[size=l]Cheney wants CIA to be Exempt from ban on Torture[/size]

I saw that headline on the Buffalo News yesterday, and I was simply astounded. I don't know how people can say that kind of stuff with a straight face and think it's OK. Seriously, what have we become.

I posted about this amendment before
[inlink]dcoffee,21[/inlink]Bush loves Torture
[inlink]dcoffee,22[/inlink]PS. on anti-torture amendment

for anyone on the fence about using torture, you don't get credible or useful information from someone by beating them up, you must befriend them and make them trust you. convince them that you are not an enemy and help them open up to you. torture either leads to people saying whatever you want to hear, or it validates the idea that America is the great Satan and if you die by our hands you are surely going to heaven as a martyr.




anyway here's the Full article

Cheney wants CIA to be exempt from ban on torture
By DAVID ESPO and LIZ SIDOTI
Associated Press
11/5/2005

WASHINGTON - Vice President Cheney made an unusual personal appeal to Republican senators this week to exempt the CIA from a proposed ban on torturing terror suspects in U.S. custody, according to participants in the closed-door session.

Cheney told his audience the United States doesn't engage in torture, these participants said, even though he said the administration needed an exemption from any legislation banning "cruel, inhuman or degrading" treatment in case the president decided such treatment was necessary to prevent a terrorist attack.

The vice president made his comments at a regular weekly private meeting of Senate Republicans, according to several lawmakers who attended. Cheney often attends the meetings, a chance for the rank-and-file to discuss legislative strategy, but he rarely speaks.

In this case, the room was cleared of aides before the vice president began his remarks, which one senator said included a reference to classified material.

The officials who disclosed the events spoke on condition of anonymity, citing the confidential nature of the discussion.

"The vice president's office doesn't have any comment on a private meeting with members of the Senate," said Steve Schmidt, a Cheney spokesman.

During the session, Cheney drew support from at least one lawmaker, Sen. Jeff Sessions of Alabama, while Sen. John McCain of Arizona dissented, officials said.

McCain, who was tortured while he was a prisoner during the Vietnam War, is the chief Senate sponsor of an anti-torture provision that has twice cleared the Senate and triggered veto threats from the White House.

Cheney's decision to speak at the meeting underscored both his role as White House point man on the contentious issue and the importance the administration attaches to it.

The vice president made his appeal as Congress is struggling with the torture issue in light of the Abu Ghraib prison scandal in Iraq and allegations of mistreatment of prisoners at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, where the United States houses about 500 detainees at a naval base, many of them captured in Afghanistan.

In addition, human rights organizations contend the United States turns detainees over to other countries that it knows will use torture to extract intelligence information.

Cheney's appeal came on Tuesday, two days before a former senior State Department official claimed in an interview with National Public Radio's "Morning Edition" that he had traced memos back to Cheney's office that he believes led to U.S. troops abusing prisoners in Iraq.

Lawrence Wilkerson, former Secretary of State Colin Powell's chief of staff in the first Bush administration, said Thursday that Cheney's views were put in "carefully couched" terms in memos but that to a soldier in the field it meant sometimes using interrogation techniques that "were not in accordance with the spirit of the Geneva Conventions and the law of war" to extract better intelligence.

The Senate recently approved a provision banning the "cruel, inhuman or degrading" treatment of detainees in U.S. custody. The vote was 90-9, and an identical provision was added to a second measure on a voice vote Friday.

Comparable House legislation does not include the provision, and it is not clear whether anti-torture language will be included in either of two large defense measures Congress hopes to send to Bush's desk later this year.

The White House initially tried to kill the anti-torture provision while it was pending in the Senate, then switched course to lobby for an exemption in cases of "clandestine counterterrorism operations conducted abroad, with respect to terrorists who are not citizens of the United States."

I'm glad I live in the City. I was in South Buffalo until last May, which is still pretty, Caz Park is especially beautiful right now. but there's just something great about being in a friendly urban village this time of year. Buffalo is a remarkable city. I tried to capture the feel of the neighborhood and with these pictures. I would have taken more except the camera battery died. but these are pretty nice. there's more at Flickr














More pictures

I hope you guys are reading WNY Media, it is emerging as the best web based local News source. I understand that for programers and web designers like myself it can be painful because of the many flaws in the code. it's not nearly as slick as Buffalo Rising but the content is good. Also WNY Media is very open for people to join and add their own articles. I started working with them in May and have seen it transition into a dedicated news cooperative. some of the stories have quite a bit of investigative reporting behind them, many of the writers are intimately involved in the issues they cover.

