WaPo Wants Pro-Torture Crowd to Get Away With Murder: Pardon Me While I Vomit Blood, Ma'am?

What is f*cking wrong with these people?

WaPo uses up column-inches on a column on why the US pro-torture crowd really ought to get off scot-free. And it's a real knee-slapper. Well, forehead-slapper, in this case.

Catch this:

"In the end, [stopping additional US torture] may be more important than punishing those who acted wrongly in pursuit of what they thought was right."

Oh. So all is forgiven if the torturers' hearts were in the right place?

Final Solution much, ma'am?

Pol Pot killing fields excusable since motivated merely by misguided childhood dweams of agwawian utopia?

(Slaps forehead. Hurts self. Groans.)

Hey lady, torturers' hearts are always in the right place, had you not noticed?

People are always doing really shitty things for the very best of reasons. That's why we have the rule of law.

Or used to. Till the feckless, reckless, out of control Bushist fascists came along, fueled by hubris and contempt for the rule of law. Oh, and you know, by a sharp streak of sadism .

But hey. That was then, this is now. Marcus [e.g. the establishment] wants these guys [Rummy, Cheney, Gen. Geoffrey Miller, etc.] to get away with it.

Well, I don't. How about you?

-----

Oh, and don't miss:
How Do I F*ck My Base? at Jesus' General.
Mike Flugennock
Obama's Divisive Choice of Rick Warren
The Daily Howler
In Which VastLeft Apologizes For Being Prematurely Correct

A Toast to Random Parenthood

Mr and Mrs. Duggar welcome their 18th random child to the universe.

Reminds me of . . .

Groucho Marx was interviewing a woman who had 18 children.

Groucho said, 'That's a big responsibility. Why so many children?'

The woman replied, 'Well, I just love my husband.'

Said, Groucho: 'Well, I love my cigar, but I take it out of my mouth every once in a while.'

Hey, it's not as if there were lots and lots of unwanted, abused, and neglected kids already out there, is there?

Nothing to It But to Do It

Gates orders Pentagon to draw up plan to shut down Gitmo.

How hard was that, really?

CIA's Tenet : Sleeping Pill PLUS Booze? Sounds a little suicidal gesture-y to me.

Or a little bad-conscience-y, how can I numb out this nightmare-y.

George Tenet: Drunk as a skunk in Bandar's pool, railing against the neocon cabal..

According to a story on TheAtlantic.com, journalist Patrick Tyler’s forthcoming book, A World of Trouble, includes a scene where Tenet is drinking copious amounts of scotch in the pool of a Saudi prince. Drunk and on sleeping pills, Tenet allegedly proceeds to rave about the Bush administrations attempts to pin Iraq’s missing weapons of mass destruction on him.

The December 16 story includes two passages from Tyler’s book.

A servant appeared with a bottle. Tenet knocked back some of the scotch. Then some more. They watched with concern. He drained half the bottle in a few minutes.

“They’re setting me up. The bastards are setting me up,” Tenet said, but “I am not going to take the hit.”

No wonder Bubble Boy had to give Tenet the Medal of Freedom.

Iraq Shoe-Tosser Was a US Torture Victim, Brother Asserts

Well, really what a fucking surprise.

One must congratulate the shoe-tossing torture survivor for his forbearance, must one not?

Cheney: The Leader of the (pro-torture) Pack

What, you mean Vice-President "Dick" Cheney?


One is shocked! Shocked!

Throwing Shoes at Bush

Throwing shoes at someone in Iraqi culture is like spitting in someone's face in our culture, a sign of utter contempt.

Throwing of the shoes at Bush's head in particular compounds the insult.

As does calling Bush a "dog."

A contempt trifecta for our departing Preznit Toad-Exploder.

Global Kiddy Porn Ring Busted

These people are scary, and very well networked, very slick, very aggressive.

They like to go after therapists working with their victims. They like to threaten child protection agencies. They are very hard to mess with.

I am glad to hear that one ring has been taken down. Kudos to Mukasey, et al.

" U.S. law enforcement agencies have arrested 61 people and rescued 11 children as part of the larger takedown of a far-reaching global child pornography ring, Attorney General Michael Mukasey announced Friday.

Mukasey said the international law enforcement effort started after a "horrible" discovery in 2006: Australian authorities discovered a child abuse video depicting a father who had been "sexually abusing his young daughters and producing images of that abuse."

The video had been widely distributed online in closed Internet forums and servers that authorities discovered.

Authorities arrested the father, identified only as a Belgian national, about a month after the discovery of the video.

The man allegedly had large amounts of child pornography in his possession, and had allegedly enlisted the services of an Italian photographer whom officials said documented the sexual abuse and added the documentation to as many as seven Web sites.

