Fresh from my twisted mind: 3 new short scary stories

I’ve posted three new short scary stories at They’re OnlyShadows. If you have the courage, check them out.

America’s decline: Not the envy of the world anymore

If you take a college class and your answers to questions are continuously wrong, you get a failing grade. In politics, you can be wrong about everything and still be rewarded with a seat in Congress. People like Louie Gohmert, Ted Cruz, Joni Ernst and Steve King shouldn’t be allowed around sharp objects, yet there they are, sitting in the seats of power, making decisions that affect the lives of millions and millions of people.

Americans, in general, are yawning with disinterest as the inmates take over and run the asylum. Beyond our borders, however, people are dumbstruck at how badly we are behaving. In her Salon article “Has America Gone Crazy?” Ann Jones writes about the grave concerns expressed by Europeans, Africans and Asians over the direction America is taking. They don’t understand how our government can have so little regard for the health and welfare of its citizens. They are angered by our military interventions around the world. They are appalled by the unconstitutional excesses of our security agencies. And they can’t understand why we tolerate a tax system that so unfairly favors the rich over the average citizen.

This is not how a good portion of the world operates. In Europe, and especially the Scandinavian countries, governments have the welfare of their citizens as a top priority. There are high taxes, but those taxes provide healthcare and education for everyone. The government helps people meet their basic needs. It’s not dog-eat-dog capitalism where you get what you want by climbing over the backs of your fellow human beings, but a cooperative society where you can truly pursue your dreams because you don’t have to worry about how you’ll pay for your heart operation or your retirement.

Conservatives and the capitalist elites have convinced Americans that any type of socialism is bad, bad, bad, with the poorly informed, nationalistic red-staters nodding blankly in agreement. The reality is that we are not the envy of the world anymore. Citizens of other countries do not look to the United States for guidance or direction. They’ve moved beyond us and are creating more equitable and fair societies on their own. The question is, will we join them or will we collapse under the weight of our hubris and blind nationalism?

My 2015 predictions

It’s that time when prognosticators like myself stare into our crystal balls (or the family jewels as some call them) and make baseless, nonsensical predictions about the coming 12 months. Here are mine:

The approval rating for Congress will dip into negative numbers. Shingles and the Anti-Christ will move up on the list.

America will secede from Texas.

Top American retailers like Wal-Mart, Target and Macy’s will kick-off the 2015 Christmas shopping season the day after Memorial Day.

Lindsay Lohan will star in an autobiographical movie of her life, “Lindsey’s Life,” and get panned by critics for her “unconvincing” portrayal.

Obama will punch Ted Cruz in the face.

Bill O’Reilly will come out of the closet.

TLC will air a new show called, “My Life is Murder” in which we experience the day to day activities of a serial killer who wears a GoPro.

For reasons unknown, everyone’s 15 minutes of fame will now only last 13 minutes and 27 seconds.

Phoenix cops will shoot a man who is actually breaking the law.

Donald Trump will declare his hair a national treasure.

Obama will not invade Lichtenstein.

There will be a porn version of “Winnie the Pooh” released called “The man with the 100-acre wood."

North Korea will announce a manned space mission to the sun.

Theo's World

I‘m a proud first-time grandparent. Theodore Andreini was born on December 31, so he’ll be two weeks old tomorrow, and he is as cute as they come. Celebrating new life also means contemplating the future and the world that we will leave behind for new generations.

It seems to me there are two very distinct versions of the future fighting for dominance right now. One is the conservative vision and one is the progressive vision.

