"Democrats knew about torture" stories are getting dumber by the minute
May 20, 2009 1:45 pm ET by Jamison Foser
Given how thoroughly the media has bought into the GOP's "Torture is totally fine and necessary and Nancy Pelosi should resign for knowing about it, even though we can't prove she did" argument, you have to wonder how long it will take before the media begins applying that "logic" to other Democrats in Congress.
And maybe it's beginning. Here's a sensationalistic report in the The Intelligencer:
Records: Murphy briefed by CIA on waterboarding
Posted in News on Tuesday, May 19th, 2009 at 3:15 pm by Intelligencer writer Gary Weckselblatt
Eighth District Congressman Patrick Murphy has attended two CIA briefings at the center of a firestorm between the agency and the Speaker of the House, who said she was lied to about waterboarding.
Wow! Patrick Murphy knew, too!
Oh. Wait. It turns out Murphy didn't actually attend "two CIA briefings at the center of a firestorm." He attended two CIA briefings held years later, long after the fact:
Murphy, a member of the Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, is listed among lawmakers in attendance on Jan. 16, 2008. The topics included "Videotape Desctruction" and "Discussion of EITs, including waterboarding."
On March 12, less than two months after President Barack Obama signed orders that end torture, Murphy was briefed with other members of the Intelligence Committee about "General references to EITs, interrogations and the end of the use of EITs by the CIA throughout. One mention of one specific EIT, waterboarding," according to the CIA chart.
The CIA briefing "at the center of a firestorm" between the CIA and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi occurred in 2002. That's a full six years before the meetings the Intelligencer's crack investigative unit says Patrick Murphy attended. The difference is rather significant, since the whole controversy is about whether Members of Congress knew about the Bush administration's torture in real time.
If this madness about torture is winding down, as indeed it seems to be after three weeks at least of near 24 hour 7 day a week obsessive saturation and immersion on cable and elsewhere...
If it's finally winding down, then maybe it's a good time to ask what was the point of it all?
What constructive thing was accomplished, what goal was achieved, what point was made...
None that I can see... it was just a bunch of neurotic and hysterical noise is all.
I have a theory (true and serious) that watching television is both the cause and the symptom, of a modern day type of neurosis, that otherwise exhibits itself in a chattering and prattling of subject matter picked up from television, stuff like celebrity dance contests and diverse individuals or celebrities living in the same house with a camera following them from room to room, or being stranded on an island, or eating worms, or being fat and trying to lose weight and competing for the title of "The Biggest Loser" (and isn't that funny, using that term like that)...
And as far as people who fancy themselves interested in and informed about National Policy, well they watch those cable television commentary shows, and they prattle on and chatter away in the noise they pick up there, stuff like the President and his wife being celebrities (sharing the same house but not stuck on an island), and stuff about tele-prompters, and of course of late "torture memos" which morphed into "torture briefings" and now seems to be winding down, just like the talk of all neurotics and hysterics eventually winds down and leaves them worn out (but rarely reflective about what it is they were so hysterical about, as they are often just taking a breather while waiting for the next episode of their neurosis)...
Well, it's a theory I have, that watching television is both the cause and the symptom of a kind of modern day neurosis, that like most neuroses, exhibits itself in talking breathlessly in words and sentences that can best be described as 'scatter-brained'...
Scatter Brained : that's what television does to your mind I guess, it scatters your thoughts here and there, to celebrities dancing or living in houses together, to iPods and touching the Queen, to "torture memos" and then "torture briefings" and now onto who knows where...
You know, if people keep watching television like this, the pharmaceutical companies are bound to get in on it, and address the neurosis caused and exhibited by watching too much television, and make a pill and start advertising it... on television.
Parents should watch out too : if their children watch too much television, they're likely to become more scatter-brained than they already naturally are, and are likely to be diagnosed with a neurosis, and prescribed an assortment of pills for the condition or syndrome of dysfunction or however else they'd characterize Attention Deficit Disorder.
Turn it off... that's the cure... see right through it...
There is wellness beyond television, and beyond this noise about "torture memos" and "torture briefings".
They've been trying to pretend it wasn't torture and wasn't illegal since before they first did it.
They twisted the definition of torture to pretend that the torture they were doing wasn't really torture. They claim that we did it to SERE trainees, so it could't be torture. They say that since the detainees are signatories to the Geneva Conventions, we could do what we wanted to them (nevermind that the Geneva Conventions don't give us the right to ignore the fact that WE signed and promised not to torture anyone.
Yeah... I'm kidding. I cared more about the contents of my handkerchief the last time I blew my nose. I can proudly say that the only five minutes I've watched of that garbage in eight seasons were a few partucularly cruel Simon Cowell moments on YouTube.
It's the top story today on msn.com, however... Presented as if it's actual NEWS. Symptom and cause of "scatter brained neurosis" indeed.
Very well said.
Larry Thomlinson