More on Rhetoric (Moron Rhetoric?)

And while I'm up writing and posting tonight... When will we, as a nation, stop falling for the cheapest of rhetorical tricks? It's amazing to me how readily so many of us fall into the trap of letting the President (and others) misdirect us with debating tactics which would be disallowed in any Logic and Argument 101 class or debate club in any high school in the nation.

Today, in specific, I'm talking about President Bush's response to the hold up on the confirmation hearings for Attorney General nominee Mukasey. General Mukasey has been asked a fairly simple question: Does he believe the technique known as “water-boarding” is torture? So far, he has refused to give a definitive answer to this question.

President Bush's response to this is that it's unreasonable for Congress to expect General Mukasey to comment on the tactic because he has not been fully briefed on whether we're using it or not, and that if he had been briefed on it, it wouldn't be reasonable for him to give away state secrets by testifying about it.

But think about the question that was actually asked, and let's change it slightly. If General Mukasey were asked “Is putting a prisoner's eyes out torture?” does he need to know whether we have a policy of blinding people in our custody in order to render a legal opinion on the topic? Heck, if he were asked “Is this a nice tie?”, does he really need to know whether we ever intend to wear it before he can give his opinion on the aesthetics of the tie?

President Bush goes to every length he can to make Congress appear unreasonable, but if you actually pay attention to the logic, it is HE who is unreasonable, expecting Congress to rubber stamp yet another Presidential nominee who refuses to answer an important question.

And by the way, while we're sort of on the topic of water-boarding, to those who don't think it's torture, would you feel the same way if it were done to our soldiers? Would it be just hunky dory with you if we found out that when our soldiers were captured they were held down and had water poured over their faces to simulate drowning? What about extreme temperatures, being subjected to very cold temperatures naked, or sleep deprivation for days on end? And if you STILL think all that's OK, do you mind if we do it to you?

Don't fall for the rhetoric. When the President says that without the immediate passing of the supplemental funding bill, soldiers will go without armor, remember that this is the same armor his own Defense Department has been woefully inadequate in supplying over the course of this war, and that far from immediate, the supplemental funding won't kick in until the current funding actually runs out, which isn't likely to be until the second quarter of next year. And when the President demands that Congress send him a “clean” bill without any attachments, remember that in his forty plus billion dollar request there's at least two billion of unrelated spending, so it's not just Congress attaching things to war funding.

And really, when the President says that it's unreasonable for Congress to expect a legal opinion out of a nominee for the position of Attorney General, wonder if he also thinks it's unreasonable to ask him if he likes pizza before he's been briefed on whether you plan to offer him any.

If you learn nothing else from my blog, learn to see through the rhetorical tricks and think for yourself. Learn to go beyond the mere mantra that politicians can't be trusted and actually try to see through their words and think for yourself. Don't let anyone do your thinking for you. Not Rush Limbaugh or MoveOn.org. Not Sean Hannity or Keith Olbermann. Not news outlets or bloggers. Not even me. Think critically, and don't let lying tactics win by being too lazy to give even the most cursory examination into the veracity of the things you're told.

Liam.