Yearly Archives: 2007

Dump Duhbya

Judges Preserve the Constitution

Judges Rule Against U.S. On Detained ‘Combatant’ By Carol D. Leonnig, Washington Post Staff Writer

“The President cannot eliminate constitutional protections with the stroke of a pen by proclaiming a civilian, even a criminal civilian, an enemy combatant subject to indefinite military detention,” the panel found. …

The 4th Circuit, based in Richmond, is considered one of the most conservative in the country, but the three-judge panel that heard the case was not. Two judges known as moderates, both appointed by President Bill Clinton, made up the majority in the decision. … U.S. District Judge Henry E. Hudson, a Bush appointee, dissented from the opinion. Hudson contended that Bush had the power to detain enemy combatants ….

The panel found that the 2006 Military Commissions Act, which prohibits enemy combatants from challenging the basis for their imprisonment in U.S. courts, does not apply to a person living legally in the United States. The judges also doubted the legality of classifying someone as an enemy combatant who was not caught on the battlefield or was not carrying arms.

Civil libertarians who championed Marri’s case had warned that if the administration prevailed in its argument, the military could next round up U.S. citizens and jail them without trial. The court appeared to agree.

“To sanction such presidential authority to order the military to seize and indefinitely detain civilians . . . would have disastrous consequences for the constitution — and the country,” U.S. Circuit Judge Diana Gribbon Motz wrote for the majority.

NADA - New American Dark Ages

The World is Dying to Congratulate the Groom

So, all our expensive, intrusive security efforts are for naught, not to mention the “greatest health care system in the world.” Truth be told, I understand. Human endeavors are inevitably fraught with human failings. No system is foolproof.

But what a fool Patient Zero — Mr. Speaker — is. Or thinks we are. Look at the steps he took to make sure he got his honeymoon no matter what. I can’t think of someone who zigzags like he did, even driving across the border, rather than fly, as a mere innocent. He’s a selfish fool who is now doing a great job of making himself sound like the victim in the process. He sincerely hopes procedures are improved thanks to this. Like arresting TB patients? Not that I’d wish TB on him for his selfishness. I just wish he’d say, “hey, I thought I deserved a last fling before treatment.” Selfishness is human; lying makes it worse.

I recommend you rent Twelve Monkeys, a brilliant movie with a very interesting intersection with this story. mjh

CDC: Staffer focused initially on public health, not jet, By ALISON YOUNG, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Speaker has said that he never would have left the United States for his long-planned wedding in Greece and honeymoon around Europe if he had been told he was a threat to anyone. He said Fulton County health officials, who had been overseeing his TB case since January, told him he was not contagious.

http://www.ajc.com/health/content/health/stories/2007/06/05/0605meshcdc.html
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TB Patient Denies Running From CDC

The globe-trotting tuberculosis patient now in quarantine insisted to Congress on Wednesday that doctors told him he wasn’t contagious and didn’t order him to stay in the United States for treatment — even as health officials painted a picture of a man on the run.

“I didn’t go running off or hide from people. It’s a complete fallacy, it’s a lie,” Andrew Speaker, a 31-year-old Atlanta lawyer, said by telephone from the Denver hospital room where he remains in government-ordered isolation.

But in testimony to a Senate subcommittee, federal and local health officials said Speaker took an international flight two days earlier than planned after he had been told he had a drug-resistant form of TB and should not travel.

Fulton County health officials told Speaker, “No you should not travel,” said Dr. Steven R. Katkowsky, the health department’s director. “Was he ordered not to travel? The answer to that was no. The local health department does not have the authority to prohibit or order somebody not to travel.”

the TB groom and brideSpeaker’s European wedding and honeymoon travel caused an international health scare. But Speaker told senators that in face-to-face meetings to discuss his treatment options days before he left, no doctors even wore masks.

“I was repeatedly told I was not contagious, that I was not a threat to anyone,” Speaker said.

His medical chart says he was told that “he was not highly contagious,” Katkowsky countered.”

http://www.11alive.com/news/article_news.aspx?storyid=98145&provider=top
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Letting Speaker back into the country wasn’t the only slip: He shouldn’t have been allowed out, either, said the head of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

But after talking with local health officials on May 10, Speaker changed his flight reservations to leave the country two days earlier than originally planned, said CDC chief Dr. Julie Gerberding — a step ahead of doctors who, under Georgia law, couldn’t detain him until it was demonstrated that he was a danger.