Conservatives will have the upper hand in Congress for the next two years, but let’s take a look into the future and see what the world would look like on Theo’s 21^st birthday if Republicans maintain control of our government and enact the policies they support:

• Climate change denial and inaction has resulted in a toxic mix of extreme and destructive weather patterns, hazardous air quality and rising seas displacing millions of people worldwide. Tens of millions of people die each year as the direct result of man-made global warming.
• War is institutionalized and America is in a constant state of conflict in locations all around the globe. We respond to every international situation with force, and the world is fighting back. The military is given all the money it wants and more, while average citizens struggle to pay bills and feed their families.
• Social Security and many other current government programs are privatized, providing the wealthy with all the security and health they can buy, while the vast majority of citizens have nothing to look forward to in their lives but poverty and depravation.
• The minimum wage is abolished and millions of Americans sink into desperate poverty fighting for low paying jobs just to survive. China sends manufacturing jobs to American sweat shops.
• All schools are privatized, and there are no national education standards. Local schools teach whatever they want, and education becomes a privilege and not a right. A college education is financially out of reach for the majority of Americans, and only the children of elite attend universities.
• All pretenses of participatory democracy are eliminated and elections become a mere formality. Candidates are openly bought and sold by America’s elites like slaves at an auction. The Oval Office is renamed the Exxon Mobile Oval Office.

This is not the world I want to leave behind for Theo.

Dear FOX News viewer

Dear FOX News viewer,

Honestly, I’m just trying to help.

Lost amid the ongoing Charlie Hebdo coverage is the release of yet another survey, this one conducted by World Public Opinion, a project managed by The Program on International Policy Attitudes at the University of Maryland, that finds that regular FOX News viewers are more misinformed than consumers of other news sources. This is only the latest of a number of surveys in recent years that have found the “fair and balanced” news organization is anything but.

To put it plainly, you are being fed a daily dose of bull manure mistaking it for hot dogs and cheap beer. FOX News is conservative propaganda, not actual news. If you choose not to believe the surveys that confirm this, it’s your business, but please don’t try and convince the rest of us you know what you’re talking about, because you don’t.

FOX News isn’t telling you what you need to know to be an informed citizen, it is telling you what you want to hear. It gleefully stokes your anger, your fears and your bigotry so that you feel better about the noxious views you were raised with (and stay tuned in). I’m sorry that the real world doesn’t fit neatly into your personal version of reality. I know that it makes you very angry. I’ve read your fact-free diatribes and schoolyard insults in the comments section of many online articles.

Change is hard. I understand this, but it doesn’t help anyone, especially you, to continue living in a world that rejects science and is untethered from reality. There’s room for everyone under the umbrella of reason if you just make the effort by turning off FOX News, Limbaugh and Beck. Your brain, your heart and your fellow citizens will thank you.

Sincerely,

John

Why representative democracy in America is a joke

Does your vote count? That’s up for debate.

Came across a very interesting Salon article. After crunching the numbers, the people at FairVote discovered that over the course of the last three elections, 2010, 2012 and 2014, the 44 Democratic senators received 20 million more votes than the 54 Republican senators. Hard to believe, isn’t it? Is this what representative democracy is supposed to look like?

The author of the piece explains how this could happen yet still give Republicans the majority in the Senate, and some options for how the problem could be fixed (although they are radical and probably won’t happen anytime soon). It’s an eye-opening read.

In the name of God

The world will be a healthier, happier place to live when we overcome our desire to find superstitious answers to life’s difficult questions. Horrible news from Paris as masked gunmen stormed the offices of the satirical paper Charlie Hebdo and murdered twelve people, reportedly for satirizing the prophet Muhammad in the past. Predictably, there will be much wailing from Christian fundamentalists about the violent nature of Islam with no reflection on Christianity’s long history of barbaric behavior.

And Muslims have no monopoly on religious lunacy. In another headline from today’s news, we are treated to this: “City officials declare God ‘owner’ of their Alabama town.” The town of Winfield’s mayor hopes the designation will help residents become more religious. We can laugh or shake our head in wonder, but the mayor’s belief system is shared by a large number of Americans.

Many argue that we should look at the good that religion has done, but this isn’t a very compelling argument for me. Believers want to focus on the ‘good works’ of their faith, such as helping feed the poor, without including the broader discussion of why we have a system that allows people to go hungry in the first place. And “belief” is so damn pliable it can be used to justify almost anything, from obscene wealth to war to government-sponsored murder to the denial of scientific facts.

