We the people are first.

Howard Dean is first.

While I agree that the discepancies in time given to the candidates is quite disturbing, I was very unimpressed by the issues covered in the debate.  Instead of asking what each candidate how they would utilize Bill Clinton in their administration, I wish the moderator had devoted that time to a less frivolous matter such as global poverty, for example.  I would like to see the candidates address the United States’ commitment to the United Nation’s Millennium Development Goals, which call for cutting world hunger in half by 2015 and eliminating it altogether by 2025.  Indeed, it is estimated that the expenditure of a mere $19 billion would eliminate starvation and malnutrition worldwide.  In a time when the current defense budget is $522 billion, the goal of eradicating world hunger is clearly well within reach and it is my hope that whoever becomes president in 2008 addresses this pressing issue. 

repost from bottom of last thread

Linda*in*SFNM

Mon, 06/04/07

7:31 pm


Hey Joan! Yes! And like Howard, Al is reaching those people from all over, all ages and backgrounds, who care and have a real passion to make changes to move forward.


I will post some pictures from my visibility event today that received GREAT responses. It's surprising to hear the horns blow, because here in Santa Fe, they don't do that often. They wave fro their cars. I'm scared someone is going to have an accident one of these days.

But, reaching the young and have a stake in our future is very exciting. I actually had a car full of young adults pull up and very excited. They were thrilled to sign the petition to get Al Gore to run, I gave them buttons and......get this.......she gave me a CD of a song for AL GORE TO RUN, called "Please Gore Run"!!! Their band cut the CD and are going to post it and email me the link. After my pictures, I'm going to see if I can find it to share.


But that was TRULY exciting. And a passionate song-at that.

 

Huffington Interviews Gore, Plus Comments from Amazon on THE ASSAULT ON REASON



First the Huffington interview. Then a piece about Gore’s book at the top of the best-seller list, with a couple of substantive discussons from Amazon reviews.

 

So here is a modern political leader able not only to reference Locke, Einstein, and the Roman Empire, but to passionately and practically link their ideas to urgent policy decisions being made as we speak — above all, decisions about Iraq.

While expressing “sympathy” and “compassion” for Democratic Congressional leaders faced with “fragile minorities,” “members in politically marginal districts,” and “an executive branch whose power has been greatly enhanced,” Gore makes it clear that he would not have voted for the latest Iraq-funding-with-no-deadline measure. “I wish it hadn’t passed,” he adds.
http://www.nonesoblind.org/blog/?p=663

I've decided something, Elayna. Bloggers need to *lead* on the issues. Especially the UN Development Goals, which I have been posting about since I heard about them last June from the new presiding bishop of the Episcopal church.

I remember when Jim Wallis came to Columbus last spring, he said something about Martin Luther King. I don't have the exact quote, but it was something like, "he never endorsed a candidate, but he was able to get politicians to endore *his* agenda.

THAT is what we need to be doing. NOBODY has my support for '08 yet. If someone wants to get that support, they need to show me that they support my agenda.

And my allegiance is not to political party, it's to humanity. 

             Impeach,       then elect Gore.

Woooot Linda...nice sign!!!  We do need Al to step up to the plate. As much as I like Gravel, it's obvious the CM is determined to take the legs right out from under him. Apparently a candidate with integrity, intelligence, experience, honesty and solutions but no $$$ isn't a candidate in America anymore. I wonder if the CM could silence Al Gore like they have Gravel, Kucinich and Dodd...if so we are really fighting a losing battle. I have the feeling that the teacher's pets will reign supreme until the war chests are depleted...then the one with the mostest left that also has also stayed in line WINS...what a great plutocracy...I mean ummm...democracy!

Wasn't able to upload Granny D's interview...Comcast was down at the station. What a great monopoly...err, I mean...company they are. Just love paying more and getting less! Granny D was super however...I'll eventually get it up to youtube. Keep fighting the good fight...we need more like you!

OH and one of the gentlemen in the above photos is Rick Burnley, Camp Casey Poet Laureate.

I first heard him at the Impeachment Conferences and hearings here in SF.

He has a CD with his poems.  And some of them I've heard him read are pretty incredible.

http://www.rickburnley.com

As I say on my show..."please check closed minds at the door"...food for thought here

8.

