Does Joe Scarborough Know What Google Is

If Joe Scarborough doesn't know how to use Google than Politico should fact-check his columns. Scarborough rightly comes out against President Barack Obama's use of drone strikes. Scarborough uses his column to attack the Left for being against President Bush's torture policies, but supporting drone strike. I agree that there are people on the Left that have been silent on the drone strike issue. Scarborough veers off in his column and picks an unlikely target.

"Where are the ladies of Code Pink?" Scarborough wrote.

Well Joe, Medea Benjamin published the book "Drone Warfare: Killing By Remote Control." You can buy it on Amazon.com. Another Google search reveals that Code Pink staged several anti-drone strikes protests in Pakistan. Below is a video of Medea Benjamin being interviewed in Islamabad.

Code Pink has been in Pakistan. Scarborough could have found that out if he bothered to use Google. Scarborough is too intellectually lazy to fact-check his own work.

Scarborough spends the rest of the article defending torture. I can feel my brain cells exploding reading the rest of Scarborough's prose.

As I have said repeatedly, Americans should continue to debate the moral dilemmas caused by interrogation techniques but there is no debate that the techiques used on the Al Qaeda terrorists not only worked, but also been used on thousands of our own military members in SERE (Survival, Evasion, Resistance and Escape) courses run by various services. Any graduate of basic training at Paris Island or Fort Benning will probably tell you that what many now consider "torture" (harsh treatment, sleep deprivation or dietry manipulation) is simply a day in the life of a U.S. military basic trainee.

The SERE program was created to teach military personal how to survive against torture. Scarborough fails to understand that simple fact. The techniques used by the CIA "a day in the life" of a soldier. Manadel Al-Jamadi was tortured to death in Abu Ghraib. A Google search would have provided Scarborough with that information. Al-Jamadi's dead body is where Lynndie England took the infamous thumbs up photo. Does ending up in a body bag look like a day in the life of a military trainee to you?

Quote of the Day

"He's avoiding the handcuffs."

Reed Brody, attorney for the Human Rights Watch, on President George W. Bush cancelling his visit to Switzerland.

Bush was scheduled to speak to at a Jewish charity event. Criminal complaints about Bush's use of waterboarding were lodged in Geneva. Under the Geneva Conventions laws, waterboarding is considered torture. Bush has admitted in interviews and his book Decision Points that he approved the use of waterboarding on detainees.

Detainee Manadel al-Jamadi was tortured to death at Abu Ghraib. Jamadi was hung from his wrists for several hours and beaten. Jamadi's death was ruled a homicide by the U.S. military pathologist.

There is a documented of a Navy dog phyically attacking a detainee in Abu Ghraib on Dec. 12, 2003. The dog bit the detainee.

There has been no proof provided by conservatives that torture provided intelligence. Defense Sec. Leon Panetta informed Sen. John McCain that none of the intelligence used to find Osama bin Laden came from torture.

From a short period of time President Bush has went from the most power man on the planet to a fugitive from international law. Amazing.

Update: Litbrit pointed out to me that the story is from February of 2011.

Quote of the Day

"The idea that torture doesn't work — that's been put out from John McCain on down — You know, for the longest time McCain said torture doesn't work then he admitted in his acceptance speech at the Republican National Convention last summer that he was broken by North Vietnamese. So what are we to think here?"

Rush Limbaugh

John McCain had three broken limbs from rejecting from his airplane. McCain gave a bogus confession and told his NVA captors that his father was a Naval Admiral. The confession was used of propaganda purposes. McCain would have died if he didn't submit. Limbaugh wants America to use the same methods as the NVA.

How conservatives love moving the goal posts. Limbaugh once denied the United States used violence against detainees. His defense of Abu Ghraib was indefensible.

You know, if you look at -- if you, really, if you look at these pictures, I mean, I don't know if it's just me, but it looks just like anything you'd see Madonna, or Britney Spears do on stage. Maybe I'm -- yeah. And get an NEA grant for something like this. I mean, this is something that you can see on stage at Lincoln Center from an NEA grant, maybe on Sex in the City -- the movie. I mean, I don't -- it's just me.

Does the corpse of Manadel al-Jamadi's look like an episode of Sex in the City? The interrogated by the CIA lasted 30 minutes. An autopsy ruled the death was murder.



The Navy SEALs and CIA washed the body clean of forensic evidence.

According to Spc. Jason Kenner, an M.P. with the 372nd Military Police Company, al-Jamadi was brought to the prison by U.S. Navy SEALs in good health; Kenner says he saw that al-Jamadi looked extensively bruised when he was brought out of the showers, dead. According to Kenner a "battle" took place among CIA and military interrogators over who should dispose of the body.

