LJWorld.com

lucky_man (Anonymous) says…

Don't worry, soon, Barack Obama and his veep, Hillary Clinton (third veep term) will make freinds with Iran, Al Qaeda, Hamas and maybe even Obama Bin Laden himself and everyone in the US will be wealthy and have health care and gas will go down to $1.25 a gallon and we'll all live happily ever after with absolute equality in a totally green nation. It's all right at our doorstep….I just hope evil George W. Bush doesn't take over the world in the next six months.

planetwax (Anonymous) says…

We need news like www.democracynow.org. See their video broadcast yesterday on torture.

duplenty (Anonymous) says…

Hey, Dan Simon's says “worst of the worst”, so it's gotta be true!

Right?

Speakout (Anonymous) says…

So, Corrector, because Clinton did it, that makes it legal or right? Clinton had sex with a girl in the Oval Office, so does that set a precedence? Whenever something is done that is illegal, everything done in the same manner is too, no matter the perpetrator.
Clinton was no angel, he wasn't even a good president. This is what scares me about his wife, but any president who allows torture is doing so against the Laws of both God and Man.
We need to stop Al-Qaida but we won't as long as we and our “friends” continue to torture and destroy of the Arab world. Frankly, what Al-Qaida wants is for the West to get out of the Middle East and for the West, it is a good idea. If we were out of the Middle East, Al Qaida would have no beef against the USA. This is the best protection we can get-no one angry at us. Lets be smart, not aggressive and stay out of their politics..

screedposter (Anonymous) says…

“If we were out of the Middle East, Al Qaida would have no beef against the USA”

By “out of the middle east” I think we all know that Speakout means “let the Palestinians evict the Jews, and nobody gets hurt.”

powershopper (Anonymous) says…

If extraordinary rendition was carried out under the Clinton Administration at least it was kept in the dark and under wraps. Perhaps due to better management in general. This just goes to prove that what we see and what actually happens are two different things. At least Clinton was able to make the distinction. I believe discretion is a component of something more complex. Perhaps diplomacy? Something that Bush does not seem to understand and something that is deperately needed. Hopefully, our next president will holster the six shooter and at least bring a broader understanding of the complex world in which we now live.

just_another_bozo_on_this_bus (Anonymous) says…

” My point was that Burress lied”

I think this is a mischaracterization. Yes, there were renditions, and possibly even torture under Clinton, which was reprehensible enough. But to compare that to what BushCo did is even more inaccurate than Burress's statement.

“Clinton had sex with a girl in the Oval Office, so does that set a precedence?”

If BushCo had expanded on this the way they did the Clinton rendition/torture policy, half of the White House would now be brothel.

logicsound04 (Anonymous) says…

Awwww, look who's back.

“but, but Clinton!”

cool (Anonymous) says…

noam chomsky :
why we should impeach Bush !
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zwunk_f-e…

ndmoderate (Anonymous) says…

He just can't get enough.

cool (Anonymous) says…

BUSH (and the shadow government behind him) is leading us toward the next war with McCain as the proposed leader…..

chomsky again:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cQ1REGsex…

cool (Anonymous) says…

BUSH & rumsfeld charged with war crimes in German courts:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8isj8LkbZ…

just_another_bozo_on_this_bus (Anonymous) says…

“Gee, you think maybe 9/11 had something to do with that?”

9/11 was the all-purpose excuse to do everything they intended to do, anyway.

cool (Anonymous) says…

george bush:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4sbnKxOnH…

cool (Anonymous) says…

Cheney, Rumsfeld, Wolfowitz and others in the bush administration are signatories of the manifesto of the group - PNAC, Project for a New American Century,
of military unilateralism:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aepfsJfWx…

just_another_bozo_on_this_bus (Anonymous) says…

“The letter to the editor contains falsehoods.”

Upon re-reading this letter, I can see no falsehood. Burress never stated that Bush invented torture or rendition, merely that he approved an extensive program thereof.

