Hearts and Minds

How the new torture legistlation reads to an Iraqi audience:
"If we should accidentally incarcerate you, and you are innocent, make no mistake -- we will torture you until you confess."

Didn't we at one point seek to win Iraqi hearts and minds? Where has that ideal gone?

Wasn't that the millitary's idea? Don't our boys in uniform diserve our respect when it comes to deciding how to carry out the fight? Didn't the millitary perscribe the policy of winning hearts and minds so that in the long run fewer soldiers would die?

What has Runsmfeld done?

Habeas Corpus

The senate voted against habaes corpus for unlawful combatants.

Meanwhile, Slate notes that the language of the compromise over torture, which I had previously celebrated, seems to grant the White House permission to do whatever it feels like AND to keep the public in the dark about it.

No one in congress knows what techniques the president is actually using!

This is a sad day.

Phydeauxn't

From today's Post:

"Custom bones crafted from tennis balls were the only chewy toys Vicky Keslar's Golden Retriever couldn't destroy in short order, so on Sept. 10 the Crofton, Md., resident went online and bought a package of the hard-to-find bones from Phydeauxpets.com, the first site listed in the results of an online search for the item.

"Three days after that purchase, a record bearing the exact date and time stamp of that transaction, her name, address, phone and debit card number was among several records from the store that showed up in a shadowy online chat room frequented credit card and identity thieves.

"When contacted by me after I saw the stolen data being traded online, Keslar and nearly a half dozen other victims reported having shopped at that same pet store at the times specified in their records.

"Phydeauxpets.com owner Frank Papa of Carrboro, N.C., shut down the Web site on Sept. 15 pending an investigation of the data theft. Keslar didn't have any fraudulent charges against her debit card, but the thought of someone cleaning out her checking account right when all of her monthly bills come due prompted her to swear off shopping online with a debit card. Now, she uses a credit card with a $250 limit when she buys online. But she is still shopping around for another vendor of the scarce doggie bones."

Bush's strawmen lack brains, OZ has no comment

Froomkin tears apart Bush's silly arguments.

Paraphrasing Bush:
"You know what my detractor's say? They say that I am not the right leader to fight the war on terrorism. That's a pre-9/11 mindset. To think that we are not at war and that America should just stand by and let others attack us."

Mission Accomplished

Bush caved. He compromised on the key provision in the torture legistlation he called for in redefining the Geneva convention's article 3.

Fillabustering Anti-Torture Legistlation

Frist wants to fillabuster anti-torture legistlation.

I hear he plans to use the following campaign motto in his reelection this fall:

"We're just as bad as the terrorists"

Rendition

A couple years ago, news surfaced of a Syrian-born Canadian detained by Americans and sent to Syria to be tortured. The man set out to sue the Uninted States. A Canadian inquiry into the event has concluded that, indeed, the man was falsely accused and tortured. While being tortured, he confessed to having trained in Afghanistan; the inquiry concludes that he was never there.

That's right.

America tortures innocent people in the name of fighting terrorism. When torture produces confessions, those confessions are bullshit. So what's the point of torture?

There is no point.

Powell's letter to McCain is a poignant reinforcement of the fact that Bush's torture policy hurts America.

Sleep deprivation

An editorial on the Post describes the cruelty that is sleep deprivation and its historical use in fascist states to extract false confessions and not actionable intelligence!

In contrast, Sullivant posts an emai from a soldier in the first gulf war that describes the willingness of Iraqi soldiers to surrender knowing that when they were taken into custody, they would be given fair treatment.

Will they get fair treatment now?

No.

That's Bush's whole point. He dehumanizes the enemy and scares americans into believing all arabs are out to kill our families. Its fascist rule-by-fear. We should call it what it is.

Novak Speaks

Today's Post

Telepharmavangelism

A long time ago, TJ lent me The Faint's two albums "Danse Macabre" and "Wet From Birth," which I ripped onto my laptop. Then I went and bought one of their older albums so I'd have more to listen to. I never really enjoyed that album I bought, but man do I did Danse Macabre and Wet From Birth.

I just bought Wet From Birth new today, and Danse Macabre used.

I'm listening to a song on Wet From Birth called "Symptom Finger" where The Faint coin one of the coolest phrases I've ever heard. Telepharmavangelism. Selling people on cures to diseases they may not have.

I'm not sure that telepharmavangelism really goes on, yet. But considering my job future, I think telepharmavangelism will help my salary. If I ever get a position in a company where it's my job to telepharmavangelize, I'll totally credit my profession to The Faint. Thanks, guys!

Ann Coulter

"I think there should be a literacy test and a poll tax for people to vote."--- Ann Coulter on Hannity & Colmes, 8/17/99

More like that, here

Bushzilla

There's no way I'm the first person to have seen this photo and envisioned a gigantor Bush roaming the streets of Japan.