Peasant #1: We have found a terrorist, may we torture him?
Angry Mob: TORTURE HIM TOOORTURE HIM!!
Sir Gonzales: How do you know he is a terrorist?
Peasant #1: He looks like one!
Sir Gonzales: Bring him forward.
“Terrorist”: I’m not a terrorist, I’m not a terrorist!
Sir Gonzales: But you are dressed as one.
“Terrorist”: They dressed me up like this.
Peasant #2: No! Nooo! We didn’t! We didn’t!
“Terrorist”: And this isn’t my beard, it’s a false one.
Sir Gonzales: [lifts off giant fake beard] Well?
Peasant #2: Well, we did do the beard.
Sir Gonzales: The beard?
Peasant #1: And the turban. But he is a terrorist!
[mob roars in agreement]
Sir Gonzales: Did you dress him up like this?
Peasant #2: NO! No!… Yes, a bit, a bit. But he has got brown skin!
Sir Gonzales: What makes you think that he is a terrorist?
Peasant #3: What, he blew up the white house!!
Sir Gonzales: The Whitehouse?
[pause]
Peasant #3: We rebuilt it.
Angry Mob: TORTURE HIM ANYWAY!!!! TORTURE HIM!!!!
Sir Gonzales: Quiet, quiet! There are ways of telling whether he is a terrorist.
Peasant #2: There are? Are there? Tell us, tell us! Do they hurt?
Sir Gonzales: Tell me, what do you do with terrorists?
Peasant #3: Torture them!
[mob roars in agreement]
Sir Gonzales: And why do you torture terrorists?
Peasant #2: To Get Even! [Gets slapped]
Peasant #1: To get a confession?
Sir Gonzales: So, why do why do terrorists confess under torture?
[pause]
Peasant #3: ‘Cause they’re full of… sin?
Sir Gonzales: Good! So how do we tell whether he is full of sin?
Peasant #1: Sodomize him!
Sir Gonzales: Ahh, but can’t someone be free pf sin before you sodomize them?
Peasant #1: Oh yeah.
Sir Gonzales: Tell me, what else is full of sin?
Peasant #1: condoms.
Peasant #2: Hollywood.
Peasant #3: bananas.
Peasant #1: Ted Kennedy.
Peasant #2: The media.
Peasant #3: corn.
Peasant #1: women.
Peasant #2: New York.
Peasant #3: Carrots!
King Bush: [has been silent in the background] An Atheist.
[pause]
Sir Gonzales: Exactly! So, logically…
Peasant #1: …If he weighs the same as a atheist, he’s full of sin.
Sir Gonzales: And therefore?
Peasant #1: A TERRORIST!
[mob roars in agreement]
With some apologies to Monty Python
Atheism,
humor,
torture,
war on terror
Digby has written a post which many in the country would view as alarmist and irrational. Yet, his assertions are predominantly correct. The passage of the detainee act, last night, has set our country down a road to authoritarian rule. As many philosophers throughout history have noted, power breeds corruption. Whether or not the current government will use its newly granted powers in an ad hoc manner is yet to be seen; but, sooner or later, a future ruler will use those powers in manners which we fear today. Laws and their interpretations transcend political administrations and endure for future rulers. Laws passed under the best intentions have been used crush the very people who enacted them in places like Germany, China, and others.
We no longer stand on the precipice of imperial rule, we have gladly hurled ourselves into tyrannical chaos. Digbly has asked what should be done. He suggests that one must vote — he is, of course, correct. Regardless of how corrupt the system currently is, a single vote does matter. There will come a time, perhaps not in my lifetime, when a post such as Digby’s, or mine, will arouse the interest state power. Dissent- the very idea our nation was founded upon - is anathema to the power of tyrants. Our dissent , and that of our descendants, must not be hidden but shouted from our homes, our streets, and our neighborhoods. For the moment, our decent, our ideas, is all we have to defend this dieing nation. Our words and our votes may spare our children our nightmares.
