Father's Day for Peace

On April 9, 2004 at 11:00 pm, during the First Siege of Fallujah, Abdul Hakeem and his family were asleep at home when mortar rounds fired by US forces rained down on their home. Abdul Hakeem's mother suffered abdominal and chest injuries. Eight months pregnant, she lost Abdul Hakeem's unborn sister. His older brother and sister were also injured. Abdul Hakeem received severe injuries to his face and eye from shrapnel.

At that time, US forces did not permit ambulances to transport civilian casualties to the hospital. In fact, they fired on ambulances in violation of international law. A neighbor volunteered to take the family to the hospital, where doctors assessed Hakeem's chances of survival at five percent. The doctors told Ismaeel, his father, that Abdul Hakeem must go to the hospital in Baghdad for treatment.

Ismaeel had to stay with his wife and other injured children, but he sent Abdul Hakeem to Baghdad with his uncle. During the attack, the US forces were only allowing women to leave the city. When they reached the city's border, the uncle waved a white shirt in the air for the American soldiers. When they saw he had an injured child, they put both of them on a plane to Baghdad. After twelve days, Ismaeel was able to go to Baghdad to see his son, but was devasted when, despite several surgeries, he found him in the same state as before. There was little they could do.

No More Victims learned about Abdul Hakeem in March of 2005. In early 2006, Chad Hetman, a member of Iraq Veterans Against the War and Veterans for Peace, spent six weeks in Amman guiding Hakeem and his father through the difficult and time-consuming visa process. He accompanied them to Pittsburgh, where they arrived in February 2006.

During that first visit, Hakeem received medical treatment from Pittsburgh Children's Hospital. He was fitted for a prosthetic eye, which dramatically improved his appearance. His TMJ was restored on the left side, and skin grafting and stretching removed 50% of the scar tissue. After several months of surgeries, he and his father returned to Iraq.

No More Victims is a non-profit, non-sectarian, humanitarian organization which brings war-injured Iraqi children to the United States for medical treatment. Maybe it's a little too late to save your dad from the dreaded tie this Father's Day, but it's never too late to save a child-victim of war. You can honor your dad and help a father who was unable to protect his own child from war by making a donation here and by learning more here.



TAGS: Iraq War, peace, children, children of war

I'm Voting Republican

[ SNARK!]

[/SNARK!]

Truth in humor and satire! This video appears to be going viral. I've seen it at Crooks and Liars, Down With Tyranny and other sites today. The originator site is I'm Voting Republican

TAGS: Humor, VOTE!, Rethuglicans, Sum peeple ar stoopid

SCOTUS Appears To Show Signs Of Functioning

One branch of the Government appears to be functioning correctly, at least in this instance.

From ThinkProgress.org today:

The justices, in a 5-4 ruling Thursday, handed the Bush
administration its third setback at the high court since 2004 over its treatment of prisoners who are being held indefinitely and without charges at the U.S. naval base in Cuba.

It was not immediately clear whether this ruling, unlike the first two, would lead to prompt hearings for the detainees, some of whom have been
held more than 6 years. Roughly 270 men remain at the island prison, classified as enemy combatants and held on suspicion of terrorism or links to al-Qaida and the Taliban.

[...]

SCOTUSBlog calls the ruling "a stunning blow to the Bush Administration in its war-on-terrorism policies" because it found that "Congress had not validly taken away habeas rights. If Congress wishes to suspend habeas, it must do so only as the Constitution allows — when the country faces rebellion or invasion."

Wow! Score 1 for The Constitution!

UPDATE: The full case and decision are available online (pdf) here at SCOTUSBlog

Glenzilla weighs in, emphasis his:

In its decision, the Court emphasized (and revived) some of the
most vital principles of our system of Government which have been trampled upon
and degraded over the last seven years (emphasis added):

The Framers' inherent distrust of government power was the driving force behind the constitutional plan that allocated powers among three independent branches. This design serves not only to make Government accountable but also to secure individual liberty. . . .

Where a person is detained by executive order rather than, say, after being tried and convicted in a court, the need for collateral review
is most pressing. . . . The habeas court must have sufficient authority
to conduct a meaningful review of both the cause of detention and the
Executive's power to detain. . . .

