A must read ...

Who We Are: Zeitoun and Camp Greyhound Five Years On

Digby gives up ...

... the authoritarian torturers win.

Today's quote ...

Over time Americans will learn that in order to maintain their liberty, they must instantly comply with everything those in authority tell them to do. The police will follow the edicts of their civilian leaders, who sanction torture on many different levels "to keep the people safe." The population will learn eventually that they will automatically be shocked with electricity if they fail to comply and over time they will be conditioned to fall in line regardless of their constitutional right to speak or resist unwarranted intrusion. And then we will truly be free.

-- Following Orders by digby, Hullabaloo

The everyday horror show of US 'Law' Enforcement ...

Mom in minivan tasered twice in Salina traffic stop; camera captures deputy's rough roadside arrest (VIDEO)

But that's what current-day Americans like, isn't it? The latest reality show, live, curbside.

A rare kind of courage ...

Fronzo West Jailed for Telling Authorities "Fuck the Police"

Phoenix civil liberties activist Fronzo West is currently doing time in the Maricopa County jail for exercising his freedom of speech rights as enshrined in the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.

Folks like to say we have freedom of speech in this country, and in theory, we do. But in practice, it's a whole 'nother matter. West, 65, challenges that theory nearly every day of the week here in Phoenix by riding around in a car emblazoned with the slogans "Fuck the Police" and "Stop Police Brutality." He goes further than that. Everything he wears, from the cap on his head to his loafers also bears the same anti-cop messages.

... read on ...

So cute ...

Scientific American, which was a real scientific periodical (decades ago), brings humor to the Taser torture arena:

TASER Seeks to Zap Safety Concerns --TASER International develops new technology, touts safety in wake of Canadian deaths possibly linked to police use by Larry Greenemeier

The article gives considerable space to the 'medical' opinion of a Taser trainer who, in addition to assuring us that the Taser's effects are temporary and mostly any damage will depend on where and how hard the victim falls, has apparently not followed the news concerning repeated Tasering of victims who are already on the ground writhing in pain.

As far as I know no one claims being Tasered isn't painful, yet the article reports:

"The TASER is the only weapon the police have that doesn't rely on pain compliance," Ashley says.

Evidently, 'pain compliance' and torturing with a Taser to inflict pain are two different things?

Does this mean what I think it means?

Another new weapon under development is the Shockwave, which Tuttle refers to as "an area-denial system" that simultaneously fires six TASER cartridges up to 25 feet. Scheduled for availability late next year, the Shockwave is designed to be used by military and Homeland Security personnel at airports, checkpoints and other open spaces.

Sounds like if someone runs away at an airport they will just Taser everyone. Hope I'm reading this wrong.

From sea to shining sea ...

... one expansive and nosy police state where anyone with a reader will know where you are at all times down to when you last picnicked at a National Park.

Just think, until my government issued Medicare Card, I had managed to eliminate my SS# from all the junk I carry about my person and my car. NOW my government wants to perpetually broadcast my SS#, along with other ID theft gold about me, some 100 ft (100 yards?) in every direction at all times. A Corporate and Police State dream come true ...

And they will do that to save me from a terrorist? Yeah, that's it.

"This is not a mandate," Chertoff said. "A state doesn't have to do this, but if the state doesn't have -- at the end of the day, at the end of the deadline -- Real ID-compliant licenses then the state cannot expect that those licenses will be accepted for federal purposes."

And will that make me a non-citizen? A de facto illegal alien? If I had been born just 20 years earlier I might have missed this part of the downfall of my country.

Then again, perhaps I will be able to truthfully quote: "It was the best of times. It was the worst of times." But we haven't hit "worst" yet have we? In the way of things, at some point we will have to pay for what the US has done to Iraq and the Iraqis and somehow I don't think we are headed for a cathartic Nuremberg Trials.

The USA, just like the old USSR ...

This article at Crooks and Liars (Nonny Mouse Goes Down Under) brought up old memories of flying from Iran to I don't remember where and having an unplanned stop in the USSR. Scary stuff. I was young and American at a time when it was very pleasant to be so, but there were some on that plane who were very, very worried.

In the end nothing happened to that flight or anyone on it, that I know of. Now the US is the ogre of the world, not Russia or even China, as we has surpassed them all in stupidity.

What's that old saying? The more things change the more they stay the same. A most depressing truism.

(NOTE: Minor corrections made to this post.)

Once upon a time most US policemen were trustworthy ...

Are there any police left who can be trusted? Another tale that shows that not only can the public NOT trust the police but police officers should not have much confidence in each other either.

... Johnston fired only once through her door and didn't hit any of the officers. That means the officers who were wounded likely were hit by their own colleagues ...

This sorry state of affairs started even before BushCo as part of the Republican poorly thought out (as are all things Republican) get-tough on crime wave that started the U.S. on its way to being a prison nation.