Category: United States

The Question — what was the anwer?

Will they make it work?

Senator Chris Dodd has introduced a bill to bring back Habeas Corpus and compliance with the Geneva Conventions! Didn’t know Habeas Corpus died? Read these.

The Effective Terrorists Prosecution Act:

• Restores Habeas Corpus protections to detainees
• Narrows the definition of unlawful enemy combatant to individuals who directly participate in hostilities against the United States who are not lawful combatants
• Bars information gained through coercion from being introduced as evidence in trials
• Empowers military judges to exclude hearsay evidence they deem to be unreliable
• Authorizes the US Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces to review decisions by the Military commissions
• Limits the authority of the President to interpret the meaning and application of the Geneva Conventions and makes that authority subject to congressional and judicial oversight
• Provides for expedited judicial review of the Military Commissions Act of 2006 to determine the constitutionally of its provisions

Source

The US government is so inbred that the same people have been running out country since the 70s…sort of. The Times Online UK edition explains.

Last week George W Bush was forced back — once again — to the protective arms of his father. They call the first President Bush “Poppy” in the family, and it captures both the authority and the slight daffiness of the 41st president. His first son always lived in his shadow — both deeply admiring him and deeply resenting him, the way dauphins often do their monarchs.
…
BY nominating Robert Gates to the Pentagon, Bush Jr was reduced to asking one of his father’s closest friends to clean up the mess. What was Gates’s last job? As president of Texas A&M University, Gates hosted Poppy’s own presidential library. What was his previous claim to fame? Poppy had appointed him CIA director. Poppy himself had been CIA director — manoeuvred into the shell-shocked institution after Vietnam by a wily young Donald Rumsfeld in the Ford administration. Gates was a CIA director’s CIA director. He was Poppy’s Poppy.
[Source]

"Jeb, his younger brother, was always going to be president" so…think we will see Jeb in 2008? A Democrat controlled Congress cannot clean up W’s mess 6 years in the making in only 2 years but can the Repulicans spin those two years as "ineffective" and get the public to vote for another Republican president and Republican controlled Congress?

Well now…DAAAaaaang! Have you seen the flustered Bush? Please take a moment to watch the video. Wow!

Homeland Security is working on rules to go into effect January 14, 2007 that would require anyone entering or leaving the country to have Homeland Security’s permission.

The U.S. Supreme Court has long recognized there is a constitutional right to travel internationally. Indeed, it has declared that the right to travel is "a virtually unconditional personal right." The United States has also signed treaties guaranteeing "freedom of travel." So if these regulations do go into effect, you can expect a lengthy court battle, both nationally and internationally. … Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union are two countries in recent history
that didn’t allow their citizens to travel abroad without permission.
If these regulations go into effect, you can add the United States to
this list. [Source]

On September 11, 2001, terrorists made an effort to change the United States. With unnecessary, controlling policies like what Homeland Security is proposing, we do nothing to increase security while removing our liberties (liberty being the ability to exercise our freedoms). The terrorists won. While considering this, take a look at the future of air travel.

The Devil is red. Blood is red. War causes bloodshed. Negative things are red like stop signs and "don’t do that" signs. Angry people turn red. The button Bush keeps his finger on is red. Raw meat is red. A misleading story is a red herring.The 48 continental are red . WHhhyyyyyyyyy!

Keith Olbermann brings it home again in "Why does habeas corpus hate America?" Watch the video to understand the historic decision your congress made.

Personnally, I am not certain impeachment would lead to any better situation than we have now. I think Foley and friends are doing a better job than impeachment. I just can’t wait until 2008 but my fear is that this administration will have done such damage that whoever wins in 2008 will have a doomed 4 years. Their job will be to clean up the mess and this mess is going to take decades to correct. So, Bush Co. will create a law that will allow presidents to serve 16 years instead of 8; perhaps it will come in the form of "an ex-president can return to office for a maximum of another 2 four year terms." (I saw a reference that a senator has quietly started just such a bill but now I can’t find it) After the citizentry has a great disappointment in the 2008-2012 term since the expectations of that president will be totally unachievable, GW Bush will return to office from 2012-2020 or longer.

