Superman graduates from college

You'll like this:

theteach

Immigration bill probably dead

Breaking News Alert
The New York Times
Thursday, June 28, 2007 -- 11:43 AM ET
-----

Immigration Bill Blocked in Senate Vote

Efforts to overhaul the nation's immigration laws were halted
by a procedural vote in the Senate today, meaning that the
issue is probably dead until after the 2008 elections.

Supporters needed 60 votes to limit debate on the contentious
bill and move it toward passage, but managed to muster only
46 votes in favor, against 53 opposed.

via New York Times Select (my e-mail)

theteach

Racism in Jena, Louisiana

Racism endures

By: Steve Benen on Friday, June 29th, 2007 at 5:23 AM - PDT

As Rick Perlstein noted, “The ‘racism isn’t a problem any more’ trope is a perennial in America. Next time you hear it, send them the news from Jena, Louisiana.”

In September 2006, a group of African American high school students in Jena, Louisiana, asked the school for permission to sit beneath a “whites only” shade tree. There was an unwritten rule that blacks couldn’t sit beneath the tree. The school said they didn’t care where students sat. The next day, students arrived at school to see three nooses (in school colors) hanging from the tree….

The boys who hung the nooses were suspended from school for a few days. The school administration chalked it up as a harmless prank, but Jena’s black population didn’t take it so lightly. Fights and unrest started breaking out at school. The District Attorney, Reed Walters, was called in to directly address black students at the school and told them all he could “end their life with a stroke of the pen.”

Black students were assaulted at white parties. A white man drew a loaded rifle on three black teens at a local convenience store. (They wrestled it from him and ran away.) Someone tried to burn down the school, and on December 4th, a fight broke out that led to six black students being charged with attempted murder. To his word, the D.A. pushed for maximum charges, which carry sentences of eighty years. Four of the six are being tried as adults (ages 17 & 18) and two are juveniles….

The mind reels.

via Crooks and Liars

theteach

Can't take it, Ann?

Boy, does Joe Scarborough appear uncomfortable or what? Ann Coulter does indeed seem to be losing it...


via YouTube and the Democratic Underground

theteach

A Better Look at the iPhone

I know I already posted to this blog today but I found a great video about the iPhone on YouTube. I've been watching commercials for weeks about the iPhone and drooling over it. I'd spend $500. on it in a second but some people in my life think that spending that kind of money is ridiculous. I think THEY are ridiculous.

Anyway (not anyways, mind you) here's a video that tells you a lot more about the iPhone and is funny to boot.

You'll love these MSNBC videos

A few videos from MSNBC:

MSNBC anchor on Morning Joe, Mika Brzezinski refuses to lead with the Paris Hilton release from jail story. She tries to burn the pages with a lighter. Failing that she tears up the pages and then shreds them. Watch the video. Good for a laugh...

Ann Coulter is put in her place by Elizabeth Edwards on Chris Matthews Hardball Plaza. What I loved was that the audience applauded for Edwards against Coulter, that loud, anorexic broad. The nasty thing Ann Coulter said about John Edwards is mentioned in the video. And Chris Matthews asks Coulter why she has remarked on Hillary Clinton's chubby legs. Here's the video.

Mary Lou Robles, who works at the Cailfornia State Prison snack bar, sees the Virgin Mary in the flesh (of a watermelon). Watch the video.

Have fun!

theteach

Immigration Problem that Is Not

Here are some quotes from a New York Times article from last year. Pay attention they are right and good for today as well...

The Terrible, Horrible, Urgent National Disaster That Immigration Isn't

By LAWRENCE DOWNES

Published: June 20, 2006

"It's no wonder some people compare immigrant workers to locusts, bacteria or an occupying army. If you could find a 250-year-old American to discuss this, he or she would tell you how familiar this all sounds. Identical arguments were once made about Chinese laborers, Japanese-Americans, Roman Catholics, the Irish, Italians, and the original unloved — though fully documented — outsiders, African-Americans. Let's not even talk about American Indians."

"Panicky arguments about the dangers of immigration have been made by supposedly responsible people — including members of the United States House and Senate, and state, county and local officials around the country. "

"If you dig into the widely discussed arguments connecting immigrants to things like rampant overpopulation or the demise the English language, you will discern the influence of any number of hard-line restrictionist immigration organizations. Scratch those groups, and underneath you will usually find a kook."

