How Raising The Retirement Age Screws the Poor 13MAI11

BOHICA AMERICA!!!! Here's what the tea-baggers and gop have planned for the poor, working class and middle class....from Mother Jones....

I've never been a fan of raising the Social Security retirement age. It's a blunt instrument mainly favored by journalists and policymakers who don't plan to retire at age 65 anyway and figure that asking people to work a little bit longer than they used to is no big deal. But people who don't have white collar jobs quite plainly don't feel the same way about it, as the skyrocketing number of people who retire early at age 62 demonstrates. We've already raised the full retirement age to 67 (this was part of the 1983 Social Security deal put in place by the Greenspan Commission), and I think there are plenty of better ways of bringing Social Security into balance than by raising it yet again.
Aaron Carroll demonstrates this dramatically with the chart below, taken from a paper by Hilary Waldren. As you can see, life expectancy in the top half of the income distribution has indeed risen dramatically over the past few decades. But in the bottom half of the income distribution, it's barely risen at all.
I want to make it crystal clear what this means, using further data from Waldren's paper combined with the increase in retirement age that's already scheduled to take effect. This is for workers in the bottom half of the income distribution:

• If you retired in 1977 at age 65, your life expectancy was 14.8 years.
• If you retired in 2006 at age 65 years and 8 months, your life expectancy was 15.4 years.
• Using a simple linear extrapolation, if you retire in 2025 at age 67, your life expectancy will be 14.9 years.

So that's it. Over the course of half a century, thanks to the increase in retirement age already scheduled by law¹, the poor and the working class will have seen the length of their retirements increase by a grand total of one month. Yippee!
Keep this firmly in mind whenever someone talks about how life expectancies have skyrocketed and we can't afford long, leisurely retirements anymore. If you're fairly well off and work at a white collar job, there's something to this. If you're not, it's bunk.
If you want to use rising life expectancy as an argument for means testing Social Security, or perhaps for reducing benefits for high earners, the data here gives you some good ammunition. Personally, I'm not sure this is the best way of tackling Social Security solvency either, but it's certainly an arguable point. Maybe modest means testing should be part of a bigger solution.
But raising the retirement age? Go tell that to a clerk or a factory worker. They won't be quite as thrilled about this as people who write newspaper columns for a living, and they have pretty good reason not to be. It's a lousy idea.
¹You can still take early retirement at age 62 no matter what year you retire, but you get reduced benefits — and those benefits are being gradually reduced even further as the full retirement age goes up. Actuarially, early retirement doesn't change a thing. If you're in the bottom half of the income distribution, the total expected payout of your Social Security benefits will have risen by one month's worth between 1977 and 2025 no matter what age you choose to retire.
Front page image: Celine Nadeau

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The Deficit Chart Republicans Hate 11MAI11

JUST a friendly reminder that the federal deficit was brought to us by george w bush & co, his tax cuts, his wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and the cost of the financial crisis created by his masters on wall street. From Mother Jones.....

I get a little bored repeating over and over that our short-term deficit is almost entirely not Barack Obama's fault. It's mostly the fault of the Bush tax cuts, the Bush wars, and the financial collapse that happened during the Bush presidency. At this point, though, this is more in the nature of a religious debate than a factual one, and conservatives are going to keep repeating the same tired disinformation about the deficit regardless of any evidence one way or the other.
Still, just on the off chance that a few people are still persuadable on this, it's nice of CBPP to update its chart showing the source of the deficit over the next decade. (Farther out than that, Medicare is largely responsible for most deficit projections.) As you can see, by 2013 or so, virtually the entire deficit is due to Bush-era policies/disasters. So cut this out and post it on your refrigerator.

Newt Gingrich and the 11th Commandment 11MAI11

newt gingrich is a hypocritical pig, believing it was OK to be cheating on his wife while voting to impeach Bill Clinton for cheating on his! He cheated on his first wife and then divorced her while she was battling breast cancer, then cheated on his second wife (the woman who replaced his first wife) and married the woman he was cheating with, she is number three. Yet this man feels he has the authority to tell the rest of the country how we should live.  This from Mother Jones....

Newt Gingrich has famously cheated on and then divorced two wives, all while loudly trumpeting his own family values bona fides and slamming liberals for their ruinous effect on our national culture. David Corn:

None of this is a secret, and Gingrich hopes to defuse this story line by placing Callista [i.e., wife #3] in the limelight. Yet, his jump into the presidential pool will likely produce a series of tales and news reports about Gingrich's bad-boy days, for as long as he remains in the race. In a presidential contest, biography matters much. And fresh details—even about well-known episodes in a candidate's past—are much valued, at least by reporters and cable news viewers. Thus, Gingrich may find it tough to escape the tawdry escapades of his earlier decades.

