Support The Detainee Basic Medical Care Act of 2008

Via Valtin, the Physicians for Human Rights organization is launching a campaign to support the Detainee Basic Medical Care Act of 2008 on its website. SR 3005 and HR 5950, sponsored by Senator Robert Menedez (D-NJ) and Representative Zoe Lofgren (D-CA), will reverse the alarming inhumane treatment of immigrant detainees. The letter [...]

The US’ New Cadre of Josef Mengeles

I’m stewing over the posts by Valtin about the use of US psychologists as agents of torture. I’m heartsick and soul sick at the evidence that Dana Priest and Amy Goldstein produced in their Washington Post Careless Detainee series about the use of nurses and physicians as agents of abuse and torture.
And just in [...]

Iraq War Illegal Propaganda-Gate Links Fest

The links list about the illegal Iraq War propaganda campaign will be updated as I discover new stories and evidence. Please add your own gems in the comments, and I’ll get them inserted into the post pronto. Thanks.
All The News That Isn’t - Network Television’s Propaganda In Uniform
Glenn Greenwald is developing David Barstow’s [...]

What They Were Saying: Gifts Of Links From The Commenters At Unclaimed Territory

I try to read Glenn Greenwald’s Unclaimed Territory blog posts on Salon.com immediately followed by the comments. The regular commenters there include a poet/historian/philosopher/veteran/patriot, scholars wearing the robes of various disciplines, rabble rousers with literary elan and the occasional Bush dead ender, pot stirring with a resounding thud.
Yesterday the commenters to this post [...]

What They Were Saying: Journalism’s Codes Of Ethics

Ben Franklin mused about virtue in the reading and reporting of history. What does the public trust demand and what is the social contract that ethical journalism strives to uphold?
The Society of Professional Journalists published Code of Ethics:
Preamble
Members of the Society of Professional Journalists believe that public enlightenment is the forerunner of justice and [...]

What They Were Saying: Benjamin Franklin’s Party For Virtue

From the Papers of Benjamin Franklin (Vol. 1: 706-34):

Observations on Reading History
ms Autobiography: Huntington Library
Observations on my Reading History in Library
May 9. 1731.

That the great Affairs of the World, the Wars, Revolutions, &c. are carried on and effected by Parties.
That the View of these Parties is their [...]

Fringe Kooks

Frank Rich writes about race and the free ride that McCain is receiving from the corporate media. He understands some of the issue, but he still dances rings around that elephant.
Mr. Hagee is not a fringe kook but the pastor of a Texas megachurch.
Hagee and his Elmer Gantry brethren are indeed fringe kooks of [...]

About The Relationship Between “Credibility” And Readership/Market Share

Sorry for such tangentialism today, but I can’t help but try to weave a few waving threads from recent examples:
NBC is refusing - in a very bare and brazen way - to address the evidence brought by the NYT, Glenn Greenwald and others relative to disclosure of actual and potential conflicts of interest and the [...]

Incarcerating People With Mental Illness

It’s traditional to express institutionalized fear and ostracism of those with illnesses.
Historically, most people know about tuberculosis wards, islands for people with leprosy and plague houses. In our not-so-remote history, state and federal institutions that warehoused people with chronic symptoms of mental illness were the norm and not the exception until the national wave of [...]

Torture: They Report It Because The US Media Is Pimping For The White House

The UK-based Guardian, has presented a several part primer on understanding the breadth, depth and scope of US torture.  Yes, make sure you pay attention to the referencing that it is US policy affirming and using torture.  What George and Dick do, they do in all our names.  Until we remove them from office, repudiate [...]

The D.C. Madam Has Nothing On Pimp Extraordinaire Rumsfeld

David Barstow has just let loose on the New York Times with another scandal.  Donald Rumsfeld ran the Pentagon as a prostitution ring. 
Richard Myers, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs seems to have been the stupid lead prostitute - not fully aware of what he was doing or what was being done to him, although [...]

Daily Constitutional: Torture and Torturous

Military.com reports about the Pentagon’s detailed evidence of abuse of Afghan prisoners.
The LA Times addresses the horrendous state of prison health care.  And yet, no mention is made of the widespread criminalization of people with mental illness.  over 50% of all inpatient psychiatric care is delivered in prisons.  The answer isn’t in adding to the prison [...]

Rice Chaired Torture, but states, “Nobody Condones Torture”

Act to remove Condoleezza Rice as US Secretary of State.  She is a war criminal. She is an enemy of the United States.

Is This American Justice?

 
Habeas corpus was eliminated.
Defendants will not be able to see secret evidence against them.
Hearsay evidence and confessions coerced as a result of torture will be used to convict.
Is this American justice?

Help the ACLU Spread the Truth About the Trials at Guantánamo Bay.
Dear ACLU Supporter,
Last week, the ACLU stepped forward. This week, we need [...]

Bloggers as Agents of Propaganda

The Pentagon has in place a fully developed plan to recruit bloggers as agents of propaganda. Is it already in action? Healthy skepticism is the order of the day.