We the people are first.

Howard Dean is first.

While I agree that the discepancies in time given to the candidates is quite disturbing, I was very unimpressed by the issues covered in the debate.  Instead of asking what each candidate how they would utilize Bill Clinton in their administration, I wish the moderator had devoted that time to a less frivolous matter such as global poverty, for example.  I would like to see the candidates address the United States’ commitment to the United Nation’s Millennium Development Goals, which call for cutting world hunger in half by 2015 and eliminating it altogether by 2025.  Indeed, it is estimated that the expenditure of a mere $19 billion would eliminate starvation and malnutrition worldwide.  In a time when the current defense budget is $522 billion, the goal of eradicating world hunger is clearly well within reach and it is my hope that whoever becomes president in 2008 addresses this pressing issue. 

repost from bottom of last thread

Linda*in*SFNM

Mon, 06/04/07

7:31 pm


Hey Joan! Yes! And like Howard, Al is reaching those people from all over, all ages and backgrounds, who care and have a real passion to make changes to move forward.


I will post some pictures from my visibility event today that received GREAT responses. It's surprising to hear the horns blow, because here in Santa Fe, they don't do that often. They wave fro their cars. I'm scared someone is going to have an accident one of these days.

But, reaching the young and have a stake in our future is very exciting. I actually had a car full of young adults pull up and very excited. They were thrilled to sign the petition to get Al Gore to run, I gave them buttons and......get this.......she gave me a CD of a song for AL GORE TO RUN, called "Please Gore Run"!!! Their band cut the CD and are going to post it and email me the link. After my pictures, I'm going to see if I can find it to share.


But that was TRULY exciting. And a passionate song-at that.

 

Huffington Interviews Gore, Plus Comments from Amazon on THE ASSAULT ON REASON



First the Huffington interview. Then a piece about Gore’s book at the top of the best-seller list, with a couple of substantive discussons from Amazon reviews.

 

So here is a modern political leader able not only to reference Locke, Einstein, and the Roman Empire, but to passionately and practically link their ideas to urgent policy decisions being made as we speak — above all, decisions about Iraq.

While expressing “sympathy” and “compassion” for Democratic Congressional leaders faced with “fragile minorities,” “members in politically marginal districts,” and “an executive branch whose power has been greatly enhanced,” Gore makes it clear that he would not have voted for the latest Iraq-funding-with-no-deadline measure. “I wish it hadn’t passed,” he adds.
http://www.nonesoblind.org/blog/?p=663

I've decided something, Elayna. Bloggers need to *lead* on the issues. Especially the UN Development Goals, which I have been posting about since I heard about them last June from the new presiding bishop of the Episcopal church.

I remember when Jim Wallis came to Columbus last spring, he said something about Martin Luther King. I don't have the exact quote, but it was something like, "he never endorsed a candidate, but he was able to get politicians to endore *his* agenda.

THAT is what we need to be doing. NOBODY has my support for '08 yet. If someone wants to get that support, they need to show me that they support my agenda.

And my allegiance is not to political party, it's to humanity. 

             Impeach,       then elect Gore.

Woooot Linda...nice sign!!!  We do need Al to step up to the plate. As much as I like Gravel, it's obvious the CM is determined to take the legs right out from under him. Apparently a candidate with integrity, intelligence, experience, honesty and solutions but no $$$ isn't a candidate in America anymore. I wonder if the CM could silence Al Gore like they have Gravel, Kucinich and Dodd...if so we are really fighting a losing battle. I have the feeling that the teacher's pets will reign supreme until the war chests are depleted...then the one with the mostest left that also has also stayed in line WINS...what a great plutocracy...I mean ummm...democracy!

Wasn't able to upload Granny D's interview...Comcast was down at the station. What a great monopoly...err, I mean...company they are. Just love paying more and getting less! Granny D was super however...I'll eventually get it up to youtube. Keep fighting the good fight...we need more like you!

OH and one of the gentlemen in the above photos is Rick Burnley, Camp Casey Poet Laureate.

I first heard him at the Impeachment Conferences and hearings here in SF.

He has a CD with his poems.  And some of them I've heard him read are pretty incredible.

http://www.rickburnley.com

As I say on my show..."please check closed minds at the door"...food for thought here

8.

Reed in VT

Thank you.  Yes, we do.  I think he is being pleasantly surprised with the support

and organzational efforts.  And last night at a private speech with SLA Librarians, in Denver, he was quoted saying, "I would love to be president." 

Yes, you can be sure the MSM will go after him.  They never stopped, only breaks.

Look at even Mo Dowds hit pieces.  But will people weaken over gossip, 

or will they rally for substance. :) 

Reed, when you get Granny D's interview up, let us know.

I will bbs, have to make dinner and then will see video link above. :)

I swear sometimes I must be invisible.

The people on the blog are strange today -- maybe it was the moon. I however am perfectly normal :~) Why isn't anyone talking about how the judge at Gitmo threw out the cases of those two defendants because the gov't didn't say they were unlawful or something like that -- I think no one is reporting on it because no one really understands it but maybe this is the beginning of the end.

Judges at Guantanamo throw out 2 cases
By ANDREW O. SELSKY, Associated Press Writer 1 hour, 38 minutes ago
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070604/ap_o...


ALSO on KOS for several hours
Update 6: SECOND Stunning Court Ruling May End Bush's War Crime Trials, Neuter Mil Com Act
by krazypuppy [Subscribe]

Mon Jun 04, 2007 at 11:04:23 AM PDT

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2007/6/4/1...

