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

Maybe Alberto needs to get all lawyered up?

GOP Cons End "Era of Apology" -- Without Even Apologizing

Michael Steele Hails End of "Era of Apologizing."

You have to give them points for creating their own reality. As in unilaterally ending an era it just unilaterally created.

But then you have to take all them points away for their destroying our reality.

I just wish they would shut up and slink off. Really, I do.

Oh Lookee -- Sadists4Christ Have Been Running an UnConstitutional Theocracy All This Time!!

Yes, Virginia, there IS a Separation of Church and State. Well, sorta. But, you know, sometimes there just isn't, and so we have to do stuff we don't really wanna do. Like not having a separation of church and state. And like torturing people. We know it's wrong, but we do it anyway, because we had to. I mean, we had to.

Like Rummy had no choice when he blatantly shamelessly resorting to using specifically Christian battle themes and quotes as Bible propaganda to propagandize his message to the troops.

Sure, it's illegal. And unconstitutional. But God told him to do it? Well, I don't know what God did, reallly. I dunno. Does Rummy think that God's been updating His communication stream? Why separate church and statet when you can update church as state. It makes a brave new world, don'tcha get it? Next thing you know, Christ won't get tortured and die on the cross, He'll get tortured and then waterboarded to death. (Then we'll all be forced to wear little golden waterboards around our necks. . . ?)

Anyhow. Wow. This blatant bible stuff is real disturbing. I mean, sure looks like Rummy's got issues.

Hands up, boys and girls, if you think that little Donny Rumsfeld got the living crap beaten out of him on a regular basis by a big powerful omniscient omnipotent Daddy, one who told little Donny that it was all his fault that Daddy (or maybe Mommy) had to make little Donny pay for his misdeeds with pain?


---hat-tip to Revpaperboy at The Woodshed.

Suffer the Little Children to Come Unto . . .

Department of "No, we can't care for the children we already have, so let's browbeat women into having more and more little unwanted children regardless of ability properly to care for them, and if guilt-tripping women doesn't work, there's always the laws of government-forced maternity which protect a rapist's right to breed, because really, so what?"

VICTORVILLE, Calif.—Investigators say the parents of a 2-month-old boy have been jailed for child abuse after the infant was hospitalized in Victorville with broken legs, wrists and ribs.

Yvette Barragon took the infant to St. Mary Medical Center with a swollen leg earlier this month, saying her toddler pulled too hard on the infant's leg.

Further examination determined the infant had a two broken femurs, two fractured wrists, a break in his lower leg and four broken ribs.

San Bernardino County sheriff's spokeswoman Karen Hunt says the 23-year-old mother and the child's father 29-year-old Gilbert Scott were arrested and booked for investigation of willful harm to a child.

But wait! There's more!.

A 28-year-old San Mateo man pleaded not guilty Tuesday to beating his 7-year-old son for getting two minuses on his report card, a prosecutor said.

Solomona Tafao allegedly struck the child with a belt 10 times, punched him in the shoulder and kicked him multiple times, said San Mateo County Chief Deputy District Attorney Steve Wagstaffe. Tafao is scheduled to go to trial June 29.

During an earlier attack, prosecutors say Tafao hit the boy in the head for speaking disrespectfully to his grandmother. The child's head then struck the corner of the kitchen table, Wagstaffe said.

So Daddy hits his son in the head for "speaking disrespectfully" to Grammy? Is that where Daddy got his awesome parenting skills from? Or did they just spontaneous arise? Will Little Johnny be recruited for for the CIA/Gitmo Future Torturers of America?

The theme: people who love you get to hit you and hurt you.


Link here.

Media Whore Media to Elizabeth Edwards: Shut Up, B*tch

Yes, it's all her fault. It is all the fault of Elizabeth Edwards. What did she hope to gain from writing this book, the bitch? I hear there's a back-lash building against her!

No need to be ashamed to join the media whore media blame the victim-fest; it's all the rage, see more via VastLeft at Corrente. Click through to blame.

My personal fave remains the still-employed the incomparably superficial and nasty MoDo of the New York Times, who penned a breathtakingly sleazy anti-Elizabeth Edwards column, excoriating Elizabeth for (ooh!) writing a book (ooh! do they let girls DO that?) that has the unladylike gall to mention (ooh! uppity!) her husband's affair (ooh! shut UP, bitch!):

[she] has dragged him back into the public square for a flogging

.

Boundary issues much, MoDo?

Scores Tortured to Death or Murdered in US Custody: Pro-"Life," Pro-Torture Crowd Revels in Moral Bankrupcty

What is wrong with these people?

Oh. Right. I remember now. They have no mirror neurons.

So much for the noble rules of war and the rule of law.

[T]he May 10, 2005, Bush Administration torture memo by Stephen Bradbury notes that doctors were nearby to perform a tracheotomy if during waterboarding the suspect is approaching death.

“Most seriously, for reasons of physical fatigue of psychological resignation, the subject may simply give up, allowing excessive filling of the airways and loss of consciousness,” Bradbury wrote. “An unresponsive subject should be righted immediately, and the integrator should deliver a sub-xyphoid thrust to expel the water. If this fails to restore normal breathing, aggressive medical intervention is required….’”

The memo says CIA doctors were on hand with necessary equipment to perform a tracheotomy if necessary during waterboarding sessions: “[W]e are informed that the necessary emergency medical equipment is always present—although not visible to the detainee—during any application of the waterboard.”

Technorati Tags: torture, torture memos
torture memos

The Heartbreak of MNRS Goes On, But Unmanly Christian Minister Comes Out Against Torture!!

