Are you getting it yet?

"But are these the fundamental reasons that torture is unacceptable? Can this nation now understand pain only if it is experienced by Americans or, through some chain of consequences, it rebounds upon the United States? Have all the people in the world but Americans become invisible to Americans?

Torture is not wrong because someone else thinks it is wrong or because others, in retaliation for torture by Americans, may torture Americans. It is the torture that is wrong. Torture is wrong because it inflicts unspeakable pain upon the body of a fellow human being who is entirely at our mercy. The tortured person is bound and helpless. The torturer stands over him with his instruments. There is no question of "unilateral disarmament," because the victim bears no arms, lacking even the use of the two arms he was born with. The inequality is total. To abuse or kill a person in such a circumstance is as radical a denial of common humanity as is possible. It is repugnant to learn that one's country's military forces are engaging in torture. It is worse to learn that the torture is widespread. It is worse still to learn that the torture was rationalized and sanctioned in long memorandums written by people at the highest level of the government. But worst of all would be ratification of this record by a vote to confirm one of its chief authors to the highest legal office in the executive branch of the government.

Torture destroys the soul of the torturer even as it destroys the body of his victim. The boundary between humane treatment of prisoners and torture is perhaps the clearest boundary in existence between civilization and barbarism. Whether the elected representatives of the people of the United States are now ready to cross that line is the deepest question before the Senate as it votes on the nomination of Alberto Gonzales. "

Jonathan Schell

Empire Rolls On!

There is the Gene Hackman role of Little Bill Daggett in "The Unforgiven" coming to mind as I contemplate this outrageous event of the inauguration of the Chief Criminal Officer of the Dark Side Occupying Force of Global Corporate Hedgemony. We no longer have to carry the illusion of the survival of America. America died for certain in the second week of December 2000. Like all great and noble experiments in the global culture of inclusive harmony there is no future in holding on to the past. Just like Little Bill Daggett, Little George Bush, kicks 'em in the balls when they are down and shoots 'em in the back when they walk away. Compromise is just an opening to exploit. Pity is weakness.

Sub-Human Grease Trap to Head State Department

Lying Chevron employee Condoleeza Rice was feted by the Senate today with only one serious questioner in the person of Barbara Boxer who was brave enough and thoroughly prepared to wade through the sewer of deceit which is Condoleeza Rice. Condi lied and lied and lied and even had the temerity to suggest that Barbara's questions impugned her tortured relationship with credibility and the truth. Undeterred by the incredible baseless stance of Rice, Boxer steadfastly held the line and refused to be bullied by the most visible grease trap of the Bush Empire. Bravo Barbara! Shame on you Chris Dodd for not joining in voting against the confirmation, ditto to you Russ Feingold, ditto to you Joe Biden although I never expect much from someone like yourself who is so blind to the horrors of the Israeli State Terror Machine that you go on record supporting those stinking Israeli occupiers. But for you John Kerry who carried the banner of your party to resounding defeat I ask you to leave the Senate forever for your straw man candidacy has given democratic representative government the dagger to the heart from which it cannot recover. For you it was a safe symbolic vote, much in the manner of your campaign which left 50 million dollars unspent in the most important election in the history of the modern world.

Get out of the way John Kerry and go home to mother Teresa who may still yet disown your sorry ass.

President Bush issued an Executive Order authorizing the use of inhumane interrogation methods against detainees in Iraq.

President Bush issued an Executive Order authorizing the use of inhumane interrogation methods against detainees in Iraq.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: media@aclu.org

Newly Obtained FBI Records Call Defense Department’s Methods "Torture," Express Concerns Over "Cover-Up" That May Leave FBI "Holding the Bag" for Abuses

NEW YORK -- A document released for the first time today by the American Civil Liberties Union suggests that President Bush issued an Executive Order authorizing the use of inhumane interrogation methods against detainees in Iraq. Also released by the ACLU today are a slew of other records including a December 2003 FBI e-mail that characterizes methods used by the Defense Department as "torture" and a June 2004 "Urgent Report" to the Director of the FBI that raises concerns that abuse of detainees is being covered up.

"These documents raise grave questions about where the blame for widespread detainee abuse ultimately rests," said ACLU Executive Director Anthony D. Romero. "Top government officials can no longer hide from public scrutiny by pointing the finger at a few low-ranking soldiers."

The documents were obtained after the ACLU and other public interest organizations filed a lawsuit against the government for failing to respond to a Freedom of Information Act request.

