Wednesday, July 30, 2008

Bush Regime Censoring Images of Dead American Soldiers

Cultural Insensitivity US SOLDIERS Inside a Mosque
Three Dead American Soldiers
Dead American soldiers in Iraq. Pictures being censored

For those who support the war or claim to support the troops it is disturbing that they do not want anyone to see the cost of the war in Iraq in terms of dead American soldiers. In fact they don't want to see the wounded or care whether the wounded and those suffering from Post Traumatic Stress are getting proper treatment. Those who die in battle are heroes but those who die from wounds or suffer from psychological problems due to combat are ignored or seen as cowards for not dying on the Battlefield.

------------
Anyway in an article in The New York Times the authors note that the Bush regime and the military have been actively censoring images of American soldiers killed or wounded in Iraq The New York Times 4,000 U.S. Deaths, and a Handful of Images By MICHAEL KAMBER and TIM ARANGO July 26, 2008

BAGHDAD — The case of a freelance photographer in Iraq who was barred from covering the Marines after he posted photos on the Internet of several of them dead has underscored what some journalists say is a growing effort by the American military to control graphic images from the war.

Zoriah Miller, the photographer who took images of marines killed in a June 26 suicide attack and posted them on his Web site, was subsequently forbidden to work in Marine Corps-controlled areas of the country. Maj. Gen. John Kelly, the Marine commander in Iraq, is now seeking to have Mr. Miller barred from all United States military facilities throughout the world. Mr. Miller has since left Iraq.

If the conflict in Vietnam was notable for open access given to journalists — too much, many critics said, as the war played out nightly in bloody newscasts — the Iraq war may mark an opposite extreme: after five years and more than 4,000 American combat deaths, searches and interviews turned up fewer than a half-dozen graphic photographs of dead American soldiers.

And from Media With a Conscience July 26/2008 Wexler Wants Real Impeachment Hearing Now

The Judiciary Committee, we held a full day of hearings that focused entirely on the crimes of George W. Bush and Dick Cheney, and featured testimony by Rep. Dennis Kucinich regarding his Articles of Impeachment against President Bush.

This is a great start – but I am far from satisfied. Following statements by Chairman John Conyers and the Ranking Republicans, I opened with a forceful call for genuine and immediate Impeachment Hearings for President Bush and Vice President Cheney.

The crimes of this Administration must be revealed and Bush and Cheney must be held accountable. Without Impeachment Hearings, we cannot break through the blatant and unprecedented efforts by President Bush to shut down legitimate oversight by this Congress.

As you know, President Bush has inappropriately and repeatedly invoked Executive Privilege to keep Karl Rove, Harriet Miers, Josh Bolten, and other White House officials from complying with legal, Congressional Subpoenas.

I believe the only appropriate remedy is to hold Impeachment Hearings.

-------------
And from MWC: Media With Conscience:
Gravel: Take Bush to The Hague July 26, 2008

By Shahram Vahdany

Former Democratic candidate Mike Gravel says President George W. Bush should be taken to The Hague for war crimes rather than being impeached.

In a Monday video conference with Press TV, the former Alaska senator said President Bush does not 'deserve' to be impeached for invading Afghanistan and Iraq, which has resulted in the loss of 'millions of lives'.

"An Impeachment just means you would only take away his (Bush's) presidency. Well, he is almost done (with) his presidency. What really needs to happen is that these people have to be held accountable for the crimes they have committed," the 78-year-old Democrat said referring to the US president and Vice President Dick Cheney.

"If you impeach president and vice president, Nancy Pelosi is going to become president; that is not going happen," Gravel added.

Gravel is an outspoken advocate of impeaching Bush and Cheney over the disinformation campaign they have led in support of their go-to-war policies.
"There is a lot of very good news that makes me tremendously hopeful that we as a nation are starting to wake up and insist our congressional representatives act to make impeachment happen now," he had said in a statement in January after congressman Dennis Kucinich announced plans to introduce articles of impeachment against President Bush.


-----------

as for the British once again it appears they are not so innocent when it comes to abusing detainees in Iraq or Afghanistan

from PressTV on line 'UK covered up use of torture in Iraq'
Sun, 27 Jul 2008


The British government has tried to cover up the use of prohibited interrogation techniques by British soldiers in Iraq, lawmakers say.

The Joint Committee on Human Rights, consisted of twelve members from both the House of Commons and the House of Lords, said in a report on Sunday that British troops in Iraq " had used 'conditioning techniques' to maintain the 'shock of capture' in advance of tactical questioning".

Wall standing, hooding, subjection to noise, sleep deprivation and deprivation of food and drink constitute the five banned 'conditioning techniques'. They can be used by interrogators to extract information and obtain confessions from detainees under physical and psychological coercion.

The methods have been described by human rights groups as torturous, inhumane, and cruel.

The committee argues that former Armed Forces Minister Adam Ingram and Lieutenant General Robin Brims had told it earlier that British armed forces would not use the techniques as an aid to interrogation.

"In 2007, evidence came to light which appeared to contradict the clear assurances we had received from Lieutenant General Brims that conditioning techniques such as hooding and the use of stress positions were not used by the British army," the committee said, referring to the death of Baha Mousa, a 26-year-old Iraqi hotel worker while in British custody.


And here's a little music for Guantanamo Bay by Divine Comedy

The Divine Comedy - Guantanamo





and so it goes,
GORD.

Tuesday, July 29, 2008

McCain Blames Obama For Rising Gas Prices

Anyway John McCain is at it again and the Mainstream Media gives him a pass- Was Obama working behind the scenes to make oil prices rise ??? of course the rising prices have nothing to do with Bush, the Iraq war or threatening Iran with Nuclear War so the Mass Media tells us. Somehow all that has gone wrong with oil prices, the economy , the war on terror is Barack Obama's fault. I guess this is to be expected of those who believe everything went downhill in America when racial segregation was outlawed & black Americans were permitted to vote and were guranteed equal rights with the White Ruling Class. These are the same people who defended Barry Goldwater at his most extreme. Even Goldwater eventually changed his views on a number of issues including segregation . While McCain appeals not to the best but to the worst in America.

The Young Turks Latest McCain Ad - Blames Obama For Rising Gas Prices Added: July 21, 2008 Watch more at The Young Turks


And here's a second video from The Young Turks and what phoney Bush is: The Young Turks Corporate welfare Bush finds the economic crisis in America is funny The rich continue to get richer. When things get tough Bush bails out the rich investors. While average Americans lose their jobs and houses but Bush's friends are still doing well. Bush - "Wall Street Got Drunk" July 22, 2008 Watch more at The Young Turks




and so it goes, GORD.

Monday, July 28, 2008

Bush & Friends Having Fun With Torture

Anyway in case you missed it here's a couple of videos on the Bush Regime and its use of torture - Defending the indefensible

Detainees & torture
Torturing in the name of Jesus therefore it must be okay claims the Bush administration and their Fanatical Followers

first a little music about Guantanamo Bay



Geneva Conventions quaint & outdated
All talk about insisting on human rights of detainees characterized as being left-wing thinking which is traitorous thinking & unAmerican

8 BUSH's WAR (the Geneva conventions are disregarded)
part 8 of the documentary Bush's War



One wonders if Condoleeza Rice & Colin Powell are or were merely token Blacks in the Bush administration.


And from Democracy Now on torture of Detainees & Gitmo etc.

How the US and Bush torture people around the world-1/5



and so it goes,
GORD.

Sunday, July 27, 2008

Bill Moyers & Susan Jacoby On The Dumbing Down of America





Anyway I just finished reading Susan Jacoby's insightful book The Age of American UnReason (pub. 2008) which is a must read for anyone interested in American culture and politics. It is comparable Richard Hofstadter 's seminal work Anti-Intellectualism in American Life (pub. 1963) So I came across this bit of Bill Moyers interviewing Susan Jacoby discussing the dumbing down of America. Our culture in fact promotes ignorance and a form of relativism which claims all opinions and beliefs are of equal value and are therefore valid. The Neocons use these beliefs to remake American culture and claim what they believe can be seen as reality or the reshaping of our views of reality. To paraphrase George Orwell if the Neocons and the elite including the Mass Media claim something is true it therefore becomes the truth or reality so Intelligent Design is true while evolution is false and 2+2=5 . Bush is therefore America's greatest president rather than its worst. In the present Neocon view Dick Cheney is a wise person and Al Gore & Obama are evil unAmerican traitors.

American Failure in Education, Reason- Moyers, Susan Jacoby
From YouTube user litxlit

Bill Moyers and Susan Jacoby review her book, "American Unreason." They discuss the current state of American education and discourse, and our failure to produce informed citizens. We "get the government we deserve." Regardless of political party or religious conviction, we should demand better.



and so it goes,
GORD.

Wednesday, July 16, 2008

Omar Khadr : Child Soldier Abused At Guantanamo Canadian Officials Kowtowing To Bush Regime Ignore Omar Kadr's Pleas For Help In Video

Colonialism and its embedded Racism and Notions of Racial Superiority are alive and well.Canada once again Kowtow's to Our Masters in the United States. We do not have the courage , the guts , the will to stand up to the Bush Regime. Our police forces and military are at America's beck and call. We see this in Omar Khadr's case and in similar cases until we are caught with our pants down as it were. We are also making it difficult for US forces deserters to escape from the USA and find refuge in Canada. Even those who claim refugee status because they refused to obey orders which contravene the Geneva Conventions and other International Laws. But Canadians recognize only those laws approved by the American government as being legitimate. Maybe soon we'll start executing more criminals or put people in jail for protesting or put in jail for twenty years for smoking Marijuana.

