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Video was released Tuesday of a February, 2003 Gitmo interrogation of a then-16-year-old detainee, a Canadian named Omar Khadr.

Amnesty International, among other groups, wants the Canadian government to ask the United States to return Khadr to Canada, but Prime Minister Stephen Harper objects.  Khadr is now 21, and has been held for six years.

Khadr’s attorneys are saying he was tortured to get confessions and that Canada’s participation at Guantanamo Bay is a violation of the rule of law.

At one point during one of the interviews, Khadr raises his orange shirt to show wounds on his back and stomach that he says he sustained during the firefight.
“I’m not a doctor, but I think you’re getting good medical care,” the interrogator responds. As with all the agents in the video, his face is blacked out to protect his identity.

Khadr cries, “I lost my eyes. I lost my feet. Everything!” in reference to how the firefight in Afghanistan affected his vision.

“No, you still have your eyes and your feet are still at the end of your legs, you know,” a man says.

Between gasping sobs, Khadr tells the agent several times, “You don’t care about me.”

As Khadr continues crying, the agent calls for a break.

“Look, I want to take a few minutes. I want you to get yourself together. Relax a bit. Have a bite to eat and we’ll start again,” the interrogator says.

Khadr chants in haunting voice

Then Khadr begins sobbing with his head in both his hands, chanting over and over again in a haunting voice. His words are difficult to hear, but he seems to be saying repeatedly, “Kill me.”

The video is hard to see because slats from a ventilation grill block much of the shot. This is just a few minutes of a seven hour interrogation. You can see chest and back wounds that had not healed months after he was captured in Afghanistan.  The video was made by the US military and given to Khadr’s lawyers by court order.  Khadr, who is accused of killing an American soldier in Afghanistan in July, 2002, is questioned by Canadian intelligence.

Crooks and Liars has a post on how Bush is shamelessly using the price of oil to bash Democrats.  For one thing, why did he wait until now to lift the drilling ban? Furthermore, his own energy department says prices won’t be affected much by drilling, and the results don’t occur for up to a decade, anyway.

Progressive Accountablity has McCain’s record on oil:

McCain Voted To Protect Big Oil

McCain Voted Against Reducing Dependence On Foreign Oil. In 2005, McCain voted against legislation calling on the President to submit a plan to reduce foreign petroleum imports by 40 percent. [Senate Roll Call Vote #140, 6/16/05]

In 2005, McCain Voted Against A Windfall Profit Tax On Oil Companies At Least Twice. McCain voted against a measure that would have provided an income tax rebate to Americans by taxing enormous oil company profits temporarily on an sale of crude above $40 a barrel. [S 2020, Vote #331, 11/17/05; S 2020, Vote # 341, 11/17/05; Houston Chronicle, 11/17/05; Las Vegas Review-Journal, 11/18/05; Environment and Energy Daily¸ 11/18/05]

McCain Voted Against Taxing Oil Companies To Provide $100 Rebate To Consumers. In 2005, McCain voted against an amendment to impose a temporary tax on oil company profits from the sale of crude oil. The funds would be used to provide every taxpayer with a $100 non-refundable tax credit for 2005 for each person in their household. The amendment failed 33-65. [S 2020, Vote #341, 11/17/05]McSame As Bush:

McCain Changed Position To Embrace Big Oil Backed Offshore Drilling

McCain Now: McCain Called For Lifting The Off Shore Drilling Moratorium. During a press availability in Arlington Virginia, John McCain called for a lifting of the federal moratorium on offshore drilling. [McCain Press Availability, 6/16/07]

McCain Then: McCain Voted Against Off-Shore Drilling At Least Three Times, and Twice Supported Florida Efforts To Prevent Drilling Off Their Coasts. [H.R. 6, Vote #143, 6/21/05]S. 14, Vote #221, 6/12/03][H.R. 2788, Vote #241, 10/7/89]

Houston Chronicle: McCain Announced Drilling Stance To “Make Amends With Texas Energy Producers.” The Houston Chronicle Reported, “Republican presidential candidate John McCain, seeking to make amends with Texas energy producers who did not support him during the 2008 GOP primary season, said Monday he wants to end a federal moratorium on offshore drilling and create “additional incentives” for states to approve new exploration ventures.” [Houston Chronicle, 6/17/08]

It’s preposterous to think that this New Yorker Magazine cover is anything but satire.

