quiet flows the don

2008-04-04T09:16:00.004-06:00

A new poem:

A Call to Scorch this Land

Torquemada
written in the blood of the impure
remembered by those savants and survivors
echoes in the history of western so-called civilization
like the weeds that surreptitiously grow in the well tended garden

the wheels of war are but the means
“kill the leaders and convert the rest”
as he knows that the brutal iron fist
is remembered longer than the delicate kiss

His feral manner was revealed
as the clanking chains tightened
screams reverberated up the spiral stairs but never beyond the iron bound doors
blood begins to seep out of the pores
until the appendages are separated from the torso

the cudgels that propel the perpetrators
down the chutes into the razor wired cells
are beginning instruments to rewire their brains
as he has watched all the recordings in total silence
while his hands are playing pocket pool over and over

Torquemada held secrets
he could hide from his god anointed superiors of king and queen
even from the messenger from his god- the holy see
the pooling of blood and excrement upon innumerable hidden chamber floors
couldn't cleanse his stain of being birthed by the descendants of Christ killers

sitting on concrete and to smell the freedom of the sea breeze
no privacy as the cameras watch without stopping
to survive in an 8' by 10' cell
interrogations go on and on
no matter the time of day
sickness or in health
to be married to the interrogators on this level of purgatory

His beliefs were powered by god
as the white hot coals were driven into their flesh
both bowels and bladder were released
the stench imbued the mute stone walls
while the words of renunciation were disbelieved

he turns to go
closing the door
he must go to the gym
to work out again
to feel good again
to wash away the reality
of what his commandments have wrought

Torquemada has heard no confession from the deceased
with a wave of his manicured fingers
the body will be fried until only ashes remain
the soul
was not worth saving will now walk upon an earthly limbo

2007-02-02T12:40:00.001-07:00

Why does King Bush and Queen Cheney want another 245,000,000,000 dollars? To go to war with Iran?

There are 140,000+ American troops in Iraq but what is not being told to the American people is the 100,000+ Soldiers-of-Fortune in Iraq.

As other bloggers have noted, like Steve Gilliard, the military is in an untenable position for withdrawal from Iraq. There is no easy access to sea ports for mass evacuation. What the military would have to do is to fight it's way out of the country.

All ready we have witnessed that the Iraqis can seriously hamper our supply lines through IED's, RPG's, and heavy machine gun fire.

This is Dien Ben Phu on a country wide scale.

It is time for Congress to halt this war and bring our troops home.

King Bush and Queen Cheney shall be held accountable to our justice system.

2007-02-02T12:40:00.000-07:00

2007-01-31T10:19:00.000-07:00

Chalmers Johnson writes in TPMmuckraker today:

History is instructive on this dilemma. If we choose to keep our empire, as the Roman republic did, we will certainly lose our democracy and grimly await the eventual blowback that imperialism generates. There is an alternative, however. We could, like the British Empire after World War II, keep our democracy by giving up our empire. The British did not do a particularly brilliant job of liquidating their empire and there were several clear cases where British imperialists defied their nation's commitment to democracy in order to hang on to foreign privileges. The war against the Kikuyu in Kenya in the 1950s and the Anglo-French-Israeli invasion of Egypt in 1956 are particularly savage examples of that. But the overall thrust of postwar British history is clear: the people of the British Isles chose democracy over imperialism.

Read the rest here.

Batman vs alien vs predator

2007-01-03T08:23:00.001-07:00

I used to collect comic books when I was younger. I still have an interest in comic books.

This short film is an excellent adaption of the comic book to film genre. Of course Frank Miller's "Sin City" is the pinnacle of this kind of film noir styled cinema.

The short film form fits the comic book adaption because of the nature of the characters of the revenge/avenger seem not to be amenable to serious character development or exploration.

Richard Feynman Intro

2007-01-01T16:09:00.001-07:00

Richard Feynman is one of the greatest scientists and cultural heroes of the 20th Century.

(and he is a great bongo player!)

Page 27 Live 8/10/2006

2007-01-01T16:03:00.001-07:00

One of the first groups that my art gallery/performance space had in concert in 1996.

2007-01-01T15:57:00.000-07:00

Happy New Year. May the new year bring peace and justice to the American people from the tyranny of Bush and his cohorts.

Irene Orleansky - Chapman Stick

2006-12-17T18:46:00.001-07:00

This is an amazing music made by a very innovative music instrument.

I first learned about this instrument about ten years ago. At that time I owned a used bookstore and art gallery. In the art gallery part I had a number of concerts by both local and touring musicians and bands.

The music I enjoyed and was challenged by was noise music by such local bands as Page 27.

Other music that I liked was electronica of such groups as Kraftwerk, Tangerine Dream or musicians like Vollenweider, Tomita, and Carlos.

Wonderful and evocative music to listen to.

2006-12-11T13:55:00.000-07:00

Hope everyone has a good holiday season.

My grad school class is almost over with.

I just have one paper left to write, which is on San Antonio v Rodriguez SCOTUS decision that denied the "right to education" as being a fundamental right implied within the 14th Amendment. The decision is a repudiation of Brown v School Board of Topeka.

Next semester I'll be taking "Research Methods" and another class that I'm not sure what on as of now.

A good history book on the creation and ratification of the Bill of Rights called, "James Madison and the Struggle for the Bill of Rights" by Richard Labunski I just started. The book is something that is not just for scholars but for the general history reader. I'm only 50 pages in and the writing is similiar to other works like Collier & Collier's book, "Decision in Philadelphia: The Constitutional Convention of 1787". Well researched and highlights a pivotal point in American history.

River of Freedom by Orson Welles

2006-12-03T22:24:00.001-07:00

A great parable on the hubris of a nation's people that is their downfall.

2006-11-23T19:22:00.000-07:00

Happy Thanksgiving to all those in the U.S. of A.!

Remember the 110th Congress will definately not be like the 109th "Do Nothing" Republican
Congress. For starters the new Speaker of the House, Rep. Nancy Pelosi, will not let the House just convene at the beginning of January for swearing in ceremonies of new members then recess until the President's State of the Union address. The House will be working on it's agenda, which is the Democratic Party's 100 Hour Agenda, before the President gets to pronounce his agenda.

This is in marked contrast to the previous Congress led by "Stay the Course" Republican leadership.

2006-11-18T22:07:00.002-07:00

Hooray for our soldiers

With the glitter and the marching high school bands in gold and glory
     Down the streets of gleaming steel and glass towers
Our returning soldiers wearing dress uniforms
     Bedecked with the ribbons and badges of glory and valor

Sitting alone in a sterile cell
Measuring eight feet by ten feet
With the single window covered with duct tape
Ehren Watada is with clear conscience now

In the sunken, deep into the nation’s bowels
Civilian command and control situation room
Sits the command in chief-
No longer willing to be called President-
hearing his generals but he asks no questions at all

All for one and one for all
     Sitting in the darkened, dust gathering VFW halls
In the silence of their memories of what war really is about
     Drinking to forget and be forgiven in that conscienceless alcohol

Forty six soldiers have answered their conscience
In public call
Their duty is to place humanity and life
Above the last refuge of the scoundrel

While old men resume the human poker stakes
Of the Great Game
Old reprobates and retreads that walk
In the shadows of Pinochet and Nixon

“Can Do, Sir!” scream grim faced UDT, SEAL and Delta forces,
     jumping up and stamping their spit polished boots in unison in fierce readiness
while shadowy DO operatives extraordinarily rendition all who oppose
     Unleashed from the rule of law by an unfit commander-in-chief

Greater humility is to the soldier
who heeds no immoral order
who obeys the morality of not to murder
who knowingly gives up this most ancient act

What happens to this nation
When there is no conscience of the king
When

2006-11-18T22:07:00.001-07:00

Hooray for our soldiers

2006-11-18T22:07:00.000-07:00

Hooray for our soldiers

With the glitter and the marching high school bands in gold and glory
     Down the streets of gleaming steel and glass towers
          Our returning soldiers wearing dress uniforms
                Bedecked with the ribbons and badges of glory and valor

Sitting alone in a sterile cell
Measuring eight feet by ten feet
With the single window covered with duct tape
Ehren Watada is with clear conscience now

In the sunken, deep into the nation’s bowels
Civilian command and control situation room
Sits the command in chief-
No longer willing to be called President-
hearing his generals but he asks no questions at all



All for one and one for all
     Sitting in the darkened, dust gathering VFW halls
          In the silence of their memories of what war really is about
               Drinking to forget and be forgiven in that conscienceless alcohol


Forty six soldiers have answered their conscience
In public call
Their duty is to place humanity and life
Above the last refuge of the scoundrel

While old men resume the human poker stakes
Of the Great Game
Old reprobates and retreads that walk
In the shadows of Pinochet and Nixon

“Can Do, Sir!” scream grim faced UDT, SEAL and Delta forces,
     jumping up and stamping their spit polished boots in unison in fierce readiness
          while shadowy DO operatives extraordinarily rendition all who oppose
               Unleashed from the rule of law by an unfit commander-in-chief

Greater humility is to the soldier
who heeds no immoral order
who obeys the morality of not to murder
who knowingly gives up this most ancient act

What happens to this nation
When there is no conscience of the king
When the commander in chief believes
He is a just vassal to obey
A psychopathic god

“Hoo-ha” screams the voices of the crew cut, white walled most honored elites
     In the dusty, icy Hindukush mountains
          Or in the once verdant Mesopotamia marshlands
               Those voices are now ground into a No Gun Ri silence

2006-11-08T01:54:00.000-07:00

A big CONGRATULATIONS to the people who make it the Democratic Party!

28-36 House seat pick up.

5 or 6 Senate seat pick up.

Colorado gains a Democratic Party governor- Bill Ritter.

Colorado gains another Democratic Party House of Representative- Ed Perlmutter.

The Colorado Democratic Party retain control of the state House and Senate chambers.

Let's celebrate for 24 hours!

Then it is DAY ONE and counting for '08!

2006-11-07T01:04:00.000-07:00

Not another dime to NARAL.

This was posted on Firedoglake:

NARAL: Lying for Lieberman
By Jane Hamsher @ 10:10 am

I guess it should be no surprise that Nancy Keenan and the national NARAL PAC are lying to Connecticut voters on behalf of Joe Lieberman. They endorsed him even after he voted for cloture on Samuel Alito and came out against CT NARAL's signature issue of last year (trying to require all publicly funded hospitals to provide Plan B contraception to rape victims — Joe famously said that after being raped they were free to take a "short ride" to another hospital if they wanted to).

Read the rest here.

2006-11-06T21:14:00.000-07:00

From VoterStory.org:

Help Make Sure Every Voter's Story Gets Told

Evolve Strategies developed VoterStory.org with the support of funders concerned about voter protection as an open source distributed tool for your Web site to record incidents at the polls on Election Day.

2006-10-29T08:53:00.000-07:00

Amnesty International has an online campaign for internet freedom.

Go to www.irrepressible.info to take action today!

The campaign ends on Nov. 2.

Go here to join.

2006-10-24T14:44:00.000-06:00

Chris Bowers has an excellent idea.

--AZ-Sen: Jon Kyl

--AZ-01: Rick Renzi

--AZ-05: J.D. Hayworth

--CA-04: John Doolittle

--CA-11: Richard Pombo

--CA-50: Brian Bilbray

--CO-04: Marilyn Musgrave

--CO-05: Doug Lamborn

--CO-07: Rick O'Donnell

--CT-04: Christopher Shays

--FL-13: Vernon Buchanan

--FL-16: Joe Negron

--FL-22: Clay Shaw

--ID-01: Bill Sali

--IL-06: Peter Roskam

--IL-10: Mark Kirk

--IL-14: Dennis Hastert

--IN-02: Chris Chocola

--IN-08: John Hostettler

--IA-01: Mike Whalen

--KS-02: Jim Ryun

--KY-03: Anne Northup

--KY-04: Geoff Davis

--MD-Sen: Michael Steele

--MN-01: Gil Gutknecht

--MN-06: Michele Bachmann

--MO-Sen: Jim Talent

--MT-Sen: Conrad Burns

--NV-03: Jon Porter

--NH-02: Charlie Bass

--NJ-07: Mike Ferguson

--NM-01: Heather Wilson

--NY-03: Peter King

--NY-20: John Sweeney

--NY-26: Tom Reynolds

--NY-29: Randy Kuhl

--NC-08: Robin Hayes

--NC-11: Charles Taylor

--OH-01: Steve Chabot

--OH-02: Jean Schmidt

--OH-15: Deborah Pryce

--OH-18: Joy Padgett

--PA-04: Melissa Hart

--PA-07: Curt Weldon

--PA-08: Mike Fitzpatrick

--PA-10: Don Sherwood

--RI-Sen: Lincoln Chafee

--TN-Sen: Bob Corker

--VA-Sen: George Allen

--VA-10: Frank Wolf

--WA-Sen: Mike McGavick

--WA-08: Dave Reichert

2006-10-23T14:16:00.000-06:00

Had Enough Of Marilyn Musgrave? Vote Angie Paccione

Should be seen on all the local tv stations in CO.

2006-10-20T09:22:00.000-06:00

Job Opportunities!

Sad! Pathetic! Funny! This is what we, as a nation, have fallen to under the ideology of Bush and his lackeys.

2006-10-15T10:30:00.000-06:00

What does this tell you about the great and noble "W" and his crusade to remake the world? From AP via Yahoo:

"The more ominous and determined his words, the more skeptical the American public
appears, polls show, both on the war itself and over whether it is part of the
larger fight against terrorism, as the administration insists."

I have written a new poem:

The enemy of mankind

How does Karpinski sleep at night?
Listening for the soothing sounds of cricket and gentle breeze
But hearing the wet, heavy sounds of leather straps bursting skin
Followed by the rolling, screaming voices

Taguba toils in the day as he does his duty

In the house of man, designed and built by our forefathers-
Bush kneels in supplication to his god
Closing his eyes and ears to all other voices
Listening to the inner voice that no one else can hear

Glittering stars of rank upon crisply lined olive colored uniforms
Festooned with badges and ribbons of expertise, marksmanship and honor
Bureaucrats of the military kind who were given the ultimate choice
Forgetting their allegiance is to no man but to our ideals

In the morning light, Fay shudders at his next assignment: Abu Ghraib

How comfortable can you and I sleep
As Mr. Bush espouses and condones torture to any and all in the world
Who would oppose him and his shadowed masters
While utilizing the snake oiled words of a Goebbels

Far down in the dungeons built shiny and new by Halliburton
Where our good boys and good girls are unleashed on the enemy
With the ageless tools of the trade
Long worn well by the masked inquisitor or grinning sadist
Where there is no day or night
Children become adults without ever knowing the passage of seasons
In a world of 6 feet by 10 feet and a steel commode
Still living but brutalized and remembering their ghosts

Mr. Bush sleeps the sleep of the heavily sedated
His flabby hands encrusted with those rusted barbs and hooks of the inquisitor
His flesh broiled to a germ free redness under the tanning bed set to “high”
As those who he commands toils to extol his sins as virtues

Faraway and long ago
In a shining distance now vastly remote
Only tears remain that can never wash away our failure

This blackness will stain our hearts and anguish our souls
For the disappeared and for those unremembered souls
Locked away in the gulag paradise of Bush’s creation
The world will remember our fall long after our flesh withers away

2006-10-05T12:19:00.000-06:00

Sexual predator protected by the leadership of God's Own Party.

Maybe the G.O.P. should now be called God's Own Punishment.

2006-10-05T00:57:00.000-06:00

FOX's Sheperd Smith does not toe NeoCon Line???

Whoa! Shep lays into warmonger Kristol. This is like Geraldo telling views that the people in the Superdome should be let free after hurricane Katrina.

2006-10-05T00:48:00.000-06:00

HOW TO IMPEACH A PRESIDENT

Great introduction to why it is important to impeach this president.

