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Critical thinking skills in action: Your policy analysis of
current events, past and presentInstructions: In order to
understand current events, people may have to discern among
competing statements regarding facts, meaning, and policy opinions.
This assignment has you:
Read a history of US government current events that are
typically omitted from high school US History texts, included in
many AP texts, and always included in comprehensive college
courses. These accounts are not contested to my knowledge; that is,
non-controversial for factual accuracy. Current events of our
present cannot be understood without this history to place the
present into context.
Research one current, important issue of interest for you.
Compare different sources of reports in good faith effort to
receive comprehensive facts.
Use critical thinking skills to determine the key facts as you
best see them, reflect and communicate what the facts mean for you,
and state your best policy response from your current understanding
in writing.
Use your written information as notes to report your findings to
the class.
To begin, read the sections below by the due date. Prepare to
discuss the section questions listed below. Each reading section
will have the short-response questions due at the start of the next
class period (details below). As you read, research the
documentation at your interest. Please do independent research at
your interest.
At the end of all the reading, select one current event from the
list provided, or propose your own for my approval. Consider the
questions and resources for each topic, do your own research, and
answer all twelve questions at the end of the assignment. I suggest
that you access the electronic version. This activates the numerous
Internet links, and allows you to cut and paste the questions for
your word processing program.
Print a copy of your answers to present your findings to the
class.
This assignment is 67 points: 23 for written responses to
questions: 1 point per question (10 for #3, a brief), 2 for
grammar
and spelling. 22 for your oral brief to the class (3-12 only): 1
point per question (5 for #3), 5 for visual
element (Prezi, Animoto, video, etc. (up to five extra for great
work), 2 for clarity. 22 for reading comprehension short-responses:
2 points per 11 sections.
Sections:1. Purpose of Social Science, challenge to get the
facts: pages 5-9 2. Your competent citizenry: three of historys
greatest voices: 10-13
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3. Reviewing California Content Standards and critical thinking
skills: 14-18 4. A revealing current event of our United States:
MCA: 19-25 5. Revealing current event: waterboarding and its
reporting by corporate media: 26-34 6. Past current events: Native
American treaties, Mexican-American War: 35-38 7. Past current
events: US overthrow of Hawaii, Spanish-American War: 39-44 8. Past
current events: World War 1, CIA wars, Vietnam War: 45-50 9. King
familys civil trial for the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther
King, Jr.: 51-56 10. Critical thinking skills in action: policy
analysis of current events assignment: 57-64 11. Great voices in
history offer insights for effective citizenry: 65-74
Reading comprehension short-responses instructions: This
assignment will help your learning (and grade). Short-responses can
be brief; they can be bullet points. They must clearly demonstrate
your understanding of the ideas. Please note: do not directly copy
your responses with classmates: you are welcome to benefit from
class discussions to improve your ideas, but plagiarized work
results in zero grades for giver and receiver, plus school policy
consequences.
1. Purpose of Social Science, challenge to get the facts: pages
5-9: The History-Social Science Framework for California Public
Schools articulates the context or
reason to learn US history, government and economics. Explain
briefly what this document says about the focus of these classes.
Include the skills we want students to master from them, how to
teach controversial topics, and the importance of critical thinking
skills.
Expert testimony is from someone with academic training and/or
professional experience to walk an audience through facts of a
complex issue. Explain why clear explanation and independently
verifiable comprehensive data are the two ways to evaluate the
effectiveness of expert testimony.
Explain why a person of reasonable intelligence can determine
for him or herself when a basic law is being outrageously violated
when the person knows the law; that is, the explanation of an
alleged expert or the president of the US is not needed to verify
the outrageous violation. Invent or explain an example with a rule
or law to show your understanding of this idea.
2. Your competent citizenry: three of historys greatest voices:
10-13: Explain Ciceros admonition against people who avoid a really
big responsibility (Cicero was a
leader to defend Romes constitutional government from those who
would subvert it for dictatorial power unlimited by the rules of a
constitution).
Gandhi wrote that he wanted to serve the British Constitution
and God in communicating to the public the gap between British law
and what the British were actually doing with grossly unequal
treatment. Explain Gandhis strategy to remove this
misunderstanding.
Explain what Dr. King meant that silence is betrayal. Explain if
this is what J.K. Rowling also meant in her remarks to Harvard
graduates in 2008.
3. Reviewing California Content Standards and critical thinking
skills: 14-18: Explain why understanding and applying the
fundamental principles and moral values
(inalienable rights) of American democracy is a big deal.
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Explain the three components of critical thinking and civic
competence that this section reviews.
Explain how Lincolns advice of unimpassioned reason can overcome
cognitive dissonance.
4. A revealing current events of our United States: MCA: 19-25:
Explain what the Military Commissions Act of 2006 allows. Explain
US Constitution Bill of Rights guarantees that MCA violates.
Explain how the Mexican-American War of 1846 was a clear violation
of a treaty by the US, or
how the US could legally avoid the Adams-Ons Treaty.
5. Revealing current event: waterboarding and its reporting by
corporate media: 26-34: Explain what case law is, and its use to
determine if a specific act already decided by the courts
is a lawful or unlawful act in the present. Explain what
Harvards Kennedy School of Government published about their review
of the
US four most-read newspapers about labeling waterboarding as
torture. Explain what the polling data says about Americans trust
of US corporate media reporting.
Given the examples of NY Times coverage of the UN Summit for
Children, Occupy Wall Street, and your personal experience of
corporate media, explain the degree that you trust US corporate
media reporting.
6. Past current events: Native American treaties,
Mexican-American War: 35-38: Explain what a treaty means under
Article Six of the US Constitution; that is, when a US
president signs a legal agreement and its ratified by at least
2/3 of the Senate, how obligated is the US to follow what it
says?
Explain your analysis (what you see when you take something
apart and study it) of the 1869 Board of Indian Commissioners
report.
If a person knows what a treaty means under the US Constitution,
knows the basic ideas of the Adams-Ons Treaty, and knows the spot
where President Polk claimed that Mexico invaded the US, if that
person needs anybodys help to know if the president is telling the
truth or not about who invaded whom, and on whose soil blood was
shed.
7. Past current events: US overthrow of Hawaii, Spanish-American
War: 39-44: Explain how the US overthrow of Hawaiis government was
unlawful or lawful. Explain whether the US takeover of the
Philippines was an expression of spreading democracy,
or imperialism to control strategic resources (like a naval
base) and make corporate profits. Explain whether US support of a
vicious dictator in Cuba is an expression of spreading
democracy, or imperialism to control resources and make
corporate profits.
8. Past current events: World War 1, CIA wars, Vietnam War:
45-50: Given Mexicos obvious response to reject Germanys invitation
to invade and attack the US if
the US declared war with Germany first, explain how the
Zimmerman Telegram posed a threat to US national security, or
whether there was no national security threat.
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After multiple CIA overthrows of democratic governments, explain
what Operation Northwoods would do to make the American public more
willing to support direct US military use to overthrow
governments.
Explain how the Vietnam War was an expression of spreading
democracy, or imperialism for control and corporate profits.
9. King familys civil trial for the assassination of Dr. Martin
Luther King, Jr.: 51-56: Explain the evidence that supports the
King family and civil trial jurys conclusion that the US
government assassinated Dr. King. The official assassin, James
Ray, claims that the government-appointed attorney told him he
needed to sign a confession in order to obtain a trial. When Ray
explained this and he asked for a trial, he was denied, despite the
formal requests from the King family and the admission of evidence
that Ray was not the killer. Rays government-appointed attorney
refused to comment. Given the evidence from the civil trial,
explain your analysis of the validity of Rays confession.
Explain the burden of proof someone takes when they assert an
idea is crazy and/or a conspiracy theory. For the claim, the idea
our own government assassinated Dr. King is a crazy conspiracy
theory, what can you legitimately ask the person to explain and
prove?
10. Critical thinking skills in action: policy analysis of
current events assignment: 57-64: Explain what current event youd
like to research from the list or the idea youre proposing to
me, and why this topic is of interest.
11. Great voices in history offer insights for effective
citizenry: 65-74: Paraphrase your three most favorite quotes from
the list, and why theyre your favorites. Your
paraphrasing may be concise if its accurate. Youll need to do
this as homework.
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Purpose of Social Science, challenge to get the facts
To understand why we study social science in California public
schools, we find the answer here: History-Social Science Framework
for California Public Schools, pgs. 2, 7-8
The study of continuity and change is, as it happens, the main
focus of the historysocial science curriculum. The knowledge
provided by these disciplines enables students to appreciate how
ideas, events, and individuals have intersected to produce change
over time as well as to recognize the conditions and forces that
maintain continuity within human societies.
