Keith Olbermann on Torture

I know, there is something wrong with posting Pat Buchanan and Keith Olbermann videos back to back, but as an extremophile, I find both of them more palatable than the center.

Olberman is speaking here about the exit of Bush and the confirmation hearings for Barack Obama’s choice to head the Justice Dept, Eric Holder. Holder is asked whether he believes waterboarding is torture.

I take the position that if we prosecuted the Japanese for waterboarding as a war crime, then we can’t just decide to do it ourselves as if it is ok, without any previous public discussion.

The whole Jack Bauer argument is ludicrous. If anyone were in such a position, they wouldn’t hold back over legalities, they would take whatever action was necessary and damn the consequences. If they prevented a major terrorist attack, they would  be pardoned. Laws don’t prevent things from happening, they merely provide consequences.

Jonathan Turley also has a great quote in this: “There is a big difference between criminalizing policies, and a policy of crimes”  Bush should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law, not for the things he did, but for trying to destroy the evidence that he did them.

Dammit Obama

I’m apparently having a week of breaking resolutions. I wasn’t going to say anything bad about Obama until he was in office and started screwing things up, but he apparently couldn’t wait that long.

On Feb 17, analog TV should be no more. The conversion to digital has been a long drawn out process, for which we have already paid a ridiculous price in commercials and other time wasters, and well over a billion dollars. The conversion will retire a dinosaur of a technology that has been bogging down huge swaths of prime spectrum that could be used for far more useful new technologies. The spectrum has been sold. New products that will use the new digital service are everywhere and have been sold for years. They have a better picture and better features.

Now Barack Obama puts out a last minute memo asking that the conversion be delayed until mid-summer. Heaven forbid anyone illiterate and living in a cave might be surprised to find their television not working and have to venture into reality long enough to figure out why. What we really should have done is just cut the TV resolution in half every month until everyone gets sick enough of it to get their crap together and convert.

Update: The Chairman of the FCC, Kevin Martin, has now come out at CES and said about Obama’s request, “[W]e’ve spent a lot of time and energy getting ready for the February 17 date,” “I am concerned about the consumer confusion that would be created.”

Update: Obama has named June 12 as the date he would like the switch to digital to be postponed to.

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