Celebrate Eduardo Galeano

Remembering George Tiller

Those who worked for Dr. Tiller and those who volunteered at the clinic shared their memories at a vigil, viewable here.

His family released this statement:

"Today we mourn the loss of our husband, father and grandfather. Today's event is an unspeakable tragedy for all of us and for George's friends and patients. This is particularly heart wrenching because George was shot down in his house of worship, a place of peace.

We would like to express the family's thanks for the many messages of sympathy from our friends and from all across the nation. We also want to thank the law enforcement officers who are investigating this crime.

Our loss is also a loss for the City of Wichita and women across America. George dedicated his life to providing women with high-quality heath care despite frequent threats and violence. We ask that he be remembered as a good husband, father and grandfather and a dedicated servant on behalf of the rights of women everywhere."

Abortion Provider Shot Dead

Feministe:

Dr. George Tiller was shot dead as he was walking into his Sunday morning church services.

Dr. Tiller was one of the few late-term abortion providers in the country. He had previously been shot, his clinic burnt down, harassed by ideological anti-abortion attorney generals, and threatened with death countless times. We’ve written about his many trials and tribulations here numerous times. Still, Dr. Tiller continued to provide abortions to women who desperately needed them, to save their own lives or health, or due to tragical fetal deformities. He put the health of women above his own life.

And now he is dead.

The perpetrator, a white male, no doubt proud of what he had just done, nevertheless fled the scene.

Perhaps the gawd who told the shooter to shoot Tiller also told him to flee to safety and pray for forgiveness. Jesus to the rescue.

Bill Donahue Defends Child Abuse

On his Catholic League site, Donahue calls most of the institutionalized children "delinquents." I guess that means they deserved the abuse.

In 2001, when he was serving as a cardinal, the current Pope led a cover-up of child abuse.

Lights, camera, no action: Schwarzenegger, go back to making crappy mainstream movies

If his handling of the prison system is any indication of his overall talents, we are in deep shit.

California Progress Report, August 2, 2006:

The State Controller’s audit documents a lack of oversight during the Schwarzenegger administration's watch and widespread waste of public funds. The main findings include the following:

• California is now spending $820 million for contracted-out prison health services. That’s $542 million more than when Schwarzenegger took office – a 300% increase. California spends $1.48 billion overall on the prison healthcare system – an increase of 53% since Schwarzenegger took office.

California Progress Report, May 29, 2009:

California remains on track to spend over $1 billion on the death penalty in the next five years, in the midst of the worst financial crisis in nearly a century. Incredibly, even as state officials announce that they must fill a deficit of $21.3 billion this year, and contemplate drastic cuts in the most basic of services, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger continues to support funding to pursue capital prosecutions -- a breathtakingly expensive and ineffective policy that does nothing to promote public safety.

No state spends more on the death penalty than California. A bipartisan panel of criminal justice experts, the California Commission on the Fair Administration of Justice, concluded last year that the state spends $125 million more each year on the death penalty than it would spend if we sentenced these same offenders to permanent incarceration, where they would die of natural causes. Because the state now houses 680 death row inmates, it must also build a new housing facility at a staggering estimated cost of $400 million.

Discover something new on the Web this Saturday (and Sunday and Monday and Tuesday and...)

The sooner you grow tired of your usual rotation of blogs, the better.

Discover something entirely new to you today!

For me, it is The Canyon Country Zephyr. Check it out!

Here's a snippet from an article by Jim Stiles (the publisher) in the June/July issue of the Zephyr:

Do you think green technology and more efficient vehicles and alternative energy like wind turbines and solar arrays will save us from destruction?

That is the philosophy and policy (though not always enunciated) of mainstream environmentalism, including the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) who said recently, “Reducing global warming pollution will have an imperceptible effect on economic output….We can stave off the biggest environmental and humanitarian crisis without disrupting economic growth.” NRDC, in fact, believes we can expand the economy and fix the environment simultaneously.

In most cases, as we have said again and again in these pages, the conservation movement throws down the gauntlet daily against the exploitation of our lands for the production of commodities. But it rarely raises a finger to object to the consumption of those commodities.

If you think that approach will save us from disaster, then you can move forward with a clear conscience, knowing that your new Prius and re-usable shopping bags will prevent the doomsday scenario that many suggest.

If you see the absurdity in that premise, then it is time at last, to say it out loud.

We are deluding ourselves and our “environmental leaders” are the most deluded of them all.

As Abbey once said, “What we need is something entirely different.”

That “something different” is the Truth.

Here's a trailer for Jim Stile's movie, Brave New West.


A reviewer writes of Brave New West, Jim Stile's book:

Stiles paints an unflinchingly accurate picture of how the tiny town of Moab became a crowded tourist town filled with fast-food joints and chain hotels. Longtime small business owners were forced out by the giant chain stores and T-shirt shops catering to out-of-town mountain bikers, Jeepers and ATVers. Alfalfa fields and orchards were sold to developers, who slapped up condos and luxury homes for mostly absentee owners, and conservative locals swamped by lycra-clad city dwellers. It's a sad and harsh reality, but Stiles manages quite a few laugh-out-loud moments: comedy is usually funny because it is so true.

The reason the book is important is that this phenomenon is repeating itself throughout the Western United States. Often local residents who may only make about $20,000 a year can no longer afford to live in the towns occupied by their families for generations. City dwellers take the equity from their city properties and invest it in rural land, driving prices out of sight, then bring their sharply different lifestyles to rural towns.

Most environmental groups have been completely silent on these issues, even as millions of new hikers trample the scenery into oblivion. Why? Perhaps because those same hikers and even some developers contribute hefty dollars to enviro groups. So while oil and gas companies contribute to the Bush administration, which then allows drilling on sensitive lands, environmental groups are running afoul of the same money trap--an ironic twist.

Good stuff!

Woo-hoo, web surfing!

An Edward Abbey moment

[source]

"Why have I always, instinctively, immediately, in every sort of social conflict, sympathized with the underdogs, the working or peasant class, the lower, weaker or oppressed side? Why do I tend to identify with them and not with the others - the powerful and rich, the established, authoritative, dignified class? ...mostly, because I hate the rich and powerful, and those who support them while not of them - servile and sycophantic natures: the servants, the lackeys, court jesters. They I despise more than any other."
- Edward Abbey, Confessions of a Barbarian

"The vampires of real estate, the leeches of finance, the tapeworms of profit, have fastened themselves to the body of my nation like a host from Hell. No wonder the land, the towns and villages, the old homes and farms and so many of the people wear that worn-out used-up blood-sucked bled-white look. Ill fares the land. The aliens are here. The body snatchers have arrived."
- Edward Abbey, The Fool's Progress

Obama focusing on Sotomayor upbringing, ignoring her opinions and her ideology

This is pointless.

"And this is what makes Judge Sotomayor so extraordinary. Even as she has reached the heights of her profession, she has never forgotten where she began. She has faced down barriers, overcome difficult odds, and lived the American dream. As a Justice of the Supreme Court, she will bring not only the experience acquired over the course of a brilliant legal career, but the wisdom accumulated over the course of an extraordinary journey – a journey defined by hard work, fierce intelligence, and the enduring faith that, in America, all things are possible."

For fuck's sake! Clarence Thomas had a tough upbringing, and look what happened to him. Stop with the American saga bullshit, Obama, and focus on her opinions.

"...her record makes clear that she is fair, unbiased, and dedicated to the rule of law."

No one is unbiased. No one. That's bullshit. Obama also brought up Reagan during his Soto promo:

"As a fellow judge on her court, appointed by Ronald Reagan, said recently, 'I don’t think I’d go as far as to classify her in one camp or another. I think she just deserves the classification of outstanding judge.'"

A Reaganite likes her? Is that supposed to give me more confidence in her?

And Bill Donohue of the Catholic League supports her? What does that tell you?

What "living within our means" means to Arnold.

S.F. Gate:

California state employees would lose 5 percent of their pay under the latest proposal by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger to help close a widening budget deficit, his spokesman said Thursday.

[...]

The only state workers who would not face a pay cut are legislators and court workers, who have their own budgets.