UPDATE : Canadian Omar Khadr ( child soldier interrogation ) is refused help by Canadian Officials who are more interested in getting information from him and treating him as a trrorist - Canadian Government in on the Fix to breach International Laws regarding Child Soldiers -

Are the Canadian People as depraved as the Bush Regime and the Neocons who have no regard for International Law or The Geneva Conventions. Do Canadians also believe that we should only adhere to such laws & agreements at our discretion .

We now know Canadian troops have handed over POWs to be tortured by Americans or Afghan officials or even British Soldiers who also tortured detainees. Of course the British soldiers are old hats at torture as they used torture extensively in Northern Ireland and in the Middle East from the 1920s on and as the French did in Algiers and Vietnam etc. The Spanish under Franco used torture right up to the 1970s as did all those anti-Communist puppet Regimes in Latin America, Central America, The Phillipines, Africa in South Africa and Rhodesia & Burma, Indonesia . British rule in India for instance was far from being benevolent as millions of Citizens of India were Butchered during the British occupation of India So is our so called superiour civilization one that abuses and shows no respect for captured enemy soldiers .

If this is what the average person wants then so be it but don't complain and bitch when Canadian soldiers who are captured by the enemy are abused, raped, tortured etc. it is then what we deserve though it may not be what the average Canadian soldier deserves who may actually in defiance of their commanding officers try to play by the rules as set out in the Geneva Convention. . Either we play by civilized rules hoping that those we fight against will do the same or we just lower ourselves to the level of the worst terrorists. Of course when we physically, emotionally abuse or sexually abuse or use torture we do so because we are Holy Soldiers fighting the New Crusade in the Name of Christ so no one is permitted to question the purposes or motives of Western Chistian nations.

In this tape of Omar Khadr we see that The poor bastard is slow to realize that these people couldn't care less about his well being and how he is being treated at Guantanamo or if he is being tortured. He is first off a 15 year old in an extremely terrifying situation . He has obviously undergone some form of abuse such as sleep deprivation and who knows what else. Meanwhile the citizens of Canada and the United States for the most part couldn't care less . Once a person is accused they are treated as being guilty of the worst crimes imaginable and Omar and others are being abuse for pay-back for 9/11.
July 15, 2008
From CBC: www.cbc.ca/canada/story/2008/07/15/khadr -tapes.html



from Truthout and the Globe And Mail Omar Khadr: The Interrogation Tuesday 15 July 2008

Video captures righteous indignation.

Before the rage, the resignation and the tears, came
the trust. Teenaged prisoner Omar Khadr seemed sure that his countrymen from Canada had come to Cuba to help him and spoke freely when they asked questions.
On the second day, the reality almost visibly dawned on his face.
Agents had asked about his links to al-Qaeda, about his friends and family in Afghanistan, about whether he really thought dozens of black-eyed virgins awaited him in janna, or paradise.
The teenager realized the obvious. The Canadian agents weren't there to help. They were there to mine him for information. So he wept. He denied everything. He pulled at his hair and pulled down his orange prisoner's suit. He showed his war wounds, which nearly killed
him during a battle with U.S. soldiers six months earlier.

From behind the flaps of a ventilation shaft, a hidden camera caught all the rage and righteous indignation of Omar Khadr, a Canadian citizen raised by fundamentalist
parents in Taliban-controlled Afghanistan. The 16-year-old al-Qaeda suspect and Guantanamo Bay detainee was facing allegations that he murdered a U.S. soldier.
After a series of Canadian court orders, remarkable footage of
federal agents questioning Mr. Khadr was released Tuesday morning - starting with an eight-minute highlight reel released at 5 a.m., and a full seven hours of footage to come later in the afternoon.
The largest portion of the eight-minute segment shows a sobbing Mr. Khadr with his head buried in his
hands, repeatedly moaning "help me, help me."
The grainy footage marks the first video of a Guantanamo Bay interrogation. The Canadian Security Intelligence Service prefers to describe the meetings as "interviews".



And now a word from The Ministry of Peace and The Ministry of Truth; We have always been at war with Iran and it is time to take the Iranians 'out' as it were.

Here we go again the Propaganda Machine is working overtime so we can all stop thinking and just go along for the ride.

Freedonia Going To War- Marx Brothers 'Duck Soup'



and as Buchanan concludes in the article below though there is no imminent threat of Iran nuking Israel or America the Israelis and their supporters in America want to attack Iran no matter what the facts on the ground happen to be or as Reagen used to say " Facts are stupid things" . The propagandists and the Media claim that all loyal and good citizens including even the Democrats in America including The Clintons and Obama want to turn Iran into a pile of rubble like they did to Afghanistan and Iraq. But all those peaceniks don't realize how exiting and war is besides its the manly & womanly thing to do . And there is nothing sexier than those working class folks in uniform and nothing more satisfying than seeing the enemy and their children blown to bits. And if we are good they'll show the whole thing on widescreen HD Ready TV.


and as conservative pundit Patrick J. Buchanan concludes though there is no imminent threat of Iran nuking Israel or America, the Israelis and their supporters in America want to attack Iran no matter what the facts on the ground happen to be or as Reagen used to say " Facts are stupid things" . Even the Democrats including The Clintons and Obama want to turn Iran into a pile of rubble like they did to Afghanistan and Iraq. But all those peaceniks don't realize how exiting and war is besides its the manly & womanly thing to do .

A Phony Crisis – And a Real One By Patrick J. Buchanan

15/07/08 "WND" -- -- WASHINGTON – Last week, the front pages of the world press blossomed with photos of four Iranian rockets, fired in salvo, heading skyward.

The image was powerful and the message reinforced by the head of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard. Should Israel attack Iran, said Ali Shira, Tel Aviv will be "set on fire."

U.S. reaction was swift and bristling. "Rice Says U.S. Will Defend Gulf," declared the headline over the AP story that began:

"Condoleezza Rice flexed America's muscles in the Middle East Thursday, forcefully warning Iran the U.S. won't ignore threats and will take any action necessary to defend friends and interests in the Persian Gulf. ...

"Rice said Iran's leaders should understand that Washington won't dismiss provocations from Tehran and has the ability to counter them. 'I don't think the Iranians are too confused, either, about the capability and the power of the United States to do exactly that.'"


and as Buchanan points out the facts don't quite jive with the Israeli, Bush , Cheney, Rice propaganda but there is nothing new about this except this time they may be taking on a lot more than they can handle .

...Under Secretary of State Nick Burns then splashed cold water on Iran's alleged crash program to acquire nuclear weapons.

"Iran has not yet perfected (uranium) enrichment," said Burns, "and, as a direct result of U.N. sanctions, Iran's ability to procure technology or items of significance to its missile programs, even dual-use items, is being impaired."

Though the ex-head of Mossad, Shabtai Shavit, says Iran may be one year away from a bomb – and will use it on Israel – according to the latest U.S. National Intelligence Estimate, Iran shut down its nuclear weapons program in 2003.

Iran, says Burns, has not yet mastered the technology of converting uranium gas into fuel for use in power plants, let alone the stuff of bombs. And even if Iran is one day able to enrich to weapons grade, she would still have to build and test a nuclear device, then weaponize it to fit atop a missile and deploy a missile force. All in all, says Burns, Iran's progress with uranium enrichment has been "modest."

There is thus no imminent crisis to justify war on Iran.

Yet, what is Nancy Pelosi's Democratic House doing?

Some 220 members, a majority, have endorsed House Concurrent Resolution 362. This virtual war resolution "demands" that President Bush initiate a blockade to halt all Iranian imports of refined petroleum products and impose "stringent inspection requirements on all persons, vehicles, ships, planes, trains, and cargo entering or departing Iran."

A Democratic House that came to power denouncing the rush to war on Iraq is about to vote to demand that Bush commit an act of war against Iran.

The front men for 362 are liberal Gary Ackerman of New York and conservative Mike Pence of Indiana. But the juice behind them is that of the Israeli lobby AIPAC, which is marching in step with Israel.

Last week, Mossad's chief, Meir Dagan, was here to make the case for war on Iran. This week, Defense Minister Ehud Barak visits Dick Cheney and maybe Bush. Next week, it is the head of Israel's armed forces.

Israel and its Fifth Column in this city seek to stampede us into war with Iran. Bush should rebuff them, and the American people should tell their congressmen: You vote for 362, we don't vote for you.



and so it goes,
GORD.

Tuesday, July 15, 2008

Global Warming Bush Prayer and Wishful Thinking

Bush Regime attempts to make reality to fit their ideology and belief system. Sometimes they are also just plain greedy .

Bush and the Neocons have decided that a human life is not worth what it use to be. So much for their concern for human life. Since human life is not worth as much and profits are more important they see no problem with causing the deaths of Americans by way of pollution, dirty air and dirty soil and dirty deadly water are not so bad afterall.

US Environmental Agency Lowers Value of a Human LifeThe Guardian UK reports:




"It sounds like a spot of gallows humour, but the numbers are no joke: the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has lowered the value of a human life by nearly $1 million under George Bush's administration. The EPA's estimate of the 'value of a statistical life' was $6.9 million as of this May - down from $7.8 million five years ago - according to an Associated Press study released today."