The two-page e-mail that references an Executive Order states that the President directly authorized interrogation techniques including sleep deprivation, stress positions, the use of military dogs, and "sensory deprivation through the use of hoods, etc." The ACLU is urging the White House to confirm or deny the existence of such an order and immediately to release the order if it exists. The FBI e-mail, which was sent in May 2004 from "On Scene Commander--Baghdad" to a handful of senior FBI officials, notes that the FBI has prohibited its agents from employing the techniques that the President is said to have authorized.

Another e-mail, dated December 2003, describes an incident in which Defense Department interrogators at Guantánamo Bay impersonated FBI agents while using "torture techniques" against a detainee. The e-mail concludes "If this detainee is ever released or his story made public in any way, DOD interrogators will not be held accountable because these torture techniques were done [sic] the ‘FBI’ interrogators. The FBI will [sic] left holding the bag before the public."

The document also says that no "intelligence of a threat neutralization nature" was garnered by the "FBI" interrogation, and that the FBI’s Criminal Investigation Task Force (CITF) believes that the Defense Department’s actions have destroyed any chance of prosecuting the detainee. The e-mail’s author writes that he or she is documenting the incident "in order to protect the FBI."

"The methods that the Defense Department has adopted are illegal, immoral, and counterproductive," said ACLU staff attorney Jameel Jaffer. "It is astounding that these methods appear to have been adopted as a matter of policy by the highest levels of government."

The June 2004 "Urgent Report" addressed to the FBI Director is heavily redacted. The legible portions of the document appear to describe an account given to the FBI’s Sacramento Field Office by an FBI agent who had "observed numerous physical abuse incidents of Iraqi civilian detainees," including "strangulation, beatings, [and] placement of lit cigarettes into the detainees ear openings." The document states that "[redacted] was providing this account to the FBI based on his knowledge that [redacted] were engaged in a cover-up of these abuses."

The release of these documents follows a federal court order that directed government agencies to comply with a year-old request under the Freedom of Information Act filed by the ACLU, the Center for Constitutional Rights, Physicians for Human Rights, Veterans for Common Sense and Veterans for Peace. The New York Civil Liberties Union is co-counsel in the case.

Other documents released by the ACLU today include:

* An FBI email regarding DOD personnel impersonating FBI officials during interrogations. The e-mail refers to a "ruse" and notes that "all of those [techniques] used in these scenarios" were approved by the Deputy Secretary of Defense. (Jan. 21, 2004)
* Another FBI agent’s account of interrogations at Guantánamo in which detainees were shackled hand and foot in a fetal position on the floor. The agent states that the detainees were kept in that position for 18 to 24 hours at a time and most had "urinated or defacated [sic]" on themselves. On one occasion, the agent reports having seen a detainee left in an unventilated, non-air conditioned room at a temperature "probably well over a hundred degrees." The agent notes: "The detainee was almost unconscious on the floor, with a pile of hair next to him. He had apparently been literally pulling his own hair out throughout the night." (Aug. 2, 2004)
* An e-mail stating that an Army lawyer "worked hard to cwrite [sic] a legal justification for the type of interrogations they (the Army) want to conduct" at Guantánamo Bay. (Dec. 9, 2002)
* An e-mail noting the initiation of an FBI investigation into the alleged rape of a juvenile male detainee at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq. (July 28, 2004)
* An FBI agent’s account of an interrogation at Guantánamo - an interrogation apparently conducted by Defense Department personnel - in which a detainee was wrapped in an Israeli flag and bombarded with loud music and strobe lights. (July 30, 2004)

The ACLU and its allies are scheduled to go to court again this afternoon, where they will seek an order compelling the CIA to turn over records related to an internal investigation into detainee abuse. Although the ACLU has received more than 9,000 documents from other agencies, the CIA refuses to confirm or deny even the existence of many of the records that the ACLU and other plaintiffs have requested. The CIA is reported to have been involved in abusing detainees in Iraq and at secret CIA detention facilities around the globe.

The lawsuit is being handled by Lawrence Lustberg and Megan Lewis of the New Jersey-based law firm Gibbons, Del Deo, Dolan, Griffinger & Vecchione, P.C. Other attorneys in the case are Jaffer, Amrit Singh and Judy Rabinovitz of the ACLU; Art Eisenberg and Beth Haroules of the NYCLU; and Barbara Olshansky and Jeff Fogel of CCR.

The documents referenced above can be found at: http://www.aclu.org/torturefoia/released/fbi.html.

More on the lawsuit can be found at: http://www.aclu.org/torturefoia/.

