"Torturers"....How we got there.... from NY Times

November 14, 2005
Op-Ed Contributors
Doing Unto Others as They Did Unto Us
By M. GREGG BLOCHE and JONATHAN H. MARKS

Washington — How did American interrogation tactics after 9/11 come to include abuse rising to the level of torture? Much has been said about the illegality of these tactics, but the strategic error that led to their adoption has been overlooked.

The Pentagon effectively signed off on a strategy that mimics Red Army methods. But those tactics were not only inhumane, they were ineffective. For Communist interrogators, truth was beside the point: their aim was to force compliance to the point of false confession.

Fearful of future terrorist attacks and frustrated by the slow progress of intelligence-gathering from prisoners at Guantánamo Bay, Pentagon officials turned to the closest thing on their organizational charts to a school for torture. That was a classified program at Fort Bragg, N.C., known as SERE, for Survival, Evasion, Resistance, Escape. Based on studies of North Korean and Vietnamese efforts to break American prisoners, SERE was intended to train American soldiers to resist the abuse they might face in enemy custody.

The Pentagon appears to have flipped SERE's teachings on their head, mining the program not for resistance techniques but for interrogation methods. At a June 2004 briefing, the chief of the United States Southern Command, Gen. James T. Hill, said a team from Guantánamo went "up to our SERE school and developed a list of techniques" for "high-profile, high-value" detainees. General Hill had sent this list - which included prolonged isolation and sleep deprivation, stress positions, physical assault and the exploitation of detainees' phobias - to Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, who approved most of the tactics in December 2002.

Some within the Pentagon warned that these tactics constituted torture, but a top adviser to Secretary Rumsfeld justified them by pointing to their use in SERE training, a senior Pentagon official told us last month.

When internal F.B.I. e-mail messages critical of these methods were made public earlier this year, references to SERE were redacted. But we've obtained a less-redacted version of an e-mail exchange among F.B.I. officials, who refer to the methods as "SERE techniques." We also learned from a Pentagon official that the SERE program's chief psychologist, Col. Morgan Banks, issued guidance in early 2003 for the "behavioral science consultants" who helped to devise Guantánamo's interrogation strategy (we've been unable to learn the content of that guidance).

SERE methods are classified, but the program's principles are known. It sought to recreate the brutal conditions American prisoners of war experienced in Korea and Vietnam, where Communist interrogators forced false confessions from some detainees, and broke the spirits of many more, through Pavlovian and other conditioning. Prolonged isolation, sleep deprivation, painful body positions and punitive control over life's most intimate functions produced overwhelming stress in these prisoners. Stress led in turn to despair, uncontrollable anxiety and a collapse of self-esteem. Sometimes hallucinations and delusions ensued. Prisoners who had been through this treatment became pliable and craved companionship, easing the way for captors to obtain the "confessions" they sought.

SERE, as originally envisioned, inoculates American soldiers against these techniques. Its psychologists create mock prison regimens to study the effects of various tactics and identify the coping styles most likely to withstand them. At Guantánamo, SERE-trained mental health professionals applied this knowledge to detainees, working with guards and medical personnel to uncover resistant prisoners' vulnerabilities. "We know if you've been despondent; we know if you've been homesick," General Hill said. "That is given to interrogators and that helps the interrogators" make their plans.

Within the SERE program, abuse is carefully controlled, with the goal of teaching trainees to cope. But under combat conditions, brutal tactics can't be dispassionately "dosed." Fear, fury and loyalty to fellow soldiers facing mortal danger make limits almost impossible to sustain.

By bringing SERE tactics and the Guantánamo model onto the battlefield, the Pentagon opened a Pandora's box of potential abuse. On Nov. 26, 2003, for example, an Iraqi major general, Abed Hamed Mowhoush, was forced into a sleeping bag, then asphyxiated by his American interrogators. We've obtained a memorandum from one of these interrogators - a former SERE trainer - who cites command authorization of "stress positions" as justification for using what he called "the sleeping bag technique."

"A cord," he explained, "was used to limit movement within the bag and help bring on claustrophobic conditions." In SERE, he said, this was called close confinement and could be "very effective." Those who squirmed or screamed in the sleeping bag, he said, were "allowed out as soon as they start to provide information."

Three soldiers have been ordered to stand trial on murder charges in General Mowhoush's death. Yet the Pentagon cannot point to any intelligence gains resulting from the techniques that have so tarnished America's image. That's because the techniques designed by communist interrogators were created to control a prisoner's will rather than to extract useful intelligence.

A full account of how our leaders reacted to terrorism by re-engineering Red Army methods must await an independent inquiry. But the SERE model's embrace by the Pentagon's civilian leaders is further evidence that abuse tantamount to torture was national policy, not merely the product of rogue freelancers. After the shock of 9/11 - when Americans desperately wanted mastery over a world that suddenly seemed terrifying - this policy had visceral appeal. But it's the task of command authority to connect means and ends rationally. The Bush administration has too frequently failed to do this. And so it is urgent that Congress step in to tie our detainee policy to our national interest.

M. Gregg Bloche is a law professor at Georgetown University and a visiting fellow at the Brookings Institution. Jonathan H. Marks, a barrister in London, is a bioethics fellow at Georgetown and Johns Hopkins.

I'm on a new quest...in search of 'unreasonable' women

so here's the start..

Molly Ivins - thank you for your recommendation of "An Unreasonable Woman - a true story of Shrimpers, Politicos, Poluters and the fight for Seadrift, Texas" about and by Dian Wilson ... truly An Unreasonable Woman

Request your "An Unreasonable Woman" ... free button

Join/support CODE PINK for Peace


Thanks to Tom Dispatch for the introduction:

"A Felon for Peace" - A Tomdispatch Interview with Ann Wright

Buddhist story about courage:

A notorious bandit came to the Buddha one day and informed him that he was the most fierce and brave bandit in all the world, and was going to demonstrate it by killing the Buddha. “Ah,” said the Buddha. “If you are that powerful, you can grant me two wishes before I die.”

“All right,” said the bandit, “but be quick. Time is short, and I have many more people to kill.”

The Buddha pointed to a young sapling tree growing nearby, and said “Cut off the smallest branch on that young tree.” The bandit laughed, and with one quick swipe of his sword, it was done and the tiny branch fell to the ground. The Buddha picked it up.

“Now, old fool,” said the bandit, “what is your final wish?”

The Buddha handed the tiny branch to the bandit, pointed to the tree, and said, “Now put it back on.”

Legend has it that the bandit achieved enlightenment in that instant.

This is not mine... and I don't take credit... I'd give credit, but it was a quote within a quote..and I don't know who to give credit too...

That said:

What Do You Call It?

1. What do you call it when a group of people take the law into their own hands and kill people without a fair trial?
~ A lynching
What do you call it when the United States takes the law into its own hands and kills people without a fair trial?
~ Operation Enduring Freedom

2. What do you call someone who explodes a bomb and kills innocent people?
~ A terrorist
What do you call someone who drops a bomb from a plane and kills innocent people?
~ A brave American pilot

3. What do you call a weapon that can kill thousands of people?
~ A weapon of mass destruction.
What do you call a weapon that has killed 1.5 million, including more than 500,000 children?
~ Sanctions

4. What do you call an attack on the Pentagon, a command and control center in the United States?
~ A cowardly attack
What do you call the destruction of an Afghan village by U.S. bombs?
~ An attack on a Taliban command and control center

5. What do you call it when about 3,000 people were killed in the September 11th attack?
~ An atrocity
What do you call it when about 5 million people were killed in the Vietnam war?
~ A mistake

6. What do you call someone who stands up in front of a crowd and tells stories?
~ An entertainer
What do you call someone who stands up in front of a crowd at the Pentagon and tells stories?
~ Donald Rumsfeld

I been reading a lot of comments pro-con on the Miers appointment to the Supreme Court.. the pros: "she could be a LOT worse" the cons: "anyone who thinks Bush is brilliant and is his confidant is BAD".. "croynism over competency"

I think I like Steve Clemons measured take:

It will be interesting to hear to what degree Miers holds sacred the delicate but vital system of checks and balances that make this nation a democracy and which the Bush administration has spent so much political capital trying to undermine.