As educators in the field of historysocial science, we want our
students to perceive the complexity of social, economic, and
political problems. We want them to have the ability to
differentiate between what is important and what is unimportant. We
want them to know their rights and responsibilities as American
citizens. We want them to understand the meaning of the
Constitution as a social contract that defines our democratic
government and guarantees our individual rights. We want them to
respect the right of others to differ with them. We want them to
take an active role as citizens and to know how to work for change
in a democratic society. We want them to understand the value, the
importance, and the fragility of democratic institutions. We want
them to realize that only a small fraction of the worlds population
(now or in the past) has been fortunate enough to live under a
democratic form of government, and we want them to understand the
conditions that encourage democracy to prosper. We want them to
develop a keen sense of ethics and citizenship. And we want them to
care deeply about the quality of life in their community, their
nation, and their world.
This framework encourages teachers to present controversial
issues honestly and accurately within their historical or
contemporary context. History without controversy is not good
history, nor is such history as interesting to students as an
account that captures the debates of the times. Students should
understand that the events in history provoked controversy as do
the events reported in todays headlines. Students should try to see
historical controversies through the different perspectives of
participants. These controversies can best be portrayed by using
primary sources, such as newspapers, court decisions, and speeches
that represent different views. Students should also recognize that
historians often disagree about the interpretation of historical
events and that todays textbooks may be altered by future research.
Through the study of controversial issues, both in history and in
current affairs, students should learn that people in a democratic
society have the right to disagree, that different perspectives
have to be taken into account, and that judgments should be based
on reasonable evidence and not on bias and emotion.
This framework proposes that critical thinking skills be
included at every grade level. Students should learn to detect bias
in print and visual media; to recognize illogical thinking; to
guard against propaganda; to avoid stereotyping of group members;
to reach
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conclusions based on solid evidence; and to think critically,
creatively, and rationally. These skills are to be taught within
the context of a curriculum that offers numerous opportunities to
explore examples of sound reasoning and examples of the opposite.
The above passages from the California Department of Education
explicitly support your learning critical thinking skills and
applying them for your analysis of our most important current
events. The Framework emphasizes the fragility of democratic forms
of government and the need for developing your competent citizenry
within a constitutional republic.
We shall do so.
The following assignment will take a few hours of your time to
read, and further time to verify factual accuracy of the claims. It
will then take a few hours to research a current event of your own
and answer the question for your analysis. That said, if youve
spent more than a few hours wondering about how truthful
politicians and corporate media really are, and youve wanted to
develop the critical thinking skills to know for yourself the
extent that factual claims are true regarding policies that are
literally life or death to millions, can uplift or impose tyranny
to billions, and direct trillions of our dollars, then this
investment of reading is worthwhile.
My challenge in teaching this to you is how to appropriately
communicate the facts of historical and current events while
bridging gaps of history unknown to you. That statement doesnt
appear to be challenging at all, at first. I mean, thats what all
teaching does, to communicate the facts, yes? But you will discover
the challenge of getting to the facts of history that is central to
a governments interests with resources, money, and power in this
reading :)
Please allow me to explain this deceptively simple
challenge.
Part of my professional contribution to you is my experience
working with leadership of both political parties and US corporate
media. The insight people gain who do this is similar to the
discovery in the movie The Wizard of Oz when our protagonists
seeking intelligence, love, courage, and home see the veil of power
pulled back. The story shows that the dominating images and sounds
of government are contrived distractions to elicit obedience. We
see a human hand upon these knobs and levers that prefers
dictatorial power (literally the power to say what we do) rather
than educate and empower the will of the people in a democracy,
just as our above passage from the California teaching Framework
states is the tendency. This wisdom allows us to recognize
distractions and propaganda from politicians and media for what
they are, and address political leadership, our wizards,
face-to-face with the power of objective facts and without
fear.
The following paragraph of my background is what I also shared
with your parents/guardians in my letter to them:
For 18 years I helped create and grow the citizens lobby,
RESULTS now in over 100 US communities and 7 countries, working
with economics and policy to end domestic and global
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poverty. RESULTS has been a leading voice for US Head Start
programs that reach over a million children. The United Nations
Childrens Fund (UNICEF) Executive Director, James Grant, credited
RESULTS with saving over one million childrens lives a year from
increased funding we won for cost-effective programs that reduce
infant mortality. We championed two UN Summits for heads of state:
the 1990 World Summit for Children (largest meeting of heads of
state in world history) and the 1997 Microcredit Summit (topic of
the 2006 Nobel Prize in Economics). The UN and nations were so
impressed with our work that they asked RESULTS to manage nations
progress toward the Microcredit Summits goals. Today, over 100
million of the worlds lowest income families now have access to
credit; a total population greater than the United States. This
saves millions of lives, tremendously improves quality of life, and
in every historical case has reduced population growth rates and
promoted wiser environmental management.
Part of my work was to help frame and document information on
200-300 policy briefs for members of Congress and heads of state.
We practiced the highest professional and academic standards for
the accuracy and documentation of our information. Moreover, we
helped anticipate and counter likely attacks on our information
from political opponents.
Since 1997 Ive focused my hobby on economics research, writing,
and lobbying (teaching is my career). The short version: I helped
create The Public Banking Institute by initiating lobbying for a
California state-owned bank for at-cost credit, and am a leading
advocate for reforms in government CAFR data (Comprehensive Annual
Financial Reports), and credit and monetary reform (for example, I
was one of six international speakers at Claremont Colleges
conference on monetary reform in April, 2012). I publish on three
main sites: CSU Sonomas Daily Censored, Washingtons Blog, and
Examiner.com. Other sites republish from there.
Project Censored is one of the organizations that we should
listen to, to be assured that our newspapers and our broadcasting
outlets are practicing thorough and ethical journalism. - Walter
Cronkite, 2004, US news journalist likely the most-respected in all
US history
Btw: I had assumed my leadership in the above areas would result
in my hire to work in government for policy development and
realization. Because both parties leadership has so far declined to
commit to any of the above policies, Ive worked as a teacher since
1984. I take teaching social science with the same passion as I do
for its real-world application: Im a National Board Certified
Teacher, and was honored by two Los Angeles mayors and USC for
being among the best teachers in the city.
My experience working with state legislators, Congress, three US
presidents, two UN Summits, and directly engaged with US corporate
media coverage qualifies my brief to you (this assignment) as
expert testimony to compare objective facts of current events with
the rhetoric of political leadership and corporate media. Evidence
also indicates that Ive been effective to appropriately create
assignments for high school-age students to learn critical thinking
skills and apply them to understand current events.
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http://www.results.org/about/our_results/http://www.results.org/about/our_results/http://www.unicef.org/wsc/http://www.unicef.org/wsc/http://www.microcreditsummit.org/http://www.microcreditsummit.org/http://www.microcreditsummit.org/state_of_the_campaign_report/http://www.microcreditsummit.org/state_of_the_campaign_report/http://www.microcreditsummit.org/state_of_the_campaign_report/http://www.microcreditsummit.org/state_of_the_campaign_report/http://publicbankinginstitute.org/home.htmhttp://publicbankinginstitute.org/home.htmhttp://www.examiner.com/article/ca-finance-director-no-hidden-money-ca-cafr-600-billion-hidden-moneyhttp://www.examiner.com/article/ca-finance-director-no-hidden-money-ca-cafr-600-billion-hidden-moneyhttp://www.examiner.com/article/3-reforms-for-us-economic-breakthrough-money-credit-cafrhttp://www.examiner.com/article/3-reforms-for-us-economic-breakthrough-money-credit-cafrhttp://www.examiner.com/article/3-reforms-for-us-economic-breakthrough-money-credit-cafrhttp://www.examiner.com/article/3-reforms-for-us-economic-breakthrough-money-credit-cafrhttp://www.examiner.com/article/carl-herman-explains-working-with-criminal-1-at-two-un-summits-monetary-reformhttp://www.examiner.com/article/carl-herman-explains-working-with-criminal-1-at-two-un-summits-monetary-reformhttp://www.examiner.com/article/carl-herman-explains-working-with-criminal-1-at-two-un-summits-monetary-reformhttp://www.examiner.com/article/carl-herman-explains-working-with-criminal-1-at-two-un-summits-monetary-reformhttp://www.dailycensored.com/author/carl_herman/http://www.dailycensored.com/author/carl_herman/http://www.dailycensored.com/author/carl_herman/http://www.dailycensored.com/author/carl_herman/http://www.washingtonsblog.com/author/carl-hermanhttp://www.washingtonsblog.com/author/carl-hermanhttp://www.examiner.com/nonpartisan-in-national/carl-hermanhttp://www.examiner.com/nonpartisan-in-national/carl-hermanhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walter_Cronkitehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walter_Cronkitehttp://www.powells.com/biblio?isbn=1583226052http://www.powells.com/biblio?isbn=1583226052http://legal-dictionary.thefreedictionary.com/Expert+Testimonyhttp://legal-dictionary.thefreedictionary.com/Expert+Testimony
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Importantly, expert testimony is never to be believed. That is,
since The Enlightenment, authorities are never to be believed on
their word but to be used as possible guides to point to objective
data.
