Thursday, September 28, 2006



The campaign ad we'd like to see

US Congressional elections are in November, and Canadian blogger Rusty Idols has a campaign ad which should be playing all over the US until then. For those who can't be bothered waiting for YouTube, it has a very simple message. Against a backdrop of photos from Abu Ghraib, it asks:

President Bush and his Republican Congress support torture.

Do you?

And just to ram the point home to predominantly Christian US voters, it ends with a picture of a crucified Jesus and asks "Would He?"

This is what the US election is about. And we just have to hope that the decent Americans win out over the monsters.

[Hat tip: Vast Left Wing Conspiracy]

4 comments:

Jesus himself spoke of how we should treat our enemies:

"You have heard that it was said, 'Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.' But I tell you: Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you..."

Matt 5.43-44

Sometimes I think it's a shame that the Biblical literalists don't take the Bible literally.

Posted by Muerk : 9/28/2006 07:36:00 PM

That sounds (I haven't watched the Youtube video) too abstract to work well. Mr Canadian blogger should have stuck with a single detailed story, that of his countryman Maher Arar who was grabbed while changing planes at JFK (airport in NYC) in 2002 and flown (rendited?) to Syria and brutally tortured, beaten with metal bars etc.. The latest NY Times story on that case was a few days ago here. I think that it's one of the most awful things I've read: it combines the (i) depravity of torture with the (ii) insanity of the US shipping people to its hardest core *enemies* to do that shit (this is up there in terms of basic craziness with the US selling wepons to Iran back in the 80's when they were supposed to be supporting Iraq against Iran at that point) and (iii) the visceralness/"that could be anyone" of someone (a Canadian no less) being grabbed not on a battlefield but in a US airport and sent to hell. Putting the question to Americans about that *one* case and then mentioning that the latest b/s "compromise" legislation means that nobody can ever be charged over it, and explaining that abuses like the Arar case are allowed for in the Bill (any x can designated an enemy combatant, flown to God knows where and have God knows what done to them and no one need ever know since habeas corpus is history). I think something like that would hit the shame and "take action now" points harder and better.... (perhaps end with a note of what a great victory Bush and co have given Osama - the US is now back in the 12th Century and has been lured into destroying itself.... that's a little cute, but somebody smart should be able to figure out how to say it).

Posted by Anonymous : 9/28/2006 09:37:00 PM

Thanks for the link - I didn't create the ad but I'm happy to have helped more people see it.

Posted by Cliff : 9/29/2006 01:37:00 AM

An excellent ad. If only it would get substantial airtime.

Posted by Anonymous : 9/29/2006 09:48:00 AM