liars."

Oh by the way, “Bond said he was not with Pelosi when the spy agency briefed her.” So of course, he would be qualified to dispute Pelosi story, right? That ignores the fact that: The CIA was widely criticized for its intelligence gathering prior to the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks and faced questions about its information on suspected weapons of mass destruction in Iraq prior to the start of the war in March 2003. The weapons were never found.

Not quite a record of stellar accuracy. Bond would have to criticize former Sen. Bob Graham:

The Atlantic Monthly: Sen. Graham says that some of the briefings in which he was allegedly filled in about waterboarding and related techniques never occurred. This matters, because the CIA's claims are part of the same argument that Nancy Pelosi and other Democrats in Congress had known about and acquiesced to waterboarding all the way along. Graham also has a specific reputation for keeping detailed daily records of people he met and things they said. He's sometimes been mocked for this compulsive practice, but he's never been doubted
about the completeness or accuracy of what he compiles.

Sen. Kit Bond would rather wave the flag again in blind allegiance supporting “our intelligence community which has kept us safe,” the CIA.

That specifically disputes what part of Pelosi’s statements, Kit?

Wilkerson on Cheney: "This is Idiocy of the first order Dick Cheney is Puttin' Out."

MSNBC's Rachel Maddow brought back Colin Powell's former Chief of Staff Lawrence Wilkerson to comment on Dick Cheney's gangbusters torture tour. This is the second time Wilkerson didn't hold anything back. I couldn't have said it better.

Wilkerson: "He has the honor of being the man on who's watch 3000 Americans died."

Not a Phony Bone in Sheppard Smith

Fox News' Sheppard Smith is known for his honest, fair and balanced approach to the facts, and may be the only show host with a cross-over audience. I record it daily for "stuff." His recent outburst on torture, and his use of the f-word, has not only garnered media attention but supporters. The fact is, whether he is conservative or liberal, Smith has personality and a sharp wit. The following clip is his conversation with war monger Cliff May and reporter in exile Judith Miller. It closes with another clip of Sheppard's little outburst of frustration. This isn't your typical flag waving tripe.

Col. Steven Kleinman on the real reason for Torture

Isn't it odd that after talking about the Bush administrations alleged torture for the last two years, we are suddenly inundated with interrogation officials claiming the tactic doesn't work. On top of that, the torture was conducted to force detainees to admit to an al Qaeda/Saddam link, not to help save American lives.

Of all those interviewed, I found Col. Steven Kleinman, a former military interrogator, the easiest to understand. Rachel Maddow makes it all look so easy.

Sen. Ensign: "Extreme Care was taken..." during Torture. Another Compassionate Conservative?

Just how low will the Republican Party go? They are now defending torture. I wish I were kidding. Watch Sen. John Ensign successfully avoid the word "torture," state unequivocally that any "Democrat" study can't be believed like the more reliable nonpartisan Republican studies and ignore the elaborate research data all in the name of protecting the American public. As one member of the "American public," I find it insulting to have to listen to this condescending Neanderthal.



One thing to think about: If "enhanced interrogation techniques" are not considered torture, what would stop some future Republican administration from "not torturing" Americans in our own country while investigating robberies, public protests and corruption?

Maybe this will be the issue their rabid base can finally get behind to recruit more disenfranchised Americans who are forming, as we speak, new kinds of anti-American/Democratic militia groups to take back their country. This is the same base of flag wavers who believe the democratic voting process unfairly took control of government away them, just as everything started to collapse around their failed ideologically driven system. A system they say they can now fix with the exact same tax cuts and deregulation. They truly are in a Bizarro World.

Peggy Noonan: "Sometimes I Think...Just Keep Walkin'" When it comes to the Torture Memos

In one of the most stunning conversations about the condition of the media elite in years, a group of well know grown-ups sat around a table and put on one of the most childish displays of lawlessness and Constitutional ignorance that I've ever seen. From George Will blaming the NY Times for inciting the Congress to investigate the torture memo's, Cokie Roberts expressing relief the torture tapes were destroyed to Peggy Noonan whining helplessly that we should forget the whole mess and "sometimes I think just keep walkin.'' Sam Donaldson seemed almost stunned watching his collegues in the media advocate dropping the whole issue.

I'm with Sam.



The Huffington Post:
Senator Russ Feingold, one of the harshest critics of the Bush administration's nation security policies, says he can not bring himself to support President Obama's apparent decision not to investigate or prosecute illegalities from those years.

Later, the Senator took a swipe at some of the rationalizations for avoiding prosecution that have been voiced by Washington lawmakers and pundits. "If you want to see just how outrageous this is, I refer you to the remarks made by Peggy Noonan this Sunday," he said, referring to the longtime conservative columnist's appearance on ABC's This Week. "I frankly have never heard anything quite as disturbing as her remark that was something to the affect of: 'well sometimes you just have to move on.'"

"Some things in life need to be mysterious," Noonan said on Sunday about the release of the torture memos. "Sometimes you need to just keep walking. ... It's hard for me to look at a great nation issuing these documents and sending them out to the world and thinking, oh, much good will come of that."