Yeah, I know what you're thinking, "Not another torture diary!" Read along my fellow Kossacks, and hopefully I won't bore you all over to someone else's torture diary.
This shouldn't really come as a surprise, that the tool Joe Scarborough thinks that torture is a useful tool. I guess I assumed that since Scar is on MSNBC, that he was somehow smarter than Hannity, Beck and O'Reilly. I was wrong. He is just the same.
I was going to be as equally unforgiving towards Mika Brzezinski, but it seemed like she was trying to present a different point of view, possibly to let their viewers know that not everyone thinks like Joe. But then again, I may be assigning too much integrity to Ms. Brzezinski. Joe walked all over her, like he always does. He won't let her finish a sentence if it isn't completely sycophantic towards him. The one thing she did say that made sense, was that only an argument of fear would win out, and she was talking about the two of them, not the country at large. Then he twisted her words, because she had made a solid point against his argument.
"Fear and reality will overtake morality", said Mika. Are you a budding hip-hop artist, Mika? Or just a really lousy poet? Mika also has no opinion on whether or not that worldview is right or wrong, or could be mitigated by rational thinking. Fine. But the rationalization that torture is acceptable, that the goal justifies the methods used, is one that bloodthirsty and morally weak people use. Joe has no problem with that statement, saying that "rational fear" is justification for torture. Well, Joe, who is the arbiter of what is 'rational' and 'irrational' fear? Nothing that the Republicans have done since 9/11 could be called rational, unless wrecking our economy, environment, infrastructure and reputation is what they meant to do.
Scarborough is certain that no further 'good' intelligence will be forthcoming without torture and chastises the Obama administration for banning it. Then, inexplicably, Scar says, "The CIA has to rely on what the CIA and people have relied on for years, what American interrogators in every war have relied on." What, torture? Or what the FBI has relied on, and gotten very good results from? Relationship building. And probably too, a little 'good cop, bad cop'. But that is an accepted and acceptable interrogation method.
Then Mika says, "Robert Gibbs was saying on Meet the Press yesterday.... they don’t know whether other means may be able to get the same information...." WTF Mika??!! The same, wrong, bogus information that torture has already got us? She must have been misquoting him. I find it hard to believe that Obama's press secretary would say something that stupid.
Then Joe tries to use the analogy of neighborhood crime to make his point, "If you lived in a neighborhood where people’s homes get broken into and people get shot and killed at night and their items get stolen and you’re fearful that may happen to you--that's not irrational, and you will support a stronger police presence in your home." No, Joe, I would support more of a police presence in my neighborhood and I wouldn't approve of torturing any suspects the police happened to pick up there. I also would not approve of being tortured myself, into confessing to any of the neighborhood crimes because the police couldn't catch anyone, or because a neighbor with a grudge ratted me out for things I didn't do, or because there was reward money offered.
I can't speak to the reliability of the PEW poll that Joe was using, but that poll says we're pretty evenly divided on the subject, with 47% percent saying that torture is justified either rarely or never, and 49% percent of those surveyed saying sometimes or often. That this is the poll Joe chose to use is enough to make it suspect. This CBS News/NY Times poll is quite a bit different (scroll to the bottom of the first page). Scar went on to say that Democrats "live in a bubble" and "They don't understand that doing this comes at a high political cost." Doing what, Joe? Not torturing? WTF, Joe??!! What political cost could there be in declaring torture morally and legally wrong, and prohibiting all from doing it? No, the political cost, whatever that may be, will be paid by your party, Joey boy.
I thought Harold Ford was a Democrat. Awfully conservative for a Dem, and way too conciliatory. Easy to see just how conciliatory, since Joe showed him enough respect to let him finish speaking, unlike Mika. Oh, by the way, anyone who uses the term "going forward", "moving forward", "looking forward" or any variation of that doesn't know what the hell they're talking about. I'm convinced that this is some sort of talking point that pundits sometimes use to hide their ignorance, or cover their complicity. Harold agrees with Joe, too, that torture is OK. He even said so, "I agree with you, Joe". WTF Harold??!! You can forget about running for office again, you useful idiot.
Next up, Uncle Pat (It's Pat!). He was his usual spiffy self, warning the Obama administration that Obama would be to blame if more Americans were killed in a terrorist attack. WTF Pat??!! If we do have another attack on our soil, I suppose it will be you who is the first person who will publicly shit on themselves to say, "You see? I told you if we stopped torturing, this would happen! What if we had tortured those people we're holding, the ones who haven't been tortured yet, we might have found out about this pending attack!" Who, other than a bought-off corporate hack would say something like that? And how the hell does one prove after an attack that torturing someone would have prevented it? Will there be another Khalid Sheik Mohammed (in custody, but as yet, untortured)who says, "American fools! I masterminded that attack, and if only you had tortured me, you would have found out all about it, muhaahaahaa!" I dare you Pat. I double dare you. The next time there's an attack against Americans anywhere, I want you to try that argument. Please. Do it for me. Get Joe, Mika, Harold and all your Republican friends to join you.
Rachel, it's time to have Pat on again, so you can slap him around after that dismal performance on Joe. Keith, it's time to present Joe with that shovel. In person. Right across his face. Or, you can ask him to compete with Sean Hannity over who can be waterboarded the longest without breaking. For charity, of course.