Shock & AweBe proud, America.We are a
moral and
decent nation.
We're
much better for the
Iraqi people than
Hussein.
"
Good old-fashioned American pornography," as
Rush Limbaugh called it.
But then, he'd eat Bush's excrement and declare it tasted like whipped cream. It is interesting to see that he therefore approves of and enjoys
gay porn, then. I keep wondering what drugs Rick Santorum is having to ingest in order to resolve all this in his head.
"It's just another show"--Perry Farrell, Ted Just Admit ItIncidentally, have you noticed Spc. Sabrina Harmon of the 372nd Military Police Company, the girl
smiling cheek-to-cheek in the pyramid pic above, is the same one
demonically smiling over the dead prisoner packed in ice? In fact the prisoner packed in ice appears to be one of two bodies packed similarly in the background, and I wouldn't be surprised if the photos were only taken moments apart. This would imply that, rather than being "accidentally" killed as some have tried to excuse it, the dead prisoners, or the prisoners killed in front of the others, were used to soften the others up into these acts. In any case, there are corpses in the same room as these naked prisoners.
Again, I wonder how the religious right is trying to resolve this to itself.
This is you.Labels: dubya, fatboy mcfascist, politics, rick perry, right wing, war
Regarding The Torture of Others
Regarding The Torture of Others by Susan Sontag
One of my heroes since adolescence once again, writing about Abu Ghraib, nails the truth dispassionately to the wall, in
an essay at the New York Times. Few others are as qualified to discuss how photos reflect what we are. Have a read. (free registration required)
...the photographs are us. That is, they are representative of the fundamental corruptions of any foreign occupation together with the Bush adminstration's distinctive policies. The Belgians in the Congo, the French in Algeria, practiced torture and sexual humiliation on despised recalcitrant natives. Add to this generic corruption the mystifying, near-total unpreparedness of the American rulers of Iraq to deal with the complex realities of the country after its ''liberation.'' And add to that the overarching, distinctive doctrines of the Bush administration, namely that the United States has embarked on an endless war and that those detained in this war are, if the president so decides, ''unlawful combatants'' -- a policy enunciated by Donald Rumsfeld for Taliban and Qaeda prisoners as early as January 2002 -- and thus, as Rumsfeld said, ''technically'' they ''do not have any rights under the Geneva Convention,'' and you have a perfect recipe for the cruelties and crimes committed against the thousands incarcerated without charges or access to lawyers in American-run prisons that have been set up since the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.
Also,
even more photos at the Washington Post, including a fellow covered in shit, naked, being forced to walk a straight line with a hood on. America's mothers should be proud.
Labels: politics
We're The Bad Guys
We're The Bad Guys
42 percent and falling.
That would be
George Bush's poll rating at this writing. John Kerry is only slightly ahead, true, but for a challenger--especially one as admittedly colorless as Kerry--that's not bad considering convention season is only just about to start. But 42 percent for an incumbent, particularly during a war--that's terminal velocity. Unless the Iraqis magically transform into the Munchkins, the only thing Bush can do to bring his poll ratings up right now is get us out of Iraq. Except that if he does that he'll be admitting defeat. Which is why the June 30 transfer date is so important to him. It will allow him to get the fuck out while being able to pretend that we're not running off with our tails between our legs, we planned it this way all along!
But so much bad news. First,
more Abu Ghraib photos all the time.
Here's a particular charmer; another of America's Fightin' Sweethearts, this time with a
hearty thumbs-up next to an Iraqi prisoner who had been beaten to death in a shower. One of the torturers,
Spc. Jeremy C. Sivits, plead guilty today, the others insisting these were systematic
orders given from above based on methods already in use at Guatanamo Bay. The ones organizing both are said to have been known to be particularly savage prison officials when stateside, and taken because they were willing to go, not because they were qualified.
Fighting back tears, Sivits pleaded with the Iraqi people and his comrades in the Army to forgive him, saying he had made a terrible mistake in failing to stop the abuse he saw that night in November. He told the judge, Col. James Pohl, that he regarded himself as a good soldier and a good man thrust into the horrific confines of Abu Ghraib.
Taking responsibility without consequence seems to be the rage these days, Rumsfeld's job still being secure as the most outstanding example. I call it the Schizoid Weasel Apology.
In a remarkably Apocalypse Now sort of move, we also used a helicopter to
slaughter 45 members (and injure many more) of a a wedding party that just happened to be 10 miles from the Syrian border,
which apparently was reason enough.
As survivors tell it, the wedding party was in full swing. The band was playing tribal music and the guests had just finished eating dinner when, at about 9 p.m., they heard the roar of U.S. warplanes. Fearing trouble, the revelers ended the festivities and went to bed.
About six hours later, the first bomb struck the tent.
