Hominid Views

Salon has a detailed piece on the waterboarding techniques used by the CIA during the Bush administration (with consent of the White House):

Interrogators pumped detainees full of so much water that the CIA turned to a special saline solution to minimize the risk of death, the documents show. The agency used a gurney “specially designed” to tilt backwards at a perfect angle to maximize the water entering the prisoner’s nose and mouth, intensifying the sense of choking – and to be lifted upright quickly in the event that a prisoner stopped breathing.

The documents also lay out, in chilling detail, exactly what should occur in each two-hour waterboarding “session.” Interrogators were instructed to start pouring water right after a detainee exhaled, to ensure he inhaled water, not air, in his next breath. They could use their hands to “dam the runoff” and prevent water from spilling out of a detainee’s mouth. They were allowed six separate 40-second “applications” of liquid in each two-hour session – and could dump water over a detainee’s nose and mouth for a total of 12 minutes a day. Finally, to keep detainees alive even if they inhaled their own vomit during a session – a not-uncommon side effect of waterboarding – the prisoners were kept on a liquid diet. The agency recommended Ensure Plus.

With the sickening new details of the conduct of our government, I have to point out the salient facts again:

Waterboarding is water torture, and until 2006, when BushCo got caught, the practice was nearly universally recognized as torture. Torture is clearly defined in U.S. law. We have legal precedents that demonstrate the use of these laws. We prosecuted Vietnam vets for waterboarding their prisoners. We tried a Japanese member of the military after WWII for waterboarding. A Texas sheriff was convicted of torturing by waterboarding.

We also have our obligations under the Constitution and international agreements, and a clear statement that we are bound to these obligations. (My emphases in what follows).

From the U.S. Constitution, Article VI, Para. 2:

This Constitution, and the Laws of the United States which shall be made in Pursuance thereof; and all Treaties made, or which shall be made, under the Authority of the United States, shall be the supreme Law of the Land

And here are some excerpts from the CONVENTION AGAINST TORTURE and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment:

Article 1

(1) For the purposes of this Convention, torture means any act by which severe pain or suffering, whether physical or mental, is intentionally inflicted on a person for such purposes as obtaining from him or a third person information or a confession, punishing him for an act he or a third person has committed or is suspected of having committed, or intimidating or coercing him or a third person, or for any reason based on discrimination of any kind, when such pain or suffering is inflicted by or at the instigation of or with the consent or acquiescence of a public official or other person acting in an official capacity.

Article 2

(1) Each State Party shall take effective legislative, administrative, judicial or other measures to prevent acts of torture in any territory under its jurisdiction.

(2) No exceptional circumstances whatsoever, whether a state of war or a threat or war, internal political instability or any other public emergency, may be invoked as a justification of torture.

When the Convention was ratified, the U.S. State Department gave a report to the Committee on Torture:

(3) The United States ratified the Convention against Torture in October 1994, and the Convention entered into force for the United States on 20 November 1994.

(6) Torture is prohibited by law throughout the United States. It is categorically denounced as a matter of policy and as a tool of state authority. Every act constituting torture under the Convention constitutes a criminal offence under the law of the United States. No official of the Government, federal, state or local, civilian or military, is authorized to commit or to instruct anyone else to commit torture. Nor may any official condone or tolerate torture in any form. No exceptional circumstances may be invoked as a justification of torture. United States law contains no provision permitting otherwise prohibited acts of torture or other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment to be employed on grounds of exigent circumstances (for example, during a “state of public emergency”) or on orders from a superior officer or public authority, and the protective mechanisms of an independent judiciary are not subject to suspension. The United States is committed to the full and effective implementation of its obligations under the Convention throughout its territory.

(178) Throughout the United States, its territories and possessions, all acts constituting torture are criminal offences, punishable by appropriately severe penalties. Additionally, acts constituting attempts, “complicity”, “participation” and conspiracy to torture are likewise criminal offences. No single federal statute specifically defines or prohibits torture or directly implements the central provisions of the Convention. Nonetheless, at the time of ratification, it was determined that existing state and federal law was sufficient to implement article 4, except to reach torture occurring outside United States jurisdiction, as discussed below under article 5.

