"Torture, Torture Everywhere But Don't You Make A Peep"

[Ed. note: You can find a much longer post on this torture case documentary, and on the torture brouhaha itself, at All Things Democrat, here and here including Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia insisting that, despite the Constitution's 8th Amendment, we shouldn't prohibit torture - (the fat bastard, why does he HATE America and our Constitution so much?).]

The longer the far right and the Bush Administration keep insisting that torture is a "good thing" (I suspect they'd like to torture Martha Stewart, too, since I believe she votes Democrat) while they condemn anyone, anywhere, at any time for questioning its legality, morality, the future repercussions of as well as the accuracy of the information obtained from those we extraordinarily rendition, the more important it becomes for each and every one of us, as American citizens and taxpayers to learn all they can.

Unfortunately, one very good tool to understand the dynamics of torturing detainees, even very innocent ones grabbed up by mistake everyday, is an independent documentary entitled, "Taxi To The Dark Side", has been pulled from the broadcast schedule of The Discovery Channel which bought the rights to show it. "Too controversial" is the only reason given.

To suggest that Americans should not see what is being done by their own government, especially given how loudly and aggressively we have prosecuted other war criminals (and yes, I consider Bush-Cheney two of the largest of all time) for using torture, is almost as obscene as the act of waterboarding and other forms of torture itself.

John Edwards Says What We ALL Should

Cookie Jill over at Skippy The Bush Kangaroo's little corner of Blogtopia reminds us of this dead-on John Edwards quote:

"It's wrong for your government to spy on you."

Amen, three cheers, and hallelujah!

In A Panel of Bald-Faced Liars, Mike Huckabee Stands Out

[Methinks spending time around Chuck Norris and his drug-induced haze has affected the Huck's mental capacity (which was never exactly firing on all cylinders to start with).]

Mike Huckabee, the same man who last week insisted that it was his solemn duty to change the U.S. Constitution to reflect HIS interpretation of the word of God - namely, to outlaw homosexuality and a woman's right to choose and make any semblance of marriage restricted exclusively to a man and a woman - with a straight face during the Thursday night Florida GOP presidential debate, insisted that he would never, ever try to impose his religious views on the nation.

Say what?

Huckabee, The U.S. Constitution, And The Will Of The People

Huckabee: Change The Constitution To Fit God's Word

Update: Here's a strange note; the video has now magically disappeared from YouTube. Hmmmm.... Found a different clip of Huckabee's same miserable performance, however, and I'll post it post haste.

Gee, I didn't know that the U.S. Constitution was supposed to BE the word of God and must be changed to fit!

From Greg Mitchell's personal blog (some may recognize his name, however, as editor at Editor and Publisher and columnist of Pressing Issues):

Obama got heat today from Richard Cohen in The Washington Post because his pastor said some nice things about Louis Farrakhan. Former reverend Mike Huckabee, meanwhile, in Michigan yesterday called for amending the constitution to ban abortions and gay marriage, explaining, that "it's a lot easier to change the Constitution than it would be to change the word of the living God -- and that's what we need to do, is to amend the Constitution so it's in God's standards rather than try to change God's standards."

A new video of alleged "radical cleric" Huckabee.

KillBill 3: A Bill We Must KILL Dead, Dead, DEAD

My apologies that I just stumbled (literally) onto this sucker today, since it's been kicking around Capitol Hill since last summer and the House (blind, repressive motherfucking Constitutional assassins that they are) already passed it BUT... it's not through the Senate yet and we need this mofo deader than Ken Lay, Fred Thompson's campaign, Bush's brainstem, and Dick Cheney's humanity ALL ROLLED together.

The bill is S.1959 with the designed-to-scare-your-pants-into-a-brown-mess name of The Violent Radicalization and Homegrown Terrorism Prevention Act (see here and here) which is likely to do NOTHING but kill my right and your right to speak out against an unjust, corporation-controlled government (like the one we have). Don't trust the media to watch this for you; they're too busy watching Britney Spears' crotch.

Wait... let me pile about a thousand soapboxes atop one another before I say... (whew.... wiping righteous sweat from my brow)

LEARN ABOUT THIS BILL. CALL YOUR SENATOR. KILL THIS BILL!

