Waterboarding: It's not just for the Khymer Rouge!

The Vice President stopped hedging a couple days ago and simply admitted that the US practices waterboarding. Cheney was being interviewed on a right wing talk show on WDAY in North Dakota, when he called the acceptability of waterboarding "a no-brainer." The story has been weirdly absent from the big mainstream media, but the transcript of the interview is just right here on the whitehouse website, and an article is here at the a group called the McClatchy Newspapers and in a small piece in the North Country's own Watertown Daily Times. .

Coincidentally, we also have some nice new graphics today showing just what waterboarding is. David Corn has an interview up with Jonah Blank an anthropologist and journalist who has returned from Cambodia with pictures of the waterboarding apparatus used by the Khymer Rouge as a part of one of the great genocides of the 20th century. Here it is.


Here is how it is used

Blank emphasizes in the interview that the Khymer Rouge did not use waterboarding to extract information. They did it to extract confessions for show trials before their victim was ritually killed. Bottom line: "They-- like so many brutal regimes--made waterboarding one of their primary tools for a simple reason: it is one of the most viciously effective forms of torture ever devised." Check the whole story out.

The McClatchy papers also have a nice graphic explaining how waterboarding is done.



And one more thing: A taxonomy of torture techniques from Slate.

hat tips to majikthise, and Bart Harloe and Ken Gould on the SOC listserv.

More Resources on Absentee Voting

Check it out, NY residents. If you are planing to vote absentee in your home district, you need to apply for a ballot by Tuesday, October 31st

I'm going to start collecting information on absentee voting on this site, beginning with the states that SLU students come from. I'm just quickly scanning the homepages for the Secretaries of State, so corrections are encouraged.

New York. Instructions, Application Form
Deadline to apply for ballots: Tuesday, October 31st
Postmark deadline for the ballot itself: Monday, November 6^th

Vermont, General instructions Application form
Deadline ot request a ballot: the day before the election

Vote411.org, from the League of Women Voters has a good list of links, including links to state elections pages.

Information on Absentee Voting

MTV's rock the vote has a list of webpages where you can get information about absentee voting in your state. Unfortuntately, their page doesn't load right, so I am reprinting it here. We will be promoting this information as at SLU as a part of our Save Our Constitution actions.

Alabama (800) 274-VOTE http://www.sos.state.al.us/election

Alaska (907) 465-4611 http://www.gov.state.ak.us/ltgov/elections/

Arizona (877) 843-8683 http://www.sosaz.com/election/

Arkansas (501) 682-3526 http://www.sosweb.state.ar.us/elect.html

California (800) 345-VOTE http://www.ss.ca.gov/elections/elections.htm

Colorado (303) 894-2200 http://www.sos.state.co.us/pubs/elections/main1.htm

Connecticut (800) 540-3764 http://www.sots.state.ct.us/

Delaware (302) 739-4277 http://www.state.de.us/election/

District of
Columbia (202) 727-2525 http://www.dcboee.org/

Florida (850) 245-6200 http://election.dos.state.fl.us/

Georgia (404) 656-2871 http://www.sos.state.ga.us/elections/

Hawaii (808) 453-8683 http://www.state.hi.us/elections

Idaho (208) 334-2300 http://www.idsos.state.id.us

Illinois (217) 782-4141 http://www.elections.state.il.us

Indiana (317) 232-3939 http://www.in.gov/sos/elections

Iowa (888) 767-8683 http://www.sos.state.ia.us

Kansas (785) 796-4564 http://www.kssos.org/election/elewelc.html

Kentucky (502) 573-7100 http://www.kysos.com/index/main/elecdiv.asp

Louisiana (225) 342-4970 http://www.sec.state.la.us/elections/elections-index.htm

