2008 archive
Torture Is Their Pornography (Updated) 0
From the Guardian:
· Senior Bush administration figures pushed through previously outlawed measures with the aid of inexperienced military officials at Guantánamo.
· Myers believes he was a victim of “intrigue” by top lawyers at the department of justice, the office of vice-president Dick Cheney, and at Donald Rumsfeld’s defence department.
· The Guantánamo lawyers charged with devising interrogation techniques were inspired by the exploits of Jack Bauer in the American TV series 24.
· Myers wrongly believed interrogation techniques had been taken from the army’s field manual.
The lawyers, all political appointees, who pushed through the interrogation techniques were Alberto Gonzales, David Addington and William Haynes. Also involved were Doug Feith, Rumsfeld’s under-secretary for policy, and Jay Bybee and John Yoo, two assistant attorney generals.
Via Le Show.
Addendum, 4/21/2008:
Froomkin:
One reason, of course, is that many who might have objected to Vice President Cheney’s torture cabal were bypassed or moved out of the way. Others just followed orders.
But a new report suggests that at least one man who couldn’t be entirely bypassed — and who should have known better — fell victim to another tactic: He was duped.
Follow the link for a discussion of whose fault this was.
Unexpected Visit 1
As I mentioned earlier, First Son is home from Afghanistan.
He was unexpectedly in the area this weekend, because of a crisis in First Daughter-in-Law’s family.
It was good to see the two of them.
We have honorable soldiers doing their jobs honorably.
Sadly, they were sent to do those jobs by persons without honor.
My son has served and will continue to serve with honor.
He lives up to his oath to the Constitution of the United States of America, unlike those who sent him.
When are you going to do something about those who dishonor his service by asking him to fight and die for lies?
News Break 2
I took a break from the news for the last couple of days.
No podcasts.
No radio in the vehicle, except for the Citizens Radio Service.
Not much radio at home.
Pretty, much, if it wasn’t in the local rag, I didn’t pay attention to it.
And, you know what? nothing changed.
The nation is still ruled by incompetent liars. (Well, not exactly. They are incompetent and they are liars, but, then again, they are very competent liars).
Good lives are still being thrown away for a lie.
People who call themselves Christians continue to embarrass those who are. (You know, I’ve pretty much observed, if you have to advertise that you are a believer–regardless of the creed–you probably are a hypocrite and a liar, but that’s another story.)
Voodoo economics is still the Republican way.
The rich are still getting richer–or, at least, thrown a life ring–and the poor, still getting poorer.
And Hillary Clinton, who apparently fears people who care enough about the course of this nation to, you know, like, actually get involved in citizen politics, still gives me the willies.
Bushonomics 0
Over at the Group News Blog.
Your Government at Work 0
From the Booman Tribune. Follow the link to see the answer to the question at the end of the excerpt. And ask yourself, “Why didn’t they do this in a neighborhood of poor white folk?”
Of course, patriotic white Americans do tend to forget a few minor problems with this narrative. Minor things like slavery, the Klu Klux Klan, lynching and the infamous Tuskegee experiments when poor black men with syphilis were left untreated for decades just to see what course the disease might take, even though there were treatments available to them. They weren’t even told they had syphilis, merely that they were being treated for “bad blood.” In fact, they were unknowing and unwilling participants in a study to see how bad their symptoms would get before they died from the disease the good doctors conducting the study refused to inform them they suffered from.
Those days are long gone, fortunately. These days the federal government researchers would never deliberately lie to black people in order to get them to participate in an unethical scientific study. Not in the 21st century! Or would they? (Tip of me hat to the field negro and Francis Holland)
Why Did I Start Watching This Hockey Game? 0
It’s going into the second overtime and I have to go to Coatesville tomorrow.
Laryngitis 0
I went into church to do treasurer stuff after coming back from the cooling tower place today (the pay period ended Tuesday). The pastor dropped by (the parsonage is right next to the church and my little yellow truck kind of stands out–like a tuxedo at the beach).
Pastor: How are you doing?
Me: Better. But this thing doesn’t want to go away.
Pastor: I can tell.