"Mothers died with their children in their arms," said Madhi Nawaf, who survived the attack Wednesday in Mogr el-Deeb on the Syrian border. Up to 45 people died — mostly women and children from the Bou Fahad tribe. "One of them was my daughter," Nawaf told The Associated Press. "I found her a few steps from the house, her 2-year-old son Raad in her arms. Her 1-year-old son, Raed, was lying nearby, missing his head."
The start of KILL BILL comes to mind all of a sudden. In a statement that will surely be remembered alongside the jaunty "Bring 'em on," the general in charge, General James Mattis, replied in a very telling way in the following exchange:
"How many people go to the desert 10 miles (16 kilometers) from the Syrian border and hold a wedding many miles from the nearest city," General James Mattis asked rhetorically..."There were two dozen military-aged males."
So age and geography are reasons for murder.
Asked about footage suggesting women and children were killed in the airstrike, Mattis said: "I have not seen the pictures, but bad things happen in war."
But why are we even there to do them? My god, even on the crassest level, one would think this would have brought cheaper gas, but no, Bush faithful, you didn't even get that. Gas costs an
arm and a leg. Well, not
your arms and
legs. Don't consider the absurdity in all this. Worry about whether gays are all marryin' on one another.
"I mean, two males! Think of it!" --Easy Rider
Also, we
attacked the devious Achmed Chalabi, though not because he supplied the bogus reasons that got us into the war--because they were convenient for Bush's purposes, so I don't think Bush was led down any primrose path. Bush would have claimed Iraq had dragons if he'd thought it would be believed. But no, it's because Chalabi has--in the most self-serving way, true--become intransigent and is obviously seeing that the US is a sinking ship there, and trying to now become the leader of the anti-US resistance. But so often, from such selfish swine are nations made.
****************************
More Shameless Pluggery:
SUSPENSION OF DISBELIEF June 11-July 11 at Chicago Actor's Studio
Enough Bush for a moment. I've also been directing what turns out to be one hell of a cast for the new premiere of my play Suspension of Disbelief here in Chicago. Rather than going to the work of rewriting it I'm going to instead simply vomit up the press release below. If you don't see this play, I won't love you anymore.
SUSPENSION OF DISBELIEF is a comedy written and directed by notorious underground cartoonist/writer John Linton Roberson, recently seen as Saturninus in Titus Andronicus (Theater O’ Th’ Absurd at Performance Loft Theatre, 2003). This is the mad and ridiculous tale of the angry failed playwright Rick Krassner (also seen in the acclaimed graphic novel Vitriol) and his horrifying yet hilarious downward spiral at the hands of his roommate, his girlfriend, his agent, his producer, and in fact the play itself, its audience and author. Only he can see the audience watching and laughing at his escalation of Job-like misfortune. Only he knows that all of this only happens to him because some pretentious bastard behind a typewriter though it might be funny. Too bad knowing this only makes Rick’s situation more hellish. Between disaster, sex, violence and cannibalism, this savage farce in the tradition of Michael O’ Donoghue and Christopher Durang has something for everyone. Now that’s entertainment!
One of DePaul Theatre School alumnus and cartoonist John Linton Roberson’s earliest works, the play was originally written, and workshopped with the Clone Theatre Company, in 1989, featuring Eric Hoffman (Annoyance Theatre, Mr. Show), Kara Zediker (Oleanna, Rock Star), and Steve Richardson. No one is as surprised as Roberson to see the play come to fruition on its fifteenth anniversary. “But I’m thrilled that Django and I get to finally inflict this truly evil play upon you, the innocent public.” The world premiere cast includes Michele Alexander, Fred Dolson, Pepper Giese, Josh Johnson, Mirco Lapadula, Amelia Rose Lorenz, Greg Moonen, John Pick, Brian Sichelle, Katherine Wray and Natalie Weingarten. The staff includes Jason Lord (Stage Manager) Christopher Wagner (Technical Director), Steve Saltiel (Set Design) and David Denman (Set Construction).
Previews are June 11 and 12 at 7:30 pm, and Sunday, June 13 at 5 pm. Regular performances begin Friday, June 18 and run through Sunday, July 11. Friday and Saturday performances are held at 7:30 pm and Sundays are at 5 pm, at the Chicago Actor’s Studio, located at 1567 North Milwaukee Avenue in Chicago. All previews are $10 per person. Regular run tickets are $15 per person Fridays & Saturdays, and $12 Sundays. Actor and Theatre Industry seats are $8 (advance reservation only; head shot and resume required for actors, resumes for theatre industry guests). Seats for students, and adults 55 and over, are $10 with a current ID.
There will be no performance on Sunday, July 4. Theater O’ Th’ Absurd will hold an Art Fair Benefit at the performance space at 7:30 pm. Paintings, sketches, original comics pages and painted glass by Ensemble members J. M. Demetrius, David Storms Denman, Mirco Lapadula, Pepper Giese and John Linton Roberson will be available for silent auction. Food, refreshments and music will be provided. A $5 admission is requested at the door.
