Swine Flu Rampant in Rochester NY

Media reports are sparse, but there is a big N1H1 Flu virus outbreak in Rochester NY area.

Odd that no one would be reporting on it. My sister and her entire family has it, or has had it in the last few weeks.

I would think that a Swine Flu outbreak would be newsworthy.

Dognapping in Columbia Heights

A frantic woman stopped me on the street yesterday to ask about her dog that had been playing in her back yard on 11th street. She let the cocker spaniel play in the fenced back yard and someone broke the lock and took the dog.

We had a dog that was stolen out of our backyard, too. It was about five years ago. We had only had him for a few days when he had been taken.

It was devastating.

You'd like to think that life in Columbia Heights isn't as rough as it used to be. Certainly it looks better: no teenage drug dealers standing on every corner, all night long; the trash men actually pick up the trash; fewer abandoned buildings; no empty lots filled with trash and broken glass. When construction on the GIant grocery store started, that entire block was one field of tall grass. Upon cutting that grass, the builders discovered a man living in a hut in the middle of what would become the parking garage for the Giant. Ahh, those were the days. People used to slide under the broken chain link fences with their dogs to have them run around and catch balls.

But outward appearances are misleading. We feel so much better now that we can go to a decent grocery store and furnish our homes within a few blocks of where we live. Restaurants are here now. They didn't use to be.

It's so easy to be fooled.

This is still an urban, changing, neighborhood. And the old crime is still here. Like stealing people's dogs out of their backyards and selling them to people on the street. Or worse.

Go Bermuda!

Four Chinese Uighurs now have a place to call home: Bermuda. One wonders what the deal was on that one, but never mind.

It is heartening to think that some of the falsely imprisoned Uighurs now have a nice place to stay, a country where they will not be persecuted, and a population that welcomes them.

And congrats to Bermuda for the guts to stand up to Chinese pressure and threats to take these former Guantanamo Bay prisoners to begin with. The cry and panic of American politicians, and people, are really put to shame by the decent actions of the Bermudian government.

What does it say that the small country of Bermuda is willing to take in these non-terrorists - and that's in the definition of the U.S. Government - and ours falls into hysterics at the idea of it? To me, it says Americans enjoy being terrified. If there is no one there, they will make them up.

Culturally, it started with the Cold War. We had to keep the pressure for that huge amount of spending going, and stoking the terror of the American public did the trick. Then that ended and the terror became crime. Crime, crime, crime. Americans were terrified about crime, although the level of crime had been going down. That didn't stop anybody. There was a fear-mongering machine in place and they needed to do something. Then 9-11 the tragedy. Easy to find a target there. And it has been going ever since.

After all, there's lots of contracting dollars to be made. And public willingness to spend it is essential.

David Carradine's Death - Don't Tell Me!

I am sorry to hear about David Carradine's untimely death. Really I am. But is it really necessary for us to know all the kinky details?

No it is not. Not even reading any of the articles, I have reached my kinky limit on the headlines alone. Now there's fishnet stockings. Auto-asphyxiation. Other weird stuff.

How about we leave the poor guy alone? People have a right to die in peace without every aspect of their private lives being slobberingly reviewed by the entire world.

Under U.S. law, there is no privacy after death. We should consider a law to change that. Some things are not news and don't really need to be known by anyone other than intimate partners.

Flash Mob in MC Hammer Pants! Video

Loved it! Why doesn't anybody do anything like this in DC?

Fuck you, Goldfarb! Susan Boyle Has Not Peaked!

Susan Boyle has not "peaked" as a celebrity, you pompous ass. All you are doing in your blog post is another, more veiled and pathetic version of the "tear down" you accuse Fleet Street of doing.

I'd say "shame" but you don't have any.

Do you really think that all the millions of people who watch Susan Boyle's videos from around the world are just going to curl up and go away, off to think about something else? They won't. Her performance had incredible meaning for the world at a time when hope is the most powerful drug around.

The tabloids are reporting that Susan Boyle has had explosive outbursts. And? That would only make her a normal celebrity, if you are inclined to believe those reports at all, which I am not. Imagine how annoying it would be to suddenly be filmed every time you stepped outside of your house, with the attendant critcisms from people like you, Mr. Goldfarb.

I think you are just jealous.

Dog Park Daze in DC

Washington, DC is a heavily dog-owning town. The city is finally recognizing this by installing dog parks that legitimize the practices of letting your dogs run in a public fenced-in area, which was happening already.

Buy The Dog Walker's Handbook at http://www.lulu.com/content/paperback-book/the-dog-walkers-handbook/6144723 for all the tips and tricks for dog handling and care.

There is an official dog park at 11th and Florida Avenues NW that is large with lots of room for bigger dogs to run. Another fenced-in area right next to it is reserved for small dogs only. What a great idea. The little ones can run and play with each other without being intimidated by the size of the other dogs, which is when they will often turn aggressive.

