The US Senate approved a doubling of GI Bill college benefits, a 13 week extension of unemployment benefits and $2.7 billion in flood relief for the mid-west. Best of of all they did this by a 92 to 6 vote! (Congress passes Iraq war spending plan, Times Argus, 06/27/08)

All right … so they decided to keep bombing, maiming and killing in Iraq and Afghanistan. Big deal. I mean what’s a bunch of misery in some distant people’s lives compared to our day to day needs?

As stated elsewhere by many others, these wars now carry the imprimatur of those wonderful DC Dems. Great job gals ‘n guys!

Get word out regards stopping US torture now. Top 3 actions:

1. sign PHR petition on US torture, share broadly

Link http://brokenlives.info/?page_…

2. help these videos go viral

Link http://brokenlives.info?page_id=9

3. help fund next steps: join us, empower us

Link https://donate-phr.org/05/acco…

Physicians for Human Right recently released a study involving real human beings who have been the recipients of torture committed by the United States. The report can be found through this link: Broken Laws, Broken Lives.

Just a quick sample below the fold:

Beatings During Arrest, Transport, and Initial Custody

Many of the most severe injuries from beatings that the former detainees reported were sustained shortly after they were arrested. All seven of the men who were detained in Iraq (hereafter referred to as “the Iraqi former detainees”) recounted experiencing violent treatment during their arrests, some of which involved severe physical assault on their family members as well as destruction or looting of their homes.

The beatings inflicted on detainees at US facilities at Bagram and Kandahar in Afghanistan were particularly intense, and included beatings with sticks and fists, kicks to the stomach and genitals and blows to the head. As a result, Haydar, who was held at Kandahar before being transferred to Guantánamo, lost three of his teeth and Rasheed, who was held at both Bagram and Kandahar facilities, lost consciousness and was hospitalized. Similarly, all former detainees held at Guantánamo reported that the most intense and widespread physical beatings they experienced at the facility took place during transfer and shortly after arrival there.

The Iraqi former detainees also reported severe beatings during the first days and weeks of detention at facilities including one at Baghdad International Airport. Hafez, who was held at a US facility at Baghdad International Airport and Abu Ghraib for over seven months, was forced to the ground and beaten severely on his legs and back, causing his lips, forehead, and nose to bleed; he also reported being stripped and having his chest and pubic hair ripped out by hand and being simultaneously beaten, hit, and choked while being doused with cold water.

While physical evidence of beatings often may not be detectable in later medical evaluations, findings from bone scans of six of the former detainees as well as scars and lesions visible during physical examination are consistent with the history of beatings described by the victims.

Get word out regards stopping US torture now. Top 3 actions:

1. sign PHR petition on US torture, share broadly

Link http://brokenlives.info/?page_…

2. help these videos go viral

Link http://brokenlives.info?page_id=9

3. help fund next steps: join us, empower us

Link https://donate-phr.org/05/acco…

The Army general who led the investigation into prisoner abuse at Iraq’s Abu Ghraib prison accused the Bush administration Wednesday of committing “war crimes” and called for those responsible to be held to account.

The remarks by Maj. Gen. Antonio Taguba, who’s now retired, came in a new report that found that U.S. personnel tortured and abused detainees in Iraq, Afghanistan and Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, using beatings, electrical shocks, sexual humiliation and other cruel practices.

(Administration guilty of war crimes, says U.S. general, Times Argus, 06/19/08)

Democratic and GOP leaders in the House announced agreement Wednesday on a long-overdue war funding bill they said President Bush would be willing to sign.

The agreement on the war funding bill, announced by Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, D-Md., and Minority Leader John Boehner, R-Ohio, also paves the way for a quick infusion of emergency flood relief for the Midwest, an extension of unemployment payments for the jobless and a big boost in GI Bill college for veterans.

(Accord reached on war-funding bill, Times Argus, 06/19/08)

Impeachment is off the table, but funding the criminality can be purchased by a few domestic programs (funded by debt of course).

Thanks, Democratic DC politicians, you have once again helped to enable some of the most despicable creatures ever to haunt our nation’s governments. You do this with willful premeditation. You are just as guilty … period.

And yes … that includes our precious saints of Vermont: the Dem troika of Leahy, Sanders and Welch.

When are YOU going to be disgusted enough that you will say “No more” and take your time/money/vote support away from the enablers?

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Honda’s new zero-emission, hydrogen fuel cell car rolled off a Japanese production line Monday and is headed to Southern California, where Hollywood is already abuzz over the latest splash in green motoring.

The FCX Clarity, which runs on hydrogen and electricity, emits only water and none of the noxious fumes believed to induce global warming. It is also two times more energy efficient than a gas-electric hybrid and three times that of a standard gasoline-powered car, the company says.

(AP article via Google news)

Excellent news and all, but it emits only water? I might be missing something here … BUT

Water freezes at 32F/0C. We spend a good part of our year in sub-freezing temperatures. Water vapor in cold temps falls out of the air.

Ever try driving on a road covered with an invisible but present glaze of (black) ice?