I will always encourage you to never believe anything I say
regarding government, economics, and history. If Im successful in
my teaching you critical thinking skills, youll be able to
ascertain credibility for factual claims on your own. Indeed,
anyone of ethics will never ask for belief, but transparently
provide evidence for others thoughtful consideration. Those of us
who are serious to get to the facts in social science are deeply
appreciative just how hard it is to do so, and apply professional
and academic standards in our communication.
Expert testimony is only any good to the extent it does two
things for the reader/audience:
1. Help understand available facts rather than confuse or
obfuscate.2. Transparently present facts that are objectively true.
That is, the testimony shines light upon
data that thereafter anyone can confirm or refute. This removes
any need for belief, as the facts will speak for themselves.
Successful expert testimony therefore allows an audience that
had been confused by an issue at first to understand it in concept
and factual detail. The audience would thereafter be able to look
at the data and understand the issue for themselves.
For example, baseball is confusing to someone new to the game.
Imagine you became friends with a foreign exchange student who was
familiar with baseball, but never saw a game. You two go to a game.
If you explained the rule of when a runner is safe or out at first
base, your friend would have a noticeable breakthrough in
understanding what was going on. Indeed, your friend might ask your
opinion on a close play, but could independently see with full
confidence when runners are safe or out at first base.
Importantly, if a runner was out by twenty feet and the umpire
called the person safe, and the official media at the game also
said the runner was safe, your friend could determine with full
confidence that the game was rigged.
Important rules are meant to be crystal-clear to everyone.
Egregious violation is clear to anyone informed on the rules,
paying attention, and with the intellectual integrity and moral
courage to tell the truth.
Similarly, if you understood basic Constitutional rules, you
also might ask someones opinion on a close play, but when there are
egregious violations of the law you wouldnt need anyone to confirm
the obvious. The facts would tell you the whole story.
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This is as true with laws of war and torture as they are with
laws of stop signs while driving, and perhaps your familys rule
about taking out the trash after dinner (8 PM after dinner is close
enough to be simply reminded; not having it done by 8 AM the
following day is a clear violation).
So, students and young citizens, in hope that my experience
speaks to you, and that important current events mean life or death
to millions, opportunity or misery to billions, and the power of
trillions of our dollars that will have effects on these
conditions, I respectfully request your full attention to this
lesson.
I understand that Im asking for your time to read, research, and
write. My respect for your time and attention is balanced by my
experience of what seems to be required to achieve your learning of
critical thinking skills to understand current events for what they
are rather than the noises and flashes of distracting colors that
come from politicians and corporate medias mouths.
My intent is to empower you with this skill for the rest of your
life.
"At first blush, a man is not capable of reporting truth; he
must be drenched and saturated with it first." - Henry David
Thoreau, I to myself: an annotated selection from the journal of
Henry D. Thoreau, 1837. Thoreau, like Abraham Lincoln in a speech
on the floor of the House of Representatives, recognized claimed
reasons for a defensive war against Mexico were obvious lies when
inspected.
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http://books.google.com/books?id=3FEJA_dAewgC&printsec=frontcover&dq=henry+david+thoreau+i+to+myself&source=bl&ots=gIK0MAnvwZ&sig=yhFToDnWwWK7WXHd5ETXitfPit8&hl=en&ei=uMvQS_vIM4LStgOPh9GMCg&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CAYQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&qhttp://books.google.com/books?id=3FEJA_dAewgC&printsec=frontcover&dq=henry+david+thoreau+i+to+myself&source=bl&ots=gIK0MAnvwZ&sig=yhFToDnWwWK7WXHd5ETXitfPit8&hl=en&ei=uMvQS_vIM4LStgOPh9GMCg&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CAYQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&qhttp://books.google.com/books?id=3FEJA_dAewgC&printsec=frontcover&dq=henry+david+thoreau+i+to+myself&source=bl&ots=gIK0MAnvwZ&sig=yhFToDnWwWK7WXHd5ETXitfPit8&hl=en&ei=uMvQS_vIM4LStgOPh9GMCg&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CAYQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&qhttp://books.google.com/books?id=3FEJA_dAewgC&printsec=frontcover&dq=henry+david+thoreau+i+to+myself&source=bl&ots=gIK0MAnvwZ&sig=yhFToDnWwWK7WXHd5ETXitfPit8&hl=en&ei=uMvQS_vIM4LStgOPh9GMCg&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CAYQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&qhttp://www.examiner.com/la-county-nonpartisan-in-los-angeles/abraham-lincoln-on-unconstitutional-us-wars-of-invasion-courageously-standing-against-obvious-lieshttp://www.examiner.com/la-county-nonpartisan-in-los-angeles/abraham-lincoln-on-unconstitutional-us-wars-of-invasion-courageously-standing-against-obvious-lieshttp://www.examiner.com/la-county-nonpartisan-in-los-angeles/abraham-lincoln-on-unconstitutional-us-wars-of-invasion-courageously-standing-against-obvious-lieshttp://www.examiner.com/la-county-nonpartisan-in-los-angeles/abraham-lincoln-on-unconstitutional-us-wars-of-invasion-courageously-standing-against-obvious-lies
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Your competent citizenry: three of historys greatest voices
Lets consider three of historys greatest voices to understand
the fragility of democracy and the demand of your civic competence
to defend it. These historic current events were at the heart of
having democracy rather than dictatorship.
First: Marcus Tullius Cicero, Romes leading political figure who
stood for their constitutional republic as would-be dictators and
paid-off Senators sought to subvert their government to an
oligarchic dictatorship. Cicero rejected an offer of money and
power to silence his criticism of Romes move toward
unconstitutional dictatorship. He felt it was his duty to voice the
long-term costs and benefits of the choice between citizen
responsibility to stand for their constitutional rights or to
submit to dictatorial tyrants.
One of the most important lessons of history is to understand
that Cicero and his colleagues failed, as had similar statesmen
defending Greece from internal subversion to dictatorship four
hundred years earlier.
The American Founding Fathers read and embraced Cicero in
consideration of how to create a US Constitution with the best hope
to survive tyranny from within our own country. They understood the
danger that the United States must have competent citizens in
recognizing emerging facts of ongoing current events, or else
suffer similar self-destruction as Greece and Romes democratic
republics into dictatorial and war-mongering empires, and then
collapse.
Cicero wrote to encourage his fellow citizens to embrace the
responsibility of defending their constitutional republic from
dictatorial forces, and the fragility of freedom if they chose
short-term pleasures:
We denounce with righteous indignation and dislike men who are
so beguiled and demoralized by the charms of pleasure of the
moment, so blinded by desire, that they cannot foresee the pain and
trouble that are bound to ensue; and equal blame belongs to those
who fail in their duty through weakness of will, which is the same
as saying through shrinking from toil and pain. These cases are
perfectly simple and easy to distinguish. In a free hour, when our
power of choice is untrammeled and when nothing prevents our being
able to do what we like best, every pleasure is to be welcomed and
every pain avoided. But in certain circumstances and owing to the
claims of duty or the obligations of business it will frequently
occur that pleasures have to be repudiated and annoyances accepted.
The wise man therefore always holds in these matters to this
principle of selection: he rejects pleasures to secure other
greater pleasures, or else he endures pains to avoid worse pains. -
Marcus Tullius Cicero, On Duties: The Extremes of Good and Evil, 44
BCE, translated by H. Rackham (1914).
Second: Mohandas Gandhi was an attorney who acted for
realization of the civil rights in the rhetoric and religion of the
British Empire. When the empire refused to recognize those civil
and
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Christian rights, Gandhi led the movement for Indian
independence from British imperialism. As an attorney, Gandhi had
the academic training and professional experience to powerfully
voice the hypocrisy of the Empires promises of democracy, civil
rights, and rule of law versus the reality of denying the public
their power of vote, crushing civil rights, and then using the law
to criminalize the publics voice for those rights. Gandhi also
shone light upon the hypocrisy between the British declared
religious values of Christianity versus their brutal attacks and
public enslavement. Gandhi asked British Christians to honor the
one commandment Jesus gave them: love.
Gandhi asked that the British show their love by granting full
political and civil rights to all, and with equal protection under
just laws. The British response was propaganda and force to retain
their dictatorial and unlawful control.
Gandhi communicated to the public through speech, media that
would accept his voice, and his own newspaper. He found that he had
to address that current events as propagandized by the British
government was very different from the actual facts:
"One thing we have endeavoured to observe most scrupulously,
namely, never to depart from the strictest facts and, in dealing
with the difficult questions that have arisen during the year, we
hope that we have used the utmost moderation possible under the
circumstances. Our duty is very simple and plain. We want to serve
the community, and in our own humble way to serve the Empire. We
believe in the righteousness of the cause, which it is our
privilege to espouse. We have an abiding faith in the mercy of the
Almighty God, and we have firm faith in the British Constitution.
