Should the Patriot Act be Renewed?

The House of Representatives voted yesterday to renew and make permanent almost all provisions of the Patriot Act. At the same time the Senate Judiciary Committee is acting to reign in some of the powers the government took under the Patriot Act. Is the Patriot Act making us safer and protecting us from terrorists or is it a dangerous limitation on our liberties as individuals? It is a good debate. While I tend toward the second view on the more controversial provisions of the bill, not everyone agrees. If you want to talk about the U.S. Constitution in this day and age, you can't avoid this issue.

National Public Radio has an excellent page on the Patriot Act. Check it out. Listen to or read some of the stories and become more knowledgable about this important issue.

Rove in Trouble

Karl Rove, the mastermind of Bush's political successes has been a demon to those on the political left for a long time. We have seen him as a smart, shrewd, but devious political operative whose calling card is impugning the character of those who present a challenge to Bush.

Many of us suspected that Joseph Wilson's wife, Valerie Plame was unmasked as an undercover CIA operative in retaliation for Wilson's harsh remarks about Bush's handling of WMD intelligence. At the time, Bush said he would fire any aide that leaked Plame's name to reporters.

This week, as Rove has been fingered as having a hand in talking to reporters about Plame's undercover status, Bush has changed his tune. Now he will only fire an aide who broke the law in revealing the name of an undercover CIA agent.

This is convenient for Bush, but he shouldn't get away with it, and Rove should have to pay a high price for his misdeeds, criminal or not. He should resign, because is method of operating can no longer be denied. He is a back-stabbing, cut-throat, political operative that has no business prowling about the highest office in the land. He should resign because of the disgrace he has brought to the White House, a place 2000 candidate Bush said he would restore to its dignity.
The lies and manipulations of evidence that have gone on in this administration are appalling. We deserve better, and we ought to demand it.

Confused about all of this? Check out the CS Monitor's Q & A.

Oh yeah, and all of this seems to be hurting Bush's popularity.

Terrorists took much more than 37+ lives in London

The bombings in London on July 7th were tragic. I sat, watching the footage on CNN in horror like everyone else in the world. What made it more sad for me though, is that the whoever was responsible for the terror bombing did a lot more damage than just what we saw on TV. It changed the focus of the G8 Summit and diverted the world’s attention from the issues of poverty and climate change. Consider for a moment two facts:

37 people were killed in the bombings in London
1 child dies every 5 seconds of hunger somewhere in the world (according the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization, as reported by the BBC).

Which is more horrible? Do the math.

The G8 summit can be considered a success though, because the world’s wealthiest nations agreed to double the amount of aid to Africa and cancel the debt of the 18 poorest nations in Africa. The world leaders need praise and encouragement for this positive step toward ending a more serious and deadly threat than world terrorism.

As reported by the BBC:

In the words of Tony Blair: "It isn't the end of poverty in Africa, but it is
the hope that it can be ended. It isn't all everyone wanted but it is progress -
real and achievable progress."

And Bob Geldof, the former rock star
and Live 8 organiser, paraphrased words first uttered by Winston Churchill.

"I wouldn't say this is the end of extreme poverty, but it is the
beginning of the end," he said. Of course, the various deals fall far short of
what many campaigners wanted.

There was more disappointment in the area of climate change. The United States of America is still refusing to join other nations in taking concrete actions to lower emissions standards although Bush did agree to language that stated that human activity is playing a role in global climate change.

With the publicity from Live 8, there was tremendous focus on this summit. Looking at the news now, it has taken a back seat to concerns and fears over the terrorist attacks. This means we have more work to do in keeping these issues on the agenda of news providers and world leaders.

O'Connor Resigns High Court

July 1st

Sandra Day O'Connor left an incredible mark on the Court and an even greater on on American history. (Read the story from the New York Times.) She was a pivotal "swing" vote in the ideological battles between the Court's conservatives and it's liberals. Her vote was the deciding factor in many of the Court's 5-4 decisions. She was pragmatic and had a sense for finding the pulse of the American people in striking compromise language on a number of issues. Read some excerpts from her opinions.

July 5th update
O'Connor's influence on Court decisions is discussed in the CS Monitor.

ONE Campaign

JOIN THE ONE CAMPAIGN!