[...]

California would stop paying for school buses, in-home services would be cut for all but the most severely disabled people, and animal shelters would be able to euthanize strays after three days instead of six if Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's latest budget cuts are adopted.

The legislators in California make vastly more money that any other legislators in the country. It's hard work fucking up the state's budget.

La Raza Hearts Alberto Gonzales

Republicans call La Raza the Latino KKK. But the truth is more mundane. They are just another powerful organization that compromises its principles to win influence in Washington.

Here are the Democracy Now! headlines for Jan. 26, 2005:

Washington Post & NY Times Oppose Gonzales Nomination

Also on Capitol Hill today, the Senate Judiciary Committee is scheduled to vote on the nomination of Alberto Gonzales to be attorney general. Both the Washington Post and New York Times ran editorials today calling for the Senate to reject Gonzales’ nomination. The Post editorial reads in part: According to President Bush’s closest legal adviser, this administration continues to assert its right to indefinitely hold foreigners in secret locations without any legal process; to deny them access to the International Red Cross; to transport them to countries where torture is practiced; and to subject them to treatment that is “cruel, inhumane or degrading,” even though such abuse is banned by an international treaty that the United States has ratified." The Post editorial goes on to say, “In effect, Mr. Gonzales has confirmed that the Bush administration is violating human rights as a matter of policy.”

La Raza Endorses Gonzales

Gonzales however did win the endorsement Tuesday of the National Council of La Raza, the largest national Latino civil rights and advocacy organization in the country.

VP vs. VP

Vice President Biden had a ready response Tuesday to the accusation by his predecessor, Dick Cheney, that the Obama administration has made the nation less safe during its brief time in office.

"I don't think he is out of line, but he is dead wrong," Biden said on CNN's "The Situation Room." "This administration -- the last administration left us in a weaker posture than we've been any time since World War II: less regarded in the world, stretched more thinly than we ever have been in the past, two wars under way, virtually no respect in entire parts of the world. And so we've been about the business of repairing and strengthening those."



"I guarantee you we are safer today, our interests are more secure today than they were any time during the [previous] eight years," he continued.

---

Joe wins.

Old White Bigots

By John Ridley at HuffPo

Old white guys can be a funny bunch, can't they? The same anti-same-sex marriage, anti-affirmative action cadre can flower into the biggest supporters of "equality" the minute they get a whiff of minority empowerment.

To that end, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich is accusing Supreme Court Nominee Sonia Sotomayor of being a "new racist" because of a line she delivered in a speech back in 2001. Sotomayor is quoted as saying: "I would hope that a wise Latina woman with the richness of her experience would more often than not reach a better conclusion than a white male who hasn't lived that life."

Reasonable.

Unless you're, like, an aging geezer peaking out of your window at those scary dark-skinned people who just bought the house across the street. Then all your shriveled up little ears hear is a supposed corollary to Sotomayor's statement which is -- according to Newt -- "My experience as a white man makes me better than a latina woman" to which he added, "New racism is no better than old racism."

By the way, thanks for coming to the party late on that denouncement of "old racism."

But here's the deal, Newt, your "new racism" isn't like "old racism" 'cause "old racism" tended to involve things like shackles, and whips and the Middle Passage. Attack dogs, Billy clubs and water hoses. Burning crosses and lynch mobs. Confederate flags, liquor and screams of "Kill the (fill in pejorative here)!" "Old racism" was red lining and segregating and "whites only" drinking fountains, schools and country clubs. It was The Dred Scott Decision, Executive Order 9066, and the Trail of Tears. "Old racism" was a blind eye and "all deliberate speed" that wasn't deliberate or particularly speedy and nonsense about the sanctity of marriage which was crap when it was applied to "race laws" and is crap when applied to "one man/one woman."

"New Racism?" That's apparently a Latina openly talking about how "more often than not" she would like to avoid the "conclusions" that allowed "old racism" to thrive. That's a long way from getting your ass beat for trying to cross the Edmund Pettus Bridge so maybe your kids might one day enjoy the right to vote.

The fact that Newt would even attempt to compare "old racism" and "new racism" only proves Sotomayor correct in saying that experience based on fact is very different than that based on perception.

Newt, seriously, anytime you want to swap racisms give me a call.

The War Criminal and Sexpot Presidents Went to Chat, in Beautiful Green Leather Chairs...

TORONTO (Reuters) - Former U.S. Presidents George W. Bush and Bill Clinton traded jokes about life after the Oval Office and took turns defending each other as they shared a stage in Toronto on Friday to discuss global affairs.

And it soon became clear that they love each other madly, deepy. That is all.

I

The Owl and the Pussycat went to sea
In a beautiful pea-green boat,
They took some honey, and plenty of money,
Wrapped up in a five pound note.
The Owl looked up to the stars above,
And sang to a small guitar,
"O lovely Pussy! O Pussy, my love,
What a beautiful Pussy you are,
you are,
you are!
What a beautiful Pussy you are."

II

Pussy said to the Owl "You elegant fowl,
How charmingly sweet you sing.
O let us be married, too long we have tarried;
But what shall we do for a ring?"
They sailed away, for a year and a day,
To the land where the Bong-tree grows,
And there in a wood a Piggy-wig stood
With a ring at the end of his nose,
his nose,
his nose,
With a ring at the end of his nose.

III

"Dear Pig, are you willing to sell for one shilling your ring?"
Said the Piggy, "I will"
So they took it away, and were married next day
By the Turkey who lives on the hill.
They dined on mince, and slices of quince,
Which they ate with a runcible spoon.
And hand in hand, on the edge of the sand.
They danced by the light of the moon,
the moon,
the moon,
They danced by the light of the moon.

- Edward Lear

A noteworthy (albeit ugly) email

From Indict Bush now. As if we don't have enough reasons...

---

Torture Photos Show Rapes of Detainees,

Former Officer Confirms the real reason Dick Cheney

has become so loud: he's afraid

IndictBushNow.org has joined with the Partnership for Civil Justice Fund and the ANSWER Coalition to demand that the truth be told. We have filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request with the CIA, Department of Defense, Department of State and other agencies to reveal information in their possession about al-Libi’s imprisonment, torture, coerced false statements on Iraq and the circumstances of his death. To help support this effort, click here.

---

Each week brings shocking new revelations. The U.S. mass media is not reporting on the most explosive story of the week.

The world now knows why President Obama reversed his earlier decision to release the 2,000 photos of prisoners barbarically tortured, abused, and humiliated under the direction of the Bush/Cheney gang. Some of the photos of the prisoners show U.S. personnel torturing, sexual assaulting and raping male and female detainees, including children. The existence of these photos was confirmed by former Major General Antonio Taguba. Taguba had earlier been in charge of the inquiry into the Abu Ghraib jail in Iraq.

On May 21, Cheney went on national television to defend torture and sickeningly attacked Obama for sacrificing "innocent lives to spare a captured terrorist from unpleasant things." We'd like to hear him explain how rape and sexual assault are just "unpleasant things" that have spared innocent lives. The last few months has proven that the abuses, the sexual assault, and the most barbaric violations of human rights cannot be attributed to a few bad apples. Such tactics were commonplace, officially sanctioned and elevated to the level of government policy.

The torture methods, like the war itself, have never been about saving lives. A recent column in the Nation echoed what IndictBushNow reported last week: "The Bush administration, hellbent on justifying its forthcoming invasion of Iraq, was ransacking the intelligence bureaucracy to find or produce two things that, it turns out, did not exist: weapons of mass destruction programs in Iraq and cooperation between Al Qaeda and the regime of Saddam Hussein."

The Iraqi people have never waged war on the United States and no Iraqis took part in the attacks of 9/11. Bush & co. wanted to go to war, and were just looking for an excuse.

So why, given the recent revelations, has Dick Cheney responded so publicly in defense of the Bush administration's war crimes? He's afraid! He's not just concerned about preserving the administration's "legacy"—he's concerned about preserving his own neck.

