Macroeconomics Lesson for House Speaker Paul Ryan USCOURTS.GOV website facts can not be disputed

http://peaceactivist1.blogspot.com Macroeconomics Lesson for House Speaker Paul Ryan https://uscourts.gov website facts can not be disputed. It is critical that every Congressional candidate communicates why having a correct interpretation on the how the Affordable Healthcare Act has had a very positive effect on the United States Economy. Having a clear understanding of Macroeconomics makes it easier to understand just how positive an effect on the economy the Affordable Healthcare Act passed in March of 2010 had. Statistical evidence available on the official government website’s http://uscourts.gov and http://bls.gov will expose Republican alternative facts and political spin to be flat out falsehoods. The fiscal year of 2010 more than 1.6 million people filed for bankruptcy of which 62% filed listed unpaid medical bills as primary reason for filing for bankruptcy. This means 992,000 people filed for bankruptcy (2720 bankruptcies filed every day because people did not have adequate insurance or any insurance to cover medical bills. 2011 saw a 12% decline of bankruptcies filed followed by another 14% decline in 2012…followed by another 12% decline in 2013 followed by another 12% decline in 2014. Today in the year 2017 the amount of people filing for bankruptcy listing unpaid medical bills as primary reason for filing is lessthan half what they were in 2010. In fact visit http://uscourts.gov and you will discover even small business bankruptcy filings in 2017 are less than half what they were in 2010. Every time Speaker Paul Ryan said that the affordable healthcare act needed to be repealed because it kills the creation of small business jobs the factual evidence available on http://uscourts.gov and http://bls.gov proves this to be a flat out lie. Fact it proves Speaker Paul Ryan and Senate House Majority leader McConnell both chose to be intellectually dishonest. Communicating a misinterpretation their complain that the Affordable Healthcare Act hurts small business and kills jobs is more than just Political Spin it is a flat out lie. Continuing to allow the Insurance Industry to manage healthcare is not only fiscally irresponsible but ends up creating situations where people die because they simple wait to a medical condition requires they visit an emergency room for proper medical treatment of their injury or medical condition. 17 cents of every medical dollar spent on hospital care goes to administrative cost. More than 15 cents of every medical dollar is spent is for Administrative costs incurred by your Doctor. Before the Affordable Healthcare Act was passed 1 out every 5 Doctor prescribed treatments (deemed medically necessary) were being denied by the Insurance industry. In a Hospital in Toronto comparable in size ot Boston’s Mass General their administrative cost is only 2.5%. The moronic concept proposed by many Congressmen is that selling Insurance across state lines will drive down costs. All it does is increase the administration expense that medical clinics, hospital’s and Doctor’s must factor in as a cost of providing Medical services to their patients. Most of your Senator’s and Congressmen know this but figure accepting campaign donations from more than 6000 lobbyists makes their job running for Congress easier. Republican Congressmen and even some Democrat Congressmen just chose to be intellectual dishonest and take contributions from the Insurance lobby and allow them to dictate Healthcare Public Policy. Currently people pay taxes for their Teachers, Fireman, Police, Firemen salaries and various other state county and city services. Today more than 54% of the federal budget is spent on National Defense. 900 Military bases and more than 1.2 million soldiers worldwide. Dr Martin Luther King once said A nation that continues year after year to spend more than more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual doom. In 2017 54% of the Budget was for the Military and that is not including the Veterans Administration budget of 3%. In 2017 only 6% went for Education. Back in 1968 when Dr. Martin Luther King said that America was than involved in the Vietnam War and even than the Military budget did not approach the 50% of the entire budget. Government should protect people and regulate corporations not protect corporations and regulate people. Progressive Democrats and Democrat Socialists both believe that access to affordable healthcare is everyone's civil right. We believe that because of Insurance corporate welfare that the Insurance Industry will always fight against the average Americans ability to access affordable healthcare. In a few minutes I will discuss the fact 29 million people who the Affordable Healthcare Act has failed to cover and who face bankruptcy because of unpaid medical bills. We are not against the rich. We are against the top one percent using their wealth to gain an unfair advantage. We are not against corporations. We are against corporations governing us. We are not against capitalism. We are against corruption in capitalism. A Progressive Democrat believes in Democrat Socialism. For example, the insurance industry lobby spending 1.4 million dollars a day the years 2009 and 2010 prior to the Affordable Healthcare Act was passed. The fact is in 2013 the government was shut down because the Insurance Industry demanded that the affordable healthcare act be repealed. According to Standard and Poor’s this cost the United States economy 24 billion dollars. Congress voting more than 55 times to repeal the affordable healthcare act has cost taxpayers more than 90 million dollars. We believe that if you believe corporations are people that you clearly in favor and support of corporate cronyism. It is critical to have the Supreme Court Decision Citizens United overturned. We believe that the military industrial complex corrupt influence on foreign policy must be denied. We believe every true patriot will demand from congress and the President. They work together to put a stop to that corrupt influence. We are not against banks we are against fraudulent banking practices.... like those that led to an economic collapse in 2008. President Trump believes putting Mic Mulvaney in charge of the Consumer Protection Bureau is an ethical move. Because of many banks fraudulent practices, they were fined and were being forced by the Government to pay fines and restitution to the people they defrauded. Much of this will now end. We are not against investment markets, we against fraud in those markets. We are not against democracy but because of the Citizens United decision has led to the sale of influence by our elected representatives