All that said, there could have been far worse choices for the Supreme Court -- so I am of mixed views on Miers.

Nonetheless, I think that it should become standard practice for ALL committees of the United States Senate tasked with considering the credentials of an Executive Branch political nominee to read the following short passage ALOUD at the opening of a confirmation hearing:

Alexander Hamilton, Federalist Papers, "The Appointing Power of the President," No. 76

To what purpose then require the co-operation of the Senate? I answer, that the necessity of their concurrence would have a powerful, though, in general, a silent operation. It would be an excellent check upon a spirit of favoritism in the President, and would tend greatly to prevent the appointment of unfit characters from State prejudice, from family connection, from personal attachment, or from a view to popularity. . . . He would be both ashamed and afraid to bring forward, for the most distinguished or lucrative stations, candidates who had no other merit than that of coming from the same State to which he particularly belonged, or of being in some way or other personally allied to him, or of possessing the necessary insignificance and pliancy to render them the obsequious instruments of his pleasure.

Another highly Unqualified appointment by the Bushies:
Chair of the Texas Lottery Comission surely qualifies one as a Supreme Court Justice, or is it being a graduate from Souther Methodist University??

Harriet Miers Biography
Harriet Miers serves as Counsel to the President. Most recently, she served as Assistant to the President and Deputy Chief of Staff, and prior to that she was Assistant to the President and Staff Secretary. From 1995 until 2000, she was chair of the Texas Lottery Commission. Harriet received both her undergraduate and law degrees from Southern Methodist University.

An interesting tie in from an old Greg Palast article:

Gregory Palast
Sunday January 21, 2001
The Observer
Congratulations to George W Bush and to Camelot on their victories.
More than a year ago, we reported that the Government had decided to let Camelot retain control of the National Flutter in perpetuity. That was two weeks before the formal bidding process began. Despite our announcement, Richard Branson soldiered on, refusing, like the last dinosaur, to heed the voice whispering: 'Excuse me, but you're extinct.'
Yes, there was a moment in October when Oflot announced Branson as the putative winner. But I wasn't fooled. In 1968, a young George W. Bush, not the brightest campfire on the prairie, somehow got chosen to be a fighter pilot for the Texas Air Guard over hundreds of other young men eager to defend Dallas from bomber attack. The job, incidentally, carried an exemption from the Vietnam war draft.

Both Presidents Bush, past and future, deny that they used influence to get young George the Air Guard post.
Years passed. George fils became Governor of Texas. Gtech, already in control of the Texas lottery, was in hot water. An audit had questioned the company's proficiency as operator in Texas, its top sales representative was jailed in 1996 for bribery in New Jersey and, in 1997, the company was caught paying a consulting fee to the boyfriend of the Texas lottery director.
The remainder of the story may sound awfully familiar to Richard Branson.
The Texas lottery was opened up for bids, and a Gtech competitor was designated as having the best offer. Transfer from Gtech was subject only to review and negotiations. Then - surprise! - Bush's lottery commission dumped its new director, dropped the apparent winning bidder, and the head of the state Lottery Commission, Harriett Miers, announced it was best simply to stick with Gtech. Linda Cloud, executive director, said it offered the best deal.
Up until 1997, Gtech had a lobbyist, a politico named Ben Barnes, to whom Gtech paid more than $23 million. Some malevolent soul had written to the US Justice Department earlier claiming that Barnes had fixed for Bush Jr to get the Guard slot - information which Barnes allegedly used to lock in Gtech's lucrative Texas contract for good.
But that letter, and the accusations in it, remained buried until a year ago when, confronted with it, Barnes stated in an affidavit that, indeed, it was he who called the Guard for young George.
Barnes denies he used this information for Gtech. Bush and Gtech also deny any link between Bush's military service and the Gtech contract.
In the middle of Gtech's US troubles, it flew the Tory government's lottery regulator into Texas. Oflot's Peter Davis endorsed the UK's emulating the 'Texas Model' of lottery licensing. This model is based on granting almost all aspects of a lottery to a single licence-holder. The problem, say experts, is that once the initial operator is chosen, it is in practice impossible for anyone to win the licence.
In Britain Camelot, using Gtech's technology and operations, won that initial contest based on its Texas and other 'experience' over your raw crew, Richard. This was after, you may recall, Gtech's chairman, who has since resigned, tried to bribe you out of the competition.
Tony Blair, then in opposition, promised reform. That should have been your first warning, Richard. Labour, once in power, rather than force Camelot to dump Gtech, permitted the consortium to shuffle the corporate ownership, and transform Gtech, from lucrative partner into lucrative prime contractor.
Labour's 1998 reform of the Lottery Act kept the single-licence Texas Model.
And, just in case you did not get the hint, the new law provided no end-of-licence transition period, making it impossible to transfer the system to a new operator.
The fact that Labour effectively saved Gtech's bacon in 1998 has absolutely nothing to do with an idea mentioned in 1997 by a would-be Gtech lobbyist.
The lobbyist, Derek Draper, told me (into my hidden tape recorder) that his friend Peter Mandelson needed someone to 'sell tickets for this ridiculous Dome thing. Gtech is offering to do that via the National Lottery [ticket]-selling equipment.' Draper added: 'Now it doesn't take a lot to work out that if the Government thinks Gtech can sell government tickets for the Dome, it's got to be a legitimate firm to sell tickets for the lottery.'
Gtech's one and only use of its machines for a purpose other than the lottery was to sell Dome tickets, at no charge to the Government.
Labour's 1998 reform virtually locked in the Camelot-GTech group.
Nevertheless, Gtech nearly blew it by concealing a computer cock-up that ate some wagerers' winnings. That required another corporate reshuffle, with Camelot promising to sever its links with Gtech.
'Severing' Gtech, the Observer's Jamie Doward disclosed on Christmas Eve, means Camelot will pay Gtech about £230m under the new licence, more than it received under the last one. That's no surprise. Camelot's promise to cut off Gtech, as one industry wag said, 'is like promising to sever their arms and legs'. At an operating level, Camelot can't function without its technology.
How appropriate that the Lottery Commission confirmed the Camelot-Gtech group's new licence a week after Al Gore conceded his victory to George W. Bush. So who was the real winner of the presidential contest? Some might say Bill Gates. One of Dubya's first appointments was of the key Secretary for White House Matters: attorney Harriet Miers, the US lottery commissioner who dealt with Gtech's contract.
'Harriet was always flying to Seattle [home of Microsoft]', says Lawrence Littwin, the Texas Lottery director Miers fired in 1997. That's no surprise, as her law firm represented Gates at the time. Miers will, of course, have to give up her interest in the law practice while working for the White House.
Some wonder whether Bush, as President, will continue the Justice Department's push to break up Microsoft. Watch this space ...
Before the 7 November event that some Americans call an election, the Florida Governor Jeb Bush and his Secretary of State, Katherine Harris, ordered the removal of several thousand felons from the state electoral rolls. A little investigation on our part revealed that these 'arch criminals' had not, in fact, committed felonies. They were not innocent: almost all were confessed Democrats, and half of them were African-Americans. They lost their right to vote, costing Gore the White House.
The list of faux felons was provided by the firm contracted by the state to search records is ChoicePoint DBT. This company's board is stuffed with Republican bigwigs, though ChoicePoint denies it favours any party.
Our report caused some discomfort in the States. Of a thousand letters I received, one stood out: 'You pansey [sic] Brits think that the average American is under-educated and stupid. Yor [sic] story is full of outright lies.'
But rather than seeking a correction, the writer made some uncomfortable suggestions for the improper use of the Prince of Wales.
Now, a coalition of America's leading civil rights lawyers, acting for the National Association for the Advancement of Coloured People, has filed a class action suit against the Florida Secretary of State, Katherine Harris and ChoicePoint for 'wrongfully purging black voters', which, it turns out, is a violation of the US Constitution. ChoicePoint says the claims are baseless.
The NAACP's lawyers thanked The Observer for uncovering the facts. Unfortunately, unlike our letter writer, they had no suggestions as to what we should do with the Prince.

