Thursday, May 21, 2009

Dunking For Dollars

A Rhode Island Democrat Suggests Bush Should Volunteer To Be Waterboarded For Charity. $100 Per Second.

R.I. state representative Rod Driver sent letters to George W. Bush, Dick Cheney and Condoleeza Rice inviting them to participate in a charity event in which they would be waterboarded, gaining $100 for each second they could withstand the interrogation technique. No word yet on whether invitations were also sent to Nancy Pelosi and all the Democrat members of the Congressional committees who approved the technique, despite their lame denials.

I'm going to give this moron the benefit of the doubt, and assume it was just a nasty political joke. But even if it was, is this the way we should be dealing with an issue of extreme national importance? Driver says he thinks that since Bush doesn't consider waterboarding to be torture, he should be willing to submit to it, particularly since this is only for charity. This legislator has trivialized the torture debates, not just for those who believe in the waterboarding technique, but for those who oppose it as well.

Driver clearly thinks the technique works. He doesn't expect Bush to last even a full second before begging them to stop. On the other hand, if Driver considers it torture, then he is saying that torturing your opposition for a laugh is OK, just as long as the person being waterboarded isn't a jihadi terrorist with crucial information about a potential attack. Either way, the humor falls flat. This debate is real, serious and earnest, and there is no clear agreement on the technique even among the contributors on this blog. How does this kind of nonsense serve any legitimate purpose?

Of course there is always the alternative that Driver actually means what he's saying. In which case, his next stop should be a lunatic asylum--or San Francisco.

8 comments:

SQT said...

But isn't this typical? Why try to have an actual debate while you can take another stab at Bush?

patti said...

every time i hear another bush-bash i think of the brokeback mountain line: i just can't quit you. gives me a chuckle instead of another headache. gotta find the funny somewhere.

Unknown said...

SQT and patti:

This is kindergarten politics, with the security of the United States at stake. I do seriously wonder if there will even be a point during this administration when Bush will cease to be the cause of everything wrong and Obama will cease being the savior who will make it all right.

SQT said...

Thanks Patti. I'm going to use that one.

SQT said...

LawHawk

Not if they can help it. But circumstances got beyond Jimmy Carter and I think the same thing will happen to Obama. And people turn on their heroes when they don't live up to the hype. The media will prop him up as long as they can, but they're bound to hit a wall at some point. As long as people like us are out there talking about the other sides of the issues it's going to be very very hard for them to keep suppressing unfavorable news.

Did you hear about Obama's latest off-teleprompter gaffe? I only caught a snippet on the news, but apparently he referred to Bill Gates as his Secretary of State. Kind of funny.

Unknown said...

SQT:

Obama thinks secretaries take dictation and fetch coffee, so they're all interchangeable in his mind.

I agree with you on propping Obama up until he can't be propped up anymore. I just worry that the results of the MSM's willful blindness about Obama in these dangerous times may be far worse than their solicitousness toward the inept Carter.

AndrewPrice said...

It shouldn't amaze me, but it does that the media ignores all of Obama's gaffs, which often are equal to or great than those Bush made (and they're much more frequent), but they fell all over themselves to point out every single on Bush made.

Bias? Yes. How else can it be explained?

Captain Soapbox said...

Obama made more stumbling, bumbling and fumbling mistakes in his first week than Gerald Ford did in his entire Presidency, but where was the Chevy Chase to make fun of him walking into widows or banging his head against Marine One? Nowhere.

I also find it a little telling that a media that forever harped on how Bush pronounced "Nuclear" (which is how I pronounce it too by the way, usually these days just to annoy liberals though) being evidence of his supposed stupidity will ignore the fact that when Barry is off 'prompter he has the speaking skills of Porky Pig backed up by the analytical skills of a 3 year old. His National Security Speech the other day reminded me of nothing more than a petulant child throwing a tantrum because he didn't get his own way. At least the Teleprompter was working correctly for it which means at least one entity in Washington was actually earning their pay.

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