That being so, we should fail in our duty if we wrote anything with
a view to hurt. Facts we would always place before our readers,
whether they are palatable or not, and it is by placing them
constantly before the public in their nakedness that the
misunderstanding can be removed." - Mohandas K. Gandhi, Indian
Opinion (1 October 1903)
Another quote youve probably heard that is attributed to Gandhi
but unsourced, explains the British governments strategy to stop
activists work for recognition of their rights:
First they ignore you. Then they laugh at you. Then they fight
you. And then you win.
Regarding your opportunity to earn extra credit, I invite you to
watch and then do some kind of review of the 1982 movie, Gandhi. It
won eight Academy Awards, including Best Picture. For the HD
official trailer, view here.
Need an excuse to ask someone you like in our class on a date?
Youre welcome :)
Third: Dr. Martin Luther King stood for civil rights and equal
protection under American laws for all. Dr. King learned from
Gandhi, and powerfully communicated the 100 years of American
hypocrisy between the legal promises of citizenship and rights
versus the reality of brutal
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segregationist oppression by government. For the last year of
his life, Dr. King addressed the unlawful Vietnam War. His plan for
the summer of 1968 was to lead a march and then camp-in at
Washington, D.C. until the US government ended the Vietnam War, and
directed war resources to end poverty and invest in US hard and
soft infrastructure. He was assassinated after his last speech
before beginning the march to D.C. in April, 1968.
Dr. King also had to address Americans difficulty to look their
Wizard in the eye and address their government directly and without
fear:
A time comes when silence is betrayal. That time has come for
us... The truth of these words is beyond doubt but the mission to
which they call us is a most difficult one. Even when pressed by
the demands of inner truth, men do not easily assume the task of
opposing their government's policy, especially in time of war. Nor
does the human spirit move without great difficulty against all the
apathy of conformist thought within one's own bosom and in the
surrounding world.
... A true revolution of values will soon cause us to question
the fairness and justice of many of our past and present policies.
... A true revolution of values will soon look uneasily on the
glaring contrast of poverty and wealth. ... A genuine revolution of
values means in the final analysis that our loyalties must become
ecumenical rather than sectional. Every nation must now develop an
overriding loyalty to mankind as a whole in order to preserve the
best in their individual societies. ...We can no longer afford to
worship the god of hate or bow before the altar of retaliation. The
oceans of history are made turbulent by the ever-rising tides of
hate. And history is cluttered with the wreckage of nations and
individuals that pursued this self-defeating path of hate.
... These are revolutionary times.
- Dr. Martin Luther King, Beyond Vietnam: A Time to Break
Silence
And one surprise bonus for citizen competence in a participatory
democracy in order to build a brighter future: Harry Potter author,
J.K. Rowling at Harvards 2008 Commencement:
Every day, I saw more evidence about the evils humankind will
inflict on their fellow humans to gain or maintain power What is
more, those who choose not to empathize may enable real monsters.
For without ever committing an act of outright evil ourselves, we
collude with it through our own apathy If you choose to use your
status and influence to raise your voice on behalf of those who
have no voice; if you choose to identify not only with the
powerful, but with the powerless; if you retain the ability to
imagine yourself into the lives of those who do not have your
advantages, then it will not only be your proud families who
celebrate your existence, but thousands and millions of people
whose reality you have helped transform for the better. We do not
need magic to
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change the world, we carry all the power we need inside
ourselves already: we have the power to imagine better.
As these quotes assert, part of responsible citizenry is to hold
political leaders accountable for the public good. To do so,
citizens must understand the fundamental rights promised by
government and the facts of current events. This is required to
avoid tyranny and constructively use the power of our group work
funded by our group resources (another word for government).
To naively trust power to the people in government is against
the intent and design of the US Constitution. Indeed, without
intelligent and courageous citizen leaders, the United States would
never have become a nation. The US was created only from courageous
citizens who drove a political wedge between those who valued and
demanded their political and civil rights promised in their Bill of
Rights from British government leadership who would take those
those rights away to increase their own power and monetary
profit.
Knowledge of your rights, powerful communication of those
rights, and the courage to stand for your rights are much of the
California teaching standards for the course on US Government, as
you shall read next.
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Reviewing California Content Standards and critical thinking
skills
Principles of American Democracy Content Standards: California
State Curriculum12.1: Students explain the fundamental principles
and moral values of American democracy as expressed in the U.S.
Constitution and other essential documents of American democracy.
12.2: Students evaluate and take and defend positions on the scope
and limits of rights and obligations as democratic citizens, the
relationships among them, and how they are secured. 12.3: Students
evaluate and take and defend positions on what the fundamental
values and principles of civil society are (i.e., the autonomous
sphere of voluntary personal, social, and economic relations that
are not part of government), their interdependence, and the meaning
and importance of those values and principles for a free society.
12.6: Students evaluate issues regarding campaigns for national,
state, and local elective offices. 12.8: Students evaluate and take
and defend positions on the influence of the media on American
political life. 12.9: Students analyze the origins,
characteristics, and development of different political systems
across time, with emphasis on the quest for political democracy,
its advances, and its obstacles. 12.10: Students formulate
questions about and defend their analyses of tensions within our
constitutional democracy and the importance of maintaining a
balance between the following concepts: majority rule and
individual rights; liberty and equality; state and national
authority in a federal system; civil disobedience and the rule of
law; freedom of the press and the right to a fair trial; the
relationship of religion and government.
These principles of American democracy can only be practiced and
realized through civic participation with the current events of the
day, our most important policy decisions. Rational civic
participation, of course, is only possible through mastery of
critical thinking skills.
This is a big deal, and the purpose of this assignment.
The California Framework and Content Standards, the admonitions
of a few of humanitys most honored historical figures, and I hope
now your own conclusions have prepared you to provide your full
attention and care to this assignment. Your success empowers your
citizenship in ongoingly building a brighter future
The only missing component is your declaration and promise that
you have the will, the intellectual integrity, and moral courage to
accept being a competent citizen. You may make this declaration and
promise to yourself, now, if you so choose.
Literally billions of human voices ask this of you, with all
their heart. Do you accept?
Lets review our last assignment on critical thinking skills with
attention to how they apply to analysis of current events.
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Part of the political climate you enter as young adults is
public ambiguity as to what the facts are concerning important
political actions, irrational and vicious argument, and
disengagement from public participation in policy decisions. This
is why its difficult for almost all students your age to tolerate
listening to most politicians and media pundits. You feel that
politicians and medias words are at least lies of omission, and
that they definitely do not respect American citizens enough to
fully and honestly educate them on the issues, and work as the
publics partners to represent their educated views in policy.
For those paying attention, such politicians and media voices
who go after the comprehensive facts, attempt to educate the
public, and work for the glaring economic needs of the public are
recognized as rare national treasures.
The condition of the American publics confusion and temptation
for apathy call for a breakthrough in critical thinking skills for
their civic competence. Your competence with critical thinking
skills and participation can, and should, be a voice of reason with
all you touch. As I presented in your first assignment on critical
thinking, I suggest that whats needed for your next ~70 years of
citizenry are your mastery of three specific skills:
Discern fact from spin. Participate in civil conversations based
on fact. Engage in policy decisions.
We will help each other master the above skills daily in our
class discussions.
A note about controversy: the etymology of this word is a Latin
compound that roughly means talking against each other. To converse
means to be talking together. In democracy, talking against each
other, controversy, is predictable and welcome. As we discussed in
the assignment on critical thinking, policy consideration begins
with people of intellectual integrity and moral courage helping
each other get the facts. Facts are the same for everyone,
objective, and independently verifiable. We then welcome multiple
points of view as to the meaning of those facts; in other words,
controversy. Controversy allows the entire audience depth of
discussion and multiple policy options. Therefore, we embrace
controversy. With your mastery of critical thinking, you will be a
voice of reason for the facts, encourage rational discussion with
diverse views as to interpretation and policy proposals, support a
democratic vote, and respect the losing policy as a possible future
option should the winning policy not perform to expectations.
The etymology of diverse is to intentionally separate.
Encouraging diversity adds depth, unforeseen perspective, and
variety of choice; all good in political discussion when based on
factual accuracy.
In our consideration of government and economics, we will
embrace controversy and diversity. We will use prima facie evidence
and help each other clarify facts. We welcome multiple views based
on fact.
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We touched on the psychological term, cognitive dissonance in
the last assignment. Lets consider it deeper here. When ones
beliefs are challenged by factual evidence, people without
intellectual integrity and moral courage will reject the facts in
order to cling to their belief system.
A lie is a story known to be untrue. When someone refuses to
consider facts, then whatever is communicated without those facts
is at least a lie of omission. Being afraid means that one is not
facing something difficult. Rejecting facts from fear of changing
what one believes is both an act of fear and irrational.