From the LA Time Group... report by watchdog group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington

The 13 members of Congress recommended for investigation by the watchdog group are:

• Sen. Bill Frist: The report accuses him of violating federal campaign finance laws in how he disclosed a campaign loan. It also calls for an inquiry over his recent sale of stock in HCA Inc., his family's hospital corporation. The sale has raised questions about possible insider dealing. Frist aides confirmed Friday that the SEC was investigating. They have denied claims of campaign finance violations.

• Rep. Roy Blunt: The report criticizes him for trying to insert provisions into bills that would have benefited, in one case, a client of his lobbyist son and in another case, the employer of his lobbyist girlfriend, now his wife.

• Sen. Conrad Burns: The report says that questions arose over $3 million in appropriations he earmarked for an Indian tribe in Michigan that was a client of lobbyist Abramoff. The senator received substantial campaign contributions from Abramoff and various clients.
"Sen. Burns did nothing wrong, and any accusation to the contrary is pure politics," said James Pendleton, his director of communications. He said Burns had earmarked the appropriation at the request of the Michigan congressional delegation.

• Rep. Bob Ney: The report says the chairman of the House Administration Committee went on a golf outing to Scotland in 2002, arranged by Abramoff, at a time when the congressman was trying to insert a provision into legislation to benefit one of Abramoff's tribal clients.
Ney reported to the House that the trip was paid for entirely by the National Center for Public Policy Research, a conservative think tank, which denied paying any of the costs. Ney has said he had been duped by Abramoff.

• Rep. Tom Feeney: The report says he incorrectly reported that a golf trip to Scotland with Abramoff in 2003 was paid for by the National Center for Public Policy Research, which denied it. A Feeney aide said the congressman had been misled. Questions also have arisen about two other privately funded trips.

• Rep. Richard W. Pombo: He paid his wife and brother $357,325 in campaign funds in the last four years, the report says. He also supported the wind-power industry before the Department of Interior without disclosing that his parents received hundreds of thousands of dollars in royalties from wind-power turbines on their ranch.
Brian Kennedy, a spokesman for Pombo, said that "each of the charges is baseless." He called the watchdog group "a Democratic attack group, and all of their charges should be taken with a grain of salt."

• Rep. Maxine Waters: The report cites a December 2004 Los Angeles Times investigation disclosing how members of the congresswoman's family have made more than $1 million in the last eight years by doing business with companies, candidates and causes that Waters has helped. Before publication of the Times investigation last year, Waters declined to be interviewed, but said of her family members: "They do their business, and I do mine."

• Sen. Rick Santorum (R-Pa.): The report says he encountered controversy over disclosures that Pennsylvania taxpayers paid for his children's schooling while they lived in Virginia. Santorum maintained he did nothing wrong, and has pulled his children out of the school, according to reports.

• Reps. Randy "Duke" Cunningham and William J. Jefferson: Both congressional veterans are under federal investigation.
Cunningham, who has announced that he will not run for reelection, faces questions over his dealings with a defense contractor who allegedly overpaid him when he purchased Cunningham's house. Jefferson is under scrutiny for his role in an overseas business deal. Normally the House ethics committee does not hold inquiries while criminal investigations are underway.

• Rep. Charles H. Taylor (R-N.C.): The report says that questions have been raised about his private business interests, including a savings and loan in Asheville, N.C., and personal business interests in Russia.

• Rep. Marilyn N. Musgrave (R-Colo.) and Rep. Rick Renzi (R-Ariz.): Both second-term House members encountered criticisms tied to campaign activities, the report says.
Musgrave was accused of misusing her congressional office for campaign purposes. Renzi was accused of financing portions of his 2002 campaign with improper loans.

Perhaps the Attorney General Gonzales will be going after Neil Bush and his Tailand trips??

When FBI supervisors in Miami met with new interim U.S. Attorney Alex Acosta last month, they wondered what the top enforcement priority for Acosta and Attorney General Alberto Gonzales would be.

Would it be terrorism? Organized crime? Narcotics trafficking? Immigration? Or maybe public corruption?

The agents were stunned to learn that a top prosecutorial priority of Acosta and the Department of Justice was none of the above. Instead, Acosta told them, it’s obscenity. Not pornography involving children, but pornographic material featuring consenting adults.

His own prosecutors have warned Acosta that prioritizing adult porn would reduce resources for prosecuting other crimes, including porn involving children. According to high-level sources who did not want to be identified, Acosta has assigned prosecutors porn cases over their objections. … Acosta [said] that this was Attorney General Gonzales’ mandate.

Also, to warm our hearts... FEMA has requested MAJOR nationwide support for Disaster Recovery of Hurricane Rita, scheduled to hit Texas Friday...
San Diego has mustered First Responders and Rescue groups and today they left for Texas... It took a week AFTER Katrina for FEMA to allow a small group of responders from San Diego to assist- they cooled their heels in Texas for DAYS... Wonder why the difference???

From WORDSMITH - Today's word of the day

tenderloin (TEN-duhr-loin) noun

The part of a city notorious for vice and corruption.

[After a district in New York City known for vice, crime, corruption,
extortion, graft, etc. It received its nickname from the choicest part
of the meat, alluding to the luxurious diet of corrupt police members
getting an easy income from bribes.]

Boy, can I think of LOTS of ways to use this in a sentence!


and more from today: TPM Cafe

By emily knight

Am I the only one who heard Bush read a speech at the White House that concluded with the words (which I copied verbatim), "We will not allow democracy to keep us from saving lives." It aired on CNN Sat., Sept. 3, around 5:oo PM EST.

What could he have possibly meant?

Thomas Jefferson, the author of the Declaration of Independence, could see the danger. "I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just," he wrote in 1785, reflecting on the crime that was slavery. "His justice cannot sleep forever."

WTF is going on???

American citizens were told to go to the stadium and conference center to be protected and cared for...

They are now being held there by check points and armed guards? (reported even by Fox news of all places..)

No food, water, medicine or toilets. Bodies rotting in the sun. Babies and infirm dying.

Prisoners released and added to the group...

No electricity, no communications, no HAM radio operators allowed in for communication.

No rescue opperation allowed in (Red Cross - verified on their website, fire departments, private support)

S L O W and M I N I M A L supplies sent in and people evacuated out...

What are they (the Dept of Homeland Security - FEMA) doing... genocide???

This is beyond incompetence, this is criminal!


Sample news report from Chicago...