2006-10-05T00:43:00.000-06:00

Say No To Torture!

This is what Republicans condone and stand for. They are no longer Americans.

Americans abide by the Constitution and Bill of Rights.

Americans understand the rule of law.

Americans know that to torture another human being is wrong.

Americans know that those who torture and condone torture are guilty of crimes against humanity.

2006-10-05T00:42:00.001-06:00

HOW TO IMPEACH A PRESIDENT

A basic understanding of how George W. Bush has ruined this country's Constitution and Bill of Rights all in the name of fear. Impeachment is almost too good for Mr. Bush and his cohorts.

2006-10-05T00:42:00.000-06:00

Say No To Torture!

Every American should tell their elected representatives and local media reporters/editors that torture should never be tolerated by this country. Remember that Americans have nothing to fear in this world. Only Bush and his cabal have their fear of the American legal system because of their crimes against our laws against torture. Justice will be served to those who advocate and use torture in the name of the United States of America.

2006-10-03T09:55:00.000-06:00

If one wants to make the analogy to Mr. Bush's "War on Terror" then you could say that anyone who knows about sexual predators preying on underage boys are just as guilty as the predator and should be shown the same punishment.

Mr. Foley's criminal conduct was known for years by the Republican leaders like Boehner, Hastert, and Blunt.

BTW: What is not being asked right now: What did Tom DeLay know?

As many other commentators have mentioned that this is the Waterloo for the Republican Party's claim to "family values" because it is criminal in what the House Republican leadership has done to coverup and condone the criminal conduct of former Rep. Foley.

The other great silence is on the Christian Right. There is no condemnation of the conduct and thinking which excused Mr. Foley for literally years. What is seen has been to condemn society in general as a press release by Focus on the Family's has released:

"Colorado Springs, Colo. -- Focus on the Family Action Senior Vice President of Government and Public Policy Tom Minnery issued the following statement today about the scandal involving ex-Rep. Mark Foley, R-Fla:

"This is not a time to be talking about politics, but about the well-being of those boys who appear to have been victimized by Rep. Foley. If he is indeed guilty of what he is accused of, it is right that he resigned and that authorities are looking into whether criminal charges are warranted."

As Talkingpointsmemo's Election Central's Greg Sargent astutely notes that the statement does not mention the failure of leadership and family values so carefully shouted as having by the Republican Congressional leadership.

What is missing and what needs to taken up by Christians of all denominations is to take to task those politicians who cloak themselves with a "moral veil" but then when it comes to taking to task one of their own political flock is shown to be enablers of that one like Foley.

Parishners of the mega churches and of the right wing Christian leaders like Dobson, Falwell, and others have to be educated on the hard political fact that the Republican leadership is only concerned with power. The Republicans will use any means to have and to hold onto power. This is what makes the parishners and Christian right leaders dupes, lackeys and easy marks for the Republican party.

The Republican powers must be laughing their asses off at the likes of Rev. Rick Scarborough. Who would be dumb enough to support Republican leaders that condones the conduct of a man who preys on minors for years? Who would be blind to the fact that the Republican leaders wants to keep the money that this man has raised even as he wrote laws to make it a federal crime to engage in the very internet behaviour he was engaging in?

This is what Mr. Dumb Ass, who deserves no appellation of "reverend" is doing
to keep this morally corrupt and criminal Republican leadership in power:

"The Rev. Rick Scarborough, a leading evangelical in Texas, has recruited 5,000 "patriot pastors" nationwide to promote an agenda that aligns neatly with Republican platforms. 'We urge them to avoid legal entanglement, but there are times in a pastor's life when he needs to take a biblical stand,' Scarborough said. 'Our higher calling is to Christ.'"

Isn't it about time that you talked to your Christian family members and friends about Foley and how the Republican Party is not about "family values"?

2006-09-29T10:16:00.000-06:00

The defining issue of our time: Torture.

Democratic Senator Ken Salazar voted yea.

The McCain Torture bill gives Mr. Bush tyrannical powers of detention and the tools of the torturer.

Mr. Bush is already demagoging to pin blame on the Democrats for his failures.

I would like to point out that there is no provision within the bill that allows for a "five year review".

As Glenn Greenwald points out that the bill was significantly rewritten that is a wish list for the president that includes clauses that provide immunity for himself and those under his direction who torture those that have been captured, designating US citizens as "enemy combatants" without judicial review, denying habeas corpus rights to prisoners (not the meaningless term "enemy combatants"), and allowing for lifetime detention to both foreigners and US citizens that have been stripped of their citizenship on the President's say so without due process.

So, what does Senator Salazar have to say for himself?

For Immediate Release

September 28, 2006
CONTACT: Cody Wertz – Comm. Director

303-455-7600

Andrew Nannis – Press Secretary

202-224-5852

Sen. Salazar Votes for Legislation Authorizing Military Tribunals

WASHINGTON, D.C. – United States Senator Ken Salazar released the following statement after voting for legislation that would create a military tribunal system.

“The bill I voted for today was the best bill we could reasonably expect in this highly charged political environment. I am relieved that Senators McCain, Warner and Graham, former Secretary of State Collin Powell, and others helped preserve the fundamentals articulated in the Geneva Convention; a cornerstone to preserving America’s moral high ground in the global efforts against terror.

“Due to the many controversial and far-reaching implications of this bill, I believe it would be appropriate to force Congressional review of this bill in five years. I have concerns with this bill, but on balance it meets my personal view of what America needs to get the job done.”

# # #

As a former Attorney General Senator Salazar should be familiar with the judicial system that the United States has.

He and his staff should be aware of the travesty of justice that Mr. Bush now has with his kangaroo court system which includes evidence produced by torture against the accused is permissible.

Senator Salazar's "personal view" is against the Constitution and Bill of Rights. His view is to let a Mr. Bush have a "Get out of Jail" card and to deny the basis of the American Revolution's Founding Fathers Declaration.

Senator Salazar is no longer my Democratic Senator but an enabler of the torturer.

The torturer is the enemy of mankind.

ken

2006-09-28T14:14:00.000-06:00

Unclaimed Territory - by Glenn Greenwald: The legalization of torture and permanent detention

This is a repudiation of the Constitution and Bill of Rights by a sitting President and his party in power in both houses of Congress.

As Glenn Greenwald is shocked and outraged it should be axiomatic that this nation's people should rise up and smite all their legislators who sponsored such unconstitutional legislation because this is legalizing tyranny of the executive branch over not only this nation's people but over the other two branches of government.

Who is to say that Bush will not declare that legislators and judges to be "enemy combatants"?

2006-09-28T08:14:00.000-06:00

What's up with the Channel 9, KUSA, reporter Shawn Patrick's report on last night's 10 p.m. newscast about the Colorado Democratic Party's bid for the 2008 national convention? It is this:

"Despite any economic impact, a spokesperson for Colorado's Republican Party says the leadership and message of the Democratic Party is the problem.

"They're going to come and talk about their defeatist strategy, raising taxes, and that's not the kind of message that resonates with people of Colorado," said Bryant Adams, communications director for Colorado Republicans."

The problem that I have with that piece is that it plays into the Republican talking points about the Democrats without any relevance to the story. If this were about "balanced" view points in the report then the correct reportage would have been to talk to the Democratic Party of Minnesota about the message of the Republicans and their national convention in Minneapolis.

This is endemic of major news outlets that have no sense of what is "balance" versus just publicizing bullshit about the Democratic Party because reporters, like Shawn Patrick thinks that balance is anything that the other side states without doing the hard work of fact checking.

I'm sure that Denver's hotel businesses are happy to read that because national political conventions bring in tens of millions of dollars of business and help any city promote itself not only to the nation but worldwide.

Email Shawn Patrick at KUSA, Channel 9, Denver, CO: shawn.patrick@9news.com

Let the station know of what you think at 9News Listens: 303.871.1499.

While you're at it call Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper and let him know:
3-1-1 or 720-865-9000 or email: MileHighMayor@ci.denver.co.us

Please be polite and to the point.

2006-09-26T12:55:00.000-06:00

Unclaimed Territory - by Glenn Greenwald: Today

More evidence that Republicans are a rubber stamp for Bush, and that the three so-called Republican Senators who were against torture are now for it.

As Glenn points out that those Republican Senators have even given more tyrannical powers to Mr. Bush and his cohorts.

Radical politicians of Mr. Bush's ilk show only happiness that they are willing to destroy the Constitution and Bill of Rights for an agenda that is antithetical to what our founding fathers had engendered in the Constitution and Bill of Rights.

2006-09-26T12:27:00.000-06:00

I have seen that there is a useful new techno tool for political activists for applying pressure to news reporters and editors called The Spotlight Project.

It is easy to use and may well be the next best thing to sliced bread for people who are concerned about the way mainstream media projects "conventional wisdom" and Republican/conservative talking points about the issues of international, national, and local interest.

Go check it out then subscribe to be a part of the netroots to tell reporters and editors that we will not be bamboozled into letting their megaphones be biased in influencing public opinion and the upcoming November elections.

2006-08-12T07:33:00.000-06:00

It's been a busy summer. I just returned from Germany last week and will be registering for classes in grad school this coming week.

I hope to start posting more frequently once summer is over with.

2006-07-11T23:39:00.000-06:00

Unclaimed Territory - by Glenn Greenwald: Real dangers face Bush officials post-Hamdan, and they know it

The mighty legal battleship that Bush sails upon has begun to spring serious hall breeches.

Not only has the Supreme Court struck down the legal underpinnings on the Global War on Terror but has exposed Mr. Bush and his administration to the serious possibility that he and his consorts could be arrested in foreign countries on the charges of "war crimes" and "crimes against humanity".

There was a recent opinion by the former lead prosecutor of the Nuremberg War Crimes Trials Benjamin B. Ferencz has Mr. Bush should be held accountable for his actions with regard to his war with Iraq.

Time will tell on whether the world will serve justice to Mr. Bush and his cohorts.

2006-06-22T08:08:00.000-06:00

The War Tapes Trailer

A new documentary which has American soldiers taping themselves as they go about their jobs in Iraq. From the trailer it looks quite good. I'm looking forward to seeing this being at one of the arts oriented theaters in Denver or through an organization that screens this kind of documentary like ArgusFest.org. Well worth a look at the producers website also.

2006-06-21T20:55:00.000-06:00

TRAILER for The Drive

A tragic view of what New Orleans has become under the inattention by Bush and the mainstream media. This is a completely needless tragedy that is ongoing. Not only is it ongoing but under the ideologues of the Republican Party and current federal administration New Orleans and the Gulf coast is now ground zero for a "free market/privatization" zone in which the only factors that count are money and power. The poor of New Orleans and of the region are no longer counted as being worthwhile to give aid and comfort to by Bush and his minons.

This is not the face of an America that I am proud of. Rather it is the face of the ugly capitalist as personified by the Dictator Bush.

2006-05-31T23:02:00.000-06:00

I have a new computer that is totally cool- it's the HP Jornada. It is a handheld computer that is good for "field" use.

The only drawback is that it is no longer in production but there is a devoted following to this durable little computer.

I'm in graduate school now. Yipee!

2006-05-16T01:38:00.000-06:00

Is Joe Klein a racist? He seems to be a throwback to the old Democratic Party which had Strom Thurmond as its' member.

As far as I can ascertain, Mr. Klein has absolutely no credibility to speak to the Democratic Party about any issue or policy because he is one of the punditry class that is a big part of the problem. A problem that is pointed out in "Crashing the Gate" by Jerome Armstrong and Markos Moulitsas Zuniga.

Read Joe's latest opinion piece in Time and find out.

He is and should be called on it.

2006-04-25T13:24:00.000-06:00

Time to save the internet because it is not just the piggy bank for the corporations that hold the internet "backbone" like Comcast, etc.

For more information on this critical issue check out the video here.

Take time to send in your voice against another giveaway to major corporations , and the people are the ones who will be paying more for the internet.

Call Congress today!

Find out the key committee that is voting this very week!

To find out where your member stands click here.

The threat is real! Don't let the pipelines that carry our words and messages be discriminated against by the "golden rule" (i.e., those who have the gold rules) that corporations are beholden to.

This is beyond the red/blue divide in politics. Gun Owners of America, Craig from Craigslist.org as well as MoveOn.org, from DailyKos.com to Instapundit.com recognize the danger of having those corporations control not only the pipes but then become the tollway operators too. Across the political spectrum we have united and formed: www.savetheinternet.com

We, the people, own this new medium and should not be for sale to the highest bidder.

2006-04-01T09:28:00.000-07:00

Unfortunately this is not an April Fool joke:

Pachacutec writes about a conference call to bloggers by Sen. Schumer, head of DSCC, and Rep. Emanuel, head of DCCC,:

As a participant in the call, I can tell you these quotes don’t do justice to the Senator’s overall tone. He came across as dismissive, impatient and frequently overbearing. He does not believe the grassroots is at all bothered by the establishment’s decision to abandon Murtha on redeployment or Feingold on censure. Censure, to Schumer, is clearly a nuisance and a distraction...

The bottom line is this: the DSCC does not see your voice as important. Schumer says the DSCC’s small dollar donations are at record highs, so all the grassroots Democrats must be happy. Conveniently, he omits that past DSCC efforts have not focused much on small donors. He also ignores the possibility that small dollar donations could be exponentially higher if Senate Democrats actually stood up for popular issues of conscience. He is determined not to play offense, because he believes it would take the focus off Bush.

I disagree. Attacking blatant presidential power grabs only highlights Bush’s failures further. Politicians can lead and shape public opinion, and censure already enjoys wide support, even without any effort to educate the public. If Senate Democrats united in support for censure, those last six points separating Bush from Nixon could fall our way, even as we protect constitutional balance and maybe save the republic.

While the DSCC and DCCC want your money they do not want to listen to what the netroots/grassroots really want: Leadership on issues that are critical for the well being of the U.S. Constitution and Bill of Rights for all Americans.

So, it is simple, give no money to the DSCC or the DCCC but give directly to the candidates of your choice through either their own websites or ActBlue.com.

Finally, let the DSCC and DCCC know, through your Representatives or Senators, your reasons for not giving to the national operations.

2006-03-29T11:23:00.000-07:00

David Kronke writes, in LA Daily News:

Eric Haney, a retired command sergeant major of the U.S. Army, was a founding member of Delta Force, the military's elite covert counter-terrorist unit. He culled his experiences for "Inside Delta Force" (Delta; $14), a memoir rich with harrowing stories, though in an interview, Haney declines with a shrug to estimate the number of times he was almost killed. (Perhaps the most high-profile incident that almost claimed his life was the 1980 failed rescue of the hostages in Iran.)

As many other men and women with military experience have spoken out against the reasons for Bush to go to war with Iraq, Eric Haney has both the experience and knowledge to say forcefully that this is is leading to the nation's military that is unfit to fight a real enemy in the near future.

Read the interview here.

I'm went to my precinct caucus, #844, for the Democratic Party of Denver, and I am now a delegate to the Denver Democrat Assembly, which will be held at Lincoln High School, 2285 South Federal Blvd, April 8th, beginning at 8 a.m.

Last election cycle I then went to the State Assembly as an alternative delegate from HD 8A.

(One of the goals that I will be proposing for Operation Bird Dog/PDA- Chapter Denver will be to have one of our members be a Colorado national delegate in 2008.)

As the election draws nearer there are many good people running and working for various campaigns in Denver and Colorado like Colorado Senator Ken Gordon is an announced candidate for Secretary of State.

Many bloggers have noted that this is a non presidential election cycle and that turnout by the the general voting population is low. I know that in my precinct caucus there was about half the turnout from the '04 cycle. This is troubling because the general sentiment in the country is for a wholesale change in Congress. However if turnout is low then the base of each party takes on an even more important aspect for the respective House and Senate races.