There are bags to pick up poop and trash cans to throw it out.

The only problem I have is the owners of the regular dogs there aren't very engaged with their pets. I say this because they seem to have more interest in talking to each other and drinking coffee than watching their dogs. And the play can get a bit rough, too.

The ultimate message here is you need to watch your dog in a dog park no matter what. It doesn't matter that your dog plays with the same dogs every day. One day it could be different and there could be a fight. It's just what happens sometimes. They are animals, not people. And frankly, even people do that, too.

I Don't Believe the Torture Timeline

It doesn't make sense. Why would I have been fired for criticizing torture at the CIA in 2006, and that is what I was directly told, if the United States was no longer torturing people in 2006? When I wrote "Waterboarding is Torture, and Torture is Wrong," it was on an internal blog that only people with Top Secret clearances - with codeword clearances - could see. It was very internal. There would be no reason to fire me in 2006 for writing that if the torturing had stopped.

There is a story that guilty parties want you to believe, and they send it out to be swallowed whole by the press. To wit, the CIA officer who came to the media to claim that waterboarding was only used a few times. That was a lie. It was a calculated lie. The goal was to get people off of their outrage and on to other issues. And with luck, the inquiries would stop there.

No luck.

So now another story is being floated. It is the idea that there was only torturing done for a little while, and then saner heads ruled and it went away. Don't believe it.

Nothing short of a full inquiry will reveal what actually happened. The American public deserves to know how their tax dollars were used and what useless crimes were committed in the name of their safety and revenge.

Two Russian tourists challenge Florida law prohibiting sex with porcupines

Two Russian tourists who challenged a Florida law prohibiting sexual relationship with a porcupine have had to undergo a lengthy treatment for genital inflammation.

Inspired by a Florida law outlawing sex with porcupines, the two very drunk Russians decided to find out why it would be illegal - the obvious not being apparent to them, I guess.

They fled the state and sought treatment in California, thereby evading Florida arrest. That's fine. I just want to see their pictures.

Obama Speech at Notre Dame: Greed and Traditional American Values

President Obama decried the short-sighted greed that landed the United States in this economic mess, and prior to the mess, "left millions behind" during the period of economic boom during a speech at Notre Dame.

Please remember that traditional American values do not include debt or flashy expenditures. Traditional American values are hard work for an honest days pay, and Americans were naturally suspicious of easy money or making money off of the sweat of others. That's traditional American values.

In a call to reject the "greed and short-term thinking" the President asks us to actually return to the values that once defined America. I guess we all just forgot that's what America used to stand for. Remember the phrase "Greed is Good" from the Eighties? It signaled a change in how Americans viewed themselves and their values. The emphasis shifted from working hard to materialism.

The American Dream wasn't in the material wealth we could accumulate. It was in the opportunity to worship freely and the chance to work hard and get ahead based on our own honest efforts.




Barack Obama, Credit Card Industry, Credit Cards, Credit Crisis, Economic Crisis, Economy, Elizabeth Warren, Financial Crisis, Obama Administration, Obama Economy, Real Time With Bill Maher, Ryan Grim, Usury, Politics News

Miss California Press Conference - Parody by LisaNova

This is a hysterical version of Miss California's views on gay marriage and her Christian tolerance.

LisaNova does a lot of great parodies.

How the Torture Thing Is Going to Shake Out

The ranking Democrats are inoculating themselves against torture charges by claiming that being informed doesn't mean that are complicit with the torture policies. They are claiming that they couldn't say anything about what they knew because it was classified.

Since when has that stopped anyone in Congress in the past?

Is accepting this line part of the price we are willing to pay to get the U.S. Government willing to have an investigation into the Bush Administration's torture policies? That's what Pelosi is hoping for.

Drinkingwithbob on: No Democracy in America

He blames Barack Obama when it is the U.S. political system that is the problem, but his points are well taken.

The New York Times Op Ed page has more influence on the U.S. government than the majority of the people in this country all saying the same thing.

But the other idea is that desegregation wouldn't have happened at all if it was left up to most of the people in the U.S. So there are limits to governing by popular will.

Poisoned Water: Reagan's Real Legacy

Why is it that autism has been dramatically on the rise since 1980? The Reagan Administration was responsible for the deregulation of environmental controls that pumped toxins into our water supply and our Earth.

Now it seems that the EPA is finally going to regulate the toxic sludge coming out of factories. Finally. It's in our waterways, the ground, the air and our bodies.

One day we will find out how badly our health has been affected by these toxins in our environment. Then Reagan will look very different indeed.

Kim Kardashian's Thighs and the Power of Fat

I always wanted to meet the men were who were deciding that starving women were beautiful. I'll bet you anything they hate women.

The one person to stand up to the media monsters is a reality star named Kim Kardashian. And Kim is definitely beautiful and curvy. She also states the obvious when she says "So what" to having cellulite. It's part of having curves.

