waterboarding.org

The confirmation vote for Michael Mukasey, nominee for United States Attorney General, is scheduled for Tuesday, November 6. In his confirmation hearing, Judge Mukasey was asked for his opinion on waterboarding as a constitutionally valid technique for interrogation. Mukasey replied, “I don’t know what’s involved in the technique. … I think it would be irresponsible of me to discuss particular techniques with which I am not familiar.”

Waterboarding.org would like to offer to help the nominee become more familiar with water-based coercive interrogation techniques. Using unclassified sources, news reports, and historical records we are attempting to put together as clear a picture as possible of this technique, its history, its legality, and the scope of its use. We are also attempting to organize a group of doctors, paramedics, lawyers, and volunteers to allow anyone who remains confused or unclear on the details of waterboarding to safely subject themselves to as much of the technique as they are willing to endure.

We look forward to advising, educating, and assisting Michael Mukasey, future candidates, public figures, and anyone else who professes ignorance of our nation’s most controversial coercive interrogation technique.

I suspect the proper subtext under this is a line from Lord Acton:

“Power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.”

Or to put it in other terms:

The person who uses political power to force others to conform to his ideas seems inevitable to become corrupted by the power he holds. In due course, he comes to believe that power and wisdom are one and the same, and since he has power, he must also have wisdom. At this point, he begins to lose his ability to distinguish between what is morally right and what is politically expedient.

Christian Right, meet the, “God fearing,” man who promised he would not let you down: Your president. (He’s a man so holy he likely has never even read that ungodly work of pagan thought called the Geneva Convention.)