“The whole issue of quarantine has been devoted to keeping people out. It is the first time have had to address keeping people in our country,” she said.

That was among a series of gaps Gerberding identified in the Senate subcommittee hearing in the nation’s public health security. Another: Once the CDC tracked Speaker down in Italy to tell him he had the worst TB form — a rare type resistant to most drugs — officials didn’t immediately ask Italian authorities to detain him, but asked him to voluntarily turn himself in.

“We gave the patient the benefit of the doubt, and in retrospect we made a mistake,” Gerberding said.

Instead, Speaker flew to Canada on May 24 — potentially exposing other passengers sitting near him on the plane — and then drove across the border into the U.S., despite a lookout alert issued to all border posts.

Dump Duhbya

Paranoid, Trigger-happy Christian Cowboys

Haven’t we had enough bravado and “bring ’em on!”? Doesn’t a willingness to start a nuclear war disqualify someone from election? Why not? mjh

Nuking Iran: The Republican Agenda?, William M. Arkin on National and Homeland Security

Rep. Duncan Hunter of California was the starkest: “I would authorize the use of tactical nuclear weapons if there was no other way to preempt those particular centrifuges,” he said. Former New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani said he believed that the job “could be done with conventional weapons,” but he added that “you can’t rule out anything and you shouldn’t take any option off the table.” Former Virginia Gov. Jim Gilmore also left “all options are on the table” with regard to Iranian nuclear weapons. Said former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney: “I wouldn’t take any options off the table.”

After the debate, former Sen. Fred Thompson of Tennessee, who did not particpate, added his name to the list of candidates who would consider a preemptive attack against Iran.

Only Rep. Ron Paul of Texas, the “Dennis the Menace” of his party, said he opposed a nuclear strike on moral grounds and because he believed Iran “has done no harm to us directly and is no threat to our national security.”

The Iraq war and the war against terrorism are the central battles of our time, these candidates say. They all profess their faith in God and the United States, and speak of a moral struggle between good and evil, between the United States and “radical Islam.” Yet they are not willing to say that nuclear weapons have no place in modern confrontations.

I am not arguing that Iran’s effort to develop nuclear weapons is justified. It isn’t. I am saying, however, that the U.S. should not use its nuclear weapons to threaten Iran. And not just from a moral standpoint, but from a practical one: When we brandish our own nuclear arsenal, we only play into the hands of supporters of Tehran’s plans to develop its own.

Dump Duhbya

Oh, god, Not Another Actor in the White House

I think we all know who is going to win the Republican nomination: another goddamn actor. How much more evidence does the nation need that the GOP is out-of-touch? mjh

McCain Sets Self Apart in Debate By Dan Balz and Michael D. Shear, Washington Post Staff Writers

Actor and former senator Fred D. Thompson (Tenn.), who is exploring a presidential bid, did not participate in the debate but used the moment to launch his campaign Web site.

Immediately after the debate, he appeared on Fox News Channel’s “Hannity & Colmes.” Thompson said he would support a preemptive strike against Iran to knock out its nuclear capability and accused Democratic candidates of speaking in decade-old “cliches” about the challenges facing the country.

Asked about his previous statements that he had never hungered to run for president, Thompson said, “More and more, I wish that I had the opportunity to do the things that only a president can do.” [mjh: yeah, like nuke any country you want. No actor has ever gotten to do that, though Raygun came close.]
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Tuesday, June 05, 2007

Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani (R) remains on top, but his support has slipped to 23%. That’s down two points from a week ago and is his lowest level of support all year. Earlier, Giuliani had consistently enjoyed support in the mid-30s. That was before Thompson’s name was added to the mix and before Giuliani stumbled on the abortion issue in the first GOP debate of the season.

Thompson, who just formed an exploratory committee and is the newest face in the race, immediately moved into second place. With 17% support, he is within six points of the frontrunner. That’s closer than anybody has been to Giuliani in 20 consecutive weekly polls. Thompson is also competitive in a variety of general election match-ups with potential Democratic nominees.

Among men, Thompson earns 21% support while Giuliani attracts 20%.

http://www.rasmussenreports.com/public_content/politics/2008_republican_presidential_primary

Dump Duhbya

Impeach Bush

1 Comment

I have resisted the call to impeach George W. Bush, largely because I don’t want the country to go through the cruel nonsense the conservatives forced on us with their unwarranted impeachment of Clinton. I don’t want it to become the norm that every president faces impeachment.