Security depends upon a sophisticated intelligence apparatus and the ability of our Armed Forces to act and interdict. There are further
considerations, however. Security subsists, too, in fidelity to
freedom's first principles. Chief among these are freedom from
arbitrary and unlawful restraint and the personal liberty that is secured by adherence to separation of powers. . . .

The laws and Constitution are designed to survive,
and remain in force, in extraordinary times. Liberty and security can be reconciled; and in our system, they are reconciled within the framework of law. The Framers decided that habeas corpus, a right of first importance, must be a part of that framework, part of that law.

In ruling that the CSRTs woefully fail to provide the constitutionally guaranteed safeguards, the Court quoted Alexander Hamilton's Federalist No. 84: "The practice of arbitrary imprisonments, in all ages, is the favorite and most formidable instruments of tyranny." It is that deeply tyrannical practice -- implemented by the Bush administration and authorized by a bipartisan act of Congress -- which the U.S. Supreme Court, today, struck down.

The Military Commissions Act of 2006 was -- and remains -- one of the great stains on our national political character. It was passed by a substantial majority in the Senate (65-34) with the support of every single Senate Republican (except Chafee) and 12 Senate Democrats. No filibuster was even attempted. It passed by a similar margin in the House, where 34 Democrats joined 219 Republicans to enact it. One of the most extraordinary quotes of the post-9/11 era came from GOP Sen. Arlen Specter, who said at the time that that the Military Commissions Act -- because it explicitly barred federal courts from hearing habeas corpus petitions brought by Guantanamo detainees -- "sets back basic rights by some 900 years" and was "patently unconstitutional on its face" -- and Specter then proceeded to vote for it.

Now I have zero expectation that the Executive Branch will perform properly, but erm, maybe the Senate and the House could?

That would be music to my ears:

Impeachment A Lot to Me

Kucinich's Articles of impeachment have their own blog.

Here's a look at the 35 reasons Kucinich gives for tossing GWB out.

Dennis J. Kucinich of Ohio
In the United States House of Representatives
Monday, June 9th, 2008
A Resolution

INDEX

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

Only 35? I guess time is of the essence, since, you know, they're getting away. And by the way something, obviously this warrants the vaunted Icee Award. I am also nominating Kucinich for the lifetime achievement Icee Award to be awarded at a later date.

UPDATE: From McClatchy--"Hours after Rep. Dennis Kucinich, D-Ohio, introduced articles of impeachment against President Bush, his campaign says his website 'was shut down by a series of suspicious and fast moving events.'"

TAGS: Dennis Kucinich, High Crimes and Misdemeanors, Impeachment, Iraq OCCUPATION

A Very Important Speech

Yes, Even More Important
Than Hillary's Concession Speech

Bill Moyers' entire NCMR address (40 minutes)

- or click here to go to YouTube,
(if you wish to watch it full-screen.)

You can't help feeling that Mr. Moyers isn't really talking about the media so much as he's talking about a last-ditch effort to save democracy. But he can speak for himself as well as anyone, and better than most, so I'll just excerpt a couple of what I consider to be his most important statements.

What we need to know to make democracy work for all Americans is compromised by media institutions deeply embedded in the power structures of society.
[...]
Democracy without honest information creates the illusion of popular consent while enhancing the power of the state and the privileged interests protected by it.

As the state has accumulated more power it has simultaneously devolved towards protecting the privileged. At the same time the media has been co-opted into serving those very same privileged interests. This is decidedly NOT a good thing. The multinational corporatocracy has a huge incentive on getting a grip on the power structures of American (and international) society. The people have to wake up to the realization that they have a vested interest in opposing this naked fascist power grab.

RISE UP! Before it's too late.

---

BONUS VIDEO: I know that the Bill Moyers speech, at 40 minutes, is very long for YouTube, or for anyone on the rapid-fire internet to devote their time to. Still, I give you this five minute speech from John F. Kennedy on the dangers of secret societies. It was delivered to the National News Publishers Association on April 27, 1961.