But we all know that for you, Kevin, Clinton is the root of all evil.

beobachter (Anonymous) says…

Welcome back kevin, talk about a real deceptive user name. No one would ever link you with correctness.

BorderRat (Anonymous) says…

Stop the torture. Just behead them all and be done with it.

beobachter (Anonymous) says…

“but, but Clinton!”

Summers_Eve (Anonymous) says…

noam chomsky :
why we should impeach Bush ! >>>cool
––––––––––––––––—

The same Noam Chomsky who made in excess of a million dollars on DOD contracts?

screedposter (Anonymous) says…

Inaccuracies:

President Bush … personally had approved the meetings at which top officials authorized … intermittent drowning

it was the policy of American government ever since George Washington to oppose torture. Indeed, it was a hallmark of our democracy.

Pursuant to Bush’s directive, the CIA tortured secretly kidnapped prisoners, recorded it on videotape, then destroyed the evidence and tried to cover it up.

unjustifiable invasion of Iraq,

American torture caused a majority of citizens in nearly every other country to turn against our otherwise legitimate struggle against al-Qaida.

just_another_bozo_on_this_bus (Anonymous) says…

I'll grant you the point to an extent, Kevin, but to say that Burress is “lying” is unsupportable. At best, all you can say is that he must be unaware of Scheuer's statement. And it doesn't detract from the fact that opposition to torture has been a long-standing tenet of the American sense of civility— it's even part of the Bill of Rights.

Just because you, perhaps the Clinton Administration and most certainly BushCo want to go against that tradition doesn't mean everyone else wants this country to become the United States of Sadism.

just_another_bozo_on_this_bus (Anonymous) says…

“The same Noam Chomsky who made in excess of a million dollars on DOD contracts?”

Care to elaborate? I'm sure there are lots of poorly paid linguistics professors who would like to cash in, too.

just_another_bozo_on_this_bus (Anonymous) says…

“Stop the torture. Just behead them all and be done with it.”

Are you going to volunteer to sop up the blood?

anxiousatheist (Anonymous) says…

“torture (if we consider waterboarding torture)” - corrector

You mean like the U.S. State department does you dumb POS?

“The U.S. State Department has recognized that techniques that involve submersion of the head of the subject during interrogation would qualify as torture.[30]”

Good day…

jgragg (Anonymous) says…

Our Armed Forces are not allowed to torture detainees. While on guard they give the detainees 3 meals a day and water and a bed.

cool (Anonymous) says…

jgragg: yes that's true of our 'armed forces'.

what about private contractors ?

oldvet (Anonymous) says…

“If we were out of the Middle East, Al Qaida would have no beef against the USA. ”

The winner of the “Naivete of the Day” award…

To radical Islam, the USA, including you, is the Great Satan who needs to be destroyed… they want to kill you simply because you exist… you can back out of everything all the way to your own little shell and they will still want to kill you… do you believe that if the USA abandoned all interests and presence in the Middle East, that the AQ boys would spend their days sitting in the coffee houses between prayer sessions, yucking it up with memories of the good old days? That belief would earn you first runner-up…

kugrad (Anonymous) says…

Great letter. In addition to the crimes mentioned, the Bush administration also places people into the hands of private contractors who then torture them. If Blackwater or another private mercenary force (the press prefers to call these soliders of fortune “security contractors”) tortures the people, then Bush can claim, “The USA doesn't torture,” and just leave out the fact that others do our torture by paid proxy. Furthermore, foreign governments in the mideast also assist in the detention and torture of suspects. Egypt, would be an example, but I'm sure there are more. We operate secret prisons, torture people, violate the Geneva convention, violate international law, then act as though we are the moral compass of the world.
The US will participate in the Chinese Olympics. Why? Because we can't very well preach to the world about human rights abuses when we are among the top abusers.
Stop torture. Prosecute those responsible.

duplenty (Anonymous) says…

“To radical Islam, the USA, including you, is the Great Satan who needs to be destroyed… they want to kill you simply because you exist… ”

According to Osama, you're wrong.

just_another_bozo_on_this_bus (Anonymous) says…

“I realize it's only noon, but that may go down as the most ignorant statement of the day.”

