June 26, 2007 09:18 PM
50 High School Presidential Scholars give Bush an anti-torture letter
via Scarce: President Bush was presented with a letter Monday signed by 50 high school seniors in the Presidential Scholars program urging a halt to "violations of the human rights" of terror suspects held by the United States...
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"We do not want America to represent torture."
I wonder if the powers that be at the HS knew about this. I'm surprised the principal didn't suspend all the students for a week. How dare they express an opinion to the president! Dang liberal schools....
Update: We know the comment section is down....The techies are working on it..Thanks...
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Poor students, it's off to the secret prisons in Eastern Europe for them.
i cant find the link...but most of the presidential scholars identify themselves as conservative
nice to see the youth have got some vision......
Um, Mr. Amato, these kids are from several different high schools--the brightest and the best from around the country.
http://www.ed.gov/programs/psp/2007/scholars.html
Brave bunch. Lots of balls. Some in Congress could take a lesson.
uncle joe mccarthy @ 3:
They have Bush and most Republicans beat: They know the meaning of "conservative". They apparently also understand that you don't have to be a Bushie or a Republican to be conservative.
The country would be in much better shape if G. W. Bush was functionally literate.
Gaius Gracchus @ 6:
any bet as to who has the higher IQ
Because of these kids there is hope for our future after all.
mudshark @ 8:
Fool's bet. My dog has a higher IQ than the Pretzeldent.
It gives one optimism for the future when reading about this. The sad fact is the intellectual awareness and aptitude of these High Schoolers is much higher than our President's.
The sad fact is that Bush won't read this or appreciate it, even if it was printed with crayons- it is over his head....and heart...
conservative means you're one argument away from fascist.
or one well-paying job!
Kudos to them for standing up on this!
Torture is totally repugnant to the morals of a free society, and it's hard to believe that this country has been reduced to such disgusting behavior.
The time for this insanity to end is now....
Plus, there's absolutely nothing in the Constitution which allows them to do this. period.
Some follow up reading:
"Should the US Military be Allowed to Use Torture?"
http://www.populistamerica.com/should_the_u_s__military_be_allowed_to_use_torture
Just as Bush has done with the Constitution, he used that letter to wipe his mouth off after spewing more bullshit lies.
They will probably be placed on a "no-fly" list and be eavesdropped on. Heaven forbid they spoke their minds.
IMPEACH!!!!!
New Poll Finds That Young Americans Are Leaning Left
By ADAM NAGOURNEY and MEGAN THEE
Young Americans are more likely to favor an open-door policy on immigration, the legalization of gay marriage and government-run health care, a poll found.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/27/washington/27poll.html?th&emc=th
New Poll Finds That Young Americans Are Leaning Left
By ADAM NAGOURNEY and MEGAN THEE
Young Americans are more likely to favor
an open-door policy on immigration,
the legalization of gay marriage and
government-run health care,
a poll found.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/27/washington/27poll.html?th&emc=th
Files on Illegal Spying Show C.I.A. Skeletons From Cold War
By MARK MAZZETTI and TIM WEINER
Long-secret documents released Tuesday provide new details about how the Central Intelligence Agency illegally spied on Americans decades ago.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/27/washington/27cia.html?th&emc=th
Bush was telling the truth he is not aware of any torture because Cheney is the President and ordered torture. Bush is like a Walmart Greeter for the White House. He is the front man for Americans to believe he is running the country. Remember Bush didn't know about Dubai and the New York Ports until he read it in the paper. President Cheney has been running the White House with Big Business since 2000. President Cheney has set up the Supreme Court. DOJ and all the Branches of government. Karl Rove has worked hard in completing the one party system. The Mission is almost complete, if your not aware of what the mission is check out the CIA horror report. President Cheney has used the Nixon play book and the Corruption done by the CIA during the 60's and 70's. Yes Nixon would be proud that his student Dick Cheney has completed the plan he when he was in office. Yes Nixon would have been IMPEACHED for those crimes but now Americans aren't watching their busy watching American Idol.
Trouble making punks. Who do they think they are? George lets them into his castle, er, the White House, and they diss him with real questions??
"Condi, we're not torturing anyone there are we?"
"No my big, brave leader, now come back to bed."
Brave kids, and that monkey deserves to have his ass kicked repeatedly up and down Pennsylvania Ave.
Those kids probably know that there are three branches of gov't!
I was waiting anxiously for a clip to be posted here.
Thanks! Bush is such a sick liar. We do not torture, we only spy on you if you are calling Al Kaeda. We have the healthiest forests, the cleanest air and the best health care. Also, we are the liberators of Iraq and freedom is on the march.