It's the most feminist thing said to the world in a long time. The courage is amazing. Kim Kardashian has stood up to the entertainment business, of which she is a part, and called them on their bullshit. That's quite a risk to take with your career.

As a middle-aged curvy woman, I remember when cellulite was a source of derision and shame. The photos in magazines in the '70s had stick thin women with thighs as wide as their arms. Of course, that wasn't naturally possible. Then the '80s brought big boobs with stick thin thighs. That wasn't natural, either, but it never stopped making us feel bad about ourselves.

One day I realized, well into my forties, that the photos I saw all the time were doctored and the women in them had plastic surgery. We, as a nation, were being shown pictures of cut up people and being told we should look like them.

Thank God Kim Kardashian had the courage to insist on being human. Now I am a fan, although I've have never seen her on t.v.








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Dick Cheney is a Liar - There Are No Memos

You right-wing nut jobs will believe anything Dick Cheney tells you. There are no SECRET memos. He's just making that up to justify what they did. Torture doesn't save lives, waterboarding doesn't save lives and nothing justifies waterboarding somebody eighty-three times in one month. We won World War II without it and even prosecuted people for waterboarding.

The Newseum is a Tax-Evasion Fraud

The Newseum is a restaurant and location for catered events. The whole museum thing is a ruse to keep from paying taxes on the profits.

Very prime real estate is being used tax-free to make money. The apartments above the Newseum are not taxed at all. That is quite a bit of revenue that DC is missing out on because the official label of "non-profit museum" is attached to the function of the location.

The Newseum is not the only place running this scam. Half of these obscure museums are doing the same thing.

It's time that the Government wakes up and starts taxing these people!










DC, tourism, tourism industry, restaurants in DC, DC restaurants, museums, DC museums, tax cheats

Susan Boyle Has Been Kissed!!

I knew it! And she said it with such a straight face. There's an acting career in there somewhere.

Now as fans of Susan Boyle, it is our job to hit some of these fan sites and start adding content and comments. Go to it!

Updated fan club/ T-shirt listing for Susan Boyle fans:

Blog pretty recently updated with her leather jacket look:
http://susanboyle-fanclub.blogspot.com/

http://www.metacafe.com/watch/2713630/join_susan_boyle_fan_club/

Susan Boyle T-Shirts! Click here! http://www.cafepress.com/susan_boyle_fan

http://www.susanboylefansite.com/susan-boyle-store/

Her other fan sites and some of them really need fan additions, so get cracking:

http://susanboylefansite.blogspot.com

and Susan Boyle twitter feed:
www.twitter.com/Susan_Boyle_Fan

The most-mentioned fan site:
http://www.susan-boyle.com/

Another fan site with many interviews with celebrities about Susan Boyle
http://www.susanboyle-bgt.co.uk/

An Unofficial Site - but with lots of comment threads and user activity
http://www.susanboylefanclub.com/

Susan Boyle Facebook Fan Group
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=72212861218

A General Pop Fan Site - with a special page for Susan Boyle
http://www.fanpop.com/spots/susan-boyle

Has a Twitter Feed with all comments about Susan Boyle popping up on the screen
http://thisissusanboyle.magnify.net/?from=guide

Wiki Entry
http://16news.ham-radio-op.net/susan-boyle-wikipedia


















Susan Boyle, Susan Boyle Kissed, Susan Boyle Youtube, Entertainment News

Waterboarding Video from Playboy Channel

A Prayer For These Times

I just wrote a prayer: OK, God, you've got a plan, don't know what it is, but you the Man.













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God, G-d, religion

Waterboarding is Torture, and Torture is Wrong - ACCOUNTABILITY !!

Peggy Noonan should have her ass kicked. She is an advocate for "just passing by" the horrors of the Bush Administration torture policies. I wonder which of her friends would be indicted?

Accountability is critical to never having the United States of America EVER involved in a torture program again. And I don't mean the lowest level person you can find. I mean the people who issued the orders and justified them legally when concerns were raised about possible prison time.

The SERE program put our troops through simulated harsh interrogation techniques. Then those techniques were employed by our own government as tactics in our own interrogations of terror suspects. It's like someone saw the abusive tactics being used to harden our own troops against interrogation tactics, and thought "Wow! What a great idea! We should do something like that."

President Obama is flailing around trying to prevent a full scale investigation into the torture program of the Bush Administration, sending the likes of Rahm Emanuel and other emissaries to the media trying to get everybody to get over the torture program that didn't work.

Bad news, President Obama. We're not going to allow you to pull a Clinton on us and sell out your support base for the sake of unity. We won't stop screaming until everybody knows you turned your back on the worst human rights violation for decades by the United States.

Let the party begin.
























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Fuck You, General Hayden!!!

HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA!

Don't worry, unemployment isn't that bad. Maybe you can start walking dogs, like me. And you'll probably make it into the history books, too. What a way to go, buddy.