We have confidence in your ability to top it, Kevin.

anxiousatheist (Anonymous) says…

“Waterboarding does not entail the submersion of the head of the subject during interrogation.” - corrector

Wow, I can't believe anyone would post this, especially since everyone knows who they are…you have no shame sir…

Stain (Anonymous) says…

Bush's legacy. I hope he's proud.

Meanwhile this weekend he gets to attend the wedding of his daughter, while four other families attend the funerals of their children thanks to him.

cool (Anonymous) says…

worth repeating !

Stain (Anonymous) says…
Bush's legacy. I hope he's proud.

Meanwhile this weekend he gets to attend the wedding of his daughter, while four other families attend the funerals of their children thanks to him.

cool (Anonymous) says…

torture denial ?

the worst of the worst are just simply 'frolicking about'
for six years waiting to be charged ?

http://www2.ljworld.com/news/2008/may/04…

anxiousatheist (Anonymous) says…

“The subject's head is not submersed in water during waterboarding” - corrector

Waterboarding is “simulated” drowning, while we, (you corrector), parse what it is to be waterboarded, the idea is to make the person feel as though they are drowning. Anywhich way, your b.s. run-around of what waterboarding “really” is is an irrelevant topic.

lucky_man (Anonymous) says…

The only thing I regret is that Bush didn't subpeona more from the far-left blogosphere accounts and question or even waterboard at least a broad swath of the far-left kooks.

Doesn't mean I don't think you guys are not top-notch stellar superstars though!

peaceword (Anonymous) says…

Dear barak obama, Ladies, & Gentlemen:
This is not a “confidential letter.” I want the world to be informed! The services of a lawfirm are needed in litigating my “Geneva Convention & RICO Act Lawsuit,” usdc h-08-60, s. Dist. Of Texas, in U.S. District Court.
I, Kenneth MacKenzie, am the Uncle of PFC Kristian Vasquez Menchaca, who was barbarically tortured to death after capture in Yosifiya, Iraq, 2006, as consequence of being denied U.S. Fourteenth Amendment equal “Reward Life protection,” equal to the “Reward Life protection” the U.S. provides to Terrorist enemies of the United States during wartime.
Bush Administration U.S. Code Title 22, & Title 1, U.S.$25 Million Rewards on behalf of Terrorists are 500 times more than U.S. Code Title 22, & Title 1, U.S.“$50,000 'DEATH' Rewards” for captured U.S. Soldiers, Prisoners of War & as “comparitive defamation” of U.S. soldier “Prisoner Of War” life value after “surrender & capture” and are a violation of Geneva Conventions if “mutilation, torture, and murder” result as linked to said “reward - life - value - defamation.” Current “U.S.$50,000 Rewards” are “U.S.$50,000 Death-Sentence Rewards” for Terrorist-captured U.S. Troops in Iraq in violation of Geneva Conventions (i, ii, iii, iv) of 1949, & Geneva Protocols of 1977. U.S. Sec. State Rice & U.S. Attorney General Gonzales assume American Soldiers are only worth bizarre “U.S.$50,000 Reward” & have denied U.S. soldiers equal constitutional protection of $25 Million Dollar Rewards, “EQUAL” to same $25 million dollar rewards they bestowed on Terrorists under U.S. Code, Title 22 and USC, Title 1, Sec.101, “Counterterrorism Fund,” $700 Million appropriated by Congress! Gonzales-Rice paid $77 Million out of this fund & all 100% of Terrorists captured in Iraq have been remanded to U.S. custody, alive. U.S.“$50,000 'DEATH' Rewards” have resulted in torture death and murders of 100% of all terrorist-captured U.S. Soldiers in Iraq.
Reward money to save lives of each of remaining terrorist-captured U.S. Soldiers currently “Missing In Action” (“MIA”) prisoners in Iraq may be donated by the public to:
SEE: (1) State governor, Capitol City, Your state; or (2) C/O Judge Gray Miller, U.S. Court Case # H-08-60, U.S. Court House Houston, 515 Rusk Ave., Houston, Texas 77002, Phone: 713.250.5500, filed by Kenneth MacKenzie (Pro Se), Uncle of PFC Kristian Menchaca ; Or (3) you may donate life saving reward money to International Criminal Court Prosecutor’s Case #OTP-CR-100/08 by referring U.S. Court Case H 08-60. Contact International Criminal Court at the Hague, Office of the Prosecutor, Post Office Box 19519, 2500 CM, The Hague, The Netherlands, email: otp.informationdesk@icc-cpi.int
I'd like to see John McCain, Barak Obama, & Hillary Clinton explain regarding all this treacherous Reward issue and U.S. Executive Branch “Culture of Torture.”
Sincerely,
Kenneth MacKenzie