They definitely need a programmer to poke around in their code for a while and fix the little flaws though. any volunteers?

Anyway I posted an article there recently about Judy Einach's press conferance, which talked about the casino and her letter to Gale Norton which was signed by a bunch of community and government leaders. the story was all but ignored by the mainstream media so I tried to do a decent job covering it on WNY Media. Usually when I write an article I post it here, but for this one I have to post a link, there's a bunch of formatting and stuff that goes with it, along with a terrible video I took at the event and a good picture. the full text of her letter and the speaches given at the press conference are there as well. take a look, I think it turned out very professional, except the video.

WNY Media article

I just updated my Flickr Blog, here are the highlights. Go to the Blog for more




We went for a walk this morning to savor the Fall





I was a Newspaper Reporter from the 70's and Molly was a Tree. we went to nietzsche's for the first time, then we went to Scotts House and spent the night.


New Kitty pictures, Revolution is getting really big.

I attended the Mayoral debate tonight, it was very interesting. From my perspective Judy did a realy fantastic job, and presented herself and her ideas very well. Brown and Helfer just made asses out of themselves by shamelessly attacking each other instead of fully answering the questions that were asked of them. they don't want to actually have a discussion with the citizens about that is wrong and how they are going to fix it because that's not their focus, their focus is on getting elected, not on helping the city overcome obstacles. so they will spend more time tearing down their 'opponent' than talking about issues.

Case in point, Helfers opening remarks were a rambling attack against Brown. you can watch the whole video on Channel 7 it's actually a really good debate. Brown made an ass out of himself by ignoring the casino question.. twice. the question was something like this "We know that you support the casino, but just so the public can be assured that you have thoroughly considered the matter, please tell us some of the major downfalls of a casino and how you plan to deal with it." I was absolutely enraged by his response and I literally almost shouted "answer the question!!!" before walking out or being escorted out. but I didn't, I listened as he listed off the reasons why he is FOR a casino, the same reasons he mentioned last week, didn't even come anywhere near a downside. but a panelist called him out and asked him again to answer the question, he said "there is a downside but..." that's it. What a fucking arrogant asshole.

Judy on the other hand did incredibly well, she was honest and blunt. she used strong language and you could tell that she meant what she said. she didn't waste time attacking the other candidates she simply spoke what she thought and her ideas were well thought out and very plausible. she lost her words a couple times but so did everyone else, so that doesn't stand out as much in the end as what she said.

Charlie Flyn was a joke, you can't take him seriously, and in fact people commonly chuckled after his responses as if he was some merry prankster. he raised some decent points and I was very happy to have him participate to get more perspectives on the table. I couldn't imagine if the debate was just between 'thing 1'and 'thing 2', it would be a hollow rhetorical sabotage fest devoid of issues.

Another thing that got on my nerves, Brown and helfer kept saying "my opponent" I wanted to scream "you have THREE opponents Asshole!!!!!" really, it's no wonder people feel like the political system is useless when nobody even acknowledges the third party candidates like Judy who actually have something interesting to say. I'm going to do some research on the Buffalo Snooze and see how much they have actually covered the third party candidates vs the coverage they give the two major parties. and I also want to see if the articles they do write about the mayoral election have anything to do with the issues. because every time I pick up that piece of crap it just talks about how much money they have raised or if race will be a factor, or some other frivolous bullshit. I did see one article on development that was terribly written and impossible to follow that compared Brown and Helfer on that issue.

Anyway, watch the debate, overall I thought it was really good. and if you live in Buffalo vote for Judy, tell our corrupt system to go fuck itself and vote for someone who is determined to change it. Judy's website is really good too, check it out

My Brief Article is below. I spend most of my time looking at local News, but yesterday I happened to notice that Iraq voted on their constitution, the results were disputed and there was a 10 day recount which cast the results into doubt. Sunni Leaders said things like "The people were shocked to find out that their vote is worthless because of the major fraud that takes place in Iraq," and called the election a "farce". Sunnis are the main force behind the insurgency, and the group who was in power untill the US invasion. In the last election in January they boycotted the vote because they didn't trust the system, this time they voted overwelmingly against the constitution and it passed anyway. leaving them with the impression that their vote doesen't matter (kind of like us in America, but they're not desensitized and jaded yet so it realy pisses them off and makes them want to overthrow the government by force).