Given that Cheney and others have confessed to authorizing waterboarding, we have very strong evidence that systematic torture was used in our name.

Cheney doesn’t get to redefine our values. Waterboarding IS torture.

This doesn’t simply constitute a “teachable moment”. This is serious criminal conduct undertaken in our name…conduct that, while left un-prosecuted, stains all Americans. The conduct betrays our constitution, and those who died fighting for our constitution and our principles. The U.S. has a long history of prosecuting people who torture by waterboarding–a history that dates back to the late 1800s.

Again, I ask: when will we prosecute the officials who authorized torture, those who were criminally complicit in torture, as well as those who actually carried out the torture?

It goes without saying that it is okay that this gentleman is gay. In fact, we should celebrate that he no longer has to live pretending to be somebody he isn’t.

What is wrong is the sheer hypocrisy:

In 2005, Ashburn, like all but one other Republican in the Senate, voted against a bill that would have allowed same-sex marriage in California. The bill was later vetoed by the governor.

Ashburn also voted no, along with most of his GOP colleagues, on legislation passed last year that designated May 22 of each year as Harvey Milk Day, in honor of the slain gay-rights leader.

“It is unfortunate he helped spread the bigotry that forced him to stay in the closet,” said Geoff Kors, executive director of Equality California, a group supporting gay marriage. “We hope he now takes this opportunity to educate people in his district and throughout the state that his sexual orientation is irrelevant.”

Typical Republican…Party before everything!

I like it:

Rep. Ann Kirkpatrick (D-Ariz.) is raising the bar on freezing lawmaker salaries this week as she continues her push to garner support for her bill that would cut congressional pay by $8,700 next year on top of denying members their automatic cost-of-living increase.

To make this bill most effective, Obama must use his bully pulpit to strongly support its passage. You know, just to get the Party of No™ to threaten a filibuster.

“Families across the country are getting by on lower wages and finding ways to cut back during the downturn, and these are the folks that pay our salaries,” said Kirkpatrick in a statement.

“The federal government’s budget is in much worse shape, so why shouldn’t senators and representatives have to feel the same pinch?”

Kirkpatrick’s office said that this would be the first time Congress decreased its pay in 77 years – the last time being in the midst of the Great Depression on April 1, 1933. Her measure has garnered 21 cosponsors so far, since it was introduced last week.

Let’s do it! Perhaps we’ll learn who the real populists are!

Oh…that explains it. Now Sarah Palin is suggesting she was being like God when she wrote talking points on her palm.

But…would God need a TelePrompTer or graven hands to address a Teabagger convention?!?

(Via Political Carnival.)

Ed with some Psychotalk from Ben Stein.

Young Turks: Glenn Beck’s crazy war on Jones continues.

ONN Radio News: Gay gene isolates, ostracized.

Maddow: S.C. Wingnuts pass illiterate education bill:

Schuster: Republican homophobe caught being gay!

Stephen: Obama’s physical suggests he’s an obese alcoholic with rabies (via TalkingPointsMemo).

Barely Political: Is Obama an Avatar?

Health Scare:

• Politico: Obama calls for “up or down vote” on Senate floor.
• Jon on GOP plans to stop health care reform: The Rapture (via TalkingPointsMemo).
• Mark Fiore: Plummeting death reform.
• Maddow: Why health care reform will pass.
• Stephen on the magic of reconciliation (via TalkingPointsMemo).
• Jon: Anchor Management (via OneGoodMove).
• Stephen: It could only be more boring if it was curling (via TalkingPointsMemo).

Maddow: DADT causes hardship for gay troops.

Ed: Psycho talk from Rep. Paul Brown (R-GA).

Young Turks: Rachel Maddow nails Republicans on hypocrisy.

ONN: Obama caught lip syncing a speech.

Young Turks: Rush Limbaugh obsessed with “bending over”.

