Death Logo?

I had an erie feeling about this year's olympic logo from the first time I saw it. I couldn't put my finger on why, but it just bothered me. I was strangly relieved when NPR's Thursday edition of All Things Considered confirmed that all was not right with the inukshuk logo:

Vancouver Olympic Logo: A Smiling Marker Of Death?

The flag of the nation of Nunavut features a traditional inukshuk, says expert Peter Irniq. In contrast, the inukshuk in the Vancouver Olympic logo has arms, legs and a head — a different kind of marker that is traditionally a sign that someone has been killed.

Gingerbread City - Yemen

I heard an interview with this photographer on NPR this evening and just had to check out the photos:



I was horrified last Sunday evening when I turned on CNN and heard quite a few clips of politicians and other big wigs talking about going to war with Yemen seemingly in reaction to the attempted Christmas bombing. I am grateful to get a different view of Yemen!

Morning of Interest

Three interesting things this morning:

1st I listened to most of Diane Rehm's News Roundup - Hour 2 while on the school drop-of rounds:

Special Envoy George Mitchell seeks to shore up the fragile cease-fire in Gaza. Iraqis begin voting in provincial elections and the Obama administration says it’s ready for direct engagement with Iran. A panel of journalists joins Diane for analysis of the week's top international news stories.

Guests

Hisham Melhem, Washington bureau chief for Al-Arabiya TV, and Washington correspondent for "An-Nahar"

Daniel Dombey, U.S. diplomatic correspondent, "Financial Times"

Kevin Whitelaw, deputy assistant managing editor, U.S. News and World Report

It was a wonderful discussion, and every single caller was asking about the situation between Israel and Gaza. I love Diane's style of interviewing. She lets everyone say their piece and hold their different opinions, she doesn't shy from the deep questions and she seems to always know when people are skirting the issue.

2nd My Dad emailed me this:

Elizabeth Cheney, Bush Legal Counsel

What a 1988 college thesis by the former vice president's daughter tells us about the Bush presidency.

I found this paragraph extremely interesting:

For [Elizabeth] Cheney, Thomas Jefferson established the path presidents would and should take when dealing with Congress. In engaging American warships against Barbary pirates, Jefferson "chose to inform Congress of his actions at his own convenience." When he did, he fabricated an attack on an American ship to secure their support.

It sounds so much like the 911 Truther's claim that the 911 attacks were used to secure support for the invasion of Iraq.

3rd I watched the amazingly creative and beautiful music video also emailed to me, perhaps because they know I am trying to fight my urge to sleep in:

James Dobson - Prophet?

The Matthew 25 website sent out a request to respond to the letter put out by the Focus on the Family Action website. Honestly, I don't know whether to laugh or cry.

This letter, from an imaginary Christian in 2012, is so insanely biased and fear based, that anyone who takes it seriously would certainly not be voting for Obama to begin with.

On the other hand, I can see how many Christians could have their eyes opened to the spirit of fear spread by James Dobson. Perhaps this would give them a reason to look more closely at what Obama has actually said? Or perhaps that is just wishful thinking.

I listened to Focus on the Family's radio program when I was a young mother, but completely quit when I heard him laughing about the surprised look in a boy's eye when his shoulder was pinched in Dobson's recommended surprise discipline method. I know how much it hurts...I've had it used on me a couple of times. I understand that discipline is important, but laughing at a child's pain passes the line of acceptability in my book.

The following quote is not exactly the one I heard on the radio in 1996, but it describes the same act:

Dobson obviously enjoys the power that goes with authority, and, as we have seen, a bit of sadism is evident in his depictions of experiments on animals. We catch of whiff of it too, in relation to punishing kids, especially when they are teen-agers. His anatomically detailed instructions on how to squeeze a particular muscle in a toddler’s shoulder to administer a bolt of pain is inexplicably decked out with a gratuitous anecdote about how he himself (with his “rather large hands”) used the technique on some rowdy adolescents—this story reads like a soft core Death Wish script.

Perhaps because I am familiar with his "love of dicipline" I am particularly drawn to the passage in his 2012 letter that describes the horrors of liberals delving out punishment of their own: "The Justice Department soon began to file civil and criminal charges against nearly every Bush administration official who had any involvement in the Iraq war."

This is a bad thing? If evil was done in the dark, and hidden in secret papers, Dobson who proclaimes to work for a just and loving God, would surely rejoice when justice brought the wrongdoers to light! And why else would the Bush administration sign an "executive order that [has] prevented presidential papers from being released," unless they had something to hide?

I for one, hope that in this one instance, James Dobson's word is prophetic.

Woe to those who go to great depths
to hide their plans from the LORD,
who do their work in darkness and think,
"Who sees us? Who will know?"
Isaiah 29:15

Memorial Day Secrets

I ran to Safeway to get a last minute ingredient for our family get-together and the radio automatically turned on to NWPR. It was the introduction to the weekend's THBOOK:

SECRECY POST 9/11 Program 08-05-25-A Listen!

