Still You Aint Ever Gonna Make Me Play the Game of…

FEAR! The House Republicans have now officially said to hell with it all and are going full metal 9/11:

Has anyone told these guys that we intend to put them in prisons, and not just release them in the wild? Love the music, too. I couldn’t figure out if it was a performance I should know or if it was from Lord of the Rings or one of the Call of Duty soundtracks.

*** Update ***

Memories:

Only the names change.

126 Responses to “Still You Aint Ever Gonna Make Me Play the Game of…”

  1. 1

    demimondian

    A clown, a turd, and 9/11.—the Republican Rudy-To-Shoes playbook

  2. 2

    arguingwithsignposts

    OMFG. Nobody has shown those plane videos in the past few years. They have seriously gone off the freakin’ deep end. Please, make it stop! Somebody! Teh Stupid. It is too … stupid?11

    On a serious note – is there not anyone in the GOP who says “wait a minute, guys. Maybe we shouldn’t be doing this…”?

    And if I hear that “9/11 changed everything” crap again, I’m going to hurl. For the vast majority of Americans, 9/11 didn’t change anything. We mourned. We hugged our families a little closer, and then we went about our business. It’s not like we suddenly became shell-dwellers.

    Maybe for some of those idiots in the white house it “changed everything,” but I don’t see it having affected the entire nation that way – unless you count having to take off your f**king shoes and belt at the airport as “changing everything.”

    RRRGGGHHH!!

  3. 3

    Michael

    Goddamn, that’s embarrassing.

  4. 4

    Cris

    I’m glad they played that footage, I had kind of forgotten about 9/11

  5. 5

    cleek

    so…. only Gitmo can hold them? there is no other 5×8 concrete structure in the world that can do the job?

  6. 6

    LD50

    so…. only Gitmo can hold them? there is no other 5×8 concrete structure in the world that can do the job?

    Apparently. This place always looked pretty badass to me, but evidently the GOP knows that it’s just a country club and anyone can just walk out anytime they want.

  7. 7

    TenguPhule

    The House Republicans have now officially said to hell with it all and are going full metal 9/11

    It’s only a matter of time until we have to put their rabid asses down.

  8. 8

    James F. Elliott

    Oh my god! How can we survive with terrorists held on our shores! Next thing you know, we’ll be holding our murderers and pedophiles and rapists here instead of shipping them off to Quebec or Australia or… or…

  9. 9

    demimondian

    @James F. Elliott: I’m thinking we could use Georgia as a debtors prison.

  10. 10

    sparky

    @cleek: i think the super-secret forcefield that holds them in only works OUTSIDE the fifty states. so if TX does leave, they can absolutely go there!

  11. 11

    freelancer

    John,
    Music isn’t from Lord of the Rings, COD, and though it sounds a bit like the score from Crimson Tide, it’s not that either. I think someone was just trying to ape the chorus remix of Clint Mansell’s Requiem for a Dream score that was used in The Two Towers trailer.

    I’m only 27, what was 9/11 again?

  12. 12

    aimai

    Anyone remember Jon Stewart’s brilliant take on this—he reviews the various serial cannibal brain stem eating monsters we already have locked up and he puts them up against the Al Quaeda guys. It was very funny. Less funny when I saw the pictures the GOP is putting up and realized that I think we already drove some of those guys insane, didn’t we? They aren’t really supposed to be able to do more than sit in a corner and pick at their sores by this time. Plus, of course, some of them are basically goat herders and limo drivers and not masterminds of anything.

    Jesus wept. The music was scary, though, I’ll give ‘em that.

    aimai

  13. 13

    James F. Elliott

    @demimondian: I’m more in line with the George Carlin solution: Start walling off states we don’t like, stick the killers and criminal sex freaks in there, and put the whole thing on pay-per-view!

  14. 14

    Dennis-SGMM

    The very idea of Osama bin Laden being held on these blessed shores is terrifying. Oh, wait, they didn’t capture bin Laden? Carry on.

  15. 15

    TenguPhule

    Has anyone told these guys that we intend to put them in prisons, and not just release them in the wild?

    But with so many Republicans looking at long prison sentences, the must be afraid of their new neighbors.

  16. 16

    TR

    “How does closing Guantanamo make us safer?”

    Well, how does keeping Guantanamo open make us safer? It’s not like we’re holding Superman prisoner and Gitmo is the one place that’s made of fucking kryptonite.

    A maximum security prison is a maximum security prison. You think Old Fat and Hairy Guy there is going to smash through the walls like the goddamn Hulk?