Every real Christian rilly needs to cowboy up. Especially this here minister guy, givng aid and comfort to the enemy, a lily-livered gentle Jesus freak minister Richard Land actually coming out against torture.

Sheesh.

Is nothing sacred?

Dr. Richard Land, who heads the Southern Baptist Convention's Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission, says he believes the interrogation technique of waterboarding is torture because it inflicts personal physical harm and "contravenes an individual's personhood and their humanity."

In a statement, Land said waterboarding "violates everything we believe in as a country," arguing "There are some things you should never do to another human being, no matter how horrific the things they have done. If you do so, you demean yourself to their level." Land explained his stance to OneNewsNow.

"I support capital punishment, but I don't think I should support capital punishment unless I am willing to personally give the lethal injection," Land says. "Well, the more I thought about and prayed about it, I couldn't waterboard somebody -- and if I couldn't waterboard them, then I don't have the right to ask others to do it or to condone their doing it."

In his written statement, Land states he sees no circumstance in which torture should be a permissible interrogation technique employed by American officials -- "even if the authorities believe a prisoner has information that might involve national security."

Gol'durn long hair Pussy Christ and his long-haired Pussy Christ defenders. Get rid of them!

What did Jesus do while being tortured? Oh, he'd prolly said sompin' girlie-man like: "Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani?" or some shit like that, the pussy.

Why didn't He just take it like a man, and say -- "BRING IT ON!"

No wonder God forsook Him.

The Heartbreak of Mirror Neuron Deficiency Syndrome

Three cases of MNDS (Mirror Neuron Deficiency Syndrome) in the news, and 2 cases of mirror neuron abundance.

Tennis pro Yelena Dokic's father proudly admits he beat her, says he did it for her sake. Then he reveals he, too, was phsically abused as a child, and asserts that multi-generational child abuse is a rilly rilly good thing. {see alice miller, sidebar].

Face transplant person, as reported by our minimizing media whore media:

Buried down on paragraph six, we finally find that face transplant recipient's facelessness was due to domestic violence: uh, that would mean, in this case, having been shot in the face by her own husband. Who received all of seven years. Wow. No doubt the Mrs. richly deserve it? 'Twas all her fault?

And here's the odious Kathleen Parker, at the forefront of the forefront of the forced maternity crowd, still wanting to cram her personal religious beliefs down the throats of all those who do not share them. Mirror-neuron deficiency syndrome (MNDS) strikes again. So much compassion for the pre-born, and none for the post-born. Let the little unwanted feti come forth be abused, neglected and then grow up to be perps and victims who perpetrate and victimize. We can't properly care for the kids we already have, so, you know, bring 'em on!

Fom the mirron-neuron-ly well-endowed Lambert at Corrente (& on to Froomkin), Torture the Fault of Peasants, Not Versailles.

Yesterday's News

Nothing to see here. move along.

Hello Dalai

Nearly 16,000 people turn out for the Dalai Lama at Gillette Stadium.

Is Rape Serious? Is Torture Serious?What About the Heartache of Mirror Neuron Retardation Syndrome?

Hey, there, boys and girls! Let's play pattern recognition!

What do these two stories and mirror neuron retardation have in common?



Nicholas Kristoff: Is Rape Serious? Answer: no.


Is torture serious? Answer: no.

But it pays well. CIA does.

Become a CIA Torturer. Thousand bucks a day.

That ain't workin.'

That's the way you do it.


Money for nothin' and the chicks for free.

Newsweek Whitewashes Waterboarding Torture: Would That Count As Numbing & Avoidance? Why, Yes! It Would!

This person, who is, apparently, a professional (sic) Newsweek media person, actually said this:

[T]o pursue criminal charges against officials at the highest levels—including the former president and the former vice president . . . would set a terrible precedent. . . . That is not to say presidents and vice presidents are always above the law . .

But -- sometimes they're above the law?

And this Newsweek person thinks that committing torture and undermining the rule of law does not set a terrible precedent?

What is wrong with the pro-torture crowd? What is wrong with their media whore media enablers? Why does this Newsweek person even have a job? Why is the media whore media working so very hard to spin and spew cute little minimizing numbing & avoidance fairy tales, working so hard to let torturers get away with torture?


Yes, thanks, Mr. Newsweek, I'd love to have another serving of moral bankruptcy. Please, sir, may I have some more?


---
Thoughts on teh Pro-Torture Crowd: Lambert. BTD. RJ Eskow.

WaPo Headline Puts Torture in Quotes. Well, Torture's Not Quite the Same as "Torture," Is It?

Military Agency Warned Against 'Torture'.

An otherwise fine article on BushCheneyRrummy admin being warned that torture does not produce useful info, besides being, you know, "wrong."

My beef with the headline is that it continues the neo-Orwellian habit of the US media whore media to minimize torture by calling it "harsh interrogation," "harsh methods," making it not really torture because if you don't say it's torture then it just isn't, is it?

None dare call it torture?

Language: this is how we "create" our "reality."

Court Rules Gitmo Detainees Are Not Persons

See, if they were persons, you'd have to NOT torture them.

But if you change their label from PERSON to NON-PERSON, you can do anything you want.

Court Rules.

The Pro-Torture Crowd Retards Run Amok -- Empathy Will Get You In Big Trouble

Told you it was all about they're missing big fat chunk of their [empathy] brain, did I not?

Let's remember the death of this soldier:

"A. Peterson, 27, a Flagstaff, Ariz., native, served with C Company, 311th Military Intelligence BN, 101st Airborne. Peterson was an Arabic-speaking interrogator assigned to the prison at our air base in troubled Tal Afar in northwestern Iraq. . .

