Human Rights Law

On The Final Steps In "Crossing The Rubicon"

Posted on August 31, 2008
Last year, I wrote the following concerning President G.W. Bush and his seeming never-ending quest for absolute dictatorial powers (emphasis added): Let us fast-forward to today and focus on the following recent news items: A) President G.W. Bush considers himself not just the Commander-in-Chief , the Decider and the Decision-Maker anymore, but also simply the Commander Guy; B) The Bush administration has stipulated that the president had the constitutional authority to decide for himself whether to conduct surveillance without warrants and therefore does not need the consent of Congress to do so; C) This is in line with the fact that President G...

Letters for Mohamad Jawad

Posted on August 29, 2008
I know y'all can write some letters. Letters that in a better world would wring the salt from the reader's eyes with sorrow for the injustice of the plight of Guantanamo's Child Mohamad Jawad. Letters that reflect your passion and intelligence and resolve...

Because It Is Bitter;

Posted on August 29, 2008
. . . and because it is my heart. -- Stephen Crane I don't know about y'all, but the images and voices from Hurricane Katrina haunt me. Although I was "lucky" in having moved from my hometown, New Orleans, four years before Katrina, it's still impossible to come to terms with the anger (well  ...

Show this picture everywhere

Posted on August 28, 2008
Tomorrow, the whole world will watch as John McCain introduces and appears with his running mate as the Republican ticket in public for the first time. The timing of the announcement is meant to achieve four key goals for the McCain campaign: 1) Keep Obama/Biden from getting the kajillion point bounce they need for the Democratic National Convention to be considered a success...

To access this complete feed in the blog feed reader login or register for free.

Gitmo Attorneys Extraordinary Appeal to Help Mohammad Jawad w/ Update

Posted on August 27, 2008
[There's an important update at end of this article, so please don't forget to read all the way, or go ahead and skip ahead! I won't tell anyone.] Defense attorneys for Mohammad Jawad, currently on trial in Bush's crooked military tribunal system at Guantanamo, are asking for a letter campaign by the public on Jawad's behalf...

McCain, POWs, & the Stab in the Back

Posted on August 26, 2008
I have never been tortured. But I have worked clinically with those who have, including U.S. POWs. I can tell you it breaks the mind and the body, the soul and the spirit, in a way that can never be forgotten. Now John McCain cites his experience as a POW and torture victim as an anodyne to every mildly injurious political attack...

Who/What Is John McCain - In His Own Words

Posted on August 26, 2008
Here are the three bare essentials to know who/what John McCain is, in his own damning words: 1. He is a militaristic authoritarian:McCain suggests military-style invasion modeled on the surge to control inner city crime Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) spoke to the National Urban League, a group "devoted to empowering African Americans to enter the economic and social mainstream...

Bush Killing Coastal Louisiana

Posted on August 26, 2008
In the first part of this environmental-themed series, the devastation experienced by New Orleans and the rest of the Gulf Region was discussed. This installment will focus on Louisiana's wetlands which are being washed away and the sinking of New Orleans and the rest of southern Louisiana...

Katrina And The Environment

Posted on August 25, 2008
Not only were Katrina, the federal flood, and Rita massive human tragedies, they were for reasons which will be detailed below easily this nation's biggest environmental calamity. And their potential impacts on human health and life in New Orleans and in the rest of the affected area are still being assessed over 2 1/2-years later...

Walmart and Katrina: Heroic Or Opportunistic?

Posted on August 25, 2008
Conventional wisdom has been that the true friends of New Orleans and other parts of the Gulf Region during the federal flood and the onslaught of Katrina and Rita were not FEMA or any other organization of the federal government. They include several big-box stores including a much-maligned Walmart...

Katrina, PTSD Not Over For Louisiana, Mississippi

Posted on August 25, 2008
While news on A.) Obama and/or Biden,   B.) McCain, or C.) Both of the above has been clogging the mainstream media, Louisiana and the rest of the Gulf Region are being tortured by the after-effects of Katrina, the federal flood, and by PTSD. And it's time bloggers got over whatever trivia Obama's been caught up in lately and Housegate and asked both candidates what really matters--why they've been downplaying the continued suffering of the Gulf Region, and what each plans to do for the area if he becomes President...

US Admits Detaining 7 Year Old Child

Posted on August 25, 2008
This is Dr. Aafia Siddiqui. Dr. Siddiqui is a Pakistani national, physician, mother of three young children, one in US detention since 2003. She was kidnapped five years ago in Pakistan and is obviously a victim of horrendous torture at Bagram AFB. Dr...

For Lalia

Posted on August 24, 2008
Under Sharia law, the victims become the criminals, again. Afghanistan is building new jails for women. Though there are only 300 female prisoners now, that number is expected to grow. While there are no signs of a crime wave, one of the reasons for the increase is an unlikely one...

The Age Of The President-Pontificate Of The U.S.A.

Posted on August 24, 2008
Last week's Saddleback Civil Forum on Presidency, quite appropriately dubbed "The Faith Forum", heralded a new age for the Presidency of the U.S.A. - that of the President-Pontificate. For decades now, especially since the late 70's-early 80's, it has become a ritual of sorts for candidates seeking the Office of the Presidency of the U...

Oath Betrayed

Posted on August 23, 2008
Soldiers are trained to kill and doctors to heal. At least that's how we usually understand those two professions. --Dr. Steven Miles of Physicians For Human Rights. There are literally tens of thousands of FOIA requests on the ACLU website, categorized as Government Documents on Torture Freedom of Information Act...