Somehow I feel as if the US federal government has become a branch office of Skull and Bones, with the co-operation of FOX news, CNN, and the Wall Street Journal. Everything is secret, and no-one seems willing to expose any of it. Everything that Kennedy warned of has come to life. Anyway, kudos to the person who posted this - the series of accompanying images is very appropriate. More here, with a transcript of the entire (19 minute) speech.

TAGS: Bill Moyers, Addresses the NCMR, Media Reform
Talking Overpaid Bobbleheads Pushing Pre-processed Pablum Down the Necks of a Gormless Public

McCain's Phony Reformer Cred Fracturing

About John McCain affixing his name to the Obama/Coburn good government bill, Mike at Born at the Crest of the Empire, writes, "Two candidates competing for the 'good government' mantle might have some positive effects." Between this bill and his transformation of the DNC, Barack Obama is reforming the government before he gets elected (The Young Turks look at Obama's takeover of the DNC here), just imagine what he'll do when he's president. While McCain jumping on board is very welcome in this instance, he has a very deep-seated lobbyist problem. If he is competing for the mantle of good-government, it is a fraudulent stance that he can not sustain much longer because he's utterly surrounded by lobbyists.

His alledged chief economist, former GOP senator-turned-lobbyist, Phil Gramm has the same kind of business record George W. Bush had before he became Texas governor--complete failure. Firedoglake blogger Christy Hardin Smith asks, "Is this what we could expect McCain to foist on the rest of the country -- a man who helped run energy and banking policy in the ground while he and his family pocketed millions?" Over at Rising Hegemon, Attaturk has the story of Gramm being on the other side of another Obama bill working its way through congress that will eliminate off shore tax shelters.

Meanwhile, lobbyists are actually trying to push back against the demonizing of their brand. It hurts their feelings. "What I have trouble with is the hypocritical nature of these comments" said a lobbyist. "Both candidates have worked with lobbyists, recognize the value of their input, received legal campaign contributions from lobbyists, and yet never hesitate to throw us to the wolves when it behooves them to do so." I applaud this lobbyist for over-the-top rhetoric portraying lobbyists as being thrown to wolves, as opposed to, say, under a bus, but fresh cliché aside, this argument is ridiculous.

No one is trying to take away lobbyists place at "the table". What Obama is doing (and what McCain pretends he's doing) is trying to make sure that "the table" is not bought-and-paid-for by vastly wealthy corporate interests intent on legally bribing their way around laws and rules that were made (or will be made) to protect us. This "table" is where the poeple's interests have to be addressed, yet when it's entirely legal to use the campaign finance system to buy off both sides of a phoney debate, it is the people who pay for it when they literally die, or get sick, or go hungry, or lose their house, or get cheated out of jobs, or lose rights, or work for poverty wages, or go to jail for no good reason, or, or, or...

Even undue influence on a dead issue can be incredibly damaging. Take, for example, McCain's most recent (there might be a new one, I haven't checked today) flip-flop on telecom immunity. Nick Juliano of Raw Story writes, "While McCain's position on wiretaps and telcos is zigging this way and that, a new report also details the extent to which lobbyists who earned a living representing the very phone companies accused of breaking the law are now working for his campaign." Not that Republicans in Congress give a shit about wasting time in that august body, but don't you think that this "debate" over telecom immunity has gone on long enough? How long has this crap been going on? Chris Dodd was still in the race when this thing got smashed. They keep bringing it back because when you funnel millions to politicians on both sides (I'm looking at you Jay Rockefeller) stupid debates like this will last forever, crowding out important legislation. Of course, having a 492-page bill read into the record to kill even the most suspect global warming legislation could be considered a bigger problem. Perhaps the next time a lobbyist is out looking for sympathy they should open with that instead of stressing "the value of their input".

McCain's lobbying connections also undermine his alleged national defense credibility. McCain has flopped around quite a bit on the subject of divestment from Iran. Actually divesting will be difficult for a candidate, who, as Sam Stein reports, "employs [chief campaign strategist Charlie Black and] several other campaign aides and fundraisers who have served in lobbying capacities in which they advocated on behalf of foreign clients with investments and interests in Iran."

