1. “‘Raising questions about 9/11 gets an Army sergeant demoted for ‘disloyalty’
Since joining the Army in 1987, he had risen to the rank of sergeant first class, serving in both Gulf Wars, Bosnia, Rwanda, and Korea. He ended up with shrapnel scars and a Purple Heart and, back in the U.S. after his last tour in Iraq, a job as intelligence analyst at Fort Sam Houston.”
http://websterretort.blogspot.com/2009/09/friendly-fire-ballad-of-donald-buswell.html
2. “An Evening With Cindy Sheehan
“If we thought [the wars in] Iraq, Afghanistan, and Pakistan were wrong when Bush was president, then they’re still wrong.”
…
With her lead-off line, she made the exact right point and set the right tone. She could have soft-pedaled her views, knowing that there were probably some Obama partisans in the room, but she didn’t. Nor did she pull her antiwar punches throughout the speech. She stated, “Obama was inaugurated on a Tuesday. On Friday, he bombed with drones in the Swat Valley. Three days in office and he’s a war criminal.”
Ms. Sheehan also criticized people who supported Obama’s candidacy while knowing that he had pledged to escalate the war in Afghanistan. Some of those people have now expressed disappointment with Obama over this escalation. Sheehan said, “He’s doing what you knew he was going to do.”
…
Ms. Sheehan noted that many of erstwhile antiwar supporters of Obama have said to her, “Give him time, Cindy.” Her answer: “The more time we give him, the more people die.” People who are that patient, she said, have “Obama hope-nosis.”
http://original.antiwar.com/henderson/2009/09/06/an-evening-with-cindy-sheehan/
3. “US Hypocrisy Astonishes the World
The attitude of the “freedom and democracy” U.S. government is that anyone who complains of illegality or immorality or inhumanity is a traitor. The Republican Sen. Christopher S. Bond is a recent example. Bond got on his high horse about “irreparable damage” to the CIA from the disclosures of its criminal activities. Bond wants those “back stabbers” who revealed the CIA’s wrongdoings to be held accountable. Bond is unable to grasp that it is the criminal activities, not their disclosure, that is the source of the problem. Obviously, the Whistleblower Protection Act has no support from Sen. Bond, who sees it as just another law to plough under.
This is where the U.S. government stands today: Ignoring and covering up government crimes is the patriotic thing to do. To reveal the government’s crimes is an act of treason. Many Americans on both sides of the aisle agree.
Yet, they still think that they are The Virtuous Nation, the exceptional nation, the salt of the earth.”
http://original.antiwar.com/roberts/2009/09/06/us-hypocrisy-astonishes/
4. “Meet the Press’s idea of a “debate”
I just want to add to one point Hamsher made. Alter’s Newsweek column this week argues that Dick Cheney is worse than many of the most notorious torture-reliant tyrants because, unlike them, “Cheney creates a moral argument for torture.” That’s a fair enough point — I agree with it — but Alter neglects to mention that Cheney had company in “creating a moral argument for torture” — namely, “liberal” Jon Alter, who wrote a November, 2001 column in Newsweek entitled “Time to Think About Torture,” in which Alter argued we must do exactly that in order to defeat Al Qaeda. Notably, in this week’s column, Alter argues that we must not prosecute anyone for torture, including Cheney. As I noted the other day, behind virtually every Broderian establishment pundit opposing torture prosecutions is a shameful record of supporting or otherwise enabling Bush radicalism and lawlessness, including torture.
But that’s our mainstream spectrum: ”liberals” such as Alter are allowed on TV as long as they spend much of their time mocking the foolish, unhinged Left; opposing torture prosecutions; supporting warrantless eavesdropping and telecom immunity as a “restoration of the Constitution” (while mocking the Left for “pulling their hair out over this”); and endorsing things like the torture regime itself. I don’t blame Alter for being upset when such things are pointed out, but they’re not “ad hominem” observations — just facts.”
http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/