Even before the storm hit the Gulf Coast on Monday, he said, the city's Office of Emergency Management and Communications had contacted emergency response agencies in Illinois and Washington.

In the event of a disaster, the city offered to send 44 Chicago Fire Department rescue and medical personnel and their gear, more than 100 Chicago police officers, 140 Streets and Sanitation, 146 Public Health and 8 Human Services workers, and a fleet of vehicles including 29 trucks, two boats and a mobile clinic.

"So far FEMA has requested only one piece of equipment {ndash} a tank truck to support the Illinois Emergency Response Team, which is already down there," Daley said. "The tank truck is on its way. We are awaiting further instructions from FEMA."

Repeat this for EVERY city and Country offering HELP and Support for the People of the Gulf Coast....
What was Mr. Brown thinking??? no wonder he was releieved of his position with the Aquine society. Not fit!

People are now dying for lack of water, medicine, and sanitation in New Orleans and throughout the Gulf Coast. People are waiting to be rescued. The Mississippi is closed to business. East Coast states are now running out of gas, oil, diesel and it will spread. Over a million people are homeless, jobless…. The poverty rate and impact just sky rocketed…

but:

Bush had a photo op buying a new guitar and Condi Rice bought $1000 shoes. The shareholders of Halliburton just made a windfall so they can go shopping too.
After 9/11, Americans were told to "go shopping" ... the patriotic thing to do.
"Let them eat cake" keeps surfacing in my thoughts...followed by "When in the course of human events...."


From the NYT:

Some will prosper. Shares in Halliburton, the oil services company, sold for $8.60 in early 2002, when the oil economy was depressed. Yesterday, they hit $63.44, setting a record for the first time since 1997.

THERE was no mention of conservation when President Bush spoke Wednesday. By yesterday, he was talking of the need to conserve, but only in a general manner.

Perhaps the politicians are paralyzed by memories of the way Jimmy Carter was mocked for wearing a sweater as he urged us to adjust our thermostats during another energy crisis. The 55 miles per hour speed limit somehow seems to be a violation of the fundamental rights of American drivers. Sacrifice speed to help avert soaring prices? Surely you must be kidding.

There are other possible effects of Katrina that could hurt the economy. If the Port of New Orleans cannot get back to full capacity soon, a lot of Midwestern grain may have trouble finding a way to market. Railroad capacity is limited, making it hard to get that grain to other ports.

From Steve Gilliard:

George Bush has failed.

He has failed his office, he has failed the people of New Orleans, who he was elected to serve.

But most of all, he has failed the country.

This is not what Americans expect people to do in Bosnia. If Bosnians had been treated like the citizens of New Orleans, Americans would have been outraged. Wes Clark would have been retired in disgrace. It would have been a national disgrace. Americans would have been shamed to have failed the people of Bonsia so badly.

Yet the American bitter-enders, Goldberg, Limbaugh and Hannity, see no problem with Americans dying in the streets in an American city.

This is a national disgrace, a failure of imagination and leadership as bad as Bull Run. The weakness of Bush and his insanely incompetent leadership is murdering people as slowly and cruelly as the Serbs did. The anguish of the people is painful to watch.

Air drops, Special Forces teams, SEALs with their water craft, the expensive panoply of men we train to a razor's edge, who can save lives as well as take them. If this was Darfur, they would be on the ground, setting up resources, establishing security, preparing for the arrival of infantry units to protect the refugees. Instead, FEMA says help is coming, while people exist without water and food in broiling heat. The imagination which led to the dropping of humanitarian food packages over Afghanistan in yellow packages is missing here.

They bring in the pararescuemen, but a small team, not pulling every available PJ, CCT member and Special Forces team they can grab to begin the process of security. The National Guard wants to handle it. They can't. If they could, people would be getting help. The hospitals would be getting help. Instead, they wait and lie vunerable to the gangs which have always lived in the city.

The buses are taking people from New Orleans to Houston where they can sit overnight only (the stadium is full and the toilets plugged... no portipotties??). But these are the poor refugees...NIMBY is rearing it's ugly head.

Word for the day from A-Word-A-Day Wordsmith:

malversation (mal-vuhr-SAY-shuhn) noun

Corrupt behavior in public office.

[From Middle French malversation, from malverser (to embezzle), from Latin
maleversari (to behave badly), from male (ill) + versari (to behave), from
vertere (to turn). Ultimately from Indo-European root wer- (to turn or bend)
that is also the source of words such as wring, weird, writhe, worth, revert,
and universe.]

The less justified a man is in claiming excellence for his own self, the
more ready he is to claim all excellence for his nation, his religion, his
race or his holy cause. A man is likely to mind his own business when it is
worth minding. When it is not, he takes his mind off his own meaningless
affairs by minding other people's business. -Eric Hoffer, philosopher and
author (1902-1983)

The NY Times takes Bush to task:

August 24, 2005President Bush's Loss of Faith

It took President Bush a long time to break his summer vacation and acknowledge the pain that the families of fallen soldiers are feeling as the death toll in Iraq continues to climb. When he did, in a speech to the Veterans of Foreign Wars in Utah this week, he said exactly the wrong thing. In an address that repeatedly invoked Sept. 11 - the day that terrorists who had no discernable connection whatsoever to Iraq attacked targets on American soil - Mr. Bush offered a new reason for staying the course: to keep faith with the men and women who have already died in the war.

"We owe them something," Mr. Bush said. "We will finish the task that they gave their lives for." It was, as the mother of one fallen National Guardsman said, an argument that "makes no sense." No one wants young men and women to die just because others have already made the ultimate sacrifice. The families of the dead do not want that, any more than they want to see more soldiers die because politicians cannot bear to admit that they sent American forces to war by mistake.

Most Americans believed that their country had invaded Iraq to eliminate weapons of mass destruction, but we know now that those weapons did not exist. If we had all known then what we know now, the invasion would have been stopped by a popular outcry, no matter what other motives the president and his advisers may have had.

It is also very clear, although the president has done his level best to muddy the picture, that Iraq had nothing to do with Sept. 11. Mr. Bush's insistence on making that link, over and over, is irresponsible. In fact, it was the American-led invasion that turned Iraq into a haven for Islamist extremists.

When Mr. Bush articulated his "comprehensive strategy" for responding to the threat of terrorism, he listed three aims: "protecting this homeland, taking the fight to the enemy and advancing freedom." The invasion of Iraq flunks the first two tests. But it did free the Iraqi people from a brutal dictator and may still provide an opportunity to inspire the rest of the Arab world with an example of democracy and religious toleration.

Right now, however, the Iraqi Assembly is dickering over a constitution draft that would not accomplish any of the American goals. It would fail to protect the rights of Iraq's Sunni Arab minority and the rights of women, and it would enshrine Islam as a main source of law. It could well lead to a fracturing of Iraq into an all but independent, and oil-rich, Kurdish homeland in the north and an oil-rich Shiite theocracy in the south, while the oil-poor center was left to the disaffected Sunnis, the terrorists and the American troops. It's an outcome that would make the violent religious extremists very happy.

Preventing that kind of tragic last chapter is the only rational argument for continuing the American presence in Iraq. The president's strange declaration yesterday that the draft constitution would protect the rights of women and minorities, and his continuing attempts to clog the debate with misleading explanations, suggest his own lack of commitment to the only rationale for keeping American troops in Iraq - or, perhaps, his lack of faith in the likely outcome.

