As Human Rights First states, the ever-growing number of Bagram detainees – most of whom are Afghans – have far fewer rights than their counterparts at the much more controversial Guantanamo Bay prison. Thanks to a 2008 Supreme Court decision, Guantanamo detainees “have the right to challenge their detention in a U.S. court and to representation by a lawyer,” something Bagram prisoners are denied, the report notes.
Craig. Skarsgard. Wright. Larsson. Fincher. Reznor. Excited!
Craig. Skarsgard. Wright. Larsson. Fincher. Reznor. Excited!
Truth. Alright Franzen, we’re cool for now. (via ethanstanislawski)
The simple fact of the matter is that trying to be perfectly likable is incompatible with loving relationships. Sooner or later, for example, you’re going to find yourself in a hideous, screaming fight, and you’ll hear coming out of your mouth things that you yourself don’t like at all, things that shatter your self-image as a fair, kind, cool, attractive, in-control, funny, likable person. Something realer than likability has come out in you, and suddenly you’re having an actual life.
Kevin Zeese, to Kevin Goztola on “This Week in Wikileaks,” 28 May, 2011.
My reaction to the various documentaries, the FRONTLINE one and the Guardian one—the Guardian one was actually better but the FRONTLINE in particular—was that this was the work of the government. This was essentially character assassination in preparation for trial.
neutralnotes: (via Unique abstract paintings by artist, Leah Dunaway.)
neutralnotes: (via Unique abstract paintings by artist, Leah Dunaway.)
Ry Cooder, in an exclusive interview on his new song, “No Banker Left Behind,” TruthDig, 26 May 2011.
OK, they’re on the train, the train’s leaving. Why? Because it’s a rich train for only bankers. They’ve got all the money, they get on the train, the train pulls out, and the rest of us all stand there watching and saying, where’d it all go? You know, how did they make off with all this loot?
Robert Scheer on Henry Paulson, in “Access Journalism: The Movie,” TruthDig, 24 May, 2011.
When he resigned his position as head of Goldman Sachs to become treasury secretary, he cashed in $485 million in Goldman stock and was saved from a $100 million tax liability because he was entering government “service.” The film barely mentioned that Paulson was the head of Goldman Sachs when his company deceptively packaged and sold the collateralized debt obligations (CDOs) based on the subprime and Alt A mortgages that proved so toxic.
As Paulson concedes in his memoir, after George W. Bush appointed him treasury secretary, the president asked plaintively as the economy was crumbling: “How did this happen?” In Sorkin’s book, it is stated that the treasurer “disregarded the question, knowing that the answer would be way too long.” But in his memoir, Paulson provides a clearer insight: “It was a humbling question for someone from the financial sector to be asked—after all, we were the ones responsible.”
No such honesty has yet emerged from Geithner …