Digby on being Democrats

Boo!

It's quite liberating being completely out of power after hearing the right insult, browbeat and demonize us for more than 15 years. After this over the top post election end zone dance in particular, we no longer have anything to lose by making it our business to simply fuck with Republicans for the pure entertainment value. In some ways it's a kind of political insurgency. They refuse to compromise, they insist on being demeaning and crude, so all that's left is to make their lives unpleasant is a thousand little ways every single day.

And the really fun part is that we represent 49% of the people so there are quite a few of us around.

Resources on Torture

Media Reports
NYTimes Guide to the Torture Memos
Washington Post report on newly-released FBI memos regarding torture at Guantanamo

Advocacy and Activism
Human Rights First
Physicians for Human Rights

Biscuit postings on torture: newest to oldest

January 2005
Lots and lots of posts during the week of Jan 2 thru Jan 8
torture by television ad...

December 2004

The Other "T" word
Alberto Gonzales Propaganda from WaPo
"The Appalling Truth" about Torture
Can I have some torture with my turkey?
Darn that ticking bomb!
Yet another fun-filled post on torture Today in Torture
Detainees
Latest on Torture
Gonzales Update
You know it's bad when even the CIA is squeamish about it...

Via Atrios, Sinclair's letter threatening boycotters

Eschaton: "Although Sinclair respects the rights of these organizations to voice their opinions, we find inappropriate that their tactics include advocating their constituency to contact our advertisers in a blatant attempt to use economic pressure to censor the speech of Sinclair. Moreover, the continued misrepresentation of the facts surrounding any company's advertising practices regarding Sinclair stations constitutes 'trade defamation' which would entitle Sinclair to seek damages in a court of law. Sinclair will aggressively pursue any organization or any individual which engages in such defamation, including individuals who lend their names to mass e-mail campaigns spreading such misinformation."

Sept 11 porn

Someone has written a whole book about exactly what it was like to be inside the WTC on Sept 11.

I can't even begin to describe how much that is so not on my reading list. I mean, I'm sure it's a valuable historical document or something, but jeezuz. I can't even read the review of the thing.

Ackk. And Ackk. Abortion ackk.

Via Eschaton:

Virgina House Bill 1677:

"When a fetal death occurs without medical attendance, it shall be the woman's responsibility to report the death to the law-enforcement agency in the jurisdiction of which the delivery occurs within 12 hours after the delivery. A violation of this section shall be punishable as a Class 1 misdemeanor."

fetal death=any miscarriage, no matter how long after conception.

Not law... yet. Punishment? $2500 fine and up to 1 year in prison.

Two Torture Links

TAPPED on how the new torture memo is not actually much different from the old one despite excited media reports that the administration finally came out against the practice.

Brad DeLong quotes someone who admits that the torture thing is a big deal, but thinks that the Gonzales confirmation is not the best time to address it, since he's going to get confirmed anyway. Better to save our breath and bring it up at a more opportune time. To this, I say "heh?" You save debates about who forget to get more toilet paper at the grocery store for 'opportune times'. You don't save debates about whether it's okay to smear shit on prisoners and photograph them for some vague time in the future where the issue can get a "dispassionate hearing".

Department of Convoluted News

Does anyone else think this headline is a bit weird? The New York Times > Business > Number of Jobs Rose Last Month Below Wall Street Predictions

couldn't they put a comma in or something?

TV Host Says U.S. Paid Him to Back Policy

NYT: TV Host Says U.S. Paid Him to Back Policy: "Armstrong Williams, a prominent conservative commentator who was a protégé of Senator Strom Thurmond and Justice Clarence Thomas of the Supreme Court, acknowledged yesterday that he was paid $240,000 by the Department of Education to promote its initiatives on his syndicated television program and to other African-Americans in the news media."

Nancy Pelosi, et. al. sent a letter to the preznint complaining about the propaganda and demanding that the president renounce its use:

Covert propaganda to influence public opinion is unethical and dangerous. It violates fundamental principles of open government and it distorts the free press and the public's right to know. And it is illegal. GAO found that both sets of video news releases violated prohibitions against publicity and propaganda because they did not identify the federal government as the source of the fabricated news reports.

We are concerned that these three incidents, while serious and disturbing on their own, may not be isolated incidents but rather a deliberate pattern of behavior by your Administration to deceive the public and the media in an effort to further your policy objectives.

We ask you to publicly renounce the use of covert propaganda to influence public opinion. And in furtherance of official congressional oversight, we request that you direct all department and agency heads to immediately provide to us all past and ongoing efforts to engage in covert propaganda, whether through contracts with commentators, the distribution of video news releases, or other means.

I'm glad they sent the letter, but this is a President whose nominee for AG only just this week denounced torture (and not very enthusiastically, at that). I don't think he's gonna come out against propaganda anytime soon. "Just letting the American people know what their government is doin' for 'em. Nuthin' wrong with that. They got a $1000 tax credit too, you know."

Thank god for humor

This is hysterical.The New York Times > Opinion > Op-Ed Contributor: Washington Week in Revue

I have added Tom Burka's Opinions You Should Have to my newsreader.

