MONDAY NIGHT NEWS

Red Cross Finds Detainee Abuse in Guantánamo

• By NEIL A. LEWIS ASHINGTON, Nov. 29 - The International Committee of the Red Cross has charged in confidential reports to the United States government that the American military has intentionally used psychological and sometimes physical coercion "tantamount to torture" on prisoners at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba. The finding that the handling of prisoners detained and interrogated at Guantánamo amounted to torture came after a visit by a Red Cross inspection team that spent most of last June in Guantánamo.

Pentagon Disputes Red Cross Criticism

• WASHINGTON - A Pentagon spokesman said Monday that Red Cross officials have "made their view known" that the indefinite detention of terror suspects at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, amounts to torture. Lawrence Di Rita, spokesman for Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld, said, "It's their point of view," but it is not shared by the Bush administration. He noted that the administration believes it has the legal right to detain such suspects until the end of the war on terrorism because they are unlawful combatants not subject to the protections of the Geneva conventions.

EPA Looking at Using Tests on People

• WASHINGTON (AP) - In setting limits on chemicals in food and water, the Environmental Protection Agency may rely on industry tests that expose people to poisons and raise ethical questions. The new policy, which the EPA is still developing, would allow Bush administration political appointees to referee any ethical disputes. Agency officials are putting the finishing touches on a plan to take a case-by-case approach.

POSSIBLE DEMOCRATIC AMMENDMENTS

Congress Funds Psychological Tests for Kids

• One of the nation's leading medical groups, the Association of American Physicians & Surgeons (AAPS), decried a move by the U.S. Senate to join with the House in funding a federal program AAPS says will lead to mandatory psychological testing of every child in America – without the consent of parents.

Breakin' 2 : Electric Boogaloo

I've never been in the position to desire the public outing of a homo, but this is too juicy to pass up. Ken Mehlman, the chairman of Bush's re-elction campaign, was bumped up to be the leader of the RNC this term. There have been rumors that Mr. Mehlman, AND his deputy, Dan Gurly (girly?!) are Flamin' Nancies. Turns out, the allegations surrounding Gurly's lifestyle have since proven to be accurate. Gurly has already come out and admitted to once having a profile up on Gay.com. He tried to say it was a forged profile, but the site only allows screen-names to be used once, even if the person deleted the profile, which is exactly what Bush's National Field Director did. Delete, delete, delete. Lucky for us, the folks over at AmericaBlog have been on top of the story from the very start of the hype. Here's a screenshot of the dead profile: And just as a bonus, here are some excerpts from the ADULTS ONLY section:

Endowment/Dimensions:Above average, 8+cut

I prefer to be:Switch/Versatile, I'll be whatever you want me to be!

I like to have sex...:3-5 times a week, I'm usually ready...and available

Body Hair:Arms, Chest, Pits, Tummy, Legs, I shave occasionally, all over

In my own words: Just looking for good sex, whether with one or several. Always versatile and love to fool around. Race is not a factor, just be purportional [sic] and bring some personality with you.

Things I'm into: Anal sex, Body contact, Groups, Kissing, One-on-one, Oral sex, Porn

On to the precious head of the party... Mr. Mehlman has repeatedly refused to answer any questions regarding his sexuality. Naturally, the blogs are a'buzzing with he-said/she-said bytes, and naturally, the Freepers are angry. All of a sudden, they're totally supportive of Mehlman and Co. despite the whole homo-thing... "As long as he doesn't try to get married, it is fine with me. I believe homosexuality to be a sin, but the GOP chair is not a position that the person's personal morality is an issue. " So the morality of GOPers doesn't come into account so long as they're high up on Bush's list of lackeys. Got it. Just keep it to yourself, man. The red states don't take too kindly to fruits.

As my friend Brian likes to say: DON'T ACT GAY, FAGGOT.

