This is so on-point it hurts:
Iggy’s confessing that “Justin Bieber is the future of rock ‘n’ roll” — and the caption reads “Torture a man and he’ll tell you anything. Torture isn’t just inhumane, it’s ineffective. Stop it.”
This comes from the brilliant folks at or working with the Belgian operation of Amnesty International
Here’s another one:
Same caption to the Dalai Lama admitting that “A man who doesn’t have a Rolex at fifty is a failure.”
It’s worth remembering that the claque who clamored us into war more than a decade ago and are trying to do so again include many of the same people who told us torture would keep us safe.
There is no limit to the wrongness of these people — and as our Belgian friends reminds us, their dishonesty is both a moral and a practical failure.
And by the way — thanks to Iggy Pop and the Dalai Lama for their willingness to take part in this campaign.
japa21
No.
srv
Is it wrong if I laughed at Iggy’s line?
schrodinger's cat
Those photographs are disturbing.
WereBear
This is great stuff. Love them both
SatanicPanic
Rock and roll has no future. NOOOOO FUUUTCHAA
Applejinx
Actually, the photo of Iggy is like one of his concerts… I’m more impressed with the willingness of the Dalai Lama. Iggy LIKES damage better than bland formality.
Morzer
For all your GOP head-exploding needs(and kinda/sorta funny/tragic when you consider the conspiracy theories that the conservatives are now going to concoct):
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-27893831
Lee
The Dalai Lama one is really disturbing.
Good.
SiubhanDuinne
@Morzer:
Wow! They caught Obama?
BruinKid
And here’s the Washington Post and New York Times on the Benghazi suspect capture.
SiubhanDuinne
That’s a terrific PSA campaign. More, please.
Morzer
@SiubhanDuinne:
It’s amazing what two special committees full of fearless prayer warriors can achieve by sitting on their asses, isn’t it?
CONGRATULATIONS!
The Dalai Lama one is obviously Photoshopped; I have a queasy feeling that Iggy’s might not be. I’ve seen pictures of him coming offstage with a lot more damage than that.
At any rate, if you find these disturbing, good. My only beef with them is that they need English language versions as well.
Lee
@SiubhanDuinne:
LOL
Morzer
@Lee:
Joe Biden still on the loose in Brazil!
SatanicPanic
@Morzer: now we can finally get to the bottom of what happened!
Morzer
@SatanicPanic:
We really ought to have a conspiracy theory sweepstakes – what will the GOP claim about this success?
SatanicPanic
@Morzer: I’m going with “not the real guy!”
CONGRATULATIONS!
@SiubhanDuinne: They did.
He’s currently locked in the Oval Office. His punishment is that he has to do yet another term as President. Upon being told this, he reportedly broke down sobbing and asked if he could be transferred to Guantanamo instead, as he was sick of “dealing with all the imbeciles”.
Morzer
@SatanicPanic:
I am tempted by: “Bowe Bergdahl reappears just as the “leader” of the Benghazi atrocity is captured. Coincidence? I think not!”.
indycat32
@Morzer: How long before the usual suspects demand he be shipped immediately to Gitmo so he can be tortured.
patrick II
I wish I had a better memory, so I forget the name of the particular tortured prisoner who finally “gave up” that Iraq had massive stores of WMD, but then that “confession” was used as one more “justification” for the invasion of Iraq, along with fake yellowcake and Al Qaeda collabortion on 9/11. Lies all. One more item on a long list of war criminals not only hurting their enemies, but of hurting the country they are ostensibly defending.
Morzer
@indycat32:
Minus five years and counting, once John McCain gets his Depends on this afternoon.
AliceBlue
@CONGRATULATIONS!:
Agreed. My first thought upon seeing Iggy was “is he still jumping headfirst into broken glass after all these years?”
In the early ’70’s, he gave a show at Richard’s, a club in Atlanta. I didn’t go, but friends of mine that saw it were still talking about it 5 years later.
FlipYrWhig
@patrick II: Was that “Curveball”?
MattF
Yeah, the plain old sadism of the 101st Chairborne should be kept in mind. Speaking of which (via lgm):
http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/dana-milbank-heritages-ugly-benghazi-panel/2014/06/16/b8bd423c-f5a3-11e3-a606-946fd632f9f1_story.html?hpid=z6
I’ve noticed that people seem to forget that Frank Gaffney is a lunatic– so, just a reminder.
AxelFoley
*looks at the pics*
The hell?
Villago Delenda Est
@SiubhanDuinne: No, they caught Darrel Issa. At long last.
MattF
@Villago Delenda Est: Hiding in plain sight, although not in Pakistan.
Lee
@MattF: I think that story is more disturbing that the 2 pictures above.
