"ANY WAGE THAT IS NOT A LIVING WAGE IS UNJUST, NO MATTER WHAT THE REASON, AND TO BE FORCED TO ACCEPT IT IS ECONOMIC VIOLENCE." Obery M. Hendricks, Jr., from "The Politics of Jesus..."
Back in March I wrote about Spain considering indictments against several Bush administration officials, Jay Bybee being one of them.
Jay Bybee was an assistant attorney general when he signed off on memos justifying the torture of people in the custody of the United States. From the opinion page of the Philidelphia Inquirer online:
Judge Bybee's cruelty: In approving torture, his remoteness from the actual torturers increases his degree of responsibility.
Go ahead and waterboard him. Admittedly, the procedure "causes an increase in carbon-dioxide level in the individual's blood. This increase in the carbon-dioxide level stimulates increased effort to breathe. This effort plus the cloth [placed over the mouth and nose and saturated with water] produces the perception of 'suffocation and incipient panic,' i.e., the perception of drowning." But "although the subject may experience the fear or panic associated with the feeling of drowning, the waterboard does not inflict physical pain. ... The waterboard is simply a controlled acute episode."
If you scroll down and read some of the comments, one misguided individual states the same tired argument about the terrorists not showing quarter to our people, etc. It is a tired, worn argument.
"The point is not whether torture is morally justifiable, the point is that it is fucking illegal."
Tell me it was okay for the sheriff in Texas to waterboard prisoners for a confession. Go ahead. That motherfucker received 10 years in prison for that and the deputies involved received 4 years a piece.
You see? When an elected official or an appointed one, such as a judge or a police officer violates the public trust by breaking the law the consequences should be so unpleasant that one would be quite reticent in fucking around at all in the first place.
This shit pisses me off. It is the absolute arrogance of these assholes to not only break the law in such a violent fashion, but to write memos talking each other into believing it is justifiable and legal-when it clearly is not. Their behavior is absolutely unconscionable.
Jay Bybee needs to be removed from the bench; impeached, then prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. Please do not expect me to obey the rule of law in the United States when we have such pathetic examples in our government officials.
I know people like this personally; you probably do also.
I sure as hell hope Spain hands down those indictments, furthermore, here in the US, the perpetrators of this shit need to be put on trial and we need to find out the truth about what was going on and what the hell these people were thinking.
I believe that although it might be painful for the United States to have a truth commission of sorts, (truthfully I would like to see Cheney/Bush et al behind bars,) it is absolutely essential for our country to move forward. This bullshit about not going after past crimes is absolutely ridiculous, for how can any crime be prosecuted if the prosecutor refuses to look in the past? It makes no sense whatsoever.
Call your members of Congress for your district, tell them you are not going to tolerate this crap. Here is a link to all fifty states...
I caught this last night on Rachel Maddow's MSNBC show. Seems a Spanish Court is pursuing indictments for war crimes against: 1. Alberto Gonzales, former Attorney General of the United States
2. John Yoo, from the Justice Department
3.Jay Bibey, from the Justice Department, John Yoo's boss, worked for Gonzales, now a Federal Judge, (what the fuck?)
4.Doug Fife, Undersecretary of defense,
5..David Addington, Dick (cock) Cheney's chief of staff, and spawn of satan, and
6.William Hanes, General Counsel at the Pentagon.
These six individuals may have an indictment handed down in Spain for their arrest. According to the New York Times, it would mean little, unless they leave the United States.
Then it would be a situation that would go down in the history books. I would love to see some of these arrogant right-wing "christian" torturers under the gun, on trial and thrown into prison for years. Their receipt of a fair trial is more than they afforded their victims of torture. Please do not forget, Searchers, the Bush administration and the pigs that enabled Bush were on the track of pulling ANYONE off the streets of America that George Bush or Cock Cheney or their minions for any suspected "terrorism." Read the memo. Suspend Habeus Corpus, my ass.
Most white people would say, "So What? I don't look Arab, I haven't done anything wrong." That is putting an innate, (and inane) confidence in our elected officials and their appointees. Big mistake! Especially when they are right wing and got their marching orders from Bush a self styled "very religious" man.
I know his type of "religion," it was the same kind used in the Inquisition, and the same kind used by the fuckstick flanagin's when they commit high crimes and misdemeanors. Kinda like having a bible in one hand and someones testicles in a jar on their office desk. (I'm glad that motherfucker died in prison. Very fitting. Next, Flanagins.) Then go to Sunday School, after fucking your mistress in Little Rock, while your kids and wife are at home. Sound familiar, Arkansas? What a gem! ( Furthermore, in the south if you are labeled as a "moderate democrat" you are little more than a slightly left Republican.)
I will say it again: Give me a good Pagan or left-wing christian any day to reason with cause the American Right Wing Church is full of idiocy, hate, intolerance and contempt.
So Good luck, Spain, I hope it comes to pass and Gonzales and his ilk, along with Bush and Cheney spend the rest of their lives in prison. Probably not going to happen, but I support it.