The netroots citizens have a duty to register new voters as Democrats and to GOTV on election day for our side.

My partner and I did GOTV last election and it is a wonderful experience to meet people and help them vote.

2006-03-26T15:56:00.000-07:00

Endgame

by georgia10

Two news stories this week should have resulted in 44 Senators signing on to censure the President of the United States for his abuse of power in ordering massive domestic spying on American citizens without a warrant. Two administration actions reinforce the fact that Congressional laws have been rendered meaningless: (1) the President's signing statement on the Patriot Act; and (2) the administration's answers to Judiciary Committee questions about the warrantless spying program.

and:

This week, in response to a series of questions posed by the House Judiciary Committee, the administration revealed that it has NO intention of abiding by any law passed by Congress with respect to domestic surveillance.

finally:

Enough is enough. Democrats who fail to sign on to Feingold's resolution are just as guilty as Republicans are rallying around a President King. I cannot think of two clearer pieces of evidence which prove that this is a constitutional crisis that threatens our system of governance. Good god, Democrats, wake up. You've been punk'd by the President. There is no Congress. There is no legislative branch. The laws you pass are meaningless...And unless you do something, my dear Democrats, there's a real danger that we--the base, the citizens who give a damn about the Constitution--will do nothing for you come midterms this year. It's your move.

This is exactly how I feel. There is nothing more shameful then to see my Democratic Senator Salazar just say, "“I will continue to work tirelessly to assure that the PATRIOT Act continues — without interruption — to protect all Americans,” said Salazar. “I will also work tirelessly to pass the best possible PATRIOT Act, one that strengthens our law enforcement agents’ ability to fight terrorists and protects Americans’ civil liberties and fundamental right to privacy. These issues are not Republican or Democratic issues — they are issues that transcend partisan politics entirely, and that is the way our bipartisan group is approaching them."

How does it feel Senator Salazar? Your vote is meaningless and the seat in the United States Senate is meaningless to Mr. Bush. If you don't act to stand with Senator Feingold and begin with censure then I will not vote for you in any election, and I will actively work against your campaign, if you decide to run for re-election.

2006-03-16T21:02:00.000-07:00

Unclaimed Territory - by Glenn Greenwald: Cornered rats

I'm currently listening to Senator Ted Kennedy giving a pep talk on a conference call on Senate Resolution 350, which is a resolution to reject Mr. Bush's contention that the AUMF is a blank check to spy on Americans.

Glenn Greenwald hits the bull's eye on the beltway Democratic consultants. I believe it is high time that our money and time that we donate to the party really makes us the party.

We need to take back the power in the Democratic Party by telling the candidates not to hire party "professionals" who have helmed the Democratic Party into minority status the past three election cycles. No more losers with a losing message.

We are the Democratic Party. Now is the time to take charge. Participate in the political process. Be active. Get off the chair and into your local precinct caucus meetings.

Offer planks in the local party platform. Fight for those planks that you believe the Democratic Party should have.

Remember, the Democratic Party is the majority party with the ideals and policies that help this nation and its people become better and live more fully.

Brook no criticism from the Republicans because they offer NOTHING for this nation:

Under Mr. Bush this nation has been sundered from the ideals and protections envisioned in the Constitution and Bill of Rights.

Under Mr. Bush this nation has rendered unto itself being judge, jury and executioner of whoever it deems an "enemy".

Under Mr. Bush this nation no longer is a part of the world community but the world community must bow to the military and economic omnipotence of this nation.

Under Mr. Bush this nation has treated it's enemies prisoners like those who suffered from hurricane Katrina- under the barrel of a gun by a mercenary and taken from the land that they have lived on and loved to locations far away with dwindling hope of return.

Under Mr. Bush this nation is the only model that the world can follow.

Under Mr. Bush all other nations must follow his God annointed leadership towards salvation.

Under Mr. Bush this nation shall become moral under the purview of the Bible.

Under Mr. Bush shall listen and take his directions from his personal relationship to his god.

This a Constitution and Bill of Rights under siege by a man who has broken his oath to the Constitution.

2006-03-15T09:23:00.000-07:00

A resolution for censure of Mr. Bush by Senator Feingold is but the first step in our nation awakening to the fact that he is a demagogue. Co sponsor Senator Feingold's resolution here.

Let us not forget that the grievances presented 230 years ago are relevant now because of Mr. Bush's obssession with becoming a dictator:

The Declaration of Independence of the Thirteen Colonies

In CONGRESS, July 4, 1776

The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America,

When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. --That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, --That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security. —Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain [George III] is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.

He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.

He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.

He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.

He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.

He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.

He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected; whereby the Legislative powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the mean time exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.

He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.

He has obstructed the Administration of Justice, by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary powers.

He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone, for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.

He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harass our people, and eat out their substance.

He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the consent of our legislatures.

He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil power.

He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:

For Quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:

For protecting them, by a mock Trial, from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:

For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world:

For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:

For depriving us, in many cases, of the benefits of Trial by Jury:

For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences:

For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies:

For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws, and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:

For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.

He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us.

He has plundered our seas, ravaged our Coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.

He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty and perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation.

He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to become the executioners of their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands.

He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages, whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.

In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.

Nor have We been wanting in attentions to our British brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which, would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends.

We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by the Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these United Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States; that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do. And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.

The signers of the Declaration represented the new states as follows:

New Hampshire

Josiah Bartlett, William Whipple, Matthew Thornton

Massachusetts

John Hancock, Samual Adams, John Adams, Robert Treat Paine, Elbridge Gerry

Rhode Island

Stephen Hopkins, William Ellery

Connecticut

Roger Sherman, Samuel Huntington, William Williams, Oliver Wolcott

New York

William Floyd, Philip Livingston, Francis Lewis, Lewis Morris

New Jersey

Richard Stockton, John Witherspoon, Francis Hopkinson, John Hart, Abraham Clark

Pennsylvania

Robert Morris, Benjamin Rush, Benjamin Franklin, John Morton, George Clymer, James Smith, George Taylor, James Wilson, George Ross

Delaware

Caesar Rodney, George Read, Thomas McKean

Maryland

Samuel Chase, William Paca, Thomas Stone, Charles Carroll of Carrollton

Virginia

George Wythe, Richard Henry Lee, Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Harrison, Thomas Nelson, Jr., Francis Lightfoot Lee, Carter Braxton

North Carolina

William Hooper, Joseph Hewes, John Penn

South Carolina

Edward Rutledge, Thomas Heyward, Jr., Thomas Lynch, Jr., Arthur Middleton

Georgia

Button Gwinnett, Lyman Hall, George Walton

2006-03-12T15:54:00.000-07:00

Unclaimed Territory - by Glenn Greenwald: How to take a stand for your country

This not about Republicans or Democrats but is about how we will ever learn about governmental wrongdoing. As Glenn astutely points out that Mr. Bush and his minons are actively seeking to muzzle the press and its ability to monitor governmental actions through criminal law.

The water carrier Sen. DeWine is more than happy to write bills that is a "loaded gun" to silence any and all whistleblowers in government as is Sen. Roberts in aiming legislation whose clear intent is to intimidate the mandated role of journalism in the Constitution and protected in the Bill of Rights.

This is a time for Democratic Party leaders to take the courageous stand and to stop the political madness of the Republicans in the White House and in Congress.

As party precinct caucus date arrives it is high time for the netroots to introduce planks into the party platform that tells the leadership that we understand the threat to the very basis of this nation by the Republicans. The Constitution and Bill of Rights and those principals within should never be discarded because of an upcoming election or proving that you're a team player or looking for the "moderate" voter come election time.

If you are in Denver check out the Denverdems.org website for the location of your precinct caucus place and time on March 21st.

We are the people who gives our consent to be governed through our vote.

Practice democracy now.

2006-03-11T14:50:00.000-07:00

Claude Allen resigned to "spend more time with his family". Well now we know the real reason why he abruptly resigned his senior level post in the Bush administration: He is nothing more than a low level criminal.

He should be "frog marched" in cuffs out of the White House.

I'm glad this guy was arrested because he is another in a long line of right wing religious hypocrites. I caught the hyperlink to the LA Weekly (the article was cached in Google) article from Eschaton on this little bad boy number:
Moreover, Allen was the driving force to replace science-based sex ed with the failed policy of teaching that only abstinence prevents AIDS. A black conservative and religious primitive, Allen helped bludgeon the Centers for Disease Control, which reports to HHS, into purging safe-sex materials from its Web sites and into adopting mandatory new rules requiring AIDS-fighting groups to teach that condoms don’t work in preventing the spread of AIDS, as I reported in the L.A. Weekly last year ("Condom Wars," June 25–July 1). When a federal judge found that a federally funded Louisiana abstinence program "illegally handed out Bibles, staged anti-abortion prayer rallies outside women’s clinics and had students perform Bible-based skits," Allen refused to have the program audited, while continuing his repeated audit persecutions of effective AIDS-fighting groups teaching condom use.

As Firedoglake has posted by Pachacutec about the fact that the entire Republican Party is nothing more than the real life version of the Sopranos.

I would say that it is way past time to replace the less then useless Democratic Party "consultants" that have infested the party with a netroots/grassroots revolution. The first act is to take back the party at the local level through participation. The first act must include the fact that no money should be donated to Democratic Party organizations that support "accommodation" and "compromise" with the criminal and treasonous enterprise the Republican Party has begun against the Constitution and our national safety.

2006-03-10T12:21:00.000-07:00

Mother Nature is celebrating tonight as are all her creatures great and small in our forests, prairies, streams and lakes.

The worst Interior Secretary since James Watt has decided to resign: Gale Norton. She is infamous for wanting to exploit for short term economic gain by corporate giants and the small fry wildcat companies in the National Park Service's national parks and wild life refuges.

Through her active participation in underfunding and changing the historical mission of the National Park system she will be known as one of the people to try to shortchange the future generations of Americans. Who thinks that a pumping rig is more beautiful than the beauty of an undisturbed landscape like the Dry Tortugas National Park.

Don't let the door hit you on the way out!

2006-03-05T14:16:00.000-07:00

Traitor Robert Novak has written:
"At the same time, the Bush administration is going directly to the public with its war message. Raul Damas, associate director of political affairs at the White House, has been on the phone directly to Republican county chairmen to arrange local speeches by active duty military personnel to talk about their experiences in Iraq. To some Republican members, this unusual venture connotes a desire to go directly to the people to sell the president's position without having to deal with members of Congress."

Josh Marshall has written:
"Now, with Rep. Marilyn Musgrave's (R-CO) event in Colorado we seem to have the first actual example of it.

My gut tells me this isn't the only one. But in the nature of things the notations of it will show up only in local papers, well under the radar of the national press. So I'm curious whether folks have seen examples of similar things happening in their own districts. If you've seen examples, let us know."

This is wrong for one political party to use America's military personnel for their own selfish political ends, which in the long run will hurt the military itself. There is no "upside" for any political party because the politicization of the military will hurt our national security.

The American people will soon view the military not as "protectors" but merely as extensions of whoever will be in power. This is a powerful reason why there are military regulations prohibiting the use of military personnel at partisan political events.

Further, Josh Marshall points out that there may be no political penalty for Rep. Musgrave's misuse of military personnel but there can be grave consequences for the military person:
"The uniformed member of the military who appears at such an event can be court-martialed for the violation. It's not some technicality in UCMJ terms."

A quick search on Google.com will find the relevant documents like Air Force Instruction 51-902 or this DoD Directive 1344.10.

I have contacted my representatives on the matter. I urge other people in Colorado to contact their representatives and the heads of their respective political parties to tell them that this is not American.

It is specifically un-American to use the U.S. military for partisan political gain which is now the policy of Mr. Bush and his Republican party.

2006-03-03T11:42:00.000-07:00

Chris Bower's of MyDD.com has a thoughtful take on what the recent polling numbers on Bush Republicans means.

I agree with his view that it will be a generational change in both houses of Congress.

What I don't agree with is the analysis of the idea of impeachment of Bush. Recent polling on the support for impeachment seems to go hand in hand with a generational change in Congress. Why? Because there is still a bright line about what is wrong and what is right with respect to what we think about being citizens under the Constitution and Bill of Rights.

The polling numbers on Bush- on popularity, right direction/wrong direction, and impeachment- shows trending numbers that are against any solidification of Republicans in Congress.

What people want is for there to be principaled stand by the Democratic Party that is for the Constitution and Bill of Rights against the transgressions and criminal activities by Bush and the Republican Congress.

There should be no cooperation with Republicans for the passage of renewal of the illegal USA Patriot Act. But, as my partner asked, "Where are the Democrats?". She is so mad that she will no longer donate to the DCCC and DSC because of their failure on issues that matter most- privacy, right to reproductive freedom, illegal domestic spying, the setting up of a gulag system of the "disappeared", and the wrecking of any sane federal fiscal policy that would keep America from being a debtor to the world.

I will work for change in the Democratic Party.

However, I will continue to push the party to take it's Constitutional duties seriously and push for impeachment because it is the right thing to do.

2006-02-15T13:01:00.000-07:00

Unclaimed Territory - by Glenn Greenwald: The NSA Scandal and public opinion myths

Every Democratic Party elected official should read this post by Glenn Greenwald. It is a succinct summary of why the Dem leadership is poor at fighting for our Constitution.

Tell the people that this administration is deeply unpopular.

Tell the people that George W. Bush broke the law.

No "if and or but" and no more praising the White House on anything.

Bush is a criminal and has told the American people that he will continue to break the laws of this nation.

Impeach him now for the good of the Constitution.

2006-02-12T14:23:00.000-07:00

Unclaimed Territory - by Glenn Greenwald: Do Bush followers have a political ideology?

I would suggest reading Dave Neiwert at Orcinus blog. He has been covering the eliminationist rhetoric of the radical right for many years. He is a journalist who readily delves into the causes and history of the hatred of the mind of the radical right.

But as many observers of Bush the Terror have noted recently it is a cult of personality that is the defining characteristic of Bush.

Movement conservaties and liberals are equally "demonized" when they speak against Bush the Terror. Not one shred of criticism can be brooked by those who are a part of this cult of personality. Perhaps this is why Bush the Terror "loathes" the cult of Kim Il Jong II because he sees a rival.

I believe that these years under Bush the Terror will be known as the Great Terror. Where the cult of Bush the Terror will be seen as an abject failure of the Congress and judiciary to bring to heel the ravings of Bush and Cheney who believe in king for his "war on terror" rather then in the strength of the Constitution.

We now know that the the mantra "9/11 has changed everything" is code for sedition against the Constitution and abridgement of the Bill of Rights. Bush the Terror has used the weapons of the demagogue to create a cult of personality and to stifle all legitimate dissent through the use of corporate media's bullhorn.

Glenn Greenwald's trenchent analysis of the inability of the right to mount any sustained criticism has to do with this blindness called "cult of personality".

2006-02-12T13:56:00.000-07:00

Jane at Firedoglake blog has the goods, with much help from many other investigative bloggers, on Jane Comstock.

She is a real work for the ReThugs, going all the way back to the theft of the presidency in 2000, and is an extreme partisan working on behalf of Bush the Terror and Ashcroft's DoJ. The seemingly innoculous title of "fundraiser" for Lewis Libby's defense fund is to quell the curious. As Jane lays out the case that she has inherent conflicts of interest in the ongoing investigation by Patrick Fitzgerald which date back to her time at the DoJ and Traitorgate.

This sordid aspect of Libby's defense team needs to be throughly aired out by people through talking with their elected representatives and with the media.

2006-02-11T13:48:00.000-07:00

Unclaimed Territory - by Glenn Greenwald: Silencing Bush critics with prison

Glenn Greenwald hits the nail on the head. The ought to be a serious investigation into the domestic spying that is happening under Bush the Terror's administration.