You wouldnt want to still believe in Santa and the Easter Bunny,
would you?
Cognitive dissonance tells us that when the facts collide with
our beliefs, there are two possible outcomes. One is that we have
the intellectual integrity and moral courage to embrace factual
analysis. The other is to reject the facts, keep ones falsified
belief system, and choose lies and fear.
Which outcome do you prefer?
Do you have the intellectual integrity and moral courage to
follow the facts, wherever they go?
This is simply the definition of education, is it not?
Even though were discussing this now, and even though all of you
want to commit to the truth, some of you will fail the test of
cognitive dissonance at least once. Its not about your age; my
experience of communicating challenging information to adults, even
among our most successful and educated, has shown me that adults
are also subject to cognitive dissonance.
Remember, fact, by definition, is objective, measurable, and
independently verifiable. Therefore, when we discuss facts there is
no element of belief or political point of view. Anyone can check
facts and theyre the same for everyone who checks them.
Moments will occur in your life when people you wish to engage
in factual consideration will choose a belief system and reject
objective evidence. They will choose fantasy over reality. An
aspect of cognitive dissonance is that this choice will appear as
slightly sub-conscious; that is, you may notice irrational
avoidance tactics to keep the fantastical belief system away from
the shining light of the facts.
These moments may feel awkward. However, they are entirely human
and necessary to understand and move through because we choose
competent citizenship to lead our lifetimes of consideration of
objective evidence in current events.
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You may wish to stand with Lincoln related to this issue:
Passion has helped us; but can do so no more. It will in future
be our enemy. Reason, cold, calculating, unimpassioned reason, must
furnish all the materials for our future support and defence.--Let
those materials be moulded into general intelligence, sound
morality, and in particular, a reverence for the constitution and
laws. - Abraham Lincoln, Lyceum Address, 1838
The easy resolution is for the person involved in a moment
removed from reason to recommit to the facts. However, what might
happen is that the person rejecting facts will become resentful at
having this behavior become visible. The person may irrationally
argue, withdraw, and/or later campaign to speak badly of those who
merely asked to engage with the facts. These are likely to be
real-world examples of ad hominem and straw man arguments. I invite
you to support these people to recommit to our best documented
factual evidence.
Please note again: our class practice will be to cooperate in
understanding the objective and comprehensive facts, and then
welcome diverse interpretation of the meaning of those facts and
any policy position.
This is academic freedom.
Im about to present two current events for your respectful
consideration that may evoke cognitive dissonance because they
reflect US government policies in apparent direct violation of the
US Constitution. Those will be followed by documented examples of
revealing US history that in my professional experience are crucial
to understand if we want proper context on current events in our
life in the present. These are summaries of the comprehensive and
objective facts that I communicate in good faith as a professional
educator.
As with any ethical good faith prima facie legal argument, I
welcome any correction of alleged facts that are in error,
inclusion of additional facts for better comprehensive
understanding, and analysis that will help bring the facts into a
policy perspective. If the evidence presented in the following
cases cannot be refuted, we honor the conservative legal process of
prima facie that these facts will hold as our best available
evidence.
Rejecting facts because one doesnt like them, one is
uncomfortable with them, or that ones beliefs are challenged by
them, has no legal or academic standing and are dismissed in
professional academic environments. This includes our class.
What does that mean?
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It means that if the following summaries of current events and
previous US history cannot be refuted either directly or through a
more comprehensive factual understanding, well hold those summaries
as our best explanations.
It means that when we see clear lies of omission, we have the
intellectual strength and moral courage to say whats right in front
of everyone to see; a kind of emperor has no clothes obvious
statement of fact.
For example, within the lifetime of almost all of your parents,
US President Richard Nixon and his administration lied to the
American public for two years in the Watergate Scandal. Media had
various coverage: from simply repeating White House assurances that
the Presidents office was completely removed from the scandal, to
damning indictments of direct White House involvement in multiple
and serious criminal acts.
The American public believed President Nixon for over four
months after evidence became public in the media, re-electing him
by a landslide in 1972. But eventually, with ongoing commitment to
understand the facts, discern who within political leadership and
media were reporting on facts and who was not, and eventual
disclosure of smoking gun evidence,1 the facts of that ongoing
current event became clear.
This is exactly what Gandhi told you was required, to never to
depart from the strictest facts... Facts we would always place
before our readers, whether they are palatable or not, ... placing
them constantly before the public in their nakedness...
And yes, such a scenario begs the question of why at least some
in US corporate media would choose to merely repeat White House
assurances and fail to communicate powerful facts.
Well consider that.
I hope youre intrigued.
Heres our first revealing current event...
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1 The smoking gun evidence were tape-recordings the President
made in order to write books upon retirement. In discussing this
scandal, the President ordered the CIA to ask the FBI to end their
investigation. Importantly, the reason Nixon gave is that it would
open the whole Bay of Pigs thing. Nixons Chief of Staff wrote this
referenced the Kennedy assassination. Transcript here. Related
transcripts to put this passage in context here. A 2-minute video
from UK History documentary here (The Whole Bay of Pigs Thing). AP
US History teacher John Hankey made a powerful documentary on this
and other verifiable facts, Dark Legacy. Search online to watch
it.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Watergate_scandalhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Watergate_scandalhttp://watergate.info/tapes/72-06-23_smoking-gun.shtmlhttp://watergate.info/tapes/72-06-23_smoking-gun.shtmlhttp://www.ajweberman.com/tape.htmhttp://www.ajweberman.com/tape.htmhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i-y2KQvvYtghttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i-y2KQvvYtghttp://thedarklegacy.com/http://thedarklegacy.com/
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A revealing current event of our United States: MCA
In our world of the present, you face demanding political issues
that challenge the heart of what it means to be an American. These
issues include the legislated end for all people of habeas corpus
(right to challenge an arrest as unlawful and be freed) and
replacing it with indefinite detention at the governments dictate
in the Military Commissions Act of 2006 (MCA).
The basic legal meaning of MCA is this: the Executive Branch now
has legal authority to say any person is an unlawful enemy
combatant (a designation invented for this act). MCA removes nearly
every imaginable protection from unchallengeable and endless
dictatorial imprisonment. The government has explicit authority
under MCA to detain any person forever without charge of a crime,
not provide an attorney until trial through tribunal (if the
government chooses to prosecute rather than hold in prison for as
long as they choose), consider as legal evidence any confessions
extracted through enhanced interrogation techniques (this is the
same term Nazi Germany used for their torture that would leave no
marks: Verschrfte Vernehmung), not disclose evidence against the
declared enemy but only a summary of the evidence (that means the
government could say they have video of you planning to blow-up the
school because youve chosen a career path as a professional
terrorist, never show you the video for national security reasons,
but give the court a written description of the video. This would
be considered legal evidence under MCA, and not subject to your
challenge of its authenticity), appoint an attorney for you of
their choosing, and have you tried by a three person military
tribunal selected by the same Executive Branch that accused you of
being an enemy combatant. Your sentence can include your death. MCA
text allows this to be applied to persons; which means American
citizens:
DETERMINATION OF UNLAWFUL ENEMY COMBATANT STATUS
DISPOSITIVE.A
finding, whether before, on, or after the date of the enactment
of the Military Commissions Act of
2006, by a Combatant Status Review Tribunal or another competent
tribunal established under the
authority of the President or the Secretary of Defense that a
person is an unlawful enemy combatant
is dispositive for purposes of jurisdiction for trial by
military commission under this chapter.
Dispositive in law means providing a final resolution, and
having control over an outcome.
The US updated MCA in 2009, but the current status has become
even more tragic-comic. The US now claims legal right that if a US
president so dictates, American citizens are targeted for
assassination by US military. President Obama authorized a list of
American citizens to be killed,
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with the first assassination reported on September 30, 2011. The
term for this policy is extrajudicial assassination.2
Let that sink in. The U.S. presidency, supposed leader of the
free world, has a clandestine committee that chooses American
citizens to assassinate. This from the administration that promised
unprecedented transparency and a ratcheting back of Bush-era civil
liberties abuses. This from the president who vowed to restore
habeas corpus and subject executive war powers to judicial
scrutiny. This from the Nobel Peace Prize laureate. ... For
generations much of the world has been under the spell of the lie
of American democracy, the propaganda that the brutality of power
politics can be tempered through elections and an eloquent piece of
parchment.3
Congressman Ron Paul asks a poignant question:
What if the media becomes a threat?... This is the way this
works. Its incrementalism.4
American journalists and citizens were imprisoned for even
questioning Americas full-scale war in WW1 (Well consider later the
10-year prison sentence forced upon the Socialist Partys
presidential candidate for asking Americans to voice their stand on
the war with their votes). Under MCA and authorized assassination
today, leading American voices challenging current wars can be
locked-up and killed at will for supporting terrorism.
