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
Satire Imitating Life: The Torture Report
The release of the Senate Intelligence Committee report on the CIA’s so-called “enhanced interrogation techniques” -- i.e. torture -- predictably caused shock waves throughout the country and created additional division and hardening of positions along party lines. One notable exception was Senator John McCain. Hate him or love him, agree with him or disagree with him on … [Read more...] about Satire Imitating Life: The Torture Report
Paul Rosolie of ‘Eaten Alive’: ‘I don’t care if you’re upset I didn’t get eaten by an anaconda’
Paul Rosolie went from being PETA's enemy number one to the Internet's Sunday night, when his much-hyped "Eaten Alive" special on the Discovery Channel failed spectacularly in at least one respect. Rosolie was not eaten alive by a giant anaconda. "People made so many assumptions so quickly, that I got cut out of the snake, PETA… … [Read more...] about Paul Rosolie of ‘Eaten Alive’: ‘I don’t care if you’re upset I didn’t get eaten by an anaconda’
Cartoon: Pain and No Gain
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: Pain and No Gain
US must prosecute both authorizers and perpetrators of torture: UN expert
[icopyright one button toolbar] The Obama administration is obliged by international law to conduct criminal prosecutions against all those who perpetrated or authorized torture, a top United Nations expert said in reaction to the summary Feinstein report on crimes committed by the Bush-era CIA. Ben Emmerson, the independent British Special Rapporteur on counter … [Read more...] about US must prosecute both authorizers and perpetrators of torture: UN expert
Accountability Goes Bye-Bye As Shocking Senate Torture Report Finally Is Released
[icopyright one button toolbar] The release today of the executive summary of the Senate Intelligence Committee's report on the CIA's network of secret prisons where terrorism suspects were tortured with the approval of President Bush and his henchmen in violation of American law and the Geneva Conventions is surely one of the greatest anticlimaxes in American history, … [Read more...] about Accountability Goes Bye-Bye As Shocking Senate Torture Report Finally Is Released
Torture Report: CIA’s Enhanced Interrogation Techniques Weren’t Effective
[icopyright one button toolbar] A Senate report found the CIA's enhanced interrogation techniques, including waterboarding, were not effective. The agency is accused of misrepresenting management of the program. Um, these are the same techniques former vice president Dick Cheney praised. Here are some key points from the NY Times on the CIA interrogation report: 1. … [Read more...] about Torture Report: CIA’s Enhanced Interrogation Techniques Weren’t Effective
The Fear Factor
[icopyright one button toolbar] With the recent grand jury dismissal of the police shooting of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, and the choking death of Eric Garner by the police in Staten Island, New York, nationwide demonstrations against the police and the justice system have been occurring. However, there has been little discussion of the fear factor that exists on … [Read more...] about The Fear Factor