Mood:  quizzical

33 GITMO Detainees are sent back to their homelands! Well thats a start, but how about all of em sent home and we close that illegal hell hole down. This frickin hideout on Cuba has got to be in direct contact with Satan himself. There is nothing honorable our ethical about this USA Military Prison. The article below is the latests news from the island of torture and lawlessness pervasion's the US maintains with Old Glory flying overhead.

Here is the Washington Post Article dated Dec 18 2006

______________    _________________    ______________

By Josh White
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, December 18, 2006;

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/12/17/AR2006121700700.html?nav=hcmodule

Thirty-three detainees who had been held at the U.S. military detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, were returned to their home countries over the past week, part of a government effort to reduce the facility's population to a core group of terrorism suspects who could be held indefinitely.

The Defense Department announced yesterday that it transferred 17 detainees to their home countries over the weekend: seven to Afghanistan, five to Yemen, three to Kazakhstan, one to Libya and one to Bangladesh. Military officials announced Thursday that 16 detainees were sent to Saudi Arabia last week.

With the transfer of the 33 detainees -- nearly 8 percent of the facility's population -- Guantanamo now holds about 395 detainees, almost none of whom have been charged with a crime. State Department officials have been working to reducesignificantly reduce the number of Guantanamo detainees through lengthy negotiations with other countries, although the United States is unwilling to release detainees into the custody of nations where they would likely be abused, tortured or killed.

A large percentage of the remaining population is from Saudi Arabia and Yemen.

According to Pentagon figures, approximately 380 detainees have departed Guantanamo for at least 29 countries since 2002, meaning the facility's current population represents slightly more than half of the suspects captured and transferred to U.S. custody in Cuba. An additional 85 detainees are slated for transfer or release to their home nations pending the outcome of diplomatic discussions. Their departure would leave the number of detainees at Guantanamo at about 310.

"Departure of these remaining detainees approved for transfer or release is subject to ongoing discussions between the United States and other nations," according to a Defense Department news release yesterday. "The United States does not desire to hold detainees for any longer than necessary."

Guantanamo did not accept new detainees from September 2004 to this past September, when 14 high-value suspects who had been in secret CIA custody were moved to Cuba.

Posted by Joe Anybody at 12:01 AM PST

Updated: Monday, 18 December 2006 12:46 AM PST

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Mood:  loud

Michael Moore: Cut and Run, the Only Brave Thing to Do

Friends,

Monday marked the day that we had been in Iraq longer than we were in all of World War II. That's right. We were able to defeat all of Nazi Germany, Mussolini, and the entire Japanese empire in LESS time than it's taken the world's only superpower to secure the road from the airport to downtown Baghdad.

And we haven't even done THAT. After 1,347 days, in the same time it took us to took us to sweep across North Africa, storm the beaches of Italy, conquer the South Pacific, and liberate all of Western Europe, we cannot, after over 3 and 1/2 years, even take over a single highway and protect ourselves from a homemade device of two tin cans placed in a pothole. No wonder the cab fare from the airport into Baghdad is now running around $35,000 for the 25-minute ride. And that doesn't even include a friggin' helmet.

Is this utter failure the fault of our troops? Hardly. That's because no amount of troops or choppers or democracy shot out of the barrel of a gun is ever going to "win" the war in Iraq. It is a lost war, lost because it never had a right to be won, lost because it was started by men who have never been to war, men who hide behind others sent to fight and die.

Let's listen to what the Iraqi people are saying, according to a recent poll conducted by the University of Maryland:

** 71% of all Iraqis now want the U.S. out of Iraq.

** 61% of all Iraqis SUPPORT insurgent attacks on U.S. troops.

Yes, the vast majority of Iraqi citizens believe that our soldiers should be killed and maimed! So what the hell are we still doing there? Talk about not getting the hint.

There are many ways to liberate a country. Usually the residents of that country rise up and liberate themselves. That's how we did it. You can also do it through nonviolent, mass civil disobedience. That's how India did it. You can get the world to boycott a regime until they are so ostracized they capitulate. That's how South Africa did it. Or you can just wait them out and, sooner or later, the king's legions simply leave (sometimes just because they're too cold). That's how Canada did it.