"The restrictionists have a variety of clear-cut solutions. But the reassurance they offer those who worry about immigration is a false one, for a simple reason: their price tags are simply too costly for them to be seriously considered. Anyone who seriously proposes them is engaging in little more than demagoguery."

Read the rest of the excellent article here.

theteach

Indecision Caption Challenge

From Comedy Central's Indecision 2008 blog:

Comedy Central developed Indecision Caption Challenge. They asked readers to help figure out what's going on in the picture below. People left proposed captions in the comments. Here's the winner:

WINNER Caption Challenge: Democrats

POSTED BY: TheInDecider

Thanks to everyone who participated in our newly-relocated Caption Challenge. Lots of great captions to choose from. But after much bickering and backstabbing, we finally came up with a winner...

On Family Feud, The Dem Family takes the round by correctly guessing the most popular Senate answers to the question, "Why I voted for a war that I disagreed with."

Submitted by rtg723

Runners-Up:

• Wallis to Obama: "You're right, she does smell like hot dogs" (rennac)
  
  
• John Edwards: "You are all my pawns..." (mikenap)
  
  
• Hillary, about to catch the keys being thrown by John Kerry, so she'll get to be the next to drive Democrat's hopes off a cliff. (rbansak)
  
  
• The Four Donkeys of the Apocalypse. (Winterblack)
  
  
• Watching his plan unfold from a safe distance, Edward's look of satisfaction is unmistakable. Our condolences go out to all of the victim's families…especially for Senator Clinton. From the look on her face, it's obvious she saw it coming. Thank God Obama and Wallis were distracted and went in peace. (JakeyJake2)

Thanks to everyone who participated. You can see all the captions here.
___________________________________________________________________
Does anybody think all this is not that funny?

theteach

North American Union conspiracy theory

From Alternet:

Just what is the North American Union (NAU)?

the NAU is an increasingly popular conspiracy theory about a group of shadowy and mostly nameless international "elites" who are planning to "replace the United States" -- in the words of Jerome Corsi, a key figure in the SwiftBoat Veterans for Truth project and a leading NAU conspiracist -- with a transnational government. The theory holds that the borders between Mexico, Canada and the United States are in the process of being erased, covertly, by a group of "globalists" whose ultimate goal is to replace national governments in D.C., Ottawa and Mexico City with a European-style political union and a bloated EU-style bureaucracy.

The North American Union story is an offspring of the John Birch Society right, with its attendant xenophobia and paranoia. It comes complete with a shadowy international cabal intent on stabbing decent, hard-working Americans in the back -- Dolchstoss!

To fully understand the growing fascination with the NAU in various corners of the internet, one has to view it also as a cultural phenomenon; it's an entirely logical reaction to a process of corporate-driven global integration that feeds into Americans' very real and wholly valid economic anxieties. As David Moberg recently noted, Americans, "by a margin of 46 percent to 28 percent, [believe] that trade deals have harmed the United States," and four times as many people surveyed by Pew said U.S. trade deals had lowered wages than the number who believed the deals had raised them.

It should come as no surprise that people tend to look for a wizard working behind the curtain. The idea that shadowy forces beyond our perception are really in charge of steering the most powerful country in the world is reinforced every time a bipartisan NAFTA-like "trade" deal with little or no support gets jammed through Congress.

Ultimately, though, the answer to the question "What is the NAU?" is this: It is absolutely nothing. The NAU exists only as a proposal contained in one of a thousand academic and/or wonky papers published each year that advocate all manner of idealistic but ultimately unrealistic approaches to social, economic and political problems. Most of these get passed around in their own circles and eventually filed away and forgotten by junior staffers in congressional offices. Some of these papers, however, become touchstones for the conspiracy-minded and form the basis of all kinds of unfounded fears.

Read the rest of the article here.

theteach

Giuliani quits Iraq Study Group

From Slate:

The Man Who Knows Too Little

What Rudy Giuliani's greedy decision to quit the Iraq Study Group reveals about his candidacy.

By Fred Kaplan
Posted Thursday, June 21, 2007, at 6:44 PM ET

If you don't read Newsday, you might not know (I didn't until this week) that Rudy Giuliani was an original member of the Iraq Study Group—the blue-ribbon commission co-chaired by James Baker and Lee Hamilton—but he was forced out after failing to show up for any of the panel's meetings.

The day after the Newsday story appeared, Giuliani explained that he'd started thinking about running for president, and his presence on the panel might give it a political spin. "It didn't seem that I'd really be able to keep the thing focused on a bipartisan, nonpolitical resolution," he said.

