Why Would Anyone Oppose Torture?

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By David Swanson

Someone recently asked if I could please explain to him why anybody would oppose torture. After all, we defend killing in wars, so why not defend torture? And wouldn’t I torture to save my kidnapped child?

Here are my top 10 reasons for opposing torture:

1. It’s illegal. If you want to legalize it, legalize it, but don’t discard the whole idea of following laws.

2. When the United States tortures, it loses the ability to tell any other nation not to torture, including read more

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Congress Could Investigate War Fraud With a Mirror

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By David Swanson

The greatest war fraud is the funding of war by individuals who claim to oppose it and who vote against funding it whenever a bill is guaranteed to pass. On May 14, 2009, 60 congress members voted against $85 billion to continue the war in Iraq and escalate the war in Afghanistan, plus $12 billion more to buy the Pentagon airplanes it doesn’t want and related extravagances. Of those 60, 51 were Democrats. Some of read more

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Finally a Filibuster of War Funding Threatened

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By David Swanson, http://afterdowningstreet.org

How many years have we pleaded and prodded and pushed and protested to try to find just one senator who would threaten to filibuster war funding for a war that many of them said they “opposed”? And now suddenly we have two senators threatening just that!  We may, in fact, see a filibuster of war money, proving that such a thing is physically possible.

And how many years have we demanded that the House vote down bills to fund wars that read more

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Making It Worse: Campaign for America's Future vs. Single-Payer

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By David Swanson

In a far better than usual, and very encouraging, conference, held by the Campaign for America’s Future last week, the low point was the complete white-out of single-payer healthcare.  Rather than apologizing, which even Max Baucus has done sort of, CAF decided to put forth a bunch of insultingly false reasons why single-payer is a terrible idea.  These are not read more

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Moran for Virginia

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By David Swanson

I ran into Creigh Deeds, candidate for Virginia Governor, at the farmer’s market in Charlottesville on Saturday. He’d been trailing in the polls for a long time while the two men ahead of him, Brian Moran and Terry McAuliffe beat up on each other. Now Deeds is leading, but only just barely. Essentially it’s a three-way tie for the Democratic nomination in the Tuesday, June 9th, primary, with virtually nobody planning to vote and the outcome entirely dependent read more

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The Omnibus CYA Act of 2009

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By David Swanson

A healthy rivalry between the branches of government is the soul of our republic, so when the Senate’s proposed ban on releasing photos and videos of torture fell short of completely covering things up, the White House proposed allowing prisoners to plead guilty to capital crimes and be executed without actual trials that might reveal evidence. Preemption being the technique of the hour, I’m going to preemptively fill you in on the next move from Capitol Hill. You read more

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Join a Convoy to Gaza

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By David Swanson

Illustrated by Michael Parenti

Kevin Ovenden contacted me. He works with British MP George Galloway — yes, this hero. Ovenden is currently in the United States helping to put together a convoy of, hopefully, hundreds of vehicles and people to bring medical aid to the besieged people of Gaza.

Americans are invited to take part. The cost of a plane ticket, a hotel for two nights in Egypt, and other expenses is required. I told Ovenden I’d like to go if I can raise the read more

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DOJ Refuses to Appear for Hearing: Will Conyers Ask DOJ to Compel Itself to Appear?

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So, the House Judiciary Committee held a hearing on abuse of the “state secrets” privilege and asked someone from the Department of Justice to appear and testify. The DOJ told Conyers, not exactly in these words, to go Cheney himself. Now, given that a member of Congress would need a spine surgically implanted before taking the obvious step of sending the Capitol Police to read more

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A New Beginning: If Only

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By David Swanson

President Barack Obama’s speech in Cairo probably did a world of good. It was packed with truth telling and noble sentiments. But imagine how much more good would be done if all the best parts of it corresponded to reality.

If we treated people around the world with “respect,” would we continue occupying their nations against their adamant desires? If we truly “seek no military bases” in Afghanistan, why are we building them on such massive scale? And read more

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