Above the Fold: Slanting the Torture Story, Everything you won’t learn about torture in The New York Times, Charles Kaiser; Columbia Journalism Review, 12/3/08

http://www.cjr.org/full_court_press/above_the_fold_kaiser_on_nyt_t.php?page=all&print=true

Kaiser writes to Keller at the NYT:

“This morning’s torture story on the front page is 1174 words long, of which 147 words are devoted to the anti-torture position, which the reporters writing the story obviously disagree with. I would like to know on what basis you believe this equation meets traditional New York Times standards for fairness and balance.”

Keller’s response:

“[…] Your e-mail is 67 words long, of which zero are devoted to the substance of the story. [read more at the link]”.

*************

I'm Still Tortured by What I Saw in Iraq, By Matthew Alexander [Pseudonym], 11/28/08

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/11/28/AR2008112802242_pf.html

“ […] After my return from Iraq, I began to write about my experiences because I felt obliged, as a military officer, not only to point out the broken wheel but to try to fix it. When I submitted the manuscript of my book about my Iraq experiences to the Defense Department for a standard review to ensure that it did not contain classified information, I got a nasty shock. Pentagon officials delayed the review past the first printing date and then redacted an extraordinary amount of unclassified material -- including passages copied verbatim from the Army's unclassified Field Manual on interrogations and material vibrantly displayed on the Army's own Web site. I sued, first to get the review completed and later to appeal the redactions. Apparently, some members of the military command are not only unconvinced by the arguments against torture; they don't even want the public to hear them. […]”

A glimmer.

Yes, the Iranians are enraged with their government.

From the poll Glenn cites, Americans are obviously not yet enraged with their government.

It seemingly takes more to enrage the US citizenry than the Iranian citizenry, indicating that perhaps we do NOT [as you assert], “already have plenty of pictures on the street.”

Which innocents are you talking about? Since we already know what has been done in our name, and have not been enraged enough to even get a true accounting of those actions, much less bring the perpetrators to justice, it certainly cannot be US.

The Ballad of Lyndie and Charles.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1192701/Why-hell-I-feel-sorry-says-girl-soldier-abused-Iraqi-prisoners-Abu-Ghraib-prison.html

Why Authoritarians Now Control the Republican Party: The Rise of Authoritarian Conservatism, Part Two in a Three-Part Series; John W. Dean, 9/21/07

http://writ.news.findlaw.com/scripts/printer_friendly.pl?page=/dean/20070921.html

Authoritarian Leaders:

Again, I have prepared a listing of the traits revealed in the testing of these remarkably manipulative and cunning personalities, who are typically men: dominating, opposes equality, desirous of personal power, amoral, intimidating and bullying, faintly hedonistic, vengeful, pitiless, exploitive, manipulative, dishonest, cheats to win, highly prejudiced (racist, sexist, homophobic), mean-spirited, militant, nationalistic, tells others what they want to hear, takes advantage of "suckers," specializes in creating false images to sell self, may or may not be religious, usually politically and economically conservative/Republican.

Authoritarian Followers:

[...] submissiveness to authority and conventionality [...], both men and women who test high as right-wing authoritarians, often evidence: highly religious, moderate to little education, trust untrustworthy authorities, prejudiced (particularly against homosexuals, women, and followers of religions other than their own), mean-spirited, narrow-minded, intolerant, bullying, zealous, dogmatic, uncritical toward their chosen authority, hypocritical, inconsistent and contradictory, prone to panic easily, highly self-righteous, moralistic, strict disciplinarian, severely punitive, demands loyalty and returns it, little self-awareness, usually politically and economically conservative/Republican.

There was a commenter on the old NYT comment boards who called himself john_locke [and later blue_sun]. He was incredibly knowledgeable and articulate and didn't suffer fools. I think I read every word he wrote there for two years...then the boards were shut down. Anyway, he posted this list of right-wing chickenhawks in November 2006:

Here is a list of my favorite right-wing draft-dodger/warmonger/chicken-hawks:

Dick Cheney, Paul Wolfowitz, Rush Limbaugh, Richard Perle, Jeb Bush, Scooter Libby, Karl Rove, Tom DeLay, Trent Lott, Phil Gramm, Sean Hannity, Bill O'Reilly, Bill Frist, Douglas Feith, John Ashcroft, Mitch McConnell, Rick Santorum, Dick Armey, Roy Blunt, Dennis Hastert, Newt Gingrich, Antonin Scalia, Clarence Thomas, John Roberts, Samuel Alito, Spencer Abraham, Bill Bennett, Henry Hyde, Jack Kemp, Don Nickles, Elliott Abrams, J. C. Watts, Bill Simon, Saxby Chambliss, P.J. O'Rourke, Bill Kristol, Wolf Blitzer, David Horowitz, Tony Snow, Mike (Weiner) Savage, George Will, Pat Robertson, Ralph Reed, Jerry Falwell, Ken Starr, Gary Bauer, Chris Matthews, Alan Keyes, Dan Quayle, Michael Medved, Brit Hume, Matt Drudge, Tommy Thompson, Pat Buchanan, Bob Barr, Charleton Heston, Fred Barnes, Vin Weber, Steve Forbes, Paul Harvey, Michael Reagan, Roger Ailes (president of Fox News), and Marc Racicot (who somehow avoided the draft with a lottery number of 23).

Dubya managed to avoid getting drafted when, just days before his 2-S student deferment ran out, he managed to leapfrog over hundreds of others on the waiting list to grab one of four open slots in the "Champaigne Squadron" of the Texas Air National Guard. Dan Quayle also hid out in the NG.

Donald Rumsfeld elected to go to Yale during the Korean War (on an NROTC scholarship, no less) and avoided having to report for active duty until 1954, after the war was over.

Richard Nixon applied for non-combatant status as a conscientious objector (his mother was a Quaker) and served in a military motor pool far from any combat.

Ronald Reagan was nominally in the military, but spent WW II on a Hollywood sound stage playing soldier in the movies.

For the record, I find that it is eminently germane. People who have shown their lack of moral character and patriotism by actively supporting wars but refusing to fight in them, should not be entrusted with the power to start new wars that, once again, other people will have to fight and die in.--john_locke