Abuse Is Not Torture...and TAKE THAT POW!

Greetings, friends,
Whether it's in Iraq or Compton, where the hell did anyone get the idea that AMERICANS DON'T LIKE TO KICK ASS? I wanted to beat up a guy today for using "my place" in the bike rack at the subway station. Yesterday I followed a guy who honked at me into a bank parking lot and scared him back into his car. Either this city is getting to me, or AMERICANS LIKE TO KICK ASS! YAH!

Scroll halfway down for the GOOD NEWS!

Anyway, these lily-livered limp-wristed sorts assert that maybe we shouldn't be sikking dogs on naked prisoners...WHAT! (thanks, Ellen):
Call for Independent Investigations into Torture Allegations in Iraq
http://takeaction.amnestyusa.org/action/index.asp?step=2&item=10780
Recent allegations of torture and ill-treatment by Coalition Forces in Iraqi prisons echo the frequent reports received by Amnesty International during the past year. Urge President Bush to support a thorough, independent and public investigation to hold accountable all who have committed acts of torture, cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment, and also those who have contributed to a command culture that condones such abuses.

PS No slam against Amnesty International, but I had to quit that venerable org when, after one year, I calculated that my $35 dues were repaid in $38.48 worth of junk mail hitting me up for more money! Yikes!

THIS SCREED IS ALL ABOUT KICKING ASS! YAH! That's why I've enclosed a photo (thanks, Sergei) of a HUGE SHARK! Watch out, surfer dude! It's all about SURVIVAL OF THE FITTEST!

The only way to fight violence is with deep meditation and dogged persistence; this one is dedicated to my sister, Lawrence and the Weigels:
Hungarian Lawyer Wins 55-Year-Old Appeal
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/nm/20040622/od_nm/people_hungary_lawyer_dc

Lawyers fight back! Eeek!
Harvard Law Professors Urge Congress to Review Interrogation Policy and Hold Executive Branch Accountable
Harvard Law School News
http://www.truthout.org/docs_04/062004L.shtml

And Bruno and Nico will agree with me, that only the STRONG SURVIVE:
Raft full of illegal African migrants washes ashore on nudist beach in Spain
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/cpress/20040621/ca_pr_on_od/oddity_nudists_refugees

Do you DOUBT that AMERICANS like to KICK ASS? Look what they did to this sap, and he's a Goddamn AMERICAN:
Beating Specialist Baker
By Nicholas D. Kristof
The New York Times
The prison abuse scandal refuses to die because soothing White House explanations keep colliding with revelations about dead prisoners and further connivance by senior military officers - and newly discovered victims, like Sean Baker.
http://www.truthout.org/docs_04/060604I.shtml

HERE'S WHAT WE DO TO FOREIGNERS:
Calif. Guardsman Alleges Abuse in Iraq
The Associated Press
San Francisco - A California National Guardsman says three fellow soldiers brazenly abused detainees during interrogation sessions in an Iraqi police station, threatening them with guns, sticking lit cigarettes in their ears and choking them until they collapsed.
http://www.truthout.org/docs_04/061104B.shtml

And here's the full, sick story in detail:
Leaked Torture Memo: Full Text
t r u t h o u t Feature
http://www.truthout.org/docs_04/061104C.shtml

But everyone likes to KICK ASS, right? I mean, look what the French did to the Algerians, the Africans to each other, the Japanese to the Chinese, the Indonesians to sailors, the Chileans to leftists, the Spanish to Indians, the English and the Germans to fucking EVERYONE! But they were PROUD...Americans sometimes act dumber than a box of rocks. I mean, this guy claims that our BRAVE AMERICAN SOLDIERS only tortured those evil fucking Iraqis because they were under the influence of GAY PORNO! WHAT!
Frank Rich: Postcards from the culture wars
Frank Rich NYT
To blame every American transgression on the culture is to absolve Americans of any responsibility for anything.
http://www.iht.com/articles/522342.html