Though it may seem like a harmless bureaucratic recalculation, the devaluation has real consequences.When drawing up regulations, government agencies put a value on human life and then weigh the costs versus the lifesaving benefits of a proposed rule.The less a life is worth to the government, the less the need for a regulation - such as the tighter restrictions on pollution that the EPA refused to impose today, effectively postponing any action on climate change
until after Bush leaves office.Consider, for example, a hypothetical regulation that costs $18bn to enforce but will prevent 2,500 deaths. At $7.8m per person (the old figure), the lifesaving benefits outweigh the costs. But at $6.9m per person, the rule costs more than the lives it saves, so it may not be adopted....Dan Esty, a senior EPA policy official in the administration of the first President Bush and now director of the Yale centre for environmental law and policy, said: "It's hard to imagine that it has other than a political motivation."

The devaluation also raised alarms in Congress, where Senate
environment committee chairman Barbara Boxer vowed to introduce legislation reversing the EPA's move."EPA may not think Americans are worth all that much, but the rest of us believe the value of an American life to our families, our communities, our workplaces and our nation is no less than it has ever been,"
Boxer, a Democrat, said.

-----The members of the Bush Regime and their supporters live in a world of fantasy and wishful thinking. Again we are reminded how this group in many ways have the characteristic of a cult with a fanatical belief system which they believe is true and beyond criticism.so much for being concerned about the facts on the ground they are only to be taken seriously when they agree with Neocon ideology and belief system . Their belief in Intelligence Design and the Rapture makes them predisposed to distrust all science and rational thought. So if they all hold strongly to their belief that Global Warming is not true and that will make it so. That will prove that Global Warming is just a lie told by leftists , atheists and liberals . They apply the same logic to the Iraqi War and occupation. Suddenly some neocons are claiming the war is nearly over and has been won. So how does one define victory. A country destroyed hundreds of thousans dead three or four refugees. Besides it was supposed to be a cake walk over in a few months or a year. Its like the soldiers in the first world war who were told each year it would be over by Christmas.


Cheney Aides Altered CDC Testimony, Agency Official SaysCheny Aides Altered CDC Testimony, agency official says 08 July 2008by: Juliet Eilperin, The Washington Post


Ex-administrator says official from vice president's office edited out six
pages. Members of Vice President's Dick Cheney's staff censored congressional
testimony by a top federal official on the health threats posed by global
warming, a former Environmental Protection Agency official said today. In a
letter to Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.), who chairs the Senate Environment and
Public Works Committee, former EPA deputy associate administrator Jason K.
Burnett said an official from Cheney's office edited out six pages from the
testimony of Julie Gerberding, director of the Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention, last October.Several media outlets, including The Washington Post,
reported at the time that Gerberding had planned to say that "CDC considers
climate change a serious public health concern," among other passages. Boxer
said the administration feared that Gerberding's testimony would force it to
regulate greenhouse gas emissions from burning fossil fuels. The White House has
opposed mandatory limits and insisted that voluntary measures and increased
research are the best way to address the problem. "The Council on Environmental
Quality (CEQ) and the Office of the Vice President (OVP) were seeking deletions
to the CDC testimony," Burnett, a 31-year old Stanford-trained economist and a
Democrat, wrote in response to an inquiry from Boxer's committee. "CEQ requested
that I work with CDC to remove from the testimony any discussion of the human
health consequences of climate change." Burnett, a member of the wealthy Packard
family, has given more than $100,000 to Democratic campaigns in recent years,
including $3,600 to Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama (Ill.). He
did not identify who in the vice president's office called him.
anyway
Bush On the Environment : Wrong, and Proud of It Until The very End
at Huffington Post by Jeremy jacquot July 14, 2008


Perhaps no single moment best encapsulated Bush's (dismal) record on the environment than his final meeting at the G8 summit. Fists pumping defiantly into the air -- much to the surprise (and, one can assume, consternation) of his fellow world leaders -- Bush gleefully proclaimed: "Goodbye from the world's biggest polluter." While many have dismissed this comment as a poorly conceived joke, I can't think of a more frank, emblematic statement from a president who still refuses to acknowledge the severity of global climate change.

Granted, Bush has hardly been the chief obstructionist in his administration when it comes to climate change talks and regulation. That dubious honor certainly goes to Mr. "conservation-is-a-personal-virtue" Cheney, whose influence has only seemed to grow during the Bush presidency's final months (of course, one could argue that it has always been at its peak). Yet, whether it be through his early and consistent opposition to the Kyoto Protocol and other emission targets or his renewed embrace of offshore drilling (alongside his good friend, John McSame), the Decider has pulled out all the stops to ensure "science" doesn't get in the way of his shenanigans or those of his friends from the oil industry.

As he did on most of his early (somewhat commendable) 2000 campaign promises, Bush quickly reversed his pledge to regulate carbon dioxide as an air pollutant and ditched all efforts to give even a remote semblance of governing from the middle (remember that "compassionate" conservative talk?) by booting all independent-minded bureaucrats in favor of his ideological, incompetent cronies. Predictably, that resulted in years of censored climate science research, little to no progress on the issues of conservation and alternative energy and, of course, giveaways galore to the already uber-profitable fossil fuel industry.

and more on the environment as Bush Lifts Presidential Ban On Offshore Oil Drilling
Monday 14 July 2008 by: Elana Schor, The Guardian UK


George Bush has today lifted a presidential ban on oil drilling off American coastlines that was first signed by his father - a symbolic move aimed at pressuring Congress into lifting its own similar ban.

Skyrocketing gas prices in the US have set off feverish political debates over offshore drilling, which was banned by Congress in 1982 and by former president George HW Bush in 1990.
Most Democrats point out that drilling off the coast of Florida, California, and other states would have a negligible effect on the nation's current fuel crisis but a potentially devastating effect on tourism as well as the environment.


anyway as for John MCain and how far to the right he is:

John MaCCain appears to be shoring up his support from Religious Right.

July 8, 2008 McCain Winning Over the Right With SCOTUS Talk People For The American Way


John McCain's courting of Religious Right leaders
and activists started off badly, culminating in the
Rod Parsley/John Hagee debacle back in May, but since then, the campaign seems to have regained
its footing and subsequent lower-profile efforts have been startlingly
effective:As we noted a few weeks ago, McCain quietly met with a handful of
right-wing leaders at which he was pressured to start talking more in public
about the issues they care about and, as if to signal that he heard the message
loud and clear,
announced the next day that he supported the anti-gay California Marriage Amendment.
From that point, things began to pick up and just last week,
he secured the support of a bevy of right-wing activists like Mat Staver, Tim and
Beverly LaHaye, Phyllis Schlafly, Rick Scarborough, and David Barton. Just last
week we were noting how the Right, even though not traditionally supportive of
McCain, was
working diligently
to remind its supporters that the future of the Supreme Court is at stake in the
next election. It seems that the McCain campaign has been
playing up that angle in its outreach efforts as well:Mr. Burress said he, Eagle Forum
President Phyllis Schlafly, former interior secretary and Christian Coalition
leader Donald P. Hodel, WallBuilders founder David Barton, Liberty Council
counsel Mathew Staver and others have been moved to work for the election of Mr.
McCain. He cited mostly their trust in several McCain promises - to make
judicial appointments that will resemble that of Chief Justice John G. Roberts
Jr. and Justice Antonin Scalia, to "get serious" on abortion and same-sex
marriage, and to push values issues in general. It looks like this is a
coordinated message that the McCain campaign and its surrogates are committed to
spreading far and wide:A pro-family activist and former presidential candidate says
people of faith cannot afford to endure four years of Barack Obama in hopes that
he will be defeated in 2012. Gary Bauer says it's all about the Supreme Court.
----Written by Sean Clarach MacDomhnail --------------------

Monday, July 14, 2008

Karl Rove Above the Law And Congress & The Will of The People

Storming The Bastille July 14, 1789.

The strength and power of despotism consists wholly in the fear of resistance.
Thomas Paine

The World is my country, all mankind are my brethren, and to do good is my religion.
Thomas Paine

He who is the author of a war lets loose the whole contagion of hell and opens a vein that bleeds a nation to death.
Thomas Paine

I believe in the equality of man; and I believe that religious duties consist in doing justice, loving mercy, and endeavoring to make our fellow-creatures happy.
Thomas Paine


A little song for Bastille Day And a message to Americans & all those longing for Justice

La Marsellaise: From La Vie EnRose

Arise children of the fatherland
The day of glory has arrived
Against us tyranny's
Bloody standard is raised
Listen to the sound in the fields
The howling of these fearsome soldiers
They are coming into our midst
To cut the throats of your sons and consorts
To arms citizens
Form your battalions
March, march
Let impure blood
Water our furrows
What do they want this horde of slaves
Of traitors and conspiratorial kings?
For whom these vile chains
These long-prepared irons?
Frenchmen, for us, ah!
What outrage
What methods must be taken?
It is us they dare plan
To return to the old slavery



Republicans claim Karl Rove's vacation plans trump congress or Unite States' Law.
The tragedy is that Rove and other members of the Bush Regime will get away with such lame excuses since they obey laws as they see fit. Will Obama and Hilary Clinton and the Democrats continue to make excuses for these people because when they are in power they would like to have the same powers as the people in the Bush Regime.
The YoungTurks
Karl Rove Can't Respond to a Subpoena - He's On Vacation


