united states

While the news that the United States has completely withdrawn from the United Nations Human Rights Council is still rumor and gossip and hearsay, I am preparing to be completely appalled and disheartened by the (probably true) news. Well, read this, via Boing Boing, the Human Rights Tribune, Chris Abraham and Digg. Good Lord!

The news that the US has completely withdrawn from the Human Rights Council spread like wildfire Friday afternoon (June 6) through the corridors of the Palais des Nations in Geneva. There was general consternation amongst diplomats and NGOS. Reached by phone, the American mission in Geneva neither confirmed nor denied the report. Although unofficial, the news comes at a time of long opposition by the Bush administration to the reforms which created the Human Rights Council in June 2006. Washington announced from the beginning that the US would not be an active member but its observer status would mean that it could intervene during the sessions. To date even this has rarely happened.

When a country starts doing things like this, it is alway in fortification against a slew of lawsuits against the United States on human rights issues. Withdrawing from the Geneva Convention is definitely bad enough but withdrawing from the United Nations Human Rights Council is unforgivable. Score another point for moving to Berlin!

Dear Friend, The White House has now admitted to directing the CIA to "waterboard" detainees during interrogations. In case you've lived in a box the past several months, waterboarding is the forced, non-fatal drowning of a prisoner. According to experts (special forces officers who train our soldiers to cope should they be captured by enemies and treated this way), it provokes such a helpless, desperate, terrifying reaction that the subject will say anything at all to stop it. Waterboarding has long been recognized as torture -- an exemplar of torture.

Gag me with a chainsaw! Canada removes U.S., Israel from torture watchlist 19 Jan 2008 Canada's foreign ministry, responding to pressure from close allies, said on Saturday it would remove the United States and Israel from a watch list of countries where prisoners risk being tortured. Both nations expressed unhappiness [!] after it emerged they had been listed in a document that formed part of a training course manual on torture awareness given to Canadian diplomats. Foreign Minister Maxime Bernier said he regretted the embarrassment caused by the public disclosure of the manual, which also classified some U.S. interrogation techniques as torture. [See: Canada puts U.S. on torture watch list: CTV --Canada's 'torture awareness' watch list includes Syria, Iran, China, Afghanistan, the United States, Guantanamo Bay, and Israel. 16 Jan 2008.] Via Citizens For Legitimate Government and Reuters

OH MY FRIPPIN GOD! Page 17 of the "plea" is "sealed"..that means the DAMN sentence is SEALED! What in god's name is going on here?

On the Fourth of July, I heard our Declaration of Independence read aloud on the radio here in Washington DC. Disturbing.

I was deeply unsettled to note how many of our Founding Fathers' condemnations and complaints against the misgovernment of King George III in the late 1700's could be rightfully levied by Americans and other nations against the appalling misgovernment of the President George Bush II's administration in the early 2000's.