May 05, 2008
Waterboarding
Seriously, can the debate be over now?
Amnesty International video on waterboarding -- showing as a movie trailer in theaters now!
Posted by griffjon at 08:00 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
February 23, 2008
Blast from the past
Edit: OK, I was really excited about this article below until I got to the end when it started talking about "So dramatic are the report's scenarios, Watson said, that they may prove vital in the US elections. Democratic frontrunner John Kerry is known to accept climate change as a real problem. Scientists disillusioned with Bush's stance are threatening to make sure Kerry uses the Pentagon report in his campaign." -- it was published in 2004. Sigh.
Ok; so now can we get something done?
A secret report, suppressed by US defence chiefs and obtained by The Observer, warns that major European cities will be sunk beneath rising seas as Britain is plunged into a 'Siberian' climate by 2020. Nuclear conflict, mega-droughts, famine and widespread rioting will erupt across the world.The document predicts that abrupt climate change could bring the planet to the edge of anarchy as countries develop a nuclear threat to defend and secure dwindling food, water and energy supplies. The threat to global stability vastly eclipses that of terrorism, say the few experts privy to its contents.
'Disruption and conflict will be endemic features of life,' concludes the Pentagon analysis. 'Once again, warfare would define human life.'
The findings will prove humiliating to the Bush administration, which has repeatedly denied that climate change even exists. Experts said that they will also make unsettling reading for a President who has insisted national defence is a priority.
The report was commissioned by influential Pentagon defence adviser Andrew Marshall, who has held considerable sway on US military thinking over the past three decades. He was the man behind a sweeping recent review aimed at transforming the American military under Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld.
Climate change 'should be elevated beyond a scientific debate to a US national security concern', say the authors, Peter Schwartz, CIA consultant and former head of planning at Royal Dutch/Shell Group, and Doug Randall of the California-based Global Business Network.
Bob Watson, chief scientist for the World Bank and former chair of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, added that the Pentagon's dire warnings could no longer be ignored.'Can Bush ignore the Pentagon? It's going be hard to blow off this sort of document. Its hugely embarrassing. After all, Bush's single highest priority is national defence. The Pentagon is no wacko, liberal group, generally speaking it is conservative. If climate change is a threat to national security and the economy, then he has to act. There are two groups the Bush Administration tend to listen to, the oil lobby and the Pentagon,' added Watson.
Posted by griffjon at 09:54 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Disenfranchise this!
Students at Prarie View A&M in Texas (a democratic stronghold) have a seven mile trek to their polling place -- not horrible, except that they're students with a lower than average number of cars (and certainly there's a place on or near campus to host a polling location?). Regardless, they marched, en masse, to go vote -- and blocked the highway in protest as they did it.
Posted by griffjon at 09:47 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
February 16, 2008
Peace Corps, Espionage, and Bolivia, Part II
Bolivia charged a US embassy official with espionage. He's been removed from the country with promises from the US Embassy that he will never set foot in Bolivia again, after it came to light that he's been asking Fullbright scholars and Peace Corps volunteers to spy on Venezuelans and Cubans in Bolivia, says ABCNews:
... the first time in history that the Bolivian government has charged a U.S. embassy official with a criminal offense -- let alone for one as serious espionage.Officials from the two countries met for hours yesterday in La Paz in an attempt to quell the growing tension and called a truce last night. Both sides declared their intentions to better relations and made clear that the official in question -- Assistant Regional Security Advisor Vincent Cooper -- would not return to Bolivia.
"We accept the [U.S.] ambassador's explanations, and we want to get past the issue," said Foreign Relations Minister David Choquehuanca at the press conference that followed the more than three-hour-long meeting
A sad footnote that scooted in to the end of the ABC News article:
The U.S. Embassy in La Paz acknowledges the July incident, having received complaints from Peace Corps staff last year about the matter. But both the embassy and the State Department claim it was "an error," emphasizing that it should not have been interpreted as a request for U.S. citizens to spy.
What was the error? That the volunteers and scholars were asked at all, or that the ask was "interpreted" as espionage?
Posted by griffjon at 02:45 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
December 16, 2007
Torture
Salon.com has an exclusive article detailing the detainment of an innocent Yemeni citizen in CIA's black site prisons:
The guards wore black masks and black clothes. They would not utter a word as they extracted Bashmilah from his cell for interrogation -- one of his few interactions with other human beings during his entire 19 months of imprisonment. Nobody told him where he was, or if he would ever be freed.It was enough to drive anyone crazy. Bashmilah finally tried to slash his wrists with a small piece of metal, smearing the words "I am innocent" in blood on the walls of his cell. But the CIA patched him up.
So Bashmilah stopped eating. But after his weight dropped to 90 pounds, he was dragged into an interrogation room, where they rammed a tube down his nose and into his stomach. Liquid was pumped in.
Mark Twain once said; "Patriotism is supporting your country all the time, and your government when it deserves it." I haven't supported my government for a long time, and I've almost lost all support for even my country when things like this come to light on a weekly basis and fall on deaf ears.