Don't believe us? Take it from Cheney's daughter, Liz, who recently explained her father's outspokenness on CNN: "He certainly did not plan when he left office to be doing this... Then when [Obama] suggested in the Oval Office itself that he would be open to the prosecution of former Bush administration officials including many who weren’t political appointees potentially, you know really, I think, made my dad realize this was just fundamentally wrong. We had to speak out."

Our argument for prosecution is becoming irresistible. The fact is that every revelation lays bare a whole new level of criminality. The more details come about the Bush administration's heinous acts and deliberate deception of the American people, the more people are starting to talk about justice. Already, many people who once said, "we need to move forward" are beginning to reconsider: no one can move forward until we have come to terms with the country's past. That means accountability: the indictment of the criminals.

Obviously all that whipping did very little to instill a spirit of civility and looking forward.

Guardian.co.uk:

Rape and sexual molestation were "endemic" in Irish Catholic church-run industrial schools and orphanages, a report revealed today.

The nine-year investigation found that Catholic priests and nuns for decades terrorised thousands of boys and girls in the Irish Republic, while government inspectors failed to stop the chronic beatings, rape and humiliation.

[continues]

Rare glimpse of Bush supporters in Michigan

The former president was briefly let out of federal prison, where he is serving multiple life sentences for condoning torture, to speak to supporters in Michigan yesterday.

(Yes, his supporters do exist. They are old. They are white. They dote on their favorite war criminal.)

During the speech, Bush had kind words for President Obama, who has, in the spirit of bipartisanship and civility, refused to condemn the 43rd President's crimes: "I wish him all the best."

"We should have tortured Squeaky Fromme."

[source]

Will Doolittle (via Bad Attitudes):

If torture is fine, then, as Jesse Ventura asked recently, why didn’t we torture Timothy McVeigh to find out who helped him in the Oklahoma City attack? Why not torture murderers for the names of their accomplices? Why not torture prisoners of war for information about our enemies?

If, as Dick Cheney asserts, the end of squeezing information out of suspected al-Qaida terrorists justified the means of torturing them, then, surely, torture is worth doing in other circumstances where American lives are threatened.

We should have tortured prisoners we captured during the Vietnam War, for example, to find out what they knew about our enemy’s plans.

We should have tortured Squeaky Fromme after she tried to shoot Gerald Ford, to find out if any other members of the Manson family were planning to attack the president (one of them was).

We should torture teens caught plotting Columbine-style attacks to make sure no co-conspirators are left at large.

The question is not whether torture works. Let’s say it does. The question is whether the costs of employing torture outweigh the benefits of any information you glean. I think they do.

Home Creepot

Are you shopping at Home Depot? I hope not.

AlterNet:

Tomorrow shareholders attending The Home Depot's Annual Meeting will be confronted with protesters declaring "Dam The Home Depot, Save Patagonia's Rivers." The action is the latest in a series of events that aim to highlight the connection between The Home Depot and proposals to build a series of dams on the wild rivers of Chile's Patagonia.

[...]

Patagonia may be a long way from Atlanta, the corporate headquarters of The Home Depot, but the two are intimately connected through The Home Depot's supply chain. Every year, the Matte Group, considered the "de facto" owner of the Chilean energy company involved in the dam scheme, sells 50 million dollars of wood products to The Home Depot.

[...]

The Patagonia Dam controversy presents an opportunity for The Home Depot to demonstrate that its environmental commitments are more than just PR rhetoric, and to seal their reputation as an environmentally responsible company.

Yet, unless The Home Depot takes a responsible stand on this issue, a growing number of their customers will shop elsewhere for their building and home improvement materials. If The Home Depot is not pro-active, the Patagonia Dam controversy will turn their river of green promises into a flood of lost sales and lost reputation.

More at International Rivers.

Another triumph for the NRA

BBC News:

A three-year-old girl in the US state of California has accidentally shot her younger brother dead with a gun found in her home, say police.

The girl is believed to have found the .45 calibre semi-automatic handgun under her parents' bed.

Her two-year-old brother was taken to Kern County hospital with a critical chest wound but later died.

Police investigating the incident said the children's mother had been at home at the time.

Police Sgt Greg Terry said police would be looking at whether the weapon had been safely and securely secured.

"It's so important that if you're going to have firearms in your possession, make sure they're stored safely, so that incidents like this don't occur," local media quoted Sgt Terry as saying.

Contrary to popular belief, young children do possess the physical strength to fire a gun: 25% of 3 to 4 year olds, 70% of 5 to 6 year olds, and 90% of 7 to 8 year olds can fire most handguns. [source]

Uncertainty on the Left over Sotomayor's position on Roe v. Wade

Apparently, Obama declined to ask her about Roe v. Wade, so it's anyone's guess how she would respond to a challenge to it. The evidence gleaned from her opinions so far doesn't look so good. She's a traditionalist. In one case she wrote:

Local school authorities have the difficult task of teaching “the shared values of a civilized social order” — values that include our veneration of free expression and civility, the importance we place on the right of dissent and on proper respect for authority.

L.A. Times:

"I simply don't know Judge Sotomayor's view on Roe vs. Wade. I will be very concerned if the question is not asked and answered during the Senate hearings," Nancy Northup, president of the Center for Reproductive Rights, said Wednesday. "So far, no one has been able to give us an assurance of her views."

[...]

Last year, Obama's campaign said he would make "preserving a woman's right to choose under Roe vs. Wade a priority as president." This year he has sought to bridge the divide on abortion, saying America should try to find ways to reduce unwanted pregnancies and encourage adoptions. At the University of Notre Dame a week and a half ago, Obama called for "fair-minded" debate on abortion and a search for "common ground." To that end, he has formed a task force, with advocates on both sides of the issue.

Sotomayor, who was raised a Catholic in New York, has listed herself as a member of Childbirth Connection, a group that helps young mothers prepare for caring for a baby.

Two years ago -- in a case of concern to women's groups -- she joined an appeals court ruling that upheld a school district's policy requiring teachers to notify a parent if they saw that a girl was pregnant. The court said that the teachers had no legal basis for objecting to the policy.

And since her nomination to the high court Tuesday, several abortion rights advocates have said they remained unsure and uneasy over her views.

MSNBC:

In a 2002 case, she wrote an opinion upholding the Bush administration policy of withholding aid from international groups that provide or promote abortion services overseas.

“The Supreme Court has made clear that the government is free to favor the anti-abortion position over the pro-choice position,” she wrote, “and can do so with public funds.”

In a 2004 case, she largely sided with some anti-abortion protesters who wanted to sue some police officers for allegedly violating their constitutional rights by using excessive force to break up demonstrations at an abortion clinic. Judge Sotomayor said the protesters deserved a day in court.

[...]

In a 2007 case, she strongly criticized colleagues on the court who said that only women, and not their husbands, could seek asylum based on China’s abortion policy. “The termination of a wanted pregnancy under a coercive population control program can only be devastating to any couple, akin, no doubt, to the killing of a child,” she wrote, also taking note of “the unique biological nature of pregnancy and special reverence every civilization has accorded to child-rearing and parenthood in marriage.”

And in a 2008 case, she wrote an opinion vacating a deportation order for a woman who had worked in an abortion clinic in China. Although Judge Sotomayor’s decision turned on a technicality, her opinion described in detail the woman’s account of how she would be persecuted in China because she had once permitted the escape of a woman who was seven months pregnant and scheduled for a forced abortion. In China, to allow such an escape was a crime, the woman said.

Can we please stop burying the truth?

What kind of country refuses to confront its crimes? What kind of President ignores the past and tells the country to look forward, to avoid angering his political rivals? What message do we send the rest of the world when we fail to investigate the horrors we perpetrated?

How can I believe in my country if it won't stand for truth and justice?

Raw Story:

Speaking to the Daily Telegraph, Major General Antonio Taguba, the former army officer who in 2004 investigated and wrote a report on allegations of detainee abuse in U.S. prisons in Iraq, has confirmed the existence of graphic photographs depicting the following:

–An American soldier apparently raping a female prisoner.
–A male translator apparently raping a male detainee.
–A female prisoner having her clothing forcibly removed to expose her breasts.

