Caller says "Bulls**t" on KSFO. Sussman Show. Alert the FCC!
Conservative talk radio is always talking about their desire for people to follow the rule of law. This is their opportunity to put their money where their mouth is.
These are THEIR rules. I'm just asking that they follow them. This isn't about me, this is about them. The religious right worked overtime to make those rules have financial teeth. Not 6k fines like in the old days, but $350,000 or $550,000 (the hosts should remember that the unions, which the right hates, ensured that those fines wouldn't be levied to the host personally. Be sure to thank your union rep next time you see him.)
Broadcast Radio and TV people love to go on about how profane bloggers are, I remind them that for the most part we are NOT writing or podcasting in a regulated environment. They are. Their industry is the one that is regulated in exchange for the use of the public's airwaves. If they want to fight for the option to say profane words go right ahead. Of course you will be arguing against the Christian Right and their guy, Justice Scalia, who remembers the rules that were put into place that they agreed to:
"Programming replete with one-word indecent expletives will tend to produce children" who use them, Justice Scalia wrote.
The suppressed fact: Deaths by U.S. torture
The interrogation and detention regime implemented by the U.S. resulted in the deaths of over 100 detainees in U.S. custody -- at least. While some of those deaths were the result of "rogue" interrogators and agents, many were caused by the methods authorized at the highest levels of the Bush White House, including extreme stress positions, hypothermia, sleep deprivation and others. Aside from the fact that they cause immense pain, that's one reason we've always considered those tactics to be "torture" when used by others -- because they inflict serious harm, and can even kill people.
The ACLU has posted online numerous autopsy reports of detainee deaths in U.S. custody. These are documents prepared by the U.S. military, and they are as chilling as they are reflective of extreme criminality.
In a well-publicized death of an Iraqi general that resulted from trauma and asphyxiation, the on-site surgeon ruled the death "natural."
While the CIA has been implicated in several deaths, not one CIA agent has faced a criminal charge. Crucially, among the worst cases in this list – those of detainees tortured to death – only half have resulted in punishment; the steepest sentence for anyone involved in a torture-related death: five months in jail.
British journalist Andy Worthington has a superb and richly detailed examination of numerous other detainee deaths, with an emphasis on the clear link between those deaths and the tactics approved by Bush officials.
British detainees 'forced to dance like Michael Jackson'
Former Guantanamo guard reunited with British detainees
Disillusioned campaigner joins ex inmates on UK tour to speak out against torture tactics at American detention camp
The British Detainees: Reading Diplomatic Signals
The Iranians have called the American hand and raised the stakes. Where the United States has been trying to generate a sense of danger on the part of Iran with rumors of airstrikes, the Iranians have signaled that they aren't worried about the airstrikes -- and then raised the American bet by forcing the United States to consider what its options might be if all hell broke loose in southern Iraq. Tehran is saying that it has more credible options than Washington does.
Iran: Televised Confessions Raise Questions About British Detainees
Americans Release Iranian Detainees to Iraq
release had come “at the request of the government of Iraq...Iran said the men were diplomats — three from a consulate in Erbil and two from the embassy in Baghdad — who should have been protected by diplomatic immunity.
WaPo Buries U.S. Release of Iranian Detainees, Praise from Tehran Deep in Article on Protests
The last six paragraphs of Erdbrink's 18-paragraph story -- which ran in the July 10 print edition on page A12 -- note how the theocratic regime in Tehran praised the Obama administration for its relative silence on the Iranian election aftermath just one day before the U.S. government released Iranian detainees captured two years ago in Iraq.
( Then came the Twitter Revolution { Green} )
U.S. working to reshape Iraqi detainees
Military detentions have served as breeding grounds for extremist views, transforming some prisoners into hard-core insurgents.
( Up from 10,000 to 25,000. Must be quite a chore to personalize a program to the individual. { sarcasm} Insurgency is a perjorative term....discriminatory and pre-judicial i.e. = b.s. Question : If one doesn't bother with trials, does that dispense with prejudice? )
US subjects Iraqi detainees to “inhuman treatment”
The US military’s treatment of detainees in Iraq and Afghanistan—which has included sleep deprivation, extended shackling of prisoners, selective withholding of medical treatment, blindfolding, hooding and forcing prisoners to stand in painful positions for hours—is clearly illegal under the UN anti-torture convention as ratified by the US Congress in 1994. The Bush administration has sought to justify this flouting of international law by referring to all those who fall into the clutches of the US military as “terrorists.”
Article from 2003 : not much has changed
Bagram detainees win court ruling
Foreigners held in detention at Bagram AFB in Afghanistan have the right to challenge their detention in court.
Bagram detainees protest for rights
( A typical military response to dissent is to institute group punishment for resistance : note prior item )
Kenya: War on terrorism:Somali detainees tortured, treated inhumanly
"In December 2006 and January and February 2007, at least 150 people, including children, of 21 nationalities, were arbitrarily detained in Kenya. Many were fleeing to Kenya from the conflict in Somalia. The individuals were first held in Kenya for several weeks without charge. The majority were denied access to a lawyer, consular assistance, the ability to challenge the legality of their detention or consideration of their potential refugee status. Some former detainees have alleged that they were tortured; that the conditions of their detention amounted to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment; and that they were interrogated by the intelligence services of foreign governments. Some of the individuals were released in Kenya or deported to their country of origin. At least 85 and potentially up to 120 individuals were ‘rendered’ to Somalia outside of any legal process.
The whereabouts of others [many Somalis] remains unknown and they thus remain the victims of enforced disappearance.
Obama issues signing statement on $106B war bill
The Obama administration announced in the statement it would disregard provisions of the legislation that, among other things, would compel the Obama administration to pressure the World Bank to strengthen labor and environmental standards and require the Treasury department to report to Congress on the activities of the World Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF).
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