Maybe! But here's the thing: Gingrich may be a cannier media player than we think. Sure, he knows he's going to get slammed for his sexual adventures, but he also knows that one of the iron laws of the news business is that no one is interested in "old news." So the key to his success is to get in the race now, get all of these stories out in the open over the next few months, and then count on the media to yawn and refuse to bother itself over this stuff by the time serious campaigning starts later this year.
The only question is whether his fellow candidates will play along. If they decide to be good Reagan Republicans and keep their traps shut, Gingrich might get away with it. If one of them makes it a big issue, then the press will report it because — um, because it's now an "issue."
In the end, I think David is probably right: Gingrich can't escape his past. His primary opponents will stay quiet about his lecherous past as long as he's no threat, but the minute he looks like he might really have a chance to win, at least a few of them will go after him with all guns blazing. Politics ain't beanbag, after all.

Reid To Boehner: If You Want $2 Trillion In Cuts, Start With Oil And Gas Tax Breaks 10MAI11

john boehner may not see anything wrong with reversing his position on eliminating tax subsidies for big oil and gas companies, but the vast majority of the American public does. Warning to the Democrats, you better not fail on this one, you better get this passed.
WASHINGTON -- Less than a day after House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) demanded that the debt ceiling not be lifted unless the government reduce spending by $2 trillion, Democrats are calling his bluff.
Senate Democratic leadership is asking Boehner to reaffirm support for ending tax breaks to five of the top oil companies as part of his quest to achieve federal savings.
“You can't talk about cuts without first looking at eliminating the giveaways to big oil. It should start there,” Jon Summers, a top spokesman for Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.), said in a statement. “We agree we have to cut spending, but it is ridiculous for Republicans to push a plan to kill Medicare while trying to defend taxpayer handouts to big oil companies that are making record profits. They don't need the money. If Republicans are serious about cutting spending, they'll support our plan to eliminate welfare for Big Oil so we can apply that money toward the deficit.”
Summer’s retort comes just hours after Boehner upped the stakes over the debt ceiling debate: He told a Wall Street crowd that his caucus would not sign off on raising the limit -- which stands at $14.3 trillion -- unless it was attached to strict spending reductions. Tax increases, he added, are off the table.
“Without significant spending cuts and changes in the way we spend the American people’s money, there will be no increase in the debt limit. And the cuts should be greater than the accompanying increase in the debt limit that the president is given,” Boehner said in an address to the Economic Club of New York. The timeframe for the cuts would be longer than the life of the debt limit increase, meaning that it would be implemented over the course of, likely, several years.
The natural response would be to ask Boehner to actually pinpoint the cuts that he wants. But Senate Democrats are choosing a slightly different tact: proposing their own deficit reduction measures and daring Republicans to object.
Repealing oil company tax breaks is something that Boehner briefly said he would consider supporting before cautioning that he wouldn’t back a policy that could hurt domestic suppliers. Democrats responded by tailoring the proposal so that it hit just the top five companies. Ending their breaks could save the government $21 billion over ten years.
It's a non-starter for Boehner, who sees ending a subsidy as a tax hike.
"Our goal is to increase the supply of American energy to lower costs, reduce our dependence on foreign oil and create American jobs," said Boehner spokesman Michael Steel. "This tax hike would make prices at the pump even higher. That simply doesn't make any sense."
A formal bill is expected to be introduced today with a vote likely to happen early next week, according to a Senate leadership aide.
In the meantime, the Democratic caucus has been given its talking points.
“We have our message today, which is oil,” said the aide. “If [Republicans] are going to have these unspecified targets, ok. But if the goal is to cut trillions, why not start with the oil and gas subsidies?”

SOJOURNERS AFGHANISTAN WEBSITE AND BLOG

POLICY RESOURCES

TAKE ACTION: Tell President Obama it is time to end the war

An open letter from Faith Leaders to President Obama, December 2009

FROM THE MAGAZINE - ON AFGHANISTAN

March 2011: Hearts & Minds: The Cost of War - Today, too few know the cost of war.
by Jim Wallis

March 2011: Finding the Way Out - Why it's time to end the war in Afghanistan, and how to do it.
by David Cortright

March 2011: The Human Toll - Counting the costs of Obama's 'good war.' A report from Afghanistan.
by Eric Stoner

March 2011: Securing Women's Rights - When the Taliban ruled, they prevented girls from going to school. Who's stopping them now?
by Farah Marie M.

