Here's a stunner: turns out the "liberal" intelligentsia–i.e., everyone to the left of Dick Cheney–was right about torture all along. An interrogator in Iraq taught his team to win over insurgents instead of torturing dubious info out of them. Completely non-miraculously, it worked:
We turned several hard cases, including some foreign fighters, by using our new techniques. A few of them never abandoned the jihadist cause but still gave up critical information. One actually told me, "I thought you would torture me, and when you didn't, I decided that everything I was told about Americans was wrong. That's why I decided to cooperate." …
I learned in Iraq that the No. 1 reason foreign fighters flocked there to fight were the abuses carried out at Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo. Our policy of torture was directly and swiftly recruiting fighters for al-Qaeda in Iraq. …
Murderers like Zarqawi can kill us, but they can't force us to change who we are. We can only do that to ourselves.
And that's precisely why so many liberals have been screaming their heads off in opposition to bullheaded Bush policies for seven years–to keep our fellow Americans from changing what it means to be American.
The story is a true must-read.
Hotlanta
I've got a new theory ("scientifically proven*!") about musical correlations to political party. Is the GOP the party of "new country?" Are Democrats the party of hip-hop? I'm wondering this primarily because today in Georgia, as irony would have it, Sarah Palin (when, dear God, will she go away?) is stumping for the senator who recently won "most insanely Southern name," Saxby Chambliss, at the James Brown Arena. Talk about rolling over (and doing the splits) in your grave. Meanwhile, Ludacris is stumping for Democrat Jim Martin in Atlanta. Muy interesante. I guess we get the good entertainers, and they get Chuck Norris.
And just because I can't get it out of my head, here's karate guy, probably my all-time favorite Youtube experience (except for Jesco White). I could watch it over and over and never get tired of it:
* to be slightly indicative, probably