Other photographs depict sexual assaults on prisoners with a truncheon, wire and a phosphorescent tube, according to the Telegraph story.

Sean Hannity: "it’s still not torture."

Via Raw Story some follow up on the Eric “Mancow” Muller torture session:

“I was willing to prove and ready to prove that this was a joke and I was wrong,” Muller continued. “It was horrific. It was instantaneous and look I felt the effects for two days. I had chest pains. I told my wife, look I have two little kids– we prayed. I said dear god help me. I had chest pains I was so stressed out by this.”

Mancow also revealed that his friend Sean Hannity “called me and said ‘it’s still not torture.’ I said, ‘Sean, you’re a friend of mine, but it is still torture.”

Mancow also thanked Olbermann for donating $10,000 to a charity benefiting veterans in response to his undergoing the technique.

Time to update the Geneva Convention against Torture:

CONVENTION AGAINST

NOT TORTURE

For the purposes of this Convention, NOT torture means any act by which severe pain or suffering, whether physical or mental, is intentionally inflicted on a person for such purposes as obtaining from him or a third person information or a confession, punishing him for an act he or a third person has committed or is suspected of having committed, or intimidating or coercing him or a third person, or for any reason based on discrimination of any kind, when such pain or suffering is inflicted by or at the instigation of or with the consent or acquiescence of a public official or other person acting in an official capacity. It does not include pain or suffering arising only from, inherent in or incidental to lawful sanctions.

Torture? Incarderate! The Turd-deen Torturers.

The Bush administration's Torture 13—excerpts

 

They authorized it,
they decided how to implement it,
and they crafted the legal fig leaf to justify it....

1. Dick Cheney, vice president (2001-2009)

Most shockingly, Cheney is reported to have ordered torture himself, even after interrogators believed detainees were cooperative. Since the 2002 OLC memo known as "Bybee Two" that authorizes torture premises its authorization for torture on the assertion that "the interrogation team is certain that" the detainee "has additional information he refuses to divulge," Cheney appears to have ordered torture that was illegal even under the spurious guidelines of the memo.

2. David Addington, counsel to the vice president (2001-2005), Chief of Staff to the vice president (2005-2009)

David Addington championed the fight to argue that the president—in his role as commander in chief —could not be bound by any law, including those prohibiting torture. He did so in two ways. He advised the lawyers drawing up the legal opinions that justified torture. In particular, he ran a "War Council" with Jim Haynes, John Yoo, John Rizzo and Alberto Gonzales (see all four below) and other trusted lawyers, which crafted and executed many of the legal approaches to the war on terror together.

3. Alberto Gonzales, White House counsel (2001-2005), and attorney general (2005-2008)

As White House counsel, Alberto Gonzales was nominally in charge of representing the president's views on legal issues, including national security issues. In that role, Gonzales wrote and reviewed a number of the legal opinions that attempted to immunize torture... Gonzales paved the way for exempting al-Qaida detainees from the Geneva Conventions. His memo claimed the "new kind of war" represented by the war against al-Qaida "renders obsolete Geneva's strict limitations on questioning of enemy prisoners."

4. James Mitchell, consultant

Even while Addington, Gonzales and the lawyers were beginning to build the legal framework for torture, a couple of military psychologists were laying out the techniques the military would use. James Mitchell, a retired military psychologist, had been a leading expert in the military's SERE program

5. George Tenet, director of Central Intelligence (1997-2004)

As director of the CIA during the early years of the war against al-Qaida, Tenet had ultimate management responsibility for the CIA's program of capturing, detaining and interrogating suspected al-Qaida members and briefed top Cabinet members on those techniques.

6. Condoleezza Rice, national security advisor (2001-2005), secretary of state (2005-2008)

Rice coordinated much of the administration's internal debate over interrogation policies. She approved (she now says she "conveyed the authorization") for the first known officially sanctioned use of torture—the CIA's interrogation of Abu Zubaydah... Rice's approval or "convey[ance] of authorization" led directly to the intensified torture of Zubaydah.

7. John Yoo, deputy assistant attorney general, Office of Legal Counsel (2001-2003)

Yoo drafted many of the memos that would establish the torture regime, starting with the opinion claiming virtually unlimited power for the president in times of war... He also helped draft a similar memo approving harsh techniques for the military... and even a memo eviscerating Fourth Amendment protections in the United States.

8. Jay Bybee, assistant attorney general, Office of Legal Counsel (2001-2003)

Bybee signed the memos named after him that John Yoo drafted. At the time, the White House knew that Bybee wanted an appointment as a Circuit Court judge; after signing his name to memos supporting torture, he received such an appointment.

9. William "Jim" Haynes, Defense Department general counsel (2001-2008)

His office first asked for information on "exploiting" detainees in December 2001, which is when James Mitchell is first known to have worked on interrogation plans. And later, in July 2002, when CIA was already using torture with Abu Zubaydah but needed scientific cover before OLC would approve waterboarding, Haynes ordered the SERE team to produce such information immediately.

Later Haynes played a key role in making sure some of the techniques were adopted, with little review, by the military. He was thus crucial to the migration of torture to Guantánamo and then Iraq. In September 2002, Haynes participated in a key visit to Guantánamo (along with Addington and other lawyers) that coincided with requests from DOD interrogators there for some of the same techniques used by the CIA.

Haynes ignored repeated warnings from within the armed services about the techniques, including statements that the techniques "may violate torture statute" and "cross the line of 'humane' treatment." ...On Nov. 27, 2002, Haynes recommended that Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld authorize many of the requested techniques, including stress positions, hooding, the removal of clothing, and the use of dogs—the same techniques that showed up later in the abuse at Abu Ghraib.

10. Donald Rumsfeld, secretary of defense (2001-2006)

Rumsfeld signed off on interrogation methods used in the military, notably for Abu Ghraib, Bagram Air Force Base and Guantánamo Bay. With this approval, the use of torture would move from the CIA to the military... Rumsfeld personally approved techniques including the use of phobias (dogs), forced nudity and stress positions... Rumsfeld also personally authorized an interrogation plan for Moahmedou Ould Slahi on Aug. 13, 2003; the plan used many of the same techniques as had been used with al-Qahtani, including sensory deprivation and "sleep adjustment." And through it all, Rumsfeld maintained a disdainful view on these techniques, at one point quipping on a memo approving harsh techniques, "I stand for eight to 10 hours a day. Why is standing limited to four hours?"

11. John Rizzo, CIA deputy general counsel (2002-2004), acting general counsel of the Central Intelligence Agency (2001-2002, 2004-present)

Rizzo provided a number of factually contested pieces of information to OLC—notably, that Abu Zubaydah was uncooperative and physically and mentally fit enough to withstand waterboarding and other enhanced techniques. In addition, Rizzo provided a description of waterboarding using one standard, while the OLC opinion described a more moderate standard. Significantly, the description of waterboarding submitted to OLC came from the Defense Department... Along with the description of waterboarding and other techniques, Rizzo also provided a document that called enhanced methods "torture" and deemed them unreliable—yet even with this warning, Rizzo still advocated for the CIA to get permission to use those techniques.

12. Steven Bradbury, principal deputy assistant attorney general, OLC (2004), acting assistant attorney general, OLC (2005-2009)

Acting Assistant Attorney General Steven Bradbury [wrote] three memos in May 2005 that would dismiss the concerns the IG Report raised—in effect, to affirm the OLC's 2002 memos legitimizing torture. Bradbury's memos noted the ways in which prior torture had exceeded the Bybee Two memo: the 183 uses of the waterboard for Khalid Sheikh Mohammed in one month, the gallon and a half used in waterboarding, the 20 to 30 times a detainee is thrown agains the wall, the 11 days a detainee had been made to stay awake, the extra sessions of waterboarding ordered from CIA headquarters even after local interrogators deemed Abu Zubaydah to be fully compliant... He notes the CIA's doctors' cautions about the combination of using the waterboard with a physically fatigued detainee, yet in a separate memo approves the use of sleep deprivation and waterboading in tandem.

