Thursday, November 30, 2006

How Soon Can We Say "NU-CLEAR" Again?

As one of his hilbilly proof-of-purchase seals, Mr. Bush, who presently occupies the Presidency, habitually mispronounces the word "nuclear" as "nucular".   He gives it the idiot's pronounciation.  We were taught not to do this.  In grade school.  In 1952.

Bush has no difficulty saying "unclear".  He doesn't say "uncular".  He has a degree from Yale. They teach their students how to pronounce "nuclear" clearly.  His affected pronunciation "nucular" is a curiosity about the man.  

Just as kowtowing yes-men do their best to color-match their leader's choice in neckties, so have many voices in the last six years echoed their leader's verbal affectation.  "Nucular" has been heard at the highest levels, said on TV news by people who are otherwise well-informed.

But now the sycophants are falling away, doing their best to wash their hands of the blood of a war that went wrong.  How long before they distance themselves from the country-boy affectations of their failing leader?

How soon will they begin choosing proof of their own intelligence over a litmus of loyalty?  

How soon will they begin to say "nuclear" again?

Wednesday, November 29, 2006

Voices From Iraq

Here's what life is like on the ground there. 

Go see.

Thursday, November 23, 2006

Tasering To Death?

The recent quintuple tasering of a UCLA student who refused to show his ID card raises some concerns.

The student peacefully declined to participate in his arrest. The police solution was to taser him into compliance. Suppose he had chosen to continue sitting on the floor?

Would the police have upped the voltage? They had their tasers set on "stun", or so they say. What do they do when the stun setting fails?

Do they make a martyr?

Sunday, November 19, 2006

When Bullies Panic

There was a lot of tit for tat this last week.

Mr. Bush, who presently occupies the office of the President, first "made nice" with Congress' new leaders by wearing a blue tie to their first photo-op, then he sent them a list of judges to be confirmed whom Congress had previously rejected for being too right-wing.

Senator Christopher Dodd offered a bill that would restore the right of habeus corpus.

Senator Obama introduced a bill to criminalize election-day fraud.

Senator Lautenburg introduced a Guarantee of Medical Accuracy in Sex Education Act. (Abstinence-only is not a medically supported answer for AIDS.)

Senator Collins of Maine introduced a bill to extend the termination date of the Office of the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction.

Mitch McConnell, the Senate Majority Leader for the few weeks remaining in the lame duck session, then "issued a veiled threat to block action on legislation if Democrats refuse to allow confirmation votes on President Bush's troubled judicial nominations." (Truthout with a tip of the hat to OpEdNews...)

If Republicans actually argue on the floor of the Senate in against restoring the right of habeas corpus, in favor of election-day fraud, in favor of make-it-up-as-you-go sex education facts, and against auditing the expenditures in Iraq, they might as well resign. How will they ever explain these positions in the next election? The Dems would benefit from calling McConnell's bluff.

Congressman Charles Rangel called for reinstatement of the draft, so that we will have enough soldiers to win the war. Then Henry Kissinger said that the war in Iraq is unwinnable. (He has been advising Mr. Bush to "stay the course" until recently.) Oops.

Meanwhile, the CIA leaked a secret report that contradicts Mr. Bush's warnings that Iran is about to become a nuclear power. They are not going to let bad intelligence get us into another war like it did the last one. They need the money more than Defense needs it.

And Michael Chertoff, the Secretary of Homeland Security, says the U.S. is threatened by international law. Panic is setting in.

In local news, brutal Southern California cops, trigger-happy with their tasers, seemed intent on ensuring that enough people will be radicalized to carry on the revolution. See the next article below.

Saturday, November 18, 2006

Tasering

The TV news is full of cellphone video images of police tasering a student at the University of California library at Los Angeles. He had refused to show a guard his student id, arguing that he had been "profiled" and that the white students at the same table should be asked to show their ids also. The guard asked him to leave. He completed his work and was on his way out when a squad of campus police returned and grabbed him. He was tasered five times.

Although he lay paralysed on the floor, the police kept commanding him to stand up. When he failed to do this, they tasered him again and again.

According to witnesses and the video, he was even tasered AFTER he was handcuffed, when he could not have presented a threat to anyone.