Woodrowfan
but, but, but TICKING TIME BOMBS! MUSHROOM CLOUDS!@
SiubhanDuinne
@CONGRATULATIONS!:
Seriously. The people screaming about how he “negotiated with terrorists” must have forgotten all the times he sat down with Congressional Republican leaders.
Villago Delenda Est
@patrick II: The comfortable lives of John Yoo and David Addison need to be disrupted.
For an extended period.
JPL
I streamed MSNBC long enough to have Andrea interview Mike Rogers who was careful to thank the special ops forces only. He did take the time to mention that it took to long and we still need to detain a dozen more.
Tom, I like the paintings that often accompany your posts better. The pictures are important but disturbing.
SiubhanDuinne
@Morzer:
So reassuring that all those hearings were productive.
Villago Delenda Est
@MattF: It’s always projection with these fascist motherfuckers.
Always.
Elizabelle
@CONGRATULATIONS!:
Yeah, I found the Iggy photo totally believable. Praising the Bieber: not.
Good campaign. Bring it on for the war enthusiasts who got away scott free in this country. They deserve shaming, not microphones and airtime.
Higgs Boson's Mate
@Woodrowfan:
You forgot the plywood drones, launched from freighters, spraying the coasts with biological and chemical agents. I believe that the US simply wanted to get even for 9/11 and Afghanistan was just not a sufficiently spectacular stage for getting even.The Bush administration openly and provably lied about the threat from Iraq, there just wasn’t much stomach in the media or the Congress for for disputing them at the time.
Certified Mutant Enemy
@MattF:
Also, this…
gnomedad
Maybe I’m slow
today, but it took me a few moments to get the point. Maybe too subtle (not the photographs, obviously) to be really effective.JPL
@SiubhanDuinne: But if he only played golf with Boehner more, he will tame the terrorists.
Suffern ACE
@MattF:
Tractarian
I’ve never laughed so hard at a depiction of torture.
Morzer
@Suffern ACE:
So I guess that a newspaper is now to be described as a “frap-lap crap-wrap”?
amk
While you are busy pointing and mocking, the kid is laughing his way to the bank. #irrelevantshit
schrodinger's cat
Off the topic but related, is anyone watching the new 24?
Villago Delenda Est
@Higgs Boson’s Mate: The Dark Lord, on 9/11 itself, was busy looking for some way, any way, to tie Saddam Hussein to the attacks.
More obvious than even the Central European strongman who may not be named setting up the “assault” on Gleiiwitz in 1939.
catclub
@Higgs Boson’s Mate:
Wasn’t the line that there were not enough hard targets in Afghanistan?
Villago Delenda Est
@catclub: No oil in Afghanistan.
Priorities, people. Priorities.
catclub
@CONGRATULATIONS!:
Why? Are there some english speakers who can be convinced that torture doesn’t work? Are they watching the last episodes of 24?
Someguy
Awesome.
This seems like as good a time as any for recommending war crimes trials for anybody who is a fan of intervention in Iraq.
dmbeaster
@Higgs Boson’s Mate:
No. Large majorities of both groups were eager warmongers. The Moustache of Understanding unwittingly summed it up accurately by indicating it was about kicking butt cause we could. The fearmongering that accompanied it all insured that the balance remained silent.
SiubhanDuinne
Benghazi suspect, Schmenghazi schuspect. It’s all about Hillary selling more books.
Steeplejack (tablet)
@Certified Mutant Enemy:
Kind of a dick move for Juan Cole to bury the name of that piece’s author at the bottom (Jim Wright of Stonekettle Station).
Morzer
@SiubhanDuinne:
Finally, something the extreme left and extreme right can agree on!
Trollhattan
Brilliant ad campaign, simply brilliant. Too nuanced for the typical Republican, but am wondering whether this will have the Chinese government making an official pro-torture statement whilst decrying the obvious meddling in their “internal affairs” represented by the second poster.
catclub
@Villago Delenda Est: oh, right.
Wasn’t there some pipeline that was going to cross Afghanistan?
Trollhattan
@Steeplejack (tablet):
Former Speaker of the House? And here I thought he was dirt-farming.
ETA the googles inform he’s still alive–born in ’22 and served in the Army Air Force during WWII.
kc
I appreciate the thought, but the Iggy Pop one in particular seems to trivialize the issue.
Hope I’m wrong & it does some good.
kc
@kc:
So does the Dalai Lama one. Ppl are going to think it’s an edgy ad for Rolex.
Citizen_X
@catclub:
Maybe not, but I want it shoved in the sickos’ faces. I want to hear them forced to defend their sadism publicly.
I mean, after all, has the return of the neocons convinced anybody to go storming back into Iraq? Outside of the Village, I haven’t seen it.
catclub
@kc: It isn’t?
SiubhanDuinne
@Trollhattan:
I knew the Jim Wright Steeplejack had in mind, but I also Googled the former Speaker and found this down near the bottom of the Wikipedia article:
Pretty disturbing.