Writing to our doctors

Here is a copy of the letter I am sending to my doctors:

Dear Dr. [xx],

I am your patient at [medical group name]. I am writing to call your attention to an article in this week's New England Journal of Medicine, ( http://content.nejm.org/cgi/content/short/352/1/3 ) reviewing evidence that military doctors have participated in torture of detainees. Salon.com (http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2005/01/07/docs_and_torture/index.html ) provides this summary of the article:

The NEJM article accuses doctors of violating professional ethics by passing detainee health records to military intelligence and by watching interrogation sessions. It also describes collaboration with interrogators in which doctors and medics helped set the parameters for abuse, determining 72-hour "sleep management" schedules for detainees, approving bread and water regimens for those subjected to "dietary manipulation," and sanctioning long periods of isolation.

At Guantánamo and at Abu Ghraib in Iraq, doctors had the final say on the interrogation plan for each detainee. "The medic would screen him and ensure he was fit for interrogation ... After that the medic would watch over the interrogation from behind the glass," the article quotes a military police commander as saying.

The AMA has an official policy on torture (http://www.ama-assn.org/ama/pub/category/8421.html). It reads, in full:

Torture refers to the deliberate, systematic, or wanton administration of cruel, inhumane, and degrading treatments or punishments during imprisonment or detainment.

Physicians must oppose and must not participate in torture for any reason. Participation in torture includes, but is not limited to, providing or withholding any services, substances, or knowledge to facilitate the practice of torture. Physicians must not be present when torture is used or threatened.

Physicians may treat prisoners or detainees if doing so is in their best interest, but physicians should not treat individuals to verify their health so that torture can begin or continue. Physicians who treat torture victims should not be persecuted. Physicians should help provide support for victims of torture and, whenever possible, strive to change situations in which torture is practiced or the potential for torture is great. (I, III) [my emphasis]

Given this information, I call on you and the other members of your practice to issue a statement condemning any participation by medical personnel in the torture of detainees.

I urge you to contact your medical associations and your colleagues and tell them that you oppose the participation of doctors in torture and that the medical community must come together now and take a strong stand against torture.

And I urge you to contact your patients and ask them to do the same.

Only by taking action personally can you adhere to the AMA's guidelines regarding torture, as quoted above, and to the Hippocratic Oath. Every day that we do not take action on this issue is another day we must all look in the mirror and admit that we, too, are torturers.

I realize there are physician's organizations actively working to stop these practices. You may even belong to one. But if you are anything like me and most of the other people I know, you leave the 'politics' to the organization. I feel quite reluctant sending this letter, as though it's somehow inappropriate to ask you what, as a doctor, you are doing to keep doctors from participating in torture. Who am I to ask? But I am asking, because I believe that only by holding each other personally responsible for what is being done in our name will we act to stop it.

I don't want to be a torturer. Do you?

Yours very sincerely,
[Biscuit]

Doctors Without Morals

Salon reports on a NEJM article reviewing evidence that military doctors actively participated in torture: I can't get at the article itself -- no subscription -- so if any of my readers do have such a subscription, I'd appreciate if you could forward a PDF of it to amy-politics [at] kafka [dot] com.

The medical community should be up-in-arms about this.The AMA's policy against torture reads:

Torture refers to the deliberate, systematic, or wanton administration of cruel, inhumane, and degrading treatments or punishments during imprisonment or detainment.

Physicians must oppose and must not participate in torture for any reason. Participation in torture includes, but is not limited to, providing or withholding any services, substances, or knowledge to facilitate the practice of torture. Physicians must not be present when torture is used or threatened.

Physicians may treat prisoners or detainees if doing so is in their best interest, but physicians should not treat individuals to verify their health so that torture can begin or continue. Physicians who treat torture victims should not be persecuted. Physicians should help provide support for victims of torture and, whenever possible, strive to change situations in which torture is practiced or the potential for torture is great. (I, III)

I don't see the AMA striving "to change situations in which torture is practiced". I see the AMA striving for tort reform, and reluctant to antagonize the administration that wants to give it to them.

If you are a doctor, make your voice heard. Let all your medical associations, the medical school you graduated from, your residency program, and all your coworkers know: every day you do not protest torture you degrade the medical profession.

If you are a patient, tell your doctors. I'm telling mine.

Digby on Torture

Here :

It's not that I believe that all Americans are horrified, or even a majority of Americans are horrified. Clearly, the dittoheads think it is just ducky. But that isn't the point. Just because they aren't horrified or even endorse it on some level doesn't mean that they don't know that it's wrong. They do. And it is very uncomfortable to be put in the position of defending yourself when you know you are wrong. Even good people find ways, but it cuts a little piece out of their self respect every time they do it.

Every person alive in America today grew up with the belief that torture is wrong. Popular culture, religion, folklore and every other form of cultural instruction for decades in this country has taught that it is wrong, from sermons and lectures to films about slavery to photographs of Auschwitz to crime shows about serial killers. It is embedded in our consciousness. We teach our children that it is wrong to torture animals and other kids. We don't say that there are exceptions for when the animals or kids are really, really bad. We have laws on the books that outright outlaw it. The words "cruel and unusual" are written into our constitution.

The problem is not that there isn't a widely accepted admonition not to conduct torture, it's that many people, as with all crimes, will choose to ignore the admonition under certain circumstances. However, that does not mean that they do not know that what they are doing is wrong. There is nothing surprising in that. It's why we have laws.

The arguments for torture being raised by the right are rationalizations for what they know is immoral and illegal conduct. Their discomfort with the subject clearly indicates that they don't really want to defend it. (Witness the pathetic dance that even that S&M freak Rush Limbaugh had to do after his comments were widely disseminated.) Will they admit that they know it's wrong? Of course not. But when they take up their manly jihad and accuse the Democrats of being swooning schoolgirls they will also be forced to positively defend something that many of them know very well is indefensible. And every time they do that their credibility on values and morals is chipped away a little bit.

