With nearly two years remaining in his presidency, George W. Bush is alone. In half a century, I have not seen a president so isolated from his own party in Congress — not Jimmy Carter, not even Richard Nixon as he faced impeachment.
Republicans in Congress do not trust their president to protect them.
CANBERRA (Reuters) – Australian Guantanamo Bay detainee David Hicks pleaded guilty to terrorism charges to speed up his return home and to escape a flawed system of U.S. military justice, Australian lawmakers said on Tuesday.
“His guilty plea is simply a plea for release for exit from the inhumane Guantanamo Bay gulag. That’s a human response,” Greens Senator Bob Brown said.
After five years in detention, Hicks, 31, pleaded guilty before a newly constituted U.S. Military Commission hearing to a charge of helping al Qaeda fight American troops and their allies in 2001 during the U.S.-led invasion of Afghanistan.
Despite efforts to eradicate Afghanistan’s opium production, the problem keeps getting worse. And the Taliban insurgency is the primary beneficiary. Now, some European governments are weighing a legalization of the drug trade.
(snip)
The plan envisages farmers being able to sell their poppies to officially licensed buyers for the same price they currently get from the drug barons. The product could then be sold to the pharmaceutical industry for pain medication and other products.
Myanmar’s secretive military government has allowed foreign journalists into its new capital of Naypyitaw, which is being built from scratch in the jungle.
(snip)
The motives behind the Myanmar military regime’s decision to suddenly move the country’s seat of government to the jungle in 2005 remain unclear. But for a regime that was happy to change the name of the country, which used to be called Burma, a new capital is surely a mere bagatelle.
The Bushies moved forward with the idea that the argument they were making about executive privilege would resonate, and that the President could convince most Americans that this was a partisan “witch hunt.” Tuesday morning polling (MSNBC) shows 68% of Americans believe the aides including Rove should be subpoenaed and testify under oath. Well, looks like Bush failed again.
AP via gulfnews.com — Bern: The US Army mistakenly jammed the satellite signal of a number of news organisations earlier this year – including the French and Swiss national news agencies – in an attempt to shut down an Iraqi TV station, according to a Swiss newspaper.
Daily Tages-Anzeiger reported in yesterday’s edition that the incident occurred on January 23 and lasted about 24 hours, affecting a large number of radio, television and internet services, including those of Agence France Presse (AFP) and its Swiss counterpart Schweizerische Depeschagentur (SDA).
Once in a committed relationship with a female partner, she’s rethinking her sexuality.
And now she’s doing something she once would have considered unthinkable arguing that gays don’t have the legal right to adopt children.
Wheeler is coming to grips with the fact that she’s become an outcast for taking this step in a custody fight for her child. But she says that isn’t what her fight is about: “It’s about motherly rights.”
Wheeler, 36, and her partner, Missy, decided to start a family together and share the Wheeler last name. In 2000, Sara Wheeler gave birth to a son, Gavin, through artificial insemination. Two years later, they decided Missy Wheeler should adopt the child and legally become his second parent.
Georgia law doesn’t specifically say whether gay parents can adopt a child, so the decision was up to a judge in the Atlanta area’s DeKalb County. After an adoption investigator determined that both partners wanted it, the judge cleared the request.
The couple’s relationship later soured. Missy Wheeler wouldn’t comment for this story, but her attorney, Nora Bushfield, said Sara became involved with someone else and wouldn’t let Missy and Gavin see each other.
So now, because one parent wants to cut the other one out, and saying gay adoption isn’t legal is the easiest way to do it, anyone else’s similar adoption should be ruled null and void? No wonder Sara is becoming a pariah.
When Martina Navratilova parted with her partner of seven years, Judy Nelson, she let her lawyers use a similar stunt. Navratilova and Nelson had a property agreement drawn up during their relationship. When they split-up, Navratilova, who said she had never read the agreement, went to court to try and keep Nelson from getting half of their assets. Navratilova’s lawyer argued that a agreement between to lesbians was not binding under the law which did not recognize such relationships.
Eventually they settled out of court.
I was really pissed at Navratilova at the time, and I’m still a bit po’ed.
The United Nations proposed a new global fund Monday to fight international human trafficking and forced labor, a problem that it said had grown to epidemic proportions and was rarely effectively prosecuted by governments.