Posted by griffjon at 09:13 AM | Comments (0)
August 07, 2007
Smells like facism
Former DOJ Lawyer's home raided - the FBI took his computer and his childrens' laptops. He's suspected of... wait for it... leaking the news about illegal warrantless wiretaps to the press (back when they were still illegal, oh how I long for last week).
Posted by griffjon at 08:28 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
July 31, 2007
Midnight Oil
I re-acquired my old Midnight Oil tunes (they'd been trapped on the tapes - yes tapes - I'd bought in the early 90s and have been listening to their songs a lot the past few days. I'd forgotten how strong their lyrics were, and am constantly surprised by their frankly disturbing applicability to today's global political situation.
Take Short Memory, for a prime example:
Conquistador of Mexico, the Zulu and the Navaho The Belgians in the Congo short memory! Plantation in Virginia, the Raj in British India The deadline in South Africa short memory! The story of El Salvador, the silence of Hiroshima Destruction of Cambodia Short memory!The sight of hotels by the Nile, the designated Hilton style
With running water specially bought
short memory!
A smallish man Afghanistan, a watch dog in a nervous land
They're only there to lend a hand
short memory!
Wake up in sweat at dead of night
And in the tents new rifles
hey! short memory
'cuz, y'know, that's not suggestive of anything in current events.
It somehow pleases me to see that while the band has broken up, it's because their lead singer is now in the Australian House of Representatives and is the Shadow Minister for Climate Change, Environment & Heritage, Arts...
A few more choice lyrics after the cut.
One Country
was it just a dream, were you so confused
was it just a giant leap of logic
was it the time of year, that makes a state of fear
methods, were their motives for the actionand did i hear you say
my country right or wrong?i hear you say the truth must take a beating
the flag a camouflage for your deceiving
i know we all make mistakes
US Forces
US Forces give the nod, it's a setback for your country
Bombs and trenches all in rows, bombs and threats still ask for more
Divided world the CIA, who controls the issue
You leave us with no time to talk, you can write your assessmentWill you know it when you see it, high risk children -- dogs of war
Now market movements call the shots, business deals in parking lots
Waiting for the meat of tomorrowEveryone is too stoned to start emission
People too scared to go to prison
We're unable to make decision
Political party line -- don't cross that floor!
Blue Sky Mine
The balance sheet is breaking up the sky
So I'm caught at the junction still waiting for medicine
The sweat of my brow keeps on feeding the engine
Hope the crumbs in my pocket can keep me for another night
And if the blue sky mining company won't come to my rescue
If the sugar refining company won't save me
Who's gonna save me?
Posted by griffjon at 09:20 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
What normal looks like
Bruce Schneier, one of the clearer and more levelheaded voices in security and privacy, recently interviews Kip Hawley, the TSA chief shoe-inspector. Bruce asks Kip hard questions, and Kip dodges or gives you the distinct impression that he's straight up lying. After a chain of questions about the pointlessness of shoe checking and the "War on Liquids", Kip responds that indeed, the TSA is adaptive, and not just reacting to foiled plots:
Our security strategy assumes an adaptive terrorist, and that looking backwards is not a reliable predictor of the next type of attack. Yes, we screen for shoe bombs and liquids, because it would be stupid not to directly address attack methods that we believe to be active. Overall, we are getting away from trying to predict what the object looks like and looking more for the other markers of a terrorist. (Don't forget, we see two million people a day, so we know what normal looks like.)
Well, that'd explain why my long-haired-hippie self always gets special treatment at the 2-gated San Angelo airport, which recently upgraded to skybridges so you don't have to deplane onto the tarmac anymore.
PS, if you know Bruce, you should check out some Schneier facts to see if you *really* know Bruce.
Posted by griffjon at 09:00 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
July 19, 2007
Well, there goes more civil liberties
The UK Guardian reports:
President Bush unveiled an executive order that allows the administration to block bank accounts and any other financial assets that might be found in this country belonging to people, companies or groups that the United States deems are working to threaten stability in Iraq.Bush cited the ``unusual and extraordinary threat'' to national security and foreign policy of the United States ``posed by acts of violence threatening the peace and stability of Iraq and undermining efforts to promote economic reconstruction and political reform in Iraq and to provide humanitarian assistance to the Iraqi people.'
Of course, this is limited only to people materially supporting efforts to undermine Iraqi stability. Unfortunately, that could be a pretty board term encompassing anyone who supports withdrawal, from Sen. Reid down to your everyday anti-war protester, or even donor to non-profits/NGOs supporting alternative development strategies. And as we learned last week, pot smokers support terrorists, so their assets could be seized as well, because we know they're a big threat.
Even the geek-news site slashdot has weighed in.
You can read the full text of the executive order at Whitehouse.gov yourself, if this kind of blatant abuse of power is still surprising you.
Can we impeach him now? (does calling for impeachment make me an underminer of Iraqi stability?) Guess I better take some cash out of the bank, huh?
Posted by griffjon at 03:17 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
July 10, 2007
Dems bend over again
The Democrats have dropped their call for giving TSA employees the right to collectively bargain as part of the bill aimed to respond to the critiques of the 9/11 Commission report.
