Stellaa's Open Salon Blog

Torture In Iran, Sound Familiar?

Mon, 23 Nov 2009 14:11:36 -0500

Maziar Bahari, a Canadian based film maker and journalist, was arrested and tortured by the Revolutionary Guards of Iran. Bahari gave an interview to 60 Minutes and writes a compelling account of his ordeal in prison.

Watch the interview on 60 minutes and read his account in Newsweek, 118 Days, 12 Hours, 54 Minutes.

What struck me is how the supporters of torture in America have reduced many of our values to the lowest common denominator. The Iranians claim their torture is not violence, sound familiar? :

The problem with the shah's secret police, he said, was that they thought they could break a prisoner's will through physical pressure, but often that just hardened the victim's resolve. "What our brothers after the revolution have masterminded is how to break a man's soul without using much violence against his body." As I stepped into my cell I wondered how violent was "without much violence."

How many similar descriptions of torture did we hear? How many nuanced definitions of water boarding and other methods were used to justify similar methods?

By violating the Geneva Convention and all the other treaties that we signed, we adopted the harsh interrogating techniques that the Iranians use. The Bush administration and the right wing apologists, are from the same authoritarian and absolutist cloth.

We became our enemies. Here is Vice President Cheney, justifying harsh interrogating techniques:

Former Vice President Dick Cheney said yesterday that the CIA's extreme interrogation techniques "were directly responsible for the fact that for eight years [after 9/11] we had no further mass casualty attacks against the United States." He described the appointment of a special prosecutor to investigate alleged torture as a political move and a "terrible, terrible precedent." In an interview on Fox News Sunday, Cheney called the use of waterboarding and other coercive methods—like threatening detainees with guns or drills—key weapons in the war on terrorism. "I knew about the waterboarding, not specifically in any one particular case, but as a general policy that we had approved," added Cheney, who noted that neither a gun nor a drill had actually been used on detainees. There also have been reports of agents threatening detainees' relatives with rape.

Sunday Night Before Thanksgiving

Mon, 23 Nov 2009 00:11:57 -0500

Dear OS Comrades,

Welcome to OS, a little microcosm of America. I have been here since March of 2008. A group of folks was here before me, does not matter at this point.

I am here to not bash or bury OS, I am here to let you know how I feel about this little place:

I have learned a few things:

Some people write about their lives, loves or their politics.

Some people write about their cute babies ,

others how they hate the world and everyone in it.

Some people, spend hours beating each other up over some indiscretion.

Some people, write poetry.

Some people, tell us tall tales.

Some people tell us how we should think, behave and write.

Some people have problems that will not be solved by casual intervention.

Some people are hungry to be heard.

Some people tell us what to read.

I know one thing,

Enjoy the freedom OS gives you.

Enjoy being a pundit, critic ,or even a voyeur.

Enjoy, your this little bit of real estate you get to play with words and ideas.

OS will not save you, enlighten you, or cure your ills.

If you don't like my grammar, punctuation or politics, don't read me.

If it pisses you off that others read my stuff and like it? There is nothing I can say to you to make you feel better about the universe.

Think of this as the superhighway of troubadours.

We do whatever it is, some people throw pennies, others throw their rubbish at us.

Find a corner and just enjoy it.

Thanks to Joan and the OS people for letting us do this.

Who else is giving me this playground?

I don't see the Murdoch's or Foxes of the world giving this super luxury to their people. So, sorry right wingers, I get to be mean to you, cause my liberal friends are paying for this.

For Thanksgiving, I say thank you OS.

Senate Vote on Cloture For Health Bill

Sat, 21 Nov 2009 20:11:49 -0500

Sixty votes needed to move the healthcare bill forward. The debate finished.

We are at the M's. Is anyone watching?

"The vote to end a Republican filibuster on the motion to proceed, should it reach the 60-vote threshold, will double as the vote on the motion to proceed, allowing senators to head home for Thanksgiving recess following the 8 p.m. vote ... Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla., had threatened to require the clerk to read the 2,000-page bill following the vote on the motion to proceed, but Reid will call up the bill by number only, which prevents a reading. 'I agreed to the wishes of my leadership,' Coburn said" (Edney and Friedman,

Yays, 60 Nays 39. Lieberman even voted Yay.

Via Wakingupslowly: Kaiser has a great summary of the process

So, do you think you are having a bad day?

Fri, 20 Nov 2009 12:11:13 -0500

The couple was not at home. Why, the wife was in a car accident. Right here in Santa Rosa, a couple hires a crane company to remove and aged oak tree and they get the surprise of a lifetime.

Last year, Reliable Crane Company did a similar thing to a friend's house. I am posting it here so I will never forget and hire Reliable Crane Company.

Conservative Tits in Wringer: Take #9,999.

Thu, 19 Nov 2009 11:11:08 -0500

One of the trends that I have seen from conservatives, libertarians, Republicans, right wingers, the other side of the aisle, teabaggers, dildo ditto heads, or whatever they call themselves is a basic mistrust for the Constitution.

Lets look at one component and how Senator Sheldon Whithouse lays out the argument very clearly:

NB. To those who will come and argue that I have miss labeled you, or I do not understand that "real" conservatives ,or "real" libertarians do this or that, you know what? I don't care, I am clumping you all in the same camp. Rush speaks for you. You agree with Rush. You are all one breed.

Which part of his argument do the defenders of our system and Constitution do not understand?

Now if only Obama and Holder had the same belief in the system and applied it equally. Greenwald has a great post why the Obama administration is also not being true to this core argument by having different standards for different prisoners. Which one is it folks?