April 2010: Is the Afghanistan War Just? - President Obama underplays the importance of alternatives to war.
by Drew Chritiansen, SJ

April 2010: Beyond the 'War on Terror' - Why development, not military action, is key to Afghanistan's future.
by Theo Sitther

FROM THE MAGAZINE - ON WAR, SOLDIERS AND VETERANS

March 2011: The Jonah Effect - An American soldier runs from God to Iraq... but it wasn't far enough.
by Evan Knappenberger

February 2011: Wrestling with Demons - He was in the army. Then he realised that as a Christian, he couldn't kill. An Iraq vet grapples with conscience and war.
by Logan Mehl-Laituri

December 2010: The Right to Refuse to Bear Arms - A growing movement of veterans promotes selective conscientious objection.
by Logan Mehl-Laituri

June 2008: 'A Theft from Those Who Hunger' - Rampant military spending is making us less secure.
by Frida Gerrigan

June 2007: The Poverty Draft - "According to a 2007 Associated Press analysis, 'nearly three-fourths of [U.S. troops] killed in Iraq came from towns where the per capita income was below the national average. More than half came from towns where the percentage of people living in poverty topped the national average.'"
by Jorge Mariscal

June 2007: The Hungry Spirit: Discerning the Spirit of Iraq - Our children are coming home from the front lines - and they have questions.
by Rose Marie Berger

October 2006: Valor, Honor, Conscience - Stories of U.S. soldiers who are saying no to war due to conscience.
by Stacia Brown

May - June 2003: Hearts and Minds: The Lessons of War - Ten lessons from participating in war.
by Jim Wallis

FROM THE MAGAZINE - ON NONVIOLENCE AND PEACEMAKING

November 2010: Celebrate the Peace Parade - books on nonviolence in theory and practice
by Rose Marie Berger

November 2010: More Books on Nonviolence - history, strategy and community.
by Rose Marie Berger

January 2005: Winning the Peace and 10 Practices of Just Peacemaking - For peacemaking to be effective, we must not only say no to war, but provide viable alternatives.
by Glen Stassen

January - February 2003: Patriotism is Not Enough: Christian conscience in a time of war - "God's values are clear; so too ought ours be. If you love the Lord, you will love the things the Lord loves. There is no other way around it."
by Peter J. Gomes

September - October 2002: With Weapons of Will - "Strategic nonviolent action is not about being nice to your oppressor, much less having to rely on his niceness. It's about dissolving the foundations of his power and forcing him out."
by Peter Ackerman and Jack DuVall

January - February 2002: Hard Questions for Peacemakers - After the 9/11 attacks, the U.S. waged war against Iraq and Afghanistan. Despite these challenges to our commitment that following Jesus leads us to the path of nonviolence, Christian peacemakers must go deeper in our commitment.
by Jim Wallis

January - February 2002: The Tonto Principle - We have to step back and ask what we Christians have done that we find ourselves so implicated in the world that we cannot differentiate our response as God’s people from the American people’s response.”
by Stanley Hauerwas

January - February 2002: Change from Within - The most significant ways to deal with the sources of terrorism will emerge more from within the circles that are close to it rather than from sources that depend upon it from outside.
by John Paul Lederach

January - February 2002: The Bonhoeffer Assumption - American thinkers who have used Bonhoeffer as a way of justifying the just war theory overlook his clear statement that he does not regard this as a justifiable action—that it’s a sin—and that he throws himself on the mercy of God.
by Walter Wink

RESOURCES FROM THE SOJO STORE
March 2011: Afghanistan
Why it's time to end the war, and how to do it.
  - The human cost, abroad and at home.
  - Securing rights for women and girls after the exit.

AFGHANISTAN: NO MORE EXCUSES-END THIS WAR from Sojourners 11MAI11

I agree with this article from Sojourners and have signed on supporting the call to end the war in Afghanistan. Click the link to e mail your Representative and tell them to support and pass the H.R 1735, the "Afghanistan Exit and Accountability Act". A vote is expected before Memorial Day.

There is no more room or time for excuses. The war in Afghanistan, now the longest war in American history, needs to end. On moral, financial, and strategic grounds, the continuing of the war in Afghanistan cannot be justified.