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Roswell! Space Aliens! Peace in the Middle East!

Space aliens have been visiting our planet! I am so excited. Now that every eight-year-old has been vindicated stay tuned for the Abominable Snowman or Big Foot stories around the dinner table. This is the sort of thing that gathers steam.

Former astronaut Edgar Mitchell, born in Roswell, New Mexico of all places, has been told a story by some of the villagers there about what really happened in 1947. Space aliens landed and the locals were sworn and threatened into silence.

But now that our financial system is in collapse, our economy is shrinking and the former President might be indicted for war crimes, they feel free to speak out. Perhaps because the threshold for credibility has fallen so low.

What has changed if we are not alone in the universe (is that a proper noun that needs to be capitalized now?)

I guess the Palestinians and the Israelis will finally realize neither is going anywhere and will settle this whole thing. We need to band together as carbon-based Earth life forms. Or maybe we can ship them off to separate planets so their brewing civil wars won't disrupt everybody else like their peace process has.

I have always maintained that it is illogical to think that of all the planets in the universe, ours is the only one with intelligent life on it. It just doesn't make sense. Or maybe we don't have intelligent life on Earth at all, but just think we do. That would be worse for the space aliens, conversation-wise.






military, warning, space aliens, conspiracy, Roswell New Mexico, Edgar Mitchell, NASA, National Press Club, X-Conference, X Conference

Slumdog Slave Sale

After Slumdog Millionaire, the little girl star was almost sold into slavery by her father. And let's not kid ourselves, it wasn't to work as a maid. The supposed buyers were actually reporters from a British tabloid.

Now the father/pimp insists that he was set up, and the girl supports her father, albeit not very convincingly.

While a wonderful experience for the kids, it is also a trap for them. People around them are going to get greedy and jealous and try to cash in or exploit the new-found fame. And once the children see what life is like outside their slum, they want something different for themselves.

"I want to live somewhere it doesn't smell like poo," said the girl in one recent interview. Imagine that as a life goal.

This story is almost as bad as what happened to the kids in The Kite Runner. They were paid a few thousand dollars for their work. Clearly ripped off by the producers of the movie. Since people are uneducated there, they really believed that the boy actor had been raped.

It is not acceptable for producers to pick up poor children, use them to make millions of dollars, and dump them back in the slum and poverty they were living in before. And paying only a few thousand dollars to a child when you've made millions off of them and their work is criminal.








Film, Rafiq Qureshi, Rubina Ali, Slumdog Millionaire, Entertainment News, Delhi slum, India slum, slumdog child star, Mumbai slum

Axelrod Makes a Bad Guess on Torture

What on Earth makes David Axelrod think that the legal community in the United States is going to shut up and ignore the program of torture exercised by the Bush Administration? Nothing short of the political and career death of the architects of the Bush Administration's torture policy is going to satisfy them.

Part of never having anything like this take place again is the example that will be made of the policy's perpetrators. As in, those who do not learn history are doomed to repeat it.

Democracy is fragile. The democratic institutions in this country took a real beating under the Bush Administration. Now they're pissed and determined never to let anything like that happen again.

So go ahead and whistle in the dark, Mr. Axelrod. You aren't going to win this one no matter how much you wish for it.







Axelrod, Axelrod Religious Action Center, Bush Administration, David Axelrod, Investigations, Obama Investigation, Rac, Reform Judaism, Religious Action Center, Torture Memos, Politics News, CIA, Guantanamo Bay

Impeach Judge Jay Bybee

The man who orchestrated the legal protection for the torturers of the Bush Administration should not be a Federal judge.

Jay Bybee wrote memos, or oversaw their writing, that drew a line as to what conduct was legal in interrogating terror suspects, and what conduct was not. That line is essential and needs to be drawn. The problem is where Jay Bybee put the line. His work allowed interrogations that went as far a "organ failure" without it being considered torture.

How can someone like that be a lifetime Federal judge? His morals are lacking, his judgement is in absentia and his legal reasoning is suspect.

Impeach Federal Judge Jay Bybee!

Susan Boyle T-Shirts and Total Fan Site Listing

Susan Boyle T-Shirts! Click here! http://www.cafepress.com/susan_boyle_fan

http://www.susanboylefansite.com/susan-boyle-store/

Her other fan sites and some of them really need fan additions, so get cracking:

http://susanboylefansite.blogspot.com

and Susan Boyle twitter feed:
www.twitter.com/Susan_Boyle_Fan

The most-mentioned fan site:
http://www.susan-boyle.com/

Another fan site with many interviews with celebrities about Susan Boyle
http://www.susanboyle-bgt.co.uk/

An Unofficial Site - but with lots of comment threads and user activity
http://www.susanboylefanclub.com/

Susan Boyle Facebook Fan Group
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=72212861218

A General Pop Fan Site - with a special page for Susan Boyle
http://www.fanpop.com/spots/susan-boyle

Has a Twitter Feed with all comments about Susan Boyle popping up on the screen
http://thisissusanboyle.magnify.net/?from=guide

Wiki Entry
http://16news.ham-radio-op.net/susan-boyle-wikipedia

The Torture Memos - We Already Knew In 2006 What Was Happening

REPRINT OF BLOG POST FROM 2006:

Let's take a minute to review some very important legal documents in the debate on the Bush Administration's torture policy.

