I think he said that injest as it wasn’t an official announcement. So where’s the story?
toture has only increased since the last administration, lets not make this a blame bush thing.
Subjecting themselves to torture could be a huge fund raising idea for Republicans.
This puts me in an interesting dilemma but put me down for $1,000 for 3 continuous minutes for Cheney.
I’d pay a ton to see Oberstupid waterboarded!
The douche DID say he’d do it for charity.
Goes to prove that the douche is in fact a douche.
Hey, sure Olberman is being opportunistic, but that’s besides the point.
Let’s call a douche a douche — Hannity is in fact a chicken-hawk douche.
Actually he’s a pussy. Sorry you douches. He’s actually a pussy.
#1. Of course he said it jokingly. You don’t think this guy has the guts to be tortured for charity now did you?
It’s worth pointing out that when Christopher Hitchens was waterboarded (for a column) he only lasted 19 seconds.
The column was called “Believe Me, It’s Torture”
“my father served in WWII I can say what ever I want” Can you believe this stuff? That line made me as sick as when Bush said “I earned political capital, and now I intend to spend It” it after winning(?) one of narrowest re-elections in history.
Weatherboarding
If it was good enough for the Gestapo and Dick Cheney it should be good enough for Olbermann, as long as Hannity gets the full twenty minute ride. Oh wait torture of mentally ill is probably illegal even if they ask for it. Damn I was counting my pennies to buy into this.
All kidding aside Weatherboarding is dangerous their is a real risk of brain damage or death this stunt is a bad idea. I’d like Hannity to be canceled and his wako ideas exposed for what they are not killed.
How long before teenagers are trying this at home and some one gets hurt?
#6 – Tom – You don’t think this guy has the guts to be tortured for charity now did you?
No, but he okayed being interrogated – using enhanced interrogation techniques – for charity.
#9. Uh, OK I’ll bite. So why doesnt he go ahead and do it…you know…for a charity for the servicemen’s families?
Because it’s torture and Hannity is nothing but a neo con chickenshit blowhard.
LOL.
he should do it. there have been several journalists that subjected themselves to it. the conclusion among most is that it sucks.
Incredible anyone think Olberman presents factual information…the way he spun Hannity’s words, the entire event, the way he poisoned the context with emotional terms…its just as bad as any Soviet propaganda show of the past.
It absurd the caption says “Hannity goes silent”…I bet he takes Obermann up on his offer…
#12
Yes MSNBC has taken the Fox model to use for the other side; they both have left the high ground to others. Its torture to watch them I can’t do it glad d vorak. org/blog will give us some tasty parts.
I think he said that injest as it wasn’t an official announcement. So where’s the story?
If he says “yes” and then volunteers “I’ll do it for the troop’s families” in jest he has a horrible sense of humor.
I’ve got a few bucks saved up for waterboarding day, hit ‘em both. They’re breathing air a human needs.
#12, Ayatollah1
Say what? There is a video of Hannity denying water boarding is torture and saying he would do it. How is Olberman twisting or taking his words out of context? Olberman not only is taking him at his word, but is offering significant money to charity for Hannity to do it.
Typical wing nut. All talk but will never back up what he says or claims. Just like Ayatollah, Cow-Patty, Lyin’ Mike, ‘tempt, ‘dro, RBG, . . .
#17 Obermann’s statement was nothing but ad hominem misrepresentation of Hannity’s agreeing to being waterboarded…to illustrate he does not believe its torture.
Hannity did not trivialize it at all…nor did he offer this as a stunt…he was responding to a challenge by a liberal loon guest.
Hannity took the question and the issue seriously…
Everything Obermann said about Hannity is a lie, a complete mischaracteriztion of the event.
It was spin throughout…propaganda that would have done a Soviet Apparatchik proud.
Alfred, stop kidding yourself. Hannity made an ass of himself and Olberman called his bluff. It’s really just that simple.
If anyone wants to see the real wingnuts, head over to foxnews.com and check the comments on the political stories. Those people are seriously freakin’ angry and spouting all sorts of crazy knuckleheaded shit. They certainly have active political fantasies.
#19 Saying doesn’t make it so…I watched the video..I see no ass…
Cite the exact words you are referring to…in their context.
Thannks in advance, dickhead.
#18
Ad hominem
That’s a pretty big word for our little Alfred1 here actually that would be a great nick name for him
“Everything Obermann said about Hannity is a lie, a complete mischaracteriztion of the event.”
