Tag: George W. Bush

Crossposted at Daily Kos

Update #2: It has been brought to my attention that my initial analysis on the subject of this diary, originally titled “SCOTUS legalizes TORTURE and creates legal ‘unpersons'”, and then edited to state 9th Circuit . . .  is factually incorrect. I apologize for the confusion and will be writing a thorough dairy tomorrow based on the facts of the ruling by the 9th Circuit court.

    I have left the full text of the original diary intact below the fold and will be glad to be further corrected. I seek to learn as well as to share what knowledge I have.

    But I will ask this: When? When do we start to see accountability, for the super rich, for the Corporations and their CEO class, and for the crimes and other excesses of the politically powerful. When?

Thank you, and apologies to all.

Cheers

A couple of months ago, the British High Court ruled that a document containing information on the torture of Binyam Mohamed should be disclosed in full.  The original document supposedly contains seven paragraphs which describe the brutal methods used to interrogate Mohamed, including waterboarding and slicing his genitals with a scalpel.

David Miliband, the British Foreign Secretary who has been resisting the High Court’s efforts to release the document, now describes the decision as irresponsible.

David Miliband accused the two senior judges of irresponsibly “charging in” to a diplomatically sensitive area over what happened to former terror detainee Binyam Mohamed while held by the Americans in Pakistan.

Jonathan Sumption QC, appearing for the Foreign Secretary, told the Court of Appeal the judges’ stance was “both, in many respects, unnecessary and profoundly damaging to the interests of this country.”

Mr Sumption added: “I would go so far as to say their views were irresponsible.”

Crossposted at Daily Kos

    Can anybody explain why Bush/Cheney Accountability is NOT happening?

    Jeremy Scahill blows the lid off “Blackwater’s Secret War in Pakistan” in an article just published in The Nation. This story brings together an amazing array of bad actors: Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld, Stanley McChrystal and Blackwater. It should come as no surprise, then, that the outcome of this team working together is a jaw-dropping tale of war crimes that continue to be carried out.

The entire story should be read . . . .

Jim White at Firedoglake.com

Bold text added by the diarist

     Quotes from Scahill’s article, commentary and more below the fold, but I SERIOUSLY urge you to read Scahill’s article in it’s entirety first.

Crossposted at Daily Kos

    I’d like to share with you all this comment that was placed in my diary yesterday by Dkos User lascaux, as I think it sums up what we as Progressive activists and the Democrtaic base MUST accomplish in order to effect REAL CHANGE we can believe in.

What I learned

What this reform fight has taught me:

it is not enough to elect a progressive president, we need to elect liberals and progressives in congress as well.

    The frustrating inability of this Democratically controlled Congress is PROOF that our job did NOT END when Obama won the Presidential election in 2008. In fact, our work has just begun, and we must face it with the same dedication, intensity and enthusiasm that we did in 2008, or we WILL lose, because we simply don’t have the money to compete with the special interests that control our Government.

    But we DO have the people, and they can’t beat that.

    So, here’s how we should FIGHT BACK.

Crossposted at Daily Kos

    I felt a correction was in order after the diary I wrote yesterday. Upon deeper introspection I have come to the conclusion that no matter how bad Obama might phuck up he couldn’t possibly be worse at Presidenting than the last a$$clown who tried.

    And upon being reminded what a phuck up the last guy was, I would like to invite you all to please join me in remembering the EPIC and Ongoing FAIL that was the George W. Bush legacy.

    Former President George W. Bush told more than 11,000 people at the Fort Worth Convention Center that he was confident he made the right decisions as president, even if it hurt his popularity.

    “Every single day I was honored to be your president by bringing honor and dignity to the office,” Bush said Monday afternoon, during his first foray into motivational speaking, at the day-long “Get Motivated” seminar.

star-telegram.com

Bold text added by diarist

     Get Motivated! by the biggest Presidential Failure since Herbert Hoover!

    More EPOCHAL FAIL below the fold.

Crossposted at Daily Kos

     For those who will automatically balk at the Obama = Bush charge, I submit to you the fact that by Geneva Law, if Bush/Cheney is not held accountable for the War Crimes they have committed, than the Obama Administration is complicit in those crimes and guilty of covering them up.

   

The Obama administration has clung for so long to the Bush administration’s expansive claims of national security and executive power that it is in danger of turning President George W. Bush’s cover-up of abuses committed in the name of fighting terrorism into President Barack Obama’s cover-up.

NYTimes.com

Bold text added by diarist

Imagine listening to this for 20 days straight.

It IS torture, hell I can’t stand more than 20 seconds of it.

    Of course, forcing people to listen to loud music for days on end is NOT the worst War Crime committed by Bush/Cheney, but it IS a War Crime nontheless by Geneva Standards.

    Well, it looks like Rage Against The Machine, Pearl Jam and many other musicians are DEMANDING accountability on torture, as far as their artistic contribution to it is concerned.

     Some of the more famous names in the music industry are formally lending their prestige to an effort being led by retired generals, progressive groups and a former member of Congress to shut GITMO down. The list includes Trent Reznor of Nine Inch Nails, Tom Morello of Rage Against the Machine, R.E.M., Pearl Jam, Jackson Browne, Rise Against, Rosanne Cash, Billy Bragg and the Roots, all of whom are joining the broader National Campaign to Close Guantanamo which was launched earlier in the week.