And Now For Something Completely Different More or Less

The Italian Job: Parmesan For the Needy.

KFC Workers In Hot Water After Sink Baths

UK Caused Cholera, Says Zimbabwe

Signed Article Exposes Autocratic Nature of Dalai Clique's Theocracy

Well, someone's sure got a bee in his or her Communist Chinese bonnet!

But all they need is --- mindfulness?

Why I Love VastLeft

Because he's a guy who really understands rivalgasms.

I Just Had a Rivalgasm. Was it good for you, too?

"Every time Obama takes even more counsel from wingnuts, don't you feel the earth move in the scintillating "Team of Rivals" way that's got the Village all a-twitter?

Ooh, ahhh, just a little more to the right. OOOOOHHHH! YES! YES! YES!"

Riding the (Cotton) Unity Pony (Periodically)

Yo, sweeties. What's wrong with these pictures?

Nothing! So--don't get your panties in a twist like ho's who bitch about a guy calling a girly-dog a girly-dog.

Just STFU.

It's all kewl!! We're so POST-sexism! It's just a cardboard cut-out! Re-lax!! Chill! Sniggering frat-boy sexism is so who cares? Feeling up a cardboard titty iz just high-spirited blogger-type boyz having boyz-y fun! RE-lax!


Sexism is like bad weather -- and rape. As long as it's inevitable, why not lie back and enjoy it??



No Laughing Matter.
Favreau

Sillly, Sexist, Stupid WaPo Column on Caroline Kennedy

Why do these people still have jobs?

Obscure Bloggers Stick Bamboo Slivers Under Brennan's Fingernails, Force Him Out, Boo Hoo

See, it used to be all Bill Clinton's fault.

Then it was all Hillary Clinton's fault.

Now it's pussified anti-Brennan-y leftwingy obscure bloggerses' fault.

Got that?

Silly obscure bloggerses get lacey panties in a twist about, um, you know, justa little teeny tiny bitta torture? Why are they such pussies? Why won't they get over it? Why they make such beeg steenk about nada? Why have obscure bloggerses no cojones? Why? Why? Why?

Who are they waiting for? Valerie Plame?

Sheesh!

.

Glenn Greenwald.

Vastleft's "The Perfect Is the Enemy of the Good."


----
John O. Brennan

Apple Pie, Motherhood & Worker Exploitation

Yep, it's the The American Way.

Hat-tip to democommie.

McCain Acts As If He Won the Election. Oh but he didn't, did he?

Yikes.

McCain warns Pakistan of India strikes.

But the Lashkar-e-Taiba connection, referred to long ago at NBFH, persists.

Oh, and why is this story not getting play in the US?

Just wondering.

Stupid New York Times Blog Treats Torture as Panties-in-a-Twist Lefty Trivia

God help me.

"The torture issue is particularly volatile for some supporters of President-elect Barack Obama . . ."

[coughchokecough]

Please pass the bamboo slivers. Then we'll talk about volatility, k?

Can't Tell Shi'a From Shinola? Who Cares? Throw Them In Jail Just In Case!!

First there was Bush's pre-emptive war.

Now, we have pre-emptive detention!!

On a scorching morning earlier this year, Talib Mohammed Farkhan, who had been imprisoned for 15 months, shuffled into Hearing Room 3 to hear his U.S. captors explain the allegations against him for the first time.

Farkhan, a Shiite Muslim, appeared to follow along as the American officers said he had been detained for membership in the Mahdi Army, the anti-American Shiite militia. But he looked totally baffled when they also accused him of working with al-Qaeda in Iraq, the extremist Sunni Muslim group that kills Americans and Shiites.

"I don't understand how that could be possible," said a visibly flustered Farkhan, a welder from the southern city of Iskandariyah, who denied all the accusations. "They are Sunni. I am Shia."

Yet the three U.S. servicemen before him, a panel of non-lawyers convened as part of a new quasi-judicial process to review each detainee's case every six months, did not need to decide whether Farkhan had violated the law. Their task was to decide whether he posed an "imperative security threat" to the U.S.-led coalition or the Iraqi people. And they concluded that credible evidence, which they would not describe to Farkhan or a Washington Post correspondent allowed to view the 19-minute hearing, suggested that he probably did.

"I'm not looking at whether they are guilty or innocent," said Air Force Maj. Jeff Ghiglieri, the president of the review board that convened in May. "We're trying to determine as best we can whether they will do bad things if we release them."

Yo! It's Hard Out There for a-- for an RNC- Pimped Sex Object

Well, sometimes it is.

Scrawls on the Girls' Bathroom Stall-Walls

Hard not to just roll one's eyes and rub it out.

Alessandra Stanley

Elizabeth Bumiller

Okay, boys and girls: NBFH has to go to work.

Let's see who's been paying attention!