So you didn’t watch both videos come on is English a second language for you? “Everything”?
Charles Grodin out Hannited Hannity, Obermann doing his Job (call out Fox hypocrites and ignore his own) hopped on it. WELL PLAYED!
Balls in Hannity court. He should be more careful when he has another player (Grodin) in the game.
This could actually happen its all about ratings and money not principles. The principles of the viewers is just what they use to sell the shows to sheep who watch them.
This could be the best media catfight since Jon Stewart VS. Jim Cramer.
#21 Groden was trying to denigrate Hannity (& Ann Coulter)…it could have been in fun…Hannity’s smiling…
Then Groden says “you don’t believe its torture” and Hannity responds “no” and says Col North explained it to him…to which Groden asks if he can waterboard Hannity…
So if anyone trivialized waterboarding, it was Groden, not Hannity.
Hannity is following his guests lead and says “ok” and then adds he do it for charity…
Everything Oberman said about Hannity in this clip, is propaganda, spin, a lie.
No one sees the irony in this? A liberal mouthppiece paying to torture another person??
Alfred, are you brain dead or just stupid?
“We can waterboard you? Sure. I’ll do it for charity.”
“Put your money where your mouth is.”
Don’t spin this, just listen to the words Hannity says. If he backs out, he confirms his status as a gasbag weasel-mouthed sh!thead.
#22
Olbermann: “Hannity volunteers to be waterboarded and says he will do it for the families of the troops”
Groden: would you consent to be waterboarded so we can get the truth out of you?
Hannity: Sure
Groden asks for a volunteer and gets it.
so Everything Olbermann said was not a lie.
Hannity has to stay in character while he is on the air and support this wacky notion that waterboarded is not torture. Groden’s quick wit seized on this and took him to task.
Now Hannity has to put up or look even more stupid you think this is a circus is bad wait until Monday when Colbert and Stewart get a hold of it.
Olbermann show has to show up with 20k or lots more in cash for the fun.
I think this is a bad idea and just might happen we men are in reality pretty stupid when some one ask us to step outside for no good reason except foolish pride.
#20 Alfred1
“dickhead”
Hello kettle? Pot calling.
Oh, and the context is this…Hannity has met his match in a face-to-face interview, something he’s usually far too chicken to do live…he never allows anyone else to control the conversation, which lets him jump away from topics he doesn’t want to discuss. His mic is always hotter then anyone else, he always shouts down the other if he doesn’t like where they’re headed or what’s being said…but not here.
Hannity got owned big time. Olberman is a blowhard, but none of his facts are wrong. None of them.
The distraction of ‘waterboarding’ and the debate of it’s use a torture.
a) Hannity said he would do it… he should go ahead and do it, not once, not twice, but a dozen times. Once is not torture, it is an experiment.
b) Then if he is any kind of reporter, maybe he should start to investigate the 27 documented deaths that have happened during interrogation. We may not talk about that in the USA, but the rest of the world sure does.
The problem with torture is where do you stop. Should we torture drug users to find out who their dealer is? Should we torture brown people to find out if they are in the USA legally? Should we torture you to make sure that you are not a child molester? How often should we schedule your interrogation to find out if you paid your taxes? You sat next to someone on the no-fly list.. we better interrogate you. Joe over there said you are a terrorist… torture will let us know if you are telling the truth!
There needs to be a ‘torture awareness’ course or a ‘torture theme park’ available for torture deniers to be able to experience interrogation first hand and make up their own minds on what constitutes torture.
Plus it will be really good experience for surviving the inevitable police state.
#26 [Violation of posting guidelines - Ed.]
28 Not-Alfred1
I see where you’re going with this. When we torture people with bullets going randomly through enemy guts in Afghanistan, then by your logic, this must lead to shooting people for smoking in the US. How can it be possible for anyone to draw the line?
Or maybe we can just torture those who say they know but won’t tell where they placed a bomb to kill American soldiers.
We’ll use the same people in our society we entrust every day to make important life-or-death decisions to also know the appropriate use of torture.
RBG
That’s racist, “if you weren’t jew like me, I’d have problem with you”. Shows the true colors of the progressive Demon-autocrats. So only a Jew can have those view……………..
Whatever………
Traaxx
Its not torture when you volunteer to do it and it will stop when you say so.
Hannity the Manatee is a flaming repuglican hypocrite, just like Alfie, and Olberman “made” news by underlining it for all to see in its starkest ugliest form.
Still surprising/educational/confirming/sad/damaging to America to see it all in real time hypocrisy though.
