Political Theater
In my younger days, I participated in a bit of political theater. (The Ted Kennedy Swim Team, which waded through a fountain on the Senate side of the Capitol grounds on the 20th anniversary of Chappaquiddick, was perhaps the most interesting. The fact that no one was arrested shows how far we have fallen over the past 18 years, because I doubt that you could even approach that fountain today wearing a Ted Kennedy mask, snorkel, and flippers.) A small-town boy, it took me a while to realize that the organizations involved really only hoped to grab a headline, and maybe a small photo, so that they could continue to raise money.
There’s a bit of political theater scheduled to take place today, at noon Eastern time, outside the Department of Justice in Washington, D.C., and in this case I really don’t care that the ultimate aim is undoubtedly to swell the coffers of the leftist organization sponsoring it. With the Senate Judiciary Committee preparing to vote on President Bush’s nomination of Michael Mukasey as attorney general, “a group of human rights activists will demonstrate waterboarding,” a form of non-torture (according to Vice President Cheney) that Mukasey has supported.
I’ll let the rest of the press release I received speak for itself:
The volunteer torture victim will demonstrate what victims of U.S. government torture experience—with one important exception. In this demonstration, the victim can stop the procedure at any time. In U.S. government torture, the victim is not afforded this luxury.
An invitation is being extended to persons with special difficulty understanding that waterboarding is torture: Judge Michael Mukasey, presidential candidate Rudy Giuliani, and members of the Office of Legal Counsel.
Also invited are Senators Schumer and Feinstein and any others, who feel that the best we can do is accept an Attorney General willing to turn a blind eye to torture.
Anyone want to place any bets on which of those people will show up?
2008 Election | Iraq war | Neocons | Torture
Comments
if the person actually drowned, that would be a profound statement on liberty
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Sorry Scott, I cannot work myself too much about it,
as this is not so much about the US losing its moral
bearing as finally losing its self-delusion about its
moral superiority.
After seeing the way the US reacted to the general’s
rule in Argentina (Kissinger going there to tell them
to speed up in their getting rid of the guerrilla, and
Reagan and co. impressing the need to difference between
authoritarian and totalitarian regimes, and those who
were tortured and murdered by authoritarians, then f***k
them) I have no illusions about it.
So, depressing as it is to acknowlege that at last the
US is showing what is capable of, what it has always
been capable of, I rejoice that people in the US have
at last stopped deceiving themselves.
As they say, the first step in getting rid of a problem
is to acknowledge you have a problem, so I find this
waterboarding controversy a very healthy development.
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Actually, Adriana, I doubt that this will receive much play on the evening news (especially FOX News), and I’m afraid that many (most?) people in the United States are almost infinitely capable of deceiving themselves, even if it did.
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Hear, hear!!! I was at the Ted Kennedy Swim Team too! Another part of this fun project was asking restaurants to post signs: “This establishment does not serve alcohol to Ted Kennedy” including Ted’s famous watering hole and “exercise” club, “La Brasserie”.
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@Activist:
There weren’t very many of us, and most of us were interns at Accuracy in Media that summer. Were you, by chance?
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@ Scott:
I wasn’t an intern there, but am a DC area activist and friend of Eugene Delgaudio, and work at The Conservative Caucus!
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@Activist:
Ah! That makes sense.
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