Republican Crony, Karl Rove Refuses Subpoena
Bush League Justice MSNBC


July 10, 2008 (Less info)
Former White House adviser Karl Rove has ignored a subpoena to testify in front of Congress about allegations of political pressure at the Justice Department. MSNBC broadcast.
and at YouTube also check out: Karl Rove : Suboena MSNBC

with a great woody allen line
Karl Rove not testifying before congress as he had fled the country
So how shifty are these guys. The Mafia has nothing on them.
Pull Up A chair Mr. Rove Friday 11 July 2008

by: Dana Milbank, The Washington Post


There was good reason for The Architect's quiet: He
was out of the country. He had no intention of appearing before Congress, and he
had sent the panel the equivalent of a doctor's note - from no less a medical
authority than White House counsel Fred Fielding - saying he did not have to
respond to the congressional subpoena.
So lawmakers decided to pull out one
of the most feared weapons in their arsenal: the empty-chair stunt. They printed
up a name card for "Mr. Karl Rove" and displayed it on the witness table. They
put out a glass of cold water with ice, and pointed the microphone toward an
empty wooden armchair.
"This meeting today is a travesty of a mockery of a
sham," protested Cannon, paraphrasing the great authority on separation-of-power
disputes, Woody Allen.
It was a mockery, to be sure, and it had elements of a
sham. But where was the travesty?
Congress knows the White House can run out
the clock on the various investigations into the Bush administration. White
House Chief of Staff Josh Bolten and former White House counsel Harriet Miers
have already been held in contempt of Congress - but even if Bush's Justice
Department decides to prosecute those cases, his administration will be out of
office before they are resolved. A contempt citation for Rove, which could come
as soon as next week, would face the same sort of delay.
...Rove's lawyer,
made clear that his absence had nothing to do with his foreign travel. "Mr. Rove
is not required to appear in response to the committee's subpoena. Accordingly,
the president has directed him not to do so," the White House counsel
wrote.
-----------
and so it goes,
GORD.

Saturday, July 12, 2008

Pastor Hagee Questionable Removal of Videos From YouTube By Him or About Him

according to Max Blumenthal in an article at Huffinton post Pastor Hagee it appears managed to get a numer of videos by him or by others concerning him removed from YouTube. His excuse was for copyrite reasons but many of the videos in question were not guilty of copyrite infringement. It appears he wanted to remove any video which might show a less than good image of him that is any that criticize or show Pastor Hagee or his church in a negative light. This would therefore contravene the limits of copyrite and those of 'fair use ' rights.

Max Blumenthal in his article Pastor Hagees Desperate News Suppression Campaign Backfires
at Huffington Post July 9, 2008 writes

During the week of July 1, lawyers representing far-right Pastor John Hagee demanded that YouTube remove scores of videos supposedly infringing on the copyright of John Hagee Ministries. YouTube acceded to Hagee's attorneys without even a cursory review of their claims. As the Huffington Post's Sam Stein reported, the maneuver resulted in the immediate disappearance of over 120 videos from YouTube -- almost all of which depicted the preacher in a negative light.
Among the videos removed by YouTube was my mini-documentary, "Rapture Ready: The Christians United For Israel Tour." Considering that my piece contained no copyrighted material whatsoever, it became apparent to me that Hagee's minions were guided by ulterior political motives. Instead of guarding their copyrights, they sought to stifle legitimate reporting on Hagee's far-out End Times ideology.

Rapture Ready: The Unauthorized Christians United for Israel Tour by Max Blumenthal

And From Democracy Now! on Pastor John Hagee
Christian Zionism Unconditional Support for Israel

March 09, 2008
McCain Embraces Endorsement from Anti-Catholic, Anti-Gay, Anti-Muslim Televangelist John Hagee
Republican presidential nominee Senator John McCain has openly embraced the endorsement of controversial televangelist John Hagee, the founder of Christians United for Israel and the senior pastor of Cornerstone Church in San Antonio, Texas. Hagee has come under criticism for his views on homosexuality, Islam, the Catholic Church and even the victims of Hurricane Katrina. We speak with Sarah Posner, author of God's Profits: Faith Fraud, and the Republican Crusade for Values Voters.


and so it goes,
GORD.

Friday, July 11, 2008

Gord's Poetry Factory: United States Contravenes International Law by trying a " Child-Soldier ", Omar Khadr

Gord's Poetry Factory: Canada Puts U.S. On Torture List

Gord's Poetry Factory: CHILD-SOLDIER OMAR KHADR ( A CANADIAN ) TORTURED AT GUANTANAMO - PM STEPHEN HARPER REFUSES TO CONDEMN USE OF TORTURE

Gord's Poetry Factory: McCain Gets Free-Ride From U.S. Media / Omar Khadr: Child Soldier & War With Iran

Gord's Poetry Factory: United States Contravenes International Law by trying a " Child-Soldier ", Omar Khadr


Gord's Poetry Factory: Bush Regime Lies Video and Status of Child Soldiers Not Recognized By US Judiciary

Prime Minister Harper Kowtows To Bush Regime & proves Canadian Citizens not safe or immune from torture by US Personnel.

Al Qeada , Saddam & BUSH approve of Waterboarding
Omar Khadr at 15, Child-Soldier held at Guantanamo By USA in defiance of International Law

Soon to be tried in a Military Court / Show Trial Soviet -Style

GITMO DETAINEES America's Idea of Justice


DETAINEES BEING TORTURED AT GITMO



BUSH " WE ONLY TORTURE 'THE BAD GUYS ' ; That is Anyone We Detain ???

" Since (ha ha )if we detain someone they must be bad "




Arresting children and then torturing them followed by years of further abuse is acceptable to Americans and Canadians. We must afterall have our revenge for the 9/11 attack . Killing and kidnapping and torturing makes our socity feel good about itself. I wonder how we got to this stage where so many assume that all talk about human rights and the Geneva Conventions is merely a sign of weakness or at worst a sign that one is on the side of the terrorists. All those who defend such actions are always going on about our values as opposed to their values. But our values seem to include that one is presumed guilty and therefore being guilty it is okay to torture such people and then put them through the motions of a trial to appease all those little old ladies and theose feeble-minded bleeding heart ' liberal ' types. In the end our civiliztion will be no better than the extremist Taliban Regime. Is that the road down which we want to travel

PM Harper Says Americans Can Do What They Want - Claims Khadr deserves what he gets !!!
PM appears to agree with Bush , Cheney , & Rice :Torture okay for Terrorists detainees. Canada is anti- Geneva Conventions & other Old Fashioned Quaint International Agreements .

Once someone is accused of being a terrorists they no longer have any rights and legally the case is closed. Though the Americans may take the detainee through either a secret kangaroo court or through a soviet style Show Trial of which Canadians also see as more than these detainees deserve. So much for democracy , freedom and due process. Like Witches of old or suspected Communists of the 1950s Terrorists suspects are determined to be guilty before they are ever tried in a court of law.

Unfortunately most Canadians also approve of torture & of Imprisoning and executing Child-Soldiers which goes against international agreements. Canadians so want to be the 51st state it is disturbing.

Prime Minister Harper Kowtows To Bush Regime & proves Canadian Citizens not safe or immune from torture by US Personnel.

So Canadians should be careful when crossing the border into the US or going to countries where America makes the rules ie Germany, Britain , Italy and a majority of the countries in the world .

PM brushes off Khadr abuse evidence/Unsealed documents reveal U.S. used sleep deprivation on teen Andrew Mayeda, Canwest News Service/ July 10, 2008 Calgary Herald







TOKYO - Canada has "no real alternative" but to maintain its policy on Omar Khadr, Prime Minister Stephen Harper said a day after documents confirmed Ottawa knew Khadr was "softened up" by U.S. authorities at Guantanamo Bay.

Newly unsealed documents reveal U.S. authorities used sleep-deprivation targets on Khadr before Canadian officials visited the terror suspect at the United States' military prison in Cuba in 2004.

On Thursday, however, the prime minister stuck closely to his government's line on the case.
Khadr, who was born in Toronto, was 15 years old when he was picked up by the U.S. army in Afghanistan during a shootout with American forces in 2002. He is accused of lobbing a grenade that killed a U.S. soldier.

He is the only Westerner still detained at Guantanamo Bay, because other nations have repatriated their citizens to face justice at home. The Harper government has refused to repatriate him, noting the seriousness of the charges against Khadr, who is expected to be tried later this year by a U.S. military tribunal.

On Thursday, Harper once again emphasized that Khadr has been charged with "extremely serious crimes."

"There's a legal process under way in the United States. He can make his arguments before that process, but frankly, we have no real alternative to this process now to arrive at the truth concerning the accusations against him, and we believe this process should continue," the prime minister said.

Canada is monitoring Khadr's detention in Guantanamo Bay to ensure he is treated humanely, Harper added.

Khadr, now 21, was subjected to what's known at the Guantanamo Bay prison as the "frequent flyer program."

It entails waking up a detainee every few hours and moving him to another cell so that he feels continually disoriented.

This happened to Khadr just ahead of a March 30, 2004, visit by Jim Gould, an intelligence officer with Foreign Affairs and International Trade Canada.

"In an effort to make him more amenable and willing to talk, (text blacked out) has placed Umar in the 'frequent flyer program'," says an April 2004 report by R. Scott Heatherington, then director of the department's Foreign Intelligence Division.