  17. 17

    Evinfuilt

    @LD50:

    Florence Supermax facility, just outside of the Evangelical Vatican of Colorado Springs. Yet none of them are scared of all the terrorists and murderers currently housed there. I guess Focus on the Family never got the word that they’re supposed to be scared of that facility. That city is deeply Republican controlled, but somehow in reality they’re not bed wetters.

    I don’t think this is a winning strategy for the Republicans, even their sheep aren’t really afraid.
    ——
    Should mention that prison puts Guantanamo to shame in its security. They have a better chance swimming from Cuba to Florida then leaving the great Colorado Springs area alive (let alone out of their giant concrete block of a cell.) What with NORAD and the Air force Academy next door.

  18. 18

    sgwhiteinfla

    I wonder what the families of the people who died on 9-11 think about the GOP using that footage for propaganda. I doubt they are at all happy about it.

  19. 19

    TenguPhule

    On a serious note – is there not anyone in the GOP who says “wait a minute, guys. Maybe we shouldn’t be doing this…”?

    No.

    SATSQ.

    All of them are in a race to the bottom to see who can do the most disgusting, exploitive shit in the name of a few poll points.

  20. 20

    Bootlegger

    US prisons would eat them alive. Plus, from where do you have a better chance of escaping, a supermax in Colorado or a tiny base on the same island as the Greatest Commie Threat Evah!!

  21. 21

    TR

    I wonder what the families of the people who died on 9-11 think about the GOP using that footage for propaganda. I doubt they are at all happy about it.

    Remember Ann Coulter’s line about the 9/11 widows? “I have never seen people enjoying their husbands’ death so much.”

    Maybe she’ll revise that after seeing the 9/11 porn in that ad.

  22. 22

    Joshua Norton

    i’m gonna sing the doom song now ! ……..doom doom do-do-do doooommm…..

  23. 23

    Awesom0

    When the music started playing, I kept expecting to hear the movie preview narrator say, “In a world…” and start in with whatever crap Michael Bay or Jerry Bruckheimer movie is currently being peddled.

  24. 24

    Blue Raven

    @sgwhiteinfla:

    I wonder what the families of the people who died on 9-11 think about the GOP using that footage for propaganda. I doubt they are at all happy about it.

    Yah, but if that sort of footage had been used before 9/11 and it saved a life, wouldn’t they feel better knowing that?

    And it’s amazing to realize that lifting wingnutspeak from a local rag’s letters column (which I did up there with a swap of “footage” for “extraordinary interrogation”) just barely works as parody. The accuracy levels turn it into satire.

  25. 25

    Bootlegger

    @Evinfuilt: Those prisons are actually near Canon City, my dad’s hometown. There is nothing but high mountain desert and mountains for 40 miles in any direction…then you hit Pueblo. Damn straight they have a better chance of escaping from Cuba.

  26. 26

    r€nato

    What I really enjoy is when wingnuts flog 9/11 like their dicks on a lonely Saturday night, and then turn right around and wish another attack upon New Yorkers… because they’ve forgotten the lessons of 9/11 and don’t vote Republican.

  27. 27

    Joshua Norton

    Hell, I live in San Francisco and I’d happily start a petition to ship them to Alcatraz. It’s one way to get the Feds to clean up that dump.

  28. 28

    harlana pepper

    i have to say, all this gitmo stuff and torture stuff coming down now on the teevees, it’s just such old news to me, i’m like (yawn)

  29. 29

    Tonal Crow

    The GOP are indeed from The Lord of the Rings; the acronym stands for Glob Olog-hai Pushdug, or, roughly, “foolish shit-filthy trolls”.

  30. 30

    Dennis-SGMM

    Not that it’s in any way counterproductive to exploit a national tragedy one more time after shamelessly exploiting it for seven years. And of course no one now thinks that the same tragedy might have been prevented nor does anyone in any way consider that it was used to justify a ruinous war. Somewhere, Republican operatives are cutting together the Terri Schiavo videos in a way that proves that she could have won on Jeopardy.

  31. 31

    demimondian

    Their problem is that they don’t realize that the frikken sharks with lasers on their heads are as fictional as the national security credentials.

  32. 32

    Persia

    @Awesom0: He died a while ago, alas.

  33. 33

    Bootlegger

    @r€nato:

    because they’ve forgotten the lessons of 9/11 and don’t vote Republican.

    “Vote Republican” is the lesson of 9/11. After all, they were in every leadership position when it happened. Amiright?

  34. 34

    r€nato

    Somewhere, Republican operatives are cutting together the Terri Schiavo videos in a way that proves that she could have won on Jeopardy.