"Shhh… I have a secret… Now, I could tell you but then I’d have to kill you."
Classic spy joke – but not so funny when it’s true. In this hour of To The Best
of Our Knowledge, we’ll go the dark side of secrecy - warrantless wiretapping,
secret CIA prisons, “extraordinary rendition,” waterboarding. All wrapped in a
classified Pentagon Black Ops budget worth some 30 billion dollars. Join us for
the pros and cons of secrecy after 9/11.

After purchasing two jars of canola oil mayonaise for $5 I headed back to the car for the 5 min drive back to Grandma's. I was just in time to hear the story of the detainee and what a sad story it was. I had to turn off the radio after it got too intense for a party day - I didn't want to come in with all the horror in my mind, but it is a story that should be known. These things should not be left in the dark corners of our country's history

SEGMENT 1: Douglas Feith served as the Under Secretary of Defense for Policy
under Donald Rumsfeld and was one of the architects of the Bush administration's
war on terrorism. He talks with Steve Paulson about decision making in the
aftermath of 9/11. His book is "War and Decision: Inside the Pentagon at the
Dawn of the War on Terrorism." Also, Alex Gibney is the director of the Academy
Award winning documentary "Taxi to the Dark Side." He tells Anne Strainchamps
about one detainee at a US Air Force Base in Afghanistan. And we hear clips from
the film.

The words of Matthew 10:26 seem appropriate here:

"So do not be afraid of them. There is nothing concealed that will not be disclosed, or hidden that will not be made known. "

Driveway Moment

Wednesday I caught the second half of Fresh Air on NPR. Usually Terry Gross interviews musicians, actors, and such, but the authors that day really caught my attention. I just caught the very end of the interview with Scott Shane, and then heard most of the second half with Tera McKelvey. Absolutely, fascinating and horrible. I sat in the driveway for the last 10 minutes not wanting to miss the end, but there was no way I could turn it on inside where my kids could hear.

Fresh Air from WHYY
to Wednesday's
show · June 6, 2007

Interviews: Scott Shane
on U.S. Interrogation Techniques
Journalist Scott Shane writes for The New York Times about terrorism and the CIA's interrogation techniques. His article "Soviet-Style 'Torture' Becomes 'Interrogation'" describes how the United States has adopted interrogation techniques that it decried when they were used by the Soviet Union.

Interviews: McKelvey
Talks of Terror and Torture
Author Tara McKelvey interviewed former
prisoners from Abu Ghraib for her book Monstering: Inside America's Policy of Secret Interrogations and Torture in the Terror War McKelvey is senior editor at The American Prospect and a research fellow at the NYU School of Law's Center on Law and Security.

I Dreamt I was a Ghost

Last night I dreamt I was a ghost. It felt so real that when I woke up it took a minute to realize which was the dream and which was reality. I don't believe in ghosts, so I called up my husband (out of town on business) and he immediately started singing El Fantasma de Canterville by Sui Generis with Charly García (The ghost of Canterville - a classic of Argentine Rock):
Pero siempre fui un tonto But I alway was an idiot

que creyo en la legalidad That believed in the law

Ahora que estoy afuera Now that I'm outside

ya se lo que es la libertad. I know what liberty is.

I realized this described how I have been feeling; perhaps it is what my subconscious was trying to tell me. But, let me back up. Saturday, I switched on the radio in the late afternoon looking for some music to fill the empty house. Instead the voice of Joe Margulies of the University of Chicago jumped out at me:

"… his client, a middle-aged gentleman with five children who is a London businessman, was picked up in the Gambia, and he wasn’t getting any mail from his family. And he couldn’t understand it because he felt abandoned and alone from his five children. And the lawyer had the presence of mind to ask what was the matter was and he discovered that 16 letters were in the military’s possession (that) they had refused to deliver. And when they did finally deliver them, someone had actually taken the time to redact out the words from the children: “We miss you, Daddy. We love you, Daddy. We’re thinking of you.” That is apparently not right, because it disrupts the sense of isolation and despair that they are trying to cultivate."

What? Who would do such a thing? Forget music, I was hooked. I had no idea, though, what a profound effect this program would have on me. It turns out that it is our own government, "by the people, for the people" which has decided that:

"the global war on terror… is a different kind of war, with different rules. The battlefield isn’t a jungle in Asia, or a beach in France. It’s everywhere.Soldiers aren’t guys in uniform, they could be anybody. And prisoners of war are different, too. So dangerous, we’re told, that we keep them in an offshore facility, in as close to total secrecy as possible, to interrogate whenever we want, however long we want, using methods we have never approved for other wars."

Interviewer Ira Glass spoke on during this weekend's airing of This American Life entitled "Habeas Schmabeas". I highly recommend everyone, except kids, listen to this program. (It is temporarily free to download the transcript or mp3.) If you already heard it you know that it was an incredibly emotional telling of the situation at Guantanamo. Unfortunately, it is all too easy to believe that this treatment is reserved only for the most dangerous, most guilty criminals, but that is, sadly, not true. The fact is that many imprisioned at Guantanamo have already been proven innocent, but have yet to be released. Scarier still, are the signs pointing to American citizens facing the possibility of ending up in similar situations.

Dominoes
Originally uploaded by gehmflor.