My opinion is that religion is a phase in human development, in the same way that believing in Santa Claus or imaginary friends is a stage of individual development. As we mature, we are slowly (and painfully) setting aside superstitious explanations of the universe in favor of scientific ones, and there will come a day when religion will be a quant memory…if we don’t destroy ourselves in the name of God first.

New short story: The Silver Key

Check out my latest short story, The Silver Key at "They're only Shadows." Here's and excerpt:

1958

A fist pounded impatiently on the front door. Someone yelled, “Let us in, Levi.” Angry men with guns paced in anticipation, and the front porch ached under their weight. Levi sat in his favorite chair a few feet from the fireplace, which was the only light in the room. He knew why the men had come and nothing he could say or do would sate their anger. These were his final days or hours. He held a small human figure made of straw in one hand and recited the words he had learned as a child from his “crazy” Louisiana aunt, words he believed contained power and magic.  The door flew open with a wall-shaking crash and police fell into the house, waving their weapons, expecting, maybe hoping, for resistance. Levi tossed the doll into the fire and stood, hands raised in the air, his shadow on the wall looking like a performing circus bear.

Let the games begin

I mean that literally. A new Republican-controlled Congress begins playing games…I mean, goes to work, today with a fresh batch of loony-tune tea partiers eager to destroy America and build a Christian theme park in its place. I truly have no idea what the voters who are responsible for this travesty were thinking, but if they were expecting a more productive, collaborative Congress (which would mean they are clinically insane or in a coma), they will be sorely disappointed.

What we can count on is an increase in wasted time and energy in attempts to undo Obama’s policies like the Affordable Care Act. They’ll push for the disastrous Keystone pipeline and tax cuts for the wealthy, attack the social safety net, and continue their assault on women’s reproductive rights. I can also predict that nothing will be done to stem the abuses of the NSA/CIA surveillance state, correct the ever-widening income inequality gap, provide struggling workers with any economic relief or address the threat of climate change.

Delusional, hypocritical and answerable to no one but their corporate masters, the new Republicans in Congress will without a doubt push America further toward economic and civic ruin over the next two years. Despite this, the mainstream media will continue condemning “Congress” for its ineptitude, lumping Democrats and Republicans together for the failure to get anything constructive done, refusing to be honest and place blame where blame is due.

Things will be bad for the next two years, but if the Republicans manage to win the White House in 2016, it will be game over for the future of this country.

2014: The ideological gap widens

As we enter a new year, one reflection I can make about 2014 is that the chasm in America between those basing their views on reality and those who choose to live in an ideological fantasyland is wider and deeper than it has been since the Civil War. The economy has been improving, the Affordable Care Act is working, with ten million more people having health care than before the act was signed into law, and marriage equality and legalized marijuana have become business as usual.

Despite all of this, and despite being wrong nearly every time they opened their mouths, Republicans were given the keys to Congress by the voters last November. Go to the comment section of any political article on the Internet and there you’ll find them, the angry, vitriolic, fact-challenged conservatives, hurling insults, straw men arguments and ad hominem attacks without actually addressing any of the issues brought up in the piece. Why? Because they have no facts to refute reality, and can only respond with ideological tropes and blunt anger.

Although FOX News is a major culprit in furthering the divide between conservatives and the fact-based population, the mainstream media bears a great deal of responsibility for our current situation. Afraid to challenge the status quo, afraid of losing viewers, afraid of offending their corporate overlords, the media today allows ignorance to reign free and lies to stand for truth.

Politically, I don’t have a very positive outlook for the coming year. Like alchemists trying to turn lead into gold, Republicans will continue trying to make reality into their own selfish, narrow-minded image and will fail miserably. Problem is, we the people are the ones who will suffer from their stupidity, and the gap between reality and failed ideology will continue growing until it eventually swallows us all.