It seems like a far characterization to say that Hannity said he would do it for charity.
While I’m conservative and listen to his radio show often I think that he should do it. A man is only as good as his word.
If only there was some way to get him to last for a couple of minutes to really put a squeeze on Olberdick’s wallet that would be great.
Hannity said it and Olberdick didn’t lie about it or twist anything.
Slightly off topic,
I am imagining a scenario where Congress holds hearings on torture. Those who authorized the use should be asked if water boarding is torture. If they agree then fine. Allow them to explain why it was authorized.
If they deny it is torture then water board them until they tell how much they didn’t pay in taxes last year, how often they cheat on their spouse, are they really gay, have they had an intimate sexual affair with Rush Limbaugh, how often did they do drugs in the Oval Office with George Bush, etc. Since this isn’t torture, repeated sessions might be in order. Then we’ll allow the wing nuts to determine how much information should be used later.
#35 U want to waterboard Obama’s cabinet and congress?
#34, Mr. Diesel,
If only there was some way to get him to last for a couple of minutes to really put a squeeze on Olberdick’s wallet that would be great.
Maybe Hannity could get some of his friends that also deny water boarding is torture to also take a turn. I think maybe George Bush and Dick Cheney together could garner enough pledges to, if not pay off, substantially pay down the national debt.
#34…Hannity has stepped in it big time. If he doesn’t do it, he’s a liar. If he goes for it and doesn’t last long, the “enhanced interrogation” spin is skewered. The only way he gets out of this with his honor intact is to last several minutes to prove it’s not so bad.
Who cares?!? Hannity and Olberman are equivalent polarized morons. The fact is, if you watched TDS last week, it was presented that only 3 high-ranking AlQueda officials got waterboarded. Granted I think its torture, buts its done and won’t be done again. lets move along and not give any more of our time to such blowhards as hannity and olberman
#38 If he doesn’t last long, that supports its effective….that’s our point for using it…it works while not being torture.
I bet he does it…and drags it out to maximize Obermanns contribution to charity.
#37 Mr Fusion
Why I can appreciate your still being pissed at the last administration they are no longer in power.
Although I can’t say it wouldn’t be a bad idea to only those who had gone through it to order it to be done to someone else……..
#13 and #40 Alfred1 says he bets Hannity will take up Olbermann’s offer.
I’ll take that bet. I have, right here in my hand, one shiny not-so-new Bicentennial United States quarter dollar that says he won’t by the end of this month (May 2009).
it works while not being torture. …according to Bush-era Republicans and nobody else on the planet.
Repeating spin over and over doesn’t make it true.
If he’s being waterboarded there needs to be some information he doesn’t want to pass on.
How about his bank account and password details? If he holds out for an hour he can keep his money.
Even if he gets waterboarded, I’m not impressed.
Waterboarding is just part of the interrogation through torture process. If Hannity wants to prove ANYTHING, he needs to do something like this:
a) Be told that in order for the process to stop, he must admit to something really gruesome, something like that he likes performing oral sex on little boys and then killing them.
b) Be stripped naked, with a sack over his head, and placed in a cold room for 24 hours with no food and water.
c) Not be allowed to sleep for at least 48 hours before being waterboarded.
d) Every once in a while, someone comes over, and while he is still blindfolded, he is repeatedly ‘face slapped’.
e) Be made to stand for a minimum of 12 hours, with his hands tied behind his back, his wrists held by a rope tied to the ceiling.
f) Finally be waterboarded repeatedly, a minimum of 10 times.
None of the above things are considered torture.
If he does not confess at the end of that process, then torture has not taken place. Olbermann then pays up.
#45. I like it.
This needs to become a movement, taking donations via PayPal! All of the talking heads who have claimed that waterboarding isn’t torture need to be offered the “get WBed for charity” offer. I’ll donate $100.
Let’s not sugar coat things here. The purpose of the military is to kill and destroy. Politicians spin things in all sorts of ways. And when the mere threat of us killing or destroying is present, then we are “peace keepers”. Whatever your motives, don’t cripple the military because of your partisan bickering. Cripple the way in which Congress can declare a war and /or ammend the War Powers Act.
Good grief. If not waterboarding then what can our military use? Sleep deprivation? Nah, you guys will rule that out as torture as well (implying it’s somehow equivalent to decapitation or physical mutilation).
Does anyone have a method which will break the will of a POW or make them afraid of dying?