“Slavery is a booming international trade that involves several million people a year being trafficked in bondage,” said Antonio Maria Costa, executive director of the UN Office of Drug and Crime, who announced the new initiative on trafficking in London.
“There is finally a growing awareness of a huge problem in terms of size, money and the human costs in terms of suffering,” Costa added.
The UN estimates that 2.5 million people are trafficked and enslaved, although the crime is frequently unreported and many estimates are far higher. The International Labor Organization estimates that there are 12.3 million people across the globe in forced work. The U.S. government say that up to 800,000 people are shipped like commodities across international borders to serve as cheap labor.
PRISTINA, Serbia — The UN envoy for Kosovo says independence is the only feasible option for the province, according to a copy of his report obtained Monday by the Associated Press.
It is the first time that the special envoy, Martti Ahtisaari, has explicitly mentioned independence in a document dealing with the province’s future.
Former US Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld could face charges of war crimes after a lawsuit was filed against him in Germany. Now Germany’s Federal Prosecutor’s Office has to decide whether it will investigate.
A German lawsuit is causing headaches for Donald Rumsfeld. A 384-page document is currently sitting in the offices of Germany’s federal prosecutor in Karlsruhe — and causing headaches for the authorities there. They never asked for it, but now they have to deal with it. The only question is how.
The reason the authorities would be quite happy if the lengthy document would simply go away is because it is a lawsuit against 14 powerful men and one woman. Donald Rumsfeld, the former United States Secretary of Defense, is one of them. Others include Alberto Gonzales, the current Attorney General of the United States, CIA director George Tenet, and Lieutenant General Ricardo S. Sanchez, the US general who served as the commander of coalition forces in Iraq from June 2003 to June 2004. According to the document, these members of the US elite violated both international law and the United Nations Convention Against Torture in Abu Ghraib prison and the Guantánamo Bay detention camp.
The lawsuit was filed by Berlin-based lawyer Wolfgang Kaleck. Politically, it’s a time-bomb which could cause serious problems for US-German relations. Angela Merkel has made a persistent effort during recent months to cultivate a good relationship with Germany’s overseas ally. An arrest warrant for top US military authorities and government members would likely reverse a lot of this work and lead to a new low point in trans-Atlantic relations. Representatives have been negotiating behind closed doors for months about whether Germany should investigate Rumsfeld’s alleged crimes or not. Germany’s federal prosecutor Monika Harms will reach a decision on the issue during the coming weeks.
Well, since our courts decided they can’t prosecute Rumsfeld for torture, I hope the Germans do. And after Bush assaulted/fondled Merkel at the G8 meeting, I hope she lets them proceeed.
Bush has no friends: WashPo
Gee, I wonder why…
but still gross…Texan babies for sale.
Those are some ‘family values’ the GOP has, aren’t they?
What an ass!
Australian lawmakers say Hicks plea is flawed
NATO to Legalize Afghanistan’s Opium?
Myanmar Shows Off New Capital to the World
The Bushies moved forward with the idea that the argument they were making about executive privilege would resonate, and that the President could convince most Americans that this was a partisan “witch hunt.” Tuesday morning polling (MSNBC) shows 68% of Americans believe the aides including Rove should be subpoenaed and testify under oath. Well, looks like Bush failed again.
Anyone hear anything about this?
Gay parents have a custody battle: ABC news
So now, because one parent wants to cut the other one out, and saying gay adoption isn’t legal is the easiest way to do it, anyone else’s similar adoption should be ruled null and void? No wonder Sara is becoming a pariah.
When Martina Navratilova parted with her partner of seven years, Judy Nelson, she let her lawyers use a similar stunt. Navratilova and Nelson had a property agreement drawn up during their relationship. When they split-up, Navratilova, who said she had never read the agreement, went to court to try and keep Nelson from getting half of their assets. Navratilova’s lawyer argued that a agreement between to lesbians was not binding under the law which did not recognize such relationships.
Eventually they settled out of court.
I was really pissed at Navratilova at the time, and I’m still a bit po’ed.
UN fund to combat human trafficking
From yesterday:
UN recommends independent Kosovo
Wanted For War Crimes: Rumsfeld Lawsuit Embarrasses German Authorities – International – SPIEGEL ONLINE – News
Well, since our courts decided they can’t prosecute Rumsfeld for torture, I hope the Germans do. And after Bush assaulted/fondled Merkel at the G8 meeting, I hope she lets them proceeed.