    I’d give her even odds if the other contestants were Doug Feith and Sarah Palin.

  35. 35

    schrodinger's cat

    Slightly OT, interesting discussion about India and Pakistan over at Matt Yglesias.
    Pakistan’s army and its intelligence agency ISI, which have been and are obsessed with India, were responsible for propping up Taliban, if you remember Pakistan was one of the three countries that recognized the Taliban government before 9-11. This obsession has led to Pakistani leadership propping up assorted fundamentalists and terrorists groups, mostly as an irritant to India has led to the situation we are in right now. Pakistan’s obsession with India is like the wingers obsession with liberals, if it annoys India then it is good and has led to some extremely self destructive decisions over the course of the last 60 years, unless this mindset in Pakistan changes the Af-Pak problem is going to be intractable for the Obama administration and that is easier said than done.

  36. 36

    Tsulagi

    Got a solution. Fits in with stimulus spending and “real” America’s dislike of the commie left coast. Pelosi too and all the other elitists. A shovel-ready project.

    Rebuild Alcatraz. Then when Zubaydah and KSM inevitably escape and swim to San Francisco, they’ll fuck with the gays. What Gooper couldn’t get behind that? Jesus would approve.

  37. 37
  38. 38

    Tom65

    What a bunch of bed-wetting pansies.

  39. 39

    Bootlegger

    @r€nato: Win! Though I’d add Bachman as well.

  40. 40

    Balconesfault

    I love the meme that “when we hold these guys in the US, terrorists will want to strike those states”.

    Right. Because an Al Qaeda which wanted to retaliate for America imprisoning their chauffers weren’t going to do it as long as we imprisoned them outside our borders.

    Now I know why Al Qaeda has been mounting strikes against Havana. Morons.

  41. 41

    AnotherBruce

    I saw the pictures the GOP is putting up and realized that I think we already drove some of those guys insane, didn’t we?

    When I saw this sentence, I couldn’t decide if you were talking about the Gitmo inmates or the GOP. Works either way, doesn’t it?

  42. 42

    DougJ

    No one is picking this stuff up, not even Halperin. It’s not going to work.

  43. 43

    CapMidnight

    Well, how does keeping Guantanamo open make us safer?

    The terrorists are less than 90 miles from our shores! And they are pointed directly at us!!

    (Doesn’t it just encourage Al Queda when they see videos like this, demonstrating our leaders are still wetting their panties seven years later?!)

  44. 44

    Bootlegger

    @Balconesfault: Exactly, which is easier for a terrorist to infiltrate and find anti-American support? Cuba or Kansas? And imagine Chavez’s glee if he somehow aided it all.

  45. 45

    Balconesfault

    @Dennis-SGMM:

    And of course no one now thinks that the same tragedy might have been prevented

    Right – no reason for the public to suspect that had many of the Clinton era anti-terrorism programs not been shut down in January 2001, pending further review of a Dick Cheney task force to wrap up sometime after star wars funding is reinstated and a comprehensive plan to deal with the stem cell research menace was arrived at … a particular tragedy might have in fact been prevented.

    Oh yeah. And the DOJ launching a sting of hookers in New Orleans in the summer of 2001. Priorities, and all that…

  46. 46

    Bootlegger

    @CapMidnight:

    Doesn’t it just encourage Al Queda when they see videos like this, demonstrating our leaders are still wetting their panties seven years later?!

    One would think, comfort to the enemy and so on. Further, the primary goal of terrorism is psychological terror, so the GOPs are doing their job for them. It’s certainl logical that the GOP is directly aiding the terrorists.

  47. 47

    gnomedad

    I want them out of that candy-ass Club Gitmo and into something secure!!
    (Warning: links to Rush)

  48. 48

    Dennis-SGMM

    @Balconesfault:
    When this stuff comes up I’m reminded of Bush’s response to “Bin Laden determined to strike in U.S.”

  49. 49

    gnomedad

    @Dennis-SGMM:

    When this stuff comes up I’m reminded of Bush’s response to “Bin Laden determined to strike in U.S.”

    If Bin Laden led the UAW, that would have gotten his attention.

  50. 50

    Llelldorin

    Guantanamo Bay only has one advantage over any supermax in the US—-it’s not actually inside the United States. That was one of the bases in the Bybee/Yoo/Cheney game of Calvinball—-the prisoners were held outside the United States, and therefore were not entitled to the full protections available to prisoners held inside the US.

    Since Obama’s trying to wind down the Calvinball, he doesn’t need Guantanamo anymore, and is trying to close it. The Republicans are running around trying to quickly add new rules to keep the game going. (“No, you can’t close it! It’s Friday! Major international detention centers can only be closed on Wednesdays when the moon is full!”)

