On March 28, 2002, Abu Zubaydah was captured in Faisalabad, Pakistan by the FBI, “identified” as a high-ranking operative of al Qaeda, and subsequently tortured by American agents at Guantanamo and elsewhere.

Abu Zubaydah’s treatment at the hands of the CIA has been called torture by Ali Soufan, the FBI interrogator who witnessed part of Abu Zubaydah’s CIA interrogation, multiple U.S. officials including President Obama, and by the International Committee of the Red Cross.

Media and DOJ reports about torturing Mr. Zubaydah were always careful to mention his connection to al Qaeda.

The C.I.A. officers used waterboarding at least 83 times in August 2002 against Abu Zubaydah, according to a 2005 Justice Department legal memorandum. Abu Zubaydah has been described as a Qaeda operative.

Mr. Zubaydah was prominently mentioned in Justice Department memos justifying torture, and charged with participating in many acts of terrorism against the United States.

He also acted as al Qaeda’s coordinator of external contacts and foreign communications. Additionally, he has acted as al Qaeda’s Counterintelligence officer and has been trusted to find spies within the organization. Zubaydah has been involved in every major terrorist operation carried out by al Qaeda. He was a planner for the Millenium plot to attack U.S. and Israeli targets during the Millennium celebrations in Jordan. Two of the central figures in this plot who were arrested have identified Zubaydah as the supporter of their cell and the plot. He also served as a planner for the Paris Embassy plot in 2001. Moreover; he was one of the planners of the September 11 attacks.

But now the US Department of Justice has admitted that it was nothing but lies, from top to bottom.

Respondent (the Department of Justice) does not contend that Petitioner (Abu Zubaydah) was a “member” of al-Qaida in the sense of having sworn “bayat” (allegiance) or otherwise having satisfied any formal criteria that either Petitioner or al-Qaida may have considered necessary for inclusion in al-Qaida. Nor is the Government detaining Petitioner based on any allegation that Petitioner views himself as part of al-Qaida as a matter of subjective personal conscience, ideology, or worldview.

You might think that after the “case” against Mr. Zubaydah had been exposed as a ludicrous fabrication after more than 8 years of brutal abuse…

You might think that now the United States would release Abu Zubaydah, and try to make amends for the repulsive crimes committed against him…

But Barack Obama and Eric Holder are now alleging that new and previously unheard-of offenses were committed by Abu Zubaydah…

Offenses unheard-of during 8 long years of abuse, while false and entirely fabricated charges against him were constantly paraded around the media to justify torture, and now…

The government has a new set of charges it has leveled against Zubaydah: he “supported enemy forces and participated in hostilities” and “facilitat[ed] the retreat and escape of enemy forces” after the US invaded Afghanistan in November 2001.

So it was only after the United States invaded Afghanistan Mr. Zubaydah may have assisted our “enemies,” a category which included almost everybody in Afghanistan except the drug-lords with whom we replaced the Taliban.

But Abu Zubaydah still remains in confinement in our concentration camp at Guantanamo Bay, under the authority of President Barack Obama.

And what kind of man is Abu Zubaydah today, this dangerous man whom Barack Obama still hopes to prosecute for defending Afghanistan against the US invasion?

Abu Zubaydah’s mental grasp is slipping away. Today, he suffers blinding headaches and has permanent brain damage. He has an excruciating sensitivity to sounds, hearing what others do not. The slightest noise drives him nearly insane. In the last two years alone, he has experienced about 200 seizures. Already, he cannot picture his mother’s face or recall his father’s name. Gradually, his past, like his future, eludes him.

They call it missing in action, but those soldiers are missing at home, too, at every wedding and every graduation and every holiday.

Sometimes you meet an old man who has children and grandchildren now, and he never had a father. You meet amputees who had twenty good years ahead of them, playing softball or throwing a football around on Thanksgiving or pushing a stroller and lifting a baby ever so carefully out of it…

No war ever ends.

I remember Mr. Bush in the Press Club video, looking under a table for WMDs and all the elite reporters laughing, Karl Rove and Rumsfeld laughing and all the elite reporters laughing with them. Remember them!

There’s always broken souls and crazy men raging in bare rooms, and women who wake up screaming, and children alone in the dark, listening.