Reed in VT

Thank you.  Yes, we do.  I think he is being pleasantly surprised with the support

and organzational efforts.  And last night at a private speech with SLA Librarians, in Denver, he was quoted saying, "I would love to be president." 

Yes, you can be sure the MSM will go after him.  They never stopped, only breaks.

Look at even Mo Dowds hit pieces.  But will people weaken over gossip, 

or will they rally for substance. :) 

Reed, when you get Granny D's interview up, let us know.

I will bbs, have to make dinner and then will see video link above. :)

I swear sometimes I must be invisible.

The people on the blog are strange today -- maybe it was the moon. I however am perfectly normal :~) Why isn't anyone talking about how the judge at Gitmo threw out the cases of those two defendants because the gov't didn't say they were unlawful or something like that -- I think no one is reporting on it because no one really understands it but maybe this is the beginning of the end.

Judges at Guantanamo throw out 2 cases
By ANDREW O. SELSKY, Associated Press Writer 1 hour, 38 minutes ago
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070604/ap_o...


ALSO on KOS for several hours
Update 6: SECOND Stunning Court Ruling May End Bush's War Crime Trials, Neuter Mil Com Act
by krazypuppy [Subscribe]

Mon Jun 04, 2007 at 11:04:23 AM PDT

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2007/6/4/1...

11.

Well I know I be rallying...that be until I'm locked up for peaceful protest! I'd say LOL but feel it's no joke! The 93 year old woman I care take for is worried for me because of my political activism...bless her heart.

13.

Renee... 