The reasons for impeachment given by impeachforpeace.org:

• Illegal war
• Illegal spying
• Illegal breaking of Geneva Conventions
• Illegal detention
• Illegal release of classified information

Looks like the revolution begins on October 5th.

So, how long do you think it will be before US citizens are wearing cages on their heads with rats in them?

…the Republicans are the party of torture, indefinite and unreviewable detention powers, and limitless presidential power, even over U.S. citizens on U.S. soil. By contrast, Democrats have opposed these tyrannical, un-American and truly dangerous measures. [Source]

Has our Senate absolutely lost their collective minds?!

During the debate on his amendment, Arlen Specter said that the bill sends us back 900 years because it denies habeas corpus rights and allows the President to detain people indefinitely. He also said the bill violates core Constitutional protections. Then he voted for it. [Source]

"I am a vegetarian. I’ll have my New York strip medium rare please." Could it be his meds were off and he couldn’t differentiate the YES button from the NO button? Or is Arlen Specter just that smug that he would brag about taking our country down.

When George Bush came into office I joked that his motives were to bring back his daddy’s Cold War and he has made good inroads to doing just that! What I did not realize is GW’s fascination with the Middle Ages. Apparently his sights are set in traveling further back in time than I had ever considered.

There is more in "Habeas Corpus, R.I.P. (1215-2006)":

It leaves the president with the power to decide who is an enemy combatant.
This bill is not a national security issue—this is about torturing helpless human beings without any proof they are our enemies. Perhaps this could be considered if we knew the administration would use the power with enormous care and thoughtfulness. But of the over 700 prisoners sent to Gitmo, only 10 have ever been formally charged with anything.
[Source]

Expect more statements in the news like: The "heart attack" came after he had been beaten so often on this legs that they had "basically been pulpified," according to the coroner. Or not. I suppose the administration probably has some clause that for security reasons the public never needs to know about torturees.

Where will this stop? Is a person that cannot pay their taxes worthy of torture? What about death row? Or better, what about people we suspect maybe, might, have had something to do or perhaps some information on a crime?

Oh! We can stop giving our kids Ritalin. Let’s bring back corpal punishment. Nothing quite like a big armed principal with a wood paddle with holes drilled in it to keep the kids in line.

This bill that passed is a revised version that excludes several "safe guards" from the original bill.

In another change, a clause said that evidence obtained outside the United States could be admitted in court even if it had been gathered without a search warrant. But the bill now drops the words “outside the United States,” which means prosecutors can ignore American legal standards on warrants. [Source]

Right now I am sure many short sighted people are thinking that this bill only applies to the war effort and making our country safer. It is a short leap from applying this bill to the American people.

The bill also expands the definition of an unlawful enemy combatant to cover anyone who has "has purposefully and materially supported hostilities against the United States." Quick, define "purposefully and materially." One person has already been charged with aiding terrorists because he sold a satellite TV package that includes the Hezbollah network. [Source]

Could the opinions I state in this blog make me an enemy combatant? If I chidingly state that we live in Amerika can I anticipate O’Brien to pound down my door and take me away?

As Vladimir Bukovsky, the Soviet dissident, wrote, an intelligence service free to torture soon "degenerates into a playground for sadists." But not unbridled sadism—you will be relieved that the compromise took out the words permitting interrogation involving "severe pain" and substituted "serious pain," which is defined as "bodily injury that involves extreme physical pain." [Source]

We are living it folks. Bush is a sadist. He will say anything to get his way.

In July 2003, George Bush said in a speech: "The United States is committed to worldwide elimination of torture, and we are leading this fight by example. Freedom from torture is an inalienable human right. Yet torture continues to be practiced around the world by rogue regimes, whose cruel methods match their determination to crush the human spirit." [Source]

Other news discusses Losing the War, Winning a Police State with Bush Co.’s Widespread Warnings, Fanned Fears, NSA Wire Taps, Expanded Powers, and War on Iran.

I just can’t improve upon Tom’s words.