Consequences, Consequences, Consequences

by: Mentarch

Wed Jul 23, 2008 at 14:35:29 PM EDT

Code Talking White Trash & Exploitation Capitalism

by: Diane G

Tue Jul 22, 2008 at 12:27:56 PM EDT

Were I not a recovering Catholic, I would surely believe I burned off many a purgatory hour yesterday, far exceeding the actual 7 hours spent in the merry go round of hell called "taking mother in law to her doctor's appointment."

Yes, yes, someone with life-long dementia and ever increasing short-term memory loss cannot help thinking perhaps three things all day and repeating them, not unlike the child I used to sit who has autism. She fixates. Repeats. And repeats. I can live with that.

I could live with the inevitable 2 hour wait that her appointments, no matter when they are, involve.

What really fucked up the day was the white-trash big mouth in the waiting room parroting winger-speak and racist code talk; looking for agreement from me.

Black Holes Of Human Rights, Decency And Justice

by: Mentarch

Mon Jul 21, 2008 at 14:52:49 PM EDT

History Will Absolve Me, v.1.0

by: Alexa

Mon Jul 21, 2008 at 03:56:48 AM EDT

It's hard not to find Fidel Castro somewhat simpatico, even for me, because you can't help but be in awe of Cuba's stubborn sense of rebellion. The socialist revolution was Latin America's great "fuck you" to Yankee domination and for all that hemming and hawing about gringo this and gringo that and John Huston's Mexican bandits in The Treasure of the Sierra Madre, the public humiliation of Richard Nixon during a 1970s visit to Venezuela, to the outcries of leftists in countries like Guatemala, El Salvador, Chile and Argentina, who were squashed by the subterranean forces trained by the CIA, only Cuba was able to extend its middle finger with some efficacy.

Cuba threw a decades-long wrench into the project of American hemispheric continuity - and not without good reason.

Subpoena Power and Sugarcane Sunday

by: Alexa

Sun Jul 20, 2008 at 03:04:24 AM EDT

President George W. Bush ought to pardon any official from cabinet secretary on down who might plausibly face prosecution for interrogation methods approved by administration lawyers.

More on how I'm not feelin' it, dude -- WTF? after I dis my own people and tell you how Barack Obama listened to my wise counsel and now that Barack listens to Alexa again, all the planets and stars of the universe align to assure his success - and ours. (Note to Barack: The purple tie makes you look . . . well, almost guapo.) Only when I squint, mind.

Losing Ourselves Beyond Redemption

by: Mentarch

Sat Jul 19, 2008 at 18:16:17 PM EDT

Friday Follies

by: blueness

Fri Jul 18, 2008 at 16:38:45 PM EDT

Comfort Stations
Air Force generals are attempting to divert "War on Terra" funds to pay for "comfort capsules" that will allow government VIPs to enjoy world-class travel on military transport planes. Four generals have poured over "design details" associated with the program, scrutinizing the color of carpeting and leather chairs. The generals have demanded $16 million in counter-terrorism funds for their comfort stations; although lawmakers to date have said no, $331,000 has nonetheless already been diverted to pay for cost overruns.

What Would Buddha Do?
Armed Thai and Cambodian troops are facing off over "ownership" of an 11th Century temple situated along the border of the two Buddhist nations. Each nation says the temple belongs to it, and that the other nation is "stealing" it. The temple in dispute, Preah Vihear, is dedicated to Shiva, a Hindu deity. Shiva, among other things, created and maintains the universe in a continuous act of sexual union with Shakti. Shiva is also said to have burned to ashes Desire with the opening of his third eye. There do not at present seem to be a lot of opened third eyes there on the Thai/Cambodian border.

Senate reauthorizes PEPFAR funding, lifts HIV travel ban

by: sad pony guerilla girl

Thu Jul 17, 2008 at 21:48:41 PM EDT

The bill also included a provision to lift the HIV travel ban (which severely restricts the ability for seropositive people to travel between and immigrate to the US) and struck down a provision in the older version that called for a third of the funding to be used for abstinence-only education.

All in all, a good bill got through. It's already passed the House and the president is expected to sign it. Done, done, and done.

Since this is my first diary on a human rights site, I ought to go a bit deeper on what this says about the lines we draw around human rights to restrict, control, and eliminate people we don't like or who don't have power.

Just yesterday, the LGBT blogosphere was up in arms over Elizabeth Dole's amendment to name the bill after Jesse Helms. Back when Ronald Reagan was turning a tin ear to the growing AIDS crisis in the US, Jesse Helms was instrumental in helping Congress do the same. His bombastic "round 'em up, put 'em on an island, and nuke 'em" rhetoric was a great way for many to ignore the bodies piling up and entire communities dying tragically young.

Omar Khadr, The Good Son

by: Alexa

Thu Jul 17, 2008 at 00:19:51 AM EDT

"Billions of blue blistering barnacles," he used to say, tripping over the words as he pretended to be the curmudgeonly Captain Haddock -- a comic routine that was guaranteed to send his five brothers and sisters into paroxysms of giggles whenever the family was in the midst of a crisis.

For the Khadr household, crises seemed to happen with chilling frequency. There was the time their father stepped on a land mine in Afghanistan and nearly died, and the awful months in the mid-1990s when he was jailed and tortured by Pakistani and Egyptian officials and went on a hunger strike to protest what he called his "unlawful" confinement.

