LOS ANGELES TIMES: “God will get you for that, Walter.” Nobody could do more with these words than Beatrice Arthur as Maude Findlay on the marital warpath. She could slingshot them in fury or release them in a chilling deadpan, but however she delivered them you could be sure they’d hit their mark with a prizefighter’s pop. All the tributes that will be lavished on Arthur, who died Saturday at 86, will extol her impeccable comic timing. Her ability to detonate a joke, to momentarily harness a punch line before releasing at full force, brought her Emmy-winning success in two […]
WEEKEND UPDATE: The Good News Flower Hour
The Good News Flower Hour #18 Oh noes!
WORTH REPEATING: What He Said
[via The New Republic via U.S. Department Of State] “Torture anywhere is an affront to human dignity everywhere. We are committed to building a world where human rights are respected and protected by the rule of law. Freedom from torture is an inalienable human right. The Convention Against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment, ratified by the United States and more than 130 other countries since 1984, forbids governments from deliberately inflicting severe physical or mental pain or suffering on those within their custody or control. Yet torture continues to be practiced around the world by rogue regimes […]
Who Approved What & When Did They Approve It
MCCLATCHY: A newly declassified narrative of the Bush administration’s advice to the CIA on harsh interrogations shows that the small group of Justice Department lawyers who wrote memos authorizing harsh interrogation techniques were operating not on their own but with direction from top administration officials, including then-Vice President Dick Cheney and National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice. At the same time, the narrative suggests that then-Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld and then-Secretary of State Colin Powell were largely left out of the decision-making process. The narrative, posted Wednesday on the Senate Intelligence Committee’s Web site and released by its former chairman, Sen. […]
YOU ARE BEING WATCHED: You Cannot Hide
ASSOCIATED PRESS: Two FBI workers are accused of using surveillance equipment to spy on teenage girls as they undressed and tried on prom gowns at a charity event at a West Virginia mall. The FBI employees have been charged with conspiracy and criminal invasion of privacy. They were working in an FBI satellite control room at the mall when they positioned a camera on temporary changing rooms and zoomed in for at least 90 minutes on girls dressing for the Cinderella Project fashion show, Marion County Prosecutor Pat Wilson said yesterday. Gary Sutton Jr., 40, of New Milton, and Charles […]
Chorus Of Voices Calling 4 Torture Special Prosecutor
NEW YORK TIMES: Pressure mounted on President Obama on Monday for more thorough investigation into harsh interrogations of terrorism suspects under the Bush administration, even as he tried to reassure the Central Intelligence Agency that it would not be blamed for following legal advice. Mr. Obama said it was time to admit “mistakes” and “move forward.” But there were signs that he might not be able to avoid a protracted inquiry into the use of interrogation techniques that the president’s top aides and many critics say crossed the line into torture. And while Mr. Obama vowed not to prosecute C.I.A. […]
WEEK IN REVIEW: The Good News Flower Hour
The Good News Flower Hour #17 Better late than never. You’ll laugh, you’ll cry, you might even learn something.
SECOND AMENDMENT: The Right To Bear Harms?
NEW YORK TIMES: Where were their parents? That was the thought I couldn’t shake ten years ago as news broke from Littleton, Colo., and all cameras were aimed at Columbine High School. It was my first national tragedy as a parent, and my perspective took me by surprise. A few years earlier I would have put myself in the shoes of the terrified students, huddled in classrooms, hiding under tables in the library. But on April 20, 1999, I felt for the parents. Racing toward the school building, stopped by police tape and SWAT teams, learning their kids were safe […]
TORTURE MEMO: Prisoner Waterboarded 183 Times
NEW YORK TIMES: Waterboarding, the near-drowning technique that top Obama administration officials have described as illegal torture, was used by C.I.A. interrogators 183 times on one prisoner from Al Qaeda and 83 times on another, according to a 2005 Justice Department legal memorandum. The release of the numbers is likely to become part of the debate about the morality and efficacy of interrogation methods that the Bush administration Justice Department declared legal even though the United States had historically treated them as torture. A former C.I.A. officer, John Kiriakou, had told ABC News and other news media organizations in 2007 […]
EXORCISM: Obama Releases More CIA Torture Memos
GUARDIAN: In the first of the memos, dated 1 August 2002, the justice department gave the go-ahead to John Rizzo, then acting general counsel to the CIA, for operatives to move to the “increased pressure phase” in interrogating an al-Qaida suspect. Ten techniques are approved, listed as: attention grasp, walling (in which the suspect could be pushed into a wall), a facial hold, a facial slap, cramped confinement, wall standing, sleep deprivation, insects placed in a confinement box (the suspect had a fear of insects) and the waterboard. In the latter, “the individual is bound securely to an inclined bench, […]
GAMBLOR: Snider Contribution Suspected Of Buying Off Member Of House Gaming Oversight Committee
INQUIRER: The Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board is investigating whether a $15,000 political contribution from Comcast-Spectacor chairman Ed Snider, who is a partner in the Foxwoods Casino planned for Center City, violated the state ban on campaign giving by gambling interests. Snider gave $15,000 on Jan. 15 to Comcast Corp. PAC-USA, a political committee registered with the Pennsylvania Department of State. The 2004 gaming act prohibits any casino principals from contributing “to any political party committee or other political committee in this commonwealth.” […] Snider has 8 percent of the Foxwoods venture as part of Philadelphia Entertainment and Development Partners L.P., […]
STOP THE DEATH STAR I WANNA GET OFF: NSA Spy Matrix Runs Amok, Devours Fourth Amendment
NEW YORK TIMES: The National Security Agency intercepted private e-mail messages and phone calls of Americans in recent months on a scale that went beyond the broad legal limits established by Congress last year, government officials said in recent interviews. Several intelligence officials, as well as lawyers briefed about the matter, said the N.S.A. had been engaged in “overcollection” of domestic communications of Americans. They described the practice as significant and systemic, although one official said it was believed to have been unintentional. The legal and operational problems surrounding the N.S.A.’s surveillance activities have come under scrutiny from the Obama administration, […]
Spanish Prosecutors To Bring Bush 6 Up On Charges
DAILY BEAST: Spanish prosecutors have decided to press forward with a criminal investigation targeting former U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales and five top associates over their role in the torture of five Spanish citizens held at Guantánamo, several reliable sources close to the investigation have told The Daily Beast. The six defendants—in addition to Gonzales, Federal Appeals Court Judge and former Assistant Attorney General Jay Bybee, University of California law professor and former Deputy Assistant Attorney General John Yoo, former Defense Department general counsel and current Chevron lawyer William J. Haynes II, Vice President Cheney’s former chief of staff David […]