if you just say we can, we swear we won't...

big surprise here...the CIA has secret detention centers around the world (namely eastern europe) where it is holding terror suspects. who would have thunk it? herein we find the catch 22 activists find themselves in when focusing on gitmo...the bulk of it already was underground, and changing gitmo will only force more of it to be more hidden. but what else can you do? maybe something more would be done if the media investigated more...

while news of the secret prisons hit the stand the "conservative" folks in the white house were doing their best to thwart an attempt spearheaded by mccain (he must really be starting to irk them) to attach a condemnation of torture to military spending. the never-will-die vice president insists the cia needs an exception to that rule...and his how-did-get-past-30 boss is throwing his support behind him. but there's a problem, at the same time bush is adament that the united states doesn't use torture. and maybe he believes it...afterall, torture is a loaded word with no clear definition...and if one doesn't consider what goes on in our own prison systems torture, then i suppose it isn't a big leap to think further abuses aren't either.

so the credibility of the united states and it's highest office corrodes even further (its as if every administration after nixon is trying to top him...some, i would argue, successfully). it makes me wonder if anybody is buying this "we need to be aggressive, so tell us we can...but we promise we won't." suppose that is the dilemna that globalization has placed us in...we just don't know how to deal with things...and it seems like everything we tried has become a disaster.
which brings me to another point...american students don't learn history...actually learn it, not just memorize dates and stories that state legislatures have trimmed to take out all the things people should know in order to avoid mistakes and horrors from being repeated.

finally...france is burning...and perhaps rightfully so. it seems racism and bigotry aren't just an american past time. i know i like to give france crap...mostly for their complicity in the holocaust and their continued religious and racial bigotry over the years...but somehow this makes me feel more in tune with them...like their leaders are almost american...and these kids could be from any american city and the story wouldn't seem out of place.

i loved you more than i will now recall at all...