CarolynC

It’s become such a frequent occurrence, it only rates a brief mention in the local press, but it is a national outrage. What does it say about us as a society that there is no outcry when people die or are made to suffer incredible pain from tasers, our new weapon of social control?

In a compelling interview on NPR’s Fresh Air yesterday, Jeff Sharlet talks about the continuing clout of fundamentalists in the US military, and the role they played in the Senate’s failure to repeal DADT this past Tuesday.

Ever-increasing numbers of African-American boys and men are headed “toward in an ever-deepening pit of social and economic degradation,” Bob Herbert writes in a searing op-ed that should be read by every concerned citizen in this country.

More heat than light is being generated as the media shines the spotlight on this emotional issue. The fact that defenders of both sides of this issue span the political spectrum points to the fact that some factor other than ideology is operating here.

The foreordained decision to include Omar Khadr’s confession, made after the fifteen-year-old boy was threatened with gang rape and murder, will now be admitted as evidence against him in the kangaroo court at Guantanamo Bay.

As many Americans suffer long-term unemployment, lose their homes, and wonder how they will pay for the groceries or the utility bill, an urge to find a scapegoat is increasingly common. And it is often Latinos and undocumented workers that are blamed for the nation’s economic ills.

The New York Times continues to downplay the human rights abuses, amounting in some instances to war crimes, in its reporting on the classified documents released by Wikileaks. In contrast to the Guardian and Der Spiegel, the NYT’s failed to highlight the many accounts of atrocities committed by U.S. and coalition troops in the papers’ recent coverage.

We are beginning to see signs of severe PTSD and incidents of suicide among soldiers tasked with torturing and abusing prisoners in the Iraq war. The guilt some of them have experienced has altered their personalities and caused them to suffer psychological distress.

The Israeli press is headlining the results of a new poll, that finds the majority of the American public supports an Israeli attack on Iran with one caveat that is not mentioned in their reporting. Our leaders now know that being party to such an attack will not be politically unpopular, and in fact would be supported by many here.

The conviction of Jon Burge, former Chicago police lieutenant, who was part of a reign of terror in the Chicago police department during the the past few decades, has been particularly sweet for victims who were tortured into making false confessions and then sent to rot in prison, seemingly without hope of ever seeing justice done to their torturers.