The one way that DOESN'T work is to invade a country and tell the people, "We are here to liberate you!" -- when they have done NOTHING to liberate themselves. Where were all the suicide bombers when Saddam was oppressing them? Where were the insurgents planting bombs along the roadside as the evildoer Saddam's convoy passed them by? I guess ol' Saddam was a cruel despot -- but not cruel enough for thousands to risk their necks. "Oh no, Mike, they couldn't do that! Saddam would have had them killed!" Really? You don't think King George had any of the colonial insurgents killed? You don't think Patrick Henry or Tom Paine were afraid? That didn't stop them. When tens of thousands aren't willing to shed their own blood to remove a dictator, that should be the first clue that they aren't going to be willing participants when you decide you're going to do the liberating for them.

A country can HELP another people overthrow a tyrant (that's what the French did for us in our revolution), but after you help them, you leave. Immediately. The French didn't stay and tell us how to set up our government. They didn't say, "we're not leaving because we want your natural resources." They left us to our own devices and it took us six years before we had an election. And then we had a bloody civil war. That's what happens, and history is full of these examples. The French didn't say, "Oh, we better stay in America, otherwise they're going to kill each other over that slavery issue!"

The only way a war of liberation has a chance of succeeding is if the oppressed people being liberated have their own citizens behind them -- and a group of Washingtons, Jeffersons, Franklins, Gandhis and Mandellas leading them. Where are these beacons of liberty in Iraq? This is a joke and it's been a joke since the beginning. Yes, the joke's been on us, but with 655,000 Iraqis now dead as a result of our invasion (source: Johns Hopkins University), I guess the cruel joke is on them. At least they've been liberated, permanently.

So I don't want to hear another word about sending more troops (wake up, America, John McCain is bonkers), or "redeploying" them, or waiting four months to begin the "phase-out." There is only one solution and it is this: Leave. Now. Start tonight. Get out of there as fast as we can. As much as people of good heart and conscience don't want to believe this, as much as it kills us to accept defeat, there is nothing we can do to undo the damage we have done. What's happened has happened. If you were to drive drunk down the road and you killed a child, there would be nothing you could do to bring that child back to life. If you invade and destroy a country, plunging it into a civil war, there isn’t much you can do ‘til the smoke settles and blood is mopped up. Then maybe you can atone for the atrocity you have committed and help the living come back to a better life.

The Soviet Union got out of Afghanistan in 36 weeks. They did so and suffered hardly any losses as they left. They realized the mistake they had made and removed their troops. A civil war ensued. The bad guys won. Later, we overthrew the bad guys and everybody lived happily ever after. See! It all works out in the end!

The responsibility to end this war now falls upon the Democrats. Congress controls the purse strings and the Constitution says only Congress can declare war. Mr. Reid and Ms. Pelosi now hold the power to put an end to this madness. Failure to do so will bring the wrath of the voters. We aren't kidding around, Democrats, and if you don't believe us, just go ahead and continue this war another month. We will fight you harder than we did the Republicans. The opening page of my website has a photo of Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid, each made up by a collage of photos of the American soldiers who have died in Bush's War. But it is now about to become the Bush/Democratic Party War unless swift action is taken.

This is what we demand:

1. Bring the troops home now. Not six months from now. NOW. Quit looking for a way to win. We can't win. We've lost. Sometimes you lose. This is one of those times. Be brave and admit it.

2. Apologize to our soldiers and make amends. Tell them we are sorry they were used to fight a war that had NOTHING to do with our national security. We must commit to taking care of them so that they suffer as little as possible. The mentally and physically maimed must get the best care and significant financial compensation. The families of the deceased deserve the biggest apology and they must be taken care of for the rest of their lives.