While Dick Cheney and Bush the Terror continue to use the fear card in keeping a restive populace quiet, it is their minon's like CIA's Porter Goss which are actively pursing the patriotic leakers of this impeachable offense against the Constitution and the people of the United States.

As many bloggers have noted it is this administration's intent to squelch dissent by the people through the tactics of intimidation through unlawful spying on their activities.

Glenn shows us on a point by point basis that what AG Gonzales is being asked to do is in direct conflict with his stated purpose of having the president as "his client". This clearly shows that Mr. Gonzales is not performing his other role as Attorney General which is to "protect and to defend" the Constitution.

It is up to us, the citizens of this nation, to speak loudly and forcefully in a unified voice, "Enough!" It is time to take a courageous stance against those who use the whip of fear to cower a nation whose heritage is that of rebellion against the mightest nation then. Are we going to live up to that standard or will be lie down in a bed of fear created by Bush the Terror and those who are his masters?

"Give me Liberty" rather then the nightmares being spun by Bush the Terror who believes in the poll that people of this nation will surrender their freedom for safety.

2006-02-08T13:49:00.000-07:00

Unclaimed Territory - by Glenn Greenwald: The NSA fight begins - strategies for moving forward

This is the talking points for every American who is convinced that this president is a danger to the Constitution. From the NSA hearings by Sen. Spector with AG Gonzales as witness there is a forming general impression of this merely being a "legal distinctions" fight between liberals and conservatives. This erroneous view is being fanned by the administration and its supporters.

However, Glenn Greenwald shows, point by point, that this is not merely wrong but a dangerous view to hold by anyone. He writes about what this is about and why it is dangerous for any one to have this much power without the founding fathers wisdom in coming to the view that good governance begins with a "seperation of powers" in order to have "checks and balances" so that no single person can become a tyrant.

Glenn writes an outline for a position that the concerned citizens and politicians can use to fight this undemocratic attack on Americans and sedition against the Constitution by Mr. Bush and his backers.

Go read it and then get some face time with your representatives.

This is the time to stop a president from becoming king.

2006-02-07T10:03:00.001-07:00

I switched templates for my blog. I still have some work to do in order to get the links section up and running.

I am also back in school! I'm working on a Master's degree in Political Science " with an area interest in Politics and Public Policy" at the Center for NEW DIRECTIONS based at University Colorado- Denver. One of the advantages of this Master's program is that it is offered only on weekends, which means I can still work at my job with a nonprofit rather then quit.

More changes to come!

2006-02-07T08:43:00.000-07:00

I have been following the Plame case since it broke. I was reading this post from whatever already!

What I am curious to know is: What security clearances do the defense team that "Scooter" Libby has hired have and what kind of measures have those lawyers done to keep secure those documents and electronic communications between themselves and their client?

As has been made before, Mr. Bush has to be in on knowing the identity of the "Benedict Arnold" because of the high security level that the individual would have to have. Certainly the office of the Vice President is the center of Patrick Fitzgerald's interest, and no one would be surprised to learn that the leak would come from the top two to men of this administration.

This act of treason against the security of our nation comes from the very top. Lower hirlings are being used as the sacrificial lambs but, like Nixon and his palace guard, the wheels of justice will find those who put this nation at risk and betray the very document they are sworn to uphold: the Constitution.

2006-01-27T13:05:00.000-07:00

Unclaimed Territory - by Glenn Greenwald: The Administration's humiliation of Congress

This is the ultimate outcome of the "unitary executive" theory of the executive branch is about. It is both unconstitutional and undemocratic to the extreme.

This is "democratic" facism. Glenn Greenwald hits the homerun in letting people know in clear and unambiguous writing that Bush and his administration are unchained from the law and Constitution.

While many people have blanched at the word "impeachment" this is a time for impeaching a rogue president. Glenn Greenwald shows that Congress and the rule of law have been trampled upon by a president that has with knowledge aforethought to becoming a criminal.

It is time for Congress to begin impeachment proceedings.

2006-01-26T14:46:00.000-07:00

Robert Byrd hangs up on the Constitution.

I cannot believe that ROBERT BYRD has said that he would support Justice Alito's nomination to the Supreme Court. This is the man who should clearly recognize the danger that Alito would bring to the evisceration of the "seperation of powers" in the Constitution.

What is he thinking? He has written a book, Losing America: Confronting a Reckless and Arrogant Presidency.

Senator Byrd should look into the actions of Judge Alito and not just with his conversation with the nominee.

He of all Senators should be aware of the danger that Alito is to the Constitution, and why those "signing statements" by the president and the president's use in those signing statements of a "unitary executive" shows that there is a clear bright line in the Constitution which should not be crossed due to the seperation of powers doctrine in the Article 1. The president is trying to make law himself and circumventing and prevent the will and intent of Congress when he produces a signing statement as he signs a bill into law.

John Dean and other lawyers have brought significant insight into this power grab by the president based on the recent uproar over Bush's signing statement on the McCain amendment to the DoD budget bill.

The founding fathers knew that men with power will hold on and enlarge their power at the expense of the people. This is why there was the dividing of governmental power between the executive, legislative and judiciary as delineated in the Constitution.

2006-01-10T09:14:00.000-07:00

The Denver news organizations- the Denver Post and Channel 7- have had disgraceful coverage of the Senate confirmation hearings on Judge Alito.

Last night, Channel 7's 10 p.m. news "coverage" was all of 30 seconds. The 30 second sound bite was showing Judge Alito talking. There was no analysis or contexting or statements by the Senators about the line(s) of questioning on Alito and how he responds.

I will say that Channel 4 had slightly better coverage in providing more then a 30 second pro-Alito sound bite. However the Channel 4 analysis was more on the Republican meme that "there will be no Democratic filibuster".

In today's Denver Post there was a boxed national poll that supposedly shows that the American people barely (54 percent) want Alito to become an Associate Justice. However, John Avarosis of AmericaBlog provides a counter example of a January 9th poll done by CBS News. The vast majority of Americans don't even know who Sam Alito is and what his opinions are but those people still have to form an opinion on the fitness of Alito to serve on the Supreme Court.

I find it hard to believe given the paucity coverage by both the local and national media on Alito that even one in ten Americans knew of Alito before his nomination by Bush. It is highly suspect that the Denver Post would run with a poll that shows Americans support Alito to the high court.

----------------------------

Operation Bird Dog- Colorado will have it's members watch the local media for lack of objective coverage of the Alito hearings and be in campaign mode to let Colorado media know when analysis is simply providing RNC talkingpoints or amplifying Republican memes on Alito.

Contact: Ken at therebis@yahoo.com on how to participate in Operation Bird Dog- Colorado

2006-01-01T21:24:00.000-07:00

Bush the Lawless.

He is openly defiant of what his duties of President are.

The traditional Republicans should be in an uproar over the fact that Bush views himself not as President but as Command in Chief. There is a crucial distinction in the two roles that the president is charged with in the Constitution. The view that is supported by this administration's lawyers and supporters, like John Yoo, is that the President should simply be "trusted".

However it is with sad experience that Mr. Bush cannot be trusted with any national security matter. From the first incident of having the Chinese force down an American surveillence plane to the outing of an active CIA agent specializing in WMD proliferation, Mr. Bush has a history of allowing politics to overcome his duty to protect and defend the United States from foreign powers. I would further argue that Mr. Bush has, through his administration's actions, have helped weaken America's security.

This is not in dispute but many experts in the national security field have been telling us that Bush deserves an "F" in protecting the people of this nation. Ask Bob Graham or Gary Hart or Warren Rudman as to what effect Mr. Bush and his administration has had in developing and implementing an effective national security policy through the Department of Homeland Security.

What everyone should be made aware of is that Mr. Bush and his cohorts have always placed politics above the Constitution, Bill of Rights, and the safety of all Americans.

2005-12-30T14:18:00.000-07:00

This is the kind of regimes that Bush and his cabal cavort with.

We have as an unelected President who enjoys death and suffering. He is a moral abdomination that thinks nothing of using our Constitution and Bill of Rights for wiping his ass.

Support the impeachment of a moral monster.

ken

-----------------

UK Torture Memos

Source.

The first document contains the text of several telegrams that Craig Murray sent back to London from 2002 to 2004, warning that the information being passed on by the Uzbek security services was torture-tainted, and challenging MI6 claims that the information was nonetheless "useful".

The second document is the text of a legal opinion from the Foreign Office's Michael Wood, arguing that the use by intelligence services of information extracted through torture does not constitute a violation of the UN Convention Against Torture.

Craig Murray says:

In March 2003 I was summoned back to London from Tashkent specifically for a meeting at which I was told to stop protesting. I was told specifically that it was perfectly legal for us to obtain and to use intelligence from the Uzbek torture chambers.

After this meeting Sir Michael Wood, the Foreign and Commonwealth Office's legal adviser, wrote to confirm this position. This minute from Michael Wood is perhaps the most important document that has become public about extraordinary rendition. It is irrefutable evidence of the government's use of torture material, and that I was attempting to stop it. It is no wonder that the government is trying to suppress this.

First document: Confidential letters from Uzbekistan

Letter #1
Confidential
FM Tashkent
TO FCO, Cabinet Office, DFID, MODUK, OSCE Posts, Security Council Posts

16 September 02

SUBJECT: US/Uzbekistan: Promoting Terrorism
SUMMARY

US plays down human rights situation in Uzbekistan. A dangerous policy: increasing repression combined with poverty will promote Islamic terrorism. Support to Karimov regime a bankrupt and cynical policy.

DETAIL

The Economist of 7 September states: "Uzbekistan, in particular, has jailed many thousands of moderate Islamists, an excellent way of converting their families and friends to extremism." The Economist also spoke of "the growing despotism of Mr Karimov" and judged that "the past year has seen a further deterioration of an already grim human rights record". I agree.

Between 7,000 and 10,000 political and religious prisoners are currently detained, many after trials before kangaroo courts with no representation. Terrible torture is commonplace: the EU is currently considering a demarche over the terrible case of two Muslims tortured to death in jail apparently with boiling water. Two leading dissidents, Elena Urlaeva and Larissa Vdovna, were two weeks ago committed to a lunatic asylum, where they are being drugged, for demonstrating on human rights. Opposition political parties remain banned. There is no doubt that September 11 gave the pretext to crack down still harder on dissent under the guise of counter-terrorism.
Yet on 8 September the US State Department certified that Uzbekistan was improving in both human rights and democracy, thus fulfilling a constitutional requirement and allowing the continuing disbursement of $140 million of US aid to Uzbekistan this year. Human Rights Watch immediately published a commendably sober and balanced rebuttal of the State Department claim.

Again we are back in the area of the US accepting sham reform [a reference to my previous telegram on the economy]. In August media censorship was abolished, and theoretically there are independent media outlets, but in practice there is absolutely no criticism of President Karimov or the central government in any Uzbek media. State Department call this self-censorship: I am not sure that is a fair way to describe an unwillingness to experience the brutal methods of the security services.

Similarly, following US pressure when Karimov visited Washington, a human rights NGO has been permitted to register. This is an advance, but they have little impact given that no media are prepared to cover any of their activities or carry any of their statements.
The final improvement State quote is that in one case of murder of a prisoner the police involved have been prosecuted. That is an improvement, but again related to the Karimov visit and does not appear to presage a general change of policy. On the latest cases of torture deaths the Uzbeks have given the OSCE an incredible explanation, given the nature of the injuries, that the victims died in a fight between prisoners.

But allowing a single NGO, a token prosecution of police officers and a fake press freedom cannot possibly outweigh the huge scale of detentions, the torture and the secret executions. President Karimov has admitted to 100 executions a year but human rights groups believe there are more. Added to this, all opposition parties remain banned (the President got a 98% vote) and the Internet is strictly controlled. All Internet providers must go through a single government server and access is barred to many sites including all dissident and opposition sites and much international media (including, ironically, waronterrorism.com). This is in essence still a totalitarian state: there is far less freedom than still prevails, for example, in Mugabe's Zimbabwe. A Movement for Democratic Change or any judicial independence would be impossible here.

Karimov is a dictator who is committed to neither political nor economic reform. The purpose of his regime is not the development of his country but the diversion of economic rent to his oligarchic supporters through government controls. As a senior Uzbek academic told me privately, there is more repression here now than in Brezhnev's time. The US are trying to prop up Karimov economically and to justify this support they need to claim that a process of economic and political reform is underway. That they do so claim is either cynicism or self-delusion.

This policy is doomed to failure. Karimov is driving this resource-rich country towards economic ruin like an Abacha. And the policy of increasing repression aimed indiscriminately at pious Muslims, combined with a deepening poverty, is the most certain way to ensure continuing support for the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan. They have certainly been decimated and disorganised in Afghanistan, and Karimov's repression may keep the lid on for years – but pressure is building and could ultimately explode.

I quite understand the interest of the US in strategic airbases and why they back Karimov, but I believe US policy is misconceived. In the short term it may help fight terrorism but in the medium term it will promote it, as the Economist points out. And it can never be right to lower our standards on human rights. There is a complex situation in Central Asia and it is wrong to look at it only through a prism picked up on September 12. Worst of all is what appears to be the philosophy underlying the current US view of Uzbekistan: that September 11 divided the World into two camps in the "War against Terrorism" and that Karimov is on "our" side.

If Karimov is on "our" side, then this war cannot be simply between the forces of good and evil. It must be about more complex things, like securing the long-term US military presence in Uzbekistan. I silently wept at the 11 September commemoration here. The right words on New York have all been said. But last week was also another anniversary – the US-led overthrow of Salvador Allende in Chile. The subsequent dictatorship killed, dare I say it, rather more people than died on September 11. Should we not remember then also, and learn from that too? I fear that we are heading down the same path of US-sponsored dictatorship here. It is ironic that the beneficiary is perhaps the most unreformed of the World's old communist leaders.
We need to think much more deeply about Central Asia. It is easy to place Uzbekistan in the "too difficult" tray and let the US run with it, but I think they are running in the wrong direction. We should tell them of the dangers we see. Our policy is theoretically one of engagement, but in practice this has not meant much. Engagement makes sense, but it must mean grappling with the problems, not mute collaboration. We need to start actively to state a distinctive position on democracy and human rights, and press for a realistic view to be taken in the IMF. We should continue to resist pressures to start a bilateral DFID programme, unless channelled non-governmentally, and not restore ECGD cover despite the constant lobbying. We should not invite Karimov to the UK. We should step up our public diplomacy effort, stressing democratic values, including more resources from the British Council. We should increase support to human rights activists, and strive for contact with non-official Islamic groups.

Above all we need to care about the 22 million Uzbek people, suffering from poverty and lack of freedom. They are not just pawns in the new Great Game.

MURRAY

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Letter #2
Confidential
Fm Tashkent
To FCO

18 March 2003

SUBJECT: US FOREIGN POLICY
SUMMARY

1. As seen from Tashkent, US policy is not much focussed on democracy or freedom. It is about oil, gas and hegemony. In Uzbekistan the US pursues those ends through supporting a ruthless dictatorship. We must not close our eyes to uncomfortable truth.

DETAIL

2. Last year the US gave half a billion dollars in aid to Uzbekistan, about a quarter of it military aid. Bush and Powell repeatedly hail Karimov as a friend and ally. Yet this regime has at least seven thousand prisoners of conscience; it is a one party state without freedom of speech, without freedom of media, without freedom of movement, without freedom of assembly, without freedom of religion. It practices, systematically, the most hideous tortures on thousands. Most of the population live in conditions precisely analogous with medieval serfdom.

3. Uzbekistan's geo-strategic position is crucial. It has half the population of the whole of Central Asia. It alone borders all the other states in a region which is important to future Western oil and gas supplies. It is the regional military power. That is why the US is here, and here to stay. Contractors at the US military bases are extending the design life of the buildings from ten to twenty five years.