Names and dates of birth on tombstones and monuments, and a mother who remembers every birthday, soldiers buried in consecrated ground and others unburied in jungles and wastelands. This was the father who would have given the bride away. This was the brother who would have been the best man.

No war ever ends.

Peter Arnett’s report from the town of Ben Tre in Vietnam ran under the innocuous headline “Major Describes Move” in the New York Times on February 8, 1968.

“It became necessary to destroy the town to save it,” a United States major said today. He was talking about the decision by allied commanders to bomb and shell the town regardless of civilian casualties, to rout the Vietcong.

40 years later, in August 2008, the Third Armored Cavalry burned down a village near Balad Ruz, in Diyala, Iraq, “in order to deny safe haven to possible terrorists.”

In March, 2010, the beneficent US Occupation of Afghanistan likewise “saved” the town of Marjah.

And now Barack Obama and Stanley McChrystal are planning the same kind of party for Kandahar!

Kandahar Becomes Battlefield Before a U.S. Offensive

“The first thing Afghans fear is the coming of more foreign troops, and the second thing they fear is the empowering of the current leadership and administration,” said Shahabuddin Akhunzada, a tribal elder from Kandahar city.

“The Americans, the international community, all the military forces have lost the people’s trust,” he added.

But for the next few weeks or months, until the Americans arrive…

Kandahar is still a living city.

At last count, AmericanDad’s “Open letter to Conservatives” had accumulated 778 recommends on TPMCafé, a site where the most recommended diary typically accumulates 20, and it isn’t hard to see why.

I was ready to cheer as soon as I saw AmericanDad’s Christmas-card of an avatar…

“Me and JonBenet on Her Fourth Birthday”

Hurrah!

And Russell King, aka “AmericanDad,” isn’t just any kind of dad!

He’s an American Dad!

Cue the music from Grand Funk Railroad, and try to memorize the inspiring chorus, America!

He’s an American Dad!
He’s an American Dad!
He’s an American Dad!
He’s an American Dad!
He’s an American Dad!

You get the idea.

Or maybe you don’t, because reading AmericanDad’s diary wasn’t much different from hearing a Grand Funk chorus 778 times in a row, and by the time you had read one of approximately 778 links in it, you might just as well have read them all, because the very same awesome idea appeared and reappeared in all of them.

For example…

You can’t fight against your own ideas just because the Dem president endorses your proposal.

Don’t criticize Obama for doing exactly what conservatives already did!

And likewise throughout AmericanDad’s almost unending litany.

You can’t call for a pay-as-you-go policy, and then vote against your own ideas.

Are they “unlawful enemy combatants” or are they “prisoners of war” at Gitmo? You can’t have it both ways.

You can’t rail against the bank bailouts when you supported them as they were happening.

You can’t enjoy socialized medicine while condemning it.

Forget that Obama acts almost exactly like a neo-con!

Forget that Obama also “enjoys socialized medicine while condemning it.” Single-payer was off the table from the get-go!

Forget that Obama also supported and continued humongous bailouts for the mega-banks, while millions of American families went into foreclosure with almost no help at all.

Forget that Obama also wants to “have it both ways” about enemy combatants/prisoners of war, and waffles all over the map about how and where to try Khalid Sheikh Mohammed.

Forget that Obama also endorsed “pay-as-you-go” and capped domestic spending while unemployment soared and millions of American families lost everything.

That’s not the point!

The point is that neo-cons criticize Obama for acting like a neo-con!

The point is distracting Democrats from the miserable hypocrisy of their corporate-conservative sell-out of a President!

And they love it!

Kabul, Afghanistan, 2009 (AP Photo/Rafiq Maqbool)

ee cummings, from Tulips and Chimneys (1923)

To pass “Healthcare Reform” yesterday, one last dose of shit had to be added to the soup.

At 4 p.m. ET Sunday, hours after the debate had begun on the floor of the House, Stupak announced that he and seven fellow Democratic holdouts had reached a deal with the White House and would vote in favor of the bill. Their decision ensured that the Democrats would have the votes to pass it.

The battle began in late June, when Stupak and other Democrats who oppose abortion demanded that the bill include specific language banning any taxpayer funding for abortions in new government-funded health insurance exchanges or at community health centers.

