Enough Evidence to Prosecute Rumsfeld for War Crimes

While there are many who say that prosecuting the Chimperator, Cheney, Rumsfeld and others in the former Bush administration would be divisive and take up precious time needed to save the U.S. economy, part of me worries that if these men are allowed to escape accountability for their deliberate misdeeds a terrible message will be sent to other nations as well as here at home to other future would be tyrants. Between the documented torture and countless needless deaths of U.S. service members and Iraqi civilians, the evidence cries out that someone be held accountable - especially for actions in clear violation of the Geneva Conventions. One United Nations official according to Raw Story says there is enough evidence to prosecute Rumsfeld. Here are some highlights:

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Monday, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Torture Manfred Nowak told CNN's Rick Sanchez that the US has an "obligation" to investigate whether Bush administration officials ordered torture, adding that he believes that there is already enough evidence to prosecute former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld.

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"We have clear evidence," he said. "In our report that we sent to the United Nations, we made it clear that former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld clearly authorized torture methods and he was told at that time by Alberto Mora, the legal council of the Navy, 'Mr. Secretary, what you are actual ordering here amounts to torture.' So, there we have the clear evidence that Mr. Rumsfeld knew what he was doing but, nevertheless, he ordered torture."

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A bipartisan Senate report released last month found Rumsfeld and other top administration officials responsible for abuse of Guantanamo detainees in US custody.It said Rumsfeld authorized harsh interrogation techniques on December 2, 2002 at the Guantanamo prison, although he ruled them out a month later.The coercive measures were based on a document signed by Bush in February, 2002.

Former Regent Law School Dean Pleads Guilty of Forceable Sodomy

Christo-fascist Pat Robertson likes to mind everyone else's business and speaks out against LGBT citizens regularly. Perhaps he ought to spend a bit more time minding his own university. Back in June I did a post concerning charges against Stephen McPherson (at left), a one time Regent Law School assistant dean, who was charged with sexual abuse of young girls. Now McPherson has pleaded guilty on Friday in Chesapeake Circuit Court to sexually abusing children. Yet another shining example of the overly pious, self-righteous folks at Regent not practicing what they preach. Here are highlights from the Virginian Pilot on this latest development:

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Stephen McPherson, a former Regent University law school assistant dean, pleaded guilty Friday in Chesapeake Circuit Court to sexually abusing children. McPherson, 39, of Chesapeake entered guilty pleas to two counts of forcible sodomy and two counts of object sexual penetration. He is set to be sentenced May 22.

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McPherson faces five years to life on each count. Assistant Commonwealth's Attorneys Karen Brown and Minna Sandwich agreed to withdraw nine other felonies against McPherson in return for his pleas.

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There was no agreement on a potential sentence, except that prosecutors will recommend a cap of 18 years and six months. McPherson must wear an electronic monitoring device while free on bond pending sentencing. The judge ordered him to undergo a psychosexual exam and to have no contact with the victims.

University of Virginia Gay Dad Study

My alma mater, the University of Virginia, through its Psychology Department is seeking participants in a gay father study. Details on the study and how to make contact if interested in participating can be found at Proud Parenting. Participants can remain anonymous if they so desire. Check it out and if you are so inclined, go ahead and participate. Here is some brief information on the study:

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Are you a gay dad? Would you be willing to answer some confidential questions about your life and about your family? The purpose of this study is to examine the many ways families headed by gay fathers have been created, explore how families function, and learn about the relationship between partners.

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The study consists of an online survey and will take approximately 25- 35 minutes of your time. To qualify for the study you have to identify as male, a father, and gay, bisexual or homosexual and have a least one child of any age; this child can be biological, adopted, foster, step, or other child. You do not need to be the child's legal parent to participate. This study has been approved by the University of Virginia IRB #2008-0407-00, and I am working with Dr. Charlotte J. Patterson who is a Professor of Psychology at the University of Virginia.

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If you and/or your partner are interested in participating or want further information please contact Samantha L. Tornello (Principal Investigator) via email GayDadsStudy@gmail.com. She will send you a web link that you can use to access the study.

More Monday Male Beauty

GOP Bad Faith Economics

The efforts of the GOP members of Congress to obstruct meaningful legislation aimed at halting the nation's economic free fall continue with no apparent concern about the negative consequences to rank and file citizens who are losing their jobs in huge numbers. I have condemned this efforts previously and two good columns today look at the unconscionable behavior. The first is a piece in the New York Times by Paul Krugman. The second is a column in the Washington Post by E.J. Dionne. In each case, the columnist look at the actions of the GOP who care nothing about average citizens unless they are unborn fetuses or wealthy high rollers. Here are highlights from Krugman's column:

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As the debate over President Obama’s economic stimulus plan gets under way, one thing is certain: many of the plan’s opponents aren’t arguing in good faith. Conservatives really, really don’t want to see a second New Deal, and they certainly don’t want to see government activism vindicated. So they are reaching for any stick they can find with which to beat proposals for increased government spending.

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So as a public service, let me try to debunk some of the major antistimulus arguments that have already surfaced. Any time you hear someone reciting one of these arguments, write him or her off as a dishonest flack.