3. We must atone for the atrocity we have perpetuated on the people of Iraq. There are few evils worse than waging a war based on a lie, invading another country because you want what they have buried under the ground. Now many more will die. Their blood is on our hands, regardless for whom we voted. If you pay taxes, you have contributed to the three billion dollars a week now being spent to drive Iraq into the hellhole it's become. When the civil war is over, we will have to help rebuild Iraq. We can receive no redemption until we have atoned.

In closing, there is one final thing I know. We Americans are better than what has been done in our name. A majority of us were upset and angry after 9/11 and we lost our minds. We didn't think straight and we never looked at a map. Because we are kept stupid through our pathetic education system and our lazy media, we knew nothing of history. We didn't know that WE were the ones funding and arming Saddam for many years, including those when he massacred the Kurds. He was our guy. We didn't know what a Sunni or a Shiite was, never even heard the words. Eighty percent of our young adults (according to National Geographic) were not able to find Iraq on the map. Our leaders played off our stupidity, manipulated us with lies, and scared us to death.

But at our core we are a good people. We may be slow learners, but that "Mission Accomplished" banner struck us as odd, and soon we began to ask some questions. Then we began to get smart. By this past November 7th, we got mad and tried to right our wrongs. The majority now know the truth. The majority now feel a deep sadness and guilt and a hope that somehow we can make make it all right again.

Unfortunately, we can't. So we will accept the consequences of our actions and do our best to be there should the Iraqi people ever dare to seek our help in the future. We ask for their forgiveness.

We demand the Democrats listen to us and get out of Iraq now.

Yours,

Michael Moore
www.michaelmoore.com
mmflint@aol.com

SIGN THE VOTERS' PLEDGE!

Posted by Joe Anybody at 10:02 PM PST

Updated: Saturday, 16 December 2006 10:17 PM PST

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Mood:  special

12-15-06

Dear Senator Smith, 

I have read where you have recanted your opinion on fighting this war in Iraq. I did read your statement and first off want to thank you for standing up and saying what you did. I want this war to end swiftly and quickly. There were no WMD there was instead a never ending demand on warm bodies of American soldiers, money, resources, and challenges to our Constitution to the Human Rights Policies and our moral standing in the worlds view.

This ugly mistake should have never happened. The secrecy, the stubbornness, the cover up, the reckless policies, the greedy contractors, the destruction of lives and land in a country that we have no right to be in period.

My cousin committed suicide over the ugly sick ways of a corrupt war. I wrote you before about Col Ted Westhusing, who was one of the highest commanding officers to die in Iraq. He took his own life after living daily in the hell hole we created. We are out of line in what is right for America.

Thank you for finally standing up and doing the right thing. I don't care how good of friends you and the president were or about party lines and supporting the "guy" in the party you belong to. This war is wrong and costly in terms of lives, money, and how we are perceived in the world.

Our human rights policy, torture, and respect for Geneva is tarnished and ruined. Standing up as you did is the right step, but the timing is going to cost all of us, for a long, long time. 

This war is rife with a sick policy of distrusting secret agendas, and has made profits for many while destroying the country of Iraq and our morals here in the US. We need to correct as much as we can. We should of learned from previous wars (Viet Nam) and listened for real answers and truths instead of blindly following the Bush Neocon’s into this war of Power and control and illegal not to mention immoral killing of hundreds of thousands of innocent civilians of the Muslim world.

Personally I feel war crimes have been committed, the sooner you distance your self and Oregon from this debacle the better for everybody.

Thank You for standing up ….......now!

I wonder if you can now help the damage that we have all suffered and brought to the table of a country we had "no right invading" we are shameful and wrong. Which leads me to the "cut and walk" or the "cut and run" debate. When a man is wrong he stands up and says so. Its not cutting ..it called Honesty. We are not walking or running ...we are leaving a country we had NO BUSINESS being in period. When a country like the US invades with miss information the right thing would be to get the heck out ...not stick around trying to make it seem like we had a right to be there ...we didn't, we were wrong!