Oh I know! Let’s all just ask POWs nicely. And if they refuse to tell us, then oh well.
There is HUGE difference between scaring the begeezus out of someone and actually physically mutilating them or decapitating them.
Rather than turn this in to a partisan griping match, why don’t you libs propose a more effective alternative?
hey as long as the charity is me, I’ll go in for $850 a second. What a bargain!!
#41, Mr. Diesel,
I understand your wish to move on, but there is a messy piece of our history that need to be fixed. In our name, Bush authorized torture of prisoners. A majority of people in this country, and indeed the world, believe this is wrong.
I do not advocate the use of torture to punish the former Administration. That would be just as wrong as what they did. The irony though is that their justification that this is not torture is as good an excuse to use it on them to elicit information as anything.
But, still, my comment was tongue in cheek and I doubt anyone would be water boarded publicly, even in jest.
#48 Guyver
By using the term POW you are of the mind set that this is a war I’d disagree these are criminals more like gang thugs difference being they use a twisted interpretation a religion to recruit and indoctrinate.
Still in your use of the term POW lies your answer for us to keep the moral high ground (and that’s what Truth Justice and the American Way are all about, damn Bush/Cheney did more damage to this country than any airplane) we would be best served by treating these detainees with in the provisions of the Geneva Conventions.[http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Geneva_Convention/Third_Geneva_Convention]. Anything less only hurts the US in the long run.
If WE don’t stand up for our own ideals and principles when the going gets tough, what are we fighting for?
Yes I know these thugs didn’t sign on to the Geneva Conventions agreements and represent no particular state and wear no uniform but still for the more important goal of our status as a nation that stands up for what is right this would be our best path.
#48 Actually, asking POWs nicely is exactly what has worked in the past. There was even an article recently about American soldiers who interrogated Germans secretly during WWII, and they didn’t use any torture.
#39 and #41, right on! We’re going to show America that torture will not be tolerated! And the way we’re going to show it is… by letting the torturers go free! Yeah, that’ll show’em!
#48 Guyver -
You are missing the point… the point being that Hannity would probably confess to ANYTHING after just a couple of days of that treatment. Truth and torture do not go together.
Should torture be available as a tool. Yes… but only in the most extreme case. It should be truly an exceptional tool, not just a part of the imprisonment process, as it became during the Cheney administration.
Some ignorant person mentioned above that waterboarding has only been used on three people… ignoring the fact that a couple dozen people have been outright killed by torture during interrogation. And there is no evidence that any actionable intelligence has come from any of those deaths or torture…. the two memos that Cheney wants discussed are basically ‘cover your ass’ memos written after the poop hit the fan and the investigations into the actions of the Cheney administration had already started; they were not created to show that the process was working, but as an attempt to justify actions after the fact.
51: POW is a technical term used within the military. You can use the term “enemy combatants” if it makes you feel better. That being said if you want to get knit picky, Vietnam was never technically a war but no one seems to care when POW gets mentioned there either.
52: Like it or not, the military has a need to extract information from POWs (or enemy combatants if you prefer).
Don’t kid yourself into believing that asking nicely will get any positive results. Are you THAT naive?
Even if whatever you’re citing is remotely true about Germans & WWII, do you honestly believe that’s the norm or the exception? More than likely, many people who “cooperated” probably did so because not cooperating either resulted in death (which we don’t do nowadays when interrogating) or we are granting political amnesty because the person in custody has very valuable information that would advance U.S. knowledge (i.e. rockets / biological warfare).
Since we’re not going to execute anyone or grant amnesty, what exactly would be the reason for a POW to cooperate?
53, The point I’m making is waterboarding is a NECESSARY tool for the military in extracting information from POWs. People chosen for waterboarding are not done so indiscriminately. So trying to say you can’t get truth from the process is an argument out of ignorance when the people being waterboarded have been singled out to have valuable information to confirm or embellish on currently known information.
Leave water boarding up to the military experts and not the politicians or mass media. If waterboarding was not effective, it would have been abandoned a long time ago by the military. It’s been around for as long as it has because it is very effective in producing results. Does it make some liberal go to bed at night and break out in cold sweats as they have nightmares about it? Probably so. Either way, I’m all ears to know what the better solution to waterboarding is.
People are making a big deal out of this waterboarding mostly because of who was in office. This has been going on for a while now and to do away with it without an effective replacement is utterly silly and naive.
I love words and their definitions. Some many gradations of meaning are possible.
Reading Alfie at #40 put me in mind of this as did the contribution of “context” by Reality Check at #45.
