Twin Cities Media Alliance h/t Truthout
Monday, February 28, 2011
Wednesday, February 23, 2011
Obama struggles with killing people overseas
Regarding Raymond Davis
Each method has advantages and disadvantages.
Each method has advantages and disadvantages.
Obama: We've got a very simple principle here that every country in the world that is party to the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations has upheld in the past and should uphold in the future and that is if our diplomats are in another country, then they are not subject to that country's local prosecution.However, Article 31.1c does exclude from protection any professional actions undertaken outside of the official functions.
Tuesday, February 22, 2011
Sunday, February 20, 2011
Thursday, February 17, 2011
Wednesday, February 16, 2011
Sunday, February 13, 2011
Friday, February 11, 2011
Sensory depravation is torture
and we all saw it.
And so is mefloquine, aka "lariam",
the anti-malarial with a side effect like "Russian roulette"
except using a four-shooter rather than a six-shooter.
Audio from This American Life, Act 3, about events of October 12th and 13th
Losing one's mind, thanks to lariam.
Thursday, February 10, 2011
Alexander, the Great Killer
Should we name our new destroyers the
USS Yoo, USS Addington, USS Rumsfeld, USS Bush,
USS Gonzalez
If you had an outfit you could be a soldier too
and then you would be entitled to professional courtesy.
Tuesday, February 08, 2011
xAt the prayer breakfast
U.S.Attorney General Michael Mukasey (R) refuses to join FBI Director Robert Muller in a prayer for Bradley Manning,
imprisoned at the Marine Base in Quantico, Virginia.
Monday, February 07, 2011
He said dryly
Guantanamo has never been open.
See news article "UN seeks access to POWs at Guantanamo"
reported June 23, 2005 by npr here
The US is ignoring their requests.
Saturday, February 05, 2011
Habeas Corpus v. Make me
"Despotic King John signed the Magna Carta in 1215" says the display at the National Archives. If despotic King John abandoned his right to send commoners to the tower, doesn't that make our president more despotic than King John? Yes, it does.
Our constitution does not allow the legislature to condemn free men (no bills of attainder). The 4th amendment prevents the executive from doing the same.
If they are not prisoners of war, then they are just prisoners.
Wednesday, February 02, 2011
Tuesday, February 01, 2011
on TwitterMonday, January 31, 2011
Langston Hughes, on Egypt
Does it dry up
like a raisin in the sun?
Or fester like a sore--
And then run?
Does it stink like rotten meat?
Or crust and sugar over--
like a syrupy sweet?
Maybe it just sags
like a heavy load.
Or does it explode?
Sunday, January 30, 2011
Friday, January 28, 2011
Juan Bosch, President of the Dominican Republic
During the uprising to restore Juan Bosch, Johnson says: "we are really going to have to set-up that government down there, run it, and stabilize it, some way or another. This Bosch is no good."
Tom Mann, assistant, says: "The man to get back is Balaguer."
Free Speech
in Egypt, is dial-up.
====
Dmitri says
"American leaders appear to be following the Soviet playbook for the imperial end-game quite faithfully: cringing behind high walls and locked doors, looting the treasury like there's no tomorrow, and, of course, lying their heads off. ..."
Thursday, January 27, 2011
The worst of
the worst of the worst.
=====================================
How Uyghurs got to Guantanamo
This is most of it.
Plus money paid to finger suspicious characters.
The second rhetorical war
RW1: The War on Poverty
RW2: The War on Terror
Alfred-Maurice de Zayas [wikipedia]
Maybe this is the Second War on Poverty.
Wednesday, January 26, 2011
WMD is probably a lie
Nuclear explosions could kill millions.
Biological and chemical weapons, not so.
Commercial decisions are more dangerous:
antibiotics in feed, medical errors.
Tuesday, January 25, 2011
Monday, January 24, 2011
Tom Perez, Asst Attorney General for Civil Rights
On Social Justice Sunday, Tom met with a group after the 10:30 mass at St Aloysius in DC. He opened by saying that when he took the oath of office in October 2009, he placed his hand on the bible and swore to uphold the Constitution; he did not swear to uphold the bible. This is a deft way of making the distinction between legality and morality, with the implication that when laws are thought to be moral, it makes compliance more general, and his job of enforcement somewhat easier, but that's mostly it.
His presentation was an uplifting and heart warming recollection of the dreams of his youth, and the achievements of the department in the recent past; among which, the program to reduce playgound bullying and the recent conviction of the Chicago officer who long obtained confessions through torture.
At the question period, the talk shifted to the bullying and torture committed by the previous administration, and would they ever be arrested. He said that after some discussion at the highest levels, it was decided not to pursue that course, an example of the principle of prosecutorial discretion.
He listened, without objection, to the notions that
1. international treaties, once ratified by the Senate, are law
2. the Attorney General recognizes that waterboarding is torture,
3. Bush admitted establishing a program of waterboarding.
It was discreetly not mentioned that the convention against torture, article 4, puts that crime beyond reach of the application of prosecutorial discretion.
He refused to reveal his opinion on the decision to not proescute, most likely because he took part in the dicussions, and it is impolite to reveal one's own contributions. But doubtless there is considerable cognitive dissonance at the highest levels of the DoJ, which may constitute a workplace hazard.
To avoid this risk, the current president should issue a blanket pardon for all white collar crimes committed during the last administration within the White House or at the DoJ. This would bring our actions into a nice conformity with our obligations, although it would raise two troubling thoughts:
1. what is the effect of a national pardon on an international crime
2. might this not suggest that people in power can be expected, in the absence of a pardon, to explain their actions.
On the positive side, it would eliminate the embarrassing possibility that a judge would issue a writ of mandamus to require the Attorney General to uphold the law.
Monday, January 10, 2011
Saturday, January 08, 2011
History Lesson - First President
Presided over the Continental Congress
during the Declaration of Independence.
Probably why his signature is so large.
Big man on campus.
Monday, January 03, 2011
I didn't think soSunday, January 02, 2011
Saturday, January 01, 2011
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