"For the three weeks before Mr. Gould's visit, Umar has not been more than three hours in any one location. At three-hour intervals, he is moved to another cell block, thus denying him uninterrupted sleep and a continued change of neighbours."

In releasing the documents last month, a Federal Court judge concluded the tactic violates a United Nations convention signed by Canada and the U.S. that prohibits the use of torture against detainees.

The documents "paint a picture of a victimized and exploited boy," according to his lawyers.

The lawyers argue that the documents show the Canadian government knew early on that Khadr had faced abusive treatment at the hands of the Americans.

"Notwithstanding this information, the government of Canada has repeatedly stated that they will not intervene in Omar's case since they have received assurances from the United States that Omar is being humanely treated," the lawyers say in a news release.

"This oft-repeated mantra has now been proven to have been an attempt to misinform the Canadian public."

Within days, the lawyers are also expected to release some seven hours of videotapes that the Supreme Court also ordered the government to hand to them. They were taken during the visits by Canadian officials, and are expected to show, among other things, Khadr breaking down in tears.

--------
Lawyers, advocates dispute Harper claim of 'no real alternative' on Khadr July 10,2008





OTTAWA — Prime Minister Stephen Harper is playing fast with the facts when he says the Conservative government has "no real alternative" to the U.S. legal process in the Omar Khadr case, say the Canadian detainee's lawyers.
"This is a disingenuous comment from the prime minister," says Khadr's Canadian lawyer, Dennis Edney.
"The prime minister, through his cabinet members, particularly Mr. (Peter) MacKay, have long said that they have been assured that Omar Khadr was being well treated, when in fact the Canadian government well knew that was not the case," Edney said in a telephone interview from Edmonton.
The prime minister tried Thursday to distance his Conservative government from explosive new documents released by the Foreign Affairs Department.


And as we see Americans are going ahead with their Kangaroo Court style-trial of Omar Khadr for War Crimes Yet Cheney, Bush, Rice, Rumsfeld, Karl Rove etc. haven't even been arrested for the War Crimes they have Committed. When some kid in Afghanistan fights as a matter of obeying his parents against American invaders he is a terrorists while American soldiers and Bush " The Commander In Chief " orders people to be kidnapped, abused, tortured and executed on hearsay evidence we are supposed to support such barbaric actions when they are done by a Western white Christian Evangelical Leader such as George W. Bush or Holier then thou Tony Blair. Blair is now rather than being charged with war crimes will have a rather lucrative career in various Western Dominated organizations as they tend to the " White Man's Burden " while continuing to pilage and ravage the rest of the world to enrich themselves. Ah, Well that's who we are .

also see: Khadr war crimes trial set for Oct. 8 at Guantanamo Bay
Judge says date can be changed for legal reasons, June 19, 2008












Canadian Omar Khadr was told by a military judge
Thursday at the U.S. naval base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, that his trial on war crimes charges will begin on Oct. 8.
The judge, Col. Patrick Parrish, said the date for trial by the controversial military commissions process can be changed for legal reasons if necessary.







Khadr, 21, faces up to life in
prison if convicted on charges of killing a U.S. army medic with a grenade during a firefight in Afghanistan in 2002. He was 15 years old at the time.







Parrish was presiding over Khadr's pre-trial hearing for the first time.
The Toronto-born detainee's military lawyer, Lt.-Cmdr. William Kuebler, has accused the Pentagon of making last month's surprise change in judges to speed the process of getting his client to trial.


--------

and so it goes,
GORD.

Thursday, July 10, 2008

Chris Hedges on Surviving the Fourth of July

Updated: 1:02 /July 10, 2008

To some Americans the Fourth of July just means a long weekend , picnics , road-trips, going to Cottage country etc. For others it is a time to reflect on their nations strength or failures. Here is Chris Hedges reflections on the meaning of the Fourth of July.

Chris Hedges at ICH
Surviving the Fourth of July /Truthdig




07/07/08 " -- - I survive the degradation that has
become America—a land that exalts itself as a bastion of freedom and liberty while it tortures human beings, stripped of their rights, in offshore penal colonies, a land that wages wars defined under international law as criminal wars of aggression, a land that turns its back on its poor, its weak, its mentally ill, in a relentless drive to embrace totalitarian capitalism—because I read books. I have 5,000 of them. They line every wall of my house. And I do not own a television.
The historian Will Durant calculated that there have been
only 29 years in all of human history during which a war was not under way somewhere. Rather than being aberrations, war and tyranny expose a side of human nature that is masked by the often unacknowledged constraints that glue society together. Our cultivated conventions and little lies of civility lull us into a refined and idealistic view of ourselves. But look at our last two decades—2 million dead in the war in Afghanistan, 1.5 million dead in the fighting in Sudan, some 800,000 butchered in the 90-day slaughter of Tutsis and moderate
Hutus by soldiers and militias directed by the Hutu government in Rwanda, a half-million dead in Angola, a quarter of a million dead in Bosnia, 200,000 dead in Guatemala, 150,000 dead in Liberia, a quarter of a million dead in Burundi, 75,000 dead in Algeria, at least 600,000 dead in Iraq and untold tens of thousands lost in the border conflict between Ethiopia and Eritrea, the fighting in Colombia, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Chechnya, Sri Lanka, southeastern
Turkey, Sierra Leone, Northern Ireland, Kosovo. Civil war, brutality,
ideological intolerance, conspiracy and murderous repression are the daily fare for all but the privileged few in the industrialized world."The gallows," the gravediggers in "Hamlet" aptly remind us, "is built stronger than the church."

and he continues:


I have seen the pits in the torpid heat in El Salvador, the arid
valleys in northern Iraq and the forested slopes in Bosnia. Falstaff is right. Despite the promises never to forget the sacrifices of the dead, of those crippled and maimed by war, the loss and suffering eventually become superfluous. The pain is relegated to the pages of dusty books, the corridors of poorly funded VA hospitals, and sustained by grieving families who still visit the headstone of a man or woman who died too young. This will be the fate of our dead and wounded from Iraq and Afghanistan. It is the fate of all those who go to war. We honor them only in the abstract. The causes that drove the nation to war, and for which they gave their lives, are soon forgotten, replaced by new
ones that are equally absurd.


...Patriotic duty and the disease of nationalism lure us to deny our common humanity. Yet to pursue, in the broadest sense, what is human, what is moral, in the midst of conflict or under the heel of the totalitarian state is often a form of self-destruction. And while
Shakespeare, Proust and Conrad meditate on success, they honor the nobility of failure, knowing that there is more to how a life is lived than what it achieves. Lear and Richard II gain knowledge only as they are pushed down the ladder, as they are stripped of power and the illusions which power makes possible.Late one night, unable to sleep during the war in El Salvador, I picked up "Macbeth." It was not a calculated decision. I had come that day from a village where about a dozen people had been murdered by the death squads, their thumbs tied behind their backs with wire and their throats slit.I had read the play before as a student. Now it took on a new, electric force. A thirst for power at the cost of human life was no longer an abstraction. It had become part
of my own experience.I came upon Lady Macduff’s speech, made when the murderers, sent by Macbeth, arrive to kill her and her small children.

"Whither should I fly?" she asks.I have done no harm.

But I remember nowI am in this earthly world, where to do harm

Is often laudable, to do good sometime Accounted dangerous folly."

Those words seized me like Furies and cried out for the dead I had seen
lined up that day in a dusty market square, and the dead I would see later: the 3,000 children killed in Sarajevo, the dead in unmarked mass graves in Bosnia, Kosovo, Iraq, Sudan, Algeria, El Salvador, the dead who are my own, who carried notebooks, cameras and a vanquished idealism into war and never returned. Of course resistance is usually folly, of course power exercised with ruthlessness will win, of course force easily snuffs out gentleness, compassion and decency.
In the end, all we can cling to is each other.


And given the latest news from Iraq it is no wonder Chris Hedges feels there is little hope for America.

As we see in this case with the Iraqi government which insists American troops should leave- the Bush regime refuses. In other words Iraq is a free and sovereign nation unless they disagee with the American Regime whether Bush or whomever takes power in the United States after the next election.

First from Headzup July 9, 2008-Iaq wants time table for withdrawl-



And from the Huffington Post Jon Soltz writes:
The Flip Flopper on Iraq?McCain by Jon Soltz at Huffington Post /July 8, 2008


You'd think with all the media consternation with the non-existent "flip flop" of Obama on Iraq (you know, the one where he didn't change his position at all), reporters would be blowing their stack at the true flip flop from John McCain on Iraq.

Late yesterday, Iraqi Prime Minister Maliki
said
it's time for the US to leave
, or set a timetable to leave.

There you have it. The Iraqis are basically telling the US that they endorse Obama's policy -- they want us to set a timetable to bring the troops home. John McCain in 2004 said
we'd respect
such a request
, telling the Council on Foreign Relations:


Well, if that scenario evolves than I think it's obvious that we would have to leave because -- if it was an elected government of Iraq, and we've been asked to leave other places in the world. If it were an extremist government then I think we would have other challenges, but I don't see how we could stay when our whole emphasis and policy has been based on turning the Iraqi government over to the Iraqi people.

I just checked the McCain campaign website, and so far, he hasn't announced today that he will respect the sovereign government of Iraq, and adjust his Iraq policy to include a timeline for bringing troops home.