Politico: Gibbs takeaways.

Hartmann: Would you be willing to pay $7/gal to save the planet?

Maddow: Bye, bye, Rep. Stupak.

Red State Update: The Liberal Oscars.

Party of Fear:

• Today’s GOP: Is fear all they have left?
• Maddow: latest propaganda from Liz Cheney’s Keep America Scared:
  
• The RNC’s FearGate.
• RNC’s campaign of fear.
• Ed: RNC fun and FEAR!
• Countdown: Liz Cheney loses all credibility.

Greenman: What we know about global warming.

Hartmann: Should suicide be a right or a crime?

Romney: “Careful what you say about Palin…” (via TalkingPointsMemo).

Take on the banks.

Blitzer apologizes for offensive “Dept. of Jihad” chyron (via TalkingPointsMemo).

One Man’s Hatred of the Unemployed:

• Jon on Sen. Bunning (via TalkingPointsMemo).
• Countdown: Taking it out on the unemployed.
• Young Turks: Sen. Bunning’s stunning hypocracy.
• Jon on why Bunning held up uninsurance benefits (via TalkingPointsMemo).
• Stephen: “Bunning broke the stalemate and my heart” (via TalkingPointsMemo).

Maddow: RNC sends out ANOTHER fake census form.

Ed with some Psychotalk from Sarah Palin:

Politico: Obama, jobs numbers “better than expected”.

Newsy: Student protests over education cuts.

Last week’s Friday Night Multimedia Extravaganza can be found here.

Today it felt like I was in Madison in 1970 again. From my fourth story office at the University of Washington I could hear chants, bullhorns, cheers, and boos. Apparently, it happened all over the place.

It is good to see students charged-up and fighting injustices. Really, it is…even if they are motivated by the injustices that they were suffering (big tuition hikes). My hope is that they continue to protest and take stands against other injustices in the world.

I guess I am (belatedly) expressing slight disappointment in the lack of vigorous and sustained protests during the invasion and occupation of Iraq. There certainly were a few protests, but today’s rally against tuition hikes seemed larger and more politically charged than anything I saw or heard on campus during the period that Americans were killing tens or hundreds of thousands of Iraqis and thousands of Americans.

More on student protest here:

There seems to be an element of threat in this:

Two senior administration officials said the White House is telling Democrats reconsidering their support for health care reform that they will pay the price for their original vote no matter what happens, so they should reap the political benefits of actually passing a law.

There are 59 senators and 216 House members who put themselves on the record in support of the Democratic plan for health care reform. And the way the White House and Democratic leaders see it, they have little choice but to vote for it again: Think John Kerry, and his immortal words about an Iraq war appropriations bill – that he was for it before he was against it.

“Flip-flopping is dangerous in this business,” said a senior Senate Democratic aide familiar with the strategy.

I think it’s great that the White House is threatening spineless Democrats. Now would be a great time to threaten your own Senators or Representative. Ultimately, the timidity (a.k.a. spinelessness) of Democrats in passing meaningful health reform reflects a lack of threats coming from their constitutes. So get on the horn, clack away at the keyboard, or take pen to paper and threaten your congresscritters!

This site can help with contact information.

Via The Telegraph:

Pakistan’s army has discovered a complex network of 156 caves used by the Taliban and al-Qaeda dug into rocky mountains close to the Afghan border.

The tunnels…were carved into sheer rock within view of the snow-capped peaks of eastern Afghanistan.
[...]

Maj Gen Tariq Khan said the caves served as a key militant headquarters until troops overran the complex in the offensive.
[...]

Bedding including pillows and mattresses were found in the caves in Damadola, in the Bajaur tribal region, suggesting inhabitants had camped out for significant periods.

Behold…the mighty al Qaeda before whom Republicans (and some Democrats) cower, shake with fear, and willingly jettison their rights. Yes…the mighty al Qaeda about whom the Bush administration experienced such apoplexy that they got all mixed-up on intelligence and accidently invaded the wrong country, costing a trillion dollars, sacrificing the lives of thousands of U.S. soldiers, and snuffing the life out of hundreds of thousands of other people.