FOUR MORE DEAD IN OHIO

Four More Dead in Ohio
"...Under the lights where we stand tall
Nobody touches us at all
Showdown, shootout, spread fear within, without
We're gonna take what's ours to have
Spread the word throughout the land
They say the bad guys wear black
We're tagged and can't turn back

You see us comin'
And you all together run for cover
We're takin over this town

Here we come reach for your gun
And you better listen my friend, you see
It's been slow down below,
Aimed at you we're the cowboys from hell
Deed is done again, we've won
Ain't talking no tall tales friend
'Cause high noon, your doom
Comin' for you we're the cowboys from hell

Pillage the village, trash the scene
But better not take it out on me
'Cause a ghost town is found
Where your city used to be
So out of the darkness and into the light
Sparks fly everywhere in sight
From my double barrel, 12 gauge,
Can't lock me in your cage

You see us comin'
And you all together run for cover
We're takin over this town

Here we come reach for your gun
And you better listen my friend, you see
It's been slow down below,
Aimed at you we're the cowboys from hell
Deed is done again, we've won
Ain't talking no tall tales friend
'Cause high noon, your doom
Comin' for you we're the cowboys from hell..."

Cowboys From Hell, Cowboys From Hell, Pantera, Elektra (c) 1990


There is a cancer growing wildly deep within the blood-red belly of America as the vestiges of decency and compassion disappear and the swelling stink of profit over people gains sway over the undernourished enfeebled nebbishes. Hellboy Nathan Gale comes home from the Bush wars a year ago, driven mad from the double think of war, finding no refuge in Pantera but only more affirmation of the hellprint of the Bush wars.

Nathan can't escape the conclusion that the war was just what he had experienced and whenever he listens to his favorite musician his part in the awful deeds of war are recounted and replayed over and over. Overweight and getting less desirable by the hour, unable to get laid by anyone but two dollar whores, despised by his friends who increasingly are unable to sympathesize with a GI contract murderer, he lashed out with his shotgun in one last desperate violent orgasm to silence the truth of the Cowboys From Hell.

These sad incidents will continue to increase in frequency blanketing the psychological landscape of America as we continue to fight the Bush family wars.

"Muslim extremists have been sending us a message for more than a decade. That message can be summarized as "leave us alone." Quit funding a right-wing Israeli government that drops American-made bombs on our Palestinian brothers. Stop arming corrupt, despised autocracies across the Muslim world--in Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan and Uzbekistan, to name a few--so that we can overthrow them. Let us liberate ourselves. We'll decide whether we prefer secular, modern societies like Turkey, medieval fundamentalists like the Taliban, or something in between. It's our choice, not America's."

--Ted Rall

The U.S. Marines on George Bush latrine doors and walls: “Here I sit cheeks a-flexin'. Bout to make another Texan," "F*** Texas" "Texas = steers and queers," "The only thing Bush cares about is a good fight to make a name for himself. If you think he really cares about us you're out of your f***ing mind. If you really believe 9/11 is related to Iraq then you're just as delusional as the hippie that thinks there will ever be world peace. You're not fighting for America. You're fighting for f***ed-up politics. End of story Cinderella." "If you are a retard, vote Bush. He is too!". Bush, 'a scumbag, alcoholic, draft-dodging millionaire daddy's boy,' "Only the dead have seen the end of war."

Why Florida Won't Play Fair on Election Day

Why Florida Won't Play Fair on Election Day

Jimmy Carter

After the debacle in Florida four years ago, former president Gerald Ford and I were asked to lead a blue-ribbon commission to recommend changes in the American electoral process. After months of concerted effort by a dedicated and bipartisan group of experts, we presented unanimous recommendations to the president and Congress. The government responded with the Help America Vote Act of October 2002. Unfortunately, however, many of the act’s key provisions have not been implemented because of inadequate funding or political disputes.

The disturbing fact is that a repetition of the problems of 2000 now seems likely, even as many other nations are conducting elections that are internationally certified to be transparent, honest and fair.

The Carter Centre has monitored more than 50 elections, all of them held under contentious, troubled or dangerous conditions. When I describe these activities, either in the US or in foreign forums, the almost inevitable questions are “Why don’t you observe the election in Florida?” and “How do you explain the serious problems with elections there?”

The answer to the first question is that we can monitor only about five elections each year, and meeting crucial needs in other nations is our top priority. (Our most recent ones were in Venezuela and Indonesia, and the next will be in Mozambique.) A partial answer to the other question is that some basic international requirements for a fair election are missing in Florida.

The most significant of these are:

• A non-partisan electoral commission or a trusted and non-partisan official who will be responsible for organising and conducting the electoral process before, during and after the actual voting takes place. Although rarely perfect in their objectivity, such top administrators are at least subject to public scrutiny and responsible for the integrity of their decisions. Florida voting officials have proved to be highly partisan, brazenly violating a basic need for an unbiased and universally trusted authority to manage all elements of the electoral process.
• Uniformity in voting procedures, so that all citizens, regardless of their social or financial status, have equal assurance that their votes are cast in the same way and will be tabulated with equal accuracy. Modern technology is already in use that makes electronic voting possible, with accurate and almost immediate tabulation and with paper ballot printouts so all voters can have confidence in the integrity of the process. There is no reason these proven techniques, used overseas and in some US states, could not be used in Florida.