11.

Well I know I be rallying...that be until I'm locked up for peaceful protest! I'd say LOL but feel it's no joke! The 93 year old woman I care take for is worried for me because of my political activism...bless her heart.

13.

Renee... 

And my allegiance is not to political party, it's to humanity.

~~~~~

You be so right. I've sided with the Dems my whole life as I've always felt they fought for the have-nots, which I was to the tenth power growing up. The more politically educated I have become however has yielded questions to me about the party I've supported for so long. I'm not saying the Dems are a lost cause yet but they have to stop playing by Republican rules. My allegiance is to more than humanity...it be to all of the wonders this little planet has on it. 

I swear sometimes I must be invisible.  

no u are a bright shining light. we love ya.

Gotta cook something to chow on myself...bbl (that is if I don't nod off in the chair)

let me see they indict jefferson, from louisiana , in the courts of va. by a suspect u.s. attorney placed by gonzolez and rove.

meanwhile, what is happening with tom delay? he was indicted and then came out and said charges were dropped by a rove appointed ag.

so our system of justice is nada.

tell jefferson to just tell them to go stuff it.

14.

That is explosive!  Watch for another bogus terror alert so this stays buried.  Are you sending this to Keith, Annilow? 

Annilow, I just sent it to Keith but it doesn't hurt to have several (million) people write.

20. I don't see how he can miss it Seashell but I'm glad you sent it. I don't get Keith anymore (d*mn Comcast) so if he does a special comment please post an alert -- they usually post the clip at MSNBC.

Speaking of MSNBC I found this reasonable article about Micheal Moore's SICKO there:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/19033249/

By Ron Grover

Updated: 4:40 p.m. ET June 4, 2007
He's rumpled, a little coarse, and shoots from the hip. But Michael Moore, the irreverent force behind such politic-bending documentaries as the gun control manifesto Bowling for Columbine and the anti-war anthem Fahrenheit 9/11, knows how to stir the pot. Just wind him up, and ole Michael will fire away at entrenched political or corporate interests, no matter their size. He even took time during his 2003 Oscar acceptance speech for Bowling to deliver a finger-wagging rant against President Bush's Iraqi policies.

Little wonder then that the health-care establishment is bracing itself for the release of Moore's next film, the decidedly anti-medical industry Sicko. Moore will begin stumping for his film this week, with a June 5 appearance on Oprah Winfrey's show and then late night chats with David Letterman and Jay Leno. The movie, which is scheduled to hit theaters June 29, wowed audiences in Cannes last month, even reducing some to tears during a heartfelt scene in which an infant dies because she can't get medical care.

The graphic at the top of thread highlights why I haven't watched any of the faux -debates and won't watch any. Bullshit, plain and simple.

Sitka, Gravel and Kucinich are very good in the debates.  Socratic thorns they are.  Now I'm sounding like Yoda again.  LOL

I swear sometimes I must be invisible.

At first I was iridescent.

Then I became transparent.

Finally I was absent. 

Sitka, Gravel and Kucinich are very good in the debates.

I don't doubt it a bit. In fact, it can probably be judged who makes the most sense by who gets the least time from the corporate media.

Wyoming Senator Craig Thomas has just died from leukemia.

23. I started to watch the first debate - got tired of listening to the b.s. Won't watch again until Gore enters. Then I'll make popcorn and margheritas for that!!

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070604/ap_o...
G-8 security fence troubling for Germans
By DAVID RISING, Associated Press Writer Mon Jun 4, 2:27 PM ET

Cutting across seven miles of verdant farmland near some of Germany's main seaside playgrounds, the fence is reviving memories of the Berlin Wall as authorities confront the modern realities of global terrorism and radical protest movements.

German officials say a 16,000-strong police presence at the G-8 meeting as the only way to safeguard the free expression of nonviolent demonstrators, after more than 400 police officers and 500 protesters were injured in nearby Rostock over the weekend.

But some precautions don't feel so benign to Germans with long memories.

Prosecutors already face criticism for taking scent samples in a pre-summit investigation of a handful of G-8 opponents — a technique used by the dreaded East German Stasi secret police to track dissidents with dogs — and for intercepting and opening the mail of another suspect.

Clinton: Faith got me through troubles

By NEDRA PICKLER, Associated Press Writer
1 hour, 26 minutes ago

WASHINGTON - In a rare public discussion of her husband's infidelity, Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Rodham Clinton said Monday that she probably could not have gotten through her marital troubles without relying on her faith in God.

Clinton stood by her actions in the aftermath of former President Clinton's admission that he had an affair, including presumably her decision to stay in the marriage.

"I am very grateful that I had a grounding in faith that gave me the courage and the strength to do what I thought was right, regardless of what the world thought," Clinton said during a forum where the three leading Democratic presidential candidates talked about faith and values...

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070605/ap_o...

"I am very grateful that I had a grounding in faith that gave me the courage and the strength to do what I thought was right, regardless of what the world thought,"

said Clinton.

This could have been said by putz today who thinks he's right about Iraq when the whole world is against him.  

Clinton creeps me out. 

WASHINGTON - Wyoming Sen. Craig Thomas, a three-term conservative Republican who stayed clear of the Washington limelight and political catfights, died Monday. He was 74.

btw, Wyoming's governor is a Democrat.

Stories abound about the big pharma testing drugs on hapless African children. 

E-mail this to a friend

Printable version

The government is seeking $7bn (£3.5bn) in damages for the families of children who allegedly died or suffered side-effects after being given Trovan.

