Newt Gingrich waffles on torture

While I’m slightly surprised that Fox News grilled Newt so hard on the waterboarding/torture issue, it’s nice to see.

While I understand that Republicans, and by extension Newt, cannot say that it’s torture for political reasons, it certainly plunges their reprehensible parsing into even murkier moral waters. Waterboarding is torture, and that’s that. And torture is wrong – no amount of equivocating about its effectiveness (it’s not, for the record) matters, and I think the further people wade into that morass, the worse off the country is. Debates about the effectiveness of torture are an interesting sideshow, but should be permanently relegated to that status – the fact that it’s morally abhorrent, illegal, and an invitation for others to do the same should be the main point at issue.

Oh, and ‘the debatable area’ Newt describes? It doesn’t exist – aside from Yoo-like crackpots, very few, if any lawyers think waterboarding, smashing people into walls and sleep deprivation is inside the law. And were Republicans on the other side of the issue – if we were talking about American soldiers being waterboarded – they would be singing a different tune entirely. After all, the U.S. did execute Japanese convicted of waterboarding during WWII. SMH.

A quick update

I know I’ve been slacking off – badly – the last little bit, next week I plan on getting into the swing of things again. In any case, for now here’s a few reviews I’ve done recently that may, or may not, pique your interest. I’m betting on the latter, but here they are in any case…

Asher Roth – Asleep In The Bread Aisle (a note – there were some edits here that I didn’t agree with, just in terms of sentence structure)

Brother Ali – The Truth Is Here

Jadakiss – The Last Kiss

Enjoy!

Rush Limbaugh gets owned on torture

While I think that the Bush administration will leave (and has left) behind a terrible legacy on a wide variety of fronts, its illogical, illegal embrace of  torture will undoubtedly go down as one of its lowlights. Rush Limbaugh (who, as the caller points out, never served in the military), of course, was and continues to be one of the foremost proponents of it, even as it gets pummeled on all sides for its strategic and moral bankruptcy. And here he gets owned by one of his own callers, until he (presumably) hangs up and lectures the guy at the end. It’s a little embarrassing…

A couple notes

1. The footage over the call is absurd, I know, but I couldn’t get the Media Matters video to embed properly.

2. I don’t like when people toss around the term ‘nazi’, and that goes for here as well.

Here’s the text:

LIMBAUGH: We’re going to go to Chicago. This is Charles. Charles, thank you for waiting and for calling. Great to have you here. Hello.

CALLER: Thanks, Rush. Rush, listen, I voted Republican, and I didn’t — really didn’t want to see Obama get in office. But, you know, Rush, you’re one reason to blame for this election, for the Republicans losing.

First of all, you kept harping about voting for Hillary. The second big issue is the — was the torture issue. I’m a veteran. We’re not supposed to be torturing these people. This is not Nazi Germany, Red China, or North Korea. There’s other ways of interrogating people, and you kept harping about it — “It’s OK,” or “It’s not really torture.” And it was just more than waterboarding. Some of these prisoners were killed under torture.

And it just — it was crazy for you to keep going on and on like Levin and Hannity and Hewitt. It’s like you’re all brainwashed.

And my last comment is, no matter what Obama does, you will still criticize him because I believe you’re brainwashed. You’re just — and I hate to say it — but I think you’re a brainwashed Nazi. Anyone who could believe in torture just has got to be – there’s got to be something wrong with them.

LIMBAUGH: You know –

CALLER: And I know Bush wanted to keep us safe and all of that, but we’re not supposed to be torturing these people.

LIMBAUGH: Charles, if anybody is admitting that they’re brainwashed it would be you.

CALLER: No, no, no, Rush. I don’t think so.

LIMBAUGH: Charles. Charles, Charles –

CALLER: You, Hannity, Hewitt, and Levin are all brainwashed and you know it.

LIMBAUGH: — you said — you said at the beginning of your phone call –

CALLER: Yeah.

LIMBAUGH: — that you didn’t want Obama in there –

CALLER: That’s right.

LIMBAUGH: — but you voted for him because of me.

CALLER: I didn’t vote for him. I voted for McCain. I voted Republican.

LIMBAUGH: Oh, so –

CALLER: I voted Republican.

LIMBAUGH: — you’re saying I turned people off to –

CALLER: You turned people off with all your — all this “vote for Hillary” and all this BS, because you must think people are really stupid.

LIMBAUGH: That was Operation Chaos. That was to keep the –

CALLER: You — no. It didn’t work.

LIMBAUGH: — chaos in the [unintelligible] of the Democrat primaries.

CALLER: It didn’t work. And now what we have with you Hannity, Levin, and Hewitt: sour grapes. That’s all we have. And believe me, I’m not — I’m more to the right than I am to the left.

LIMBAUGH: Oh, of course, you are.

CALLER: I am, and that’s –

LIMBAUGH: Of course, you are. You wouldn’t be calling here with all these sour grapes if you weren’t.

CALLER: Well, I’m so tired of listening to you –

LIMBAUGH: Oh, of course, you are.

CALLER: — go on and on with this — you’ve been brainwashed.

LIMBAUGH: I don’t know of anybody who died from torture. I do not ever –

CALLER: We are not supposed to torture people.

LIMBAUGH: I do not ever –

CALLER: Do you remember World War II, the Nazis? The Nuremberg Trials?

LIMBAUGH: I –

CALLER: Do you remember the Nuremberg Trials?

LIMBAUGH: Charles –

CALLER: Klaus Barbie?

LIMBAUGH: Charles, let me say –

CALLER: Huh?

LIMBAUGH: Barack Obama –

CALLER: What’s the matter with you?

LIMBAUGH: Barack –

CALLER: You never even served in a military.

LIMBAUGH: Barack Obama is –

CALLER: I served in the Marine Corps and the Army.

LIMBAUGH: Charles, Barack Obama is president of the United States today because of stupid, ignorant people who think like you do. You pose — you and your ignorance are the most expensive commodity this country has. You think you know everything. You don’t know diddly-squat.

You call me a Nazi? You call me somebody who supports torture and you want credibility on this program? You know, you’re just plain embarrassing and ludicrous. But it doesn’t surprise me that you’re the kind of Republican that our last candidate attracted. Because you’re no Republican at all based on what the hell you’ve said here.

Joell Ortiz…

While I admit that I came to the Joell Ortiz fan club with a late pass firmly in hand, I just have to post this. Wow. Joell is incredible – one of the fiercest lyricists alive, IMO, and that’s not even the real reason he stands out. He sticks out because of his vulnerability and his willingness to admit to being something less than superhuman (something all rappers could learn to do once in a while). Vulnerability isn’t always a weakness – it can be a strength, too. I’ve posted a link to a Slaughterhouse (Joell, Joe Budden, Crooked I and Royce da 5′9″) track below, and I think Joell’s ability to wrestle with his own vulnerabilities propel him past the other rappers on the track (though Crooked I also does this – Joell is just meaner on the mic). Anyway, listen to this – it’s something special.

How is he unsigned? The ’single mother’ bar(s) kill me. Here’s Slaughterhouse’s ‘Move On’.

They have already lost…

I got this from Ta-Nehisi, and you should really watch it. Pretty powerful stuff.

Apparently the guy used to be anti-gay marriage, and switched. The stuff about he and his wife really got me, though – the whole “little more meaningful” line definitely rings true. I’ve really never understood the entire ‘gay marriage is a threat to heterosexual marriage’ argument. At all. For me, gay marriage makes heterosexual marriage, and by extension my marriage, more legitimate, not less. More special, not less. Discrimination undermines the institution – it doesn’t bolster it.