The only way conservatives can forward their arguments in favor of torture is by submitting bogus facts. Bodies physically beaten to death are not on display at Madonna concerts. Limbaugh, Bill Kristol and Sean Hannity do not have the moral courage to say they support hanging al-jamadi by razor wire and Navy Seals beating him to death within a half hour's time. No due process. No valuable intelligence gathered from al-jamadi. People in the national security apparatus should be allowed to beat and imprison whomever they choose and answer to no one. This is governing from fear. Franklin Roosevelt said during his first inaugural address, "Only Thing We Have to Fear Is Fear Itself." The Bush administration made fear into policy.

Sean Hannity's Top 10 Items of Conservatism

I read Sean Hannity's hysterical Top 10 Items of Conservatism. Nation building, torture and warrantless wire tapping aren't conservative ideals. Which is why the Republican Party lost. The GOP doesn't have ideas. It has talking points of smaller government, anti-earmarks, and victory in Iraq.

Hannity's foreign policy is pure neoconservatism.

1) To be the Candidate of National security:
a) Victory in Iraq
b) Fully support NSA, Patriot act, tough interrogations, keeping Gitmo open
c) A Candidate that pledges to NOT demean our military while they are fighting for their Country. eg Harry Reid: "the surge has failed", "the war is lost"
d) Candidate that promises to ensure that our veterans can live out their lives in dignity.

2) The Candidate who pledges to oppose Appeasement:
a) The Candidate will oppose any and all efforts to negotiate with dictators of the world in places like Iran, Syria, N.Korea, Cuba, and Venezuela without "pre-conditions"

Being pro-torture is a disgusting political position to take. Hannity can't argue he is for freedom and American values. The Constitution forbids "cruel and unusual punishment." Waterboarding and attack dogs are not the actions of people that respect freedom. The fact that Hannity thinks otherwise should give people pause.

Below are two pictures of an Abu Ghraib detainee. His injuries came from a dog bite. Do these pictures make you think of freedom? "Tough interrogations" is Hannity not having the courage to use the proper word: torture.





Hannity harping of Reid's statement about the surge. We are still in Iraq and the country's future is uncertain. I don't believe the current government will respect fair elections and Israel's right to exist. In 2006, Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki condemmed Israel's military actions Lebanon. al-Maliki played into his fellow countrymen's support of Hezbollah. In 2007, the Iraqi government enforced a boycott on Israel.

Hannity's opposition to peace negotiations is irresponsible and anti-conservative. Richard Nixon talked with the Soviets. Nixon and Leonid Brezhnev signed the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty. Ronald Reagan and Mikhail Gorbachev meetings helped end the Cold War. Hannity alternative is to fight wars with troops we don't have. The U.S. mititary is strained and neither party will support a draft. How does Hannity plan on getting tough with foreign leaders?

This rhetoric works for Hannity on talk radio. Bush and Cheney tried this national security policy. The United States international standing suffered and Republican approval ratings tanked. Osama bin Laden is still free. Sadly, Republican foreign policy think tankers think much like Hannity.

Documentary on Yunis Khatayer Abbas

Director Michael Tucker made the superb documentary Gunner Palace. He is made another movie about Iraq. This time dealing with the horrors of Abu Ghraib.

Yunis Khatayer Abbas was a freelance journalist and cameraman when the war broke out. He was detained by U.S. soldiers because he believed to be a part plan to assassinate British Prime Minister Tony Blair.

In one scene, the Iraqi recalled laughing when eventually being told by American interrogators he was being held captive over suspicions he plotted to attack Blair.

"What he was charged with was so absurd," said Tucker, who uses footage of Abbas being captured by soldiers after he accompanied them on the raid. "It just shows how poorly the intelligence system works."

Abu Ghraib guard said the conditions didn't get better after the infamous photos became public.

"It was like no matter what happened there as long as we didn't stack people and make pyramids (of them) we were doing a great job," said Thompson, who returned from Iraq to Ohio two years ago and went back to civilian life.

All that mattered was how Abu Ghraib was preceived. It was never a matter of making the standards meet Geneva Conventions' codes.

New Abu Ghraib Photos

You know, if you look at -- if you, really, if you look at these pictures, I mean, I don't know if it's just me, but it looks just like anything you'd see Madonna, or Britney Spears do on stage. Maybe I'm -- yeah. And get an NEA grant for something like this. I mean, this is something that you can see on stage at Lincoln Center from an NEA grant, maybe on Sex in the City -- the movie. I mean, I don't -- it's just me.

Rush Limbaugh

Salon and SBS Dateline has posted new Abu Ghraib photos that can be seen here and here. Disgusting stuff.

Hat tip to David Scott Anderson.