First, uh, guys, it's 2007. Why have we been worrying about immigration reform and Iraq legislation if we haven't even fixed the massive gaping holes the report uncovered?
Second - who cares if Bush has threatened to veto it. F it. Make him veto the damned thing. Make him clarify that he hates legal unionization of a small group of Federal employees more than he values the safety of the entire American public. Make the rest of the GOP make their views on unions vs safety clear if by their vote on overturning the veto. Who knows, creating a union of TSA employees might help security by streamlining their work and dropping the pointless endeavors they've been forced to enact (shoes, water...)
In other words: stop trying to cooperate. The neocon crowd won't return the favor and won't come to the table unless they get their way. If your goal is to pass legislation, you're going to have to give in to the neocon crowd every time; this isn't compromise, this is surrender. You have control of the house, start acting like it, start sending bills to the hill, regardless of Bush's veto threats. If it's a good bill, you have a decent chance of overturning it with some aisle-crossing vote-pandering republicans.
Posted by griffjon at 01:32 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Dems bend over again
The Democrats have dropped their call for giving TSA employees the right to collectively bargain as part of the bill aimed to respond to the critiques of the 9/11 Commission report (many already belong to unions, but are denied the right to bargain collectively).
First, uh, guys, it's 2007. Why have we been worrying about immigration reform and Iraq legislation if we haven't even fixed the massive gaping holes the report uncovered?
Second - who cares if Bush has threatened to veto it. F it. Make him veto the damned thing. Make him clarify that he hates legal unionization and the concept of collective bargaining of a small group of Federal employees more than he values the safety of the entire American public. Make the rest of the GOP make their views on labor rights vs safety clear if by their vote on overturning the veto. Who knows, enabling collective bargaining of TSA employees might help security by streamlining their work and dropping the pointless endeavors they've been forced to enact (shoes, water...)
In other words: stop trying to cooperate. The neocon crowd won't return the favor and won't come to the table unless they get their way. If your goal is to pass legislation, you're going to have to give in to the neocon crowd every time; this isn't compromise, this is surrender. You have control of the house, start acting like it, start sending bills to the hill, regardless of Bush's veto threats. If it's a good bill, you have a decent chance of overturning it with some aisle-crossing vote-pandering republicans.
Posted by griffjon at 01:32 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
July 02, 2007
But can he pardon himself?
This is... what's that word? bullshit. the word is bullshit.
Posted by griffjon at 08:57 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
June 26, 2007
Buttle? Tuttle?
Somewhere in London, a Rob Buttle is about to get a £1,484,765 bill for unpaid congestion charges (the BBC bia BoingBoing:
"The majority of missions pay the congestion charge on time and do not incur fines. We also wrote to all missions owing over £1,000 in fines urging them to settle their debts with Transport for London."The US embassy - along with many others - has refused to pay the congestion fee on the grounds that it is tax; and therefore diplomats are exempt from paying it.
It has led to stinging criticism from London mayor Ken Livingstone, who branded US ambassador Robert Tuttle a "venal little crook" for his refusal to pay.
It saddens me that neither BoingBoing nor the Freakonomics blog took the Brazil joke.
Posted by griffjon at 08:31 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
June 14, 2007
More terrorism because of liquids
Of course, the real terrorists here seem to be the TSA staff who fly off the handle because of a sippy cup with water in it. This security theater has really got to stop.
I explained that the sippy cup water was filtered tap water. The sippy cup was seized as my son was pointing and crying for his cup. I asked if I could drink the water to get the cup back, and was advised that I would have to leave security and come back through with an empty cup in order to retain the cup. As I was escorted out of security by TSA and a police officer, I unscrewed the cup to drink the water, which accidentally spilled because I was so upset with the situation."At this point, I was detained against my will by the police officer and threatened to be arrested for endangering other passengers with the spilled 3 to 4 ounces of water. I was ordered to clean the water, so I got on my hands and knees while my son sat in his stroller with no shoes on since they were also screened and I had no time to put them back on his feet. I asked to call back my fiancé, who I could still see from afar, waiting for us to clear security, to watch my son while I was being detained, and the officer threatened to arrest me if I moved. So I yelled past security to get the attention of my fiancé.
"I was ordered to apologize for the spilled water, and again threatened arrest. I was threatened several times with arrest while detained, and while three other police officers were called to the scene of the mother with the 19 month old. A total of four police officers and three TSA officers reported to the scene where I was being held against my will. I was also told that I should not disrespect the officer and could be arrested for this too. I apologized to the officer and she continued to detain me despite me telling her that I would miss my flight. The officer advised me that I should have thought about this before I 'intentionally spilled the water!'"
Posted by griffjon at 03:11 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
March 04, 2007
The kid's probably a terrorist, anyhow (or will be, after this)
The Globe and Mail has a story about an Iranian family who lost their refugee plea with Canada and was in the process (after ~3 months of the father's detention and torture in Iran) of smuggling themselves back in to Canada. Their flight got re-routed through the U.S. where their (forged) papers triggered their detention:
“They say we have to pass immigration, and they say because we have Greek passport, you need to get a visa for United States. I said no, our ticket is to Toronto, we have no plan to come here.”After being held in Puerto Rico for five days, the family was brought to Taylor, Tex., about 45 kilometres northeast of Austin, to the main U.S. family detention centre for immigrants.