But it was all well worth it, because now we know the terrorists had pillows and matresses. And, apparently, they enjoyed spelunking, rock carving, and camping trips….

In the biggest WTF moment of the week, the Daily Mail throws out this howler:

Barack Obama should not only try harder to kick his smoking habit, his team of doctors warned, but they also recommended ‘moderation of alcohol intake’.

Nah-uh. They said no such thing. Here is a pdf of the exam summary. And here is what the summary says:

Continue smoking cessation efforts, a daily exercise program, a healthy diet, moderation in alcohol intake, periodic dental care, and remain up-to-date with recommended immunizations.

Continue modified exercise regimen and lower extremity muscle strengthening program, for occasional left patella-femoral pain secondary to chronic tendonitis.

Recommend dietary modification to reduce LDL cholesterol below 130.

A plain English reading of this report shows no recommendation that “Obama try harder to kick his smoking habit.” Indeed, it seems to encourage him to continue doing what he is doing. Likewise, the report does not “recommend ‘moderation of alcohol intake’.” Rather, it suggests he continue his ongoing moderation of alcohol intake.

Who the fuck is this “MAIL FOREIGN SERVICE” that authored this Daily Mail hit piece on Obama? And shouldn’t the Daily Mail be hiring people with English as a first language???

What a bunch of bloody tossers!

This is a idiotic statement:

…on NBC’s “Meet the Press” on Sunday, the House Republican whip, Representative Eric Cantor of Virginia, said: “I’ll tell you one thing: If Speaker Pelosi rams this bill through the House using a reconciliation process, they will lose their majority in Congress in November.”

The public really doesn’t give a damn about whether it passes through reconciliation or not. Rather it is Republican congresscritters who care about such things.

The fact is, the longer health care reform dangles before the public the worse it becomes for the Democrats. If the bill had passed in March of 2009, it would have been strongly favored by Americans. If it had passed last fall, it would have been favored by a slim majority of Americans. Now…not so much.

The Republican stall tactic has worked to their favor. Rep. Pelosi is correct when she points out:

“The point is that we have a responsibility here. The Republicans have had a field day going out there and misrepresenting what is in the bill, but that’s what they do.”

Clearly, with a unified Party of No that seems to lie about the issue without shame, the optimal strategy for the Democrats is to ram the damn thing through as fast and hard as possible, using threats of withdrawn fiscal support from their own weak-kneed or immovably principled caucus members.

And the closer this issue drags on to November, the more it hurts Democrats. So, DO IT. And do it NOW!

The best read of the weekend comes from Nobel laureate, Al Gore:

It would be an enormous relief if the recent attacks on the science of global warming actually indicated that we do not face an unimaginable calamity requiring large-scale, preventive measures to protect human civilization as we know it.
[...]

But what a burden would be lifted! We would no longer have to worry that our grandchildren would one day look back on us as a criminal generation that had selfishly and blithely ignored clear warnings that their fate was in our hands.

…and Unicorns would reveal themselves with the sole aim of bringing universal peace and joy to their human companions.

It may be ugly and unfortunate, but anthropogenic global warming is supported by huge and disparate collections of scientific evidence. Taken together the evidence leads to the inescapable conclusion that humans are changing the distribution of heat in the atmosphere—toward a cooler upper atmosphere and a warmer lower atmosphere. That distribution has consequences.

Denial doesn’t change either the theory, the empirical evidence, the fit between theory and observation, or the predictions for the future. Finding a flaw in a miniscule component of the body of evidence doesn’t change it. Rather, finding and correcting errors is a sign of a healthy and vigorous scientific endeavor.

If deniers want to show that anthropogenic global warming doesn’t exist, they have thousands of individual studies to debunk from the fields of climatology, geology, physics, chemistry, palynology, paleontology, and paleoclimatology.

Young Turks: Rep. Anthony Weiner, “Republicans are owned by the insurance industry.