Navin_R_Johnson (Anonymous) says…

personally I'm opposed to torture,

but it's not my place to deny use of it to others…

just_another_bozo_on_this_bus (Anonymous) says…

“I think a few Democrats should have been sent to Gitmo, esp.”

Any other Stalinist ideas up your sleeve, Kevin?

Navin_R_Johnson (Anonymous) says…

bozo,

i'm pretty sure gitmo is sunglasses, main-tai's and plasma screens compared to the gulag and siberia. just a hunch though.

now quit clownin' around.

just_another_bozo_on_this_bus (Anonymous) says…

So you're saying Kevin is merely Khrushchev rather than Stalin?

anxiousatheist (Anonymous) says…

“I have had dreams where I have felt like I was falling, but I actually wasn't falling” - corrector

You are comparing real, actual torture, to dreaming…Another highly educated, informed, non-spun, rebuttle. Your brain power is exceeded only by your ability to cling to guns and religion…

duplenty (Anonymous) says…

“I think a few Democrats should have been sent to Gitmo, esp. those congressmen who were paid by Saddam to visit Iraq prior to the invasion and then spread pro-Saddam propaganda while they were there.”

Let's see…photo of Don Rumsfeld shaking hands with Saddam, check.

Photos of Saddam with dems…still waiting.

I take it your all for sending Rummy to Gitmo?

*insert Bush admin apologist retort here*

duplenty (Anonymous) says…

oops! “you're”…before the grammar apologists taze me.

scott3460 (Anonymous) says…

Traitor. Pure and simple.

anxiousatheist (Anonymous) says…

'No. Waterboarding is not torture” - corrector

If only your president agreed with you…

beobachter (Anonymous) says…

I would love to watch all of the one's who claim waterboarding is not torture undergo it. Including kevin's beloved W, Rummy and Uncle dick, actually since Kevin supports it so strongly he be included. Better throw in Alberto as well, he wrote the legal backup. Carry this out for 24-48 hours, then ask their opinion.
I know, kevin would come up screaming “but, but Clinton!”.

lucky_man (Anonymous) says…

What will be interesting is in, say, 6-8 years, after Obama and his far-left administration is directly responsible for the deaths of hundreds of thousands, if not millions of Americans, the BO's and the Bozo's and the Beatrices will still be fingering Bush, Cheney, Rove, Rumsfeld, Rice etc etc as the reason.