  51. 51

    TenguPhule

    If Bin Laden led the UAW, that would have gotten his attention.

    If OBL led the UAW, we’d have had 7 years of Nationalized Health Care paid for by the looted treasures of the various political clans.

  52. 52

    freelancer

    and start in with whatever crap Michael Bay or Jerry Bruckheimer movie is currently being peddled was most recently popular.

    Fixed

    This isn’t the same track (most removed for RCIA copyright violation), but I’m 90% certain that the music is from Transformers.

    FWIW, this is the only appropriate way to watch that piece of shit film.

  53. 53

    Dennis-SGMM

    @gnomedad:
    Yeah, or a welfare mom. OTOH, the magnitude of the terrorist threat was clearly demonstrated when all of those tax cuts failed to solve it.

  54. 54

    Tonal Crow

    @Llelldorin:

    Guantanamo Bay only has one advantage over any supermax in the US—-it’s not actually inside the United States. That was one of the bases in the Bybee/Yoo/Cheney game of Calvinball….

    That’s the best use of the term “Calvinball” I’ve ever heard.

  55. 55

    Vincent

    I’m a little concerned about how many people will actually take this crap seriously. For many people, ominous music and 9/11 footage is enough to scare the beejezus out of them.

  56. 56

    Zifnab

    @DougJ: It’s all over Faux News, though, right?

  57. 57

    gbear

    Someone should let the republicans know that 11/4/08 changed everything.

  58. 58

    Dennis-SGMM

    @Zifnab:
    Stop knocking Faux News! Do you have any idea what kind of heroic multitasking it takes them to run a network with so many GOP dicks in their mouths?

  59. 59
  60. 60

    Balconesfault

    Fox News slogan progression …

    “Fair and Balanced”

    “Fair, Balanced, and Accurate”

    “Fair, Balanced, and Accurate … No, Really – Don’t Laugh”

  61. 61

    Dennis-SGMM

    @Balconesfault:
    “Amongst our weapons…”

  62. 62

    Bootlegger

    @Zifnab: Actually, yes. They’re running a “special” on it tomorrow night. The “OMG the terrists is coming to our shores” bit, not the “I’m a pantwetting pussy” part.

  63. 63

    The Cat Who Would Be Tunch

    @Dennis-SGMM:

    Being that I’m a visual person by nature, I really did not need that image seared into my mind. Especially on a Friday.

  64. 64

    JK

    Freedom is Slavery
    War is Peace
    Diversity is Sinful
    Ignorance is Strength
    Vote Republican

    Palin/Bachmann 2012
    The Dimmer Twins

  65. 65

    aimai

    You know, I just watched the clip (I thought John was linking to the other one—the one rachel maddow parodied already). Just from a communicative standpoint I would score it a “fail.” All those guys are described as “captured” and to most readers/viewers that means “rendered harmless.” And then the “closing” part of guantanamo—they don’t actually say “these guys are going to be released into your community” (they save that for the other ad). I guess I think this ad, like the other new gop ads, fails because it doesn’t offer the viewer any kind of catharsis. I know their intention is just to scare the bejeebers out of people but at the end of the day your add money is wasted if the person doesn’t a) pick up the phone or b) write a check. Here the person is just left panicking with the option of logging onto the computer and going to a web site. Its not satisfying. And I don’t think it will have a very good effect on GOP numbers or fundraising. Its too indirect.

    aimai

  66. 66
  67. 67

    Rosali

    Hey, I know that music. It was featured prominently in a live clown show I saw in the theatre. Here is the perfect intersection of republican stupidity and clown shoes.

  68. 68

    Dennis-SGMM

    @The Cat Who Would Be Tunch:
    Hmmm, I guess that it’s good then that I didn’t share my original thought that if GOP dicks were made of brass then the average Faux Newser would look like a calliope.

  69. 69

    JK

    MOTHER OF ALL OTs

    @DougJ:

    STOP THE FRICKING PRESSES STOP THE FRICKING PRESSES
    GOODNESS GRACIOUS, HOLY MOSES, JESUS CHRIST ALMIGHTY, LORDY, LORDY, PRAISE TO ALLAH

    Mark Halperin, journalism’s gift to mankind, reports that Michelle Obama left the White House for lunch to have a hamburger.
    http://thepage.time.com/2009/0.....ger-break/

    I smell a Pulitzer Prize and a Polk Award for Halperin.

  70. 70

    From Pine View Farm » Quake in Your Boots

    [...] really can’t improve on this.   [...]

