Happy Monday and welcome to the Dog’s letter writing campaign for accountability under the law for the apparent torture program of the Bush administration. The point of this effort is to keep the issue of accountability alive. We all know there are other critical issues, and the President and many in the Congress would rather deal with those than an issue that is going to be as divisive as this one.

Originally posted at Squarestate.net

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In Douglas Adam’s Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy, the little electronic book has printed on it in cheery yellow letters the phrase “Don’t Panic”. This is good advice in all situations in life, but in the new environment of the post Massachusetts Special Election, it is particularly true. We have seen the signs of panic from just about the entire leadership of the Democratic Party in one fashion or another. Whether it is Speaker Pelosi whistling past the graveyard saying we will pass this bill, or Sen. Webb saying that nothing should be done on HCR until Senator Elect Brown is sworn in or whether it is the contemptible Sen. Evan Bayh, (Chickenshit, IN) saying the whole reform effort should be scrapped, they are all engaging in panic behavior.

Originally posted at Squarestate.net

This is not to say that some in the base are not engaging in it too. The Dog had a long day yesterday processing and getting his head around the new reality. It is not the different from the old reality, when you take the time to look at it, but a loss combined with the behavior and statements of our elected officials it easy to get into a funk.

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There is a lot of despair about the state of the Democrats who are in control of the Congress these days. To be fair there is a lot to despair about given the performance of many of the old guard in the party. On the flip side, there is a realization that we are indeed better off with Democrats in control of the government, as the example of 8 years of misrule by the criminal Bush administration clearly shows. Finally there is a significant worry that the Democrats are going to lose ground, and if thing turn catastrophic, lose control of one of the Houses of Congress.

Originally posted at Squarestate.net

These are the problems, but the Dog has an idea how you and he can address these problems in a positive way. It will not require a hierarchal structure, it will not require any allegiance to the current power structure, and it will take merely a moderate level of work from each of us, over a period of the next ten months.

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Happy Monday and welcome to the Dog’s on-going letter writing campaign for torture accountability under the law. For those who have not seen this series before, the way it works is as follows; every Monday the Dog writes a letter to the decision makers urging them to follow through on accountability for the apparent Bush Administration torture program. You get involved by either using the letter as the starting place for one of your own, or cutting and pasting it over your signature and sending it off.

Originally posted at Squarestate.net

Most weeks the letter heads to the Attorney General, but the quest for accountability does not begin and end at the DOJ. Congress has a constitutional role of oversight which is also required if we are to make sure the United States does not drift to and fro on the issue of state sponsored torture. To this end, we will be writing Sen. Dianne Feinstein Chair of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence this week. There will copies to the President, the AG, Speaker Pelosi, Majority Leader Reid, Judiciary Chairs Conyers and Leahy and Rep. Jerry Nadler a senior member of the House Judiciary

Dear Senator Feinstein;

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Happy Monday and welcome to the Dog’s letter writing campaign series. The object of this series is to keep the issue of accountability under the law for the apparent Bush Administration state sponsored torture program. For those who are new to this series here is how it works. On Mondays, the Dog writes a letter to the Attorney General and other decision makers urging them to follow the laws of our nation, fully investigate, and where appropriate evidence exists, prosecute those who conspired to torture, ordered torture and carried it out.

"Originally posted at Squarestate.net"

The way you get involved is to take the letter and either use it as the starting place for your own letter or to cut and paste it over your own name and send it off. The Dog provides all the e-mail addresses or links to contact the AG, the President, Speaker Pelosi, Majority Leader Reid, Judiciary Chairs Conyers and Leahy and Rep. Jerry Nadler, you just provide a few minutes of your time to keep this issue alive.

This week we write the Attorney General, with copies to all of the other decision makers. Below is the letter;

Dear Attorney General Holder;

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On Monday’s the Dog usually works his letter writing campaign for torture accountability, but with all the other issues out there it seems like a good time to remind everyone what this letter writing campaign is asking accountability for. Torture is hideous not merely for the physical damage it causes. It is hideous because of the sense of total helplessness it causes. It makes people live in total fear, for their lives, and total helplessness to make it end.

Originally posted at Squarestate.net

Last year the Dog wrote the following first person example of waterboarding. It is taken from literature and descriptions from those who have actually experienced waterboarding, though not from the Dog’s personal experience. The intent is to give those of us who have never been tortured one small, imperfect, glimpse into what that might be like.

WARNING: For those who have been tortured, this description may be triggering to PTSD. If you have lived through torture yourself, please consider not reading this or read it knowing it is graphic and may be disturbing.

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Happy Monday and welcome to the Dog’s ongoing letter writing campaign. The purpose of this series is to try to keep the issue of accountability under the law for the Bush Administrations state sponsored torture program. Every week the Dog writes to decision makers on this issue reminding them of their responsibility under the law to investigate all credible allegations of torture and where evidence exists to prosecute the offenders. This is a community action, and your part in is to either cut and paste the letter over your own signature or to use it to write one of your own. The Dog provides all the e-mail addresses or links to the decision makers; you just provide a little typing time and some electrons.

"Originally posted at Squarestate.net"

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It is coming down to the wire on Health Care Reform, but that is not news for anyone. Last week Keith Olbermann spent an hour laying out the rational and emotional case for the need, requirement really, for a robust public option insurance plan, or better yet Medicaid for all. It is in this spirit the Dog writes this morning. We have seen the problems with trying to get reform from a Senate and House who have far too many members who are out of touch with the reality of health care in the United States today or are too impressed with the money the Phrama and Insurance lobbies have donated to them over the years.

"Originally posted at Squarestate.net"

45,000 Americans will die this year because they do not have health insurance. That is a number so big as to nearly be incomparable. For the killing of less than 3,000 Americans we went to war in Afghanistan and used the same reason, though there was and is no connection as the reason to go to war in Iraq. For the deaths of 3,000 Americans we have already spent, as of today, $918,000,000,000. This is more than enough money to cover the cost of giving all citizens’ access to Medicaid.

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Today is the Blog Action Day on Climate Change. As you hop around the blogs today you are likely to see many with Blog Action Day in the title. The idea is that today more than 7,000 bloggers world wide will all take the time to post a blog entry about climate change. It is designed to do a couple of things; first off, it brings the message of climate change and its effects to the mind of people again. Second it gives a huge array of thoughts and suggestions on actions to the blog reading section of society.

"Originally posted at Squarestate.net"

The Dog is not usually focused on this issue. He spends his time working on torture accountability and other policy issues, but this is an issue that affects every single organism on the planet. Over the last four billion years the Earth has had a wide variety of climatic conditions. There is good evidence that in a period from 750 million years ago to 635 million years ago there were several episodes where the planet was completely covered by ice. Each of these episodes lasted several million years before CO2 from plate tectonics built up enough to warm the planet and push the glaciers back.

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Happy Monday and welcome to the Weekly Torture Action Letter series! This is the Dog’s on-going letter writing campaign for accountability under the law for the Bush Administrations apparent state sponsored torture program. For those joining us for the first time the basic premise of this series is to write those who will make the decisions about full investigations of torture every Monday and urge them to follow their obligations under Federal law and International treaty obligations in regards to torture. The Dog writes a letter which you can cut and paste with your own signature, or use as a guide for your own letter. The Dog also provides the links to e-mail the decision makers, all you have to provide is a little time and effort.

"Originally posted at Squarestate.net"

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