13. George W. Bush, president (2001-2009) [saving the worst for last]

While President Bush maintained some distance from the torture for years—Cheney describes him "basically" authorizing it—[Bushit] served as the chief propagandist about [torture's] efficacy and necessity. Most notably, on Sept. 6, 2006, when Bush first confessed to the program, Bush repeated the claims made to support the Bybee Two memo: that Abu Zubaydah wouldn't talk except by using torture. And in 2006, after the CIA's own inspector general had raised problems with the program, after Steven Bradbury had admitted all the ways that the torture program exceeded guidelines, Bush still claimed it was legal.

"[They] were designed to be safe, to comply with our laws, our Constitution and our treaty obligations. The Department of Justice reviewed the authorized methods extensively, and determined them to be lawful."

With this statement, the deceptions and bureaucratic games all came full circle. After all, it was Bush who, on Feb. 7, 2002, had declared the Geneva Conventions wouldn't apply (a view the Supreme Court ultimately rejected).

Bush's inaction in torture is as important as his actions.... Yet, ultimately, Bush and whatever approval he gave the program is at the center of the administration's embrace of torture. Condoleezza Rice recently said, "By definition, if it was authorized by the president, it did not violate our obligations in the Convention Against Torture." While Rice has tried to reframe her statement, it uses the same logic used by John Yoo and David Addington to justify the program, the shocking claim that international and domestic laws cannot bind the president in times of war.

Bush's close allies still insist if he authorized it, it couldn't be torture.

---

FROST: So what in a sense, you're saying is that there are certain situations, and the Huston Plan or that part of it was one of them, where the president can decide that it's in the best interests of the nation or something, and do something illegal.

NIXON: Well, when the president does it that means that it is not illegal.

Well, when who else commits an illegal act is it not illegal?

Could a Dick Cheney- Rush Limbaugh ticket keep us safe?

Thanks, Politico. Satire at its finest.

---

North Korea’s recent decision to detonate an underground nuclear bomb and also test a short-range missile leaves Washington with only one question: WWDCD?

That’s right: What would Dick Cheney do?

In recent weeks, Cheney has emerged as the face of the new Republican Party. He has gone on TV not only to denounce the Obama administration for making America less safe but also to mock moderate Republicans like Colin Powell.

“If I had to choose in terms of being a Republican, I’d go with Rush Limbaugh,” Cheney said on CBS’s “Face the Nation.”

This led to immediate speculation that Cheney and Limbaugh intend to run as a ticket in the 2012 election. A full-blown international crisis like the one President Barack Obama is now facing with North Korea gives that possible ticket its first real test.
...
So there are four key questions to be asked today, questions that Cheney and Limbaugh certainly will ask in the weeks ahead:

1. Why didn’t U.S. commandos grab some high-ranking North Korean official, smuggle him out of the country by submarine, take him to Guantanamo and subject him to “enhanced interrogation techniques” until he spilled the beans about the nuclear tests? That way, the United States could have done … something. We do not know what. But something.

2. Why hasn’t Cheney been consulted on a daily basis since leaving office? As Cheney pointed out in his speech to the American Enterprise Institute on May 21, “Being the first vice president who had also served as secretary of defense, naturally my duties tended toward national security. I focused on those challenges day to day, mostly free from the usual political distractions.” (His experience with national security and freedom from political distraction did not lead him to prevent the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, but, hey, nobody is perfect.) The point Cheney was making is that he has this terrific résumé and even fewer distractions today, seeing as how he is out of work. “Today, I’m an even freer man,” Cheney said in his speech. So why don’t we have him under contract before somebody—Libya, Syria, Disneyland—snaps him up?

3. Why isn’t Rush Limbaugh’s radio show currently broadcast in North Korea? Why does our government not beam Limbaugh’s show into that country? It would be an instant hit. North Koreans know all about being “dittoheads.”

4. Why isn’t somebody being waterboarded right now? It has worked so well in the past. More

---

And we can't forget how he came into office with $20 million and left with $100 million. Helps to give no-bid contracts to Halliburton so you can increase your stock portfolio.

Tank Tancredo

The attacks on Sonia Sotomayor are coming in like a tidal wave by the extreme right, but former Rep. Tom Tancredo, one of the harshest critics of the Latino community ever to run for president, actually called her a racist. This is the man who boycotted the Univision debate and then attacked their entire audience.

On The Ed Show today, Mike Allen of The Politico was pretty on point saying that she's not anyone that the right could attack and wouldn't investigate her supposed racism, but Tancredo uses the already debunked and discredited talking point about Latino lady judges being smarter than the Tancredo- looking judges of the world.

Tancredo: Unfortunately for her and fortunately for us there are plenty of things that we've even talked about her already. I'm telling you, she appears to be a racist. She said things that are racist in any other context...
---
Tancredo: You can still be a racist and have all those things in your background. You can be a racist and have all that stuff in your background.

Ed: How aggressive do you want the Republicans to be on the judiciary committee?

Tancredo: I think there's plenty of stuff that they can use and should. They should do to her what the Democrats did to Bork.

Ed: Like what?

Tancredo: I would continually bring up this quote of hers, I'd like her to explain that. It is incredible to me. There is no one else I can think of who could possibly have said the kind of things she said, If they are reported accurately about the benefits of being a brown women as opposed to a white man and interpreting the law and nobody can look at that and say that was not a racist, sexist statement that would disqualify anybody else...She is a Hispanic woman and we can't say anything like this..

His form of racism is an affront to all decency. As I've said before, I do not speak Italian because of the racism my grandparents endured when they came to America. He's Italian and he should be ashamed of himself. Why is this man on TV talking about race in America? What does he have to add? Here's one of Tancredo's racist campaign ads.

Tancredo's racism is such that he's the darling of the Malkin wing of the GOP. He's a man who even called Miami a "Third World country.”

I'm not kidding. And let's not forget his "bombing Mecca," statements either.

This isn't the pot calling the kettle black. It's the pot calling the tablecloth black.

---

With thanks to new MSNBC correspondent (and it's high time) Ed Schultz.

Hero in the Military

MARFA, Texas—U.S. Army Specialist Victor Agosto, a veteran of the U.S. occupation of Iraq who is refusing deployment to Afghanistan

“It’s a matter of what I’m willing to live with,” Specialist Victor Agosto of the U.S. Army, who is refusing orders to deploy to Afghanistan, explained to IPS. “I’m not willing to participate in this occupation, knowing it is completely wrong.”

Agosto, who returned from a 13-month deployment to Iraq in November 2007, is based at Fort Hood in Killeen, Texas.

While in Iraq, Agosto never left his base, located in northern Iraq.

“I never had any traumatic experiences, never fired my weapon,” Agosto told IPS in a phone interview. “I mostly worked in information technology, working on computers and keeping the network functioning well. But it was in Iraq that I turned against the occupations. Through my reading, and watching what was going on, I started to feel very guilty.”

Agosto added, “What I did there, I know I contributed to death and human suffering. It’s hard to quantify how much I caused, but I know I contributed to it.”

Having served three years and nine months in the U.S. Army, Agosto was to complete his contract and be discharged on Aug. 3. But due to his excellent record of service and accrued leave, he was to be released the end of June. Nevertheless, due to the stop-loss programme, the Army decided to deploy him to Afghanistan anyway.

Stop-loss is a programme the military uses to keep soldiers enlisted beyond the terms of their contracts. Since Sep. 11, 2001, more than 140,000 troops have had tours extended by stop-loss.

A copy of his Counseling Form from the Army, dated May 1, reads, “You will deploy in support of OEF [Operation Enduring Freedom] on or about [XXXXX] with 57th ESB. This is a direct order from your Company Commander CPT Michael J. Pederson.”

Agosto posted copies of the Counseling Statements issued by the Army on his Facebook page. Counseling Statements outline actions taken by the Army to discipline Agosto for his refusal to obey a direct order from his company commander.

On one of them, dated May 1, Agosto’s written statement appears: “There is no way I will deploy to Afghanistan. The occupation is immoral and unjust. It does not make the American people any safer. It has the opposite effect.”

In another, dated May 18, he wrote: “I will not obey any orders I deem to be immoral or illegal.”