4. Democracy and human rights are, despite their protestations to the contrary, in practice a long way down the US agenda here. Aid this year will be slightly less, but there is no intention to introduce any meaningful conditionality. Nobody can believe this level of aid – more than US aid to all of West Africa – is related to comparative developmental need as opposed to political support for Karimov. While the US makes token and low-level references to human rights to appease domestic opinion, they view Karimov's vicious regime as a bastion against fundamentalism. He – and they – are in fact creating fundamentalism. When the US gives this much support to a regime that tortures people to death for having a beard or praying five times a day, is it any surprise that Muslims come to hate the West?

5. I was stunned to hear that the US had pressured the EU to withdraw a motion on Human Rights in Uzbekistan which the EU was tabling at the UN Commission for Human Rights in Geneva. I was most unhappy to find that we are helping the US in what I can only call this cover-up. I am saddened when the US constantly quote fake improvements in human rights in Uzbekistan, such as the abolition of censorship and Internet freedom, which quite simply have not happened (I see these are quoted in the draft EBRD strategy for Uzbekistan, again I understand at American urging).

6. From Tashkent it is difficult to agree that we and the US are activated by shared values. Here we have a brutal US sponsored dictatorship reminiscent of Central and South American policy under previous US Republican administrations. I watched George Bush talk today of Iraq and "dismantling the apparatus of terror… removing the torture chambers and the rape rooms". Yet when it comes to the Karimov regime, systematic torture and rape appear to be treated as peccadilloes, not to affect the relationship and to be downplayed in international fora. Double standards? Yes.

7. I hope that once the present crisis is over we will make plain to the US, at senior level, our serious concern over their policy in Uzbekistan.
MURRAY

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Letter #3

CONFIDENTIAL
FM TASHKENT
TO IMMEDIATE FCO

TELNO 63
OF 220939 JULY 04

INFO IMMEDIATE DFID, ISLAMIC POSTS, MOD, OSCE POSTS UKDEL EBRD LONDON, UKMIS GENEVA, UKMIS MEW YORK

SUBJECT: RECEIPT OF INTELLIGENCE OBTAINED UNDER TORTURE

SUMMARY

1. We receive intelligence obtained under torture from the Uzbek intelligence services, via the US. We should stop. It is bad information anyway. Tortured dupes are forced to sign up to confessions showing what the Uzbek government wants the US and UK to believe, that they and we are fighting the same war against terror.

2. I gather a recent London interdepartmental meeting considered the question and decided to continue to receive the material. This is morally, legally and practically wrong. It exposes as hypocritical our post Abu Ghraib pronouncements and fatally undermines our moral standing. It obviates my efforts to get the Uzbek government to stop torture they are fully aware our intelligence community laps up the results.

3. We should cease all co-operation with the Uzbek Security Services they are beyond the pale. We indeed need to establish an SIS presence here, but not as in a friendly state.

DETAIL

4. In the period December 2002 to March 2003 I raised several times the issue of intelligence material from the Uzbek security services which was obtained under torture and passed to us via the CIA. I queried the legality, efficacy and morality of the practice.

5. I was summoned to the UK for a meeting on 8 March 2003. Michael Wood gave his legal opinion that it was not illegal to obtain and to use intelligence acquired by torture. He said the only legal limitation on its use was that it could not be used in legal proceedings, under Article 15 of the UN Convention on Torture.

6. On behalf of the intelligence services, Matthew Kydd said that they found some of the material very useful indeed with a direct bearing on the war on terror. Linda Duffield said that she had been asked to assure me that my qualms of conscience were respected and understood.

7. Sir Michael Jay's circular of 26 May stated that there was a reporting obligation on us to report torture by allies (and I have been instructed to refer to Uzbekistan as such in the context of the war on terror). You, Sir, have made a number of striking, and I believe heartfelt, condemnations of torture in the last few weeks. I had in the light of this decided to return to this question and to highlight an apparent contradiction in our policy. I had intimated as much to the Head of Eastern Department.

8. I was therefore somewhat surprised to hear that without informing me of the meeting, or since informing me of the result of the meeting, a meeting was convened in the FCO at the level of Heads of Department and above, precisely to consider the question of the receipt of Uzbek intelligence material obtained under torture. As the office knew, I was in London at the time and perfectly able to attend the meeting. I still have only gleaned that it happened.

9. I understand that the meeting decided to continue to obtain the Uzbek torture material. I understand that the principal argument deployed was that the intelligence material disguises the precise source, ie it does not ordinarily reveal the name of the individual who is tortured. Indeed this is true – the material is marked with a euphemism such as "From detainee debriefing." The argument runs that if the individual is not named, we cannot prove that he was tortured.

10. I will not attempt to hide my utter contempt for such casuistry, nor my shame that I work in and organisation where colleagues would resort to it to justify torture. I have dealt with hundreds of individual cases of political or religious prisoners in Uzbekistan, and I have met with very few where torture, as defined in the UN convention, was not employed. When my then DHM raised the question with the CIA head of station 15 months ago, he readily acknowledged torture was deployed in obtaining intelligence. I do not think there is any doubt as to the fact

11. The torture record of the Uzbek security services could hardly be more widely known. Plainly there are, at the very least, reasonable grounds for believing the material is obtained under torture. There is helpful guidance at Article 3 of the UN Convention;
"The competent authorities shall take into account all relevant considerations including, where applicable, the existence in the state concerned of a consistent pattern of gross, flagrant or mass violations of human rights." While this article forbids extradition or deportation to Uzbekistan, it is the right test for the present question also.

12. On the usefulness of the material obtained, this is irrelevant. Article 2 of the Convention, to which we are a party, could not be plainer:

"No exceptional circumstances whatsoever, whether a state of war or a threat of war, internal political instability or any other public emergency, may be invoked as a justification of torture."

13. Nonetheless, I repeat that this material is useless – we are selling our souls for dross. It is in fact positively harmful. It is designed to give the message the Uzbeks want the West to hear. It exaggerates the role, size, organisation and activity of the IMU and its links with Al Qaida. The aim is to convince the West that the Uzbeks are a vital cog against a common foe, that they should keep the assistance, especially military assistance, coming, and that they should mute the international criticism on human rights and economic reform.

14. I was taken aback when Matthew Kydd said this stuff was valuable. Sixteen months ago it was difficult to argue with SIS in the area of intelligence assessment. But post Butler we know, not only that they can get it wrong on even the most vital and high profile issues, but that they have a particular yen for highly coloured material which exaggerates the threat. That is precisely what the Uzbeks give them. Furthermore MI6 have no operative within a thousand miles of me and certainly no expertise that can come close to my own in making this assessment.

15. At the Khuderbegainov trial I met an old man from Andizhan. Two of his children had been tortured in front of him until he signed a confession on the family's links with Bin Laden. Tears were streaming down his face. I have no doubt they had as much connection with Bin Laden as I do. This is the standard of the Uzbek intelligence services.

16. I have been considering Michael Wood's legal view, which he kindly gave in writing. I cannot understand why Michael concentrated only on Article 15 of the Convention. This certainly bans the use of material obtained under torture as evidence in proceedings, but it does not state that this is the sole exclusion of the use of such material.

17. The relevant article seems to me Article 4, which talks of complicity in torture. Knowingly to receive its results appears to be at least arguable as complicity. It does not appear that being in a different country to the actual torture would preclude complicity. I talked this over in a hypothetical sense with my old friend Prof Francois Hampson, I believe an acknowledged World authority on the Convention, who said that the complicity argument and the spirit of the Convention would be likely to be winning points. I should be grateful to hear Michael's views on this.

18. It seems to me that there are degrees of complicity and guilt, but being at one or two removes does not make us blameless. There are other factors. Plainly it was a breach of Article 3 of the Convention for the coalition to deport detainees back here from Baghram, but it has been done. That seems plainly complicit.

19. This is a difficult and dangerous part of the World. Dire and increasing poverty and harsh repression are undoubtedly turning young people here towards radical Islam. The Uzbek government are thus creating this threat, and perceived US support for Karimov strengthens anti-Western feeling. SIS ought to establish a presence here, but not as partners of the Uzbek Security Services, whose sheer brutality puts them beyond the pale.

MURRAY

Second Document - summary of legal opinion from Michael Wood arguing that it is legal to use information extracted under torture:

From: Michael Wood, Legal Advisor

Date: 13 March 2003

CC: PS/PUS; Matthew Kidd, WLD

Linda Duffield

UZBEKISTAN: INTELLIGENCE POSSIBLY OBTAINED UNDER TORTURE

1. Your record of our meeting with HMA Tashkent recorded that Craig had said that his understanding was that it was also an offence under the UN Convention on Torture to receive or possess information under torture. I said that I did not believe that this was the case, but undertook to re-read the Convention.

2. I have done so. There is nothing in the Convention to this effect. The nearest thing is article 15 which provides:

"Each State Party shall ensure that any statement which is established to have been made as a result of torture shall not be invoked as evidence in any proceedings, except against a person accused of torture as evidence that the statement was made."

3. This does not create any offence. I would expect that under UK law any statement established to have been made as a result of torture would not be admissible as evidence.

[signed]

M C Wood
Legal Adviser

2005-12-18T10:22:00.000-07:00

The wheel of history has come full circle. Bush the Cruel is like the full grown, rotten spawn of Tricky Dick. Bush is defiantly proclaiming his right to spy on the American people without any restrictions or oversight because in his view, buttressed by the written legal opinions that are blatantly unconstitutional by John Yoo, he is beyond the laws of this nation, beyond the oversight of the other two branches of the government, and has been appointed by his god to rule, not govern, this nation.

I will work tirelessly to see that Bush the Cruel is behind bars. Not because of a personal vendetta but because the founding fathers ideals embodied within the Constitution demands that Bush is a direct threat to it.

Bush the Cruel is a threat that has been documented now. His defiance of the freedoms that Americans enjoy due to the shield of the Constitutuion and Bill of Rights is in the open now. He openly proclaims his "right" to spy on Americans with impunity.

Although the Republican party is from which he came it is a party that in the name of it's survival who should repudiate Bush the Cruel first.

It is time for the corporate media to be held accountable and for Americans to tell the editors and publishers to hold Bush the Cruel accountable for his words and deeds that have stripped Americans from the shield of the Constitution. Our shield for freedom has been violently torn away under Bush the Cruel because he is a tyrant that our founding fathers had feared would come to pass.

The enemy is not from without but from within as Abraham Lincoln feared. The fact is in the cold words on paper- Bush the Cruel has placed himself above the laws of this nation, has spit on the Constitution and Bill of Rights as nothing more than "a goddamn piece of paper", and alone decides who is a citizen or not.

This is not what America stands for- a man who squats in the White House and proclaims himself king due to the means that he has employed to deprive the American people from their right to have access to voting and have their votes counted accurately and honestly. As many other writers and thinkers have said that Bush the Cruel is against the Constitution and Bill of Rights in his deeds. He is a hypocrite because his words, for all the world to see, is the exact opposite of the actions he has implemented. As many have witnessed it is a world that he has created which is a world of the Dark Age that he is in the process of recreating.

The Inquisition is the model disguised as the "Global War on Terror" that he rants about endlessly on. The problem for Americans is that he believes in his god not the Constitution and Bill of Rights.

Our solution must be through the pathway as spelled out in the Constitution. We are not to brandish the weapons of war and conquest as the means to end this threat. Our weapons are the pen and our will to see that our freedoms shield shall not be rendered unto the dustbin of history in our lifetime.

Remember the Declaration of Independence was against a king and an empire that was the greatest in their time. It was a compact between the signatories and death.

Remember the Constitution was about the creation of a set of ideals about government that should be made flesh through fallible humans.

Remember the Bill of Rights is about the limits of our government power on the freedoms we have which are inalienable.

Read those documents which are the insturments of our freedom. Those are the ideals which will overcome Bush the Cruel. It is those ideals which Bush the Cruel wants banished forever so that we may live only as his chattel property.

Impeaching Bush the Cruel is the least we can do for ourselves and our children to live under the shield of the Constitution and Bill of Rights. We must take heart and make compact with the Declaration of Independence once more.

Our heritage and our war is now with Bush the Cruel.

2005-12-05T14:36:00.000-07:00

Bush is in trouble.

Polls show that he is his policies and implementation of his policies are antiethical to the majority of Americans.

Even without a coordinated effort by progressives and liberals Bush's fundraiser for Marilyn Musgrave drew over 500 people to say that Bush is bad. To be associated with Bush is not helpful but a boat anchor to anyone's run for office.

The fact that this administration is wrong in both the political and moral areas of public life cannot now be denied.

How can Bush be listened to when the world has seen the immoral response to hurricane Katrina? The evidence shows not only to the world but to the American people that the concern of this administration is "posturing" and not in effective government intervention in times of national crisis.

Recently there was a poll released that surveyed historians on the question: Bush's presidency- the worst ever? The overwhelming majority agrees that Bush will be remembered as the worst president in American history.

The bedrock has been reached- while two thirds of the American people think that Bush is bad for America, but one third still support him and his policies that are for an imperial president who is beyond the reach of law.

This is the reality- Bush is the foreign cancer on America that must be removed. Americans know it, and now it is just a matter of time and will until he is removed by the mechanism in the Constitution.

2005-10-18T08:43:00.000-06:00

Judith Miller- This is a story about how a reporter's personal beliefs have helped an administration ignite an illegal and immoral war of aggression with another sovereign nation.

Many people seem to think that Miller is a reporter but what I see is a person who has been just as ideologically blindered as the neoconservatives that she cavorts with.

What she has done is commensurate with the crimes that Goebbels did in cahoots with Hitler- to help rally a country that has been traumatized by 9/11 into funnelling anger into aggression. The stories that Miller wrote to help Bush and his cabal in the drive to "legitimize" their preconceived plan to steal another country's resources and use as an ideological playground for "free market" policies that have no bearing how to governance a illegally occupied country is a crime of the highest order.

Miller's stories on the UN "Oil-for-Food" program is another facet to Bush and his lackeys plan to discredit legitimate international institutions for international stability.

Miller is not a "loose cannon" but an individual that has used a journalist's credentials for the William Randolph Hearst form- "Yellow journalism to create in the public a bandwagoning, jingoistic, patriotic and open advocacy for war".

2005-09-21T09:44:00.000-06:00

The wheels of justice grind slowly. In this case it is "The U.N. Human Rights Committee, scheduled to meet in Geneva next month, has written to non-governmental organisations (NGOs) calling for any available evidence of human rights abuses by the United States -- particularly in the aftermath of its global war on terrorism." writes Thalif Deen of Inter Press Service.

Once the world bodies like the International Criminal Court will begin investigations into the widespread abuse of both the U.S.A. and international legal systems, ignoring legal precedent and obligations, and wilfully utilizing illegal arguments in justifying torture Mr. Bush, his cabinent officials, military commanders, and administration lawyers.

What the world's peoples have witnessed is the doctrine of "American exceptionalism" gone mad by Mr. Bush and his ideological allies like Douglas Feith, Paul Wolfowitz, Donald Rumsfeld, Dick Cheney and many others in key positions in both the White House and Pentagon.

This beginning step by an international organization shows the concerns by such lawyers in their legal writings for the administration like Bybee, Yoo, and Gonzales about culpability are well founded.

The injustice that Mr. Bush advocates through his "war on terror" will be brought to heel. Time is not a factor. Like other tyrants and dictators of the world who have been brought to justice so will Mr. Bush and his enablers.

2005-09-09T12:45:00.000-06:00

Join Dems-CO!

It is the Colorado Chapter of Democrats.com.

The calendar is filled with activities and events from around Colorado for progressives and liberals.

September is a very heavy event filled month with the anniversary of 9/11 and the nationwide anti-war peace events on 9/24.

Join now for the low down on all events at Dems-CO!

