tagged w/ Fascism creep
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The sooner we grasp what the right is up to, the better our chances of saving our national democracy.The sooner we grasp what the right is up to, the better our chances of saving our... more
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The essence of Palinism is emotional, not ideological. Yes, she is of the religious right, even if she winks literally and figuratively at her own daughter’s flagrant disregard of abstinence and marriage. But family-values politics, now more devalued than the dollar by the philandering of ostentatiously Christian Republican politicians, can only take her so far. The real wave she’s riding is a loud, resonant surge of resentment and victimization that’s larger than issues like abortion and gay civil rights.
That resentment is in part about race, of course. When Palin referred to Alaska as “a microcosm of America” during the 2008 campaign, it was in defiance of the statistical reality that her state’s tiny black and Hispanic populations are unrepresentative of her nation. She stood for the “real America,” she insisted, and the identity of the unreal America didn’t have to be stated explicitly for audiences to catch her drift. Her convention speech’s signature line was a deftly coded putdown of her presumably shiftless big-city opponent: “I guess a small-town mayor is sort of like a community organizer, except that you have actual responsibilities.” (Funny how this wisdom has been forgotten by her supporters now that she has abandoned her own actual responsibilities in public office.)The essence of Palinism is emotional, not ideological. Yes, she is of the religious... more
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NYT editorial: Pure Overreach
With a little-noticed order last week, we fear the Supreme Court has set the stage for dismantling the longstanding ban on corporate spending in elections for president and Congress. If those restrictions are overturned, it would be a disaster for democracy.
The justices considered a case this term about an election-year documentary made by opponents of Hillary Clinton. The issue was whether the film could air in the 60 days before an election, a period during which the McCain-Feingold campaign finance law imposes particularly strict limits on election-related communication.
The case would have been easy to resolve on narrow grounds. Instead, the court declared that on Sept. 9 it would hear arguments on whether Austin v. Michigan Chamber of Commerce — an important campaign finance precedent from 1990 — and parts of a more recent case should be overruled.
Austin upheld a law prohibiting corporations from spending their money to elect particular candidates. The Supreme Court rightly pointed out that corporations, as opposed to individuals, benefit from special laws, including tax advantages, that assist them in accumulating large amounts of money. The ban on their spending is needed to prevent the political process from being overwhelmed and corrupted. The Supreme Court has upheld the restriction repeatedly.
The court’s new order is also deeply troubling procedurally. The question of overruling Austin was so much not a part of the Hillary Clinton film case that the parties now have to brief it — submit fully researched arguments to the court — for the first time. This is pure judicial overreach.
The feverish pace is also disturbing. The court has ordered that the arguments take place even before the new term starts. The parties, and interested citizens who want to submit friend-of-the-court briefs, will have only a short time to parse enormously complicated issues.
The most troubling part of the court’s action is the brave new world of politics it could usher in. Auto companies that receive multibillion-dollar bailouts could spend vast sums to re-elect the same officials who hand them the money. If Exxon Mobil or Wal-Mart wants something from a member of Congress, it could threaten to spend as much as it takes to defeat him or her in the next election.
It is a nightmare vision, but based on how the justices have come down in past cases, there may well be five votes for it to prevail.NYT editorial: Pure Overreach
With a little-noticed order last week, we fear the... more
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Judging John YooThe ruling that could actually lead to accountability for torture.
By Ady BarkanPosted Friday, June 19, 2009, at 1:53 PM ET
John Yoo. Click image to expand.John YooIn 2002, Justice Department lawyer John Yoo wrote a memo recommending that Jose Padilla, arrested in Chicago in the wake of 9/11 and held on suspicion of plotting a dirty-bomb attack, be classified as an enemy combatant. Yoo also wrote memos arguing that American law does not prevent the president from ordering such enemy combatants tortured. This January, after enduring years of abuse in prison, Padilla sued Yoo for violating his constitutional rights.
And a week ago, Judge Jeffrey White ruled that Padilla's allegations were plausible enough to justify denying Yoo's motion to dismiss the lawsuit. White was appointed by George W. Bush the year Yoo was writing his memos.
White's decision is the first of its kind: Until now, although other lawsuits have been brought, no government official has faced personal liability for his role in the torture or deaths of detainees.Judging John YooThe ruling that could actually lead to accountability for torture.
By... more
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Israelis see the so-called threat of a nuclear armed Iran quite differently than the that which the right-wing US media would have us all believe.
**Only one in five Israeli Jews believes a nuclear-armed Iran would try to destroy Israel and most see life continuing as normal should the Islamic Republic get the bomb, an opinion poll published on Sunday found.
The survey, commissioned by a Tel Aviv University think-tank, appeared to challenge the argument of successive Israeli governments that Iran must be denied the means to make atomic weapons lest it threaten Israel's existence.
Asked how a nuclear-armed Iran would affect their lives, 80 percent of respondents said they expected no change. Eleven percent said they would consider emigrating and 9 percent said they would consider relocating inside Israel.