President Obama has promised to start troop withdrawal in July, but he’s being pressured to reduce the effort to a “symbolic withdrawal” and to continue on a path to many more years of war.We cannot wait any longer to end this war; its costs aresimply too great. 

• Financial: The U.S. is spending more than $100 billion per year in Afghanistan
• Human: 1,570 Americans killed, more than 10,000 wounded  
• More than 10,000 civilian Afghan deaths, 3,000 in 2010 alone 

Congress has a big role to play in what happens next. Representatives Jim McGovern and Walter Jones have introduced important legislation that, if passed, would require the Obama administration to present an exit strategy for U.S. forces from Afghanistan(1).

This bill will show President Obama how much support he has in the Congress for a real withdrawal plan beginning this summer -- but only if it has robust support by legislators. We can help build support for this bill by asking our senators and representatives to sign on. Email your members of Congress and tell them to support the“Afghanistan Exit and Accountability Act.”

Thank you for your partnership. We know that our scriptures and history teach us that war is not the way to achieve the peace and security we are striving to build in this world. Sometimes things seem bleak -- but together, as part of a community seeking a new future, we can make a difference.

Blessings,

Elizabeth, Duane, Tim, and the team

---

Footnotes:
HR 1735, the Afghanistan Exit and Accountability Act:
Specifically, the bill (The “Afghanistan Exit and Accountability Act”) would:

1. Require the president to transmit to Congress a plan with timeframe and completion date for the transition of U.S. military and security operations in Afghanistan to the government of Afghanistan;
2. Require the president to report quarterly (i.e., every 90 days) on the status of that transition, and the human and financial costs of remaining in Afghanistan, including increased deficit and public debt; and
3. Require that in those quarterly reports the president disclose to Congress the savings in five-year, 10-year, and 20-year time periods were the U.S. to accelerate redeployment and conclude the transition of all U.S. military and security operations to Afghanistan within 180 days (i.e., six months).

Afghanistan: No More Excuses
After 10 long years, the national conversation on the war in Afghanistan has changed significantly. And now, the hunt for Osama bin Laden, used for years to justify the war, is over. The official reasons for continuing the war are disappearing each day. The threat of al Qaeda in Afghanistan has significantly weakened. Many people are shocked when they learn that there are only 100 al Qaeda operatives left in Afghanistan, but more than 100,000 American troops remain. As the debate on the deficit heats up, we need to say again and again that the more than $100 billion a year that is spent on the war is no longer sustainable. Every American should know these numbers: 100 terrorists; 100,000 troops; $100 billion -- it just isn't adding up anymore. There are no more excuses for delaying a withdrawal of U.S. troops.
A USA TODAY/Gallup Poll released this week shows that 59 percent of Americans agree that the "United States has accomplished its mission in Afghanistan and should bring its troops home." Congressional pressure is also growing. News reports indicate that those who favor "a swift reduction of U.S. forces" have been gaining momentum.
A significant part of this pressure to end the war is the introduction of the "Afghanistan Exit and Accountability Act" by Representatives Jim McGovern (D-MA) and Walter Jones (R-NC). H.R. 1735 was submitted with 14 additional sponsors, eight Democrats, and six Republicans. Ending the war is now a bipartisan effort. The legislation would require the president to submit a plan with a timeline and completion date for the transition of military operations to the Afghan government, and require quarterly progress reports along with projections of how much would be saved if the transition were completed in six months.
In his statement, Rep. McGovern said: "We're told that we can't afford vital domestic funding, but we should continue to borrow billions and billions of dollars for nation-building in Afghanistan. That's nuts. … On Monday [May 2], the Pentagon reported that 1,550 American troops have died in Afghanistan. Last week, another one of my constituents was killed. Tens of thousands more have been wounded. … Enough is enough."
Rep. Walter Jones' opposition to this war has made him a modern profile of courage. He turned against the war after visiting constituents who lost their children, fathers, and mothers, as well as soldiers in the hospital whose lives have been forever shattered. He doesn't think this war is worth their sacrifice. He is right.
Although the president has committed to begin withdrawing troops in July, the military is working behind the scenes to make this withdrawal as small as possible. In their initial proposal, the military floated a news story suggesting a withdrawal of only 5,000 troops. This is not acceptable anymore, and we must insist on a clear, quick, and responsible exit -- not one slowly drawn out over years. Too much money has been spent, and too many lives have been lost. It's time for the war to end. So I am calling on you, our most committed constituents, to contact your members of Congress and urge them to co-sponsor this legislation. With our voices, we can make a difference, and we must. The time has come to end this war. 

