Obviously, sending 88% of the male population of the US to Guantanamo would go a long way toward solving our violence problem ...

According to the Department of Justice, 88% of violent crime in the U.S. is committed by men. But as a society, we rarely talk about the prevalence of male violence, or how striking it is that gender, more than any other factor, is such a predictor of violent behavior.

No need to worry about 2nd Amendment rights and such. Bush has already (and Obama concurs) eliminated the rest of our rights. So let's just ship off the violent ones (don't forget serial-torturer George Bush and Face-Shooter Cheney) to Guantanamo. George Bush has made sure it's nice and cozy. It should suit him and his friends just fine.

By eliminating the 88% most violent portion of the population the US should turn into quite a peaceful place. More jobs to go around. More elbow room.

Solves a lot of problems. Just like Bush-baby. Identify the problem. Build a jail and send whoever you don't like there. Very American, I must say.

Put that in your pipe and smoke it ...

[NOTE: Just practicing good standard US 'journalism' in moving from 88% of violent crimes to 88% of the male population. Much more eye catching that way, if not more informative.]

Husaifa Parhat imprisoned at Guantanamo for 6 years because ... ?

• Parhat had nothing to do with the attacks of 9/11.
• Parhat did not participate in, plan, or even support, any hostile action against the United States or its allies.
• Parhat is not part of any nation or organization that "planned, authorized, committed, or aided" those attacks.
• Parhat is not a member of al Qaeda or of the Taliban.
• The Pentagon’s Combatant Status Review Tribunal (CSRT) did not identify him to be "an individual who was part of or supporting Taliban or al Qaida forces."
• The CSRT expressly found that he did not engage in hostilities against the United States or the Northern Alliance (an Afghani coalition partner of the United States).

Inspite of that George Bush and the US Military has imprisoned Huzaifa Parhat at Guantanamo for more than six years. Just because he [George Bush] can ... ? Just because the US Congress refuses to do its job? Just because most people in the US don't even seem to care what their government is doing in their name? Just because ... ?

It's Obama that deserves the 'rebuke'

Maybe Obama should put his brain in gear:

Barack Obama just delivered a speech on patriotism in Independence, Mo., hometown of what was once America’s most powerful haberdasher, and offered a mild rebuke to Wesley Clark, who took on John McCain’s military record the other day in rather scorching terms.

But, of course, if you're going to run as a Republcan Lite then you don't need any Democrats supporting you, do you? Do you want them to vote for you or don't you need that either?

This is what passes for scorching when a Democrat says it (if a Republican says the same thing it could be considered a compliment):

"I don't think riding in a fighter plane and getting shot down is a qualification to be president."

General Wesley Clark, USA (Ret.) [via Upper Left]

Well, it's almost over ...

Obama has morphed into one of those craven and cowardly Dems who cringe, deny everything and leave the few courageous Dems still around out to dry.

Barack Obama, who so courageously attacked Hillary Clinton (with the help of the press) has turned into wet spaghetti now that the press is on the other side.

Obama has decided that John McCain's war experience qualifies McCain to be President of the U.S. That's interesting, because BushCo and Rove didn't think so way back when ...

And in the process of pushing McCain for President, Obama pulled the rug out from under Wes Clark. What happened to that vaunted Obama machine, now that the press is no longer running interference?

I know the conventional Democratic wisdom, which is undoubtedly media inspired, is that even flawed as he is, Obama is better the McCain. I buy into it one day, and not the next. I'll undoubtedly vote for Obama, but I see no hope in an Obama Presidency. Either McCain or Obama mean a further decline of the United States into a corporation controlled state with increasing poverty, unfairness and unrest.

Really, Obama sounds more Republican, more like Bush daily. I'm afraid Obama really does have the Dems living on hope and hope alone as he shifts further and further right. He even has Olbermann inventing strategy for him.

Progressives do not have a party. The Democratic Party in the guise of Barack Obama does NOT want to be bothered by progressives. Obama has made it very clear he is not interested in hearing from us. He'll take money but no input. We do not count.

The only hope you have with Obama is that you may get your reward in Heaven. Obama has given every indication that it will be business as usual if he's elected. Social Security, Healthcare. Forget it. He's not interested.