Democratic leaders and the White House resisted, saying a precedent set in 1976 with the so-called Hyde Amendment would stand and no abortions would be paid for with government money. That amendment has applied mainly to Medicaid, the federal-state health program for the poor.

The last-minute compromise: a promise that after the health care bill passed, Obama would sign an executive order affirming that it would not result in any government funding for abortions.

A few anti-shit purists mildly complained, but the chef’s core clientele celebrated in their board-rooms!

The Dow’s pharmaceutical components were among the very few stocks in the black on Monday, as drug-makers are expected to profit from the expansion of health-care coverage. Merck rose 0.3%, while Pfizer climbed 1.1%.

And what were the only remaining alternatives, after 14 months of non-stop “compromise?”

It was either Obama’s shitty soup, or lunatics screaming “nigger” in the streets.

Jamila, left, plays on a seesaw with children of other female inmates on the prison yard of Pul-e Charkhi prison in Kabul, Afghanistan April 17, 2008. Jamila, age 7, and her mother Najiba who is serving a seven year sentence for adultery, have been in prison for 10 months. There are 226 young children in Afghanistan’s prisons, including many who were born there. (AP Photo/David Guttenfelder)

The little girl on the high end of the seesaw looks stranded, and you can almost imagine that even if the other children wandered away, she might still float there, three or four feet off the ground, immune to the law of gravity…

And why should any natural law apply in that goddamned place, any more than any natural law applies in a video-game, beside a Humvee-space-invader, at a forward operating base in Helmand, Afghanistan?

LCPL Jordan Mitchell of the 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit plays a hand held video game lying on his cot next to his humvee at a forward operating base in southern Afghanistan Friday, April 25, 2008. (AP Photo/David Guttenfelder)

The The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act as Passed is a transparent little document comprising a mere 2409 pages in pdf format, and Senate Democrats have made it conveniently available online.

One of the flagship provisions of this historic bill (”historic” meaning that this bill has already been discussed as much as the Magna Carta) will make it impossible for anyone to be denied health insurance on the basis of pre-existing conditions.

Health insurance for all of us, even if we’re actually sick! That’s the name of the game, but it isn’t exactly the name of the bill, and although coverage for individuals with pre-existing conditions has remained at the top of Democratic talking-points for 14 long months, I was surprised to see that the word “pre-existing” only appears 5 times in 2409 pages of legislative language, mostly in Sec. 1101 of Subtitle B, and…

Here it is! That awfully famous “section” in all it’s glory, along with a few typographical peculiarities which arise from pasting pdf into html.

Subtitle B—Immediate Actions to
2 Preserve and Expand Coverage
3 SEC. 1101. IMMEDIATE ACCESS TO INSURANCE FOR UNIN4
SURED INDIVIDUALS WITH A PREEXISTING
5 CONDITION.
6 (a) IN GENERAL.—Not later than 90 days after the
7 date of enactment of this Act, the Secretary shall establish
8 a temporary high risk health insurance pool program to
9 provide health insurance coverage for eligible individuals
10 during the period beginning on the date on which such pro11
gram is established and ending on January 1, 2014.

