Politics: Who Knew Condi Was So Popular

with our friends in New Zealand?

Banner reads "War Criminal Wish You Weren't Here"

Not a single major media outlet in the U.S. reported on this enchanting display of respect and affection for our Esteemed ChevronTanker-in-Chief, Condoleeza Rice. Even as our Saudi Arabian Overlords were showering Bootsie Ferragamo with expensive jewels — $316,000 worth of them, which our bootlickers in the professional media are describing as "Foreigners take(ing) a shine to" Rice — not a single one of them bothered to report that students in NZ had put a price on Rice's head.

Auckland University Students Association had to withdraw the bounty it placed on the head of Condoleezza Rice two days earlier, under threat of legal action. However, the students association at Victoria University in Wellington doubled the price, offering $10,000 for a successful citizen's arrest. Although several people turned up to the demo with handcuffs, the chance to nab Rice didn't present itself. Police refused to cooperate in the arrest of this war criminal, giving the irrelevant excuse that she is a visiting dignitary.

Much more newsworthy in my opinion. The degree to which our media shapes the information we receive is not lost upon the hoi polloi, you media jackals. There's a reason your circulation is dropping faster than Bush's approval rates (or lack thereof).

A third of a million dollars worth of jewelry gifted to the Secretary of State. Doesn't that look — and smell — bad? As one more famous than our humble self would say, "It stinks in my nostrils." Didn't anyone tell you, Condi, that Caesar's wife must be above suspicion?

Fortunately, our laws say that Condi can't keep the glitter for herself. It's all been turned over to the GSA, along with the mere $100,000 or so of gifts these same people gave to Boosh. It does make you wonder why these wealthy monarchs would give such expensive gifts to the Shoe Queen, though, doesn't it?

From the New Zealand Protest

Thanks, New Zealanders, for showing us what we should have been doing from the first moment this warmongering lunatic began spouting her bullshit about war and torture and Terra. Thanks for standing up for human rights and human(e) conscience.

Photographs of this fine event are available at this link.

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The prisoners at Guantanamo have been there longer than World War II lasted ...

photo from http://sporkinthedrawer.typepad.com/

Great opinion piece about Habeas Corpus in Jon Carroll's column in today's San Francisco Chronicle (and sfgate.com). Here's an excerpt:

Lakhdar Boumediene, born in Algeria, was arrested in Bosnia in October 2001 and charged with being part of a plot to blow up the U.S. Embassy there. He was almost immediately released by the Bosnian Supreme Court for lack of evidence, and then rearrested by American troops (evidence? That's what interrogation is for!) and shipped to the Guantanamo detention facility. He's still there today.

Naturally, Boumediene has not received any kind of trial. His lawyers have not been allowed to see evidence against him. He is, like almost all the people at Guantanamo, a hearsay prisoner with an indefinite sentence, imposed arbitrarily by ... well, somebody. He is an enemy combatant because the Bush administration says he is. He may be a bad guy, but he may not be. He has served six years behind bars and has yet to be charged with any crime.

That's kind of illegal, say many people.

Boumediene wants a hearing. He and some other prisoners sued the government, and the case went to the Supreme Court. The case was decided in June. To quote Dworkin: "The Court held by a 5-4 vote that aliens detained as enemy combatants in Guantanamo have a constitutional right to challenge their detention in American courts. The decision frees none of them, some of whom have been held without trial for six years, but it makes it possible for them to argue to a federal district court judge that the administration has no factual or legal ground for imprisoning them. If that judge is persuaded, he must order their release."

...

As usual these days, Judge Anthony Kennedy was the swing vote. Almost everyone is looking for a way out of Guantanamo, now a national embarrassment as well as a disgrace; Kennedy and the other "liberal" judges (I use the quotes because the meaning of the word doesn't actually refer to any particular political philosophy anymore) decided that the way out had to be through the Constitution.

Dworkin again: "Senator John McCain called the decision 'one of the worst' in the country's history. The conservative press was horrified: The Wall Street Journal said that Kennedy had turned the Constitution into a 'suicide pact.' No one explained why it would destroy America to allow people who claim innocence of any crime, or threat, a chance to defend that claim before an American judge who is presumably just as worried about his family's security as the president is.

...

We're now involved in a war on terror, and all the rules must be rewritten. Of course, within our short history, the White House burned and Washington was sacked; the prisoners at Guantanamo have been there longer than the War of 1812 lasted. We have seen Ohio and Pennsylvania invaded by an army representing a new nation claiming the right to enslave all people of African descent; the prisoners at Guantanamo have been there longer than the Civil War lasted. We fought a two-front war against an enemy who murdered 200,000 Chinese citizens in six weeks and another enemy who murdered 6 million Jews in five years; the prisoners at Guantanamo have been there longer than World War II lasted.

Jon Carroll refers to nybooks.com -- there's a longer article there about the whole issue. He says it's very good.

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