El-P

George Bush has, as we all well know, destroyed every shred of good grace the US had with the world. We can only hope that Obama will get it back, but meanwhile, it's up to art to snap people back into reality. TV and the media cannot be left to that. El-p, with a graphic touch, takes on torture and its new standing as "acceptable in certain cases."

Condoleeza Rice Must Go!

A new campaign by Brave New Films. Go to the website and sign the petition.

The message is very simple:

America will not stand for a Secretary of State who approved torture and then misled Congress. We call on the Presidential candidates to ask Secretary of State Rice to resign

On Daily Kos they are asking if ABC will ask a question in the debate tonight. Last week, ABC news broke the torture story wide open and since then, the story has picked up steam online, but besides the Daily Show, the Nation, and Keith Olbermann, there has been a virtual media blackout on this issue since the story broke. Torture approved at the highest levels of government. The Secretary of State chairing meetings deciding how many times to punch, slap, or waterboard people in American custody.

White House Secretly Authorizes Torture

White House secretly authorized torture, the NY Time reported yesterday. Secret opinions issued by the Department of Justice in 2005 authorized a vast expansion of interrogation techniques available to the CIA, including painful remedies incorporating simulated drowning, "head-slapping" and exposure to frigid temperatures.

Shortly after Gonzalez was confirmed as Attorney General he issued a legal memorandum authorizing such tactics despite vehement objections from James Comey, who said the legal reasoning was flawed and they would all be ashamed when the world learned of the tactics.

Back in 2005 when Congress passed a so-called torture ban outlawing cruel and inhumane and degrading treatment the Justice Department quietly issued a second opinion that "declared that none of the CIA interrogation methods violated that standard."

The New York Times says it all happened when Jack Goldsmith was appointed head of the Office of Legal Counsel, who was supposed to be a "yes" man. He immediately took issue, however with the NSA wiretapping program and prompted the threat of massive resignations from the Justice Department including James Comey and John Ashcroft. To avoid such a problem in the future Alberto Gonzalez was the "ideal choice" to become Attorney General. It is a long article from the New York Times, but it is worth it. Read it here.

The rest is history. One wonders what will become of this story. Will Brittney go into rehab again so we don't have to wonder that our elected government is no longer responsive to its people and WILL do what it wants when it wants. This is not democracy. It is called fascism.

If torture is wrong, what about '24'?

I have to be honest: I have never watched an entire episode of '24,' and I don't plan to. The show is, without my help, wildly popular in Brazil, where I live right now, and, of course, throughout the US. One place it is especially watched is West Point, and here is where an interesting story unfolds. A story that illustrates the power of TV to shape discourse, culture and the Army's own mentality. The Raw Story brought it up with an article about Dick Cheney's speech to cadets at West Point, and he definitely didn't help things with regards to torture. He just backed up what Jack Bauer has been teaching soldiers for seasons now.

Here is an excerpt from the article: "Capture one of these killers, and he'll be quick to demand the protections of the Geneva Convention and the Constitution of the United States," the Vice President said in the Saturday morning speech. "Yet when they wage attacks or take captives, their delicate sensibilities seem to fall away."

As the piece points out, this quote was stated in connection with moral and ethical lessons to be learned in war. The vice-president, a leader of the self-proclaimed light of democracy and civilization, the US, offers an interesting point of view. His ideas, however, do not stray far from what West Point dean General Patrick Finnegan deals with daily at the Academy. He spoke to The New Yorker in February, and described what could be called "The 24 effect."

Here is what The Raw Story reported: "This past November, U.S. Army Brigadier General Patrick Finnegan, the dean of the United States Military Academy at West Point, flew to Southern California to meet with the creative team behind '24,'" wrote Jane Mayer in the magazine. "Finnegan, who is a lawyer, has for a number of years taught a course on the laws of war to West Point seniors - cadets who would soon be commanders in the battlefields of Iraq and Afghanistan. He always tries, he said, to get his students to sort out not just what is legal but what is right. However, it had become increasingly hard to convince some cadets that America had to respect the rule of law and human rights, even when terrorists did not. One reason for the growing resistance, he suggested, was misperceptions spread by '24,' which was exceptionally popular with his students. As he told me, 'The kids see it, and say, ''If torture is wrong, what about '24?''"

On this Memorial Day, something to chew on.