Kano state government has filed separate charges against Pfizer.

The firm denies any wrongdoing, saying the trials were conducted according to Nigerian and international law.

Pfizer - the world's largest pharmaceutical company - tested the experimental antibiotic Trovan in some meningitis-stricken children in Kano in 1996.

Some of the children reportedly died, and campaigners say several others developed mental and physical deformities.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/6719141.stm 

OMG,  this is hilarious.

The US military investigated building a “gay bomb”, which would make enemy soldiers “sexually irresistible” to each other, government papers say.

Other weapons that never saw the light of day include one to make soldiers obvious by their bad breath.

The US defense department considered various non-lethal chemicals meant to disrupt enemy discipline and morale.

The 1994 plans were for a six-year project costing $7.5m, but they were never pursued.

The US Air Force Wright Laboratory in Dayton, Ohio, sought Pentagon funding for research into what it called “harassing, annoying and ‘bad guy’-identifying chemicals”.

The plans were obtained under the US Freedom of Information by the Sunshine Project, a group which monitors research into chemical and biological weapons.

‘Who? Me?’

The plan for a so-called “love bomb” envisaged an aphrodisiac chemical that would provoke widespread homosexual behaviour among troops, causing what the military called a “distasteful but completely non-lethal” blow to morale.

Scientists also reportedly considered a “sting me/attack me” chemical weapon to attract swarms of enraged wasps or angry rats towards enemy troops.

A substance to make the skin unbearably sensitive to sunlight was also pondered.

Another idea was to develop a chemical causing “severe and lasting halitosis”, so that enemy forces would be obvious even when they tried to blend in with civilians.

In a variation on that idea, researchers pondered a “Who? Me?” bomb, which would simulate flatulence in enemy ranks.

Indeed, a “Who? Me?” device had been under consideration since 1945, the government papers say.

However, researchers concluded that the premise for such a device was fatally flawed because “people in many areas of the world do not find faecal odour offensive, since they smell it on a regular basis”.

Captain Dan McSweeney of the Joint Non-Lethal Weapons Directorate at the Pentagon said the defence department receives “literally hundreds” of project ideas, but that “none of the systems described in that [1994] proposal have been developed”.

He told the BBC: “It’s important to point out that only those proposals which are deemed appropriate, based on stringent human effects, legal, and international treaty reviews are considered for development or acquisition.”

http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2007/06/04/1645/ 

For those like me who didn't know....... 

David D. Freudenthal: Wyoming Governor, Democrat - Career Paths: How They Got Where They Are - politics United States - Biography

Unfortunately, in the article it says...

"Gov. Dave Freudenthal, a Democrat, will appoint a successor from one of three finalists chosen by the state Republican party".

I've never heard of that, thought Gov of any particular state had the power to replace with whoever they chose.

I agree I favor Dem's because of what they are supposed to stand for. However, we have seen that many don't support those principles even though they wear or claim to be, based on their important actions and votes. I promised I voted the last time last year for party. Many candidates were not acting like Dem's and will end up hurting us much more. As they have seen fit to push those same type of candidates for President at us again, too.

Sherrod Brown is a good example. When he voted to end Habeas Corpus, people all made excuses. Excuse me, if people knew what he did, does he really think they'd be happy he chose to end those rights, as their only apparent argument. Then comes the Iraq war vote. The last one to cut funding, he magically was away for the vote. He said he had a daughters graduation that kept him from voting. Then this past one arrives, what does SherROT do? He votes to fund the war with no time lines for withdraw. Way to go.

___________________________________

RIP Senator Thomas.

...the Governor...another example, huh? OK, so if our politicians don't put party first........WHY SHOULD WE?
RIP Senator

Live blogging happening at the Seattle event.

"Monday, June 04, 2007
LIVE from Town Hall: Al Gore gets huge welcome
I'm now live at Town Hall blogging Al Gore's Assault on Reason presentation. The former Vice President has just walked out on stage to a massive standing ovation which he clearly appreciated. Gore held his hand over his heart, smiling and thanking the audience once he had a chance to speak."

Barb......I hope you got in...or at least a GLANCE!

http://www.nwprogressive.org/weblog/2007...

http://www.nwprogressive.org/weblog/

Sherrod Brown is a good example. When he voted to end Habeas Corpus, people all made excuses.

The myriad and volume of excuses was even worse than his one treasonous vote. So long as those who talk reform put politics over principle for the "greater good," reform will never be more than talk.

The former Vice President has just walked out on stage to a massive standing ovation....

Who else would get that kind of response? 

38.

Linda*in*SFNM
Mon, 06/04/07
11:42 pm

Reply to this
*******************
Thanks, Linda & Barb ... this is SO good to see. There were standing ovations at UMBC when I saw Gore speak there in early May. What a thrill to be inspired again!

And to hope ... Al, we sorely and badly need you.

Some thoughts about the stuff going on in the party right now.   Some good, some not so good.

http://journals.democraticunderground.com/madfloridian/1335

Renee, if more were *invisible* like you, what a loverly world this would be!

**************
Well, I certainly understand the frustration about Iraq and the Congress, but who on earth are the brain-dead 35%?

That is what is REALLY scary, IMHO.

================
Discontent Over Iraq Increasing, Poll Finds
Americans Also Unhappy With Congress
By Dan Balz and Jon Cohen
Washington Post Staff Writers
Tuesday, June 5, 2007; A01