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Twenty-one percent of Israelis believe Iran "would attack Israel with nuclear weapons with the objective of destroying it," the Institute for National Security Studies, which commissioned the poll, said in a statement.
The survey had 616 Jewish respondents and a margin of error of 3.5 percent, INSS research director Yehuda Ben Meir said.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, like his predecessors, has hinted that Israel could attack Iran pre-emptively should Western diplomacy fail to curb its uranium enrichment.Israelis see the so-called threat of a nuclear armed Iran quite differently than the... more
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By Scott Horton
The senior United Nations expert on the integrity of legal processes states that beginning next year, Donald Rumsfeld will have difficulties traveling outside of the United States because of his connection to war crimes. The official, Leandro Despouy, drew his conclusions based largely on a review of the recently released report of the Senate Armed Services Committee, which directly connected the mistreatment of prisoners to policy decisions taken by Rumsfeld. Despouy is a well-known Argentine human rights lawyer and diplomat who has served as the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Independence of Judges and Lawyers since 2003.
Despouy also strongly supported the initiative of President Barack Obama to close the detention facility at Guantánamo.
Despouy said the “strong resistance” put forward by the former US administration to current US president Barack Obama’s decision to close the detention centre has nothing to do with the officially cited reason of “national security” considerations. Rather they are fearful that they may be taken to task once the detention centre is closed, said Despouy.
His comments echoed those of another senior U.N. expert, Manfred Nowak, who said that the United States had a formal legal obligation to open a criminal investigation into the use of torture by the Bush Administration and to prosecute those who developed torture policy.By Scott Horton
The senior United Nations expert on the integrity of legal... more
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Religious leaders to lobby Obama for torture inquiry
By Stephen C. Webster
Published: June 8, 2009
Updated 8 hours ago
Eight spiritual leaders from the National Religious Campaign Against Torture, representing some 250 member organizations from around the United States, will demonstrate in front of the White House on Thursday, giving “public witness” to their support of an inquiry on torture.
President Barack Obama has said repeatedly he would like to “look forward,” sidestepping calls from many in his own party to investigate torture of terror war prisoners authorized by the Bush administration.*
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Religious leaders to lobby Obama for torture inquiry... more
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We’ve always understood that, when it comes to giving the state power to protect us, there’s an inevitable tradeoff between security and liberty.
This tradeoff is all the more complicated because the more power we give the government to protect us, the more danger we run of making the government something we will end up needing to be protected from.
That is why, until very recently, the idea that you can’t put people in prison just because you believe they’re dangerous was so obvious it didn’t need to be defended.
It went without saying that to imprison someone at all, let alone indefinitely, you needed to convict them of a crime. Now, apparently, this most basic of American political principles is being tossed out the window in the name of keeping us “safe.”We’ve always understood that, when it comes to giving the state power to protect... more
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The Pentagon is denying the facts: Photographs of Abu Ghraib torture are even more sexually explicit than first reported, including rape and sodomy, writes The Daily Beast's Scott Horton, who has obtained specific and detailed corroboration of the photos.
The Daily Beast has confirmed that the photographs of abuses at Iraq’s Abu Ghraib prison, which President Obama, in a reversal, decided not to release, depict sexually explicit acts, including a uniformed soldier receiving oral sex from a female prisoner, a government contractor engaged in an act of sodomy with a male prisoner and scenes of forced masturbation, forced exhibition, and penetration involving phosphorous sticks and brooms.
These descriptions come on the heels of a British report yesterday about the photographs that contained some of these revelations—and whose credibility was questioned by the Pentagon.The Pentagon is denying the facts: Photographs of Abu Ghraib torture are even more... more
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With the situation in Iraq one of the key problems facing the new US administration, see the most comprehensive, entertaining and award-winning film about private military companies. winner of 4 LEO Film and TV awards, used as research for the movie "Blood Diamond", screened on Capitol Hill and praised by Amnesty International, this unique politically balanced documentary is a must see for anyone who wants to know how the rules of war have changed - without watching propaganda.
With over $100 Billion in annual revenues and 70000 employees in Iraq alone, the private military industry is booming, yet few civilians know anything about it. Shadow Company, a groundbreaking feature-length documentary, takes you deep inside this secret world that is changing the face of modern warfare. What are we really risking by allowing profit-motivated corporations into the business of war?With the situation in Iraq one of the key problems facing the new US administration,... more
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In 2003 while lobbying leaders to put together the Coalition of the Willing, President Bush spoke to France's President Jacques Chirac. Bush wove a story about how the Biblical creatures Gog and Magog were at work in the Middle East and how they must be defeated.
In Genesis and Ezekiel Gog and Magog are forces of the Apocalypse who are prophesied to come out of the north and destroy Israel unless stopped. The Book of Revelation took up the Old Testament prophesy:
"And when the thousand years are expired, Satan shall be loosed out of his prison, And shall go out to deceive the nations which are in the four quarters of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them together to battle and fire came down from God out of heaven, and devoured them."