And my allegiance is not to political party, it's to humanity.

~~~~~

You be so right. I've sided with the Dems my whole life as I've always felt they fought for the have-nots, which I was to the tenth power growing up. The more politically educated I have become however has yielded questions to me about the party I've supported for so long. I'm not saying the Dems are a lost cause yet but they have to stop playing by Republican rules. My allegiance is to more than humanity...it be to all of the wonders this little planet has on it. 

I swear sometimes I must be invisible.  

no u are a bright shining light. we love ya.

Gotta cook something to chow on myself...bbl (that is if I don't nod off in the chair)

let me see they indict jefferson, from louisiana , in the courts of va. by a suspect u.s. attorney placed by gonzolez and rove.

meanwhile, what is happening with tom delay? he was indicted and then came out and said charges were dropped by a rove appointed ag.

so our system of justice is nada.

tell jefferson to just tell them to go stuff it.

14.

That is explosive!  Watch for another bogus terror alert so this stays buried.  Are you sending this to Keith, Annilow? 

Annilow, I just sent it to Keith but it doesn't hurt to have several (million) people write.

20. I don't see how he can miss it Seashell but I'm glad you sent it. I don't get Keith anymore (d*mn Comcast) so if he does a special comment please post an alert -- they usually post the clip at MSNBC.

Speaking of MSNBC I found this reasonable article about Micheal Moore's SICKO there:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/19033249/

By Ron Grover

Updated: 4:40 p.m. ET June 4, 2007
He's rumpled, a little coarse, and shoots from the hip. But Michael Moore, the irreverent force behind such politic-bending documentaries as the gun control manifesto Bowling for Columbine and the anti-war anthem Fahrenheit 9/11, knows how to stir the pot. Just wind him up, and ole Michael will fire away at entrenched political or corporate interests, no matter their size. He even took time during his 2003 Oscar acceptance speech for Bowling to deliver a finger-wagging rant against President Bush's Iraqi policies.

Little wonder then that the health-care establishment is bracing itself for the release of Moore's next film, the decidedly anti-medical industry Sicko. Moore will begin stumping for his film this week, with a June 5 appearance on Oprah Winfrey's show and then late night chats with David Letterman and Jay Leno. The movie, which is scheduled to hit theaters June 29, wowed audiences in Cannes last month, even reducing some to tears during a heartfelt scene in which an infant dies because she can't get medical care.

The graphic at the top of thread highlights why I haven't watched any of the faux -debates and won't watch any. Bullshit, plain and simple.

Sitka, Gravel and Kucinich are very good in the debates.  Socratic thorns they are.  Now I'm sounding like Yoda again.  LOL

I swear sometimes I must be invisible.

At first I was iridescent.

Then I became transparent.

Finally I was absent. 

Sitka, Gravel and Kucinich are very good in the debates.

I don't doubt it a bit. In fact, it can probably be judged who makes the most sense by who gets the least time from the corporate media.

Wyoming Senator Craig Thomas has just died from leukemia.

23. I started to watch the first debate - got tired of listening to the b.s. Won't watch again until Gore enters. Then I'll make popcorn and margheritas for that!!

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070604/ap_o...
G-8 security fence troubling for Germans
By DAVID RISING, Associated Press Writer Mon Jun 4, 2:27 PM ET

Cutting across seven miles of verdant farmland near some of Germany's main seaside playgrounds, the fence is reviving memories of the Berlin Wall as authorities confront the modern realities of global terrorism and radical protest movements.

German officials say a 16,000-strong police presence at the G-8 meeting as the only way to safeguard the free expression of nonviolent demonstrators, after more than 400 police officers and 500 protesters were injured in nearby Rostock over the weekend.

But some precautions don't feel so benign to Germans with long memories.

Prosecutors already face criticism for taking scent samples in a pre-summit investigation of a handful of G-8 opponents — a technique used by the dreaded East German Stasi secret police to track dissidents with dogs — and for intercepting and opening the mail of another suspect.

Clinton: Faith got me through troubles

By NEDRA PICKLER, Associated Press Writer
1 hour, 26 minutes ago

WASHINGTON - In a rare public discussion of her husband's infidelity, Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Rodham Clinton said Monday that she probably could not have gotten through her marital troubles without relying on her faith in God.

Clinton stood by her actions in the aftermath of former President Clinton's admission that he had an affair, including presumably her decision to stay in the marriage.

"I am very grateful that I had a grounding in faith that gave me the courage and the strength to do what I thought was right, regardless of what the world thought," Clinton said during a forum where the three leading Democratic presidential candidates talked about faith and values...

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070605/ap_o...

"I am very grateful that I had a grounding in faith that gave me the courage and the strength to do what I thought was right, regardless of what the world thought,"

said Clinton.