There is the August 1, 2002 memo that sets the standard for "torture" as "inflict[ing] pain that is difficult to endure. Physical pain amounting to torture must be equivalent in intensity to the pain accompanying serious physical injury, such as organ failure, impairment of bodily function, or even death." The memo goes on to say that the application of "mind-altering substances" to be torture "they must produce an extreme effect" that "rise to the level of 'disrupting profoundly the sense or personality.' " Honestly, is that how your mother raised you, to call organ failure the standard of torture? What about pulling our fingernails? That would not be torture under this definition.

After the public release of this legal analysis, the President withdrew it and ordered another memo to be written. The memo of December 30, 2004 reversed some of the conclusions of the August 1, 2002 memo, which was a good thing. What it did not do was outline exactly what was legal to do within the context of an interrogation.

So what good is that?

The 2004 memo lists many cases describing fact patterns that have not been been ruled as constituting torture in U.S. courts. BUT - just when you think you have an answer the following footnote is inserted:

December 1, 2004 memo from the Office of the Assistant Attorney General, footnote 6

" ... In addition, this memorandum does not address the many other sources of law that may apply, depending on the circumstances, to the detention or interrogation of detainees (for example, the Geneva Conventions; the Uniform Code of Military Justice, 10 U.S.C. 801 et seq.; the Military Extraterritorial Jurisdiction Act, 18 U.S.C. 3261-3267; and the War Crimes Act, 18 U.S.C. 2441, among others)." (emphasis added)

The memo only applies to one section of law, the federal criminal prohibition against torture, in other words.

So not only doesn't the 2004 memo set a firm line between legal and illegal activities, it ignores military law and other federal laws. But people need to know what those rules are. They need to know what is allowed, and what will get them thrown in prison after the next election.

For the sake of edification, let's outline a few of fact patterns that have not been deemed torture under the one federal law the 2004 memo addresses.

The meaning of "severe."

"In Ireland v. United Kingdom, 25 Eur. Ct. H.R. (ser. A)(1978) the court concluding that the combined use of wall-standing, hooding, subjection to noise, deprivation of sleep, and deprivation of food and drink constituted inhuman or degrading treatment but not torture under the European Convention." See footnote 14 of the 2004 memo.

Again, there is not discussion of what does constitute torture, just what it isn't. That is not to say that such actions are permissible and legal in the U.S., it just means that under this section of law, these lawyers are giving those acts as an example of what is not torture. Helpful, eh?

In the Senate Foreign Relations Committee report advising the ratification of the Convention Against Torture (CAT), "... The term "torture, in United States and international usage, is usually reserved for extreme, deliberate and unusually cruel practices, for example, sustained systematic beating, application of electric currents to sensitive parts of the body, and tying up or hanging in positions that cause extreme pain." See page 6 of 2004 memo.

That's all for today. I will continue offering concrete examples to people of what the legal definition of torture is, or may be.

The Torture Memos - We Knew In 2006 What Was Going On

This is a reprint of something I wrote in 2006. Knowledge of the torture memos has been around that long. Why is all the outrage saved for today? Cowards in the legal community. They didn't want to take on the Bush Administration. Of course, they are all outraged now that it is safe and even popular. Where were they when it counted most?

While working for the CIA in 2006, I wrote on my classified blog that Waterboarding Is Torture, and Torture is Wrong. I outlined how torturing people by using waterboarding could still get someone convicted of a crime despite the immunity law.

I was fired after being told that "everything I have ever read, and everything I have ever written will be examined for signs of illegal activity." With that hanging over my head, I went out into the world by myself.

I got letters and calls from people all over the world. The words of support were gratifying, and I will never forget the people who wrote to me. It really made a tremendous difference at a time when I was reeling. Thank you again.


2006 blog post:
The federal statute making torture criminal is found in 18 U.S.C. sections 2340-2340A. The statute cites the definition of torture: "means an act committed by a person acting under color of law specifically intended to inflict severe physical or mental pain or suffering (other than pain or suffering incidental to lawful sanctions) upon another person within his custody or physical control."

The 2004 Torture Memo restricted its analysis to "(1) the meaning of severe; (2) the meaning of "severe physical pain or suffering"; (3) the meaning of "severe mental pain or suffering"; and (4) the meaning of "specifically intended." " See page 5 of the Department of Justice, Office of the Assistant Attorney General, Memorandum for James B. Comey, Deputy Attorney General, Re: Legal Standards Applicable Under 18 U.S.C. sections 2340-2340A, dated December 30, 2004. This memo is commonly known as one of the Torture memos, and will be referred to here as Torture Memo II.