Is there something in this technology I’m missing, or are we in for some rough winters with thousands of hydrogen fuel cell powered vehicles running around our roads emitting water?

On Obama’s campaign website there is a place to “Fight the Smears” (link here).

Personally I think it’s an excellent way to work back against all the email style bullshit currently flooding the ‘net/tubes, and I think the approach of  “lies” vs “truth” is the way to go.

However … referring to being called a Muslim as a “smear”?

That’s plain stupid in my opinion … and bigoted … and insulting to more than a billion non-violent people throughout the world.

Obama has every right to express his religious bent, and he should correct untruths. He shouldn’t be doing it at the expense of folks who have done him no harm however, calling a reference to himself as being a smear is clearly a rhetorical attack against Muslims.

“We are going to be bollixed up in a way that’s terribly unfortunate,” he said. “Our first obligation is the safety and security of this nation and the men and women who defend it. This decision will harm our ability to do that.”

(McCain Denounces Detainee Ruling, Washington Post, 06/14/08)

Actually, Senator McCain, you took the following oath

I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; and that I will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office on which I am about to enter: So help me God.

(US  Senate)

And in the United States of America’s Constitution we find the following language

The Senators and Representatives before mentioned, and the Members of the several State Legislatures, and all executive and judicial Officers, both of the United States and of the several States, shall be bound by Oath or Affirmation, to support this Constitution; but no religious Test shall ever be required as a Qualification to any Office or public Trust under the United States.

(Article. VI. – Debts, Supremacy, Oaths)

It certainly is politically correct and politically sexy to lay claim to some other supreme responsibility (as opposed to defending the Constitution), but it is also a lie.

I say lie because each and every politician who takes the above oath knows what it says … they give their solemn word … and then what?

PS. This also applies to an awful lot of Democratic politicians too.

(More on this forthcoming… this is a great start, though… – promoted by odum)

I know .. it’s rare that the Supremes have ruled to save us from our government, but thanks to Justices Kennedy, Stevens, Souter, Ginsburg and Breyer (and no thanks to the dissenting fascists Roberts, Scalia, Thomas and Alito) the hard to imagine has occurred!

Here’s the link to the SCOTUS decision: http://www.supremecourtus.gov/opinions/07pdf/06-1195.pdf.

And just a few quotes

The Framers viewed freedom from unlawful restraint as a fundamental precept of liberty, and they understood thewrit of habeas corpus as a vital instrument to secure thatfreedom. Experience taught, however, that the common-law writ all too often had been insufficient to guard against the abuse of monarchial power. That historycounseled the necessity for specific language in the Constitution to secure the writ and ensure its place in our legal system.

That the Framers considered the writ a vital instrument for the protection of individual liberty is evident from the care taken to specify the limited grounds for its suspension: “The Privilege of the Writ of Habeas Corpus shall not 13 Cite as: 553 U. S. __ (2008) Opinion of the Court be suspended, unless when in Cases of Rebellion or Invasion the public Safety may require it.” Art. I, §9, cl. 2; see Amar, Of Sovereignty and Federalism, 96 Yale L. J. 1425, 1509, n. 329 (1987) (“[T]he non-suspension clause is the original Constitution’s most explicit reference to remedies”). The word “privilege” was used, perhaps, to avoidmentioning some rights to the exclusion of others.

(my emphasis)

The Court has been careful not to foreclose the possibility that the protections of the Suspension Clause have expanded along with post-1789 developments that define the present scope Opinion of the Court of the writ.

[Regarding Guantanamo Bay, Cuba] Our basic charter cannot be contracted away like this.The Constitution grants Congress and the President thepower to acquire, dispose of, and govern territory, not thepower to decide when and where its terms apply. Even when the United States acts outside its borders, its powersare not “absolute and unlimited” but are subject “to such restrictions as are expressed in the Constitution.” Murphy v. Ramsey, 114 U. S. 15, 44 (1885). Abstaining from questions involving formal sovereignty and territorial governance is one thing. To hold the political branches have the power to switch the Constitution on or off at will is quiteanother.

There’s much more … it’s a long read, but of historical interest and somewhat illuminating.

I talked to Venis’ son this morning, and he told me of the funniest thing.

Apparently in today’s Barre/Montpelier Times Argus is this headline: Legislation to extend unemployment benefits fails in House by three votes (link here) that started with this paragraph

The House on Wednesday narrowly defeated a Democratic attempt to give unemployed Americans an extra three months of jobless benefits after the White House threatened to veto the bill.

.

But, my dear Droppings, when Venis’ son read the story he found “the final vote was 279-144”!

I went ahead and did the math and guess what? The bill actually passed by 135 votes … talk about stupid newspaper tricks.

Droppings, I can only assume this was a deliberate misrepresentation of the facts in the article and headline, intended, I imagine, to take the onus off those who would keep this legislation from becoming law.

Oh well, just another day in the media I guess.

With love,

Clove Inhoof

Article I

Creating a Secret Propaganda Campaign to Manufacture a False Case for War Against Iraq.

Article II

Falsely, Systematically, and with Criminal Intent Conflating the Attacks of September 11, 2001, With Misrepresentation of Iraq as a Security Threat as Part of Fraudulent Justification for a War of Aggression.