If you haven't already visited http://www.one.org/, than you ought to immediately. Do not pass go, do not collect $200, do not get a snack from the fridge. Just check it out and if like what the campaign is about, sign the letter to President Bush urging him to do more to help the poorest of the poor nations by getting serious about debt relief for these nations.
Lots of pop/rock/rap/etc. stars are participating in concerts around the world this weekend to bring publicity to the cause. (Bono and Bob Geldof are the driving musical forces behind the event.) It is well timed as the big summit of the G8 powers is happening this coming week. What the little old people like you and I can do is make sure that our leaders know we are concerned and take this problem seriously.
If you haven't heard about the ONE campaign, here is a brief description from the web site:

"ONE is a new effort by Americans to rally Americans – ONE by ONE – to fight the emergency of global AIDS and extreme poverty. The ONE Campaign is engaging Americans through a diverse coalition of faith-based and anti-poverty organizers to show the steps people can take, ONE by ONE, to fight global AIDS and poverty."

REMEMBER - While many of us our enjoying our summer vacations:

38 million people around the world are infected with HIV/AIDS
1 in 5 people around the world live on an income of less than $1 per day
104 million children around the world do not attend grade school
1 person in 7 has no access to clean water for drinking, cooking or washing.
1 person in 7 suffers from hunger
Millions of the world's children have become orphans because of AIDS, war, or other causes
Instead of spending money on these problems, many governments around the world are spending money paying back debt to the world's wealthy nations and international institutions such as the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund. Every year Sub-Saharan Africa, the poorest region of the world, spends $14.5 billion dollars repaying debts.
Many of the poorest nations have governments that are rife with corruption.

Bottom Line - There is a lot of work to do. One concert isn't going to change everything. One petition isn't going to change everything. But one small step at a time, we can change things if we work together.

Fake News better than Real News

Again, Jon Stewart and the Daily Show have done a better job of holding the administration accountable for their lies and deceptions. If you didn't see them skewer Cheney and Rumsfeld for the recent remarks about the Iraqi insurgency being in its last throes, check out the following link. By the way, "Crooks and Liars" is an intersting blog site.

http://www.crooksandliars.com/2005/06/27.html#a3668

Death in Iraq, State of Denial in D.C.

Sadly, the Bush administration continues its campaign of propaganda about the war on terror and the war in Iraq. In recent days, Cheney, Rumsfeld and Bush have tried to paint a picture of positive momentum and an insurgency in Iraq that is in its "final throes". Unfortunately, the news out of Iraq doesn't give us any reason to believe them. Actually, the assesments of our own military commanders betrays the falsehoods spouted by our top elected officials:

"Yesterday, the top American commander in the Persian Gulf told Congress the Iraqi insurgency has not grown weaker in the past six months. 'I believe there are more foreign fighters coming into Iraq than there were six months ago,' Gen. John Abizaid said.

This on a day when many Americans were killed in Iraq. Also at the same time Bush refused an Iraqi request to set a timetable for withdrawal from Iraq while meeting with an Iraqi leader in D.C. Funny how we can set timetables for Iraqi elections and constitution writing, but they can't ask us to set timetables for ourselves.

A lot of this is detailed in the Seattle Times.

The New York Times published a stong editorial about the dishonest nature of the Bush administration in the war on terror. The article said three facts need to be acknowledged about Iraq:

1) The war has nothing to do with Sept. 11.
2) The war has not made the world, or this nation, safer from terrorism.
3) If the war is going according to plan, someone needs to rethink the plan.

Meanwhile, the U.S. policy of extraordinary rendition has come under fire from one of our biggest allies in the war in Iraq: Italy. The Italian Justice department has issued arrest warrants for CIA officers who arrested a terrorist in Italy and sent him to Egypt where he was tortured. It turns out that Italy had been building a case against the terrorist for a long time and was ready to make an arrest. But now the whereabouts of this terrorist is unknown. See the article in the Seattle Times.

End of the School Year!

Oh, the end of the school year!

It's sad to say good-bye to the seniors, but I feel confident that the class of 2005 will be good about staying in touch, so I'm hopeful about that.

Not much time to stay on top of current events lately, although I'm in total agreement with the Bush administration in their opposition to a bill the U.S. House of Representatives just passed that threatens to cut our funding of the United Nations in half. It is a really stupid idea for our security, our policies, and the world as a whole.

