Right-Wing Spin: OBL Death Proves Torture Works!

But of course they would say that, would they not?

Torture at Gitmo leads to OBL Death down the line.

Smearing Elena Kagan: Grey Lady Smear-Sandwich Edition

I read the NYT this AM and realized that I was actually reading the National Enquirer.

No, really.

On the front page, to which I shall not link, is a charming piece smearing Kagan with the "A" word -- gentle readers, you must know what that one is, the thing that uppity women must not be -- (whispers) ambitiouss -- ooooooooooooo so scarey --- and on the inside back page, NYT features comments on Kagan's views of executive powers as parsed by --- insert drum roll here --- pro-torturer-in-chief John Yoo.

Oh, my. Who thought that one up? The Heathers? ("Hey, whatcha say we ask John Yoo what he thinks about Kagan's views on executive power?" [Crowd chortles, all dig elbows into one another's ribs.] "Hyuk, hyuk!" "Do it! Do it!")

Really I do get sick of this sh*t.

But -- why am I so alone?

So lucky that early adopter Goldman-Sachs-slayer Obama Afghanistan-surge non-supporter public optionist Martha Coakley didn't win over uber-charmer Scott Brown, isn't it?

Brown? Coakley? [Insert The Big Shrug.]

It really doesn't make any difference, does it? It's all hopeless, so who cares?

And then we have a wonderful blogger to whom I shall not link who's very generally wonderful save for relatively rare spasms of bad madness who's spending his precious time on earth helpfully calling Hillary Clinton a war criminal.


Jeez, people.

Wake the f*ck up.

Progressive Dem Coakley versus waterboarding enthusiast Brown

Pro-torture candidate for Senate in MA, Scott Brown, is rising in the polls against progressive Dem Martha Coakley. You'd think a Republican would be easy to beat in MA, but apparently the teabaggers are all riled up about beating Coakley.

Brown on waterboarding:

Brown . . .took a hard line against the coming terrorism trials in New York City, lambasting Attorney General Eric Holder by saying, "It's time we stopped acting like lawyers and started acting like patriots." He also defended the use of waterboarding, disagreeing with Sen. John McCain (who endorsed him recently): "I do not believe it is torture.

Here's a link John Cole of Balloon Juice put up at ActBlue, for fundraising.

If you can't donate, and you think it's important that MA's senator be anti-torture, write a letter, blog a blog, if you can.

Torture Is as Torture Does (CIA version)

Manacled to the ceiling?

Well, and why not?
They were, like, Teh Enemy! Once they're dubbed Teh Enemy, you get to do anything you want, do you not?

CIA Torture Program Used Classic Torture Skill-Set

CIA torture program: classic bait and switch?

Nah. Classic inflict and revive.

According to human rights lawyer John Sifton, the CIA tortured some of its detainees in the War on Terror so severely that it had to take measures to keep them alive so they could continue being tortured.

Sifton, who is the executive director of One World Research, told an interviewer for Russia Today that there was both a CIA detention program and a military detention program and that "The CIA program was by far the most secretive. ... That's the one that only had a few dozen detainees at any given time -- but it's the one that saw the biggest abuses, the most serious forms of torture."

"In the military, there was actually a larger number of deaths than with the CIA," Sifton continued. "The CIA engaged in some horrendous abuses, but they appear to have taken precautions to have actually prevented people from dying -- which might sound humanitarian, but in fact was kind of sickening."

"Kind of" sickening?

See, the whole point of torture is to create experiences of suffering that are so horrendous that it makes your torturees wish they were dead. And then -- you just don't let them die. Because that would end the torture. So you just keep on doing it. And your torturees keep on wishing they were dead. And if you don't watch out, they'll go ahead and kill themselves. Or, if they're lucky, you'll slip up in your attempts to keep torturing them, and they'll die on you, the swine. And then the torturees win.


It's all so very medieval, is it not?

4 year old in criticl condition: 5 adults charged with felony child abuse

Hattiesburg, Mississippi

Nothing to see here; move along.