And please, don't buy the meme that McCain is cleaning up now that he's up against a real reformer in Obama. Less than a week and a half ago McCain's campaign manager met with about 70 top Republican lobbyists.

TAGS: Reform, John McCain, Lobbying, Election 2008

The Energy Blues

One thing traveling abroad brings home is the high cost of energy we've avoided. I filled my rental car with diesel for 6.12 Euros/Gallon on Friday ($9.05 Bushbucks/gallon), a normal price for diesel in Germany. Of course demand for diesel is higher - one of the ways the Germans have managed to keep muscle cars relatively fuel efficient is to replace the Otto-cycle gasoline engines with diesels. The little Audi A3 I had would do 240 km/h (150 mph) and when I filled it, I calculated the miles per gallon: 44 MPG. That was a combination of in-town and autobahn driving.

The cost of a gallon of gas here has never paid for the cost of driving a vehicle. Economists refer to this as externality - someone else is footing part of the bill for your actions. In Europe, by contrast, taxes on both cars and fuel are high and are designed to defray the total costs of driving: Road repair, pollution, cleanup of old gas stations, etc. We haven't made that switch. Instead our property taxes, income tax and so forth go partially to pay for roads, bridges, environmental cleanups and so forth. Drivers don't pay for themselves in the US. We never have.

So now the bill is coming due. Europeans take mass transit, ride bikes, walk, live close to work, carpool, anything they can to keep their driving costs down. So I thought I'd start a thread of ideas to help keep energy costs down (through reducing consumption or through creation of alternate energy). Here are a couple of things I'm doing and have done to reduce the cost of energy in my home:

1. I bought a backpack for my PC last week and will use it as I cycle to work three days per week. Benefit: A bit of fuel saved and a lot of good exercise.

2. I've replaced all the light bulbs in my house with CFLs. Direct reduction of energy costs of $30/month.

3. I have installed a programmable thermostat. My energy bill dropped another $6/month because of that.

4. On a macro level, allow US nuclear power plants to reprocess spent fuel rods. The Plutonium generated increases the overall efficiency of nuclear power and decreases vastly the amount of nuclear waste produced. Here's a pretty good article.

And here's a pretty technical one.

Others?
TAGS: Energy, Conservation, Green Ideas, Potpourri for $200

Grüße aus Germany, Teil 2

Ein wunderschon guten Abend wünscht der Bear.

Once again I find myself overseas, this time for a week only in Germany with a side trip to Gothenburg, Sweden. Tomorrow it's time to go home to the land of internal espionage. I mention that because it's recently become quite the hot theme here as several companies, the Deutsche Telekom among others, have been shown by the magazine Der Spiegel to be spying on their own employees and on reporters.

The similarities are amazing. Once discovered, the Liberal parties immediately wanted to strengthen the Datenschutzgesetz, the data protection law. The Conservatives, of course, think the existing laws are quite strong enough. The difference is that both think what happened is wrong and the people are quite upset.

I've had to earn my pay this trip, working pretty much all the time I'm awake and not traveling, so not much to report and no pictures to show. Even on the trip to Sweden I got to see nothing. Advice: Never fly SAS. That airline has perfected the art of the flying cattle car, the only thing missing is use of cattle prods to speed the boarding process. On the trip to Gothenburg, I was stuck between two rather large Swedes in a middle seat over the wing. There were plenty of seats a bit forward but those were another class, as the flight attendant told me, a class with a bit of leg room, although the seats themselves were still small even by southeast Asian standards. Anyway, in the back where I sat, you even paid for a drink of water. Same thing coming back except I was stuck in the very back seat of a MD-80. When I got the ticket I realized I was in the middle and asked to change. The agent lied - I could see the computer screen - telling me there were no others available. As a result, I think my right ear, the one closest to the motor six feet and two cigarette wrappers from my head, is a bit deaf now.

Again the differences in behavior are striking. You don't take your shoes off at screening. I didn't even show my passport to enter Sweden nor was there anyone at Customs. Walk through and you're free and clear in the country. Our branch there even joked they probably had a few illegals working there. And I got meatballs for lunch. Gothenburg is a beautiful city full of attractive, friendly people and I'd love to spend some more time there. Preferably in June - winter lasts seven months.

