Limbaugh on Torture

[Chris Alger]

In knew it was just a matter of time before right-wingers started to exploit Abu Gharib to shore up a core constituency: defenders and supporters of torture.

First we have Sen Inhofe being more "outraged by the outrage" because the victims were "murderers, terrorists and insurgents." Of course, Inhofe has no evidence for this other than the fact of their incarceration, while the Red Cross contends that 70-90% of Iraqi detainees were "arrested by mistake," according to the Chicago Sun-Times.

And the impecable logic of Cal Thomas (quoting a Telegraph column): "These troops face resentment and hatred from some of the very people they came to liberate and did liberate." Thomas agrees that the pictures must be viewed in the "context" of our troops' brutalizing people for refusing to acknowlege their "liberation."

Now here's Rush on the Abu Gharib photos:

"it looks just like anything you’d see Madonna, or Britney Spears do on stage."

"This is no different than what happens at the Skull and Bones initiation and we’re going to ruin people’s lives over it and we’re going to hamper our military effort, and then we are going to really hammer them because they had a good time."

"I’m talking about people having a good time, these people, you ever heard of emotional release? You of heard of need to blow some steam off?"

"I think the reaction to the stupid torture is an example of the feminization of this country."

"The thing though that continually amazes — here we have these pictures of homoeroticism that look like standard good old American pornography ...."

Note: not just porn but "gold old American" porn, where participation isn't voluntary, and those who complain are excessively "feminized."

According to the Daily Mislead, the White House has issued no criticsm of this stalwart Bush supporter, on who's show Cheney has frequently appeared.

Who knows? Maybe Bush is freefalling so fast he'll have to reach out to those who want to legalize rape.

[Rushmore]

I had not read or heard these quotes.

OK. Cat's out of the bag. Limbaugh's an absolute monkey.

Who knew??!

[MMMMMM]

Those are some quotes, all right. The only reasonable one is the one about Madonna or Britney Spears;-)

[jokerswild]

Oh, so forced sodomy, real beatings, and forced homosexuality are entertainment for you. Fascists such as yourself will someday be held accountable for your atrocities. What perverted minds inhabit the ditto world.

[ChristinaB]

Does anyone doubt it is time to impeach Rumsfeld if Bush doesn't fire him?

[blackaces13]

[ QUOTE ]
Does anyone doubt it is time to impeach Rumsfeld if Bush doesn't fire him?

[/ QUOTE ]

Can you impeach anyone other than a president?

[ChristinaB]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
Does anyone doubt it is time to impeach Rumsfeld if Bush doesn't fire him?

[/ QUOTE ]

Can you impeach anyone other than a president?

[/ QUOTE ]
US Constitution, Article 2, Section 4:

Section 4. The President, Vice President and all civil officers of the United States, shall be removed from office on impeachment for, and conviction of, treason, bribery, or other high crimes and misdemeanors.

We can't impeach Bush until we get rid of Cheney. /images/graemlins/tongue.gif

[blackaces13]

Well I guess that clears that up doesn't it.

[ChristinaB]

Who has been impeached in US history:

The Infamous Sixteen

Since 1797 the House of Representatives has impeached sixteen federal officials. These include two presidents, a cabinet member, a senator, a justice of the Supreme Court, and eleven federal judges. Of those, the Senate has convicted and removed seven, all of them judges. Not included in this list are the office holders who have resigned rather than face impeachment, most notably, President Richard M. Nixon.

The Small Fry

The first official impeached in this country was Senator William Blount of Tennessee for a plot to help the British seize Louisiana and Florida from Spain in 1797. The Senate dismissed the charges on Jan. 14, 1799, determining that it had no jurisdiction over its own members. The Senate and the House do, however, have the right to discipline their members, and the Senate expelled Blount the day after his impeachment.

Judge John Pickering of New Hampshire was the first impeached official actually convicted. He was found guilty of drunkenness and unlawful rulings, on March 12, 1804, and was believed to have been insane.

Associate Justice Samuel Chase , a strong Federalist, was impeached but acquitted of judicial bias against anti-Federalists. The acquittal on March 1, 1805, established that political differences were not grounds for impeachment.

Other officials impeached were implicated in bribery, cheating on income tax, perjury, and treason.

The Big Fish

Two U.S. presidents have been impeached: Andrew Johnson, the seventeenth chief executive, and William J. Clinton, the forty-second.

[B-Man]

There is zero chance Rumsfeld will be impeached.

It's possible he will resign (or will be asked to resign), but that remains to be seen.

How do you really feel about this scandal? Are you more upset that our soldiers mistreated prisoners, or pleased that there is negative political fallout for the republicans in an election year? Be honest.

[Gamblor]

such as yourself will someday be held accountable for your atrocities.

Nice invective, rhetoric etc.

[trippin bily]

Chris your anti american anti bush crusade continues I see.
The left is the one that has exploited this story. SEE TED KENNEDY, JOHN KERRY etc.
As for the prisoners they are the " worst of the worst"
Mostly ex saddam baathist memebers. Put in that prison precicely because they used to put prisoners there.
Rushs comment was a joke. I was listening when he said it.
The photos are hardly toture. They are a tried and true method of gathering intellegence without physically harming the prisoners. You break the prisoner emotionally. You can break him physically as well but we don't use such methods.
See the side you defend for that kind of torture.
The left has fueled this story. Even after an american gets his head cut off.. the left fuels the prison story.
I'd hate to live in your world of Chris..conspiricies everywhere..ironically only on the right.
Ever heard of Robert Mapplethorpe? He was a photographer.
Do a search for his pictures. You will see many of the same in the prison photos.
As usual Chris your outrage is misplaced.Must be hard to hate america so much on a daily basis.

