Rick Roberts, Idea Man
The current crop of right-wing talk show hosts pretty much have lined up in the same row. It’s as follows. Bush isn’t great but he’s better than any sicko liberal would ever be. The ACLU sucks. Illegal immigration must be stopped. We have to stay in Iraq because bad things will happen if we leave. Hillary Clinton is a threat to the nation. Bill Clinton was a terrible President and responsible for 9/11 somehow. Once in a while one of them comes up with a screwball notion that is actually compelling – at least to me. In this case it’s San Diego talker Rick Roberts who is suggesting, amidst serious skepticism, that the Saddam execution should be broadcast to the USA market via pay-per-view (PPV) and the proceeds distributed to the families of the dead and wounded soldiers. Apparently the local TV folks in Iraq will have cameras ready and it may be broadcast there. So it’s an easy process.
Personally I think the idea is brilliant and long overdue, especially for the apparent bloodthirsty American market which flock to Ultimate Fighting PPV broadcasts and other extreme events. Many viewers still think that professional wrestling is real. Perhaps they should be exposed to something that is real.
The drawback (or benefit, depending on your perspective) to this idea is having to listen to people moan-and-groan if such a plan comes to pass. Public executions are nothing new. It’s just a matter of time before they are broadcast. I say let’s do this one. Roberts is dead right.
It would be the mother of all executions! You can’t handle it!
That is possibly the most disgusting idea I have ever heard.
These same right wing guys will go on and on about the sanctity of human life when discussing abortion or suicide rights, but then it comes to executing a full grown human being and they think it should be entertainment.
where is the disconnect?
An embryo with 8 cells is to sacred to be used for stem cell research, but a full grown adult life is cheap enough to be broadcast on pay-per-view? give me a break.
I’m not going to even get into the argument about whether or not we should even have a death penalty, but to treat the death penalty as entertainment… that’s just terrifying.
visions of the movie idiocracy keep floating in my head
This is wrong on so many levels, but I will stick to one. As I read through the article, I saw Rick suggest that the families of … receive the proceeds. Before I actually finished the sentence, I thought Rick was going to sayt that the proceeds go to the families of the victims of Saddam’s brutality. Ha! That would make to much sense…
Instead, let’s give it to the family’s of lost American troops. Troops that were lost at the hand of … Saddam Hussein? No…. Not unless we’re talking about Gulf War I. To blame Saddam for the daily loss of American lives in Iraq today is delusional. The troops are dead because Bush put them there, not because of Saddam Hussein…
No!!!! Only people who have been hurt by him should be able to see it, not a bunch of death hungry ****heads.
People in Iraq are all but lining up to volunteer to be the executioner, so why not raffle it off? Maybe $5 or $10 per chance and use that money for something too. Why stop at pay per view? Go all the way and raffle off the executioner job too. It’s not like anyone will miss him.
Worst idea imaginable!
No No No. Reducing an execution to entertainment is evil and probably the worst idea ever.
This doesn’t do anything good, there is nothing good for us individually or as a country to see this. #3 is absolutely right.
I think the worst part is that it basically takes that standing that people wont donate money to help the familes of dead troops unless they get to watch someone get executed.
This or the Royal Rumble. I’m so confused.
The tapes of Americans cheering and hoisting cold beers in response to Saddam becoming a pendulum will go over in the mid-East about as well as the video of them cheering the fall of the WTC went over here. Do we really need to poke that bear with a stick any more than we already have?
I don’t care how it’s broadcast, I’ll just grab the torrent.
So I take it you are all anti-death penalty too. I say this because it seems to me that if you, as a society, are going to execute people it should be done in the open. It’s supposed to be a deterrent. Who is deterred if nobody sees it?
Public executions were popular in medieval times; we haven’t matured as a race since so why not? I wouldn’t watch it, but there are millions who will, so if there should be some good to come out of it then let it happen. I think the man to answer that question would be Saddam himself. A mega-ego such as his would most likely enjoy the idea, especially as he would be able to extract a good bit for his surviving family.
Actually, the best thing to do would be to stick him in a plastic prison, like Magneto’s, and let him rot.
And that brings to mind an interesting question; would he, in fact, have broadcast and royalty rights to his own execution? What strange and interesting times we live in.
Proceeds to U.S. soldiers? Why not to the families of people brutalized by him? How about we cut off Congressional funding for the war and use the PPV proceeds to pay for the wind-down?
I’m for it.
How much longer till we start having televised gladiator matches between death row inmates?
I will wait until it shows up on YouTube.
If it’s broadcast anywhere, it will be free on bittorrent in an hour.
rofl@15… i was gonna say the same thing i mean why shouldnt we just do what rome did and build a fucing colleseum?
I can’t believe the simmilarities between Rome at its fall and our country today.
SOYLENT GREEN IS PEOPLE!!!!
Bring it on, otherwise the conspiracy theorist will say that Saddam is living in the Lincoln bedroom as thanks for a job well done in Iraq over the years. They can also take bets in Vegas on whether he die by suffocation or a neck snap. I for one would definitely pay to see it.
OMG whats that sound?.. oh wait nevermind it was just history repeating itself.
*cough*Rome*cough*
I’m leaning towards the Royal Rumble.
PPV my ass. I already paid good tax money. I want it on PBS.
I’m somewhat amused at some of the passioned responsions here; while instead, what entered my mind was “Two minutes hate”
does anyone else see where that’s going?
I’m all about the death penalty where guilt is assured and the crime is heinous. And some of them should be public. But not this one.
I’m sitting here at 1:15pm Pacific time watching Iraq expert, Donald Trump, being interviewed on Fox News about the impending execution of Saddam and watching the other news stations salivate about it.
On CNN, one reporter mentioned talking to someone who had seen the gallows which are apparently in an open, if not fairly public location. Again on Fox it was discussed that either a tape of the hanging and/or the body must be shown publicly to make sure all political factions know for certain he is dead. Right now, they are discussing how the American stock markets will react (or not) to his death.
Who cares about PPV? His execution, photos of his body, etc will be on the web shortly. Technology has made PPV irrelevant.
Paddy Chayefsky had it right in his film, Network, only its happening on the Internet. Forget pr0n, with sites like orgish hosting execution, accident and worse videos, pain and death are everyday things that anyone can access 24/7.
“What are we, fucking barbarians?”
Yes. And we’re damn good at it.
No we should not broadcast it on Pay Per View! Are they F’n nuts???
Put it on Fox News online for Free! But make there be an age verification splash page, cause we know kids shouldn’t see it.
I’ve seen enough death, I’ll pass.
Porn for neocons…
I guess this is what the site sage (#11) is proposing.
I guess it’s true you become the monster you hate.
I guess this is what the site sage (#11) is proposing; if you can’t beat them join them.
http://www.rawa.org/murder-w.htm
I guess it’s true you become the monster you hate.