It was obvious that in 2000 these basic standards were not met in Florida, and there are disturbing signs that once again, as we prepare for a presidential election, some of the state’s leading officials hold strong political biases that prevent necessary reforms.

Four years ago, the top election official, the Florida secretary of state, Katherine Harris, was also the co-chair of the Bush-Cheney state campaign committee. The same strong bias has become evident in her successor, Glenda Hood, who was a highly partisan elector for George Bush in 2000. Several thousand ballots of African Americans were thrown out on technicalities in 2000, and a fumbling attempt has been made recently to disqualify 22,000 African Americans (likely Democrats), but only 61 Hispanics (likely Republicans), as alleged felons.

The top election official has also played a leading role in qualifying Ralph Nader as a candidate, knowing that two-thirds of his votes in the previous election came at the expense of Al Gore. She ordered Nader’s name be included on absentee ballots even before the state supreme court ruled on the controversial issue.

Florida’s governor, Jeb Bush, naturally a strong supporter of his brother, has taken no steps to correct these departures from principles of fair and equal treatment or to prevent them in the future.

It is unconscionable to perpetuate fraudulent or biased electoral practices in any nation. It is especially objectionable among us Americans, who have prided ourselves on setting a global example for pure democracy. With reforms unlikely at this late stage of the election, perhaps the only recourse will be to focus maximum public scrutiny on the suspicious process in Florida.

Published Tuesday, September 28th, 2004, The Washington Post

Clinton breaks ranks and points to Bush 2, Bush 1 , Reagan and Rhenquist

"BILL Clinton has delivered an extraordinary blast at America's top judge, William Rehnquist, and an uncharacteristically bitter attack on Republican presidents Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush."

"Speaking before his recent health scare, the former president accused Rehnquist, the Chief Justice of the US Supreme Court, of deliberately politicising the system of appointing independent investigators, leading to years of relentless, politically motivated inquiries into his presidency."

"In an interview with The Weekend Australian, Clinton dropped the affection with which he usually discusses Reagan and the civility he affords the current President to accuse both men of deliberately using racist electoral appeals to win the White House."

"Clinton said Rehnquist, Reagan and Bush were part of a far-Right branch of the Republican Party made up of the "spiritual heirs" of white southern racists, who still used the tactics of personal destruction employed by racists in their campaign to block civil rights for blacks."

"He accused Rehnquist of deliberately appointing a highly partisan Republican, David Sentelle, in 1994 to chair a three-member panel of judges empowered to appoint special counsels to conduct inquiries into presidents."

"Sentelle's panel sacked Robert Fiske, the counsel investigating allegations against Clinton, and replaced him with the more partisan Republican Ken Starr."

"Starr, who pursued dozens of allegations against Clinton before eventually catching him out lying to cover up his sexual liaisons with White House intern Monica Lewinsky, was "an ultra-conservative" who abused his position and should never have been appointed, Clinton said."

""Rehnquist could not have been unmindful of what he was doing," Clinton stressed. "But you know, Rehnquist is a very partisan Republican. Before he went on the Supreme Court he had been part of voter challenges to (black) minority voters in Arizona."

""When he was a clerk on the Supreme Court he argued to his justice that the Supreme Court did not need to overturn the doctrine of 'separate but equal' and could keep basically supporting legalised racial segregation in America."

""That is just his philosophy, it is what he believes.""

writes Peter Wilson

Laura Bush Feedback Here is the feedback from the chart and biography of Laura Bush . View Printer-Friendly format 16 Comments for this Chart Michael Jordan 9/9/2004 The premise is flawed due to the suppression of the truth surrounding Laura Bush's slaying of her boyfriend by crushing him in his car by ramming her car into his rear end at a high speed intentionally thus crushing his chest cavity collapsing both lungs with the steering wheel and column. A horrible way to die and certainly something she should have been imprisoned for life. The Uranian planet Admetos and Mars have Saturn at their midpoint and Jupiter Square the midpoint. I interpret this as both the deed and the use of privilege to keep her from receiving the justice she deserved. In addition the Venus and Neptune septile point out her well documented substance abuse with alcohol and cigarettes which she does around George. Mercury and Zeus also lend her a very sharp mind and possibly tongue which keeps George in line. The twins seem to mirror this aspect which would have them both growing up in an environment of constant arguing sniping and blame games which plague the George even now. This is the clue to their alcohol problems. Mike Jordan apollotomorrow@gmail.com