F*cking loons.

tunahelper (Anonymous) says…

obama bin laden will be a million times worst than President Bush!

beobachter (Anonymous) says…

gigolo, share with us your wisdom as to how Obama will be directly responsible for the deaths of hundreds of thousands, if not millions of Americans? Barack is smart enough to not invade Iran or any one else for no reason. Actually he figures to save a lot of lives by shutting down the current wars and repairing our reputation in the world.

lucky_man (Anonymous) says…

If you, BO, do not know how this far-left Obama guy is and how he will subject us to security breaches to the nth to what your former (now not far-left enough Willy J. Clinton) did, then you're an idiot of much larger scope than I ever realized. You hate Bush so much, you'd probably be in favor of Chairman Mao for president. You're an idiot….even if you were a forward observer. You were probably a lousy pilot and a lousy observer. I'll go so far as to say you aided and abetted the Viet Cong, you idiotic traitorous asswipe.

jonas (Anonymous) says…

Hmmm… we'd gone a while before this, at least a week or so. Wonder what took so long this time?

cool (Anonymous) says…

luckyman:

Obama is hardly 'far left' or he wouldn't have gotten this far, oh please.

tunahelper ? you must already have excess mercury levels sorry / not much we can do for you now.

cool (Anonymous) says…

W, thinks he remembers waterboarding,
that's what they did to him during orientation week
at Yale trying to get rid of him.

jrudyhawk (Anonymous) says…

Peaceword, hope you see this, my condolences for your loss.
I'd prefer everyone bide by the articles of the Geneva Convention and that there were no torture by either side. Unfortunately, it's just not realistic in this conflict. Our soldiers are given no quarter by the enemy, radical islamists. They have no respect for life in any form, not for their children, women, innocents, non-combatants, not even themselves. If captured, our soldiers die a horrific, torture filled death. Not one has been returned or found 'whole'.
While two wrongs don't make a right, waterboarding is a mild, if regrettable, form of duress that instills fear on a subject while never killing them. And if this technique saves one soldier or prevents another attack on our soil or against our allies, then I say it's worth it. These psychos don't play by our rules nor the rules of man or God. Trying to defeat them by turning the other cheek would be a useless endeavor.
I understand the humanitarian in many of us force angry reaction when the humiliation perpetrated on Abu Graib prisoners is revealed and policies at Gitmo are disclosed. But the reciprocation to our men and women is so far beyond the pale to those acts that there is no comparison. And once again a former detainee at Gitmo who was 'acquitted' of being a terrrorist has played the role of suicide bomber not one week ago. Many have argued and fought for Gitmo prisoners to be afforded the right of counsel as if they deserved the rights of U.S. citizens, when the entire time an overwhelming majority of these men would jump at the chance to wipe out as many as they could for the simple reason that they are American, even the ones trying to 'defend' them.
It's a regrettable situation, but Americans turning on each other serves no purpose. Direct your outrage at the bombers, the mullahs who incite them, and the sheiks who fund them. They practice racism and religious fanatacism at its most extreme, proclaiming hypocritically the West is evil and morally corrupt. Yet the reward they seek by killing themselves and innocents is a harem of virgins.

scott3460 (Anonymous) says…

“Direct your outrage at the bombers, the mullahs who incite them, and the sheiks who fund them.”

No, it is directed at the traitor who would have us become them.

“They practice racism and religious fanatacism at its most extreme, proclaiming hypocritically the West is evil and morally corrupt.”

And yet, in our effort to combat the fanaticism, we are. An instructive example to consider: is the proper response to the Phelp cult to get out on every streetcorner and beat them at their own outrageous activities? Or are we better because we behave in a civil manner and instead simply marginalize them?

“Yet the reward they seek by killing themselves and innocents is a harem of virgins.”

Instead of war profiteering.

jrudyhawk (Anonymous) says…

Brilliant, Scott. Tell us all how we defeat radicalism on this scale in a “civil manner and instead simply marginalize(ing) them?” Phelps and co. are despicable, but I'm fairly sure out-street cornering Bin-Laden and his ilk ain't gonna do it. Shouting down Phelps doesn't make his opponents evil or morally corrupt, so your 'instructive example' is ludicrous and ignorant.

scott3460 (Anonymous) says…

Jrudyhawk:

I think it helps if you understand a post before you start calling it ludicrous and ignorant.

