Doc Farmer comes in with a timely article on torture. Once again I will remind all of those on the left, that these detainees are not considered POWs under the Geneva Convention. Try reading it some time. Also, I will remind the left that this is NOT a law enforcement issue, so those standards also do not apply either. - Sailor



The Politics of Torture
Written by Doc Farmer
Thursday, January 06, 2005


(Author's Note: This article contains graphic descriptions of torture, degradation, and human suffering. It also contains language that most lib/dem/soc/commies will find offensive. It is called the truth.)


Well, we've got a new congress starting up operations. The freshmen have been sworn in, they've been given the guided tour, and they should (hopefully) be able to find the bathrooms without too much difficulty. Committee assignments have been handed out in both houses, and with any luck at all we as a nation might actually see some real progress coming out of that 535-member coffee klatch that passes for a legislature.

However, I'm not banking on it.

President Bush, thankfully, has decided to re-nominate all of the judges that the previous Senate Judiciary Committee members - those of the lib/dem/soc/commie persuasion, anyway - had blocked. These nominees were stopped out of pure cussedness on the part of Daschle's Dolts, but (fortunately!) Daschle has been soundly told precisely where to go. And it ain't the capitol building anymore!

Not everything will be smooth sailing for the nominees, however. They'll face tough questioning about their previous judgments and opinions. With luck, they'll get those kinds of questions from both sides of the political aisle. This shouldn't be a cakewalk for the nominees. The senate's job is to advise and consent on the qualifications (not the politics) of the people who will be appointed to the judicial branch of our government.

Sadly, though, we’re talking about Washington, D.C. here. More than that, these are lib/dem/soc/commies in Washington D.C. A group of people with an axe to grind so large that Paul Bunyan himself would strain to lift the handle, let alone fell a forest. Yet, the lib/dem/soc/commies on the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee are about to try to holler ''Timber!'' to any nominee that doesn't pass their litmus test of leftism.

Normally, I would put this down to the lib/dem/soc/commies being overly political and (quite demonstrably) lousy losers. However, I've read of their plans to cut one of the finest jurists off at the knees, while attacking America, raising anti-war hackles, and providing more grist for terrorist hate-mills, all in one fell swoop.

Most people who read my columns know my opinion on (bleep)ing lawyers. Well, to my mind, (bleep)ing judges are merely (bleep)ing lawyers with really bad fashion sense. All those black robes, and no pearls? Puh-LEEZE! Nevertheless, they still provide a necessary function in our tripartite governmental structure. One of the nominees for a federal judiciary post is Alberto Gonzalez, a quite well qualified and well thought of jurist. He has a strong record - impressive, actually - and has been rated quite highly by the American Bar Association. The previous Senate Judiciary Committee, mainly out of spite on the part of the lib/dem/soc/commies, blocked him. Now, however, they're planning to go farther.

Much farther.

Apparently, Mr. Gonzalez will be questioned by some on the Committee of his involvement in the drafting of legal opinions for the government on the permissible levels of questioning our troops or intelligence officers could use on prisoners in the War on Terror. They plan to bring up Abu-Ghraib yet again, as if 45 days of front-page coverage by the New York Times wasn't sufficient. They plan to vent their false angst at the torture of these poor, unfortunate, misunderstood chaps in Gitmo and Abu-Ghraib.

We'll hear that word over and over again, folks. Torture. We tortured prisoners at Abu-Ghraib by putting underwear on their heads. We tortured prisoners at Gitmo by having dogs bark at them. We tortured them by playing loud music, we tortured them by depriving them of sleep, we tortured them by yelling at them, tortured, tortured, tortured. We'll hear nothing but the word torture when it comes to these incidents. We'll also hear that America is evil because we're not following the Genevè Conventions. Despite the fact that the terrorists we've detained are not covered by those conventions, and do not deserve the protection provided to actual soldiers on the battlefield.

And we will hear all of this, in regard to a judicial nomination for a federal bench. Not for a military tribunal. Not for a new Spanish Inquisition. For a federal judge.

We hear torture said by the media all the time. Their interpretation is, at best, a stretch of the word. It is, more accurately, a disingenuous obfuscation used to create an emotional response. To be blunt, it's a lie. However, we should be used to the media lying to us. We should be used to politicians lying to us. Perhaps, before you start watching the kangaroo court that will be these Judicial Committee hearings, you should know what torture really is.

• Severe and repeated beatings. A ''General Patton'' slap is not a severe beating. Pushing a guy up against a wall while you're handcuffing him is not a severe beating. Whacking a guy for an hour with a billy club is.
  
• Tying up a prisoner to cut off circulation, or to put his limbs/joints in severe distress.
  
• Hanging a prisoner up from the rafters by his wrists, thumbs, elbows, armpits, kneepits (I don't know what else to call them), toes. For hours. Or days.
  
• Beating the soles of a prisoner's feet.
  
• Forcing a prisoner to stand at attention for 48 hours or more.
  
• Sexual violation of a prisoner.
  
• Beating of the coccyx (tailbone), which causes extreme pain up the spinal column.
  
• Dropping a prisoner feet-first into a giant plastics shredder.
  
• Breaking of limbs, knees, elbows, wrists, fingers, noses, jaws, teeth, etc.
  
• Cutting off limbs, fingers, ears, noses, or genitals.
  
• Crushing of the genitals or testicles.
  
• Cutting out tongues or gouging out eyes.
  
• Scalping or skinning.
  
• Acid/burning/immolation.
  
• Poisoning.
  
• Starvation/dehydration.
  
• Cigarettes put out in flesh.
  
• Fingernails/toenails removed.
  
• Fingers/toes removed.
  
• Mock executions.
  
• Real executions in front of other prisoners.
  
• Real executions of prisoner's family members.
  
• Severe electrical shocks.
  
• Forcing prisoner to eat excrement.
  
• Severe exposure to elements (sun/heat/cold) such as to cause blistering of skin, frostbite, hyperthermia/hypothermia.

That's what real torture is.

That's what the lib/dem/soc/commies on the Senate will try to have our enemies use against our troops, by their repeated misuse of the word torture.

That's what Saddam used to do.

That's what America stopped.

This, to the lib/dem/soc/commies, makes US the bad guys.


About the Writer: Doc Farmer is a writer and humorist who is also a moderator on ChronWatch's Forum. He formerly lived in Saudi Arabia and Qatar, but now resides in the Midwest. Doc receives e-mail at