For video coverage of the US assassinating American citizens at
will, here for summary explaining this as unlawful, and here for
coverage attempting to explain it as legal.5 And here is a 4-minute
video comparing the policy of assassinating American citizens, or
any person, versus the text of the US Constitution.6
In contrast, the Declaration of Independence emphasizes
unalienable rights for everyone from our Creator, that it is the
function of government to secure those rights rather than in your
face
20
2 Among many: Marjorie Cohn. The targeted assassination of Osama
bin Laden. May 9, 2011:
http://www.marjoriecohn.com/2011/05/targeted-assassination-of-osama-bin.html
, Greenwald, G. Presidential assassinations of U.S. citizens. Jan.
27, 2010:
http://uruknet.com/index.php?p=m62651&hd=&size=1&l=e ,
Examiner.com. Herman, C. Official US policy: kill American citizens
when President/Fuhrer declares them terrorists. Jan. 29, 2010:
http://www.examiner.com/la-county-nonpartisan-in-los-angeles/official-us-policy-kill-american-citizens-when-president-fuhrer-declares-them-terrorists
, Salon.com. The due-process-free assassination of U.S. citizens is
now reality. Greeenwald, G. Sep 30, 2011.3 Global Research. Obamas
very real death panel: the CIAs assassination program. Gregory, A.
Oct. 7, 2011:
http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=26984 4
Mail Online. C.I.A. could begin assassinating journalists claims
Republican presidential hopeful Ron Paul. Miller, D. Oct. 6, 2011:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2045898/C-I-A-begin-assassinating-journalists-claims-Republican-presidential-hopeful-Ron-Paul.html
5 Revolutionary Politics tv. When the president can kill who ever
he wants:
http://revolutionarypolitics.tv/video/viewVideo.php?video_id=16288
and Revolutionary Politics tv. The president signs a piece of paper
& its a death sentence:
http://revolutionarypolitics.tv/video/viewVideo.php?video_id=16284
6 Revolutionary Politics tv. The plain truth about executive
assassination. Judge Napolitanos Freedom Watch. Oct. 3, 2011:
http://revolutionarypolitics.tv/video/viewVideo.php?video_id=16304&title=the-plain-truth-about-executive-assassination
http://revolutionarypolitics.tv/video/viewVideo.php?video_id=16288http://revolutionarypolitics.tv/video/viewVideo.php?video_id=16288http://revolutionarypolitics.tv/video/viewVideo.php?video_id=16284http://revolutionarypolitics.tv/video/viewVideo.php?video_id=16284http://revolutionarypolitics.tv/video/viewVideo.php?video_id=16304&title=the-plain-truth-about-executive-assassinationhttp://revolutionarypolitics.tv/video/viewVideo.php?video_id=16304&title=the-plain-truth-about-executive-assassinationhttp://revolutionarypolitics.tv/video/viewVideo.php?video_id=16304&title=the-plain-truth-about-executive-assassinationhttp://revolutionarypolitics.tv/video/viewVideo.php?video_id=16304&title=the-plain-truth-about-executive-assassinationhttp://www.earlyamerica.com/earlyamerica/freedom/doi/text.htmlhttp://www.earlyamerica.com/earlyamerica/freedom/doi/text.htmlhttp://www.marjoriecohn.com/2011/05/targeted-assassination-of-osama-bin.htmlhttp://www.marjoriecohn.com/2011/05/targeted-assassination-of-osama-bin.htmlhttp://www.marjoriecohn.com/2011/05/targeted-assassination-of-osama-bin.htmlhttp://www.marjoriecohn.com/2011/05/targeted-assassination-of-osama-bin.htmlhttp://uruknet.com/index.php?p=m62651&hd=&size=1&l=ehttp://uruknet.com/index.php?p=m62651&hd=&size=1&l=ehttp://www.examiner.com/la-county-nonpartisan-in-los-angeles/official-us-policy-kill-american-citizens-when-president-fuhrer-declares-them-terroristshttp://www.examiner.com/la-county-nonpartisan-in-los-angeles/official-us-policy-kill-american-citizens-when-president-fuhrer-declares-them-terroristshttp://www.examiner.com/la-county-nonpartisan-in-los-angeles/official-us-policy-kill-american-citizens-when-president-fuhrer-declares-them-terroristshttp://www.examiner.com/la-county-nonpartisan-in-los-angeles/official-us-policy-kill-american-citizens-when-president-fuhrer-declares-them-terroristshttp://www.salon.com/news/yemen/index.html?story=/opinion/greenwald/2011/09/30/awlakihttp://www.salon.com/news/yemen/index.html?story=/opinion/greenwald/2011/09/30/awlakihttp://www.salon.com/news/yemen/index.html?story=/opinion/greenwald/2011/09/30/awlakihttp://www.salon.com/news/yemen/index.html?story=/opinion/greenwald/2011/09/30/awlakihttp://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=26984http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=26984http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=26984http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=26984http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2045898/C-I-A-begin-assassinating-journalists-claims-Republican-presidential-hopeful-Ron-Paul.htmlhttp://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2045898/C-I-A-begin-assassinating-journalists-claims-Republican-presidential-hopeful-Ron-Paul.htmlhttp://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2045898/C-I-A-begin-assassinating-journalists-claims-Republican-presidential-hopeful-Ron-Paul.htmlhttp://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2045898/C-I-A-begin-assassinating-journalists-claims-Republican-presidential-hopeful-Ron-Paul.htmlhttp://revolutionarypolitics.tv/video/viewVideo.php?video_id=16288http://revolutionarypolitics.tv/video/viewVideo.php?video_id=16288http://revolutionarypolitics.tv/video/viewVideo.php?video_id=16288http://revolutionarypolitics.tv/video/viewVideo.php?video_id=16288http://revolutionarypolitics.tv/video/viewVideo.php?video_id=16284http://revolutionarypolitics.tv/video/viewVideo.php?video_id=16284http://revolutionarypolitics.tv/video/viewVideo.php?video_id=16304&title=the-plain-truth-about-executive-assassinationhttp://revolutionarypolitics.tv/video/viewVideo.php?video_id=16304&title=the-plain-truth-about-executive-assassinationhttp://revolutionarypolitics.tv/video/viewVideo.php?video_id=16304&title=the-plain-truth-about-executive-assassinationhttp://revolutionarypolitics.tv/video/viewVideo.php?video_id=16304&title=the-plain-truth-about-executive-assassination
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explicitly legislate to destroy those rights, and that
government only derives its power from the consent of the
governed.
The US Constitution is the rules of US government; that is, the
promises by government to the public for the limits of its
authority. The essential term, limited government, means the
boundaries beyond which government action becomes unlawful, and the
Enlightenments philosophical response to end unlimited government
through claimed divine rights from kings. Limited government is
codified in the US Constitutions 9th and 10th Amendments.7 The US
Constitution is the legal definition of what it means to be
American, and provides a form of limited government called
constitutional republic. That means government power is strictly
limited by what is said in its constitution.
Its explicit under this form of government that if officials act
beyond Constitutional limits of authority that they face
impeachment and/or arrest.
Indeed, it was from English violation of the 1689 Bill of Rights
that Americans petitioned their government for restoration, and
then revolted when King and Parliament refused to uphold rights
that were crystal-clear in letter and intent (here for Jeffersons
argument in A summary view of the rights of British America). The
specific violations included no representation in Parliament and no
vote for taxation, a standing army on American soil, open-ended
search warrants, mercantilism that acted as a de facto tax
transferring wealth from Americans to a British oligarchy of
politicians and insider merchants, and attempting to remove the
peoples arms in militias for their defense that were paid and
managed by local taxes.
The US Constitution provides detailed rights to all persons in
the US Bill of Rights from prosecution by the US federal
government. These rights include freedom of speech and press
without fear of being declared an enemy of the state, freedom from
searches unless government obtains a specific warrant from a judge
upon probable cause of having committed a crime, right to juries of
ones peers (both a Grand Jury to examine the evidence before a
trial, and then to determine the facts of the case for innocence or
guilt), freedom from helping the governments case through ones own
testimony, a speedy and public jury trial, being informed of the
governments charges of alleged crimes, freedom to engage directly
with government evidence and witnesses, immediate right to attorney
representation, no excessive bail, and no torture.
Again, and as always: the above summaries of MCA and the
promises guaranteed under the US Constitution is my professional
understanding of the objective facts. I actively discourage anyone
from believing what I say, and actively encourage everyone to look
to the evidence for verification. I welcome any refutation of my
claims.
