Democratic Talking Points.

[dutch508]

Look for these talking points for the coming week...


http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=103x441389

For Democrats talking to the media this week, the grim nature of the subject needs to be brought out. So here are this week's Friday Talking Points, a grim bunch for the most part. I promise, I'll throw in something to lighten it up at the end, how's that?

 FridayTalkingPoints.com

   Bush torture memos

The first thing is to slap the correct name on the memos themselves. And never reference them without using the term.

"The Bush torture memos were released this week by President Obama, and I think they show what happens when executive power gets out of control. The Justice Department is supposed to give legal advice to the president, and tell him what he can and cannot legally do. Instead, as the Bush torture memos show, the people who were charged with doing so worked backwards. They took the result Bush wanted, and tortured the law itself to try and justify its legality. But the Bush torture memos fall far short of what our laws and international laws require of us as a country."

 

   Slamming a prisoner's head into a wall

This one is insidious. The media has already picked up on a euphemism from the memos -- "walling" -- which sounds like something Wall E the robot would do in his spare time. This needs to be smacked down before it catches on.

"I'm sorry, did you just say 'walling'? I have to explain that in plain English here. What you are talking about is wrapping a towel around a prisoner's neck, and repeatedly slamming his head into a wall. That's what people are now calling 'walling' and I think the American people deserve more than some namby-pamby term to describe what was done to people in our custody. Prisoners we held were beaten to death in our care -- let us not forget that. And let us not dismiss it by some euphemism. Call it what it is -- throwing a prisoner against a wall. Slamming someone's head into a wall. If that doesn't fit the definition of 'torture' then I don't know what does."

 

   Water torture

This is an old gripe, but now is the time to try again, in keeping with that last point.

"Can we stop using the term 'waterboarding' as if it was some new surf rage sweeping the California beaches? Call it what it is -- water torture. We used a torture method developed during the Spanish Inquisition. We have prosecuted Japanese soldiers for doing this during World War II, and we prosecuted our own soldiers for doing it in the Spanish/American War. We had the honesty to call it what it was back then, and we should have the same honesty now. Waterboarding is water torture. Period. It's not an 'enhanced interrogation technique,' it's not 'a technique which some have likened to torture,' it is, in fact, torture. Call it what it is."

 

   Room 101

Did anybody else notice the bit about the bug and the confinement box? One prisoner had an inordinate fear of bugs. So our answer was to lock him in a box and put an insect in with him, and tell him it was a stinging insect. It's unclear whether this was actually done, or just authorized. But the technique should be familiar to anyone who has read George Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four.

"Did you notice that bit in the Bush torture memos where he authorized stuffing a prisoner in a box and then putting in the prisoner's worst fear -- in this case, an insect -- with him? Does anyone else remember reading Orwell in high school? What we are talking about is 'Room 101,' where a prisoner had to face the torture of his worst fears. This is exactly what was authorized by the highest levels of our government. Room 101."

 

   What would you call it if it happened to your son or daughter?

Some may balk at using the word "torture," so be prepared to defend the word.

"You don't want to call what we did to prisoners 'torture,' is that what you're saying? Well then, I ask you: what would you call it if it was done to your son or daughter while wearing the uniform of the United States of America? If an enemy did this to American prisoners, what would you call it? Would you be quibbling about the legal meaning of the term, or would you be denouncing these enemies for 'torturing' American prisoners? I bet I know which term you'd use in that case, and I defy you to say otherwise. If it was your daughter, would you call it torture? Would you, or wouldn't you?"

 

   Rocky IV wiretapped

This is just too ironic for words. Senator Jay Rockefeller IV (or, as we like to call him here, "Rocky IV") thinks the NSA may have wiretapped his phone without a warrant. Excuse me while I weep some liberal crocodile tears for him. Boo hoo.

"Senator Rockefeller thinks he may have had his communications tapped by the NSA. I would feel sorry for him, except for the fact that he led the fight to gut the FISA laws and took a whole bunch of telecommunications industry money to write the laws to exempt them from any penalty for cooperating with the NSA's illegal wiretap program. If Rockefeller hadn't personally made it his highest priority to assure that nobody could ever find out in court what the telecoms and the NSA was up to, by now we might have some answers as to what they are doing. But since he led the fight to gut these laws to allow such illegal activity to go unpunished, it is hard to work up much pity for him now when he finds himself on the other end of the equation."

 

   Sorry, Rush!

OK, I promised you a cheerful end to this, and I'm going to deliver. First, a completely unrelated issue, though. Everyone should go support their local record store (my favorite is Amoeba in San Francisco) tomorrow, on "Record Store Day." Sorry for sticking that in this article, but I just heard about it myself.

But on to our amusing item of the week. Those mischievous folks over at the DCCC (the House Democratic re-election group) have posted a handy page for Republicans to issue their apologies to Rush Limbaugh. This is a one-stop shopping page for any Republican who says anything Limbaugh may not agree with. Since the immediate response by Republican politicians is to beg forgiveness from their de facto leader, the Democrats have helpfully made it easier for them to do so. Check out the DCCC's "I'm sorry, Rush" page, it's hilarious!

"I would like to say to Congressman Todd Tiahrt, in response to his calling Rush Limbaugh 'just an entertainer,' that the DCCC has a new helpful site where he can apologize to Rush much more quickly and easily than ever!"

[USA4ME]

They're all dumb and easily slapped down.  Here's the one I found to be the most silly.

What would you call it if it happened to your son or daughter?

Some may balk at using the word "torture," so be prepared to defend the word.

"You don't want to call what we did to prisoners 'torture,' is that what you're saying? Well then, I ask you: what would you call it if it was done to your son or daughter while wearing the uniform of the United States of America? If an enemy did this to American prisoners, what would you call it? Would you be quibbling about the legal meaning of the term, or would you be denouncing these enemies for 'torturing' American prisoners? I bet I know which term you'd use in that case, and I defy you to say otherwise. If it was your daughter, would you call it torture? Would you, or wouldn't you?"

Note how they try and make groups like al-Qaeda to be the same as a standing military of a soverign nation ("If an enemy did this to American prisoners....").

Trying to equate Americans in military uniform to people who support a mad-man that had his followers fly planes into buildings is not a valid comparison.   If my son or daughter were connected to a group like al-Qaeda, then they would deserve to have these interregation methods used on them.  Would I be happy about it?  No.  But it would be justified.

.

[MrsSmith]

They're all dumb and easily slapped down.  Here's the one I found to be the most silly.

Note how they try and make groups like al-Qaeda to be the same as a standing military of a soverign nation ("If an enemy did this to American prisoners....").

Trying to equate Americans in military uniform to people who support a mad-man that had his followers fly planes into buildings is not a valid comparison.   If my son or daughter were connected to a group like al-Qaeda, then they would deserve to have these interregation methods used on them.  Would I be happy about it?  No.  But it would be justified.

.

It is moronic to equate the damage done to OUR people, like John McCain, with the techniques used by the US against prisoners.  When it can be proven that the majority of those we held were either murdered or physically damaged for life, THEN I'll agree that we are torturers.  A the "torture" memos prove exactly the opposite, you can be sure that they will not be widely published...but the media liars will consistently refer to them as "torture" memos until all the sheeple that never look farther then "the news" will buy their lie as truth.  Exactly as they've bought the "illegal war" crap and the "huge debt" crap against Bush...while remaining completely blind to the far huger debt O intends.   

[JohnnyReb]

Memo to self----slapping DUmmie heads up against a wall will not increase their IQ level......might work for terrorist but not DUmmies.