Neighbors who lived near the home where five adults were arrested for abusing a 4-year-old boy described a horrific scene on Friday - detailing the insides of the Hattiesburg home where the abuse took place.

They told of a vacant home with blood stains, a dog cage that may have been used to confine the child and rooms cluttered with trash and debris surrounded by graffiti-covered walls.

"There's stacks and stacks of clothes and little mats on the floor. It has the smell of feces," said the landlord, who didn't want his name publicized, of the home at 215 N. 25th Ave.

Among the suspects charged with one felony count of child abuse are: Sue Miller, 53; Nancy Miller, 34; Patricia Aguilar, 30; Francys Albertson, 20; and Christopher Lee, 37, all of Hattiesburg.

The landlord, who lives near the house, said all five suspects lived in the home, but only Sue Miller and her daughter, Nancy Miller, and Albertson were listed on the lease of the home, he said.

The suspects were arrested Tuesday after police received an anonymous tip from someone concerned about the welfare of the child inside the residence. Police said the child was in Sue Miller's care.

The 4-year-old boy was one of 10 children taken from the home by Forrest County Department of Human Services officials, police spokesman Synarus Green said. Green said investigators have not determined the relationship between the other nine children and the adults arrested.

The 4-year-old remains in critical condition at a Jackson hospital, police said.

The other nine children are in the custody of the Department of Human Services.

"The child's body was covered with new and old bruises, marks, cuts and abrasions," Green said in a prepared statement. "A lot of them were old injuries. He didn't receive them in one day," he said.

Investigators don't know how long the abuse had been going on, Green said.

A preliminary medical exam showed that the child had cuts on his head and body, broken teeth with damaged gums and internal abdominal injuries caused by blunt-force trauma. . . ."

But really, let's concentrate on the innocent unborn, not the guilty post-born. Oh, and really, let's save them widdle snowfwakes, mm-'kay?

Dept. of Kids So Need Mommies and/or Daddies

Because no one could have predicted Mommy would lock her son in a closet for four and a half years.

OKLAHOMA CITY – A woman was arrested after her 14-year-son told authorities he escaped from a home where he'd been kept for 4 1/2 years, spending most of his time locked in a bedroom closet, police said Monday.

A security guard at a National Guard facility in Oklahoma City called police on Friday after the teen showed up malnourished and with numerous scars and other signs of abuse, police Sgt. Gary Knight said.

"He was hungry. He was dirty. He had numerous scars on his body," Knight said. "It was very sad."

The boy was taken to a hospital to be examined and then turned over to the custody of the Department of Human Services, Knight said.

After police interviews, officers on Saturday arrested the boy's mother, 37-year-old LaRhonda Marie McCall, and a friend, 38-year-old Steve Vern Hamilton, on 20 complaints each of child abuse and child neglect. Formal charges have not been filed, and both were being held on $400,000 bond, according to jail records.

Jail officials were not sure if either had retained an attorney, and no one answered the phone at McCall's home.

The teen, wearing only a pair of oversized shorts held up by a belt, walked up to a security guard at the Guard facility around 5 p.m. Friday and asked where a police station was located so he could report being abused, according to a police report.

He told police that scars on his stomach and torso were from where alcohol had been poured on him and set on fire. Other scars were from being tied up, hit with an extension cord and choked, the boy told police.

"He had scars covering most of his body," Knight said. "They were basically from head to foot."

The teen told police he moved to the Oklahoma City area from New Jersey about 4 1/2 years ago after his mother was released from jail. Since arriving in Oklahoma, he said, he had never been to school and spent most of his time locked in a bedroom closet.

Bloggers Call Out WaPo for Pro-Sadist Pro-Cheney Propaganda

Washington Post: Official Stenographer for the Pro-Torture Crowd

News for Fetal Sentimentalists: Mom's BF Tortures Five Year Old in Dryer (Among Other Things)

One is working long hours at the trauma industry factory, and is hard-pressed to blog thoughtfully and depth-fully these days. So if one has any blogging time at all, a sure-fire hit is to Google "child abuse" and "news" because there are always lots and lots of grownups torturing the postborn!