The jig is up for JR.
'I reckon those kids gave him a really good talkin' to" which is folksy Texan for "they handed him his ass on a paper plate."
I've been talking to quite a few high school students (or recently graduated) lately and while they tend to describe themselves as "conservative" they tend to have a progressive view on life..
Conservative. Not radical Bushistas.
Conserve the planet
Conserve our national reputation and true democracy
Conserve the people of the world.
Conserve our Constitutional rights
and such.
Of course some of these Kids are liberal conservatives too!
Let's not be too hasty, kids. If we were to ban torture now, how would we deal with Bush after we got him on the rack?
I wonder is being forced to watch TV news programs is covered under the Geneva conventions? If not, we could play all TV news programs (other than Fox) for the past seven years to an incarcerated Bush on a continuous loop.
A healthy dose of reality, or what passes for it in the US, might drive him crazier.
And to top it off they didn't drool during the entire time. So much for the theory that people who think for themselves and speak out are rabid. Above all they did not sink to the level of the President and his ilk by waving the flag and asking for a prayer.
I hear that a couple of dissidents among the high school students unhearled a banner "Waterboarding for Jesus" which the Supreme Court has ruled to be a proper use of free speech. Justice Antonin Scalia, in his majority (5-4) opinion, commended the waterboarders, saying they are the future of the country, while he wrote that those students that presented the letter denouncing torture to President Bush are "dead enders".
It's handwritten? who are these children?
I have no doubt that there will be punishment for those involved. The kids for daring to have an opinion, the school for not preventing this "attack" and the parents for not reigning in their nasty hippie ideas. I'll be surprised if they don't have the mail carrier that brought it whipped for good measure. Mustn't upset the presidents itty bitty feelings. After all it's unamerican and unpatriotic to have an opinion other than the one shrub co. provides.
I know, they need to get BO'rly to do an 'expose' on the "librul" schools and the evil brats who haunt them. That'll teach 'em.
Flopper @ 30:
Cut them a break. They are IN the Whitehouse! I think Cheney has password protection on some of those computers. Of course, they're conserving money by combining printers and shredders ...
Would it be against Geneva codes to force enemy combatants to listen all day to non-stop loops of Paris Hilton interviews?
These kids should know better. Bush doesn't care what the American people think. He's knows what's best for them and will continue to tortu ... er, interrogate the enemy combatants as he sees fit. Remember, according to Cheney's old boss Richard "I'm not a crook" Nixon, "if the president does it, it is not illegal."
George, after reading the letter, told the high school student: "We do not torture." What he didn't say was that we have robust questioning, where if we don't cause organ failure or death it's all ok. As example, burning someone all over their body with cigarette burns is acceptable. What a guy our Pres is --- SICK!
My guess as to why it was handwritten... it was arranged beforehand but done after these kids were already vetted and inside the White House. If they'd tried to bring something like that in with them, it might have been seized and destroyed before they could present it to Bush. By writing it, and signing it, once they'd gone through security, they had a better chance of actually getting it to him.
It's just a guess - but these are smart kids. Not that it really takes all that much to outsmart someone arrogant enough to believe he's infallible - or that simply by saying 'we don't torture people' makes it true. Or go away.
I read somewhere else that the student who actually handed the letter to Dubya was Mari Oye - a student at the high school Ifrom which I graduated fifty years ago. I'm proud of her for having the courage most of "journalists" and "legislators" lack.
I'm sure the Freshmen heading for the toilet are glad to hear of this letter.
Bravo to these brave kids. They have learned their lessons well.
I just hope that when they vote, they know not to support the Republic Party - which whole-heartedly endorses torture, murder of innocent civilians, and which blindly supports the worst war criminals (the current administration) in the past half century.
Impeach the cheney administration, and all those in it - including the figure-head bush.
BaScOmBe @ 13:
Actually conservative means you believe in minimal government involvement in our affairs, minimal spending, and minimal taxation. Far from fascism. Nice try though.
Cool kids. Now we just need these dinosaurs to die off.
Sideburns @ 40:
What kind of dipstickery is that??? I can pull out any definition and flash it in your face. It's what they actually DO, not the label attached to it. I can say "I'm a liberal" and then fry your ass in oil. Does that mean I'm still a liberal?
How will they find out Cheney's secrets if they ban torture now? It seems like we ought to deal with him first. Scooter should have gotten the same deal as Jose Padilla.
I give those kids credit. They got lots of guts to express an idea to Bushie. But as usual, he probably used that letter to wipe his ass after takin a shit. So, I'll bet the letter did come in handy. Now, it's off to Gitmo for these kids.
The Champ is out.
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