Human Rights Law

Tuesday Afternoon

Posted on July 29, 2008
(Animals, atoms, AUMs.) An' Up Through The Ground Come A Bubblin' Crude Russian scientists in Pisces mini-submarines have descended to the bottom of Siberia's Lake Baikal, the world's deepest lake, containing an estimated 20 percent of the planet's fresh water...

... to his eternal shame and our nation's great discredit

Posted on July 29, 2008
originally posted at Daily Kos A clear and urgent duty of the next president will be to investigate the Bush administration's torture policy and give Americans a full accounting of what was done in our name. It's astounding that we need some kind of truth commission in the United States of America, but we do...

The Myth of the Ticking Time Bomb

Posted on July 28, 2008
Can we finally, at long last, put this bit of sensationalized fiction to rest? James Richardson at the Great Orange Satan wrote in Talk To Me About Torture: I must admit I don't share the level of outrage the rest of my peers do over the numerous revelations of torture...

History Will Absolve Me, v. 2.0: Che Guevara

Posted on July 27, 2008
It was perhaps the most reproduced, recycled and ripped off image of the 20th Century. From Caracas to Cape Town, Cleveland to Cap Haitien, one man's admittedly handsome face on a T shirt tells you more about its wearer than how well he or she fits it...

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Action: Rescind Wounded Knee Medals of Dis Honor

Posted on July 27, 2008
Petition: Medals of Dis Honor Twenty-three soldiers from the Seventh Calvary were later awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor for the slaughter of defenseless Indians at Wounded Knee. We are asking that these Medals of DIS Honor awarded to the members of the 7th Calvary of the United States Army for the murder of innocent women children and men on that terrible December morning be rescinded...

Eichmann in Manhattan, Part One: Introduction and Some Definitions

Posted on July 26, 2008
This is just some thinking aloud for a book chapter that I'm trying to organize over the next few weeks. If all goes well, I'll have a decent enough draft worked up by the time the fall semester starts. First, Eichmann in Manhattan is the working title for the chapter for reasons that I hope will be apparent as we proceed...

Obama and Afghanistan - Worrisome

Posted on July 26, 2008
Senator Obama, the presumed Democratic presidential candidate, has said that he wants to withdraw all US combat troops from Iraq within about 16 months. Now it appears that political differences are narrowing and that a possible consensus is building for just that...

The *Real* "Axis Of Evil" Of Our Times

Posted on July 24, 2008
Remember that old "Axis of Evil" thingie concocted by Bush and Co.? Here's a refresher (emphasis added): Our second goal is to prevent regimes that sponsor terror from threatening America or our friends and allies with weapons of mass destruction.  Some of these regimes have been pretty quiet since September the 11th...

I am so tempted to violate copyright

Posted on July 24, 2008
crossposted from DailyKos that is how moved I am right now.  I have just finished reading a column that is affirming of life, insistent on moral clarity, and totally appropriate to the incident which occasions its writing, the arrest of Radovan Karadzic...

Consequences, Consequences, Consequences

Posted on July 23, 2008
So, what do you think happens when you break international laws and treaties, proudly do not recognize international courts, commit grave war crimes and crimes against basic human rights? You are branded a rogue nation, right? And of course, rogue nations have to "stick" together, right? Case in point (via C&L): Indicted For War Crimes, Sudan Cites U...

Code Talking White Trash & Exploitation Capitalism

Posted on July 22, 2008
Cross-posted due to Nonpartisan's request from The Wild, Wild Left Were I not a recovering Catholic, I would surely believe I burned off many a purgatory hour yesterday, far exceeding the actual 7 hours spent in the merry go round of hell called "taking mother in law to her doctor's appointment...

History Will Absolve Me, v.1.0

Posted on July 21, 2008
Say you want a revolución? It's hard not to find Fidel Castro somewhat simpatico, even for me, because you can't help but be in awe of Cuba's stubborn sense of rebellion. The socialist revolution was Latin America's great "fuck you" to Yankee domination and for all that hemming and hawing about gringo this and gringo that and John Huston's Mexican bandits in The Treasure of the Sierra Madre, the public humiliation of Richard Nixon during a 1970s visit to Venezuela, to the outcries of leftists in countries like Guatemala, El Salvador, Chile and Argentina, who were squashed by the subterranean forces trained by the CIA, only Cuba was able to extend its middle finger with some efficacy...

Black Holes Of Human Rights, Decency And Justice

Posted on July 21, 2008
Remember this little tidbit of news (via here) from last month? Here's a refresher: U.S. planning big new prison in Afghanistan In "a stark acknowledgment that the United States is likely to continue to hold prisoners overseas for years to come," the New York Times reports today that "the Pentagon is moving forward with plans to build a new, 40-acre detention complex" at the Bagram air base in Afghanistan...

Subpoena Power, Sugarcane and Sundries on Sunday

Posted on July 20, 2008
I was like ZOMG! no WAY!!1! and then Stuart Taylor went: President George W. Bush ought to pardon any official from cabinet secretary on down who might plausibly face prosecution for interrogation methods approved by administration lawyers. More on how I'm not feelin' it, dude -- WTF? after I dis my own people and tell you how Barack Obama listened to my wise counsel and now that Barack listens to Alexa again, all the planets and stars of the universe align to assure his success - and ours...