Radicalism is easily defeated by taking about a quarter of the money that bush and company are funneling to the “defense” industry, and spending it to better the lives of the poor, uneducated and desperate men and women who are recruited to extremism and radicalism by their “lot in life.” Fat, satisfied people are not radicals. To wit, the vast majority of “citizens” in this country who have had Constitutional rights stolen from them during the last 8 years.

We should stop invading other countries and stop supporting dictators who abuse their people.

There are many more ways, I am sure, but it is too early to go on forever. Suffice it to say we should again act as Americans and in keeping with the ideals upon which this country was founded. Our Constitution, after all, is more than just a “god-damned piece of paper.”

Cleansing this country of the abuses of the bush administration would be another good way to defeat radicalism.

jaycee (Anonymous) says…

It's amazing to me that these countries can behead our newspeople, kill our soldiers, drag them thru town showing off thier kill, but by golly, the USA had better not run water on our enemies face, because that's torture. You want torture, talk to John McCain and how the Vietnamese tied his arms behind his back and then tied his head between his ankles and left him for hours, only to return and do it all over again. Our soldiers are tortured, and our enemies get the red carpet treatment due to their religion, or whatever and we try to be their best friend. they are our enemy, regardless of where we have to fight them, the muslim extremist cannot win and Obama is their best chance.

jrudyhawk (Anonymous) says…

Scott, step away from the bong. Your solution is to buy off the radicals? You just don't have a clue do ya? How do we educate them without occupying their lands? If we make them 'fat' they won't be radical? Sweet Jesus! Their 'lot' in life is due to the fact that their sheiks or emirs or whoever holds power hoards all profits from the oil we helped them discover and don't improve their peoples lives one iota. They don't want to relinquish any of their money or power, so they turn to religious fanatics to fan the flames of Western hatred and tell them we're to blame for their woebegotten lives instead of rising up against their true oppressors. These people have sworn jihad to kill all non-believers on site lest they convert. Kill all Americans. Period. You think they'd allow outsiders to build schools and attempt to wisen them up? Or fatten them with Big Macs?
The radicals, Bin Laden, al-Qaeda, the Taliban—these were all around and wreaking havoc long before Bush was elected and were hardly being addressed by the previous administration. “Cleansing” our country also does nothing to defeat radicalism.

I read your post. And this one. I 'understand' them both. My guess is you're still in high school or a freshman. Either way you have no idea what you're talking about. Feel free to rant away now, I won't be reading or responding to anything more you have to 'say', picking my nose is time better spent.

just_another_bozo_on_this_bus (Anonymous) says…

” Their 'lot' in life is due to the fact that their sheiks or emirs or whoever holds power hoards all profits from the oil we helped them discover and don't improve their peoples lives one iota.”

And one reason they are pissed off at us is because our government, because of the power and influence of oil corporations, props up these sheiks, emirs, etc.

scott3460 (Anonymous) says…

Far be it for me to interrupt your nose picking. Please do continue, you just might not want to dig so deep. The brain damage you are doing is pretty obvious.

Seriously, such simple minded thinking has done great harm to our country during the last 8 years. Please try to learn a thing or two & quit accepting everything rush limpbrain and the republictraitors feed you. No one would need to occupy Arab lands in order to influence the society there. Take a look at the example of China, or Russia. Thoughtful administrations in the past have followed policies that resulted in peaceful and meaningful change to these societies and have, so far, averted the sorts of poverty and desperation that is bred in the Middle East as a result of our foolish President's policies.

Behaving responsibly, humanely and with humility again while on the world stage will certainly help to reduce the level of radicalism directed against our country. A regime run by and for the military/industrial complex and the oil industry has proven to be disasterous. I can think of no better response to the last 8 years than to flush every republican out of office by voting a straight Democrat ticket, and get some people in office who can cleanse our country of the Constitution-ignoring, corporate apologists that have been there for so long.