The last post discussed and gave examples from the Torture Memo II of what was not severe.
Footnote 13 of Torture Memo II cites dictionary definitions of torture to bolster the view that to be considered torture, severity of pain or suffering must be present. Readers can look at dictionaries themselves. However, Econo-girl considers it significant that examples of what would constitute torture are given within the context of references to dictionary definitions.

Specifically, burning, crushing and wounding are the actions mentioned in Torture Memo II footnote 13 as examples of what would constitute torture.

This is important because almost nowhere else in the document is specific guidance given as to what torture actually is. Much describes what it is not.

So one thing we know is that burning, crushing and wounding are referred to as concrete examples of torture in Torture Memo II. The authors are careful to note that "[w]e emphatically are not saying that only such historical techniques - or similar ones - can constitute "torture" under sections 2340-2340A." So torture is recognized as being broader in scope that burning, crushing and wounding. But in terms of drawing a line, that is the only one I have seen so far.

Stay tuned.

War Crimes! Why Are We So Outraged?

Torture as the Bush Administration's Biggest Legacy - the officials of the Bush Administration committed war crimes. The footnotes in the Torture Memos which I discussed extensively in 2006 show that the Bush Administration did indeed know that Waterboarding is Torture, and Torture is Wrong. And they authorized it anyway.

I wrote about the Torture Memos back in 2006 and was roundly ignored. So did the New York Times, by the way. And this outcry we hear now is a little cowardly. Where were all these civil liberty patriots when the violations were happening? They were too frightened to confront the Bush Administration.

As a contractor at the CIA, I spoke up about the wrongs of torture and its illegality through my classified blog. I warned the people doing waterboarding that they may be criminally prosecuted. Of course, my intelligence career was destroyed. I now practice elder law.

There are probably going to be people prosecuted for torture eventually. In the typical American way, some lower ranking person is going to be strung up as an example. We can't let that happen.

The Dick Cheney and John Yoo types can't be allowed to walk away without consequences. If they can, then other outrages on civil liberties will be attempted, and will one day be successful.













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Body Image Issues? Try This Dance Costume

Funny, silly and fun dance routine with people wearing large stretchy things.

Susan Boyle: I'm Your Biggest American Fan!

The reaction of the Britain's Got Talent judges when Susan Boyle confidently strode on the stage said it all. There were no expectations for success. Our entertainment industry is so trained to judge everything by appearances and age that a singer is judged before she even sings one note. Imagine the absurdity of that. How can you judge a singer by appearance and age?

Susan Boyle has a voice that is transcendent. I watched her video dozens of times, and when I left to meet some friends, her voice still reverberated within me. And it wasn't just her voice. It was her heartfelt delivery and emotional truth.

Where has she been all this time? Singing in a choir in Scotland. Singing karaoke in a local pub.

This raises a point I've always thought about these talent shows: the people who are choosing the singers for music labels aren't getting the real talent that is out there. Susan Boyle is a star. In a few days, there has been over 11 million hits on her YouTube video. That's more than Britney Spears' new single "If U Seek Amy."

Susan Boyle's dream is to become a professional singer. I don't think she has to worry about that any more.












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Susan Boyle - Singer - Britains Got Talent 2009 (With Lyrics)

This singer has one of the most powerful voices I have ever heard. Her appearance is the source of mockery and her ambition is laughed at. She is 47 years old and claims never to have been kissed, something that is sure to be rectified soon now that she is famous.



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Obama Can Shut Down the Internet

Get past the bitching about paying taxes, SXEPHIL talks about the bill just introduced that would allow the President of the United States to completely shut down the Internet without regard to any other provision of law.

Acai Berry FAILS - I Found This 100% Guaranteed Weight Loss Plan!

It's amazing. Based on the evolution of the human body and its interaction with our individual DNA, a program has been developed that peels that fat off of you with solid, steady results.

Our body energy system is electrical and chemical. The laws of physics that operate in your own body can be harnessed to create a newer, slimmer you. And it's all natural!

How many times have you wished for a cost-effective weight-loss plan that performs miracles right before your eyes? Well, here it is: Eat less. Exercise.

Nothing is cheaper or more natural. Divide the amount of food you in half. Personally, I add more vegetables since that is a weakness of mine. Walk 45 minutes a day at a fast pace.




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Truck on Fire in Columbia Heights

There's a truck on fire at 10th and Monroe Streets, NW in Washington, DC. My husband is sitting in our study working on his novel and sees billowing smoke going past our window. He doesn't leave his chair, but does take the time to call out to me about the smoke.

I leap to my feet, run to the street and find 10th Street NW blocked off and a truck with flames coming out of it.

