Dear Reader,
As I listen to Judge Mukasey try to avoid defining "water boarding" (simulated drowning) as torture, I'm embarrassed for him and for the rest of us for this is indicative of how low our government has sunk.
Seizing suspects and shipping them off to secret prisons, to be held indefinitely with no charges brought, no legal representation allowed, no family communication and likely no religious services and the prisoners are tortured at will.
Any American who questions these practices is "soft" on terrorism and is willing to place the security of the U.S. at risk to protect the rights of the terrorists.
However, these practices violate the U.S. Constitution, the United Nations charter, the Geneva Convention, particularly the third Convention "relative to the Treatment of Prisoners of War," the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and the list goes on. The Bush Administration just ignores them.
It is doubtful Mr. Bush and Mr. Cheney and others in their Administration believe they will ever be held accountable for their deeds. Congress has taken no action to impeach (indict) them and no international court has a police force strong enough to arrest them, so they can be put on trial as war criminals.
And so it comes back to us, as U.S. citizens to oppose them rather than to accept their actions in silence. And I'll leave you with a quote from the late, successful businesswoman, Anita Roddick. "If you think you're too small to have an impact, try going to bed with a mosquito in the room."
Dick
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Alex Posted: Sun Nov 04, 2007 8:45 pm
Joined: 12 Dec 2006 Posts: 251 Waterboarding Used to Be a Crime
By Evan Wallach
Sunday, November 4, 2007; Page B01
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/co ... ailarticle
{ ... That term is used to describe several interrogation techniques. The victim may be immersed in water, have water forced into the nose and mouth, or have water poured onto material placed over the face so that the liquid is inhaled or swallowed. The media usually characterize the practice as "simulated drowning." That's incorrect. To be effective, waterboarding is usually real drowning that simulates death. That is,
the victim experiences the sensations of drowning: struggle, panic, breath-holding, swallowing, vomiting, taking water into the lungs and, eventually, the same feeling of not being able to breathe that one experiences after being punched in the gut. The main difference is that the drowning process is halted. According to those who have studied waterboarding's effects, it can cause severe psychological trauma, such as panic attacks, for years. ...}
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Dick Kazan Posted: Mon Nov 05, 2007 12:02 pm
Joined: 28 Nov 2006 Posts: 576 Dear Reader,
Thanks to Alex, I now understand the horrors of "water boarding" much better and I trust this information is useful to you as well. For anyone to debate whether it is torture is a shameful use of time that could be better spent attempting to convince our government not to do it.
Dick
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Alex Posted: Thu Nov 08, 2007 8:32 am
Joined: 12 Dec 2006 Posts: 251 Vets make up quarter of nation's homeless
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld ... ome-center
Thanks to our fearless leaders especially in our War Party (AKA Republican Party) who always are at frontlines of sacrifice (!) a QUARTER of the nation's homeless are veterans. Wooow they are really supporting our troops!!!
( Google "Number of Homeless in US")
According to some sources there are 3.5 million homeless in US of which 1.35 Million Children. So approximately .875 Million adults are US veterans, that is 875,000 Men and Women. I am guessing that significant number of this sum is from Kuwait War & Iraq War and some from Vietnam era. Probably Korean War vets have diminished significantly. If we take that number and compare it to those who actually served in those two wars, then proportions will be astonishing. These are people who trusted our leadership with their lives and families to take up arms based on the Judgment of our fearless leaders. Another proud moment.
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Dick Kazan Posted: Fri Nov 09, 2007 11:40 am
Joined: 28 Nov 2006 Posts: 576 Dear Reader,
What Alex posted is almost never covered in the media, the psychological destruction of many U.S. soldiers from their participation in the Iraq and Afghanistan wars. As one person in the story said, "We're going to have a tsunami of them eventually because the mental health toll of the war is enormous."
Quoted extensively in the article Alex posted is John Keaveney, co-founder of New Directions, Inc. headquartered in west Los Angeles. John was one of many thousands of drug addicted Vietnam war vets who wound up homeless.
Eventually he and some of those other vets pulled their lives together and founded New Directions to help other deeply troubled Vietnam vets do the same, as they provide them with shelter, medical care, drug treatment and job training.
I've had the pleasure of speaking with John and he told me New Directions is already ramping up to take care of some of the deeply troubled Iraq and Afghanistan war vets of which there will be tens of thousands.
