Human Rights Watch Releases Annual Report- Democracies Not Holding Authoritarian Leaders Accountable

From "The Voice of America"

"The bad news is that established democracies are letting autocrats pass themselves off as democrats," said Human Rights Watch Director Kenneth Roth. He said the last year has seen a "cheapening or degradation" of democracy."

Hmmmm... can anyone think of an autocrat passing himself off as a President in the name of democracy?

http://voanews.com/english/2008-01-31-voa68.cfm

4 Dead In Ohio ... the National Gaurd Is Bumping Up

For the first time in 50 years, the U.S. wants to reform the National Guard and make them an operational partner with active duty military.

From "The Christian Science Monitor":

"That way, the reserve could be quickly mobilized to respond to a terrorist attack or natural disaster on the scale of a hurricane Katrina, says the Commission on the National Guard and Reserves, which released its 368-page report Thursday."

http://www.csmonitor.com/2008/0201/p02s03-usmi.html

Wiretapping Law Would Have Expired Friday But Bush Extends It

From the "Voice of America News"

"A six-month extension of that law would have expired Friday. After vowing to veto a 30-day extension, President Bush told political supporters in the city of Las Vegas that he agreed to a two-week extension so lawmakers can approve broader powers to wiretap without court approval and give legal immunity to telephone companies that have helped monitor those communications...the two-week extension passed the House by voice vote and the Senate by unanimous consent."

So, legal protection for corporations, not for citizens - nevermind Government by and for the people, lets have it for what people have to buy! Great idea! And then use it to spy! Buy and spy - there's a new slogan for AT&T.

And, while you're thinking about this, if you haven't read it, read how the Patriot Act defines a terrorist. http://www.aclu.org/safefree/resources/17381res20030402.html

Once again exhuming McCarthy, there are Communists in the bathrooms folks!

Read the full article:

http://www.voanews.com/english/2008-01-31-voa60.cfm

U.N. Secretary-General Going to Kenya to Support Mediation Efforts

"U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon dominated day one of the African Union summit, warning of a possible catastrophe in Kenya and saying he would go to Nairobi to support mediation efforts aimed at ending the country's ethnic violence."

From the "Voice of America News" http://voanews.com/english/2008-01-31-voa57.cfm

Cruelty to Animals and CIA Torture (Unrelated, but While We're on the Subject of Cruelty)

Torturing unfit cows in California. http://www.reuters.com/article/domesticNews/idUSN3021948220080130

CIA torturing the innocent all over the world too, guess the innocent are unfit:

The ACLU on the El-Masari Case - CIA Torture and the Supreme Court

http://www.aclu.org/safefree/rendition/32108prs20071009.html

"Ben Wizner, an ACLU staff attorney who argued El-Masri's case before the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals last November. "By denying justice to an innocent victim of this country's anti-terror policies, the Court has provided the government with complete immunity for its shameful human rights and due process violations."

"The government during the last fifty years has repeatedly invoked the privilege to protect evidence from court review, and the Bush administration has used the privilege more often than previous administrations."

Read about the defining McCarthy-era case and what it has to do with now: http://www.fas.org/sgp/news/2003/03/iaf031403.html

Can anyone say straw man folks? That's what the recent Supreme Court decision gives us on this one. They said, ok, no, cases can't be stopped in litigation because of the State Secrets Act but...guess what folks, good old GW Veto and the Executive Office of the President can step in and declare a more-a-torium on whatever, whenever they so choose.

Now, I'm aware, and you should be too, that there are reasons for things we do not and cannot understand. And State Secrets are very serious things, I am not disputing that. But the Bush Administration has used the privilege 3 times, as opposed to the 12 times total it has ever been used before.

Exhuming McCarthy?

From the Center for Victims of Torture website, (thanks to a friend for pointing this out to me):

"The president signed an executive order July 20 that prohibits torture and cruel and inhuman treatment. But the order leaves open for interpretation a continuation of the CIA's worst interrogation practices. And it does nothing to ban secret prisons or extraordinary rendition – a policy known as "outsourcing torture."

At the forefront on their site now, they are saying the Senate is getting ready to consider legislation to create one national standard for the interrogation and detention of prisoners. It would prohibit all U.S. personnel, including the CIA and, perhaps more importantly, interrogation contractors, from using cruel, inhumane and degrading torture as clearly specifed in the U.S. Army Field Manual and clearly now being ignored as the above case reflects.

Visit Center for Victims of Torture to contact your Senator and find out more: http://www.cvt.org/main.php

Yes, there is a War and yes, there are always prisoners of war and there are reasons for that but there was this thing called the Geneva Convention...and there's this little thing called a right to trial, and an attorney that used to be one of the primary tennants of the Democracy we're told we're defending...

We'd Like to Thank You For that Chicken in Every Pot Mr. Bush

Since you brought up the good old empty kitchen tables across the country in your lovely State of the Discord, I mean, Union Address. (Image of Charlton Heston saying "Where's your Roosevelt now...?")

The economy slows to a grinding stall, while the price of everything escalates - find the cost of freedom why don't you?

"The combination of weaker growth and accelerating inflation puts Fed policymakers in a quandary: Cut interest rates to boost growth, or hike rates to stop inflation.

But the Fed's signaled that it believes the risks to growth far outweigh the risks of higher inflation..."

yea, yea, yea what condition our condition is in...

http://www.marketwatch.com/news/story/us-economy-slows-06-growth/story.aspx?guid=%7B9C5A0518-549D-4A8D-8666-881C32657085%7D

Kenya Take a Look at This?

