'Mancow' knows: Waterboarding is torture

[RamboLiberal]

Only Nixon can go to China. That's why the waterboarding of Chicago-based radio host Matthew Erich "Mancow" Muller has the potential to end the sophistry surrounding the medieval torture technique in conservative circles for good.

Last Friday, Mancow did what higher profile skeptics of the charge that the Bush administration engaged in torture don't have the courage to do. Where Fox News host Sean Hannity last month glibly agreed to be waterboarded ("I'll do it for charity"), Mancow actually underwent the procedure during the live broadcast of his popular morning show.

Like many of his fellow travelers, Mancow routinely ridiculed the idea that waterboarding was anything more dangerous than "splashing water" on the face. He offered to undergo the procedure for at least 30 seconds to prove that critics of the Bush administration's use of the technique had exaggerated its evil.

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Still, there was an undeniable logic to the stunt. Being waterboarded would be a ratings bonanza for "Mancow's Morning Madhouse." Once the footage of a torture skeptic "successfully" defying the critics of waterboarding made the rounds, it would elevate Mancow from the "D-list" of Howard Stern imitators to the first tier of conservative yakkers like Rush, Beck, Hannity and Michael Savage. A little water on the face could potentially yield big dividends.

But the real world closed in quickly once Mancow's legs were elevated, his feet tied and a towel pressed over his face. It was telling that he was already on the verge of freaking out even before a single drop was administered. Don't be surprised if some, including fraus on the right like Ann Coulter, question whether Mancow was brave enough to do it in the first place. Everyone agrees Mancow has more guts and conviction than Sean Hannity, though.

Read more: http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/09146/972700-153.stm?cmpid=bcpanel0#ixzz0GaM93ESR&B

[Skittles]

1. and he did it knowing it was just an experiment

a luxury the real victims do not have

[JDPriestly]

2. Anyone who swallowed enough water while trying to swim as a kid

knows just how terrifying the sensation of drowning is. Waterboarding must be hundreds of times worse because the drowning sensation must be accompanied by the sense that you have no control, not even the ability to kick your feet and flail your arms and somehow get some air to breath.

[Optical.Catalyst]

3. Mancow is a typical right wing nut

Mancow talks big.

He maligns anyone with a differing opinion

He puts money above all else (hence the pursuit of a 'ratings bonanza')

When he gets called on his big talk, he cries like a baby.

NEXT!

Lets get Hannity on his back for charity. I can't wait to see that video.

[polmaven]

5. KO showed the video last week!

It was real, and it was terrifying. Mancow lasted 6 seconds, after which, he declared that, as much as he did not want to say it...."that was torture - that was drowning". He also said that he had been unable to imagine how throwing some water in someone's face could be thought to be torture, but "that was torture".

KO showed the video just before declaring Hannity to now be irrelevant and withdrawing his challenge because $10,000.00 would be on the way to the "serviceman's" charity which had conducted the water-boarding on Mancow.

[Optical.Catalyst]

7. I saw the Mancow video, it was linked here on DU

I was surprised at how quick Mancow changed his tune. He went for "I'm ready, let's get this done" to (in a much more subdued voice) "I had no idea it was like that!"

Typical right wing jerk. When it is time to put up or shut up they change into very little people.

[olegramps]

6. I want Hannity on his knees:

With a splintered broom handle shove up his fat ass and he can testify if it was nice sexual experience or torture.

[Optical.Catalyst]

8. I would like to see Dick Cheney waterboarded

Let him deny it is torture after a gallon goes up his nose.

[salguine]

4. As big of a dick as he is, I'll give him props for admitting he was wrong.

[Uncle Joe]

9. This line of reasoning is bullshit and I expect more publicity stunts to come along

re: other forms of torture in attempts to fuzz up the definition of what torture is.

<snip>

"Every time former Vice President Dick Cheney or the cast of "Fox & Friends" or Sean Hannity assert that there is nothing wrong with waterboarding as a tool of coercion, many will remember Mancow's brave example and wonder if these people have half his guts. The number of conservative broadcasters with the courage to test their theory by undergoing the technique can be counted on one finger."

<snip>

"Like many of his fellow travelers, Mancow routinely ridiculed the idea that waterboarding was anything more dangerous than "splashing water" on the face. He offered to undergo the procedure for at least 30 seconds to prove that critics of the Bush administration's use of the technique had exaggerated its evil."

<snip>

1. Mancow didn't believe it was torture prior to his publicity stunt, this scenario would require no bravery or courage.

2. Mancow did beleive it was torture but felt his psuedo manliness would allow him to withstand it for an entire 30 seconds whereupon he could self-righteously pass judgment on the evil; being visited on those prisoners without the power and control to ever stop it by throwing a plastic cow as being exaggerated, all for the sake of furthering his own career, this doesn't require courage so much as a cynical form of hatred; infused with a lust for glory, and money.