What pissed me off today? Everything.

posted by The Vidiot @ 7:43 AM Permalink

So, if you are insurgent, you get tortured. If you're suspected of being a terrorist, you get tortured. If you throw a shoe at GW Bush? Tortured.

The Iraqi journalist who threw his shoes at US President George W Bush has a broken arm and ribs after being struck by Iraqi security agents, his brother says.

Oh, and guess who said he approved all that torture in the first place.

When asked by ABC News reporter Jonathan Karl whether he approved of interrogation tactics used against a so-called "high value prisoner" at the controversial Guantanamo Bay prison, Mr. Cheney, in a break from his history of being press-shy, admitted to giving official sanctioning of torture.

"I supported it," he said regarding the practice known as "water-boarding," a form of simulated drowning. After World War II, Japanese soldiers were tried and convicted of war crimes in US courts for water-boarding, a practice which the outgoing Bush administration attempted to enshrine in policy.

"Officially sanctioned." Why would he admit such a thing? Is it the height of hubris? Does he figure his ticker is going to give out so he might as well take the blame? I haven't a clue.

(Please feel free to 'throw' your old shoes at GW via snail mail.)(Oh, and here are some fanciful animated gifs from boing boing. [link fixed])

In other news, dynasty politics continues in the United States.

A person close to the discussions says Caroline Kennedy will seek the U.S. Senate seat being vacated by Hillary Clinton.

So I guess that just because your name ends in Clinton, Bush or Kennedy, you're qualified to hold political office. (Didn't Thomas Paine say something about monarchy and hereditary succession?)

Oh, and if you're a rich investor, and you invest in a risky fund and that fund fails, no worries.

A federal judge on Monday threw a lifesaver to investors who may have been duped in one of Wall Street's biggest alleged frauds, saying they need the protection of a special government reserve fund set up to help investors at failed brokerage firms.

Meanwhile, I can use my now worthless 401K for toilet paper. No bailout for me.

And Biden got a puppy. However, someone had to suck the red out of that lollipop, post haste.

Ok, that's enough bad news. How about some weird news:

A ghost was photographed in a hotel in Romania.

And a rock encrusted swiss ring watch was found in what was thought to be an undisturbed 400-year old tomb in China. (Shades of Micheal Crichton)

Update: The shoe throwing thing has become quite the meme. Boing Boing had to kill its jumping gif link and make an archival link because it cost them thousands of dollars in bandwidth. The thrower has been given a bravery award and a flash game has already been made. The entire Middle East knows his name and while we 'mericans have a hard time remembering Arabic names, we all know that there's a shoe throwing guy and that he is good.

Labels: blogtopiates, cheney, Economy, kennedy, shoes, Torture