Douchebaggery, I say!!! (...and lazy reporting)

"He says it wasn't for politics. It was for America." When I get home....I'll tell you all about the homo on the left in this picture:

mosh through this desert storm...of revisionist history

Years later, ABC News and the folks from 20/20 are re-visiting the murder of Matthew Shepard in 1998. After all this time, we learn, from the killers, that it wasn't a hate crime after all. Our bad. Fuck the Laramie Project. It was all just a big misunderstanding. That new Vargas lady is NO Barbara Walters. Pam Spaulding, a blogger on Atrios, had a great piece on the story:

Vargas interviews several people that say McKinney was bisexual, wasn't homophobic and knew Shepard long before that night. McKinney denies having sex with men, or ever having met Shepard prior to the night he killed him. A great deal of time is spent with a specialist describing violence and meth addiction, but not one minute is spent talking to anyone about McKinney's obvious internal conflicts about his sexuality.

Also, many of these interviewees that support the theory that McKinney is bisexual have some serious credibility problems of their own -- like having lied or not come forward with information at the time of the murder. After the piece you are left with more questions than answers, but it is clear from the outset that the goal is to "prove" it was not a hate crime, no matter how much of the other information equally muddies the waters.

And, we had Andrew Sullivan, ostensibly as the "official gay voice" of the piece. He didn't add anything substantial, but it was a sorry sight to see him add legitimacy to this carefully edited slam piece. It did the job it intended to do, which was to say "this is not a hate crime" (no matter how many other issues this retelling raises).

Vargas also speculates that Shepard might have been HIV+, depressed and on drugs -- subliminally making it easier for some in the audience to justify that he was already going to die and that this was some kind of mercy killing. Before you think that's preposterous, think again. My brother's girlfriend, a professor at a university in Texas, had to dealwith a devoutly religious student that wrote in a paper after viewing "TheLaramie Project," that she truly believed that Shepard was a wretched and depraved human being and that what happened to him was a merciful act of God.

There are more like her out there and stories like this just fuel the growing fundamentalist intolerance. It also shows the increasingly sensationalistic and intellectually bankrupt "mainstream journalism" at work.

fake turkey times

Ann Coulter really is the white version of Michelle Malkin. Ridiculous, absolutely ridiculous. I mean, even Rush Limbaugh can convince me from time to time, but The Coulter really is lunacy in its top form.

From her latest column:

Republicans won the White House. With the exception of the decadent buffoon, whose newly opened presidential library and museum becomes the first to ever feature an "adults-only" section, Republicans have controlled the White House for 25 years. Even Clinton got into office on a virtual technicality when third-party candidate Ross Perot took 20 percent of the vote and the buffoon was elected with 42 percent of the vote (or what used to be known in Democratic Party circles as a "mandate").

The Wonderful World of Henry Sugar

Rather than re-cap the Legislative Provision Formerly Known as Istook (or LPFKI, thanks to Josh Marshall), I'll just post some choice cuts for your perusal: Lawmakers Hold Out Hope for Intel Bill Sunday November 21, 2004 9:16 PM By JIM ABRAMS AP ``I have no earthly idea how it got in there,'' Frist said on ``Fox News Sunday.'' ``But, obviously, somebody is going to know, and accountability will be carried out.'' Frist referred to the bill Saturday night as the ``Istook amendment,'' and congressional aides said it was inserted at the request of Rep. Ernest Istook Jr., R-Okla. Meanwhile, in Istook-land... November 22, 2004 By ERNEST ISTOOK JR. R-Ok 5th District “I want to reiterate what I said on Sunday, namely that this was not my language. I then spent most of the day tracking down what happened. “I had nothing to do with inserting this language. I never knew what was happening until it was done. Had I known, I would have intervened to omit or to fix this provision. “I didn't write it; I didn't approve it; I wasn't even consulted. My name shouldn't be associated with it, because I had nothing to do with it, and didn't even know about it until after the bill was done and was filed.”

This is the actual text from the provision:

Hereinafter, notwithstanding any other provision of law governing the disclosure of income tax returns or return information, upon written request of the Chairman of the House or Senate Committee on Appropriations, the Commissioner of the Internal Revenue Service shall allow agents designated by such Chairman access to Internal Revenue Service facilities and any tax returns or return information contained therein.

