from the torture memos

We recognize that as a matter of diplomacy, the United States may for various reasons in various circumstances call another nation to account for practices that may in some respects resemble conduct in which the United States might in some circumstances engage, covertly or otherwise. Diplomatic relations with regard to foreign countries are not reliable …

jedermann sein eigner Stylo

Hi! I was going to write another post complaining about stuff I dislike about the Obama administration, but news stories kept piling up before I could find time to write editorial comments about all of them. So just do what I do and read Glenn Greenwald. How can he type that fast? Some highlights (not …

every crystal that crawled up your nose has helped to create the economic power base for a worldwide secret government

(note: this post’s title is a Zappa quote) Hey, remember how the other day Obama (exhibiting his usual supercilious mien) laughed off the question of marijuana legalization, saying “I don’t think that is a good strategy to grow our economy”? And remember those recent DEA raids in San Francisco? Maybe the story behind Barry’s newfound …

sundry

I think Poetariat will have new posts soon regarding our recent surface-world projects. Stay tuned. Anyway, I wanted to post something this month, so here’s a salient quote from Glenn Greenwald: The political class wants people to see them as helpless captives to immutable political realities so that they have a permanent, all-purpose excuse for …

a hot stinging liquid was then poured into open wounds on his penis where he had been cut

I’ve been meaning to write about President Obama’s implicit support for penile torture. Glenn Greenwald had a pretty comprehensive summary. Basically what the Obama administration has done is apply the Bush administration position on the state secrets privilege: the expansive use of the privilege to get entire cases thrown out of court, whereas earlier administrations …

MEIN FÜHRER, I CAN WALK

Here‘s a Devo song that should be rewritten for Dick Cheney: he got big and fat and he was ridin’ high makin’ lots of cash trashin’ others’ lives now Cheney’s in a wheelchair and I don’t care Anyway, what did everyone think of Elizabeth Alexander’s inaugural poem? I think mine was better. The news on …

Bush administration confesses torture

“We tortured Qahtani. His treatment met the legal definition of torture. And that’s why I did not refer the case [for prosecution].” Speaking of torture, if you want to get a sense of the state of human rights in the US, you only need to check out our prison rape statistics. Also, can someone tell …

what did you expect?

Obama Unlikely To Quickly Close Gitmo Obama Signals His Reluctance to Look Into Bush Policies (but John Conyers has a better idea) EDIT: DEVELOPING… (as Drudge would say) I don’t really feel like writing about the above, because a) I already did, and b) this is like the septillionth post in a row that I’ve …