Cheney Lies More About Guantanamo Bay

How stupid does the Vice-President think the American people are? How short does he think our memory is?

At a recent news conference, Cheney was answering questions about Guantanamo Bay and talked about how "essential" the base is to our "strategy," and how much the rest of the world DOESN'T have a problem with it. But as Newsweek points out, he is choosing to forget some important facts. From their article:

As early as January 2002, the Secretary of State Colin Powell wrote to President
George Bush urging him to apply the Geneva Conventions to all detainees.

That same month, his British counterpart, Jack Straw, told the BBC he wanted to see British detainees returned home to face justice in the United Kingdom, not Guantanamo Bay, after photos of shackled detainees sparked widespread
condemnation across the political spectrum in Britain. The British government
opposed the Gitmo process so deeply that it eventually negotiated the return of
its detainees earlier this year, when they were set free after initial questioning.

In 2003, after a lengthy series of exchanges between Powell and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, the administration agreed to speed up the processing of detainees at the camp (who numbered around 660 at the time, compared to around 540 today). Rumsfeld himself acknowledged that Powell—and the administration—were responding to international opinion.

And these are just actions of the administration and our ally in the Iraq war, Great Britain. Let's not even talk about the rest of Europe and the Muslim world.

Will someone please tell the Vice-President to tell the truth or keep his mouth shut?

Opposition to Iraq War is Growing

Over half of those surveyed in a recent poll don't think that the war in Iraq is making Americans more secure at home. The Washington Post poll also found that the Americans are very down on Bush's handling of security in general. According to MSNBC:

Nearly three-quarters of Americans say the number of casualties in Iraq is unacceptable, while two-thirds say the U.S. military there is bogged down and
nearly six in 10 say the war was not worth fighting -- in all three cases matching or exceeding the highest levels of pessimism yet recorded. More than four in 10 believe the U.S. presence in Iraq is becoming analogous to the experience in Vietnam.

Perhaps most ominous for President Bush, 52 percent said war in Iraq has not contributed to the long-term security of the United States, while 47 percent said it has.

The real question is when does this disaffection turn into activism? How long will it take for people to realize we were all lied to about this war and hold these people responsible? For some of us, opposition to the war has been an on-going campaign, but how can we mobilize others who have come to agree with us about the Iraq war?

These are my thoughts. We need lots of informed debate and action on important issues in this natino. I read a call to action on behalf of our basic principles with a "new American spirit" by a guest editorialist in the Christian Science Monitor today. Check it out for some inspiration!

Gregoire!

It is finally over. Rossi conceeded. There is no way both parties are going to feel good about this decision, but the judge made a sensible ruling based on WA state election law. What else could be done? There is no proof anyone tried to steal this election, just that there were screw-ups by election workers. I hope that Republicans who supported Rossi can accept the decision and move on. Gregoire has already shown herself to be a competent governor.

Maria Cantwell's Senate seat is the next big contest in 2006. Rossi has already said he won't run for the spot.

Court Says No to Medical Marijuana

Big decision.

Most people will probably focus on the issue of whether marijuana should be legalized or not, but this was a case that tried dealt with an important issue of federalism. This 6-3 decision upheld the right of the federal government to enforce laws against illegal substances, even if that substance is marijuana being used in a state that has made it legal for medicinal purposes.

People should also realize that the court emphasized that it was up to Congress not the Courts to legalize medical marijuana. You can bet this Republican controlled Congress won't do that, but we might see it happen a few years down the road.

Let's Talk Seriously About Impeachment

Ralph Nader has joined those who are calling for a serious national discussion on impeaching Bush and Cheney.

"President Clinton was impeached for perjury about his sexual relationships. Comparing Clinton's misbehavior to a destructive and costly war occupation launched in March 2003 under false pretenses in violation of domestic and international law certainly merits introduction of an impeachment resolution."

The recent Downing Street Memo has been called the smoking gun by many -- it is a reliable, respected source of what most of us have known for a long time from so many other sources: that Bush/Cheney had planned to invade Iraq long before they admitted this to the public and that they manufactured evidence and intelligence to justify their actions. If you haven't read the memo or you don't know much about it, a group pressuring the President on this has posted a website where you can get more information: www.downingstreetmemo.com. You can also simply Google the term to look for a variety of commentaries on it.