JOHN DEMJANJUK, SOBIBOR, and ROB FRANSMAN from THE STATE WE'RE IN 14MAI11

FROM Radio Netherlands show 'The State We're In TSWI', the story of a Dutch Jew who survived by being hidden by his family's Christian maid while his parents were found and transported to Sobibor where they were murdered in the Holocaust. He was one of a group of Dutch Jews who brought a class action lawsuit resulting in trial and conviction of John Demjanjuk in Munich for mass murder at Sobibor. Click the header to go to the TSWI website and play the program, it starts at the 32 min mark. And watch the video to see him visit Sobibor with his granddaughter, lay a memorial stone in memory of his parents and say Kaddish.
Courtroom dramatics
Rob Fransman’s parents were murdered in Sobibor prison camp during WWII. John Demjanjuk is on trial for being a prison guard at the camp. Rob explains what attending the trial in person means, and doesn’t mean, in his personal quest for justice.
(Original Broadcast Date: 3 April 2010)
Watch the video about Rob Fransman visiting Nazi camp with his granddaughter



Courtroom dramatics conclusion
The Demjanjuk trial is finally over, after two years. Rob Fransman tells Jonathan what the verdict means to him, but also his ambivalence over the meaning of justice.

• Photo: RNW
• 
  

  Rob Fransman

  Photo: RNW
• 
  

  JohnDemjanjuk is brought on a stretcher into the District Court in Munich, Germany, 1 December 2009

  Photo: ANP

La. floodgate opens for 1st time in 38 years, easing strain in Mississippi River levees 14MAI11

THE Army Corps of Engineers opens the Morganza spillway for the first time in 38 years in an attempt to prevent flooding in Baton Rouge and New Orleans.......

MORGANZA, La. — A steel, 10-ton floodgate was slowly raised Saturday for the first time in nearly four decades, unleashing a torrent of water from the Mississippi River, away from heavily populated areas downstream.
The water spit out slowly at first, then began gushing like a waterfall as it headed to swamp as much as 3,000 square miles of Cajun countryside known for small farms and fish camps. Some places could wind up under as much as 25 feet of water.
Opening the Morganza spillway diverts water away from Baton Rouge and New Orleans, and the numerous oil refineries and chemical plants along the lower reaches of the Mississippi.
“We’re using every flood control tool we have in the system,” Army Corps of Engineers Maj. Gen. Michael Walsh said Saturday from the dry side of the spillway, before the bay was opened. The podium Walsh was standing at was expected to be under several feet of water Sunday.
The Morganza spillway is part of a system of locks and levees built following the great flood of 1927. When it opened, it was the first time three flood-control systems have been unlocked at the same time along the Mississippi River.
Earlier this month, the corps intentionally blew holes into a levee in Missouri to employ a similar cities-first strategy, and it also opened the Bonnet Carre spillway northwest of New Orleans to send water into the massive Lake Ponchatrain.
Snowmelt and heavy rain have been blamed for inflating the Mississippi, and the rising river levels have shattered records all set 70 years ago.
About 25,000 people and 11,000 structures could be in harm’s way.
In Krotz Springs, La., one of the towns in the Atchafalaya River basin bracing for floodwaters, Monita Reed, 56, recalled the last time the Morganza was opened in 1973.
“We could sit in our yard and hear the water,” she said as workers constructed a makeshift levee of sandbags and soil-filled mesh boxes in hopes of protecting the 240 homes in her subdivision.
Some people living in the threatened stretch of countryside — an area known for a drawling French dialect — have already started heading out. Reed’s family packed her furniture, clothing and pictures in a rental truck and a relative’s trailer.
“I’m just going to move and store my stuff. I’m going to stay here until they tell us to leave,” Reed said. “Hopefully, we won’t see much water and then I can move back in. “
It took about 15 minutes for the one 28-foot gate to be raised. Several hours will pass before any of the water hits sparsely populated communities. The corps planned to open one or two more gates Sunday in a painstaking process that gives residents and animals a chance to get out of the way.
The water will flow 20 miles south into the Atchafalaya Basin. From there it will roll on to Morgan City, an oil-and-seafood hub and a community of 12,000, and eventually into the Gulf of Mexico.
The Krotz Springs area was in a sliver of land about 70 miles long and 20 miles wide, north of Morgan City, and could get water in about 12 hours. The finger-shaped strip of land was expected to eventually be inundated with 10- to 20-feet of water, according to Army Corps of Engineers estimates.
The water wasn’t expected to reach Morgan City until around Tuesday.
Engineers feared that weeks of pressure on the levees could cause them to fail, swamping New Orleans under as much as 20 feet of water in a disaster that would have been much worse than Hurricane Katrina in 2005. Even though water was being releasing from the river, the levees were still being put to the test for a couple of weeks.
“These levees will be under a lot of pressure for a long period of time,” said Corps Col. Ed Fleming.
The corps blew up a levee in Missouri — inundating an estimated 200 square miles of farmland and damaging or destroying about 100 homes — to take the pressure off the levees protecting the town of Cairo, Ill., population 2,800.
This intentional flood is more controlled, however, and residents are warned by the corps each year in written letters, reminding them of the possibility of opening the spillway, which is 4,000 feet long and has 125 bays.
At the site of the spillway, a vertical crane was positioned to hoist the gate panel and the let water out. On one side of the spillway, water was splashing over the gates. The other side was dry.
Typically, the spillway is dry on both sides. But when the river rises to historic levels, like the marks seen over the past couple of weeks, it is flooded, and holds the Mississippi in place.
The spillway, built in 1954, is part of a flood plan largely put into motion in the 1930s in the aftermath of the devastating 1927 flood that killed hundreds.
This is the second spillway to be opened in Louisiana. About a week ago, the corps used cranes to remove some of the Bonnet Carre’s wooden barriers, sending water into the massive Lake Ponchatrain and eventually the Gulf of Mexico.
By Sunday, all 350 bays at the 7,000-foot structure were to be open. The spillways could be opened for weeks, or perhaps less, if the river flow starts to subside.
In Vicksburg, Miss., where five neighborhoods were underwater, a steady stream of onlookers posed for pictures on a river bluff overlooking a bridge that connects Louisiana and Mississippi. Some people posed for pictures next to a Civil War cannon while others carried Confederate battle flags being given away by a war re-enactor.
Vicksburg was the site of a pivotal Civil War battle and is home to thousands of soldier graves.
James Mims, 50, drove about an hour from Calhoun, La., with his wife, son and three grandchildren to snap a photo.
“It’s history in the making and we’re seeing it happen,” Mims said.
___
Deslatte reported from Krotz Springs. Associated Press writer Holbrook Mohr in Vicksburg, Miss., also contributed to this report.