On that day, Agosto was ordered to get his medical records in preparation to deploy to Afghanistan. He refused to do so. The Army threatened to take punitive measures, but Agosto wrote on the Counseling Statement, “I am not going to Afghanistan. I will not take part in SRP [Sealift Readiness Programme].”

If Agosto continues to refuse orders, he almost assuredly will face court martial, and likely jail time.

When IPS asked Agosto if he is willing to take whatever consequences the Army is prepared to mete out, he replied, “Yes. I’m fully prepared for this. I have concluded that the wars [in Iraq and Afghanistan] are not going to be ended by politicians or people at the top. They are not responsive to the people, they are responsive to corporate America.”

Agosto added, “The only way to make them responsive to the needs of the people is if soldiers won’t fight their wars, and if soldiers won’t fight their wars, the wars won’t happen. I hope I’m setting an example for other soldiers.”

Agosto has overtly refused to follow any order that has anything to do with his taking an action that would support the occupation of Afghanistan. For a time, according to Agosto, he was given simple orders to clean the motor pool, or pull weeds.

“They switched that recently,” he told IPS, “I’ve continued to be fairly defiant, so on Tuesday I have to meet with Trial Defense Services, which then begins the process of getting an Article 15, which is movement towards being court-martialed, if these reprimands continue.”

“If I take the Article 15, I’ll take a reduction in rank and pay. I don’t’ know what is going to happen. I agreed to sweep the motor pool and pull weeds, but nothing else that I feel directly supports the war. I’m not going to follow orders I’m not comfortable with.”

Agosto’s case is not unique. The group Courage to Resist, based in Oakland, California, actively engages in assisting soldiers who refuse to deploy to Iraq or Afghanistan.

“Although the efforts of Courage to Resist are primarily focused on supporting public GI resisters, the organization also strives to provide political, emotional, and material support to all military objectors critical of our government’s current policies of empire,” reads a portion of the group’s mission statement.

IPS spoke with Adam Szyper-Seibert, an office manager and counselor with Courage to Resist.

“Currently we are actively supporting over 50 military resisters like Victor Agosto,” Szyper-Seibert told IPS, “They are all over the world, including André Shepherd in Germany, and several people in Canada. We are getting five to six calls a week just about the IRR [Individual Ready Reserve] recall alone.”

U.S. Army Specialist André Shepherd, who went AWOL after serving in Iraq, has applied for asylum in Germany after refusing military service because he is morally opposed to the occupation of Iraq.

The IRR is composed of former military personnel who still have time remaining on their enlistment agreements but have returned to civilian life. They are eligible to be called up in “states of emergency.” The Army is currently undertaking the largest IRR recall since 2004, despite the recent inauguration of a so-called anti-war president.

Szyper-Seibert said that the number of soldiers contacting Courage to Resist has been increasing dramatically in the last year, and particularly in recent months.

“The number of soldiers contacting us is increasing,” he explained, “With five to six IRR’s contacting us a week, plus others going absent without leave [AWOL], the numbers are all climbing, as compared to a year ago. Since May 2008, we’ve had a 200 percent jump in how many soldiers are contacting us.”

According to Courage to Resist, there have been at least 15,000 IRR call-ups since Sep. 11, 2001, for deployments to Afghanistan and Iraq.

Sgt. Travis Bishop, who served 14 months in Baghdad and is also stationed at Fort Hood, recently went AWOL when his unit deployed to Afghanistan.

Like Agosto, Bishop feels it is immoral for him to deploy to support an occupation he morally opposes.

“I love my country, but I believe that this particular war is unjust, unconstitutional and a total abuse of our nation’s power and influence,” Bishop’s blog reads, “And so, in the next few days, I will be speaking with my lawyer, and taking actions that will more than likely result in my discharge from the military, and possible jail time… and I am prepared to live with that.”

The reason he made this decision is addressed in his blog.

“My father said, ‘Do only what you can live with, because every morning you have to look at your face in the mirror when you shave. Ten years from now, you’ll still be shaving the same face.’ If I had deployed to Afghanistan, I don’t think I would have been able to look into another mirror again.”

Education Nation (Not)

Some thoughtful comments on today's N.Y. Times education story.

#24:

The destruction of our public school system, once the foundation of the American middle class, directly results from the elitist-republican and neoconservative-democrat coup d'etat wherein the elites realized they don't have to put money into our schools anymore. With globalization, they could just import workers, however educated or not, and put them to work anywhere around the globe. This, combined with the prosecution of unjust wars designed to line the pockets of those in service of the elite controlled military-industrial complex yielded the bankruptcy of this nation.

Obama once questioned why we can spend billions of dollars each month in a war against a country that had nothing to do with 9/11. Now, he continues the war on one front, opens it up on another, and our country continues to slide into depression while we keep hearing Cheney crow about the so-called "war on terror," which is nothing more than a ploy to get Americans to give up their rights, freedoms, and transfer wealth to weapons manufacturers connected to the global financial system. This is a scam and it really stinks. Too bad most Americans are buying the propaganda that is being fed to them about the "war". Americans will unfortunately regurgitate the rhetoric of the Fox News crowd by proclaiming their freedoms to the world as they lose more and more of them in the name of spreading democracy around the world. We need to get back to policies that rebuild America domestically, starting with the education of our young people. We must look out for our citizens, and stop encouraging the export of death in the name of democracy. Perhaps then we'd have the will and the money to fund our schools properly.

#39:

It is ludicrous that we spend half of the U.S. budget on the military each year, we're bailing out the parasites of Wall Street and Banks and working people like our teachers are again carrying the load for the wealthy and our entrenched lunatic corporatocracy. It is well past time for a massive redistribution of wealth in our country. No working person can afford to give up wages when our salaries have been stagnant for so long. Take from the rich and the inflated military to benefit all of us. We are not a safer or better nation when we strip down our children's education. Time to rise up against the status quo where the wealthy, powerful and greedy rule the rest of us!

From the "Bitter Psycho" Files

Cheney Urges Obama to Name

Bitter Psycho to Bench

Former Vice President Dick Cheney weighed in today on President Obama's impending choice to replace Justice David Souter on the U.S. Supreme Court, urging the President to name a bitter psycho to the bench.

Appearing on NBC's "Meet the Press," Mr. Cheney said that the President's choice to replace Justice Souter "should send a strong message to bitter psychos across the country that they will have a voice" on the nation's highest court.

Mr. Cheney's comments were widely interpreted as a sign that he himself was angling for a position on the Supreme Court, a charge he flatly designed. [What? He's not a bitter psycho?]

"I have no designs on the Supreme Court," Mr. Cheney said. "There are many other embittered psychotics out there who could do an excellent job."

Mr. Cheney said that his own time was better spent "driving down the Republican Party's approval rating to zero." [The first good thing he'd ever do in his life...]

I'll be back as much as I can, No. 44. But, keeping up with you is an impossibility. Amazing commentary!

Cheap Food is an Illusion

Watch the trailer for the movie Fresh.

"What the United States needs more than anything is some full-bore truth-telling before we slip into a fascistic, Orwellian dystopia."

Dan Hamburg & Lewis Seiler:

Little has changed since Barack Obama assumed the presidency. The imperial agenda of the United States proceeds unabated with record military spending, expanded wars and prolonged occupations. Enabled by the president’s choice of lifelong deregulators Larry Summers and Timothy Geithner to mastermind the economic “recovery”, the financial sector continues to fleece the taxpayers.

[...]

At his 100 Days press conference, the president called the ethical meltdown that led Americans to torture a “mistake”. Hauled before Congress to explain the financial meltdown that gathered steam on his watch, Alan Greenspan explained his “mistake” of “presuming that the self-interests of…banks…were such that they were best capable of protecting their shareholders.” In a similar vein, we’ve heard repeatedly that the Iraq war—with no WMDs found and no post-shock and awe plan—was another “mistake.”

How come these brilliant, highly educated and compensated people keep making supersized “mistakes?” Perhaps because they aren’t mistakes at all.