Article III

Misleading the American People and Members of Congress to Believe Iraq Possessed Weapons of Mass Destruction, to Manufacture a False Case for War.

Article IV

Misleading the American People and Members of Congress to Believe Iraq Posed an Imminent Threat to the United States.

Article V

Illegally Misspending Funds to Secretly Begin a War of Aggression.

Article VI

Invading Iraq in Violation of the Requirements of HJRes114.

Article VII

Invading Iraq Absent a Declaration of War.

Article VIII

Invading Iraq, A Sovereign Nation, in Violation of the UN Charter.

Article IX

Failing to Provide Troops With Body Armor and Vehicle Armor

Article X

Falsifying Accounts of US Troop Deaths and Injuries for Political Purposes

Article XI

Establishment of Permanent U.S. Military Bases in Iraq

Article XII

Initiating a War Against Iraq for Control of That Nation’s Natural Resources

Article XIIII

Creating a Secret Task Force to Develop Energy and Military Policies With Respect to Iraq and Other Countries

Article XIV

Misprision of a Felony, Misuse and Exposure of Classified Information And Obstruction of Justice in the Matter of Valerie Plame Wilson, Clandestine Agent of the Central Intelligence Agency

Article XV

Providing Immunity from Prosecution for Criminal Contractors in Iraq

Article XVI

Reckless Misspending and Waste of U.S. Tax Dollars in Connection With Iraq and US Contractors

Article XVII

Illegal Detention: Detaining Indefinitely And Without Charge Persons Both U.S. Citizens and Foreign Captives

Article XVIII

Torture: Secretly Authorizing, and Encouraging the Use of Torture Against Captives in Afghanistan, Iraq, and Other Places, as a Matter of Official Policy

Article XIX

Rendition: Kidnapping People and Taking Them Against Their Will to “Black Sites” Located in Other Nations, Including Nations Known to Practice Torture

Article XX

Imprisoning Children

Article XXI

Misleading Congress and the American People About Threats from Iran, and Supporting Terrorist Organizations Within Iran, With the Goal of Overthrowing the Iranian Government

Article XXII

Creating Secret Laws

Article XXIII

Violation of the Posse Comitatus Act

Article XXIV

Spying on American Citizens, Without a Court-Ordered Warrant, in Violation of the Law and the Fourth Amendment

Article XXV

Directing Telecommunications Companies to Create an Illegal and Unconstitutional Database of the Private Telephone Numbers and Emails of American Citizens

Article XXVI

Announcing the Intent to Violate Laws with Signing Statements

Article XXVII

Failing to Comply with Congressional Subpoenas and Instructing Former Employees Not to Comply

Article XXVIII

Tampering with Free and Fair Elections, Corruption of the Administration of Justice

Article XXIX

Conspiracy to Violate the Voting Rights Act of 1965

Article XXX

Misleading Congress and the American People in an Attempt to Destroy Medicare

Article XXXI

Katrina: Failure to Plan for the Predicted Disaster of Hurricane Katrina, Failure to Respond to a Civil Emergency

Article XXXII

Misleading Congress and the American People, Systematically Undermining Efforts to Address Global Climate Change

Article XXXIII

Repeatedly Ignored and Failed to Respond to High Level Intelligence Warnings of Planned Terrorist Attacks in the US, Prior to 911.

Article XXXIV

Obstruction of the Investigation into the Attacks of September 11, 2001

Article XXXV

Endangering the Health of 911 First Responders

Full list with details here.

Glad to see you’re on board with this Leahy, Sanders and Welch.

Oh … that’s right … you’re not! Better you have something to whine about than really take action.

and this one reflects extremely poorly on him.

(my emphasis below)

“Let me be clear,” Obama said, “Israel’s security is sacrosanct. It is non-negotiable. The Palestinians need a state that is contiguous and cohesive and that allows them to prosper. But any agreement with the Palestinian people must preserve Israel’s identity as a Jewish state, with secure, recognized and defensible borders. Jerusalem will remain the capital of Israel, and it must remain undivided,” he added, in efforts to secure the Jewish vote.

(Abbas slams Obama for saying Jerusalem to stay Israel’s undivided capital, Haaretz, 06/06/08)

Quite frankly this issue could easily become a deal breaker with my willingness to vote for Obama.

If I don’t hear a change in attitude over the course of this summer my vote will be going to McKinney or some other candidate. I am not going to support a presidential candidate who is willing to subvert our nation’s and the world’s interest to that of a powerful lobby … Israeli or other.

I would certainly like to see a reference to the Arab Palestinian people’s right to a land with an identity of their own choosing and with secure, recognized and defensible borders.

Attitudes like that expressed by Obama above are a deal breaker because they expose the underlying assumptions and principals of the declarant. In this case Obama is exposing himself as no different than the same neo-cons that have helped to put us in the domestic and international mess we are currently in.

Like us in the U.S., Israeli will not be asked by Obama to bear any formal responsibility for their actions. Everything in Palestine will be the fault of the evil Arabs and nothing will change.