2005-09-03T10:46:00.000-06:00

Help the victims of Hurricane Katrina NOW!

Donate by clicking on the Liberal Blogosphere for Hurricane Relief box on the right hand side.

Also, if you have a spare room to let a displaced Gulf state person or family stay then go to:

MoveOn.org's www.hurricanehousing.org to sign up

-ken

2005-09-03T07:37:00.000-06:00

This headline shows "bu$h"'s mentality of "every man for himself".

Daley "shocked" as feds reject aid

Need I say more about the irresponsible and death causing slowness of "bu$h"'s response to the gulf coast states, cities, and counties? This is the latest in a string of news reports that have shown this administration to be failing the American people in this time of life and death situations in New Orleans and other affected areas of Hurrican Katrina. Slowness to cut through "red tape" and a death causing lack of coordination between federal, state, and local agencies charged with disaster planning and implementation.

I cannot convey this piece of videotape to cut through the willful deceit by "bu$h" and his minons.

From the online magazine Crooks and Liars:

Shepard Smith and Geraldo Rivera were livid about the situation in NOLA as they appeared on H&C. When Hannity tried his usual spin job and said "let's get this in perspective," Smith chopped him off at the knees and started yelling at him saying, "This is perspective!" It was shocking.

This is the video link of Smith and Rivera on the Hannity and Colmes show. Watch the video and it utterly blows away the "bu$h" line of irresponsible bullsh*t.

There will be a national investigation and a subsequent national dialogue coming. The first will center on the tawdry and slow response to a knowable coming major disaster, and the second will be a heated dialogue about the state of race relations in America.

The backsliding by this administration on race relations is startling. However, "bu$h" and his allies have always taken the lowest of the low roads in both his administration and political campaigns. Race baiting in the 2000 political campaign by "bu$h" has been well documented but has never received wide national media exposure. Through political appointees that have specific ideological bias, funding cuts and out right abolishment of agencies that enforce and oversee racial equality in America "bu$h" has created a political and social environment that is conducive to the growth of permissive racism.

What has been seared into the mainstream American consciousness is that those people who have a mindset, behavior, and will act upon the preconditions of "bu$h"'s frontier, vigilante concepts of justice will come to light in New Orleans under the coming investigations at both the state and national level.

2005-08-28T09:04:00.000-06:00

I caught this off the internet but it seems like Justice Roberts, "bush" nominee for SCOTUS, is a hypocrite and believes himself to be above the law. The central question is did Roberts act contrary to ethical conduct by not recusing himself from a pivotal case about presidential power and "bush's" ability to hold anyone in incarceration indefinitely under the guise of "enemy combatant".

From Think Progress:

"John Roberts knows better and we have proof.

In 1986, when John Roberts was working in the White House Counsel’s Office for President Reagan, he was asked to review a mundane request by an attorney named Lester Hyman. Roberts replied:

I must recuse myself from this matter, in light of pending discussions with Mr. Hyman’s firm about future employment.

So Roberts understands it’s unethical to make professional decisions that impact a prospective employer. When it came to the prospect of a nomination to the Supreme Court, Roberts simply set ethics aside."

August 17 from Slate.com "Improper Advances" by authors Stephen Gillers, David J. Luban, and Steven Lubet:

"The challenge was brought by Salim Ahmed Hamdan, a Guantanamo detainee. President Bush was a defendant in the case because he had personally, in writing, found "reason to believe" that Hamdan was a terrorist subject to military tribunals. The appeals court upheld the rules the president had authorized for these military commissions, and it rejected Hamdan's human rights claims—including claims for protection under the Geneva Conventions...

The nominee's Aug. 2 answers to a Senate questionnaire reveal that Roberts had several interviews with administration officials contemporaneous with the progress of the Hamdan

The problem is that if one side that very much wants to win a certain case can secretly approach the judge about a dream job while the case is still under active consideration, and especially if the judge shows interest in the job, the public's trust in the judiciary (not to mention the opposing party's) suffers because the public can never know how the approach may have affected the judge's thinking. Perhaps, as Judge Posner wrote, the judge may have been influenced even in ways that he may not consciously recognize...

His vote was decisive on a key question of presidential power that now confronts the nation. Although all three judges reached the same bottom line in the case, they were divided on whether the Geneva Conventions grant basic human rights to prisoners like Hamdan who don't qualify for other Geneva protections. The lower court had held that some provisions do. Judge Roberts and a second judge rejected that view."

As other commentators have pointed out that the current debate over Robert's view and attitudes about women and abortion are significant but reality is that his views on the Constitution are crucial to what kind of government we, as citizens, will have. The questions of the limits of presidential power, the ability of the Legislative and Judicial branches to do their constitutionally mandated and delineated responsiblities by the Constitution, and how power between States and the federal government is adjudicated (e.g., the commerce clause in the Constitution).

What is the most crucial however is Roberts thinking about the expansive and imperialistic view of presidential power in a time of "bush's" self-declared "war on terror". People of all political stripes should be concerned about a president having an essentially "blank check" on that individual's sole discretion on who can or cannot be an "American citizen with rights that are under the Bill of Rights" and delineated in U.S law both Federal and State statues.

Roberts is unfit to serve out his life on SCOTUS because he doesn't believe in the seperation of powers in the Constitution, nor does he believe in the necessary "checks and balances" between the executive, legislative, and judicial branches as delineated by the Constitution beholden to a tripartite balancing system of governacing the people where one branch is first among equals.

-ken

2005-08-21T18:09:00.000-06:00

Calling all poets! There will be a poetry writing workshop in Olde Town Arvada at La Dolce Vita Cafe. It is open for all ages. The topic will be "Peace".

On the same evening Arvada Peace and Justice Commission is sponsoring a public speak out open to all political persuasions and perspectives on the topic of peace/war/occupation. The speak out will be held at the public square (outdoor space) across the street from La Dolce Vita Cafe.

Cindy Lowry has been promoting both activities for the 10th. Her email is: cindy6109@earthlink.net.

As soon as I fine out the times and addresses I'll post it.

-ken

2005-08-14T12:59:00.000-06:00

The record lows in opinion polls shows that Mr. Bush's war aims are unpopular with the American people.

Even though a lap dog mainstream press still gives Mr. Bush the benefit of doubt simply because it is good business (or else face FCC scrutiny), the people of America are fed up with his dreams of imperialist war for empire. The most clear way that can be seen is the fact that parents of draft age offspring do not want them to join the military. This is especially true in the meat grinder services of Army and Marine branches.

NYT opinion writer Frank Rich writes:

LIKE the Japanese soldier marooned on an island for years after V-J Day, President Bush may be the last person in the country to learn that for Americans, if not Iraqis, the war in Iraq is over. "We will stay the course," he insistently tells us from his Texas ranch. What do you mean we, white man?

However Mr. Bush and his cohorts insist on "staying the course" in Iraq.

MediaChannel.org has a long post on nine claims by Mr. Bush and his cabal about Iraq and rebuttal which shows that those claims are happening already.

Everything that opponents of a pullout say would happen if the U.S. left Iraq is happening already, says retired Gen. William E. Odom, the head of the National Security Agency during the Reagan administration. So why stay?

1) We would leave behind a civil war.

2) We would lose credibility on the world stage.

3) It would embolden the insurgency and cripple the move toward democracy.

4) Iraq would become a haven for terrorists.

5) Iranian influence in Iraq would increase.

6) Unrest might spread in the region and/or draw in Iraq's neighbors.

7) Shiite-Sunni clashes would worsen.

8) We haven’t fully trained the Iraqi military and police forces yet.

9) Talk of deadlines would undercut the morale of our troops.

In the real world there is reality, from the Washington Post:

The United States no longer expects to see a model new democracy, a self-supporting oil industry or a society in which the majority of people are free from serious security or economic challenges, U.S. officials say.

"What we expected to achieve was never realistic given the timetable or what unfolded on the ground," said a senior official involved in policy since the 2003 invasion. "We are in a process of absorbing the factors of the situation we're in and shedding the unreality that dominated at the beginning."

Administration officials still emphasize how much they have achieved despite the chaos that followed the invasion and the escalating insurgency. "Iraqis are taking control of their country, building a free nation that can govern itself, sustain itself and defend itself. And we're helping Iraqis succeed," President Bush said yesterday in his radio address.

Tell me what is the reality?

The Bush version of what he wishes Iraq to become or the fact that there will be no democratic government for Iraq which will be friendly to America.

Americans are already becoming aware of the lies by Mr. Bush and his backers in corporate media.

There is good reason why people are paying attention to Karl Rove's act of treason and subsequent coverup of outing the CIA's operative, Valarie Plame, who was a WMD proliferation specialist.

This act against America and Mr. Bush's stated goal of winning the so-called "War on Terror" shows the blatant attitude that politics triumphs over all else. Mr. Bush is showing Americans that his "vision" for Iraq cannot be achieved nor does his self proclaimed "War on Terror" is serious business because of the self serving political ends it must meet first.

-ken

2005-07-18T08:48:00.000-06:00

For Immediate Release: Contact: Dena Graziano
July 15, 2005 (202) 226-6888

CONYERS, EIGHT MEMBERS OF CONGRESS TO HOLD TOWN HALL
MEETINGS NATIONWIDE ON DOWNING STREET, ROVEGATE,
AND THE ONGOING DECEPTION IN IRAQ
MEETINGS TO COINCIDE WITH THIRD ANNIVERSARY OF
THE DOWNING STREET MEETING

WASHINGTON, D.C. – In commemoration of the third anniversary of the infamous Downing Street Meeting, Rep. John Conyers, Jr., along with Representatives Hinchey, Lee, McDermott, Waters, Becerra, Frank, Rangel, and Tom Udall, will host town hall meetings nationwide to discuss the manipulation of prewar intelligence, the unclassified Downing Street Minutes, White House improprieties committed by Karl Rove and other Bush Administration officials, and the war in Iraq.

On July 23rd, Saturday at 9 a.m. there will be a teach in about the Downing Street Memo at Steve's apartment building, 790 Washington @ the Party room, 15th floor. To sign up for this event go to: DownStreetMemo.org

Then a march and rally:

10:30AM

Skyline Park (16th & Arapahoe)

The purpose is to draw attention and make passersby on the street ask "What is this Downing Street thing all about?" and demand coverage of the memo in the media.

For full independent coverage of this scandal go to After Downing Street, and sign courageous House Representative John Conyers' letter to Bush.

More ways you can help:

*Call Senators Allard (303-220-7414) and Salazar (303-455-7600) and ask them to sign John Kerry's letter about this memo. Capitol Hill toll-free line: 1-888-355-3588

* Harass the local news media! Ask them why you haven't heard about the memo in the news. Write letters to the editor of thePost, News and Westword.

-----------------------------------------------------

It's amazing how much information has come to light on the Rove conspiracy to harm American national security. Those who follow these events should know that such daily blogged sites like DailyKos.com, Eschaton, and many other sites have shown that it has now come down to this essential question: What did the President know and when did he know it?

Do I smell the beginning storm for impeachment?

----------------------------------------------------

I have been pretty busy this summer with work and volunteering for the ACLU in Colorado. The ACLU in Colorado has just concluded a very successful fundraiser- The Liberty Run/Walk and Festival of Rights on July 4th. It has over 30 percent more people participate then last year with our fundraising goal reaching well over 150 percent of our target. Congratualations to all who participated, volunteers, and staff who made this event a very big success.

I have been a volunteer for the ACLU for only the last three months. It is a a very rewarding experience so far. Most recently I have represented the ACLU at a social event sponsored by a new Denver, Colorado based group Liberals and Progressives United (of which I was on the steering committee, too) that was hosted by the Mercury Cafe on July 16th. For a first event by Liberals and Progressives United, it was quite successful. There were a number of groups that had information readily available for attendees and with the music of world beat, salsa, and raggae throughout the beautiful evening people were happy and many new contacts were made.

----------------------------------------------------

Finally, I have written a new poem about life and death and the Tyrant's bellyaching about it being a "hard job".

Army Specialist Casey Austin Sheehan

”Hard work is seeing your son's murder on CNN one Sunday evening while you're enjoying the last supper you'll ever truly enjoy again.”

Those ghosts- those terrible ghosts

With the burden of injustice to carry

Eating at the conscience of this nation

“Hard work is having three military officers come to your house a few hours later to confirm the aforementioned murder of your son, your first-born, your kind and gentle sweet baby.”

With the spade and shovel

To bury the flesh of their offspring-

While a wannabe Uncle Joe clowns around

Looking for WMD under Lincoln’s bed

“Hard work is burying your child 46 days before his 25th birthday.”

Remorseless numbers- once more of the body count

While those who are maimed and rendered sightless

Fly under cover of darkest night back to our nation

Out of sight or thought of their Commander-in-Chief

“Hard work is holding your other three children as they lower the body of their big (brother) into the ground.”

So many freshly dug graves, no matter the season

Are but a small cost in his resurrecting the Great Game

To puff out his chest, wearing the flag of patriotism

Using fear and loathing to divide and conquer a nation

While using his mute god to desecrate our Constitution

“Hard work is not jumping in the grave with him and having the earth cover you both”

Our hardest, longest, and most dangerous work

Now lies before us

We must now serve the demands of the founding fathers-

The President, Vice President and all

Civil Officers of the United States, shall be removed from Office on Impeachment for and Conviction of, Treason, Bribery, or other high Crimes and Misdemeanors

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Let Truth be the Prejudice.

See you on July 23 at the teach-in and rally.

Ken

2005-06-14T08:11:00.000-06:00

The thunder by the Republicans is for interrogation prison at Guantanamo Naval base to remain in business. LIZ SIDOTI, Associated Press Writer:

Rep. Duncan Hunter (news, bio, voting record), R-Calif., who is chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, displayed for reporters Guantanamo-like prison entrees of lemon-baked fish and oven-fried chicken with rice, fruit and vegetables — "purchased for them by American taxpayers" — to illustrate conditions at the prison and to counter claims of mistreatment.

"They've never eaten better. They've never been treated better," Hunter said. "We don't beat them. We don't touch them. We've been treating people well."

This is a bold lie by Mr. Hunter which flies in the face of reports by the International Committee of the Red Cross, Human Rights First, and most recently Amnesty International.

Mr. Cheney states the obvious administration response, "At present, there's no plan to close Gitmo [Guantanamo]".

What is transpiring before the world is the Bush administration is critically damaging the moral and legal authority of our government and the underlying founding documents that this country is based upon.

The legal reasoning and ideology that Mr. Bush and his administration represents is profoundly anti-American. Even a casual reading of the thoughts of the founding fathers, like Washington and Jefferson, quickly collides with the philosophical conceits of the neoconservative's intellectual father, Leo Strauss. America has never been based upon spreading "freedom" by force of arms to the rest of the world.

What the world's citizens are witnessing is the religious obsessions of Mr. Bush and his closed circle of advisors being forced upon the rest of the world. The perfect paradigm is the interrogation prison called Camp Delta. The moral and legal depravity of Mr. Bush and his control of the various intelligence and defense organs both governmental and private is to our everlasting shame.

However, a first step to forgiveness by the rest of the world rests with our, the citizens of this country, own actions. Rep. Conyers has been at the forefront to begin this process.

Mr. Bush has gone beyond the bounds of any rational politician as has his administration's officials, from his cabinent to the senior lawyers at DoJ, and the vast organization of the Pentagon's senior military leadership, beginning with Gen. Meyers. The oath that Mr. Bush and those of his administration and the oath in the military is to the preservation and protection of the Constitution. It is not an oath to any one leader of this country. The Constitution takes precedence over the temporality of any one "President". This lack of essential understanding is what makes Mr. Bush and his cohorts an "enemy within".

