RantDuJour

From the Red Cross report on the torture of 18 U.S. prisoners;

After the beating I was then placed in the small box. They placed a cloth or cover over the box to cut out all light and restrict my air supply. As it was not high enough even to sit upright, I had to crouch down. It was very difficult because of my wounds. The stress on my legs held in this position meant my wounds both in the leg and stomach became very painful. I think this occurred about 3 months after my last operation. It was always cold in the room, but when the cover was placed over the box it made it hot and sweaty inside. The wound on my leg began to open and started to bleed. I don’t know how long I remained in the small box, I think I may have slept or maybe fainted.
I was then dragged from the small box, unable to walk properly and put on what looked like a hospital bed, and strapped down very tightly with belts. A black cloth was then placed over my face and the interrogators used a mineral water bottle to pour water on the cloth so that I could not breathe. After a few minutes the cloth was removed and the bed was rotated into an upright position. The pressure of the straps on my wounds was very painful. I vomited. The bed was then again lowered to horizontal position and the same torture carried out again with the black cloth over my face and water poured on from a bottle. On this occasion my head was in a more backward, downwards position and the water was poured on for a longer time. I struggled against the straps, trying to breathe, but it was hopeless. I thought I was going to die. I lost control of my urine. Since then I still lose control of my urine when under stress.
I was then placed again in the tall box. While I was inside the box loud music was played again and somebody kept banging repeatedly on the box from the outside. I tried to sit down on the floor, but because of the small space the bucket with urine tipped over and spilt over me…. I was then taken out and again a towel was wrapped around my neck and I was smashed into the wall with the plywood covering and repeatedly slapped in the face by the same two interrogators as before.
I was then made to sit on the floor with a black hood over my head until the next session of torture began. The room was always kept very cold.
This went on for approximately one week. During this time the whole procedure was repeated five times. On each occasion, apart from one, I was suffocated once or twice and was put in the vertical position on the bed in between. On one occasion the suffocation was repeated three times. I vomited each time I was put in the vertical position between the suffocation.
During that week I was not given any solid food. I was only given Ensure to drink. My head and beard were shaved everyday.
I collapsed and lost consciousness on several occasions. Eventually the torture was stopped by the intervention of the doctor.
I was told during this period that I was one of the first to receive these interrogation techniques, so no rules applied. It felt like they were experimenting and trying out techniques to be used later on other people.

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bush is perhaps the most pathetic human being alive. Aside from how incompetently he ran the office, he tortured people. And, he lied about it. I’m reading the NY Time’s (summary of the “ICRC Report on the Treatment of Fourteen “High Value Detainees” in CIA Custody”. It is as bad as anyone thought. These people have no soul.

Here is the report’s Table of Contents ….

1. Main Elements of the CIA Detention Program
1.1 Arrest and Transfer
1.2 Continuous Solitary Confinement and Incommunicado Detention
1.3 Other Methods of Ill-treatment
1.3.1 Suffocation by water
1.3.2 Prolonged Stress Standing
1.3.3 Beatings by use of a collar
1.3.4 Beating and kicking
1.3.5 Confinement in a box
1.3.6 Prolonged nudity
1.3.7 Sleep deprivation and use of loud music
1.3.8 Exposure to cold temperature/cold water
1.3.9 Prolonged use of handcuffs and shackles
1.3.10 Threats
1.3.11 Forced shaving
1.3.12 Deprivation/restricted provision of solid food
1.4 Further elements of the detention regime….

—to its stark and unmistakable conclusion:

The allegations of ill-treatment of the detainees indicate that, in many cases, the ill-treatment to which they were subjected while held in the CIA program, either singly or in combination, constituted torture. In addition, many other elements of the ill-treatment, either singly or in combination, constituted cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment.

Criminal. Try these administration officials. Then, hang them.

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We’re a month into the Obama administration.
Pause.
Wow. What a f’ing great feeling.

Now, to put a damper on this.
First, we have the dark prince of dick himself Cheney continuing to spread his lies even though, typically, ex-vps get the f’ck out. The fact that nobody but the arch-rightwing listens to him makes him more pathetic than anything. Of course, why King chooses to give the guy passes on his lies boggles the mind. But, still.
And, then, we have the beltway media with its love for its own profits. Oh, they just hate Obama doing what he promised during the campaign, raising their taxes. They feel they have to give a marginal party, which has strength only in one backward party of the country equal voice. I got to listen to NPR yesterday morning where they claimed Obama had a 59% approval rating and fought hard to find negatives about it. Of course, every other poll has Obama 10 points higher. But, that didn’t stop Mara Laisson, the ‘liberal’ on Fox News.
Anyway, it’s still been a joyous time with light being shed on the world. Given that bush left us in perhaps the worst spot in history, even FDR didn’t have 1000s dying in 2 wars 1000s of miles away when he took office. I can quibble with things that Obama has done thus far, but the overall pictures is really nice.

