[Dick Cheney]’s developed an angst and almost a protective cover, and now he fears being tried as a war criminal.Colin Powell’s former chief of staff, Col. Lawrence Wilkerson • He also contends that Cheney “was president for all practical purposes for the first term of the Bush administration,” something critics have long-alleged. source (via • follow)
Could Donald Rumsfeld get personally sued for torture?: A military contractor with a particularly fascinating backstory wants to sue the former defense secretary for illegally detaining him. The judge — get this —is gonna allow it. Whoa. source
A brave man’s story, cut short: Sgt. James Hackemer, an amputee who lost both his legs (and reportedly died twice on the battlefield, only to be revived) after an IED blew up under his Humvee in Iraq back in 2007, lived his life to the fullest despite his injuries, only to die — tragically — in a freak roller coaster accident yesterday. He fell 208 feet out of the Ride of Steel roller coaster, at the Darien Lake Theme Park Resort in New York, to his death. To lose so much, only to fight back to regain it day by painful day, only to have this happen? Life is messed up sometimes. Above is a clip reflecting on what this guy had to work for. source
![producermatthew:
Pay Up, Iraq: Dana Rohrabacher (R-CA) told a group of reporters during a one-day trip to Baghdad that he believes Iraq should repay some of the cost of the US-led invasion stemming as far back as 2003.
“We would hope that some consideration be given to repaying the United States some of the megadollars we have spent here in the last eight years,” Rohrabacher told reporters, according to the Associated Press. [AP Photo / Story by AP via KGO]
Uh, yeah … that’s not gonna happen.](http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lmljwzVol91qz5ew6o1_500.jpg)
Pay Up, Iraq: Dana Rohrabacher (R-CA) told a group of reporters during a one-day trip to Baghdad that he believes Iraq should repay some of the cost of the US-led invasion stemming as far back as 2003.
“We would hope that some consideration be given to repaying the United States some of the megadollars we have spent here in the last eight years,” Rohrabacher told reporters, according to the Associated Press. [AP Photo / Story by AP via KGO]
Uh, yeah … that’s not gonna happen.
Six-in-ten (60%) say the cost of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan has contributed a great deal to the size of the debt. About four-in-ten (42%) say the same about the condition of the national economy.
By comparison, just 24% say increased spending on domestic problems has contributed greatly to the nation’s debt and even fewer (19%) cite the tax cuts enacted over the past decade. While half or more say spending and the tax cuts contributed at least a fair amount to the debt, 31% say increased domestic spending did little or nothing to increase the debt and 38% say the same about the tax cuts.
The latest national survey by the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press, conducted May 25-30 among 1,509 adults, finds widespread opposition to number of proposals aimed at reducing the deficit and the national debt, including reducing funding for the states for education and roads (73% disapprove) and gradually raising the Social Security retirement age (59%).
hannahmaryelizabeth-deactivated asks: If possible, can you summarize in a short paragraph what has happened throughout the years since our involvment in Iraq in 2003? After the whole looking for WMD's situation.
