As people here know, there has been a deafening silence in the media.  After ABC News disclosed on April 9 that torture was approved and even orchestrated by senior officials at the highest levels of our government, almost no further coverage occurred.

The National Religious Campaign Against Torture is taking action to break the silence.  You can help. More below the fold.

I thought the post given below from TPM was very good and that Kos readers might like to see it.  It certainly gives the lie to the idea that Clinton should not drop out, because that would be a serious blow to the democratic process.  Because of the way she is conducting it, her whole campaign, from beginning to end, is a body blow to democracy -- and certainly to the Democratic Party.

Bonus video: Mrs C

http://www.youtube.com/...

A little-noticed story has appeared in the British press.  Gen. Petraeus has been making ominous comments that imply a US attack on Iran before the Bush administration leaves office.  

Coming on the heels of Adm. Fallon's resignation, and Cheney's recent trip to the Middle East, I think we are looking at a serious indicator.

I don't know what steps can be taken to stop this madness, though for two years I have been working (very modestly) behind the scenes to stop this attack.  If anyone has any ideas about how to mobilize effective action, please do so in the thread.

Go there.  Tell your friends.  Let's bring this nightmare to an end.  Hillary's latest racist smear has crossed the line.

Booman is correct.

Hillary Clinton has gone too far.  In a conversation  with the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, Clinton presumed to tell Barack Obama where he should worship his God.  She suggested that Reverend Wright is guilty of 'hate speech' and compared him to Don Imus.  

Message to Senator Hillary Clinton

I have been using Booman's analysis to follow the results of the primaries.  I reprint it here for others to consult, because it has turned out to be so prescient.  BooMan might wish to bring matters up to date himself and that would be great.  But it's interesting, I think, to see where things stood as recently as Feb. 6, when he first set forth his observations.

In case you missed this.

From Obama's speech last night

And if I am your nominee, my opponent will not be able to say that I voted for the war in Iraq, because I didn’t, or that I gave George Bush the benefit of the doubt on Iran, because I haven’t, or that I support the Bush-Cheney doctrine of not talking to leaders we don’t like, because I profoundly disagree with that approach.

And he will not be able to say that I wavered on something as fundamental as whether or not it’s OK for America to use torture, because it’s never OK.

That is the choice in this election.

The first is a report released yesterday (Feb. 22) by Human Rights First, documenting the deaths of nearly 100 detainees in US custody since 2002.

The second report, even more shocking, is a statement by John Pace, who retired last week as human rights chief for the UN assistance mission in Iraq. Pace, a citizen of Malta, indicated to a newspaper in his country that the US is "aware" that nearly 1000 prisoners die of torture in Iraq each month.

[press release]

WASHINGTON, DC--As the United States Senate votes to confirm Judge Alberto Gonzales as the next US Attorney General, religious leaders are seeking forgiveness.

Sister Dianna Ortiz, a US-born survivor of torture in Guatemala, Rabbi Arthur Waskow, Director of   The Shalom Center <http://www.shalomctr.org> , and Dr. George Hunsinger, Professor at Princeton Theological Seminary and organizer of Church Folks for a Better America, today offered prayers seeking forgiveness for the US government's complicity in torture and for confirming a man who contributed to such an inconsistent policy.

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https://www.kintera.org/site/apps/ka/sd/donor.asp?c=irKQL0NSE&b=279767&en=kq
JLLPOuH4JFKSNCJdLII4MMIpKWIXPyFiKRK0NHIuF

U.S. Reportedly Firing White Phosphorous Rounds
The Washington Post reports that the U.S. has begun firing white phosphorous rounds that create a screen of fire that cannot be extinguished with water. Iraqi doctors are reporting that corpses are being brought into the hospital with their skin melted -- a reaction consistent with white phosphorous burns.
--Democracy Now, November 10, 2004

Church Folks for a Better America -- A Time Comes When Silence Is Betrayal -- Iraq news, in-depth analysis, antiwar poems, good sermons, and more

One of Bush's lines is that Saddam would still be in power if America had not gone to war. Richard Reeves has writtten an effective rebuttal to this shallow view.  (It is also posted and accessible at CFBA "Iraq News," if you have trouble with the link.)

Below I am including an organizing tool that some Kos readers may find useful.  Feel free to copy it or to modify it as you wish.

Church Folks for a Better America -- A Time Comes When Silence Is Betrayal -- Iraq news, in-depth analysis, antiwar poems, good sermons, and more

Sammara: No-go Zone
   Over the past few months, insurgents in Samarra have deposed the U.S.-picked leaders and put to death people suspected of collaborating with them, making the northern Iraqi city the latest no-go zone for Iraqi and American troops.
 
Fallujah: U.S. Making More Enemies  
   "We have received 17 dead people and six wounded, several in serious condition", said Doctor Seifeddin Taha, from the Falluja general hospital. "All the wounded are families. Among the dead, there could be two or three children but the bodies are torn to pieces and it's difficult to tell," he told the AFP news agency.

  

Thousands of Shiites Headed For Najaf
 12 August 2004 | 19:29 | FOCUS News Agency

Karbala. Thousands of Shiites have headed from Karbala to Najaf to make a "live shield" and protect Muslim sanctuaries, announced ITAR- TASS.

Shiite leader Moqtada Sadr's supporters from Kut have also headed for Najaf.

Some of you might wish to participate in The Dove Ad Project.

The hope is to raise enough money to have The Dove Ad published in a major metropolitan newspaper before the November elections.

There is also a lot to visit on this site:
Anti-war Poems, Good Sermons, War on Iraq IQ Test.

The "Iraq War Fact Sheet" is meant to be used as an organizing tool.

In the thread, DHinMI objected, rightly in my view, that the word is often overused and misapplied to our current situation.  

Others, however, remained unconvinced by him, and again, I think, they were not without some justification.

Billmon, for example, today calls attention to this troubling line from the lawyers' report to Rumsfeld which claims that the president is not bound by international conventions against torture.

The Report says that  "authority to set aside the laws is 'inherent in the president.'"  This is clearly authoritarian, anti-democratic thinking.  And it is troubling for its brazen candor.

I link an article below that I think is thoughtful about the question of creeping fascism in America today.  Though written a little over a year ago, it seems all the more ominous now.  

Bulldozing Rafah

Lawrence of Cyberia posts about the New Palestinian Nabka in progress in Rafah refugee camp.

The cry the world doesn't hear
Left I on the News
Tuesday, May 18, 2004

Israeli war crimes continued today, as 16 Palestinians were slaughtered in Rafah refugee camp in a continuation of the Goliath (with tanks and helicopter gunships) vs. David (with stones and the occasional AK-47) fight.

Half of them are described in news reports as "gunmen." Left unsaid is that these "gunmen" were defending their homeland (well, their current homeland anyway) against a military invasion by foreign troops, an activity completely legal under international law.

Their use of guns to defend themselves does not provide a justification for their killing.