Don't release them, I say. Some hipster will just take them and turn them into faux-ironic t-shirt art, in order to make a "statement".
This is serious stuff and the crap people did with those horrific car crash photos of that poor girl proves that some people can't be trusted to see them.
I know in the effort of transparency and full disclosure this administration seems to be doing a little slight of hand with this current topic, but truthfully, what good can come of releasing these pictures? While I'd like to see Bushie and Cheney arrested for war crimes (I really would) the fallout could be disastrous for Obama and everything he's trying to do. He'd be mired in this.
Yes, I think some people need to seem them, public officials etc. but in our techno-driven society there's no way the general public won't get a hold of them, and then, well, feeding frenzy, pundit Nirvana, terror alerts going from yellow to orange, new Bin Laden tapes, Hannity, Limbaugh and Glen Beck's mock ire and head exploding self-flagellation in the name of Republican denial and Democrat finger pointing will make the waterboarding tear of May '09 look like a Slurpee brain freeze. And frankly I don't have the strength, especially since we really don't need these pictures as proof of how vile we can be every now and again, if slavery and various other forms of injustices we've enacted on our own soil over the course of about 400 years are any indication.
@Spirit Fingers: It's not that Obama would be mired in this - it's the rest of his party that stood around doing absolutely fuck all for eight years that will really end up looking like shit.
Cheney, to his credit, openly admits he has no problem with torture. So there's nothing to hide there. Also not news: he hates hippies.
The Dems, on the other hand are devoted to this dignity stuff (in theory, at least) so for them, this whole thing is as tragic as a gay preacher with a bad hooker habit.
I agree with Pareene's assessment, but there is one thing about what he said to which I take exception. Even more so than it was with Bush, I think it's a mistake to paint the press secretary as an independent entity.
@theartdodger: Particularly in this case where Obama previously said the photos are "not particularly sensational." So either the Telegraph is lying or Obama is lying, because absent all of Mike Savage's worst nightmares being true, everyone would have to find these pretty sensational.
@pacific_reporter: Well, Obama did time on Chicago's South Side, to say nothing of the Harvard dorms. So perhaps he just has a different idea of 'sensational'.
I, thankfully, was never sent overseas, but I definitely heard some very sad, brutal stories from buddies that were sent over there. I am pretty positive that Taguba is full of shit.
05/28/09
This is serious stuff and the crap people did with those horrific car crash photos of that poor girl proves that some people can't be trusted to see them.
05/28/09
Yes, I think some people need to seem them, public officials etc. but in our techno-driven society there's no way the general public won't get a hold of them, and then, well, feeding frenzy, pundit Nirvana, terror alerts going from yellow to orange, new Bin Laden tapes, Hannity, Limbaugh and Glen Beck's mock ire and head exploding self-flagellation in the name of Republican denial and Democrat finger pointing will make the waterboarding tear of May '09 look like a Slurpee brain freeze. And frankly I don't have the strength, especially since we really don't need these pictures as proof of how vile we can be every now and again, if slavery and various other forms of injustices we've enacted on our own soil over the course of about 400 years are any indication.
05/28/09
05/28/09
05/28/09
Cheney, to his credit, openly admits he has no problem with torture. So there's nothing to hide there. Also not news: he hates hippies.
The Dems, on the other hand are devoted to this dignity stuff (in theory, at least) so for them, this whole thing is as tragic as a gay preacher with a bad hooker habit.
05/28/09
When Gibbs speaks, the president is speaking.
Keep letting them small things slide...
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05/28/09