FOR MORE INFORMATION, PLEASE CONTACT DJANGO R. BAKER AT 773-419-5001 OR THEATER O’ TH’ ABSURD’S 24-HOUR TOLL-FREE VOICE MAIL AT 877-505-6299.
Labels: politics
Repeat After Me:
"SFC Snider grabbed my prisoner and threw him into a pile. …. I saw SSG Frederic, SGT Davis and CPL Graner walking around the pile hitting the prisoners. I remember SSG Frederick hitting one prisoner in the side of its [sic] ribcage. The prisoner was no danger to SSG Frederick. … I saw two naked detainees, one masturbating to another kneeling with its mouth open."—Testimony of Military Police Specialist Matthew Wisdom, hearing on charges of prisoner abuse, April 9, 2004; according to The New Yorker, "After the hearing, the presiding investigative officer ruled that there was sufficient evidence to convene a court-martial."
We are thugs. We let our president steal another people's country and let the badly-equipped army run riot over it like something out of Goya. Not just torture of prisoners, by the way.
Murder of them too.
And Bush apologizes and thinks that will help when it still goes on, and we find more has been going on in the year since
those other photos were taken. And lets the soldiers have it while standing by Donald Rumsfeld, the one responsible for wanting a less educated, less well-equipped, poorly paid and prepared, smaller and more half-assed military. And if you think Fallujah was fun, wait till June hits in Baghdad.
And
here are the things he said while it was going on.
And here, from that source, are the known crimes committed by our soldiers allowed at the Abu Ghraib Confinement Facility to run their own amateur version of
SALO crossed with MIDNIGHT EXPRESS:
"[B]etween October and December 2003, at the Abu Ghraib Confinement Facility (BCCF), numerous incidents of sadistic, blatant, and wanton criminal abuses were inflicted on several detainees. This systemic and illegal abuse of detainees was intentionally perpetrated by several members of the military police guard force. … The allegations of abuse were substantiated by detailed witness statements (ANNEX 26) and the discovery of extremely graphic photographic evidence. … I find that the intentional abuse of detainees by military police personnel included the following acts:
a. Punching, slapping, and kicking detainees; jumping on their naked feet;
b. Videotaping and photographing naked male and female detainees;
c. Forcibly arranging detainees in various sexually explicit positions for photographing;
d. Forcing detainees to remove their clothing and keeping them naked for several days at a time;
e. Forcing naked male detainees to wear women's underwear;
f. Forcing groups of male detainees to masturbate themselves while being photographed and videotaped;
g. Arranging naked male detainees in a pile and then jumping on them;
h. Positioning a naked detainee on a MRE Box, with a sandbag on his head, and attaching wires to his fingers, toes, and penis to simulate electric torture; …
j. Placing a dog chain or strap around a naked detainee's neck and having a female soldier pose for a picture;
k. A male MP guard having sex with a female detainee;
l. Using military working dogs (without muzzles) to intimidate and frighten detainees, and in at least one case biting and severely injuring a detainee …
These findings are amply supported by written confessions provided by several of the suspects, written statements provided by detainees, and witness statements. …
In addition, several detainees also described the following acts of abuse, which under the circumstances, I find credible based on the clarity of their statements and supporting evidence provided by other witnesses (ANNEX 26):
a. Breaking chemical lights and pouring the phosphoric liquid on detainees;
b. Threatening detainees with a charged 9mm pistol;
c. Pouring cold water on naked detainees;
d. Beating detainees with a broom handle and a chair;
e. Threatening male detainees with rape; …
g. Sodomizing a detainee with a chemical light and perhaps a broom stick."
—Executive summary of Taguba report, finalized Feb. 29, 2004, briefed to superiors on
March 3, 2004, and submitted in final form on March 9, 2004
Support our troops? Not even that now. Apparently they volunteered to be thugs.
We didn't have to live in a world like this.
Repeat after me: Dear God, why did we let this retarded wolf into the henhouse? It's not like we couldn't have outsmarted him. What were we thinking four years ago?
Colin Powell compared this to My Lai. Not sure if that's apt. On one hand, My Lai, which was nothing but slaughter of helpless people, was worse. But on the other hand, these in Iraq were volunteers, not draftees, and these crimes were committed in the flush of victory, not in the desperation(where they are right now) of an endless war. They didn't even do this under anyone's orders. They simply did this for fun.
It's good to see most people seem to find this far more abhorrent than does Bush and seem to recognize him now as the man who brought us to this pass where we never asked to go. It shows me that in an age of "reality TV," in which humiliation is entertainment, there is still enough disgust left in us to identify us as human.
Labels: politics