So it's ok to torture someone 180 times, but god forbid you show someone your dick.

[name not needed]

I don't understand this country sometimes.

[Shagbark Hickory]

1. The complaint is with the lying. And of course the stupidity of possibly

throwing away your career by doing something that, in a career that can be easily ended, ends it.

[Drale]

3. Its the same thing they did to Clinton

What Democrats need to do, is if they do something stupid they need to fess up to it right away. "Yeah I did X, it was stupid but not illegal let it go."

[elocs]

6. If Nixon had apologized and asked for the nation's forgiveness about Watergate

he would have served out his term. Clinton could have avoided impeachment. Americans hate someone who lies to them to cover their ass.

Weiner: a stupid liar whose choice will end his once very promising career. I wonder, does he think it was worth it?

[KittyWampus]

15. You really think Clinton could have avoided impeachment? LOL!

Really....

:rofl:

[elocs]

17. Yes.

[Kaleva]

18. Nixon didn't know about the Watergate break-in until after it happened

His downfall was trying to cover up the crime.

[elocs]

22. Yes, and had he admitted that he screwed up rather than the continual cover-up of the crime

things would have ended differently for him.

[spooky3]

28. I don't think we'll ever know for sure whether that's true.

The prosecutors had some evidence of prior knowledge, but not enough to nail him on it. Since they had plenty of evidence about the cover up, and that was sufficient to nail him, that's where the focus was.

[Kaleva]

30. If I recall correctly.....

Nixon had general knowledge of and approved of the dirty tricks campaign but wasn't aware of the actual planning and carrying out of the break in of the DNC headquarters itself.

[spooky3]

32. But how do you know this? What constitutes sufficient proof in court or

in Congressional proceedings to find guilt is not the same as what the reality is/was. When prosecutors have incomplete evidence, that does not mean the event(s) didn't happen. It may simply mean they couldn't prove it. My point is that it really cannot be said definitively he didn't know.

If you'll search the web, you'll find both information about at least some evidence that he had prior knowledge about the break-in. You'll also find polling information about people's opinions at the time, showing they had mixed beliefs about what he knew and when he knew it.

[coalition_unwilling]

31. But Nixon knew all about the Plumbers before the Watergate breakin. He

had to cover up the White House connection(s) to the Plumbers re the two-bit burglary at the Watergate in order to avoid the other all-important dirt from getting out, like how the Nixon boys had broken into Ellsburg's shrink's office out here in Los Angeles to get dirt on Ellsburg.

On edit: the historical record is at best ambiguous as to whether Nixon knew of plans to break in to Democratic headquarters before the fact. And there is that missing 19 minutes of tape to consider.

[Kaleva]

34. I agree with what you said.

Regardless of whether or not Nixon knew of the planned break in or not, he probably felt compelled to cover it up or attempt to pooh pooh it lest the connections to his administration, especially Attorney General Mitchell, come to light.

[coalition_unwilling]

39. Well, IIRC, Mitchell had already resigned the position of Attorney

General to become chair of Nixon's re-election campaign (titled appropriately enough 'CREEP'). There was a pattern of felonious law-breaking that had already been established long before the first Watergate break in and that record had to be kept hidden at all costs, even if it meant paying hush money to E. Howard Hunt and the Cubans, even if it meant using the CIA to obstruct the FBI, and so on.

[formernaderite]

16. and the immaturity of the act

the guy isn't in middle school. It wasn't an affair, it was just creepy.

[Bluebear]

38. They lied about torture, too.

[emilyg]

2. Neither is ok.

[seabeyond]

4. how STUPID is it to argue because it is wrong what weiner did it MUST be ok to torture....

where did you learn your argument style. repug 101?

[sabrina 1]

9. Because torturers in this country are revered. They are given

medals and high positions teaching College students about the law etc. They write books and become millionaires. They are invited to speak at elite colleges and the media treats them with awe, never asking about their criminal behavior.

Personally I would much rather have someone send me lewd photos and lie about it when asked, than to be tortured and raped, as many women in Abu Ghraib have been, and this was policy.

But that's me.

[seabeyond]

12. well, i disagree with the basis of your argument. i dont think the majority think it wise, necessary

and certainly not revered

[sabrina 1]

14. Have you ever seen the media go on a weeklong campaign

to try to get answers from Dick Cheney eg, about the lies he told the country and about the torture he has stated 'worked'? Has anyone in the media even pointed out to him eg, that torture is against our laws, both domestic and international?