"The official probe of [Peterson's] death would later note that earlier [Peterson] had been "reprimanded" for showing "empathy" for the prisoners."


Come on, pro-torture retards. Come clean. This is what you did. In our name. Well, not in my name.

The soldier who refused to torture, Peterson, wound up dead.

Of course, Peterson's death is still being described as suicide? Pftt.
Tell it to the marines.

Why It's OK to Call the Pro-Torture Crowd "Retards"

That's because they're actually missing part of their brains.

OK, so maybe that doesn't make them retarded. It makes them handicapped.

Handicapped? Is that the right word? How about "deficient"?

We're not just talking about Cheney and Rummy. And Geoffrey Abu Ghraib Gitmo Colonel.

But talking head Peggy Noonan. She's not playing with a full deck, either.

And talking head Cliff May. Oy. I can remember way back when Cliff was Clifford, and a liberal. I think. Didn't think he was pro-torture. Why would anyone be? What happened? Did someone brainwash the miror neurons out of his brain?

Beyond finally acknowledging the dreadful state of moral decay that has crippled the empathy centers of vast numbers of Americans, there is the question of -- how did this plague come to pass?

Who or what removed/inactivated the mirror neurons from millions of Americans?

What happened?

Did Mommy long ago leave out the instruction on not doing shitty things to others, in particular, not hurting other living beings?


LEARNING MOMENT FOR GEORGE AND MOMMY

It's ok to kick a rock. It has no feelings.

Rock. Frog. They're different.

Stop. No. That's a frog, Georgie, don't put that firecracker in the frog, George. No. I said, no.

Stop it, George!

George, if you put a lit firecracker in one more frog, I am going to slap you silly.

There. [sound of slap]

Now, do as you're told.

Stop torturing those frogs.

[sound of brutal slap]

Got that, boy?





Yup. Got it.

Anyone for ahimsa?

Torture By Any Other Name Would Be "All-American Harsh Interrogation Techniques Move Along Don't Think Twice It's Alright"

How could anyone think that chinese water torture was unfit to become american water torture, eh?

Yes, it's that funny. Blame for torture now goes to failure to understand the lessons of history, thus being condemned to repeat it.

Haha.

According to several former top officials involved in the discussions seven years ago, they did not know that the military training program, called SERE, for Survival, Evasion, Resistance and Escape, had been created decades earlier to give American pilots and soldiers a sample of the torture methods used by Communists in the Korean War, methods that had wrung false confessions from Americans.

Even George J. Tenet, the C.I.A. director who insisted that the agency had thoroughly researched its proposal and pressed it on other officials, did not examine the history of the most shocking method, the near-drowning technique known as waterboarding.

The top officials he briefed did not learn that waterboarding had been prosecuted by the United States in war-crimes trials after World War II and was a well-documented favorite of despotic governments since the Spanish Inquisition; one waterboard used under Pol Pot was even on display at the genocide museum in Cambodia.

The top officials, not having studied that particular part of history, you know, the "we don't do shitty things to others" part, couldn't see that, well, drowning someone might, well, you know, be regarded as -- well, chinese water torture. No mirror neurons. Slept through that class in college?

Cyclic existence? Samsara as usual? We're sorry, nobody told us that pulling the wings off butterflies was wrong? What about putting lit firecrackers in toads? No one could have foreseen . . .

CIA/US Oympic Waterboard Torture Team Wins Best in Show

Well!

Don't these CIA guys and gals have the very best work ethic in the universe?

They sure were following orders!

Waterboarding people three times a day? Is that what is meant by "three squares"? Or is that a type for three quarts? Probably more like 3 gallons? I dunno. How much water does it take to drown a guy or gal? Not so much really. Plus, it's earth week. No waste water wanted.

But you have to admit the zeal of the US Waterboard Torture Team is/was magnificent.

So. Celebrate their success. Just do it. Instead of getting all bitchy and PMS and hot an bothered about silly pussy things like moral bankrupcty and undermining the rule of law, shouldn't we join Obama and Rahm and just STFU?

Shouldn't we be passing the hat around to support them, taking up a collection so they can afford to develop some mirror neurons?

Waterboarding [E.g. Chinese Water Torture] Used 266 Times on 2 Suspects.

2 suspects, eh?


Would that be -- Cheney? And Rummy?


Technorati Tags: torture, Bybee, CIA, memo, moral bankrupcty

Bushist Fascist Teabag Sadist Mafia Sez: Hey, There Boyz 'n Girlz! Remember --Torture WORKS!!

No, it's not like anyone likes inflicting pain on others. (Well, of course there was that toad-exploder thing, the dobsondogbeater thing, the vitter diaper thing, I forget what else. Oh. Yeah. The canned hunt/killing for fun kinda thing.)

How can we ever hope to save the all-important moral values of Western Christian civilization if we don't torture other people? AND -- their kids?

Abu Zubaydah had provided much valuable information under less severe treatment, and the harsher handling [eg. the torture] produced no breakthroughs, according to one former intelligence official with direct knowledge of the case. Instead, watching his torment caused great distress to his captors, the official said. [instant karma much?]

Even for those who believed that brutal treatment could produce results, the official said, “seeing these depths of human misery and degradation has a traumatic effect.” [told you so. and of course, you'd think a normal person, finally noticing that he was doing something "wrong" might u, you know, "stop."]

C.I.A. officers adopted these techniques only after the Justice Department had given its official approval on Aug. 1, 2002, in one of four formerly secret legal memos on interrogation that were released Thursday.

A footnote to another of the memos described a rift between line officers questioning Abu Zubaydah at a secret C.I.A. prison in Thailand and their bosses at headquarters, and asserted that the brutal treatment may have been “unnecessary.”