Well, maybe he said something but it wasn't on the website yet?
According to the
Washington Post:

"McCain was silent on the comments Monday."
So the potential commander-in-chief has no answer to the prime minister of Iraq. Not even like, "Hey, Nouri, Roger that."

While McCain refused to answer questions on Iraq, today, his top foreign policy advisor said:
"Senator McCain has always said that conditions on the ground -- including the security threats posed by extremists and terrorists, and the ability of Iraqi forces to meet those threats -- would be key determinants in U.S. force levels."

That, my friends (as Senator McCain would say), is a flip flop. It is a major policy reversal. Saying "conditions on the ground" will determine when you start to bring troops home is an indefinite commitment, not a timeline with a goal for redeployment. And, McCain's lack of consistency or clarity of vision on Iraq is trickling down. I was on Hardball just a short time ago with Pete Hegseth, my counterpart and Iraq War veteran who runs Vets for Freedom.

or from YouTube:



Did you catch that? In one short segment, Pete took two positions on Iraq. He was against timelines at the beginning of the segment, but was OK with timelines at the end of the segment.


This is not the way to formulate policy on Iraq, and if in the White House, this kind of waffling on the major issue of our time from McCain would have disastrous consequences. When you send a signal to a foreign nation that you will leave their land when asked, you better do it, when asked. If not, you only bolster the notion that you are an occupier, and the idea that the only way to get rid of us is with deadly force.

John McCain's silence on the issue is severely troubling -- it's as if he doesn't know what to do now. His advisor saying McCain will stick to his guns -- Iraqi wishes be damned -- is a flip flop from his previous position. Combined, it is a very bleak and discouraging view of what a McCain administration would look like on what is, supposedly, his biggest strength.


----------



And on Countdown on MSNBC -Countdown: Iraqi Gov. Says "America Must Go" 7/8/08
July 08, 2008
Rachel Maddow and Howard Fineman discuss how the Iraqi government has demanded a timetable for the withdrawal of the American troops and the two positions of the Obama and McCain camps on the announcement.





--------
And here's another bit of a shocker about Conoleeza Rice pretending she is concerned about human rights that a laugh and a half if it wasn't so sad as many suffer in part because of her abuse of the English Language to justify torture and thereby protect her mentor George Bush from facing charges of War Crime and Crimes against Humanity. Her Ivy League schools taught her how to debate as Socrates would say about the Sophists of Athens who taught that the bad or evil was 'good 'and that the ' good 'was evil or wrong either way truth being merely relative or a matter of perception. In the end the strong and the heartless win out . Condi owes her allegiance to herself and chancellor Bush and not to truth or justice. Harvard and Yale were never interested in truth or justice but that one win the arguement or the case before you.

It is quite unbelievable that conoleeza Rice would be part of an International group debating sex as a form of violence and torture when her hands are dripping with the blood of countless numbers of people abused and tortured including sex as a torture technique to shame and ridicule detainees by her regime . The audacity of these people is beyond understanding. Sex as used to abuse and torture people is okay when those abused are being abused by Americans with the full knowledge of the Executive including Condoleeza Rice and President Bush. For others to do the same things to American captives is somehow reprehensible.

From Huffington Post July 7, 2008 Naomi Wolf: Sex Crimes in the White House



NEW YORK - Sex crime has a telltale signature, even when those directing the outrages are some of the most powerful men and women in the United States. How extraordinary, then, to learn that one of the perpetrators of these crimes, Condoleezza Rice, has just led the debate in a special session of the United Nations Security Council on the use of sexual violence as a weapon of war...
We now know that the torture of prisoners was the result of a policy set in the White House by former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, Vice President Dick Cheney, and Rice -- who actually chaired the torture meetings. The Pentagon has also acknowledged that it had authorized sexualized abuse of detainees as part of interrogation practices to be performed by female operatives. And documents obtained by the American Civil Liberties Union have Rumsfeld, in his own words, checking in on the sexualized humiliation of prisoners.
The sexualization of torture from the top basically turned Abu Ghraib and Guantánamo Bay into an organized sex-crime ring in which the trafficked sex slaves were US-held prisoners. Looking at the classic S and M nature of some of this torture, it is hard not to speculate that someone setting policy was aroused by all of this. And Phillipe Sands' impeccably documented Torture Team: Rumsfeld's Memo and the Betrayal of American Values, now proves that sex crime was authorized and, at least one source reports, eroticized: Diane Beaver, the Staff Judge Advocate at Guantanamo who signed off on many torture techniques, told Sands about brainstorming sessions that included the use of "sexual tension," which was "culturally taboo, disrespectful, humiliating and potentially unexpected
."


and so it goes,
GORD.

Wednesday, July 09, 2008

McCain's Pastor Hagee Removes Over 120 Videos From You Tube

UPDATED: Wednesday, July 9, 2008 3pm & again at 5pm & 9:45 pm.

NOTE: PASTOR HAGEE HAS REMOVED OVER 120 VIDEOS of Him or In Which He is featured From YOU TUBE !!!

So lets look at the videos that are still available before they all get tossed into " The Memory Hole" - Though such a device seems superfluous in a society with a 48 hour or so News / TV total memory capacity.After 48 hours everything other than the info on Movie Stars & the Fabulous Wealthy but stupid is forgotten. For instance the lead up to the invasion of Iraq is now a distant hazy memory - Americans still claim Saddam engineered 9/11 attack so don't expect them to have any understanding or memory of Bosnia or death squads in Central America or the American engineered brutal and bloody coup of the Democratic government of Salvador Allende in 1973, Sep. 11. Only the wealthy and the corporations and their military friends are supposed to have any say in running America or any other country.

Televangelist John Hagee, in a recently aired sermon, outlined what he meant by the term “counterfeit Christians”: those who take public policy positions he disagrees with, on issues from abortion and gay marriage to welfare to the Evil of Harry Potter


CENSORED VIDEO
Hagee: Real Christians Don't Support Welfare
From People For the American Way



For more see: McCain/ Hagee
McCain's Pastor Hagee and at THINK PROGRESSand DAILY KOS


another one bites the dust !!!

and from MSNBC
McCain EMBRACES wacko NEOCON PASTOR Hagee
Removed or CENSORED ?





From VERACIFIER: TPMtv: McCain Can't Quit John Hagee
Catholic Church The Great Whore
New Orleans was offensive to GOD !



and from The Young Turks on Pastor John Hagee & Hitler

Pastor Hagee: " Hitler Was Fulfilling God's Will For Israel "







And now for some bits about McCain's other Spiritual Guide Rod Parsley . One wonders why the Media has not picked up on the story about Rod Parsley. Is it because of their adoration of John McCain and their hatred of Obama. Is it that the media are not offended by remarks made by Rod Parsley or John Hagee while they are deeply offended by the remarks of Reverend Wright or is because Reverend Wright is black.
Pastor Hagee calls the Catholic Church the Great Whore and 9/11 God's punishment for American secularism and for supporting a peace agreement between Israel and the PLO while Pastor Parsley calls Islam a Satanic Religion which Christian America must eradicate. Similar I guess to Hillary's desire to OBLITERATE Iran and possibly much of the Islamic World . Anyway maybe the Media thinks its okay to call Islam Satanic and to call for a New Crusade to wipe out Islam. In the same way they see little wrong with these White Preachers condemning the ACLU, all liberals and secularists in America and promoting hatred against Gays and Lesbians in America.

In an article by David Corn March 12 , 2008 entitled " McCain''s Spiritual Guide: Destroy Islam " in the magazine Mother Jones disclosed that McCain's spiritual guide Rod Parsley preached that Islam is a violent anti-Christ religion out to dominate the world . Parsley argues that it is part of America's purpose and destiny to fight and eradicate Islam in the name of Christ. He claims that Islam is a Satanic religion and that Americans should not be accepting or tolerant of Islam .

And in a follow up article the author David Corn has produced a video of McCain and Rod Parsley From Mother Jones:McCain's Pastor Problem: The Video , May 8,2008


Washington Dispatch: In a taped sermon, the preacher McCain calls a "spiritual guide" calls on America to see the "false religion" of Islam "destroyed." Still, the candidate won't reject Rod Parsley's endorsement.

In the 2005 sermon, Parsley repeatedly blasts Islam. "It is not a God of love that is presented to those of the Islamic faith," he tells his parishioners. He notes that 9/11 was not "anything new," describing the terrorist attack as merely the latest battle in "a war between Islam and Christian civilization...raging for centuries." Speaking from the pulpit, and wiping sweat from his brow, Parsley exclaims,

I can't begin to tell you how important it is that we understand the true nature of Islam. That we see it for what it really is. In fact...I do not believe that our nation can truly fulfill its divine purpose until we understand our historical conflict with Islam…I know that this statement sounds extreme. But I am not shrinking back from its implications. The fact is that...America was founded in part with the intention of seeing this false religion destroyed. And I believe September 11, 2001, was a generational call to arms that we no longer can afford to ignore.

Parsley approvingly quotes Christian theologian Jonathan Edwards' reference to Islam as "Satan's Mohammedan kingdom." He points out that the United States' first war—the battle against the Barbary Coast pirates—was "waged against Muslim pirates who took our people captive because they believed in a Jesus crucified by the Jews." (With that one statement, Parsley slams both Islam and Judaism.) He repeatedly refers to the United States' "historic conflict with Islam," and adds, "We have no choice. The time has come. In fact, we may be already losing the battle. As I scan the world, I find that Islam at this moment is responsible for more pain, more bloodshed, more devastation than nearly any other force on Earth."

