March 21, 2005
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UPDATE: Something just clicked. I've updated this post here, check it out.
more...
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March 18, 2005
Why they fight.
Any questions?
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March 17, 2005
The Senate has a narrowly focused bill that deals only with the planned abortion of Terri Schiavo, allowing her standing in federal court, which would immediately stay a Florida court's ruling which would allow Planned Parenthood's Boca Raton office to perform the controversial abortion procedure, now scheduled for March 18.
The House, however, passed a more broadly defined bill on Wednesday night. In it, "persons" — defined as "any born individual who is presently outside the womb and in at least the 50th trimester of life" — are given the right to take their case to federal court after the state court route has been exhausted. The House bill does not grant an automatic stay for Schiavo despite support from House leaders like the ultra-conservative Rep. Tom DeLay, the House Majority Leader.
But even with an agreement between the Senate and House, sources told The Jawa Report on Thursday that Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR) has "dug in" against passage of the Senate bill by unanimous consent. He is a well-known pro-choice advocate and in a recent press statement said that,
Michael Schiavo has a right to terminate his wife's life. His wife's body belongs to him. What he does with Terri's body is nobody elses busines.Wyden then added in a press-conference on the steps of Capital Hill,
My personal view is that 132nd trimester abortions are wrong. However, I believe that such decisions are best left to a couple and their doctor.Wyden's stance could force the Senate to move to cut off debate, setting up a process that could give Wyden and possibly other Democrats, like Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA), an opportunity to express their opposition. However, other Democrats oppose letting Schiavo's case end at the state court.
Sen. Rick Santorum (R-PA) has said he will hold up adjournment of the Senate for Easter recess, scheduled to begin Friday and last two weeks, until a vote is taken on this bill. Santorum is a staunch ultra-late-term abortion opponent and is strongly against aborting Terri Schiavo. Santorum's opposition to abortions has been termed "radical" by many moderates because of his support for a Constitutional Amendment which would ban all abortions after the 25th trimester.
The debate comes as Schiavo's parents appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court, and Florida Circuit Court Judge George Greer scheduled a hearing Thursday to consider a request from the state to halt the abortion. Judge Greer, in a related case, ruled that the Pope should be removed from life support because people in a vegetative state--even when such vegatables can 'laugh', 'pray', and 'bless the masses'--serve no useful social function.
Florida's Legislature is also taking action similar to that of Congress. A similar state law passed in 2003 was later declared unconstitutional by the Florida Supreme Court. The Florida Supreme Court, citing Roe v. Wade, had claimed that:
among the penumbra of rights gauranteed in the US Constitution was the right to abort spouses at any time during the first 200 trimesters of life."However," said the majority opinion, "the state may pass such laws deemed necessary to protect the welfare of society after that time, provided such laws are narrowly taylored and do not impede the doctor-patient-patient's wife relationship."
Schiavo, 41, has been at the center of a long and bitter court battle between her parents and her husband, who wants to have the ultra-late-term abortion performed.
In a press-release from the White House today, President Bush said:
The case of Terri Schiavo raises complex issues. Yet in instances like this one, where there are serious questions and substantial doubts, our society, our laws, and our courts should have a presumption in favor of life. Those who live at the mercy of others deserve our special care and concern. It should be our goal as a nation to build a culture of life, where all Americans are valued, welcomed, and protected and that culture of life must extend even those in the 132nd trimester of life.Actor and pro-life advocate Mel Gibson added the fuel to the fire to keep ultra-late-term abortion illegal when he sent the following fax to the parents of Terri Schiavo:
I fully support the efforts of Mr. & Mrs. Schindler [Terri's parents] to save the life of their daughter, from a cruel starvation.The outlook of 'Terri's Law' was in seriuos jeapordy as the House and Senate could not agree on the scope of the bill. Anticipating the delay, attorney's for the Schindler family have filed an emergency appeal to the US Supreme Court asking for an injunctive stay on the Florida Court's ruling.Terri's husband should relinquish his right to an abortion and turn the 132nd trimester fetus over to the Schindler's care.
George Felos, Michael SchiavoÂ’s lead attorney, filed an immediate response to the motion. NARAL Pro-Choice America and Planned Parenthood also filed an amicus curae brief in support of Michael Schiavo's right to an ultra-late-term abortion.
"Trying to outlaw Mr. Schiavo's clear Constitutional right to do what he pleases with his wife's body is an outrageous attempt by Congress to interfere with the workings of the judicial branch," said NARAL spokesperson Evelyn Becker in a written press-release. "Today the right-wing ideologues are trying to take away Mr. Schiavo's right to a 132nd trimester abortion. If they succeed, then this country may well be on its way back to the days when 132nd term abortions were performed by unlicensed doctors in back alleys under unsanitary conditions, contraceptives were outlawed, homosexuals were rounded up, and negros were forced to ride in the back of the bus."
