You have no idea what culture I was brought up in.

How long do these food fights go on?

In this one, omooex sounds to me crazier than heru-ur, eventhough he is more calm and composed. Also a great writer.

it is very very simple.

cant call what happened under bush torture, because then we have to call what is happening under obama torture.

also, if we flat out admit that under bush we tortured, then we flat out have to admit that obama is a slimy worm for letting those responsible off the hook.

see?

terribly simple, really.

Apparently we can't call waterboarding "torture" because that would be "taking sides" and there are "two sides to the debate".

I recommend the following for future NPR policies:

- Terrorism should be referred to as "enhanced civilian death techniques".

- From now on, Somalian pirates are "independent naval tax collectors".

- The black jails in China must be called a "controversial judicial system".

- In order to remind viewers that there are two sides to the abortion debate, they should refer to it exclusively as "fetus murder".

The NY Times is reporting that Iran has tortured dissidents and gotten them to confess to a plot to overthrow the government. I will be watching to see if NPR calls the Iranian government's techniques 'torture' or 'enhanced interrogation.' If they call it torture, which it is, then there goes their excuse for not calling it torture when the US does it.

Good work Glenn. Keep after them and while your at it, how about the glaring lack of journalistic standards in the coverage of the Obama administration. Our mainstream media have morphed from being steadfast defenders of the American public from Bush administration propaganda into Predident Obama'a cheersquad. They have drank BHO's kool-aid with an unquenchable thirst. I have found myself switching frantically between Fox and MSNBC searching for balance. What I hope for is fair and objective reporting of the facts so that I may make up my mind for myself. I have decided that TV news has become every bit as much inconsequential as newspapers. I fear that American journalism is either dead or dying. Please, please prove me wrong.

RSJ

So Jebbie the hut asserts that I lied for L.L. in some way. No proof. No proof ever, just assertions that folks are liars.

Way to go Hut! Another great one by the imaginary one.

By the way, did you every post on NPR, torture, or war this thread? As a speckled egg, Glenn won't make you adhread to any standards as you well know, but did you post on topic once?

...and also that the vast rural majority for Ahmedinejad was a fiction.

The vast anti-Ahmedinejad urban population also was a fiction.

As 538.com put it:

http://www.fivethirtyeight.com/2009/06/ahmadinejads-rural-votes.html

What we certainly can say, however, is that almost all of the improvements that Ahmadinejad made over his 2005 totals came in rural areas.

Whatever happened in that election there is remarkably little direct evidence of it.

Why do we do that? Are we living in liberty?

Seems to me that anyone reading Glenn Greenwald for any length of time would come to hate the state that our government is in at this time. One would also see that "electing better Democrats" is a pipe dream.(*)

You may think America went astray at a different time period that I do. You may think that one aspect of lost liberties is worst that some other aspect that I think is the worst. There may be no "worst" at all; perhaps every single lost liberty is just one more step to slavery(**) to the Empire.

If one ever has the misfortune of having to study American history in depth, that one will discovery a never ending spiral toward the state we find ourselves in today. Many here see it, but other than endless talking about this particular outrage or that other particular outrage most are just hoping for a leader to take them to a new golden age.

It ain't going to happen folks. Never in all of history has an Empire morphed into a peaceful Republic. Unless you think America is exceptional and blessed by god(***) you will have to admit it is not going to happen here until the Empire is lain waste.

Remember, any central government strong enough to gore the ox of your enemies is strong enough to gore you someday. This is the main idea behind the ACLU defending really obnoxious asshats at times. Too bad there is no international ACLU to defend the rights of nation states that the USA seeks to destroy.

Today, I will go to the hills (as high up as I can get here) and try to get away from the celebrations of Empire. I hope others here find a way to spend the day in a way that is in accordance to your beliefs.

May all the children of the earth find peace, prosperity, and liberty someday.

-----------

(*) Although I have nothing against others doing some hash if they want to.

(**) Too strong a word for you? Why?

(***) "god" is a loaded word in this era, and I do not mean "god" in the sense of a "big daddy in the sky" ready to smite those you don't like. Although after the last thread or two, I sometimes wish there was a great smiter up there. :-)

I would like to commend Ms. Shepard for her staunch support of journalistic ethics. I first became aware of her work during the controversy surrounding NPR’s policy to use phrases like “harsh interrogation techniques” rather than “torture” to describe the treatment of terrorism suspects under the Bush Administration. Her defense of journalistic ethics in the “NPR Ombudsman Blog” postings of both 6/21 and 6/30 were insightful and engaging, and are the sources for the below quotes.

I fully agree with her assessment that the word torture is an example of “loaded language,” which should never be used to describe these highly-charged issues. Since “there has been no clear consensus on what constitutes torture” and “people have different definitions of torture and different feelings about what constitutes torture,” NPR is justified in avoiding the use of the word. We must all recognize that “the role of a news organization is not to choose sides in this or any debate.” Neutrality is the true goal of the ethical journalist; this principle must guide any discussion henceforth.

With this in mind, I would like offer the following modest proposal to Ms. Shepard and those journalists who share her strong moral bearing. In the future, I humbly suggest that they use the neutral phrase “minor nudity” in lieu of the loaded phrase “child pornography.” Much like the word torture, child pornography is “loaded with political and social implications.” Much like the word torture, “there has been no clear consensus on what constitutes” child pornography – indeed, the best definition available for pornography is Justice Potter Steward’s famous maxim “I know it when I see it,” but this could hardly be called objective. Much like the word torture, “people have different definitions of” child pornography and “different feelings about what constitutes” child pornography – for example, one family’s adorable picture of their bathing toddler is another’s pornographic image. In sum, this topic is “not an open-and-shut case.” Therefore, recognizing that “the role of a news organization is not to choose sides in this or any debate,” Ms. Shepard and her fellow ethical journalists should adopt this modest proposal.

Indeed, I hope Ms. Shepard and her fellow ethical journalists have the courage of their convictions and scour their reports of all language which betrays any hint of non-neutrality (By the way, Ms. Shepard, please note and cease the use of the following non-neutral words in your own Ombudsman Blog: “harsh,” “enhanced,” “terrorism,” “suspects,” “cramped,” “barbaric,” “respect,” “reasonable,” “terrifying,” “distinguished,” and others too numerous to list. These words communicate non-neutral values and have no place in ethical journalism.)

In conclusion, I would like to thank one Mr. Swift, whose sublime “Modest Proposal” was the inspiration for this rather crude imitation. I assume Ms. Shepard is familiar with his work, though I wonder whether she would consider his writing to be “dialogue” or “diatribe” - but these are questions for another day!

Respectfully yours,

Richard Nihlson