Bush's War Crimes - Obama' s Healthcare

It's easy to kick somebody when they're down. George W. Bush has dealt with more difficult issues than any president since Franklin Roosevelt. And I've told my colleagues it's time that we go stand up for the president.-- John Boehner

Bush continues to not only be unapologetic regarding the use of torture during his terms of office, but vocally proud of his actions . He continues to insist that these methods "saved lives" by "exposing missions" when no one else agrees with that estimate and the small amount of information, which did prove to be accurate, could have been found by other means of investigation.

Dick Cheney in an interview at CNN with Candy Crowley (and I hope the last one I have to watch because he is becoming more pitiful than Nixon ever was) is so out of touch with the atrocity of torturing captives, he feels deeply hurt by Obama's suggestion that it was out of line with our Nation's values, and wants an apology from Obama for promoting that statement.

Among the techniques used, which are prohibited by the field manual are:

• hooding prisoners or putting duct tape across their eyes.

• stripping prisoners naked.

• forcing prisoners to perform or mimic sexual acts.

• beating, burning or physically hurting them in other ways.

• subjecting prisoners to hypothermia or mock executions.

In the interview Cheney is sitting next to his daughter, telling us that not only was torture and rape and putting captives through fake executions perfectly acceptable, but offended that anyone like Obama would say they are not.

Not only did Obama say this, on his second day in office he gave Executive order to the CIA to stop, immediately, all use of torture or rape and any euphemisms they might have for torture and rape.

There are many congressman in office right now who were in office with Bush and Cheney. The Speaker of the House, John Boehner for example, was there through the full terms. John McCain was also there, and when Bush vetoed the law that would prohibit the use of any type of torture, John McCain supported him.

Personally I'm of the opinion that while there are likely some people who get into politics for unethical reasons, I harbor the belief that most people who make it as far as these two men, actually believe in the United States as a country of values, and worthy of respect.

And then March 08, 2008 comes and Bush gets on national radio and drops a bomb on you, which despite what he said before, you really didn't believe was going to happen.

"The bill Congress sent me would take away one of the most valuable tools in the war on terror," Bush said in his weekly radio address taped for broadcast Saturday. "So today I vetoed it," Bush said. The bill provides guidelines for intelligence activities for the year and includes the interrogation requirement. It passed the House in December and the Senate last month. 

"This is no time for Congress to abandon practices that have a proven track record of keeping America safe," the president said.

What a crumbling effect that had to have on men like McCain and Boehner. To be face to face with exactly the world leader you have felt your whole life -- even fought and endured tortures because of those beliefs -- needed to be deposed and brought to justice. Face to face with this person, not as enemy, but as willing benefactor.

The reality of the man we had in the office of President hit the nation hard as well. Bush's approval rating dropped to 25% and did little to rise again afterward. No matter what spin the White House put on the media, we saw the true face, and weren't going for the rhetoric any longer.

Obama's swift actions, direct condemnations and absolute vision of what was and was not acceptable for any reason, under any circumstance, would only drive the sins deeper into the heart, I would venture. And then... a Nobel Peace Prize for doing it.

War Crimes of Bush Not Evaluated-- Cheney Wants Apology

The executive summary of the report condenses the narratives of 20 detainee cases.In one instance, McClatchy learned, the Bush administration claimed that the waterboarding of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the 9/11 mastermind, led to the foiling of a terror plot against Los Angeles’ Library Tower. The study, however, concludes that that information could have been learned without using the harsh interrogation techniques on Mohammad, who was waterboarded 183 times.

The scope of the committee’s work was hamstrung by concerns that the investigation would be an open-ended political witch hunt. “This issue has unfortunately become so politicized that this report might have been attacked as a political document if it had” delved into the White House, said Goitein. “That’s not the ideal outcome, but it’s an understandable calculus in my mind.”

As Mclatchy's Jonathan S. Landay, Ali Watkins and Marisa Taylor report:

The narrow parameters of the inquiry apparently were structured to secure the support of the committee’s minority Republicans. But the Republicans withdrew only months into the inquiry, and several experts said that the parameters were sufficiently flexible to have allowed an examination of the roles Bush, Cheney and other top administration officials played in a top-secret program that could only have been ordered by the president.

Motorcycle Clubs from Several Countries Engage ISIS

A splinter group of the Mongols MC in Germany named the Median Empire MC, have left Germany heading for Turkey to do battle with ISIS. Groups from the Netherlands and Austria have joined them. The Median Empire has roots with the Kurds and they are meeting up with Kurd warriors, with an unshakable drive to push ISIS back and bring them down. It is rumored that several other clubs from different countries are also throwing in with the Median Empire MC soon.

Safe Wind!

Basically News isn't News Anymore

Wish they would have done the Daily Show

I think most of us, who do research on the Internet and look for hints and trails in the news sources for leads into deeper areas to mine with research, understand that there is a lot of nonsense out there on the web. For example, anything coming out of the mouths of the latest Americans for Prosperity blurb, or Breitbart.com or CounterPunch.com needs to be read as 'fiction' with perhaps a smidgen of truth. Seriously, I've even caught Breitbart.com blatantly lying about quotes people have said (those people shocked to discover Breitbart proclaimed they talked to them at all.)

Word of the Day - Verisimilitude

ver·i·si·mil·i·tude

ˌverəsəˈmiliˌt(y)o͞od/

nounthe appearance of being true or real.
"the detail gives the novel some verisimilitude"

synonyms:

realism, believability, plausibility,authenticity, credibility, lifelikeness "the verisimilitude of her performance is gripping"

Green Dot? In my Back Yard?