Unnecessary?

Oh. Ya think?

Technorati Tags: torture, Bybee, CIA, memo, moral bankrupcty

Secret Bushist Fascist Pro-Torture Sadist Sez: DON'T TELL THE TERRORISTS ABOUT THE CHINESE WATER TORTURE! THEY'LL IMPLANT EXTRA LUNGS!

God, I do hate the stupid. I really do. I know it's wrong of me -- even rong of me. But I do.

F*ck.

From [Cheney? Rummy] some dude some dude at Politico listened to:

“It's damaging because these are techniques that work, and by Obama's action today, we are telling the terrorists what they are,” the official said. “We have laid it all out for our enemies. This is totally unnecessary. … Publicizing the techniques does grave damage to our national security by ensuring they can never be used again . . .

No, really, it's true, we need to keep the whole BAMBOO SLIVERS UNDER THE FINGERNAILS THING reallly hush-hush. You talk about stuff like that, and whoa, you SO lose the Element of Surprise!

Yeah, we all better shut up about BOILING PEOPLE IN OIL because really, it might give them ideas, you know what copycats them terrists is.

And really, STFU about all our copyrighted 60 WAYS OF MAKING HUMANS REALLY REALLY REALLY WISH THEY WERE DEAD because nobody could have imagined -- oh wait, that's about the other -- because if they find out what we did, then bad things will happen. Like they'll to it to us. Of course, they want to do those thing to us anyway.

Or more like, what if they find out that we were like into anal rape of kids well that wouldn't be good would it? Remember those tapes at Abu Ghraib that so suddenly disappeared because they were like, um, just toooooo awful? Well this stuff is just toooo awful, too. That's why we want to shut up about it, and we're hassling Obama into shutting up about it, and that's why we're going to get away with it because all the evil things we've done are just tooooo vile, so, you know, STFU!! How hard is that?

It's not like we planned it that way. Oh well, of course we did, but like, hey. Any means to the end. Wait that's a commie thing. Like being a socialist. Socialist means someone who wants to take his kids to the doctor. We want doctors to revive our torturees so they're awake enough to FEEL THEIR excruciating pain. Now, that's not socialist. We bushist fascist teabag sadists, of course, feel no pain, we just inflict it. On others. We don't even feel our own pain.

Wow. There ya go.


WE BUSHIST FASCIST SADIST TEABAGGERS DON'T FEEL ANYONE'S PAIN, ESPECIALLY NOT OUR OWN.

I mean, how cool is that? See? Torture works!



Technorati Tags: torture, Bybee, CIA, memo, moral bankrupcty

None Dare Call It Torture. Not Quite "None," But Close

However, turns out that NOT prosecuting torture is a violation of international law. Oopsie.

The United Nation’s top torture investigator has suggested it is illegal under International law for President Barack Obama to announce that the United States government has no intention of prosecuting low-level CIA officers who carried out torture sanctioned by the Bush Administration.

President Barack Obama’s release on Thursday of four Bush administration memos sanctioning torture has been widely praised. However, word that government will go so far as to offer a fully-paid legal defense for agents who applied torture techniques to terror war prisoners has triggered loud criticism.

“Like all other contracting states to the UN convention against torture, the US has committed to conduct criminal investigations of torture and to bring all persons to court against whom there is sound evidence,” Manfred Nowak, the UN’s Special Rapporteur on torture, told Austrian weekly paper Der Standard.

“They are party to the convention and the convention is very, very clear,” Nowak told the paper. “The fact that you carried out an order doesn’t relieve you of your responsibility.”

“In a brief telephone interview with The Associated Press, Manfred Nowak [...] said the United States had committed itself under the U.N. Convention against Torture to make torture a crime and to prosecute those suspected of engaging in it,” reported the San Francisco Chronicle.

Technorati Tags: torture, Bybee, CIA, memo, moral bankrupcty

Note to teabaggers: pay your taxes like a man

This is why:

Desperate veterans turn to suicide.

You break it, you buy it.

Several branches of the military are reporting significant spikes in the number of suicides committed by both active-duty troops and veterans returning from duty in Iraq and Afghanistan. Experts are calling the number of military-related suicides sweeping the country an "epidemic."

Survivors of veterans who committed suicide are starting to file lawsuits, accusing the VA of medical malpractice. The agency also has come under attack by lawmakers and veterans' groups charging that it failed to treat injured veterans for post-traumatic stress disorder or traumatic brain injury, the signature wounds of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars. The agency also has been accused of manipulating suicide statistics to downplay the problem and systematically misdiagnosing returning combat soldiers who suffer mental illness because their resources are tapped.

I wrote long ago about the cons deliberately mis-diagnosing PTSD in an attempt to deny services. Click on PTSD; I can't elaborate because I'm off to a seminar. On treating PTSD, as it happens. More later.

Technorati Tags: torture, Bybee, CIA, memo, moral bankrupcty

You Can Never Be Too Rich, Too Thin or Too Traumatized. or, PAY YOUR [expletive deleted/warningintentional use of sexist frame] TAXES LIKE A MAN

Teabagging. [coughchoke spit].

So the cons are trying to tough that one out? Bwahahah. Now teabagging is their BRAND.

And they're too pussy to pay their taxes.

Oy.

So, some otherwise perfectly nice people for whom I was set to volunteer my valuable time and really very high end clinical skills [it's not me, it's my training] to treat Vets with PTSD.

Some otherwise perfectly nice people started saying some critical things about Obama [which I am perfectly capable of doing myself, mind you] and I reminded them that in addition to being a card-carrying buddhist [well, actually I didn't remind them of that] I am a card-carrying bleeding heart liberal [and why else would I be offering to work for NOTHING].