This could have been said by putz today who thinks he's right about Iraq when the whole world is against him.  

Clinton creeps me out. 

WASHINGTON - Wyoming Sen. Craig Thomas, a three-term conservative Republican who stayed clear of the Washington limelight and political catfights, died Monday. He was 74.

btw, Wyoming's governor is a Democrat.

Stories abound about the big pharma testing drugs on hapless African children. 

E-mail this to a friend

Printable version

The government is seeking $7bn (£3.5bn) in damages for the families of children who allegedly died or suffered side-effects after being given Trovan.

Kano state government has filed separate charges against Pfizer.

The firm denies any wrongdoing, saying the trials were conducted according to Nigerian and international law.

Pfizer - the world's largest pharmaceutical company - tested the experimental antibiotic Trovan in some meningitis-stricken children in Kano in 1996.

Some of the children reportedly died, and campaigners say several others developed mental and physical deformities.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/6719141.stm 

OMG,  this is hilarious.

The US military investigated building a “gay bomb”, which would make enemy soldiers “sexually irresistible” to each other, government papers say.

Other weapons that never saw the light of day include one to make soldiers obvious by their bad breath.

The US defense department considered various non-lethal chemicals meant to disrupt enemy discipline and morale.

The 1994 plans were for a six-year project costing $7.5m, but they were never pursued.

The US Air Force Wright Laboratory in Dayton, Ohio, sought Pentagon funding for research into what it called “harassing, annoying and ‘bad guy’-identifying chemicals”.

The plans were obtained under the US Freedom of Information by the Sunshine Project, a group which monitors research into chemical and biological weapons.

‘Who? Me?’

The plan for a so-called “love bomb” envisaged an aphrodisiac chemical that would provoke widespread homosexual behaviour among troops, causing what the military called a “distasteful but completely non-lethal” blow to morale.

Scientists also reportedly considered a “sting me/attack me” chemical weapon to attract swarms of enraged wasps or angry rats towards enemy troops.

A substance to make the skin unbearably sensitive to sunlight was also pondered.

Another idea was to develop a chemical causing “severe and lasting halitosis”, so that enemy forces would be obvious even when they tried to blend in with civilians.

In a variation on that idea, researchers pondered a “Who? Me?” bomb, which would simulate flatulence in enemy ranks.

Indeed, a “Who? Me?” device had been under consideration since 1945, the government papers say.

However, researchers concluded that the premise for such a device was fatally flawed because “people in many areas of the world do not find faecal odour offensive, since they smell it on a regular basis”.

Captain Dan McSweeney of the Joint Non-Lethal Weapons Directorate at the Pentagon said the defence department receives “literally hundreds” of project ideas, but that “none of the systems described in that [1994] proposal have been developed”.

He told the BBC: “It’s important to point out that only those proposals which are deemed appropriate, based on stringent human effects, legal, and international treaty reviews are considered for development or acquisition.”

http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2007/06/04/1645/ 

For those like me who didn't know....... 

David D. Freudenthal: Wyoming Governor, Democrat - Career Paths: How They Got Where They Are - politics United States - Biography

Unfortunately, in the article it says...

"Gov. Dave Freudenthal, a Democrat, will appoint a successor from one of three finalists chosen by the state Republican party".

I've never heard of that, thought Gov of any particular state had the power to replace with whoever they chose.

I agree I favor Dem's because of what they are supposed to stand for. However, we have seen that many don't support those principles even though they wear or claim to be, based on their important actions and votes. I promised I voted the last time last year for party. Many candidates were not acting like Dem's and will end up hurting us much more. As they have seen fit to push those same type of candidates for President at us again, too.

Sherrod Brown is a good example. When he voted to end Habeas Corpus, people all made excuses. Excuse me, if people knew what he did, does he really think they'd be happy he chose to end those rights, as their only apparent argument. Then comes the Iraq war vote. The last one to cut funding, he magically was away for the vote. He said he had a daughters graduation that kept him from voting. Then this past one arrives, what does SherROT do? He votes to fund the war with no time lines for withdraw. Way to go.

___________________________________

RIP Senator Thomas.

...the Governor...another example, huh? OK, so if our politicians don't put party first........WHY SHOULD WE?
RIP Senator

Live blogging happening at the Seattle event.

"Monday, June 04, 2007
LIVE from Town Hall: Al Gore gets huge welcome
I'm now live at Town Hall blogging Al Gore's Assault on Reason presentation. The former Vice President has just walked out on stage to a massive standing ovation which he clearly appreciated. Gore held his hand over his heart, smiling and thanking the audience once he had a chance to speak."

Barb......I hope you got in...or at least a GLANCE!