Maine (207) 642-7736 http://www.state.me.us/sos/cec/elec/elec.htm

Maryland (800) 222-VOTE http://www.elections.state.md.us/

Massachusetts (800) 462-VOTE http://www.state.ma.us/sec/ele/

Michigan (517) 373-2540 http://www.michigan.gov/sos

Minnesota (651) 215-1440 http://www.sos.state.mn.us/

Mississippi (800) 829-6786 http://www.sos.state.ms.us/elections/elections.asp

Missouri (573) 751-2301 http://www.sos.state.mo.us/elections/

Montana (406) 444-4732 http://sos.state.mt.us/css/index.asp

Nebraska (402) 471-3229 http://www.sos.state.ne.us/Elections/election.htm

Nevada (775) 684-5705 http://sos.state.nv.us/nvelection/

New Hampshire (603) 271-3242 http://www.state.nh.us/sos/electionsnew.htm

New Jersey (609) 292-3760 http://www.state.nj.us/lps/elections/electionshome.html

New Mexico (800) 477-3632 http://web.state.nm.us/elect.htm

New York (800) FOR-VOTE http://www.elections.state.ny.us/

North Carolina (919) 733-7173 http://www.sboe.state.nc.us/

North Dakota (800) 352-0867
ext. 8-4146 http://www.state.nd.us/sec/

Ohio (614) 466-2585 http://www.state.oh.us/sos/

Oklahoma (405) 521-2391 http://www.elections.state.ok.us/

Oregon (503) 986-1518 http://www.sos.state.or.us/elections/elechp.htm

Pennsylvania (717) 787-5280 http://www.dos.state.pa.us/bcel/site/default.asp

Rhode Island (401) 222-2345 http://www.elections.state.ri.us/

South Carolina (803) 734-9060 http://www.state.sc.us/scsec/

South Dakota (605) 773-3537 http://www.state.sd.us/sos/sos.htm

Tennessee (615) 741-7956 http://www.state.tn.us/sos/election.htm

Texas (800) 252-VOTE http://www.sos.state.tx.us/elections/index.shtml

Utah (800) 995-VOTE http://elections.utah.gov/

Vermont (800) 439-8683 http://vermont-elections.org/soshome.htm

Virginia (804) 786-6551 http://www.sbe.state.va.us/

Washington (360) 586-0400 http://secstate.wa.gov/elections/

West Virginia (304) 558-6000 http://wvsos.com/elections/main.htm

Wisconsin (608) 266-8005 http://elections.state.wi.us/

Wyoming (307) 777-7378 http://soswy.state.wy.us/election/election.htm

Keith Olbermann on the Military Commissions Act

Here. "Your words are lies sir, lies that imperil us all."

Save Our Constitution! Ask Me How!

It looks like our local civil liberties group, Save Our Constitution, is going to be printing up buttons that say "Save our Constitution! Ask me how!" There has also been some discussion of how to respond if someone asks you how to save the Constitution.

The answer is simple, and I urge it on you the internet.

These are the lists of everyone in the House and Senate who voted for the Military Commissions Act of 2006. Don't vote for these bozos.

Govtrack presents the same information in more readable format, including a nifty map, here and here. Govtrack, btw, seems to be a nifty site.

More one the Quaker menace

The Pentagon continues to keep records on Quaker activities on the grounds that the pacifist religious group constitutes a terrorist threat. Previously I have linked to reports that the Pentagon issued a "Threat and Local Observation Notice" (a TALON) on a meeting of Friends in Florida. The ACLU is now reporting similar TALONs have been issued for activities by the American Friends Service Committee (AFSC) in Akron, Ohio and Springfield, Mass.

These new TALONs were issued with all of the competence and sensitivity to the value of human intel we have come to expect from the Global War on Anything We Decide to Label Terrorism. First of all, they misreported the second event as being in Springfield, IL, rather than Springfield Mass. Second, the Pentagon spies apparently found out about this event through the incredibly sophisticated method of "Subscribing to the AFSC emailing list." You'd think that if they had the announcement for the event in front of them, they would get the city right.

There's a fun personal connection here, too. Molly has a lot of family who are Quakers living in the Akron area. My in-laws could be a threat to national security, with their damned nonviolence and mayonnaise heavy, Midwestern cooking.

Via John Collins on the SLU listserv.

