If not for Fox News, certain bloggers, and the occasional YouTube clip, I would never know what drivel cometh from Rosie O’Donnell’s mouth. I would rather watch “Howard the Duck” on a repeating loop than five minutes of her gyno-vision horror show, “The View.” And it pains me to think Rosie’s audience might base their own geopolitical opinions on her rants.
Still, she has a show that lets her gab. A lot. If it’s a ratings ploy, then God bless her and Barbara Walters – they’re both much smarter than I thought. But Rosie seems determined to trump her own outlandishness on a weekly basis.
On the March 15th broadcast of the show, O’Donnell defended 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, offering that his confessions had been coerced. Co-panelist Elisabeth Hasselbeck, the mushy “conservative” of the group, asked, "You don't think he had ties to any of (the terrorist acts)?"
O’Donnell’s response completely ignored the question: "I think the man has been under custody in secret CIA torture prisons and Guantanamo Bay where torture is accepted and allowed – and he finally is the guy who admits to doing everything…and look, this is the picture they release of him. Doesn't he look healthy?"
The famous picture in question is indeed a winner. Mohammed looks like Ron Jeremy in long johns after a four-day bender. The trouble for Rosie is that the photo was taken immediately after his initial capture in 2003. (Perhaps she thinks he had a constitutional right to makeup and wardrobe before being photographed.)
She added, “I am sure the Americans tortured Mohammad and forced him to say these untrue things. Isn't it strange it took three years since his arrest for the supposed confession?"
Well, no. Not really. What possible reason would Mohammed, or any criminal for that matter, have to confess to their crimes simply because they were caught? Charles Manson has been in prison for over 30 years and still maintains the he had nothing to do with the Tate-LaBianca murders. Does Rosie think that the mere sight of an orange jumpsuit is enough to get these people to sing like a canary?
Please.
Now, she suggests that the incident involving British sailors seized by Iran is all just a big ploy for George Bush to start another war. She compares the entire episode to the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution, which served as the legal basis for America’s involvement in Vietnam. She offers up this fetid piece of tripe despite the fact that our military is already stretched to the breaking point from fighting in two theaters. (Indeed, the response thus far has been very reserved - as close to sitting one out as we’re going to see from the Bush administration).
Keep in mind that all these baseless “black helicopter” theories are coming from the same woman who opines that we should, to quote Month Python, “always look on the bright side of life”: "Faith or fear, that's your choice," she said, "you can walk through life believing in the goodness of the world, or walk through life afraid of anyone who thinks different than you and trying to convert them to your way of thinking.”
A nice sentiment, but it sounds like she got it from one of those posters that says “Leadership” or “Perseverance.” And what she really means is that we should have faith except when it comes to Republicans. If they’re involved, it must be some sort of nefarious, war-mongering plot involving oil, or perhaps Karl Rove boxing some innocent Gitmo detainee about the ears. (As for fearing those who think differently and trying to convert them, we should only hope that Al-Qaeda might someday take to heart the Tao of Rosie.)
Rosie dismisses much of the criticism leveled at her with the convenient excuse that she’s “just a comedian” and it’s part of her act; that she’s there to entertain. True to an extent, but once she started opining on the geopolitical landscape, her level of responsibility, and the measure by which her comments are judged, changed dramatically. She can’t just spew slanderous comments as if they were harmless quips about airline food. Yet she does, and will continue to do so as long as she has a vehicle for her loony comments.
Much to my dismay, but the folks at Fox News must be secretly delighted.