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First, there’s the bogus talking point that the Obama plan will cost $275,000 per job created. Why is it bogus? Because it involves taking the cost of a plan that will extend over several years, creating millions of jobs each year, and dividing it by the jobs created in just one of those years.

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Next, write off anyone who asserts that it’s always better to cut taxes than to increase government spending because taxpayers, not bureaucrats, are the best judges of how to spend their money. Here’s how to think about this argument: . . . it’s clear that when it comes to economic stimulus, public spending provides much more bang for the buck than tax cuts — and therefore costs less per job created (see the previous fraudulent argument) — because a large fraction of any tax cut will simply be saved.

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But here’s the thing: Most Americans aren’t listening. The most encouraging thing I’ve heard lately is Mr. Obama’s reported response to Republican objections to a spending-oriented economic plan: “I won.” Indeed he did — and he should disregard the huffing and puffing of those who lost.

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E. J. Dionne goes further and states in part as follows about the obstructionist GOP:

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Beneath the warm pledges of bipartisanship and the earnest calls for cooperation in the midst of a grave crisis lurks an unpleasant fact: From the moment it loses power, the opposition party turns to the task of getting it back.

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On Friday, Gallup released a devastating report, based on 30,000 interviews over the course of 2008. It found that last year an average of 36 percent of Americans identified themselves as Democrats and only 28 percent called themselves Republicans. Gallup noted that this was the largest advantage for the Democratic Party in more than two decades.

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Both Thiessen and Hensarling reflect an important undercurrent in Republican thinking: that the GOP should place its bets on the prospect that Obama's policies will fail, knowing that if the president succeeds, he and the Democrats are likely to gain ground no matter what Republicans do. This is hardly in keeping with the bipartisan spirit the White House seeks to foster. But it's a lot easier than coming up with new ideas.

Pope Benedict XVI Rehabilitates Holocaust Denier - Update

On Saturday I posted about Pope Benedict XVI un-excommunication of one of Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre’s far right appointees, Briton Richard Williamson (pictured at left), who is denies that the Holocaust occurred and/or that there were no Nazi gas chambers and that at worse only 300,000 Jews perished. It now turns out that those views are only a few of Bishop Williamson's views that ought to be beyond the pale for any truly Christian Pope. Jim Burroway at Box Turtle Bulletin has even more shocking information on this man whom has now apparently been embraced by former Hitler Youth, Benedict XVI. This event, plus many, many more previously recounted in prior posts on this blog beg the question of why ANYONE gives credence, deference or respect to Benedict XVI and his unholy minions at the Vatican. Here are some highlights from Jim's story:

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With Pope Benedict XVI saying such outrageous things as describing same-sex marriage as an “obstacle on the road to peace,” or opposing the decriminalization of homosexuality worldwide — including in countries that carry the death penalty even though the Vatican is itself opposed to the death penalty — it’s hard to imagine him surprising us much. And yet, he manages not merely to surprise, but astonish:

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The Pope has lifted the excommunication from the Roman Catholic Church of four bishops appointed by a breakaway archbishop more than 20 years ago. One of Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre’s appointees, Briton Richard Williamson, outraged Jews by saying the Nazi gas chambers did not exist.

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It turns out that Williamson is a fan of a lot of remarkable anti-Semitic conspiracy theories. In a September 2002 newsletter, Williamson charges that “Judeo-Masonry is known to have been envisaging three World Wars to achieve its unified global domination. . .

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Williamson’s newsletters are a treasure-trove of paranoia, nutty conspiracies and general all-around lunacy. Williamson argues that women should not wear trousers and that “almost no girl should go to any university” because doing so contributes to the “the unwomaning of woman.” He blames modernism for causing the Rwandan massacre, he describes pluralism as the major threat to the Faith and salvation of Catholics today, and he decries religious liberty as a substitute religion. He has even criticized the movie The Sound of Music because of how it portrays those “nasty Nazis” and elevates “self-centered” romantic love. His views on gay people, engaging in a sin “crying to Heaven for vengeance,” are all too predictable:

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In fact the sin [of homosexuality] is so unnatural that Mother Church ranks it alongside murder, defrauding the worker of his just wage, and oppression of the widow or orphan, as one of the four sins "crying to Heaven for vengeance". However, God did not wait for the founding of the Catholic Church to instill in men the horror of this sin, but he implanted in the human nature of all of us, unless or until we corrupt it, an instinct of violent repugnance for this particular sin, comparable to our instinctive repugnance for other misuses of our human frame, such as coprophagy.

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Take a good look at Bishop Williamson and come to terms with just how horrible and nasty Catholicism is becoming under the Nazi Pope. Oh, and by the way, Benedict XVI nonetheless has the insufferable gall to criticize Barack Obama:

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ROME (AFP) - A senior Vatican official on Saturday attacked US President Barack Obama for "arrogance" for overturning a ban on state funding for family-planning groups that carry out or facilitate abortions overseas.