Friday News and Open Thread

Posted on August 22, 2008
Not exactly news to NION, or our psychologist editors, but very good to see this story getting some play in the traditional media. Psychologists protest against involvement in torture: Over 400 psychologists in the United States are currently withholding dues to the American Psychological Association over it's failure to explicitly condemn all forms of torture...

American Indians, Hollywood, and Stereotypes

Posted on August 21, 2008
Racism is based on ignorance and is passed down generationally.  One racist adult caretaker may infect a few children with their racism; however, one racist film or television show would infect many more and more deeply ingrain any racism that already was in existence in my opinion...

Man On A Leash

Posted on August 21, 2008
Almost immediately, two thoughts come to mind when I hear Lynndie England's name: The infamous photo of the nude Iraqi prisoner on a leash and The Stanford Prison Experiment. In sentencing testimony, England, who had faced a maximum of nine years behind bars, said she was sorry for her actions but that she remained an "American patriot...

Code-Talking Racist Vampires and Mormon Propaganda

Posted on August 21, 2008
Alisa Valdes-Rodriguez (one of my very favorite chick lit authors; what about it, muchachos?) has asked a provocative, disturbing question on her blog: Is Stephenie Meyer Racist? Furthermore, is she also hard-selling Mormon talking points in her astonishingly popular young adult Twilight series? As many of you know, the final book of Stephenie Meyer's popular vampire series came out this weekend, breaking sales records with 1...

Fox Censors Story on Torture Death of Kim Soo-im

Posted on August 20, 2008
Charles J. Hanley, special correspondent for Associated Press (AP), has written a compelling, fascinating and sad tale of the execution of purported Korean "Mata Hari", Kim Soo-im, at the start of the Korean War. He linked her torture and death to the recent revelations about the more than 100,000 murders of leftists or suspected leftists sympathizers in 1950 by the U...

China: Free Wu Dianyuan And Wang Xiuying!

Posted on August 20, 2008
cross posted from The Dream Antilles The Chinese Government is very afraid of these two women. Seventy-nine-year-old Wu Dianyuan, on the right, and her neighbor Wang Xiuying, 77, followed the law.  They applied for a protest permit.  They wanted to protest inadequate compensation for the taking of their homes in preparation of the Olympics...

Elks Club

Posted on August 20, 2008
The factotums of Bomb McCain sound exceedingly silly in vowing that their man could not possibly have seized the opportunity to listen in on the questions that would be asked of him at Saturday's Saddleback "faith forum." According to the New York Times, faith-forum ringmaster Rick Warren "seemed surprised to learn that Mr...

No Fly List Can Be Challenged In District Court

Posted on August 20, 2008
The Ninth Circuit ruled that a person can challenge the inclusion of their name on the government's no fly list. Sounds pretty obvious that you should have that right, but that isn't the Bush Administration's position. The Case is Ibrahim v Department of Homeland Security and it was decided by a two to one decision of the Ninth Circuit Court if Appeals...

I'm Going To Hell

Posted on August 19, 2008
cross posted from The Dream Antilles Pardon me.  I'm not a Christian.  Never was, never will be.  I don't believe that Jesus was the messiah, that he died for my sins.  I don't have a personal relationship with him.  I haven't been saved...

And The Bottom Line is ...

Posted on August 19, 2008
However much one may try to analyze what has been going on lately in every possible way, the bottom line invariably boils down to one word: incompetence. Here's a little something I wrote a while back and which bears repeating yet again:Intellectual sloth reaps ignorance...

Late Summer Reads on Psychology, Anthropology & National Security

Posted on August 18, 2008
For those trying to squeeze in some serious late summer reading, I strongly recommend Dr. Bryant Welch's recently published book, State of Confusion: Political Manipulation and the Assault on the American Mind. Dr. Welch elegantly and succinctly describes the psychological mechanisms behind paranoia and denial, and links them to the mindset of many Americans post-9/11...

Miracles: Gracias, Nezua

Posted on August 17, 2008
Take a look at us now, mi amigos! Who thinks a human rights community has to be a dark and cheerless place? Dios mio, I couldn't have dreamed this sazon and brio and new light, but Nezua has created a very beautiful and exciting new look for us. There are a couple of tiny tweaks left, for which we will need some help from Soapy, but I'm ready to welcome our contributing editors back and announce our reopening very soon...

Comment period now open on Bush ESA-gutting rules

Posted on August 15, 2008
With today's publication in the Federal Register of the proposed changes in how the ESA is administered, the thirty-day period for public comment officially begins. Their heading is Interagency Cooperation Under the Endangered Species Act. Aww, isn't that cute? Who could possibly oppose cooperation? You can comment here...

The Ethic of Total Opposition

Posted on August 15, 2008
Through these fields of destruction Baptisms of fire I've watched all your suffering As the battles raged higher And though they did hurt me so bad In the fear and alarm You did not desert me My brothers in arms  - Dire Straits, 'Brothers in Arms' It is said that "rock bottom" has the advantage of being the only place from which ascent is guaranteed...

2,408 Days of Illegal Imprisonment

Posted on August 14, 2008
Tomorrow, August 15, marks the fifth anniversary of Iraq Moratorium. Please visit this link to find events in your area, and some ideas on what you can do to protest the war today. U.S. Segregates Violent Iraqi Prisoners in Crates The U.S. military is segregating violent Iraqi prisoners in wooden crates that in some cases are not much bigger than the prisoners...

Bloggers, promote your law blog by nominating your blog for inclusion in USLaw.com's Law Blog Directory and RSS Reader. Benefits described.