He's not a doddering old fool. He's a young power seeking politician who will vote against the Constitution if he thinks it increases his chances of winning. Or perhaps he voted against the Constitution and for spying on Americans because he believes in doing just that. Either way, it ain't good.

Links: Wesley Clark on Face the Nation: CNN accuses Clark of “Swiftboating” , Don't Want to Say I Told You So..., Where's the Change?

Imagine your doctors think they're your representatives ...

Well in Missouri the Missouri State Medical Association, The Missouri Association of Osteopathic Physicians and Surgeons, Missouri Academy of Family Physicians, and the St. Louis Metropolitan Medical Society filed a suit claiming they were their patients 'representatives.' Their woman patients, of course. Isn't that a given?

After the bill, which dealt with numerous health issues as well as including the midwifery provision, was passed and signed into law by the Governor, the Missouri State Medical Association, The Missouri Association of Osteopathic Physicians and Surgeons, Missouri Academy of Family Physicians, and the St. Louis Metropolitan Medical Society filed suit to invalidate the section that would allow legal midwifery practice in the state. The lower court invalidated the statute, but an appeal was filed by the State of Missouri along with Friends of Missouri Midwives, the Missouri Midwives Association, and other parties.

The medical associations seeking to invalidate the law had claimed standing for the challenge by arguing that physicians may be subject to disciplinary actions if they cooperate with midwives, and that they should be allowed to challenge the law on behalf of patients as their representatives. The Court disagreed on both of these matters and indicated that the groups had no standing to challenge the Constitutionality of the law. They therefore reversed the lower court decision, allowing the law legalizing midwifery in Missouri to stand.

Bet Missouri isn't the only place where physicians think they should rule women's lives.

Yesterday's QUOTES ...

... Unfortunately, it is only a crime to lie to the government ... The government, politicians, the media can lie to us all they wish, and they do, repeatedly, consistently, arrogantly.

Freedom has many difficulties and democracy is not perfect. But we have never -- never in over 200 years, never until BushCo took office -- tried to sell off part of the Bill of Rights and call it "protecting freedom." Orwell would be proud.

... The daddies in Washington want you to know they have an eye on the bad guys for you. Problem is, they think you are the bad guy.

Hoyer and Pelosi have to go: Hoyer has this backwards. The nature of a "compromise" is that neither side is happy with the outcome. Where, as here, one side is ecstatic and the other side is furious, that, by definition, is not a "compromise." It is, as Russ Feingold correctly says, a full-scale "capitulation." Hoyer's bill gives the two gifts the administration most wanted -- the power to engage in "vacuum-cleaner" surveillance of communications over U.S. telephone and email networks with no warrant requirement (and no required connection to Terrorism) and a guaranteed end to the telecom lawsuits. ... Hoyer and Pelosi have been so deceitful during this latest FISA abomination that their word can never be believed nor trusted.

The team also found that certain genes that appear to have undergone accelerated evolution in the human line, including some related to brain function, have also undergone accelerated evolution in the dog. The results "cast serious doubt" on recent high-profile claims that rapid changes in such genes played a role in the evolution of unique features of the human brain (ScienceNOW, 20 April), says evolutionary geneticist John Fondon III of the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas.

The incongruity, the irony, the absurdity: The United States has faced numerous problems finding countries that are willing to accept foreign prisoners [from Guantanamo, no less] who can't return to their own countries because of concerns that they might be tortured there. How can the farce keep getting more farcical. There should be a limit, but evidently there isn't. Farce and tragedy strangling US ethical standards, world standing and repute.

I'll second this: Only the unprecedented, monumental malevolence of the current administration has kept me from turning my back on the Dems ...And Turkana lists a few specific reasons why there is no choice but to stay with, and keep prodding, the Democrats.

Self defense does not mean one can hear a noise, go outside and start shooting ...

This post at Firedoglake is absolute bunk. Not in the fact that Americans may kill Iraqi families and not in the fact that US police may raid the homes of US Citizens in the manner that we once thought more attuned to the tactics of the Gestapo. Unfortunately these events are already happening.