George McGovern Gets It Right: Impeach

I salute George McGovern for coming out for the impeachment of Bush and Cheney.

We can't - not if we hold the principles we SAY we hold dear - just wait out the rest of the 378 or so days for these dangerous clowns to retire from office. They are criminals in every sense of the word.

Mike Huckabee: Moralist Anus In Sweater And Tie

Mike Huckabee makes me ill, the closer to the election it gets:

The Media never ceases to (unpleasantly) amaze me; after Huckabee has denied evolution, slung as much dirt wherever he can, believes women must "submit" graciously to their men, tried to liken himself to Christ being persecuted over his "cross" Christmas greeting, told people they are required to believe in God and worship Him as Huckabee would in order to "deserve" a free and democratic America (now there's some logic!) and labeled even monogamous gays with those who perform necrophilia and pedophilia, or happen to like a little leather, only NOW does the media think Huckabee's crossed the line by calling all their attention to a negative slam ad his campaign just pulled from release like he wanted brownie points for not doing what his alert to the media accomplished.

Says this shiksa, "Oy!"

Speaking Of The Government Investigating Itself For No Good End...

[See my previous posting on the Justice Department now "suddenly" wanting to investigate the Bush Administration's/CIA's willful and most criminal destruction of two videotapes depicting the torture of uncharged suspects "in our name".]

Glenn Greenwald has an excellent comprehensive piece about how the 9/11 commission - with its strangely picked crew by Bush and Cheney who fought the idea tooth-and-nail - had its work obstructed by... well, I bet you can guess that right on the very first try.

Another Government Probe Of Itself That, Like The 9/11 Commission And the Torture Probe, Won't Amount To Jack Shit

My only question here is, "Why even bother?"

While some seem ready to applaud that the Justice Department announced this evening it WILL (ha!) investigate the willful destruction of the two known CIA torture tapes a judge ordered those under the Bush Administration involved in the matter NOT conveniently destroy, to me it's just another sad, piss poor example of the fox being allowed to investigate the case of chickens murdered in the hen house when it was one of the Fox's minions (in this case, the CIA with marching orders from the fox) who arranged not just the initial crime but the destruction of the evidence.

We see this again and again - hardly new to the Bushies yet they have taken it to ridiculously extremes as they have everything else - as when the Pentagon investigates its own.

This, my friends, is beyond criminal. And, as Bush would smirk and smug-it-up as he tells you, there's not one damned thing we can do to stop it while, at the same time, we know exactly what the results will be: nada, zap, ZERO. At best, they'll point to some very insignificant, powerless peon, throw the book at him while they feed him to the wolves, and then pretend it never happened.

Some democracy. And the new Attorney General Michael Mukasey can control everything this special prosecutor does and, as we've seen with his strange ignorance regarding torture and the American Constitution, he'll prove himself a loyal Bushie regardless of his distinctly token status as an alleged Democrat.

What *I* Want To Applaud On January 1st, 2009

OK, true, many of us look back on 2007 and ahead to the 365 days remaining to this year (it's a "leap" of 366, y'know) with jaded and anxious concern. Still, this does not stop any of us from hoping for better. What's more likely, however, to bring the better about is not wishful thinking but active doing, of putting our actions where our mouthes are, of becoming the kind of Americans and world citizens we want our neighbors to be.

Here's a short list of what I not only hope we'll be reporting on in the 2008 "year in review" next New Year's Day, but one I commit to do my best to bring about through my actions. Please share your thoughts, dreams, and promised actions here in comments, too.

10. Americans have turned OFF "reality TV" and started to seriously educate themselves both in history AND current events, about the U.S. Constitution and the ways the Bush crew have ravaged it, how our founding fathers EXPECTED us each as citizens to conduct ourselves and how we can make that into a reality NOW.

9. Not only did war with Iran NOT happen, but our troops and mercenaries like Blackwater are booked on flights out of Iraq if they are not already home.

8. A GOOD candidate will have won the 2008 presidential election fairly and honestly (something that did not happen in 2000 or 2004) while legitimate registered American voters are NOT kept from casting their ballots - or having their votes counted - by the dirty tricks perpetrated in the past.

7. Charges will be leveled and full and fair trials held to determine the guilt of the entire Bush Administration re: treason and high crimes and misdemeanors.

6. Thanks to Americans who will not ALLOW it, torture, "renditions", holding people without ever filing charges against them, etc., will no longer be permitted while Guantanamo Bay and all the secret prisons both here in the U.S. and throughout the world are closed for good.

5. Blackwater, Halliburton and its subsidiaries, Bechtel, et al, will be forced to repay American taxpayers and the people of Iraq, Afghanistan, and elsewhere money they took for criminal acts of negligence and murder; they will also be prohibited from ever holding another government contract.

4. A grievous wrong will be corrected that allows corporations to be treated to the rights of ordinary citizens while citizens are denied protection from the willful destructive acts of these companies.

3. These disastrous free trade agreements will be rendered null and void.

2. We'll be on our way to intelligent, inclusive, and actually useful universal health care for all Americans.

1. Each of us will take our role as citizens in a democracy very seriously and act accordingly.

Prescriptions: Just Between You, Your Doctor, AND Your State Police

As Julie at DailyKos points out from an article posted yesterday at Green Mountain Daily, the Vermont state police wants prescription drug records on citizens (not those suspected of committing crimes but information about anyone who takes drugs the police find "interesting" - full-scale data-mining of which any fascist police state would be damned proud).

Excuse me, is there a constitutional lawyer reading here who might be willing to help me start a class action suit? I won't stand for this, so I certainly won't sit back.

This isn't some "silly trip down the rabbit hole" - this is yet another bad butcher job on the U.S. Constitution, the Vermont government, and individual privacy. If they are allowed to do it here in Vermont, they WILL do it where you live, too. And imagine the myriad ways they can abuse it and "lose" it to data insecurity.

"Save The Constitution: Impeach Bush and Cheney"

I LOVE this man and I NEVER say such things lightly (and please ADD to his acknowledgement that John Nirenberg is starting out in single digit weather - I got a touch of frostbite on a short midnight walk last night myself when it was a toasty 4 BELOW - with a major storm about to hit the hell out of New England):

BRATTLEBORO — He's got waterproof, size-11EEEE New Balance sneakers, a bright yellow poncho and a plan. He's got outrage in his heart, a Web site in his name and much of his retirement savings sunk into his cause.

John Nirenberg, a 60-year-old Ph.D., author and academic, plans to walk from Boston to Washington, D.C., to confront House Speaker Nancy Pelosi in hopes of persuading Congress to take up the impeachment of President Bush and Vice President Cheney.

He's no activist, he says. He's not sure he'll make a difference. But he's going to try.

On Sunday, he'll hit the road from Faneuil Hall, walking 15 miles a day until he gets to Capitol Hill, making symbolic stops at the Statue of Liberty, Independence Hall and Trenton, N.J., as he makes his way to the U.S. Capitol.

Wearing a "Save the Constitution, Impeach Bush and Cheney," sandwich-board style sign, he hopes to rally support for an issue Pelosi has said is no longer on the table.

"This is about satisfying my conscience. I just don't want to be the guy who says in five years that I regret not having stood up and said something."

We should ALL be more like Mr. Nirenberg. And we should start REAL SOON NOW.

"Out of The Mouths of Blabbering Boobs & Bushies"

With so much bad news - from the economy to the declaration that we're having our deadliest years E-V-E-R in both Iraq and Afghanistan to a host of other awfuls, the Bushies have made a few really TELLING declarations in the past week that are worthy of note.

First, there was Bush's insistence that anything Pakistan leader Pervez Musharraf wanted to do to for his country was A-OK with Bush. But that's not quite the NEWS. Bush, when asked if it was appropriate for Musharraf to claim the presidency when he came to power through a military coupe with Musharraf heading the military at the time, Bush comes out with:

Can a leader run both the military AND be president of his country at the same time? Of course not!

Uh.... Houston to the president: YOU ostensibly run the military as commander in cheat.. uh chief WHILE you are also supposedly president.

Then there's White House spokesvermin Dana Perino, Tony Snow(job)'s even sorrier replacement who, when asked if it was appropriate for any country's leadership to choose arbitrarily to end his/her nation's democracy and civil liberties in the name of protecting its citizens from terrorism, said NO!

