Tuesday, November 20, 2007

President Pardons Turkeys; Gitmo Detainees Remain

President Bush pardoned three turkeys in Indiana today. Much like the detainees in Gitmo, it was unclear if they were being detained for specific crimes or simply held in imprisonment for five years because they appeared suspicious. Sources could not be confirmed but many hinted that the turkeys may have been waterboarded during questioning before being pardoned and released. The families of the turkeys could not be reached for immediate comment.

On the campaign trail, Senator Clinton responded to the news by indicating that education and health care for turkeys in New York has improved dramatically due to legislation she sponsored in the Senate. Barrack Obama berated the Bush administration for showboating as the turkeys were sent to Disney World after their release. Fred Thompson felt that lowering taxes would raise the standard of living for turkeys everywhere. Mitt Romney said, "Mmmm . . . turkey."

5 comments:

Erin said...

Am I reading this correctly?

Paula said...

As a Democrat and a vegetarian, I am uncertain of how to take this. All I can say for sure is that I'm not eating any meat tomorrow and Gitmo continues to offend me, as it should everyone else.

Steve Lamp said...

I don't know Erin. How are you reading it?

Erin said...

You're talking about turkeys as in birds?

Steve Lamp said...

Yes, the facts of the post are that every year the President pardons a turkey as part of an absurd Thanksgiving tradition. This year, President Bush pardoned two (I first heard three, maybe the third was Scooter Libby) turkeys from Indiana. The birds spared from their dinner-time fate were in fact sent to Disney World where they will be parade marshalls.(http://weblogs.baltimoresun.com/news/politics/blog/2007/11/bush_pardons_turkeys_gobbling.html)

The rest of the post is pure satire, seizing the opportunity to remind of the injustice of detaining prisoners of war without due process of law at Gitmo and the probability that torture tactics have been used in interrogations. While I feel the blame for this falls on President Bush there is also a measure of responsibility on other national leaders so I attempted to demonstrate the indifference of this matter shown by the current political rivals.