“My luggage go to Toronto,” said Majid, 42, “and we have to stay here.”
Now, the three of them are locked inside the centre that, U.S. refugee advocates recently alleged, features inadequate medical care, lack of privacy and abusive behaviour by staff toward the green-uniformed detainees.
Posted by griffjon at 07:52 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
February 02, 2007
Bribing is not good science
The Guardian reports:
"Letters sent by the American Enterprise Institute (AEI), an ExxonMobil-funded thinktank with close links to the Bush administration, offered the payments [up to $10000 plus travel and "additional payments"] for articles that emphasise the shortcomings of a report from the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)
The letters were sent by Kenneth Green, a visiting scholar at AEI, who confirmed that the organisation had approached scientists, economists and policy analysts to write articles for an independent review that would highlight the strengths and weaknesses of the IPCC report."Right now, the whole debate is polarised," he said. "One group says that anyone with any doubts whatsoever are deniers and the other group is saying that anyone who wants to take action is alarmist. We don't think that approach has a lot of utility for intelligent policy."
But, bribing, on the other hand, is a time-honored tradition in policy making.
The AEI, for what it's worth, is clearly a non-partisan group (up there with Diebold!):
The AEI has received more than $1.6m from ExxonMobil and more than 20 of its staff have worked as consultants to the Bush administration. Lee Raymond, a former head of ExxonMobil, is the vice-chairman of AEI's board of trustees.
Posted by griffjon at 12:02 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
January 21, 2007
Fox News Email Virus?
My mailbox is currently full of a virus/spam with titles like:
"Third World War has Started"
"(Chinese|Russian) missile shot down (Russian|USA) (aircraft|satellite)"
"First Nuclear Act of Terrorism"
"Supreme Court attacked by terrorists"
"(Hugo Chavez|Fidel Castro|Putin) Dead"
"Radical Muslim drinking enemies' blood"
"Saddam Hussein safe and sound!"
"The commander of a U.S. nuclear submarine lunch [sic] the rocket by mistake."
"Venezuelan leader: "Let's the War beginning"
Yay. Just what we need. Viral spam fearmongering.
Posted by griffjon at 02:33 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
December 06, 2006
WTF?
The Dept. of Health and Human Services, on behalf of the president, would like to ask you to not have sex if you're single and under 30.
...Can we figure out some secession plan now?
Update:
From the NYT, via CNN, 95% of Americans are doomed to burn in hell, er, I mean, engage in premarital sex:More than nine out of 10 Americans, men and women alike, have had premarital sex, according to a new study. The high rates extend even to women born in the 1940s, challenging perceptions that people were more chaste in the past. ... "The data clearly show that the majority of older teens and adults have already had sex before marriage, which calls into question the federal government's funding of abstinence-only-until-marriage programs for 12- to 29-year-olds," Finer said ... "It would be more effective," Finer said, "to provide young people with the skills and information they need to be safe once they become sexually active -- which nearly everyone eventually will."
The Bush adminstration has responded to critiques on their HHS anti-premarital-sex report and their absintence-only sex-ed:
Wade Horn, assistant secretary for children and families at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, defended the abstinence-only approach for teenagers."One of its values is to help young people delay the onset of sexual activity," he said. "The longer one delays, the fewer lifetime sex partners they have, and the less the risk of contracting sexually transmitted disease."
He insisted there was no federal mission against premarital sex among adults.
"Absolutely not," Horn said. "The Bush administration does not believe the government should be regulating or stigmatizing the behavior of adults."
...So is this a new policy about not regulating adult activity, or do you not consider homosexuals (or, say, terminally ill patients wishing to end their lives) "adult"?
Posted by griffjon at 07:16 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
November 08, 2006
Wha... Huh?
28 seats gained in the House, and teetering on a lead in the Senate also? Rummy quit (before he could become the target of an investigation, perhaps?)
GREAT!
Now, how about that PATRIOT act, those warrantless wiretaps, and Habeas Corpus? We've got some house cleaning work to do...
Posted by griffjon at 12:45 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
November 07, 2006
Voting
(AP) -- Programming errors and inexperience dealing with electronic voting machines frustrated poll workers in hundreds of precincts early Tuesday, delaying voters in Indiana, Ohio and Florida and leaving some with little choice but to use paper ballots instead...."We got five machines -- one of them's got to work," said Willette Scullank, a troubleshooter from the Cuyahoga County, Ohio, elections board.In Indiana's Marion County, about 175 of 914 precincts turned to paper because poll workers didn't know how to run the machines, said Marion County Clerk Doris Ann Sadler. She said it could take most of the day to fix all of the machine-related issues.
Election officials in Delaware County, Indiana, planned to seek a court order to extend voting after an apparent computer error prevented voters from casting ballots in 75 precincts there. County Clerk Karen Wenger said the cards that activate the machines were programmed incorrectly....With a third of Americans voting on new equipment and voters navigating new registration databases and changing ID rules, election watchdogs worried about polling problems even before the voting began.