2005-05-28T09:22:00.000-06:00

Good news on the judicial front as a federal judge orders the U.S. military to release more photographic evidence of the torturing of prisoners at Abu Ghraib:

"Judge Alvin Hellerstein, finding the public has a right to see the pictures, told the government Thursday he will sign an order requiring it to release them to the American Civil Liberties Union, the lawyers said."

I found it interesting that the Bush administration has been forced through FOIA requests by the ACLU to release "36,000 pages of documents and the reports of 130 investigations, mostly from the FBI and Army, have been turned over to the ACLU. The group is seeking documents from the CIA and the Defense Department as well."

But given the amount of paperwork generated by those investigations Amnesty International has blasted Bush and his lackeys on the fact that the Guantanamo prison complex is "the gulag of our time", and in president of Center for Constitutional Rights Micheal Ratner's book, "Guantanamo: What the World Should Know", calls it a blatantly illegal interrogation camp. There is no mass movement to rectify this immoral and illegal abomination upon this nation.

Many learned people are puzzled by this seeming contradiction in which the principals of the Constitution and the shield for our freedoms enumerated in the Bill of Rights are ignored in this so-called war on terror.

I was in attendence at a talk by George Lakoff in Denver last Saturday. He summarized that any moral framework would triumph a social framework debate. The example he used was abortion. To wit the use of the words of "choice" versus "life" a person would go for the moral frame over the consumer frame because the words used are one of belief over consumerism.

What does this mean for the atrocities being committed in the name of "war on terror" which are against the Constitution and laws of this nation? One has to look at the psychological operations being utilized by Bush and his minons in use of fear to shackle the minds of a traumatized population immediately after 9/11. This shock to the nation's people produced a state of malleability which has led to this seeming "blindness" to these profoundly immoral and illegal doctrines by Bush and his lackeys because it is based upon the fear of death that people have.

As Lakoff stated last Saturday we, meaning progressives, liberals, and cultural creatives, have to take the linguistic frame to become the party of life and brand the opposition as the party of death.

Nothing more and nothing less will suffice.

2005-05-26T18:20:00.000-06:00

There is a new group in Denver called Liberals and Progressives United, which is about bringing together disparate groups that have not had great sharing and communication between themselves.

The group was promoting itself at the Denver City Park Arts Festival that was well attended last Saturday.

Liberals and Progressives United will be sponsoring a mixer at the Mercury Cafe on July 16th. There have been a number of groups that have expressed interest including democrats.com and 3novembermovement.

Contact John: jjetao@yahoo.com for further information.

I've been busy helping to market the ACLU-Colorado's Liberty Run/Walk Festival of Rights on July 4th. It is a fundraiser for one of the frontline groups defending our freedoms against Bush's agenda to make a mockery of the Constitution and the Bill of Rights.

I learned from the Denver Democrats:

June 25 -- ROBERT F. KENNEDY, JR. TO SPEAK IN COLORADO

LAKEWOOD. Environmental activist Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., the son of the late Robert (â€œBobbyâ€) Kennedy, will appear in Colorado on June 25 as the keynote speaker capping a day of issues-oriented workshops sponsored by Be the Change USA, a political action committee. The events will be held at the Douglas County Events Center in Castle Rock.

The day will begin with a pancake breakfast, followed by a â€œGrassroots Organization Toolboxâ€ workshop. After a box lunch, workshop participants will attend a session on health care issues followed by another workshop focusing on the environment.

In the evening, Be the Change USA will treat registrants to a catered barbeque supper. Entertainment will be provided by Carl Dixon and the Jazz Cats prior to the eveningâ€™s speeches. Educator and former U.S. Senate candidate Mike Miles will emcee the evening, and Colorado Speaker of the House Andrew Romanoff will speak prior to Kennedy. Kennedy will be available for a book signing directly following his speech, and will end his day with a fundraising reception for Be the Change.

The cost for the entire slate of sessions including meals will be $70, $60 for seniors 65 or over and students with ID. For more information, those interested should visit the website, www.BTC-USA.org. Different rates are available for various subsets of the sessions.

Attendance at the workshops will be limited to 200 participants, so those wanting to attend the workshops should sign up early. Up to 3400 seats are available to hear Mr. Kennedy, Speaker Romanoff, and Mr. Miles. For the evening speaker part of the event only, beginning at 5:30 p.m., the cost is $35, $25 for seniors and students.

----------------------------------------------------------------------

Sounds like a definite to me.

Finally, I've come across a great idea on the DailyKos.com website which is the Yearly Kos Convention 2006: How Do You Eat An Elephant? One Byte at a Time. The convention is for activists and bloggers. Check out the website. It really looks like they have it all together.

2005-05-14T10:05:00.000-06:00

It's time for people of conscience to display on their homes and cars the message: The smoking gun- Bush fixes facts to fit his war on Iraq. There should be a massive door to door campaign to spread the word that Americans were bamboozled into this war. The Blair memorandum should be in every mail box in America to let people read what Bush said before his war and the cold hard fact that it was a blatant hypocrisy.

There has been no denial on either side of the Atlantic ocean of the authenticity of the memo.

Where is the MSM on this issue which has cost 1,600+ American lives and upto 100,000 Iraqi lives? You can see that this story which should lead to a Congressional impeachment investigation was buried in the back pages of the "A" section in both the Washington Post and New York Times. Even the Denver Post had the story buried in the back of the "A" section.

The fourth estate of a free, investigative, muck raking press is now history it seems. The ground breaking stories by such reporters as Seymour Hersch are relegated to low circulation monthly magazines that simply do not have the reach of the major newspaper dailies or the heft of commerical or cable television audiences.

We, as citizens, have a duty to uphold and defend the Constitution and the Bill of Rights from all enemies. As many other well known public figures have stated- the enemy is not from without but from within. As William Rivers Pitt and Micheal Ratner have eloquently written about the complete disregard of our two founding documents of America, of the laws of this nation, of the "rule of law" because of Bush's goals of imperial war and "war on terror".

2005-05-10T14:20:00.000-06:00

This accounting of Abu Ghraib is like the Jerry Springer version:

To some, the grave misdeeds at Abu Ghraib, where the three soldiers worked for six months in 2003, have become a twisted symbol of the American military occupation of Iraq. But the scandal is also one rooted in the behavior of military reservists working at the prison, an environment that testimony has portrayed as more frat house than military prison, a place where inmates were routinely left naked and soldiers took pictures of one another simulating sex with fruit.
The reservists' treatment of Iraqi prisoners and their entanglements with one another - pieced together from documents, court testimony, e-mail and interviews - have produced a dark soap opera, one whose episodes have continued to play out in the months since the scandal erupted, and culminated in the Texas courtroom last week.

The reporter Kate Zernike has taken the White House and Pentagon line that it was not systemic because the torture tactics utilized, with the understanding and justification at the highest levels of civilian and military leadership, were the result of "a few bad apples".

The story by this reporter shows a deep and continuing misunderstanding of the reports by other journalists and other investigations including ICRC report, the Taguba Report, Fay Report, and the Schelsinger report.

It is dismissive of the fact that Abu Ghraib is permanently associated with America, the US military and specifically with Mr. Bush and his monumental hypocrisy about "getting to the bottom" of those who are "responsible".

2005-04-15T08:46:00.000-06:00

I noticed this little item: "Idr was accused of plotting with five others to blow up the U.S. Embassy in Sarajevo in November 2001. All were acquitted by a Bosnian court in January 2002, but U.S. agents arrested them as they left the courthouse and eventually took them to Guantanamo Bay."

Why is Mustafa Ait Idr not labeled a prisoner? Arrest and subsequent incarceration at the infamous Camp Delta in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba shows that this government was intent on not providing Mr. Idr any legal recourse to prove his innocence. Rather it is the intent of this government to simply "disappear" another person.

"The detainee, Mustafa Ait Idr, 34, an Algerian citizen living in Bosnia, has been held at the military prison in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, for three years on suspicion that he plotted to bomb the U.S. Embassy in Bosnia. The lawsuit, filed by his attorneys in federal court in Boston, alleges that the government has probably videotaped Idr's beatings and demands that it produce any such tapes and all records of alleged torture and interrogation tactics at the detention facility."

There are many questions raised by this newspaper report by Carol Leonnig, Washington Post Staff Writer.

2005-04-08T15:05:00.000-06:00

What does the creation of a DoD guide for field commanders that uses the term "enemy combatant" and Northern Command seem to be heading for trouble?

The guide has hundreds of suspected terrorist organizations. However, Northern Command is the Pentagon's "homeland" security arm.

The Northern Command was created in 2002 and is under the command of USAF General Eberhart. General Eberhart is on record advocating that the US military should have a greater role in domestic policing operations. His view is that Northern Command should be a "one stop shop" for such agencies as FEMA and the FBI but still observe the "Posse Comitas" law which prohibits domestic use of the military for policing the people of America.

However, the term "enemy combatant" has never been explicitly defined. It is a made up nonsensical and non legal term which has no basis in US law or international judicial conventions.

2005-04-08T14:14:00.000-06:00

From New York Times reporter Neil A. Lewis:

"Pentagon planners are proposing that military commanders be authorized to declare someone an enemy combatant and detain him if he belongs to any of hundreds of suspected terrorist organizations, a human rights group said on Thursday.

The extensive list of groups suspected of terrorism is part of a 142-page draft proposal to the Joint Chiefs of Staff that is intended to provide an all-inclusive guide for military commanders on their obligations and authority for detaining people."

Need I remind people of the supposed "ban" on our own Army being used on our own soil?

"In response to the military presence in the Southern States during the Reconstruction Era, Congress passed the Posse Comitatus Act...to prohibit the use of the Army in civilian law enforcement. The Act embodies the traditional American principle of separating civilian and military authority and currently forbids the use of the Army and Air Force to enforce civilian laws."

The erosion of that ban which was put in place after the Civil War is due largely to the failed "War on Drugs" during the late 20th Century.

Not to put a too fine a point is that the DoJ and FBI consider the top domestic terrorist threats to be Earth Liberation Front and Animal Liberation Front. The Northern Command, which is the Pentagon's "homeland" security arm, that was formed in 2002 and is under the command of USAF General Eberhart. General Eberhart has stated, for the the record:

“My view has been that Posse Comitatus will constantly be under review as we mature this command, as we do our exercise, as we interact with FEMA [Federal Emergency Management Agency], FBI, and those lead federal agencies out there.... There are some situations where there’s no other alternatives, and federal forces have to be used to secure the safety and security of our people.”

In a similar vein General Eberhart has said that Northern Command will in essence become a "one stop shop" for agencies such as FEMA and the FBI to utilize for threats to the nation.

The question I have is why is the DoD utilizing a non-legal term for their field officers?

I find it ominous that the military is now codifiying terminology that the White House is using which has no legal, either domestic or internationally, basis or understanding.

2005-03-31T10:44:00.000-07:00

It's all a matter of justice.

Miami Herald reporter Carol Rosenberg writes:

"Far from the razor wire, inside the court that ordered Richard Nixon to turn over the Watergate tapes, the stories of the once nameless, faceless men kept captive at the U.S. Navy base in Cuba come alive in page after page of habeas corpus petitions for 140 Guantánamo captives from 23 countries from China to Saudi Arabia.
They include assertions of being kidnapped to Afghanistan so the United States could cast them as captured on the battlefield. They write of wives and children awaiting their return and complain about their conditions, medical care and isolation.
Some allege American interrogations turned to torture. Others says they are innocent, devout Muslims mistaken for Islamic militants."

The justice is that of what every American has- to have their day in court. It is their day in a U.S. court and not of the nightmare star chamber justice of the tyrant Bush.

As tyrant Bush as said repeatedly of wanting to be a dictator it is coming to pass due to the attack on the symbols of America's economic and military powers.

This perversion of justice that tyrant Bush and his minons have promulgated upon the Constitution is the direct desire to ignore and trivialize the bedrock legal notion of "innocent until proven guilty".

This is why the founding fathers had the wisdom to add a Bill of Rights to our Constitution. The power of the state the founders well had experience with under rule Britannia. As envisioned through the Bill of Rights is a check on the power of the state. The tyrant Bush is assidously undermining under the cover of 9/11.

The unfolding legal battle over the world-girding gulag archipelago implemented by the tyrant Bush and his minons is of concern to all Americans because it strikes at the very heart of our justice system.

2005-03-31T10:12:00.000-07:00

Those who are nameless and faceless of the "worst of the worst" being held at the Guantanamo gulag are slowly being revealed by the U.S. justice system and not by the Tyrant's justice of the star chamber .

Miami Herald reporter Carol Rosenberg writes:

"Far from the razor wire, inside the court that ordered Richard Nixon to turn over the Watergate tapes, the stories of the once nameless, faceless men kept captive at the U.S. Navy base in Cuba come alive in page after page of habeas corpus petitions for 140 Guantánamo captives from 23 countries from China to Saudi Arabia.

They include assertions of being kidnapped to Afghanistan so the United States could cast them as captured on the battlefield. They write of wives and children awaiting their return and complain about their conditions, medical care and isolation.

Some allege American interrogations turned to torture. Others says they are innocent, devout Muslims mistaken for Islamic militants."

The justice that these people seek is that all Americans have- to have their day in court. As has been seen since the Abu Ghraib torture scandal the percentage of people who are Islamic militants, hardcore jihadists or collaborators are very small but it is the innocent people who suffer the most at the hands of their jailers and those who have promulgated a world girding gulag archipelago.

Who would want to be held in captivity forever? Subject to the systematic torture of their jailers.

2005-03-25T12:13:00.000-07:00

I am convinced that the Tyrant Bush and his "rapture" obsessed minons are Christian cultural bigots. Otherwise why would there be a US military base at one of the seven wonders of the world- Babylon? As Katrina vanden Heuval, editor of The Nation, writes about Cultural Barbarism:

"The sterile term 'collateral damage' justifiably brings to mind the human tragedy of war. But the devastating and wanton damage inflicted on the ancient city of Babylon by US-led military forces gives another meaning to the term. In this case, we are witnessing violence against one of the world's greatest cultural treasures. Babylon's destruction, according to The Guardian, 'must rank as one of the most reckless acts of cultural vandalism in recent memory.'

"Turning Babylon into a military site was a fatal mistake," the Iraqi culture Minister told Iraq Crisis Report.

She concludes with this call to action:

"There must be a full investigation of the damage caused, and Halliburton should be made to offer whatever compensation is possible for the wanton destruction of the world's cultural treasure."

However, the Christian cultural bigotry is clear because of Tyrant Bush and his administration's silence over cultural destruction of the huge Buddhist statues in Afghanistan before the terrorist attacks of 9/11.

The only quote I could find was by former Secretary of State Colin Powell, which is predicated on just his personal view and not that of his master:

"It's horrible, it's a tragedy. It's a crime against human kind. I deplore it," said Powell.

Meanwhile, the power of art and protest against this war continues to make small headlines:

Anti-War Prankster Smuggles Art Into Top Museums

NEW YORK -- Many a visitor to New York's Museum of Modern Art has probably thought, "I could do that."
A British graffiti artist who goes by the name "Banksy" went one step further, by smuggling in his own picture of a soup can and hanging it on a wall, where it stayed for more than three days earlier this month before anybody noticed.
A portrait by a British graffiti artist known as 'Banksy' is shown in this undated photo. The work hung on the wall at the Brooklyn Museum, after the artist surreptitiously hung his own works of art in four New York museums. The prank was part of a coordinated plan to infiltrate four of New York's top museums on a single day.

Art continues to have an impact upon the warmongering/profiteering plutocrats of American society.

2005-03-24T09:22:00.000-07:00

Drip, drip, drip is the sound of the truth slowly being revealed of Tony Blair's government complicity with Tyrant Bush's war of aggression with Iraq. There is the unveiling of redacted section of "the resignation letter of Elizabeth Wilmshurst, a legal adviser at the Foreign Office, in which she said the war would be a 'crime of aggression'...of Documentary evidence has emerged showing that the Attorney General, Lord Goldsmith, changed his mind about the legality of the Iraq war just before the conflict began."

