Confused Old Man™ Won’t Torture You If You Can Prove Citizenship

Apparently the Psychogeezer doesn’t plan to torture you if you’re an American citizen, so best have your passport on you should he win in the fall.

Today, during the question- and-answer period of Sen. John McCain’s (R-AZ) address to the Associated Press, a journalist asked McCain about torturing terrorism detainees, saying “Don’t we stand for something better?” McCain seemed to get confused, talking instead about his opposition to the torture of Americans:

I’ve made it very clear, I’ve made it very clear in my statements and in my support of the Detainee Treatment Act, the Geneva Conventions, etc., that there may be some additional techniques to be used, but none of those would violate the Geneva Conventions, the Detainee Treatment Act…And we cannot ever, in my view, torture any American, that includes waterboarding.

More good news after the jump.

So this means, unless he gets confused or even more senile, we citizens are not going to be waterboarded?

Of course, the question had nothing to do with torturing Americans, something no American would support. The question was about how Americans should treat detainees in the war on terror — an issue McCain has hardly been “very clear” on.

As he did today, McCain has condemned waterboarding in the past. He has called it a “horrible torture technique” and a “terrible and odious practice” that “should never be condoned in the U.S.” Yet in February, McCain voted against a bill banning the CIA from using torture, specifically including waterboarding.

But, wha …?

When the bill passed, McCain encouraged Bush to veto it — effectively supporting the CIA’s use of “stress positions, hypothermia, threats to the detainee and his family, severe sleep deprivation, and severe sensory deprivation.”

The only thing McCain has been “very clear” on is his completely uncontroversial — and completely irrelevant — opposition to the torturing of Americans. Like Bush, will McCain claim that “America does not torture” and yet condone torture behind closed doors?

Well that’s a relief - no way that anyone, especially Americans, will be tortured, including waterboarding, unless it’s behind closed doors. Which of course never happens. How much clearer could it be?

McCain Takes Bold Stance on Torture: We Cannot Ever Torture Any American [Think Progress]

 

Comments

[pissed off patricia]

If we don't like his position don't worry, he'll change it in about fifteen minutes.

This guy scares me!

[Will]

John needs to realize that the 8th amendment against torture, along with all the other original Bill of Rights, applies to everyone in the US and US controlled territories, not just US citizens.

[Will]

John needs to realize that the 8th amendment against torture, along with all the other original Bill of Rights, applies to everyone in the US and US controlled territories, not just US citizens.

[Liberal AND Proud]

Even his logic is tortured.

[via]

Just wonder how he is going to respond to Obama's statement that he would pursue investigations into Bushco's actions once he is president. The shit is going to really start coming down now.

[Carl from L.A.]

pissed off patricia:

Absolutely right. I would like to suggest that anyone who hasn't read the bill of rights in a while do so. You will discover that nowhere does it indicate that its rights are for American citizens only. They are universal rights, and our government is responsible for protecting them for all people.

[Frederick]

Does this mean McCain himself can be tortured because he was born in Panama? Bust out the waterboards!

[Batocchio]

I'm sure Ann Coulter will push for an amendment to allow the torture of dark-skinnned people and Democrats.

Really repulsive of McCain.

[Weaseldog]

McCain is against everything he stands for.

He says that torture is evil, then votes for evil. Technically that is not flip-flopping. If he said he did not approve of torture, then voted for it, that would be flip flopping. He never once told us that he is against torture, or that he is against evil.

His voting record shows that he is pro-evil and believes in torturing POWs.

I'm sure that Michelle Malkin will stand beside Ann Coulter, in calling for the torture of dark-skinned people and Democrats.

[poetryman69]

Dubya is the torture president and he heads the torture administration.

And always by Dubya's side was his faithful dog, I mean companion, the VP FUtus of Borg.

Their motto: semper quiritatio. Always screaming.

For you who are not in the know, here is a scoop.

Neoconservatism is a Satanic cult. Why do you think they seek

100 years of death of maiming in Iraq that will result in a Shiite state

and very rich oil companies? Did you ever stop and think: what's in this

for us? Nothing, unless you are a member of a Satanic cult. After all,

Al Queda was not in Iraq until chief Satanist Dubya attracted them with

an illegal, immoral, unnecessary war.

To Dubya, you are the enemy. That's why he reduced your constitutional

rights to a fair and speedy trial, your right to counsel, and curtailed

your freedoms against search and seizure, rather than putting up a

fence on the border and checking everything and everyone that crosses into

our territory. Did anyone notice that all the terrorists come from Saudi Arabia

which Dubya did not attack? There is a bonus in all this. If you agree to

die for oil profits. If you agree to die to keep oil expensive and scarce. Dubya

may shed a tear for you.