http://www.nwprogressive.org/weblog/2007...

http://www.nwprogressive.org/weblog/

Sherrod Brown is a good example. When he voted to end Habeas Corpus, people all made excuses.

The myriad and volume of excuses was even worse than his one treasonous vote. So long as those who talk reform put politics over principle for the "greater good," reform will never be more than talk.

The former Vice President has just walked out on stage to a massive standing ovation....

Who else would get that kind of response? 

38.

Linda*in*SFNM
Mon, 06/04/07
11:42 pm

Reply to this
*******************
Thanks, Linda & Barb ... this is SO good to see. There were standing ovations at UMBC when I saw Gore speak there in early May. What a thrill to be inspired again!

And to hope ... Al, we sorely and badly need you.

Some thoughts about the stuff going on in the party right now.   Some good, some not so good.

http://journals.democraticunderground.com/madfloridian/1335

Renee, if more were *invisible* like you, what a loverly world this would be!

**************
Well, I certainly understand the frustration about Iraq and the Congress, but who on earth are the brain-dead 35%?

That is what is REALLY scary, IMHO.

================
Discontent Over Iraq Increasing, Poll Finds
Americans Also Unhappy With Congress
By Dan Balz and Jon Cohen
Washington Post Staff Writers
Tuesday, June 5, 2007; A01

Growing frustration with the performance of the Democratic Congress, combined with widespread public pessimism over President Bush's temporary troop buildup in Iraq, has left satisfaction with the overall direction of the country at its lowest point in more than a decade, according to a new Washington Post-ABC News poll.

Almost six in 10 Americans said they do not think the additional troops sent to Iraq since the beginning of the year will help restore civil order there, and 53 percent -- a new high in Post-ABC News polls -- said they do not believe that the war has contributed to the long-term security of the United States.

Disapproval of Bush's performance in office remains high, but the poll highlighted growing disapproval of the new Democratic majority in Congress. Just 39 percent said they approve of the job Congress is doing, down from 44 percent in April, when the new Congress was about 100 days into its term. More significant, approval of congressional Democrats dropped 10 percentage points over that same period, from 54 percent to 44 percent.

Much of that drop was fueled by lower approval ratings of the Democrats in Congress among strong opponents of the war, independents and liberal Democrats. While independents were evenly split on the Democrats in Congress in April (49 percent approved, 48 percent disapproved), now 37 percent said they approved and 54 percent disapproved. Among liberal Democrats, approval of congressional Democrats dropped 18 points.

Bush's overall job-approval rating stands at 35 percent, unchanged from April.

[...]
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/con...

Interesting, headlines all over the WaPo about Jefferson ... none about the cases at Gitmo that were thrown out. CMW? You decide.

*************
Still, a couple of stalwarts semi-redeem that particular rag. Although I am not a Biden for Prez supporter, E.J. Dionne makes some darn good points.

===================
The Missing Issues . . .
By E. J. Dionne Jr.
Tuesday, June 5, 2007; A17

GOFFSTOWN, N.H. -- Two questions from Sunday's Democratic debate: Does Joe Biden have to set himself on fire to get serious attention? And whatever happened to the lunch-bucket issues that once made Democrats the dominant political party in America?

Maybe because he doesn't have much to lose, Biden was the most passionate, straight-talking figure on the stage here at Saint Anselm College. But so much coverage was lavished on John Edwards, Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama and their scuffling over Iraq and health care that you might have missed this. So, consider, first, Biden's comments on Darfur:

"I went there. I sat on the borders. I went in those camps. They're going to have thousands and thousands and thousands of people die. We've got to stop talking and act. . . . By the time all these guys talk, 50,000 more people are going to be dead! They're going to be dead!"

Or take Biden on gays in the military. The debate moderator, CNN's Wolf Blitzer, noted that Gen. Peter Pace, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said it would be a mistake to end the current "don't ask, don't tell" policy.

"Peter Pace is flat wrong. I've been to Afghanistan, I've been to Iraq seven times, I've been in the Balkans, I've been in these foxholes with these kids, literally in bunkers with them. Let me tell you something: Nobody asked anybody else whether they're gay in . . . those foxholes."

Noting that "the British, the French, all our major allies" allow gays to serve openly, Biden added: "I don't know the last time an American soldier said to a backup from a Brit, 'Hey, by the way, let me check. Are you gay? You straight?' This is ridiculous."

And agree or disagree with Biden's recent vote to fund the Iraq war, it was good to hear him say that "some things are worth losing elections over" and defend his decision without hedges or equivocation.

[...]
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/con...

And *Amen* to Eugene Robinson ...

=============
. . . And Antiwar Voices
By Eugene Robinson
Tuesday, June 5, 2007; A17

John Edwards had a point: Where have Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama been these past few weeks while others were shouting to the rooftops about the worsening debacle in Iraq? Sudden attacks of laryngitis? Cat got their tongues?