Demanding justice is not an attack on all police officers

I find the actions of the NYPD toward Mayor De Blasio, turning their backs on him and booing him, very unnerving. After a number of cops from departments across the country have literally gotten away with murder in recent months, instead of responding with humility and a promise to better train their officers, police have acted with outrage that anybody would call them to account for their actions. Their attitude seems to be that they are above the law, and no one has the right to even try and tell them what to do.

Conservative politicians have responded in typical knee-jerk reaction, vowing their undying love and loyalty to any person who wears a gun and a uniform. Criticism of our soldiers or cops is tantamount to treason or aiding and comforting the bad guys, as if the uniform magically imbues people with divine powers of justice and fairness. I served in the United States Army, and while I met some fine individuals, I also met violent, unstable people who I wouldn’t entrust to watch my pet let alone my life in a combat situation.

And, of course, conservatives can’t see the distinction between justifiable criticism of certain police practices and attitudes and an out and out attack on every peace officer in the country. They do black and white and that’s about the extent of their color spectrum. We need the police, but we need police who are well–trained and psychologically fit to do their job. And we need police who understand the necessity of oversight and that breaking the law, whether you’re wearing gang colors or a blue uniform, is still breaking the law, and cannot be tolerated in a civilized, democratic society.

The mainstream media gets one right

It’s a rare moment in time when a member of the mainstream media goes off the corporate-approved script and speaks the truth to power. The New York Times did just that yesterday in an editorial calling on Obama to order a criminal investigation of top Bush administration officials who authorized torture after 9/11. And to its credit, the Times’ editorial was unequivocal. There was no hemming and hawing, no “equivalency” nonsense, no slippery rhetorical escape hatch for the accused. The editorial was short and sweet: Investigate the bastards.

On a similar note, Dick Cheney has been on a media campaign for the last few weeks trying desperately to put the lid back on the box of torture charges. For all his sneering and cranky expletives, many of Cheney’s statements on the subject have been labeled mostly or completely false by fact-checking organizations. Saddam Hussein did not have a 10-year relationship with al-Qaeda. And yes, detainees captured under the war on terror are covered by the Geneva Convention.

I applaud the New York Times editorial board having the courage to call for an investigation into our government’s use of torture. I wish that Obama had the same level of courage to actually carry out what justice demands, but I wouldn’t put any money on that bet. Who knows? Maybe he’ll surprise me too.

Short Scary Stories: They Live!

Two new scary short stories over at They're Only Shadows. Read them if you dare, bwahahahah.

Americans live in a bubble of blissful ignorance

American Exceptionalism has more in common with religion than traditional nationalism. It is a grand fantasy based on historical myths and delusions used to brainwash generations of citizens. Since the Plymouth Colony was established in 1620, our history has been one of genocide, slavery, torture, assassinations, invasions, violence, racism, sexism, and environmental degradation. The real history of the U.S. has been scrubbed from our textbooks as adeptly as any fascist government real or imagined.

We Americans live in a bubble of blissful ignorance that shields us from seeing our true selves in the mirror. We are quick to point out the flaws of other countries while we secretly overthrow an elected government or fly illegal drugs into the country to pay for violence and mayhem in other parts of the globe. Not content to be an example of democracy to the rest of the world, we have a long history of trying to impose our form of government on others through the barrel of a gun.

Instead of acknowledging our mistakes and trying to learn from them, we treat each one as an aberration that is unrepresentative of our true holy nature. Problem is, recent history clearly demonstrates that we’re lying to ourselves. Our dark nature continues to drive our actions with the illegal invasion and occupation of Iraq, the horrific torture of prisoners and unrestrained spying on U.S. citizens. Instead of scratching out an existence at the edges of society, the anti-intellectual, anti-science, anti-democratic forces in this country are being voted into office by a deaf, dumb and blind citizenry.

The future looks dim for this country. No one in the CIA will be prosecuted for spying on members of Congress. No one who approved of torture will be prosecuted. The rich keep getting wealthier at our expense. We continue to try and solve world issues with bombs and bullets. True change will only come about if we stop worshiping the false America and start being honest with ourselves about our faults.

