Talking Rights

Worth watching, if only for Stewart’s impassioned defense of human rights:
Jon Stewart’s Extended Interview with Cliff May | Indecision Forever | Comedy Central

Just as the second invasion of Iraq was a (not so) carefully coordinated campaign of half truths and whole lies, the justfication for torture is beginning to fall completely apart.
Not that it wasn’t already an evident fabrication, but…
Today’s New York Times reports that in late 2007 ABC’s Brian Ross interviewed a former CIA operative who [...]

This Los Angeles Times editorial on accountability for torture seems well thought out — there have been too many hysterics since the Obama administration released the torture memos and not enough calm thought.
An in-depth and impartial investigation, possible targetted prosecution and a full accounting to the American people. Not much to argue with here.
…As we [...]

An important opinion piece by Ken Roth in the Los Angeles Times. Under the guise of recovering from the 1994 genocide — whose 15th anniversary we mark this month — Rwandan president Paul Kagame has created a nation where dissent is not tolerated and talk of the past is carefully controlled.
Despite the facade of occasional [...]

When the son of Japanese immigrants was elected to Peru’s presidential palace in 1990, most Peruvians were thrilled. Finally, someone “like them” — not white, not born to privilege, a hard worker — was in power. People called him “el chinito,” the Little Chinaman, in an entirely affectionate and appreciative way.
That enthusiasm didn’t last long. [...]