The more likely reason for Giuliani's no-shows is much plainer—money. Craig Gordon, the Newsday reporter who wrote the story in the Long Island paper's June 19 edition, discovered that on the three days of meetings that Giuliani missed (before quitting), he was out of town, delivering highly lucrative speeches.

On April 12, 2006, he was giving a keynote address at an economics conference in South Korea for a fee of $200,000. On May 18, he was giving a speech on leadership in Atlanta for $100,000.

At that point, Baker gave Giuliani an ultimatum: Start showing up for sessions, or quit. On May 24, he quit, noting in a letter (provided to Gordon) that prior commitments prevented him from giving the panel his "full and active participation."

Read rest of Slate story here.

theteach

Mayor of NYC Defects from Republican Party...

Do you know who this guy (just left of center) is? He was mayor of New York City and defected from the Republican Party after he lost the primary for renomination as mayor. He became a Democrat and had a short, really short run for President.

When he left the Republican Party he said "the nation had taken a wrong turn, that a new coalition could change its direction. He assailed his former party’s leadership, what he called the government’s 'retreat from the Bill of Rights.'"(New York Times)

Washington, he said, has “tapped telephones without court order, spied on our citizens with military agents, arrested thousands of people without legal authority, given minimum enforcement to the rights of minorities and even tried to censor what we see on television and read in our newspapers.”

Well, the guy is John V. Lindsay who was mayor of NYC from 1966-1973.

Sound like another mayor we know? Well maybe, but do you think Mike Bloomberg would EVER appear on the boardwalk in Far Rockaway bare-chested in a skimpy bathing suit? I don't think so.


PHOTO: John V. Lindsay, who was then a congressman, campaigning for mayor on the boardwalk in Far Rockaway, Queens, on July 4, 1965. (Photo: Carl T. Gossett/The New York Times)

Genarlow Wilson's Tragic Sentencing for Consensual Oral Sex

By Van Jones and James Rucker, Color of Change. Posted June 19, 2007.

After a judge dismissed the sentence of Genarlow Wilson -- an honor roll student and homecoming king serving 10 years in prison for having consensual oral sex with a 15-year-old when he was 17 -- Georgia's attorney general appealed, leaving Wilson stuck in jail.

Yet, immediately after the judge's ruling, Georgia's attorney general, Thurbert E. Baker, filed a notice saying that his office would appeal the decision, leaving Wilson stuck in jail. Baker's actions have not only robbed Wilson of his long overdue freedom, they epitomize the insanity of a justice system that seems hell-bent on criminalizing young black men.

See what blog maverick has to say about Genarlow Wilson.

Sign petition to free Genarlow Wilson

theteach

Medical marijuana in New York State

From nyc.indymedia.org:

June 16, 2007 11:46PM EDT

New York Assembly Approves Medical Marijuana Bill

The Assembly approved medical marijuana legislation in a 92-52 vote on Wednesday.

By Karen O'Keefe

New York has a real shot of joining the 12 other states that allow seriously ill patients to use medical marijuana with their doctors’ approval.

For the first time ever, the New York Assembly voted on Wednesday on Assemblyman Richard Gottfried's legislation to protect seriously ill patients from arrest for the medical use of marijuana. The Assembly approved the bill in a 92-52 vote. And newspapers are reporting that the Republican-controlled Senate may take up the issue before the legislature adjourns on Thursday.

Let's hope we get this legislation passed.

Medical Marijuana Facts

theteach

Analemma over the Ukraine

Credit & Copyright: Vasilij Rumyantsev ( Crimean Astrophysical Obsevatory)

Explanation: If you took a picture of the Sun at the same time each day, would it remain in the same position? The answer is no, and the shape traced out by the Sun over the course of a year is called an analemma. The Sun's apparent shift is caused by the Earth's motion around the Sun when combined with the tilt of the Earth's rotation axis. The Sun will appear at its highest point of the analemma during summer and at its lowest during winter. Analemmas created from different Earth latitudes would appear at least slightly different, as well as analemmas created at a different time each day. The analemma pictured [above] was built up by Sun photographs taken from 1998 August through 1999 August from Ukraine. The foreground picture from the same location was taken during the early evening in 1999 July.