Political Murder

by: blueness

Thu Jul 17, 2008 at 04:27:05 AM EDT

When the charges first surfaced, on June 30, Anwar took refuge in the Turkish embassy, his wife describing the sodomy allegations as "political murder." "Not again," Anwar told reporters from inside the embassy. "It's a repeat of the same script." Anwar previously spent six years in prison on falsified sodomy charges filed in 1998, after Anwar broke with his mentor, then-Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad, claiming the latter had responded poorly to the Asian financial crisis of 1997, wallowing in an orgy of corruption and cronyism. Anwar was ultimately acquitted and released.

Anwar left the Turkish embassy only after the government "guaranteed" his safety. The government also assured Anwar there would be "no repeat" of the events of 1998, when Anwar was brutally beaten, while shackled and blindfolded, by Inspector General of Police Tan Sri Abdul Rahim Noor. When the government suddenly announced on Wednesday that a warrant had been issued for Anwar's arrest, protestors poured into the streets, to be dispersed with water cannon. Anwar agreed to turn himself in, but was instead arrested outside his home after returning from filing a statement with an anti-corruption agency. The latest wisdom is that Anwar is to be released on bail "soon."

Meawhile, Mohamad's successor as Malaysian Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, has announced that he will step down in two years' time in favor of his deputy, Datuk Seri Najib Razak. However, Malaysian private investigator P. Balasubramaniam on July 3 filed a declaration charging Najib with complicity in the murder of a woman who was the lover of one of Najib's policy ministers, Abdul Razak Baginda--and perhaps the lover of Najib himself. The woman was allegedly killed by two of Najib's wife's bodyguards after she appeared outside Abdul Razak's house in Kuala Lumpur, loudly demanding that she be "properly recompensed for his pleasure." Najib has vehemently denied allegations that he himself bounced the bedsprings with the dead woman, Mongolian translator Altantuya Shaariibi, and that she had been promised $500,000 to assist in securing the purchase of French submarines. On July 4, Balasubramaniam abruptly withdrew his allegations against Najib, and then he and his family promptly disappeared. The police now opine that Balasubramaniam and his family are "overseas."

Finally, several hours ago, blogger Raja Petra Kamaruddin, editor of the online publication Malaysia Today, was charged with "criminal defamation" for his June 18 declaration implicating Najib's wife in the murder of Altantuya. Raja Petra had previously been charged with sedition, for an April 25 Malaysia Today blog post titled "Let's Send The Altantuya Murderers To Hell." His website, http://www.malaysia-today.net, from which I have been drawing information for the past couple of hours, is no longer appearing on my computer.  

Power and Fear: A personal reflection

by: possum

Wed Jul 16, 2008 at 08:37:42 AM EDT

Power corrupts.  Absolute power corrupts absolutely.

In the aftermath of the tragic hurricane in Myanmar (Burma) a few short weeks ago I was reading a long ago speech about power and fear.  In 1990 Aung Sang Suu Kyi gave a "Freedom From Fear" speech beginning with the following words:

It is not power that corrupts but fear. Fear of losing power corrupts those who wield it and fear of the scourge of power corrupts those who are subject to it.

Omar Khadr: The Tale Of The Tape

by: Alexa

Wed Jul 16, 2008 at 02:11:30 AM EDT

Omar Khadr was a child of jihad, a teenage soldier in bin Laden's army. Captured on the battlefield when he was only fifteen, he has been held at Guantanamo Bay for the past five years -- subjected to unspeakable abuse sanctioned by the president himself.

Once, when he was being transferred, Omar learned that his brother Abdurahman was in an adjacent prison yard. Abdurahman, forced by the CIA to choose between life imprisonment and cooperation, had chosen the latter. Omar had no idea that his brother was in Guantanamo to spy on detainees.

"How are you? How are you?" Abdurahman yelled in Arabic. "How is your health?" Abdurahman yelled.

"It's OK," Omar yelled back. "I'm just losing my left eye and all. They don't want to operate on it."

Physicians, Psychologists & the Problem of "The Dark Side"

by: Valtin

Tue Jul 15, 2008 at 03:26:44 AM EDT

"Any of us could be the man who encounters his double." -- Friedrich Durrenmat (1)

Jane Mayer's new book, The Dark Side: The Inside Story of How the War on Terror Turned Into a War on American Ideals (not due out in the bookstores until tomorrow), is already creating headlines and generating controversy. This article will examine the issues around U.S. torture practice, in light of new allegations in the book, and review an email conversation between myself and a prominent nationally-known psychologist whom Mayer says assisted in the planning of U.S. government torture.

UPDATED; GITMO teen's interrogation tape released

by: Lisa Lockwood

Tue Jul 15, 2008 at 00:31:51 AM EDT

Mandated by a high court ruling, the defense lawyers representing Omar Khadr have been given and will release 7 1/2 hours of videotaped interrogation tomorrow. Khadr was arrested at 15 and held in Gitmo, where he remains today.

While Khadr's supporters have claimed for years he was tortured in custody, his lawyers say the latest revelations have finally caught the attention of a Canadian public that's growing less willing to sacrifice human rights in the name of national security.

It seems that Canadians are sick of their government participating in America's illegal torture/detention practices, and their courts agree.

Deconstructing "The Zen" of Torture

by: Alexa

Tue Jul 08, 2008 at 00:05:20 AM EDT

End of Part One
[If you want links or proof (and do not have experience with torture, as I do) use Google. I am not on staff at DK.]

Theoretical, hypothetical, misguided? Paginos en blanco. A poll which reflects amusement of torture techniques and a virtual dessert bar. Comments about "being tortured with too many torture diaries."

Pendejo, please. You didn't just ask for this. You pleaded.