I don't expect them to change their tune. Way too much of this comes from a defect in temperament and garden variety racism and that's not going to go away. But Democrats have to thicken their skins and be prepared for the usual attacks and insist over and over again that it is against the values and principles of the United States to torture people, period. It is not only right, it is smart.

As I wrote below, the opposition will bluster and fidget and scream bloody murder. But listen to the tenor of their arguments. The WSJ article below rails against the "glib abuse of the word" as if they can run away from the issue by engaging in a game of semantics. They are reduced to claiming that unless we torture it will be unilateral disarmament. We, the most powerful military force the world has ever known, will be defeated by a bunch of third world religious misfits if we don't engage in torturing suspects. Just who sounds weak?

Also Bob Herbert..

Again in NYTPromoting Torture's Promoter: "There are few things more dangerous than a mixture of power, arrogance and incompetence. In the Bush administration, that mixture has been explosive. Forget the meant-to-be-comforting rhetoric surrounding Mr. Gonzales's confirmation hearings. Nothing's changed. As detailed in The Washington Post earlier this month, the administration is making secret plans for the possible lifetime detention of suspected terrorists who will never even be charged."

Read Krugman

today in NYT"Worse Than Fiction"

Not about torture

MediaGuardian.co.uk | Media | From feminist sister to Big Brother housemate: "Germaine Greer, the outspoken feminist writer and broadcaster, was last night revealed as one of the eight contestants taking part in the latest series of Celebrity Big Brother."

TV just keeps getting weirder and weirder.

Don Hazen in Alternet on Dem Internecine Struggles

Power Play:

If you are a progressive, a populist Democrat, someone who thinks moving the party to the center is a dead end in this political debate, then it may be time to step up and make yourself heard. Not doing so may very well leave the fate of the party in the hands of the “Democratic Establishment” – the consultants, lobbyists, and corporate-funded talking heads and spinners. As the debate for the “soul of the party” heats up, we may yet see a very different Democratic Party emerging from the ashes of 2004.

Mark Danner in NYT

We Are All Torturers Now:

On the other hand, perhaps it is fitting that Mr. Gonzales be confirmed. The system of torture has, after all, survived its disclosure. We have entered a new era; the traditional story line in which scandal leads to investigation and investigation leads to punishment has been supplanted by something else. Wrongdoing is still exposed; we gaze at the photographs and read the documents, and then we listen to the president's spokesman 'reiterate,' as he did last week, 'the president's determination that the United States never engage in torture.' And there the story ends.

At present, our government, controlled largely by one party only intermittently harried by a timorous opposition, is unable to mete out punishment or change policy, let alone adequately investigate its own war crimes. And, as administration officials clearly expect, and senators of both parties well understand, most Americans - the Americans who will not read the reports, who will soon forget the photographs and who will be loath to dwell on a repellent subject - are generally content to take the president at his word.

Say it loud and say it proud... "I'm a torturer. Are you?"

What We Did, and Do

A roundup of what we do, from tomdispatch:

A partial list of methods of torture recently reported (or reported yet again) would include: detainees chained hand and foot to the floor in a fetal position for up to 24 hours without food or water and left to lie in their own fecal matter; detainees beaten and kicked while hooded; paraded naked around a courtyard while photos were being snapped; left in extreme hot or cold temperatures for extended periods; wrapped in an Israeli flag while loud rap music played and strobe lights flashed; or possibly even having fingernails torn out; placement of lit cigarettes into the detainees' ear openings; sleep deprivation; partial strangulation; death threats during interrogation; the use of dogs to force frightened prisoners to urinate; the holding of wires from an electric transformer to a detainee's shoulders, so that the man 'danced as he was shocked'; mock drowning or 'waterboarding'; mock executions of Iraqi juveniles; severely burning a detainee's hands by covering them in alcohol and igniting them; holding a pistol to the back of a detainee's head while another Marine takes a picture; fake (and real) acts of sexual assault and sodomy; being hit with rifle butts; suffering electric shocks and immersion in cold water; being beaten to death. These and other crimes against very specific humanity have taken place from Guantanamo to Iraq, Afghanistan to the CIA's secret prisons around the world.

By we, I mean us. You, reading this blog, me, writing it. All of us. Let's say it loud and say it proud: "I stuck cigarettes in people's ears. I sodomized prisoners. I tied people up and left them to piss and shit on themselves. I am a torturer." Let's say it to our kids. Let's say it to our neighbors and our bosses. Why not? We've already said it to the rest of the world...

Nazis

NYT: "Public Lives: Warning From a Student of Democracy's Collapse": "FRITZ STERN, a refugee from Hitler's Germany and a leading scholar of European history, startled several of his listeners when he warned in a speech about the danger posed in this country by the rise of the Christian right. In his address in November, just after he received a prize presented by the German foreign minister, he told his audience that Hitler saw himself as 'the instrument of providence' and fused his 'racial dogma with a Germanic Christianity.'"

Again with "eh?"

Sam Rosenfeld of TAPPED:

Have Republicans in Congress actually come to internalize the “don’t cross the commander in chief when we’re at war” line they’ve laid on Dems so effectively to cow them into submission ever since September 11? Do they now believe their own BS? Secondly, the spectacle of one Republican senator and representative after another (and not just those in the party’s milquetoasty moderate wing) signaling major aversions to waging this fight now, only to acknowledge that they’ll likely fall in line since this is something George W. Bush is just so darned “determined” about, is as pathetic as it is puzzling.