Exxon Mobil's PR firm creates "homemade" YouTube spoof of An Inconvientent Truth

The DCI Group, a PR firm working for Exxon Mobil, has an excellent record of creating the appearance of grass roots support for their causes on the web. They are the force behind Tech Central Station, a blog that appears to be a news for nerds type website but is actually devoted to spreading unwarranted doubt about global warming and endless positive messages current energy policy.

DCI’s latest? The video "Al Gore's Penguin Army," appears to be a homemade spoof of An Inconvenient Truth posted to YouTube by 29 year old named "Toutsmith," from California. The Wall Street Journal, however, has discovered that the video was actually posted from DCI computers in Washington DC. For those who subscribe the full story is here. For those who don’t here are some highlights.

Nancy Snow, a communications professor at California State University, Fullerton, viewed the penguin video and calls it a lesson in "Propaganda 101." It contains no factual information, but presents a highly negative image of the former vice president, she says. The purpose of such images is to harden the views of those who already view Mr. Gore negatively, Dr. Snow says. …
Traffic to the penguin video, first posted on YouTube.com in May, got a boost from prominently placed sponsored links that appeared on the Google search engine when users typed in "Al Gore" or "Global Warming." The ads, which didn't indicate who had paid for them, were removed shortly after The Wall Street Journal contacted DCI Group on Tuesday.

Via Dale Jamieson on the ISEE list.

The Bill that Broke the Constitution

Here at SLU we have formed a new group, Save Our Constitution, to fight the recent attack on basic civil rights by the Bush administration. Right now we are drafting up promotional material for a teach-in we will have Nov. 3. This is some copy I have generated that I think captures where the group is heading. I’m putting it up here in draft form for comments.

The Bill that Broke the Constitution

On October 18, 2006, George W. Bush signed the Military Commissions Act into law. The bill was described in the media as merely a “controversial” decision about what to do with the detainees in Guantánamo and elsewhere. In fact, it gives the President unprecedented powers and strips ordinary people of the most basic of rights. The right whose death we mourn the most is habeas corpus, a right so basic most people aren’t even aware it has a name, let alone that it can be taken away. Habeas corpus is your right to tell your case to a judge if you have been arrested. Millions of people no longer have this right. They can languish indefinitely in prisons for no reason, dependant entirely on the whim of their captors. And the collapse of basic human rights is not limited to foreigners or people outside America. Under the Military Commissions Act the president and secretary of defense can declare anyone they want, including American citizens, enemy combatants. Once this happens, you have almost no legal protection. Jose Padilla, an American citizen, was declared an enemy combatant, and he was held without charges and tortured for three years. There is nothing preventing this from happening to you.

Torture

We can never forget that real people are suffering horribly at the hands of our government, and no good is coming from it. More and more stories are coming out about people who were arrested on faulty information or no information at all, tortured horribly, and then released without any charges being pressed against them. Muhibullo Adulkarim Umarov a native of Tajikistan, was arrested in Pakistan following a bombing in Karachi, sent to Guantánamo No evidence was ever presented linking him to the bombing which was eventually shown to be the work of a Pakistani, Sohail Akhtar. After two years, someone realized that they had no reason to hold Umarov. He was taken to the office of an American official who told him he was going to be freed, asked him not to blame America, gave him a hug, and sent him on his way.

This can happen because there is no public oversight over who gets arrested, why they are held, or what is done to them. Bounty hunters in Pakistan pick up whoever they can just to get paid. Innocent people are turned over to the new secret police because someone wanted to settle a score or do in a rival. Trial by jury was developed long ago to prevent these abuses, but now we are slipping back into barbarism.

The Politics of Fear

How is this possible? Why have we allowed this to happen? The answer is simple, we have been made to fear. The president and his enablers in congress used the tragedy of September 11 to advance an agenda that had nothing to do with the attacks. This manipulation included inventing the “war on terror” a strange conflict against an undefined enemy for an indefinite period of time. Past leaders facing real armies have told us not to fear. This administration is now telling us to fear, to fear everyone and no one, and to take their word for it when they announce that someone is the enemy. We are in an era where big lies are used to destroy basic rights. The time has come to say “stop.”

Complete works of Charles Darwin on line

Here. So far, only half of them are up, but the plans are to put everything up. Woo hoo.

