Hey Eli.

Incompetent, lazy, intimidated, or complicit?

Must I choose?

Let’s go be squeaky wheels.

schreachy squeaky screaming wheels!

We don’t torture(Republicans).

Hey, eg. I think one can make a case for the, uh, quadfecta. But I usually place special emphasis on the last one.

I think every one of them that thinks this is okay should be forced to undergo about a week or two of what they approve of …

Everyone knows Muslims don’t feel pain like we do…

Everyone knows Muslims don’t feel pain like we do…

nor weep as we do…

Could we please start with McConnell? Would be so great.

Eli - I’d call this “blind mindless loyalty”. This is the same kind of loyalty required of cult members. They will drink the kool-aid over and over.

But wait! Kool-aid can be used as a hair dye. One pk of kool-aid, spoon of corn starch, small bit of water. Make a paste and apply to hair. You call also dye your clothes to match your hair.

Hillobama? Nah, Obamary… :-)

~~~ModNote: Edited for content - No violent suggestions, please.~~~
and good evening Eli xxxxxxxxxxoooooooooo

I’m trying to figure out whether the blind loyalty encompasses the media. I suspect that it does.

Hiya sadly!

100 hours straight of Yummy,ummy, Yummy I Got Love In My Tummy by the 1910 Fruit Gum Company.

always thought it would be billy don’t be a hero, but just me

Naw, they aren’t mindless, they know exactly what they are doing.

The traditional media has taken on the attributes of an authoritarian follower, or even an abused spouse. It demands nothing of their leader but approval and quietude. Theirs is also the behavior a Hollywood marketeer, worried that adverse publicity of them will ruin their product.

That gives us the worst of both worlds. A press with special legal privileges that won’t criticize its government, but is willing lavishly to praise it in order to fan the value of its own stock. This media’s self-interest directly contradicts its social purpose. Which gives us the formula for a Shakespearean tragedy.

No, how about “Sugar Sugar” by the Archies… -retch-

Great post, Eli.
We gots lots o’ squeakin’ to do.

Could someone get Charlie Savage to submit another set of questions after the nominees are chosen and include torture prominently?

Any word yet on Horton’s cryptic comment about charges and publicity coming?

Well, just about anything by the Archies…

If they fawned over Republican and Democratic presidents equally, I might be a *little* more forgiving. But not much.

Frampton. I can’t stand the stupid talking wah-wah guitar.

Or how about the original “I beg your pardon, I never promised you a rose garden”. Perfectly wretched song and has a pardon for the torturer built right into it.

Any word yet on Horton’s cryptic comment about charges and publicity coming?

The whose in the what now? Link?

i guess nobody appreciated my archaic comment

“Tie a Yellow Ribbon Round the Old Oak Tree”…..on loop 24/7

Or the commercial….sell out..

He was hot when he was in “The Herd” though…as a teenager…I had posters on my wall..He had great hair….*g*

Gotta go dig that up. Scott Horton made a comment in the last few days about expecting major media coverage of prosecutors filing charges, I think regarding Yoo.

BRB

I think Conservative voters, Republicans mostly, like that label very very much. When you tell them Conservative leaders are doing ill they can’t believe it. They know someone like themselves would never torture or lie us into war or use government to persecute political enemies.

So, how do they separate themselves from the Bush administration? How do they differentiate if the label ‘Conservative’ binds them so tightly.

Yes, words are important.

Somehow the Conservative electorate has to relabel Bush & Co without feeling shame. They have to re-identify the Bush administration and it’s political supporters (such as Republican senators) as something other than Conservative.

Over at WashingtonMonthly.com I just wrote that these red-staters who know there are problems in their families and communities are told it’s the Liberal immorality. This is the basis for the so-called culture war. Maybe they can find their way to seeing it isn’t Liberals. But, how can they look at t.v. and Republican politicians and, knowing it’s not Liberals, find that the Rich Conservative Republican businessmen who own t.v. and the Rich “Conservative” Republican politicians aren’t really “Conservatives” at all. They are liars. They are frauds. They are not the same as the Conservative electorate.

Republicans claim to be Conservative. They claim to stand for small government, despite building it up. They claim to be for fiscal responsibility, despite spending us into $11 Trillion of debt. They claim to be for morality despite promoting torture.

Clearly they aren’t Conservative and hardly deserve the name American.

So, what does the Conservative electorate do? They need real leadership for their causes. Who can they support with confidence?

The reason they’re labeling Obama a Liberal or Socialist is they’ve already primed the pump over decades and know Conservatives won’t vote for someone who doesn’t share their label. But, who can those people vote for if McCain is hugging Bush?

Republicans need to look at the election system very carefully and find a better way to get individuals they can truly trust to support their values, both social and political.