12 (b) ADMINISTRATION.—
13 (1) IN GENERAL.—The Secretary may carry out
14 the program under this section directly or through
15 contracts to eligible entities.
16 (2) ELIGIBLE ENTITIES.—To be eligible for a
17 contract under paragraph (1), an entity shall—
18 (A) be a State or nonprofit private entity;
19 (B) submit to the Secretary an application
20 at such time, in such manner, and containing
21 such information as the Secretary may require;
22 and
23 (C) agree to utilize contract funding to es24
tablish and administer a qualified high risk pool
25 for eligible individuals.
46
HR 3590 EAS/PP
1 (3) MAINTENANCE OF EFFORT.—To be eligible to
2 enter into a contract with the Secretary under this
3 subsection, a State shall agree not to reduce the an4
nual amount the State expended for the operation of
5 one or more State high risk pools during the year pre6
ceding the year in which such contract is entered into.
7 (c) QUALIFIED HIGH RISK POOL.—
8 (1) IN GENERAL.—Amounts made available
9 under this section shall be used to establish a quali10
fied high risk pool that meets the requirements of
11 paragraph (2).
12 (2) REQUIREMENTS.—A qualified high risk pool
13 meets the requirements of this paragraph if such
14 pool—
15 (A) provides to all eligible individuals
16 health insurance coverage that does not impose
17 any preexisting condition exclusion with respect
18 to such coverage;
19 (B) provides health insurance coverage—
20 (i) in which the issuer’s share of the
21 total allowed costs of benefits provided
22 under such coverage is not less than 65 per23
cent of such costs; and
24 (ii) that has an out of pocket limit not
25 greater than the applicable amount de47
HR 3590 EAS/PP
1 scribed in section 223(c)(2) of the Internal
2 Revenue Code of 1986 for the year involved,
3 except that the Secretary may modify such
4 limit if necessary to ensure the pool meets
5 the actuarial value limit under clause (i);
6 (C) ensures that with respect to the pre7
mium rate charged for health insurance coverage
8 offered to eligible individuals through the high
9 risk pool, such rate shall—
10 (i) except as provided in clause (ii),
11 vary only as provided for under section
12 2701 of the Public Health Service Act (as
13 amended by this Act and notwithstanding
14 the date on which such amendments take ef15
fect);
16 (ii) vary on the basis of age by a factor
17 of not greater than 4 to 1; and
18 (iii) be established at a standard rate
19 for a standard population; and
20 (D) meets any other requirements deter21
mined appropriate by the Secretary.
22 (d) ELIGIBLE INDIVIDUAL.—An individual shall be
23 deemed to be an eligible individual for purposes of this sec24
tion if such individual—
48
HR 3590 EAS/PP
1 (1) is a citizen or national of the United States
2 or is lawfully present in the United States (as deter3
mined in accordance with section 1411);
4 (2) has not been covered under creditable cov5
erage (as defined in section 2701(c)(1) of the Public
6 Health Service Act as in effect on the date of enact7
ment of this Act) during the 6-month period prior to
8 the date on which such individual is applying for
9 coverage through the high risk pool; and
10 (3) has a pre-existing condition, as determined
11 in a manner consistent with guidance issued by the
12 Secretary.
13 (e) PROTECTION AGAINST DUMPING RISK BY INSUR14
ERS.—
15 (1) IN GENERAL.—The Secretary shall establish
16 criteria for determining whether health insurance
17 issuers and employment-based health plans have dis18
couraged an individual from remaining enrolled in
19 prior coverage based on that individual’s health sta20
tus.
21 (2) SANCTIONS.—An issuer or employment-based
22 health plan shall be responsible for reimbursing the
23 program under this section for the medical expenses
24 incurred by the program for an individual who, based
25 on criteria established by the Secretary, the Secretary
49
HR 3590 EAS/PP
1 finds was encouraged by the issuer to disenroll from
2 health benefits coverage prior to enrolling in coverage
3 through the program. The criteria shall include at
4 least the following circumstances:
5 (A) In the case of prior coverage obtained
6 through an employer, the provision by the em7
ployer, group health plan, or the issuer of money
8 or other financial consideration for disenrolling
9 from the coverage.
10 (B) In the case of prior coverage obtained
11 directly from an issuer or under an employment12
based health plan—
13 (i) the provision by the issuer or plan
14 of money or other financial consideration
15 for disenrolling from the coverage; or
16 (ii) in the case of an individual whose
17 premium for the prior coverage exceeded the
18 premium required by the program (adjusted
19 based on the age factors applied to the prior
20 coverage)—
21 (I) the prior coverage is a policy
22 that is no longer being actively mar23
keted (as defined by the Secretary) by
24 the issuer; or
50
HR 3590 EAS/PP
1 (II) the prior coverage is a policy
2 for which duration of coverage form
3 issue or health status are factors that
4 can be considered in determining pre5
miums at renewal.
6 (3) CONSTRUCTION.—Nothing in this subsection
7 shall be construed as constituting exclusive remedies
8 for violations of criteria established under paragraph
9 (1) or as preventing States from applying or enforc10
ing such paragraph or other provisions under law
11 with respect to health insurance issuers.
12 (f) OVERSIGHT.—The Secretary shall establish—
13 (1) an appeals process to enable individuals to
14 appeal a determination under this section; and
15 (2) procedures to protect against waste, fraud,
16 and abuse.
17 (g) FUNDING; TERMINATION OF AUTHORITY.—
18 (1) IN GENERAL.—There is appropriated to the
19 Secretary, out of any moneys in the Treasury not oth20
erwise appropriated, $5,000,000,000 to pay claims
21 against (and the administrative costs of) the high risk
22 pool under this section that are in excess of the
23 amount of premiums collected from eligible individ24
uals enrolled in the high risk pool. Such funds shall
25 be available without fiscal year limitation.
51
HR 3590 EAS/PP
1 (2) INSUFFICIENT FUNDS.—If the Secretary esti2
mates for any fiscal year that the aggregate amounts
3 available for the payment of the expenses of the high
4 risk pool will be less than the actual amount of such
5 expenses, the Secretary shall make such adjustments
6 as are necessary to eliminate such deficit.
7 (3) TERMINATION OF AUTHORITY.—
8 (A) IN GENERAL.—Except as provided in
9 subparagraph (B), coverage of eligible individ10
uals under a high risk pool in a State shall ter11
minate on January 1, 2014.
12 (B) TRANSITION TO EXCHANGE.—The Sec13
retary shall develop procedures to provide for the
14 transition of eligible individuals enrolled in
15 health insurance coverage offered through a high
16 risk pool established under this section into
17 qualified health plans offered through an Ex18
change. Such procedures shall ensure that there
19 is no lapse in coverage with respect to the indi20
vidual and may extend coverage after the termi21
nation of the risk pool involved, if the Secretary
22 determines necessary to avoid such a lapse.
23 (4) LIMITATIONS.—The Secretary has the au24
thority to stop taking applications for participation
52
HR 3590 EAS/PP
1 in the program under this section to comply with the
2 funding limitation provided for in paragraph (1).
3 (5) RELATION TO STATE LAWS.—The standards
4 established under this section shall supersede any
5 State law or regulation (other than State licensing
6 laws or State laws relating to plan solvency) with re7
spect to qualified high risk pools which are established
8 in accordance with this section.