  71. 71

    ricky

    I hope my governor, Rick Perry, plans to seize Guantanamo when we reestablish the ROT (Republic of Texas). That way we have a place to send the liberals so they won’t disrupt our otherwise loyal Texas prison population.

  72. 72

    ricky

    JK @ 69

    Pulitzer my pud. Not a single word on condiment choice.

  73. 73

    kay

    @Vincent:

    How long does it work, though? Until they’re transferred and invisible, in prison.

    How do they make this stay scary? “This person could escape at any time”.

    Shuffling along in white socks and plastic sandals, ankle-bound, a corrections officer at either side, they’re going to look like any other prisoner, if anyone looks at them at all. In 2 weeks they’ll be invisible.

    Serial killers are scary. How often do you mentally run through the serial killer roster, and tick off the states they’re in? Haver you ever in your life heard of a state refusing a particular prisoner based on safety concerns?

    To refuse a prisoner is almost an admission your state is run by hapless ninnies.

    “Not us. No sir. He’ll definitely escape if you house him here”.

  74. 74

    ricky

    When do the Republicans plan to propose sending ACORN voting terrorists to Guantanamo?

  75. 75

    TenguPhule

    To refuse a prisoner is almost an admission your state is run by hapless ninnies.

    Montana.

    I rest my case.

  76. 76

    TenguPhule

    Hmmm, I guess that it’s good then that I didn’t share my original thought that if GOP dicks were made of brass then the average Faux Newser would look like a calliope.

    It would certainly give a new ring to polishing their knobs.

  77. 77

    mcc

    Mark Halperin, journalism’s gift to mankind, reports that Michelle Obama left the White House for lunch to have a hamburger.

    Never mind that, why is Halperin not reporting on Michelle Obama’s appearance on the liberal extremist television show “Sesame Street”? Why is the MSM trying to hide Obama’s links to monsters?

  78. 78

    Becca

    Music is from Carmina Burana by Carl Orff. It’s a series of secular songs written in Latin. This particular song is “O Fortuna.”
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/O_Fortuna

  79. 79

    Xecklothxayyquou Gilchrist

    @Bootlegger: There is nothing but high mountain desert and mountains for 40 miles in any direction…then you hit Pueblo.

    Oh noes – they will get our stockpile of helpful public service documents!

  80. 80

    Dennis-SGMM

    “Not us. No sir. He’ll definitely escape if you house him here”.

    In other words, America can’t run prisons any better than Yemen. Why do Republicans hate American prisons?

  81. 81

    Rick Taylor

    It’s things like this that have destroyed what little respect I had for the Republican party. They have no principles, qualms whatsoever about undermining the Democratic president through transparent absurd fear tactics. They’ll do or say anything.

  82. 82

    Zifnab25

    Kay, it’s worse than that. You’re basically saying you don’t want the federal funding to hold them. Turning down free money for a state prison? Now that’s unheard of.

  83. 83

    cleek

    GOP = Gaggle Of Pussies

  84. 84

    Dennis-SGMM

    OT: This should be fresh (via Steve Benen):

    2008 presidential nominee, Senator John McCain will be on ABC’s “This Week.” Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich will be on “Fox News Sunday.” And former Vice President Dick Cheney will be on “Face the Nation” on CBS. (“Face the Nation” confirmed that Cheney would be getting the full half hour.)

    Three of the leading dickheads in the Republican party all on teevee the same Sunday. I’m guessing that Sarah Palin was booked.

  85. 85

    JK

    @Dennis-SGMM:

    John McCain ran a disgusting fear mongering campaign and inflicted Sarah “The Moose Killer” Palin on the public. He needs to retire and STFU.

    Dick Cheney needs to retire to the natural beauty and majesty of the Wyoming landscape and STFU.

  86. 86

    Sam Jack

    Did anyone else notice that they’re using Obama’s font? The text descriptions of what each terrorist did are in the Obama campaign font..

  87. 87

    Tonal Crow

    @Dennis-SGMM:

    Three of the leading dickheads in the Republican party all on teevee the same Sunday. I’m guessing that Sarah Palin was booked.

    Into which jail?

  88. 88

    TenguPhule

    2008 presidential nominee, Senator John McCain will be on ABC’s “This Week.” Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich will be on “Fox News Sunday.” And former Vice President Dick Cheney will be on “Face the Nation” on CBS. (“Face the Nation” confirmed that Cheney would be getting the full half hour.)

    Is it too much to hope for McCain to crash a plane onto Cheney who shoots Gingrich in the face who topples over and crushes McCain as he climbs out of the wreck?