    Hoping to cast further light on the potential illegalities that took place at the detention facility, the group is also working to obtain records about why and how music was used (under laws authorized by the Bush administration) to effectively torture suspected terrorists. The musicians have officially endorsed a Freedom of Information Act request for the declassification of all secret government records pertaining to music utilized during interrogations. At least two members of the coalition, Reznor and Morello, have had their music linked to interrogations.

    “Guantanamo is known around the world as one of the places where human beings have been tortured — from water boarding, to stripping, hooding and forcing detainees into humiliating sexual acts — playing music for 72 hours in a row at volumes just below that to shatter the eardrums,” said Morello, in a statement provided by the NCCG. “Guantanamo may be Dick Cheney’s idea of America, but it’s not mine. The fact that music I helped create was used in crimes against humanity sickens me — we need to end torture and close Guantanamo now.”

HuffingtonPost.com

    I nominate Tom Morello for Attorney General as SOON as I become President.

     While former U.S. president George W. Bush talked about democracy inside a downtown Edmonton conference centre on Tuesday, hundreds of protesters were outside exercising their right to free speech with signs, songs and screams.

    “Stop the killing, stop the war,” the protesters chanted to the beat of a drum. They held signs that said “Bush is a war criminal;” “Bush lied, 1,000s died;” and “Canada is not Bush Country.”

    Several dozen police officers kept protesters away from the front of the Shaw Conference Centre and as the crowd grew, metal barricades went up between the police and the crowd.

    Marilyn Gaa, who holds both American and Canadian citizenship, held a three-metre-tall black-clad Grim Reaper with a sign on his back that said: “GWB I am your biggest fan” and on the front, “Thanks for 8 great years.”

google.com/hostednews/

Crossposted at Daily Kos.  Look in the Comments Section of Daily Kos for more cartoons on the economy and sports.  Somehow, I couldn’t fit them in the main text of the diary.

THE WEEK IN EDITORIAL CARTOONS

This weekly diary takes a look at the past week’s important news stories from the perspective of our leading editorial cartoonists (including a few foreign ones) with analysis and commentary added in by me.

When evaluating a cartoon, ask yourself these questions:

1. Does a cartoon add to my existing knowledge base and help crystallize my thinking about the issue depicted?

2. Does the cartoonist have any obvious biases that distort reality?

3. Is the cartoonist reflecting prevailing public opinion or trying to shape it?

The answers will help determine the effectiveness of the cartoonist’s message.

:: ::

Glenn Beck’s Fear and Paranoia

Dave Granlund, Politicalcartoons.com

Cross posted at Daily Kos

In an hastily-arranged press conference which just ended at the National Press Club, Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele condemned the Nobel Committee for awarding the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize to President Barack Obama of the United States.

Steele offered the following remarks

Hajo de Reijger, Politicalcartoons.com (The Netherlands)

:: ::

“The Nobel Committee has done a great injustice to all peace-loving people around the world by prematurely awarding this prestigious award to someone who is totally undeserving of it.  In fact, the person who is a deserving recipient was the 43rd President of the United States, George W. Bush.  Remember him?  His vision, governing philosophy, and far-reaching efforts to promote peace and cooperation amongst various nations should have resulted in him, and not Barack Obama, being selected for this international honor.”

More of Chairman Steele’s expanded remarks below the fold.

    More than eight months after President Barack Obama took office, one third of the country’s U.S. Attorney offices are still run by prosecutors appointed during the administration of Republican George W. Bush, according to a review of data by Main Justice.

    At this point in October 2001 – after Bush succeeded Democrat Bill Clinton – less than 9 percent of the slots were occupied by Clinton holdovers.

mainjustice.com

    Change? Well, I guess if you consider taking a dollar and giving you back 67 cents change, you can count it as change, right?

    In an Administration so dedicated to bipartisanshit that they are seemingly willing to take the blame for fuck ups caused by their predecessors and risk becoming complicit in the last administrations war crimes, nothing speaks to the ineptitude of this current administration to distance themselves from or even address the failures of the criminal Bush/Cheney Administration than the fact that the Bush US Attorney’s who politicized the process of prosecuting matters of law is still more Bush than the Bush Administration was Clinton by this point in unpopularly elected, Supreme Court imposed Ex-President Bush’s first term.

    Between that and the Republiican dominated military appointments made by the Obama team since his election, the team of rivals is quickly starting to look like the team of people who undermine one another while appearing to not know what the fuck they are talking about.

    But as president, Obama has moved cautiously to replace U.S. Attorneys. While Bill Clinton asked for the resignation of all U.S. Attorneys after taking office in 1993 – a move that was criticized at the time as disruptive – the Obama White House has consulted closely with Republican senators. At times, the White House has delayed moving forward when GOP senators objected to an intended nominee. At the same time, some Democratic senators and House members have been slow in forwarding their recommendations for U.S. Attorneys to the White House, c0ntributing to delays, say people familiar with the process.

mainjustice.com

    Among the Bushie leftovers are Middle Alabama District US Attorney Leura Canary, who prosecuted Don Seigelman in a fradulent case, Bill Mercer of Montana, who managed to hold two jobs at once during his tenure and in New Mexico, Gregory J. Fouratt, who replaced US Attorney David Iglesias who refused to stage a witch hunt against ACORN, that evil group whi si guilty of the heinous crimes of registering minorities to vote and fighting Corporate America for a living wage for the proletariat.

     The end story, Obama really isn’t that different from Bush after all, or at least not as of now, almost a year since he won the election.

     But you can still cheer for change if you want. Hell, 2/3rds of change is better than nothing, right?