Follow this link to see the story of  Lakhdar Boumediene’s unjust captivity and see his interview by ABC News.

If this story does not make you want to redouble your efforts to bring Bush/Cheney to justice, I don’t know what will.

What do you think posterity will say about you if you don’t join the fight?

Follow this link to an editorial in the Worcester Telegram & Gazette.

The editorial is in support of the Rewarding Achievement and Incentivizing Successful Employees (RAISE) Act. This bill has been introduced by two Republicans, Sen. David Vitter and Rep. Tom McClintock.

The description says, “RAISE would amend the National Labor Relations Act to permit employers to pay unionized employers incentive wages outside the normal limits imposed by collective bargaining.”

I sent the following comment to the newspaper:

Maybe some of your readers would take your editorial about the Rewarding Achievement and Incentivizing Successful Employees (RAISE) Act hook, line, and sinker.

Those of us who didn’t fall off the turnip truck yesterday are a little suspicious of the description of this act introduced by two Republicans in Congress.

The bill is too new to find out anything about it except for the description provided by Sen. David Vitter and Rep. Tom McClintock.

However, a bill introduced by two Republicans who merely want to raise the wages that union workers can earn makes me think I smell a rat.  I am waiting for complete details so I can find out where the rat is buried.

After hearing a couple of stories on Worldfocus tonight, I felt compelled to write them this letter:

Martin Savidge needs to be careful of his use of the word despite.

The definition that I have for the word is “In classical logic, a contradiction consists of a logical incompatibility between two or more propositions. It occurs when the propositions, taken together, yield two conclusions which form the logical inversions of each other. …”

When Pakistan says that the war in the Swat valley turns in their favor you cannot say “despite this the curfew continues.”  When a war turns in your favor it is not the same as winning it or the war is over.  So there is no contradiction in continuing a curfew.

When President Obama tells the Israeli government some painful truths that they need to hear, you cannot say that despite this he is trying to restart peace talks.  When your allies won’t talk peace because they don’t understand the truth, you might want to tell them the truth in order to get talks started again.

On June 8,2009, I got an email response.

Thanks for the lesson Steven… We’ll try not to be so verbally cavalier…

Regards,

Martin Savidge

Having Alzheimer’s disease is the only explanation that I can think of for Cheney’s behavior shown in this Daily Show segment. Surely we aren’t stupid enough to blame the man who was shouting about the imminent threat and went unheeded because Cheney refused to listen.

Cheney was there, but he doesn’t know until he reads the book? It’s all Clarke’s fault because Clarke didn’t waterboard Cheney until Cheney agreed to listen.

There actually is a video in this post. It may be so widely viewed that the computer servers are having trouble serving it up. Rest assured that I was able to watch all 55 minutes of the speech. It may take some patience on your part, but eventually the servers will catch up with the demand.

Representative Robert Wexler is asking for my support and donations.

As Bush and Cheney scramble to defend their actions, making false claims about the effectiveness of the techniques and the military’s desire to use them, we must be very clear: the most senior generals, the ones we trust with our sons and daughters lives – who literally formed the battle plan – are saying Bush and Cheney were wrong.

“If we do not find out what happened then we are doomed to repeat it,” said General Sanchez.

Exactly.

I remain a strong supporter of an independent investigation into the Bush Administration policies.  I have also introduced legislation that would establish a special select House Committee to reexamine our national security after a full investigation of the practices and policies of the Bush Administration.

Complaints about the use of torture are no longer arising only from those of us in the Democratic Party.  I congratulate these soldiers for their brave and honest words.

I told Rep Wexler  that if he did not stop undermining President Obama’s efforts to tell our Israeli allies the truth that they need to hear, I would forego my support for Wexler.  I’ll fight the war against torture in my own way, thank you very much.

Follow this link to the article in the Washington Post.

I was shocked, shocked I tell you, to find out that the CIA lied to us in the recent contretemps over what Pelosi was told about waterboarding.

Not only did they lie, but of course they lied about their lying.  And Cheney’s fingerprints are all over this. No wonder he is trying to confuse us on what happened. I wonder if Leon Panetta has any credibility left.  What a gullible fool he is.

Are you shocked, shocked you tell me, at the harsh words I am using? I think they are warranted.

Follow this link to an article by Jeffrey A. Sonnenfeld in Business Week.

I do not know enough to be able to attest to the quality of the analysis.  However, it does resonate with a question that came to mind yesterday.  That question being, “If GM was taken down by its disastrous labor agreements with the UAW, then how come Ford is doing OK with the same labor contracts?”

In passing, the article does allude to some things that Ford did differently from General Motors that account for its avoiding some of what has driven GM to the brink.

Follow this link to the story by Greg Palast.

This article is for those of you who have had your pensions stolen and would like to see the United Auto Workers get the same treatment.