I'm confused. Istook claimed it was someone at the IRS that inserted the provision, or perhaps one of his staffers. Methinks this might get added onto our ever-expanding list of unknowns...or was that known knows? Unknown knowns? Whatever. My head's killing me. Check out The Stakeholder, The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee's weblog. Now, I have another blog to read whilst pretending to work. Also, if you feel like reading an action-packed, chock-full-o'blood blog, check out Kevin Sites site. He's the cameraman that captured the Marine shooting the insurgent that was "faking his fucking death." The Poetry Corner featuring: Donald Rumsfeld (courtesy of Hart Seely at Slate) As we know, There are known knowns. There are things we know we know. We also know There are known unknowns. That is to say We know there are some things We do not know. But there are also unknown unknowns, The ones we don't know We don't know. —Feb. 12, 2002, Department of Defense news briefing Things will not be necessarily continuous. The fact that they are something other than perfectly continuous Ought not to be characterized as a pause. There will be some things that people will see. There will be some things that people won't see. And life goes on. —Oct. 12, 2001, Department of Defense news briefing I think what you'll find, I think what you'll find is, Whatever it is we do substantively, There will be near-perfect clarity As to what it is. And it will be known, And it will be known to the Congress, And it will be known to you, Probably before we decide it, But it will be known. —Feb. 28, 2003, Department of Defense briefing Click on the original Axis of Evil for a good time.

cut a piece of cheney off, let's count the rings

Let it be known that I think James Carville is the sexiest man in Washington, even when he's covered in chicken fetus.

Meanwhile...

Colin Powell is out.

speaking of caucasians...

WHITE MAN FOUND GUILTY OF

MURDERING HIS WHITE WIFE!

Meanwhile, 1287 soldiers have died in Iraq.
Then there's this, from the AP:

WASHINGTON - Federal judges are jeopardizing national security by issuing rulings contradictory to President Bush's decisions on America's obligations under international treaties and agreements, Attorney General John Ashcroft said Friday.

for love and misery

It's high time to address the fraud situation in this post Election 04 world. I know I run the risk of sounding like a conspiracy nut, but the evidence is too overwhelming to ignore at this point. Edwards wanted every vote counted, and Kerry conceded, but the election is far from being a closed chapter in our future history books. Matt Drudge is refraining from posting any election-question articles. For now, here are some tasty bits:

It seems like Keith Olberman over at MSNBC is the only prime-time guy that realizes the Ohio story must be told. Ann Coulter disagrees, but then again, Ann Coulter is a worthless, human stain.

Thomas Hartmann seems to have a "reality-based" grip on what people have inevitably started calling Votergate 2004. No theories, just facts. Exit polls vs. election results. Apparently, the only states in which there were major problems were Florida and Ohio.

Greg Palast called the election for Kerry, and rightly so:

Most voters in Ohio thought they were voting for Kerry. At 1:05 a.m. Wednesday morning, CNN's exit poll showed Kerry beating Bush among Ohio women by 53percent to 47 percent. The exit polls were later combined with—and therefore contaminated by—the tabulated results, ultimately becoming a mirror of the apparent actual vote. [To read about the skewing of exit polls to conform to official results, click here .] Kerry also defeated Bush among Ohio's male voters 51 percent to 49 percent. Unless a third gender voted in Ohio, Kerry took the state.

From Truth Out dot org:

Is there any evidence that these machines went haywire on Tuesday? Nationally, there were more than 1,100 reports of electronic voting machine malfunctions. A few examples:

---In Broward County, Florida, election workers were shocked to discover that their shiny new machines were counting backwards. "Tallies should go up as more votes are counted," according to this report. "That's simple math. But in some races, the numbers had gone down. Officials found the software used in Broward can handle only 32,000 votes per precinct. After that, the system starts counting backward."

---In Franklin County, Ohio, electronic voting machines gave Bush 3,893 extra votes in one precinct alone. "Franklin County's unofficial results gave Bush 4,258 votes to Democratic challenger John Kerry's 260 votes in Precinct 1B," according to this report. "Records show only 638 voters cast ballots in that precinct. Matthew Damschroder, director of the Franklin County Board of Elections, said Bush received 365 votes there. The other 13 voters who cast ballots either voted for other candidates or did not vote for president."