I cannot imagine any judge or jury accepting a claim that anyone has the right to hear something outside their house, take a gun, go outside and start shooting into the dark. That is not self defense. Random shooting without even knowing what one is shooting at is not self defense.

From what I've been reading on various law blogs is while the Supreme Court has decided the 2nd Amendment establishes a right to defend oneself with a gun (or other weapon), the ownership, possession, use etc can still be regulated as long as such regulation is not in effect an arbitrary prohibition from gun ownership. So it may still be established that felons cannot own guns, that training is required, etc. I'm sure the specifics will still vary from state to state the same as they currently do.

Obama is more black than white and I'm more tall than short ...

[Correction: As you can probably guess, the title was supposed to be "Obama is more white than black etc.]

Think Progress quotes Jonathan Weisman:

He [Senator Obama] really did not become immersed in black American culture until he left college and went to Chicago. The great irony is that he is much more white than black, beyond skin color.

Well ... I reallly didn't immerse myself in the culture of shortness, or tallness for that matter, until I lived in a country where I was taller than many people I encountered. I suddenly became aware of 'shortness' as only a tall person can experience it. Now, the great irony is that at 5'4" (and falling) I'm much more tall than short. This is just way beyond the stature issues with short and tall.

GOP and Tobacco undermine law and justice ...

Another sordid tale of deep-rooted, organized GOP corruption:

Justice for Sale: How Big Tobacco and the GOP teamed up to crush Democrats in the South

Well, maybe Senator Reid may be allowed to stay for awhile ...

UPDATE: ... but not for very long.
-----------
About FISA legislation Senator Harry Reid is reported to have

announced not only that he would co-sponsor the Dodd amendment to strip immunity out of the bill, but would also vote against the bill on final passage: ...

Does he mean it? And will he just vote no but speed the bill on its way otherwise? This kind of deceit is not unknown to Harry ...

Yesterday's QUOTES ...

Why I hate politics: ... What had been a vicious assault on our Constitution, and corrupt complicity to conceal Bush lawbreaking, magically and instantaneously transformed into a perfectly understandable position, even a shrewd and commendable decision, that we should not only accept, but be grateful for as undertaken by Obama for our Own Good.

... Maj Gen Hood [said] that there was no special effort to collect intelligence from Mr. Jawad, that he was not believed to possess any valuable intelligence. This is borne out by the fact, at least based on the information provided to me by the government, that no interrogations of Mr. Jawad took place at or near the time that he was being tortured. Thus, the most likely scenario is that they simply decided to torture Mr. Jawad for sport, to teach him a lesson, perhaps to make an example of him to others. ...

Torturegate: Truth, But No Consequences

In short, Rutten – an experienced, respected, liberal journalist writing for one of the largest newspapers in the land – lays out a compelling case that the President of the United States and his chief officers have committed capital crimes under American law. And what does he propose we do about it? Nothing.

Nobody could have predicted that two sociopathic former oil executives, when put in charge of the only superpower in the world, would invade a sovereign oil-rich Middle Eastern nation for the benefit of oil companies: ...

The Press' Track Record: The press told us back in 2000 that Al Gore was a big phony, remember? And George W. Bush was a down to earth, "uniter not a divider" who would bring "honor and dignity" back to the White House. That worked out really well.

Representative Raul Grijalva acts to protect the Grand Canyon ...

“We cannot wait while uranium mining claims continue to be filed and the Bush Administration continues to use the exclusionary clause to allow uranium mining exploration and eventual mining operations within public lands in close proximity to the Grand Canyon National Park.”

Of course with an administration that ignores all but their corporation-centered desires and a Democratic Congress that let's them get away with it and even condones it as we've seen in the FISA abomination, it's not clear whether these types of actions mean much.

Unless Congress stands up for themselves as an equal branch of the government they will never have the power to get anything done that the administrative branch isn't willing to do. I thought we helped the Democrats to a majority in order to get some of that balance between the three branches back. Obviously, at a minimum, I didn't understand the corruption of the Democratic leadership. They have no intention of doing their job.