Rosenfeld was responding to a quote by Tom Cole, R-OK, as reported in WSJ:

"The president is going to go ahead," said Rep. Tom Cole of Oklahoma, a Republican leadership lieutenant. "He cannot afford to fail. It would have repercussions for the rest of his program, including foreign policy. We can't hand the president a defeat on his major domestic initiative at a time of war."

again, eh?

Human Rights First Blog - The Gonzales Confirmation Hearings

here

NYT report on Gonzales hearings

NYT: Gonzales Disavows Torture as Confirmation Hearings Begin: "Pressed by Mr. Specter on his reaction to the abuses at Abu Ghraib and Guantánamo, some documented in photographs, Mr. Gonzales replied that 'as a human being, I am sickened and outraged.'

Mr. Gonzales quickly added that he did not want to venture an opinion that the practices depicted in the pictures might actually be criminal.."

And also, more cult of personality crap: "Even some Democrats made it clear that they found Mr. Gonzales's rise from humble beginnings (in Humble, Tex., no less) appealing on a personal level."

So as long as you have an inspiring life story, nothing else matters? Aaargh. Arghh. And Arghh

Mythology

Terror Suspect Alleges Torture (washingtonpost.com):

The CIA has acknowledged that it conducts renditions, but the agency and Bush administration officials who have publicly addressed the matter say they never intend for the captives to be tortured and, in fact, seek pledges from foreign governments that they will treat the captives humanely.

A Justice Department spokesman declined to comment on Habib's allegations, which were filed in November but made public only yesterday after a judge ruled that his petition contained no classified information. The department has not addressed the allegation that he was sent to Egypt.

An Egyptian official reached last night said he could not comment on Habib's allegations but added: "Accusations that we are torturing people tend to be mythology."

Eh?

Pandagon on Torture: "Just isn't something you compromise on."

Pandagon: Not This. Never This.:

Unfogged is right; barring a miracle of competence and media responsibility, opposing torture will end up making the Democrats look like we get the vapors whenever the menfolk whip out the cigars and talk terrorism. Our press flacks are are ineffective, our caucus can't stick to a message, and we don't have a party leader charged with articulating our position to the public.

Doesn't matter. Torture just isn't something you compromise on. I'm as coldly political as the next guy, but not torture. That's not part of the country I grew up believing in.

There's just no debate about this, people. It's not okay. Not Not Not.

Final thoughts on house debate

Stephanie Tubbs Jones: Points out that both Democratic and Republican election workers in Ohio serve at Ken Blackwell's pleasure, and that Blackwell was chair of Bush's Ohio campaign.

John Conyers: could we please "enact real election reform"!!!

Tom Delay: "amazing but not surprising" "a shame" "the purpose of this petition is not justice but noise." "a warning to democrats across the country...not to moderate their party's message" "turned to the X-files wing of the Democrat party" "failed strategy of spite, obstruction, and conspiracy theories" "assault against the institutions of our representative democracy."
"Democrat campaign operatives"
"This is a direct attack to undermine our democracy."
amazing -- claims that no irregularities occurred in 2000.
"a dangerous precedent is being set here today, and it needs to be curbed."
claims there is a constitutional right for people to elect the President. uh, actually, no. Pathetic but true

ugh, huge cheers for DeLay's speech.

My thoughts:
"irregularities" is the new "abuse"
What's up with the Republicans insisting on calling it the "Democrat Party"?
Will sum up Republican Talking Points in future post.

more...

Waters, cont. "If an ATM machine can give each user a receipt.. why can't a voting machine?"

John Boehner R-Ohio
"After the divisiveness there needs to be a period of healing... John Kerry was very graceful..."
"I think the proceeding today will cause great harm."
"The election officials are doing the best they can."

Michael Oxley R-Ohio
"Our election laws in Ohio are quite adequate."
compares presidential race to Ohio State-Michigan game. I kid you not.
"distracted our country"

Carolyn Kilpatrick, D-Mich
Excellent. Says something like, look, we have to represent our constituents, we have the right to speak for them, they need us to stand up for them.

Jan Schakowsky D-IL
"It is simply not sufficient to tell the losers in this election to get over it, or to say sour grapes, or that we're doing the best we can."

Bob Portman - R-Ohio
"irresponsible conspiracy theories"
"cynical political ploy to try to somehow delegitimize the presidency of the united states and this election"

Steve Chabot - R-Ohio
"attempt to sow doubt on the legitimacy of this president"
"we're forced today to engage in essentially partisan debate..."

Even more.

Lynn Woolsey, D-CA
"This is the second presidential election in a row in which serious concerns have been raised...without any congressional investigation."
"not about politicians at all, it's about citizens and their fundamental rights."
"If we don't [do something], why would any American bother to vote?"

Sheila Jackson-Lee D-TX
Sacred, not frivolous debate


Times Headline: finally. But what's with the fucking tag-line?
Democrats Force Debate on Ohio Election Problems
The traditionally routine ritual of certifying presidential election results turned into a tart partisan protest.

Jack Kingston R-GA
"Democrat Operatives"
calls ACORN a "Democrat front group"

Republican whose name I didn't get:
"silly, Hollywood-inspired conspiracy theories"
Blaming the whole thing on "Michael Moore"
"Does Michael Moore and the people in the Michael Moore of the Democrat party think that Americans are so stupid?"
Now quoting Michael Moore saying Americans are stupid.

