CIA: Whitehouse-Sanctioned Torture

“5 questions about the CIA detention and interrogation report you wish you didn’t have to ask,” Adam Goldman, Washington Post

“Senate report on CIA torture claims spy agency lied about ‘ineffective’ program,” Spencer Ackerman, Dominic Rushe, and Julian Borger, The Guardian

“10 appalling findings in the Senate’s torture report,” Luke Brin, Salon

“16 absolutely outrageous abuses detailed in the CIA torture report,” Dylan Matthews, Vox

“The Most Gruesome Moments in the CIA ‘Torture Report,'” Shane Harris, Daily Beast

What Did You Learn In School Today?

Back-to-School Special

Diane Ravitch on No Child Left Behind:

“I just came to realize that what we got involved in and what I had been supporting was turning education into a desiccated, data-driven, anti-human activity and this would not encourage the love of learning.  It would kill it.”

— “How I Fell Victim for an Educational Fad,” Diane Ravitch, Big Think

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10 Years of No Child Left Behind

Ten years ago, President George W. Bush signed the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) act into law. Mr. Bush, a legacy student at Yale, the Harvard MBA who crashed the world economy, is a great belever in education.

NCLB has been one of the most effective “blame-the-victim” excercises in the history of federal intervention. Schools that face the biggest challenges are wiped off the face of the earth, as if this eliminates their problems. States compete with each other to lower standards so more schools can be judged “adequate.”  At ten years old, NCLB enters the 5th Grade. Almost anything is smarter than this 5th grader.

President Obama is allowing some states the chance to get out from under NCLB, but that won’t help. What’s really needed: government coordination at all levels to advance the education of America’s children.

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Bush: I Ordered Waterboarding

 

In his memoir to be released next Tuesday, George W. Bush admits that he personally approved the use of waterboarding in the “enhanced interrogation” of prisoners while he was president. The coercive technique of intentional drowning meets the definition of torture under the Geneva Conventions, the U.N. Treaty on Human Rights, the U.S. Army Field Manual and Title 18 of the U.S. legal code.

Shoe Thrower Set Loose

Iraqi reporter Muntazer al-Zaidi, correspondent for al- Baghdadiya television news service, was freed from a Baghdad prison yesterday, nine months after he interrupted a speech by the President of the United States by yelling “You lie!”  “It is the farewell kiss, you dog!” He also presented George W. Bush with two Florsheim Awards on behalf of Iraqi widows and orphans. President Bush was visibly moved.

After the release of the Iraqi shoe-thrower, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security elevated security threat levels to cordovan.

Tom Ridge on the Bush Terrorism Alert Code

Tom Ridge, first Secretary of Homeland Security, says the G.W. Bush administration pressured him to raise the public terrorism Threat Level before the 2004 elections and for other politically-motivated reasons, when objective measures indicated no increased threats. He refused. His book detailing the charges comes out soon.

New Job for Bush

You may be out of work, but George W. Bush has a new job. The former president is using his legendary oratorical skills to forge a new career, Mike Allen reported in Politico. After hearing the news, David Letterman’s writers required oxygen.

Mr. Bush is booked to give ten speeches this year in Canada, the U.S., Europe, and Asia. He is represented by the Washington Speakers Bureau. The agency’s motto: “Inspiration from the World’s Greatest Minds.” Really.