[icopyright one button toolbar] Only five years ago, when he was President Obama’s counterterrorism adviser, John O. Brennan criticized the CIA’ s “enhanced interrogation techniques" for having “led us to stray from our ideals as a nation.” He added, “Tactics such as waterboarding were not in keeping with our values as Americans,” according to the New York … [Read more...] about The Torture Report: Americans React
A Study In Frustration & Depravity: Seven Years Of Torture-Related Posts
My home blog, Kiko's House, has published dozens of posts on the Bush Torture Regime over the past seven years, including -- or perhaps concluding, we shall see -- an analysis this week of the Senate Intelligence Committee report on the CIA. Many were cross-posted to The Moderate Voice. Click here for an index of some of the more important posts. … [Read more...] about A Study In Frustration & Depravity: Seven Years Of Torture-Related Posts
President Kwasniewski: ‘Sadist’ CIA Should Be Shuttered; Denies Knowledge of Torture (Polityka, Poland)
The former President of Poland, Aleksander Kwasniewski, appeared on a morning radio program yesterday and was grilled by Polityka journalist Jacek Zakowski about CIA torture and extraordinary renditions that we know now beyond doubt took place on Polish soil during his administration. Some of his comments are rather astounding - including that he had no idea what the CIA was … [Read more...] about President Kwasniewski: ‘Sadist’ CIA Should Be Shuttered; Denies Knowledge of Torture (Polityka, Poland)
We Are All ‘Full of Crap’
[icopyright one button toolbar] When Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-South Carolina, said that the Benghazi report -- crafted by his own Republican colleagues and Democrats -- was “full of crap,” it raised some eyebrows But, still, one could attribute this inelegant language to political differences, even ugly partisanship. But then, along comes a man who has consistently … [Read more...] about We Are All ‘Full of Crap’
Torture: Did the American Psychological Association Collude With Torture of Human Beings?
[icopyright one button toolbar] I first wrote and then published this article on December 8, 2007, seven long years ago at TMV. True then. Still so now. The ability of citizens to 'petition their government' has become a feat of climbing the glass mountain, as in the fairytales of eld. Not until the glass mountain was shattered, were the people able to scale to the treasure, … [Read more...] about Torture: Did the American Psychological Association Collude With Torture of Human Beings?
A Showstopping Christmas Song to Start Off Your Day: Liza Minelli and Cyril Ritchard “Ding A Ling”
[icopyright one button toolbar] Start off your Christmas season with PIZZAZZ. And to help you out: So here...for a special holiday treat...is a RARE find: a "lost" Christmas song showstopper, from a 1965 ABC TV one-shot network airing of an original musical about Red Riding Hood. In this zippy holiday song, you'll see a young Liza Minnelli playing Red Riding Hood … [Read more...] about A Showstopping Christmas Song to Start Off Your Day: Liza Minelli and Cyril Ritchard “Ding A Ling”
Torture: The problem for America comes when we put it all together
[icopyright one button toolbar] The problem for America comes when we put it all together: We reëlected George Bush knowing that he had approved of waterboarding and torture. We have accepted President Obama’s contention that we should look forward, not backward, thereby absolving those who committed war crimes of any accountability. Criminal prosecutions are both … [Read more...] about Torture: The problem for America comes when we put it all together
Mike Peters Guest Cartoon: Rumsfeld, Cheney and Bush
Rumsfeld, Cheney and Bush by Mike Peters OF RELATED INTEREST: --Donald Rumsfeld Has Nothing To Say About Torture, But He’d Like Your Money --Cheney: 'The report's full of crap' --Bush, aides lie low in wake of CIA report --There’s No Way Bush and Cheney Didn’t Know Mike Peters is recognized as one of our nation’s most prominent cartoon artists for his … [Read more...] about Mike Peters Guest Cartoon: Rumsfeld, Cheney and Bush
Links To Highlights Of Senate Intelligence Committee On CIA Torture
[icopyright one button toolbar] The Senate Intelligence Committee released their report today, providing documentation that the CIA was both brutal and dishonest about their tactics, and that torture did not work. The New York Times listed these seven key points: The C.I.A.’s interrogation techniques were more brutal and employed more extensively than the agency … [Read more...] about Links To Highlights Of Senate Intelligence Committee On CIA Torture
Cartoon: Rolling Stone Rape Story
See great cartoons by all the top political cartoonists at http://cagle.com. To license this cartoon for your own site, visit http://politicalcartoons.com … [Read more...] about Cartoon: Rolling Stone Rape Story