Onion Radio: Taco Bell’s new ‘Morning After’ Burrito.

Ed with some Gopher state Psychotalk!

Republican highway hypocrisy .

Liberal Viewer: Nobody on FAUX News defends rigt to jury trial.

Jim McDermott: Brutal Interrogations Are Illegal! Right Now!

Young Turks: Gov. Jim Gibbons (R-NV) claims he hasn’t had sex since 1995:

Ann Warren earns a place as Worst Person in the World in Hall of Shame!

Olbermann: Texas.

Jon on CPAC 2010: rage within the machine (via OneGoodMove).

Olbermann debunks Cheney.

Psychotalk with Rep. John Boehner.

Health Care Summit:

• Young Turks wrap up the HC Summit
• Obama hand Rep. Cantor his ass.
• What they’re saying about the summit
• Newsy: Dems rethink health care strategy.
• Mark Fiore: Obama’s Bipartisan Brawlathon!
• Obama on buying insurance over state lines
• Did Bush ever use reconciliation?
• Chuck Todd explains reconciliation isn’t to pass HCR
• Health care bobslead
• Jon on bipartisan healthcare reform (via OneGoodMove).
• Sen Durbin challenges Republicans to give up government health care.
• Red State Update: Health Care Summit.
• CNN fact checks and finds Dems plan will lower premiums on average
• Young Turks: Republican hypocrisy on reconciliation
• O’Donnell sets the record straight on premiums
• Obama closing: Part I:
  
• Obama closing: Part II

Glenn Beck cries crazies his way to Worst Person in the World!

Pap: O’Keefe is a hero of the young conservative movement?

Jon with the campaign to make progressivism liberal (via OneGoodMove).

GOP Credit Offer:

• Marco Rubio and the FLGOP Credit Card Scandal.
• The Florida credit card scandal

Thom Hartmann with the Good, the Bad and the Very Very Ugly.

Young Turks: “Family Values” Republican from Georgia caught having sex with his mother-in-law.

Autotune The News #10.

Young Turks: Wingnut says disabled babies are God’s punishment for abortion!

Thom Hartmann takes on right wing conservative, racist talk show host.

Monica Crowley is Worst Person in the World!

Ferguson with Stephen Fry (via OneGoodMove).

Liberal Viewer: Only Americans are worthy of rights?

Olbermann: Special Comment on “Death Panels” and health care reform.

Ugliness from Another Beauty Contest Starlet:

• Olbermann and Savage: On putting gays to death:
  
• Young Turks: Miss Beverly Hills slams gay people.

Olbermann refutes Dallas Tea Party claim of lack of diversity at MSNBC.

Last week’s Friday Night Multimedia Extravaganza can be found here.

…comes this:

Obama listened politely for six hours, with occasional flashes of temper, but in the end, the message was clear: It’s over. We’re moving forward without Republicans.

So far they have only seen fit to obstruct. Yet, still, Republican have been graciously given a last-minute opportunity to contribute to a serious fiscal and humanitarian issue facing our society.

If they chose the path of child-like obstructionism…fuck ‘em. We’ll do it without ‘em.

To me, this sounds like a man who is no longer capable, without the aid of medical technology, of getting an erection:

Former presidential candidate Fred Thompson suggested Wednesday that Sen. Harry Reid might engage in domestic abuse if he fails to win re-election in November.

In a posting on Twitter, Thompson wrote, “Reid: Jobless men = domestic abuse. Is he saying we should be worried about Mrs. Reid after the November elections?”

Ha, ha, ha. That’s soooooooo funny!

It’s almost as funny as the time Thompson joked about his Trophy Wife. You know, Jeri…the one who is some seven years younger than his son Freddie. What’s next? Jokes about Jeri taking Freddie over her knee and paddling his behind? Ha, ha, ha.

“How ’bout a round of applause” for ol’ Fred?

The honor goes to the PBS Newshour:

Toyota’s Troubles Accelerate with Congressional, Criminal Probes

Now that’s BAD.

(I love it!)