And one of them said it was fine as long as I wasn't a socialist.


No, really.


I kid you not.

I thinktheir idea of being a socialist means being someone who's for universal health care, btw.

So -- what am I, boys and girls? Socialist?

How about "commie
pinko"?

Dept. of "As Ye Sow, So Shall Ye Reap," or: Build Roads While Wearing Sad Faces of Regret re: the Decay of Our Puny Social Infrastructure

Hey. Turns out the Dems don't give a crap about the sick, poor, the insane, the elderly, the young, the vulnerable either. And here I was just blaming the Republicans. But there's enough blame to go around, really. Because, you know, these are hard times. Somebody has to suffer. If they're already suffering, what's the bad thing about piling on a little more, eh?

States Slashing Social Programs for the Vulnerable.

No reason to slash progams for the invulnerable, is there?

Saudis, Si! Cuba, No!

It's obvious that it's OK to trade with the Saudis, who treat their women like dirt, and it's OK to sell off our country to the genocidal Red Chinese, but Cuba?

Pfft.

Why would we trade with them? Why would we visit them? They've got a health care system that actually works! Can't expose our population to that, can we?

In the meantime, we're still dependent on and trading with a country that thinks marrying off 8-year-old girls is swell. Saudi Arabia. Marrying off an 8-year old girl to her Daddy's 47-year-old male "close friend."

"It is incorrect to say that it's not permitted to marry off girls who are 15 and younger," Sheikh Abdul Aziz Al-Sheikh, the kingdom's grand mufti, said in remarks last January quoted in the regional Al-Hayat newspaper. "A girl aged 10 or 12 can be married. Those who think she's too young are wrong and they are being unfair to her."

Saudi, si! Porque no?

More Evidence We've Still Not Reached Peak Stupid

So getting elected President of the United States isn't enough of a big deal to qualify Barack Obama for an honorary degree?

Well, no. No, it's not. Not to ASU. To Notre Dame, it is. But not to Arizona State University. Nah.

One takes this special opportunity to seize teh day, and email the unfortunately-presciently-named yet karmically-correct President Michael M. "Eat" Crow of Arizona State University, here, and let him know if you concur: granting an honorary degree to the actual already-well-degreed President Obama is just too much, too soon.

Torture. It's a Tough Job, But Somebody Has To Do It.

The US has to torture. The CIA has to torture. Preferably torturing by trained medical professionals, eh?

Because -- we can torture if we say it isn't what it obviously is.

Sort of like "a rose by any other name would ---" except backwards.

Anyhow, no wonder humans who did stuff like this -- you know, torturing -- might not want word to get out about it. Oh but wait. It's out. Well never mind. We'll get out of it somehow. Heck, we only torture because we must. We was only following orderss.

Here's some fun facts about the CIA's notion of patriotism in action:

Raise your hand if you think doing unto others the following things puts you in the category of "good person" (sic):

*Suffocation by water poured over a cloth placed over the nose and mouth...
* Prolonged stress standing position, naked, held with the arms extended and chained above the head...
* Beatings by use of a collar held around the detainees' neck and used to forcefully bang the head and body against the wall...
* Beating and kicking, including slapping, punching, kicking to the body and face...
* Confinement in a box to severely restrict movement...
* Prolonged nudity...this enforced nudity lasted for periods ranging from several weeks to several months...
* Sleep deprivation...through use of forced stress positions (standing or sitting), cold water and use of repetitive loud noises or music...
* Exposure to cold temperature...especially via cold cells and interrogation rooms, and...use of cold water poured over the body or...held around the body by means of a plastic sheet to create an immersion bath with just the head out of water.
* Prolonged shackling of hands and/or feet...
* Threats of ill-treatment, to the detainee and/or his family...
* Forced shaving of the head and beard...
* Deprivation/restricted provision of solid food from 3 days to 1 month after arrest...

The ICRC report further clarifies the report's frequent use of the term 'ill-treatment':

The general term "ill-treatment" has been used throughout the following section, however, it should in no way be understood as minimising the severity of the conditions and treatment to which the detainees were subjected. Indeed, as outlined in Section 4 below, and as concluded by this report, the ICRC clearly considers that the allegations of the fourteen include descriptions of treatment and interrogation techniques -- singly or in combination -- that amounted to torture/and or cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment.

"Furthermore, nine of the fourteen detainees reported that they had been subjected to threats of ill-treatment that included waterboarding, electric shocks, infection with HIV, sodomy, arrest and rape of family, torture, being brought close to death, and interrogation sessions where "no rules applied."


How do torturers sleep at night?

Answer: not well.

Technorati Tags: torture, Bybee, CIA, memo, moral bankrupcty

Military Blows Up Live Pigs. Makes Them Dead.

I wonder what percentage of the military, so heavily Talibangelical, considers itself to be strongly pro-life (sic). Like ex-Preznit Toad Exploder.

More here.

Love Hurts

I'm not making this up.

Why it is ok that vaginal sex hurts. Ok, well, he's making it up.

Demo using tomato. No, its an apple. Dutch guy explains it all. Really. Well, or not really. Yes, not really.

And arguably the worst part is -- that one really cannot tell bushistfascist unseen-inherently-satirical-reality from regular reality-type satire anymore. Oh my. The thin thin thin thin thinnest line. (Refers readers to stories on adopting snowflake "babies" frozen feti and christian domestic discipline and talibangelical christian daddies' inappropriate balls, and and and . . .)