12 years Election fraud has gone unprosecuted by the Justice Department. For at least 12 years there is has been a mountain of election fraud evidence that has been compiled by various government Agencies. During the 2004 election there was extensive of election fraud that was documented and released to F.B.I. and even DNC Lawyer Joe Sandler was given some of the evidence that was released to the F.B.I. Interviews were conducted with various Computer Programmers paid by the RNC. Respected and internationally renowned Journalist Greg Palast does mention some of this in his Best Selling Book Armed Madhouse. He shared some of what being revealed to him and we gave afew good leads to work with to help complete his investigation. In fact just a few short weeks after one of the interviews with the F.B.I, the F.B.I. decided to act on some of our information and just a month later Clint Curtis came forward and testified before John Conyers in December of 2004. Please take the time to google the HBO movie Black Box voting… You can find a free downloadable version. Computer geeks like myself spent more than a dozen hours almost every week from November to January. GOP BLOCKING THE VOTE, KILLING DEMOCRACY — in the last three election cycles, the Republican Party has run out of ideas, and out of constituents as they swallow the Tea Publicans' Right Wingnut agenda. Accordingly, they have had to pursue other options, all of which center around voter suppression of their opposition party. The key two states on the Rethuglican agenda are Ohio and Florida whose Republican leaders are actively engaged in denying Democratic voters their Constitutional right to vote. This is treasonous. The number of tactics they're engaging to illegally swing the vote to Romney are far too numerous to list here. But reading the long list of the blatant techniques used by Husted and Scott to kill the vote, will make you sick to your stomach. The fact that America has reached this point is symptomatic of our decline as a great nation, and our submission to fascism. Amazingly, the Republicans do not even hide their actions. They defy federal court orders, and actively attempt to circumvent the judicial process. During the last election Husted pursued several new strategies that failed to swing the outcome of the most critical swing state into Romney's column. We know where both the Republicans and a significant number of Democrats stand.. with the plutocrats, and NOT with we the people. Before the next 2014 election, our Justice Department needs to launch widespread investigations into voter suppression in these and other states and into the actions of Nathan Sproul who was paid more than $1 million by the RNC to block voter registration of Democrats in several swing states, including Florida, Virginia and Colorado. We must stay on the backs of our elected representatives to ensure they investigate these blatant attacks on American democracy whereby Rick Scott and Jon Husted are violating the Constitutional rights of hundreds of thousands of American citizens. We might have to employ widespread protests and sit down demonstrations to wrestle "the vote" back into the hands of the people. A sad day for what's left of American democracy, when one of the major political parties repeatedly resorts to cheating to have a chance to win. Please take the time to call 888 531 3993 contact your congressman demand uniformed election laws when it comes to purchasing and provide the funding for extensive computer security to help bring back fair elections in this country. There is well funded propaganda media campaign that promotes political pundits opinions that the Democrats are attempting to pervert the political process. It does not matter whether your tuned into a radio or t.v or surfing the net or even just reading the paper they are sparing no expense truly pervert the political process. Without question the Supreme Court made the Citizens United Decision because the political process has become corrupted and has made it difficult the people to adequately address the corruption that affects every branch of our government. https://www.facebook.com/pages/Progressive-communication-network/541833049187522 https://www.facebook.com/ProgressiveDemocratTalkRadio https://www.facebook.com/groups/Senator.Sanders/ http://facebook.com/peaceactivist http;//mypeace.tv/profile/peaceactivist