And then we’re off to Sec 1102, REINSURANCE FOR EARLY RETIREES!

But there’s a twist!

Although “pre-existing” only appears 5 times in the bill, “preexisting” appears another 7 times, and I have to confess that I like the sections with “pre-existing” better than the sections” with “preexisting,” for reasons that will probably be obvious after perusing one of the “preexisting” sections.

‘‘SEC. 2704. PROHIBITION OF PREEXISTING CONDITION EX8
CLUSIONS OR OTHER DISCRIMINATION
9 BASED ON HEALTH STATUS.
10 ‘‘(a) IN GENERAL.—A group health plan and a health
11 insurance issuer offering group or individual health insur12
ance coverage may not impose any preexisting condition
13 exclusion with respect to such plan or coverage.’’; and
14 (B) by transferring such section (as amended by
15 subparagraph (A)) so as to appear after the section
16 2703 added by paragraph (4);
17 (3)(A) in section 2702 (42 U.S.C. 300gg–1)—
18 (i) by striking the section heading and all
19 that follows through subsection (a);
20 (ii) in subsection (b)—
21 (I) by striking ‘‘health insurance issuer
22 offering health insurance coverage in con23
nection with a group health plan’’ each
24 place that such appears and inserting
82
HR 3590 EAS/PP
1 ‘‘health insurance issuer offering group or
2 individual health insurance coverage’’; and
3 (II) in paragraph (2)(A)—
4 (aa) by inserting ‘‘or individual’’
5 after ‘‘employer’’; and
6 (bb) by inserting ‘‘or individual
7 health coverage, as the case may be’’
8 before the semicolon; and
9 (iii) in subsection (e)—
10 (I) by striking ‘‘(a)(1)(F)’’ and insert11
ing ‘‘(a)(6)’’;
12 (II) by striking ‘‘2701’’ and inserting
13 ‘‘2704’’; and
14 (III) by striking ‘‘2721(a)’’ and insert15
ing ‘‘2735(a)’’; and
16 (B) by transferring such section (as amend17
ed by subparagraph (A)) to appear after section
18 2705(a) as added by paragraph (4); and
19 (4) by inserting after the subpart heading (as
20 added by paragraph (1)) the following…

And so on, through many, many more strikes, transfers, and insertions.

