Tuesday, November 9, 2010

Overheard at the Counter: Because the Lawyer Said So

I take a drink of my dark roast and I tell to the people around me, "I couldn't beleive my ears what I heard today on NPR!

"Bush, our former President, honestly stated that his position is that waterboarding is not torture, and I quote 'because the lawyer said it was'

"Can you believe that? I couldn't! I looked at the radio and said 'WTF?! Play that again' . . . I mean, what a wishy-washy wriggle out of it approach. Because the lawyer - that's the lamest excuse for torture EVER! It's weak, and it shows a weak, foolish man - hiding behind money, like he has most of his life.

"I don't understand why people aren't screaming from the rooftops - because the lawyer said it was is simply a euphamism for 'because I could get away with it.' Because basically the lawyers were not making a decision as to whether it was morally right or justifiable, and lawyers certainly can't have any knowledge as to the effectiveness of the technique, no - they simply can tell you if you can get away with it or not . . . and that's all this man is - someone who wants to get away with it. I tell you, that man screwed this country for eight years, wrecked it beyond all recognition, but I swear to you, even if he hadn't, just for that statement alone people who voted for him should hang down their sorry heads.

"You know, I could even - even slightly - give him some modicum of respect if he held to the belief that it actually caused some good, saved lives, said something like 'man I'm sorry we had to do it' or EVEN if he just said 'As President you gotta make tough calls and that was a tough call and I made it.' I would disagree, but at least I would give him the benefit of the doubt that he actually believed his own bullship . . .

"But to hide behind the lawyers! Come on! This is a moral decision, and I think it's a pretty safe bet to say that everybody pretty much knows that lawyers are certainly the LAST people to make moral judgements about anything!

"It's times like this that I thank GOD for the twenty-second amendment!"



http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2010/11/bush-waterboarding-legal-because-lawyer-was/

http://caselaw.lp.findlaw.com/data/constitution/amendment22/

2 comments:

  1. The thing I can't stand is the way he said it - he was all petulant and nasty littleboy-like, some sort of spoiled rich kid. He flipped out that answer b'c he didn't even have to think about it, so you know that's the way he thinks. Disgusting.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Soren RocksteddirsonNovember 15, 2010 at 7:41 PM

    Saw him on Hannity tonight, and he did pull the whole "It saves lives" thing, so he does have that. But I'll admit he keeps repeating that the lawyers said it was legal. But what really made me think was after the interview, just before commercial break, they showed Condi Rice talking about her fondest memories of Bush as Pres and she said it was October 2001 when he threw a strike at a Yankees game, and she was going on about how the whole country just needed to see him throw a strike, and I'd forgotten about it, but it brought it all back to me, thinking at the time "we're at war and he's playing GAMES?!" and these guys still are in this dreamworld, making such pat good/evil distinctions, it's really really scary!

    ReplyDelete