I’m writing for tomorrow, day 36. This is the only article, because I’m still down. I’m waiting for store to door to deliver groceries, so I can eat and go back to bed.
Late note: No pass for funding bill without stripping Republican blackmail for Banksters and theft of Apache land.
Jig Zone Puzzle:
Today’s took me 4:48 (average 4:28). To do it, click here. How did you do?
Short Takes:
From Daily Kos:
Following the release of a 6,700-page report on American torture practices, Fox News was very upset. The network’s hosts and guests assailed the notion of transparency, attacked the report’s release as political, talked about Jonathan Gruber, and generally insisted that Americans should not know what our government is doing when it comes to torture. But leave it to Outnumbered co-host Andrea Tantaros to really put the Fox News position on torture in terms anyone can understand:
"The United States of America is awesome, we are awesome," she said. "We’ve closed the book on it, and we’ve stopped doing it. And the reason they want to have this discussion is not to show how awesome we are. This administration wants to have this discussion to show us how we’re not awesome."
"They apologized for this country, they don’t like this country, they want us to look bad. And all this does is have our enemies laughing at us, that we are having this debate again," Tantaros continued.
There’s the party line from the liars at the Republican Reichsministry of Propaganda.
From NY Times: The release of the Senate report on the graphic torture of terrorism suspects by the Bush-era Central Intelligence Agency led to calls at the United Nations and elsewhere on Tuesday for criminal prosecutions and caused an international explosion on social media, including online jihadist exhortations for retaliation.
The State Department warned American citizens in at least two countries where the torture and abuse took place — Thailand and Afghanistan — that they could be confronted with anti-American hostility.
Publicity about the report, the United States Embassy in Bangkok warned on its website, “could prompt anti-U.S. protests and violence against U.S. interests, including private U.S. citizens.”
In Geneva, the United Nations Human Rights Council’s special investigator on counterterrorism and human rights, Ben Emmerson, said he welcomed the report and commended the Obama administration for having resisted political pressures to suppress it.
We have a treaty obligation to prosecute the leaders responsible. The word is reacting to our failure to keep our word.
From The New Yorker: Former Vice-President Dick Cheney on Tuesday called upon the nations of the world to “once and for all ban the despicable and heinous practice of publishing torture reports.”
“Like many Americans, I was shocked and disgusted by the Senate Intelligence Committee’s publication of a torture report today,” Cheney said in a prepared statement. “The transparency and honesty found in this report represent a gross violation of our nation’s values.”
“The publication of torture reports is a crime against all of us,” he added. “Not just those of us who have tortured in the past, but every one of us who might want to torture in the future.”
Geez, Andy! Straight news again?!!?
Cartoon:
18 Responses to “Open Thread–12/11/2014”
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5:13 average up to 5:51. Of course all that blue, no way to place them except trial and error, and even that doesn't work when they don't snap.
Daily Kos – Andrea, if you have to insist you are awsone – you aren't. Is that simple enough?
NY Times – Well, gee. Golly gee. What a surprise.
New Yorker – Doesn't get much straighter than that, does it?
TC, I wonder if the C2 glitch monster resents your computer because it is SO powerful, dependable, and well maintained. I posted 2 stories yesterday and both posted first try – this on a computer that often won't reply to C2 email, or post in a group without refreshing, or redeem butterfly credits at all, ever. That shouldn't have happened, but it did.
P.S. – Just enjoy your groceries, don't eat any crows, even if they are falling at your feet. Especially if they are falling at your feet. not a good idea.
Daily Kos – being from over the pond I have never heard of the programme mentioned – and I am hoping against hope that that is satire. PLEASE tell me that is satire!! If it is not it sounds like 'my country, right or wrong' – which sounds such a good idea until one thinks and then realises that in the wrong hands that phrase gives licence to the criminals, the thugs, the torturers and the murderers. Perhaps it should be 'Because I love my country, I hold it to a higher standard'. ….?
Having heard Cheney whinging in the media about this report, I almost swallowed Andy's satire hook line and sinker – I'm sure that is what Cheney would have liked to have said!
