[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 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 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 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