Don't forget to vote!

There are three days left to vote for your favorite short story (which is The Silver Key) at Chilling Tales for Dark Nights. Santa says, "Ho, ho, ho. I'm not saying you'll definitely get a lump of coal if you don't vote for The Silver Key, but it's never a good idea to disappoint Santa."

The U.S. gives the international community a big middle finger

This is a very interesting and disturbing tidbit of information that I’m sure few Americans know about. In 2002, the American Service-Member’s Protection Act (ASPA) was passed by Congress and became federal law. Sponsored by notorious racist Jesse Helms (R-NC) and the slimy Tom DeLay (R-TX), the law aims “to protect United States military personnel and other elected and appointed officials of the United States government against criminal prosecution by an international criminal court to which the United States is not party.”

The law states that the president must us “all means necessary and appropriate to bring about the release of any U.S. or allied personnel being detained or imprisoned by, on behalf of, or at the request of the International Criminal Court.” It prohibits extradition of any U.S. citizen to the Court. In other words, the United States has declared itself above international law and should the International Criminal Court even attempt to convict an American, the law gives the President the power to invade the Netherlands to free the accused.

The law becomes relevant as more and more evidence of American’s using torture comes to light. Despite breaking international laws and treaties, the perpetrators can be assured that they will never be held accountable by the rest of the world. In fact, the law was created specifically because the government knew that there were illegal tactics being used by the CIA and the military in the early years of the war on terror. The ASPA was a “cover our ass” law to protect Americans from justice.

Is it as discouraging to you as it is to me that I live in a country that feels the need to pass such a law?

Obey, Good Citizen

A cop with the City of Mishawaka Police in Indiana is producing a T-shirt with the slogan, “Breath Easy: Don’t Break the Law.” Although he denies it, it is a clear reference to the last words of Eric Garner as a NYPD policeman was chocking him to death, “I can’t breath.” The shirts producer, John Barthel, claims that it is merely telling citizens that they can breath easy because the police are there to protect you. Right.

The first thing that came to mind when I read this was Shephard Fairley’s ubiquitous “Obey” stickers and posters closely linked to Orwell’s 1984. All you must do, good citizen, is obey and everything will be fine. Clearly, the scary part of this is the mentality behind this thinking, which equates obedience with subjugation and law breaking with terrorism.

If only the issue was as simple as Barthel wants us to believe. In Barthel’s make-believe world, there is no such thing as racism or racial profiling or different rules for different populations and everyone is treated equal under the law. The fantasy is that if you are a good little citizen, you will never have any trouble from the police. Justice is blind. As we have seen from headline after headline over the past few months of police murdering people of color and getting away with it, Barthal’s hallucinogenic image of America and actual life on the streets are totally at odds.

“Breath Easy. Don’t Break the Law” is not “To Protect and Serve.” Police no longer see themselves as public servants but as the thin blue line between civility and anarchy, which has them constantly on a war footing and feeling above the laws they were hired to uphold. If Barthal’s sentiments are representative of the average cop, America’s law enforcement community is in serious need of an attitude adjustment.

Vote for me!

No I haven't decided to throw my hat into the ring for the upcoming Presidential election despite the overwhelming chorus of voters urging me to run (as far away as possible). I was notified last night that I am one of 12 finalists in a short story contest at Chilling Tales for Dark Nights. The winner is determined by votes, so if you are so inclined, you can go there to vote for The Silver Key. Thanks in advance.

Cheney the Heartless

What words can you use to describe a man who swears that torture works, when there is not a shred of evidence to corroborate that claim, says that given the opportunity he’d torture people again, and who blithely dismisses the fact that innocent people were tortured and murdered in America’s name? Could it be…Satan?

Dick Cheney isn’t Satan, but he is one of the most despicable humans on the planet. On top of his disgusting, full-throated defense of torture, the man was absolutely eager to throw his former boss (in title only) George Bush under the bus by letting the world know that he was fully aware of every dark and dirty deed committed by the CIA.