But all the Bushies have done, since even before Tuesday, September 11th, 2001, is spy upon us as its citizens without ANY proof any of us is jeopardizing national security, to wiretap and remove constitutionally protected liberties, all in the name of "homeland security." In fact, in the same week Perino uttered this startling declaration (and removing our liberties have NOT made us any safer, I must add), the Bushies had several new initiatives underway to snoop upon us without due cause.

Stop the insanity, people!

"I Cannot Answer Your Question Because To Do So Might Require The Truth; We Can't Have That"

And, as we all know too well, the truth (and accountability, and responsibility, and words with more than one syllable) is the worst and scariest form of terror to the Bush Administration.

If you missed the Senate Judiciary Committee's hearing this morning where Karl Rove was supposed to appear, yet did not (big surprise, eh?), but where his deputy (J. Scott Jennings) did show up just to say, "Screw you!", here's a Recap for Dummies:

Chairman Patrick Leahy: What is your name?

Rove's ASSistant: I respectfully (chortle) decline to tell you this because it might endanger national security, cause terrorists to stop fighting us over there and come fight us over here, AND possibly make the president mess his pants (again) at a time when Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice is not available to change his ultra-small Pampers.

Leahy: You're trying to tell us you can't even state your name for the record?

ASSistant: No, I'm stating I won't. I mean, who the fuck elected you and gave you any constitional right to question the authority of the Absolute Monarch, God's boss and mine, George Bush?

Leahy: Moving on, please state your job title and your specific responsibilities.

ASSistant: I can't tell you that.

Leahy: Why?

ASSistant: Because I don't like you. Nobody likes you. Remember when Vice President Cheney, the only man who can tell God to take a freaking hike, told you to go fuck yourself? Just as promised, sir, the Bush Administration restored much needed maturity, accountability, and leadership - not to mention a colorful disregard for just about everything without a billion dollar check attached - to Washington.

Leahy: I see. So your job is to stonewall?

ASSistant: Did I mention that in the latest revision of the Patriot Act, we plan to place all Democrats and just about anyone who earns less than a cool three million a year on a list of terrorists to be denied jobs, services, constitutional protections, AND breathing privileges? Now, if you'll excuse me (and it's not like you've got a fucking choice, you old shit), I need to go so I can get Karl's Starbucks and his daily 50 lb bag of Skittles. It's a tough job subverting democracy and making a mockery of all America claims to hold dear, but Karl and Cheney are damned good at it!

Oh, one more thing: Impeach this! [holding crotch, jiggling it]

As The Worm(s) Turn: Rove Flips The Bird While His ASSistant Refuses to So Much As Identify His Job Function

Dan Froomkin of the Washington Post offers a good take on Karl Rove's middle finger flip to the Senate Judiciary Committee today in the continuing, ever more baffling U.S. Attorney purge scandal that Rove and Bush clearly orchestrated for partisan gain; God forbid someone - anyone - in the Bush White House be held accountable for his or her actions.

For my take on how Rove's hench-weasel responded to the simplest questions posed by Patrick Leahy (D-VT) and Arlen Specter (R-PA and Scotland (cough)), see this post. The fellow seemed unwilling to so much as give his name. The contempt these folks hold for anyone not part of them is just astonishing. I have to say I can find no real precedent for the extensiveness of the clear and utter disregard for any accountability for their felonious actions.

At the same time, the Bush Administration is apparently pumping its set of huge brass balls ever larger because, as it becomes clearer with each passing day that U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales cannot tell a truth and certainly has NO capacity for performing his job ("I serve at the pleasure of the president; I nap when he does!"), the Bushies want to give this dolt even MORE capability for spying on us all under FISA, without due cause and definitely without any accountability.

Elsewhere, Time Magazine states what is all too obvious to those of us paying attention: Bush won't boot Gonzo because to do so might bring some very nasty, impeachable, perhaps fully treasonous facts into the light of day. How terrible that would be - for them, that is.

Much Better: Arrest Impeach Supporters Rather Than Indict A Lying, Thieving President

It's amazing, really.

