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Chinese Water Torture? No, I Said CHENEY’S Water Torture

[ Add A Comment ]Posted on June 7, 2010 by admin in Politics

Monday, June 7th, 2010

Would you like some war crimes with your war crimes? Physicians for Human Rights has released documents suggesting that in the CIA’s attempt to justify the war crime of torture, they appear to have committed another war crime – illegal experimentation on prisoners.


One of the many charming and
iconic images of the Bush era

Not too long ago I used the expression Chinese water torture, and the person I was talking to thought I said “Cheney’s water torture”. That alone should be telling enough. The Bush administration will probably always be remembered around the world for its arrogance, corruption, subterfuge, and aggression. And for changing America’s persona abroad into that of a hostile empire, resorting to any means – including torture – to achieve its ends. I know the administration had that effect on me; in 2008 I didn’t vote for Obama so much as I voted against the Bush era. I was hired that year by a liberal-minded commodities trader to do research and create a web site summarizing the Bush camp’s offences so he could more effectively sway the vote of his moderate conservative friends. I called it AmericanCenturyNow.org as a comment on the NeoCon think tank site NewAmericanCentury.org. I don’t feel that any justice has been served yet against the crimes of the Bush-Cheney administration that are outlined in that site, and that is one of my biggest disappointments regarding the Obama administration. Which is why I was glad to see that Physicians for Human Rights is finally releasing documents that indicate that in the CIA’s attempt to justify the war crime of torture, they appear to have committed another war crime — illegal experimentation on prisoners. Adding medicine to your illegal torture repertoire has been done before, but ironically it was the previous perpetrators that inspired the very laws created by the US and the Geneva Convention that the Bush administration appear to have blatantly violated. Unfortunately the story has yet to get in any spin in the major media, and I doubt it will. And even if it did, I doubt much would happen. I realized a long time ago that the human race has a spiritual sickness that helps it perceive war as a rational pursuit. I just hope that the people in this country that still support the brutality endorsed by Bush era policy will come to their senses and realize that supporting that approach to prisoner of war treatment virtually guarantees that in the next major conflict it will be our sons and daughters and brothers and sisters that are being tortured, and we won’t have any moral high ground to stand on in protest. Read the rest of this entry »

Outrage Outs Hypocritical Gay Politicians

[ 1 Comment ]Posted on October 5, 2009 by admin in Popular Media

Monday, October 5th, 2009

Should politicians that are publicly anti-gay while privately gay be outed? Where’s your righteous indignation? I dunno, but your Outrage is on HBO this week.

I missed Outrage when it hit theaters in May, so I’ll be trying to crash a friend’s place this evening to catch it on HBO. The idea of a movie created specifically to out politicians that are publicly anti-gay while privately being gay hits some dynamic chords for me. Conversations about issues related to gay rights are usually a little more nuanced in my circles. I’m not sure I’m behind government approval of gay marriage, for example, but that’s because I’m not sure I believe in government PERIOD. Otherwise, I vehemently support a person’s right to marry whomever they like, regardless of gender, or even species — as long as the other species is consenting. In this case though, it’s a little more cut-and-dried for me. The idea here is exposing politicians’ hypocrisy, not their sex lives, right? How can that be wrong? Well, I wonder how a filmmaker shooting a film like this chooses their “targets”, and what their methodology is in general. But hell. Once they’ve got the goods, it’s a no-brainer, right? They’re just exposing lying politicians, right? As Rep. Barney Frank (whom I previously had no idea was openly gay) puts it: “There is a right to privacy, there’s no right to hypocrisy.” If you’ve read this far, you may be curious as to just who the film exposes. The list includes Florida governor Charlie Crist, who was once a likely pick as John McCain’s running mate; David Dreier, who was once a leading Republican candidate for House majority leader; Ken Mehlman, George Bush’s campaign manager during the 2004 election and former RNC chairman; former New York City mayor Ed Koch; the now-retired Read the rest of this entry »

Hank Paulson Could Sell An Ice Cube To An Eskimo

[ 1 Comment ]Posted on September 16, 2009 by admin in Politics

Wednesday, September 16th, 2009

And he sold Bush a bailout that Bush didn’t understand. But can he sell you a book?


So Long, And Thanks For All The Crocs!

