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. The continuing standing of Military Commissions, which are nothing more than politically-driven, rigged, kangaroo courts. The seemingly unending wars of choice and occupation in Afghanistan and Iraq - both based on lies to justify a vengeance operation for 9/11 and the securing of foreign oil resources. The ever mounting toll of civilian deaths, displaced refugees and soldier casualties.

This is the overall state of things today with regards to our so-called "Western civilization" - especially with regards to the U.S.A., the U.K. and Canada.

Before I post up what I brought I'd like to point out that when Our Government changes It's Policies to Match those of what we call enemies it Endangers All The Troops in Active Theaters as well as the citizens of this country!!

And it leaves us not only open to condemnation but at a place where we cannot condemn others!!

(Cross posted from Docudharma)

The likely outcome of the Bush-led Republican raid on America astonishes me.  As America’s national nightmare approaches the eight-year mark, the Bush administration is apparently going to escape unpunished.  They are going to skate scot-free.  They have brazenly committed major crimes against the people of the United States, not to mention the terrible things they have done to much of the rest of the world...and these bastards are going to skate scot-free.  

They have implemented a systematic program of torture approved, directed and overseen by the White House.  And it wasn’t just some schoolboy pranks and it wasn’t just the isolated waterboarding of a few really bad guys.  It was systematic, it was widespread, and it was far worse than the elite media has admitted.  Far worse.  They have hidden the most shocking images from view.  But as they say, the truth will out.

What Johnathan Turley says, with heavy heart and disbelief we've gone this far as a Country, should be brought into public discussion and possible implementation, as our Representatives seem to be hell bent on going along with the administrations shredding of the Constitution and the Laws of this Country!

This is not only about crimes that might have been committed by the administration and others, In Our Names, this is about the possible destruction of our Constitution and Moral Standing as a Democracy, by our highest leaders and our representatives as well as others we employ that work for and under the Laws that we as a Nation demand be followed by all and condemn others for breaking the International Laws we helped establish.

(Cross-posted with author’s permission from WallWritings Friday, May 9, 2008)

Guest Column by Andrew Weaver

Milo's Note: Andrew is one of the originators of the protest to locate the Bush library at Southern Methodist University and has been a primary source for several of my diaries on the subject. Andrew is a United Methodist minister and research psychologist living in New York City. He is a graduate of The Perkins School of Theology, SMU. Thanks for your good work, Andrew!

Our enemies didn't adhere to the Geneva Convention. Many of my comrades were subjected to very cruel, very inhumane and degrading treatment, a few of them even unto death. But every one of us -- every single one of us -- knew and took great strength from the belief that we were different from our enemies, that we were better than them, that we, if the roles were reversed, would not disgrace ourselves by committing or countenancing such mistreatment of them. - John McCain, Republican US Senator

Last week a remarkable truth emerged - we need to have a torture debate. On Friday the President admitted that we are now a state sponsor of torture and an amazing thing happened: Nothing. TV news coverage was dominated by the Democratic primary, and if news outlets acknowledged it at all it was in a summary or somewhere in the back pages. I am on record with my deep revulsion for torture, but a critical mass of our upper political and media levels does not consider it worthy of sustained focus. Maybe if we change the terms of the debate we can make it more visible.

Discussing a new

"Tell me something I don’t know,” is a regular feature of The Chris Matthews Show. On Sunday night, Andrew Sullivan responded:

The latest revelations on the torture front show—the memo from John Yoo—as well as revelations from Phillippe Sands’ book, mean that Donald Rumsfeld, David Addington and John Yoo should not leave the United States any time soon. They will be at some point indicted for war crimes. They deserve to be. (Check out the video.)

I probably should have, but I didn’t know who Andrew Sullivan was, nor did I know Phillippe Sands. Soon enough, I learned that Sullivan is a political scientist blogger on The Atlantic Online and a senior editor at The New Republic. I’ll get to what else I learned a little later .

(Cross posted from Docudharma)

I was born at the tail end of 1951.  My father was a soldier who served in WWII and Korea.  His brother came back from Korea so psychologically devastated that he never recovered.  He lived nearly fifty of his seventy years haunted by the horror of what he witnessed in the Korean War.  He was not alone.  Every war produces more casualties than are accounted for in the body counts.  My uncle died just a few years ago but it was the Korean War that killed him.  

 Is it of more importance to the community, that innocence be protected, than it is, that guilt should be punished.

Are “due process” and the refusal to torture essential to the America you want? In 2003 the Justice Department sent a legal memorandum to the Pentagon claiming that the President was bound by neither.

The lame duck had a press conference today with Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd. Here is a transcript. I didn't read the whole thing. In fact I only made it a couple of paragraphs before a real jaw dropping moment. Here is the quote:

On CNN's front page, a poll is current running that indicates 44% of those who have so far voted favor "WaterBoarding" of individuals suspected of terrorism. This is an indication that the "Politics of Fear" are working, and Americans are not thinking this issue through, but are instead reacting to fear without understand the history of WaterBoarding, its history in regard the law, and the direct effect it could have on American prisoners of war.

In testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee yesterday, Attorney General Michael Mukasey said crucifixion cannot be classified as form of torture under the current statutory definition.

According to the New York Times, Canadian monitors have discovered evidence that the Afghan Army tortured detainees.