A nation run by fools or deceivers?

Sometimes parody is all we have left. How’s this for a headline? Rove claims prosecuting torture memo authors will turn Obama admin “into the moral equivalent of a Latin American country run by colonels in mirrored sunglasses“ That would be the Latin American nations run by US-backed thugs under Reagan in the 1980s, would it…

Laws were broken, haul their arse in

The Bush administration kept America safe since 9/11…by using torture? The ability of conservative, Republican fanatics to continually defend torture because terror suspects looked, er, suspect, is absurd. And people wonder why America’s reputation has taken such a dive:

How many balls did we crush?

As more information appears about the Bush administration’s use of torture, there is still much to learn about the role of Australia in this sordid process: The Senate Armed Services Committee has just released an exhaustive review of torture under the Bush administration that, among other revelations, torpedoes the notion that the administration only chose…

Israel to bomb Iran? Don’t believe the hype

My latest column for New Matilda is about the relationship between Israel and Iran and the prospects for war: The Israel lobby want to bomb Iran, but calmer heads can see plenty of reasons not to. This time the lobby may not get what it wants, writes Antony Loewenstein Roger Cohen, a columnist for the…

Perversion dressed up as values

The Republican hack blog Powerline writes: Many liberals don’t just want to defeat conservatives at the polls, they want to send them to jail. Yes, that’s right. Even considering prosecuting individuals in the Bush administration who advocated and supported torture is a witch-hunt against “conservatives”. By the way, these are the kind of fanatics who…

What kind of Jew stays mum over this?

Following the release of US torture memos by President Obama, a reader writes to blogger Andrew Sullivan: This is an eye opening event for me.…  It’s easier for a liberal like me, who voted against Bush twice, to feel I’m off the hook.…  But, clearly, I kept my eyes closed and my mouth shut.…  When…

Crushing people like insects

During the Bush years, America was a nation that proudly tortured prisoners. The Obama administration has released a handful of key documents that proves this beyond doubt (though the decision to not prosecute those behind the crimes is highly regrettable and should be reversed to ensure true accountability.) Then again, a key Zionist neo-con sees…

Where are their loud voices now?

Andrew Sullivan challenges those who remain silent over the American use of torture. Indeed, the vast majority of neo-cons, including in Australia, have raised no complaints about the deliberate US policy of often killing innocent prisoners. The moral bankruptcy is clear: There is, I think, a great difficulty for some in accepting that the torture…

Haven’t we been here before?

Independent Australian Jewish Voices blogger Michael Brull looks at the Obama administration’s foreign policy and finds it remarkably similar to George W. Bush: Obama was elected promising change. But in all the US’s recent actions — in everything from a new series of embarrassing gaffesnew Guantanamo — the changes are noticeable to anyone but the…

What’s some ball crushing between rounds?

Former US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice crawls out from under her rock to write for the Daily Beast website about…golf. The ease with which people like her can move calmly from pursuing policies that include endorsing torture to writing frivolous articles about watching sport suggests a celebrity culture that is both sick and lacking…

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