It's all about reward and response...
Czechs get loving time for reaching quarter-finals
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/nm/20040622/od_uk_nm/oukoe_soccer_euro_czech_partners

Americans LOVE to kick ass!
America's Abu Ghraibs
By Bob Herbert
New York Times
Most Americans were shocked by the sadistic treatment of Iraqi detainees at the Abu Ghraib prison. But we shouldn't have been. Not only are inmates at prisons in the U.S. frequently subjected to similarly grotesque treatment, but Congress passed a law in 1996 to ensure that in most cases they were barred from receiving any financial compensation for the abuse.
http://www.truthout.org/docs_04/060104E.shtml
AND:
'They Said This Is America. . .If a Soldier Orders You to Take Off Your Clothes, You Must Obey'
By Duncan Campbell and Suzanne Goldenberg
The Guardian
http://www.truthout.org/docs_04/062404D.shtml
AND:
Secret World of US Jails
By Jason Burke
The Observer U.K.
Jason Burke charts the worldwide hidden network of prisons where more than 3,000 al-Qaeda suspects have been held without trial - and many subjected to torture - since 9/11.
http://www.truthout.org/docs_04/061404C.shtml
AND:
Feels Like the Third Time
By Stephen Kinzer
The American Prospect
Newly unearthed, once-classified documents remind us that Abu Ghraib is hardly the first time that torture became policy.
http://www.truthout.org/docs_04/062004F.shtml

BUT HERE'S THE GOOD NEWS:
If you kick ass, you have to PAY THE PRICE, because the UN is starting to KICK ASS!
Many Oppose U.S. Peacekeeper Exemptions
By Edith M. Lederer
Associated Press
http://www.truthout.org/docs_04/052704E.shtml
AND:
Annan Against U.S. War Crimes Exemption
By Edith M. Lederer
The Associated Press
http://www.truthout.org/docs_04/061904E.shtml
AND:
US Struggles to Win Immunity for its Troops
By Mark Turner
Financial Times
Even as the US claimed victory with its United Nations resolution on Iraq this week, its officials were struggling with a potentially more divisive measure: to ensure immunity for American troops from the International Criminal Court.
http://www.truthout.org/docs_04/061304D.shtml

END RESULT: VICTORY FOR INTERNATIONAL JUSTICE AND SANITY! TOAST THE ICC, and remember the California motto, KEEP IT COOL!
U.S. Withdraws UN Measure on Immunity for Soldiers
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/nm/20040623/ts_nm/un_court_usa_dc
AND:
U.S. Drops Effort to Gain Immunity for Its Troops
By Warren Hoge
New York Times
United Nations - The United States bowed to broad opposition on the Security Council today and announced that it was dropping its effort to gain immunity for its troops from prosecution by the International Criminal Court.
http://www.truthout.org/docs_04/0624041.shtml

Besides, we'll take care of the UN later, in private!
U.S. Is Accused of Trying to Isolate U.N. Population Unit
By Christopher Marquis
New York Times
Washington - The Bush administration, which cut off its share of financing two years ago to the United Nations agency handling population control, is seeking to isolate the agency from groups that work with it in China and elsewhere, United Nations officials and diplomats say.
http://www.truthout.org/docs_04/062204G.shtml

But remember, when you fly to America, we STILL get to kick your ass:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/usa/story/0,12271,1231089,00.html
Welcome to America
When writer Elena Lappin flew to LA, she dreamed of a sunkissed, laid-back city. But that was before airport officials decided to detain her as a threat to security ...
Elena Lappin
Saturday June 05 2004
The Guardian
Somewhere in central Los Angeles, about 20 miles from LAX airport, there is a nondescript building housing a detention facility for foreigners who have violated US immigration and customs laws. I was driven there around 11pm on May 3, my hands painfully handcuffed behind my back as I sat crammed in one of several small, locked cages inside a security van. I saw glimpses of night-time urban LA through the metal bars as we drove, and shadowy figures of armed security officers when we arrived, two of whom took me inside. The handcuffs came off just before I was locked in a cell behind a thick glass wall and a heavy door. No bed, no chair, only two steel benches about a foot wide. There was a toilet in full view of anyone passing by, and of the video camera watching my every move. No pillow or blanket. A permanent fluorescent light and a television in one corner of the ceiling. It stayed on all night, tuned into a shopping channel.

