Bushies Tone Deaf to Torture by Music

by Sandy Sand

They’re a bunch of twisted sisters.

Bush, Cheney, Rummy and Gonzo, who authorized torture should have cells reserved for them at Gitmo after it’s closed and be treated to months of nonstop blaring music.

Heard often enough and loud enough, even the Star Spangled Banner would drive them crazy (like they’re not now), and make them hate the people who were doing that to them.

They can be joined by Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez, who was the U.S. military commander in Iraq, and -- according to the AP -- authorized torture by music on Sept. 14, 2003, "to create fear, disorient ... and prolong capture shock."

Any sane person would suffer from “prolonged capture shock” after a week of being held captive incommunicado by the U.S. or any entity and not knowing why or for how long.

According to the AP, prisoners in Iraq, Afghanistan, Guantanamo and other places were exposed to deafening music 20 hours a day for months for weeks and months on end.

If the prisoners were driven nuts by the incessant blaring of music, weren’t their guards made crazy by it, too? The best ear plugs in the world can’t shut out that kind of noise.

Talk about PTDS. I get it just thinking about it.

As much as many of us love “Bolero”, its composer Maurice Ravel hated it, because audiences demanded he play it at every concert.

Musicians are now banding together and requesting that the U.S. military cease and desist from play their music for the purpose of torture.

Especially outraged are Christopher Cerf and Bob Singleton, who wrote songs for Sesame Street, and were horrified at learning their music was being used for interrogation purposes.

Singleton, who composed I Love You for Barney told the AP that any music can become unbearable if played loudly for long stretches.

In an article for the Los Angeles Times Singleton said:

It's absolutely ludicrous. A song that was designed to make little children feel safe and loved was somehow going to threaten the mental state of adults and drive them to the emotional breaking point?

Unlike musicians, such as Cerf, Singleton and Tom Morello, who is now on tour now, will feature moments of silence during his concerts, some twisted, sick musicians are proud that their music is used to drive prisoners over the edge of sanity and to the brink of suicide.

According to one detainee, he would have killed himself if only he had the means to do so.

Perhaps bassist Stevie Benton of Drowning Pool, and whose Bodies is a favorite of torturers, needs some not so gentle persuasion via water boarding to have a change of heart after telling “Spin“ magazine:

People assume we should be offended that somebody in the military thinks our song is annoying enough that played over and over it can psychologically break someone down. I take it as an honor to think that perhaps our song could be used to quell another 9/11 attack or something like that.

An honor? The guy’s as mad as those who have heaped untold shame on our country with their use of torture, which according to experts, doesn’t work anyway. All interrogators will get is what the prisoners think their torturers want to hear.

Included on my list of those who think torture is a fine idea is Navy Cmdr. Pauline Storum, spokeswoman for Guantanamo's detention center, who wouldn't give details of when and how music has been used at the prison.

Widely reported are statements by FBI agents stationed at Gitmo is that there are repeated incidents where music was blasted at inmates and that “such tactics were common there."

The FBI agent stationed at Guantanamo Bay, who boasted in an FBI memo, that using this method he could "break" someone in four days by alternating 16 hours of music and lights with four hours of silence and darkness is also on my candidates’ list to be subjected to such treatment.

Blaring music, floods of water, extreme heat and cold, isolation, bodies frozen in one position for long periods of time, humiliation and other torture techniques should be suffered by anyone authorizing, condoning or participating in torture, and should be the sole inmates of the infamous prison after it’s shut down, confined there for an indeterminate period of time and receive the same treatment.

There isn’t a better use for the infamous facility.

Source: http://www.dailynews.com/news/ci_11178225

Punxsutawney Bush Sees Shadow. Experts Predict At Least Six More Weeks Of Hell

by Steve Young

Picture this: President Bush being held up by VP Dick Cheney in The Rose Garden.

President Bush, who has been hibernating over the past months -- either to keep from ruining John McCain’s presidential chances or so that he won’t royally botch up something else -- emerged from the White House yesterday to comment on the broken economy announcing that “The American people can be sure we will continue to act to strengthen and stabilize our financial markets and improve investor confidence.”

He then appeared to see his shadow, and after momentarily being held up by Vice President Cheney, so that all those who had come to witness the every four- year tradition, retreated back into his burrow.

In other news, Bill Murray has signed on to play a fictitious president who wakes up every day to find that he will be once again be screwing up the country the same as he does everyday.

“Next Day, Same President, Oh Shit!” starts filming February 2, 2009.

The satire and spoofery award-winning comedy writer Steve Young can be found on the appropriately named steveyoungonpolitics.com