Hannity Thinks Torture Works - and he'll prove it!

By now you've probably heard that Fox News Host Sean Hannity announced on his TV show that he'd be willing to submit to waterboarding for charity.  "I'll let you do it," he boasted to his guest Charles Grodin.  "I'll do it for the troops' families!" 

What a great way to boost ratings!

If Hannity does go through with this bizarre stunt, you can rest assured that the experience will be different from the "enhanced interrogation techniques" the Bush administration approved. Oh, they might cover his face with a nice clean cloth and pour a little water on it.  But he will not have been starved beforehand.  He will not have suffered sleep deprivation.  He won't have strangers screaming at him during the ordeal.  He won't be verbally abused, slammed against a wall or slapped around.  It will all be very sanitized and non-threatening.  Still, the thought of Hannity with a wet rag in his mouth - even for a brief period of time - brings solace to my soul.

Jason Linkins writes on HuffPo:  Obviously, this has to happen.  For the troops, I mean!  Not merely for my amusement!  And, look, if Sean Hannity agrees to this, then props to him.  That takes real guts...   But the salient point is this:  In a world gone mad, can you really afford to NOT give money to the troops, if it means that Sean Hannity gets waterboarded by the star of the Great Muppet Caper? We truly are the change we've been waiting for.

On MSNBC's Countdown with Keith Olbermann, political analyst Lawrence O'Donnell eloquently explains why Sean Hannity thinks that torture is an effective means of gathering information. 

It's because...  It.  Would.  Work.  On.  Him.

O'Donnell points out that there are two different kinds of people out there: "The warriors, which are a very tiny minority.  Less that one percent of our population is ever going to face combat.  And then there's the rest of us.  I am like Sean Hannity, one of those cowards just like Dick Cheney who has refused throughout my life to enter the military and ever subject myself to anything dangerous occupationally where I might lose a tooth.  That is exactly Sean Hannity's approach to life, and he has exactly the same cowardly fear that I do of combat or submitting myself to anything of the kind of risk that the American military does.  And so people who live where Sean Hannity lives, in those safe places, in the safe Cheney home where no one in the Cheney family would ever submit themselves to military service, ever submit to the risk of torture, they think torture works because it would work on them.  Because they are soft.  They are weak people compared to our military service people and they would crack under torture.  But al Qaida, the people who have devoted their lives to destroying their enemy, the people who were all willing to die on 9/11,  Sean Hannity thinks torture is going to work on them because he has never known the commitment that those people have, nothing he's done in his life measures that kind of commitment that the American military has or that our enemies have."

At the end of the segment, Olbermann and his guest note that Republicans are desperately using the old "ends justify the means" defense for torture, even though the "results" they're taking credit for (such as the much ballyhooed L.A. terrorist plot) occurred well before we started torturing people.  In conclusion, Olbermann offered to charity $1000 for every second that Hannity submits to waterboarding.

Hey, maybe other right-wing blowhards will offer to join Hannity!  Bill O'Reilly, Ann Coulter, Rush Limbaugh, the odious Glenn Beck. Fox News could sponser an all-day Torture-thon!  An event like that could raise millions for charity!

Comments

[aWorldQuiteMad]

Thanks for posting this! I never quite thought about it like that before, but it makes sense. I always wondered why they thought torture would work on someone who was willing to die for what they believe. I said it yesterday on someone else's blog, that there were two types of people, those who would die before they would give into torture, a small percentage, and then there are those who would give in, but probably lie, so they still wouldn't be telling the truth, so the point is moot.

And *why* is there a debate in the 21st century as to whether torture is a just means to and end? Like, WTF?

[Max P.]

Out of everything in the Olbermann clip that part was the most elucidating. Hannity's such a whiner that even if he submitted to what would obviously be a sanitized version of waterboarding, he wouldn't last very long. I'd still like front row tickets, though. :)

[Bee Girl]

I feel a circus coming on.

[Sy]

I just found this site... I like it, and you Mr.Max Pearson.

[Bobo]

Isn't the point that we don't care if torture works or not? And it doesn't, since it's been proven that many people will fabricate information and confess to just about anything to get the torture to stop.

The point is torture is illegal and then magically made not-illegal by some executive memos... oh wait but it's really still illegal since we have a whole legislative process for defining what is an isn't illegal.

Sorry those of you who did it, you're all criminals because Bush and Co. lied to you. But it was for a good cause, right?

And one guy who is willing to voluntarily submit to waterboarding by people he knows probably won't actually kill him isn't really the same as someone grabbed by the US military.

If he's willing to let someone pick a random night and kick in his door, scream and point guns at his wife and kids, belt him around a few times and then take him off for months of solitary coupled with waterboarding... THEN I think he can have something to say about it.

[englishtom]

For anyone that hasn't already seen it here's the link to British journalist Christopher Hitchens voulenteering to be waterboarded.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4LPubUCJv58

Maybe this Hannity guy should take a look and see what hes getting himeself into :s

[Timotheus]

When did waterboarding start being called torture; before or after Bush was involved?

[Timotheus]

He will not have suffered sleep deprivation. He won't have strangers screaming at him during the ordeal. He won't be verbally abused, slammed against a wall or slapped around.
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Some of you guys out there pay for this stuff.
I went through this during Catholic school...you wussies!