For now they’re stuck. They shouldn’t support the liars who want us to kill in Iraq forever and spend America into a depression. They should only vote for politicians who have really behaved as Conservatives.

And, that isn’t John McCain (Mr. Torture, Mr. Wife Slanderer, Mr. Election Criminal, etc.).

Can we also add “willful indifference” to blind mindless loyalty. Perhaps the trait one needs is willful indifference to apply blind mindless loyalty.

There is always freewill.

The unpardonable sin is hardening your heart.

I love wah, wah…but it has to be used “sparingly” and in the right places…talking wah, wah….is overdone wah, wah….

Nah, I have to agree with AZ Matt - where do you think the term “bubblegum music” originated anyway? Might as well go to the source for the torturous music.

John Ashcroft singing Let The Eagle Soar. 4 or 5 times ought to be enough to break anyone.

I don’t necessarily hate *all* wah-wah guitar, there’s just something about the way Frampton does it.

Thanks for all the earworms guys.

Gahd!
I’d rather listen to Shatner on a loop forever.

“Detainee 063 was subjected to systematic sleep deprivation. He was shackled and cuffed; at times, head restraints were used. He was compelled to listen to threats to his family. The interrogation leveraged his sensitivities as a Muslim: he was shown pictures of scantily clad models, was touched by a female interrogator, was made to stand naked, and was forcibly shaved. He was denied the right to pray. A psychiatrist who witnessed the interrogation of Detainee 063 reported the use of dogs, intended to intimidate “by getting the dogs close to him and then having the dogs bark or act aggressively on command.” The temperature was changed, and 063 was subjected to extreme cold. Intravenous tubes were forced into his body, to provide nourishment when he would not eat or drink.

We went through the marked-up document slowly, pausing at each blue mark. Detainee 063’s reactions were recorded with regularity. I’ll string some of them together to convey the impression:

Detainee began to cry. Visibly shaken. Very emotional. Detainee cried. Disturbed. Detainee began to cry. Detainee bit the IV tube completely in two. Started moaning. Uncomfortable. Moaning. Began crying hard spontaneously. Crying and praying. Very agitated. Yelled. Agitated and violent. Detainee spat. Detainee proclaimed his innocence. Whining. Dizzy. Forgetting things. Angry. Upset. Yelled for Allah.

The blue highlights went on and on.

Urinated on himself. Began to cry. Asked God for forgiveness. Cried. Cried. Became violent. Began to cry. Broke down and cried. Began to pray and openly cried. Cried out to Allah several times. Trembled uncontrollably. “

Source:
http://www.vanityfair.com/poli.....namo200805

I sent an e-mail asking Gibson to inquire of both candidates if they would disavow the George Bush policy of torturing detainees.

And then there’s this.

I fear this may turn into a Bad Music thread…

Yeah, I agree..when he went commercial….ugh.

h/t drational:
Scott Horton parsing the Edley memo at Balkinization (posted April 12):

Indeed, this is not entirely a speculative matter. We will shortly learn in the mass media that some prosecutors have already reached that conclusion and that the preparation of a criminal case is underway.

Great. Mission fucking accomplished.

I feel like we’re *all* going to hell.

Any kind of music is too good for them. I think they should have to watch one of McCain’s press conferences 24/7.

Are there any conservatives of integrity left in the Republican party? Haven’t they all been purged, or left in disgust?

lol
And Condi accompanying him with her nail-scraping-down-the-blackboard piano.

Or one of his acceptance speeches. Good Lord.

yeah, I shuddered when I sent my taxes off today … wtf am I paying for this year? Certainly not the resurection of my neighborhood down here in the ninth ward of new orleans …

The president just admitted to authorizing torture, and Republicans are all perfectly okay with it.

This is a CRIME….. Why isn’t anyone in Congress doing anything about it. Not to mention bush lied time and again when he said the United States does not torture. (what will we tell the children)

The criminal is now normal.

Priorities, priorities.

Even better. See? I do believe in capital punishment. :)

Yeah, you’re right.

It makes me crazy when people expose that we have autopsies exposing that Iraqis have died because they were hung by their thumbs and died from horrible torture and nobody gives a sh*t…as reported by DKOS yesterday….I no longer have the link…

We filed for an extension just because we wanted to hold out.

With all the horror I feel, even more, I feel a deep deep shame. Mercy!

More war, more torture.

We need to swamp Charlie Gibson about his ABC debate tomorrow.

Otherwise I will be bitter, and so will you.

“Now that the President of the United States of America has admitted that he approved the principals’ meetings in the White House where torture was demonstrated, discussed, and approved each time it was administered to each detainee, what actions will your Justice department take to seek criminal penalties against those involved?”

Unless you want to see a debate about bowling, bitterness, and beer shots, please, please, write to ABC here