2007 June 17

theteach

Big Offensive Against Iraq

From New York Times:

G.I. Open Big Offensive Against Iraq

By THOM SHANKER and MICHAEL R. GORDON

Published: June 17, 2007

With the influx of tens of thousands of additional combat troops into Iraq now complete, American forces have begun a wide offensive against Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia on the outskirts of Baghdad, the top American commander in Iraq said Saturday.

The commander, Gen. David H. Petraeus, in a news conference in Baghdad along with Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates, said the operation was intended to take the fight to Al Qaeda’s hide-outs in order to cut down the group’s devastating campaign of car bombings.

The comments by General Petraeus were a signal that the United States military had yet again entered a new phase in Iraq, four months after the start of the so-called troop surge and a security plan focused on dampening sectarian violence within Baghdad. They reflected an acknowledgment that more has to be done beyond the city’s bounds to halt a relentless wave of insurgent attacks that have undercut attempts at political reconciliation.

The offensive also comes at a time in the war when there are increasing American casualties and rising domestic pressure to show results or begin troop withdrawals, and just three months before a formal assessment of the military buildup President Bush ordered.

Robert M. Gates said that we are beginning to see some dividends. Gen. Petraeus isn't so sure: the results of the Baghdad security push has been mixed so far.

Tens of thousands of additional combat troops in Iraq, my god, when will it end?

theteach

USA not a "Christian nation"

I'm tired of Christian Fundamentalists calling the United States "a Christian nation." Although many of the Founding Fathers may have NOMINALLY belonged to Protestant sects, their words suggest that they were Deists or Unitarians and had no preference for Christianity, or intention of elevating it above other religions.

Anotherperspective.org, under the heading "Religion and the Founding Fathers" lists Thomas Jefferson, Thomas Paine and George Washington with quotes that express their generally negative attitudes about Christianity.

Under the heading of "Separation of Church and State?" About.com makes a reasonable case against the Fundamentalist argument that "the founders meant only that no sect of Christianity was to be elevated above another, but still meant our government to be Christian..."

The Quartz Hill School of Theology makes the following essential point:

Many well-meaning Christians argue that the United States was founded by Christian men on Christian principles. Although well-intentioned, such sentiment is unfounded. The men who lead the United States in its revolution against England, who wrote the Declaration of Independence and put together the Constitution were not Christians by any stretch of the imagination.

Why do some Christians imagine these men are Christians? Besides a desperate desire that it should be so, in a selective examination of their writings, one can discover positive statements about God and/or Christianity. However, merely believing in God does not make a person a Christian.

The United States is unlike any other country in the world in that it was founded on freedoms: freedom of speech, freedom of the press, freedom of religion, and has stayed that way for over 200 years. It is a country that has welcomed people from all over the world:

Give me your poor, your huddled masses, yearning to be free...

As a result it is a marvelous, DIVERSE (both ethnically and religiously) place to live. I wouldn't change it for anything.

theteach

WMD dumping sites

Here's a map of the dumping sites that the Army used for WMDs:

Deep Sea News

theteach

Hillary wants troops in Iraq for HOW long?

From Alternet:

This post, written by David Swanson, originally appeared on After Downing Street

On Monday, Ted Koppel offered a report / commentary on National Public Radio's "All Things Considered" which can be found online with this headline: "A Duty to Mislead: Politics and the Iraq War," and this introductory text: "Democrats are telling voters that if they are elected, all U.S. troops will be pulled out of Iraq. But as Sen. Hillary Clinton privately told a senior military adviser, she knows there will be some troops there for decades. It's an example of how in some cases, politics can force dishonesty."

Well, someone is trying to force dishonesty. I'm not sure it's politics.

Read the rest here.

theteach

P.S. Read the questions David Swanson would ask a candidate to find out if he/she is a peace candidate.

Presidential authority and "Enemy Combatants"

From the New York Times:

Court Says Military Cannot Hold 'Enemy Combatant'

By ADAM LIPTAK
Published: June 11, 2007

In a stinging rejection of one of the Bush administration’s central assertions about the scope of executive authority to combat terrorism, a federal appeals court ordered the Pentagon to release a man being held as an enemy combatant.

“To sanction such presidential authority to order the military to seize and indefinitely detain civilians," Judge Diana Gribbon Motz wrote, “even if the President calls them ‘enemy combatants,’ would have disastrous consequences for the Constitution — and the country.”

theteach

Close Guantanamo Now says Powell

From Sydney Morning Herald:

Guantanamo should close now: Powell
June 12, 2007

WASHINGTON: America's high security prison at Guantanamo Bay should be closed immediately and the military commissions scrapped, because they were harming the reputation of the US justice system, George Bush's former secretary of state has said.