Bush believed the time had now come for that battle, telling Chirac:
"This confrontation is willed by God, who wants to use this conflict to erase his people's enemies before a New Age begins".
Put up your hand if you view this as 'normal'.In 2003 while lobbying leaders to put together the Coalition of the Willing, President... more
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The 'Black Shirts' of Guantanamo routinely terrorize prisoners, breaking bones, gouging eyes, squeezing testicles, and 'dousing' them with chemicals.
This is not for the faint-hearted. Read it and weep.The 'Black Shirts' of Guantanamo routinely terrorize prisoners, breaking... more
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The Pentagon wants it's internet back.
...the Pentagon has commissioned military contractors to develop a highly classified replica of the Internet of the future. The goal is to simulate what it would take for adversaries to shut down the country’s power stations, telecommunications and aviation systems, or freeze the financial markets — in an effort to build better defenses against such attacks, as well as a new generation of online weapons.The Pentagon wants it's internet back.
...the Pentagon has commissioned... more
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Oh my, Dick is certainly looking more and more like a, well, dick....
CIA AG: no proof harsh techniques stopped terror attacks
WASHINGTON — The CIA inspector general in 2004 found that there was no conclusive proof that waterboarding or other harsh interrogation techniques helped the Bush administration thwart any "specific imminent attacks," according to recently declassified Justice Department memos.Oh my, Dick is certainly looking more and more like a, well, dick....
CIA AG: no... more
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Ex-UN prosecutor: Bush may be next up for International Criminal Court
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An ex-UN prosecutor has said that following the issuance of an arrest warrant for the president of Sudan, former US President George W. Bush could -- and should -- be next on the International Criminal Court's list.
The former prosecutor's assessment was echoed in some respect by United Nations General Assembly chief Miguel d'Escoto Brockmann of Nicaragua, who said America's military occupation of Iraq has caused over a million deaths and should be probed by the United Nations.
"David Crane, an international law professor at Syracuse University, said the principle of law used to issue an arrest warrant for [Sudanese President] Omar al-Bashir could extend to former US President Bush over claims officials from his Administration may have engaged in torture by using coercive interrogation techniques on terror suspects," reported the New Zealand Herald.
The indictment of Bashir was a landmark, said Crane, because it paved a route for the court at The Hague to pursue heads of states engaged in criminality.Ex-UN prosecutor: Bush may be next up for International Criminal Court... more
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As Howard Rubenstein, president of a New York-based public-relations firms that advises hedge funds, private-equity firms and banks, told Bloomberg, “Moore’s reputation is locked in. Whatever he touches gets gored.” But this time around, Moore needs your help to tell “the greatest crime story ever told.”As Howard Rubenstein, president of a New York-based public-relations firms that... more
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For those struggling to make sense of the economic crisis, help is on the way.
Inside the Meltdown is producer Michael Kirk's gripping account of how the country ended up in the worst financial crisis since 1929.
The program airs Tuesday night on PBS and will be watchable online after that.
This preview excerpt tracks the crisis back upstream to a key source -- the government's failure to heed early warnings on the housing bubble, and the havoc that ensued as a result.For those struggling to make sense of the economic crisis, help is on the way.... more
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More and more Democrats in Congress are calling for action that Republicans warn could muzzle right-wing talk radio.
Representative Maurice Hinchey, a Democrat from New York is the latest to say he wants to bring back the "Fairness Doctrine," a federal regulation scrapped in 1987 that would require broadcasters to present opposing views on public issues.
"I think the Fairness Doctrine should be reinstated," Hinchey told CNN Radio. Hinchey says he could make it part of a bill he plans to introduce later this year overhauling radio and t-v ownership laws.More and more Democrats in Congress are calling for action that Republicans warn could... more
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Is this change and can you believe in it?
Secret Crimes
By Scott Horton
Binyam Mohamed is a 30-year-old Ethiopian who was granted political asylum in Britain in 1994. In 2002, he was seized by Pakistani authorities and turned over to American intelligence officials in connection with the Bush Administration’s extraordinary renditions program. He was shuttled between CIA-operated facilities in Afghanistan, Pakistan and Morocco. During this period of American-sponsored detention, according to court papers, Binyam Mohamed was “routinely beaten, suffering broken bones and, on occasion, loss of consciousness. His clothes were cut off with a scalpel and the same scalpel was then used to make incisions on his body, including his penis. A hot stinging liquid was then poured into open wounds on his penis where he had been cut. He was frequently threatened with rape, electrocution, and death.” He is now reported to be close to death in a prison cell in Guantánamo.
Binyam Mohamed’s case came before two different courts in the course of the last week, and in both cases the United States attempted to block his claims by throwing out their argument of last resort: that state secrecy concerns precluded disclosure of any information about what United States officials had done to Binyam Mohamed.Is this change and can you believe in it?
Secret Crimes
By Scott Horton
Binyam... more
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