democracynow.org — Jeremy Scahill reports the Obama administration is continuing to use a notorious military police unit at Guantanamo that regularly brutalizes unarmed prisoners, including gang-beating them, breaking their bones, gouging their eyes and dousing them with chemicals.
May 20, 2009 View in Crawl 4
emazurMay 20, 2009
This is one of those moments in life where you simultaneously feel both shocked and unsurprised
Closed AccountMay 20, 2009
I don't think has been submitted before, so here is my first ever submission to digg: <a class="user" href="http://digg.com/comedy/This_must_be_a_joke_WTF">http://digg.com/comedy/This_must_be_a_joke_WTF</a>
sheasieMay 21, 2009
More of the same?? In the past 15 days, the Obama Administration has initiated:1. Shutting down Gitmo (and acknowledging centuries of indisputable historical precedent that water boarding is torture).2. Healthcare overhaul.3. Saying NO to Israel.4. The biggest restructuring of military spending in decades.5. Support for stem-cell research (and a return to funding science-based initiatives).6. Actively fining employers of illegal immigrants + deporting imprisoned illegal immigrants (both, never been done before).7. Federal transparency (not a looking glass, since 100% transparency would obviously compromise national interests, but clearly more than anything we have seen in decades).8. A massive shift in Federal spending to support alternative fuels (an historic shift away from Saudi dependency).9. Formal NON-support for "abstinence programs".10. A massive shift to overhaul primary education and other critical national infrastructures that has suffered decades of neglect.With all due respect, any ONE item noted above would be considered historic change. If you still don't think change has come to America, I think you might to to consider rethinking your expectations.Respectfully.
sheasieMay 21, 2009
The changes:1. Shutting down Gitmo (and acknowledging centuries of indisputable historical precedent that water boarding is torture).2. Healthcare overhaul.3. Saying NO to Israel.4. The biggest restructuring of military spending in decades.5. Support for stem-cell research (and a return to funding science-based initiatives).6. Actively fining employers of illegal immigrants + deporting imprisoned illegal immigrants (both, never been done before).7. Federal transparency (not a looking glass, since 100% transparency would obviously compromise national interests, but clearly more than anything we have seen in decades).8. A massive shift in Federal spending to support alternative fuels (an historic shift away from Saudi dependency).9. Formal NON-support for "abstinence programs".10. A massive shift to overhaul primary education and other critical national infrastructures that has suffered decades of neglect.... and that's just in the first 150 days.I know it's a lot to take in all at once, but with all due respect, where the f*ck have you been to have missed all that ?
Closed AccountMay 21, 2009
"3. Saying NO to Israel."I'll believe that s**t when I see it.<a class="user" href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_oJBsRSfVTME/SawmUc477wI/AAAAAAAAAwU/_Lu9skeeKRw/s400/barack_obama_at_aipac.jpg">http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_oJBsRSfVTME/SawmUc477wI/ ...</a>
emmeronMay 21, 2009
I appreciate a thoughtful reply. I must thank you upfront, as I doubt my tone will sound sincere when I am done: but please remember, I do have respect for the thoughtfulness and completeness of your reply.1) You are arguing that a symbol of a former administration is destroyed, and I say based on this article (and the expansion of military prisons around the world, most notable in Afghanistan) Obama's team has done nothing more than sweep the symbol under the carpet. We still torture, and that won't stop -- it just won't be seen in the public eye anymore. Seems to be a stroke against transparency to me, but it also means he's publicly saying one thing and doing another -- I can honor Cheney for very little, but his honesty in being a sadistic bastard is one. I will accept, this is change. Not for the better, since it can get worse with no prying eyes. 2) It would seem we live in different worlds. Already Obama has made life expectancy vs cost of benefits an issue when deciding if care will be provided to medicare recipients. "Sorry, you're only likely to live another 5 years if we do this, so it's not worth it. Have a nice three days."Also, here's an issue I have: we were the BEST health care in the world until Nixon institutionalized insurance at all. Yes, we have been becoming more socialized -- this is not progress in my mind. 3) Israel is making historic moves towards openly declaring war with most of the middle east. Everyone is telling them "no." Obama's "no" is meaningless as long as he keeps sending money their way -- something the US is nearly alone in now. I don't count a change if it's just for show. Bush pulled off the same thing in a different direction -- he changed everything, too, even though that was also just for show.4) The amount being spent is only increasing, so I don't think this matters at all. Restructure all you like, but we're going to be more in debt due to the expansion of activity in Afghanistan than we are over the Iraq war (it's on digg in a few spots... I am sorry for not having the link handy).5) fair enough.6) I'd say this is a spot where we have the most common ground.7) What I mean to say is it's all smoke and mirrors. He was all about letting people read bills for a week or so before voting/signing them, but that changed in his first days in office. He went to closed door sessions to sign some of the biggest pork-bloated bailouts we've ever seen after proclaiming to be an enemy of pork spending (I paraphrase). It is a change, yes -- he's no longer hiding everything, he's now using deceit to mask what he's doing.8) The fault I have with this is that it's been the energy lobbies that have killed such initiatives in the past... and legislation has been prohibitive of them. This is another of those "government shouldn't be involved at all" areas for me. People want to be cleaner and greener the more they are informed, it shouldn't take bureaucratic waste for research to gain momentum. Nor would it, if they weren't intertwined already. A real change here would have been to strip away all restrictions on private research and enterprise in this arena. As for falling victim to the hype -- you aren't alone, but the hype is something his people are generating and his speeches are propagating. This is why I do NOT trust the man.9) We continue to agree. I'm no Right Winged nutter -- unless we're talking about spending. ;-)10) I am completely against public education. It is a system that endorses the political system and strips away any rational protest from potentially rational minds. The textbook industry is in bed with the political powers that be and get the contracts via department-wide arrangements. Indeed, about 90% of all US history classes in high school are taught with one of 11 text books, all of which are published by one of three or four publishers, all of whom have direct political connections to Washington and the Dept. of Education. (read "lies my teacher told me" for a more accurate citation of statistics -- this is from memory, I have lent my copy out).The education system was designed to have better citizens, not better thinkers. There is a point in every country the two become vastly apart -- the Bush administration should be evidence of this. I believe the Obama administration is a change here, but only in what places it requires blind faith in its deeds. As for the infrastructure, I believe that is the job of the states -- the Federal government has ripped away state money via excessive taxation and neutered the ability of localities to manage their own. They are running like a massive corporation... I've always been confused by people saying this is a good thing when they are often the same people who say "think global, act local" or "down with (insert major store here), buy from a community store" etc etc... In short, I think we agree on much -- it is a focus on principles that differ. We do not gain community by making a more powerful federal government. In fact, quite the opposite. We remove power from communities to manage and care for themselves. This is not change, it is simply a different step along the same principle line towards more federal powers. Please understand, I do not cheer for many presidents we've ever had. Indeed, Andrew Jackson made many moves I disagreed with very strongly, but he did abolish the national bank, a move that is real change and praiseworthy. Too bad it came back in 1913. That is a change, however. Moving around money that doesn't exist is more of the same to me. Redirecting and continuing to absorb more powers from people and states isn't a change, it's more of the same. Propaganda, something he has mastered so completely, certainly isn't a change. The actions he's made that are good are greater than I first stated, I stand corrected. I remain disappointed on a deep level, however, and expect with his next steps I will be more so. <a class="user" href="http://digg.com/politics/Obama_Eyes_Preventive_Detention_System">http://digg.com/politics/Obama_Eyes_Preventive_Det ...</a> -- check that out. Is this the man you thought he was?