Tuesday, March 11, 2008

Why I now support water boarding.

This past weekend while a coalition of local groups were holding a Circle of Peace here locally to remind all this is the end of the fifth year of war against Iraq, president Bush was unceremoniously vetoing a bill passed by congress that would have prohibited further water boarding and other coercive techniques used by the CIA to interrogate suspected terrorists.

Suddenly realizing the value of using such extreme techniques of torture as an information gathering tool to glean intel from terrorists, I now support the president in his veto of that bill. That's because of the lingering questions that have been bouncing off the walls of my brain for years that, to date, have no answers. It is my hope that by maintaining these torture procedures we may one day get the answers to those questions.

Here are but a few of them:
  • Why was the August, 2001 President's Daily Brief warning of imminent terrorist attacks in the U.S. using commercial airliners ignored?
  • Why on September 11th, after learning the second World Trade Center tower had been hit by a plane, did the president continue to sit reading "My Pet Goat" with a classroom of second graders for seven minutes afterwards, twitching nervously in his seat with the goofiest expression on his face, as people in NYC were jumping to their deaths from the 100th floors of those buildings as the better of their only two options?
  • Why did the president refuse to testify before a senate 9/11 committee regarding the events of that day under oath?
  • And why did he refuse to testify alone before that senate committee investigating 9/11; why did he need to do it in the presence of his vice president, Dick Cheney?
Until such time these questions can be asked under the right conditions of the right terrorist, they will continue bouncing around inside my brain. And their answers, sadly, forever blowing in the wind.

8 comments:

eProf2 said...

I guess next you'll be telling us that you support the FISA bill too. Reason: The new post-Bush administration will be able to spy on Republicans -- legally! Yes, indeed, it's a brave new world. And, us geezers had better get with it and throw out the First Amendment completely.

Fran said...

Never mind these issues, Dada-- it's sex scandals that trump EVERYTHING- as seen in the Bill Clinton's Monicagate affair, the Idaho Senator Larry Craig's wide stance bathroom fau paux, and now a little prostitution rendezvous ~ NY Guvnah Spitzer. Sex scandals are impeachable offenses-- these other things you mention, wars, torture, general high crimes & misdemeanors, are really secondary items, and no action is needed.

End of sarcastic, reverse talking rant
Sigh..... Now back to *My Pet Goat*.

Dada said...

Brave New World indeed! They day they finally take my sarcasm will be the last day spent with my shredded sanity.

eProf2 said...

You do know that I was jesting about your support for FISA?

Just finished watching Cowboy Del Amor. It was filmed in Columbus, NM, El Paso, Juarez, Palmas, and Torreon. Have you seen it? Funny man with a funny business of matching Gringos or norte americanos with Mexicanas. Good for more than a few good laughs and a glimpse into Mexican society.

Keep up the sarcasm!

Dada said...

eprof: Yes, yes - I knew you were being sarcastic (at least I was ivory soap pure% you were ~ grin)

But listen, I'm real excited to learn of this movie, Cowboy Del Amor. We disconnected our DISH TV when we got the new roof put on. The roof timing couldn't have been much better, i.e., we were at the end of our 18 mo. contract with DISH and I decided there was no way I was drilling holes in the new roof (long story - just one of my four complaints re DISH - the installer took issue with my upside down American flag on the front door the day he installed saying he couldn't put it on the mast already installed - which I had done myself last time we were on DISH).

So the old "free TV" antenna I threw out over a year ago was replaced with a new one (Damn! if only I could foresee these things - $60+ would have been saved), and we have decided to try NetFlix as a consolation for having to access Amy Goodman via the computer now.

That's where I was just looking over this movie.

Half of the movie is made if it's got a local flavor/scenery, so I'm excited by your recommendation. Thanks. (Right now I'm watching seasons 1 & 2 of "Buffalo Bill" from NetFlix. :~0)

Dada said...

Whew boy: Talk about a reason to keep waterboarding: I came upon a website claiming $55 million was X-ferred by the Bush administration to the day following their nuclear detonation.

Granted, it was on a site with links to a Jesuit - NWO conspiracy site, but boy oh boy, if a tenth of what these conspiracies claim were true, it'd be enough to make one wish they were born a banana slug. (Ahm, don't quote me on that, I don't know if banana slugs are born or not.)

D.K. Raed said...

Well damnit, Dada, I was so looking fwd to learning about waterboarded nuked banana slugs being worth $55mill, but YOUR LINK IS DEAD! (sigh, maybe it's just me & my computer) ...

hey, let us know if you're happy w/Netflix. EK has been bugging me about it, but if we give up Dish, how will we keep up w/Geo Carlin, Larry David, not to mention odd but wonderful finds on those commercialess E-channels (like last night, The Assassination of Richard Nixon with Sean Pean, made post-katrina & more about you-know-what than you-know-who).

eProf2 said...

Dada, have you considered putting your Dish or Direct dish on a free standing pole? Ours is attached to a block wall, which is behind a wall facing the street, and sits only high enough to receive the se signal. I have about forty feet of cable strung from the dish to the house buried until it comes up next to the house wall and then to the inside. This way I avoided the possibility of cracking one of our rounded sw tiles on the roof. I don't think I could go back to just broadcast tv with only about six or seven channels. Several of our friends have NetFlixs and they seem satisfied to get a new film about twice a week. Good luck with your tv changes.