Ya, they left or some might be too stupid to know they should have left. Then they get new recruits like the independent senator from Conneticut.

what will we tell the children

Okay, that made me think of this. Should take care of those earworms.

I was born and lived my entire young life in the 9th Ward. We went back many generations there. My great-grandparents lived there. I have a special fondness for that part of the city. Yes, we live in the classic shot-gun house.

My entire family is still in the NO area, however, I was the renegade in the family and moved to San Francisco a couple of years after college.

I’ve been keeping up with the flood warnings. They are vulnerable. I send you good thoughts.

Can I just not watch that debate?

I’m getting really worried.

ty! I’m down close to the river in the bywater — poland avenue. This is a great place and it saddens me to see what’s been going on here …the french quarter is being disnified, i still have students lost all over the south and we’re not at our break even at the university, I feel we’re going to loose more programs … health care for any one is horrid let alone the young and vulnerable, rent is sky rocketing, it’s just really hard to live down here right now, it’s maddening

I only meant that Charlie won’t care about a “Flood” ??? how many from a bunch of lefty, stinking old hippies.

What will this Pope say?

Thanks for that linkie.

The line in the memo that Yoo only an advisor and therefore not as culpable as the deciders - made me think of the movie Mephisto and the line at the end where he says “Ich bin nur Schauspieler - I’m only/merely an actor”

it is so weird how high the mississippi is now. i’m watching these huge tankers go up and down the river and the look like they’re driving on the streets now. usually we just see the tops of the stacks and antennas… very very very odd… i’m really praying the levees hold they keep opening more of the spillway which is going to really hurt the marine life in Lake Ponchatrain … but what can they do?

don’t have abortions and don’t use birth control

Hagel, perhaps.

The bush administration doesn’t give a rats ass about the brown folks in the middle east. In fact bushco doesn’t give a rats ass about anyone. His allegiances are money and power. He will do anything and everything to gain as much of both as is possible.

Listened to pretty much all the McCain appearance on Hardball and I believe heard his strong statement that torture would never be part of his administration….

And then Tweety’s question about whether he’d transparently investigate whether crimes have been committed…..

hmmmmm. Guess I must’ve missed that.

And the question about the president’s admission that his Principals approved and micromanaged torture…guess I missed that one, too…. oh, but the smart-ass Doocy kid’s question about Hillary’s drinking [to her reported drinkin’ buddy McCain]…yeah, heard that one. Chip off the ol’ blockhead, that Doocy.

Incompetent, lazy, intimidated, or complicit? You be the judge. The same could be asked of our Congressional Democrats, who are still content to leave impeachment off the table…

Incompetent, lazy, intimidated, and complicit, I’d say.

But Bush has also strongly stated that torture is not part of *his* administration. So is McCain saying he won’t torture, or simply that he won’t *call* it torture?

And even considered a hero.

Gurdjieff reminds us that every thing spirals downward.Gurdjieff stated that maleficent events such as wars and so on could not possibly take place if people were more awake.

I understand….I’ve been there….get out of the way until you know the levees can take it…maybe they can, but don’t put yourselves in the way of it….If it holds, you will get some confidence. You could not get through Katrina without being affected by the horror. I know what you are talking about…it is mesmerizing…it can’t happen again…or it might…etc. If you think there is a chance you are in danger…get out…if it holds…you will have something new to measure your security by….

and far too many of the American people don’t care enough to a damn thing about it.

Hm. Maybe. IIRC, he’s a total wingnut on everything *but* the war. Was one of the few senators to vote against the minimum wage increase.

Speaking of Katrina, there was a great story on NPR tonight about a Black Owned Bank which loaned a lot of $$ after the catastrophe.
It’s still a mess there, but, it was encouraging to hear one person’s efforts to help rebuild.
I’m grabbing at straws here.

Here’s the link to the NPR story:
http://www.npr.org/templates/s.....d=89532824

Good Wah-wah: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SM5Lc3VjJ74

The healthcare is a tragedy. I lost my Mom because of the lack of healthcare. It was not the fault of the aides. They did everything they could and then some. There just wasn’t enough healthcare workers and doctors around. Yes, the elderly were and are terribly vulnerable.

My sis and I went to all those places that was our childhood. Wonderful memories with my parents - picnics, flying kits, walking through City Park, West End. Gone. It was all gone. Like cities after World War II. We looked at the new levees being built, held hands and wept. Wrenching, grieving pain.

