This is a bit off-topic, but since this post is about the delusions of the war-lovers, there were similar delusional talking-points dispensed on Jon Stewart's show last night.

His guest was Ronald Kessler, author of the book "The Terrorist Watch: Inside the Desperate Race To Stop the Next Attack", and he educated Jon and his audience on the wonderful success of waterboarding! Not only is torture something to be proud of, but it's actually the reason we've had no more 9/11's! Who knew?

(Credit to the person who actually took the time to transcribe portions of the show: http://creecos-catastrophe.blogspot.com/2008/03/bit-of-interview-on-daily-show-between.html)

STEWART: What do you think of the more coercive stuff, the waterboarding and such?

KESSLER: I think it was fine in that particular situation. Most of the time, the CIA does not want to use waterboarding. They want to use cooperation. But in that case, there was a threat that there would be a second wave of attacks. These guys were not talking. They had to get information, and they did. And they stopped plots that killed, or would have killed people.

STEWART: Does that hurt or help us in the long run?

KESSLER: I think, in the long run, if we protected ourselves from another attack, that's the most important thing. You know, it's true that the Iraq war has contributed to the hatred...you know, it's used as a propaganda tool.

.....

STEWART: You are...you're getting...but the thing about waterboarding that always struck me is, even if it saved some lives, do we give up too much of our soul to do that? Because isn't the measure of a country how it handles itself in difficult times, not in easy times? It's very easy to say, "We abide by the Geneva Convention," until we found out somebody wants to hurt us and then, hey man, everybody for themselves.

KESSLER: Well, actually the Geneva Conventions allow this, because these people are not regular military people in uniforms...

STEWART: The Geneva Conventions allow you to waterboard people who don't wear uniforms?

KESSLER: Yeah, because they're not...these are people who behead people, they don't abide by...

STEWART: That may be a technicality. I'm not sure that the spirit of the Geneva Conventions is, like, "Hey look, if they don't have a hat, do whatever you want. ((laughter))

KESSLER: Our own Special Operations forces are, in fact, subjected to waterboarding as part of their training, so....

STEWART: Because they might have it done to them.

KESSLER: Exactly. And it's not torture in the sense that it's painful. That's what torture is defined as...It's harsh...

STEWART: That's an argument that's tough to make, that it's not actually....drowning someone is torture. ((laughter)) The only point I was going to make was we prosecuted the Japanese for waterboarding our soldiers in World War II.

KESSLER: It was a different kind of waterboarding. ((laughter)) It actually involved...

STEWART: What did we waterboard on [Temperapedics]? ((laughter)) What do you mean? How different? What kind of water?

KESSLER: Using real water, as opposed to just covering them with cellophane and giving the impression, but...the important thing is...

STEWART: This is like the mock apple pie of waterboarding, that we do. ((laughter)) It's not a real-type waterboarding thing.

KESSLER: And actually, it was only used three times, and not since 2003. Now, they are not going to use it anymore. So it really is moot. The important thing is....

STEWART: We learned our lesson.

KESSLER: OK. ((laughter)) I'm agreeable. But the important thing is, we have not been attacked, it's because of these measures, it's because of the Patriot Act even though that's demonized.

STEWART: But it's hard to point to causation because they're so secretive. I mean, what they're saying is, "Trust us, it's because of this," even though a lot of the other things you found about us have turned out to be less than credible.

KESSLER: Well, we know that these terrorists are being rolled up all the time. We know they are being rolled up because of these measures, including the Patriot Act. You know, the librarian thing....

If there’s one thing the current GOP (the Limbaugh’s, Bush’s, Goldberg’s, Kristol’s, Malkin’s, etc.) have cemented in people’ s minds it’s that the Republicans are a party of immature, incompetent, unhinged, wide-eyed, frightened, reactionary children. The attempt to put John McCain in the top spot to possibly return the GOP to the status of “adults”, while at the same time having him mindlessly adhere to the same naïve policies and inept worldview as the most unaware and uninformed US president in history, will do nothing to reverse this current perception of Republicans.

Unfortunately, the national media steadfastly refuses to see the difference between traditional conservatives (pre-Reagan Republicans) and the current crop of O’Reilly/Coulter/Bush/Cheney conservatives, and believes no matter how extremist, radical, and illogically inept their policies, they still hold the only viewpoint that matters.

Apparently, there was a time that the media was liberal (but the truth is more likely that the media was once more concerned with the truth and uncovering political corruption, and the truth, as Stephen Colbert aptly points out, has a “liberal bias”), but certainly since the Carter administration, the national media has expounded the rightwing narrative.

Maybe now that the GOP has given us 9/11, Iraq, strengthened Iran, the Katrina fiasco, the outing of a CIA operative, the obliteration of habeas corpus and civil liberties, increased anti-Americanism worldwide, increased terrorism, and weakened American national security, that may finally change. If only there was an opposition party…