Wordle
Posted by Kevin


Mindless fun. This one of my blog posts turned into a work of art. Click on the picture for the larger view.

Via Justine Larbalestier

June 19th, 2008 | General, Writing | 3 comments

Democrats Cave on Telcom Immunity
Posted by Kevin

The government can now outsource abuse, becasue now its is a bedrock principle of our political class that no one who violates your rights can be held to account for that if the President asked them to violate your rights. If the President tells a company it’s legal, it’s legal.

The reports say that conservative Democrats pushed for this. If that’s true, and I have reason to doubt it, it has now become a staple of the conservative movement that the President and his helpers are above the law and that the 4th Amendment is not actually a sacred right.

Why the hell should I vote in November?

June 19th, 2008 | General | 10 comments

General In Charge of Torture Investigation Accuses Bush WH of War Crimes
Posted by Kevin

Must be a kooky, DFH:

The new report, he writes, “tells the largely untold human story of what happened to detainees in our custody when the Commander-in-Chief and those under him authorized a systematic regime of torture. This story is not only written in words: It is scrawled for the rest of these individual’s lives on their bodies and minds. Our national honor is stained by the indignity and inhumane treatment these men received from their captors.

“The profiles of these eleven former detainees, none of whom were ever charged with a crime or told why they were detained, are tragic and brutal rebuttals to those who claim that torture is ever justified. Through the experiences of these men in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Guantanamo Bay, we can see the full-scope of the damage this illegal and unsound policy has inflicted –both on America’s institutions and our nation’s founding values, which the military, intelligence services, and our justice system are duty-bound to defend.

“In order for these individuals to suffer the wanton cruelty to which they were subjected, a government policy was promulgated to the field whereby the Geneva Conventions and the Uniform Code of Military Justice were disregarded. The UN Convention Against Torture was indiscriminately ignored. . . .

“After years of disclosures by government investigations, media accounts, and reports from human rights organizations, there is no longer any doubt as to whether the current administration has committed war crimes. The only question that remains to be answered is whether those who ordered the use of torture will be held to account.”

War crimes are war crimes, and torture is torture and equally bad whether it is practiced by Pinochet’s goons or under the order of a US President. We have to stop making excuses like “well, they aren’t as bad as Pinochet!”. That may be true, but it is also irrelevant. Once you make torture, once you make unlimited, unchecked detention part of your normal procedure you have crossed the line into abuse. And you cannot limit abuse once you have crossed that line, as our own experience in Gitmo and Iraq have shown. These people should be pariahs and we have to start treating them like such if we are ever going to prevent these things from happening again.

June 19th, 2008 | General | 13 comments