If you're an American citizen, we can KICK YOUR ASS anytime we like:
Intelligence: The Pentagon-Spying in America?
By Michael Isikoff
Newsweek
http://www.truthout.org/docs_04/061904C.shtml

Even well-known political pundits like Madonna (er, I mean, Esther) are speaking out!
** Madonna compares Bush to Saddam **
Madonna says George Bush and Saddam Hussein are "alike" in a US television interview.
< http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/em/fr/-/2/hi/entertainment/3819507.stm >

And, thank God for America, little Miss Madonna, because everyone wants to kick ass right alongside us! Go, Euro league football! And this former Python agrees (thanks, Ellen and Miles):
>This won't hurt much
>Terry Jones
> The Guardian
>For some time now, I've been trying to find out where my son goes after
>choir practice. He simply refuses to tell me. He says it's no business
>of mine where he goes after choir practice and it's a free country.
>
>Now it may be a free country, but if people start going just anywhere
>they like after choir practice, goodness knows whether we'll have a
>country left to be free. I mean, he might be going to anarchist meetings
>or Islamic study groups. How do I know?
>
>The thing is, if people don't say where they're going after choir
>practice, this country is at risk. So I have been applying a certain
>amount of pressure on my son to tell me where he's going. To begin with
>I simply put a bag over his head and chained him to a radiator. But did
>that persuade him? Does the Pope eat kosher?
http://www.commondreams.org/views04/0616-06.htm

PS You might as well enjoy all the good news:
http://www.terry-jones.net/

AND WAIT! I'm not done! THEY'RE KICKING BUTT EVERYWHERE! In Europe, so sez Amnesty International:
http://www.euobserver.com/?sid=9&aid=16306

And even (gulp) in CANADA! My God, have you ever seen a HOCKEY MATCH? If they put their mind to it...the Canadians could literally beat the shit out of EVERYONE! Forget these beheading barbarians; the real peril is the Great White North:
The following is a news item posted on CBC NEWS ONLINE
at http://www.cbc.ca/news
AMNESTY SLAMS 'BLIND PURSUIT' OF SECURITY
WebPosted Wed May 26 15:12:02 2004
London---Canada is one of the countries sacrificing human rights in the
name of stepped-up national security, Amnesty International said in its
annual report Wednesday.
The human rights group said the "blind pursuit of security" that began
after Sept. 11, 2001 has produced the most sustained attack on human
rights in half a century.
Several governments have introduced "regressive" anti-terrorist
legislation, including Spain, France and Uzbekistan, the report said.
FROM OCT. 31, 2003: Protesters denounce security arrests
Amnesty singled out Canada for holding at least five men alleged to pose
a risk to national security. They were detained on "security
certificates" that allow them to be held without charge and denied full
access to the evidence against them.
Amnesty also mentioned the case of Maher Arar, a Canadian citizen of
Syrian origin who was deported from the U.S. to Syria in 2002.
The U.S. said he was arrested on suspicion of having terrorist links.
Arar was held for a year without being charged and says he was tortured
while in custody in Syria.
A public inquiry into the case is set to begin in Ottawa next month.
Amnesty saved its harshest criticism for the U.S., citing the hundreds of
detainees from about 40 countries who are being held without charge by
U.S. forces in Iraq, Cuba and Afghanistan.
Copyright (C) 2004 CBC. All rights reserved.

But don't worry, because the Canadians have a SECRET WEAPON that NONE OF US WILL BE ABLE TO RESIST! HA HA HA!
Pot-smoking dominatrix joins Canadian election race
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/nm/20040623/od_uk_nm/oukoe_canada_politics_dominatrix

Vive le Screed...OR ELSE!