Category: General

I saw on CNN a story which basically was “a man who is alleged to have ties to Al Qaeda is on trial in Virginia, accused of plotting to assassinate George W. Bush.”

They didn’t even mention the more significant, factual part of the case, which is that he’s been imprisoned without charges in Saudi Arabia for almost two years, and was returned scarred by torture.

It also was not mentioned that he is an American citizen, and his family alleges that the Saudi government imprisoned him (he was there studying at a university) at the behest of the United States.

The admnistration has been claiming, all this time, that they had nothing to do with it and had no control over what happened to him at the hands of the Saudi government.

However, when a lawsuit by his family against the U.S. government threatened to expose more details of what was going on, suddenly he was magically put on a plane and sent to the U.S. for trial.

Huh.

It’s chilling to realize the sheer extent of the Administration’s involvement in torture. Abu Ghraib was a small part of it. It’s ongoing at Guantanamo, and even an American citizen can be put away in another country for years of torture on a government whim.

It is heartening that protest and lawsuits by the family actually had some effect.

Anyway, I was amazed that none of this was considered newsworthy by CNN. All that was reported was the dubious allegations he’s being tried on, not the appalling situation, which is actually factual.

NYT story.

Petals Around the Rose

Dr. Duke used to begin each of his gaming/simulation courses with this exercise. While some students would solve the problem right away, others would struggle all semester. It had taken Dr. Duke well over a year himself, and he would always explain that the smarter you were, the longer it took to figure it out.

I had a sudden insight and figured this out in about four or five “hits.” Mainly because I read the “some students would solve the problem right away” part and started looking for something so simple somebody could solve it right away. And I found it.

I hope it’s not true about the “smarter you are, the longer it takes.”

I think I just spent too much time staring at six-sided dice as a child.

You can peer into Paris Hilton’s private life here, but for some people that might be bad for the blood pressure. (First link not safe for work, second link highly recommended. First link via mefi, second via me).

From pk at Puddingbowl, quoting Kevin Drum:

“So: raise payroll taxes on the middle class to create a surplus, then cut taxes on the rich to wipe out the surplus and create a deficit, and then sorrowfully announce that the resulting deficits mean that the Social Security benefits already paid for by the middle class need to be cut.”

It makes me sad to hear about these things, because I wish I lived in a nation that was committed to using government as a means for the more fortunate to take care of the less fortunate. Now we’re willing to spend any money to use government as a means to hurt people, but when it comes to the government helping people, well, that’s too rich for our blood anymore. Even if we’ve already paid for it — sorry, we used that money to fund a gigantic tax cut for the rich, and wars.

It just makes me sad.

Raw Deal, the book of Americans who took it in the shorts, and a website with capsule bios of each of them. And you think you’ve got it tough.