I have generations of family buried in the 9th Ward. So much is gone.

I live on France and Dauphine Streets near the river. The rest of my family lived throughout the area. I know Poland Street well. I wish I could take some of your concern away but since I cannot, please know you are in my thoughts.

I think it’s called Liberty.

right around the corner, i’m on poland between dauphine and burgundy

My own personal flood story has been told on the weather channel “Storm Stories” …it was terrifying, and you never know when it can happen again. To this day, I worry about those who stay in the flood prone areas. If you continue to live in a flood prone area, and have experienced it…you are in a constant “undertoad” (the world according to Garp) type of PTSD…you dream of floods and storms…for years….

If you get out, and see that the levees hold, you get a little bit of confidence that something has been fixed and you are safer…The new levees might be fine….but don’t stand in the way to see if they hold. Observe from a distance, if you can. JMHO

Yes, m’am. See my link at #77.
And, what the government is Not doing to help New Orleans can be considered Torture.

Yup.

Anybody seen John McCain’s tax returns, which he promised would be released today?

Katrina is the most swept under the rug event of modern times in this country…worse than disgraceful…

*reprises Dubya’s high-larious looking-for-WMDs routine*

Since I’m in the other LA, that’s how I watched it.
I was on vacation, camping, when it happened. We got a newspaper and the photo was of everyone on One Side of the freeway trying to get out.
We wondered why the local government didn’t open up both sides of the freeway…’cause No One was driving in.
Your government in action. Dumb Heads.

Nah. I wanna see his health records…what drugs he takes and such….

I could ride my bike over to you. In grade school my parents sent me to a private school on Port and Burgandy. I rode my bike to and fro. They were really trying their best to turn me into a good girl. It was a Lutheran school. Later I went to the Academy of the Holy Angels on St. Claude. As you can see, they really tried.

There are lovely homes throughout the Bywater.

Let’s go be squeaky wheels.

Been taking lessons from Jane and Christy, I see. Nice post, Eli!

every day i drive thru parts of the dead zone … there are many, many places that are just abandoned and devastated,most of the areas on the east side of the IC canal and near the lake are like eerie ghost towns

Terrifying.

last night harry kreisler did an interview with maj gen Anthony Taguba on uctv about the investigation he conducted into the abu ghraib stuff. after he submitted his report he was asked to resign.also there is an interview with Yoo on the uctv website

yup, know the lutheran school and church well …great pastor there, he stayed thru the entire storm and helped with keeping the generators going at the bywater hospital and also at the old folks homes in the area … we used to meet there in the months following katrina as community to discuss where to go and to try to figure out when we’d get electricity and things again

Thanks! I’m trying…

Well, I don’t think we’ll ever see his health records. I expect we’ll see a statement from his doctor saying he’s fine, and that’ll be it.

But McCain promised his tax returns would be released on 4/15. Tweety might have thought to ask about it, but probably thinks it’s intrusion on plutocrat privilege. I bet it’ll get buried in all the Popiness, and we’ll never hear about it again.

Get to higher ground if possible…nothing may happen and you will gain confidence….living with the threat is hell. You can always go back and say…see, everything is fine…they fixed it…we are safe. But…don’t test it.

Loyalty over competence. And the more deranged and/or clueless the president, the more in conflict those two qualities are.

Tweety falls in love…weekly…noticed that?

Thank you for this link, Demi. Someone is doing something good. May they be very successful. Katrina was another one of those tragic events used to transfer wealth from the people to the coffers of a few.

He is a manly man of outsize passions.

Or a complete braying narcissistic shallow jackass. I’m pretty sure it’s one of the two.

OOps, I stand corrected:

Now that both Democratic presidential contenders have made public their tax returns, John McCain plans to follow suit. A campaign spokeswoman said the campaign plans to release McCain’s tax returns on April 18.

I guess that’s a pre-announced Friday news dump. Hasn’t the McCain campaign learned what we love to do on our weekends? — pore over Friday news dumps!

i’m on high ground, my grandparents were devasted by floods in the 20s and so all the Whittakers buy on high ground, including me … I’m on the lip of the bowl, but that doesn’t mean i want to be on a mini island again.

i vote for the latter, frankly

Just a flyby, but thanx for this post, Eli, & the artwork that accompanies it. Other artists also reveal the depth of our country’s shame, among them Botero, here seen w/pix from his Abu Ghraib torture series:

http://sherif.blog.dada.net/img/botero.jpg

Where we see tragedy, they see opportunity. Isn’t the Republican entrepreneurial spirit wonderful.

Remember how Brit Hume’s first thought after the London bombings was “time to buy”?