Maxine Waters comes to Michael Moore's defense.

More House of Reps

Candace Miller, R-mich
"They cannot accept the fact that their agenda has been rejected."
"The American people have accepted the result of the election"
Uh, not all the American people.
"They say that somehow Karl Rove was manipulating the vote from a computer somewhere in the White House."
"outrage based on fantasy conspiracies"

Mike Turner - R-Ohio
Dems are crying wolf, objecting members "weaken the processes"
"place in peril future real attacks on our voting rights"
"Undermining our election process"
"the greatest democracy in the world"

David Dreier - R- CA
"We are in the midst of our global war on terrorism....This exercise clearly emboldens those who want to undermine the prospect of democracy".
"small imperfections here and there do not a mass conspiracy make."
"move forward together for the good of the American people."
"Sowing seeds of doubt about a legitimately decided election threatens..."

Thelma Drake R- VA
crazy dems accusing GWB of stealing election

Jesse Jackson Jr. -- great speech. Brings up the felons issues. "the us is one of eleven nations that does not have an affirmative right to vote in the constitution" and quotes Bush v. Gore" "Our voting system is built on the sand of state's rights". "We need to build our democracy not on HAVA, but on a fundamental individual guarantee in the constitution. We need to provide the American people with a citizenship right to vote."

John Lewis, D -GA
"Our electoral system is broken and it must be fixed, once for all."
"There's something wrong with our democracy."
"More and more of our citizens are becoming uneasy."
Someone gave a "Whoo!" cheering Lewis.

Bobby Jindal, R-LA
"This debate diminishes this house"
"America, the greatest country in the world"
"Even CBS news has recognized the fact that President Bush won this election." (huh?)
"not a good day for our democracy"

Republican talking point: Ohio editorial pages don't think there was a problem. So why should Dems object?

Patrick Tiberi R-OH
"an insult" to election workers in Ohio.
"All editorial boards in Ohio think this is wrong"
"conspiracy theories"

More speeches

Tom Reynolds, R-NY:
Compared Dems to Japanese Imperial Army holdouts who refused to believe WWII was over.
"wild-eyed conspiracy theories" "speaking nonsense"
"time for those who refuse to accept the American people's decision to..move on."

JD Hayworth R-Arizona:
"this debate serves to plant the insidious seeds of doubt in the electoral process"
"to disrupt the electoral college...is not the proper use of the peoples' time..."
"the net effect is to place doubt and to institutionalize forever the notion of grumbling"
"sour grapes and it's sad to see in this house"
quotes Kerry spokesman "blogging doesn't make it so."
"the electoral process has been sidelined today for a publicity stunt."

Democrats have to spend all their time defending themselves from charges of partisanship.
Kucinich, concentrating on misallocation of voting machines. I love Mr. Kucinich, the funny little man.

Barbara Lee, D-CA : Love it! Slips in a statement that Supreme Court did not appoint GWB in 2004, as they did in 2000.

Republican talking points, so far

* Michael Moore evil. MoveOn evil
* Are you accusing us of being racist?
* You are 'castigating' the election officals (support the electoral troops)
* frivolous
* "extremist" democrats
* John Kerry was "gracious and magnanimous" -- why are the bitter dems not doing what he asked and "coming together".

Nancy Pelosi: "This is the only opportunity to have this debate while the country is listening."

More Speeches - Republicans in the House

Roy Blunt:
"I don't know that we help the process by casting doubt on what all those people who work on elections all over America do."

"move the country in a new and positive and better direction"

"every time we attack the process, we cast doubt on that fabric of democracy that's so important...people do have to have confidence that the process works...it's the greatest democracy in the history of the world... "

blah blah majority of vote, move country forward.

Florida asshole (didn't get his name, and he only got 15 seconds
"Get over it...Isn't it ironic that the very people who refuse to move on are the people from MoveOn.org and their hero Michael Moore" What a fucking asshole

Rep. Deborah Pryce, R - Ohio

Vile, vile, vile speech

Said "extremist elements" of Democratic party do not have the grace that John Kerry had when he conceded.
They want to "sow doubts and undermine public confidence in the electoral process"
"their objection is a front for their lack of ideas"
"apparently some democrats only want to gripe"
"cast themselves in the role of Michael Moore, concocting wild conspiracy theories"
"it's a shame that these democrats have resorted to such baseless.."
something about overwhelming majority of Ohioans are not objecting so why should the politicians?
place their "partisan war disclaimed by their own candidate above their own country"

How can the papers not yet be carrying this?????

The Boxer Rebellion

I just watched them start certifying the electoral college vote on C-SPAN. I thought a bunch of other Senators were gonna sign on after Boxer did. Chickenshits! C-SPAN has some American Enterprise Institute constitutional scholar talking about how this is really useless and basically a sideshow.

Now I'm watching Stephanie Tubbs-forget the rest of her name giving her speech to the house. Very strong.

Barbara Boxer is my new favorite person. Gonna go tune in on C-SPAN.

History is being made today!

Sen. Boxer to Challenge Ohio Vote

It's time for: Who Wants to Be Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn?

