my foray into politics (sorta)

07Nov07

For those of you who know me….I am totally not a politics person….I never liked to follow it much, being one of those “let whatever happens happen” people….I’ve even been a cynical follower of the “my vote doesn’t count” club…most of my childhood was never really influenced by the goings on of America bc my mom and dad hardly cared about it either…so when you get older you either change or you don’t

So far, not much has really changed…except the fact that I try to keep up with whatever news about the world there is…..whether it’s Burmese Monks being wiped out, Pakistan’s governmental debacle or all things dumb-Bush….so today I was perusing the interweb when I stumbled across this video from Keith Olbermann of MSNBC on Nov. 5th….

For those of you who want a quick background….recent documents have surfaced that show and condemn the practice of waterboarding (covering a bound prisoner’s eyes, nose and mouth while pouring water all over their body and face) as torturous….the contention of a former assistant attorney general Levin relates the practice to “the feeling of drowning”…essentially you scare whoever it is into thinking they’re drowning without actually dunking the head under water…

Now the big reason this is an issue is because the US has used it on certain prisoners (mainly Islamic fundamentalists) in order to gain insight on terror plots….unfortunately the US also condemns any act of torture….so essentially their top lawyer group says its torture but they still do it even though they refuse to torture….and all the while GW Bush goes on his merry way and lets it happen, along with the profuse other idiocies he’s committed (for the record, that’s my one political opinion…I agree with 70ish% of the US that our executive branch may well be the worse thing that could have happened to US….as well as the dumbest)

So what brings it here? Well, I saw this video and of the many annoyed/embarrassed for our country/shocked sensations I felt…the one that stood out most wasn’t that…but Keith Olbermann’s passion…it’s rare that we get to see our news anchors act passionately when they’re just sitting alone at a desk and reporting…but shockingly I feel like we’ve seen a massive flux of this as a result of all the atrocities (yes atrocities…I rank Iraq up there with Vietnam now) that our government has been doing….it’s usually a good idea for press to be biased, and usually when they’re not they’re dumb about it…but

Olbermann goes on for about 11min. on all the things we think about Bush and co. and the tact and voice and delivery make it more believable than a professor telling me unbiased information on cardiovascular epithelium….his passion/hatred for the acts remind me that I’ve never in my life felt passionate about anything to the point this is at….it’s sad but in my life nothing has ever offended me as much as it seems to offend the rest of the world/Keith Olbermann in particular….so what does it all mean?…nothing really, while I sit here and yap about how awesome this guy’s rant was and how painful I still think it is that our president can’t say nuclear, the truth is that I still don’t do as much as the average John Q. Northwestern when it comes to believing in something….

The disdain, the disgust, the passionate tirade…all things I wish I had but don’t….still made me sit up and take notice of what he was talking about and forced me to conjure a stronger opinion of what is really going on in the world today…in the end, my point is that while I don’t appreciate political jabberwocky or pundits spewing snicker-snack….I love the passion/emotion from this guy….really something admirable in a world of walking on eggshells….

jsk….

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Tags: bush, olbermann, passion, politics, thoughtful, waterboarding