What the United States needs more than anything is some full-bore truth-telling before we slip into a fascistic, Orwellian dystopia. We could start by admitting that we preyed upon Iraq not because that country was perceived as a threat but because, after 10 years of sanctions, Iraq was no threat at all. In fact, it was ripe for the picking.

[...]

Was the financial meltdown a mistake? According to University of Texas Professor James K. Galbraith, “You had fraud in the origination of the mortgages, fraud in the underwriting, fraud in the ratings agencies.” Committing fraud is not the same as making a mistake. Fraud, according to our dictionary (American Heritage, 2nd ed.), is “deception deliberately practiced in order to secure unfair or unlawful gain.” Fraud is not a mistake.

[...]

Make no mistake, we the people are being taken for a very expensive ride, an unpleasant ride that our children and grandchildren will be forced to take as well. The elites that own the wealth, fund the politicians and control the message are on the verge of stealing our birthright of “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness” in a democratic society.

Well said.

Ian Welsh:

It’s one of the ironies of democracy that we’re all responsible, collectively, and yet each of us, individually, can say “but not me, I voted against him” or “I protested against that policy”. And because it’s true, each of us can feel, in the end, that the deaths and suffering caused by the society, whether in war, or through a horrific medical system, or through abuses in the penal system, aren’t our fault.

But is it true? Or is it true instead, that we failed, that we support the system with both our consent and our tax dollars, and that we are therefor complicit in what it does?

Silence = Complicity

Prop Hate D-Day is Tomorrow

DayofDecision.com:

Depending on what the court decides, we will either PROTEST or CELEBRATE

We will PROTEST if:
-- The court upholds Prop 8, and invalidates the 18,000 same-sex marriage licenses that California already issued;

or,

-- The court upholds Prop 8, but upholds the 18,000 same-sex marriages already performed, which would be a cruel, but pyrrhic victory for equality.

We will CELEBRATE if:
-- The court rejects Proposition 8 and says that same-sex couples are entitled to the marriage rights that heterosexual couples already have.

So call, email, Facebook, Twitter your friends – DAY OF DECISION actions are TUESDAY NIGHT!

War Prayer Day

James Carroll:

A Robert Draper article in Gentleman's Quarterly revealed that some of the top-secret "World Wide Intelligence Briefings" that Rumsfeld provided to Bush were covered with photographs of Americans at war, and captions taken from Scripture. In one, above a huddle of GIs apparently at prayer, is the question famously put by God, "Whom shall I send and who will go for Us?" Over the soldiers is the answer from Isaiah: "Here I am, Lord. Send me." Above a trooper hunched over a machine gun is this promise from Proverbs: "Commit to the Lord, whatever you do, and your plans will succeed." Another cover shows Isaiah-inspired US tanks: "Open the gates that the righteous nation may enter."

Sent by God. Protected by God. Sure to succeed. The righteous nation. A war defined not merely as just, but as holy. Such manifestations are one thing from eccentric religious groups operating on the fringe of the US military, in space guaranteed by freedom of religion. It is another when they show up at the peak of the chain of command - and from inside the intelligence community, which is charged with nothing less than defining the character of America's wars.

This Memorial Day, "if we are not total hypocrites, in the sense of the gospels, we will pay attention to our own crimes."

“This Memorial Day weekend, Americans will gather on lawns and porches, fire up the grill, and enjoy the company of family, friends and neighbors. But this is not only a time for celebration. It is also a time to reflect on what this holiday is all about; to pay tribute to our fallen heroes; and to remember the servicemen and women who cannot be with us this year because they are standing post far from home –- in Iraq, Afghanistan and around the world.”
- Barack Obama, May 23, 2009

Crackle.... crackle.... bizz... fffffffft....We interrupt this all-American Memorial Day moment for a flashback to May 30, 2002.

Bennett: We have done more good for more people than any country in the history of the world. What I want to know of Mr. Chomsky is if he believes we are a leading terrorist state, he is obviously welcome in the United States, why do you choose to live, sir, in a terrorist nation?

CHOMSKY: First of all, the World Court condemned the United States for what it called "the unlawful use of force and violation of treaties."

BENNETT: Which is not terrorism.

CHOMSKY: That's international terrorism.

BENNETT: No, it is not.

CHOMSKY: Yes, it is exactly international terrorism.

BENNETT: No, it is not, sir.

CHOMSKY: Furthermore, the escalation to attack undefended civilian targets is just a classic illustration of terrorism. And furthermore, it continues right to the present, as I was saying, so for example...

BENNETT: It's quite...

CHOMSKY: May I continue?

BENNETT: Sure.

CHOMSKY: In the late 1990s, some of the worst terrorist atrocities in the world were what the Turkish government itself called state terror, namely massive atrocities, 80 percent of the arms coming from the United States, millions of refugees, tens of thousands of people killed, hideous repression, that's international terror, and we can go on and on.

BENNETT: America responsible for hideous repression and refugees? Why is it, Mr. Chomsky, whenever there are refugees in the world, they flee to the United States rather than from the United States? Why is it on balance, Mr. Chomsky, that this nation, when it opens its gates, has people rushing in? Why is it that it is this nation the world looks to for support and encouragement and help? We rebuilt Europe twice in this century, after two world wars. We liberated Europe from Nazi tyranny. We have liberated Eastern Europe in the last few years from communist tyranny, and now we are engaged in a battle against something else. When we went in to Kabul, even the "New York Times" in mid- November showed pictures of people smiling at the presence of American troops, because this country was once again a force for freedom, and a force for liberation. Have we done some terrible things in our history? Of course we have. But as Senator Moynihan has pointed out, our people find out about them from reading the newspapers and watching television. When you look at this nation on balance, in terms of what good it has done and what bad it has done, it is grossly irresponsible to talk about this country as a terrorist nation, and to suggest, as do you in your book, that there is justification, moral justification, for what happened on 9/11. For that, sir, you really should be ashamed.

CHOMSKY: You should be ashamed for lying about what is in the book, because nothing is said -- in fact, the quote was just given, nothing can justify the terrorist attacks of September 11. You just heard the quote, if you want to falsify it, that's your business.

BENNETT: No -- well, I...

CHOMSKY: Just a minute -- did I interrupt you? Did I interrupt you?

ZAHN: Professor, let me jump in here, but implicit in that -- aren't you saying that you understand why America was targeted?

CHOMSKY: Do I understand? Yes, so does the U.S. intelligence services, so does all of scholarship. I mean, we can ignore it if we like, and therefore lead to further terrorist attacks, or we can try to understand. What Mr. Bennett said is about half true. The United States has done some very good things in the world, and that does not change the fact that the World Court was quite correct in condemning the United States as an international terrorist state, nor do the atrocities in Turkey in the last few years -- they are not obviated by the fact that there are other good things that happen. Sure. That's -- you are correct when you say good things have happened, but if we are not total hypocrites, in the sense of the gospels, we will pay attention to our own crimes. For one reason, because that's elementary morality -- elementary morality. For another thing, because we mitigate them.

We will pay attention to our own crimes? Sorry, Noam, no, we won't. We don't do regret. We do Memorial Day.

Here's another great Chomsky clip - on Turkey, Clinton, and state terror:

Memorialize this...

"This confrontation is willed by God,
who wants to use this conflict
to erase his people's enemies
before a New Age begins."
- George W. Bush

Context via AlterNet:

In 2003 while lobbying leaders to put together the Coalition of the Willing, President Bush spoke to France's President Jacques Chirac. Bush wove a story about how the Biblical creatures Gog and Magog were at work in the Middle East and how they must be defeated.

And you know he is sitting in Texas, convalescing from his torture-filled presidency, self-righteously thinking the same stupid, bat-shit crazy thoughts (encouraged by a constant flow of kind letters from his doting fans on the religious right).

You may now return to "looking forward" with "Committed Christian, Called to Bring Change" (but not too much change) Barack Obama.

I don't like Obama anymore

Hope (for better things), relief (that George W. Bush was gone), and deep concern (over health care, the bank bailout, Afghanistan, and the unreleased torture photos) have given way to antipathy (due to the President's refusal to support prosecution for torture and his assumption of dictatorial powers over detainees).