21
7 Among many: Revolutionary War and beyond. The 10th Amendment:
http://www.revolutionary-war-and-beyond.com/10th-amendment.html
http://constitutionallawenforcementassoc.blogspot.com/http://constitutionallawenforcementassoc.blogspot.com/http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_of_Rights_1689http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_of_Rights_1689http://libertyonline.hypermall.com/Jefferson/Summaryview.htmlhttp://libertyonline.hypermall.com/Jefferson/Summaryview.htmlhttp://libertyonline.hypermall.com/Jefferson/Summaryview.htmlhttp://libertyonline.hypermall.com/Jefferson/Summaryview.htmlhttp://www.lewrockwell.com/mcmaken/mcmaken53.htmlhttp://www.lewrockwell.com/mcmaken/mcmaken53.htmlhttp://www.archives.gov/exhibits/charters/constitution.htmlhttp://www.archives.gov/exhibits/charters/constitution.htmlhttp://www.revolutionary-war-and-beyond.com/10th-amendment.htmlhttp://www.revolutionary-war-and-beyond.com/10th-amendment.htmlhttp://www.revolutionary-war-and-beyond.com/10th-amendment.htmlhttp://www.revolutionary-war-and-beyond.com/10th-amendment.html
-
If my summary of MCA is correct, this is a big deal. Please
allow its meaning to penetrate: Unless you want to make the
argument that the words of the MCA paragraph Ive provided or the
word assassination mean something other than what they say, this
means that the US Constitution no longer applies if the president
or SecDef (Secretary of Defense) dictate.
Again, US Constitutional rights define being American. When a
government is no longer limited by the laws in its constitution, we
have to change its description from constitutional republic to
another term. In this case, because MCA applies whenever a leader
says so/dictates, that is the exact definition of a dictatorship.
In at least this area of law, the US is far closer to fascism than
a constitutional republic.
But let me make this distinction even sharper: If were basing
our American government on what the President/leader says rather
than limitations of clear law, such as the dictates of a leader to
apply Verschrfte Vernehmung or other MCA provisions, there is
another analogous German word for the leader doing the dictating:
the German word for leader is fuhrer.
Ouch.
Am I exaggerating, or is the explanation of MCA youve just read
an accurate description of what kind of law it is, and the meaning
when MCA removes Constitutional limits from abusive dictatorial
power?
While more Republicans supported MCA than Democrats, this
legislation is possible only with the ongoing support of Democratic
Party leadership (for example, see this curious statement8 by
President Obama on his vote for MCA).
Do you really think that the American public would have
supported MCA if the Democratic Party leadership clearly
communicated what MCA does, and its explicit language that includes
Americans in the removal of virtually all Constitutional
rights?
And where is US corporate media to explain this??? Am I correct
that MCA is news to you?
Feeling any cognitive dissonance yet?
This is what I mean by the title of this assignment: Critical
thinking skills in real-world action.
Im spending some time asking you to think about this because the
idea that the US government can willfully destroy its own
constitution is new for most people, but absolutely proved by the
facts and repeated time and again in our history. Let me provide a
snippet of history with Abraham Lincolns first encounter with the
destruction of our own Constitution when a US president and the
majority of Congress chose to steal land through waging a War of
Aggression.
22
8 The White House. Statement of President Barack Obama on
Military Commissions. May 15, 2009.
http://Versch%C3%A4rfte%20Vernehmunghttp://Versch%C3%A4rfte%20Vernehmunghttp://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/statement-president-barack-obama-military-commissionshttp://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/statement-president-barack-obama-military-commissions
-
"At first blush, a man is not capable of reporting truth; he
must be drenched and saturated with it first." - Henry David
Thoreau, I to myself: an annotated selection from the journal of
Henry D. Thoreau, 1837.
Thoreau, like Abraham Lincoln in a speech on the floor of the
House of Representatives recognized the claimed reasons for a
defensive war against Mexico were obvious lies when inspected.
Lincoln:
I carefully examined the Presidents messages, to ascertain what
he himself had said and proved upon the point. The result of this
examination was to make the impression, that taking for true, all
the President states as facts, he falls far short of proving his
justification; and that the President would have gone farther with
his proof, if it had not been for the small matter, that the truth
would not permit him Now I propose to try to show, that the whole
of this, issue and evidence is, from beginning to end, the sheerest
deception.
And Lincoln in a letter to his law partner:
Allow the President to invade a neighboring nation whenever he
shall deem it necessary to repel an invasion, and you allow him to
do so whenever he may choose to say he deems it necessary for such
purpose, and you allow him to make war at pleasure. Study to see if
you can fix any limit to his power in this respect, after having
given him so much as you propose. If to-day he should choose to say
he thinks it necessary to invade Canada to prevent the British from
invading us, how could you stop him? You may say to him, "I see no
probability of the British invading us"; but he will say to you,
"Be silent: I see it, if you don't."
The US taking Texas as a state was in direct violation of the
Adams-Ons Treaty that guaranteed all the land that is now the
Southwest US to forever belong to Mexico (signed in 1819 with
Spain, and formally transferred to Mexico in 1831). Lincoln
attempted to force President Polk to report to Congress and answer
several pointed and brilliantly-worded questions from Lincoln that
would prove Polks claimed border dispute was really 400 miles into
agreed-upon land of Mexico.
I invite you to read Lincolns Spot Resolutions for yourself as
an example of why Lincoln is considered to be one of the most
brilliant writers in all American history.
Thoreau refused to pay his taxes to support the unlawful war and
was jailed. Despite Lincoln having all the facts on his side,
because the president, majority of Congress, and majority of the
press wanted this war as an expression of the racist Manifest
Destiny, Lincoln didnt have the votes to pass the Spot Resolutions.
In fact, Lincoln was called unpatriotic and Spotty in derision by
both parties leadership and the press.
23
http://books.google.com/books?id=3FEJA_dAewgC&printsec=frontcover&dq=henry+david+thoreau+i+to+myself&source=bl&ots=gIK0MAnvwZ&sig=yhFToDnWwWK7WXHd5ETXitfPit8&hl=en&ei=uMvQS_vIM4LStgOPh9GMCg&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CAYQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&qhttp://books.google.com/books?id=3FEJA_dAewgC&printsec=frontcover&dq=henry+david+thoreau+i+to+myself&source=bl&ots=gIK0MAnvwZ&sig=yhFToDnWwWK7WXHd5ETXitfPit8&hl=en&ei=uMvQS_vIM4LStgOPh9GMCg&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CAYQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&qhttp://books.google.com/books?id=3FEJA_dAewgC&printsec=frontcover&dq=henry+david+thoreau+i+to+myself&source=bl&ots=gIK0MAnvwZ&sig=yhFToDnWwWK7WXHd5ETXitfPit8&hl=en&ei=uMvQS_vIM4LStgOPh9GMCg&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CAYQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&qhttp://books.google.com/books?id=3FEJA_dAewgC&printsec=frontcover&dq=henry+david+thoreau+i+to+myself&source=bl&ots=gIK0MAnvwZ&sig=yhFToDnWwWK7WXHd5ETXitfPit8&hl=en&ei=uMvQS_vIM4LStgOPh9GMCg&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CAYQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&qhttp://www.examiner.com/la-county-nonpartisan-in-los-angeles/abraham-lincoln-on-unconstitutional-us-wars-of-invasion-courageously-standing-against-obvious-lieshttp://www.examiner.com/la-county-nonpartisan-in-los-angeles/abraham-lincoln-on-unconstitutional-us-wars-of-invasion-courageously-standing-against-obvious-lieshttp://quotationsbook.com/quote/44696/http://quotationsbook.com/quote/44696/http://www.tamu.edu/faculty/ccbn/dewitt/adamonis.htmhttp://www.tamu.edu/faculty/ccbn/dewitt/adamonis.htmhttp://www.sewanee.edu/faculty/Willis/Civil_War/documents/LincolnSpot.htmlhttp://www.sewanee.edu/faculty/Willis/Civil_War/documents/LincolnSpot.htmlhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Racism%23In_historyhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Racism%23In_historyhttp://www.ushistory.org/us/29.asphttp://www.ushistory.org/us/29.asp
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Lincoln became so unpopular from these intentional lies and
propaganda that he had no chance for re-election.
A treaty is the Supreme law of the land in Article Six of the US
Constitution. In this case, when a US president and Congress had
the votes to violate a treaty and the Constitution in order to take
land and resources, they lied, went to war, and took the land and
resources.
The war killed over 50,000 Mexicans and over 5,000 Americans,
and is a clear historical precedent for US leadership to choose
lies, dictatorship, and War of Aggression rather than truth,
limited government under the law, and peace.
Although this history of the Mexican-American War is
uncontroversially factual and as far as Im aware undisputed among
professional historians, corporate media-published high school
textbooks will only state that the causes of war were a border
dispute and repeat President Polks claims that Mexico invaded the
US with American blood shed on American soil.
This is a massive lie of omission and commission to not
communicate at least the preceding few paragraphs.
If your text explained that a US President was the war-mongering
liar that Lincoln explained in his speech and documented in the
Spot Resolutions, and that Congress voted in criminal complicity to
shred a US treaty, lie to the American public about who invaded
whom, and be guilty of war-murdering tens of thousands of human
beings, would you look at current US wars from the benefit of that
accurate history?