Greendot charter schools

• 14 of 15 Green Dot schools are “failing,” by Parent Revolution’s definition
  
• Another charter school scam?… ‘Parent Revolution’ charged with misleading parents about signatures on ‘close this school’ petition
• Ben Austin: The Six Figure Salary Man – Green Dot
• Can Ben Austin Speak for Parent Revolution without Speaking for Green Dot?
• Cheating on state tests found at two Los Angeles schools
• Connections between Eli Broad, the Parent Union (aka Parent Revolution, the creators of the “Parent Trigger”), and Green Dot
• Green Dot revolution targets school that outperforms current Green Dotters
• Green Dot to close Justice Charter High School
• Parent Empowerment or Parent Manipulation?
• Perfidious Petruzzi calls for accurate evaluations of Green Dot Charter Corporation?
• Political Patronage for Green Dot Public Schools’ Chief Propagandist
• Political Patronage for Green Dot Public Schools’ Chief Propagandist
• Powerful “Parent” Trigger operators target vulnerable school; attack misfires
• Say you want a revolution?: Parents Revolution, ‘Astro turf’ organizations and the privatization of public schools

swooped off of Seattle Education

SEATTLE (AP) - Washington's statewide charter schools commission appears poised to
approve two more proposals for charter schools to open in the state in 2015.

According to an analysis by a team of independent evaluators, two of the four proposals for new schools appear to meet the state's standards for approval.

The schools expected to be approved are a Green Dot middle and high school in Seattle and an elementary school in Sunnyside in Central Washington.

K5 News

#FactsNotFox #Seattle #GreenDot #Stub #Incomplete #Research

Not just an Issue - The Issue - Jeffco Kids Inspire

It is kids.

High school mainly. They just wanted their AP US History Class, so they could get college credits, and prepare for college level learning. The curriculums were already decided. The State Board of Education already approved of the AP US History course.

Kids are connected. They are on the Tweeter all the time, sending messages and keeping in touch with people that have moved away. Some out of state, some just to Douglas County. But they keep in touch like they still live next door.

And they hear things. They hear about Texas dropping the whole curriculum state wide and bringing God into the class room. That Moses is the designer and inspiration of the Constitution of the United States. And that George Washington said that this nation was founded and held free by Christians (when he never said that, anywhere). They pick up the falseness.

Closer to home, Douglas county School Board breaks the teacher's union. Begins having closed meetings against the Sunshine law. Things in the schools are getting weird down in Douglas. Weird like the notices for the AP US History classes have been taken down. A new bulletin is up. The bulletin says that the Colorado Christian University is offering College Prep Classes now. That they will be taught at the high school for $200 a credit. That the kids will earn Credits as CCR not AP.

They ask, "Is CCR accepted anywhere else?" and get no answers.

Messages on Facebook, and flashes on the Twitter are getting weird. On her Facebook page Julie Williams, one of the board members is talking about Texas. Says that it was a good thing. Like it is something she admires.

Then, in September, Julie Williams stops the meeting to say that she has concerns about the AP US History course.That it is too Left. That it doesn't project the right message for the kids. She hasn't read it. She doesn't know anything about it. She's never even seen it -- which she will admit the next day to CBS news cameras -- but she has concerns.

The kids know that this is how it starts. This is how it started in Texas. This is what happened in Douglas. It started exactly like this, and no one said anything. No one continues to say anything.

The kids stand up.

They say, "No."

The kids didn't mean to shout it, so that I heard it while I was passing. They didn't know that The American Historical Association (AHA) and the Organization of American Historians (OAH) would hear them all the way in Washington D.C. and send their support. Other people begin to send their support as well. Congressmen, Senators, Governors. Actors.  The kid's voices get Re-Tweeted 

Wonkette: “Colorado Students Ditch Class, Refuse To Love America” 

TPM: “Students Use Civil Disobedience To Protest Removing It From History Curriculum” 

New York Times: “In Colorado, a Student Counter-protest to an Anti-Protest Curriculum”

And all that is well and good, a little heady and a little scary, but then their parents hear them, and tell them they have their support as well... and that's when anyone paying attention knows that the School Board is going down. It's all over the Tweets. It's in their eyes when they are protesting next to their mother, or their father.

The GOP candidates for the coming election say that the teachers are putting them up to it.

Julie Williams and Ken Witt on the District School Board say the kids are just pawns, being played by the teacher' s union. That these kids don't know what they are doing or why.

This angers the kids. And at the Board meeting, they want an apology. They don't get one. They want the board to stop messing with their college readiness courses, and they produce a petition with 40,000+ names. The Board says no, but calls it a compromise. But it isn't a compromise. They are going to do the exact same thing they were going to do before. The Board isn't listening. There are hundreds of parents and teachers and students there, and the Board isn't listening.

The Kids give Julie Williams, Ken Witt and John Newkirk a unanimous vote of no confidence.

The only job the Board really has, the kids reason, is to create and maintain a safe environment where they can get the most out of their school years. For the last year, they only had one job. The kids decide, "Epic Fail".

Now even more people are hearing them. 

It is cool that you are hearing them. And if it brings home to you and makes what is happening in Congress real to you, then that is cool too. But if you want to help, sign the Recall petition. Take back their school. Get the away from the agenda of a few, who listen to no one. They can't vote. They need you.

Stand up.