Monday Male Beauty

Documents: Church Leaders Knew of Abuse

The shamelessness of the Catholic Church leadership truly knows no boundaries. The latest evidence of conscious decisions to throw the interests and safety of children and youths to the wind comes out of the Archdiocese of Indianapolis where church documents show that two former Indianapolis archbishops -- the Most Rev. George J. Biskup and the Most Rev. Edward T. O'Meara -- were aware of abuse allegations against former priest, Harry Monroe, and that he was a child molester. What did they do? Nothing other than continued to assign Monroe to new parish positions, where he preyed on other children. These guys - and their bosses at the Vatican - give moral bankruptcy a new meaning, yet the Nazi Pope thinks Catholics much less everyone else should give a damn about he statements on morality. Here are some highlights from the Indianapolis Star:

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The Archdiocese of Indianapolis has admitted that one of its former priests, Harry Monroe, was a child molester. But church officials have never acknowledged they knew anything about the abuse while it was happening. Now, a host of new documents obtained through a court petition by The Indianapolis Star reveal that church officials knew about allegations against Monroe by 1976 -- early in an era of sex abuse that lasted from 1974 to 1984.

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The documents also make it clear that two former Indianapolis archbishops -- the Most Rev. George J. Biskup and the Most Rev. Edward T. O'Meara -- were aware of abuse allegations at the time, never reported them to police and continued to assign Monroe to new parish positions, where he preyed on other children.

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The newly revealed records -- coupled with others already public -- show a church hierarchy that twice sought medical evaluations and care for Monroe through a clinic that treated abusive priests from across the country.

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"This is a smoking gun," said David Clohessy, national director for the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests. "It is a clear indication that the hierarchy knew very early on, not about one incident, not about mere suspicions, but they knew enough and were worried enough that they sent him out of state for treatment."

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Monroe would sexually abuse boys on camping trips, in motel rooms and in parish rectories -- all while serving as a priest in Indianapolis, Terre Haute and in Perry County, along the Ohio River. Frequently, he would offer the boys -- ages 10 to 15 -- beer, liquor or marijuana as an enticement.

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Since 2005, 13 accusers have filed lawsuits against Monroe and the archdiocese claiming the unchecked abuse has caused them a variety of problems. Some say it led them to abandon their church and their faith or to struggle against authority. Several resorted to drug and alcohol abuse. Some have problems with physical intimacy. And one Terre Haute mother who hasn't filed a suit blames her son's suicide on the abuse he suffered at the hands of Harry Monroe.

Sunday Male Beauty

Bush Sour Grapes

I bookmarked this New York Times article a few day ago, but wanted to come back to it since the harping and whining it describes illustrates all too fully the fact that many in the GOP still do not (or will not) grasp that the Chimperator's regime was a disaster. In his inaugural address, Obama rightly discredited and rejected the many failed policies and subjugation of the U.S. Constitution which took root under the regime of the Chimperator and Emperor Palpatine Cheney. Nothing less than an immediate repudiation on day one of his administration would have been appropriate for Obama. Until the rank and file in the GOP base come to terms with the sad reality that was the Bush/Cheney regime, I do not see the GOP regaining credibility with the majority of Americans. Here are some highlights of the whining and sour grapes heard on the plane back to Texas:

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On the plane, no longer Air Force One but now Special Air Mission 28000, they talked about the speech. George W. Bush, the former president, was heading home to Texas with his inner circle, having just left the Capitol, where his successor first thanked him for his service and then proceeded to discredit it.

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The Bush team had worked assiduously to make the transition smooth for the incoming President Obama and stayed out of the way as he used the postelection period to take leadership of the economy even before being sworn in. And now, as far as some of them were concerned, the new president had used his inaugural lectern to give the back of the hand to a predecessor who had been nothing but gracious to him.

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“On both style and substance,” said Rahm Emanuel, the new White House chief of staff, the new president is “turning the page.” Mr. Emanuel mocked Bush advisers for bristling at the message of the Inaugural Address. “If they didn’t know that was the judgment of people, then their subscription to the newspapers were canceled over the last three years,” he said.

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Mr. Obama never directly mentioned Mr. Bush’s name after the ritual thank you at the beginning of his speech, but the context of some of his remarks was lost on no one. He criticized “our collective failure to make hard choices and prepare the nation for a new age.” He promised to “restore science to its rightful place.” He rejected “as false the choice between our safety and our ideals.” He assured the rest of the world “that we are ready to lead once more.”

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Some analysts said it was the first time since Franklin D. Roosevelt took over from Herbert Hoover in 1933 that an incoming president used his Inaugural Address to so evidently repudiate his predecessor as he headed for the door.

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Ms. Hughes said they took offense at suggestions that Mr. Bush had avoided hard decisions and had not helped people around the world, noting increases in foreign aid and his campaign to fight AIDS in Africa. “That statement, I felt, was fundamentally unfair and dishonest,” Ms. Hughes said.

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The shots signal a sustained debate in coming months between Bush and Obama partisans over the former president’s record. Mr. Bush says he will let his successor govern without criticism. His defenders took no such pledge. They understand victors write history, but they are determined to try to help shape that narrative themselves.