Questions for the Torture Defenders
James Downie at the Washington Post has two good questions for the “torture defenders”: First, Downie asks, “[i]f the program was successful, then why hide it and lie about it? The CIA repeatedly ‘impeded’ oversight from Congress, the White House and even the agency’s own inspector general.” Second, he asks, “Why wouldn’t the president or his subordinates want to know … [Read more...] about Questions for the Torture Defenders
Larison on Torture
[icopyright one button toolbar] Daniel Larison makes the case for arguing torture's efficacy on The American Conservative. Torture is absolutely wrong and absolutely useless, and demonstrating the truth of both statements will make clear how completely bankrupt its defenders’ arguments really are. Proving that torture achieves nothing except the cruel degradation of human … [Read more...] about Larison on Torture
‘Individuals Behind CIA Criminal Conspiracy Must Face Penalties’: United Nations (U.N., Intl. Terr., Geneva)
In an unusually blunt statement about a U.N. Security Council member - particularly one that accounts for a quarter of the U.N. budget, U.N. Special Rapporteur on Counter Terrorism and Human Rights Ben Emmerson, a British barrister by training, called on President Obama and Attorney General Holder to immediately file charges against 'individuals responsible for the criminal … [Read more...] about ‘Individuals Behind CIA Criminal Conspiracy Must Face Penalties’: United Nations (U.N., Intl. Terr., Geneva)
The CIA’s Nonpareil 60-Year Record Of Not Protecting The National Interest
[icopyright one button toolbar] THE CIA LEARNED OF THE FALL OF THE BERLIN WALL ON CNN I have long advocated abolishing the Central Intelligence Agency, or as President Kennedy put it after the CIA played an integral role in the Bay of Pigs debacle, smashing it into a thousand pieces and scattering it to the winds. The CIA survives and prospers, of course, … [Read more...] about The CIA’s Nonpareil 60-Year Record Of Not Protecting The National Interest
This graphic shows that torture is a global problem
After months of delay, the US Senate Intelligence Committee finally released the executive summary of a report based on a years-long investigation into the CIA's "enhanced interrogation techniques" introduced under then-President George W. Bush following the 9/11 attacks. Former Vice President Dick Cheney, before reading the report, dismissed the findings as "a bunch of hooey" … [Read more...] about This graphic shows that torture is a global problem
What’s So Bad about Obamacare After All? (Guest Voice)
[icopyright one button toolbar] What’s So Bad about Obamacare After All? By Chris Jennewein As a new entrepreneur and father of two recent college graduates entering the working world, I find it hard to understand why the Affordable Care Act, or Obamacare, is so vilified. I’m applying because I started my own business and don’t have a cushy corporate health insurance … [Read more...] about What’s So Bad about Obamacare After All? (Guest Voice)
Forgetting the Lessons of the 2008 Crash
Kevin Drum warns about new FHFA mortgage policy on Mother Jones. Yesterday the Federal Housing Finance Agency issued new underwriting guidelines that allow some home buyers to take out mortgages with down payments as small as 3 percent...This decision by the FHFA is almost criminally myopic. After all, the go-go years that produced a towering housing bubble and then ended in … [Read more...] about Forgetting the Lessons of the 2008 Crash
Top Ten Comedic News Stories of 2014
Top Ten Comedic News Stories of 2014 Raging Moderate by Will Durst Hey guys, Will Durst here with your eagerly awaited Top Ten Comedic News Stories of 2014. Now, here's the deal: please do not confuse these amusing accounts with the Top Ten Legitimate News Stories of 2014. No. No. No. They are as different as silky and spiky. Banjos and bullfrogs. Strawberry daiquiris … [Read more...] about Top Ten Comedic News Stories of 2014
Whether it’s Eric Garner or Ray Rice, raw video drives national conversation
We are a nation being driven by video images. Not the polished and buffed ones produced and packaged during the TV era by the networks and cable channels to sell cars, beer and cosmetics. But rather the raw, often disturbing ones passing unfiltered from security cameras or the hands of citizens armed with the latest digital… … [Read more...] about Whether it’s Eric Garner or Ray Rice, raw video drives national conversation
Tortured Explanations
[icopyright one button toolbar] [Photo Shutterstock/Hart Williams] Here is the standard version of "The Empire Strikes Back": CIA Interrogations Saved Lives Wall Street Journal The Senate Intelligence investigators never spoke to us—the leaders of the agency whose policies they are now assailing for partisan reasons. — The Senate Intelligence Committee has … [Read more...] about Tortured Explanations