Colin Brown, Deputy Political editor of The Independent, writes about this rush to war:

"The revelations come two weeks after it emerged that there had never been a detailed dossier from the Attorney General setting out the case for military action before troops were committed, and that Britain went to war on the basis of nine paragraphs on a single sheet of A4 paper.

Last night's revelations - broadcast on Channel 4 News - showed that Ms Wilmshurst said the Attorney General had initially agreed with the Foreign Office legal team that a war on Iraq would be illegal without a second UN resolution."

So, in their haste to commit the crime of a "war of aggression" both men use the power of their office to ramrod through their respective democracies a Big Lie. The use of fear to cower those that would oppose those goals of "the Great Game" is prevalent. Both men abuse the power in their office and have not upheld their respective oaths upon taking the reins of power because the price of power is responsibility to the people and to their nation.

With Mr. Bush there is the forfeit to that office due to the means by which he was able to come to power. Both cases of 2000 and 2004 have shown that he will use any means to obtain and remain in power. The price of such ignoble means is that this nation's democratic institutions are in a state of peril.

What is shown in Mr. Blairs case is that he is willing to use the same methodology as Mr. Bush. However, one can see that in Great Britain that the power of the press can force a greater accountability to the people through the dissemination of information which is accurate and timely. This forceful journalistic enterprise is what is sorely lacking in American journalism which has devolved into the so-called objectivity of the playground mentality of "he said/she said".

What is happening in Britain is that Mr. Blair will be thrown out of power because the truth is slowly emerging for the world to see.

2005-03-23T11:33:00.000-07:00

From the Christian Science Monitor comes this:

The Australian reported Monday that lawyer Stephen Kenny told a legal convention that the existence of the tapes came to light after a member of the US military, who had been told to masquarade as a prisoner during a training session at Guantánamo, was beaten so badly he reportedly suffered brain damage.

The Guardian also reported on the existence of interrogation tapes in May, 2004. US military officials confirmed their existence at that time.
Mr. Kenny said that the American Center for Civil Liberties is pressing for the tapes to be released after a report alleged that a "secret military review" of only 20 hours of the tapes found "10 substantial cases of abuse."

CSMonitor reporter Tom Regan writes further:

Also last week, Newsweek reported that four women interrogators have been recalled to active duty and may face military court-martials because of their involvement with abusive interrogation techniques. The Miami Herald reported last Wednesday that Army Gen. Bantz Craddock, chief of Miami's Southern Command, could not confirm the report that "investigators have turned up some evidence of abuses" at Guantánamo Bay.

Meanwhile on Aljazeera.net comes this report:

A US soldier accused of beating an Afghan civilian to death in 2002 should not be held solely responsible because authority figures used the same tactics, his attorney says.

Further in the report:

Brand is accused of beating Dilawar to death over a five-day period at Bagram Control Point just north of Kabul. An autopsy showed that Dilawar's legs were so damaged by blows that amputation would have been necessary if he had survived.

Dilawar died from "blunt force trauma to the lower extremities complicating coronary artery disease", according to a US Army report dated 6 July 2004.

"I thought [Monday's hearing] went reasonably well, like a dental appointment," Private First Class Willie Brand, 377th Military Police Company. Galligan said the knee-strike technique is a "non-lethal mechanism utilised to ensure compliance with a combative detainee".

The reports continue to come out that abuse and torture of men, women, and children by US military and intelligence units on bases, especially GitMo and Bagram.

The facts are plain that this is not the random acts of a few people but are interrogation techniques for specific purposes. The underlying ideology of using a specific torture methodology with Muslim men, women and children shows that Gen. Boykin's speeches at Christian churches have more then a grain of truth of this being not a "war on terror" but a "war between Christian and Muslim".

(Gen. Boykin is remembered as the former commander of U.S. Special Forces during the crisis in Mogadishu, Somalia. The film, "Black Hawk Down", is during Boykin's tenure as commander there.)

As other bloggers have commented on, it is that Senator Ken Salazar has a special obligation to the people of Colorado who worked on his campaign and those who voted for him, to the people of the United States, and especially to the Constitution is for him to hold Alberto Gonzales responsible and accountable for the on going abuses and torture of those who have been arrested, captured, or "disappeared".

Contrary to Mr. Gonzales' "fig leaf" protestations of this administration adhereing to the letter of U.S. law, the Constitution, the Bill of Rights, and to the Geneva Conventions there is ample proof that this is not so both in word and deed.

2005-02-24T10:07:00.000-07:00

What we, the people of this nation, is facing is a kind of "Future Shock" by Tyrant Bush. Alvin Toffler's book had the thesis that humans have a finite capacity for change. When humans reach their capacity for change then the human system goes into a state of shock.

The rate of change engendered by Tyrant Bush's anti-constitutional agenda is breathtaking. The staggering number of changes to the Constitution and American society has brought about a kind of fatigue and stupor to the progressives. This wholesale onslaught by Tyrant Bush and his minons, both individuals and corporations, upon the very notion that the Constitution and Bill of Rights stands for a democratic republic and the protection of individual freedoms from the power of government.

The founders of this nation would be appalled by the misuse and abuse of political power by Tyrant Bush's vision of an Christian-based, anti-science government, which has a imperial Presidency followed by the withered and lackey branches of Congress and Judiciary.

From the abuse of "iminent domain" for the pocketbooks of energy corporations that this administration is more then willing to use under aegis of the phony and criminal conspiracy by energy corporations of the California "energy crisis" to abasement of the rubic of "national security" into "homeland security" by Tyrant Bush from the still shrouded in mystery of why and how was 9/11 allowed to occur.

The laundry list of legal, moral and ethical wrongs by Tyrant Bush would fatigue the most ardent Constitutionalist and defender of the Bill of Rights.

However, the crime by Tyrant Bush that will stand out internationally will be the use of torture in the name of homeland security. Many learned people have spoken eloquently about the use of torture in the vast globe spanning gulag system set up by this administration.

What is most reprehensible is the blatant illegal and immoral use of torture in the name of protecting Americans not only from foreigners but from other American citizens.

2005-01-28T19:16:00.000-07:00

Alberto Gonzales is unfit to be a lawyer and Attorney General of the United States. The evidence is clear that he is against the principles of the Constitution and Bill of Rights. It is unfortunate that Sen. Ken Salazar has come out to support of Mr. Gonzales to the shame of the people of Colorado. It is time for the Senate of the United States to vote down Mr. Gonzales who is the lackey for Mr. Bush's dreams of an imperial presidency.

2004-12-18T11:44:00.000-07:00

Season's Greetings. I'll be posting again soon!

2004-08-14T10:21:00.000-06:00

The size of the crowds for the Kerry/Edwards whistle stop train campaign reminds me of the crowds that Harry S. Truman had fifty years ago. I was reminded by a long ago written political book "The Loneliest Campaign". While pundits back then were all for Dewey the reality was much different. Perhaps, this is the case for Kerry/Edwards as the crowds have been uniformly huge through the heartland of America as Americans are in dire straits both financially and politically.

The theme of "Help is on the Way" is effective because Mr. Bush has a proven track of record of not helping Americans across the board. We, meaning most Americans, are pretty much independent and fair minded, but given the poisonous political demagogery by the Newt Gringrich and his "Contract on America" agenda has alterted the political discourse. Aided and abetted by the Limbaugh seditionous act of betraying America's Constitution and Bill of Rights there is now the prevalent view by a large minority of Americans that our country is a "divided, unbridgeable society" which is "right/wrong" and any compromise is an act of ideological betrayal of a political belief. This is true for both progressive and reactionary "hardcore" elements in our political landscape.

I like this meme of "help is on the way" because it does sum up the facts of what many, many people in America have suffered under Bush Rex reign of fraud, corruption, and treason. We our a peoples that values hard work and having a decent job. If the corruption of mass media had not taken place then Mr. Bush would have long ago been sitting in jail for the real, not the faked/faux impeachment of Bill Clinton, crimes against the Constitution and Bill of Rights. However, there still is a tiny voice of investigative journalists that have come to bat for America. I would count Seymour Hersh as being the leading light for truth under this most corruption and treasonous administration by Mr. Bush in the history of the United States.

Although we have the values of independence we also have the values of community and to be the good samaritan in times of need. This is most glaringly absent by Mr. Bush and his cronies of the administration who view government as a personal "piggy bank" rather then a insturment for improving society. I look upon government since the time FDR as being a force for improving society and to reign in the corporate rampages of the gilded era and most recently under the Reagan/Bush/Bush era of bad/incompetent government.

BTW- Thanks for everyone who turned out for Denver Poets Day!

Plus, I'll be hosting this Sunday's Open Mic @ the Goddess, 8 pm, Oh My Goddess Coffeehouse.

2004-08-07T21:07:00.000-06:00

Bush and his administration never learn and do they respect the judgements of the Supreme Court? Read this and make your own judgement:

The multi-faceted legal attack on Al Odah

The Justice Department, moving to get all of the Guantanamo detainees’ habeas cases in U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., bundled together for decisions on the legal issues, has laid out the full range of legal attacks it intends to mount to try to ensure that the detainees get no relief, despite their apparent victory in the Supreme Court in June in the Rasul/Al Odah case.

They will never submit or defer to any other branch of government unless it is in their interest to do so.

2004-07-11T09:11:00.000-06:00

"The U.S. Treasury Department reported that it has fined biotechnology firm Chiron Corp. $168,500 for illegally exporting goods to Cuba.

According to Chiron, from 1999 to 2002, the Emeryville-based company shipped five vaccines for infants and children to Cuba from its plants in Germany and Italy....

The fine is the second-largest civil penalty issued this year by the Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control, or OFAC."

Why does Bush hate children?

Because he eliminates, cuts, or is willing to let monies dedicated to specific programs turn into so-called "bloc grants" to states. These "bloc grants" to states are wasting our money because the state then has to setup their own management system to administer the program, and each program must fight for funding from the bloc grant.

2004-07-10T16:39:00.000-06:00

Since Bush came into office it seems as if he has made it his purpose to corrupt every single institution in the United States. From the Supreme Court to the press to the SEC to the US Military there is nothing left of us but the bare bones of the constitution and the hope that we at least have one more free election.

Neither anarchists or terrorists have ever been so efficient.

http://digbysblog.blogspot.com/

Why?

2004-07-06T23:09:00.000-06:00

refugees and draft dodgers
          is what made america great

          the sons and daughters of those waves of sea sick steerage passengers
                     from the lands of despots and god-kings
          have forgotten their own heritage
                    even the good book demands the conscience of the individual
          take precedence over the commands of a king

as tolstoy wrote
          of the conscience of you or i
          must take the last of stand
                    through the reasoning of the artifices of ethics, morality
          boiled down
                    the essence
                              don’t be a dupe of the silly flags,
                              banging of the tin drums,
                              and those trinkets from the state

brain washed
          under the influence of drugs
                    under the blaring of the patriotic, tootling trumpets
          even before the washing off of the mother’s amniotic fluids
                    colors of blood and heraldry through the uterine wall

for those who still inhabit the living world
          forgetting is better to assuage the conscience

          our forebearers understood through living
                    under the fist of a tyrant
          where law was promulgated through a deities’ annointed one
                    processed by belief into whatever whim
          relief from this can only be bought by fomenting absolute revolution

2004-06-25T20:19:00.000-06:00

Sean McCormack, press aide for National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice, said yesterday that Rice "does not recall seeing the memos. If she did not see them, it's unlikely the president saw them."

Does anybody read anything in this administration?

To me Mr. Bush and his minons should give the taxpayers back our money because they are miserable failures to be responsible, thinking, and caring adults.

BTW- I'll be hosting "Bring Our Troops Home, Now!" poetry event at Oh My Goddess Coffeehouse, Denver. Saturday, June 26th, 8 p.m. It is part of a nationwide actions called by national groups- WinWithoutWar.org and UnitedforPeace.org. Come down to read or listen. So give a shout!

2004-06-20T22:44:00.000-06:00

I'll be hosting "Bring the Troops Home, Now!" poetry reading at Oh My Goddess Coffeehouse, 8 p.m., Saturday, June 26th, 1528 East Colfax Ave., Denver.

Two major advocacy groups, United for Peace and Justice and Win Without War are working together in calling for nationwide actions between June 25-27.

2004-06-15T10:50:00.000-06:00

The League of Women Voters does the right thing by withdrawing support of DRE (paperless) machines.

Bogus terrorism charges dropped in Boston against Joe Previtera, who dressed in black shawl and hood with stereo wires attached as the infamous Abu Ghraib prisoner, protested in front of a military recruitment office. Reading down in the article I found this to be disconcerting and highly improper- "The police woke me in the middle of the night and showed me pictures of U.S. soldiers with smiling Iraqi children," says Previtera. "The officers told me these were pictures that I'd never see in the media, and that the Boston Globe and The New York Times were communist papers."

Beyond belief that Fox News gives a big thumbs up for Moore's Fahrenheit 9/11. Reviewer Roger Friedman states, As much as some might try to marginalize this film as a screed against President George Bush, "F9/11" — as we saw last night — is a tribute to patriotism, to the American sense of duty, and at the same time a indictment of stupidity and avarice.

The 9/11 Commission wraps up. However there are a few questions still unanswered. The Madcow Morning News writes, "The truth which no one dares speak of is that as we approach the third anniversary of the Sept 11 attack there has still been no official investigation into the murders of 3000 people that day...at least no investigation to which the American people have been privy.

Results from the FBI’s ballyhooed 4000-man investigation have never been revealed. And the Congressional Intelligence Committee investigation met in secret; its report contained the famous 28 page "gap."

And anyone looking to the 9/11 Commission to offer answers will be disillusioned to learn the panel was only charged with identifying what might have prevented the White House, Pentagon, CIA, and FBI from being taken by surprise in a way not seen since Pearl Harbor.

The 9/11 Commission, in other words, will answer only the question of what should have been done differently. There’s nothing in the panel's mandate about letting the American people in on the answer to the only question worth asking: what happened?"

2004-06-14T11:29:00.000-06:00

Andrew McCarthy tries to mount a defense, "Torturing Good Governance" of the legal memorandums from DoJ and DoD at NRO. However, the very first lines of his argument invokes the false argument to emotion. "It was the chaotic aftermath of the 9/11 attacks. I can't remember if it was the next day, a few days later, or maybe even longer than that." He then goes on to a laundry list of so-called impediments to investigators of suspected terrorists, including the discredited argument that there was a "wall" against sharing information between criminal and intelligence agents.

This is Mr. McCarthy's views on the Fifth and Fourth amendments to the Constitution: "There was, of course, Miranda, the Supreme Court's fabled bolstering of the Fifth Amendment's self-incrimination clause, which systematically required police, before trying to talk to detainees, to discourage them from speaking. There was the Fourth Amendment, the Constitution's proscription against unreasonable searches and seizures, which presumptively barred investigators from arresting people or searching locations absent probable cause that a crime had been committed."

Mr. McCarthy sees fit to invoke 9/11 three times in order to "scare" the reader into accepting his argument that there can only be the Bush view in prosecuting his faux "war on terror". He does not address the underlying thesis that only the President, without the enumerated checks and balances as defined by the Constitution, can set aside U.S. law and international law.

The list of prominent and thoughtful people who consider Mr. Bush's policies harming national security is growing. Mr. McCarthy's article argues that "the government memos should still be able to recognize that they were sober and necessary treatments by able legal minds. Their insights edified the policymakers, who, by the way, never adopted the most provocative suggestions." As Sen. Kennedy graphically pointed out that the prison torture at Abu Ghraib was encouraged by the illegal and immoral intent and actions from the highest levels of civilian and military commanders.

For a more concise analysis on the OLC memo go here.