Orcinus returns from a sojourn in the red states with some discouraging news:

My very clear impression of the rank-and-file American right is that many if not most of them, at the behest of their leaders, now believe that opposing George W. Bush and the Iraq War, as well as his handling of the War on Terror, is an act of genuine treason worthy of the ultimate social condemnation, including incarceration and execution. They feel not only vindicated but profoundly empowered by the election result, empowered to silence their opposition, by force if need be.

He goes on to review Michelle Malkin's rewriting of the WWII internment of Japanese-Americans, discussions now underway about permanent internment of parties the government deems dangerous, and some Bush nominee named Daniel Pipes who recently had this to say, in writing, about the place of internment in the WOT:

:Leftist and Islamist organizations have so successfully intimidated public opinion that polite society shies away from endorsing a focus on Muslims. In America, this intimidation results in large part from a revisionist interpretation of the evacuation, relocation, and internment of ethnic Japanese during World War II. Although more than 60 years past, these events matter yet deeply today, permitting the victimization lobby, in compensation for the supposed horrors of internment, to condemn in advance any use of ethnicity, nationality, race, or religion in formulating domestic security policy.

[ via IsThatLega? ]

It is very clear where this is all going. First they come for the Islamists, and then for the Leftists. If you're not with 'em, you're against them.

The important thing to understand is that they are not planning to open camps tomorrow. There will probably not be acts of semi-organized mob violence against 'liberals and leftists' for a while yet. So it's very easy to say "well, people wouldn't stand for that." Well, now, no, people wouldn't stand for it. They send out trial balloons (Example: hey, can we just make a save-Delay's-ass-ethics-rule? Hmm, no, people noticed that, it looked bad. We'll sort of take it back, and get around his indictment problems some other way.) They issue memos and then override them. They see how far they can go, and if the people make a stink, they retreat a little. So we feel like maybe we have some influence. But the movement is always in the same direction. Here's Milton Mayer, again, on how it worked for Hitler:

What the Nazis had to gauge was the point at which atrocity would awaken the community to the consciousness of its moral habits. This point may be moved forward as the national emergency, or cold war, is moved forward, and still further forward in hot war. But it remains the point which the tyrant must always approach and never pass...It is in this nonlitigable sense, at least, that the Germans as a whole were guilty: nothing was done, or attempted, that they would not stand for.

As for the retreat on torture the administration appeared to make when it released its new, narrower definition of "torture", I refer you to Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn's The Gulag Archipelago, p.99 in my edition (Harper and Row, 1973):

There were never any spiritual or moral barriers which could have held the Organs back from torture. In the early postwar years..., the admissibility of torture from a Marxist point of view was openly debated. Judging by the subsequent course of events, the answer deduced was positive, though not universally so.

It is more accurage to say that if before 1938 some kind of formal documentation was required as a preliminary to torture, as well as specific permission for each case under investigation (even though such permission was easy to obtain), then, in the years 1937-1938, in view of the extraordinary situation prevailing ..., interrogators were allowed to use violence and torture on an unlimited basis, at their own discretion, and in accordance with the demands of their work quotas and the amount of time they were given. The types of torture used were not regulated and every kind of ingenuity was permitted, no matter what.

In 1939 such indiscriminate authorization was withdrawn, and once again written permission was required for torture, and perhaps it may not have been so easily granted. (Of course, simple threats, blackmail, deception, exhaustion through enforced sleeplessness, and punishment cells were never prohibited.) Then, from the end of the war and throughout the postwar years, certain categories of prisoners were established by decree for whom a broad range of torture was automatically permitted.

This has all happened before, people. The definitions, procedures, and practices may fluctuate over time, but over the long term, unless something significant changes -- unless large numbers of Americans can be convinced that shooting terrorists and leftists is morally suspect -- one of us, one of the dissidents, will have to compile the secret history of the American gulag, just as Solzhenitsyn did for the original.

I wish I could be more hopeful today. Which brings me to another topic I have not yet discussed up on Biscuit, and which it is now time to write about: emigration.

New Solution for Clip and Yupping: del.icio.us

I am on an super-geek kick right now, and have found that other super-geeks are using a very-alpha-release service called del.icio.us that lets you save bookmarks, tag them with categories, and serve them up to others in an RSS feed, or on a web page. You can also subscribe to combinations of other peoples' bookmarks. So, if I want to just point the way to interesting articles, without actually having to clip-and-yup, I just add 'em to my de.li.cio.us account and voila!. You can subscribe to my bookmark feed if you use a newsreader, or you can just click through and check out the page itself": del.icio.us/biscuit.

Eventually I will add a feed to this site directly, but it requires a bit of fiddling, as you can see if you look at their supergeek 'instructions' for setting up an html feed.

Today's Clip-and-Yupping

Note: In a debate on Crooked Timber about gender and blogging, someone complained that far too many blogs are just people who clip from other blogs and say "yup". I pointed out in a comment of my own, that some of us small-readership blogs, on the edge of the blogosphere, are reaching readers who are not themselves very plugged-in to blog-news-frenzy action. Bloggers who clip-and-yup are serving up stuff to those readers that they may otherwise never see. Not everyone uses news aggregators, or has high-speed access, or knows who Atrios and Digby are.

Anyway, I don't have much interesting myself to say right now, so here are my clip-and-yups for the day:

Gonzales, Torture

• Nothing New Under The Sun's daily roundup on Legal Torture
• Glenn On TortureHere's a remarkable piece of reasoning:

  I think the effort to turn this into an anti-Bush political issue is a serious mistake, and the most likely outcome will be, in essence, the ratification of torture (with today's hype becoming tomorrow's reality) and a political defeat for the Democrats. And the highly politicized way in which the issue is raised is likely to ensure that there's no useful discussion of exactly how, in terms of incarceration, etc., we should treat potentially very dangerous people who do not fall readily within the laws of war.