Some hope and a good Tom Lehrer image from TPMCafe this morning:

If the public at large turned angrily on the White House, though, a fair number of swing-district Republicans would manage to find -- or create -- their voices of outrage. Most Republicans,though, would be glancing back and forth between angry voters and Karl Rove's cornered-rat White House, feeling , in Tom Lehrer's immortal words, "like a Christian Scientist with appendicitis," and trying to fend off commitment for as long as humanly possible.

It couldn't be said better than "Light of Reason" blog of Arthur Silber:
CRAP

You can’t try to change the administration’s course by appealing to facts and argument: they’ve rejected facts and argument, on principle.

Most people seem not to understand that when we deal with the Bush administration, we are dealing with something unique, and uniquely dangerous: an administration which is fully committed to an ideology—an ideology that is entirely self-contained and completely self-referencing. It is not concerned with facts, evidence, logic and argument. It is concerned only with its own internal vision of the world, and how that world should be constructed and how it should operate.

So even if there are many utterly compelling arguments against the Bolton appointment, or against attacking Iran, none of that matters.

Again today I cringe listening to Bush appoint Bolton to the UN...

From the ether...

The decision to go forward with the Bolton appointment, without Senate approval and despite his demonstrable, monumental lack of qualifications, is the Bush-Cheney way.
It’s macho, in your face, unilateral, we don’t give a damn, we’re doing it our way, and if you don’t like it, tough.
That’s the style that got the United States into Iraq and into the torture scandal.
And that same style will now be on display for 18 months in the detestable person of John Bolton.
This is the America of George Bush.
Let the world, and the citizens of this country, see it for what it is.

Matthew Rothchild - The Progressive

There’s the religion of Pharisees and Inquisitors, and there’s the religion of Prophets and Healers. The two, although rooted in the same heritage, have nothing to do with one another. The leaders of the religious right in this country are too often led by the first group. What we need badly is for leaders to emerge from the second. I’m not at all sure that will happen, but I fear it’s our only hope.

Jack Whelan

From article by Paul Loeb...

Eloquence, however, is not as important as kindness, concern, and a straightforward declaration of belief. Will Campbell has been a Baptist preacher, civil rights activist, farmer, writer, and volunteer cook for his friend Waylon Jennings. Years ago, he was invited to participate in a student conference on capital punishment at Florida State University. At the last minute he discovered that he was supposed to formally debate an erudite scholar, who delivered a long philosophical argument in favor of the death penalty as a means of buttressing the legitimacy of the state. When Campbell got up to present the opposing view, nothing equally weighty came to mind. So he said, slowly and deliberately, "I just think it's tacky," and sat down.

The audience laughed.

"Tacky?" the moderator asked.

"Yessir," Campbell repeated. "I just think it's tacky."

"Now, come on," the moderator said, "tacky is an old Southern word, and it means uncouth, ugly, lack of class."

"Yessir. I know what it means," said Campbell. "And if a thing is ugly, well, ugly means there's no beauty there. And if there is no beauty in it, there is no truth in it. And if there is no truth in it, there is no good in it. Not for the victim of the crime. Certainly not for the one being executed. Not for the executioner, the jury, the judge, the state. For no one. And we were enjoined by a well-known Jewish prophet to love them all."

I'm not lobbying for disdaining reasoned arguments. But modern society, by virtue of its complexity and sophistication, makes moral engagement difficult; we don't need to compound the problem by demanding perfection. Simple can still be forceful and eloquent.

Is there no bottom to the depths of "low" the Bush dynasty will sink.
This from the Miami Herald:

BY GARY FINEOUT Miami Herald

One day after an exhaustive autopsy sought to end much of the controversy over Terri Schiavo's life, and eventual death, Gov. Jeb Bush said he plans to ask prosecutors to investigate whether her husband took too long to call for help on the night she collapsed in 1990. A lawyer for Michael Schiavo called the governor's comments ''disgusting'' and said there was no delay in the husband's call for help.

A friend of mine recently asked me if I believed in "evil" and the answer is YES I do and the behavior of the Bush brothers confirms it.

Memorial Day Weekend coming up....

This is the time to support our troops. Those are the young men and women that we put in harms way to fight battles for us.

We need to speak up and make damn sure that the BATTLES we send them to fight have just cause and are NOT based on lies, deceiption, hubris, or empire building.

We need to speak up for HUMAN RIGHTS for all and against torture and death committed by US. If we have such a "Christian" president, why is he NOT following the teachings of Jesus. Why do we have such a HYPOCRITICAL EVIL Government?

Now that we've "broken" Iraq and Afganistan, we have to mitigate the damage caused. But "fixing" it is providing for a level of security that the country can rebuild commerce, infrastructure and government.... That means we should SUPPORT our TROOPS by prosecuting any Corporation that STEALS from Iraq/Afganistan/US and that sends mercenaries to the war zone with an attitude that they are above or outside of the law ... be it the Geneva Convention or just plain human decency.

We also need to focus on the Good that is done and be careful to direct our ANGER at evil, mismanagement, etc. where it is due.

From the NYT and elsewhere..... Excusing and trying to hid this has GOT to stop if our country is to have ANY honor or decency.

On torture:

Pictures from Abu Ghraib showed naked prisoners being stacked like cordwood and mocked by female guards — and there's worse stuff in Pentagon files that Congress has decided not to allow out of its locked vaults. There have been confirmed reports from Guantanamo of beatings, shacklings, and lighted cigarettes being stuck in prisoners' ears. 36 prisoners have died during interrogations. The Red Cross wrote detailed reports documenting abusive conduct in Iraq and was laughed off. The officers reponsible for overseeing abusive interrogations weren't punished, they were lauded for their work and transferred to other prisons. Hardened FBI agents wrote emails expressing their disgust at what they had seen. Innocent men have been tortured to death in both Afghanistan and Iraq. The White House counsel wrote memoranda justifying torture as an inherent right of the president. Rendition of suspects to other countries that have long histories of torturing prisoners is routine. Reports of Koran desecration have been circulating for a long time, and recent investigations have confirmed that mockery of religious symbols is common. The Red Cross warned the Pentagon about this years ago.

On fraud, stealing and looting by US corporations:

Lawyers for Custer Battles argue that the False Claims Act - the prime legal tool against contractor fraud - does not apply because the company signed contracts with the Coalition Provisional Authority, not the American government, and was mainly paid with Iraqi money seized or managed by the United States, rather than with money appropriated by Congress.

Lawyers for the whistle-blowers and the Justice Department argue that the law does apply. All sides agree that the case will set a precedent and that the stakes are high, and not only for Custer Battles.

"This is an important case because there are a lot of companies over there with poorly constructed contracts and little oversight," said Steven L. Schooner, an expert on procurement at the George Washington University Law School. "The potential for chicanery is great and the potential universe of whistle-blowers is mind-boggling."

In a court hearing on the issue on May 12, a senior Justice Department official warned that if companies could not be held accountable under the False Claims Act, they might not be accountable to anyone.

The Coalition Provisional Authority disappeared in mid-2004, after decreeing that contractors could not be held liable by Iraqi courts. So if the United States cannot bring suit against fraudulent contractors, "who could do that?" asked the official, Michael F. Hertz of the Justice Department's Civil Division.

We are all in this together, willingly or NOT ...

This morning I listened to part of a pre-election (2004 US Presidental) speech by Arundhati Roy... clearly, concisely, and so damning of the US facism (see below) and hubris.... Then I read George Galloway's statement to Congress (Galloway vs. The US Senate: Transcript of Statement)

I wonder if we will be able to "throw the rascal's out" or if the country will just continue on it's hyprocritical way until someone or something "takes us down".

Note: Definition of facism used above..


