Tuesday, September 29th, 2006

Goodbye, Constitution, Geneva Convention
Congress finally passed the bill that allows for torture and unfair trials of America's war prisoners. Oh sure, they'll tell you it's been scaled way back from what the president wanted. The can’t completely torture people, nor throw them in just any old dank cell without at least some nod to due process. But the bill leaves man openings where actions will be performed at the president's discretion. And worse, the bill says that torture that is now illegal can still have been used before December 2005-- in other words, the prez got the get of jail free car (pun!) he needed to bring in the information discovered at Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo. The worst part of all of this is that the president gets to decide who an "enemy" is.

Why? It's all politics. People are going to be tortured and imprisoned because senators are afraid of being attacked before the elections this November. There are no longer statesman, only politicians, and all they care about is staying in office. And not to do anything in office, mind you. Want further proof? Today the house voted 100-0 to give 70 billion more to the war, a "down-payment" on another several-hundred billion that will go toward fattening the corrupt coffers of the corporations running the show over there. This is not hyperbole, folks-- congress just had a hearing with one of the contractors, who where explaining why 13 of 14 projects had failed to pass inspection, and the 14th didn't get inspected because it had been abandoned.

Meanwhile, the Dow-Jones is soaring, on the verge of breaking records.

"...The Muslim Mainstream Emerges as the Most Powerful Weapon in the War On Terror."
Have you read the NIE from April that was declassified and released this week? The National Intelligence Estimate is a document which gives the assessment of our country's intelligence agencies concerning national safety. Has George Bush read it? I read it: the title above comes from it. George Bush is saying this NIE supports what he's been saying and doing all along. This is why I want to know if he's read it. The NIE says, very clearly, that the war in Iraq has resulted in more terrorists being recruited, more terrorists become active, and more danger for America her citizens, both domestically and abroad. Bush says that we are all safer than we where before the war. This is such flagrant BS, you have to wonder if he's read this thing, or is insane, or too cocky to walk straight. Clearly, blowing up hundreds of thousands of Muslims is not the way to get the rest of them on our side. Clearly, dumping money down the Haliburton hole is not the way to get terrorists to leave us alone.

Don't Mess With Clinton(s)
I haven’t watched it yet but I'm trying to find tape of Bill Clinton's interview on Fox News from a few days ago. You may wonder way someone like Bill would bother defending himself when the country is in the throes of pre-election hysteria. I wondered, too-- is Bill trying to distract us? The answer came from Hillary, when she stepped up and told everyone that people can take a lesson from his hard-line stance on security. There it is. Bill may no longer be head of the DNC, but he's going to be their mascot for as long as the Hannitys, Coulters, and Limbaugh continue to use him as symbol of liberal malfeasance. And so, what Hillary is saying is: up yours, Republicans, you only have one issue to stand behind, National Security, and it turns out Democrats got you beat on that one too. Bill was all over the terrorism issue in the last years of his presidency, and he gracefully handed Bush et al a package for them to continue the job. They ignored it, and 8 months later, 9/11 happened.

Fastow Gets Six Years Not Ten
The CFO of Enron has finally been sentenced. Although Andrew Fastow copped a plea for two counts of wire fraud at 5 years each, in exchange for helping investigators bust Lay and Skilling, a judged has decided to only give him 6, with an extra two at home under supervision when he gets out. It turns out he's been a big help not only on unraveling Enron, but as well he has been helping attorneys with all of the lawsuits that shareholders are bringing against what's left of whatever money is still Enroning around. So, do you think, in 6 years, he can write a pretty decent book? Or do you think he'll take the Frank Abagnale route and become a crimebuster for the Feds?

Abramoff Played With White House Often
It's not really news because we all knew it, but a new report leaked to the Times says that Abramoff had 485 contacts with the White House, 82 of them with Karl Rove. The thing about this Rove guy, I don't think Republicans are going to protect him very much of the media decides to lynch him. And you gotta believe that Dick Georgie and the Rumster will scape-goat him when the Demos take the Senate (fingers crossed) and the impeachment trials start. And this is just the out they need-- rather than face the music with Karl on the whole 9/11-Iraq mess, just stick him in a cell because he stole money from Native Americans, then dump the rest on him. And then it's a no-brainer-- he pulls a Ken Lay and that's that. Or when gets pulled for him. I bet Scooter Libby is glad he's not as prominent and stickable now, eh?