Affordable Healthcare Act will lead to Medicare for All

AFFORDABLE CARE ACT: WHAT IT DOES AND HOW IT HELPS EVERYONE http://www.healthcare.gov/law/features/index.html http://www.mypeace.tv/video/allowing-insurance-companies-to-manage-healthcare-is-criminal http://www.facebook.com/pages/Progressive-Democrats-of-America-Network/124449437638183 http://www.facebook.com/pages/Single-Payer-Healthcare/155582284508708 http://www.mypeace.tv/video/medicare-allow-anyone-2-buy HR 4789 http://mypeace.tv/video/2550-bankruptcies-filed-daily prior to the Affordable Healthcare Act being passed before March of 2010 http://www.mypeace.tv/video/healthcare-is-a-civil-right http://democrats.com/single-payer-petition PLEASE SHARE THIS http://healthcare-now.org/ 800 453 1305 2010 • Prohibits insurance companies from denying coverage to children under 19 years of age due to a pre-existing condition • Prevents plans from rescinding coverage • Eliminates lifetime dollar limits on insurance coverage for essential benefits (like hospitalization) • Requires coverage for certain preventive services without deductible, co-pay or coinsurance • Regulates use of annual dollar limits on amount of insurance coverage an individual may receive • Provides relief for Medicare seniors who hit the prescription drug donut hole (after spending $2,800-responsible for full costs until $4,550 is reached) • Provides insurance for uninsured Americans with pre-existing conditions • Extends coverage for young adults (on parents plan until turn 26 years old) and early retirees (between ages of 55–65) • Increases number of people on Medicaid 18 million by 2014 2011 • Provides prescription drug discounts for Medicare seniors • Covers annual wellness visits and personalized prevention plans for seniors on Medicare • Allows states to offer home and community based services to disabled individuals through Medicaid rather than institutional care in nursing homes (Oct 2011) 2012 • Aims to understand and reduce health disparities • Provides for voluntary options for long-term care insurance for adults who become disabled 2013 • Improves preventive health coverage • Additional funding for Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) 2014 • Prohibits discrimination due to preexisting conditions or gender • Eliminates annual limits on insurance coverage • Provides tax credits for middle class to afford insurance • Provides health insurance exchanges for those who do not have insurance coverage • Expands eligibility for Medicaid • Requires individuals to obtain insurance if they can afford it • Uses employer insurance funds to purchase insurance through insurance exchanges Health care providers 2010 • Cracks down on fraud and waste in Medicare, Medicaid and CHIP (new screening tools for health care providers) • Expands primary care workforce • Increases payments for rural health providers • Strengthens and expands community health centers and expands preventive and primary health care services at existing sites 2011 • Establishes Center for Medicare & Medicaid Innovation (CMMI)–to test new ways of delivering care to patients, and national strategy to improve quality in health care • Mandates care transitions for seniors (when they leave the hospital) to avoid unnecessary readmissions by coordinating care and connecting patients to services in the community • Mandates that 85% (large group) or 80% (small group) of all premiums are spent on health care services and health care quality improvement 2012 • Links payment to quality outcomes (value-based purchasing) in Medicare (hospital performance publicly reported) starting with heart attacks, health failure, pneumonia, surgical care, health-care associated infections and patients’ perceptions of care (after Oct 2012) • Encourages Accountable Care Organizations (physicians join together to coordinate patient care, improve quality, prevent disease and illness and reduce unnecessary hospital admissions) • Mandates reduction of paperwork and administrative costs (standardize billing and implement electronic health information exchange) (Oct 2012) 2013 • Bundles payments to encourage hospitals, doctors and other providers to work together to improve the coordination and quality of patient care—flat rate payment for episode of care • Increases Medicaid payments for primary care doctors 2014 • Ensures coverage for individuals participating in clinical trials for cancer or other life-threatening diseases • Provides small business tax credit (for contribution to provide health insurance for employees) 2015 • Pays physicians based on value not volume (higher payments for those providing higher value or quality care) http://www.healthcare.gov/law/features/index.html http://www.mypeace.tv/video/dont-get-sick-gop-healthcare