John McCain: Torture Did Not Lead To Osama Bin Laden (VIDEO) & Bin Laden’s death and the debate over torture12MAI11

I really do not like Sen John McCain because of his politics, but I give him credit for speaking out on the Senate floor and in the mainstream media on the issue of torture and doing his part to prove false the ideas that torture of detainees at Gitmo led to bin laden. Thank you Sen McCain.

 WASHINGTON – The top Republican on the Senate Armed Services Committees is insisting that enhanced interrogation techniques were not a factor in the discovery of Osama bin Laden's whereabouts and he rejected any form of torture.
In a speech on the Senate floor on Thursday, Arizona's John McCain said that waterboarding and other harsh interrogation techniques are not necessary to the U.S. success in the war on terror.
“It was not torture, or cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment of detainees that got us the major leads that ultimately enabled our intelligence community to find Osama bin Laden,” he said.
The Arizona senator said former Attorney General Michael Mukasey was wrong when he claimed harsh interrogation had led to bin Laden. McCain said he got the facts from CIA Director Leon Panetta and they contradicted Mukasey's claim.
McCain addressed his opposition to torture and said it did not play a role in the search for bin Laden in a Washington Post op-ed published on Wednesday:

I asked CIA Director Leon Panetta for the facts, and he told me the following: The trail to bin Laden did not begin with a disclosure from Khalid Sheik Mohammed, who was waterboarded 183 times. The first mention of Abu Ahmed al-Kuwaiti — the nickname of the al-Qaeda courier who ultimately led us to bin Laden — as well as a description of him as an important member of al-Qaeda, came from a detainee held in another country, who we believe was not tortured. None of the three detainees who were waterboarded provided Abu Ahmed’s real name, his whereabouts or an accurate description of his role in al-Qaeda. In fact, the use of “enhanced interrogation techniques” on Khalid Sheik Mohammed produced false and misleading information. He specifically told his interrogators that Abu Ahmed had moved to Peshawar, got married and ceased his role as an al-Qaeda facilitator — none of which was true. According to the staff of the Senate intelligence committee, the best intelligence gained from a CIA detainee — information describing Abu Ahmed al-Kuwaiti’s real role in al-Qaeda and his true relationship to bin Laden — was obtained through standard, noncoercive means.

