OBAMA TRIES TO CONCEAL WAR CRIMES SHOWN IN PHOTOS OF TORTURE IN IRAQ, AFGHANISTAN

The photos of abuse and torture of prisoners in Iraq and Afghanistan are no doubt hard to look at and say a lot about the cruel character of Americans in Iraq. However, that is no reason to suppress them, as Barack Obama now seems to want to do.

Better to release all the dirty linen to fresh air, admit profound mistakes, and tell the world that the United States is on a different course.

Surely these photos will in due course come out. No one can hide the truth, as momentous as these photos are.

By not releasing the photos, Obama is trying to have the U.S. government cover up war crimes. This will not succeed.

BUSH FLAUNTS DECLARATION OF HUMAN RIGHTS

Today marks the 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. On December 10th, 1948, the United Nations General Assembly adopted the text. Here is the text.

There are 30 Articles to the document. Here is Article 5:

No one shall be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.

Perhaps Bush and Cheney have not heard of this prohibition on cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment. I am sorry to say that it appears that neither has the CIA nor the U.S. Army. We can deduce this from the CIA's secret detention sites and the Army's establishment of Abu Ghraib.

Consider Article 10:

Everyone is entitled in full equality to a fair and public hearing by an independent and impartial tribunal, in the determination of his rights and obligations and of any criminal charge against him.

Bush and Cheney have made fair and public hearings a joke. For example, some prisoners in Guantanamo have been there since 2002 without any trial or public hearing. Even here in the U.S., Bush made Padilla, a U.S. citizen, an enemy combatant not entitled to a trial, until the U.S. Supreme Court threatened to take up his case.

Bush and Cheney and their gang have no excuses. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights has been in existence long enough for anyone to claim that they were unaware of its provisions.

CHENEY A WORLD TROUBLEMAKER FEATURED IN TODAY'S NY TIMES

We don't need Vice President Cheney travelling to Georgia on Tuesday stirring up trouble there against the Russians.

Cheney's idea of American power is exclusively one of military power. He would like to attack Iran and also maybe North Korea. He was the architect of using methods of torture to interrogate Islamic prisoners of war held at Bagram and Guantanamo. He approved every use of waterboarding.

And what is the result? The world loathes Americans and their pretentious portrayal of themselves as defending liberty and justice for all. Cheney has made the world so much more dangerous, so much more liable to acts of terrorism, with so much more hate and racial and ethnic distrust.

Yet Sheryl Gay Stolberg writes in today's The New York Times a story on Cheney that attempts to make him less of a monster, more mellow, more introspective.

Writes Stolberg:

"Mr. Cheney declined to be interviewed. But those close to him say he approaches retirement with neither reticence nor eagerness, but rather with a Zen-like confidence that even his most controversial moves, like his stance in favor of domestic wiretapping, have been necessary to keep the country safe.

"“It’s not suffering defeats, it’s not nostalgia, it’s not urgency to get stuff done, it’s not, ‘I can’t wait to get out of here,’ ” said Mary Matalin, a longtime adviser, describing Mr. Cheney’s state of mind. “I hate to use yoga terms, but he’s really in the moment.”"

Hasn't Stolberg read Jane Mayer's The Dark Side? How can we talk about Cheney without talking about torture, waterboarding, rendition, secret prisons, disregard for human rights, desire to attack Iran, predilection for military confrontations, the shredding of the U.S. Constitution in favor of executive power?

BUSH - HEAD TRASHER OF U.S. CONSTITUTION - CRITICIZES CHINESE FOR LIMITING RIGHTS

I would like to see George W. Bush just shut up, to quote Keith Olbermann, when it comes to his telling and lecturing other countries and regimes how to manage their own internal affairs.

Last night, TV reports showed Bush lecturing the Chinese on their society, wishing that the Chinese would respect such things as freedom of speech and religion. This would be well and good if Bush had clean hands. But he does not. He is after all the person responsible for creating Guantanamo, military tribunals, use of harsh interrogation methods (a euphemism for waterboarding and torture), Abu Ghraib, rendition of suspects to other totalitarian regimes for extreme punishments, flouting of valid laws passed by Congress, and an overall trashing of individual constitutional rights.

Here is the report of Bush's speech in The Washington Post as reported by Debbi Wilgoren and Michael Abramowitz.

REPUBLICANS AT CONSERVATIVE CAUCUS SHOUT OUT APPROVAL FOR TORTURE & WAR IN IRAQ

The New York Times today carries a story by Sheryl Lee Stolberg and Steven Lee Myers on the likely approach to be taken by the Republicans in supporting John McCain for president. The focus will be that the Democrats are weak and ineffective in combating terrorism.

The note was sounded by Mitt Romney in his exit speech when he said he was pulling out to prevent the Democrats from winning and surrendering to terrorism.

Bush and Cheney also made appearances this week at the Conservative Political Action Conference where they received wild cheers and ovations for, among other things, starting the war in Iraq, torturing prisoners at Guantanamo and Abu Ghraib and who knows where else, gutting the protections of the Fourth Amendment, seizing more and more executive power, running roughshod over the Congress, and so on.

What truly amazed was the reaction from the attendees at the Conservative Political Action Conference. They cheered and clapped when Cheney said that he would order the harsh interrogation methods(read torture) again if needed, showing that the Bush/Cheney supporters have a deficiency when it comes to Constitutional and human rights. It is one thing for Bush and Cheney to be pro-torture, but it is an even worse indictment of their Republican supporters who shamelessly yell out their affirmations for what should be a reprehensible act in the light of fundamental ethics and morals.

BUSH THE HYPOCRITE IN CZECH REPUBLIC

The BBC has a report today on George Bush speaking in the Czech Republic, criticizing Russia on democratic reforms.

"In a speech in Prague focused on global democracy, Mr Bush said the US friendship with Russia and China was "complex".

"He said: "In Russia, reforms that once promised to empower citizens have been derailed, with troubling implications for democratic development."

"Mr Bush also said the US disagreed with China's leaders who "believe that they can continue to open the nation's economy without also opening its political system". "

Bush is always in the condescending habit of telling other sovereign countries what to do. "Russia must do this; China must do that." He never looks for the speck in his own eye. He never recognizes the United States for being a military bully in the world. It is always the other country which fails on democratic reforms, never Bush or America.

But there is stuff in Bush's speech that shows him to be outright ridiculous and a fool, as when he says people call him a "dissident."

"Mr Bush said he had been accused of being a "dissident president" for pledging the US "to the ultimate goal of ending tyranny in our world".

"He said: "If standing for liberty in the world makes me a dissident, then I'll wear the title with pride."

Does George Bush "stand for liberty" in the world? Of course, not. How could Bush be the symbol for liberty, freedom or democracy when he himself set up Guantanamo? And how about Abu Ghraib? These were not some low-rank soldiers taking it upon themselves to use sexual degradation and dogs to elicit information. This came right from the top. And let's not forget the water-boarding used by Bush's CIA. Oh, no! George Bush is the antithesis of liberty, of democracy, of freedom.