Obviously, Cheney the Heartless is playing the only card he has in his deck. He has no choice but to aggressively defend his actions despite the insanity of that position. He committed international crimes against humanity, but he also knows that there is little to no chance that the current administration will do anything about it. For all his failings as a human being, and maybe because of them, Cheney is unmatched at political maneuvering and manipulation. Because torture was allowed to continue by Obama, the current president has no appetite to seek a path to justice that could eventually find its way back to him.

With the appointment of George Bush as President in 2000, Cheney and his merry band of neocons took advantage of their long desired opportunity to mold the executive branch into their warped image. The attack on the Twin Towers conveniently provided them with the opportunity to give the President new and unprecedented powers and at the same time send troops into the Middle East to settle old scores and take control of oil-rich lands. All of it has proven an utter disaster for this country and the rest of the world.

No, Dick Cheney isn’t Satan, but he has done more than any other single person to destroy all that was once seen as good about America, and turn this country into lawless, war-loving international pariah.

It’s the values, stupid

One of life’s great mysteries for me is trying to imagine what was going through the minds of voters in last November’s election when they pulled the lever or checked the box or poked the chad giving Republican’s control over both houses of Congress. They continuously rate Congress lower than anal cysts, but then turn around and vote for the very people who are responsible for government gridlock.

Thanks to Congressional Republicans, with some help from gutless Democrats, the latest spending bill that funds the government through the end of the fiscal year is packed with goodies for Wall Street and wealthy political donors, and of course, contains very little in the way of relief for the average citizen.

THIS IS WHAT YOU VOTED FOR! [Screams of frustration, the sounds of garments being rendered, head banging against wall] And there will be plenty more of these shenanigans over the next two years.

The only analysis that makes any sense to me is that values trump everything when it comes to elections. Red staters perceive that Republicans share their values, and that seems to be enough to earn a vote. Actions don’t play into the equation…or logic or common sense or even self-preservation. Add to this a corporate controlled media and I guess you have the recipe for conservative success. The reality that Republicans consistently side with the wealthy elites over the average voter doesn’t seem to be important.

In my opinion, the antidote is for Democrats to stop trying to be Republican light and start standing up for progressive values, which are values that can truly help struggling Americans. If progressives get their wish and Elizabeth Warren or Bernie Sanders decide to run for President in the 2016 election, it will be a very interesting and telling race regarding the future direction of the Democratic Party.

The screaming of the weasels

It’s completely understandable if you’re confused about what year it is. Are we living in 2014 or 1214? If you are reading today’s headlines, you might think it’s the middle of the Dark Ages as the weasels who approved torture squeal out in their own defense. Former Vice President Dick Cheney, former CIA Directors Michael Hayden, George Tenet and Porter Goss and former Justice Department Attorney John Woo and others are flinging justifications for their illegal behavior as fast as the media will relay them.

Cheney, who treats any criticism with a disdainful “Fuck-you-and-the-horse-you-rode-in-on” sneer, called the Senate’s report a bunch of crap, and, true to form, brought up 9/11 as his magical justification for anything. Hayden said force feeding prisoners through rectal rehydration (shoving food up a person’s anus) was a benign medical procedure. Yoo tried to claim that the American people supported Bush’s post-9/11 actions, including torture.

The screaming of the weasels is a concerted effort on the part of a cadre of international criminals to justify the unjustifiable, and it all basically boils down to this: “If America does it, it’s not illegal.” It’s 2014 and we are still arguing the validity of torture.

I wish I had more faith that international justice would prevail, but like banks that are too big to fail, the individuals who authorized torture are probably too big to jail. They’ll continue making millions off of memoirs and speaking fees despite their horrendous crimes, while the families of those tortured and murdered at their hands will have only the memories of their loved ones to comfort them.