The site seems pretty slow right now, but you have the option of viewing the books as facsimiles or text files, or side by side. Via Lindsay.

Torture Stories

I'm collecting torture stories for a teach-in to be held in a few weeks. Right now I'm taking notes on a few individuals to decide who to focus on. If anyone stopping by can think of other good names or sources, let me know. The main category of person I am interested in are those who have been...

Held for years, tortured, and then released without charges

Muhibullo Adulkarim Umarov: Native of Tajikstan, traveled to Pakistan to earn money for his family. Arrested by Pakistani police after a bombing that was later shown to be the work of a Pakistani, Sohail Akhtar. No charges were pressed by Pakistan, but the Pakistanis were eager to find evidence that the bomber was a foreigner. Transferred to US control at a time when the US was offering a bounty on any terror suspect. Held at Baghram and Gitmo and subjected to psychological torture. His captors said his frequent movements between Pakistan, Tajikstan and Afghanistan (all countries where he has relatives) were suspicious. Captors demanded that he reveal the location of Osama bin Laden. After two years, it is decided he is completely innocent, and he is released. (wikipedia, Mother Jones)

Maher Arar Syrian born Canadian citizen. Detained by US, based on false information from the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. Extraordinarily rendered to Syria where he was tortured into a false confession. Cleared of all charges and released. RCMP apologizes. The only concrete piece of evidence ever offered against him is a lease he signed that was witnessed by a friend of his family's who is now also being held in Syria. No explanation as to why the other man is being held, or signing a lease with him as a witness is damning evidence of anything. (maherarar.com, the Canadian government's commission on Arar)

Ruhal Ahmed, Asif Iqbal and Shafiq Rasul (the Tipoton three) British citizens who travel to Pakistan for a wedding. They then go to Afghanistan to see the effects of US bombing for themselves. (imdb page for the movie about them. BBC story)

Moazzam Begg, Martin Mubanga, Richard Belmar and Feroz Abbasi. Other british citizens: BBC page here. The BBC page refers to five other Gritons who were held at Gitmo and then released without charges. I'll need to get their names later.

The other important category of person I want to highlight is the

American Citizen who Has Been Tortured.

Jose Padilla: Picked up shortly after 9/11 at O'Hare as a "material witness" to the 9/11 plot. He is declared an enemy combatant, and tortured. After three years, he is finally charged in a civilian court with "conspiracy to murder, kidnap, and maim people overseas." The move to civilian court seems to be aimed at avoiding supreme court scrutiny of his treatment by military courts. (LizardBreath's last post on him. His motion to dismiss the charges against him, wikipedia.)

My car is visible from space

Hey John, I can see your house from here
Originally uploaded by rob helpychalk.

Check it out. Somewhere along the line, the good folks at Google saw fit to add detailed satelite photographs of our tiny village of Canton New York to their database. Now, you can see our car on google. This is the image I got when I asked for directions to a meeting I have to go to. Amazing.

Some link collections from Gus DiZerega

Gus has a good list of links discussing the recent Lancet study on deaths caused by the war in Iraq. He also has a good list of links on torture, which I reprinted here earlier.

Welcome to the world Peter Casmir D'Amato

Chris and Grey have a baby! Leave your congratulations here.

For Veronica Mars

In the Neil Simon movie, Murder by Death, Lionel Twain invites five detectives--obvious parodies of Hercule Poirot, Miss Marples, Charlie Chan, Nick Charles and Sam Spade--to dinner and stages a murder. Twain, who is played by Truman Capote, explains the motives for his plot this way:

You've tricked and fooled your readers for years. You've tortured us all with surprise endings that made no sense. You've introduced characters in the last five pages that were never in the book before. You've withheld clues and information that made it impossible for us to guess who did it. But now, the tables are turned. Millions of angry mystery readers are now getting their revenge. When the world learns I've outsmarted you, they'll be selling your $1.95 books for twelve cents.

I think I just don't like the mystery genre. By design, the plot payoff has to be the last thing you'd expect knowing what you know about the characters. This makes developing rich characterization next to impossible. It is also more damaging to the realism of a show than including space ships or vampires. It just bugs me.