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Geez, the guy can’t leave. And, the more he talks, the more he shows what a moron he is. It’s a self-pity, not-my-fault, I-dont’-know-what’s-going-on-and-couldn’t-do-anything-about-it tour. Nobody cares, george. You are a complete failure. Your VP couldn’t even stay awake in your 14 minute, I’m-really-going-away-now speech.

Go away.

Other misc. thoughts:

* Why would Obama telegraph his desire to prosecute bush and his war criminals for war crimes before he had the reins of power? As we see in the days leading up to Jan 20, the pro-torture, pro-rendition, pro-spying group has been very vocal. Newsweek decided to lead off with their idiot defending torture and rendition. And, the moronic talking heads have gone on as if they haven’t listened to Obama and know nothing of his biography.

The man was a constitutional law professor! For god’s sake, how many of those out there are saying that what bush did was ok? There’s not one that I’ve heard. We already have one of bush’s judges, a lifelong republican (shocker there, I know), saying that bush engaged in torture and that because of torture, criminals, terrorists could not be prosecuted. The rule of law doesn’t exist because bush and cheney are war criminals.

Congress was prevented from prosecuting because bush refused to provide people to testify and refused to provide documents. Bush believed that he is above the law and short of ordering troops into his government facilities, not much could be done about it.

Until now. Congress will subpoena. Obama will provide documents. Obama’s Justice department will investigate on their own. History will be given its information. And, the full crimes of bush will be made clear.

The bottom line, this can never happen again. Obama needs to make sure that it never happens again.

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Re: Change: Jesus. Where do these pundits come from?? Somehow hiring competent people who happened to work for the last administration, (which itself was an incredible success, especially as compared with this current “administration”), is not ‘change’. This must be from people who never understood Mr. Change himself. They were probably the ones going around thinking that supporters of Obama think that he is Mr. Messiah. He’s not. He’s a competent, low blood pressure kindof guy. He gets things done. As I said when I first started supporting him, I’m not “in love” with him. He’s more centrist than I like. He’s more of a compromiser than I like. This sh** with Rick Warren just pisses me off. (More on that later). This sh** with Lieberman pisses me off. But, as a whole picture, I think that he’s really good. He’s competent. He’s smart. He doesn’t get excited easily. He controls his message. He’s not sloppy. He hires good people that he expects to get the job done. Wtf more would anyone want out of a president??

* Lieberman. The guy is scum. Period. End of sentence. Pond Scum. Discouraging him from getting bounced may work out for the best. But, I don’t like it. I’m definitely in a revenge now mode. Go away, Joe. Just Go The F*** Away.

* Warren. This guy is scum. Period. End of sentence. Pond Scum. Inviting him to be a part of history is not fair payback for the guy to invite you into his church and make fun of you. Invite him to the White House after you’re ensconced. Don’t give him privileges. Don’t give him honors. Give that honor to people who f’ing supported you when you were down in the polls. Give it to people who do good work and don’t insult people. This is not just “disagreeing” with someone. This is giving someone who doesn’t deserve more than a chance to bridge a chasm an honor that THEY DON’T F’ING DESERVE!!!!

*Transition. Awesome so far. So much better than the rightwing hacks that bush put forward. Significantly better than the serious people that Clinton nominated. Hopefully there’s no nanny gates circling around here. And, btw, f’k you Rove and Spector for holding up AG-designate Holder. You guys let the most extreme rightwing hacks go thru and you would have let even more go thru and you hold up Holder because, what, he didn’t raise enough of a stink when Clinton gave a penny-ante criminal a pardon? jesus. Get a f’ing life.

* TARP. If I thought that I couldn’t get pissed at the Democratic majority even more, I think back to when they gave bush free money. $700B in fact. Just gave it to a complete incompetent moron to do with what he pleased. Shocked that the money hasn’t been doing any good? Shocked that the banks being given the money aren’t detailing how they’re spending the money? Shocked that the banks are giving huge bonuses with our money? Shocked that the banks still hold onto their private planes? Me either. What an incompetent series of jerks this administration hires, led by the head jerk himself.

* Cheney. Torture much? 9/11 your highest point? Could you try to be more evil? I doubt it. And, back to our Democratic legislature, any thoughts of prosecuting this criminal? Nah. I didn’t think so. We will look back at this time and be appalled at your incompetence. Not to mention your complicity. You barely deserve the majority. But, considering the alternative, I guess that I have no choice.

