Peace and War

By David Swanson

If we can move beyond torture, do we not have a responsibility also to think for a moment about the obvious fact that torture is not the cruelest thing we do? Torture offends us, in part, because the torturer is not at risk, but neither are most pilots dropping bombs. And how exactly does the risk taken by ground troops mitigate the suffering of those they wound, kill, and terrorize? Hanging someone by the wrists offends us, and yet we might rather have it done to us than be read more

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That little dork who came up to the shoulderpads of the players as he flipped the coin to begin the Super Bowl, that pathetic genocidist whom Admiral Fallon famously derided as an “ass-kissing little chickenshit,” that hero to morons capable of intimidating small children and Congress members, General David Petraeus is now opposing the decision of our president to do exactly what we elected him to do and get out of Iraq within 16 months. Treason is the only word for it. General Betray read more

By David Swanson

In the ordinary course of things in Washington, D.C., and on television, there are two separate conversations. In one conversation, everything that the government spends money on (schools, transportation, police, etc.) must be trimmed back to save money. In the other conversation, the expenses of wars and the military must be unquestioned. After what he said this week on ABC, it will be interesting to see whether Congressman read more

Watch this video.

RAY MCGOVERN:

DAVID SWANSON:

ANN WRIGHT:

Congresswoman Barbara Lee has just reintroduced a resolution opposing the treaty Bush made with his puppet government in Iraq to supposedly legitimize three more years of war. The treaty calls itself an “Agreement on Withdrawal,” which is misleading enough, but commentators tend misleadingly to refer to it as a “security agreement” or a “status of forces agreement.” The treaty makes war for three years, and its illegitimacy means that the occupation of Iraq read more

By David Swanson

After comments made in his confirmation hearing, Attorney General nominee Eric Holder will be hard pressed not to prosecute Bush, Cheney, and their co-conspirators, or to appoint a special prosecutor.

When Senator Patrick Leahy asked if waterboarding is torture and illegal, Holder agreed that it is. When Leahy then asked whether the President of the United States can immunize acts of torture, Holder said that he cannot.

When Senator Diane Feinstein said that an Inspector General’s read more

Check out this defense of Bush from the American Enterprise Institute. Not one word to suggest that Bush’s actions benefited anyone. The bulk of the article devoted to claiming that the executive aggrandizement Madison feared was predicted by Alexis de Tocqueville. I’ll predict right now that we’ll see more of it and worse if Bush is not placed behind bars, but that doesn’t mean I endorse it and read more

On Thursday, January 15, at 9:30 a.m., the Senate Judiciary Committee will hold its confirmation hearing for Attorney General nominee Eric Holder. If the Senators are willing to work together and to listen to those of us who elected them, the questioning might go something like this:

Mr. Holder, is the water torture, often now referred to as “waterboarding”, torture? Are beatings torture? Are electric shocks torture? Is hanging someone by their wrists torture? What about the combined read more

REPORT NAMES 30 BUSH OFFICIALS COMPLICIT IN TORTURE

President Bush and his aides repeatedly ignored warnings that their torture plans were illegal from high State Department officials as well as the nation’s top uniformed legal officers, the Judge Advocates General of the Army, Navy, Air Force and Marines, a new published report states.

“These warnings of illegality and immorality given by knowledgeable and experienced (government) persons were ignored by the small group of high Executive officers read more

By David Swanson

There’s a blanket pardon I want President Bush to issue and one I want him not to. Both would involve preemptively pardoning people before they’re charged with any crime, much less convicted, and doing so without naming them. One would be decent, just, and Constitutional; the other would be none of those things. One would please people around the country and the world. The other would please the Washington establishment. Bush may very well issue neither of them, read more

Filibustering Works!! Now Can We Filibuster the Iraq Occupation Funding??

While they may have primarily been defending their right to get a chance to vote on amendments, Senators today did block immunity for criminal telecom companies spying in violation of the Fourth Amendment, and they did so with a filibuster, and they did that because Senator Chris Dodd had the backbone and the decency to throw down the gauntlet. Now why in the world will not one single senator choose to be an instant international read more