Tag Archives: Vietnam

2008 U.S. Bailout Compared To Other Large U.S. Programs

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08bailoutgraph 2008 U.S. Bailout Compared To Other Large U.S. Programs Whether or not you think the Economic Bailout that the U.S. Government is implementing is worth it or not, this image should make you stop and think.  This problem is ENORMOUS and expensive, and most people have no idea just how much the recovery is going to take.  We've had massive government debt before, but this is taking us to a whole new level.
Marshall Plan: Cost: $12.7 billion, Inflation Adjusted Cost: $115.3 billion Louisiana Purchase: Cost: $15 million, Inflation Adjusted Cost: $217 billion Race to the Moon: Cost: $36.4 billion, Inflation Adjusted Cost: $237 billion S&L Crisis: Cost: $153 billion, Inflation Adjusted Cost: $256 billion Korean War: Cost: $54 billion, Inflation Adjusted Cost: $454 billion The New Deal: Cost: $32 billion (Est), Inflation Adjusted Cost: $500 billion (Est) Invasion of Iraq: Cost: $551b, Inflation Adjusted Cost: $597 billion Vietnam War: Cost: $111 billion, Inflation Adjusted Cost: $698 billion NASA: Cost: $416.7 billion, Inflation Adjusted Cost: $851.2 billion TOTAL: $3,920,000,000,000 2008 BAILOUT TOTAL AS OF NOV 2008: $4,616,000,000,000
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Not Tortured

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In all the discussion of John McCain's recently recovered memory of a religious epiphany in Vietnam, one thing has been missing. The torture that was deployed against McCain emerges in all the various accounts. It involved sleep deprivation, the withholding of medical treatment, stress positions, long-time standing, and beating. Sound familiar? According to the Bush administration's definition of torture, McCain was therefore not tortured. Cheney denies that McCain was tortured; as does Bush. So do John Yoo and David Addington and George Tenet. In the one indisputably authentic version of the story of a Vietnamese guard showing compassion, McCain talks of the agony of long-time standing. A quarter century later, Don Rumsfeld was putting his signature to memos lengthening the agony of "long-time standing" that victims of Bush's torture regime would have to endure. These torture techniques are, according to the president of the United States, merely "enhanced interrogation." No war crimes were committed against McCain. And the techniques used are, according to the president, tools to extract accurate information. And so the false confessions that McCain was forced to make were, according to the logic of the Bush administration, as accurate as the "intelligence" we have procured from "interrogating" terror suspects. Feel safer? The Daily Dish

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Do Still Pictures or Video Stick With You More

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In the modern world video has taken over.  YouTube, Television, camera phones, etc have taken over our visual news and experiences.   They allow people to experience things that are happening or have happened.  They brought to the American people troops, experiences, stories, and horror in Iraq.  They stir emotions and bring calls of action.  This week, many have seen what has happened  with the Olympic Torch relay protests. Still photos only capture a moment in time.  By freezing that moment, you can look and absorb the instant.  Even with videos from previous wars, photos capture something that video seems to miss.  Even with video of the same period, photos from Vietnam and WWII are still in people's consciousness.  News casts on television also use still images from stories they're covering.  By seeing a still picture, the image stays with people. Which format makes a bigger impact?  Which holds the bigger emotional impact?  Which stays with people more?

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Questioning Mukasey Isn't Fair?

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Bush:  "I believe that the questions he's been asked are unfair; he's not been read into a program -- he has been asked to give opinions of a program or techniques of a program on which he has not been briefed."
Isn't that the point of the hearings?  To ask him questions?  Learn his views?  See if the rest of the country wants him as Attorney General?
"Q Judge Mukasey is experienced in terrorism trials, he's been around. Why is it wrong for him -- or why will you not let him say whether he thinks that waterboarding is illegal torture? THE PRESIDENT: He has not been read in -- first of all, let me put this in perspective. The Congress did pass a law, the Detainee Detention Act [sic], that I signed into law. The techniques we use informed that law and members of the Senate and House -- select members of the Senate and House, both parties, have been briefed on the law. Secondly, he doesn't know whether we use that technique or not."
Use of  "water-boarding" has been confirmed in use.  It's a technique we picked up from the Spanish Inquisition, Pol Pot, and North Vietnam during the Vietnam War.  We KNOW what's involved.  It's been described, re-enacted on television, photos from previous wars, etc.  If that isn't enough for him to make a decision, and he's trust-worthy enough to be considered for Attorney General, give him clearance and let him see the papers he needs so that he can form an opinion and answer the question.  It's not that difficult.  The only reason for the current arguement is so he doesn't have to say if he approves or not and can defend the status quo, which would fail to get him approved by the Senate.  They don't want the status quo.  They want honesty, openness, and NO TORTURE.  It's not the huge request the administration makes it out to be. But since he can't answer it, how about someone who is cleared and briefed answer the question?
Q What is your own view about waterboarding? THE PRESIDENT: I'm not going to talk about techniques.
Oh.............

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