Clinton has a point, too, and so does Obama. When Edwards called them out at the Democratic presidential debate Sunday night, Clinton was right when she said that this is George W. Bush's war, not anybody else's. And Obama, who publicly opposed the war from the beginning, was right to snap at Edwards -- who, like Clinton, voted to authorize military action -- saying that his righteous outrage was "four and a half years late."

Still, Edwards is asking the right questions. If the war in Iraq is the most urgent issue facing the country -- and both Clinton and Obama said bringing the troops home would be their first priority as president -- then why aren't theirs the loudest, clearest, most eloquent voices in opposition to Bush's tragic misadventure? Each is asking for the opportunity to lead the nation. Shouldn't each be showing some leadership on the war?

Yes, both Clinton and Obama can point to antiwar speeches, position papers and legislation. But when push came to shove -- the vote on continued funding for the war -- neither of the leading contenders for the Democratic presidential nomination emerged from the Senate chamber swathed in glory.

Both finally voted against the spending bill, which had been stripped of any timetables for U.S. troop withdrawal or meaningful benchmarks that the Iraqi government would have to meet. But they waited until the last minute to declare their intentions, as if each were waiting to see what the other would do. "They went quietly to the floor of the Senate, cast the right vote," Edwards said in the debate. "But there is a difference between leadership and legislating."

[...]
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/con...

Then there is Dan Froomkin, who rarely disappoints. Thank God for these, and those comparative few like them; they are among the few bright lights in US journalism these days.

==============
Cheney, By Proxy
By Dan Froomkin
Special to washingtonpost.com
Monday, June 4, 2007; 2:16 PM

Is Vice President Cheney trying to undermine Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice's diplomatic efforts in the Middle East, in favor of a more aggressive and militaristic approach?

Well, maybe not directly. Cheney does his best work by proxy. Anyone looking for public evidence of a major rift between Cheney and Rice will be sorely disappointed. In fact, Rice denied any such thing at a press conference in Madrid on Friday.

But that doesn't mean there isn't a rift. Cheney's aides and other loyalists he has installed in the government wield enormous power on his behalf, even as they provide him with plausible deniability. (See, for instance, the Scooter Libby case, discussed below.)

Glenn Kessler writes in The Washington Post: "Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice insisted Friday that Vice President Cheney fully supports a diplomatic course in the dispute with Iran over its nuclear program, denying claims of divisions among President Bush's foreign policy advisers."

From the transcript of her remarks:

"QUESTION: If I may, Madame Secretary, you've been pushing diplomatic efforts and making that heard loud and clear your message, and you're making extraordinary efforts -- or an extraordinary offer, rather -- to talk. But can you assure us that Vice President Cheney does not want to use military action on Iran to deal with its nuclear policy? Because there's a perception of a divide within the Administration.

"SECRETARY RICE: First, let me be very clear. The President of the United States has made very clear what our policy is. That policy is supported by all of the members of his cabinet and by the Vice President of the United States. The President has made clear that we are on a course that is a diplomatic course, but it is a diplomatic course that is backed up by disincentives for Iran to continue its activities."

But as Helene Cooper writes in the New York Times: "Ms. Rice's assurance came as senior officials at the State Department were expressing fury over reports that members of Vice President Dick Cheney's staff have told others that Mr. Cheney believes the diplomatic track with Iran is pointless, and is looking for ways to persuade Mr. Bush to confront Iran militarily.

[...]
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/con...

*Cruel and unusual punishment* ... being held for years without charges only to have the charges thrown out when finally brought to court ... and then allowed to languish in prison even longer.

Guantanamo and Iraq: two hideous blots on US history and ethos. The longer each one lasts, the more credence and humanity we lose. And we create more al Qaeda adherents by the minute.

This side of the Atlantic does have the headlines, as do the Canadian papaers.

======================
Guantánamo trials in chaos after judge throws out two cases
· Technicality applies to all 385 inmates, colonel rules
· Canadian and Bin Laden's driver see cases dismissed
Suzanne Goldenberg in Washington
Tuesday June 5, 2007
Guardian

The Bush administration's plans to bring detainees at Guantánamo Bay to trial were thrown into chaos yesterday when military judges threw out all charges against a detainee held there since he was 15 and dismissed charges against another detainee who chauffeured Osama bin Laden.

In back-to-back arraignments for the Canadian Omar Khadr and Salim Ahmed Hamdan, a Yemeni national, the US military's cases against the alleged al-Qaida figures were dismissed because, the judges said, the government had failed to establish jurisdiction.