I strongly encourage you to read Alex's article and if you are an American, the odds are you will have deeply troubled Iraq and Afghanistan war vets near you. Hopefully, there will be organizations to help them and perhaps you might even find a way to assist, if you can find it in your heart to do so.
Dick
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Alex Posted: Sun Nov 25, 2007 12:00 am
Joined: 12 Dec 2006 Posts: 251 Sometimes is good to see our planet in peace
http://www.texasjim.com:80/NASApix/NASA%20pix.htm
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Dick Kazan Posted: Sun Nov 25, 2007 9:42 am
Joined: 28 Nov 2006 Posts: 576 Dear Reader,
Alex shared some beautiful pictures with us taken high above the earth.
Dick
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beachfnt Posted: Tue Dec 04, 2007 11:39 am
Joined: 12 Dec 2006 Posts: 66 I thought you all might find this comment by David J. Cynamon of interest regarding Supreme Court challenges by Guantanamo detainees: http://news.google.com/news?btcid=506c7607018baf7e
I particularly found the statement from the Supreme Court in a ruling from 1866 to be apropos (at the end of the comment).
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Alex Posted: Sat Dec 29, 2007 6:22 pm
Joined: 12 Dec 2006 Posts: 251 1/1 Pasadena Rose Bowl Impeachment
Cindy Sheehan to Join Activists Planning Impeachment / Pro-Peace Protest at New Year's Rose Parade
Local and national pro-Impeachment and pro-Peace American citizens will stage non-violent protests and demonstrations throughout the Rose Parade in Pasadena, California, on Tuesday, January 1, 2008 beginning at 6:00 a.m.
YES, get up early: 6 a.m.
The convergence of activists at Orange Grove and Colorado, by Pasadena's Norton Simon museum, is called the White Rose Coalition in honor of the resistance movement in Munich in 1942. The White Rose Coalition includes members of the Los Angeles National Impeachment Center (LANIC), CODEPINK, Troops Out Now Coalition, World Can't Wait, ANSWER, Progressive Democrats of America, the Green Party, Veterans for Peace, United for Peace and Justice, and others.
The peace and impeachment activists will march down Colorado from the Norton Simon to the steps of Pasadena City Hall where Cindy Sheehan and other peace activists will hold a press conference on Impeachment and the Iraq War at 11 am.
MORE INFORMATION:
http://www.bcimpeach.com
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Alex Posted: Tue Jan 01, 2008 11:47 am
Joined: 12 Dec 2006 Posts: 251 Dear Mr. President
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mQYHKILX ... ets/sf.swf
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Dick Kazan Posted: Fri Jan 04, 2008 10:50 am
Joined: 28 Nov 2006 Posts: 576 Dear Reader,
President Bush is not likely to ever see this 5-minute protest song video from Pink, but it's nicely done and you may find it of interest as I did.
Dick
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Dick Kazan Posted: Mon Jan 07, 2008 1:35 pm
Joined: 28 Nov 2006 Posts: 576 Dear Reader,
Ben of Ben & Jerry's ice cream fame has created a 2 minute colorful video showing us symbolically how massive the U.S. nuclear arsenal is. It is well worth the two minutes. http://www.truemajorityaction.com:80/bensbbs/
Dick
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Alex Posted: Tue Jan 22, 2008 9:50 pm
Joined: 12 Dec 2006 Posts: 251 This is a video of a former active duty US army infantryman, criticizing US policy in the middle east. and supporting Ron Paul candidacy
http://stewart-rhodes.blogspot.com/2008 ... lains.html
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Dick Kazan Posted: Wed Jan 23, 2008 10:37 am
Joined: 28 Nov 2006 Posts: 576 Dear Reader,
The U.S. Army Sgt speaking on the video Alex shared with us describes his 1st hand experience in Iraq. He reads it which makes it a bit less compelling but it is a powerful story.
Speaking of a powerful story, the U.S. Economy has begun a sharp downward spiral that will impact not only most Americans, but people across the globe. A key element of that sharp downward spiral stems from massive and rapidly increasing military expenditures.
Retired professor and military consultant Chalmers Johnson explains the vast Pentagon spending and its immense impact on Americans as taxpayers in "How To Sink America." http://www.antiwar.com/engelhardt/?articleid=12248
Dick
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