  89. 89

    neil

    The music, by the way is the “O Fortuna” section of “Carmina Burana” by Carl Orff – who, as it happens, was an unapologetic Nazi.

    Fitting.

  90. 90

    JK

    @TenguPhule:

    Is it too much to hope for McCain to crash a plane onto Cheney who shoots Gingrich in the face who topples over and crushes McCain as he climbs out of the wreck?

    WIN

  91. 91

    Dennis-SGMM

    @JK: @Tonal Crow:
    Not to mention serial adulterer Gingrich. These guys are The Three Stooges of American politics right now and the networks’ lavish gift of airtime says more about them than it does about Larry, Moe, and Curly Joe.

  92. 92

    kay

    @Zifnab25:

    That was Ed Rendell’s line for turning down stimulus. It’s like state government malpractice.

    I know it’s based on fear, and you’re supposed to react, not think, but you do have to wonder how many times they can use that.

    The country seems a little grimmer to me, since we found out our entire economy was teetering on a pile of bad paper, but in a good way.

    A little more skeptical. A little less likely to buy irrational fear, and run around screaming.

    “Sober” is the best word I can use to describe it. The current climate, or temperament, if you like, suits me better.

  93. 93

    Dennis-SGMM

    @kay:
    It’s more like “Fuck a bunch of terrorists, I’m losing the house!”

  94. 94

    BleebleDeebleDorp

    Gosh! These videos are frightening! And on top of that I’m out of Dijon mustard.

  95. 95

    JK

    @neil:

    Equally fitting that Sarah Palin’s line from her convention speech that “We grow good people in our small towns” is a quote from Westbrook Pegler. Pegler was a columnist who lamented the failed assassination attempt against FDR in Miami and expressed a hope that RFK would be assassinated several years before it happened.

    (Sources: The GOP Loves the Heartland To Death, http://online.wsj.com/article/.....side_today ,
    September 10, 2008; Governor Palin’s Reading List, September 15, 2008, http://www.huffingtonpost.com/.....26478.html )

  96. 96

    Video Friday: Black and White at the Red House, G.O.P. Shots at the White House - The Opinionator Blog - NYTimes.com

    [...] Back in DC, the issue of where to imprison Guatanamo detainees in the United States is the subject of new G.O.P. videos. House Republicans released the one below yesterday, saying they are “committed to preventing the release or transfer of terrorists to American soil.” As John Cole at Balloon Juice sees it, “The House Republicans have now officially said to hell with it all and are going full metal 9/11.” [...]

  97. 97

    Cris

    @Becca and @neil:
    You’re responding to the wrong ad. The one on the previous thread used O Fortuna; the ad John embedded in this post uses different music (which sounds quite a bit more recent).

  98. 98

    HyperIon

    I think Colbert should do a new segment along the lines of his “Better Know a District”. How about “Better Know a Detainee”?

    We could go beyond just the pics (and scary music) and get more familiar with where/when they were apprehended, where they’ve been held, what they allegedly did, and whether there is any evidence to support the allegation. Heck, maybe some would agree to appear on the Colbert Report just like the fun-loving representatives do.

  99. 99

    neil

    @Cris

    Guess so – I’d seen a clip last night on Maddow so didn’t play this clip here at work – I assumed it was the same one. I stand corrected.

    Maybe they realized Orff’s Third Reich connections and thought better of it…..

    NAH!

  100. 100

    Xecklothxayyquou Gilchrist

    @kay: I know it’s based on fear, and you’re supposed to react, not think, but you do have to wonder how many times they can use that.

    It never fails! Just ask President Giuliani.

  101. 101

    LD50

    You know, I just watched the clip (I thought John was linking to the other one—the one rachel maddow parodied already). Just from a communicative standpoint I would score it a “fail.” All those guys are described as “captured” and to most readers/viewers that means “rendered harmless.” And then the “closing” part of guantanamo—they don’t actually say “these guys are going to be released into your community” (they save that for the other ad). I guess I think this ad, like the other new gop ads, fails because it doesn’t offer the viewer any kind of catharsis. I know their intention is just to scare the bejeebers out of people but at the end of the day your add money is wasted if the person doesn’t a) pick up the phone or b) write a check. Here the person is just left panicking with the option of logging onto the computer and going to a web site. Its not satisfying. And I don’t think it will have a very good effect on GOP numbers or fundraising. Its too indirect.

    The ad pretty much depends on its viewers not thinking.

  102. 102

    Dennis-SGMM

    @LD50:

    The ad pretty much depends on its viewers not thinking.

    21% of American voters will go “We got our mojo back!”