Before We Get All Weepy About Frozen Feti, Might We Attend to the Fate of the Post-Born, Esp. Those With Sadistic Mommies &/or Daddies &/or BFs?

Yes, Virginia, one of the reasons our society is so well-defended against bringing abusive parenting into consciousness is because it's just so vile that we really don't want to hear about it. Count me in that category.

On the other hand, if we push it out of consciousness, we'll never reach the point where, as a society, we've really had enough.

Here's an angry Daddy whose anger was known to the authorities and to his neighbors.

Carolyn and Raymond Bader, who used to live across from the home where the children were found, said they often heard the father screaming and yelling at the children.

The Baders said they called the sheriff's department and Child Protective Services several times with concerns about the family.

"We did all we could to help these kids," Raymond Bader said tonight. "We tried to protect these kids. We did what we could."

Carolyn Bader said a friend had called her with the news of the deaths.

"I couldn't believe he'd actually done it. Do I think he was capable of it? Sure," she said, referring to the father. "It just shocks me. I'm totally shocked. What could five children do that was so bad? I can't imagine what would go through someone's head to make them do something like this."

Dale Lund, another neighbor in the mobile-home park, said the boy who was killed played at times with his grandson and the two shared the same school-bus stop. The boys attended elementary school together, Lund said.

The slain children played in their own yard most of the time, he said.

"They pretty much kept to themselves over there," Lund said of the family.

Lund's wife, Sheree Lund, said, "We're tore up. We're just tore up. Why the kids, you know?"

Lund said the father was considered by neighbors to be "plenty mean" and he "kept a real tight rein on the kids."

"Plenty mean"? He killed his five children. Yuh, that counts as domestic violence, does it not?

But really, some people are waaay more moved by the fate of feti and the fate of frozen feti than with protecting actual children. Whyever would that be?

Department of Cutting Social Services & Encouraging Random Parenthood

Abusive mother of the month.

Mass. mother charged with stabbing 2-year-old girl

Friday, April 3, 2009; 11:02 AM

GARDNER, Mass. -- A woman who believes she was being stalked by a cult has been charged with stabbing her 2-year-old daughter 100 times with scissors . . .
Johnson, 38, also used an electrical cord from a dryer to try and strangle the toddler, police said, but the security guard and two residents separated mother and child just before police arrived.

"I heard a woman screaming very loudly that she was going to 'Kill, kill, I have to kill you, Die, die, die,'" said resident Real Belliveau, 65, who lives just down the hall from the laundry room. . . he thought the child was already dead because she was limp, covered in blood and had the cord wrapped around her neck.

The girl was taken to a hospital suffering from as many as 100 wounds to her head, neck and torso, but many of them were superficial, police Chief Neil Erickson said. The child, who is now in the custody of state child welfare authorities, was taken to a hospital and is expected to survive.

[and then she'll come and see someone like . . . well, NBFH. Who has heard this story before, thank you very much.]

The state Department of Children and Families made a check on the girl at her home in Turners Falls, about 35 miles west of Gardner, the day before the attack, . . . the Worcester Telegram & Gazette and WBZ-TV reported. Department spokeswoman Alison Goodwin refused to confirm the report Thursday and said only the department is now investigating.

[DCF checked on her the day before. DCF workers have twice as many cases as are recommended. Do you think that workers carrying a recommended caseload might have done a better job?]


. . .Johnson has a history of depression and had not been taking her medication . . .[Oh. Well, that wouldn't have had anything to do with unaffordable health care, would it? Or being unable to afford her meds and treatment? How about health insuance not paying for coordination of care?] Binder said, adding she does not remember the attack in the laundry room.

"She seems to be very paranoid," he said.

Johnson was held without bail on a number of charges including attempted murder and ordered to undergo a competency evaluation at her arraignment Thursday in Gardner District Court. A dangerousness hearing was scheduled for April 17.

Oh, and this is child abuse month, isn't it?

Hey, Kidz! What Day Is It? In China? Why, It's Anti-Dalai Lama Day!!

China Observes Anti-Dalai Lama Day!!

But how does that exactly work?

It works like this:

May all beings have happiness and the causes of happiness! [NOT]

May all beings be free from suffering and the causes of suffering! [NOT]

May all beings rest in the great evenness of mind
free from passion, aggression, and prejudice! [NOT]

That being the case -- isn't EVERY day in China Anti-Dalai Lama Day????

Well, If You Can Ban a Peacemaker from a Conference on Peace, Why Not Bring A Rape-Victim-Blamer to Rape Victim Fundraiser?

I'm sure Bill O'Reilly will be happy to tell them it's all their fault. They should just have been wearing burqas the little sluts.

Of course, if the group has no funds, isn't it their own damn fault?

From NewsHounds:

Bill O’Reilly, however, has shown his total disregard for rape victims in the following statement made on his radio show: “Now Moore, Jennifer Moore, 18, on her way to college. She was 5-foot-2, 105 pounds, wearing a miniskirt and a halter top with a bare midriff. Now, again, there you go. So every predator in the world is gonna pick that up at two in the morning. She's walking by herself on the West Side Highway . . .

Walking by herself? In a mini-skirt? Without an escort? Without a burqa?

What would the Saudis think?

[hat tip to Jesus' General.]

Technorati Tags: c

Dalai Lama, Nobel Peace-Prize Winner, Banned from South African Conference on Peace: Guess We've Still Not Reached Peak Stupid

Nobel Peace Prize winner banned from a peace conference?

Yep.

Nope, I'm not making this up. I don't have to. I never have to.