So, tomorrow, back to the Land of the Spied and the Home of the Paranoid. I won't be shocked this time going through Denver customs by the faces of those my ancestors stole the land from - an ironic joke that their faces grace the entrance hall to the country formed from their stolen lands, a country called free that spies on its own people, a land proud of its courage made paranoid by an attack and a fear-mongering president, a land where orange is the new green.

A land where, when I'm in Europe, I'm sometimes a bit ashamed to call home.
TAGS: Germany, Sweden, Domestic Espionage, Paranoia will destroya

New and Disturbing Rules Sought

Taking Liberties with YOUR Civil Liberties

It looks like they're still trying to find some way to give retroactive immunity to telecoms who broke the law by co-operating with Bu$hCo™'s illegal warrant-less wiretapping program.

Story from TPMMuckraker;
Story from Crooks and Liars

Of note for those still naive enough to think that the US is going to vote itself out of the current Bush-created crises in November is the capitulation of Texas 'Democrat' (In Name Only) Silvestre Reyes, the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee. The so-called compromise would leave it up to the FISA courts themselves to determine whether immunity should be granted. My deepest sympathies go out to anyone with a teen-aged daughter who is as incapable of saying NO as the FISA courts are. Or as willing to roll over onto her back as the Democrats are.

As has been consistently shown in every legal case that this administration has had contact with, the new rules he's trying to put in place can be summed up as:

1) - If you're 'with us', you can get away with whatever the hell you like, including murder. Think of the KBR/Halliburton thugs that gang-raped Jamie Leigh Jones. Or the contractors involved in the black-site interrogation TO DEATH of dozens of alleged terrorists. Or the $10 BILLION in cash that went missing in Iraq under Paul Bremer's watch - and nobody even bothered to look for it. Etc, etc, etc....

1) If you're not 'with us', you are by explicit definition 'with the terrorists', so you are guilty regardless of any evidence that a crime being committed. Think of Don Siegelman, or once again of those dozens of alleged terrorists who've been tortured to death.

Above all think of the appointment of the most partisan group of hacks to ever inhabit the Supreme Court, and the Prosecutors' Purge that has created what amounts to a Department of Injustice in America. The march toward a full-blown fascist state continues unimpeded.

TAGS: FISA, Warrantless+Wiretapping, Department of Justice, = Injustice

An Unruly Book: "Uprising!"

Pitchfork? Check.

Torch? Check.

Unruly attitude? Check.

OK let's go:

In all the noise and fury of the last primary run, and Scott McClellan's book last week, there's a unruly gem in them thar hills:

"David Sirota is a clear-headed and principled hell-raiser for economic justice. More like him and we'll have a real uprising on our hands. "
—Naomi Klein, author of "No Logo" and "The Shock Doctrine"

Do I have your attention, Mob? Good, I thought so.

I saw this on Amy Goodman's "Democracy Now!" show last night. I am a latecomer to David Sirota. He has been blogging on Squarestate.net which is a major Colorado progressive blog, (credentialed to the DNC by the way) and I always thought he was interesting, but I had never dug fiercely into him before. Last night's show had me absolutely riveted.

You can watch the whole show here, but I have excerpted a couple of points:

His observations about Obama, the political process this cycle being the "starting point, not the end point" and further observations about "direct action" making Wall Street and K Street "scared" are just music to my ears. Literally.

Just listen to what he says about the Iraq War. We've been saying it for the longest time!

AMY GOODMAN: David Sirota, you talk about conflicts of interest within the antiwar movement: the antiwar movement, which enjoys widespread support, and the politicians who ally themselves with pro-war consultants.

DAVID SIROTA: Right. What happened, in the chapter that I reported on the antiwar movement, is back in 2007, what we found is that you just had an election where the Democrats were elected promising to end the war, and what ended up happening was that the same Democratic Congress refused to really do what it takes to actually end the war. And part of that was, I think, a strategic decision on behalf of the antiwar organizations in Washington about how they said we could end the war. You had consultants who were simultaneously being paid by the Democratic Party and Democratic Party politicians.