Robust Public Option compromised Healthcare Bill will not adequaltely address problem of medical bankruptcies.

http://mypeace.tv/profiles/blogs/robust-public-option-sign-1

http://mypeace.tv/profiles/blogs/robust-public-option-sign-1
And if you want to end the violence, you could build a million new prisons and you could fill them up, but you never end this cycle of violence unless you invest in the healthcare and provide the means for your average citizen to acquire skill and the intellect to acquire a good job. Sometimes it is our teachers that help develop and influence the character development of our children and young adults. If as a country you fail to invest in making a quality of education available to all then it stands to reason you will lessen your standing in the world economy
Faiulure to focus the issues of making availble to its citizens a good education, good health care and a good job is the reason why our society for young adults and children between the ages of 15 to 25 is more than 10 times more violent then any of the 20 largest industrialized countries.
According the department of health and human services report released in September 41 % all non elderly adults have accumulated debt that they are unable to pay. 61 % of those are people who are under insured. 72 million adults unfortunately fall into this category.
According the American Health Journal article release June 2009 62 % of all bankruptcies are filed because of unpaid medical bills.
Since our bankruptcies filed this year have exceeded the 1.2 million bankruptcies filed last year by the end of August at our current pace we are exceeding 2500 bankruptcies each day
http://mypeace.tv/video/2550-bankruptcies-filed-daily

There is several good house resolutions included in the bill including HS 3965 Repealing the Anti-trust McCarren Fergusson Act.
Wish I had faith our government would enforce the anti trust laws,because our government does a lousy job exposing government contractor fraud and regulating the banking and investment industry.

http://thepeacealliance.org http://healthcare-now.org

http://mypeace.tv/video/healthcare-civil-rights-now

http://www.gopetition.com/petitions/congress-dump-private-insurers-fix-health-care.html
Sign this petition to let congress know how dissatisfied you are that a robust public option is not available.

http://mypeace.tv/video/humana-profits-people-die

http://mypeace.tv/video/healthcare-message-to-congress Senator Lieberman's office 9 arrested
http://mypeace.tv/video/healthcare-message-to-congress-1
http://mypeace.tv/video/cigna-crushing-healthcare

http://mypeace.tv/video/healthcare-civil-rights-now

http://mypeace.tv/video/healthcare-justice-cigna
SInging healthcare reform demand songs to the Sunrise police! Have you gone to jail for justice!

http://mypeace.tv/video/blue-options-doubletalk

http://mypeace.tv/video/weiner-amendment-hope4all-for
http://mypeace.tv/video/names-of-the-dead
part 1 of 3 part series
Demand Nancy Pelosi Keep Kucinich
Amendment Allowing States to Enact Single-Payer
Call Speaker Pelosi: (202) 225-4965
Call Bill Floor Manager Rep. George Miller: (202) 225-2095
Call Bill Floor Manager Rep. Henry Waxman: (202) 225-3976
http://www.1payer.net/faxapp/senders/add/cid:1
E-Fax your congressman by clicking on above link
http://medicareforall.org
http://www.democrats.com/joe-must-go
Strip Senator Lieberman Homeland Security Chairmanship
http://mypeace.tv/video/cigna-health-insurance-racket
http://mypeace.tv/video/healthcare-horrow-show-daily

http://facebook.com/sickforprofit
http://facebook.com/peaceactivist
http://mypeace.tv/video/mobilize-4-healthcare-reform


http://bigeddieradio.com 12-3 p.m
http://therandirhodesshow.com 3 to 6pm est

http://mypeace.tv/video/billionaires-4-wealthcare

http://mypeace.tv/video/cigna-health-insurance-racket

http://mobilizeforhealthcare.org Help organize a SIT demonstration in your city
http://guaranteedhealthcare.org email singlepayer2009@gmail.com


202 360 4444

http://mypeace.tv/profiles/blogs/robust-public-option-sign-1



http://mypeace.tv/video/healthcare-justice-cigna
Singing healthcare reform demand songs to the Sunrise florida police!

http://mypeace.tv/video/healthcare-message-to-congress-1
8 citizens of Connecticut and Mobilize for healthcare national coordinator Kai Newkirk invade Senator Lieberman's
office demanding that he commit to stop taking contributions from the Insurance industry. 1.4 million dollars a day is spent by the insurance lobby on congress.
http://mypeace.tv/video/healthcare-message-to-congress
this video explains why is visitng Senator Libermans office.



http://mypeace.tv/video/healthcare-civil-rights-now
February 3 2009 Dr Clark Newell memorable speech.

