Sunday, August 31, 2008

He's Got More Waffles, Than a House of Pancakes...

(Line about John Kerry in 2004's JibJab's "This Land is Your Land, This Land is My Land.)

Waterboarding. Torture or not? Well, originally, John McCain was AGAINST waterboarding. From the Huffington Post, February 18, 2008:

Today, the Senate brought the Intelligence Authorization Bill to the floor, containing a provision from Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) that establishes one interrogation standard, requiring the intelligence community to abide by the same standards as articulated in the Army Field Manual and banning waterboarding.

Just hours ago, the Senate voted in favor of the bill, 51-45.

Earlier today, ThinkProgress noted that Sen. John McCain (R-AZ), a former prisoner of war, has spoken strongly in favor of implementing the Army Field Manual standard. When confronted today with the decision of whether to stick with his conscience or cave to the right wing, McCain chose to ditch his principles and instead vote to preserve waterboarding:

Mr. McCain, a former prisoner of war, has consistently voiced opposition to waterboarding and other methods that critics say is a form torture. But the Republicans, confident of a White House veto, did not mount the challenge. Mr. McCain voted "no" on Wednesday afternoon.
So. He flip-flopped.

Today, he flip-flopped BACK:
ST LOUIS (Reuters) - Republican presidential candidate John McCain, a former prisoner of war in Vietnam, on Sunday issued some of his harshest criticism to date of the use of torture against terrorism suspects during President George W. Bush's administration.

In an interview on Fox News, the Arizona senator laid out his differences with Bush on a number of issues, citing torture as a key sticking point between him and the current president.

"I obviously don't want to torture any prisoners. There is a long list of areas that we were in disagreement on," McCain said of Bush.

Fox interviewer Chris Wallace asked McCain if he was suggesting that Bush did want to torture prisoners.

"Well, waterboarding to me is torture, OK?" McCain responded. "And waterboarding was advocated by the administration, and according to a published report, was used."

Bush has said the United States does not practice torture. But the Central Intelligence Agency has admitted using waterboarding, a form of simulated drowning, and a recent Justice Department probe cited cases of sleep disruption, "short shackling" and other physical techniques against terrorism suspects captured after the September 11 attacks.

McCain suffered torture at the hands of his captors during more than five years in a Vietnam prison camp.

Though a strong advocate of the war in Iraq and Bush's "surge" policy that increased U.S. troop levels there, McCain has been a critic of harsh interrogation techniques against terrorism suspects, including those held at the U.S. military facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
Um. Ok, John McFlip-Flop. Which one is it? Is it torture, or is it NOT torture? Of course the administration allowed the use of waterboarding. YOU VOTED TO AUTHORIZE IT!!!

McCain criticizes Bush on torture of prisoners - Reuters.

So, who's flip-flopping now?

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