UPDATE: House to meet in morning to vote on ultra-late-term abortion bill, over Nancy Pelosi's (D-CA) objections.
UPDATE II: Related from Scrappleface
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March 16, 2005
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This is why the jihadis fight us. They believe this stuff.
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March 15, 2005
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March 14, 2005
Here is some of the message that he posts:
the nature of my job allowes me to read some confidantial studies presented by retired fbi ....dhs ..cia agents...etc...and i want to participate in bringiing the usa nazi zionist goverment downHe then drones on and on about how the jihadis need to watch out, the Americans are tracking them, etc.
The story was reported in the Arab News, the Saudi publication. That story, whether in error or because the Saudis believed this was too hot for public consumption, said the message was about how to build a 'dirty bomb'. It was not, it was how to build an atomic weapon.
Aside from the nuke, though, they seem to get it right. The same American poster also instructs his fellow jihadis on the use of other WMD:
The member, whose expertise veers toward chemical warfare, shows a marked emphasis in making gas bombs. He introduces the subject by naming the different gases used for these purposes, and follows it up with their reaction with the elements, effects and their impact, before concluding by telling all where to buy them....Some one in the Pentagon better be reading this and remind the troops to keep those chemical suits handy.At the end of his session, the writer, who asked his followers to go for jihad, received a comment from another writer asking him to give more details as they needed it to start making those gases in Iraq. “We need simple quick ways to make them, for us to quickly fight the Americans and the great traitor Allawi,” said the comment.
Oh, and I would be remiss if I didn't mention that the poster left his e-mail address-- let_us_reason2005@yahoo.com
UPDATE: Wow, see why the blogosphere is so great. Checking out the comments and all the various links it turns out that the actual H-Bomb plans are a hoax. *Sigh of relief*
Even so, two questions remain:
a) Are the chemical weapon instructions also a hoax? The Arab News version seems to indicate that the majority of this person's posts are about the use of chemical weapons.
b) Did the poster believe the H-bomb instructions were real? Some are accusing us of jumping the gun on this. The atomic weapon instructions were only part of a long series of posts by an individual who claims he wishes to help the jihadis.
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March 10, 2005
The New York Times (subscription) sums up the findings:
Admiral Church's report faults senior American officials for failing to establish clear interrogation policies for Iraq and Afghanistan, leaving commanders there to develop some practices that were unauthorized, according to the report summary. But the inquiry found that Pentagon officials and senior commanders were not directly responsible for the detainee abuses, and that there was no policy that approved mistreatment of detainees at prisons in Afghanistan, Iraq and Guantánamo Bay, Cuba.Kevin McCullough, who has much more, summarizes the Church reports findings:
1. There was no policy that condoned torture.While the general thrust of the Church report is that US policy did not directly lead to the torture and abuse of detainees, the international media has jumped on the report, following the lead of the New York Times, focusing instead on tales of the abuse that did take place. The International Herald Tribune, based in France, runs with the headline "Abuse of Afghan villagers by GIs is reported to Congress" and cites the New York Times as its source.2. There was no policy that encouraged abuse.
3. There was a lot of inconsistency across interrogation techniques. Many of those techniques were developed in the combat theater and migrated to other areas.
4. There was a general lack of military command guidance in dealing with the CIA. [Church] found 30 ghost detainees. One such detainee was in that status for 45 days.
5. There were missed interrogation opportunities in part because the military failed to take account of lessons from prior conflicts
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6. There was no guidance to CENTCOM or by CENTCOM on interrogations.
It is our opinion that the specific tales of abuse should have remained classified and the report should only contain a general accounting of abuses. The inevetable outcome of the public airing of specific abuses will be to bolster the claims of terrorists that the fight against Coalition forces in Iraq is a just one. Members of Congress could have been briefed on the classified portions of the document in private.
The goal of the report, it should be remembered, is to find ways to prevent abuse in the future. The Times claims that:
Three senior defense officials said Wednesday that the new procedures clarified the prohibition against the use of muzzled dogs in interrogations, gave specific guidance to field units as to how long they could hold prisoners before releasing them or sending them to higher headquarters for detention, and made clear command responsibilities for detainee operations.Vice Admiral Church and other Pentagon officials are scheduled to testify before Congress today.
UPDATE: Interesting note from Wired:
A 21-page unclassified summary of the report was to be released at a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing. The full 368-page report is classified.Is the story run by the New York Times, and sure to be the focus of the foreign and jihadi press, about abuses part of the classified report? If so, who leaked it? more...
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March 09, 2005
See, I'm interested in all things that explode. After all, volcanos are nature's nuclear bombs!
Here is a live image of Mount St. Helens. If you don't see anything it's either a) night b) erupting. In case of b please evacuate. Thank you.
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March 08, 2005
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March 04, 2005
By the way, Kevin, I hear that Barbara Demick wrote the story because she didn't want to end up like Hans Brix.