If house bill 676 and Senate bill 703 were passed it stands to reason that 62% of bankruptcies that were filed because of unpaid mendical bills would be a thing of the past.

Single Payer Healthcare is the only approach that makes fiscal sense

http://www.democrats.com/single-payer-petitionplease sign this petition today!46 million people currently are without health insurance.Everyone has a friend or family member without health insurance sign the petition for their sake!http://my.BarackObama.com/organizingforhealthcarehttp://mypeace.tv/video/organizing-4-america-pledge
What would you think about a health care system that actually works for everybody, costs billions of dollars less, provides greater coverage, truly protects you from financial ruin due to medical bills, improves quality, increases innovation, and returns medical decisions to you and your doctor instead of some claims adjuster at an insurance company 1,000 miles away.The most important piece of legislation in America today, with nearly 100 cosponsors in the house, H.R.676 is the only health care bill that will truly reform our tragically broken health care system.202 225 5871 http://kucinich.ushttp://onecarenow.org 202 360 4444
http://mypeace.tv/video/obama-organizing-america31 cents of every health care dollar spent is wasted on administrative expenses and insurer profits in the US system. This is why the US spends double what other industialized nations spend on health care yet has worse outcomes. We need to save that money and spend it on better health care for you, me, and all Americans. Our system is sick and dying, and this is the cure.
http://mypeace.tv/video/obama-organizing-americahttp://mypeace.tv/video/single-payer-healthcare-part1http://mypeace.tv/video/single-payer-healthcare-part2http://mypeace.tv/video/single-payer-healthcare-part3http://mypeace.tv/video/single-payer-healthcare-part-4http://my.BarackObama.com/organizingforhealthcarehttp://mypeace.tv/video/obama-healthcare-reform-3http://mypeace.tv/video/health-care-reform-obamahttp://mypeace.tv/video/healthcare-reform-debatehttp://mypeace.tv/video/single-payer-healthcare-obamashttp://mypeace.tv/video/healthcare-reform-michael

The wholesale and deliberate violations of the Geneva Conventions and the Convention against Torture are, under international law, war crimes—just as the FBI recognized they were. What is demanded is not another toothless congressional hearing, but rather the constitution of a war crimes tribunal. Those responsible must be held accountable. Bush, Cheney, Rice, Rumsfeld, Powell, Tenet, Drumheller(Europe CIA Operations Director), Gonzelez, Addington, Yoo,and Ashcroft should be placed on trial. http://mypeace.tv/video/bush-torture-policycongress