We need to seriously consider the benefit to our nation of removing these dishonest, power-hungry demogogues from office. U.S. Rep. John Conyers is leading a petition effort to demand the truth from Bush on these issues. Check it out!

Bush Tries to Discredit Amnesty International

They smeared John McCain in the 2000 Republican primaries. They smeared Al Gore in the general election. They got the Swiftboat Veterans for the truth to smear John Kerry's war record. Now they are trying to smear Amnesty International.

I hate them. Bush, Cheney, Rove, Karen Hughes, and all of the rest. They are engaging in an effort to control the damage from stories and reports about our torture of detainees by attacking the messengers. Newsweek made a mistake when it reported a Koran had been flushed down a toilet. It retracted the story. So now they are trying to use the reflected embarassment from the Newsweek affair to bring into question Amnesty International's credibility.

In case you didn't know, Amnesty International issued it's annual report last week. They deliver a well-documented, thoroughly researched report on human rights in every country of the world. This year the United States was faulted for abuses at Guantanamo Bay, and selectively criticizing torture by other nations. AI faulted the U.S. for not upholding a leadership role on the issue of human rights

Bush called AI's report absurd.

Bush is absurd. And pathetic. And an embarassment to every honest American. We need to impeach him. We cannot continue as a nation with an ideological zealot in the White House making a mockery of our nation's most treasured principles.

If you need a reminder of the magnitude of Bush's lies, check out this compilation provided by th progressive website, American Progress. It has cataloged the lies and distortions of the Bush Administration with regard to the Iraq War. An amazing and disturbing list.

Addendum on June 1: If you aren't aware of the "Downing Street Memo" that detailed the plans of the Bush Administration to go to war in Iraq regardless of the evidence, you can read it for yourself here.

More lies by Cheney

Dick Cheney has no regard for the truth or the American people. Yesterday, he sought to discredit the Amnesty International report criticizing the United States treatment of prisoners in Guantanamo Bay. He claims that he was "OFFENDED" by the report!

In the face of all the evidence given not only by prisoners released from the facility, but organizations such as Amnesty, the Red Cross, as well as a former member of the military translator that recently released a major book about what he witnessed, Cheney denies it all, claiming in one broad stroke that all of this evidence has been fabricated:

“Occasionally there are allegations of mistreatment,” Cheney said. “But if you trace those back, in nearly every case, it turns out to come from somebody who had been inside and released to their home country and now are peddling lies about how they were treated.”

He neglects to mention that these reports also come from the International Red Cross, Human Rights Watch, members of the F.B.I. and our own military. He neglects to mention that even the members of the “coalition of the willing”, Britain and Australia, are upset with what we are doing in Guantanamo Bay.
Of course, Cheney had no problem citing AI's reports on Saddam in trying to justify our "pre-emptive" war against Iraq. But now, I guess, the people at AI are a bunch of left-wing extremists that want the terrorists to win.

The contempt for the truth from these men in the White House is unforgivable.

I cannot believe we have not begun to draw up impeachment papers.

For more on Cheney's hypocrisy check out this posting Daily Koz, a Democratic website.

Vets of War in Iraq Deserve Praise and an Apology

A mainstream newspaper had a very telling editorial on this memorial day. In part, it read:

In exchange for our uniformed young people's willingness to offer the gift of their lives, civilian Americans owe them something important: It is our duty to ensure that they never are called to make that sacrifice unless it is truly necessary for the security of the country. In the case of Iraq, the American public has failed them; we did not prevent the Bush administration from spending their blood in an unnecessary war based on contrived concerns about Iraq's weapons of mass destruction. President Bush and those around him lied, and the
rest of us let them. Harsh? Yes. True? Also yes. Perhaps it happened because Americans, understandably, don't expect untruths from those in power. But that works better as an explanation than as an excuse.

It is sad but true that these men were asked to die to defend our nation from another nation (Iraq) which presented no credible threat to us. It would have been nice to have leveled with the men and women of our military about their mission before asking them to put their lives on the line. The best that the Bush administration can say now is that this war was to bring down a dictator and to attempt to reform the politics of the Mideast. Whether these men and women were willing to lay down their lives for that was something they should have been able to decide.