Read these two articles and explain why NBFH has her panties in a twist?


------
(Somerby: same twist, different day.)

India On Alert Against Further Attacks

From the Sydney Morning Herald:

Airports in India threatened.

THE main Indian airports were on high alert last night after intelligence warnings that India may be the target of a fresh airborne terrorist attack following the assault on Mumbai last week.

India's Bureau of Civil Aviation issued hijack warnings for Delhi, Bangalore and Chennai airports and deployed hundreds of extra airport security personnel.

The Indian Air Force chief, Fali Homi Major, confirmed the threat of a possible airborne attack. "This is based on a warning, which has been received and we are prepared as usual," he told the Press Trust of India news agency. . .

Times of India:

Intel Sources Say Pakistan Military Involved in Terror Attack, Not Civilian Government

The names of trainers and the places where meticulous training took place are also known to the government, the sources said.

The United States is believed to have even more evidence, some of which it has shared with India, they said.

Chairman of US Joint Chiefs of Staff Admiral Mike Mullen, who was in Pakistan on Wednesday, is believed to have told his Pakistani interlocutors that Washington had enough evidence to show a Pakistani hand in the attack, the sources said.. .

Plus, blast from past: NBFH hearts Bob Gates cuz Sy Hersh sez BG's a Pak/Ind nuke-war averter.

Sympathy for the -- Roman Polanski

Ok, so Roman Polanski drugged and raped a 13 year old child. Sodomized her, too, actually.

It was a long time ago.

He wasn't even facing time for rape. He got the charges reduced to "unlawful sex with a minor." (Pfft!?!)

He didn't show up for sentencing.

He left the country.

Now he wants the charges dismissed.

US Couple Kidnaps, Tortures Teen

Well, at least they're not the kid's own parents.

Plus --SHE's a Girl Scout leader!!

"A husband and wife have been charged with torture after a bruised, terrified 17-year-old showed up at a gym with a chain locked to his ankle, claiming he had just fled his captors, US authorities said Tuesday.

Kelly Layne Lau, 30, and Michael Schumacher, 34, were arrested late Monday, said Matt Robinson, a spokesman for police in Tracy, 60 miles east of San Francisco.

They had been taken into custody for questioning earlier in the day at their home in Tracy, where the emaciated boy was allegedly held against his will. A search of the home turned up evidence implicating the couple, Robinson said.

They were charged with torture, kidnapping and child abuse, and were set to appear in court Thursday, officials said. Bail was set at $1.2 million for Michael Schumacher but his wife's bail had not been set, authorities said.

Police said they were searching for a third suspect but wouldn't give details.

The boy turned up half-naked Monday at the In-Shape Sports Club, near the couple's home. It's not clear how he ended up in Tracy; authorities said he ran away last year from a foster home in Sacramento, about 70 miles to the north.

Robinson said the boy was confused when approached by detectives Monday, unsure where he had come from and how long he had been held against his will. He was taken to a hospital.

"The wounds he had and his physical condition as well as having a chain around his leg corroborated his basic statement that he was being held against his will," Robinson said.

Chuck Ellis, a manager of the In-Shape Sports Club, said the boy came into the fitness centre Monday afternoon wearing only boxer briefs, covered with what appeared to be soot. Ellis says the teen was scared someone was going to come after him and asked to be hidden.

'He said 'Don't let them get me, don't let them get me,'" Ellis said. 'He was totally terrified.'"

----

Oh, and for all you rabid fans of random parenthood, don't miss: TEEN MOM SMOTHERS INFANT SON WITH TEDDY BEAR.

(More suitable subjects for tonglen, it would seem.)

Hillary Clinton Named To State: Quick, Cue MediaWhoreMedia to Ramp Up CDS Spin: rivalry, power, control, oh, my!

From the Sydney Morning Herald, Clinton Stars in Obama Team,

December 3, 2008

"THERE is something about Hillary Clinton. She is not very tall, she is a conservative dresser, but when she enters a room she fills the space, even when she shares it with the president-elect.

On Monday, when Barack Obama and his choice as vice-president, Joe Biden, stood before eight American flags crowned with gilded eagles and revealed the names of the six top members of his national security team, it was the petite woman in the inky navy pantsuit who was the centre of attention. [will they ever stop talking about her clothes?]

No matter that on one side stood the first African-American attorney-general of the US, Eric Holder, and the long-standing Bush Administration official Robert Gates, who has agreed to stay on to end the Iraq war he has been running for two years.

Or that on the other side she was dwarfed by Jim Jones, a former supreme allied commander of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation, a physically imposing former marine who makes Mr Obama look puny. . .

Mr Obama said he preferred to have strong-minded people with strong opinions around him.

He chided the media, saying the far bigger risk in the White House was the tendency towards "group think"."

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