December 2008 archive

Wake Up

The Sonics – Strychnine

This will be a short essay. I just watched the first episode of the video Edger talks about in his essay: Torturing Democracy. I hope everyone will watch it. Its hard, but provides a powerful reminder of why this petition drive is so important.

While I was watching, I remembered that last year a book was published titled Poems from Guantanamo: The Detainees Speak. One of the poems by Jumah Al Dossari was reprinted in the Boston Globe. Here’s some information about the author.

Jumah al Dossari, a 33-year-old Bahraini national, is the father of a young daughter. He has been held at Guantánamo Bay for more than five years. Detained without charge or trial, Dossari has been subjected to a range of physical and psychological abuses, some of which are detailed in “Inside the Wire,” an account of the Guantánamo prison by former military intelligence soldier Erik Saar. He has been held in solitary confinement since the end of 2003 and, according to the US military, has tried to kill himself 12 times while in the prison. On one occasion, he was found by his lawyer, hanging by his neck and bleeding from a gash to his arm.

This Pony Party is an open thread.  Chat amongst the ice and snow and cold temps…if only in your imagination!  Please do not rec.

If you wish to repost this essay you can download a .txt file of the html here (right click and save). Permission granted.

“The Fifth, Eighth, and Fourteenth Amendements to the Constitution of the United States prohibit cruel, inhumane or degrading treatment.“

With that sentence begins the documentary film “Torturing Democracy“, a documentary to be aired on PBS television stations nationwide on January 21st, 2009, one day after President Bush leaves office.

One day after President Bush leaves office will be the first day of President-Elect Barack Obama’s new administration.

Between today and that day, we have a date with Attorney General-Designate Eric Holder and President-Elect Barack Obama. Everyday.

As netizens reading this at the founding site of the Citizens Petition for a Special Prosecutor to Investigate and Prosecute Bush War Crimes we have a date every day with those two men as we work to generate as many signatures to the petition that we can possibly generate to bring the war criminals in the Bush administration to justice. Principally Mr. Bush himself, Vice President Richard Cheney, and former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld. They were the leaders. The instigators. And the approvers. But there are many others as well, and they all deserve fair trials. it is the very least we can do for them, and for the world.

These crimes are being euphemistically referred to as “abusive interrogation techniques” by such respected figures as Senator John McCain. These are euphemisms for torture. Torture is a War Crime. Waterboarding is a War Crime. The CIA has admitted waterboarding detainees. Recently, Vice President Cheney has brazenly admitted authorizing the program that led to waterboarding, other forms of torture too numerous to list, and ultimately, the deaths by homicide of detainees.

As is often the case, we are because of our insatiable interest, curiosity and determination to be as well informed as we can be, much farther ahead of the millions of people who will see Torturing Democracy on January 21st, 2009.

Before the PBS broadcast the documentary in its entirety can be viewed at TorturingDemocracy.org

The following video is the first eight and a half minutes of the full documentary. Watch the rest at the link above.

Torturing Democracy

1. The NY Times reports Arrests for shoplifting soar as the economy dips.

   Police departments across the country say that shoplifting arrests are 10 percent to 20 percent higher this year than last. The problem is probably even greater than arrest records indicate since shoplifters are often banned from stores rather than arrested.

   Much of the increase has come from first-time offenders… making rash decisions in a pinch, the authorities say. But the ease with which stolen goods can be sold on the Internet has meant a bigger role for organized crime rings, which also engage in receipt fraud, fake price tagging and gift card schemes, the police and security experts say.

   Meanwhile, the Washington Post reports November sales of existing and new Homes fall.

   Sales of existing homes fell 8.6 percent to a seasonally adjusted 4.49 million units in November compared with October. Sales were down 10.6 percent compared with the same period a year ago, according to the data from the National Association of Realtors.

   Median home prices fell 13.2 percent, to $208,800.

   The drop in existing-home prices is the largest since the Realtors began collecting data in 1968 and likely the largest decline since the Great Depression.

Four at Four continues with news of Afghanistan and Obama, Iraq and the British withdrawal, and IRS audits (and income) are down.

Consider the Plantation mentality that has re-taken hold in the United States over the last fifteen years and especially in the last eight.  Not that it hasn’t been with us since the beginnings of American history, but considering the successful struggles for liberty and justice during the Civil War, the New Deal, and the Civil Rights era, the fact that this mentality has not been rejected completely is amazing.