...The problem, Parsley insists, is not radical Muslims who have hijacked a faith, but the religion itself:

I must state three important truths...No. 1, the God of Christianity and the God of Islam are two separate beings...Mr. Bush, I support you. You need to stop saying that the God of Islam and the God of Christianity are the same God...No. 2, Muhammad received revelations from demon spirits, not from the living God. No. 3, Islam is an anti-Christ religion that intends, through violence, to conquer the world. Did you get those three truths?

In a long riff, Parsley maintains that Muhammad was tricked by a demon into believing that he had heard the word of God. Thus, he asserts, the entire religion of Islam is based upon a satanic deception: "Muhammad was tragically beset by a demon which he mistook for the living God. He thus became a mouthpiece of a conspiracy of spiritual evil...There are so few who will talk about [this]."

"Here's a video—produced by Mother Jones and Brave New films—highlighting Parsley's remarks and McCain's praise of the pastor":




Rod Parsley, McCain's Spiritual Guide
Genocide: "African-Americans under attack by
Planned Parenthood and the Abortionists "

from Rightwingwatchdog.org
added March 06, 2008
Last week John McCain campaigned alongside Ohio televangelist Rod Parsley, who has perfected the "Patriot Pastors" model of church-based political organizing.



MSNBC Countdown : McCain: Parsleys Bad Taste



And now a word from the Young Turks.com on why the media is not covering the story about McCain & Pastor Rod Parsley
McCain Spiritual Guide Doesn't Understand America




and so it goes,
GORD.

Tuesday, July 08, 2008

Israeli Gestapo -Like Tactics Against The Palestinians

Israeli Gestapo Tactics in the West Bank
Israel locks down West Bank village over protests - 6 Jul 08
July 06, 2008 Al Jazeera
Israeli troops are sealing off the Palestinian village of Ni'lin in the occupied West Bank.

Villagers in Ni'lin are trying to stop the latest stretch of Israel's separation wall from cutting them off from their farmland.

Israel says the barrier is being built to keep out Palestinian suicide bombers.

Construction sites are flashpoints for confrontations between Israeli security forces and Palestinians, who are often supported by left-wing protesters from Israel and abroad.

David Chater, Al Jazeera's correspondent in the West Bank, filed this exclusive report.

Ghettoizing Palestinians bcoming a slow genocidal solution to the Palestinian Problem .
Why else would the Israelis shut down charity organization, schools and medicacal facilities to punish, drive out or kill all the inhabitants by bullets or starvation .

and from Media With Conscience MWC:Israel raids West Bank charity / July 7, 2008

Israeli troops have raided the West Bank town of Nablus, shutting down three facilities of a Hamas-affiliated charity and a medical centre, Palestinians say.
Monday's raid, which appears to have been part of an intensified crackdown on Hamas in the West Bank by Israel and the Palestinian Authority, targeted al-Tadamon (Solidarity) charity.
Adli Yaish of Hamas, who is Solidarity's chairman and mayor of Nablus, has been in an Israeli jail since June 2006.
Dozens of jeeps and two bulldozers entered the town early on Monday, closing a girls' school and sports club operated by the charity and confiscating computers, documents, cash and furniture, witnesses said.
"Now we need to look for an alternative place to educate these girls," Fidda Draikh, principal of the 160-student school, said.
"We cannot leave them without a school."
The Israeli military had no immediate comment on the Palestinian reports.

'No Hamas ties'

The shuttered medical centre has no ties to Hamas, Dr Hafez al-Sadr, the facility's director, said.
He said though the unit has the same name as the charity, it is run by a different charitable organisation that was controlled by Hamas until the government President Mahmoud Abbas replaced its chief administrator last year.
-------------------------------------------------
And Israel it appears controls the distribution of water to the West Bank and uses water rationing as a form of collective punishment on all Palestinians.

Israel cuts water supplies to Palestinians / West Bank
but the problem has been going on for at least a year yet nothing changes and there is no international outcry. Have the Israeli extremist lost all sense of decency?
Are Palestinians not also human?
Water-rich West Bank suffering from shortage of water
July 02, 2008

A human rights group has warned of grave water supply shortages in the
West Bank due to Israel's discriminatory water distribution.In a report
published on Tuesday, B'Tselem group reported that Palestinians living in the West Bank drink one-third of the per capita water consumption recommended by the World Health Organization (WHO).The group also added that per capita water consumption by Israeli settlers is 3.5 times more than that of Palestinians."The chronic water shortage results in large part from Israel's discriminatory policy in distributing the joint water resources in the West Bank and the limits it places on the Palestinian's ability to drill new wells," the group revealed.

According to B'Tselem, the problem in the West Bank has been compounded this summer by the lack of rainfall over the past few years.Stressing that access to water without discrimination is recognized by international law as a fundamental human right, B'Tselem called on the regime "to ensure immediate,regular, adequate supply of water to every resident of the West Bank without
discrimination."



More about lack of water for Palestinians
So who's trying to drive who out

B'Tselem: Palestinian villages suffer a water shortage
December 05, 2007

The Bidu-Qatanna village bloc, in Ramallah District, suffers from a severe water shortage, as do many other areas in the Occupied Territories . Mekorot, the Israeli water company, supplies only one-half of the water consumed by the 50,000 villagers of this area. To meet the rest of their water needs, the villagers have to buy water from private suppliers at a much higher price and store it in unsanitary conditions. As a result, the residents are forced to consume poor-quality water and use it in small quantities. Meanwhile, the 3,000 settlers in the nearby settlement of Har Adar receive an unlimited amount of water, which comes from the same reservoir. (September 2007). www.btselem.org



and so it goes,
GORD.

Monday, July 07, 2008

PROSECUTION & EXECUTION OF GEORGE W. BUSH : VINCENT BUGLIOSIE


King Louis XVI being executed 1793 by Guillotine- Good Enough for Louis it's Good Enough for King George W. Bush. Justice for despots. Bush had no problem putting people to death and even made light of it . So much for Compassionater Conservatism.
In America one can be put in jail for seven years for possession of a single joint of Marijuana yet you kill a few hundred thousand foreingers to steal their oil or just for the hell of it and you get re-elected as president and enter the Hall of Fame. Torture, murder of foreigners doesn't count for Americans nor does lynching black kids just for fun cause that's the American way.

Note: A form of capital punishment by using a device called a "guillotine" after its inventor (Joseph Guillotin), developed in France, to "humanely" inflict the death penalty through instant decapitation by the dropping of a weighted and sharp metal blade onto the restrained neck of a convict.
from Legal Dictionary.org/Duhaime
for more see: essortment/Guillotine History

Of course being Canadian I'm not sure about capital punishment in any case so life imprisonment with Karl Rove by his side might be best.




" If the charges are true, of course Bush should have been impeached, convicted, and removed from office. That's almost too self-evident to state. But he deserves much more than impeachment. " Vincent Bugliosie

**Indeed, Bush himself, ironically, would be the last person who would quarrel with the proposition that being guilty of mass murder (even one murder, by his lights) calls for the death penalty as opposed to life imprisonment. As governor of Texas, Bush had the highest execution rate of any governor in American history..." Vincent Bugliosie

For this post I am simply copying and recycling Vincent Bugliosie 's article about Prosecuting , Imprisoning and possibly under the law executing President George W. Bush for his crimes especially in relation to his unwarranted deadly invasion of Iraq. Bugliosie says that by definition Bush is guilty of mass murder and given Bush's stance on capital punishment that given the facts Bush should if found guilty be executed. Republicans, conservatives and Neocons are all in favor of capital punishment and so surely could not object to using it in the case of Bush or others who might be found guilty of murder . Otherwise they could be accused by people like Ann Coulter of coddling criminals and murderers .

So what method should be use the rope, electric chair, lethal injection or the dood old Gillotine.

One of the reasons I feel it is important to get this article as much exposure on the internet as possible since it appears the Mass Media in America and elsewhere have done their best to ignore Bugliosie's book or just dismiss it out of hand as if it were written by some crackpot with a tinfoil hat. But this is to be expected from the American Mass media who are the pawns of the likes of Murdock and the MegaCorporations who helped put Bush and his extremist Neocon Religious Right friends into power in the first place .

First here is the article from Huffington Post/ July 7, 2008- which claims that though the book has become a best seller it is still being ignored ny the Mainstream Media which seems incredible yet not that surprising given that the media see their job as supporting the Bush Regime and the War In Iraq while attacking any who dare question in a substantive manner any of Bush/ Cheney / Karl Rove authoritarian quasi-dictatorial regime's policies.

Ex-Prosecutor Accuses Bush Of Murder In Book July,7 2008/ Huffington Post



A book arguing that President Bush could be held criminally responsible for the deaths of American soldiers in Iraq is thriving despite a near total lack of mainstream media attention, the New York Times reports:

As a Los Angeles county prosecutor, Vincent Bugliosi batted a thousand in murder cases: 21 trials, 21 convictions, including the Charles Manson case in 1971.

As an author, Mr. Bugliosi has written three No. 1 best sellers and won three Edgar Allan Poe awards, the top honor for crime writers. More than 30 years ago he co-wrote the best seller "Helter Skelter," about the Manson case.