I’ve also thought that, though Duhbya is the worst president ever, incompetence isn’t really a crime and it was obvious to anyone that he did not deserve the presidency, so the fools who voted for him are to blame.

Finally, I contented myself with the thought that for a generation or more, whenever Duhbya’s name is mentioned, people will spit on the ground and swear.

With this latest information, my mind is changed. Bush is a criminal and should be punished by removal from office. He has willfully set the world on fire. mjh

Before War, CIA Warned of Negative Outcomes, By Walter Pincus, Washington Post Staff Writer

On Aug. 13, 2002, the CIA completed a classified, six-page intelligence analysis that described the worst scenarios that could arise after a U.S.-led removal of Saddam Hussein: anarchy and territorial breakup in Iraq, a surge of global terrorism, and a deepening of Islamic antipathy toward the United States.

Titled “The Perfect Storm: Planning for Negative Consequences of Invading Iraq,” the paper, written seven months before the war began, also speculated about al-Qaeda operatives taking “advantage of a destabilized Iraq to establish secure safe havens from which they can continue their operations,” according to a report about prewar intelligence recently released by the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence.

The report said the CIA paper also cautioned about outcomes such as declining European confidence in U.S. leadership, Hussein’s survival and retreat with regime loyalists, Iran working to install a friendly regime “tolerant of Iranian policies,” Afghanistan tipping into civil strife because U.S. forces were not replaced by United Nations peacekeepers and troops from other countries, and violent demonstrations in Pakistan because of its support of Washington.

Dump Duhbya

Global Warming Melts the Republican Message

I sometimes get the sense that Duhbya and conservatives of all stripes (from neo- to paleo-) are finally parting company. You can’t blame conservatives: Duybya has effectively destroyed their political chances, quite possibly for a long time to come. Duhbya, in turn, may realize the conservatives give him nothing now and by pretending to be the guy he pretended to be in 2000 (the compassionate uniter, not the indifferent divider he truly is), he might trick Democrats into giving him something that seems to offset his legacy of incompetence and shame.

As the World Warms, the White House Aspires, By Dana Milbank

Yesterday, as the temperature pushed toward 90 degrees in the capital, global warming caused a meltdown in the Bush administration’s message machine.

Just as President Bush was about to wheel out his “new international climate change framework,” the NASA administrator, Michael Griffin, declared that there is no need to take action against global warming.

“Whether that is a long-term concern or not, I can’t say,” he said in an interview with National Public Radio, adding: “I am not sure that it is fair to say that it is a problem we must wrestle with.” In fact, Griffin found it “rather arrogant” to suggest that global warming is a bad thing.

A couple of hours after the broadcast, Griffin’s boss took the stage at the Ronald Reagan Building to endorse just such arrogance — an initiative aimed at reducing greenhouse gases. “The United States takes this issue seriously,” Bush said.

This mixed message led to a rather cool reception for Jim Connaughton, the president’s adviser on the environment, as he briefed reporters on the plan at noon.

“Will the new framework consist of binding commitments or voluntary commitments?” asked CBS News’s Jim Axelrod.

“In this instance, you have a long-term, aspirational goal,” Connaughton answered.

Aspirational goal? Like having the body you want without diet or exercise? Or getting rich without working?
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OpinionJournal – Peggy Noonan
Too Bad President Bush has torn the conservative coalition asunder.

What conservatives and Republicans must recognize is that the White House has broken with them. What President Bush is doing, and has been doing for some time, is sundering a great political coalition. This is sad, and it holds implications not only for one political party but for the American future.

The White House doesn’t need its traditional supporters anymore, because its problems are way beyond being solved by the base. And the people in the administration don’t even much like the base. Desperate straits have left them liberated, and they are acting out their disdain. Leading Democrats often think their base is slightly mad but at least their heart is in the right place. This White House thinks its base is stupid and that its heart is in the wrong place. [mjh:Damn, I misunderestimated Duhbya. I thought he was stupid and heartless, but it was just a con!]