* Obama. Dude. You’d better look back at the crimes this current administration committed. I dont’ care, that much, about prosecution. But, I want it on the record how many crimes that these people committed and how much in the pocket these last few Congress’ were. I want to be able to look back in history and remember what a Republican administration and a wimpish Congress will get us. The worst financial situation in history is your fault. I depend on you Obama to fix this. I believe you will fix this. I won’t agree with everything that you do. But, I know that brains will be involved in your actions. That’s such a huge difference from the last 10 years (the last 2 of Clinton really were a waste of time), that that’s good enough for me.

Rock on, 2009!!

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I have to admit that as much as I’m on the edge of my seat watching this Obama Team transition, I’m even more on the edge of my seat watching Cheney giving up power. I envision him and his staff burning documents 24/7 and trying to figure out ways to hold off the time when they have to leave. I see him doing nothing to help Biden transition.
And, then, yesterday, to my surprise, I hear that the Cheneys are having the Bidens over for dinner. It’s the first public sign that I had heard of Cheney even acknowledging the loss. The dark lord will have to let someone else look into his deep dark secrets. And, then, when some of it gets exposed to the outside world and fresh air and sunshine, they will explode.

It’s the new dawn of a new day.

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I cannot get over the disgust that I feel for people defending the idea of keeping Lieberman chair of anything. The guy is scum. He has no redeeming values. He will not vote with Democrats in the majority of cases. I don’t care if he takes his ball and goes home. What’s the point of having a large majority if you have to let weasels like Lieberman blackmail you? WTF?
I mean, really, WTF?
He leaves and then he becomes a member of an intolerant minority party where they don’t like 1/2 of what he stands for.
He stays and he can vote with the majority on a number of valuable bills.
Lieberman is scum. He must be bounced.

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Ok. Now that we’ve celebrated, let’s move on to what’s next.

I’m ok with Rahm Emmanuel as his Chief of Staff. It shows that he really is looking to be a compromising guy with a spine. I’m really glad that Axelrod is sticking around. He’s just awesome. Rahm’s strengths are well known. Consumate insider, experience in the private sector, close to his Congressional district, hard nosed, but realistic.

I remember, very well, the opening days of the Clinton transition. it’s a lot of fun to compare the two. I’m sure that Obama remembers as well as he’s my age (almost exactly!)
Clinton disappeared for 2 days and then gave an impromptu brief news conference. I recall later some announcements. And, then the roof fell in. Sam Nunn made a tour of some navy ships and loudly, oh so loudly, ripped Clinton’s plan for a ‘Don’t ask. Don’t tell’ policy in the military regarding gays. Nunn seemed to have no problem ripping an incoming Democratic president.
Clinton didn’t get to a majority vote only because Perot came (back) in at the last minute and threw down a ton of money (I forgot how much, but I’m guessing $60M). He ended up with 19% of the vote. This allowed the gop, Limbaugh especially, to claim that the majority of people didnt’ vote for Clinton. (It’s not like bush would have won as most pundits believed that Perot took equally from Clinton and from bush).
But, the ongoing problems after his election continued. Nunn started the ball rolling. And, then, Nannygate happened. It turns out that his first choice for AG hadn’t paid taxes for her nanny. And, his 2nd choice had the same problem. And, then, Bob Dole decided that he was the opposition party and had the responsibility to kill everything that Clinton wanted to do, even though Clinton had just been elected on a platform that included a bunch of stuff that he tried to do.
Dole filibustered Clinton’s stimulus package (which was, anyway, woefully small). So, Clinton’s first 100 days were ruined by his own party and the opposition party.
The thing about Clinton’s tenure though is that Democrats were fat and happy in 1993. They had been in power for so long that they never thought that they’d give it up. They didn’t like this hillbilly president and so they figured that they could get away with treating him like crap.
And, then 1994 happened.
People blame Clinton for 1994. But, Clinton passed a brilliant budget in 1993 over the ‘no’ votes of every single member of the GOP. That budget laid the groundwork for the massive economic expansion that occurred over the next 8 years.
So, that precedent having been established, Obama is such a better position. He’s got similar numbers of Democrats in both houses. But, these are new members of Congress. In fact, some of them owe their political tenure to Obama. They will not oppose him and back-bite him the way that the 1993 Democrats did to Clinton.
And, Obama is really different than Clinton. Clinton ran against Bush sr. And, he ripped him pretty good. The Bush people were really not happy with Clinton and so they didnt’ help with the transition and they cleaned out every single thing by January 20, so that the Clinton people had to start from absolute scratch. It led to a very slow start by Clinton.
And, Clinton himself has a completely different persona than Obama. Obama is really calm, cool, collected, and cerebral. Clinton just runs hot with wild mood swings. Obama ran a real middle of the road campaign. He tried not to attack Republicans. Clinton attacked Republicans right and left. Obama’s approval ratings are in the 60s. Clinton’s were in the high 40s, low 50s.
Obama has Clinton’s transition experience as evidence of how not to do things. Obama is a great study.
There is no reason why Obama cannot flow into his presidency pretty easily. he’s got serious problems to solve. But, he’s the right guy, with the right personality, with the right people, and the right experience, and the right political situation to do the job.