McCain was a prisoner of war for five and a half years in North Vietnam. He said the U.S. should not compromise its deepest values by using torture tactics.

Via ABC News comes video of McCain's remarks on the Senate floor.
WATCH:
 

Bin Laden’s death and the debate over torture

By John McCain, Published: May 11 2011 from WASHINGTON POST

Osama bin Laden’s welcome death has ignited debate over whether the so-called enhanced interrogation techniques used on enemy prisoners were instrumental in locating bin Laden, and whether they are a justifiable means for gathering intelligence.
Much of this debate is a definitional one: whether any or all of these methods constitute torture. I believe some of them do, especially waterboarding, which is a mock execution and thus an exquisite form of torture. As such, they are prohibited by American laws and values, and I oppose them.
I know those who approved and employed these practices were dedicated to protecting Americans. I know they were determined to keep faith with the victims of terrorism and to prove to our enemies that the United States would pursue justice relentlessly no matter how long it took.
I don’t believe anyone should be prosecuted for having used these techniques, and I agree that the administration should state definitively that they won’t be. I am one of the authors of the Military Commissions Act, and we wrote into the legislation that no one who used or approved the use of these interrogation techniques before its enactment should be prosecuted. I don’t think it is helpful or wise to revisit that policy.
But this must be an informed debate. Former attorney general Michael Mukasey recently claimed that “the intelligence that led to bin Laden . . . began with a disclosure from Khalid Sheik Mohammed, who broke like a dam under the pressure of harsh interrogation techniques that included waterboarding. He loosed a torrent of information — including eventually the nickname of a trusted courier of bin Laden.” That is false.
I asked CIA Director Leon Panetta for the facts, and he told me the following: The trail to bin Laden did not begin with a disclosure from Khalid Sheik Mohammed, who was waterboarded 183 times. The first mention of Abu Ahmed al-Kuwaiti — the nickname of the al-Qaeda courier who ultimately led us to bin Laden — as well as a description of him as an important member of al-Qaeda, came from a detainee held in another country, who we believe was not tortured. None of the three detainees who were waterboarded provided Abu Ahmed’s real name, his whereabouts or an accurate description of his role in al-Qaeda.
In fact, the use of “enhanced interrogation techniques” on Khalid Sheik Mohammed produced false and misleading information. He specifically told his interrogators that Abu Ahmed had moved to Peshawar, got married and ceased his role as an al-Qaeda facilitator — none of which was true. According to the staff of the Senate intelligence committee, the best intelligence gained from a CIA detainee — information describing Abu Ahmed al-Kuwaiti’s real role in al-Qaeda and his true relationship to bin Laden — was obtained through standard, noncoercive means.
I know from personal experience that the abuse of prisoners sometimes produces good intelligence but often produces bad intelligence because under torture a person will say anything he thinks his captors want to hear — true or false — if he believes it will relieve his suffering. Often, information provided to stop the torture is deliberately misleading.
Mistreatment of enemy prisoners endangers our own troops, who might someday be held captive. While some enemies, and al-Qaeda surely, will never be bound by the principle of reciprocity, we should have concern for those Americans captured by more conventional enemies, if not in this war then in the next.
Though it took a decade to find bin Laden, there is one consolation for his long evasion of justice: He lived long enough to witness what some are calling the Arab Spring, the complete repudiation of his violent ideology.
As we debate how the United States can best influence the course of the Arab Spring, can’t we all agree that the most obvious thing we can do is stand as an example of a nation that holds an individual’s human rights as superior to the will of the majority or the wishes of government? Individuals might forfeit their life as punishment for breaking laws, but even then, as recognized in our Constitution’s prohibition of cruel and unusual punishment, they are still entitled to respect for their basic human dignity, even if they have denied that respect to others.
All of these arguments have the force of right, but they are beside the most important point. Ultimately, this is more than a utilitarian debate. This is a moral debate. It is about who we are.
I don’t mourn the loss of any terrorist’s life. What I do mourn is what we lose when by official policy or official neglect we confuse or encourage those who fight this war for us to forget that best sense of ourselves. Through the violence, chaos and heartache of war, through deprivation and cruelty and loss, we are always Americans, and different, stronger and better than those who would destroy us.
The writer is a Republican senator from Arizona.