AMY GOODMAN: Like?

DAVID SIROTA: You had Hildebrand Tewes. You had consulting firms. They were the lead consulting firm. And I don’t mean to pick on them. It’s just that they were the consulting firm that was heading up the major coalition in Washington of antiwar groups. And so, the strategy that came out of those antiwar groups was we have to simply bash the Republicans to end the war, when in fact, of course, Congress was controlled entirely by Democrats. Last I checked, Democrats have forty-one senators in the US Senate, if they wanted to filibuster a bill to continue funding the war [sic-they could]. They haven’t done that. Yet the strategy kept saying, well, we have to only focus the ads, the media buys and the pressure on Republicans. It was sort of a dishonest strategy, and I think it had something to do with the fact that you have organizations in Washington that put partisan affinity over movement goals. [emphasis mine]

He is totally speaking our Unruly Language, I do believe. The part about sneaking into the Exxon Shareholder meeting is GREAT!

Watch the whole show, (Sirota's interview starts at 30 minutes into the stream) and buy the book. I have never EVER said buy something before on this blog, but I'm telling you I am buying it, and from what I saw of the interview, Sirota's insights into the whole political process and "direct action" really speak to what we as the Unruly Mob hold dear.

Pitchfork? Check.
Torch? Check.
Unruly attitude? Check.

OK let's go!

TAGS: Democracy Now!, David Sirota, "Uprising", Let's Do Something Besides Blog

Australia Joins Coalition of the Leaving

Over the weekend Australia pulled their troops from Iraq.

From AP (h/t C & L):

SYDNEY, Australia - Australia, a staunch U.S. ally and one of the first countries to commit troops to the war in Iraq five years ago, ended combat operations there June 1.

Soldiers lowered the Australian flag that had flown over Camp Terendak in the southern Iraqi city of Talil. The combat troops are expected to return to Australia over the next few weeks.

The move fulfills a campaign promise by Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, who was swept into office in November largely on the promise that he would bring home the country's 550 combat troops by the middle of 2008. Rudd has said the Iraq deployment made Australia more of a target for terrorism.

Rudd's predecessor, former Prime Minister John Howard, said he was "baffled" by the decision to withdraw the troops.

(more)

For those looking for a model for prosecution of crimes committed by the Bush administration might want to keep an eye on former Prime Minister Howard. A legal brief has been sent to the International Criminal Court by something called the ICC Action Group, which the Australian Broadcast Corporation says is comprised of "peace activists, lawyers, academics and politicians".

TAGS: Australia, War Crimes, Iraq, John Howard

Force Conservatives To Throw The 'Discrimination Switch'

Back in 2004, California's Supreme Court did something completely disgraceful when it annulled the marriages of 4000 gay couples on procedural grounds without considering the larger question of whether denying homosexuals the right to marry is even constitutional. In 2008, though, they corrected themselves ruling that homosexuals did, in fact, have a constitutionally protected right to marry.

Predictably, this has thrown California's conservatives into a tizzy. Faced with the prospect of 10's of thousands gay marriages before they get their chance to officially write discrimination into our constitution, they've asked the court to stay its ruling until after the November election. Moreover, they've been joined by the Attroneys' General of ten states that aren't prepared to consider the question of whether or not to recognize gay marriages performed in California.

But, like death penalty advocates who'll never be required to 'throw the switch', these cowards want to keep gay marriage hidden from public view until they can make it a non-issue. After all, it's a lot easier to convince the electorate that gay marriage is the downfall of society when there aren't any happily married gay couples around to put the lie in your stance—when you never have to face the people whose rights you'll be taking away.

The court, however, should not give in and conservatives who support this nonsense should be exposed as the intellectually dishonest throwbacks they are. They should have to explain and, whether they succeed or fail, have their noses rubbed in their folly. Not a hundred, nor a thousand, nor even ten thousand gay marriages are enough. We should have one marriage for each and every conservative that would deny homosexuals equal protection under the law, and on election day those conservatives should be forced to personally confront the couples whom they would make into second-class citizens.

TAGS: Marriage, Rights, California, Homosexuality