Court rules against Ashcroft

The 911 detainees are suing Ashcroft for violating the constitution. My question, what part of the constitution didn't the last administration violate? Oh that's right there was that ammendment about the repeal of prohibition.

Ashcroft lawsuit

I get the funny feeling that between this, the torture memos, and the bribery and blackmail case involving the Turkish government that this is all going to come to a head some day. It will get to the point where you won't know which trial to watch. And you thought Watergate was a big deal.

In other news Obama is trying to give help for retirement savings plans. Good luck with that one. First I know exactly how the right will try and spin this. One of the plans is to have tax refunds sent as a savings bond. I can hear it now. Obama wants your retirement funds the right will scream so he must be a communist. But no if you actually get a refund check at the end of the year you'll notice that they put a card in with it encouraging you to buy U.S. savings bonds. It's been that way for several years now. But most people have been conditioned to just throw that out as another advertisement headed for the recycle. But the biggest problem with any plan is that those of us in the middle and bottom have seen our earning power drop over the last eight years. And any savings is set aside for a medical emergency not retirement. The republicans have a solution for that called a "medical savings account". But here's the fine print on that one. You need to use the money in the account before the year ends or you lose it. Hey isn't that called stealing? And how do I know if I'm going to get sick in any one year? I guess this is just another way for the rethugs to make their insurance buddies richer. So if your employer offers you one of these plans run do not walk or sign anything unless it's to opt out.

Friday beaver and CIA torture review

CIA report (pdf) It's been out for a while but I finally got around to skimming just the index. Just by the index anyone with half a brain would conclude two things. First that this info is not only about Gitmo, but a few other places around the globe. And second that there were other techniques used that weren't even disclosed. They're blacked out.
Holter should know that this is not going to be a limited investigation. You don't let the godfather off the hook and go after some street thugs who might work for him. It will be like an onion peeled back for the world to see. I figure it will take some time but it will come out.

Idiots on the freeway

Last night we got to watch live breaking news of shots fired near a mall in Seattle. Two guys described as being in their late teens or early twenties. One was arrested shortly after it all started while it took police a few hours to round up the other. Here's a note to all the dumb criminals out there. The technology that the state and local police have far out weighs anything you might have. They have night vision on planes and helicopters as well as infared sensors and dogs. Today I don't think Houdini could get away from them.
Police car chases are so common anymore that I don't consider that news because we all know how it ends. The perp rams a few cars, hits a few light poles and it all ends with a pit manouver or at the end of a cul de sac after a foot chase. Give it up guys. You're not about to out run a police cruiser in your souped up Honda because they have an eye in the sky and wait until they upgrade to drones. They'll be able to phone in your location while eating donuts at their desks. That is unless you're a sex offender with young girls living in your backyard then you're safe.

The long awaited Sibel Edmonds deposition

I wouldn't doubt that this doesn't make MSM any time soon. But between this, the torture investigation and the other high crimes of the past administration I do wonder exactly who will face prosecution and prison. Of course they'll go after the low hanging fruit first but if they ever get to the higher ups then a good chunk of the republican party and a few past democrats could be seeing the inside of a jail cell. This is nothing more than a case of greed and corruption that permeated the Bush administration. To try and deny it under the gize of national security or states' secrets is nothing more than a lie.
In looking at this pdf file via the Brad Blog you can start with page 19 as the first 18 pages are just opening formalities. For the Justice Department not to persue this matter would be a great miscarriage of justice. Yes we need to move forward but not until the misdeeds of the past are accounted for and proper punishment handed out.

Sibel Edmonds deposition

As you read this document you'll start to feel like you're reading the latest spy novel, but stop to consider that this is real and not some make for TV movie.

Hat tip to the folks at the Brad Blog for keeping on top of this.

Tin foil hat time

I noticed that the investigation or should I say possible investigation of Dick Cheney has been scrubbed from the news in less than 24 hours. Nothing on yahoo, google or cnn websites today. I have a bit of a theory about all of this. While Cheney was in office he was able to claim executive privelage thereby blocking any investigation. And this little transgression was so well hidden that even the head of the CIA at the time was not informed or so we are led to believe. That may or may not come out.
Note that when Cheney left office he was busy on the airwaves for weeks on end trying to justify everything his administration did. I'm sure at that time he was going through and destroying any documents that would link him to the crimes. Remember there's more than just the witholding of information from congress here. There was the outing of Valerie Plame that came from his office. There's the torture memos that I'm sure were directed by him. There's the firing of Sibel Edmonds because her translations of intercepted arabic messages didn't fit somebodies needs. There's that wonderful Unpartiot Act that had to be written long before 911 took place. It was after all over 1000 pages and you can't just slap that together in a couple of weeks.

But back to the program. An assasination program whereby trained assasins move secretly through other countries and kill suspected terrorists leaders. Slight problem there. It's called sovereignty. You can't just go moving through other countries kidnapping or executing people as you please. And that brings me to a supposition. As we know at the beginning of this 911 world Bush gave himself (or should I say his handlers) the power to declare any U.S. citizen an "enemy combatant". No habeus corpus no investigation no grand jury bang you're now an enemy. So I suspect that this CIA program that was so well hidden from us and congress would have permitted the CIA to operate within the borders of the U.S. because if someone is declared enemy combatant then they are then no longer a U.S. citizen with all the rights that go along with it. We saw that with Jose Padilla. This would have permitted death squads to operate within U.S. borders. And to say as an excuse that this was not an operational program doesn't take into account that over a million dollars had been spent on the program.

Lastly there was the no warrant wiretap program. This had the effect of keeping the rest of congress in line. It permitted those in power the ability to spy on the other side of the isle with no oversite or repercussions. We've heard from former NSA employees that they abused that power by listening on juicy conversations that had nothing to do with national security. So the last bastion of freedom seems to be the internet and bloggers who have the courage to post the truth and maintain an intelligent discourse on today's issues. Speaking of truth I have another bit of info from Iran that I'll post later.

What do you bet the Bush crime family has their money hidden here?

Or at least some of it. Either here or in some offshore account under a phoney corporation name.

I'm guessing in an attempt to find out where Bernie Madoff has hidden a good chunk of the $50 billion the US government was able to get the names of eight Swiss bank accounts. There are according to this article some 52,000 accounts that our government wanted a peek at for tax evasion purposes. And you know Madoff had help. No way in hell could he have come up with all those monthly statements to his clients by himself.

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Sorry for the lack of posts but you get to a point of burn out. There just isn't much to snark about that hasn't already been covered. Hopefully as spring approaches the beavers will be out in their usual Friday glory. Now since today was forcast to be nice weatherwise I've got a bunch of stuff to do. Or as they say up near the great lakes "make hay while the sun shines". We take that expression literally around here.

Hey where's my bailout? And I don't want any chump change either.

Oh boy here we go again

Somebody shooting at cars from an overpass in Virginia.

Not a good sign of the times

I have no objection to guns but ya think we could add a few years to the sentences of people who use guns in a crime?

Libby finally gets justice

I Lewis "Scooter" Libby gets disbarred. You know with a nickname like scooter he'd have never made it in prison. But if you ask me lawmakers should get double the sentence of ordinary citizens with no commutations allowed. It sure would keep them honest.

Scooter gets his due

Vermonters are my kind of people

Two Vermont towns have passed a resolution to have Bush and Cheney arrested should they set foot in their towns.
Think we could muster up some funds?

Two tickets to Vermont please