And now, while all the good students strike, insert, and transfer language around 2409 pages of pdf, and eventually arrive at a full understanding of the PPACA, the rest of us will apply our limited intelligence to one simple element of this historic bill, and ask ourselves about the $5,000,000,000 (not quite yet) appropriated to cover patients with pre-existing (or preexisting) conditions, and other “high-risk” individuals, year by year beginning 90 days after the PPACA is enacted, until 2014, when all the other provisions of the PPACA are applicable.

That sounds like a lot of money, but remember that it’s supposed to cover (or fill up the gaps in coverage of) a lot of people who are sick already, or likely to get sick in a way that may cost a lot of money!

And to help us visualize the amounts of money involved, I have prepared a colorful illustration!

One red square is much bigger than the other!

But the little red square is supposed to cover a very big problem in the big red square!

How can $5 billion cover all currently uninsured “high-risk” individuals (including individuals with pre-existing conditions, which apparently includes anybody who is actually sick) as well as any “high-risk” individuals who lose their insurance between now and 2014?

Nobody seems to know.

In Baghdad alone, whose vote is decisive in the election, Sadrist candidates, many of them political unknowns, were 6 of the top 12 vote-getters.

This tiny factoid is buried in the eleventh paragraph of an article in the New York Times with an already unpleasant headline…

Followers of Sadr Emerge Stronger After Iraq Elections

What does it mean?

If you want to cast a vote that says “I hate America,” there is nobody in the world you could vote for and say “I hate America” more clearly than you can say “I hate America” by voting for Moktada al-Sadr, and Moktada al-Sadr just swamped all other parties in Baghdad, in an election that’s supposedly the triumphant outcome of our genocidal occupation of Iraq.

Congratulations, imbeciles! You just spent at least a trillion dollars and killed more than 1,000,000 Iraqis and more than 5000 American soldiers to make a brutal anti-American fanatic the king of Baghdad!

Harharharhar!!!

This is what the imbecile George W. Bush created in 2003!

This is what the imbeciles John Kerry, John Edwards, and Hillary Clinton, and 26 other Democrats and 48 Republican Senators voted for in 2002!

This is what the imbecile Senator Barack Obama voted to fund in 2005 and 2006 and 2007 and 2008!

This is what the imbecile President and Commander-in-Chief Barack Obama has been commanding for the last 14 months!

Congratulations, imbeciles! You just spent at least a trillion dollars and killed more than 1,000,000 Iraqis and more than 5000 American soldiers to make a brutal anti-American fanatic the king of Baghdad!

Harharharhar!!!

Since a nation’s schools should reflect its real priorities, and since the United States is unquestionably the most violent country in the world, with two military occupations in progress, drone-assassins patrolling skies all over the planet, and a military budget greater than all other nations combined, it’s only natural that President Obama should include early-childhood training in the martial arts in his overhaul of education in America!

After careful consideration of the martial arts of many nations, and with all due respect to masters of karate, kung fu, surma stickfighting, evala wrestling, tinku, maculele, okichitaw, bakom-vacón, bojuka, chun kuk do, limalama, sli beatha, kbachkun boraan, kalaripayat, lathi, malla-yuddha, mukna, thang-ta, sumo, gwonbeop, kuk sool won, shippalgi, ssireum, subak, yusul, muay lao, tomoi, lethwei, naban, tegumi, buno, dumog, pangamut, yawyan, cheena di, lerdrit, baobom, vovinam, cuong nu, and kalinda, I finally settled on silat as a foundation for martial arts in American schools!

You can find a good introduction to the fundamental theory of silat in “Deathscapes of the Malay Martial Artist,” by Douglas Farrer. The first challenge of silat is understanding “(berseru) the shadows of the potent dead.” This begins with “the disjuncture of deathscapes.”

At the end of his or her training a silat master “lives in the cemetery in a mud hut walled with human skulls, devours human flesh, faeces, and dog’s urine, and consorts with menstruating prostitutes.”

And nobody wants to fight a cannibal who lives in a cemetery and drinks dog’s urine!