For his violations of the campus rules (not laws, just rules) the student has received a citation. A traffic ticket. The University will probably be receiving a 20 million dollar lawsuit.

Although the chancellor has ordered a probe, the tasering policemen are still on active duty and have not been assigned to desk duty pending the investigation.

One of the policemen - still not yet relieved of duty - threatened to taser a student who asked for his badge number. That's a crime.

Tasers used to be called "non-lethal". Because 148 people have now been killed by them, they are being re-labelled "less-lethal". Just like guns, tasers can wound and they can kill.

Tasers cause heart attacks. Only time will tell whether long-term damage was done to the student. He did tell the policemen he was on medication. They zapped him anyway.

Police who punish detainees until they cooperate commit judge-and-jury policing. In this case, since he was already on his way out of the building, they appear to have been punishing him for not previously cooperating with the guard.

A day later, police tasered a suspect twice in El Monte, California, the second time to get him to roll over so they could cuff him. Here's the video. It was easier than rolling him over by hand.

And earlier in the week, video appeared on YouTube of two other Los Angeles area police arrests which were unnecessarily brutal. In one, a man who had been restrained was punched repeatedly. In another video, a man who had been cuffed and placed in a police car was sprayed with pepper spray.

"Failure to obey the command of a police officer" is now cause for tasering and possible death.

On the other hand, recording instances of police brutality has become a new urban sport. Just like hunting wildlife with the camera, only more rewarding.

-- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -

YouTube - other videos of the incident.

Declan McCullagh's fine article (many links).

Forbes Home Page - For The World's Business Leaders - "see how many students had cellphones out..." (The last place you'd expect to see this incident mentioned!)

Friday, November 17, 2006

The Scientific Method Is Lost At HHS

The Department of Health And Human Services say that they don't know what "scientifically accurate" means. They have been faulted by a government watchdog agency for telling kids that HIV can pass through latex condoms because they are porous. It can't.

When the Government Accounting Office suggested that HHS "ensure that all information given to kids through these programs should be scientifically accurate," HHS responded that the GAO had failed to define "scientific accuracy" -
"GAO never defines the term 'scientific accuracy' in its report," HHS complained. "As such, it is difficult to precisely determine the criteria employed by GAO in making the recommendations as to scientific accuracy."
HHS includes among their agencies the Food and Drug Administration, the National Institute of Health, the Centers for Disease Control And Prevention, and the Agency For Healthcare Research And Quality.

None of them can define "scientific accuracy"? Are the FDA, the NIH and the CDC all stumbling in the dark?

Thursday, November 16, 2006

Back To Basics

First principles. Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.

Torture just doesn't work. The cost in the end is too high.

Here's a poor Turkish fellow who spent four years in our CIA system before he was released due to "lack of evidence". Not our fault. We tried like heck to get that evidence out of him.

Now a Turkish newspaper, the Khaleej Times, is telling his story. (Turkey has been one of our allies!)

Former prisoner tells of torture at Guantanamo
(AFP)

14 November 2006

ANKARA - A German-born Turk, who was held for four years in the US detention camp at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba, has alleged systematic torture in the hands of the US military, from beatings to being chained to a ceiling for days.

Murat Kurnaz, 24, who was released in August because of lack of evidence he was involved in terrorist activities, said he endured ”many types of torture -- from electric shocks to having one’s head submerged in water, (subjection to) hunger and thirst, or being shackled and suspended.”

A burly man with long reddish hair and a thick beard stretching down to his belly, Kurnaz spoke, betraying no emotion, to Turkey’s CNN Turk television from his home in Bremen, northern Germany, in an interview aired here late Monday.

“They tell you “you are from Al Qaed”’ and when you say “no” they give the (electric) current to your feet.... As you keep saying ‘no’ this goes on for two or three hours,” he said, adding he had several times lost consciousness.

He claimed he was once shackled to a ceiling for “four or five days”.

“They take you down in the mornings when a doctor comes to see whether you can endure more,” he said. “They let you sit when the interrogator comes.... They take you down about three times a day so you do not die.”

Kurnaz also alleged prisoners were locked up in cells into which frigid or hot air was pumped.