And yes, an area for you to consider in this policy analysis
assignment is whether current US wars are also a choice of
leadership to lie, dictate, and invade other countries in unlawful
Wars of Aggression that violate treaties and the Constitution.
Thats a daunting, but powerfully important issue to factually
command. The skills of this assignment are meant to allow you
competence to quickly and accurate command such facts.
Students: perhaps related, our18 years of experience in RESULTS
working with three US presidents, two UN Summits, and leadership of
both parties, we found that leadership reneged on each and every
public and private promise to end poverty.
And just as US corporate media will not walk you through the
fact that US war with Mexico in 1846 was in direct treaty violation
(in analysis of current US wars or in your textbooks), US corporate
media refused to interview us at RESULTS and/or expose US political
leadership failure to fulfill their promises to end poverty.
Youll have an assignment called The economics of ending poverty
to consider the importance, costs and benefits, and politics of
that issue that kills a million children every month from
24
http://www.law.cornell.edu/constitution/articlevihttp://www.law.cornell.edu/constitution/articlevihttp://www.examiner.com/la-county-nonpartisan-in-los-angeles/economics-of-ending-poverty-0-7-of-gni-is-all-it-takeshttp://www.examiner.com/la-county-nonpartisan-in-los-angeles/economics-of-ending-poverty-0-7-of-gni-is-all-it-takes
-
preventable poverty. Our findings of why US leadership reject
ending poverty are consistent with the testimonies of former IMF
Chief Economist Simon Johnson9, former World Bank Chief Economist
and Nobel Prize-winning economist Joseph Stiglitz10 (and here)11,
former Chief Economist John Perkins, and most effectively shown in
a 3-minute video12 from the group Renegade Economist and a 2-minute
video13 of John Perkins: US political and economic leadership
prefer to retain an imperialist/Robber Baron mentality and policies
to take as much as they can for themselves, say that its legal and
good for everybody, buy media coverage to say the same, and hope
they can get away with it. Johnson, Stiglitz, and Perkins have all
authored multiple bestselling books to explain and document their
findings of how this works.
The point of Abraham Lincoln, Thoreau, and testimony regarding
ending poverty is not to illicit your belief in those conclusions.
It is to provide facts and analysis omitted from most Americans
consideration from politicians and media. Its purpose is to empower
you to:
Allow the facts to lead your analysis of policy; not the
rhetoric of politicians and media. Allow the facts of history to
provide best context to understand the present. Once you have the
most comprehensive set of facts through use of critical thinking
skills,
to reflect upon the meaning of the data, and discover/develop
your unique, powerful, and beautiful voices of citizenry.
As the Romans simply stated in their understanding of law under
a constitutional republic (before it devolved into dictatorship and
purchased politicians): res ipsa loquitur: the facts tell the
story.
Now that Ive hopefully accomplished my objective to have you
spend some time considering what MCA says, what it means, and open
your inquiry with a touch of vitally important and game-changing
history thats right there for anyone to verify that the California
Frameworks admonitions of the fragility of democratic institutions
and the importance of your competent citizenry mean exactly what
they say: lets move onto our second and last example of a really
important current event.
25
9 Project Syndicate. Did the poor cause the crisis? Johnson, S.
Jan. 19, 2011.10 The Independent. Joseph Stiglitz: It takes more
than free trade to end poverty. Feb. 3, 2006.11 Project Syndicate.
The end of the beginning of ending poverty. Stiglitz, J. July 7,
2005.12 Examiner.com. 3-minute video: US policy causes poverty,
terrorism, war to enrich US oligarchs. Herman, C. Sept. 9, 2011.13
Examiner.com. 2-minute video: Best-selling Chief Economist reveals
criminal US foreign policy. Herman, C. April 24, 2011.
http://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/johnson16/Englishhttp://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/johnson16/Englishhttp://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/joseph-stiglitz-it-takes-more-than-free-trade-to-end-poverty-465421.htmlhttp://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/joseph-stiglitz-it-takes-more-than-free-trade-to-end-poverty-465421.htmlhttp://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/stiglitz60/Englishhttp://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/stiglitz60/Englishhttp://www.examiner.com/nonpartisan-in-national/4-minute-video-us-policy-causes-poverty-terrorism-war-to-enrich-us-oligarchshttp://www.examiner.com/nonpartisan-in-national/4-minute-video-us-policy-causes-poverty-terrorism-war-to-enrich-us-oligarchshttp://www.examiner.com/la-county-nonpartisan-in-los-angeles/2-minute-video-best-selling-chief-economist-reveals-criminal-us-foreign-policyhttp://www.examiner.com/la-county-nonpartisan-in-los-angeles/2-minute-video-best-selling-chief-economist-reveals-criminal-us-foreign-policyhttp://www.amazon.com/13-Bankers-Takeover-Financial-Meltdown/dp/030747660X/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1317570228&sr=1-1http://www.amazon.com/13-Bankers-Takeover-Financial-Meltdown/dp/030747660X/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1317570228&sr=1-1http://www.amazon.com/Globalization-Its-Discontents-Joseph-Stiglitz/dp/0393324397/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1317569932&sr=1-2http://www.amazon.com/Globalization-Its-Discontents-Joseph-Stiglitz/dp/0393324397/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1317569932&sr=1-2http://www.amazon.com/Secret-History-American-Empire-Economic/dp/0452289572/ref=sr_1_3?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1317570337&sr=1-3http://www.amazon.com/Secret-History-American-Empire-Economic/dp/0452289572/ref=sr_1_3?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1317570337&sr=1-3
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Revealing current event: waterboarding and its reporting by
corporate media
Lets briefly consider allegations of US torture to
detainees/claimed unlawful enemy combatants. Remember, a detainee
hasnt been charged with a crime; the persons habeas corpus right
has been destroyed, and the US government currently claims
authority to imprison the detainee indefinitely or simply
assassinate anyone claimed to be a terrorist.
The US applies interrogation techniques to unlawful enemy
combatants/terrorists that previous case law found were torture.
For example, President Bush and Vice President Cheney have both
admitted to authorizing waterboarding,14 found by courts to be
torture in all previous case law in the US and internationally.15
When previous US courts are unanimous in their findings,16 that
means the legal definition of an act is absolutely certain. In this
case, waterboarding, or more accurately controlled drowning, is
torture.
The US Constitution expressly forbids torture in the 8th
Amendment. United States Federal Law forbids torture under Code 18
section 2340. The US is bound by several treaties to never torture:
the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights (legally defining
the meaning of the UN Charter treaty, and the most-translated
document in world history), the International Covenant on Civil and
Political Rights (an interesting study of the US saying one thing
and doing the opposite), the Geneva Conventions, and the UN
Convention Against Torture.
Importantly, these laws do not say there are exceptions to allow
torture; that is, the torturer cannot use the specious ticking time
bomb excuse that torture was required to save lives. For example,
one US treaty to end torture is the UN Convention Against Torture.
It states under Article 2:17
26
14 To understand waterboarding, you can watch leading journalist
Christopher Hitchens get waterboarded: Watch Christopher Hitchens
get waterboarded (Vanity Fair):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4LPubUCJv58 .15 This story was
opened by ABC News. Sources: top Bush advisors approved enhanced
interrogation. Greenburg, J.C., Rosenberg, H.L., deVogue, A. April
9, 2008:
http://abcnews.go.com/TheLaw/LawPolitics/story?id=4583256&page=1
and obvious follow-up analysis calling for prosecution (among many
in alternative media) from Common Dreams. Arrest Bush: Bush
confesses to Waterboarding. Call D.C. cops! Rall, T. April 30,
2008: http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2008/04/30/8611/ . For
more current analysis, consider these entries from Washingtons
Blog: Cheney admits to being War Criminal. Feb. 16, 2010:
http://www.washingtonsblog.com/2010/02/cheney-admits-to-being-war-criminal.html
, Obama team feared revolt if he prosecuted War Crimes. Sept. 12,
2011:
http://www.washingtonsblog.com/2011/09/obama-team-feared-revolt-if-he-prosecuted-war-crimes.html
, Everything you need to know about torture. March 7, 2011:
http://www.washingtonsblog.com/2011/03/everything-you-need-to-know-about-torture.html16
the link is a nice visual and list from ProCon.org. For legal
discussion: Washington Post. Waterboarding used to be a crime.
Wallach, E. Nov. 4, 2007:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/11/02/AR2007110201170.html
, Washington University Law Review. Waterboarding is illegal. Huhn,
W. May 10, 2008:
http://lawreview.wustl.edu/slip-opinions/waterboarding-is-illegal/
17 For discussion, consider Virginia Law. U.S. may be sidestepping
U.N. Convention Against Torture in War on Terror. March 20, 2003:
http://www.law.virginia.edu/html/news/2003_spr/torture_ps.htm
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