  103. 103

    Little Dreamer

    @schrodinger’s cat:

    Hmmm, perhaps this is an appropriate time for this?

    Kashmir (Led Zeppelin)

    Oh let the sun beat down upon my face
    Stars to fill my dream
    I am a traveler of both time and space
    To be where I have been
    To sit with elders of the gentle race
    This world has seldom seen
    They talk of days for which they sit and wait
    All will be revealed

    Talk and song from tongues of lilting grace
    Whose sounds caress my ear
    But not a word I heard could I relate
    The story was quite clear

    Oh, I been flying… mama, there ain’t no denyin’
    I’ve been flying, ain’t no denyin’, no denyin’

    All I see turns to brown, as the sun burns the ground
    And my eyes fill with sand, as I scan this wasted land
    Trying to find, trying to find where I’ve been.

    Oh, pilot of the storm who leaves no trace
    Like thoughts inside a dream
    Heed the path that led me to that place
    Yellow desert stream
    My Shangri-La beneath the summer moon
    I will return again
    Sure as the dust that floats high in June
    When movin’ through Kashmir

    Oh, father of the four winds, fill my sails
    Across the sea of years
    With no provision but an open face
    Along the straits of fear

    When I’m on, when I’m on my way, yeah
    When I see, when I see the way, you stay-yeah

    Ooh, yeah-yeah, ooh, yeah-yeah, when I’m down…
    Ooh, yeah-yeah, ooh, yeah-yeah, well I’m down, so down
    Ooh, my baby, oooh, my baby, let me take you there

    Let me take you there. Let me take you there

  104. 104

    someguy

    If they are subject to the Geneva conventions, we can’t try them for crimes unless you’re talking war crimes. To try them in our federal courts under U.S. law would be a war crime itself.

    We cannot detain them in the U.S. indefinitely. This was the ruling in the Zadvydas case a couple years ago. Holding them longer would be a knowing and intentional violation of the constitution and permit them to sue the government for damages in federal court – and to win their freedom.

    We cannot send them to a third country if we have reason to believe they may be tortured. This is where Bush’s making every single country in the world hate our guts is killing us; without him, no doubt Germany and France and others would be willing to step up and help out.

    Nor does holding new captures at Bagram alter the legal equation because the effect of earlier Supreme Court cases is to hold that the Constitution applies to those captured on the battlefield. Yknow, at least when they aren’t dead members of blown up wedding parties.

    The solution, of course, is that many of the individuals currently held, if we believe in the rule of law, must be granted asylum in the United States. Individuals captured on the battlefield must be turned over to the host nation immediately or they will land in this legal minefield. There are no other solutions that are legal under U.S. and international law.

  105. 105

    asiangrrlMN

    @aimai: I saw that. Jon was brilliant. “If there’s one thing America does well, it’s imprison people.” “I’ll take the American brain-eater guy over a terrorist any day. USA! USA!”

    The music was not terrifying. I have dreams that are more terrifying than that video.

    @gbear: Hahahahahaha! Eat it, bitches! No, they know the election changed everything. That’s why they’re recycling this crap.

  106. 106

    Little Dreamer

    @CapMidnight:

    (Doesn’t it just encourage Al Queda when they see videos like this, demonstrating our leaders are still wetting their panties seven years later?!)

    I think that’s exactly what the wingers are aiming for.

  107. 107

    Thankovsky

    @schrodinger’s cat:
    Oh, their mindset will change. It will change just in time for Islamabad to make a few token, superficial, desperate changes before it’s overrun by jihadis. That’s really why the sane elements that remain in Pakistan’s government are royally boned: the ISI has effectively broken away from the central government’s control and now operates as its own state-within-a-state. The ISI leaders live in their own little world, where the logic of India as the preeminent threat can never be challenged, and the President simply doesn’t have the power he would need to change the ISI’s policies, much less to rein in the whole organization.

  108. 108

    Little Dreamer

    @Thankovsky:

    which would be all fine and acceptable and tolerated as an internal problem far off in another part of the world (for us), if not for the fact that there are nuclear weapons involved.

  109. 109

    Thankovsky

    @Little Dreamer:
    From what I hear, the nukes are at least somewhat secure – although believe me, this is my number one concern as well. I didn’t get my Masters in Nuclear Nonproliferation for nothing. :p

    But yeah, word is that they’re being secured. The strategic nukes likely all have launch codes and numerous other safeguards, so there’s little change of a rogue or accidental launch. The real worry is left-over fissile material, or perhaps discarded warheads technology. I expect the CIA or another intelligence agency is hard at work helping to secure that stuff as well.

    edit: Also, Krauthammer sputters:

    And, you know, the mainstream media portraying this as Republicans desperately seizing on an issue as a way to embarrass the Obama administration. Well, that’s what an opposition does. And it isn’t as if terrorists running around in America is not a serious issue

    What an idiot.