Losing Ourselves Beyond Redemption

Posted on July 19, 2008
The increasing erosion of our constitutions, civil rights and democracies as they are being gradually subjugated by Authoritarian Security Surveillance States. The bloating no-fly lists and terrorist watch-lists. The continuing inhumane and barbaric renditions, "enhanced interrogations" and indefinite detentions - of children, teenagers and adults alike...

Friday Follies

Posted on July 18, 2008
(People behaving badly: here, there, everywhere.) Comfort Stations Air Force generals are attempting to divert "War on Terra" funds to pay for "comfort capsules" that will allow government VIPs to enjoy world-class travel on military transport planes...

Political Murder

Posted on July 17, 2008
Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim, head of the Malaysian opposition party PKR, will apparently be released on bail following his arrest on charges of sodomizing a former aide. In Malaysia, the "crime" of sodomy--with or without consent--is punished by five to twenty years in prison, plus whipping...

Senate removes PEPFAR funding, lifts HIV travel ban

Posted on July 17, 2008
Today the Senate reauthorized the PEPFAR, giving it $50B over the next 5 years to fight HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, and malaria abroad. The bill also included a provision to lift the HIV travel ban (which severely restricts the ability for seropositive people to travel between and immigrate to the US) and struck down a provision in the older version that called for a third of the funding to be used for abstinence-only education...

Omar Khadr, The Good Son

Posted on July 17, 2008
Omar al Khadr worshipped Allah and Tintin. Even after he hit puberty and discovered American action films and Nintendo, Omar, a conscientious Islamic student, still loved to quote from the adventures of the Belgian cartoon reporter, which he seemed to know by heart...

Omar Khadr: The Tale Of The Tape

Posted on July 16, 2008
The first footage of an interrogation at the military base, while powerful, doesn't show us anything we didn't already suspect. A 16-year-old sobbing teenager is not, needless to say, the image the Pentagon would like you to associate with its infamous destination for "enemy combatants...

Power and Fear: A personal reflection

Posted on July 16, 2008
For years now I have talked about power and how people may be attracted to power and the people who hold that power.  It has been saidPower corrupts.  Absolute power corrupts absolutely. In the aftermath of the tragic hurricane in Myanmar (Burma) a few short weeks ago I was reading a long ago speech about power and fear...

Physicians, Psychologists & the Problem of "The Dark Side"

Posted on July 15, 2008
"Any of us could be the man who encounters his double." -- Friedrich Durrenmat (1) Jane Mayer's new book, The Dark Side: The Inside Story of How the War on Terror Turned Into a War on American Ideals (not due out in the bookstores until tomorrow), is already creating headlines and generating controversy...

GITMO teen's interrogation tape to be released this mornig...

Posted on July 15, 2008
Warning.  Graphic picture of Omar's wounds when he was arrested. The wounds he was denied treatment for while he was being interrogated. Mandated by a high court ruling, the defense lawyers representing Omar Khadr have been given and will release 7 1/2 hours of videotaped interrogation tomorrow...

Farewell To Privacy. Hello To Arms

Posted on July 14, 2008
copyright © 2008 Betsy L. Angert.  BeThink.org The Courts and Congress have come to believe there is reason for fear.  Enemies are everywhere.  Those who wish to do us harm are in our homes.  They talk to us on our telephones.  Some sashay in through our computers...

Ghost Ships

Posted on July 13, 2008
Brothers that live when we are dead, don't set yourself against us too. If you could pity us instead, then God may sooner pity you. We five or six strung up to view, dangling the flesh we fed so well, are eaten piecemeal, rot and smell. We bones in a fine dust shall fall...

They said all-reety, they was all-righty

Posted on July 13, 2008
and he was a zombie for you, little ladies! big love to Zwoofie this weekend and always. (Good at about 1:33 on) On Sunday, Haitian American voters meet-up at mi casa. Most are new citizens, and many have never voted at all. Bonswa and happy Sunday to all...

Sunday Open Thread and News

Posted on July 13, 2008
Not all the news is fit to print these days as the world continues to be a frightening place. The sabre rattling continues day by day as President Bush supports Israeli aggression toward Iran.President George W Bush has told the Israeli government that he may be prepared to approve a future military strike on Iranian nuclear facilities if negotiations with Tehran break down, according to a senior Pentagon official...

A talk by Corneille Ewango

Posted on July 12, 2008
Although this talk was given a year ago, the good folks at TED just now got around to making it public. Ewango is a botanist, former poacher, and winner of the 2005 Goldman Prize for his heroic efforts to protect the DRC's Okapi Faunal Reserve in the chaos of civil war...

President of Sudan to Be Charged With Genocide

Posted on July 11, 2008
This is the first time that the International Criminal Court will bring charges against a sitting leader for genocide and crimes against humanity. UNITED NATIONS, July 10 -- The chief prosecutor of the Internationals Criminal Court will seek an arrest warrant Monday for Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir, charging him with genocide and crimes against humanity in the orchestration of a campaign of violence that led to the deaths of hundreds of thousands of civilians in the nation's Darfur region during the past five years, according to U...

Media Loves Some "Maverick"

Posted on July 11, 2008
While I was angsting about FISA, I didn't even notice that John McCain hit an all new-low in ignorance this week. And as Max Bergmann reports, there shouldn't even BE a McCain campaign after this disastrous week. 'Course, media didn't notice, either. Damn...

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