All seems to be under control.

Ronson Breakup with Lindsay Lohan Planned for PR

I have some experience analyzing the media, and I can tell by the media placing and timing of the breakup, and the details of how it happened, that Lohan's ex Samantha Ronson planned her breakup with Lindsay Lohan to get a lot of publicity.

There are so many ways to end a relationship. There is absolutely no reason to end one with cameras flashing to the complete surprise of the person you are breaking up with. And there Ronson is, giving the British version of the middle finger to the camera with two celebrity whores hanging on her shoulders. I am a little surprised that US Magazine published the photo. Someone there had to know what that gesture meant.

I feel really bad for Lindsay. Her feelings were used for publicity.

Ronson apparently has a serious substance abuse problem as her family staged an intervention for her that she walked out of. And the family blamed Lindsay Lohan. No, actually it is Ronson's fault. Pressing Ronson to break up with Lindsay Lohan is not going to get her into rehab.

NEWSFLASH: Ronson, nobody knew who you were before dating Lindsay Lohan, and shortly, they will not care if you are dead or alive. In fact, they probably don't now.

We are with you Lindsay.

Unemployment at 15%

That's right! Counting the unemployment of all people out of work and looking for work puts the unemployment rate at 15%. Changing the formula for the unemployment rate was a trick Reagan came up with just prior to bis reelection.

Is the Government ever going to get honest about how bad it is right now? I'd like to see it.

People are starting to feel really optimistic about the recession and its being over soon. Not so fast. There's still millions of ARM mortgages that haven't reset yet. When that happens, there will be another hit to the credit system that is gasping for air already.

Sabotage!

San Francisco suffered a serious attack on its telephone infrastructure when the fiber optic cables servicing 52,214 customers were cut. It took until 4:30 p.m. the next day for service to be fully restored.

No terrorism links are suspected. But imagine that sabotage like this could be a part of an overall plan coordinated with other attacks, like bombings or crime. It's a scary thought.

Hopefully this will be a heads-up to secure the fiber optic cables more carefully in the future.

Dunkin Donuts Robber Returns Cash and is Arrested

Poor kid. He robs a Dunkin Donuts and then feels bad and returns the money, only to be arrested for the initial crime.

I understand arresting him. But can't he be given a kind of break here? He's a kid, he thought better of it and returned the money. They only caught him because he returned the money.

Seriously, I think community service on this one. He made his escape on a bike, for God's sake.

We Need More Mothers Like These

Antonio Cosme Velasco Soriano, 69, was out of jail on a three day pass in Spain when he stopped to taunt the mother of the girl he raped in 1998. So she followed him into a bar after getting some gasoline, poured it on him and lit a match. He died 11 days later.

The mother, whose name is being withheld because Spanish law forbids publicizing the name of a rape victim, has been arrested.

Kissing Cuba

OK, the Communists took over. Fidel Castro and Che Guevara overthrew the creeps we had installed in Cuba and, despite our best efforts, the Communists stayed in power for over fifty years.

The people who left Cuba are really angry. They came to the United States, dealt drugs, and moved on to other things after they made their money. But they are still angry. They want the rest of the United States to be angry, too.

We're not.

How long are we going to be in a grudge match with that tiny island nation Cuba? There's no point to it now.

There's no Cold War anymore. There's no domino theory. Nuclear missiles are not on Cuba's shores.

For one, I will be glad when our foreign policy respecting this island nation is taken out of the hands of a few frothing radicals and put back into the hands of reasonable people. That's all the Congressional Black Caucus is asking for. And it's about time.




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Obama Fingers!

Der Spiegal reports that a German frozen food company is selling fried chicken with a curry dipping sauce as "Obama Fingers." Lacking our cultural reference to fried chicken and racial stereotypes, it was meant to be a "homage to the American lifestyle and the new US President."

You know that the American brand is doing well when fast food is named after your President. President Barack Obama embodies the message of hope.

Judith Witting, sales manager for Spreche, the company in question, claimed the idea 'was to get in on the Obama-mania which is continuing to grip Germany. The word "fingers" in the name refers to the fact that it is a finger food. "It's like hotdogs," Witting said. "No one would ever think they are actually from dogs." '

Charming cultural disconnect. No one was suggesting that Spreche was actually selling the fingers of our President.

So those Germans don't get it. But does it really matter? We finally have a President that doesn't embarrass us. Let's be grateful if someone thinks that naming fast food after our President is good for sales.

What a pleasant change.

Pine Cone Sex Scandal

In Belgrade, Serbia, a lonely lady with a libido found a solution by using a pine cone to satisfy her urges. It was just a regular pine cone, nothing extraordinary. She was inspired during a hike in the woods.

The problem is that it got stuck and two hours of surgery were required to get it out again.

What a way to make the record books!