The 14 Defining Characteristics Of Fascism
Free Inquiry http://www.secularhumanism.org/fi/
Spring 2003; 5-11-03

Dr. Lawrence Britt has examined the fascist regimes of Hitler (Germany), Mussolini (Italy), Franco (Spain), Suharto (Indonesia) and several Latin American regimes. Britt found 14 defining characteristics common to each:


1. Powerful and Continuing Nationalism - Fascist regimes tend to make constant use of patriotic mottos, slogans, symbols, songs, and other paraphernalia. Flags are seen everywhere, as are flag symbols on clothing and in public displays.
2. Disdain for the Recognition of Human Rights - Because of fear of enemies and the need for security, the people in fascist regimes are persuaded that human rights can be ignored in certain cases because of "need." The people tend to look the other way or even approve of torture, summary executions, assassinations, long incarcerations of prisoners, etc.
3. Identification of Enemies/Scapegoats as a Unifying Cause - The people are rallied into a unifying patriotic frenzy over the need to eliminate a perceived common threat or foe: racial , ethnic or religious minorities; liberals; communists; socialists, terrorists, etc.
4. Supremacy of the Military - Even when there are widespread domestic problems, the military is given a disproportionate amount of government funding, and the domestic agenda is neglected. Soldiers and military service are glamorized.
5. Rampant Sexism - The governments of fascist nations tend to be almost exclusively male-dominated. Under fascist regimes, traditional gender roles are made more rigid. Divorce, abortion and homosexuality are suppressed and the state is represented as the ultimate guardian of the family institution.
6. Controlled Mass Media - Sometimes to (sic) media is directly controlled by the government, but in other cases, the media is indirectly controlled by government regulation, or sympathetic media spokespeople and executives. Censorship, especially in war time, is very common.
7. Obsession with National Security - Fear is used as a motivational tool by the government over the masses.
8. Religion and Government are Intertwined - Governments in fascist nations tend to use the most common religion in the nation as a tool to manipulate public opinion. Religious rhetoric and terminology is common from government leaders, even when the major tenets of the religion are diametrically opposed
to the government's policies or actions.
9. Corporate Power is Protected - The industrial and business aristocracy of a fascist nation often are the ones who put the government leaders into power, creating a mutually beneficial business/government relationship and power elite.
10. Labor Power is Suppressed - Because the organizing power of labor is the only real threat to a fascist government, labor unions are either eliminated entirely, or are severely suppressed.
11. Disdain for Intellectuals and the Arts - Fascist nations tend to promote and tolerate open hostility to higher education, and academia. It is not uncommon for professors and other academics to be censored or even arrested. Free expression in the arts and letters is openly attacked.
12. Obsession with Crime and Punishment - Under fascist regimes, the police are given almost limitless power to enforce laws. The people are often willing to overlook police abuses and even forego civil liberties in the name of patriotism. There is often a national police force with virtually unlimited power in fascist nations.
13. Rampant Cronyism and Corruption - Fascist regimes almost always are governed by groups of friends and associates who appoint each other to government positions and use governmental power and authority to protect their friends from accountability. It is not uncommon in fascist regimes for national resources and even treasures to be appropriated or even outright stolen by government leaders.
14. Fraudulent Elections - Sometimes elections in fascist nations are a complete sham. Other times elections are manipulated by smear campaigns against or even assassination of opposition candidates, use of legislation to control voting numbers or political district boundaries, and manipulation of the media. Fascist nations also typically use their judiciaries to manipulate or control elections.

Today from the Miami Herald:
"Luis Posada Carriles may be the most wanted man in Cuba and Venezuela, but on this recent afternoon, the man accused of deadly terrorism peacefully sips a peach drink, reads about Confucius and marvels at the Miami skyline from the balcony of a Brickell Key high-rise.

''At first I hid a lot,'' Posada said of his arrival in Miami, noting that he spends much of his time reading or painting oil-on-canvas landscapes of Cuba. ``I thought the [U.S.] government was looking for me.''

Brought to this luxury condo -- just a few blocks from offices of the Department of Homeland Security -- for his first interview since sneaking into the United States in March, the anti-Castro militant said he has come to realize that the U.S. government is not looking for him."

I wonder what the Bush Regime would be doing if Osama Bin Laden were openly living in a luxury condo in Havana?????

Hypocracy has risen to an amazing level... and the water keeps rising...

Letter to the NYTimes:
To the Editor:

Like the great majority of those who have become prominent conservative political and media figures since Vietnam, John R. Bolton declined to serve in combat forces back then because, he said, he "had no desire to die in a Southeast Asia rice paddy." Is there any precedent in history for an elite that has been so successful in influencing the government toward assertive military policies while largely declining to serve in combat forces themselves?

Mark Rosenman
Montclair, N.J., May 1, 2005

Uh... sorry... we're a little short of change right now. Maybe after we phase out social security...

From today's NYT:
Help For Africa:
Britain announced long ago that it would meet the 0.7 percent target by 2013. France is more than halfway there, at 0.41, and has announced a timetable to get to 0.5 percent by 2007 and 0.7 percent by 2012. From America - the stingiest of all, compared with the rest of the G-7, donating just 0.18 percent of its gross national product to foreign aid - there has not been a word about getting to 0.7 percent by any date in this century. We sincerely hope that President Bush plans to come up with something before July - even if he does it only because his most loyal ally has asked it of him.

and


True to Ritual, House Votes for Full Repeal of Estate Tax. For the fourth time in four years, the House voted on Wednesday to repeal the federal estate tax permanently, a central element of President Bush's economic agenda.

and

According to Ralph Z. Hallow of the Washington Times, there's a building movement among House conservatives to push ahead with passing a Social Security phase-out bill this year.

Dandruff may contribute to world climate
(09 April 2005) From New Scientist

COULD dandruff help determine the world's climate?

Ruprecht Jaenicke of the Institute of Atmospheric Physics at the University of Mainz in Germany collected air samples from Germany, Siberia, the Amazon rainforest, the south Atlantic and bubbles in Greenland ice, then analysed particles suspended in them. He found that 25 per cent of atmospheric particles are organic detritus (Science, vol 308, p 73). He estimates that around a billion tonnes of bio-aerosols enter the atmosphere every year, 20 times previous estimates. By reflecting or absorbing the sun's rays and encouraging cloud formation, they could influence the climate.

Probably as important as dandruff..

Today I commend our Senator Boxer on her amendment to stop the Gag Order. Senate Passes Boxer-Snowe Provision to Overturn the Global Gag Rule

I also thank her for bringing to attention and review EPA's CHEERS program. In the Senate Boxer said, “The idea that the Administration would pay parents to expose their children to toxins is absolutely reprehensible. Further the fact that EPA told parents there was no risk to participating in the study is unconscionable.”

The program has been suspended for further review.

So here's my take...
No, we don't want to pay parents to expose their children to toxins. BAD IDEA...

But, we do need to increase awareness of the dangers of toxins being used daily in US households. Reading the study's proposal, it looks like this could provide comsumer education and empirical feedback about the ramifications of the excessive amount of toxins we daily expose our children to... from RAID, Round-Up, Clorine, Ammonia, etc. I'll be watching....