I am saddened for all the death we waged, all the hate we have instilled, all the discomfort we have caused to thousands of lives around the world. I am upset, ashamed, and ....... After reading your new stance of this atrocity I am happy that you have stepped up to do the right thing. To bad the president is not a man such as your self, to admit he made a grave mistake, and try to undo the harm done. The sooner the better.

Thank you Senator Smith!

Posted by Joe Anybody at 6:21 PM PST

Updated: Friday, 15 December 2006 6:32 PM PST

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Mood:  caffeinated

Folks I just received this today in my email box

I filled it out and included a few sentences as my comments

Do you want your news compacted and dished to you by a few single sources?

Do you want the variety of information and news "removed" and replaced with

Corporate Interest?

The FCC is getting ready to consider more relaxing of laws that prevent the news from becoming one big Monopoly. The changes in rules will give more consolidation to big corporation that represent NOT --> You and me ......they work for Big Business and the Government ...I repeat .."They do not work for the citizen, they work and served BIG BUSINESS and the War Machine"

Say "no" to this potential abuse

and the sell out of "OUR NEWS" sources to

 Limited Consolidated Big Corporations with profits as their guidelines

http://static.uspirg.org/usaction.asp?id=2034&id4=ES 

Dear Joe,                                               12-15-06

Posted by Joe Anybody at 12:32 PM PST

Updated: Friday, 15 December 2006 1:03 PM PST

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Mood:  sad

I copied the full article from the Jurist.law website. In a dismal report it looks like the US is going play "Beyond the reach of the law and order" game with human lives.

In a sickening display of "You can't touch us", the Military gets to do what ever they want on the Cuba Island. They say that American Law has no juristiction and the new Military Act protectes them in their sick demented "approved" ways. It disgusts me and makes this Joe Anybody think ...if ya wanna play that way ...fine .....cause now I say this louder than ever!

IMPEACH BUSH and......

CLOSE GITMO DOWN

http://jurist.law.pitt.edu/paperchase/2006/12/federal-judge-invokes-military.php

 Federal judge invokes

Military Commissions Act

to reject Gitmo habeas petition

Bernard Hibbitts at 4:31 PM ET  12-13-2006

 A federal judge Wednesday dismissed [ruling, PDF] a habeas corpus petition brought by Guantanamo detainee Salim Hamdan [Trial Watch profile], finding it was clearly barred under the controversial habeas-stripping language [JURIST report] of the new Military Commissions Act (MCA) [text, PDF] even though it was pending at the time the Act was passed. Agreeing with a position [JURIST report] on pending habeas petitions taken earlier this fall by the US Department of Justice, US District Judge James Robertson wrote in the first ruling to construe the MCA:

Hamdan's lengthy detention beyond American borders but within the jurisdictional authority of the United States is historically unique. Nevertheless, as the government argues in its reply brief, his connection to the United States lacks the geographical and volitional predicates necessary to claim a constitutional right to habeas corpus. Petitioner has never entered the United States and accordingly does not enjoy the “implied protection” that accompanies presence on American soil. Guantanamo Bay, although under the control of the United States military, remains under “the ultimate sovereignty of the Republic of Cuba.” Presence within the exclusive jurisdiction and control of the United States was enough for the Court to conclude in Rasul that the broad scope of the habeas statute covered Guantanamo Bay detainees, but the detention facility lies outside the sovereign realm, and only U.S. citizens in such locations may claim entitlement to a constitutionally guaranteed writ...

Congress’s removal of jurisdiction from the federal courts was not a suspension of habeas corpus within the meaning of the Suspension Clause (or, to the extent that it was, it was plainly unconstitutional, in the absence of rebellion or invasion), but Hamdan's statutory access to the writ is blocked by the jurisdiction-stripping language of the Military Commissions Act, and he has no constitutional entitlement to habeas corpus.

In the context of his ruling Robertson left unaddressed Hamdan's general arguments that the Military Commissions Act is unconstitutional "because it does not provide an adequate substitute for habeas review, because it violates the principle of separation of powers by instructing the courts to ignore the Supreme Court’s ruling that the Geneva Conventions afford judicially enforceable protections to petitioner Hamdan, because it is an unlawful Bill of Attainder, and because it violates Equal Protection."