Speaking on MSNBC's Meet the Press program on Sunday, Colin Powell said it was time to move all inmates from the military prison in Cuba into the US justice system.

"We have shaken the belief the world had in the American justice system by keeping a place like Guantanamo open," Mr Powell said. " It's caused far more damage than anything we get from it."

Right on, General Powell.

theteach

Guantanamo photo: Detainees upon arrival at Camp X-Ray, January 2002

Navy Admiral Mike Mullen

Some insight on Navy Admiral Mike Mullen (replacement for General Peter Pace as chairman of Joint Chiefs of Staff) can be gained from a speech he gave to sailors in Pearl Harbor in Feb. 2007:

In his opening remarks, Mullen, a Vietnam War veteran, told Pearl Harbor sailors: "I honestly believe this is the most dangerous time in my life.

"The enemy now is basically evil and fundamentally hates everything we are -- the democratic principles for which we stand ... This war is going to go on for a long time. It's a generational war."

From a Feb. 2006 interview with Mullen:

You use the term 'Long War', and it's important to understand that and really grab this issue because it is going to be around for a significant amount of time. I call it generational. That said, there are still traditional capabilities that are very much required.

___________________________________________________________________


From the frying pan into the fire.


theteach

Chairman of Joint Chiefs is replaced

General Pace to Retire as Joint Chiefs Chairman

Win McNamee/Getty Images

General Peter Pace, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, touring the "Faces of the Fallen" exhibit at Arlington National Cemetery on Thursday.

General Pace will be replaced by Admiral Michael G. Mullen, as Chairman of Joint Chiefs of Staff, "a move that reflects a feeling among top civilian officials at the Pentagon and in the White House that the American military needs new leadership after years of being strained by the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan."

Adm. Michael G. Mullen has been chief of naval operations since the summer of 2005.

Defense secretary Robert M. Gates said that he came to the realization after talking to Senate and House Democrats and Republicans that the confirmation hearing for a 2nd term for General Pace "would have focused 'on the past, rather than the future, and further, that there was the very real prospect the process would be quite contentious.'"

____________________________________________________________________

Damn right!

"General Pace, why are we STILL in Iraq?"

"General Pace, do you believe we should STILL BE in Iraq?"

"General Pace, how many times did you tell President Bush we should GET OUT of Iraq?"

Anti-Abortion Group against Helping the Poor

Jill Filipovic: A right wing Christian anti-abortion group claims “It is shameful that Christians would rally around the physical needs of the poor."

Here's more in detail:

---

► Rock for Life presents real anti-poverty message

"Abortion is an act that takes the life of an innocent human child," said Erik Whittington, American Life League's youth outreach director. "It is shameful that Christians would rally around the physical needs of the poor and ignore the deaths of untold millions of babies. Abortion is poverty and the number one priority of our day should be its demise."

This past weekend, Sojourners opened Pentecost 2007: Taking Vision to the Street, a conference aimed at placing "poverty at the top of our nation's agenda." Today, Sojourners will host a march that will run from National City Christian Church to the Upper Senate Park. American Life League, through its youth outreach project Rock for Life, will be there to present to conference attendees the importance of putting abortion, not poverty, at the top of the list of social concerns.

WHAT??

theteach

D-Day

"D-Day" means the first day of any military operation. "D-Day" has come to mean the greatest single Allied operation of World War II, the invasion of Normandy 1944.

Army troops on board a LCT, ready to ride across the English Channel to France. Some of these men wear 101st Airborne Division insignia.

Many of these men died bravely in the invasion.

Even Democrats Can Get things a Little Wrong...

From Factcheck.org:

Dems Debating, the Sequel

June 4, 2007

No whoppers, but hype springs eternal.

Summary

Amid barbs on Iraq, there were exaggerations on energy, insurance and other issues in the second debate of candidates for the Democratic presidential nomination. Among those we found:

• Sen. Joseph Biden of Delaware wrongly cast Iran as a nation running out of oil.
• Former Sen. John Edwards of North Carolina talked about gas price manipulation by Big Oil where investigators have found none.
• Ohio Rep. Dennis Kucinich and Connecticut Sen. Chris Dodd used old figures that are almost 2 million too high when stating the number of uninsured.
• New York Sen. Hillary Clinton lumped all the Republican Presidential candidates together when it came to their support for the war. That's not quite right.