---In Craven County, North Carolina, a software error on the electronic voting machines awarded Bush 11,283 extra votes. "The Elections Systems and Software equipment," according to this report, "had downloaded voting information from nine of the county's 26 precincts and as the absentee ballots were added, the precinct totals were added a second time. An override, like those occurring when one attempts to save a computer file that already exists, is supposed to prevent double counting, but did not function correctly."

---In Carteret County, North Carolina, "More than 4,500 votes may be lost in one North Carolina county because officials believed a computer that stored ballots electronically could hold more data than it did. Local officials said UniLect Corp., the maker of the county's electronic voting system, told them that each storage unit could handle 10,500 votes, but the limit was actually 3,005 votes. Officials said 3,005 early votes were stored, but 4,530 were lost."

---In LaPorte County, Indiana, a Democratic stronghold, the electronic voting machines decided that each precinct only had 300 voters. "At about 7 p.m. Tuesday," according to this report, "it was noticed that the first two or three printouts from individual precinct reports all listed an identical number of voters. Each precinct was listed as having 300 registered voters. That means the total number of voters for the county would be 22,200, although there are actually more than 79,000 registered voters."

---In Sarpy County, Nebraska, the electronic touch screen machines got generous. "As many as 10,000 extra votes," according to this report, "have been tallied and candidates are still waiting for corrected totals. Johnny Boykin lost his bid to be on the Papillion City Council. The difference between victory and defeat in the race was 127 votes. Boykin says, 'When I went in to work the next day and saw that 3,342 people had shown up to vote in our ward, I thought something's not right.' He's right. There are not even 3,000 people registered to vote in his ward. For some reason, some votes were counted twice."

That's a short list compared to the one Voter's Unite put up on their site. It lists over 300 instances of voter irregularities this year.

Thought for the day:

First they laugh at you, then they ignore you, then they fight you and you win.-- Mahatma Gandhi

"i gave hip hop to white boys when nobody was lookin..."

I've got a long post coming up this afternoon, but I couldn't resist a few article links... My love/hate with Ms. Dowd is in the red zone today, after a Page Six piece in which Zell Miller allegedly reffered to her as a "high brow hussy from New York." Her response? "I'm not a highbrow hussy from New York. I'm a highbrow hussy from Washington. Senator, pistols or swords?" In bigger, more important news, GWB has replaced Asscroft with Alberto Gonzalez. One cannot criticize the legitimacy of Gonzalez' appointment because he is, after all, the first Hispanic to hold the position. I mean really... Torture memos?!?! There's something icky about the way Georgie likes to parade his Mexicans around. I wonder if he calls him "the little brown one," like his dad used to call George P. Bush. This is from the Unfiltered Radio blog:

Yesterday Bush nominated Alberto Gonzales to fill John Ashcroft’s shoes as Attorney General. Gonzales is commonly known as The Torture Guy, the lawyer who called the Geneva Conventions “quaint”, cooked up excuses for the US to get away with torturing prisoners, and designed the unconstitutional military tribunal system for Gitmo. What you might not know, is that Gonzales has a host of other notable accomplishments, which include these facts... Gonzalez has never tried a case ever – either civil or criminal – but that didn’t stop Bush from appointing him to the Texas Supreme Court after he spent 13 years at Enron’s law firm in Texas. Gonzalez has never published anything in a legal journal ever. Gonzalez is the guy who kept Cheney’s Energy Task Force secret. Gonzalez has headed up the judicial selection committee for Bush, which means he’s responsible for the neanderthals that Bush has appointed to federal judgeships. Alberto Gonzalez – The Torture Guy. A man with no business being confirmed as Attorney General, but a man who nevertheless will, just because he’s not as terrifying as Dancing John Ashcroft.

our home sweet home

I don't know what to say. No one is talking to each other in my house. My John Kerry stand-up thingy is leaning up against my wall and our cat keeps rubbing up on it. Bush won. only 1 in 10 of 18-24 year olds showed up to vote. Fuck my generation. Seriously. Apathy is soooooooooo Florida/2000.