Dalai Lama Banned from South African Peace Conference

"Nobel [peace prize] winners Desmond Tutu and FW de Clerk to boycott anti-racism conference in World Cup run-up after Chinese pressure forces ban on Tibetan spiritual leader


Two of South Africa's Nobel peace prize winners, Archbishop Desmond Tutu and FW de Klerk, have pulled out of a Johannesburg conference to fight racism after what they branded as Pretoria's "disgraceful" decision to ban the Dalai Lama from attending following Chinese pressure.

The Nobel peace prize committee also said it would boycott this Friday's conference, which is dedicated to tackling racism ahead of the 2010 World Cup.

The row threatens to draw in Nelson Mandela, who, with his fellow South African laureates, invited the Tibetan spiritual leader, and further embarrasses South Africa, which has been accused of squandering its moral authority since ending apartheid by blocking UN security council moves to pressure rogue governments in Burma and Zimbabwe.

Tutu, who won the prize for his resistance to white rule, told Johannesburg's Sunday Independent newspaper he will not attend the conference to discuss how to use the World Cup preparations to combat racism and xenophobia if the Tibetan spiritual leader is not present. . . "

[hat-tip to billy-bob neck]

china loses face, dalai lama, south afric peace conference

Pope re Suffering: Drop Dead

Ok, so condom use prevents the transmission of AIDS, thus preventing the suffering to follow.

Moral of the story: don't use condoms. Because really, we just don't give a shit about your suffering.

Compassion, Compassion, Compassion, But Really, People -- First Things First

One is, like, TO-tally into the whole rilly rilly widespread compassion kinda thing. Rilly. One means -- one is actually buddhist. See sidebar. Does one not specifically advocate generating limitless compassion, inconceivable compassion [!] toward all sentient beings, even including Dick Cheney? Answer: why, one does!

That being said, there is a continuum of being, with Dick Cheney way to the right [the less-sentient side] of well, you know, amoebas and little motile sperm. Which are way more sentient than he. Imho. [Oh alright, one is exaggerating for effect. But Cheney IS morally deformed.]

That being said, one thinks that it is not ok for there to be a sperm-rights movement, nor an embryo liberation front, as still-employed [why? why?] bushist fascist blowhard Kathleen Parker apparently would like. Unhappiness over the horrid possibility of certain death for widdle fwozen embryos with their big round sad eyes, the passionate attachment that drove Octo-Mom to save her own brood of widdle fwozen ones from melting leave me, well --cold.

Obama, she says . . . "missed an opportunity to prove that he is pro-science but also sensitive to the concerns of taxpayers who don't want to pay for research that requires embryo destruction."

Well, as long as she's not an anti-vivisectionist, hunh?

One feels she is crazy. Not unlike one's feelings about having more compassion for the pre-born than for the post-born. One does not think that is actual compassion, one thinks that is just really stupid. In other terms, it is a view born of [heh] passion, aggression, and ignorance.

But one gets it. Bushist fascism means not caring about torture, poverty, child abuse, war, actual post-born people, the suffering of sentient beings.

Morality just means never having to say "DEFROST."

Hey. I Got a Good One. In Austria, What's the Sentence for Incest? One year. Hah.

Which is why Austrian Father of the Year Josef Fritzl plead guilty to incest and rape, don'tcha think?

But wait, there's more . . .
(warning: this story is not heart-safe:)

But the prosecutor at the packed court in St Poelten dismissed Fritzl's pleadings, saying the "real truth" was that Fritzl drugged his daughter, dragged her into the cellar and was in "complete control" of her for the next 24 years. . . .

The court was told that Fritzl imprisoned Elisabeth in a tiny pre-prepared cellar, measuring just 18 sq m (200sq ft) in August 1984, then kept her tied "on a leash" for 24 hours a day.

He eventually untied her nine months later, but only to make it easier to rape her on a daily basis. In total, he is thought to have raped Elisabeth more than 3,000 times.

Elisabeth, aged just 18 when her ordeal began, gave birth to the first of their children entirely alone, with just a self-help pregnancy book, a pair of scissors and some nappies to help her cope. Fritzl did not bother to visit her or bring supplies for the baby for 10 days after the birth.

The most disturbing part, from my point of view is this:

The details of what has been described by one state official as 'the worst criminal trial in Austria's history' are so horrific that the court is sitting for limited hours each day to avoid traumatising the jury, who are being offered counseling.

Guess I Picked the Wrong Day to Quit Thinkin' We'd Already Hit "Peak Stupid"

Yeah, I think all that "reward good behavior" stuff is um like to-tally wrongheaded.

When you find people who really suck at their jobs, the proper response is to Throw More Of Taxpayers' Money At Them!! Because -- if at first you don't succeed, try to try not succeeding AGAIN!

Because otherwise, these ruinously incompetent greedy swine would turn out to be seen as LOSERS. And then they'd default on their MORTGAGES and lose their HOUSES. And then the loudmouth wankers on MSNBC would BLAME THEM. Like LIMBAUGH.

FOR BEING STUPID.

I on the other hand feel no need to wait for MSNBC. I can blame them for being STUPID right now.

Which I, you know, just did.

; )

Torture Is As Torture Does

Voices From the Black Sites.


Hat-tip to Anonymous Source.

Georgia Grants Yoo-man Rights to Frozen Feti -- Will Creamsicles Be Next?

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


Hat-tip to bbn.

Shut UP Maureen

More crap about presidential spousal wardrobe.

Sexist. Stupid. Talibangelical. Second in a series of sexist stupid Talibangelical stories in the New York Times.

And the writers are, apparently, getting paid for this tripe?

Levi Needs a Lawyer

Hey. So they broke up.

No surprise there.