“I saw several people die,” he said. “Sometimes I thought I could no longer stand it and would also die.”

(more... and a tip of the hat to TPM Muckraker...)


Torture is a pricy hobby. When the victim is innocent, you're damned if you release them and you're damned if you don't. We release seventy to ninety percent of our detainees for lack of evidence. For the rest of their lives, they will now tell their stories about how we discovered their innocence.

Friday, November 10, 2006

The Lose-Lose War

One hundred fifty Iraqi academics were kidnapped today in the heart of liberated Bagdhad by aggressors wearing police uniforms. No one knows what has been done to them. We say that we will support all efforts by the Iraqi government to bring the criminals to justice. We didn't say how we would do this. We have no way to do this.

Good dealmakers create win-win solutions. Mr. Bush likes to create win-lose solutions. He wins more when others lose. The result of his effort, though, is a lose-lose solution. The Iraqis have lost and so have we.

Perhaps win-win solutions are more stable than win-lose solutions.

Bullying fails the test.

Thursday, November 09, 2006

When Will The Red Cross Visit Our Secret Prisons?

One service the Red Cross performs in fulfillment of the Geneva Conventions is to visit every prisoner of war now and then. The Red Cross reports to the government of the country holding the prisoner about any mistreatment.

Obviously, for Abu Ghraib to have occurred, either their visits were blocked or their reports were ignored.

In October they visited our prison at Guantanamo and interviewed the 14 major detainees who had been held at our "Dark Side" secret prisons. Some had been severely tortured.

When will they visit the secret prisons?

When will their reports be made public to the American people, the real rulers of America?

-- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- --

Addendum. Here are some links:

Seventy to ninety percent are arrested by mistake:
100 terrorist suspects are still being held:
The government is trying to keep detainees from having access to lawyers
CIA seeks to keep their history of torture secret:
Rumsfeld and Rice block ICRC access to secret detainees. (Rumsfeld is gone!)
Amnesty documents it:
Google finds more: "Red Cross" visit "secret prisons"

Wednesday, November 08, 2006

Dawn

A tidal wave of votes against the Iraq war, against corruption, and against the way the war on terror is being lost, a wave of anger and disgust, has changed the face of Washington. The elections have ended one-party-rule.

And then today the Secretary of Defense, Mr. Rumsfeld, submitted his resignation.

Thank God, thank God, thank God.

According to Juan Cole, of the Informed Comment blog, the election results imply several interesting conclusions:

First, it demonstrates that when there is no light at the end of the tunnel, the American people choose to leave that tunnel. They don't want to be military occupiers. They want the war to be over with.

Secondly, Bush will not be able to stack the Supreme Court with another Scalia when Judge Kennedy, a moderate, retires.

Third, a war on Iran now seems highly unlikely.

Fourth, there will now finally be accountability.

On television, one hears the new Speaker of the House of Representatives, Nancy Pelosi, say the word "accountability" with relish. It means auditing for waste. It means taking the profit out of war. It means finding individuals accountable for their acts. and jailing the perpetrators of crimes. She speaks of "draining the swamp".

Those who encouraged torture in violation of our laws, those who spied without warrant when they could have easily obtained one, those who imprisoned at will anyone of interest and held them in secrecy abroad while they were tortured by others - all this will come out.

The subpoena power of the House has not been used by Republicans against Republicans, but the Democratic committee leaderships will certainly use it to vie for the headlines as the 2008 election year approaches.

So little moral authority remains with the White House that the "signing statements" that Bush has been attaching to each bill he signs will be indefensible in court. They will be just another embarrassment to a party that went on too long.

The Republicans' approach to science, which led it to favor science that supported dogma, will be compared to Russian science under Stalin. Science will seek truth, not justifications.

Questions can now be asked.

Monday, November 06, 2006

Jesus Still Loves You, Ted

Although Leviticus may be disappointed, you may discover that you have no reason to be so.

Look in your heart, beyond all shame, beyond the guilt that your religion forced down your throat. Look beyond guilt. What is waiting there for you?

Did Jesus guilt anyone?

Shed your religion and be reborn in the Spirit!