I guess the fact that Hank Paulson is releasing the book On the Brink: Inside the Race to Stop the Collapse of the Global Financial System in 2010 should instill in us all a comforting feeling that the financial crisis is well behind us now. Well, it doesn’t. It does however, instill in some of us the feeling that Paulson is a greedy self-engrossed bastard that is so out of touch with the reality of those of us that are paying for his spectacular destruction of capitalism as we know it that he thinks we’d buy his book. Or be able to afford it, for that matter. It also – along with the impending release of Bush speechwriter Matthew Latimer’s Speech-less: Tales of a White House Survivor – makes for some hilarious pre-release reading. The only thing that might give you a better laugh than Latimer’s self-aggrandizing piece in GQ is Wonkette’s reaction to it. My favorite excerpt is when Wonkettes’s Juli Weiner takes Latimer’s passage “Paulson was supposed to be a nonideological, pragmatic, sensible type. He was bald with glasses and had a scratchy voice that sounded like he had a thousand-dollar bill caught in his throat” and translates it as “Paulson loved eating money. This is why the economy became so bad, because he ate all the money, we’d write. Because that’s what we were told.” Taking a more serious tone, the Vanity Fair piece Henry Paulson’s Longest Night rambles on in an almost surreal attempt to build compassion for Paulson by telling us what a tough job it was for him to hoodwink Washington with his buddy Bernanke and then sweep their frightening mess under the rug using the veil of secrecy provided by being in charge of the Federal Reserve. Probably the most gratifying thing in this piece is when the author describes Paulson throwing up in the next room while he talks about Nancy Pelosi. I can’t wait for more of the continuing flood of these opportunistic and treacherous “insider views”, but so far the most interesting thing I’ve learned from Latimer’s, Paulson’s and Tom Ridge’s tell-all sellouts is that Bush wears Crocs*. Read the rest of this entry »

Our Constitution: It’s Just To DIE For

[ Add A Comment ]Posted on May 22, 2009 by admin in Politics

Friday, May 22nd, 2009

Memorial Day weekend is a great time to ask if our constitution is still worth dying for. The latest change? The FCC can inspect your baby monitor without a warrant.

With Memorial Day weekend upon us, maybe it’s time to take a moment to honor those who have died for our great country. Or, more importantly, maybe ask ourselves if we would do the same, or if we even live in the same country they did. I mean, if one of the things you’d be willing to die for is the constitution, shouldn’t you check first to see if it still exists? We now know that not only did the Bush administration declare the 4th Amendment irrelevant, but apparently the new administration isn’t doing a lot to change things, and recently, the FCC has been taking things to a new level regarding search and seizure. You know that tag you’ll find on mattresses that says “Do Not Remove Under Penalty of Law“? By now, most of us know it wasn’t directed at the consumer. But there’s another tag in your house you might be concerned about. Do you own a wireless router, a cordless phone, a baby monitor, or a cell phone? You know the label that you’ll find on some devices (and in that chapter of the manual you didn’t read) that refers to Part 15 of the FCC rules? Well, in a rather bizarre twist, the FCC has perverted these regulations to give themselves authority to conduct warrantless searches on private property. I’d suggest you mount your wireless router on the outside of your house, and put all your other devices in a lockbox outside your door. That baby monitor’s gonna be a problem though.

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Time Is An Illusion, Lunchtime Doubly So

[ 1 Comment ]Posted on March 8, 2009 by admin in Editorial & Opinion

Sunday, March 8th, 2009

Who’s behind the daylight savings time conspiracy?

My concept of time was destroyed at a relatively early age, first by reading Ray Bradbury short stories like A Sound of Thunder, and later by being exposed to Zen and eastern religion by reading pop philosopher Alan Watts. That headline of course is quoting a Douglas Adams character, Adams being another individual who apparently took an early disregard for the concept of time. All of which has something to do with my mild contempt for daylight savings time and the fact that I felt somehow cheated out of an hour this morning. So who’s behind this grand conspiracy to give us travel-free jetlag? Well, most recently the change was rolled into the Energy Policy Act of 2005, signed by George Bush. I still don’t understand why changing the dates of daylight savings time saves energy, and in fact, if you read this explanation on Wikipedia, you might end up concluding it only benefits wealthy golfers. But before all you ranting Liberal Elitists start blaming Bush, understand the trail goes back MUCH further, to 1884 and the International Meridian Conference, which was requested by U.S. President Chester A. Arthur, the guy we always forget because he only became president when Garfield was assassinated. Which I think makes it clear that there was indeed a conspiracy. An assassination, an international plan to modify TIME ITSELF….I’d follow up this morning but I’m short of time.

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