  Run that by me again. The point is not "an anti-Bush political issue." It's about whether the United States condones torture of prisoners (many of whom have turned out to be innocent) in its care. Since president Bush shifted U.S. policy to one which allows what any sane person would call torture, any criticism of the policy, by its very nature, has to be "anti-Bush." And when the president responds to his egregious error - which has undermined the war - by rewarding those who helped him make it, like Gonzales and Bybee, are we all supposed to roll over? Is all legitimate criticism of the administration now reducible to this kind of inane partisanship? Glenn's deeper point is that if you ask for torture to be stopped, the majority of Americans will respond by saying: ramp it up. But that amounts to complete capitulation to something no civilized person should tolerate, and no grown-up military officer would approve. Glenn cannot pretend to be anti-torture, while eschewing any serious attempts to stop it through the political process.If you won't stand up to the Bush administration on torture, is there anything you won't acquiesce to? And it's not "hype." Read the reports.
  [Andrew Sullivan]
• Points of contention
  Alberto Gonzales has said that the controversial Justice Department memo from 2002 which laid out presidential authority to allow torture of terrorism suspects was in response to "questions." Well, it turns out, those questions were his. The New York Times reports: "Until now, administration officials have been unwilling to provide details about the role Mr. Gonzales had in the production of the memorandum by the Justice Department's Office of Legal Counsel. Mr. Gonzales has spoken of the memorandum as a response to questions, without saying that most of the questions were his." [salon]
• As retired military officers and...
  As retired military officers and religious leaders express concerns over the nomination of Alberto Gonzalez as attorney general, an ad opposing his nomination is headlined, "You may not know Alberto Gonzalez, but we're sure you'll recognize his work." Plus: 'Does the Right Remember Abu Ghraib?' [Cursor.org]
• Digby says:I have long defended the Democrats from charges that they are "spineless" and "cowardly." I think that character attacks on our own side mainly helps the Borg convince people that we aren't worth voting for. But, I have no compunction about calling out our representatives when they are making a mistake. Capitulating on Gonzales is not only wrong it is entirely counterproductive to our cause.
  
  If we are going to be fighting about "values" and "morals" over the next couple of election cycles (as the right seems determined to do) we need to throw down the gauntlet right here, right now. Torture is immoral and even the most craven right wing racist knows that he's playing with fire to endorse it publicly. They don't want to have this argument because they know they are wrong.
  
  Torture is not an American value and it's certainly not a religious value. If they are determined to elevate the architect of Bush's illegal and immoral torture and detention schemes to the highest law enforcement office in the land then they are begging for a fight. It's a fight we should be more than willing to wage because there is absolutely no doubt who has the moral high ground.

Iraq War

• As Iraqi insurgents gun down the...
  As Iraqi insurgents gun down the governor of Baghdad province and six of his bodyguards, a wave of bombing has reportedly prompted Interim Prime Minister Ayad Allawi to phone President Bush to discuss election obstacles. [Cursor.org]
• Doctors in Fallujah tell a U.N. news...
  Doctors in Fallujah tell a U.N. news service that with two-thirds of the city's neighborhoods yet to be searched, more than 700 bodies have been recovered, and "more than 550 were women and children," and a resident sheik says that "even when some journalists are here they are being followed by the Marines." [Cursor.org]
• A report that that the resistance in...
  A report that that the resistance in Iraq numbers "more than 200,000 people," according to the country's national intelligence head, gets little play in the U.S., and a Chicago Tribune op-ed argues that it's time to break the Pottery Barn rule. [Cursor.org]
• Carpetbagger finds Bush's Inaugural committee chair...
  Carpetbagger finds Bush's Inaugural committee chair "unusually helpful" in "effectively admitting" that the upcoming inauguration won't actually honor U.S. troops but will instead "acknowledge their sacrifices by making them the theme of the festivities." [Cursor.org]
• A "broken" force
  At a time when too few are willing or able to speak openly and with candor about the harmful impact of this administration's policies, it is refreshing -- if disturbing -- to hear what Lt. Gen. James R. "Ron" Helmly, chief of the Army Reserve, has to say. The Baltimore Sun reports today on a memo Helmly wrote to senior Army leaders about the health of his command, which "is rapidly degenerating into a 'broken' force," in his view. The draining demands of overseas commitments, especially in Iraq and Afghanistan, and the unwillingness of Army and Pentagon officials to change "dysfunctional" policies are exacerbating the problem, he wrote, and the Reserve is in "grave danger" of being unable to undertake any other missions. [salon]
• More Than 10,000 US Troops Wounded in Iraq [Common Dreams]

Crooked Republicans and Voter Fraud

• DeLay DeLight
  Shorter Tom Delay:
  

  
  "Thank God For 150,000 Dead!"