And we're calling Nicaragua's elections, which match predictions, independent quick-counts, and have received the EU, OAS and Carter Foundation blessings full of anomalies.
Posted by griffjon at 12:07 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
November 06, 2006
VOTE
Vote early, vote on paper!
Inform people about the GOP Scam making it seem like Democrats in over 50 congressional campaigns are repeatedly robo-calling voters, failing to comply by the FCC regulations on such calls. Of course, this won't get resolved until after the damage is done. Again.
Posted by griffjon at 09:28 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Nica Elections
Not content to muddle with our own elections, the US is trying to continue its policy of choosing the winner in Nicaragua's elections:
Rep. Dan Rohrabacher (R-CA), in a letter asked Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff "to prepare in accordance with U.S. law, contingency plans to block any further money remittances from being sent to Nicaragua in the event that the FSLN enters government." Many Nicaraguan families rely on money sent home from relatives working in the United States. Even though Rohrabacher's statement is total "muscle flexing" according to an expert on remittances at the InterAmerican Dialogue, who pointed out that the US hasn't even cut off remittances to Cuba, some Nicaraguans may cast their vote out of fear. Congressmen Tom Tancredo (R-CO), Ed Royce (R-CA) and Peter Hoekstra (R-MI) wrote variously to Nicaragua's US Ambassador and Condoleezza Rice threatening actions if Nicaraguans vote wrong. All their threats, of course, reverberate in Nicaragua where US Ambassador Paul Trivelli has intervened so loudly that even the usually quiescent Organization of American States has condemned US interference.
OK, I mean, cutting off aid is bad, ask Lebanon. But remittances? That's cruel. That's below the belt, even for the US. Now, this is just some war-mongering congresscritter, but the reality is that we have and continue to muck with their electoral process:
The most public example of this campaign of manipulation is the US Ambassador to Nicaragua, Paul Trivelli. His statements are a constant reminder of the US government’s true agenda in Nicaragua. For example, he has stated many times, the US “will establish cordial relationships with any administration that is elected democratically . . . that has a reasonable economic policy and is ready to cooperate with us.”The Bush administration has made clear that a government “ready to cooperate with the US” is one that will do the following: (1) support CAFTA and other free trade policies, (2) participate in all the US requests concerning the war on terrorism, (3) ensure that the Nicaraguan national police receive training that blurs the time-honored distinction between civilian policing and military action, and (4) not maintain friendly diplomatic relationships with either Cuba or Venezuela.
Ambassador Trivelli has also made it clear that the election of the candidate for the PLC party cannot be former President Aleman, nor anyone he selects, and that the election of the FSLN party candidate, Daniel Ortega, will not be accepted by the present US government.
Now, José Serrano has spoken out against this:
“It is simply unacceptable for American officials to pretend our government will take punitive measures if Daniel Ortega is elected president in Nicaragua,” Serrano said. “Our position should be clear: we support free and fair elections and will work with the winner as we would any other elected head of state in the world. Perhaps some in the executive branch and elsewhere have forgotten that the U.S. does not have the right to intervene in other nations’ affairs. They would better serve our nation’s interests in democracy and rule of law by avoiding partisan commentary about other nation’s elections and candidates. To do otherwise is unseemly and counterproductive.”...“I am particularly troubled by the statements of Embassy spokesperson Kristin Stewart. She publicly linked Ortega with terrorist groups and said that the U.S. would revise its policy toward the Nicaraguan government should he win. I believe her words were unfortunate and wrong, and merit a withdrawal. Electioneering is not the proper role of an Embassy or its spokesperson.”
Stewart told the Nicaraguan newspaper La Prensa that “If a foreign government has a relationship with terrorist organizations, like the Sandinistas did in the past; U.S. law permits us to apply sanctions. [...] Again, it will be necessary to revise our policies if Ortega wins.”...
“I pledge that I will do everything in my power to make sure that the government of the United States will respect the wishes of the Nicaraguan people regardless of who wins their presidential election,” Serrano concluded. “Our nation desires nothing more than a flourishing democracy in Nicaragua.”
U.S.: It seems that you do not understand the concept of democracy. It means a people choosing their leaders through election processes. Some are more direct, some are, like yours, done via representation. It is expressly not having your leader picked by foreign nations based on economic alliances. Please check your work and definitions, and please revise. D-
Posted by griffjon at 11:21 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
November 04, 2006
Papers, Please
Slashdot links to an article (the site is slashdotted currently, see Google's cache)
Forget no-fly lists. If Uncle Sam gets its way, beginning on Jan. 14, 2007, we'll all be on no-fly lists, unless the government gives us permission to leave-or re-enter-the United States.The U.S. Department of Homeland Security (HSA) has proposed that all
airlines, cruise lines-even fishing boats-be required to obtain
clearance for each passenger they propose taking into or out of the
United States.It doesn't matter if you have a U.S. Passport - a "travel document"
that now, absent a court order to the contrary, gives you a virtually
unqualified right to enter or leave the United States, any time you
want. When the DHS system comes into effect next January, if the
agency says "no" to a clearance request, or doesn't answer the
request at all, you won't be permitted to enter-or leave-the United
States.
