Little Rudy on torture: “It depends on who does it”

Giuliani was asked if waterboarding is torture:

“Well, I’m not sure…. It depends on how it’s done. It depends on the circumstances. It depends on who does it. I think the way it’s been defined in the media, it shouldn’t be done. The way in which they have described it, particularly in the liberal media. So I would say, if that’s the description of it, then I can agree, that it shouldn’t be done. But I have to see what the real description of it is.”

…“So I’d have to see what they really are doing, not the way some of these liberal newspapers have exaggerated it.”

…“When the Democrats are talking about torture, they’re not just talking about even this definition of waterboarding, which again, if you look at the liberal media and you look at the way they describe it, you could say it was torture and you shouldn’t do it. …”

The liberal media are obviously lying, and if the Bush regime is doing it, it can’t really be torture. Besides, it “depends on how it’s done.” And of course, “It depends on who does it.”

(Jimmy Breslin's description of Giuliani: "A small man in search of a balcony.")

Condoleeza Rice beyond the Irony Curtain

"U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice told Russian human rights activists on Saturday she wanted to help them build institutions to protect people from the 'arbitrary power of the state'.
Rice said there was too much concentration of power in the Kremlin and spoke of the need for independent institutions to counter-balance the Russian presidency."

Biting Ann Coulter, Christian Icon

Enough people have commented on Ann Coulter’s notion of an ideal America in which everyone would be Christian and all Jews would be “perfected” through conversion to Christianity.

Not to be overlooked, however, is something said by right-wing talk show host Kevin McCullough, who claimed that in responding with incredulity to Coulter’s remarks and trying to get her to clarify them, the person interviewing her was revealing himself as an “angry anti-Christian bigot, looking to make a name for himself by biting into Christian icons."

Ann Coulter, Christian icon. Bite that, Saint Francis.