A president who stole two elections, lied us into countless wars (the one in Iraq and the ridiculous one he labeled "War on Terror" are but two), violates the U.S. Constitution and the Geneva Convention on a daily and egregious basis, has made our country far less safe (and our risk from terrorists seems almost microscopic compared with our grave and present risks from the Bush-Cheney minions who are themselves terrorists), has killed the American dollar (still in freefall throughout the world) along with countless soldiers, civilians, and so-called enemy detainees, goes scot-free.

But cops arrest a 74-year-old man for selling Impeach Bush buttons at a Maryland farmer's market. Cindy Sheehan and nearly four dozen other Americans have also been arrested this week for impeachment efforts.

Feel any safer? I don't.

Bush: Felon In Chief

TalkLeft gives you more details about the "Karl Rove-Ken Mehlman/Official White House email sent out over Republican National Committee servers/incoming and outgoing email messages for 51 out of 87 different White House/government appointees purged" brouhaha.

Or, as Bush and Cheney (AND U.S. ASSAttorney General Alberto Gonzales) like to say,"WHAT U.S. Constitution? WHOSE Bill of Rights? WHAT planet are you on where you think this administration is accountable to anyone? The Presidential Records Act, like the Geneva Conventions, is quaint and not to be worried about. Go f*** yourself!"

Free Press? So Why "Fear Is In Every Newsroom In The Country"?

So much for the First Amendment, folks. From Adbusters (with deep thanks to Buzzflash for the link):

When Australia’s Rupert Murdoch threw his support behind the Iraq War, so did the 175 media outlets he owns as part of News Corp. When Canada’s CanWest Global Communications justified the Afghanistan invasion, so did its eleven daily newspapers and 16 television stations. And when the major US media conglomerates signed off on the Bush administration’s invasion of Iraq, American journalists lined up right behind them. In a recent interview on PBS’s Bill Moyers Report, former CBS Evening News anchorman Dan Rather explained why journalists were so afraid to question the war.

“Fear is in every newsroom in the country . . . particularly in [the] networks,” said Rather. “They’ve become huge international conglomerates. They have big needs, legislative needs, regulatory needs in Washington. Nobody has to send you a memo to tell you that that’s the case – you know. And that puts a seed in your mind of well, ‘If you stick your neck out, if you take the risk of going against the grain with your reporting, is anybody going to back you up?’”

Although the Iraq and Afghanistan wars have shown that media conglomerates limit the diversity of views, subvert democracy and stymie journalistic integrity, Canada, America and Australia’s media regulators continue to let them expand. In fact, over the past decade, media regulators have gone out of their way to help facilitate consolidation or have refused to speak up against it – all to the detriment of the public’s interest. As each of these three countries enters another round of media convergence, their federal media watchdogs appear to be looking the other way.

Of Guns And Labels And Assumptions

Regular readers know I have no love for guns. But regulars have seen me state on many occasions that although I don't want a gun anywhere in my home or office, I have no desire to take guns away from everyone or make it impossible for good and educated-to-the-risks-and-safety people to have one or more guns. [Although I continue to strive for a world where one of our favorite possessions is something that largely exists only to threaten, wound, or kill, I recognize we're sure not there now.] My 2004 choice for president was Howard Dean who is for many issues I care about while he is also hardly anti-gun.

So I was a little surprised to see that I was branded as an anti-gun misanthrope simply for posting about an article on Gun Guys; here's my response:

As the blogger in question, let me point out a few things:

First, you're right; I do not like guns although I was raised even as a little girl to know how to handle them and to shoot. But not liking is rather different from "anti-gun".

Second, while I am strongly FOR gun education and safety, I do not campaign against guns or likewise. To some degree, adults should be able to choose their particular interests without having the feds in your face all the time.

Third, as part of item two, I support intelligent gun laws that allow those who want to shoot as a passtime (or use for protection). I just happen to prefer not to use, see, or even have brought into my home or office a handgun or anything larger.

Fourth - and here's probably the biggest gap between us - while some may call it issue advocacy at The Gun Guys, I find them a good place to start for information on an issue that I can then research through other means. After checking out several items, I find GunGuys generally less invested in spin than many of the sites that promote the "give every American a gun" ideals.

Since this post mentions the need for education, I say hell yes! We can start with a better reading of the 2nd amendment as to what it DOES say, rather than what some wish to infer.