*blink* What. The. Fuck. Are we Nazi Germany now, restricting our own citizens from leaving?
I suddenly miss being less than a day's drive from the Mexican border.
Posted by griffjon at 10:13 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
November 02, 2006
more religious right hypocrisy explosions
I think preaching and/or campaigning against deviant lifestyles must lead to deviant lifestyles:
Pastor Ted Haggard, the leader of the gigantic evangelical Christian New Life Church in Colorado Springs and president of the National Association of Evangelicals, resigned after being accused of having an affair with another man. Haggard is the guy who kicked famous atheist Richard Dawkins out of his church in the documentary The Root of All Evil.
Posted by griffjon at 09:31 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
November 01, 2006
The Dems don't even need to TRY to lose!
With Florida voting machines giving Democrat votes to Republicans (see also here and here).
Remember kids, vote early, vote with paper.
Posted by griffjon at 06:16 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
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 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
September 23, 2006
Emergency Contraception: about morality or health?
This story from rural Ohio reminds us that even large swaths of our highly educated medical practicioners are more concerned about our morals than our health.
Posted by griffjon at 09:42 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
September 18, 2006
Diebold and Security
Honestly, how do we trust our Democracy's central tenet of voting rights to a company whose idea of securing their digital, no-paper-trail voting system employs a lock with a generic office key?
Hey, companies have all these rights as "individuals" - can an entire company also be charged with treason?
Posted by griffjon at 09:53 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
September 17, 2006
File this under...
... too little, too late:
what is most anomalous about the irregularities in 2004 was their decidedly partisan bent: Almost without exception they hurt John Kerry and benefited George Bush. After carefully examining the evidence, I've become convinced that the president's party mounted a massive, coordinated campaign to subvert the will of the people in 2004. Across the country, Republican election officials and party stalwarts employed a wide range of illegal and unethical tactics to fix the election. A review of the available data reveals that in Ohio alone, at least 357,000 voters, the overwhelming majority of them Democratic, were prevented from casting ballots or did not have their votes counted in 2004(12) -- more than enough to shift the results of an election decided by 118,601 votes.(13) (See Ohio's Missing Votes) In what may be the single most astounding fact from the election, one in every four Ohio citizens who registered to vote in 2004 showed up at the polls only to discover that they were not listed on the rolls, thanks to GOP efforts to stem the unprecedented flood of Democrats eager to cast ballots.(14) And that doesn’t even take into account the troubling evidence of outright fraud, which indicates that upwards of 80,000 votes for Kerry were counted instead for Bush. That alone is a swing of more than 160,000 votes -- enough to have put John Kerry in the White House.
Posted by griffjon at 08:43 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
September 11, 2006
National Security
I wasn't intending to write a 9/11 blog, I'm sure there are lots of better entries out there, but I read via boingboing about Greg Palast, and had to pass it on. Five years after 9/11, we've managed to throw a county into outright civil war and give Al Queda a foothold into it, and are much more secure at airports, as long as would-be terrorists promise to limit their nefarious plans to shoe soles and toothpaste. I saw that someone was caught smuggling a knife in a book, and now I'm just waiting to see the pile of burning books next to the pile of discarded "liquids" at each security aisle.
Anyhow. Back to poor Greg:
On August 22, for LinkTV and Democracy Now! we videotaped the thousands of Katrina evacuees still held behind a barbed wire in a trailer park encampment a hundred miles from New Orleans. It’s been a year since the hurricane and 73,000 POW’s (Prisoners of W) are still in this aluminum ghetto in the middle of nowhere. One resident, Pamela Lewis said, “It is a prison set-up” — except there are no home furloughs for these inmates because they no longer have homes.Read the rest at GregPalast.comTo give a sense of the full flavor and smell of the place, we wanted to show that this human parking lot, with kids and elderly, is nearly adjacent to the Exxon Oil refinery, the nation’s second largest, a chemical-belching behemoth.
...
So now Matt and I have a “criminal complaint” lodged against us with the feds.
...
After I assured Detective Pananepinto, “I can swear to you that I’m not part of Al Qaeda,” he confirmed that, “Louisiana is still part of the United States,” subject to the first amendment and he was therefore required to divulge my accuser.
Not surprisingly, it was Exxon Corporation, one of a handful of companies not in love with my investigations.
So I rang America’s top petroleum pusher-men and asked their media relations honcho in Houston, Marc Boudreaux, a simple question. “Do you want us to go to jail or not? Is it Exxon’s position that reporters should go to jail?” Because, all my dumb-ass jokes aside, that is what’s at stake. And Exxon knew we were journalists because we showed our press credential to the Exxon guards at the refinery entrance.
The Exxon man was coy: “Well, we’ll see what we can find out… Obviously it’s important to national security that we have supplies from that refinery in the event of an emergency.”