Just to be clear: I also support putting Bush and Cheney's backs against a wall to face a firing squad.
I am not a squeamish American that can support hanging a national leader after a mock trial, a kangaroo court, (you know what that's like don't you Arkansas! What a gem that Arkansas is!) and not be able to stomach one of the presidents of the United States going to his execution. If I support the execution of any President and Vice President, it would be Bush Cheney, number 1. Number 2? Reagan/Bush. Remember, I supported these fuckwits and I voted for the worthless piece of shit George Bush. Then I became enlightened.
One good note I heard regarding this judge from Spain: He got the monster Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet, a puppet of the U.S., arrested in London when he went on a trip to the United Kingdom. Godspeed, I truly hope we can lock up these motherfuckers, Bush and Cheney included, and throw away the key. After some rousing rounds of water boarding. Call me when you have the "christian" John Ashcroft on the table, I'd be happy to torture that son of a bitch.
Big story over the weekend out of central California, a 26 year old man shot up Oakland, killing 3 police officers outright, and leaving one officer brain dead. As an individual that lived with violence in my home growing up, I detest violence. However, one may have to resort to violence to get one's point across. Having said that I do not agree with what this young man did. The police do have a place in our society.
However, before we jump the gun and relegate these cops to "hero" status, let us keep things in perspective. Here are some headlines from around the country regarding police actions:
From the Chicago Tribune: Race may be factor in police shooting of unarmed elderly man Seems in Homer Louisiana, an elderly Black man was hosting a cookout with his family, when the police showed up. According to the story, in a matter of moments Mr. Bernard Monroe, a throat cancer survivor, was shot dead through his screen door of the front of his house while his family looked on. It gets better. According to the Tribune, after these cops shot to death an unarmed elderly man that could not talk, they found one of Bernard Monroe's pistols and placed it next to the dead man while the family looked on and attempted to assert that Bernard Monroe, family cookout hoster, had been holding it when they murdered him. The fucking police were so ballsy as to plant a gun on the dead man while the family looked on. Mr. Bernard survived cancer, but he could not survive the Homer, LA police. Now the FBI and the State Police are all over the case. If these cops did in fact murder this man, the only appropriate punishment should be swift. Strap em in and let them ride 'Ole Sparky, or shoot em and let them die slowly. Fuck em. This is the new South? Please.
Michigan Teen Dies After Tasered by Cops From Fox News.com. While I cannot stand Fox, I pulled this off of the Google News site: So it seems in Bay City, Michigan police responded to a call about a fight last Sunday morning. Yes this happened this past weekend. So, the police show up and "two males" are fighting. According to the article the police said "one of them attempted to fight the officers." So the cops pull out their "non lethal" weapons and tase an adolescent kid. The kid is now dead at 15 years old. And the cop is on "administrative leave." I have a 14 year old son. Let there be no mistake about what I would do to an individual that harmed or killed my child. Are you listening? It makes no difference to me what kind of job the individual did for a living before they killed my child. Whether doctor, lawyer, cop, judge, pot dealer, (are you listening pocahontas pot dealer?) it would not matter. Anyone that harms, threatens to harm or carries out threats to harm any of my children is fair game.
Remember, we are keeping the Oakland police shooting in perspective.
From the Willamette Week in Portland, Oregon: Why Did James Chasse Jr. Die? So it seems the police in Portland don't have a clue as to how to deal with people suffering from mental illness. Quite a disturbing idea, considering the statistical amount of people with mental illness in the United States. So James Chasse, Jr., had a confrontation with the police in the Pearl District. For those of you that do not know Portland, the Pearl is a swanky area of town, with costly apartments, houses, restaurants and boutiques. Not exactly the area Portland Police and politicians want a schizophrenic man hanging out. So, Mr. Chasse had a confrontation with police. they evidently didn't like his attitude, because they stomped the living shit out of him, literally, stuffed him in the back of a police car and left him to die, and die he did.
SIDEBAR: Cops should not be allowed to even fill out an application for employment as a cop before proving they have at least a bachelor's degree in Psychology, and carried at least a 3.0 in their Psych. classes. OK, let us proceed.
Florida Man Dies After Police Allegedly Shoot Him Repeatedly With Taser Gun So a 45 year old man shows up at a friend's house, acting rowdy, and the friend calls the cops. The cops show up and now Kenneth Oliver is dead after being repeatedly electrocuted by the police. Do you see a pattern emerging?
So, Sean Bell was about to get married to his sweetheart. He had been at a bachelor party at a strip club, (let's not get judgemental, dumbass self-righteous right wingers that are banging their choir directors in church), when the problems started with the police. Long story short, the cops claimed one of them had a gun, when that didn't pan out they said one of the party-goers tried to hit them with their car, so the police saw fit to fire 50 ROUNDS, 50 motherfucking bullets at this car killing the unarmed about to be married Sean Bell. Kinda reminds one of Amadou Diallo. Begs the question: What the fuck is wrong with the cops in the United States?
