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Sunday, October 1, 2006 |
History has already judged Bush and his GOP (Grand Old Perverts).
Here's a list of what Republicans find acceptable (paedophilia) and what not (habeas corpus).
The latest authoritative books on the subject of Bush's crimes are State of Denial (Bob Woodward) and How Bush Rules: Chronicles of a Radical Regime (Sidney Blumenthal).
Bush's latest attempt to whitewash his sins by getting consent from Congress, won't help him. Daily Kos explains it all. Read this article in its entirety.
"The get-out-of-jail clause for Bush and his 'young professionals' is found in Subsection (8)(b) [Military Commissions Act] and Section 1004 of the DTA of 2005 [good-faith defense].
But it seems to me that the Administration already has three problems.
The first problem is that any person of ordinary sense and understanding raised in the U.S. knows that torture is unlawful and that 'just following orders' doesn't cut it. And any competent lawyer or even attentive schoolboy knows Senate-ratified treaties are the 'supreme law of the land', and that the U.S. has not withdrawn from the Geneva Conventions. Good faith reliance on advice of sophomoric accomplices is not a factor for persons of ordinary sense and understanding.
The second problem is that from the beginning there wasn't 'good faith' from Bush and Gonzales. On January 22, 2002, then White House Counsel Alberto Gonzales advised the President that a presidential 'determination' that the Geneva Conventions do not apply in Afghanistan 'substantially reduces the threat of domestic criminal prosecution under the War Crimes Act (18 U.S.C. 2441)'.
The third problem is that the Charter of the International Military Tribunal, London, 8 August 1945 (aka, the Nuremberg Charter or the London Charter), of which the United States was a signatory and the prime mover, set forth a number of principles known as the 'Nuremberg Principles', among them
Art. 7. The official position of defendants, whether as Heads of State or responsible officials in Government Departments, shall not be considered as freeing them from responsibility or mitigating punishment.
So far, I've haven't found the Nuremberg Principles as part of any Senate-ratified treaty. Otherwise, they would be 'supreme law of the land', by Article VI of the U.S. Constitution, and would therefore trump Bush's get-out-of-jail card.
The Geneva conventions, by contrast, are Senate ratified, and Article 129 states:
Art 129. The High Contracting Parties undertake to enact any legislation necessary to provide effective penal sanctions for persons committing, or ordering to be committed, any of the grave breaches of the present Convention defined in the following Article.
I see no way that the U.S. can fulfill its treaty obligations under Article 129 and permit the DTA's Protection-of-Personnel clause to stand."
3:45:56 PM 
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CommonDreams: "In yet another blow to the US rice industry, the world's largest rice processing company, Ebro Puleva, which controls 30% of the EU rice market, has confirmed to Greenpeace International that it has stopped all imports of rice from the USA to the EU due to the threat of contamination by genetically engineered (GE) rice."
Guardian: "The strain, known as LLRICE 601, was never approved for human consumption but has escaped in large quantities into the world food chain.
In a separate move, the US department of agriculture yesterday said it was helping Bayer to fast track retroactive approval for the rice so it could be consumed by humans."
Guardian: "Multinational drug companies have been lobbying ministers in an attempt to subvert the independent appraisal process and get their expensive new medicines approved for large-scale use in the NHS, the Guardian can reveal."
Again we see that it is the interest of the public that is in danger from the greedy neocon entrepreneur. Companies only have an interest in selling the cheapest possible product for the highest possible price. Monopolies and lobbies are the tools for that.
11:19:11 AM
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AtlantaProgressiveNews: "Top Diebold corporation officials ordered workers to install secret files to Georgia's electronic voting machines shortly before the 2002 Elections, at least two whistleblowers are now asserting, Atlanta Progressive News has learned."
American Blackout opens in theaters now.
11:09:48 AM
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