Growing frustration with the performance of the Democratic Congress, combined with widespread public pessimism over President Bush's temporary troop buildup in Iraq, has left satisfaction with the overall direction of the country at its lowest point in more than a decade, according to a new Washington Post-ABC News poll.

Almost six in 10 Americans said they do not think the additional troops sent to Iraq since the beginning of the year will help restore civil order there, and 53 percent -- a new high in Post-ABC News polls -- said they do not believe that the war has contributed to the long-term security of the United States.

Disapproval of Bush's performance in office remains high, but the poll highlighted growing disapproval of the new Democratic majority in Congress. Just 39 percent said they approve of the job Congress is doing, down from 44 percent in April, when the new Congress was about 100 days into its term. More significant, approval of congressional Democrats dropped 10 percentage points over that same period, from 54 percent to 44 percent.

Much of that drop was fueled by lower approval ratings of the Democrats in Congress among strong opponents of the war, independents and liberal Democrats. While independents were evenly split on the Democrats in Congress in April (49 percent approved, 48 percent disapproved), now 37 percent said they approved and 54 percent disapproved. Among liberal Democrats, approval of congressional Democrats dropped 18 points.

Bush's overall job-approval rating stands at 35 percent, unchanged from April.

[...]
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/con...

Interesting, headlines all over the WaPo about Jefferson ... none about the cases at Gitmo that were thrown out. CMW? You decide.

*************
Still, a couple of stalwarts semi-redeem that particular rag. Although I am not a Biden for Prez supporter, E.J. Dionne makes some darn good points.

===================
The Missing Issues . . .
By E. J. Dionne Jr.
Tuesday, June 5, 2007; A17

GOFFSTOWN, N.H. -- Two questions from Sunday's Democratic debate: Does Joe Biden have to set himself on fire to get serious attention? And whatever happened to the lunch-bucket issues that once made Democrats the dominant political party in America?

Maybe because he doesn't have much to lose, Biden was the most passionate, straight-talking figure on the stage here at Saint Anselm College. But so much coverage was lavished on John Edwards, Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama and their scuffling over Iraq and health care that you might have missed this. So, consider, first, Biden's comments on Darfur:

"I went there. I sat on the borders. I went in those camps. They're going to have thousands and thousands and thousands of people die. We've got to stop talking and act. . . . By the time all these guys talk, 50,000 more people are going to be dead! They're going to be dead!"

Or take Biden on gays in the military. The debate moderator, CNN's Wolf Blitzer, noted that Gen. Peter Pace, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said it would be a mistake to end the current "don't ask, don't tell" policy.

"Peter Pace is flat wrong. I've been to Afghanistan, I've been to Iraq seven times, I've been in the Balkans, I've been in these foxholes with these kids, literally in bunkers with them. Let me tell you something: Nobody asked anybody else whether they're gay in . . . those foxholes."

Noting that "the British, the French, all our major allies" allow gays to serve openly, Biden added: "I don't know the last time an American soldier said to a backup from a Brit, 'Hey, by the way, let me check. Are you gay? You straight?' This is ridiculous."

And agree or disagree with Biden's recent vote to fund the Iraq war, it was good to hear him say that "some things are worth losing elections over" and defend his decision without hedges or equivocation.

[...]
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/con...

And *Amen* to Eugene Robinson ...

=============
. . . And Antiwar Voices
By Eugene Robinson
Tuesday, June 5, 2007; A17

John Edwards had a point: Where have Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama been these past few weeks while others were shouting to the rooftops about the worsening debacle in Iraq? Sudden attacks of laryngitis? Cat got their tongues?

Clinton has a point, too, and so does Obama. When Edwards called them out at the Democratic presidential debate Sunday night, Clinton was right when she said that this is George W. Bush's war, not anybody else's. And Obama, who publicly opposed the war from the beginning, was right to snap at Edwards -- who, like Clinton, voted to authorize military action -- saying that his righteous outrage was "four and a half years late."

Still, Edwards is asking the right questions. If the war in Iraq is the most urgent issue facing the country -- and both Clinton and Obama said bringing the troops home would be their first priority as president -- then why aren't theirs the loudest, clearest, most eloquent voices in opposition to Bush's tragic misadventure? Each is asking for the opportunity to lead the nation. Shouldn't each be showing some leadership on the war?

Yes, both Clinton and Obama can point to antiwar speeches, position papers and legislation. But when push came to shove -- the vote on continued funding for the war -- neither of the leading contenders for the Democratic presidential nomination emerged from the Senate chamber swathed in glory.

Both finally voted against the spending bill, which had been stripped of any timetables for U.S. troop withdrawal or meaningful benchmarks that the Iraqi government would have to meet. But they waited until the last minute to declare their intentions, as if each were waiting to see what the other would do. "They went quietly to the floor of the Senate, cast the right vote," Edwards said in the debate. "But there is a difference between leadership and legislating."

[...]
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/con...

Then there is Dan Froomkin, who rarely disappoints. Thank God for these, and those comparative few like them; they are among the few bright lights in US journalism these days.

==============
Cheney, By Proxy
By Dan Froomkin
Special to washingtonpost.com
Monday, June 4, 2007; 2:16 PM

Is Vice President Cheney trying to undermine Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice's diplomatic efforts in the Middle East, in favor of a more aggressive and militaristic approach?

