Birmingham Blues

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Human rights?  What human rights?  If W says you’re an enemy combatant, your ass is off to Gitmo.  Do not pass GO, do not collect $200, and do not expect to see the light of day again.  No appeals, no recourse.  And the definition of “enemy combatant” has been expanded to mean pretty much anything Bush wants it to mean.  So far, this doesn’t apply to US citizens, although it does apply to non-citizens living here legally.

For all the religious right’s screaming about women’s rights and gay rights bringing about the end of American civilization, it’s one of their own who is dismantling democracy right in front of our eyes.  I hope they’re proud of him.  I’m not.

Bush (“I’m a uniter, not a divider”) used his prime time 9/11 speech last night to try to justify the war with Iraq.  Even though he admits Iraq had nothing to do with 9/11.  Except when he claims that it does.  In related news, Americans report increased incidence of whiplash.

CNN reports four attackers killed, one wounded, no one in the embassy injured.  Not a very effective effort, apparently.  Thank God.

A federal judge ruled today that the Bush administration’s warrantless surveillance program is unconstitutional and ordered that it end immediately.

U.S. District Judge Anna Diggs Taylor in Detroit became the first judge to strike down the National Security Agency’s program, which she says violates the rights to free speech and privacy as well as the separation of powers enshrined in the Constitution.

“Plaintiffs have prevailed, and the public interest is clear, in this matter. It is the upholding of our Constitution,” Taylor wrote in her 43-page opinion.

I wonder how much taxpayers’ money has been spent so far defending this program. Pretty much any lay person who got an A in civics class could have told Bush and his buddies at the NSA that it was unconstitutional, and it wouldn’t have cost a penny.

The U.S. Justice Department appealed the ruling and issued a statement saying the program is “an essential tool for the intelligence community in the war on terror.”

“In the ongoing conflict with al-Qaida and its allies, the president has the primary duty under the Constitution to protect the American people,” the department said. “The Constitution gives the president the full authority necessary to carry out that solemn duty, and we believe the program is lawful and protects civil liberties.”

Protects whose civil liberties? Certainly not those whose lives are dissected without their knowledge. Not those who have no recourse even if they find out that their privacy has been invaded. Not those who are subject to the whims of an executive branch that accepts no oversight or accountability. If the Bush administration prevails in this fight, we’ll be one giant step closer to becoming just like those we’re supposed to be fighting.

Wheeler, who is an attorney and would have to charge W for his expertise, has commentary on the case at Alablawg.

Just turned on MSNBC. British authorities have foiled a plot to blow up planes flying from Great Britain to the US. The plan, apparently, was to bring liquid explosives onto planes in soft drink bottles and detonate them with iPods. Well, and other things too, but basically it was that simple. British authorities got wind of the plot and arrested 21 British nationals of Pakistani origin.

W is taking the threat so seriously that he has left Crawford and is heading to — no, not Washington, DC — Green Bay for a Republican fundraiser.

You know, before those Abu Ghraib pictures, I might have tended to doubt a detainee’s story that he had been tortured by being thrust inside a cage of lions. Donald Rumsfeld says the account “seems quite farfetched”, surely one of the more straightforward pronouncements he has made in recent years.

“They took me behind the cage, they were screaming at me, scaring me and beating me a lot,” Thahe Mohammed Sabbar said. “One of the soldiers would open the door, and two soldiers would push me in. The lions came running toward me and they pulled me out and shut the door. I completely lost consciousness.”

This guy’s story may or may not be true. If it is true, it’s horrifying, and I’d like to think the perpetrators would be severely punished. (I know, I know — dream on!) What’s sad is that this administration and its minions have told so many lies that I no longer believe anything they say without objective proof. We have gone from world leader to world pariah in four short years. Can we survive three more?

AP has the story, as do all the TV news channels. CNN is reporting that the police have two individuals in custody and that one has claimed to have planted a device in his car. I’m so far off the scale for cynicism that my first thought was, “Hmmm — I wonder if they’re working for Rove or working for Libby?” We do know that Tom DeLay is in Texas, but I suppose he could have brought in one of his hired guns as well. Distract, distract, distract….

Here we go again.

UPDATE: The tunnels are reopening. CNN still doesn’t know anything, and neither do we.