The site for ranting and reporting by John Masters
I use this category when posting about the military or military actions.
Reuters has a story saying that the White House has been meeting with Sen. John McCain in an effort to obtain an exemption so that the CIA can torture people. I continue to find it abhorrent that we are even discussing how this country might use torture. It’s proven to be ineffective, so to what end is Dick Cheney so interested in keeping this option open.
Read moreReversing numerous prior denials, Pentagon officials said yesterday that white phosphorous was in fact “used as a weapon against insurgent strongholds during the battle of Fallujah last November.”
Read moreAdministration and Congress turn their back on veterans.
Read moreLast week, the United Methodist Church Board of Church and Society–the social action committee of the church that both President Bush and Vice President Cheney belong to–resoundingly passed a resolution calling for withdrawal with only two ‘no’ votes and one abstention.
Read moreHere is an incredable video about the war by the American Friends Society. Three minutes that will have you choked up.
Read moreWhat do Democrats stand for? It seems a common refrain, or assumption, that Democrats do not have an overall theme or narrative, and I will certainly agree that the party as a whole does a rather bad job of articulating the message. But it lodged in my brain, and after a half hour of thought I realized that I, at least, know what I stand for. And it’s not complicated.
Read moreThe Bush administration wasn’t happy when the Senate overwhelmingly voted to limit and define U.S. interrogation techniques against terrorism suspects. Vice President Cheney is now attempting to exempt the Central Intelligence Agency from this measure.
Read moreI have, several times in the past, called on the U.S. Bishops of the United Methodist Church, to write George Bush and denounce the practice of government sponsored torture. To the best of my knowledge, only five have done so. In light of the recent revelations, I am, again, calling on these Christian leaders to denounce toture. I will be much aggressive this time in that I plan to make a phone call to each.
Read moreBy any objective standard, this administration is a dismal failure and has made a mockery of all the things I love about America. Things like fair elections, habeus corpus, privacy, separation of church and state, care for the less fortunate, protecting our homeland, respecting the environment, curbing the power of corporations, standing for human rights, transparency in government, respect for our military, and so many many more. Bush is steering our country back to the pre-New Deal rich-man’s playground of the Robber Baron era, while simultaneously squandering any post-9/11 worldwide goodwill and alienating what few allies we have left.
Read moreTime magazine yesterday revealed new allegations of “systematic abuse” of Iraqi detainees made by a “decorated former Captain in the Army?s 82nd Airborne Division.” For months, Capt. Ian Fishback said, U.S. soldiers were directed “to conduct daily beatings of prisoners prior to questioning.”
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