Really? According to the documents our team uncovered from the offices of Exxon’s lawyer, Mr. James Baker, the oil industry is more than happy to see a limit on worldwide crude production. Indeed, the current squeeze has jacked the price of oil from $24 a barrel to $64 and refined products have jumped yet higher — resulting in a record-busting profit for Exxon of nearly $1 billion per week.
Posted by griffjon at 09:49 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
September 09, 2006
Ronald McHummer
The Ronald McHummer website lets you create your own McD's marquee in protest of their adding Hummers as HappyMeal toys.
(via boingboing)
Posted by griffjon at 08:28 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
August 31, 2006
Seriously, now...
Without pens, we had nothing with which to fill out the immigrations and customs forms required for international flights arriving at their first port of entry to the United States. We ended up -- all 172 of us -- sharing the chief flight attendant's pen, passing it from row to row.
The war on moisture's been extended to PENS? (uncorroborated blog from UK only thus far), via boingboing.
I think we should ban all unapproved books and burn them at the gate, since books can spread subversive thought (and give nasty papercuts!). In fact, it'd prolly be best if we were just shackled and ball-gagged before walking down the gangplank, and then securely buckled into our seats. A few deaths from deep-vein thrombosis is a small price to pay for freedom. Catheters or adult diapers could take care of bathroom needs. They could play pro-democracy readings of the US Constitution (censored, naturally).
Posted by griffjon at 08:24 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
August 26, 2006
Airport Security
The War on Moisture is pure insanity. This past trip to Nicaragua was the first time I checked luggage (only coming back, mind you) since leaving Jamaica. It's a hassle, adds time pre-departure, adds the risk of loosing luggage, and takes forever when you arrive, at least in comparison to lugging your carry-on and going. Now, unless I want to buy a new set of toothpaste/deoderant/etc. at every place I go, this means I always have to check some piddling piece of luggage.
Can we cut it with the paranoia?
Even better is poor Raed, who was detained for wearing a shirt that read "We will not be silent" - in English and *gasp* Arabic script! Evidentially it's not cool to wear anything in an entire language in the airport. Luckily there's now a shirt that reads very clearly, "I am not a terrorist" (in Arabic script of course), with the $1 profit off of each shirt going to the ACLU.
Posted by griffjon at 10:42 AM | Comments (2) | TrackBack
August 05, 2006
Dollars and Sense
I have recently been gifted a subscription to Dollars & Sense, a magazine of economic justice. It's a pretty excellent source of independent thought on economic and labor issues. I'm now shilling for their blog, because hey, blogs.
Posted by griffjon at 03:50 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
July 20, 2006
Kinky for Guv
On the TX Governor's race, I think this says it all:
The Democrats, who haven't won a statewide race in Texas since 1994, nominated Chris Bell, an obscure former one-term congressman from Houston. Bell doesn't have a nickname, but he's frequently referred to as "What's-his-name, the Democrat."
The rest of the story at the Washington Post is informative for you folks not indoctinated into the Kinky life, and it has more gems, such as:
Kinky is one of Texas's most famous animal lovers. He donates the proceeds of his line of salsa -- Kinky Friedman's Private Stock -- to the Utopia Animal Rescue Ranch, a central Texas facility for abandoned animals that's on land donated by Kinky's late father, Tom. (Laura Bush is on the board of directors.)"We've saved more animals than Noah," Kinky says. "It's Gandhi-like work, and I'm a Gandhi-like figure. Meaning I don't do any of the real work, I just promote it."
Posted by griffjon at 12:33 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
June 20, 2006
I miss republicans
Posted by griffjon at 10:14 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
June 14, 2006
Ah, religion
I think this means that Fox is approaching singularity.
Posted by griffjon at 07:11 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
June 13, 2006
Fun with neocon
[Sarcasm follows]
Just read a piece about a policy in Ghana that had unfortunate side-effects of increasing the abortion rate, increasing children born out of wedlock, and complications or deaths during childbirth (to young mothers). Obviously, if the religious right in America is concerned about reducing these effects in America, we only have to take the reverse policy decision that Ghana did. No, it wasn't teaching sex-ed, making contraceptives available, legalizing abortions, or taking religion out of schools, it was making female genital mutilation illegal (often more euphemistically called female circumcision or clitoridectomy).
Looking at the immediate consequences of this policy change, I think leading republicans such as Frist should take up legalization of FGM as a moral issue to reduce abortion rates.
[end sarcasm]
That being said, I think it's an important lesson that changing a culture's values is hard work and will have lots of unintended consequences. FGM is one of those (few) issues that's abhorrent enough to make it worth the fall-out (IMHO).
Of course, as friends have pointed out, this is the group of mouthbreathers that delayed a vaccine for HPV, the cause of over 90% of cervical cancers which kills almost 5000 American women each year, out of fears that it might increase promiscuity. One wonders what will happen to an effective HIV treatment, or if FGM isn't too far.
I'm not one for conspiracy theories, but the neocons just seem to invite them.
Posted by griffjon at 08:49 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
May 31, 2006
Whistleblowers
Via the BBC
The US Supreme court has limited the rights of government whistle-blowers by ruling that they will not be protected under the First Amendment.The ruling, which was passed by a 5-4 vote, means employees are not protected by free speech laws when speaking out during the course of their duties.
