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October 28, 2006
The Emperor
Through gritted teeth; repeat after me: "The Emperor has clothes. The Emperor has clothes... Your house will be broken into and your belongings stolen by the FBI in the middle of the night if you point out that the Emperor is naked.
Posted by griffjon at 09:58 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
October 25, 2006
5% of 35,000 "Secret" Prisoners are terrorism-related
Corrente reports on Powell's chief of staff coming out with a number closer to 35k people in Bush's secret prisons, with only 5% of those being terror subjects. Which makes 95% of them, what, exactly? Detractors? People Bush didn't like?
Please Democrats, get it together and turn this guy into a lame duck and start opening up investigation after investigation. The Republicans were all over Clinton for a real estate deal he was formerly involved in, surely we have the balls and mental coherence to go after Bush for wiping his ass with the US Constitution? Bush is doing more harm to the US than any terrorist could ever hope for. Maybe he should spend some time getting waterboarded in Gitmo.
I want my country back.
Posted by griffjon at 08:22 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
October 24, 2006
Things I never thought I'd read
Now that habeas corpus and other basic rights, including the right not to be tortured while interrogated, have now been deemed unnecessary, more Americans than ever have been thinking of getting out the door while they still can. Getting Out: Your Guide to Leaving America (Process Books, January 2007) provides an informed consideration for all potential expats: where to go, how to get there, and how to live best outside the U.S....
(Via boingboing)
Kinda reminds me of a few quotes:
"When fascism comes to America, it will be wrapped in the flag and carrying the cross" -- Sinclair Lewis
"Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to greater danger."-- Herman Goering at the Nuremberg trials
Posted by griffjon at 10:28 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
October 23, 2006
Small Pleasures
On Mondays, I work until 5 and then commute up to GWU for class from 7-9, then walk and rail home and get there around 10pm. I make up for this long stretch of no food by going to a little Cuban restaurant next door to my work and getting (among other things) deep-fried plantains to dip in their mysterious mayonaise-mustardish sauce. YUM
Posted by griffjon at 12:51 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
October 22, 2006
Haloween Party
The Halloween party was a huge success. I DJ'ed using my linux box (but without relying on a wirelessly-mounted SMB share this time, which, though awesome, doesn't work if there's any other network traffic in my situation). I've created a set of perl programs that make it easy to export playlists of songs into folders with playlists and the songs themselves, and a way to change a playlist from Windows to Unix directory formats, and even remap from windows' C:\... to my mountpoint for that. woot.
Huh. I seem to remember having to change the nixification script last night, while drunk. It worked, but now I can't even remember the problem I was solving, much less what I did. I should go back and look at that code before the next time it gets used, perchance. Drunk coding != idea.good;
There are a few photos up on flickr, hopefully more will show up from the roomies.
Posted by griffjon at 12:54 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
October 19, 2006
On the terror bill
This is seriously bad stuff. It also appears that Fox news is now writing material for the BBC:
President George W Bush has signed into law a bill that sets standards for the interrogation and prosecution of foreign terror suspects held by the US.The law aims to enshrine defendants' human rights, but still restricts their right to challenge their detention.
It follows a Supreme Court ruling in June that military tribunals set up to prosecute detainees at Guantanamo Bay violated US and international law.
A US spokesman said preparations would now begin to try Guantanamo suspects.
At a ceremony in Washington, Mr Bush said it was a rare occasion when a president signed a law that he knew would save American lives.
"I have that privilege this morning," he said, calling the Military Commissions Act "one of the most important pieces of legislation in the war on terror".
'Fair trials'
The president said the Central Intelligence Agency's programme of questioning terror suspects had proved invaluable, and the new law would reinforce this.
The Military Commissions Act, he said, would allow the CIA "to continue to question terrorists and save lives", adding: "It complies with the spirit and letter of the US's international obligations."
The law also set out a system of special tribunals, which would give defendants a fair trial, Mr Bush said.
Sorry, I think I must've missed the memo, when did closed military tribunals, dropping habeus corpus, and defining which torture methods could be used become a positive thing, showing our progress and fairness?? I was hoping for the article to end in some acerbic british wit, damning Bush with faint praise, but it's attempt to show "the other side" is pitiful.
Posted by griffjon at 08:23 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
October 04, 2006
Fox
Fox reveals the truth that's not supported by reality, only Democrats have sex scandals, because as Fox repeatedly has pointed out, Foley, the Republican from Florida, is a Democrat.
In unrelated news, DNA testing on the white splatters on Fox News reveal them to be from the GOP.
Posted by griffjon at 06:42 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
October 03, 2006
Foley
I have to admit that watching the GOP spin cycle try to deal with Foley is like watching the spin cycle when you finally get around to tossing your mud-caked tennis shoes in the wash. You wince, but somehow, it's still amusing. Case in point, the GOP was covering for Foley not to loose face with the zealot right, but to be sensitive to gays:
Gingrich suggested that House Republican leaders would have been responding "overly aggressively" if they took action against Foley after reading his alleged emails because "the actual notes were relatively innocuous, there was nothing sexual in those notes."
Maybe they should've looked not at the emails (which merely complimented the fitness of various pages, asked for pictures, and ages), and looked at the instant messaging transcripts from 2003 (via ABCNews):
Maf54 (7:46:33 PM): did any girl give you a haand job this weekendXxxxxxxxx (7:46:38 PM): lol no
Xxxxxxxxx (7:46:40 PM): im single right now
Xxxxxxxxx (7:46:57 PM): my last gf and i broke up a few weeks agi
Maf54 (7:47:11 PM): are you
Maf54 (7:47:11 PM): good so your getting horny
Xxxxxxxxx (7:47:29 PM): lol...a bit
Maf54 (7:48:00 PM): did you spank it this weekend yourself
Xxxxxxxxx (7:48:04 PM): no
Xxxxxxxxx (7:48:16 PM): been too tired and too busy
Maf54 (7:48:33 PM): wow...
Maf54 (7:48:34 PM): i am never to busy haha
At the end of the day, it's sad that the GOP was covering for what looks to be four years of pedophilia and sexual harassment by Foley, it's sad that Foley is such a putz, and it's really, really, really sad that one of our elected officials can't even get your/you're right.
BTW - keep a barf bag handy if you start reading the ABCNews chat transcripts.
Posted by griffjon at 09:24 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack