A Moment of Silence

Given our collective attention span of about 25 seconds, I know this is a long clip to endure. But you should watch for several reasons.

One is to hear Ari Fleischer condemn the American people as too unqualified and too ignorant to make moral and ethical decisions about "what is and isn't torture." That's best left to their betters, to experts, he believes.

Second reason: To watch same Fleischer go all deer-in-the-headlights still and silent when asked why, if waterboarding isn't torture ("and it isn't" says Ari!), Japanese soldiers were executed by the United States for this same act committed by them against POWs during World War II. Seriously, he just sits and stares. I would never play poker with him after watching this, because you have no idea what's going on in his head, until he speaks again.

And that's the third reason: Fleischer lets loose with the slimiest off-the-cuff schoolyard-mentality obfuscation you've ever heard. It goes along the lines of "Well, so, you're just mad and stupid, and uh, the same at you guys! So there!" I expected him to ask for his ball back.

[A Daily Kos diarist has this up, too, with transcript.]