The most stunning revelation in a 370-page Justice US Department Inspector General’s report released this week was that agents of the Federal Bureau of Investigation had formally opened a “War Crimes” file, documenting torture they had witnessed at the Guantánamo Bay US prison camp, before being ordered by the administration to stop writing their reports.
The World Socialist Web Site, together with human rights groups and other opponents of US militarism and repression, has long insisted that the actions of the Bush administration—the launching of wars of aggression, assassinations, the abduction and detention of civilians without trial and, most repugnant of all, torture—constitute war crimes under any legitimate interpretation of longstanding international statutes and treaties.
To have this assessment confirmed, however, by the IG of the Justice Department, the only senior official there not answerable directly to the White House, and by agents of the FBI, an agency not known for its sensitivity to questions of democratic rights, is an indication of the rampant character of these crimes as well as the crisis they have engendered within the US government and America’s ruling elite as a whole.
The report makes it absolutely clear that torture was ordered and planned in detail at the highest levels of the government—including the White House, the National Security Council, the Pentagon and the Justice Department. Attempts to stop it on legal or pragmatic grounds by individuals within the government were systematically suppressed, and evidence of this criminal activity covered up.
There was no immediate reaction from the White House on these new revelations. Responses from other agencies directly implicated in the crimes at Guantánamo were indicative of the general atmosphere of impunity in which the torture detailed in the IG’s report continues to this day.
“There’s nothing new here,” said Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman. A State Department spokesman, meanwhile, described the charges contained in the report as “pretty vague.”
Pretty vague? One can’t help but wonder what the spokesman would consider explicit. The report contains page after page of testimony by FBI agents on the sadistic and sickening practices carried out at Guantánamo.
In one section, the report states: “[An FBI Agent] recalled that, at some point during the interrogation, the military officer ‘put water down’ a seated detainee’s throat. He said he guessed that the purpose of the water was to give the detainee the sensation that he was drowning, so that he would provide the information that the interrogator wanted. [The agent] stated that the detainee was gagging and spitting out water. He said that the detainee appeared to be uncomfortable, and assumed that he had trouble breathing.”
Consider the account of the interrogation of Mohamedou Ould Slahi, a Mauritanian national who was arrested by his own government, turned over to US forces and brought to Guantánamo in 2002:
“He was left alone in a cold room known as ‘the freezer,’ where guards would prevent him from sleeping by putting ice or cold water on him...
“He was subjected to sleep deprivation for a period of 70 days by means of prolonged interrogations, strobe lights, threatening music, forced intake of water, and forced standing.
“He was deprived of clothing by a female interrogator;
“Two female interrogators touched him sexually and made sexual statements to him;
“Prior to and during the boat ride incident, he was severely beaten.”
In addition, the document says, he was “led to believe he was going to be executed, and urinated on himself,” and was told that his mother and family would be detained and harmed.
Hundreds of FBI agents witnessed torture
Similar episodes were described, according to the IG report, by literally hundreds of FBI agents, who witnessed CIA, military and private contractor interrogators carry out illegal acts of torture and abuse against detainees.
In addition, the report cites: several agents who reported instances of beatings, 30 agents who reported witnessing prolonged shackling of detainees in stress positions, 70 agents who reported detainees being subjected to sleep deprivation, 29 agents who had information on the use of extreme temperatures in order to “break the detainees’ resolve to resist cooperating” and 50 agents reporting the use of extended isolation to “wear down a detainee’s resistance.”
In addition, four agents reported the kicking and beating to death of two detainees in Afghanistan who had been subjected to prolonged shackling in a standing position.
The episodes of torture detailed in this report are the tip of the iceberg.
They do not include the treatment of Murat Kurnaz, a Turkish citizen born in Germany, who was arrested during a trip to Pakistan in the fall of 2001 and was handed over to US officials for a $3,000 bounty. First taken to the US base in Kandahar, Afghanistan, he was then transferred to Guantánamo. While by 2002 the US authorities concluded that Kurnaz had nothing to do with terrorism, he was imprisoned until the middle of 2006 and released only because of pressure from the German government.
Barred from entry to the US, he testified via video link to a sparsely attended hearing of the House Foreign Affairs Committee this week.
“I did nothing wrong and I was treated like a monster,” he said. He told how he was subjected to electric shocks, being suspended by his wrists for hours and subjected to the ‘water treatment,’ in which his head was stuck into a bucket of water and he was punched in the stomach, forcing him to inhale the liquid. (The Justice Department Inspector General’s report, it bears noting, affirmed that this last form of torture did not constitute “waterboarding,” but did represent “an effort to intimidate the detainees and increase their feelings of helplessness.”)
“I know others have died from this kind of treatment,” said Kurnaz. “I suffered from sleep deprivation, solitary confinement, religious and sexual humiliations. I was beaten multiple times.”
“There was no law in Guantánamo,” Kurnaz concluded. “I didn’t think this could happen in the 21st century.... I could never have imagined that this place was created by the United States.”