Bristol has split with boyfriend Levi Johnston and according to Levi's sister, Mercede, Bristol refuses to let him see their son Tripp.

But in most states, biodads get to visit their kids if they want to. Does he want to? Does she want him not to? Even the Governor, Levi's not-quite-ex-mother-in-law can't do that, can she?

Some say, especially the family values family kinda Bushist fascist Republicans say, that every baby needs a mommy and a daddy. Well, why didn't they just get married in the first place? Why didn't they go ahead with a covenant marriage, already? Then, they couldn't split!! Which would like fix everything! Sheesh!

Step-Dad Who Incested 9-year-old Girl NOT Excommunicated by Catholic Church

Well, why would raping and knocking up one's 9-year-old stepkid be some big deal, anyhow?

Failing to force one's 9-year-old raped child to give birth?

That'll throw ya outa the church.


------
Prior coverage here.

Our Friends the Saudis Punish 75-year-old Lady With Forty Lashes for "Mingling"

"Mingling"? Yeah, I hate it when them broads mingle. So uppity. So annoying.

Ok, so it's a day after the UN Day of Women. Enough already. Don't get your panties in a twist. Sure, we're gonna keep on trading with the Saudis. Look how much all this trade has helped their human rights situation so far! Wowee! Note the abaya in picture, left. Ring a bell, does it?

It's not like it's Cuba. Heck, we sure don't wanna trade with them Cubans. Saudi? Si! Cuba? No!

It's not like its apartheid or something, is it?

Trading for profit with a vile oppressor of the basic rights of half the Saudi population? I mean, why not? We trade with China, don't we?




Saudi Arabia sexism theocracy women's rights Islamist wahabi torture

Catholic Church Wants Forced Maternity for 9 -Year-Old Rape Victim

Isn't that so very compassionate?

Suffer the little children to -- oh, you know, suffer!

A senior Vatican cleric has defended the excommunication of the mother and doctors of a nine-year-old girl who had an abortion in Brazil after being raped.

Not to mention protecting a rapist's right to breed.

Oh, and on that happy note, happy International Women's Day. Which, although I belong to multiple US liberal groups, somehow had escaped my notice. Checking Kos, I don't see it in the top 10. And as of this writing 3:50, I don't see any article about it -- at all. I don't see anything at Americablog -- though I do see mention of what clothes John thinks the First Lady OUGHT to be wearing. And not wearing.


rape government-forced maternity Roman Catholic Church

a-Q Lite Lashkar-eTaiba "Spinoff" Blamed in Pakistan Terror Attacks

Main LET leaders claim they'd never do any such thing.

No really.

Lashkar-e-Taiba has an extensive network in southern and Southeast Asia. A senior US military intelligence official described the group as "al Qaeda junior," as it has vast resources, an extensive network, and is able to carry out complex attacks throughout its area of operations. "If by some stroke of luck al Qaeda collapsed, LeT (Lashkar-e-Taiba) could step in and essentially take its place," the official told The Long War Journal in November 2008.

The relationship between al Qaeda and Lashkar-e-Taiba is complex, the official noted. "While Lashkar-e-Taiba is definitely subordinate to al Qaeda in many ways, it runs its own network and has its own command structure. The groups often train in each others' camps, and fight side by side in Afghanistan."

So -- now do we get to give credit to Lashkar-al-Zil?

Lashkar-e-Taiba Pakistan cricket attack al-Qaeda Lashkar-al-Zil

Red Chinese Celebrate 50 Years of Successful Genocide in Tibet

My favorite part of this recent picture of Tibet under Chinese rule is that while there are lots of imperialist riot police protecting all-important Han capitalist ventures, the shop signs are Tibetan-language free; the streets of Tibet have no Tibetans.

50 Years After Revolt, China Clamps Down on Tibet.

Red China celebrates decades of imposing racist serfdom in Tibet by closing Tibet to foreign tourists.

More here.

Tibet 1959 uprising Han oppression Tibet genocide PRC

Lahore Attack: "A Savage Blow to the Pakistan State"

Five die in Sri Lankan cricket team attack; kidnap attempt foiled.

The Australian dubs the Lahore attack a savage blow to Pakistan, "second only to the assassination of Benazir Bhutto." It don't take a weatherman to know which way the wind blows when it comes to destabilizing a country, a region, isolating it from the west, promoting internal division, terrifying the populace.

Lashkar-e-Taiba's faring very well, thank you.

Bhutto, then Mumbai, now Lahore.

Lashkar-e-Taiba: Low-tech/high performance M.O. moving toward big-time victories: destabilization, Pakistani civil war, regional war, fully operational nukes with a Caliphate at the end of every fundamentalist's rainbow.

Thanks a lot, Bush, Cheney, Rummy, whose ignorance and hubris made out of a molehill a mountain.

Lahore attack Pakistan cricket Lashkar-e-Taiba

Better Living Through Chemistry Via Monsanto GMOseeds Which Bankrupt Illiterate Farmers Who Can Then Commit Suicide w/ Monsanto Pesticides

Hey. Must be the Circle of Life.


[hat-tip to SeattleTammy]

Porn-Again Christians Ante Up for Porn In the USA

Yes, well, what a surprise.

The Conservative-iest "family values" [coughchokecough] folks turn out to be fueling the billion-dollar porn industry.

"Residents of 27 states that passed laws banning gay marriages boasted 11% more porn subscribers than states that don't explicitly restrict gay marriage."

"States where a majority of residents agreed with the statement "I have old-fashioned values about family and marriage," bought 3.6 more [online porn] subscriptions per thousand people than states where a majority disagreed."

Technorati Tags: porn, conservatives, gay marriage, hypocrisy