I heard this story last night on the local news. And the funny thing was -- when I Googled "child abuse" and "news" this morning, the story didn't come up. Nor when I Googled "child abuse" and "news" and "New Hampshire."

It finally came up when I Googled "New Hampshire" and "dryer."

Manchester – A man is accused of choking and punching his girlfriend’s 5-year-old daughter and putting her in a clothes dryer . . . In court, police prosecutor Lt. Robert Cunha sought to maintain the high bail set following Zawadzki’s arrest, saying the photos of the child’s injuries showed “an egregious assault on a 5-year-old girl."

The affidavit supporting Zawadzki’s arrest said the child’s mother had left her in the care of her boyfriend Monday night and the boyfriend’s explanation for the child’s injuries were that he had to slap her for being fresh and that the child had fallen in the shower when reaching for a shampoo bottle.

According to the affidavit, police spoke with the child after her mother reported the assault yesterday. The girl said Zawadzki became angry with her and choked her with his hands around her neck, lifting her from the floor as he did so. She said he hit her in the face and head and punched her in the legs before putting her in the clothes dryer and spinning the tub with his hands.

In court today, Cunha said the physician who examined the child said the injuries were the worst she’d seen. Police described the injuries as bruising to the child’s face, shoulder, legs, buttocks and vaginal area, as well as a swollen upper lip.

But still, let's save our compassion for the preborn, shall we? Because, you know, there's never enough compassion to go around.

Waterboarding Without Permission

Sure we tortured in 2002 well before we cooked up some lame excuse to justify doing it.

Whut's yer frickin' problem, pussies?

Via BBC interview: former CIA Agent John Kirakou pinpoints use of torture as early as the end of May/beginning of June 2002, well before the notorious Bybee memo.

Blast from Past. Deja Vu All Over Again, Again, Again

On Bush and the Agony of Mirror Neuron Retardation.

Real Torture Yields Fake Facts

Force-Feeding at Gitmo.

Preznit Toad-Exploder Spreads His Culture of Sadism

Torturz "R" U.S.

While We Weep Over Frozen Feti, Real Cruelty Marches On

America the beautiful.

More of the Same

Sounds like Sarah Palin and her gang of Pro-Life Killas, but -- it's not. No caribou were harmed. Not like in that picture, anyhow. That one was harmed. You know, as in, like, killed. Not living anymore. Deaded. Deprived of life. Anyhow.

It's just as bad, but different.

It's someone else hurting animals and children.

Because why not?

Teen Charged With Cat Mutilation

Cruelty to animals -- not a happy symptom.

Dad "Disciplines" Son to Death -- on Father's Day.

No, I'm not making this up. I don't have to. I never have to.

Father beats seven-year-old son to death.,

Heard about the "discipline" part on the news last night, don't have a link yet.

A Fly on the Wall at Gitmo: An Antidote for Compassion Fatigue

Here's an opportunity to do the right thing: via RobinElliot at Kos, via Major Barry Wingard, a Gitmo detainee's lawyer.

Let’s recap: Some guy made a couple of afghanis by selling Fayiz to our guys so that the thug-infested Bush administration could justify their fraudulent little war and all its torture-y perks.

And what did Fayiz get? This:

While in U.S. custody in Kabul in December 2001, Al-Kandari was shackled in various stress positions for as long as 36 hours at a time. He was beaten with a chain and water hose. Photographs documenting his condition have not been released.
In early 2002, Al-Kandari was transferred to Bagram and held in a roofed tent with no sides where overnight temperatures typically reached below freezing. Photographs again documented his condition, but they have never been released. [...] He was transferred to Kandahar in early 2002, ... [where] his entire body was shaved (except for a cross on his chest, which was later shaved off) and he was initially kept awake in solitary confinement for five straight days. The abuse continued and resulted in broken ribs and severe bruising documented by medical exams performed months later.
Before being placed on the plane out of Kandahar, his sound-proof headgear was lifted and a female voice whispered, "You are going to hell in GTMO." At the time, he was also drugged, sandbagged, and placed into a head harness for the 24 hour trip.
At Guantanamo, he was again shackled into stress positions for extended periods of time. He was also urinated on and subjected to sleep deprivation, strobe lights, ear piercing music, cell extractions, and extreme heat and cold conditions in his cell via temperature controls. All told, Al-Kandari has been interrogated approximately 400 times and abused throughout the time he was in U.S. custody.