Well, maybe not directly. Cheney does his best work by proxy. Anyone looking for public evidence of a major rift between Cheney and Rice will be sorely disappointed. In fact, Rice denied any such thing at a press conference in Madrid on Friday.

But that doesn't mean there isn't a rift. Cheney's aides and other loyalists he has installed in the government wield enormous power on his behalf, even as they provide him with plausible deniability. (See, for instance, the Scooter Libby case, discussed below.)

Glenn Kessler writes in The Washington Post: "Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice insisted Friday that Vice President Cheney fully supports a diplomatic course in the dispute with Iran over its nuclear program, denying claims of divisions among President Bush's foreign policy advisers."

From the transcript of her remarks:

"QUESTION: If I may, Madame Secretary, you've been pushing diplomatic efforts and making that heard loud and clear your message, and you're making extraordinary efforts -- or an extraordinary offer, rather -- to talk. But can you assure us that Vice President Cheney does not want to use military action on Iran to deal with its nuclear policy? Because there's a perception of a divide within the Administration.

"SECRETARY RICE: First, let me be very clear. The President of the United States has made very clear what our policy is. That policy is supported by all of the members of his cabinet and by the Vice President of the United States. The President has made clear that we are on a course that is a diplomatic course, but it is a diplomatic course that is backed up by disincentives for Iran to continue its activities."

But as Helene Cooper writes in the New York Times: "Ms. Rice's assurance came as senior officials at the State Department were expressing fury over reports that members of Vice President Dick Cheney's staff have told others that Mr. Cheney believes the diplomatic track with Iran is pointless, and is looking for ways to persuade Mr. Bush to confront Iran militarily.

[...]
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/con...

*Cruel and unusual punishment* ... being held for years without charges only to have the charges thrown out when finally brought to court ... and then allowed to languish in prison even longer.

Guantanamo and Iraq: two hideous blots on US history and ethos. The longer each one lasts, the more credence and humanity we lose. And we create more al Qaeda adherents by the minute.

This side of the Atlantic does have the headlines, as do the Canadian papaers.

======================
Guantánamo trials in chaos after judge throws out two cases
· Technicality applies to all 385 inmates, colonel rules
· Canadian and Bin Laden's driver see cases dismissed
Suzanne Goldenberg in Washington
Tuesday June 5, 2007
Guardian

The Bush administration's plans to bring detainees at Guantánamo Bay to trial were thrown into chaos yesterday when military judges threw out all charges against a detainee held there since he was 15 and dismissed charges against another detainee who chauffeured Osama bin Laden.

In back-to-back arraignments for the Canadian Omar Khadr and Salim Ahmed Hamdan, a Yemeni national, the US military's cases against the alleged al-Qaida figures were dismissed because, the judges said, the government had failed to establish jurisdiction.

Yesterday's decision by Colonel Peter Brownback to dismiss all charges against Mr Khadr on technical grounds has broad implications for the Bush administration's system of military tribunals because the technicality appears to apply to all 385 prisoners held at Guantánamo.

The dismissal of the case also undermines the administration's efforts to show that the military tribunals are based on sound legal practice and can provide detainees with a fair hearing, detainee lawyers said.

In his decision yesterday, Col Brownback said the Pentagon had merely designated Mr Khadr, a Canadian citizen facing charges of murder and terrorism, as an "enemy combatant", not an "unlawful enemy combatant", the term used by Congress last year in authorising the tribunals.

The Pentagon's lapse meant the tribunal did not have proper jurisdiction to try Mr Khadr. "A person has a right to be tried only by a court that has jurisdiction over him," Col Brownback told the court.

Mr Hamdan is accused of being Bin Laden's chauffeur and bodyguard. In his case, US Navy captain Keith Allred yesterday said Mr Hamdan is "not subject to this commission" under legislation passed by Congress and signed by President George Bush last year.

The new Military Commissions Act, written to establish military trials after the US supreme court last year rejected the previous system, is full of problems, defence attorneys argued.

Mr Hamdan last year won a US supreme court challenge that led to the scrapping of the first Guantánamo tribunal system.

[...]
http://www.guardian.co.uk/print/0,,32997...

I have to agree with this assessment. Sadly.

===============
Published on Monday, June 4, 2007 by The San Diego Union-Tribune
Unfinished Victory: Israel Won a Spectacular Military Victory In 1967. It Has Yet To Win The Peace.
by Zahi Khouri

‘I don’t know what I would do if my daughter had to go through that humiliation.” A U.S. congressman said those words to me while watching Qalandia checkpoint, the key Israeli roadblock between occupied East Jerusalem and the West Bank. As we mark the 40th anniversary of the 1967 war and Israel’s military occupation of Palestinian territory, his comment is particularly poignant. As both a Palestinian and an American, I wonder what my fellow Americans would do if they lived for 40 years with every aspect of their lives controlled by a foreign army, or what members of Congress would do if they had to pass through an occupier’s checkpoint on Capitol Hill.

In 1995, I worked with other Palestinians to launch the Coca-Cola franchise in the West Bank and Gaza. I am one of many Palestinian-American businessmen who invested after the Oslo Accords were signed in 1993. They were supposed to have ended the occupation and led to the formation of an independent and economically viable Palestinian state. We were determined to create jobs and build businesses that would bring Palestinians hope for a free and prosperous future. Instead, the occupation has become more entrenched. And we see the toll it takes on the new generation of Palestinians - every man, woman and child under the age of 40 who has not known a day of freedom in his or her lifetime.