See what the GOP candidates got wrong here.

theteach

Assisted suicide

Check out my post on Jack Kevorkian who was let out of prison on Friday after spending 8 of a 10-25 year sentence for second degree murder. He was found guilty of administering a lethal injection to a man, Tom Youk, suffering from Lou Gehrig's disease.

"As a medical doctor, it is my duty to evaluate the situation with as much data as I can gather and as much expertise as I have and as much experience as I have to determine whether or not the wish of the patient is medically justified." Jack Kevorkian

JFK Terrorist Plot Foiled

We caught them Mr. Bush. They were plotting to blow up Kennedy airport in New York City and we stopped them. Well, not exactly we, I didn't do anything, but the NYPD and the FBI, they stopped them.

These guys, a retiree from JFK itself and two others from Guyana had extensive plans and maps and aerial photographs. They had recruited a Trinidadian Muslim group to carry out the bombings of fuel tanks, terminal buildings and fuel lines. They said it would be bigger than 9/11.

So coordinated effort between the FBI and NYPD brought them down. A few more foiled plots and your scaring us about terrorist plots here will fall on deaf ears.

Mr. Bush we are fighting them here...we don't have to fight them there (in Iraq). We are fighting them here and winning.

Please Fred don't leave Law and Order...

Chris Kelly on Fred Thompson:

Obviously I'm missing something when it comes to the awesome charisma of Fred Thompson. Some of it is personal; I already have a father, so I didn't need Ronald Reagan. Some of it is professional; I once worked on a talk show that booked too many third-rate guests, and I had to write their padded introductions, so every time I hear Thompson described as "the star" of The Hunt for Red October, my joints cinch.


Here's Jonah Goldberg on Fred:

Here are just a few little-known facts about Fred Thompson:

- Every night before going to sleep, Osama bin Laden checks under his bed for Fred Thompson.

- Though Fred Thompson left the Senate in 2003, Harry Reid still hasn't stopped wetting his pants.

- Fred Thompson once ended a filibuster by ripping out a Senator's heart and showing it to him before he died.

- Only two things can kill Superman: Kryptonite and Fred Thompson.

- Fred Thompson once stood on our south border and glared at Mexico. There was no illegal immigration for a month.

- Fred Thompson vows not only to win in Iraq but also to forcefully free Vietnam from Communism, thus giving America a perfect win/loss record for wars again.

- Fred Thompson can open clamshell packaging without the slightest trouble.

These are just a few of the "Fred Thompson Facts" posted on the conservative humor site IMAO in March.

Torture changes who we are.

From the Village Voice:

Dark Secrets at the Front

Prisoners and interrogators are both brutalized in a war that changes who we are.

by Nat Hentoff

May 30th, 2007 11:27 AM

In February 2006, then–Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld warned that our wars against terrorism "could last for decades." Speaking at the National Press Club in Washington, he said of the multiplying enemy: "Compelled by a militant ideology that celebrates murder and suicide with no territory to defend, with little to lose, they will either succeed in changing our way of life, or we will succeed in changing theirs."

With a seemingly endless supply of suicide bombers in Iraq, the enemy certainly hasn't changed its way of life. However—as the world has witnessed—there's plenty of evidence that we've changed ours—namely, in America's professed values about how we treat our prisoners, euphemistically marginalized as "detainees."

On May 7 of this year, General David Petraeus—now commanding our "surge" in Iraq, emphasized: "It's time to adhere to American values. We must not sink to the level of our enemies."

Does General Petraeus think we're sinking to the level of our enemies with regard to interrogation of prisoners? Are there more than just a 'few bad apples" at Abu Ghraib?

What caused the new alarm by General Petraeus about sinking to the level of the enemy is a startling official report from the Office of the Surgeon General, United States Army Medical Command:

Less than half of other soldiers and Marines (in Iraq) believed that non- combatants should be treated with dignity and respect and well over a third believed that torture should be allowed to save the life of a fellow team member .

About ten percent of soldiers and Marines reported mistreating an Iraqi non-combatant when it wasn't necessary . . . Less than half of the soldiers and Marines would report a team member for unethical behavior . . .

You can read Nat Hentoff's full report here.

Abu Ghraib: Not just a case of bad apples over there.
photo: US Army Sgt. Sara Wood defenselink.mil