Obama in a turban and Michelle as Angela Davis giving Dap (that’s a fist bump for you non-urban folk) while the American flag burns in the fireplace.  Barry Blitt, the artist who created the cover, has this to say:

I think the idea that the Obamas are branded as unpatriotic [let alone as terrorists] in certain sectors is preposterous. It seemed to me that depicting the concept would show it as the fear-mongering ridiculousness that it is.

Nico Pitney over at Huffington has some of Blitt’s other provocative covers.  The right wing wil be all over this, whining (thank you, Phil Gramm) that they could never get away with putting such an image on one of their publications.  And that is true, because they would actually mean it.  Are we so uptight that we can’t recognize good satire when we see it?

Jake Tapper runs down some of the other satirical covers for which The New Yorker is known.

The South Carolina Governor, who couldn’t come up with a difference between Bush’s economic policies and McCain’s, says decisions about leaving Iraq should come from DC not from our hosts in Iraq.  This, in spite of the fact that Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki and National Security Adviser Mowaffak al-Rubaie have been clear that they would like a timeline for our departure.

“Today, we are looking at the necessity of terminating the foreign presence on Iraqi lands and restoring full sovereignty,” Maliki told Arab ambassadors in blunt remarks during an official visit to Abu Dhabi, capital of the United Arab Emirat

h/t Think Progress

And “Phil Gramm is right.”  So, when Obama says people are bitter and clinging to guns, he gets raked over the coals.  When Republicans say people are whiners and crybabies, that’s okay?

A new report sponsored by the Pentagon will call for a steeper reduction of American troops in Iraq than even Democrats like Barak Obama are suggesting.  The 300-page report by the Naval Postgraduate School of Monterey, CA, will recommend that by spring of 2009, troop levels go down to 50,000.  The study also calls for–hold on to your cowboy hat–diplomacy and negotiations.  The biggest problem with implementation: General David Patraeus, who is said to disagree with the report, says Newsweek.

The most sweeping of the Bush’s secret surveillance capabilities are left intact in the new domestic spying bill, according to Newsweek.  Requests kept mounting after 9/11, often for information two or three parties removed from the original targets, with no court oversight.  Wire transfers, bank transactions, emails, phone calls, and who knows what else are subject to government intrusion.,

“This affects far more people-and has a lot more risk of sweeping in innocent contacts-than the actual interception of phone calls,” says Jim Dempsey, vice president of the Center for Democracy and Technology, a privacy group. “It’s bizarre that this has not been discussed more.”

After phumphering for a while, he comes up with NAFTA; and then realizes that doesn’t quite wash. Wipe him off the VP list.

h/t Crooks and Liars.

Can’t pay the rent? About to lose your home becaue the mortgage is beyond reach?   Your 401K is now a 201K?  It’s not the economy, stupid.  It’s psychological.

Here are the accolades McCain heaped on Gramm before the “whiners” comment:

McCain: “A person I’ve had the honor and pleasure of knowing as a friend and a great economist… my dear friend and comrade, Senator Phil Gramm.” [McCain Town Hall, CNN Live Feed, (Waco, TX ), 3/3/08]

McCain: “There is no one in America that is more respected on the issue of economics than Senator Phil Gramm. So I’m honored that you are here, Phil. Thank you for your great service.” [Speech at Dell Headquarters, Round Rock, TX, 2/29/08]

McCain: “A lot of the people that I respect that are advising me, like Phil Gramm and Jack Kemp…” [ABC This Week, 2/17/08]

And then:

MCCAIN: “Phil Gramm does not speak for me. I speak for me.” [Media Availability, Belleville, MI, 07/10/08]

For years, John McCain has told the story that, when asked by his Vietnamese captors to name the members of his squadron, he would instead name the starting line-up of the Green Bay Packers.  But when telling the same story to KDKA poltical editor Jon Delano it was suddenly the Pittsburgh Steelers whose starting line-up was the one he recited.  From his 1999 book Faith of My Fathers:

Demands for military information were accompanied by threats to terminate my medical treatment if I did not cooperate. Eventually, I gave them my ship’s name and squadron number, and confirmed that my target had been the power plant. Pressed for more useful information, I gave the names of the Green Bay Packers offensive line, and said they were members of my squadron. When asked to identify future targets, I simply recited the names of a number of North Vietnamese cities that had already been bombed.”