Wait, sidebar: I smell a reason for releasing those pesky torture photos everyone's talking about... evidence. Sidebar over.

So... all that torture must have worked, right? I mean, who could withstand that kind of abuse and not spill what’s left of their guts, because, you know, "some" say torture works and-- What’s that? Sorry, something’s coming through my imaginary earpiece:

A Department of Defense legal review of Al-Kandari’s case found the evidence against him "is made up almost entirely of hearsay evidence recorded by unidentified individuals with no first hand knowledge of the events they describe."
Oh.
In short, the U.S. learned nothing of value from its abusive treatment of Al-Kandari and in all likelihood exculpatory materials confirming Al-Kandari’s whereabouts and accounts of abuse will be classified and withheld from public view.
Oh.

So what options are available to Fayiz and those like him? Not many. It all boils down to those infamous military commissions, Wingard's skills, and a judge who will believe Fayiz's testimony, because with the word "classified" popping up everywhere, that's all detainees like him have.

Sidebar #2: Per Barry Wingard, "the military is not behind the commissions." Sidebar #2 over.

However, Major Wingard did share one silver lining with me: He could get a sympathetic judge. Maybe. If he's lucky. But—and there’s always a pesky but-- delays and more delays are kicking that silver-lined opportunity down the road, and Fayiz is still in prison.

But at least he has one hell of a caring, persistent, ethical lawyer.

Vice-President Cheney insists that enhanced interrogations were only used on "hardened terrorists" after other efforts failed, that such efforts prevented the deaths of thousands, and that the U.S. never lost its moral bearings in its treatment of detainees. Al-Kandari is living proof he is wrong on all counts.

Obama, Unafraid of Offending His Buddhist Constituents, Kills Fly, Is Pleased With Self, Accrues Karma

It's part of the Pussy Frame, is it not? Why would one have compassion for, you know, a fly?

Compassion is just soo pussy!

WTF? Don't getcha panties in a twist, eh?

It's trivial! Haha.

And, who cares if it, you know, technically, that one act creates a perfect karma: intending the action, completing the action, and being satisfied with the result. One action. We have so many. Big f*cking deal.

Kill fly? Meh!

Merely to think that would be so -- well, so weak, so pussy!

Besides the Pussy Frame, there is another all-important frame, the Fly Frame.

Which is what makes it possible to torture sentient beings. Including human ones.

We've seen it at Abu Ghraib, at Gitmo, everywhere. Once you declare someone to be the "enemy" and then dehumanize them, insectize them -- then you can talk yourself into doing whatever the f*ck you want to them, can you not?

Ragheads. They ain't yoooo-man!

If they're no better than insects, who gives a flying f*ck?

Mirror Neuron Retardation Syndrome.

A pandemic.

Darth Cheney: Suddenly Scared About Karma, Cause & Effect

So morally bankrupt torture enthusiast and mirror neuron retard Big Dick Cheney's scared about going to jail?

So he should be.

Mancow Waterboard

People who do not suffer from Mirror Neuron Retardation Syndrome don't have to BE waterboarded like this guy had to, in order to realize that waterboarding is torture.

Is it "torture"?

Watch conservative Radio host Mancow attain sudden and complete enlightenment.




Waterboard Cheney. Waterboard Rummy. Waterboard Rush, Bush. Waterboard Geoffrey Miller. Waterboard the whole entire pro-torture crowd. Then we'll talk.

Al-Gonzo Okays Torture Prior to Torture Memo Saying Torture Is Okay

Maybe Alberto needs to get all lawyered up?