Israel is the leading foreign destination for privately sponsored congressional trips. Yet while the Palestinian-Israeli conflict is one of our most critical foreign policy issues, few members of Congress visit the occupied Palestinian territories. I tell those who do that a trip through Qalandia checkpoint will show them most of what they need to know.

[...]
http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2007...

Well, well ... am pleasantly surprised to see that the NYT is much better on this account than is the WaPo.

Still, both have done US citizens grave disservice over the past six years in particular.

====================
June 5, 2007
Military Judges Dismiss Charges for 2 Detainees
By WILLIAM GLABERSON

GUANTÁNAMO BAY, Cuba, June 4 — The government’s new system for trying Guantánamo detainees was thrown into turmoil Monday, when military judges in separate decisions dismissed war crimes charges against two of the detainees.

The rulings, the latest legal setbacks for the government’s effort to bring war crimes charges against detainees, could stall the military’s prosecutions here.

The decisions did not turn on the guilt or innocence of the detainees, but rather made essentially the same determination that the military had not followed procedures to declare the detainees “unlawful enemy combatants,” which is required for the military commission to hear the cases.

Pentagon officials described the rulings as raising technical and semantic issues, and said that they were considering appeals. If appeals failed, they said, they could go through the process of redesignating the detainees.

But military lawyers said the rulings exposed a flaw that would affect every other potential war-crimes case here. And the rulings brought immediate calls, including from some on Capitol Hill, for Congress to re-examine the system it set up last year for military commission trials and, perhaps, to consider other changes in the legal treatment of Guantánamo detainees.

[...]
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/05/world/...

More on the seriously developing problems with Russia ... thanks to the collection of *worsts-ever* that run the USG like the Keystone Cops.

At least the Cops were funny ...

===============
A force to be reckoned with
Simon Tisdall
June 4, 2007 6:15 PM

Since marching unexpectedly on to the world stage in 2000, Vladimir Putin has by turns baffled, encouraged and outraged Russia's international interlocutors. But in one key respect, the former KGB officer with a smile like broken ice has been remarkably consistent. After the humiliations of the Yeltsin years, he set out to re-establish Russia as a force to be reckoned with. And now he has achieved it.

His aim could have been achieved in collaboration with the west; instead Russia's reassertive power is now defined in opposition to it. It might have been different. Ignoring Chechnya and other raw nerves, Tony Blair tried hard to befriend Mr Putin in 2000, regaling him with shirt-sleeve bonhomie in a Moscow bierkeller. George Bush famously declared, when the two first met in 2001, that he had glimpsed Mr Putin's soul and liked what he saw.

But the Russian president, though not overtly hostile at this point, was not so easily charmed or fathomed. He called Mr Bush "sentimental" and coolly dismissed Mr Blair as "pleasant". And at a press conference prior to the Genoa G8 summit in 2001, he gave notice that Russia under his leadership would be a different, more serious proposition with a robust agenda of its own.

Russia would maintain its strategic independence and was beholden to no one. But neither did it pose a threat, he said. Rather than scrap the landmark 1972 anti-ballistic missile (ABM) treaty and build a "Star Wars" missile defence system, the Bush administration should join Moscow in framing a new, post-cold war global security structure.

"There is no more Warsaw Pact, no more Soviet Union, but Nato continues to exist and develop," Mr Putin said. That threatened Russia's interests. He proposed instead the creation of "a single security and defence space" in Europe by disbanding Nato or having Russia join it, or by forming a completely new organisation of equal partners.

Mr Putin's idea, quickly overshadowed by 9/11, was not taken up by Washington — a decision, or omission, that has led directly, six years later, to the looming confrontation at this week's G8 summit in Germany. On the contrary, the ABM treaty was summarily scrapped. US missile defence plans have expanded to include installations in Poland and the Czech Republic — the spark for Mr Putin's weekend broadside.

[...]
http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/simo...

George Monbiot addresses some of the world's ultimate hypocrites.

For all the good that it will do ...

==================
Don't listen to what the rich world's leaders say - look at what they do
Take the thousands of Filipino children who die every year courtesy of the formula milk corporates, backed by US lobbying
George Monbiot
Tuesday June 5, 2007
The Guardian

It is time once again for that touching annual ritual, in which the world's most powerful people move themselves to tears. At Heiligendamm they will emote with the wretched of the earth. They will beat their breasts and say many worthy and necessary things - about climate change, Africa, poverty, trade - but one word will not leave their lips. Power. Amid the patrician goodwill, there will be no acknowledgement that the power they wield over other nations destroys everything they claim to stand for.

The leaders of the G8 nations present themselves as a force for unmitigated good. Sometimes they fail, but they seek only to make the world a kinder place. Bob Geldof and Bono give oxygen to this deception, speaking of the good works the leaders might perform, or of the good works they have failed to perform - but not mentioning the active harm. They refuse to acknowledge that what the rich nations give with one finger they take with both hands.

Look at what is happening, right now, in the Philippines. This country has many problems, but one stands out: just 16% of children between four and five months old are exclusively breastfed. This is one of the lowest documented rates on earth, and it has fallen by a third since 1998. As 70% of Filipinos have inadequate access to clean water, the result is a public health disaster. Every year, according to the World Health Organisation, some 16,000 Filipino children die as a result of "inappropriate feeding practices".