For almost three years, arguably longer, conservative Bush supporters have felt like sufferers of battered wife syndrome. [mjh: Official GOP disclaimer: the GOP does not believe “battered wife syndrome” exists and supports traditional family values, including god’s own plan for wifely subservience and the need for a husband to occasionally assert his unquestionable authority.] …

Bush the younger came forward, presented himself as a conservative, garnered all the frustrated hopes of his party, turned them into victory, and not nine months later was handed a historical trauma that left his country rallied around him, lifting him, and his party bonded to him. He was disciplined and often daring, but in time he sundered the party that rallied to him, and broke his coalition into pieces. He threw away his inheritance. I do not understand such squandering.

Now conservatives and Republicans are going to have to win back their party. They are going to have to break from those who have already broken from them. This will require courage, serious thinking and an ability to do what psychologists used to call letting go. This will be painful, but it’s time. It’s more than time. [mjh: Official GOP disclaimer: the GOP does not believe “psychology” and other liberal excuses for bad behavior.]

It’s fascinating to watch the self-professed “deep-thinkers” of the “party of ideas,” “the moral and silent majority” that in 2004 declared their victory would last a generation — to watch that party fall apart, long-knives flying. Couldn’t happen to a better group. Too bad the whole world is on the brink of destruction. mjh

The Atheist's Pulpit

From the Village Atheist

1 Comment

So, Archbishop Sheehan doesn’t believe in atheists. That’s as self-serving as Wal-Mart’s CEO disparaging unions.

I certainly don’t expect to prove that Sheehan is part of the problem. However, to the “you can’t prove a negative” argument, I say, “so, what?” The efforts of the vast majority of the human race have failed to prove the existence of god — and with very good reason.

Sheehan places the Inquisition and Communism on the scales of justice and pronounces the Inquisition ‘not so bad after all.’ I wonder if his god admits the trivial murders and torturers into heaven while barring the door to the really bad cases. “Lord, it was only a few thousand people and we did it in your name.” The absolution of scoundrels.

Equating communism with atheism comes as no surprise from a religious zealot. It is ‘militant regionists’ who have polarized the entire world. In truth, humans pick and choose their beliefs and behaviors with maddening inconsistency. People of great faith and people without faith turn out to be heroes and ax murders. You can look back and say, “see, of course he did that because ….” It really proves nothing. The Virginia Tech mass murderer came from a deeply religious family and saw himself as christ-like. That’s a specious remark but no less so than blaming the behavior of brutal despots on atheism. Humankind is a murderous breed that embraces lies as readily as the truth. Even if we grow out of our religious infancy, we’ll find new reasons to brutalize each other. mjh

ABQjournal: Letters to the Editor
Atheists Spit Into Rising Wind

The May 26 article on militant atheist writers making an all-out assault on religious faith moves me to respond.

Christopher (an odd name for a nonbeliever!) Hitchens’ book “God is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything,” Richard Dawkins’ book “The God Delusion” and others seem to be selling briskly according to the article.

Michael Novak, writing in the June issue of the magazine “First Things,” notes that there is an odd defensiveness about these books, as though they were a sign not of victory but of desperation.

Everywhere on earth except Europe, religion is surging. According to a 2007 Princeton survey for Newsweek, at least 91 percent of Americans believe in God. Only 3 percent say they are atheists. In fact, the whole group of nonbelievers including agnostics and those of no religion is only 10 percent.

These atheistic authors are kind of like men spitting against the wind. Each trots out his arguments for atheism, it might seem, to convince himself. Maybe the books are selling well because there are always people that are curious about authors who attack the respected and the sacred.

Religion throughout history has brought about the establishment of great movements for civilization— the establishment of universities and education, hospitals and various means of helping the sick and the poor.

The atheists typically bring out the sad reality of the Inquisition, but the death inflicted by the Inquisition is a mere pinprick (at most 1,500) compared to what was done by atheists in our times. In the 20th century alone communist atheism has been responsible for the deaths of more than 100 million people.

In reality it is hard to prove the nonexistence of God as one can’t possibly prove a negative. And agnosticism, humanisticly attractive to some, leads to a moral indecisiveness leaving the religion question up in the air. It is hard also because there is a universal hunger in the human heart for the Transcendent.

There will always be the village atheists but those who believe in God, the vast majority, will continue to experience joy and strength in their belief in God.

MICHAEL J. SHEEHAN
Archbishop of Santa Fe
Albuquerque”

http://www.abqjournal.com/opinion/letters/567122opinion05-31-07.htm