Iraq Constitution is a sign of Civil War, not Democracy


The problem is this: the Sunni Arabs (who are the major force behind the insurgency) actually voted this time… and it didn’t work. Despite all of our promises about democracy and freedom, they tried doing it Our Way, and it backfired. If you can’t trust democracy to achieve change, what do you have left? Violence.

Sunnis fear they are being excluded, and left on land that has no oil and no wealth. The new constitution paves the way for a semi-autonomous Kurdish Region in the north and a Shiite region in the south, both of which have large supplies of oil. The Sunnis are becoming an impoverished and desperate minority in the country. This is not a good formula for peace.

Unfortunately the US doesn’t care. As long as the two tribes that do have all the oil are our buddies we make out just fine. We can give them weapons to repress the desperate minority and they can give us oil. It’s a win-win situation, unless you’re concerned about justice. Don’t believe me? Our government isn’t as modern as we might hope, they see the world in terms of survival of the fittest. This is all very practical geopolitical, ‘realist’, state centered strategy.

News Excerpts Below


Reuters - Iraq voters approve constitution
10-25-2005

By Claudia Parsons and Andrew Quinn

“BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Iraqi voters ratified a new U.S.-backed constitution despite bitter opposition in Sunni Arab areas where insurgents are battling to topple the Baghdad government, results showed on Tuesday.

Iraq's Electoral Commission, giving final results from the October 15 referendum, said 79 percent of voters backed the constitution against 21 percent opposed in a poll split largely along Iraq's sectarian and ethnic lines.

Several Shi'ite and Kurdish regions voted between 95 and 99 percent "Yes"; in rebellious, Sunni Anbar 97 percent said "No".

Prominent Sunni Arab leaders rejected the referendum as a fraud, warning it could fuel militant violence and discourage Sunnis from participating in future elections.”


AP - Iraq's Constitution Ratified by Voters
10-25-2005

By MARIAM FAM, Associated Press Writer

“The strong negative vote by Sunni Arabs, however, raised questions whether the charter would succeed in luring Sunnis away from the insurgency. Many Sunni Arabs fear the constitution will create virtually autonomous and oil-rich mini-states of Kurds in the north and Shiites in the south, leaving Sunnis isolated in poor central and western regions with a weak central government in Baghdad.

Saleh al-Mutlaq, a Sunni Arab member of the committee that drafted the constitution, called the referendum "a farce" and accused the Shiite and Kurdish-dominated government of stealing ballot boxes to reduce the percentage of "no" votes in several provinces.

"The people were shocked to find out that their vote is worthless because of the major fraud that takes place in Iraq," he said on Al-Arabiya television.
Much will depend on whether Sunni Arabs vote in large numbers in the Dec. 15 elections. A Sunni boycott of the Jan. 30 balloting enabled Shiites and Kurds to dominate parliament and take the lead role in drafting the constitution.”

the casino in Buffalo... there's a lot to the issue, but one thing about it is really offending me right now... NOBODY ASKED US! The governor woke up one morning and said "I know how I'm going to close the gap in our budget, I'm take a piece of Buffalo and give it away to a sovereign nation. They can take the land right off of the tax rolls and make $150 million off of it each year from a casino." And he didn't even ask the State government, nor the Erie County or Buffalo government. And he sure as hell didn't use a referendum to ask us, the people who live here. I'm offended, in fact it really pisses me off.

Especially since Buffalo is not doing bad right now, there's actually a lot of old architectural gems being renovated and turned into mixed use apartments and commercial buildings. And new buildings are even starting to fill in the parking lots. The nice areas of the city are actually growing, as more people are moving into the downtown neighborhoods. Main St is improving from the theatre district past the medical campus and all the way up to the Artspace lofts project near Summer St. There's also the interesting Health Now building right behind City Hall and all kinds of stuff is happening. All we need is for the government not to screw up real bad. You can read about it at Buffalo Rising's City page . Now is not the time to be giving pieces of downtown real estate away to a sovereign nation.

The jobs argument is bullshit, look at other cities that have tried this, like Atlantic city, Detroit, or Niagara Falls, yes even in Niagara Falls at least two hotels and a restaurant have closed, and they actually have tourists! By contrast 80% of the money that the casino makes in Buffalo is going to come from us, the local economy, and it's not staying here, it's going to the Senecas.

