07 July 2004
Kerry Does Something Right
Kerry Does Something Right
Or at least does something. He named my man John Edwards as VP candidate, showing very good judgement.
He has not been particularly attacking Bush so far. Probably smart of him to have been laying low and let the plain facts of Iraq and the economy drive Bush down by themselves, then once we know he's done and he can only campaign defensively, come in like Clinton as a positive alternative and the candidate of change. Which seems to have worked: Bush's poll ratings last week were down to the terminal velocity point of 42%. Meanwhile 64% of Americans, the most since Gore as VP, approved of Kerry's choice of Edwards.
To quote Al Sharpton on CNN last night, I can't wait to see him debate Cheney. And grind that old cyborg into the dirt. Now I can see a Clintonesque rout in store for our unwanted, unelected ratfucking chimp of a president no matter how much money he wastes on ineffective ads.
They've already tried to attack Edwards as a rich trial lawyer. Except that he got rich by defending individuals against corporations. Oops...
I can't wait for the conventions.
In other news, check out this article about how the Bush administration legalized torture:
Reading through the memoranda written by Bush administration lawyers on how prisoners of the "war on terror" can be treated is a strange experience. The memos read like the advice of a mob lawyer to a mafia don on how to skirt the law and stay out of prison. Avoiding prosecution is literally a theme of the memoranda. Americans who put physical pressure on captives can escape punishment if they can show that they did not have an "intent" to cause "severe physical or mental pain or suffering." And "a defendant could negate a showing of specific intent...by showing that he had acted in good faith that his conduct would not amount to the acts prohibited by the statute."
These quotations are from a draft report to Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld by an ad hoc group of lawyers he chose, mostly political appointees in the Defense and other departments, to advise him on interrogation techniques for prisoners at Guantánamo Bay. The report is dated March 6, 2003; on the title page it says, "Classified by: Secretary Rumsfeld."
Another theme in the memoranda, an even more deeply disturbing one, is that the President can order the torture of prisoners even though it is forbidden by a federal statute and by the international Convention Against Torture, to which the United States is a party.
Well of course it sounds like the mob. Haven't y'all been paying attention? That's what they act like and that's what they are. If it quacks like a duck, etc. Right?
Here's a tidbit on the fun at Gitmo:
A British subject who was detained at Guantánamo, Tarek Dergoul, and who was released and sent home to Britain last March, said he was chained to the floor in an interrogation room for long periods, alone. Eventually he would have to urinate, on himself. "As soon as I wet myself, a woman MP would come in yelling, 'Look what you've done! You're disgusting.'"
**************************
Final performances of my little masterpiece SUSPENSION OF DISBELIEF at Chicago Actor's Studio in Wicker Park, Chicago this weekend.(Call 773-419-5001 for reservations right away) Check out the most vicious review ever written, by Jennifer Vanasco in the Chicago Reader:
"The play is violent, ridiculous (and not in a good, existentialist kind of way, which is clearly its aim), and mildly offensive...Roberson is unsure of his message and seems to hate everything about the stage and screen... all the characters [are] vicious and unredeemable."
I scarred her! I scarred her! Who could ask for more? ¶ Wednesday, July 07, 2004
Or at least does something. He named my man John Edwards as VP candidate, showing very good judgement.
He has not been particularly attacking Bush so far. Probably smart of him to have been laying low and let the plain facts of Iraq and the economy drive Bush down by themselves, then once we know he's done and he can only campaign defensively, come in like Clinton as a positive alternative and the candidate of change. Which seems to have worked: Bush's poll ratings last week were down to the terminal velocity point of 42%. Meanwhile 64% of Americans, the most since Gore as VP, approved of Kerry's choice of Edwards.
To quote Al Sharpton on CNN last night, I can't wait to see him debate Cheney. And grind that old cyborg into the dirt. Now I can see a Clintonesque rout in store for our unwanted, unelected ratfucking chimp of a president no matter how much money he wastes on ineffective ads.
They've already tried to attack Edwards as a rich trial lawyer. Except that he got rich by defending individuals against corporations. Oops...
I can't wait for the conventions.
In other news, check out this article about how the Bush administration legalized torture:
Reading through the memoranda written by Bush administration lawyers on how prisoners of the "war on terror" can be treated is a strange experience. The memos read like the advice of a mob lawyer to a mafia don on how to skirt the law and stay out of prison. Avoiding prosecution is literally a theme of the memoranda. Americans who put physical pressure on captives can escape punishment if they can show that they did not have an "intent" to cause "severe physical or mental pain or suffering." And "a defendant could negate a showing of specific intent...by showing that he had acted in good faith that his conduct would not amount to the acts prohibited by the statute."
These quotations are from a draft report to Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld by an ad hoc group of lawyers he chose, mostly political appointees in the Defense and other departments, to advise him on interrogation techniques for prisoners at Guantánamo Bay. The report is dated March 6, 2003; on the title page it says, "Classified by: Secretary Rumsfeld."
Another theme in the memoranda, an even more deeply disturbing one, is that the President can order the torture of prisoners even though it is forbidden by a federal statute and by the international Convention Against Torture, to which the United States is a party.
Well of course it sounds like the mob. Haven't y'all been paying attention? That's what they act like and that's what they are. If it quacks like a duck, etc. Right?
Here's a tidbit on the fun at Gitmo:
A British subject who was detained at Guantánamo, Tarek Dergoul, and who was released and sent home to Britain last March, said he was chained to the floor in an interrogation room for long periods, alone. Eventually he would have to urinate, on himself. "As soon as I wet myself, a woman MP would come in yelling, 'Look what you've done! You're disgusting.'"
**************************
Final performances of my little masterpiece SUSPENSION OF DISBELIEF at Chicago Actor's Studio in Wicker Park, Chicago this weekend.(Call 773-419-5001 for reservations right away) Check out the most vicious review ever written, by Jennifer Vanasco in the Chicago Reader:
"The play is violent, ridiculous (and not in a good, existentialist kind of way, which is clearly its aim), and mildly offensive...Roberson is unsure of his message and seems to hate everything about the stage and screen... all the characters [are] vicious and unredeemable."
I scarred her! I scarred her! Who could ask for more? ¶ Wednesday, July 07, 2004
Post a Comment