The decision will affect all of the nation's 20 million public employees.
But it was criticised by civil rights groups, who said it would discourage employees from exposing misconduct.
In practice, it will strengthen the government's ability to discipline public employees who make allegations of official misconduct.
Right, because our government has been acting so transparently, without graft, corruption, bribery, kickbacks, or collusion of late. *sigh*
Posted by griffjon at 02:46 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
May 15, 2006
Spying on the media?
ABC News is reporting that they've gotten a leak (heh) that the record of their phone calls is being monitored to... try and stop leaks.
Posted by griffjon at 08:24 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
April 25, 2006
Fox is evil. Seriously.
Evidentially, billboards and airplane banners reading "6+6+06" are popping up in major metro areas:
A billboard in Chicago's Morgan Park community near the 111th Street exit of I-57 reads: "6-6-06 The signs are all around you."The mark of the beast is being used by 20th Century Fox to promote a remake of the 1976 chiller "The Omen," which will open in theaters June 6. The thriller stars Mia Farrow, Julia Stiles, newcomer Seamus Davey-Fitzpatrick as the devil incarnate, and Liev Schreiber, a horror movie regular with roles in "Scream" and "Scream 2."
Banner tows and billboards have also popped up in New York, L.A., on Chicago's North Side and even in Harvey.
Spring breakers in Arizona's Lake Havasu and Panama City, Fla., spotted the "666" banner flying behind a plane and called 911, news stations and even the FBI. "The reaction confirms that the numbers 666 affect people as they have throughout history," Fox spokesman Jeffrey Godsick said.
The "Omen" campaign also includes signs and airplane banners with the menacing date and "You have been warned."
A publicity stunt, which has the extra added benefit of also stirring the 9/11 pot for their neocon friends, reminding us all about the terror threats all around us. The person who thought up trailing a banner behind an airplane reading "you have been warned" should get shot. Actually, I'm surprised that someone hasn't taken the law into their own hands and taken potshots at the plane.
Posted by griffjon at 12:34 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
April 09, 2006
...
I feel sick.
A government consultant with close ties to the civilian leadership in the Pentagon said that Bush was “absolutely convinced that Iran is going to get the bomb” if it is not stopped. He said that the President believes that he must do “what no Democrat or Republican, if elected in the future, would have the courage to do,” and “that saving Iran is going to be his legacy.”
“This is much more than a nuclear issue,” one high-ranking diplomat told me in Vienna. “That’s just a rallying point, and there is still time to fix it. But the Administration believes it cannot be fixed unless they control the hearts and minds of Iran. The real issue is who is going to control the Middle East and its oil in the next ten years.”A senior Pentagon adviser on the war on terror expressed a similar view. “This White House believes that the only way to solve the problem is to change the power structure in Iran, and that means war,” he said.
" ‘Decisive’ is the key word of the Air Force’s planning. It’s a tough decision. But we made it in Japan.”
Have we become so myopic, so coddled and distracted 24-hour-news and Fox that not only are we dooming ourselves to repeat history, but to repeat mistakes that we're currently suffering through?
Posted by griffjon at 12:40 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
April 04, 2006
Delay resigns?
The decision, first reported last night, came three days after Tony C. Rudy, his former deputy chief of staff, pleaded guilty to conspiracy and corruption charges, telling federal prosecutors of a criminal enterprise being run out of DeLay's leadership offices. Rudy's plea agreement did not implicate DeLay in any illegal activities, but by placing the influence-buying efforts of disgraced Republican lobbyist Jack Abramoff directly in DeLay's operation, the former aide may have made an already difficult reelection bid all but out of reach.
DeLay, who will turn 59 on Saturday, did not say precisely when he would step down, but under Texas law he must either die, be convicted of a felony or move out of his district to be removed from the November ballot. DeLay told Time magazine that he is likely to change his official residence from Sugar Land, Tex., to Alexandria by the end of May. He said he informed President Bush of his decision yesterday afternoon.
Well, 2 outa three ain't bad, but it looks like he's just going to move into the beltway and keep active, according to his statement
I will determine the new ways from various arenas outside of public office that will allow me to continue to contribute to and engage in the policy, political, and cultural issues of national importance to the conservative majority.With that plan in mind, I also intend to relocate to my Virginia property and reside closer to Washington, so that I can dedicate the necessary time and energy to making a successful transition from the public to private sectors for myself and family.
Posted by griffjon at 11:40 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
March 28, 2006
McCain and Falwell
Kos links to news of McCain giving the commencement speech at Falwell's Liberty U
Actually, this may be a good thing if it gets mainstream press, to break the remaining moderates out of their McCain daydream. I liked the guy for a long time, but he's thrown out any moderate cred he had this past year.
So, Obama/Stewart, 2008?
Posted by griffjon at 10:04 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
McCain and Falwell
Kos links to news of McCain giving the commencement speech at Falwell's Liberty U
Actually, this may be a good thing if it gets mainstream press, to break the remaining moderates out of their McCain daydream. I like