In 2005, when A&E ran the movie version of the book, McCain discussed this incident on CNN:

“That was the starting lineup of the Green Bay Packers, the first Super Bowl champions, yes,” McCain responded. But it’s — it was the best I could think of at the time.”

But when in Pittsburgh, do as the Pittsburghians do:

“When I was first interrogated and really had to give some information because of the pressures, physical pressures on me, I named the starting lineup, defensive line of the Pittsburgh Steelers as my squadron mates.”

“Did you really?” asked the reporter.

“Yes,” McCain said.

“In your POW camp?” asked the reporter.

“Yes,” McCain said.

“Could you do it today?” asked the reporter.

“No, unfortunately,” McCain said.

And he couldn’t have done it back then, either, probably, as since it was the Green Bay Packers whose line-up he used.

KDKA has the video.

Those of us who knew Tony and of his valiant fight against colon cancer are in shock today.  I first met Tony in the mid 1990’s when we were guests on Bill Maher’s “Politically Incorrect”.  He was funny, even with the dispair of illness; he was smart, hard working and devoted to his family.  Most of all, he was decent and kind.  Rest in peace, friend.

From: Robert
Sent: Friday, July 11, 2008 10:46 PM
To: alan@alan.com
Subject: great show!

I just would like to tell you how much I dislike you. First of all, my address is *********** TX. You may want to know this for the record in the event you have a backbone. Being the liberal pussy that you are, I doubt that you do… I watch Fox news and the H & C show pretty much every day and up until now, I have been able to reconcile why Fox has your pussy ass as a marker for Hannity, but I just can take hearing your stupid liberal (wrong) views any longer. I can’t stand looking at your skinny, emaciated, fagot ass any more. I am sure that Fox pays you stupid money for being the token liberal, but I think it is time for you to move along to CNBC, NBC or ABC. You would be a nice complement to the idiot talking heads that produce the daily O’slama endorsements on the network morning shows. It would give me great pleasure to physically stomp your ass into a mud hole. Come on down and let me show you some good old Texas hospitality…..fagot.

Robert

From: Alan
Sent: Friday, July 11, 2008 11:21 PM
To: Robert
Subject: RE: great show!

Mr. ****,

Don’t be such a girl.

Alan

And there are already critics saying a long-time Washington insider like Connecticut’s Senator Dodd wouldn’t represent “change”, but the Hartford Courant points out his legislative achievements, such as the Family and Medical Leave Act and his work on behalf of first responders.  Also,  he is a senior member of the Foreign Affairs Committee.  And even Joe Lieberman says recent headlines alleging he got VIP treatment for a loan shouldn’t be a drawback.

Dodd says, “There’s been some inquiries, yeah.  They ask for a lot of stuff.  I’ll leave it there.

Saying we’re a nation of mentally depressed whiners seems to be one of the least controversial things McCain economic advisor and former Senator Phil Gramm has said.

He has a long history of wacky views, as Think Progress chronicles.

“Minimum wage laws tend to cut the bottom rung off the economic ladder. The plain truth is there should be no minimum wage law in this great land of free enterprise.” - Gramm, 5/17/89

“We’re the only nation in the world where all our poor people are fat.” - Gramm, 9/6/81

And here is what Gramm said about Bill Clinton’s 1993 budget, which led to the surplus Bush destroyed:

“I want to predict here tonight,” he said on the evening that Clinton’s budget passed in the spring of 1993, “that if we adopt this bill the American economy is going to get weaker and not stronger, the deficit four years from today will be higher than it is today and not lower … When all is said and done, people will pay more taxes, the economy will create fewer jobs, the government will spend more money, and the American people will be worse off.”