Defeating The Process

By smears, by outright lies, by attacking the opposition party's voters with a barrage of robotic phone calls, by hiding the vote count behind an impenetrable electronic shield, the incumbent party is doing their best to defeat the very process of election.

If you can't beat your opponent in the ring, destroy the ring.

Much of this destructive behavior is being spotted and reported.

The Republicans may discover that their outrageous behavior only conveys their fear of loss. It also conveys their loss of the will to goodness. Real good guys don't do this.

The electoral process will survive them.

Saturday, November 04, 2006

Capture The Rapture

Oh my. The rapture is beginning.

Truth has outed the highest evangelical in the land. A spouting homophobe has been spurting in a paid male lover's hands. Choosing the drug speed over the holy rapture. His hired hand is on the air everywhere, true and honest in mein, contradicting each new layer of lies as the lies contradict themselves.

Meanwhile, Speaker of the House Hastert, third in line for the Presidency, is losing his job and possibly his seat for covering up the activities of cock-eyed optimist Senator Mark Foley as he cruised the Senate pages.

Saddam Hussein's sentencing is set for Sunday. The Republicans who set the date hoped that this story will capture the news. Newsmakers will ask each other why sentencing was delayed until just before the election. That is the story. Partisan misuse of the criminal justice system.

The capture of the voting process into a secret world of black-box computers is falling to shreds. Not only are the machines corruptible, they are flaky, full of bugs, untested. If a Republican winner's vote total differs from the exit polls, that winner will wear a cross and be assured an investigation.

Some voting machines even have a little yellow button at the back that lets a user cast multiple ballots. memory cards have been lost. Machines have been "taken home for safekeeping" by the poll workers. Power outages stop the vote.

The office of the auditor for the Iraq reconstruction effort is scheduled to close next year. Reconstruction companies are giving up and leaving, unable to work in a continuing war zone. The government we put in place is closing down our checkpoints to prove it is not a puppet.

The war is going to the dogs. Endless sniping and roadside bombs are draining the blood from our army as it marches in place, going nowhere. The military is increasingly calling for the resignation of its leader, Mr. Rumsfeld. The country we tried to help moves increasingly toward chaos. A humanitarian crisis is developing. People are starving in the land we liberated.

As the SEC opens an investigation of Halliburton, the Vice President is shredding a van-sized pile of notes. His departure from office after the election will open the field to new blood.

Senator McCain is pulling a Hillary, trying to make friends with the homophobic right by confirming his position against gay marriage. For what little he may gain by echoing homophobia (and raising doubts about his honesty), he's losing any gay constituency he may have for 2008, plus all their families and friends who would really like to see Adam and Steve settle down. He may be our next Vice President.

Corrupt senators and congressmen are being outed and exposed right and left. Well, right, mostly. The ones on the left haven't had enough power lately to be worth corrupting, so they're de facto clean. Give them time.

Republican smearers, seeking to ever improve their act, are reaching into the land of the ridiculous and even just blatantly lying. Their tossed poop grenades bounce back into their laps. After grabbing for the moment the power to imprison anyone without trial, Mr. Bush now accuses his party's opponents of complicity with the enemy. Helping to get out the vote, he is.

"The Democrat Party has no plan to win in Iraq. In fact, their only plan is to leave before the job is done." He just said that on the news. 8:09 AM on CNN. His own confusion is evident.

The ghosts of unresolved crises past are rising from their slumber into the light of day. The Plame investigation, the Abramoff investigation, the torturing done in our prisons, the secret wiretapping, the corporate plundering of the common purse - the ghostly ravens are coming home to roost. Chanting "Nevermore!"

Dan Rather is returning to broadcasting with a new news program. Remember 1972? The year George walked away from his military commitment? That really happened. The "memogate" issue that lost Dan his job was a faked kerfluffle. He's back.

George may walk again.

Wednesday, November 01, 2006

Kerry Confuses Sleep Deprivation With Heroism

Unfortunately, no one else does.

If you go for several days on only six hours sleep a night, you get as punchy as if you had had a couple of drinks. Looking at the bags around Kerry's eyes, one would think that he might have done without sleep for several days.

You make mistakes.

Get checked for sleep apnea, Mr. Kerry. Rehab.