So Mr. Bugliosi could be forgiven for perhaps thinking that a new book would generate considerable interest, among reviewers and on the broadcast talk-show circuit. But if he thought that, he
would have been mistaken: his latest, a polemic with the provocative title "The Prosecution of George W. Bush for Murder," has risen to best-seller status with nary a peep from the usual outlets that help sell books: cable television and
book reviews in major daily newspapers.



The Prosecution of George W. Bush by Vincent Bugliosie , May,19,2008 an excerpt by the author



The Legal Framework for the Prosecution



That the king can do no wrong is a necessary and fundamental principle of the English constitution. -Sir William Blackstone, Commentaries on the Laws of England, 1765 No living Homo sapiens is above the law. -(Notwithstanding our good friends and legal ancestors across the water, this is a fact that requires no citation.)



With respect to the position I take about the crimes of George Bush, I want to state at the outset that my motivation is not political. Although I've been a longtime Democrat (primarily because, unless there is some very compelling reason to be otherwise, I am always for "the little guy"), my political orientation is not rigid. For
instance, I supported John McCain's run for the presidency in 2000. More to the
point, whether I'm giving a final summation to the jury or writing one of my
true crime books, credibility has always meant everything to me. Therefore, my
only master and my only mistress are the facts and objectivity. I have no
others. This is why I can give you, the reader, a 100 percent guarantee that if
a Democratic president had done what Bush did, I would be writing the same,
identical piece you are about to read.



Perhaps the most amazing thing to me about the belief of many that George Bush lied to the American public in starting his war with Iraq is that the liberal columnists who have accused him of doing this merely make this point, and then go on to the next paragraph in their columns. Only very infrequently does a columnist add that because of it Bush should be impeached. If the charges are true, of course Bush should have been impeached, convicted, and removed from office. That's almost too
self-evident to state. But he deserves much more than impeachment. I mean, in
America, we apparently impeach presidents for having consensual sex outside of
marriage and trying to cover it up. If we impeach presidents for that, then if
the president takes the country to war on a lie where thousands of American
soldiers die horrible, violent deaths and over 100,000 innocent Iraqi civilians,
including women and children, even babies are killed, the punishment obviously
has to be much, much more severe. That's just common sense. If Bush were
impeached, convicted in the Senate, and removed from office, he'd still be a
free man, still be able to wake up in the morning with his cup of coffee and
freshly squeezed orange juice and read the morning paper, still travel widely
and lead a life of privilege, still belong to his country club and get standing
ovations whenever he chose to speak to the Republican faithful. This, for being
responsible for over 100,000 horrible deaths?* For anyone interested in true
justice, impeachment alone would be a joke for what Bush did.


Let's look at the way some of the leading liberal lights (and, of course, the rest of the
entire nation with the exception of those few recommending impeachment) have
treated the issue of punishment for Bush's cardinal sins. New York Times
columnist Paul Krugman wrote about "the false selling of the Iraq War. We were
railroaded into an unnecessary war." Fine, I agree. Now what? Krugman just goes
on to the next paragraph. But if Bush falsely railroaded the nation into a war
where over 100,000 people died, including 4,000 American soldiers, how can you
go on to the next paragraph as if you had been writing that Bush spent the
weekend at Camp David with his wife? For doing what Krugman believes Bush did,
doesn't Bush have to be punished commensurately in some way? Are there no
consequences for committing a crime of colossal proportions?


Al Franken on the David Letterman show said, "Bush lied to us to take us to war" and quickly went on to another subject, as if he was saying "Bush lied to us in his
budget."



Senator Edward Kennedy, condemning Bush, said that "Bush's
distortions misled Congress in its war vote" and "No President of the United
States should employ distortion of truth to take the nation to war."


But, Senator Kennedy, if a president does this, as you believe Bush did, then what?
Remember, Clinton was impeached for allegedly trying to cover up a consensual
sexual affair. What do you recommend for Bush for being responsible for more
than 100,000 deaths? Nothing? He shouldn't be held accountable for his actions?
If one were to listen to you talk, that is the only conclusion one could come
to. But why, Senator Kennedy, do you, like everyone else, want to give Bush this
complete free ride?



The New York Times, in a June 17, 2004, editorial, said that in selling this nation on the war in Iraq, "the Bush administration convinced a substantial majority of Americans before the war that Saddam Hussein was somehow linked to 9/ 11, . . . inexcusably selling the false Iraq-Al Qaeda claim to Americans." But gentlemen, if this is so, then what? The New York Times didn't say, just going on, like everyone else, to the next paragraph, talking about something else.



In a November 15, 2005, editorial, the New York Times said that "the president and his top advisers . . . did not allow the American people, or even Congress, to have the information necessary to make reasoned judgments of their own. It's obvious that the Bush administration misled Americans about Mr. Hussein's weapons and his terrorist connections." But if it's "obvious that the Bush administration misled Americans" in taking them to a war that tens of thousands of people have paid for with their lives, now what?



No punishment? If not, under what theory? Again, you're just going to go on to
the next paragraph?
I'm not going to go on to the next unrelated paragraph.



In early December of 2005, a New York Times-CBS nationwide poll
showed that the majority of Americans believed Bush "intentionally misled" the
nation to promote a war in Iraq. A December 11, 2005, article in the Los Angeles
Times, after citing this national poll, went on to say that because so many
Americans believed this, it might be difficult for Bush to get the continuing
support of Americans for the war. In other words, the fact that most Americans
believed Bush had deliberately misled them into war was of no consequence in and
of itself. Its only consequence was that it might hurt his efforts to get
support for the war thereafter. So the article was reporting on the effect of
the poll findings as if it was reporting on the popularity, or lack thereof, of
Bush's position on global warming or immigration. Didn't the author of the
article know that Bush taking the nation to war on a lie (if such be the case)
is the equivalent of saying he is responsible for well over 100,000 deaths? One
would never know this by reading the article.



If Bush, in fact, intentionally
misled this nation into war, what is the proper punishment for him? Since many
Americans routinely want criminal defendants to be executed for murdering only
one person, if we weren't speaking of the president of the United States as the
defendant here, to discuss anything less than the death penalty for someone
responsible for over 100,000 deaths would on its face seem ludicrous.** But we
are dealing with the president of the United States here.
On the other hand,
the intensity of rage against Bush in America has been such (it never came
remotely this close with Clinton because, at bottom, there was nothing of any
real substance to have any serious rage against him for) that if I heard it once
I heard it ten times that "someone should put a bullet in his head." That,
fortunately, is just loose talk, and even more fortunately not the way we do
things in America. In any event, if an American jury were to find Bush guilty of
first degree murder, it would be up to them to decide what the appropriate
punishment should be, one of their options being the imposition of the death
penalty.



Although I have never heard before what I am suggesting -- that Bush
be prosecuted for murder in an American courtroom -- many have argued that "Bush should be prosecuted for war crimes" (mostly for the torture of prisoners at Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo) at the International Criminal Court in The Hague,
Netherlands. But for all intents and purposes this cannot be done.



*Even
assuming, at this point, that Bush is criminally responsible for the deaths of
over 100,000 people in the Iraq war, under federal law he could only be
prosecuted for the deaths of the 4,000 American soldiers killed in the war. No
American court would have jurisdiction to prosecute him for the one hundred and
some thousand Iraqi deaths since these victims not only were not Americans, but
they were killed in a foreign nation, Iraq. Despite their nationality, if they
had been killed here in the States, there would of course be
jurisdiction.



**Indeed, Bush himself, ironically, would be the last person
who would quarrel with the proposition that being guilty of mass murder (even
one murder, by his lights) calls for the death penalty as opposed to life
imprisonment. As governor of Texas, Bush had the highest execution rate of any
governor in American history: He was a very strong proponent of the death
penalty who even laughingly mocked a condemned young woman who begged him to
spare her life ("Please don't kill me," Bush mimicked her in a magazine
interview with journalist Tucker Carlson), and even refused to commute the
sentence of death down to life imprisonment for a young man who was mentally
retarded (although as president he set aside the entire prison sentence of his
friend Lewis "Scooter" Libby), and had a broad smile on his face when he
announced in his second presidential debate with Al Gore that his state, Texas,
was about to execute three convicted murderers.



In Bush's two terms as Texas governor, he signed death warrants for an incredible 152 out of 153 executions against convicted murderers, the majority of whom only killed one single person. The only death sentence Bush commuted was for one of the many murders that mass murderer Henry Lucas had been convicted of. Bush was informed that Lucas had falsely confessed to this particular murder and was innocent, his conviction being improper. So in 152 out of 152 cases, Bush refused to show mercy even once, finding that not one of the 152 convicted killers should receive life imprisonment instead of the death penalty. Bush's perfect 100 percent execution rate is highly uncommon even for the most conservative law-and-order
governors.



The above is an excerpt from the book The Prosecution of George W.
Bush for Murder by Vincent Bugliosi Published by Vanguard Press; May
2008


Vincent Bugliosi received his law degree in 1964. In his career at
the L.A. County District Attorney's office, he successfully prosecuted 105 out
of 106 felony jury trials, including 21 murder convictions without a single
loss. His most famous trial, the Charles Manson case, became the basis of his
classic, Helter Skelter, the biggest selling true-crime book in publishing
history. His forthcoming book, The Prosecution of George W. Bush For Murder, is
available May 27.


and so it goes,
GORD.