  
  
  Longer Tom DeLay, from this morning's prayer breakfast.[Eschaton]


• The Center for American Progress reports that...
  The Center for American Progress reports that Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist filibustered a Clinton judicial nominee in 2000, then lied about it on "Face the Nation" this past November while "preaching about the evils of judicial filibusters." [Cursor.org]


• Raw Story publishes a fund-raising letter...
  Raw Story publishes a fund-raising letter from Ohio's Republican Secretary of State Kenneth Blackwell, in which he boasts of helping to "deliver" Ohio for President Bush, and a spokesman for Sen. Barbara Boxer says "she is considering" signing an objection to the counting of Ohio's electoral votes, when Congress meets on Thursday to formally tally the vote. [Cursor.org]


• After Retreat, G.O.P. Changes House Ethics Rule
  The House enacted a change that would effectively dismiss a complaint in the event of a deadlock in the ethics committee. [The New York Times > National]

Misc Links

• Digby on a new 'Museum of Creation' to open in Kentucky


• Digby on getting some Democratic leaders


• Orcinus has a new post on the state of fascism in the country today

Google Conspiracy Theories

I just got a gmail account. It's quite amazing. However, the privacy policy (which I know none of us are ACTUALLY supposed to read) is a bit disturbing, as it includes the following:

Google employees do not access the content of any mailboxes unless you specifically request them to do so (for example, if you are having technical difficulties accessing your account) or if required by law, to maintain our system, or to protect Google or the public.

...

As a standard email protocol, when you send an email from your Gmail account, Gmail includes your email address and user name in the header of the email. Beyond this, we do not disclose your personally identifying information to third parties unless we believe we are required to do so by law or have a good faith belief that such access, preservation or disclosure is reasonably necessary to (a) satisfy any applicable law, regulation, legal process or governmental request, (b) enforce the Gmail Terms of Use, including investigation of potential violations thereof, (c) detect, prevent, or otherwise address fraud, security or technical issues (including, without limitation, the filtering of spam), (d) respond to user support requests, or (e) protect the rights, property or safety of Google, its users and the public.

...

Personal information collected by Google may be stored and processed in the United States or any other country in which Google Inc. or its agents maintain facilities. By using Gmail, you consent to any such transfer of information outside of your country.

I've long resisted getting a gmail account because it seemed like a Google/CIA plot to get people to transfer enormous amounts of personal information to a company with excellent search technology to do with what it will. The privacy policy does nothing to allay those fears: "We don't access your account or give anyone your personal information unless we feel like it."

Actually, the whole Google-Library project fits right in with that. Turns out that actual librarians really don't like to give out library records, and they make a pretty big stink about it when asked to. But google searches? Fair Game.

Remember that abandoned Total Information Awareness program? I love google as much as the next person, but I'll encrypt the zip backups of my documents folder before using gmail as a free backup drive...

Excellent Torture Op-Ed in WAPO

Ugly Truths About Guantanamo:

Somewhere in the U.S. government is the person who came up with the idea of fusing the wail of an infant with an incessant meow from a cat food commercial to torment detainees at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Detainees were also subjected to popular songs by the likes of Eminem and Rage Against the Machine. What Liberace would have done to an observant Muslim, I can only imagine, but it is a mad genius who realized that ordinary American culture can, with repeated exposure, be nearly lethal. God help us all.

[...]

The revelations coming out of Guantanamo are hideous. The ordinary abuse of prisoners, the madness instilled by gruesome incarcerations, the incessant lying of the authorities, plus the mock interrogations staged for the media, in which detainees and their interrogators share milkshakes -- all this soils us as a nation. It's as if the government is ahistorical, unaware of how communists and fascists also strained language and ushered the world into torture chambers made pretty for the occasion. We now keep some pretty bad company.

The Bush administration has fused Orwell with Kafka in the same way someone fused the cry of an infant with that of a cat from the Meow Mix television commercial. The upshot is Gonzales, ticketed maybe for the Supreme Court because he winked at torture and yessed the president. He's Kafka's man, Orwell's boy and Bush's pussycat. Know him for his roar.

Meow.

Eh?

More Women Opting Against Birth Control, Study Finds (washingtonpost.com): "Proponents of abstinence education played down concerns about unintended pregnancies.

'Pregnancy is not a disease. . . . The women making these choices are making a conscious choice. They are not stupid,' said Leslee J. Unruh, president of the Abstinence Clearinghouse. 'Women don't want to use birth control because of the side effects. And a lot of men refuse to use a condom.'"

Again with "the benefit of the doubt"

Andrew Sullivan deplores torture but agrees President should get benefit of doubt:

GONZALES AND TORTURE: In my opinion, no one who has enabled and sanctioned the potential and actual use of torture should become attorney general of the United States. But I'm not the president; and he doesn't see it that way. And the people who re-elected him had plenty of opportunity to avail themselves of the fact that this administration has quietly enabled torture of inmates in American custody, and that Gonzales played a critical role in making the legal case for such previously outlawed practices. The Bush administration's use of torture - to the point of death in at least five cases and possibly 23 more - was one reason I found it impossible to support the president's re-election. But this is a democracy. And my candidate lost. Gonzales isn't being nominated to the Supreme Court; he's being nominated to become the president's chief law enforcer; and, in general, the president deserves the benefit of the doubt on his own picks. Should the Democrats make a stink? Of course they should. The hearings are an opportunity to raise awareness of what this administration has done in dozens of hell-hole prisons around the globe - some of which we will never even know about. The Gonzales argument that the president has the right to circumvent all anti-torture laws because, as commander-in-chief, there should be no limits on his conduct of the war is an argument worth airing. So let's air it. Let the president and his attorney general defend it. In public.
- 1:34:57 AM

Can I just say:NO. And No. A Thousand Times No. THIS PRESIDENT DOES NOT GET THE BENEFIT OF THE DOUBT. EVER. HE USED THAT UP.