Good blog news to follow my frustrated statements on the issue of the day:
I now fear that people will grow weary of the Iraq Prisoner Abuse issue. I’m worried that the horrific scale of these crimes will cause people to look away in disbelief. This is sooooo not the time to look away. This goes way beyond a few bad soldiers misbehaving, Rumsfeld himself alluded to that, in all his stumbling and fumbling. There is an absolute DO NOT MISS article by Seymour Hersh in the latest New Yorker Magazine. In it, he takes inventory of the mountain of evidence that is emerging about crimes committed by the military, including:
unreleased photographs showed American soldiers “severely beating an Iraqi prisoner nearly to death, having sex with a female Iraqi prisoner, and “acting inappropriately with a dead body.” The officials said there also was a videotape, apparently shot by U.S. personnel, showing Iraqi guards raping young boys.” (NBC quoting military officials)
Bush and other officials have offered half-hearted apologies, saying “This is not America.” Yet if we look at it, two soldiers being charged, are prison guards in the US! These criminals have jobs back in the US, where they use the same sick practices and values. Furthermore, when you think back to recent American history, Abner Louima (assaulted with a plunger), Mental hospital guards sexually abusing patients, etc, etc.. are you sure this is not America? I know there are plenty of people out there who do their jobs well and respect others, that’s America. But we should never forget the dark and shameful traditions of disrespecting and humiliating those who are considered different or inferior… that too is America. (for more on this, listen to this radio program)
Note: I’m pulling Salaam Pax’s blog “Where is Raed,” I used to love it, but like so many now-famous bloggers, he never posts, so off my blogroll he goes.
Also:Great news for the blog: IT WORKS! My RSS feed works! If you don’t know what I’m talking about, read closely. RSS (really simple syndication) is a format for websites that makes them easy to grab and read using RSS feed reading programs. I myself use Feedreader, which is free and opensource. Also, it’s a small program. Using it, I have an enormous world of news available to me, just by clicking on a subject like “Technology News,” “Mexico News,” or “New York City News”.. the list is endless. My blog is now available via this service, just cut and paste my RSS feed into any of these programs, and bam – all my posts will appear automatically in that program. (the icon appears just below my archives on my menu)If you want news from all over the internet/world, try RSS!