  110. 110
  111. 111

    Existenz

    The music is “O Fortuna” which was used quite prominently in that movie “Excalibur” about King Arthur.

    In the movie, the song symbolized the magic and triumphalism of the sword. It wasn’t really meant to signify “Oooh, spooky scary”.

  112. 112

    Little Dreamer

    @Existenz:

    You mean scimitar, don’t you?

    ;)

  113. 113

    Tonal Crow

    @Thankovsky:

    Also, Krauthammer sputters:
    And, you know, the mainstream media portraying this as Republicans desperately seizing on an issue as a way to embarrass the Obama administration. Well, that’s what an opposition does. And it isn’t as if terrorists running around in America is not a serious issue.

    What an idiot.

    Have the Republicans become a serious party yet? All they seem to do is hang around talking Coulter and wearing ginormous clown shoes. But maybe that’s their definition of “serious party”. Lincoln’s tachometer isn’t going below redline anytime soon.

  114. 114

    Tonal Crow

    @Tonal Crow: Moderation? Now what? Does “C*ulter” trigger it? “Kra*thammer”?

  115. 115

    Existenz

    Oops, my bad, that is not O Fortuna. Tried to use Shazam to see what the song was, failed.

    Must be from some movie soundtrack though.

  116. 116
  117. 117

    Tonal Crow

    @Tonal Crow: Oh, never mind. I tripped over the “shœs”.

  118. 118

    Little Dreamer

    Existenz, the track that is most often heard is from Trans-Siberian Orchestra, but there are several renditions of it on YouTube. I just found one that proved it is the song you were thinking of. The history of the song goes back to a piece called Carmina Burana written by Carl Orff.

    Interesting note found on the Wiki for Carmina Burana:

    Much of the compositional structure is based on the idea of the turning Fortuna Wheel. The drawing of the wheel found on the first page of the Burana Codex includes four phrases around the outside of the wheel:
    “Regnabo (I shall reign), Regno (I reign/I am reigning), Regnavi (I have reigned), Sum sine regno (I am without a kingdom)”.

    I find it interesting that wingers decided to use this piece now that their side is basically not “reigning” anymore and they are so unhappy with their lot that they’re considering secession. They are “without a kingdom” seemingly.

  119. 119

    Thankovsky

    @Existenz:
    You might be thinking of “The Seventh Seal,” by Ingmar Bergman.

  120. 120

    Mike Mundy

    As others have pointed out, the background music is from Carmina Burana. Again, Wikipedia has more:
    “Orff’s association with the Nazi Party has been alleged, but never conclusively established. His Carmina Burana was hugely popular in Nazi Germany after its premiere in Frankfurt in 1937, receiving numerous performances.”

  121. 121

    Notorious P.A.T.

    When the music started playing, I kept expecting to hear the movie preview narrator say, “In a world…” and start in with whatever crap Michael Bay or Jerry Bruckheimer movie is currently being peddled.

    LOL.

    “In a world were the only rule is: there are no rules. . . one man will take on the system. . .”

  122. 122

    Nora

    Did anyone else notice how at least two out of the three people they showed as dangerous terrorists were people we KNOW were tortured at Gitmo? That’s really scary, all right: seeing images of people who were/are mentally ill who were tortured by the United States.

  123. 123

    windy

    As others have pointed out, the background music is from Carmina Burana.

    In the update, yes, but some people were trying to identify the music in the first video.

  124. 124

    When Fear Stops Working « Just Above Sunset

    [...] will? John Cole point out the obvious – “Has anyone told these guys that we intend to put them in prisons, and not just release [...]

  125. 125

    windy

    We cannot send them to a third country if we have reason to believe they may be tortured. This is where Bush’s making every single country in the world hate our guts is killing us; without him, no doubt Germany and France and others would be willing to step up and help out.

    Look at how you treat countries such as UK or Spain over the cases of former detainees from those countries. Looks like they are expected to cover up your legal messes, or see their relationship to the US suffer if they try to pursue justice. Not exactly confidence-inspiring.

  126. 126

    RememberNovember

    Sounds like bondage kit. erm I mean Kit Bond’s handiwork of overblown hysterical hyperbole.

    Oh noes they gonna ‘scape from Supermax!

    Never mind that Nichols, Richard Reid, Zac Moussoiui et al are actually in US prisons.
    You know real terrorists. In real jails… away from the general populace.