Let's look briefly at each of these dominoes I see looming down on the "American Dream." First is the Patriot act. Read the following excerpt from the

STATEMENT OF ATTORNEY GENERAL ALBERTO GONZALES ON THE PASSAGE OF THE USA PATRIOT ACT March 2, 2006

“Since the terrible attacks of September 11, 2001, the Department of Justice’s highest priority has been to protect Americans by preventing acts of terrorism. I applaud Congress for reauthorizing each and every expiring provision of the USA PATRIOT Act ...The reauthorization bill makes permanent vital provisions -- including those that helped dismantle the ‘wall’ between intelligence and law enforcement -- and also adds dozens of civil liberties safeguards. "

Among other things the Patriot act, "Enhanced a number of conspiracy penalties, including for arson, killings in federal facilities, attacking communications systems, material support to terrorists, sabotage of nuclear facilities, and interference with flight crew members. Under previous law, many terrorism statutes did not specifically prohibit engaging in conspiracies to commit the underlying offenses. In such cases, the government could only bring prosecutions under the general federal conspiracy provision, which carries a maximum penalty of only five years in prison."

Okay, so now we can punish people for thinking about and planning, not actually doing, bad things…Okay, you say, but they are thinking about BAD things! Now look at this definition from the Military Commissions Act:

WRONGFULLY AIDING THE ENEMY.—Any person subject to this chapter who, in breach of an allegiance or duty to the United States, knowingly and intentionally aids an enemy of the United States, or one of the co-belligerents of the enemy, shall be punished as a military commission under this chapter may direct.

I'm not a lawyer - but it raises questions about the claim the Military Commissions Act only effects foreigners. As far as I know only citizens have an allegiance or duty to the United States. To read more reactions to this Act, check out the well written pieces by Rachel Haimowitz - Move Along Lady Liberty and also Turning bad policy into bad law - by Amnesty International

So what about the final domino? An article in the local Tri City Harald says:

" Congress needs to roll back a "hastily conceived and ill-advised" provision in last year's defense bill that gave President Bush expanded authority to federalize the National Guard, Washington state's top military official testified Tuesday…. it gives the president sweeping power to take control of the Guard in a domestic situation without approval of a governor."

I am not alone in my worries. It goes on to quote:"As with so much else this administration has done, this is a raw expansion of presidential power," Leahy said in his opening statement. The power of the President is a responsibility I would not want, and I know many sincere people voted for our current president specifically because of his proclaimed trust in God. They believed he would seek God's help in wielding this power. As a Christian myself this "sounds" good, but history has shown the outcome is not usually what one would hope.

Let's go back to what my conscience (and apparently sub-conscience) has been wrestling with. The program about Guantanamo, although fascinating from the start, did not immediately surprise me. It was only after I heard " We tried out many of our new interrogation techniques on Jumah Al Dossari." That I stopped behind my living room couch, grabbing the back like a ballerina at a bar to steady my self. I won't quote the rest of the paragraph here, but when it reached the end...

"we smeared this blood [not his] on his face. We kissed the cross around our neck and said “This is a gift from Christ for you Muslims.”

I lost my grip on the couch and collapsed on the floor. This is being done in the name of Christ? "No, no, no!" I sobbed! This is not the government, nor the religion I want to be associated with! So, what can I do in response? Stay with the statis quo for fear of the consequenses? Move away? Take action? I choose to act! This is why I called my friends and family, this is why I write! And what does our elected government choose to do in response to the problem of Guantanamo?

Guantanamo lawyers predict more suicides...if the U.S. Justice Department succeeds in severely restricting access to detainees by defense attorneys, virtually the only contact inmates have with the outside world. "If we cannot come in, the only news getting out of here will be the government's carefully crafted version," Katznelson[one of the attorneys] said in an e-mail Saturday.

Will you join me in taking action? A bipartisan effort to rescind the provision in last years Defense Bill has been launched by Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, and Sen. Christopher Bond, R-Mo. Let's write our representatives and let them know we support this effort! That would at least be a place to start. Remember, it doesn't matter who is in office. If these laws stand, anyone in power could knock over the first domino! And then I'm afraid my sister's words would ring truer still. "It sounds like the Spanish Inquisition!"

--------------------------------------------------

Look up your representatives at: http://capwiz.com/narla/megavote//
then use the links to send e-mails, better yet send some postcards (maybe with some original art?), or call.

Or you can always call the Capitol switchboard at 202/224-3121 and ask to be connected to your member of Congress.

I also found The ACLU's plan of action which included a letter to congress (that you can sign) asking them to:

1. Restore habeas corpus and due process.
2. Pass the Restoring the Constitution Act of 2007.
3. End torture and abuse in secret prisons.

Close Guantanamo
Bystaygraphic.

4. Stop extraordinary rendition: secretly kidnapping people and sending them to
countries that torture.
5. Close the detention center at Guantánamo Bay and
give those held there access to justice.
6. Investigate wrongdoing and
ensure those who broke the law are held accountable.
7. Restore American
values and the rule of law.

So, take your pick, take action, tell your friends!

Don't sit around like an invisible ghost.