Me: You should have heard me teaching a class with no voice a week ago Wednesday.
Pastor: That’s rough. I’ve had to give sermons like that.
Me: Don’t worry. I wasn’t listening.
Pastor (who, by the way, is also a Linux geek): (. . . . . .)
Oh, well. You had to be there.
The Candidates Debate 1
Josh Marshall:
Stray Thought 12
A cinnamon raisin bagel is not a proper bagel.
It’s an abomiination a cookie.
Windows Features Missing from Linux 1
Gosh, I don’t know how I live without these:
- That silly animation that runs while Windows is copying a file, together with its wild estimations of time to complete: 30 seconds remaining, 2 minutes, 9 minutes, 25 minutes, 37 minutes, 30 seconds.
- The registry
- Virus checking software
- The window that comes up when a program crashes and sends the crash dump to Redmond, to give them a much needed laugh. Linux programs instead lay a small binary turd file in situ. After a while you end up with quite a large collection of these, decorating your directories.
- Automatic updates fixing vulnerabilities in Outlook Express. Who uses Outlook Express these days? Why?
- Windows genuine disadvantage
- The Windows pause, by which I mean that increasingly prevalent nothing-happening-for-no-reason delay that intrudes between the user poking and the software flinching.
The Candidates Debate 1
Me, I’ve watching the Phillies.
But the first thing I’ll do tomorrow after bringing in the daily Inky will be to turn to the back of the Metro section to see what’s in the obits.
The Return of Herbert Hoover 0
The story goes that Herbert Hoover (a typical Republican failure as a President, except that he was an honest man and therefore would find no home in today’s Republican Party, but that’s a different issue–see the previous post) was walking down the street with Ogden Mills, his Secretary of the Treasury, in 1930.
This was back when Presidents were allowed to walk down the street.
Mr. Hoover said, “Can I borrow a nickel to call my friend.”
Mr. Mills said, “Here’s a dime. Call both of them.”
Now, instead of a chicken in every pot, we have pot in every chicken:
Instead, officers who pulled over Stewart on Friday night say they found a side dish of marijuana hidden in a recently purchased box of chicken.
Liar, Liar, Pants on Fire 0
It’s a Bushie thing–that is, lying, not to protect one’s sorry anatomy, but lying as a tool of governance:
I feel like Syvester Jr. I want to put a bag over my head and wait for them to all go away.
Age Discrimination 6
Can anyone tell me what is the point of these “Over 55” communities that seem to be springing up?
I sure wouldn’t want to live in a place where all my neighbors were geezers like me. This street was built in 1954 and 1955. We have residents ranging from (almost) newlyweds to some of the original purchasers (and there’s no better security than nosy retired persons who are at home all day, but that’s another story).
I get no end of enjoyment watching my neighbors’ little girls (all the little kids on the street are girls–must be something in the water) play.
The one was out trying to fly a kite this afternoon. Of course, there’s no wind, so, when she ran out of running room, the kite came right back down–and there are so many trees that, if there had been a wind, it would have turned into a Charley Brown kite, but that’s not the issue.
And, ya know what? if she falls down and breaks her crown, no one’s going to come running to me to fix it.
What could be better than that: all the enjoyment, none of the responsibility?
So why do people want to wall themselves off in “Over 55” communities. Beats the hell out of me.
CCTV 0
I was in the security business for eight years. It is truly amazing what little tiny cameras and computer controls can do.
But I thought this kind of stuff happened only in 9 1/2 Weeks and bad pr0n0.
But this Republican has taken clandestine spying to new levels (Via just about everybody):
None of the subjects were aware they were being filmed and no permission had been obtained, Barclay admitted. According to a second warrant issued on April 9th, Barclay also admitted to hiring prostitutes on a weekly basis from the now-defunct website harrisburgfratboys.com.
There’s those right-wing family values again.
Misty Water-Colored Memories . . . 1
Mithras has a great post over at his place. I can’t think of any kind of cool or snappy lead in to it.
Just please go read it.
And, remember, it wasn’t that so long ago and a lot has not changed (via Atrios).