I doubt that this feeling will go away anytime soon.

13 Bush Officials Who Made Torture Happen

Read this article by Marcy Wheeler. It condenses the whole torture story into 27 chilling paragraphs. Cheney has been smoked out of his hole and forced onto the t.v. talk shows in large part because of the work of truth-seekers like Marcy. Her work can be supported: here.

1. Dick Cheney, vice president (2001-2009)

2. David Addington, counsel to the vice president (2001-2005), chief of staff to the vice president (2005-2009)

3. Alberto Gonzales, White House counsel (2001-2005), and attorney general (2005-2008)

4. James Mitchell, consultant

5. George Tenet, director of Central Intelligence (1997-2004)

6. Condoleezza Rice, national security advisor (2001-2005), secretary of state (2005-2008)

7. John Yoo, deputy assistant attorney general, Office of Legal Counsel (2001-2003)

8. Jay Bybee, assistant attorney general, Office of Legal Counsel (2001-2003)

9. William "Jim" Haynes, Defense Department general counsel (2001-2008)

10. Donald Rumsfeld, secretary of defense (2001-2006)

11. John Rizzo, CIA deputy general counsel (2002-2004), acting general counsel of the Central Intelligence Agency (2001-2002, 2004-present)

12. Steven Bradbury, principal deputy assistant attorney general, OLC (2004), acting assistant attorney general, OLC (2005-2009)

13. George W. Bush, president (2001-2009)

Californian? VOTE BROWN IN 2010!!!

Brown Files Criminal Charges Against Three Individuals Who Operated $200 Million Ponzi Scheme

Redding - Attorney General Edmund G. Brown Jr. last night filed 79 criminal charges against three men who "callously swindled" thousands of individuals, including many retirees who lost their life savings, in a $200 million Ponzi scheme.

The defendants—James Stanley Koenig, 57, of Redding; Gary T. Armitage, 59, of Healdsburg; and Jeffery A. Guidi, 54, of Santa Rosa—were arrested late last night and are now in custody. Bail has been set at $5 million each.

"These three men callously swindled thousands of individuals out of $200 million to bankroll their extravagant lifestyles," Brown said. "They took investors money and used it to pay for an 80-acre castle estate, a Lear jet, luxury homes and fancy cars. The Ponzi scheme ultimately collapsed under its own weight, causing hardship to thousands, many of whom were retirees who lost their life savings." [more...

I will find and soundly pummel any California resident who does not vote for Jerry Brown as California's Governor in 2010. Here are the first of 25 reasons why.

VOTE BROWN IN 2010!

A thought...

Original note to Lee (who's really a great guy):

I'd far rather have Joe Biden as VP with his outstanding wife, Dr. Jill Biden, than war profiteer (treasonous) Cheney and his Stepford wife Lynne. Poor Lynne Cheney: the thought of spreading my legs for that evil fuck Cheney makes me want to commit Hiri Kiri, which I imagine is a far more pleasant experience.

Hello friends. My computer died from excessive blogging and I'm working insane hours. However, I will try to visit more often. What would I do without No. 44 and Wednesday who kept this little space alive? I'm a bit out of the loop, but I'll catch up

Pardon my absence. I'll be back as much as possible.

Less monoculture agriculture, more ecological agriculture

Ian Welsh:

...the world needs less monoculture agriculture and more ecological agriculture. Not just because it is more sustainable and the world is on track to create massive dust bowls in the US, China and India due to overuse of water, but because grain based diets are inherently less healthy than more varied vegetable diets. A huge amount of the current pandemic of degenerative diseases in the 1st world, which is at its worst in the US, can be laid at the feet of the the Standard American Diet (SAD), which consists of far too much sugar, starch, grains and corn based foods denatured of natural nutrients. This diet has contributed heavily to an epidemic of obesity, diabetes, heart disease and cancer. Likewise, what was once known as “adult onset diabetes” is now common in childhood, and obesity.

The real cause of the first world’s crisis in health care costs is that people are just sicker than they used to be, not just when they get old, but at every stage of their life. And that is largely a reflection of how we now eat, combined with lack of regular exercise. As nations famed for their good health adopt a more American diet (like the French) the incidence of obesity and chronic degenerative disease immediately rises.

It is thus in the first world’s interests to stop with the heavy subsidization of grain and corn, to allow third world nations to protect their farm economies from foreign competition and to move, themselves, to an agriculture which produces more highly nutrient dense vegetables and less grains and corn. This will pay back, in the long run, with lower healthcare costs and a healthier, more productive population.

From the March 2009 issue of the Journal of the American Dietetic Association (via USA Today):

• French fries are the most common type of vegetable children eat. Fries account for about one-quarter of children's vegetable intake.

• Juice makes up about 40% of kids' fruit intake.

• Fruit and vegetable consumption is greater in families with higher incomes. Earlier research has shown that this is because fresh produce can be expensive, and there often aren't stores that sell it in low-income neighborhoods.

Russ Feingold votes against Guantanamo closing

Sigh. Only six brave Senators came forward. Six.

Durbin (D-IL)
Harkin (D-IA)
Leahy (D-VT)
Levin (D-MI)
Reed (D-RI)
Whitehouse (D-RI)

The rest succumbed to fear-mongering.

Electronicmaji:

What was the goal of the Terrorists? To create Terror in the American people. And oh did they succeed. Within hours our Stock Market laid in shambles, fear mongering and price gauging became the new norm. At the Gas Station next to the house I was staying at the Line of Cars went for several miles down main street. Almost instantly the price of Gasoline had skyrocketed, increased by 50%.

Such was our Hysteria we gave our President the freedom to go to War with whoever he wanted, however we wanted. So strong was the fear mongering that we let him take away our very own freedoms.

And today that Fear Mongering and Hysteria has returned. The Terrorists have succeeded not only in terrorizing us, but in changing our way of life.

They have made it so that the Senate itself, ignoring all process of law, blanketly declares and labels a large group of people illegally arrested as Guilty before proven Innocent.

Obama ready to incarcerate indefinitely for thought crimes

Obama:

Finally, there remains the question of detainees at Guantanamo who cannot be prosecuted yet who pose a clear danger to the American people.

I want to be honest: this is the toughest issue we will face. We are going to exhaust every avenue that we have to prosecute those at Guantanamo who pose a danger to our country. But even when this process is complete, there may be a number of people who cannot be prosecuted for past crimes, but who nonetheless pose a threat to the security of the United States. Examples of that threat include people who have received extensive explosives training at al Qaeda training camps, commanded Taliban troops in battle, expressed their allegiance to Osama bin Laden, or otherwise made it clear that they want to kill Americans. These are people who, in effect, remain at war with the United States.

Ian Welsh:

In other words, people who have committed no crime which can be proved in a court of law, including the crime of conspiracy, will be held indefinitely without a trial.

[...]

This is punishment for a thought crime. It is also exactly the same rationale used by the Bush administration.

These Bison Need a Good Lawyer

Support Earthjustice, in court to secure the bison's right to the grasslands where they live.

Support the Buffalo Field Campaign, "the only group working in the field, everyday, to stop the slaughter and harassment of Yellowstone's wild buffalo."

How the Park Service sees it: "acceptable tolerance" or death

[source]

This is a great cause. It's also one more reason not to eat meat.

Shift to the "Center"

THIS MAKES ME SICK!

I didn’t vote for Bill Clinton in 2008:

"Broadly, the findings indicate that it's politically dangerous for the new president and his fellow Democrats who control Congress to move too far to the left on domestic and foreign issues, lest they turn off middle-of-the-road voters whose support was critical in 2008 and will be important in upcoming elections.

The results also suggest that the public recently has rejected the GOP for poor performance, not because it disagrees with the party's positions on key issues. That means beleaguered Republicans looking to rebound must convince voters they are still good stewards of those values while improving the GOP's image and morale."

I DON'T CARE if "the new centrism" is bad for the GOP.

Well, maybe I care a little, but that’s not my point: if our federal pendulum is just swinging between ultra-conservatives and centrists, then this survey just confirms my fears of how skewed to the right this country has become.

And people wonder why they’re screwed!