[...]
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/...

Well, I doubt that putz is listening or will care, but it's nice to see Miliband making the effort. Unless poodle stands tall at the summit though, it is a quixotic venture.

===============
Miliband goes to US to deliver ultimatum on climate change
By Colin Brown, Deputy Political Editor
Published: 05 June 2007

Tensions over global warming between Downing Street and the White House will increase today with a warning by a senior British minister that the US should sign up to UN targets for reducing climate change.

The Environment Secretary, David Miliband, will use a speech in George Bush's backyard to warn that the US President's plan for delaying a deal to the end of 2008 misses the point that urgent action is needed now. Speaking at a conference in Washington on global warming, the Environment Secretary, who is expected to get a senior appointment in Gordon Brown's cabinet, will say that the case for urgent action is "unambiguous".

Mr Miliband told the Commons yesterday: "I think it's not helpful for anything that muddies the waters about the primacy of the UN process. But I don't think that is what the President said." He added that Mr Bush's acceptance of the need for voluntary targets on cutting CO2 emissions had removed a roadblock to discussions this week at the G8, but it was not the same as "driving all the way down the road".

Mr Miliband will make it clear in his speech today that Britain believes the President's speech marked only the first step and Mr Bush should follow it up by committing the US to accepting global targets at the UN climate change conference in Bali.

He will say: "President Bush's call for a long-term global goal for emissions reductions and his commitment to technology transfer is significant.

"It represents the first, not the last, step towards a global agreement on emissions reductions. It is vital we continue to make progress at this week's meeting of the G8 in preparation for the meeting of the UNFCC in Bali."

[...]
http://environment.independent.co.uk/cli...

Hmmm ... some news about who may really have *discovered* the Americas first ...

===============
DNA from chicken bone shows Polynesians 'found' South America
By Steve Connor, Science Editor
Published: 05 June 2007

A chicken bone has provided anthropologists with the strongest evidence yet to suggest that Polynesians sailed to South America before the discovery of the New World by Europeans.

The possibility that Polynesians had direct contact with the indigenous people of South America has long intrigued experts on ancient human migrations, but hard evidence has been difficult to come by. However, a study by scientists from New Zealand and Chile has now shown that chickens may have been introduced into South America by Polynesians sailing from the west rather than Europeans coming from the east.

Chicken bones excavated from an archaeological site in central Chile have been analysed by carbon dating and by DNA profiling. One of the bones was dated to more than 100 years before the first Europeans arrived in South America and its DNA shows a strong correlation with the DNA of present-day chickens living on the inhabited islands of the Pacific Ocean.

Domestic chickens are thought to have derived from wild birds that lived in the forests of the Indian subcontinent and the people who first migrated to the Americas from Asia - using a land bridge across the Bering Strait - are not believed to have taken chickens with them.

Yet the Spanish conquistador Francisco Pizarro reported on his arrival in Peru in 1532 that the local Inca were using chickens as part of their religious ceremonies, suggesting that the domestic bird had been part of the native culture for some time.

[...]
http://news.independent.co.uk/sci_tech/a...

If this group comes to the US, it's a must-see.

================
The Soweto Gospel Choir: The sounds of joy and hope
The Soweto Gospel Choir is a symbol for the new South Africa, offering the dream of a better life for its members. Michael Church meets them as their world tour hits Britain
Published: 04 June 2007

The Holy Brothers, the Holy Spirits, the Twelve Apostles Church Choir, the King's Messengers, Ladysmith Black Mambazo, the Rock of Ages Temple Choir - the list of South African gospel choirs runs into hundreds, as does the number of gospel sects. This doesn't reflect doctrinal differences: in a country where almost all consider themselves Christians, what this multiplication reflects is a myriad differing styles of worship, which is why The Rough Guide to South African Gospel is such a kaleidoscopic mix.

That excellent CD doesn't include the Soweto Gospel Choir because it was made at a time when this group was unknown outside its country's borders: now garlanded with a Grammy, and permanently on tour round the world, these charismatic singers will soon make a splash in London with a performance in St Paul's Cathedral on 3 July.

Their repertoire extends far beyond the usual South African gospel fare, but it's still rooted in that tradition, which goes back to the early 19th century when so-called "African" hymns were little more than awkward transliterations of European originals. Since then, the gospel genre has been continually refreshed by the subcontinent's indigenous vocal traditions: since the European churches didn't like their African converts to assert their own culture, the converts splintered off into churches of their own. And when apartheid was imposed, those churches gained new political impetus.

[...]
http://arts.independent.co.uk/music/feat...

These skirmishes are setting a lot of teeth on edge over here.

Turkey has a much more justifiable case of *imminent threat* than the US ever had against iraq. And Turkey has been watching for decades so it well knows how the US uses proxies to fight its battles in the ME. Fortunately, cooler heads are prevailing for the moment. Why the US is encouraging the Kurds to do this is just another instance of the insanity brought upon the world by putzCo.

*********
And it's that time. Have good ones!

====================
Kurdish rebels attack Turkish military outpost
By Selcan Hacaoglu, Associated Press Writer
Published: 05 June 2007

