So far in 2009, there have been about 27 attacks in Pakistan by US drones — or unmanned aerial vehicles — of which only 2 occurred before Obama took office. Approximately 383 people have been killed by these attacks; for comparison, 385 people were killed in all of 2008 by drone attacks.

Below is a graph of the number of people killed by these attacks throughout 2009 (per attack and total cumulative deaths so far).

The numbers and sources that I compiled to make this graph are available by clicking on the image (there are multiple sheets of data)

Just because US soldiers are not losing their lives in Pakistan doesn’t mean people aren’t being killed there, in our names.

The MQ-9 Reaper "hunter-killer" drone is replacing the familiar MQ-1 Predator drones; Reapers can carry 15 times more bombs than Predators.

Within a year, more than half of new US fighter aircraft will be unmanned aerial vehicles. Welcome to war in the 21st century.

Jesse Kelly is running for Congress in Arizona’s 8th Congressional District as a Republican challenger to two-term Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-AZ). The district is being targeted by the GOP and Kelly is leading the primary field with a recent piece in CQ Politics on his endorsement by former Rep. Duncan Hunter.

As I strolled over to Drudge Report, I came upon this advertisement:

The large rifle and the use of the words “Combat” and “Warrior” creates a very militant tone; especially as the picture downplays the US Armed Forces context by the casual dress and lack of helmet. By marketing these images for voters as aspects they would want in a member of Congress, this ad arguably evokes an insurrectionist theme.

I get depressed sometimes.*

When this happens, it has become a habit of mine to concentrate on big problems/systems/planes of existence (like patriarchy or capitalism or the universe).

This has often been effective in allowing me to overcome depressive episodes. It would be fair to criticize this as an attempt to ignore issues that affect psychological health.

In any event, in many instances this has led me to realize how small we all are in the context of all of existence — and how hugely valuable each and every one of us is in that context.

And usually I am no longer depressed.

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Thankfully, the time of this writing is not one of those. [BACK TO POST]

The original flag salute which accompanied the pledge of allegiance until 1942.

I remember reciting the Pledge of Allegiance to the government of the United States of America everyday in school when I was too young to pronounce its big words, let alone know what they mean. “I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.” When I was old enough to understand what this pledge meant, I stopped reciting it. I bear no allegiance to the flag or the government of the United States of America. I owe no allegiance to a government to which I have never been given a choice to submit to or not.

“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. That to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, that whenever any form of government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new government

“When a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such government, and to provide new guards for their future security

“Let facts be submitted to a candid world:”

500 years of American Indian genocide

African slavery and segregation

Bracero Program, “illegal immigration” and Latino oppression

Japanese internment

Chinese Exclusion Act

colonization of Puerto Rico, Guam, Samoa and Marianas

lynchings, the death penalty and prisons

Hiroshima

Nagasaki

Tokyo

Fallujah

Dresden

Guantanamo

Bagram

Black Sites

Agent Orange

depleted uranium

white phosphorous

occupation of the Phillippines

25 years of war on Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia

20 years of war on Iraq

30 years of war on Afghanistan

war on Mexico

100 years of subjugation of Cuba

Operation Just Cause

crossing the 38th Parallel

Pinochet

the Shah and Operation Ajax

Soeharto

the House of Saud

Greek Colonels

the Contras

occupation of Palestine

War on Drugs

Bikini nuclear bombing

MKULTRA

Tuskegee experiments

COINTELPRO

House Un-American Activities Committee

Patriot Act

Sedition Act

Espionage Act

Alien and Sedition Acts

Smith Act

Sacco and Vanzetti

Martin Luther King Jr.

Malcolm X

the girls at 16th St. Baptist Church

Viola Liuzzo

Medger Evers

Chaney, Goodman, and Schwerner

George Tiller

Che Guevara

the Greensboro Marchers

Fred Hampton and Mark Clark

Huey P. Newton

Mumia Abu-Jamal

Eugene V. Debs

Leonard Peltier

Edmund Pettus Bridge

Palmer Raids

Kent State

Haymarket Square

Ludlow

Jackson State

Orangeburg

Chicago 1968

Attica

Watts

Newark

Crown Heights

Rodney King

San Diego Free Speech

Ku Klux Klan

Pinkertons

Richard Nixon

George W. Bush

Dick Cheney

Ronald Reagan

J. Edgar Hoover

Douglas MacArthur

Curtis LeMay

John Pershing

Strom Thurmond

George Wallace

“May God continue to bless these United States of America.”

Sic semper tyrannis

There are at least 29 Senators who support a public health insurance option for healthcare reform. They recognize that we need more competition in health insurance to reduce costs and provide health coverage to all Americans. It is up to ordinary citizens to push the other Senators to also support a public option and reduce healthcare costs.

You can pressure some Senators directly and immediately through Twitter. Below are six Senators who are on the fence about supporting a public option for health insurance. Send them a message and urge them to support a public option.

@SenBenNelson , @SenBillNelson , @SenArlenSpecter , @MarkUdall , @MarkWarner , @senatorcollins

An example of a message to send is this:

I urge @SENATOR to support a public health insurance option. Do u support S.Res.156? http://bit.ly/publicoption #p2 #publicplan

You can see other people’s messages to support a public option and S.Res.156 (which is a Senate Resolution that simply calls for a public option to be included in healthcare reform) here: http://twitter.com/#search?q=s.res.156

The Senate Select Committee on Intelligence released a declassified narrative this week on the history of the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel’s opinions on CIA interrogation (a few of the opinions were released recently which are the famous OLC torture memos), you can download it for yourself here:  OLC OPINIONS ON THE CIA DETENTION AND INTERROGATION PROGRAM (it’s only 17 pages and is easy to read aside from the litany of officials’ titles).

Here is the poetry, the last paragraph of the report:

On January 22, 2009, the President issued Executive Order 13491 on “Ensuring Lawful Interrogations.” The Executive Order revoked Executive Order 13440, limited the interrogation techniques that may be used by officers, employees, or other agents of the United States Government, and established a Special Interagency Task Force on Interrogation and Transfer Policies to report recommendations to the President. With respect to prior interpretations of law governing interrogation, section 3(c) of Executive Order 13491 directed that, unless the Attorney General provides further guidance, officers, employees, and other agents of the United States Government may not rely on interpretations of the law governing interrogations issued by the Department of Justice between September 11, 2001, and January 20, 2009.

So, what is the “Special Interagency Task Force on Interrogation and Transfer Policies?” I’d love to know what they have been up to…

By the way, here is that Executive Order 13491 “Ensuring Lawful Interrogations”.

Is it torture to deprive someone of sleep for 3 days and waterboard them 18 times during those 3 days?

Yes.

Is it illegal to order that torture be carried out, even if you get your lawyer to say it’s legal?

Yes.

Is the government required to enforce the law by prosecuting people who ordered that torture be carried out?

Yes.

Bush and Cheney and others need to be charged (at the least, investigated) for ordering torture to be carried out.

http://twitter.com/kkrahel/status/1571747937

http://twitter.com/kkrahel/status/1571768910

http://twitter.com/kkrahel/status/1571773447

http://twitter.com/kkrahel/status/1571780667