The casino will also be nicely situated at the center of all the bus routes, Downtown, where people who can't afford cars can easily get to. Not so with the Niagara Falls or Salamanca casinos. The poor in Buffalo are going to get poorer. I live in an inexpensive Allentown apartment, most of my neighbors in this building are poor, both white and black, I thought about them. Who would go, would they spend more money than they could afford, and what would they do to try and get that money back? What would happen to our neighborhood because of their poverty? I don't like what I see, really.. more theft, more drugs, more broken car windows and missing stereos, more people outside bothering you for change, or asking you to buy their crap, electronics and fake drugs. It won't be as nice of a neighborhood. This is one of the most pedestrian friendly and architecturally beautiful sections of the city, but people will enjoy it less, and less often, because they will be harassed and confronted by the struggling poor.

It's not good, I mean seriously if you want numbers here's some stuff from Donn Esmonde's recent article :

The casino will make $150 million a year

About 80 percent of the people who will gamble at a Buffalo casino live within 50 miles of Buffalo,

The casino brings about 1,000 jobs (although at a cost of some existing jobs), with those workers taking home about $25 million a year.

The state gets about $30 million of the annual casino profits,
With the City and County splitting about $7 million.

But $25 million in take-home pay and a $7 million local cut doesn't balance the nearly $150 million we'll pay for it.

"The number one casino spinoff business is a gas station," Thompson said. "Maybe a restaurant within walking distance . . . Most people going to the casino won't do a single thing in Buffalo other than gamble."



If you read this whole thing you definitely care enough to call some representatives and say that if a casino is proposed the public should have a say,
tell them to introduce a bill to their legislature so that they have to address the issue and hear from their constituents about it.
Or encourage them to sponsor a referendum for the people to vote on. This process is going way too fast, it needs to be properly deliberated. We are handing over a chunk of our city.
You may have read in my last post that there is a public comment period from now until November 7th, you have to fax (FAX# 202-208-6950) or e-mail (webteam@ios.doi.gov) Gale Norton, the Interior Secretary, she's the one who approves land transfers. I encouraged my representatives to send her a fax as well.

You can find your city reps here:
County reps here:
State reps here:

here is a fantastic article from Buffalo Rising about the casino. Think about it. this is a permanent change to our city. how will it change us? how will it change the downtown urban living and sightseeing environment. Please make a phone call or write a letter, stop this nonsense. you can find contact information in the Buffalo Rising Article.

Downtown Casino: Are We Sheep?
by Figmo

Simply put, putting a casino in Downtown Buffalo is the dumbest and most dangerous idea anyone's had in a while. To give away the center of an area finally in the throes of a residential turnaround to a sovereign nation with no obligation to community development standards and guidelines is stupid. To build a low-budget, third rate casino catering to busloads of sad cases carrying plastic cups filled with loose change in the middle of an area where many developers with vision have taken a chance and sunk significant chunks of capital into high-end residential development-that's the ballgame, folks.

Click for the Rest

I'd like to point out a couple things about the anti-torture amendment to the latest $445,000,000,000 War spending Bill.
The amendment was spearheaded by John McCain. A good guy in my opinion who unlike most of our Washington officials actually SERVED in the military, and he was a war prisoner. Meaning essentially that he understands what life is like in war. he gets his information from experience instead of movies like Bush and most everyone in his cabinet. interesting.
also the wording of the amendment is not as ambiguous as I originally thought. It bans "cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment" which as honorable a policy as it is vague. "Cruel" or "degrading" mean a million things to a million people. but McCain and his cosponsors were not looking for a feelgood amendment they actually are looking to set standards at the federal level, and to learn exactly what those standards are the amendment refers you to the "Army Field Manual". standards the army has already agreed upon.

interesting facts.

I got a kick out of this article in the NY Times today.

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Senate Moves to Protect Military Prisoners Despite Veto Threat

WASHINGTON, Oct. 5 - Defying the White House, the Senate overwhelmingly agreed Wednesday to regulate the detention, interrogation and treatment of prisoners held by the American military.

The measure ignited a fierce debate among many Senate Republicans and the White House, which threatened to veto a $440 billion military spending bill if the detention amendment was tacked on, saying it would bind the president's hands in wartime. Nonetheless, the measure passed, 90 to 9, with 46 Republicans, including Bill Frist of Tennessee, the majority leader, joining 43 Democrats and one independent in favor.

More than two dozen retired senior military officers, including Colin L. Powell and John M. Shalikashvili, two former chairmen of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, endorsed the amendment, which would ban use of "cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment" against anyone in United States government custody.

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The President wants to veto a bill banning the use of "cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment" That speaks volumes about this administration. seriously, what kind of America is this guy from?!?!