Torture doesn't work, but that's not why it should be outlawed

One of the things I find most troubling about the conversation sparked by the release of the Senate’s report on CIA interrogation excesses is whether torture worked or not. Contrary to the evidence, the director of the CIA, Cheney, Bush and Congressional Republicans continue to argue that it worked and saved lives. They’re wrong, but is that point even relevant?

Let’s step back for a moment. When we go to our history books and look at the horrendous torture devices and techniques used during the Inquisition or by Nazis during WWII or even in less developed countries today, do we ever ask, “Did it work?” What abhors us about torture is the cruelty of it, and that was the basis for numerous international treaties after WWII banning the practice. From the United States’ perspective, the simple argument was that if we as a country allow torture, we have no moral authority to criticize other countries that use it, and it could be (and was) used against our soldiers.

That all got thrown out the window after 9/11. Fear trumped rationale thinking, and the Bush Administration was quick to condone anything that it thought might protect us from another terrorist attack, even torture, without thinking through the ramifications. Worse yet, the practice continued for years, even though the results were consistently unhelpful and experts in the field told the Administration it was a futile tactic.

Torture doesn’t work, and we knew that before the attacks on the Twin Towers, but that should not be the core argument against it. It is an inhuman, morally repugnant practice that debases everyone involved in it. Why fundamentalist Christians in this country seem to support it and validate its use is a topic for another posting. We as a country must strongly denounce it in word and deed if we are ever to be looked at with respect in the world community again.

We tortured some folks

“We tortured some folks.” This was Obama’s glib, tone-deaf response at a news conference held this past summer related to the Senate’s report on the CIA treatment of detainees. He did follow that up by saying, “We did some things contrary to our values,” but the general tone of his remarks was to excuse some overzealous behavior in the aftermath of 9/11 because we weren’t in their shoes.

As we await the release of the Senate Intelligence Committee’s investigation of the Bush-era interrogation tactics, which could come today, it’s time to reflect on just how “contrary to our values” torture is. It’s one of the benchmarks we have historically used when characterizing the worst regimes on the planet. It’s universally condemned in the developed world. The United States signed the United Nations Convention Against Torture treaty in 1988. And finally, experts in the area of interrogation methods have been telling us for years that torture simply doesn’t work. Victims will tell interrogators anything to make it stop.

So with the release of the Senate’s report, our hypocrisy and lawlessness will be laid bare for the world to see. The question is, will those responsible for acts violating international law be held accountable? Will Bush and Cheney and others who authorized the use of torture pay any price for their actions? Unfortunately, I highly doubt it. As much as I would like to see Dick Cheney led out of a courtroom in shackles, all indications are that they will be spared any punishment. “Mistakes were made,” Obama will say, “but let’s not dwell on the past."

We used to hold ourselves up as an example of a country that lived by the rule of law, but since 9/11, we have descended into a rogue state that feels it can write its own rules as it goes, both here at home and abroad.

Media authority bias on display in protest coverage

The mainstream media’s biases are on full display in an article about this weekend’s national protests against the grand jury decision in the Eric Garner case. This morning’s front page of CNN reports on the protests in Oakland and Berkeley California that became violent. Here’s the headline:

“Protesters flood California highway, throw explosives at officers, police say”

Right off the bat the players in this drama are typecast, protesters bad, police just doing their jobs. Then we get into the article, and for the first ten paragraphs, we are treated to reports from the police on what happened – explosives where thrown, officers suffered minor injuries, vandalizing police cars, and on and on. If you make it as far as the eleventh paragraph, you’ll find this:

“The acts of violence were apparent anomalies in a sea of protests nationwide…”

So CNN spent two-thirds of the first section of a front-page article describing a rare situation among the hundreds of protests around the country. How come? Oh, and then there is the fact that not one demonstrator was interviewed to counter the allegations made by the police. I read somewhere else (can’t remember where) that Berkeley protestors are claiming the police instigated the violence.

Aside from simply being sensationalist, the article is clearly from the perspective of the police or state, with little credence or regard for the people. To me it’s journalistic malfeasance bordering on propaganda to publish a story like this without presenting both sides of the issue.