Before waterboarding became an issue, I always thought of torture as causing great physical pain often resulting in permanent body damage. I don’t think anybody says waterboarding does that, so why is it torture? I’m thinking, with no basis to do so, that “torture” got confused with “behavior in violation of the Geneva Convention for War Prisoners.”
The notion here is that by and large, draftees fighting in a declared war for their countries are not “bad” people. Just ordinary Joe’s doing their legal duties and as such they should be treated humanely when they are no longer fighting. Anything not humane was easily called “torture.”
Bush’s lawyers could easily have been bought and paid for. It would be based on the quality of their briefs, the history of the practice, the review of arguments making waterboarding torture and why they didn’t apply. STill a close call==depending on what you think torture is and when it should or shouldn’t apply.
Two difficult concepts rarely formally considered: Definition and Context.
EDITOR
BTW, its been long enough not to have the right side bar back up and running.
Somebody should be given a dirty look if not more.
[Please elaborate, I don't follow - ed.]
#54 There’s been a lot written about torture and other interrogation methods lately. Most people who do interrogation professionally don’t like torture.
What ever happened to the vaunted conservative belief of getting the government off our backs? One terrorist attack, and the “conservatives” run crying to Big Brother — spy on us, torture us, do whatever you want to us, but save us from that big bad terrorist boogieman! Boo hoo!
What a bunch of wimps.
#55 The point I’m making is waterboarding is a NECESSARY tool for the military in extracting information from POWs.
I call bullsh*t on this one. Give us proof that military interrogators have called waterboarding a NECESSARY tool. And since when? We have prosecuted people who have done it in the past.
Did anyone read (or did I see it on TV?) the story about the guy who spent time with Saddam H before he was executed? Saddam spilled the beans almost completely. All the guy did was ‘make friends’ while Saddam’s captors played games with his sleep schedule.
#54
Guyver said,
51: POW is a technical term used within the military. You can use the term “enemy combatants” if it makes you feel better. That being said if you want to get knit picky, Vietnam was never technically a war but no one seems to care when POW gets mentioned there either.
I’d be one of who doesn’t care if POW gets mentioned referring to Vietnam(a conflict I was against then, said so then and history has proven me right) I’d still say our best guidelines for Vietnam then and with these… enemy combatant detainees/POWs lets check with Orwell for a name… what ever you call them, they are our prisoners and out of the fight, is to follow the Geneva Conventions. any thing less only weakens us.
What would you rather be subjected to: a couple minutes of torturous waterboarding, or the rest of your lifetime with a war disability? What a joke that anyone would even think to bring up the suffering a war amp goes through. Because it’s just not political enough.
But then I’m of the mind that US soldiers should all be dressed in bright red coats because it simply is the old-fashioned concept of what is fair, honourable and civilized. Like those against waterboarding.
RBG
HEY! “my father served in WWII I can say what ever I want”
Anybody here who’s jumped in to defend Sean Hannity is a bigger pussy than Hannity himself.
Get a grip. He said what he said, he’s be happy to be water-boarded for charity.
He needs to put his fat ass where his mouth is and just do it.
#54, Guyver,
POW is a technical term used within the military. You can use the term “enemy combatants” if it makes you feel better.
Not quite. Prisoner of War is used to refer to any combatant captured on the battlefield. That means they are covered under the Geneva Conventions.
If they are not POWs then they are CRIMINAL prisoners. Under American law they have the right to a criminal trial. American law enforcement has been convicted for torture because they elicited confessions of their prisoners through water boarding.
So either way you cut it, water boarding is torture and illegal.
Bobbo,
The pursuit of meanings of words can be a delightful hobby. That is why I use a dictionary so often.
torture
Verb
[-turing, -tured]
1. to cause (someone) extreme physical pain, esp. to extract information, etc.: suspects were regularly tortured and murdered by the secret police
2. to cause (someone) mental anguish
Noun
1. physical or mental anguish
2. the practice of torturing a person
3. something which causes great mental distress: she was going through the torture of a collapsing marriage
Collins Essential English Dictionary 2nd Edition 2006 © HarperCollins Publishers 2004, 2006
It has been well established that causing extreme mental anguish or distress is torture.
The obligatory Matthew McConaughey scene — as crucial to his fans as a Miley Cyrus song or a Seth Rogen penis joke is to theirs — is the ritual removing of his shirt, to reveal a torso that could have been sculpted, or certainly caressed, by Michelangelo.
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