And another great use for our tax dollars:

NEGROPONTE WANTS A $250 MILLION OFFICE

[This is already beginning to look less like a coordinator of intelligence and more like yet another intelligence agency]

WASHINGTON TIMES - The emergency supplemental-appropriations bill the Senate is expected to take up today includes a quarter-billion dollars to build a headquarters for the nation's new intelligence chief. . . The $82 billion supplemental request, sent to Congress last month, says the $250.3 million requested for the Intelligence Community Management Account will be used for a new facility to house the office of the director of national intelligence, the "expanded National Counterterrorism Center, and other intelligence community elements." John D. Negroponte, tapped by the president to be the intelligence chief, will begin work at offices in the White House compound. A transition team of more than 20 staff members had begun work in the temporary offices.


And Last Comment for the Day.. .because I have to get a life

From Josh Marshall (TalkingPointsmemo.com)

The Post says that the Bamboozlepalooza Tour "may be one of the most costly in memory, well into the millions of dollars, according to some rough, unofficial calculations." And even Republicans on the Hill seem to be getting concerned.

Remember, too, that that money comes into a whole different light when you see that Americans are being systematically excluded from these taxpayer-funded tour events on the basis of political ideology.

The pro-Bolton team, anti-UN folk have been making much of Kofi Annan's "nepotism" as part of the Oil for Food scandal.

There is a saying about glass houses......

This from todays news is just the LATEST of NUMEROUS nepotistic appointments...

"President Bush has nominated Vice President Cheney's son-in-law, a prominent Washington lawyer who represents companies in the homeland security field, to be the general counsel of the Department of Homeland Security.

Philip J. Perry, who is married to Cheney daughter Elizabeth Cheney Perry, is a partner at the Washington law office of Latham & Watkins, and has represented Bethesda-based Lockheed Martin Corp. in dealing with the department. "

OK... Terri Schiavo....Now I've had my say too...
I've been following Media Matters and been stupified at the hoopla and saddened for the family.
Best "low down" I've found (thanks to Media Matters) is a brief of the case ...
thanks Abstract Appeal.

It just amazes me how the truth is so warped and twisted by the flapping jaws.

And meanwhile, we continue killing in the name of "democracy", and religion, and greed.
As Terri would say: ARGHGHGHGHGHGHGHGHHHHHHH !!!!!!!

Yesterday I was going to post news headline that underscored the distressing "state of the union"... issues included: Mercury poisoning of the planet, governmental bald faced LIES, egregious behaviors by leaders, horrors of war, etc.

I couldn't understand how all this didn't elicit response and outrage from the mainstream media....

But today, Tom Dispatch, explains a lot with his: Entries for a Devil’s Dictionary of the Bush Era

"For the last few years we have been ruled by lexicographers. Never has an administration spent so much time creating, defining, or redefining terms, perhaps because no one (since George Orwell) has grasped the power and possibility that lay hidden in plain sight in the naming and renaming of words."
"The way gunmen once reached for their six-guns, so the various legal and other counselors of this administration reach for their dictionaries. The lawyer-authors of the various tortured memos about torture that came out of the White House Counsel's office and the Justice Department, for instance, expended much effort acting as if they were part of a panel for a new edition of some dictionary.
It seems they sat surrounded by the Webster's New International Dictionary (sometimes the 1935 edition, sometimes later ones), the American Heritage Dictionary, and the Oxford English Dictionary, medical dictionaries, and who knows what else, as they decided just how much pain wasn't actually pain for the benefit of the Pentagon, the CIA, and the President. "
"While they consulted piles of dictionaries and other reference materials to draw the pain out of a global torture regime, their true definitional focus was on removing all fetters, all checks and balances, from George W. Bush's power as president."

The article, with links, is worth reading, keeping and remembering...

"My Sister" litmus test...
From http://highclearing.com/

"Ethical arguments of the form “We should torture [other people] if . . . ” will be rejected out of hand. Ethical arguments of the form “I should be tortured if . . . ” may be entertained. Or, maybe better, “My sister should be tortured if . . . ” That is all."

Steve Gilliard is correct, this is a good read:

Exerpted From:
Being Silent On The Things That Matter
by The Truth (Daily Kos)

Dr King's quote: "Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about the things that matter."

Can we continue to be silent on the matter of no longer having a free press, freedom of expression or the freedom to participate in political dissent, because dissent is essential to having true democracy?

Can we continue to be silent on the matter of a government whose sole mission is to continue to reward the wealthy at the expense of the poor?

Can we continue to be silent on the matter of not having a guaranteed, fundamental, inalienable right to a quality education, affordable, liveable, sustainable housing, not to mention a sustainable and replenishing environment, quality healthcare and jobs that pay liveable, sustainable, family-supportable wages?

Can we continue to be silent on the matter of a woman's right to control reproductive choice, or quality, comprehensive education and information on health issues such as preventing the spread of sexually transmitted diseases, developing sexuality, diabetes, hypertension, mental illnesses, not to mention the need to educate about medical treatment of all with sensitivity and awareness in a cultural and linguistically competent manner, while teaching the need for staying healthy, eating right, being active?

Can we continue to be silent on the matter of our elderly - their quality of life, now that they have earned the right to retire and rest from their labors, while being attacked on an economic scale in terms of eliminating access to medicines that would enhance their quality of life, as well as sustaining the trust fund into which they have paid in preparation for retirement and enjoyment of their golden years?

Can we continue to be silent on the matter that this government has sought to divide rather than unite; facilitates an inherent contempt for the poor, the elderly, the downtrodden, men and women of color, homosexuals, by initiating programs, initiatives and policies guaranteed to steal, kill and destroy life as we now know it?"

After the Iraq elections in Bagdad from a woman's point of view - it seems so effortless to lose freedom and power and so hard to keep or gain it. Women are about half the population but we certainly do not have equality.

Riverbend's post

"They try to give impressive interviews to western press but the situation is wholly different on the inside. Women feel it the most. There’s an almost constant pressure in Baghdad from these parties for women to cover up what little they have showing. There’s a pressure in many colleges for the segregation of males and females. There are the threats, and the printed and verbal warnings, and sometimes we hear of attacks or insults.

You feel it all around you. It begins slowly and almost insidiously. You stop wearing slacks or jeans or skirts that show any leg because you don’t want to be stopped in the street and lectured by someone who doesn’t approve. You stop wearing short sleeves and start preferring wider shirts with a collar that will cover up some of you neck. You stop letting your hair flow because you don’t want to attract attention to it. On the days when you forget to pull it back into a ponytail, you want to kick yourself and you rummage around in your handbag trying to find a hair band… hell, a rubber band to pull back your hair and make sure you attract less attention from *them*.

We were seriously discussing this situation the other day with a friend. The subject of the veil and hijab came up and I confessed my fear that while they might not make it a law, there would be enough pressure to make it a requirement for women when they leave their homes. He shrugged his shoulders and said, “Well women in Iran will tell you it’s not so bad- you know that they just throw something on their heads and use makeup and go places, etc.” True enough. But it wasn’t like that at the beginning. It took them over two decades to be able to do that. In the eighties, women were hauled off the streets and detained or beaten for the way they dressed.

It’s also not about covering the hair. I have many relatives and friends who wore a hijab before the war. It’s the principle. It’s having so little freedom that even your wardrobe is dictated. And wardrobe is just the tip of the iceberg. There are clerics and men who believe women shouldn’t be able to work or that they shouldn’t be allowed to do certain jobs or study in specific fields. Something that disturbed me about the election forms was that it indicated whether the voter was ‘male’ or ‘female’- why should that matter? Could it be because in Shari’a, a women’s vote or voice counts for half of that of a man? Will they implement that in the future?"

It's a shame that the Conressmen and frontline media do not seem to have the same concerns about J.Negroponte as those bloggers and reporters with memories of the Iran Contra days and the ability to step outside of the "US" mindset.