Kurdish rebels fired rockets and grenades at a Turkish military outpost yesterday, killing 7 soldiers in a bold attack that heightened tension at a time when Ankara has threatened military action against Kurdish rebels in northern Iraq.

The army sent helicopter gunships and reinforcements to Tunceli province in southeastern Turkey after guerrillas rammed a vehicle into the military post and opened fire with automatic weapons and rockets, local media reported.

Soldiers returned fire, killing the vehicle driver, the military said.

The attack came as Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul told European Union officials visiting Ankara that "we have every right to take measures against terrorist activities directed at us from northern Iraq."

Turkey's political and military leaders have been debating whether to stage an incursion into northern Iraq to try to root out Kurdish rebel bases there.

However, German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier, whose country holds the EU presidency, said he "did not get the impression that Turkey would stage an incursion."

On Monday, a pro-Kurdish news agency reported that Turkish troops shelled a border area in northern Iraq for a second day in an attack on Kurdish rebels based there.

[...]
http://news.independent.co.uk/europe/art...

Good morning, everybody

Want to announce that the Howardly is back on Hannah

http://hannah.smith-family.com

52.

Yes, but there are still too many people in the world!!! How else are we going to reduce the world's population of humans, if we don't let the children of people, who refuse to limit their reproduction, die soon after birth? /snark/

51.

What I would argue is that 2001 wasn't a "missed opportunity" to forge new security agreements with Russia instead of developing new missiles. Building new missiles and setting them up in new places was/is intentional.
The U.S. has become a rogue nation which relies on the threat of force rather than fair bargains and trading in the free market to get what it wants.

My LTE for today:


A muddle is what you get when do things for the wrong reasons. The Bush Administration wants be be fighting a war because only a war President has the kind of dictatorial powers that the current occupant of the Oval Office is claiming for himself.
The problem is that no bona fide war-making body--i.e. nation--is willing to war with us. So a fictional entity, referred to as al Qaeda, has been created and some of its supposed members have been caught and designated as enemy combatants to make the war on terror seem real. But there's no evidence--of anything. At best they're illegal combatants, hangers on of something that has less cohesion than a street gang, creating a muddle for the greatest army on earth.
But then, what are we supposed to expect of an administration that sends cruise missiles after a few fighters in the Somali outback?
It's a kakistocracy.

Rachel Carson would have turned 100 on May 27 so I offer this quote from her:

"We must all have a great sense of responsibility and not let things happen because everyone takes the comfortable view that someone else is looking after it.  Someone else isn't looking after it."

I post this because all of you on this blog recognize the sentiments that Ms. Carson expresses here.  You all have taken on that responsibility and have taken action.  You are not letting things just happen.

Thank you Ms. Carson, for as Al Gore wrote, "Without Silent Spring the environmental movement might have been long delayed or never have developed at all."

and I thought Kermit was green ?

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20070604/sc_nm/suriname_species_dc_1

Reuters - Mon Jun 4, 5:03 PM ET

A purple fluorescent frog, of the genus Atelopus and discovered during a follow-up survey of the Nassau plateau in mid 2006 by Surinamese scientists Paul Ouboter and Jan Mol, is seen in this undated handout photo. The frog is one of 24 new species found in the South American highlands of Suriname, conservationists reported on June 4, 2007, warning that these creatures are threatened by illegal gold mining. (Paul Ouboter/Handout/Reuters)

I have frogs in my backyard ponds and tree frogs scattered throughout the tall oaks.

They serenade me to sleep, especially on rainy nights.

Frogs are indeed the canaries in the coalmine.

I'm thankful for the "canaries" that are part of my daily existence.

I'm also thankful that Barack Obama is the the race for our next president.

http://www.usatoday.com/news/politics/election2008/2007-06-04-poll_N.htm?csp=34

Updated 49m ago 

The Illinois senator bests Clinton by a single percentage point, 30%-29%, if the contest includes former vice president Al Gore.

Clinton bests Obama by a single point, 37%-36%, if it doesn't include Gore.

...

"National polls are not all that relevant in a process that is largely sequential" through early contests in a series of particular states, says David Axelrod, Obama's chief strategist.

Even so, Axelrod adds, "This poll is consistent with what we see on the ground" as increasingly huge crowds show up for Obama's appearances. He says it also undercuts the argument Clinton strategists have tried to make that "she's an [unconquerable] Juggernaut."

Among Democrats alone, Clinton leads Obama by 5 points, 34%-29%. That's a significant narrowing from the USA TODAY poll taken in mid-May, when she led by 17 points. Among independents, Obama leads by 9 points, 31%-22%.

...

I have been saying this since Bush became President.

This is Bush's economic strategy
Essentially, keep the lower and middle classes from getting wealth. Flood the markets with cheap crap and easy credit.
Off shoring only creates wealth for the executives in this country.

Great stuff
Would have liked to see a greater discussion about what good stuff Bubba did in this area.

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/060407...

65.

* rdorgan


Yes. Isn't it amazing that Al Gore is polling so high, 17 percent, for not being a candidate.

Thank you.

Linda*in*SFNM -

You're welcome.

Bush, "The Cold War is over. It ended. The people of the Czech Republic doesn't have to choose between being a friend to the US or a friend to Russia. You can be both. (his staff was clapping here that he receited that well)

Bush, "Vladamir, I call him Vladamir, you shouldn't fear a missile defense system".

Hubby just said, he makes Reagan look like he was functioning with a brain.

fyi - new thread (if anyone is inclined to leap to it -- hey, I like frogs, what can I say)