Enemy Combatant
Saturday, December 31, 2005
Harry Truman On How NOT To Fight America's Enemies [video]
"Now I am going to tell you how we are not going to fight communism. We are not going to transform our fine FBI into a Gestapo secret police. That is what some people would like to do. We are not going to try to control what our people read and say and think. We are not going to turn the United States into a right-wing totalitarian country in order to deal with a left-wing totalitarian threat." -- April 24, 1950
Thursday, December 29, 2005
Calling All Bloggers: Our Brit Cousins Need Our Help!
New documents have emerged, detailing that Tony Blair's government is as hipdeep in condoning Uzbekistan's torture as we are. However, in the UK, publishing these documents is potentially a crime under the Official Secrets Act. If you're a blogger reading this, however, you could volunteer to host them and publish them on your own website, from everywhere but the UK. This would make it less likely that any British blogger could be prosecuted for disseminating or discussing them, because by that time they'll be all over those dark dungeons of the Internets.
A hat tip to Richard at How This Old Brit Sees It (This Old Brit to his friends), for bringing this to our -- and now your -- attention.
Friday, December 23, 2005
Christmas Wishes
For Christmas, 1971, John Lennon and Yoko Ono released "Happy Christmas (War Is Over)," whose last verse is:A very Merry Christmas
And a happy New Year
Let’s hope it’s a good one
Without any fear
War is over, if you want it
War is over now.
Christmas, 1971, we had 157,000 troops in Vietnam. Eight months later we had none, and seven months after that, we stopped fighting that war.
Currently, we've got just under 160,000 troops in Iraq.
Sooo. I know what my Christmas wish is; what's yours?
Wednesday, December 21, 2005
File the Bin Laden Phone Leak Under 'Urban Myths'
Great! The most snooping, intrusive government in history, that big sucking sound out of Mess O'Potamia, and still the only "intelligence" he listens to is the most far-fetched, apocryphal bullshit!
Sunday, December 18, 2005
(Grasping At) The Last Straw?
OK, the REALLY IRONIC thing to me about this latest "scandal" is that Bushco is being reprimanded for not complying with FISA court warrant requirements.
That's like Hitler being called on the carpet by the Reichtag for exceeding his authority under the Nuremberg Laws.
FISA is a SECRET court system, only established in 1978. The whole procedure takes place under top-secret rules, and even the court's decisions, once made, remain secret.
Of the 17,742 applications for secret warrants made to FISA by the government over the past quarter-century, you want to know how many have been rejected?
At last count -- four. And at the time Bush decided to sidestep this pro forma requirement? Zero. Zip. Zilch. Nada. None.
Not one.
Thursday, December 15, 2005
Setting The Trap
Let's be clear about what John McCain's "victory" over Bush on the issue of detainee torture is, and isn't. I, for one, don't for a minute believe that Bushco will stop doing what it's been doing to detainees up until now, as a result of this new legislation.
The fact that Bush now publicly accepts this anti-torture legislation should be seen, in a legal sense, as analogous to the courts requiring Bill Clinton to testify under oath in the Paula Jones case about his relationship with Monica Lewinsky. In other words, this is just a necessary first step (assuming the Democrats take back the Congress next year) to lay the groundwork for impeachment proceedings against Bushco when proof of its inevitable violation of this law comes to light.
One other point: Let's make sure, when this legislation finally passes, that Bushco understands that we'll be using the international definition of "torture," rather than the Orwellian definition the Bushco bullies dreamed up (i.e., nothing short of "death, or major organ failure" qualifies). Remember, under Bushco's draconian definition, even the repeated breaking of POW John McCain's arms, so that he cannot now straighten out his right one at all, doesn't constitute proof that the Vietcong ever "tortured" him.
Monday, December 05, 2005
Give UsBarrabasMonica!
Sen. Clinton co-sponsors anti-flag burning law
WASHINGTON (AP) _ Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton is supporting new legislation to criminalize desecration of the United States flag -- though she still opposes a constitutional ban on flag attacks.
Got that? She wants to stand up to the Supreme Court! We're gonna revere the flag in this country, dammit!
The [ ] measure outlaws a protester intimidating any person by burning the flag, lighting someone else's flag, or desecrating the flag on federal property.
Oh, so it's a halfhearted empty gesture and constitutional dodge dressed up as a principled stand against the Supreme Court -- that should go over really well in all quarters, don't you think?
The woman wants to keep our troops in Iraq for the foreseeable future, too. Remind me, again: Why is she a Democrat?
Thursday, December 01, 2005
This Is What Happens
to laid-off rock-concert lighting specialists, with too much time on their hands during the holiday season. (3 min. video, Windows format) Enjoy!
