FIRST THE SENTENCE, THEN THE VERDICT: THE WAR ON TERRORISM IN WONDERLAND.
Lewis Carroll’s classic depiction of a trial of Alice evokes the kind of “legal procedure” in which people are convicted and punished before or even instead of being found guilty after presentation of the evidence of their crimes. A legal memorandum from the Office of Legal Services of the Justice Department seems to enshrine this kind of Wonderlandism into established U.S. government procedure. If any high American official (President or maybe head of the CIA) deems a person a terrorist threat, a legal basis is claimed for the targeting of that person by an extra-judicial assassination.
(The Guardian)
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THE “RETIRED OFFICERS SYNDROME” RUNS THROUGH A NEW DOCUMENTARY FILM ON ISRAELI TREATMENT OF ITS PALESTINIAN POPULATION.
Dror Moreh’s “The Gatekeepers” is a well-celebrated film that takes a step forward in exposing Israel’s policies and actions toward its Palestinian minority. However, in its interviews in retired members of the Israeli security force, Shin Bet, it illustrates the “syndrome” of former public officials who become “liberals” after their retirements, even after they cooperated fully with repressive actions while they had been in office.
(Global Research)
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WHAT HATH SANDY HOOK WROUGHT? A LOT LIKE COLUMBINE WROUGHT.
Colorado school shooting led to a spate of effort to identify the “causes” of violence in the U.S. and led to a demonizing of black ghetto violence rather than serious support for the kind of insistence on gun control featured in the Michael Moore movie: “welfare reform” for example grew out of that episode. For the recent atrocity in Connecticut, a cadre of mental health professions has swooped down on the land to demand more attention to the violence associated with insanity and perhaps to advocate for more of the psychotropic drugs that may themselves be violence (especially self-violence) inducing. In both these and many other episodes of violence, analysts are encouraged to downplay issues of too-easy handgun accessibility and the example of violence in the “wars” against terrorism and drugs and models for the more individualized responses of mass killers.
(Common Dreams)
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DEPLOYMENT OF DRONES BY POLICE NOT REALLY POPULAR IN SEATTLE.
Public hearing brings out many negative reactions. Citizens’ comments center around the slinging of such epithets as “idiots” and “Gestapo.” Local ACLU official has a more genteel approach, accepting the reality that the SPD is likely to deploy the drones, but calling for “restrictions” on their use.
(Seattle Times)
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TAKING THE SECRECY OUT OF LEGISLATING IN FLORIDA.
This is advocated by Palm Beach Post columnist Rhonda Swan in reviewing the situation in which the South Florida Water Management District first decided and then rescinded its decision after adverse “public input” to place electronic billboards on public lands controlled by the District. Noting a conflict of interest between District officials and a billboard company that would have benefited from the plan, Swan argues that such near-miss violations of public trust would be avoided were there more transparency in the way that decisions of public agencies are taken.
(Palm Beach Post)
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Quote of the day…
My mission is to socialise sex and make it as easy to share online as any other activity. Back in my day, a marriage proposal was a very private, intimate thing. Now there is a generation expecting a video camera to be there. Think about all those engagement posts on Facebook now… we are covering that last final area of personal relationships.
Cindy Gallop, founder of makelovenotporn.tv, a UK-based website for people to share and watch videos of real-life sex.
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If liberals thought Bush was a fascist, Obama should keep them awake at night. One guy with a presidential seal on his podium, backed by a bunch of yes-men gets to determine what a “terrorist” is and when it’s OK to kill him/her with no judicial oversight. What’s next? Militarizing the war on dissent?
Look at what he’s doing. Look at how he ignores not just foreign law but even US law. Look at the power he demands. Look at his habit of demanding Congress move when he wants it to. Look at his crushing of whistle blowers and his insistence on the communication surveillance of the entire US population.
I believe some of us tend to draw some false moral equivalency between torture and extra-judicial killings when performed by this country’s executive branch.
Not to say that I approve of any killing. But detractors of the President who condemn drone killing as being at least as vile as torture and accuse the President of hypocrisy, certainly got the issue wrong:
Throughout history, a clear distinction has been drawn in matters of code of honor, and laws of war, between fighting and killing an enemy on the battlefield and subjecting the helpless or the captured to inhumane and degrading treatments. We are generally repulsed by the latter and instinctively understand the former.
Now I understand that some would question our President’s notion of what constitutes a legitimate “battlefield.” However, our enemies don’t seem to have any qualms extending their theater of operation to virtually everywhere on the face of this planet.