Take care TC and take those supplements (and Vit D3 and Vit K2) if you can, they really help!
Pat A, so sorry, nothing on Fox News is intended as satire – although it probably all should be.
Also should probably have posted this link –
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2014/12/10/1350709/-Here-s-A-Wrecking-Ball-for-Cheney-and-The-Torture-Apologists-To-Suck-On?detail=email
As a former Marine I am extremely proud of Major Moran.
Wow, wow.
Wasn't that a terrific article about Moran! Cheney and his buffoons couldn't handle Moran's methods. Moran was a class act. Cheney gives pond scum a bad name.
NOTE to Andrea Tantaros and All You Other Torture Apologists – Defenders – Supporters – ENTHUSIASTS
If your main point is that what the CIA did produced “good information”, please note that you are thereby supporting torture.
So just keep in mind that if you’re upset about the Senate Report on CIA Torture, remember exactly WHAT you’re thereby defending.
Amen brother Nameless!
I am glad Feinstein succeeded in this release. I remember a number of months ago hearing that Cheney and/or Bush cancelled international travel due to warrant from the Hague to arrest–I hope that at least is still true.
My email is filled with faith and health professional organizations calling for justice and something sufficient to prevent a repeat should persons with similar error-prone moral compasses have similar power and/or authority in the future. I hope the public and the media speak loud and long enough for sufficient action.
Email let me know we can thank our Progressive voices (e.g., Warren, Ellison, Lee…) for give aways to the banks and Wall Street not threatening at the moment–hadn't heard about the McCain land give away also being history…I hope the Collins' longer truck driver hours and not protecting the sage grouse also disappear.
May delivery person give you extra service and that you find you've turned the corner towards recovery upon next awakening.
3:51 The wind is at my back, is it blowing hard enough?
In a word to answer your question Jerry, "no". 3:42
I don't mind one word answers, but I prefer yes to no.
Hope you are better soon.
Daily Kos : The airways have been full of Crying and Whining by the Right Wing about this report. None of us who have paid attention to what was happening are very surprised, though. The CIA and all those involved with this have attacked the very basis of our country as far as I am concerned. What the Right does not seem to understand is that if they are allowed to do this to those at Gitmo, the rest of us are next if they don't like something we said or did.
The New Yorker: Yes it is satire, but uncomfortable close to reality.
Cartoon: Aptly describes that man, the puppeteer from the Bush Administration.
Puzzle — In a word to answer your question Jerry, "no". 3:42
Daily Kos — Who is Tantaros trying to convince of American exceptionalism . . . herself? Often, when someone yells things like this so loudly and so often, it is an indiction that they are trying to convince themselves. If she gets others involved at the same time, that's a bonus.
NY Times — The Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment was signed by the US 18/04/88 and ratified 21/10/94. Canada signed it 23/08/85 and ratified it 24/06/87. Under the terms of the Convention, when Baby Bush and Chickenhawk Cheney entered Canada for speaking engagements (why would anyone pay to hear these trolls lie?), Canada had a legal obligation to arrest these two varmits! Instead, the Rt disHonourable Stephen Harper showed his contempt for the UN and international laws by allowing these two clowns to run free. Harper was wearing his Republican rubber pants that day in hopes that nobody would notice.
The New Yorker — Yup, Andy is again straying into the way of the straight news freight train again.
Cartoon — That beast makes me want to hurl!
TC, this Open Thread was straight torture to read and comment on.
Hope you're feeling better, slowly but surely! BTW, I finally got my internet fixed. I thought it was the modem which was about 5-6 years old but it wasn't. The culprit was a short in the telephone line (modem to wall jack) but I also had a short in the telephone line. I now have a new modem and a new line, plus the short circuit is fixed so there should be no crackling etc. Feels good to have it dependable again.
If Tantaros and her ilk would just STFU, our enemies (and probably our allies, too) woulk stop laughing at us and there would be peace in the world. Problem solved.
Thanks and Amen to virtially everything said. Still quite ill Hugs!
5:25 on puzzle time
oh I hope somebody in the world community will go after Trickier Dick Darth Cheney…..