» SFB says: Phew, big question. Basically, the invasion — which came about for controversial reasons (the hunt for weapons of mass destruction) and in the midst of a second war in Afghanistan — started with a push to remove Saddam Hussein from power. We kicked him out, then handed power over to an interim government. At the same time, the insurgency was intensifying — meaning that there were more suicide bombers, IEDs, etc. The first democratic elections came in early 2005. By October of the same year, a constitution had been approved in spite of rising violence. Throughout 2006, violence continued to rise — including more car bombings and more civilian deaths. In December, Saddam was executed for crimes against humanity. Violence began to subside mid-2007; by 2008 things improved further. The US returned the western province of Anbar to Iraqi control and the Iranian president visited. The U.S. and Iraq formed a security pact in early 2009 that said American troops would leave the country by the end of 2011. In late 2009, the al-Qaeda-linked Islamic State of Iraq claimed responsibility for many of the suicide bombings that year. In August 2010, the last US combat brigade left Iraq, and two months later WikiLeaks published classified documents about the US’s involvement in the war. If you want more details (there are many more), check out this timeline from the BBC. I hope that helped! — Justin @ SFB
» Two conflicting cultural problems: What’s going on here is a bit of culture conflict. First, Charles Whittington takes medication and has received counseling on his issues. While in the paper he said that killing ”is something that I do not just want but something I really need so I can feel like myself,” it’s clear that he’s trying to make an effort to move on. Meanwhile, his school, the Community College of Baltimore County in Catonsville, Md., is trying to prevent another Virginia Tech-style shooting. We feel that Whittington’s frankness is a clear signifier that those days are behind him – or at least he’s willing to try. (Thanks to pitusimz for the suggestion)
» An awful end for many: Beyond the fact that terrorists attacked a Catholic Church in Baghdad, perhaps the worst fact about this whole situation is that many of the killed were hostages – most were killed or wounded after explosives were set off in the church. And they were killed because of their faith. The pope has already denounced the attack, which the Islamic State of Iraq took credit for with a note on their Web site: “The Mujahedeens raided a filthy nest of the nests of polytheism, which has been long taken by the Christians of Iraq as a headquarter for a war against the religion of Islam and they were able by the grace of God and His glory to capture those were gathered in and to take full control of all its entrances.”
One of Saddam Hussein’s top aides sentenced to hang: Tariq Aziz was one of Saddam’s most public faces during the former Iraq leader’s regime of terror. Which explains why Aziz has been sentenced to a similar fate. source
I think anything that suggests that basic rules of war, conflict and engagement have been broken or that torture has been in any way condoned are extremely serious and need to be looked at.British Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg • Suggesting that the British government needs to investigate the torture claims brought forth by Wikileaks’ massive Iraq War data dump. Just yesterday, the country’s Ministry of Defense, which condemned the group for releasing the data. Clegg, on the other hand, has a very refreshing response to the whole thing: “We can bemoan how these leaks occurred, but I think the nature of the allegations made are extraordinarily serious.” If only more world leaders would take that approach to Wikileaks. source (via)
I’m moving back to New York in a few days. Unlike past...
OMG. I got so...
In this week’s Newsweek, a little...
Tumblr this morning. [h/t anne]
#@#$%!.tumblr.com
Here’s a hidden feature that shipped in...
Watch: PCB gets a visual shout out on GMA’s Yahoo/Tumblr...
» Did the U.S. hide torture? The most controversial fact revealed in the reports, barring the release of the reports themselves, appears to be the U.S. military’s complicit role in hiding torture. It’s something that UN representative Manfred Nowak is straight-up calling out the Obama administration for. ”There is an obligation,” he said. “to investigate whenever there are credible allegations torture has happened – and these allegations are more than credible – and then it is up to the courts on the one hand to bring the perpetrators to justice and also on the other hand to provide the victims with adequate reparation for the harm they have suffered.” Other human rights groups have pinpointed the British government for similar reasons.
They called me the James Bond of journalism. It got me a lot of fans, and some of them ended up causing me a bit of trouble.Wikileaks founder Julian Assange • Making a pretty frank admission about his whole legal situation in Sweden, where he’s wanted on rape and molestation charges. Assange brought an even larger set of documents to the public eye Friday, revealing 391,832 secret documents yesterday, a leak more than five times as large as the recent Afghan War documents leak, which led to Bradley Manning’s detainment. Regarding Manning, who Assange has been matter-of-fact about in the past, he had something much weightier to say: “We have a duty to assist Mr. Manning and other people who are facing legal and other consequences.” Assange is a complex figure, perhaps one of the most interesting news figures around. And in his own weird way, he’s an essential part of the news right now. Even if some of his styles are questionable, some of the best journalism comes from these experimental methods. Ten years from now, Christian Bale should be all over this role. source (via)
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