Man says NYPD officers sodomized him with antenna Gotta love NYC's finest! So a Brooklyn man, Michael Mineo, was smoking a doob near the subway when he was jumped by five cops, held down, tasered and sodomized by the police with a radio antenna. The police say it didn't happen, of course. However, as the next headline will reveal, this is a pattern with the New York City Police. Michael Mineo was hospitalized with rectal tears and intense pain. I have read an update: Evidently, DNA was found on the radio antenna, and indictments have been handed down.
"The arresting officers beat Louima with their fists, nightsticks, and hand-held police radios on the ride to the station.[2] On arriving at the station house, he was strip-searched and put in a holding cell. The beating continued later, culminating with Louima being raped in a bathroom at the 70th Precinct station house in Brooklyn. Officer Justin Volpe kicked Louima in the testicles, then, while Louima's hands were cuffed behind his back, he first grabbed onto and squeezed his testicles and then sodomized him with a broomstick, causing severe internal damage to his colon and bladder that required several operations to repair. Volpe then walked through the precinct holding the bloody, excrement-stained instrument in his hand, indicating that he had 'broke a man down.'"
Credit to Wikipedia This case was so brutal that Amnesty International uses it as a case study in police torture and brutality.
Fuck. What a mess. There is another person dead, a man with a family, and cops that keep on getting leniency. What the fuck are transit cops doing with firearms any damn way? We have transit police here, and I'll be damned if I allow them to carry guns. Hell the worthless Portland Police Bureau (not to mention the sorry as multnomah county sherrif) cannot even do their jobs properly without help, this is why they have emplyed PPI, a private security firm. Huh? Have we not learned anything regarding privatization? What the fuck.
Well, Searchers, I could spend the rest of the day going over people who have been brutalized, raped, tortured, falsely accused, falsely imprisoned and more by the police, I simply do not have enough time. So, while I feel bad for the families of these officers killed in Oakland, especially if these officers had children, we have to keep things in perspective. The majority of white people in this country don't even remember Abner Louima, don't know who Oscar Grant was, and really couldn't care. I challenge you to prove me wrong. As mentioned before, I feel for the families of these cops that were killed. However, the chance of getting shot at or shot down as a cop is part of the job description. I feel infinite sympathy for someone working a retail job that gets killed during work while being robbed or something. Totally different scenario. While I do not advocate violence, if you put on a police uniform you are inviting trouble. Anyone that thinks otherwise is either a damn fool, or they are completely blinded by their right-wing christian stupidity, I mean beliefs.
The police have become a para-military force. Check out the reports from protesters from the Republican National Convention in Minneapolis last summer. Hell, in Portland, some of the cops don't have their names on their uniforms any longer. It is time for the people to reign these cops in, otherwise we will regret it. There is a reason the framers of the Constitution made sure the citizens of the United States should have firearms: Not to keep "bad guys" out, just to make sure the government knows who is in charge. And the deterrent against the bad guys like the flanagins is pretty beneficial, too. (So if y'all want to show up, I'd be glad to help you out farting through a hole in your stomach.)
UPDATE: In Oakland, not everyone is shocked at the killings of the police, some see it as payback for Oscar Grant. Remember what Jesus said, Right-Wingers: You reap what you sow.
In an ABC interview, US V.P. Dick Cheney admitted to "getting the process cleared" or authorizing the use of water boarding on prisoners of war. While invoking 9/11 yet again, (which has become the get out of jail free card, and the "do anything you want and get away with it" pass), Cheney was adamant in insisting it was the right thing to do, despite the fact that it is against U.S. and International law.
If Cheney is allowed to admit on television his disregard for the law, without fear of prosecution, it will set a dangerous tone for future administrations to wantonly disregard law, human rights, and liberty, and flaunt their ability to avoid legitimate prosecution for their crimes. Furthermore, administrations will find it increasingly easy to use torture tactics on all people, American citizens included, when they deem necessary.
The blatant disregard for law, ethics and morality in this Conservative Christian administration is appalling. I have voted for this administration twice, I have been duped, I have held the measuring stick to them and they have fallen far short. I am thankful the term is almost finished.
If the President of the United States as well as the Vice President, SecDef, SecState, the Attorney General for God's sake, can violate the letter as well as the spirit of so many laws, why would I expect anyone to respect the legal system in my country, obey the law, and even give a damn that we have laws?
It is a question worth asking, and delving into. I believe we need to hold our elected officials, appointed politicians such as some judges, law enforcement personnel, accountable for their actions and make it extraordinarily painful if they violate the public trust.
Just some thoughts on a snowy Wednesday morning in Vancouver. Peace- Mike
I'm a man that is just begining to feel grounded and in place...I used to support the right wing in the United States even when it went against my interests, in the interest of American Right Wing Christianity...I have awakened...stay posted...