The inmates held at Guantánamo represent barely 1 percent of those detained at US prison camps and secret jails run by the military and the CIA in Iraq, Afghanistan and other points around the world. An estimated 27,000 people are being held without charges, much less trials, many of them simply having disappeared into Washington’s global gulag. Some are held on prison ships, others in secret dungeons run jointly by the CIA and regimes to which it “outsources” detainees, like Egypt, Jordan and Morocco, where other, cruder forms of torture—being buried alive, given electric shocks or slashed with scalpels—are employed.
The report also reconfirms that the revolting scenes captured in the photographs taken at the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq that came to light four years ago—naked and hooded men being subjected to torture and sexual humiliation by US guards—were no aberration. The methods described in the report—forced nudity, the use of attack dogs in interrogations, chaining detainees in “stress” positions, leading them around on dog leashes, draping them in women’s underwear—were identical to those officially blamed on a “few bad apples” at Abu Ghraib.
Sadistic torture “orchestrated” from the White House
The uniformity of abuse at these widely separated facilities is evidence that the psychopathic and criminal sadism inflicted upon those detained by US forces was planned and orchestrated from the top.
Indeed, as ABC News revealed last month, top administration officials on the so-called Principals’ Committee—Vice President Dick Cheney, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, Secretary of State Colin Powell, CIA Director George Tenet, Attorney General John Ashcroft and National Security Council Adviser Condoleezza Rice—conducted detailed discussions on “enhanced interrogation techniques,” which, according to ABC, “were almost choreographed—down to the number of times CIA agents could use a specific tactic.”
Bush subsequently told ABC that he was “aware our national security team met on this issue. And I approved.”
The report establishes that FBI and Justice Department officials advised the White House National Security Council of their concern that the practices witnessed by the agents were “gravely damaging ... the rule of law” at Guantánamo.
In the end, however, they were told to back off, and they complied, thereby becoming accomplices in this criminality and its cover-up.
The revelations in the FBI report have provoked no significant protests or demands for action from the Democrats in Congress, or for that matter from the party’s presidential contenders, Senators Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, neither of whom have made torture an issue in their campaigns.
The New York Times Tuesday carried a lead editorial titled, “What the FBI agents saw,” which laid out the details of the report and stated that it “shows what happens when an American president, his secretary of defense, his Justice Department and other top officials corrupt American law to rationalize and authorize the abuse, humiliation and torture of prisoners.”
The paper’s conclusion: “The Democrats must press for full disclosure” through hearings to uncover “the extent of President Bush’s disregard for the law and the Geneva Conventions.” This, they tell their readers, “is the only way to get this country back to being a defender, not a violator, of human rights.”
Such is the impotence of erstwhile American establishment liberalism. The extent of the Bush administration’s outright criminality has been thoroughly exposed over the course of several years.
The wholesale and deliberate violations of the Geneva Conventions and the Convention against Torture are, under international law, war crimes—just as the FBI recognized they were. What is demanded is not another toothless congressional hearing, but rather the constitution of a war crimes tribunal. Those responsible must be held accountable.
Bush, Cheney, Rice, Rumsfeld, Powell, Tenet and Ashcroft should be placed on trial. Those like former White House counsel and Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, Cheney’s chief of staff David Addington and Justice Department deputy assistant secretary John Yoo, who crafted the pseudo-legal arguments legitimizing torture, should be prosecuted as well, together with those military and intelligence officials who directed the criminal practices at Guantánamo, Abu Ghraib, Bagram and other CIA and military camps and prisons.
The Democratic leadership has no desire or intention to fight for such a reckoning. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and other party leaders have repeatedly insisted that impeachment of the president and vice president is “off the table.” They have no interest in pursuing the administration on the issue of torture because they themselves are complicit, with Pelosi and other senior congressional Democrats having been briefed extensively on the criminal methods employed at Guantánamo, which they approved and concealed from the American people.
On a more fundamental level, the Democrats have been complicit in a policy of global militarism and aggression—carried out under the mantle of a “global war on terrorism”—which is directed at using armed force to further the interests of America’s ruling oligarchy. It is this criminal strategy—resulting in the loss of over 1 million Iraqi lives—that has given rise to the crime of torture itself.
Nonetheless, the deepening crisis of American capitalism is creating the conditions for profound shocks and changes in political and social relations that may well result in Bush, Cheney and Co. standing in the dock as war criminals.
Such a trial is vitally necessary from the standpoint of halting these ongoing crimes, preventing the use of similar methods against political opposition within the US itself and politically educating the American people.
If President Obama fails to recognize that ignoring the fact war crimes were authorized to be committed by Bush Administration officials and those responsible need to be prosecuted then he will bring never restore respect to America's damaged reputation worldwide.
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http://mypeace.tv/video/obama-obstructing-justice

http://mypeace.tv/video/bush-torture-policycongress

http://mypeace.tv/video/future-depends-on-torture

http://mypeace.tv/video/obama-address-to-muslim-world

Brilliant speech that will fall on deaf ears if war criminals are not prosecuted!

http://mypeace.tv/video/obama-comments-on-irans-fight