Robertson initially granted Hamdan's habeas petition at the initial stage of the Hamdan v. Rumsfeld case in 2004, holding - as he explained Wednesday - that "he could could not be tried lawfully before a military commission that had not [then] been approved by Congress." Robertson's ruling was upheld on appeal [JURIST report] by the US Supreme Court in June this year.

*********************************************************

Obviously 

The United States Motto is:

Fuck Human Rights

What are you gonna do about it?

Posted by Joe Anybody at 8:29 AM PST

Updated: Thursday, 14 December 2006 8:42 AM PST

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Mood:  loud

AMSTERDAM, Netherlands - The Netherlands ended transmission of "free to air" analog television Monday, becoming the first nation to switch completely to digital signals.

Few Dutch consumers noticed, because the overwhelming majority get TV via cable. Only around 74,000 households relied primarily on the old-fashioned TV antennas in this country of 16 million, although 220,000 people had an "occasional use" set somewhere such as in a vacation house, camper or boat, according to government figures.

Last year in the USA, it was estimated that 21 million U.S. households do not get cable or satellite service and rely solely on free over-the-air TV. Consumers Union estimated an additional 20 million homes that have cable or satellite do not have all of their TV sets hooked up to the service and would need converter boxes, too.

Most developed countries have already begun testing or broadcasting digital TV signals on some bandwidths.

FULL ARTICLE HERE:

http://www.siliconvalley.com/mld/siliconvalley/business/technology/16214583.htm?source=rss&channel=siliconvalley_technology

Posted by Joe Anybody at 11:00 AM PST

Updated: Saturday, 23 December 2006 11:43 PM PST

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Mood:  energetic

On Friday, Suzanne Swift signed papers with the military related to her case. The Army moved up the date of her summary court-martial to this week. Sara Rich, Suzanne Swift's mother joins us on the line from Oregon.

http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=06/12/11/155237

Posted by Joe Anybody at 10:26 PM PST

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Mood:  crushed out

Wal-Mart has repeatedly violated

U.S. child labor laws and

profited from overseas

child labor abuses.

A recent investigation revealed children, some only 11 years old, were making Wal-Mart clothes in a Bangladesh factory. The children report being routinely slapped and beaten, forced to work 12 to 14 hours a day, often seven days a week, for wages as low as 6 and a half cents an hour.

In the United States, Wal-Mart's own internal audit found 1,371 instances in which minors worked too late at night, during school hours, or too many hours in a day. It also found 60,767 instances of workers missing breaks and 15,705 instances where employees were forced to work and miss meal times.

Despite all of this, Wal-Mart refuses to adopt a zero tolerance policy on child labor! Our children deserve better from Wal-Mart.

Sign The Pitition To Mr Scott at Wal Mart - Click Here -

The pitition says this:

Dear Lee Scott,

I am deeply disturbed to find out that Wal-Mart has repeatedly violated U.S. child labor laws and profited from overseas child labor abuses.

[your comment here]

The following facts are unacceptable:

• In the United States, Wal-Mart's own internal audit found "extensive violations" of child-labor laws and state regulations.
  
  
• The audit of one week’s time clock records found 1,371 instances in which minors worked too late at night, during school hours, or too many hours in a day. It also found 60,767 instances of workers missing breaks and 15,705 instances where employees were forced to work and miss meal times.
  
• A recent investigation revealed children, some only 11 years old, were making Wal-Mart clothes in a Bangladesh factory. The children report being routinely slapped and beaten, forced to work 12 to 14 hours a day, often seven days a week, for wages as low as 6 and a half cents an hour.

How can Wal-Mart do this to children? As a Wal-Mart shopper, I demand that you adopt a zero tolerance policy on child labor.

