Month: December 2014

Sen. Mark Udall resists call to read the Senate Intelligence Committee report on CIA torture into the Congressional Record

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udallportrait2Senator Mark Udall (D-CO) was petitioned by more than  200,000 petition signatures  from Americans to read the 6,300 page classified version of the Senate Intelligence Report on CIA torture into the Congressional record, similar to what Senator Mike Gravel (D-AK) did, reading the Pentagon Papers into the Congressional Record in 1971 (with no one present to object to unanimous consent in the early morning hours, Sen. Gravel moved to insert the 4,100 pages of the Pentagon Papers into the Congressional Record of his subcommittee).

The following day, the Supreme Court’s New York Times Co. v. United States decision ruled in favor of the New York Times and Washington Post, which resumed publication of the Pentagon Papers.

So far, Sen. Udall has resisted reading the Senate Intelligence Committee Report on CIA torture into the Congressional Record, preferring to work through “regular order” for now, but keeping his options open. Charles Pierce at Esquire reports, Mark Udall Had Something To Get Off His Chest:

Outgoing Senator Mark Udall got up in the Senate yesterday, and while he didn’t enter the entire 6000 pages of the Senate’s torture report into the record, the way I think he should have, he unlimbered himself sufficiently — It’s being called a “career-defining” speech, albeit one delivered to a largely empty chamber — that I suspect the mandarins of the security state, and their acolytes in the legislature and in my business, will shortly be rending their garments. In fact, that already may have started.

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Rep. Trent Franks dares to explain torture to Sen. John McCain

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Trent_FranksThere are many qualified candidates on the list for the “Worst Member of Congress,” but Arizona’s contribution to this list is Rep. Trent Franks, a Christian Right anti-abortion zealot ( he founded the Arizona Family Research Institute, the predecessor to Center for Arizona Policy) and an avowed Islamophobic bigot.

Arizona’s worst member of Congress dares to explain to Senator John McCain, the only member of Congress who was actually tortured as a prisoner of war, that he doesn’t know what he is talking about. Waterboarding is not torture according to this uninformed ideological extremist (more on this below). I’ll bet Arizona’s angry old man is scrapping to kick his ignorant ass!

The Arizona Republic reports, Franks says McCain wrong, waterboarding not torture:

U.S. Rep. Trent Franks, R-Ariz., says the CIA’s use of waterboarding was not torture and that a scathing Senate report on the agency’s secret interrogations released Tuesday was politically motivated.

Franks added that he disagreed with the only member of Congress who has endured torture, Arizona’s senior Sen. John McCain. McCain has called waterboarding “an exquisite form of torture” that is “shameful and unnecessary.”

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Small holiday artworks at Raices Taller 222 gallery

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Raices Taller 222 Art Gallery & Workshop presents “Pequeños!” – an exhibition of affordable small works and live music! (from their FB page). Everything will be priced $222 and under. Opening Reception Friday December 12, 2014 (dia de la Virgen de Guadalupe) 6:00-9:00 PM Potluck and Refreshments! Music by local musicians Jonathan W. Martinez and … Read more

The need for rape victims to be “perfect” hurts all survivors

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Crossposted from DemocraticDiva.com

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By now you’ve probably read or heard about the roundly excoriated Rolling Stone article examining the problem of rape on college campuses. They focused on the University of Virginia and on one victim in particular, Jackie, who told a shocking story of being gang-raped after accompanying a man on a date to a frat party. Unfortunately, writer Sabrina Rubin Erdely made some serious errors in her reporting, chief among them failing to vet some of the details of Jackie’s claims, such as the fraternity where she alleges her attack took place and the employment of the young man at the center of the account at the pool where Jackie was a lifeguard.

I will not be joining the chorus of voices declaring it to be a settled matter that Jackie fabricated the entire thing since she continues to maintain that she was assaulted and her roommate at the time also insists that she was. Human memory is notoriously faulty about mundane things and a traumatic experience can cause a person to be more, not less, likely to have a poor recollection of events.

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Front Page American News Exposes Hypocrisy of Liberal Zionism

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Lots has been written about the crisis facing liberal Zionism. You can read it about it here, here and here. Essentially, liberal Jews in the diaspora, mainly American Jews, are having a harder and harder time reconciling their liberal values and their support  for Israel. Peter Beinart observed a few years ago that when faced with the conflict between their liberal values and their support for Israel, older American Jews would park their liberal values at the door, but younger American Jews were choosing to park their support for Israel at the door.

Ordinarily, events in Israel bring the conflict of liberal Zionism into focus, with the latest instance of this being the Gaza war.

But now the front page news in America that should be making liberal Zionists uncomfortable. The two stories dominating the news this week are “Black Lives Matter” and the Senate report on CIA torture.

Of course, if you’re a good liberal in America, you’re with the protestors in Ferguson, New York and elsewhere. You may not be with them on your feet, but you certainly are in your heart. And you’re aghast at the actions of the CIA, which went far beyond all norms of human decency, and was illegal and ineffective to boot.

So, what do these stories have to do with Israel? A lot.

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