WORDS OF WISDOM from REGINA BRETT

1. Life isn't fair, but it's still good..
2. When in doubt, just take the next small step.
3. Life is too short to waste time hating anyone.
4. Your job won't take care of you when you are sick. Your friends and parents will. Stay in touch.
5. Pay off your credit cards every month.
6. You don't have to win every argument. Agree to disagree.
7. Cry with someone. It's more healing than crying alone.
8. It's OK to get angry with God. He can take it.
9. Save for retirement starting with your first paycheck.
10. When it comes to chocolate, resistance is futile.
11. Make peace with your past so it won't screw up the present.
12. It's OK to let your children see you cry.
13. Don't compare your life to others. You have no idea what their journey is all about.
14. If a relationship has to be a secret, you shouldn't be in it.
15.. Everything can change in the blink of an eye. But don't worry; God never blinks.
16. Take a deep breath It calms the mind.
17. Get rid of anything that isn't useful, beautiful or joyful.
18. Whatever doesn't kill you really does make you stronger.
19. It's never too late to have a happy childhood. But the second one is up to you and no one else.
20. When it comes to going after what you love in life, don't take no for an answer.
21. Burn the candles, use the nice sheets, wear the fancy lingerie. Don't save it for a special occasion. Today is special.
22. Over prepare, then go with the flow.
23. Be eccentric now. Don't wait for old age to wear purple.
24. The most important sex organ is the brain.
25. No one is in charge of your happiness but you.
26. Frame every so-called disaster with these words :'In five years, will this matter?'
27. Always choose life..
28. Forgive everyone everything.
29. What other people think of you is none of your business.
30. Time heals almost everything. Give time time.
31. However good or bad a situation is, it will change.
32. Don't take yourself so seriously. No one else does.
33. Believe in miracles.
34. God loves you because of who God is, not because of anything you did or didn't do.
35. Don't audit life. Show up and make the most of it now.
36. Growing old beats the alternative -- dying young.
37. Your children get only one childhood.
38. All that truly matters in the end is that you loved.
39. Get outside every day. Miracles are waiting everywhere.
40. If we all threw our problems in a pile and saw everyone else's, we'd grab ours back.
41. Envy is a waste of time. You already have all you need.
42. The best is yet to come...
43. No matter how you feel, get up, dress up and show up.
44. Yield.
45. Life isn't tied with a bow, but it's still a gift."

“You don't look 90.”

http://www.reginabrett.com/about.php

The last time I typed “Regina Brett” AND “90 years old” into Google, I got nearly 400,000 hits. No wonder so many people write emails like these:

“It seems you are aging rapidly. God bless you and your aged bones.”

“You sure look good for 90 years old! Do you have a painting of you in your attic that is getting really REALLY old looking?"

No, there's no Dorian Gray picture decay going on. The Internet aged me. The day before I turned 45, I wrote a column about the 45 Lessons Life Taught Me. I added five more lessons when I turned 50. Readers e-mailed them around the world but someone added this: "Written by Regina Brett, 90 years old."

I am officially an Urban Legend. You can find me on Snopes.com, right up there with myths about baby carrots.

For the record: I turn 54 this year. I'm not sure how to break the news to Berthabelle in Eugene, Oregon. who wrote: "We are the same age except I was born on November 1, 1918. Hope some day we can hear from one another. Isn't it great that we are both ninety? Lovingly, Bertie."

Bertie, I hope to see 90. After having breast cancer at 41, I’m thrilled to grow old. Growing old beats the alternative – dying young. That’s Lesson 36. After hearing from people all over the globe, I turned them into a book, God Never Blinks: 50 Lessons for Life's Little Detours.

It turns out those personal life lessons were universal truths. They came from being a single parent and a cancer survivor, from all the wrong roads taken looking for my mission in life, from the broken road that led me straight to my husband, from strangers I interviewed, from priests I met on retreats, from my family and closest friends.

I'm grateful to all who forwarded my Life Lessons and kept my name on them. A while back, I received an anonymous essay about the cost of raising a child. It seemed oddly familiar.

"What do you get for your money? Naming rights. First, middle and last. Glimpses of God every day. Giggles under the covers every night. More love than your heart can hold. Butterfly kisses and Velcro hugs. A hand to hold, usually covered with jam . . ."

Wait a minute. I wrote that. Nine years ago.

When I was 100.