It’s a wrong situation, they can’t make us different people then we are.

The unpleasant consequences for Israel of their illegal attack on the flotilla and their brutal massacre of nine unarmed Turkish citizens continue to unfold and deepen.

There is nothing about torture that is good or positive. The act itself is on of the most brutal and heinous that humans have ever committed. The affect on a society that condones torture is one of rising fear and brutality. The information (if it can be called that) gained under torture is so suspect as to be worthless. Perhaps the worst aspect is that torture, once accepted is used not only on enemies or bad people, but innocent victims as well.

On Monday the United States Supreme Court declined to hear the appeal of one such innocent victim of torture, Mr. Maher Arar, a Syrian born Canadian citizen. In 2002 he was returning to Canada from a trip abroad. At a stop over at JFK Airport he was detained by the US Government and held in solitary confinement for two weeks without access to an attorney. Mr. Arar was then deported, not to his nation of citizenship, Canada but, to Syria and put in the hands of the Syrian intelligence services, who are well known for their torture activities.

"Originally posted at Squarestate.net"

Back home in Iraq, Umm Hiba’s daughter was a devout schoolgirl, modest in her dress and serious about her studies. Hiba, who is now 16, wore the hijab, or Islamic head scarf, and rose early each day to say the dawn prayer before classes.

Several members of the United States Senate have a serious credibility problem when it comes to climate change. Chief among them is Senator James Inhofe, whose career highlight was saying on the Senate floor that global warming is the “greatest hoax ever perpetrated on the American people.”

Mr. Inhofe’s most recent assault on the debate over domestic climate legislation was his insistence on repeating a misleading analysis of the costs of climate legislation, despite all evidence to the contrary. Incredibly, when I asked Senator Inhofe’s staff to respond to the fact that his statements on climate legislation were clearly factually inaccurate, they responded with the single-most convoluted statement I’ve ever seen. Ian Malcomb of Jurassic Park had some choice words for this 1700+ word rant as well. This is what we’re up against folks, and it is neither logical, credible nor reality-based. I would engage in a point-counterpoint back and forth with Mr. Inhofe’s staff — as I recently did with Senator Murkowski’s staff on the same issue — but it would clearly be fruitless. Rather than respond to Mr. Dempsey’s largely irrelevant arguments, I’ll simply refer you to this FactCheck.org refutation of the crux of his argument. Flail away, Mr. Dempsey, but reality is on our side.

Federal Court Justice Simon Noel says there is a “genuine public interest” in dealing with the torture of detainees in a forthright manner.

good News

Stories regarding various weapons-of-mass-destruction programs are flowering in the western media this spring. Islamic programs are featured as dark, deceptive, and dangerous. Weapons of mass destruction deveoped in countries associated with other faiths are contrasted as reasonable, defensive, even patriotic, and promoting peace and freedom across the globe.

The Syrian government has broken relations with Baghdad. It has completely opened it’s border. Expect some painful blowback.

Why did we violate Syrian sovereignty?