Instahoglets 30th Jun 06

More news and opinion - big, small and "less travelled" - with a healthy dose of snark.

When a Gitmo detainee, a former Afghan police commander accused of plotting against the United States, tried to call four witnesses in his defense, U.S. authorities told him they searched for months but failed to find them. The UK's Guardian newspper found them in 3 DAYS - one was working for President Karzai and another was teaching at the National Defence University in Washington DC! The witnesses corroborate his claims of innocence and even General Ali Shah Paktiawal, Interpol director of the Afghan national police, says his arrest was based on false information. He is still at Gitmo, along with the 45 or so (out of 94) Afghan detainees that their own government claims are entirely innocent. Perhaps now that the Supremes have decided to not be ostriches any longer, there will be a fair investigation and trial for each of them.

Regular reader Kat sent me a tale of some 500 "Rainbow Children" detained in the name of Homeland Security (in the middle of a forest???). Closed-door trials based on DHS legislation for civil emergencies then ensue. The defendants are not explained their rights nor afforded the right to an attorney, the right to summon witnesses, the right to a jury trial, etc. Are you worried by this? You should be. Can anyone say "bird flu"?

George Lakoff has a new book out on July 4th. Called Whose Freedom? The Battle Over America's Most Important Idea, it argues that "liberals have foolishly allowed conservatives to claim ownership of "freedom" -- even though the progressive version is the one Americans actually believe in". Lakoff's PR firm are kindly sending me a review copy and I will have my thoughts posted on or about the release date. Meanwhile, they point my readers and myself to a Salon review, an audio clip of Lakoff reading a passage from the book and the website for the book. Enjoy.

Privacy International, a London-based civil rights group, has asked 35 nations to block the release of confidential financial records to U.S. authorities, calling the spying program a "fishing expedition" and pointing out that American subpoenas to SWIFT's American arm for records of other nation's transfers have no force in international law. Belgium, where SWIFT is headquartered, has already opened an investigation into the legality of the data trawl by Belgian law.

Read reports that Iran is behind smuggling weapons and IED's into Iraq with a massive pinch of salt. The smuggling routes in the region are legendary and borders are uncloseable given the terrain. It's as likely that the source of weapons is Pakistan as it is to be Iran - after all, the weapons bazaars there flourish. "There is nothing we cannot copy...You bring us a Stinger missile and we will make you an imitation that would be difficult to tell apart from the original." one told the BBC.

Stranger at Blah3 gets his rant on! Dear Media: You've been played like a '59 GoldTop. Now what? Excellent stuff.

Bush's guide to good leaks and bad leaks. "Leaks about plans for troop redeployment are fine with the president because they could help him and his congressional allies politically. Leaks about the administration spying on citizens, on the other hand, are "disgraceful" because they could cause the president and his Republicans acolytes political harm." Yup.

Someone gets sick of Dem Ostriches in a post which vies with Stranger's for "Excellent Rant of the Week". Dear Dems: You had me at hello -- You lost me at "we will not seek impeachment". Just...WOW. The list of gutless complicity with Bush's monarchy is staggering when you see it all laid out. Here's the money quote: "why, after all of this, could I possibly expect you to represent me if I actually reward your five years of gutless complicity and moral bankruptcy? What kind of fool, would reward this appalling display and expect it not only to end, but not to actually get worse?" That, indeed, is the question.

Unfortunately, America isn't the only nation afflicted with a Dear Leader who thinks he should be king and will happily tromp all over the "freedoms" he pretends to defend. Here, from the Independent, is a long and truly frightening article about the way in which Tony Blur, Bush's poodle, has transformed my homeland and its "mother of parliaments" into an Orwellian nightmare. Read it while you can - it will slip behind their pay-to-read firewall in seven days. SCARY!!! (Hat tip to Kat again.)

Remember the Downing Street Memos? Here's the man who leaked them, Micjael Smith of the London Times, in a prepared statement to the Senate Democratic Policy Committee oversight hearing on Pre-War Intelligence Relating to Iraq - in which Smith clearly explains that Blair and Bush knew they were ginning up an illegal war. Never mind impeachment - its time to reconvene the Nuremberg Court.

While we are on the subject, Colin Powell's former chief of staff, Lawrence Wilkerson, was just as forthright when the only Republican to attend the hearing asked him to explain why a small number of individuals in the administration “had more influence…than the professionals.” Wilkerson's response - "I’d answer you with two words. Let me put the article in there and make it three. The Vice President." Did you know war crimes in the U.S. still carry the death penalty?

I saw Warren Buffet, Bill and Melinda Gates on the Charlie Rose show the other night. They all agreed on two things. Firstly, that they want their children to "have enough money to be able to do anything except nothing" (There goes the Estate Tax repeal). Secondly, that the capitalist free-market system, while wonderful, cannot answer to situations such as fighting a third world disease where there's no profit for the drug companies to make research worthwhile. All say government must be the first to fill the gaps when the free market fails. In this, of course, they agree entirely with Adam Smith.

Anyway, here are Warren Buffet's lessons for the rich. Good stuff for any social democrat fighting the avarice of conservative selfishness.

A bunch of zionist Christians - the one's who think the trigger for the Last Times and the Rapture will be the conversion of Jews to their brand of evangelism - visit an ultra-orthodox part of Jerusalem and get attacked by the locals. God has a wicked sense of humor.