In 1788, Alexander Hamilton, in defending the Constitution, wrote:
The observations of the judicious Blackstone in reference to the latter, are well worthy of recital: “To bereave a man of life, [says he] or by violence to confiscate his estate, without accusation or trial, would be so gross and notorious an act of despotism, as must at once convey the alarm of tyranny throughout the whole nation; but confinement of the person, by secretly hurrying him to jail, where his sufferings are unknown or forgotten, is a less public, a less striking, and therefore a more dangerous engine of arbitrary government.” And as a remedy for this fatal evil he is everywhere peculiarly emphatical in his encomiums on the habeas corpus act, which in one place he calls “the BULWARK of the British Constitution.”2
Hamilton was arguing that America could not nor could ever forgo the basic rights of English common law; thus, there was no need to include a Bill of Rights into the proposed Constitution. Ten score and eighteen years later, we have shamefully betrayed the hope and convictions of America’s founding fathers. Today, our government will revoke the Great Writ, and endorse the practice of torture; all in the name of partisan politics. America has lost the greatness that it once held - the greatness which drew hopeful immigrants from around the world in order to make a better life, and escape tyranny. America’s greatness was never to be found in its shopping aisles, its financial markets, or its factories; it was found in America’s laws, its philosophy, and its rejection of tyranny. When one man, be him president, pope, or king, can deprive anyone of due process and liberty that man must instantly be labeled a tyrant. It is far too easy to blame only our representatives who, out of desperation and fear, acquiesce to such a tyrant. Much of the blame - or responsibility - lies within our own fears and apathy. Our country was founded by men of enormous courage. At a time when most of the world was ruled by kings and potentates, our leaders decreed that our country would not be governed by one man, but by all men; that power would never be concentrated in a single office, but shared among branches of government - that our land would not be subjected to the whims of imperial power. That courage has faded over the years, and today it is nearly invisible in our government and newscasts. Those of us who speak up are shouted down with cries of traitor or go unheard, drowned out by the constant calls for strength and protection. Somewhere we hope that there lives that small still voice in our nation conscious that will cry out against tyranny and fear, but we also know that, by then, it may be too late. Arbitrary imprisonment and torture are self perpetuating engines. A man is tortured until he implicates co-conspirators; another is arrested and tortured, and so on and so on. The soils of Chile, Ukraine, and Cambodia bear the blood of this awful truth. The scratch stained walls in the prisons of Soviet Russia, China, and Iran are the murals testifying to ultimate, arbitrary, state power. America now claims the right to perpetrate what we once condemned. Our greatness is lost. The only question that remains is whether we shall recover it, or shall we follow the history of other corrupt empires.
As always Glen Greenwald has the details
despotism,
Freedoms Lost,
torture,
war on terror
One of the under reported stories of the week concerns the latest major security flaw in the Diebold AccuVote-TS voting machine. The folks over at Freedom to Tinker have discovered that the cover lock (which controls access to the memory slot) on the AccuVote-TS is the same as that used on mini-bars, filing cabinets, and other general office equipment. Ed Felton notes:
We bought several keys from an office furniture key shop — they open the voting machine too. We ordered another key on eBay from a jukebox supply shop. The keys can be purchased from many online merchants.
As the Center for Information Technology Policy has shown, access to the memory on these machines opens the door to allow for simple vote tampering. It has been shown time and time again that these, and other, e-voting machines have been built with little attention to security or the stability needed to stand up under the pressures of a general election.
At one time, I believed that electronic voting could be made to function securely and effectively. I am quickly coming to the belief that the entire concept is flawed - either by corrupt contractors or faulty hardware. The illusion of a paper trail on e-voting machines offers little hope. There is much to recommend the old paper ballot, pencil and box that is still used in much of the world.
I love stuff like this. Fox blowhard, Bill O’Reilly apparently told Barbra Walters that the FBI had warned him that he had been targeted by Al Qaeda. Well, why wouldn’t they target you Bill? After all you’re the T-Warrior who stands between real America and the terrorist loving left. Why, if it weren’t for you, Bill, I’m sure I’d be at a mosque performing Dhuhr prayer right now. Who else would the terrorists target, but such a patriot as yourself. What confuses me, Bill, is why would you broadcast your peril so publicly. After all, you’re revealing secret information, and letting the terrorists know that you know they’re coming — I’m certain right now Bin Laden is looking around his camp to find the mole who leaked such an important operation to the FBI. The FBI, of course, has denied all knowledge of such an threat. But they had to, didn’t they Bill, to protect their assets. I am certain that your reveiling of this information had nothing to do with self aggrandizement or promotion, and that the terrorists are stalking you at this very moment. You can never be too careful, Bill.
According to LiveScience, intrepid inventor, Seth Weiner has designed and built a robotic chair which allows fish to have mobility on land. It won’t be long before we hear about terrorist trout attacking us from below - to quote Churchill: “We will fight them on the beaches”
I had just written the previous post, when I received an e-mail revealing that Ted (tubes) Stevens is protecting telecom profits at the expense of troop moral:
The Stevens bill not only proposes to scuttle network neutrality rules but also undermines key policies designed to insure community influence over how broadband networks serve the public interest–including the ability of American soldiers stationed overseas to phone home. In a section titled “War on Terror,” instead of legislation that insures maximum freedom of expression, the telecom rewrite thinks first about protecting corporate cash flow. Lawmakers could have ordered the FCC to insure that members of the military have unlimited free calls, but the Stevens bill actually prohibits the FCC from regulating any rates to do so. It simply requires the federal government to promote a “reduction of such costs” by cutting taxes or fees on phone service.
Not only is Stevens dedicated to removing consumer choice, and free speech from the Internet, he is also all for the telecom consortiums financially raping our military and its’ soldiers. Man, is there any part of this guy’s soul that hasn’t been sold off.
Contact your representatives today and as them to oppose this bill