For another perspective on the situation in North Korea here is what the traitor Charles Jenkins has to say about the ronery dictator of the country he defected to 40 years ago:
“I believe Kim Jong Il is an evil person. He is exploiting and oppressing the (North Korean) people,” Jenkins answered the reporters who asked him what he thought.For recent reports on the situation in North Korea, read The Daily NK.Jenkins was an American soldier stationed in South Korea, Compound 8, but crossed the Demilitarized Zone into North Korea for fear of being sent to the Vietnam during the war, in January 5, 1965. However, he lived in misery ever since. With three other American soldiers who defected to North Korea, he survived torture and hunger and was obliged to study about Kim Il Sung [the former dictator] ten hours per day. He was expelled from Pyongyang for secretly listening to BBC broadcasts by changing the fixed radio stations, and got into trouble by requesting defection to the Soviet Embassy in Pyongyang. One time, a North Korean doctor cut out his skin on his shoulder where he had a tattoo that read, “U.S. Army” without anesthesia.
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March 03, 2005
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March 02, 2005
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March 01, 2005
NYT:
A federal district judge in South Carolina ruled Monday that President Bush had greatly overstepped his authority by detaining an American citizen as an enemy combatant for nearly three years without filing criminal charges. The judge, Henry F. Floyd, ruled that the government must release the American, Jose Padilla, within 45 days from the military brig in Charleston, S.C., where he has been held since June 2002. That left the Bush administration time to appeal, and a Justice Department spokesman, John Nowacki, said officials immediately decided to do so.Michelle Malkin makes a good point:
Yes, the Bush Administration should have to prove it, but in a military tribunal not in a civilan court.I'm not sure why Michelle believes national security would be compromised,Much of the evidence against Padilla--his own statements, the statements of other captured al Qaeda operatives, information provided by intelligence agents--either would not be admissable in a civilian court or could not be presented without compromising intelligence assets. A military tribunal, by contrast, could admit such evidence and would not be obligated to share it with Padilla or his lawyer.
[Update: Never blog on an empty stomache. Seriously, I'm on a Snickers diet. No joke. Just replace one meal a day with Snickers and you lose the weight. Do you think I could get that same deal that Jarred has going with Subway? The post has been changed to reflect a now Snickers full stomache]
When you engage in military actions against the US you ought to be treated as an enemy. The last time I checked the Geneva Convention allowed captured non-uniformed combatants caught engaged in acts of sabatoge to be put to death. Even when those combatants are domestic citizens.
Let's see how Padilla enjoys an old-fashioned firing squad.
James Joyner and Steve the Poliblogger are obviously thinking about ex Parte Milligan when they argue that US citizens must be tried in a civilian court. The rule does not apply to US citizens engaged in insurrection against the US. The difference being that Padilla was actually involved in military actions (ie, he is a combatant) vs. Milligan who was only engaged in drumming up support for the Southern cause (ie, he was a non-combatant).
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February 28, 2005
A popular jihadi message board, affiliated with al-Qaeda, had provided “how-to” information on “penetrating Jewish email addresses”. The author of this posting instructed members to use Jewish-sounding names and Western, including Israeli, domain addresses when registering for free email accounts such as Hotmail.com and Yahoo.com. The author also provided examples of such possible names and addresses.
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Time:
But when Bush talked about the Kremlin's crackdown on the media and explained that democracies require a free press, the Russian leader gave a rebuttal that left the President nonplussed. If the press was so free in the U.S., Putin asked, then why had those reporters at CBS lost their jobs? Bush was openmouthed. "Putin thought we'd fired Dan Rather," says a senior Administration official. "It was like something out of 1984."Hat tip Confederate Yankee who wonders if it was Oliver Willis who is advising Putin.The Russians did not let the matter drop. Later, during the leaders' joint press conference, one of the questioners Putin called on asked Bush about the very same firings, a coincidence the White House assumed had been orchestrated. The odd episode reinforced the Administration's view that Putin's impressions of America are often based on urban myths fed to him by ill-informed aides.
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February 25, 2005
An MP who was a founder member of Labour Against the War has quit the group, saying that after last monthÂ’s elections in Iraq he now believed Allied troops should remain in the country, it emerged today....Thanks for the tip from Dr. Leopold Stotch via e-mail.The North-East Derbyshire MP, who is stepping down at the election, accused his former colleagues in the anti-war movement of retailing "simple-minded" claims about the extent of civilian casualties in Iraq since the war....
He could no longer support the anti-war campÂ’s demands for withdrawal of troops of the US-led coalition, which he said should be a decision for the Iraqi people....
Mr Barnes accused the anti-war movement of offering a "one-sided" view of life in Iraq, endlessly repeating the 100,000 casualty estimate produced in an analysis of deaths caused by the conflict, published in the academic journal The Lancet.
"That analysis said it could be anything between 2,000 and 198,000," he said. "Some things are just over-the-top and simple-minded."
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February 23, 2005
Right.
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