Anytime I've seen him on TV, he's treated like someone who deserves respect and no one dares to raise the war crimes committed under his reign of terror.

By contrast, if there is even a hint of a Congressman having an affair, all of a sudden our press corps turn into the kind of reporters we dream about.

We have priorities in this society and clearly it is a bigger sin to flirt on the internet if you are a member of Congress, than to order the slaughter of hundreds of thousands of human beings based on a lie.

[seabeyond]

23. media doesnt go a week on anything but tabloid.... whatever. that is our media. sucks

i know

i dont watch them. cause they suck

doesnt mean torture is revered

[sabrina 1]

24. Have you ever seen the number of threads on DU

we are seeing about Weiner, about torture victims? I haven't. What it says to me is that even here, people care much more about these kinds of stories, than they do about serious issues like torture where people are scarred for life, if they even survive.

I don't watch them much either

[seabeyond]

25. yes... i have seen the number on weiner, on torture here on du. especially when a story broke

that is what happens on du. weiner confessed now... 4 hours ago. a mere four hours ago. in the last week, it was ongoing, hence the ongoing threads. i wasnt in any of them. i stayed out of all of them, until we had some facts, things shook out. now 4 hours of his confession, so many want EVERYONE to shut up. not gonna happen

[coalition_unwilling]

33. I wish I could rec your response. I hope you will consider making your

question an OP of its own.

[sabrina 1]

42. Thank you ~

:-)

[TheMadMonk]

11. No what is stupid, is that stories about the torture of prisoners...

...by US personel can't be kept alive for 24 hours, but "junk in trunks" will run for weeks in the face of three quarters of the board screaming at the remainder to SHUT THE FUCK UP and talk about something important for a change.

[seabeyond]

13. it has been 3 hours since weiner came out..... you arent pissed and want people to shut up,

not gonna happen

[TheMadMonk]

26. We've already had a week of this BS when it was nowt but a muckraker's....

...fabrication. And now that it's TRUE, half of DU will join forces with the right, to keep the congressional "member" in the news and anything of import out of sight where it won't disturb precious American sensibilities with actual real world events.

Rape and torture of children IN US CUSTODY? Who the fuck cares. Has anyone's tit popped out on prime time television lately?

Bombs mistakenly dropped on families can't hold a candle to some random sporting identity from the eighties dropping the f-bomb near a microphone.

And on and on and on. The inane is news to be disectected and talked to death and real world events mean nothing.

[seabeyond]

29. yes... because he lied and kept it going. nt

[originalpckelly]

5. I have to agree.

The dick thing is minor.

[JVS]

7. What about torturing people with your dick?

[titaniumsalute]

8. Because we are obsessed with sex, dicks and other other organs

If we weren't such a prude, uptight country so freaked out about sex we wouldn't care. I agree sending a picture of a moisture missle is not important in the grand scheme of a horrible economy, high jobless, unnecessary wars, huge debts to pay, housing crisis, etc. But this man's penis in a picture take the headlines.

[Dawson Leery]

10. It is in this respect that the rest of the developed world

is correct is viewing America as being "backwards".

[lumberjack_jeff]

19. Or even a photo of your underwear.

Some lies are more important than others.

"I don't know for sure that this is a photo of my underwear" = big fucking deal.
"Saddam has weapons of mass destruction and was behind 9-11" = honest mistake.

[Bake]

20. No, it's NOT ok to torture. Happy now?

And a Dem lying to the Dems who defended him isn't too cool either.

Bake

[ladjf]

21. Well, sending out photographs of your penis to young women

you've never even met, is not a good way to keep you political base. Many would consider such an act to be a perversion and a form of exhibitionism. The man needs counseling right away.

[RedCloud]

27. We are too cowardly to execute our leaders as the Mayans did.

[badtoworse]

35. The country is what it is. He's become a huge liability and he needs to go.

I hope he gets help and puts his life back together. I hope his wife finds a way to forgive him and get past this. He's lost a great deal of face and his judgement is highly questionable - he needs to go.

[Dreamer Tatum]

36. False comparison. nt

[DainBramaged]

37. Why? There are people here who are SLIENT on torture, but SCREAMIN about the Wiener

[Dreamer Tatum]

40. Silence on one doesn't imply nor is implied by approval of the other. Nt

[lonestarnot]

41. It's all about dough and the penis.

[AuntPatsy]

43. Apparently, ignore the oh so many but OMG he lied, sheesh