Filibuster Bluster

The Senate has reached an agreement on this issue on the eve of the votes scheduled for some of Bush's most controversial Appeals Court nominees. If you are wondering about the filibuster, check out this MSNBC article. Aside from the politics of this, it is an excellent opportunity to learn more about how the Senate actually does business. Many Senators have reflected on this in recent days and political scientists are being tapped for their expertise as journalists grapple with this story involving arcane procedural rules and traditions. The New York Times has an interesting article trying to put all of this into perspective.

Little Action on Darfur

It is hard to say that there is good news on the crisis in the Darfur region of Sudan, but at least the African Union is promising to increase their troop strength in the region. Hopefully this will happen quickly. Sudan is still languishing in a horrible predicament, and more action is needed as quickly as possible to save lives.

Nicholas Kristof of the New York Times points out how little has been done on the tragedy in Darfur in the last 100 days. Did anyone see Nightline last night? Darfur was the topic and I missed it!

Mounting Evidence of U.S. Torture

Evidence continues to pile up that paints an overall picture of the United States disregarding the most basic standards of decency and fairness. A report surfaced in today's news with new allegations of torture and humiliation being used on prisoners at Guantanamo Bay. The report isn't due out for several weeks, but sources spoke to the New York Times about the sexual and psychological abuse that was witnessed and reported to the military.

It is time that Donald Rumsfeld, Ricardo Sanchez, and other top officials be made to face more intense invesitgations. Too much of this has gone on under their watch for them to continue to evade a large scale investigation any longer. These things happened on their watch, and they must be held accountable. Our national reputation and the standards for international decency stand in the balance.

Human Rights Abuses in the War on Terror

The news about these matters continues to appear in the press. I thought I'd try to catch all of you up on a few of the things out there. Below are some recent articles to help understand this issue. I describe the oldest ones first.

The U.S. has been making statements in response to the pressure that is being put on them about detainees being mistreated. In March, this story got headlines around the country: U.S. Is Examining a Plan to Bolster the Rights of Detainees

What has been disappointing to many of us is that the military continues to maintain that no one of a high level is reponsible for the things that went on at Abu Ghraib prison. A military tribunal cleared a bunch of officers of wrong-doing in a trial last month. The trial seems to have left a lot of unanswered questions. Military tribunal ignored evidence on detainee March 28, 2005
Evidence that the U.S. sent detainees abroad to be tortured is out there. One of the stories that has gotten a lot of attention is that of Maher Arar. From the New York Times:

Maher Arar, a 35-year-old Canadian engineer, is suing the United States,
saying American officials grabbed him in 2002 as he changed planes in New York
and transported him to Syria where, he says, he was held for 10 months in a
dank, tiny cell and brutally beaten with a metal cable.

Now federal aviation records examined by The New York Times appear to
corroborate Mr. Arar's account of his flight, during which, he says, he sat
chained on the leather seats of a luxury executive jet as his American guards
watched movies and ignored his protests.

Meanwhile, the fight overt the Patriot Act continues. Gonzales urges renewal of Patriot Act April 6, 2005.

There was an excellent article in the Seattle Times that described some evidence uncovered about detainees held at Guantanamo Bay. It reminded us:

The government is holding about 550 people at the U.S. Navy base in Cuba.
An additional 214 have been released since the facility opened in January 2002 —
some into the custody of their home governments, others freed outright.

Little information about those held at Guantánamo has been released
through official government channels. But stories of 60 or more prisoners are
spelled out in detail in thousands of pages of transcripts filed in U.S.
District Court in Washington, where lawsuits challenging their detentions have
been filed.

The military released a report saying that they have reviewed the cases of all of the detainees in Guantanamo Bay, and are justified in keeping all of them in detention as "enemy combatents". There are still lawyers fighting to have their cases heard in U.S. Courts. Read this article here.
The U.S. has only convicted low-ranking members of the military in connection with the abuse at Abu Ghraib prison. In a recent article, a human rights attorney explains why she believes Donald Rumsfeld and other high-ranking officials should be invesigated more closely.

A few days ago, news came out that the army is writing a new manual on how to interrogate prisoners (without torturing them). One Senator pointed out that the fact that is had to be re-written is an indication that not enough was being done to train people not to torture prisoners.
Yesterday's paper included a headline that, "Lynndie England to plead guilty to Abu Ghraib abuses." She was in some of the more shocking photos we saw from Abu Ghraib.

Finally, Amnesty International released a press release a few days ago, Abuses Continue One Year After Abu Ghraib.