Many of the bloggers have given excellent commentary on the path we seem to be going down. The most recent that I found provoking were:

"Negroponte, Servant of the Empire, Rises to the Top" by Progressive Editor Matthew Rothschild

"An Iraq Murder Mystery for Negroponte?" by David Corn
"Negroponte's Dark Past" also by David Corn for The Nation

and from the Religious community:

"Murder mystery in Iraq" by David Batstone
an op-ed piece from sojo.net

John Negroponte was ambassador to Honduras from 1981-1985. As such he supported and carried out a US-sponsored policy of violations to human rights and international law. Among other things he supervised the creation of the El Aguacate air base, where the US trained Nicaraguan Contras during the 1980's. The base was used as a secret detention and torture center, in August 2001 excavations at the base discovered the first of the corpses of the 185 people, including two Americans, who are thought to have been killed and buried at this base.

During his ambassadorship, human rights violations in Honduras became systematic. The infamous Battalion 316, trained by the CIA and Argentine military, kidnaped, tortured and killed hundreds of people. Negroponte knew about these human rights violations and yet continued to collaborate with them, while lying to Congress.

President George W. Bush has nominated Negroponte as head of U.S. Intellegence.

Bush: Still securing his power base and throwing more covers on the death and distruction caused by the grab for power. What a Christian!

Last night's news with Lisa Myers was yet another exposee of the abuses caused by the US in Iraq:

From MSNC: U.S. contractors in Iraq allege abuses
Four men say they witnessed shooting of unarmed civilians
By Lisa Myers & the NBC investigative unit
Updated: 7:43 p.m. ET Feb. 15, 2005

"There are new allegations that heavily armed private security contractors in Iraq are brutalizing Iraqi civilians. In an exclusive interview, four former security contractors told NBC News that they watched as innocent Iraqi civilians were fired upon, and one crushed by a truck. The contractors worked for an American company paid by U.S. taxpayers. The Army is looking into the allegations."

These contractors worked for Custer Battles .. a company formed just to profiteer from the war in Iraq.

This company has been in the news before:
Iraq Contractor Claims Immunity From Fraud Laws
Seized Oil Assets Paid For Offshore Overbilling
by David Phinney, Special to CorpWatch -- December 23rd, 2004
"Custer Battles has been accused of illegally inflating costs on plum contracts in 2003 to protect the Baghdad International Airport as well as for a massive program that replaced Iraq’s currency. Former Custer Battles employees and plaintiffs, W.D. "Pete Baldwin" and Robert Isakson, claim that the company routinely engaged in accounting trickery and used a corporate shell game involving Cayman Island subsidiaries to drum up charges by tens of millions of dollars with the clear intent to plunder funding for reconstruction efforts."

When will the criminals be held accountable? It seems that the Bush,Inc is busy building a judicial shield that will throw out ALL attempts to hold them or their lackeys to "rule of law".

Now is the time to work against the corporations that are profiting from the war. We need to support the media that brings the outrages public.

Last week the House of Representative passed HR 418 - Another VERY BAD bill. I was proud of my Representative Bob Filner and his vocal opposition to the bill. It's a strange day when the very liberal Bob Filner joins ranks with the very conservative Ron Paul... but this bill, under the guise of protecting us from terrorist and illegal aliens...moves us closer and closer to totalitarianism and fascism. It seems to establish a national ID, encourage ruthless illegal, immoral acts by bounty hunters, close the door on assylum seekers and give an unconstitutional power to the Secretary of Homeland Security to waive laws with no fear of Judicial review.

So what happened to the THREE branches of Government?

Here's just one section of this bill:
SEC. 102. WAIVER OF LAWS NECESSARY FOR IMPROVEMENT OF BARRIERS AT BORDERS.
Section 102(c) of the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996 (8 U.S.C. 1103 note) is amended to read as follows:
`(c) Waiver-
`(1) IN GENERAL- Notwithstanding any other provision of law, the Secretary of Homeland Security shall have the authority to waive, and shall waive, all laws such Secretary, in such Secretary's sole discretion, determines necessary to ensure expeditious construction of the barriers and roads under this section.
`(2) NO JUDICIAL REVIEW- Notwithstanding any other provision of law (statutory or nonstatutory), no court shall have jurisdiction--
`(A) to hear any cause or claim arising from any action undertaken, or any decision made, by the Secretary of Homeland Security pursuant to paragraph (1)
; or
`(B) to order compensatory, declaratory, injunctive, equitable, or any other relief for damage alleged to arise from any such action or decision.'.

And now this response to Bush's inaugurial speech, from our very best friend, the Canadians:
"This is the boldest, most visionary and most ambitious, but also the most hubristic and vainglorious foreign policy program ever enunciated by an American president. Even World War I leader Woodrow Wilson only wanted to remake Europe.

It was impossible not to be impressed. Phrases like, "The moral choice is between oppression, which is always wrong, and freedom, which is eternally right," are the kind of inspirational language the world community needs to lift its sights above the timid and the tired.

It was equally impossible not to be scared as hell. This wasn't a vision for a Brave New World. It was Bush's personal vision. The world's role is to listen, to agree and then to applaud.

Right after Bush's speech, White House aides scurried around to tell reporters that Bush hadn't meant what he'd said. Or, since presidents are never wrong, that the reporters had been wrong to write that he was presenting his personal vision of a re-ordered world."

And from the South America:
"all the evidence suggests that the administration's actions abroad, and particularly in Latin America, will continue to be marked by a unilateralism stunning in its arrogance and an ignorance equally appalling in its breadth. It is to be hoped that a day will eventually arrive when Washington can begin to recoup the damage to its hemispheric reputation inflicted by this president's explosive combination of ideological fervor, a reckless disregard for the truth and a staff more adept at serving up elemental neoconservative dogma than sound foreign policy"

It's been almost a month since I posted a link to the latest distressing bit of news about our not so democratic, free or good governmental doings and consequences.

Since Jan 1:
I'm disturbed by the willingness of our "elected" to plan the dismantlement of a social "security" net to give more money to the gambling establishment of "Wall Street" . It feels like a governmental replacement of "humanity" by "greed". I've been following Josh Marshall for most of this unfolding.

Then I watch in sadness and disbelief as the Bush adminstration moves the country "from the frying pan into the fire". From Ashcroft who thinks all nude statues should be clothed and that the "Patriot Act" did not encrouch on personal liberties to Gonzalez who thinks that "torture" is OK for the president to ratify and that the Geneva Convention is a irrelevent contract. From Colin Powell who at least had the gumption to warn the President "you break it, you own it" and some humility, to C. Rice who for a smart lady... lies and covers major misdeeds. Wonder who we'll get to replace the younger Powell at the FCC. My bets are on someone who will continue the dismantling of a free press.

What I wonder is, how much worse does it get before we hear a ROAR from an "opposition" party rather than the lone voices.

And now following Seymour Hersh's New Yorker article "Annals of National Security - The Coming Wars" ... it seems like we are becoming a terrorist state against the world and our own people. Tom Dispatch has an excellent thread on this.
"Put another way, the legal theory that first came to light in the "torture memos" that emerged from the White House Legal Counsel's office -- that, in his role as commander-in-chief in "wartime," the President was essentially unfettered by Congress or the courts and could act as he wished -- turns out to reach way beyond the issue of torture"

The BBC aired a video last fall, The Power of Nightmares, about the use of FEAR by the government to control the people and maintain their power. "The Power of Nightmares assesses whether the threat from a hidden and organised terrorist network is an illusion. In the concluding part of the series, the programme explains how the illusion was created and who benefits from it."