"Kenyan men from the Luo tribe armed with machetes and rocks enforce a makeshift roadblock, searching passing vehicles for Kikuyus trying to flee the town in order to kill them, on the main road to the Ugandan border near the airport in Kisumu, Kenya."

Monday, January 28, 2008.
Ben Curtis / AP

http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1707857,00.html

Edwards, Giuliani Throw in the Towel

"Elections are about a lot more than just candidates. Elections are about fighting for a cause larger than ourselves," Giuliani said.

In a statement from his campaign, Democratic rival Barack Obama said Edwards "spent a lifetime fighting to give voice to the voiceless and hope to the struggling, even when it wasn't popular to do or covered in the news."

"While his campaign may end today, the cause of their lives endures for all of us who still believe that we can achieve that dream of one America," the statement said." http://www.usatoday.com/news/politics/election2008/2008-01-30-campaign-wrap_N.htm

Link to Last Nights' State of the Union Address

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0108/8171.html

Please do comment, I will shortly...

Rumsfeldinating over the Cheney of events at the moment...

The Rantecdotes Begin: An Insiders' View of Sen. Obama and a Link to the Text of His S.C. Victory Speech

I'm not going to endorse or not endorse. To endorse or not endorse, that is your question. Like the old bard and poor Hamlet said, well, sort of...but appropriately, God knows there's something rotten in the state of Denmark-of-A these days...

That said, I shall continue...people are constantly asking me what Senator Obama is really like. So, since I have had the honor of knowing and working with him, as well as honor of working with and being influenced by some of the remarkable men who helped influence him, (and since you're asking), I'll tell you a story or two.

I preface with this...history has proven cults of personality to be a bad thing, even when they are built around good people. They begin when "...people have eyes and don't see and ears and don't hear", as one said. Listen to what the man says, really listen. He means it. He is a remarkable man but he is so remarkable in part because he is his own man. We have already had a King, a Kennedy, a Joe Hill...

I first met Sen. Obama the day he began working at the Chicago Civil Rights firm of Miner, Barnhill and Galland. I was their clerk, to put my many duties there simply and hadn't been working there long myself. Everyone at the firm was excited about his joining us. I didn't know at the time about his work with the poor and otherwise downtrodden in Chicago, but did hear the buzz around the office about this brilliant new associate who had been the youngest ever to edit the "Harvard Law Review", no small distinction.

And they who were buzzing were no joke. They took/take the bull of corporate corruption by the horns, including cases against Dole and the City Council of Chicago, (which I was lucky enough to be a small part of) and a ground-breaking case against Nabisco a book was written about. One of the Sr. partners at the time, Allison Davis, was the son of the lawyer who won the case that determined standardized testing was racially biased. And another had been Daleys' corporate counsel at one point, lectured at Loyola and then turned around and sued the corporate counsel. There's a story there, no joke.

I saw him every day, talked to him every day, (they had me at the front desk when the receptionist was out/out to lunch, among other things; Southern accent goes a long way in 'Chi town). He is exactly as he appears to be. He is kind, he is genuine, he really does care about what he's saying, mean every bit of it and I've very little doubt that he writes most, if not all of it, himself. He a man of conviction; honest and even noble.

I know this from personal experience. On probably the worst day of my life, (and that's saying a lot), he accidentally got a voice mail from me about a very sensitive subject that included a medical emergency explaining my absence from work that day. It was meant for the managing partner of the firm and somehow went to him. He never said a word to anyone but the person for whom the message was intended. And in a law firm, as with politics, though privacy is stressed to the utmost, it all too often turns to high school. Not there. Not with Barack.

So, that's how he is.

I'll leave you with the best bit from the story of the case of some of the Aldermen of Chicago against the City...and will leave you hanging on more as my Great-Uncle the King of the Cliffhanger used to do in his Pulps'...

Some members of the City Council sued on the premise that the voting districts of Chicago were racially biased. One in particular, Alderman Helen Schiller, was under the strongest attack because, as an African-American woman, single parent, and Alderman, she had a great deal of support the Corporate Councils' office had some issues with, (or so it seemed).

The attorney arguing the case had been Daleys' Corporate Counsel himself, leading to endless office antics between our two firms and to a few in the court-room. Including this one:

He came back from court one day laughing and everyone in the firm came down, think it was maybe someone's birthday so we were all gathering anyway, (this was a good while ago). We asked how the case went that morning and he said, (something like), "Well, they had Alderman Schiller up there and were grilling her in quite a McCarthy-esque fashion. Have you or have you not ever been a member of the Black Panthers, have you or have you not ever been a member of etc etc etc..." ad infinitum, I remember he listed at least 6 things and said the Corporate Counsel did it for so long, and right at time to break or something, that everyone in the courtroom was restless, bored, not paying attention...good tactic. I'm sure it was exactly his point.

The attorney on the case had a better tactic. He said when first asked if he had any questions he said no, then as everyone got up in relief he said, "Wait, your honor, I have one more...", everyone sat down again, exasperated, including the Judge I'm sure. And then he approached the stand, leaned up to her and said, "Alderman Schiller, have you or have you not ever been a member of the Brownies?" She said yes to that one. And everyone laughed.

As Truman, (who my Great-Uncle the Pulp writer also wrote some speeches for), once said, "If you can't beat 'em, confuse 'em."

Text of Sen. Obama's victory speech in S.C. http://my.barackobama.com/scvictoryspeech

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