Yesterday's decision by Colonel Peter Brownback to dismiss all charges against Mr Khadr on technical grounds has broad implications for the Bush administration's system of military tribunals because the technicality appears to apply to all 385 prisoners held at Guantánamo.

The dismissal of the case also undermines the administration's efforts to show that the military tribunals are based on sound legal practice and can provide detainees with a fair hearing, detainee lawyers said.

In his decision yesterday, Col Brownback said the Pentagon had merely designated Mr Khadr, a Canadian citizen facing charges of murder and terrorism, as an "enemy combatant", not an "unlawful enemy combatant", the term used by Congress last year in authorising the tribunals.

The Pentagon's lapse meant the tribunal did not have proper jurisdiction to try Mr Khadr. "A person has a right to be tried only by a court that has jurisdiction over him," Col Brownback told the court.

Mr Hamdan is accused of being Bin Laden's chauffeur and bodyguard. In his case, US Navy captain Keith Allred yesterday said Mr Hamdan is "not subject to this commission" under legislation passed by Congress and signed by President George Bush last year.

The new Military Commissions Act, written to establish military trials after the US supreme court last year rejected the previous system, is full of problems, defence attorneys argued.

Mr Hamdan last year won a US supreme court challenge that led to the scrapping of the first Guantánamo tribunal system.

[...]
http://www.guardian.co.uk/print/0,,32997...

I have to agree with this assessment. Sadly.

===============
Published on Monday, June 4, 2007 by The San Diego Union-Tribune
Unfinished Victory: Israel Won a Spectacular Military Victory In 1967. It Has Yet To Win The Peace.
by Zahi Khouri

‘I don’t know what I would do if my daughter had to go through that humiliation.” A U.S. congressman said those words to me while watching Qalandia checkpoint, the key Israeli roadblock between occupied East Jerusalem and the West Bank. As we mark the 40th anniversary of the 1967 war and Israel’s military occupation of Palestinian territory, his comment is particularly poignant. As both a Palestinian and an American, I wonder what my fellow Americans would do if they lived for 40 years with every aspect of their lives controlled by a foreign army, or what members of Congress would do if they had to pass through an occupier’s checkpoint on Capitol Hill.

In 1995, I worked with other Palestinians to launch the Coca-Cola franchise in the West Bank and Gaza. I am one of many Palestinian-American businessmen who invested after the Oslo Accords were signed in 1993. They were supposed to have ended the occupation and led to the formation of an independent and economically viable Palestinian state. We were determined to create jobs and build businesses that would bring Palestinians hope for a free and prosperous future. Instead, the occupation has become more entrenched. And we see the toll it takes on the new generation of Palestinians - every man, woman and child under the age of 40 who has not known a day of freedom in his or her lifetime.

Israel is the leading foreign destination for privately sponsored congressional trips. Yet while the Palestinian-Israeli conflict is one of our most critical foreign policy issues, few members of Congress visit the occupied Palestinian territories. I tell those who do that a trip through Qalandia checkpoint will show them most of what they need to know.

[...]
http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2007...

Well, well ... am pleasantly surprised to see that the NYT is much better on this account than is the WaPo.

Still, both have done US citizens grave disservice over the past six years in particular.

====================
June 5, 2007
Military Judges Dismiss Charges for 2 Detainees
By WILLIAM GLABERSON

GUANTÁNAMO BAY, Cuba, June 4 — The government’s new system for trying Guantánamo detainees was thrown into turmoil Monday, when military judges in separate decisions dismissed war crimes charges against two of the detainees.

The rulings, the latest legal setbacks for the government’s effort to bring war crimes charges against detainees, could stall the military’s prosecutions here.

The decisions did not turn on the guilt or innocence of the detainees, but rather made essentially the same determination that the military had not followed procedures to declare the detainees “unlawful enemy combatants,” which is required for the military commission to hear the cases.

Pentagon officials described the rulings as raising technical and semantic issues, and said that they were considering appeals. If appeals failed, they said, they could go through the process of redesignating the detainees.

But military lawyers said the rulings exposed a flaw that would affect every other potential war-crimes case here. And the rulings brought immediate calls, including from some on Capitol Hill, for Congress to re-examine the system it set up last year for military commission trials and, perhaps, to consider other changes in the legal treatment of Guantánamo detainees.

[...]
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/05/world/...

More on the seriously developing problems with Russia ... thanks to the collection of *worsts-ever* that run the USG like the Keystone Cops.

At least the Cops were funny ...

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A force to be reckoned with
Simon Tisdall
June 4, 2007 6:15 PM

Since marching unexpected