Speaking of the political situation, with bush at 20% approval, McCain held in distaste by the gop, and the gop in the minority with no clear leader and in complete disarray, Obama really has a clear field to get some stuff done. When Clinton took office, the gop had been in the minority for decades, so were used to attacking from that position. This gop is still getting used to being the minority party and they just lost a ton more seats. They’ve had serious resignations recently and there will be more.
Obama should have no serious problems, politically, for quite some time.

Obama has real timing in his opponents. He went against Keyes in his bid for US Senate. He went against McCain for president. And, now, he’s president when the gop is in disarray for hte first time in quite awhile (decades.)

It is a great time.

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Wow.
Just wow.
Like most Democrats after two devasting losses (ok, 1 actual loss, but we still didn’t get in the White House), it feels surreal to actually win the presidential election. If CA Prop 8 had lost too, then there’d be nothing to be feel that sad about. Franken not winning outright and being in a tough recount is hard to take. Stevens in Alaska being elected is a national joke, but the seat will, unfortunately, stay in gop hands.
As far as my predictions go, I over-estimated, as usual! Obama “only” won by 6 points instead of the 10 (and more realistically, 7) that I predicated. I also gave Georgia and Missouri to Obama and he didn’t carry either of them. (Though Missouri is still counting, it doesn’t look good.)
So. Wow. Yay for us. Yay for Obama. Yay for America. Yay for the future of the world.

Applause for Obama, Clinton (Hillary more than Bill, but Bill gets some), Biden, Democrats everywhere, McCain’s concession speech, and bush’s surprisingly conciliatory words. It won’t help his place in history (last), but it might make the next few months easier to handle until sanity returns to the White House.

Boos for Palin, McCain’s campaign, bush, and the rightwing hit squad, i.e. Limbaugh, Hannity, Fox “noise”. Limbaugh has been especially ugly. Like borderline racist ugly.

But, putting all that aside, Yay!

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Ever since the 1st debate, Obama has cranked out a very real lead and has just kept expanding on it. (I did predict this fact in those very early days of the summer when all the pundits kept asking, “why can’t he put this away”? Idiots.) His 30 minute infomercial on Wednesday was so perfect, so finely tuned to what the electorate needs, and so perfectly timed that it will glide him right into a very large win on Tuesday.

My prediction at this point is Obama 55%, McCain 45%. It’ll be a pretty historic win, even beyond the fact that Obama will be the first African-American to win the presidency. McCain has really proved to be such a clown on the campaign trail. Obama has run a magical, superlative, phenomenal campaign. He would have won anyway. A race between him and Bush 2004 would have been great theater. Bush 2004 ran a great campaign. Of course, they still barely beat Kerry. So, Obama would have crushed them. But, McCain hasn’t come close to bush 2004’s great campaign team.

I should also say that the fact that McCain had a really weak field to run against. So did Bush for that matter. It really appears that the gop does not have a deep bench. The fact that the rightwing loves Palin is an indication of just how bereft of ideas (and intelligence) they are. McCain wouldn’t have made it past New Hampshire if he had been a Democrat.

Democrats have great fields. Bright people. Great ideas. And, tons of them! This year, you look at the (early) Democratic primaries with Biden, Dodd, Edwards, Richardson, Clinton, and Obama. Those are solid, serious contenders. Any one of them would be great presidents.

So, my EV prediction goes something like this;
Obama with the normal safe seats + NM, NV, CO, MN, IA, MO, Indiana, Ohio, Virginia, North Carolina, Georgia, Florida, & North Dakota. That brings his EV number to, I think, 393. It’s a bit higher than most people. But, I am giving Obama a couple of points for his ground game. And, I’m giving him 3 points for his African American vote in the southern states. I remember in the primaries that Obama’s southern numbers outpaced his poll numbers by very large numbers. Adding 5 to the poll of polls in the tossup states gives him the numbers that I’m predicting.

Here are pollster.com’s latest polls;

latest polls

And, here is a sample electoral map that I created, thanks to DailyKos,

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