⚽️ Martin
@Applejinx:
I’ve had the great pleasure of meeting him and seeing him speak many times. Not surprising at all. I think he would immediately see the impact of such a campaign.
SiubhanDuinne
@Steeplejack (tablet):
I don’t read Juan Cole very often. Is that the way he usually provides attribution? If so, I have no problem with it. If he normally flags his sources up front, I agree with you.
SiubhanDuinne
@Morzer:
Now apparently they are saying that the timing of the capture is because Hillary was nervous about doing a Fox interview later today. Or something.
Yeah, I know. It doesn’t make sense to me, either.
Origuy
@Villago Delenda Est:
There are huge deposits of lithium ore, though.
SiubhanDuinne
@SiubhanDuinne:
For anyone who is interested in more details about Jim Wright and the Texas Voter ID issue, here’s a link to the original Star-Telegraph story.
Trollhattan
@SiubhanDuinne:
ZOMG, that’s astonishing. Why isn’t he Poster Child #1 for fighting voter suppression?
SiubhanDuinne
@Trollhattan:
I have no notion. AFAIK this story wasn’t reported outside the Star-Telegram (apologies, just realized, too late to edit, that I mistakenly and ignorantly wrote Star-Telegraph above).
Even though the story is several months old, the voter suppression issue isn’t going away. Would love to see Rachel or someone with a national platform get and share more details. Wright is 91 and I don’t know a thing about what shape he’s in, but if he could do a couple of interviews — or campaign “issue” ads — it could be really helpful.
Karen in GA
@SiubhanDuinne: HA!
gene108
@patrick II:
I remember thinking the same thing, but when Bush & CO were pressed on it they had never actually said Saddam directly worked with al-Qaeda in plotting 9/11.
Their statements were like, “September 11, 2001 was a terrible tragedy. Al-Qaeda wants to continue attacking America and our allies. Saddam Hussein gassed thousands of his own people. He may use these weapons again. Al-Qaeda would love to detonate a dirty bomb in a U.S. city.”
When you listen to it, it sounds like al-Qaeda and Saddam were hand in hand, but they were technically never mentioned in the same sentence together.
opiejeanne
@Certified Mutant Enemy: It was written by Jim Wright, the owner of the blog, Stonekettle Station.
Steeplejack
@SiubhanDuinne:
Actually, my “problem” is deeper than I was prepared to type on the tablet. At the top Juan Cole has “By contributors” and “Via Americans Against The Tea Party. By Americans Against the Tea Party,” whatever that means (there is no link). And Cole prints the entire piece.
Unless Jim Wright has a formal “contributor” relationship with Juan Cole, it seems like it would have been better to have a “must-read piece at Stonekettle Station” pointer with a link to the original piece. And, in fact, Cole seems to be in violation of Jim Wright’s guidelines for posting his stuff. At Stonekettle Station he says you should get permission first, and also, “I get the byline. My name and a link to Stonekettle Station will be clearly included at the top of the article.”
At the bottom of Juan Cole’s post he does have a notice that “this article [. . .] is syndicated from Americans Against The Tea Party and is posted here with permission,” with a link to the AATTP site. But there is nothing at the AATTP site (that I can find) to show that Jim Wright has any relationship with them either. Maybe he does. But it’s very murky.
And it’s at the AATTP site that the piece seems to have picked up a “Repost” button, which purports to be some sort of syndication service. (“Repost—the future of content is here.”) But at the Repost site it says the article is “by Americans Against the Tea Party,” although the article includes at the bottom a link to Stonekettle Station with a note that it was first “posted” there by Jim Wright.
Maybe I’m misunderstanding everything, but I’m wondering if Jim Wright is being ill used here.
The Other Chuck
@Origuy: It’s a national security imperative: we have to keep those deposits out of the hands of the Romulans.
(Yes, I know they use singularity drives instead… god I’m too much of a geek)
ifthethunderdontgetya™³²®©
In a CIA Torture Case, the Only Person Punished is the Whistleblower
/ Looking forwards and not backwards
~
SiubhanDuinne
@Steeplejack:
Probably worth a quick email to him. If he doesn’t know, he’ll appreciate the heads-up. If he’s fine with it, well, I expect he’ll still appreciate that you took time to check it out on his behalf.
WaterGirl
@Steeplejack: My response was the same as yours. It did not look kosher to me at all.
Steeplejack
@SiubhanDuinne, @WaterGirl:
Yeah, I sent him an FYI e-mail.
WaterGirl
@Steeplejack: Glad you did.
Thlayli
@kc:
The ironic part of the Dalai Lama’s line is His Holiness owns more than one Rolex.
Snarki, child of Loki
@Villago Delenda Est: “they caught Darrel Issa. At long last.”
Once an arsonist, always an arsonist.