Pirates and the Somalia War

After the war in Somalia, the ocean waters off of the country's coastline became a dumping ground for toxic chemicals that killed the fish that the local people relied on to eat. Children were dying of pollution, not in some abstract way, but quite literally. In fact, it was not just children. Adults died of the pollution also.

Deprived of a means of support, a few of the local people turned to piracy.

That doesn't make it right, but we must understand that when a nation is cast adrift it can become a target of international illegal corporate behavior.

The root of the piracy problem is ecological. We can't keep dumping in the oceans as some kind of infinite waste bin without consequences. People are already suffering with disease and no fish to eat. This is unacceptable.

Reagan Was Wrong

I know a lot of people who call Reagan the best President we ever had. Personally, I could never see the appeal of orange blush and dyed red hair, but that's just me.

Aside from petty complaints, Ronald Reagan ushered in a free market free-for-all that has ended with our banks broken and our people in debt and horrible unemployment. The unemployment is almost as bad as it was back when Reagan was President.

One of the first things Reagan did was to eliminate all programs for researching or supporting alternative energy. Not really thinking ahead there, was he?

And then there was the famous idea "let industry regulate themselves." Now we have people who die from bad food and bad juice. Food poisoning happens all the time. That never used to be the case. One thing you used to be able to rely on is the safety of the American food supply.

The motto of the Reagan era was "Greed is Good." We are now living with the results of this failed philosophy. Families are being thrown in the street because of this philosophy. People are killing their children because of the economic tragedy that has befallen this great nation. It's about time these bad ideas are reversed.










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Easter - What Does It Mean?

So this nice guy gets arrested, beaten up, forced on a march where he is yelled at and has things thrown at him, and then is sent to die by being nailed to a cross until his chest muscles give out and he slowly suffocates. Never one to waste an opportunity, he saves the soul of the guy next to him before he dies.

Then three days later he rises from the dead to show everyone that he is indeed the son of God and has defeated death. Christianity is born.

This miracle is celebrated by coloring eggs, hiding them, and having little children run to find them. There's lots of candy eaten, often in the shape of a rabbit. Branches from a pussy willow tree are put in a vase and little wooden eggs are hung from them as decoration. In Poland, there are contests where one person hits the egg of another person and the one whose egg is not broken is the winner.

The truth is Easter is the combination of a pagan holiday for the Saxon goddess Eastre and the Christian commemoration of Christ's resurrection, which explains some of the disconnect between how we celebrate the holiday and what is alleged to have happened on that day two thousand years ago.

What does this all mean? The roots of Easter are the celebration of rebirth and revival, explaining the whole egg thing as it relates to fertility. The Easter bunny could - only a guess - relate because rabbits are very fertile. Again, referring to birth and rebirth.

The plastic grass is a little harder to tie in, but let's just call it a reminder that we are killing Mother Earth with pollution.

What I take from this holiday - which I celebrated as a young child but no longer do - is the message that every year we get another chance to get it right. And that no matter how bad we've screwed it up, there's always hope. After all, it's Easter!













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Arlen Specter's Narrow Miss

Arlen Specter narrowly missed defeat in his reelection bid for the U.S. Senate after his prosecutorial role in cross examining Anita Hill during Clarence Thomas' Senate hearing. Anita Hill was a law professor who said that the Supreme Court nominee sexually harrassed her while she worked for him. He won the nomination anyway, but Senator Arlen Specter's behavior towards her while questioning Professor Hill made many women angry. It was the way Senator Specter treated everything Anita Hill said with disbelief.

There is no doubt that any man who came forward with allegations, whether of sexual harrassment or not, would have been taken more seriously than Professor Hill was.

The next election, Senator Specter faced a very tough reelection race from a woman but won it despite the anger directed towards him.

So now he is in a tight race again. This time, with a former AIG executive. I really have a hard time thinking that Arlen Specter won't beat someone with that kind of baggage.

Senator Arlen Specter has always been a moderate Republican. I even heard him say once, "Democrats vote for Republicans" by way of explaining why he was an independent thinker and didn't tow the party line all the time.

I interned for Senator Arlen Specter and he is a very bright man, but not so personable to his staff. In fact, someone could work for him for years and the Senator won't even know his name. Odd for a politician. But you are voting for a Senator to fight for you, not Boss of the Year.

Let's hope he doesn't pay the price for his independence.










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Nissan Cube - Just Try Buying One

I can't even imagine what "a raindrop-inspired roof" would look like. Does the roof leak?

We bought a Nissan Altima recently, and I really wanted a hybrid. All I got from the car dealership was a lot of noise about how bad they were, how rescuers didn't want to get you out of a crushed car with all the electrical stuff in there, etc. It was a roundabout way of saying they didn't have any in stock.

So, yes, in the end, I got a non-hybrid. I love it, it is fine, but I still would have preferred a hybrid Nissan Altima. But we were under the gun because our car failed inspection for the second time and the local parking ticket lady was on to us.