When ‘Yes’ ‘No’ or ‘Maybe’ Won’t Work: Mosaic!

Glenn Beck’s cohorts were joking about this on the radio, and it did make me laugh.

I’ll admit that I had not yet considered whether waterboarding helped us to find Osama Bin Laden.

Well, other people had.

And . . . other people hadn’t.

It seems that waterboarding had something to do with locating Bin Laden.

At the time of this Lawrence O’Donnell interview, perhaps Deputy National Security Advisor Denis McDonough had not yet been briefed on the definitive narrative.

Without the definitive narrative, he had no idea whether the correct answer was “yes,” “no,” or “maybe.”  Poor fella.  He tried for all three:

Lawrence O’Donnell:  “Candidate Obama spoke strongly against waterboarding, and Director Panetta has now confirmed . . . that some of the detainees who provided some of the information that created the chain of information that eventually led to the killing of Osama Bin Laden had been ‘waterboarded.’”

Denis McDonough:  “No, I don’t think that–I don’t think that’s right.  I just took a look at the transcript; I think that’s uh an overstatement.”

O’Donnell:  “Well clarify for us what you think Director Panetta has said.”

McDonough:  “Ah, I leave that to you, but uh, what I just looked at, he did not say that.”

O’Donnell:  “Alright lemme ask you one thing:  did any useful information, any usable information, that led to this mission, come from waterboarding?”

McDonough:  “I’d say a couple different things.  First of all it’s very uh clear that this is the result of an intense and very complex, very effective intelligence operation over the course of many, many years.  I’m not gonna stand here, uh, and tell you definitively or categorically what every piece of that information was, uh, that’s just not credible, of course, uh, because I just don’t have access to each of those pieces of information.  But what I do know is this:

is that, uh, this is a mosaic put together over the course of uh considerable amount of time, drawing on all sources of intelligence:  human intelligence of the sort that you are talking about, uh but also other pieces of intelligence.

This was a very effective interagency intelligence team, individuals from each of the sixteen intelligence agencies, and they drew on a whole big, uh, a whole collection of uh, intelligence capabilities and uh, intelligence itself, so, uh, I can’t rule anything out in terms of whether, uh, categorically, no such information exists, but what I can tell you is that this information was drawn uh from uh a series of efforts that started frankly before KSM uh was even arrested, so I think some of the reports that have been out there have been frankly a distraction from the bigger story, which is this is a very effective intelligence operation about which the President is very proud and frankly for which he is very thankful.”

Bolding was mine.  In case you didn’t pick up on the significance:  “human intelligence of the sort that you are talking about” = waterboarding.

Ha ha ha.

I’m not laughing about waterboarding.  I’m sure it stinks, if you are the recipent.

I’m laughing at the total narrative fail.

Guys.  Is it so hard to admit that sometimes a “Jack Bauer” gets sh^t done?

The Zombie On Life And Death

I know:  what the heck does that mean?

Other blogging nerds probably know this is a reference to blogger Zombie.

Zombie’s latest Pajamas Media article is a must-read.  It is very touching, and also very illuminating.  With this personal story, Zombie is able to explain why it’s not paranoid or extreme to be wary of Living Wills and End-of-Life Counselling.   

If you feel pressured to have a “Living Will,” but you don’t feel comfortable with the language within it, then don’t sign one.  Or create your own “Will To Live” from the National Right To Life’s template. 

Instead of saying the usual “In the event that my quality of life stinks because I’m hooked up to wires and tubes, unplug ‘em and let me die,” it says something more along the lines of, “Don’t unplug me!  Don’t starve me!”

Assistant Secretary of State: “It’s Okay China, We’re Mean Too”

I know this is week-old news, which is like a millenium in the blogosphere.  I’ve been busy raisin’ my kids.

But this Michael Posner meeting with China has stuck with me.  The meeting was about human rights.  We want China to give their human citizens more rights.  But hey, we aren’t trying to be judgmental or anything.  Cuz judging another country is worse than, like, actual human rights violations:

Posner said in addition to talks on freedom of religion and expression, labor rights and rule of law, officials also discussed Chinese complaints about problems with U.S. human rights, which have included crime, poverty, homelessness and racial discrimination.

Uh, puh-lease.

Lots of folks have already pointed out the fact that  comparing the Arizona immigration law to China’s human rights violations is ridiculous.

Here is why the comparison is so ridiculous to me.  I remember watching a documentary about Chinese orphanages.  It is called The Dying Rooms.  It was made in 1995.  Apparently, the release of this documentary caused a big change.  Now China treats its orphans better.

Fine.  Great.

But that was just fifteen years ago.  The film shows plainly how China treated its own most vulnerable citizens.  Harrowing to watch.  Would these orphanages have changed, were it not for the release of video documentation?

And this chucklehead Posner, trying to relate to China by saying:  “we stink too!” 

Ugh.