Sincerely,

Joe Anybody 12-10-06 

 Sign The Pitition To Mr Scott at Wal Mart - Click Here -

Posted by Joe Anybody at 12:49 PM PST

Updated: Saturday, 23 December 2006 11:35 PM PST

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Mood:  loud

So correct me if I am wrong

The Iraq Study Group

( Listen to "Randi Rhodes Connect The Dots Audio Clip" on how the Iraq Study Group is old school Iran Contra Guys of Bush Senior days ) 

Then out comes Bush, who  thumbs his nose at it. As I heard said on the radio "Bush Listens To No One" This war and all these decision rest on mr big pant GW Bush.

Did you see where they (Bush and Company) are proposing to spend three trillion dollars on the Iraq war?

THREE TRILLION DOLLARS ......My Goodness that is an absurd amount of money wasted on killing and war and not to mention trying to prove-out that he was right and thus in reality really just cover up for all his many deseptive blunders.

I also heard on the same program that the Executive Branch caries a lot more weight on the Foreign Relations and the Overseas Policies. So that said mr george E poo can call the shots and therfore HE take the full blame. Problem is the dumb cluck is gonna ruin the whole world in the process.

So after hearing this on the radio that the White House and mr cluck are the prime responsible party to decide and ultimately make the final decision ...no matter if there was tons of evidence to support not fighting and bring ing the troops home ...he could call the shot and say lets continue this asinine endeavor and

 "there will be no peace" ....

.......kill em all...."

Now if this is not an accurate assumption I would appreciate someone inform me to the reality. But I am afraid this is true. Now the hidden blessing is we get to blame ole 'mr CLUCK' when this all falls into hell and apart. He is the one who is responsible. Now that leads to the next aspect ......

Is mr gw bush dumb as a cluck (that his his name not a question) going to start raising the ante and supply more

 ..........warm young bodies !

to the WAR and death machine?

Is mr cluck going to not only pour tons of more money but more US soldiers too....in fact hundred of thousands more?????

Now have you ever seen those old war movies where one side is loosing the battle and they send out all they got ....every body dies and gets slaughtered because of the ignorance and selfish STUPID greedy and demented twisted leaders mind is gone and he is on a self destruct one track deminishing no return? The whole kit n kaboodle our good old USA is destroyed because of an arrogant fool.

Intelligence is gone ...respect is gone ...truth is not even a word ....and leadership is on a crash course....... the country is on the skids due to this mismanagement.

I also heard on the same radio station that they are using the Social Security money to fund the war and borrowing from other countries banks for example like with China. Our economy, our Constitution, or Forign policy, our Respect, our Honor, are Ethics and Morals, are government, our media, and just about every sacred thing this county prided itself is gone due to this reckless leadership.

And mr clucksy is the one who will be rememberd as The One" if not the only "worst president of the US'

FOR GODS SAKE CAN WE GET THE WHEEL BACK IN CONTROL ?

GET THAT MAN OUT OF OFFICE BEFORE THE SHIT DESTROYS THE FAN

The fan is cover with it ...... see what happens next if its 'his way' it wont be good.

Remember  ......"Mr Bush Listens to No One" he is beyond our own govenment ... it amazes me!

Doesn't that just floor you my fellow readers?

He is listening to no one!

THIS IS... HIS FAULT

Posted by Joe Anybody at 11:58 PM PST

Updated: Saturday, 9 December 2006 3:18 PM PST

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Mood:  incredulous

Below is the first few paragraphs of the short article:

Russian law enforcement personnel armed with automatic weapons swept through IBM's offices in Moscow Wednesday morning, seizing documents as they went, according to sources familiar with the operation.

The motive for the raid was not immediately clear. A spokesman for IBM said the company is "cooperating with the authorities" but declined further comment.

A blogger who works at the office said the raid was carried out by the OMON special forces unit attached to Russia's Ministry of Internal Affairs. "Masked people with machine guns are wandering around the office ... they told us to leave our belongings and cell phones there and leave the room," the blogger wrote. MORE HERE

Posted by Joe Anybody at 11:10 AM PST

Updated: Friday, 8 December 2006 3:18 PM PST

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