Caving now may seem like a good strategy to the Obama campaign and the more unthinking of his followers, but given the dynamics we've seen in the last couple decades, where a McCain presidency will be given a free pass by the media, an Obama presidency will most likey encounter the opposite treatment. And since the Democratic majority has just demonstrated that they will kowtow to the will of the corporate-controlled media and their individual corporate sponsors (because that's really who they are bowing to, even if the media is doing Bush' bidding, it's the media that amplifies the administration propaganda and fear tactics). Since most likely Obama would become the media's target, as did President Clinton, we would soon see cooperation between the Republicans and the Democrats in Congress aimed at a President Obama. After all Democrats just showed they cater to media and corporate pressure more than to either principles, the Constitution or the voters.

Massimo Calabresi, in line for the Aromatic Journalist Turd Award ...

Massimo Calabresi writing for Time Magazine (Behind the Compromise on Spying) is a sterling example of a Journalist who qualifies for this fragrant and sought after award. Glenn Greenwald documents Calabresi's outstanding Orwellian approach to masticating and regurgitating government propaganda. Kudos to Massimo Calaresi and Time Magazine. We expect to see more excellent writting in support of the authoritarian corporatist state, as well as further assistance in dismantling that pesky US Constitution, as you continue to massage and transcribe all truthiness emanating from our country's deserving leadership.

How Arizona Representatives Voted On FISA Amendments Act of 2008 ...

There are eight Congressional Representatives from Arizona split evenly between Democrats and Republicans. Two (Gifford and Mitchell) are new 'hires.' This is a very poor showing for these two new Democrats in Congress. Right off the bat they vote to exempt telecomm corporations from any crimes they may have committed and institute blanket, unconstitutional warrantless spying on American citizens. This is a power that Bush illegally usurped and was unable to get Congress to pass UNTIL the Democrats became a majority and with the help of new 'hires' who were supposed to be better than their Republican predecessors. You can see how that worked out.

The two other Democratic Reps (Grijalva, since 2003 and Pastor, since 1991) both voted against the abomination that is the FISA Amendments Act of 2008.

Of course we expected the Republicans to vote for spying and immunity for the rich and they did.

I would like to thank both Raul Grijalva (who is my Rep) and Ed Pastor for their votes in this matter. I hope they both tried to sway their cohorts in the House to stand up for the Constitution. Over half the Democrats did but too many, 105 Democrats, voted to pass this GOP written legislation which was then rushed through by the Democratic 'leadership' in a manner reminiscent of the Republicans. Closed doors sessions, secrecy, failure to give any time to study the legislation. The kind of behaviour that Pelosi stated would NEVER happen under her watch.

The 105 Democrats, including Pelosi and Hoyer, and along with Reid in the Senate need to be excised from House and Senate.

=======================
Rep. Rick Renzi [R, AZ-1] - Yea. Voted to destroy the Constitution, give lawbreakers (rich lawbreakers) a get out of court free card and blanket, warrantless spying on US Citizens.

Rep. Trent Franks [R, AZ-2] - Yea. Voted to destroy the Constitution, give lawbreakers (rich lawbreakers) a get out of court free card and blanket, warrantless spying on US Citizens.

Rep. John Shadegg [R, AZ-3] - Yea. Voted to destroy the Constitution, give lawbreakers (rich lawbreakers) a get out of court free card and blanket, warrantless spying on US Citizens.

Rep. Edward Pastor [D, AZ-4] - Nay. Voted to protect individual rights and to hold communication companies liable under the law for any crimes they may have committed to be determined by judge and jury.

Rep. Harry Mitchell [D, AZ-5] - Yea. Voted to destroy the Constitution, give lawbreakers (rich lawbreakers) a get out of court free card and blanket, warrantless spying on US Citizens.

Rep. Jeff Flake [R, AZ-6] - Yea. Voted to destroy the Constitution, give lawbreakers (rich lawbreakers) a get out of court free card and blanket, warrantless spying on US Citizens.

Rep. Raul Grijalva [D, AZ-7] - Nay. Voted to protect individual rights and to hold communication companies liable under the law for any crimes they may have committed to be determined by judge and jury.

Rep. Gabrielle Giffords [D, AZ-8] - Yea. Voted to destroy the Constitution, give lawbreakers (rich lawbreakers) a get out of court free card and blanket, warrantless spying on US Citizens.