[trippin bily]

Joker noe of the things you decribe took place NONE. No beatings, no sodomy, no homo sex. Only poses. Compared to a beheading...

[trippin bily]

Rumsfeld is a god. He won 2 wars. I like his chances in the next one.

[elwoodblues]

[ QUOTE ]
Does anyone doubt it is time to impeach Rumsfeld if Bush doesn't fire him?

[/ QUOTE ]

I don't think he should be impeached (I haven't seen any evidence directly tying him to these acts). I think Bush should have fired him (for political reasons) but the chance of that happening at this point are, unfortanately, somewhere around the chance of me getting lucky tonight.

[MMMMMM]

...try reading my post again and see if you think I was saying Rush's other quotes were reasonable or unreasonable (hint: correct answer begins with a "u").

Then try reading the line where I said the comparison with Madonna and Britney was "reasonable;-)", and try to figure out what I meant.

Hint #1: there is a smiley after the word "reasonable".

Hint #2: I didn't mean that the abuses in Abu Ghraib were reasonable, I meant that Madonna and Britney on stage __________(fill in the blank)

Pass this test and win a prize

[elwoodblues]

[ QUOTE ]
Rushs comment was a joke. I was listening when he said it.

[/ QUOTE ]

Quite the humorist...very funny joke. Here was the context in which I heard the joke about it being no worse than a frat initiation (he might have said the joke several times, so I don't know if this is when you heard it) - I'm still laughing:

Rush warned his audience that he was going to describe the emotions he was feeling when he saw the beheading of Berg (really quite a set-up for a great punch-line -- apparently he was concerned about young people hearing his jokes). He then spent a long time (probably five minutes) describing his anger over what happened and how it angered him to such a degree that he thought we should just kill them all (at this point, I couldn't stop laughing --- this guy knows how to tell a joke). Finally, he wrapped up by getting mad at all the liberals who were still concerned about what was no worse than a frat initiation with the prisoner (I wonder if all those prisoners are going to go home with sweatshirts with greek letters on them). They really should add a laugh track to Limbaugh like they do on sit-coms --- some people might think he's serious when he's just joking.


For what it's worth, I can understand his emotions about the beheading. What I can't understand is the attempt to undermine other's emotions about another disturbing series of events that happened in Iraq.

[paland]

[ QUOTE ]
Joker noe of the things you decribe took place NONE. No beatings, no sodomy, no homo sex. Only poses. Compared to a beheading...

[/ QUOTE ]
I'm going to assume that you are joking because nobody can be this stupid. I'm sure that after the poses, they gave everybody Ice Cream and cake.

[spitball]

following from

http://www.smirkingchimp.com/article.php?sid=16195&mode=nested&order=0

click for full article


I think beheading was the chosen method of 'execution' because the group
wanted to shock Americans and westerners in the worst possible way. The
torturers at Abu Ghraib and other prisons chose sexual degradation because
they knew that nothing would hurt and appall Iraqis and Muslims more than
those horrible, sadistic acts. To Iraqis, death is infinitely better than
being raped or sexually abused. There are things worse than death itself and
those pictures portrayed them.

The assumption that Al Zarqawi himself was doing the beheading seems a
little far-fetched. So now the heads of terrorism in the world seem to be
Ossama Bin Ladin, Aimen Al Dhawahiri and Abu Mussa'ab Al Zarqawi. Here's
some food for thought- Ossama is from Saudi Arabia, Al Dhawahiri is Egyptian
and Al Zarqawi is Jordanian. Which countries in the region are America's
best allies? Let's see now. did you guess Saudi Arabia, Jordan and Egypt?!
Fantastic! You win a trip to. Falloojeh!! (And no- it doesn't count if you
give Saudi Arabia a little slap on the wrists and poke Egypt in the ribs-
you're still buddies).

They let out around 300+ prisoners today while that sadistic fiend Rumsfeld
was in town. Apparently, setting 300 prisoners free of the thousands
currently detained is supposed to mollify Iraqis- quite like Bush's lame
half-apology to King Abdallah of Jordan. What is King Abdallah to us? What
does it matter if Bush gets down and begs him for forgiveness? What in God's
name does he represent to the Iraqi people?

[Chris Alger]

You're point being (pick one)

1. The occupation is good and justified up to the point where we start beheading people.

2. If someone punches you in the face it's OK because "compared to a beheading" it's small potatoes.

3. The victims at Abu Ghraib were "like" those that beheaded Berg because they were held by Americans and we wouldn't arrest anyone in Iraq if he probably wasn't a terrorist.

[Chris Alger]

It's hard to tell if people are really this stupid or if they're just so terrified of the obvious alternative that they pretend to believe in garbage. Millions of Americans purport to believe in the devil, the world being created about 5,000 years ago and that Bush administration "policy" was to "expand freedom" (this in a WS Journal editorial a few weeks back).

Whatever the reason, statements like these are not only common among the right but de rigeur among its large subculture -- tens of millions of Americans -- of the true faithful. Check out Townhall and you'll see stuff like this all the time: the point of Abu Ghraib is that it proves the press hates Bush, Americans are obsessed with "self-flagellation," that it shows how we're good because we're not as bad as Saddam, that we obsess over every little nit regarding our conduct, etc. My favorite, from something called Massachusets News: "It’s becoming clear that the core of the Iraq prison scandal is, at least in part, the growing influence of homosexuals in our culture."