Clipmarks | masbury's clips

Judge bars General from Gitmo trial

Sat, 10 May 2008 04:48:30 GMT

clipped by: masbury
clipper's remarks: "too closely aligned with the prosecution"

In a new blow to the Bush administration’s troubled military commission system, a military judge has disqualified a Pentagon general who has been centrally involved in overseeing Guantánamo war crimes tribunals from any role in the first case headed for trial.

The judge said the general was too closely aligned with the prosecution, raising questions about whether he could carry out his role with the required neutrality and objectivity.

The judge, Capt. Keith J. Allred of the Navy, directed that Brig. Gen. Thomas W. Hartmann of the Air Force Reserve, a senior Pentagon official of the Office of Military Commissions, which runs the war crimes system, have no further role in the first prosecution, scheduled for trial this month.

Colonel Davis has said the general interfered in the work of the military prosecution office, pushed for closed-door proceedings and pressed to rely on evidence obtained through techniques that critics call torture.

Tags: gitmo, tribunals, news, war

McCain votes with party 90% of the time

Sat, 10 May 2008 04:44:16 GMT

clipped by: masbury
clipper's remarks: No maverick here, especially when running for President.

Clip Source: www.azcentral.com

The voting pattern seems at odds with the popular narrative that McCain's maverick tendencies make him an unreliable conservative.

Poole, who compiles a widely respected analysis of all Senate votes, ranks McCain as slightly less conservative than most Republicans throughout his career and near the far edge of the right while running for president.

During the 10 years The Republic examined, McCain crossed over to vote with Democrats 19 times in 82 close votes. He did so just once in the four years he was running for president: 1999, 2000, 2007 and 2008. All 12 of the close votes he missed happened in those years, too.

Congressional Quarterly gave McCain a 90 percent score for "party unity" voting last year and said he supported the president's position on legislation 95 percent of the time.

Tags: mccain, elections, politics

Porky Pig confronts Bill and Hillary

Sat, 10 May 2008 04:35:35 GMT

clipped by: masbury
clipper's remarks: (political cartoon)

Clip Source: content.cartoonbox.slate.com

Tags: humor, cartoons, politics, news, clinton, elections

Hillary summits Mt. Giveitarest

Sat, 10 May 2008 04:33:54 GMT

clipped by: masbury
clipper's remarks: political cartoon

Clip Source: content.cartoonbox.slate.com

Tags: cartoon, humor, politics, clinton, elections, news

Ask your doctor about GASTAXADROPPIN!

Sat, 10 May 2008 04:31:16 GMT

clipped by: masbury
clipper's remarks: Warning: In the event of a tax vacation lasting three months, see your politician immediately. And don't expect your economy to firm up again for a long time

Clip Source: content.cartoonbox.slate.com

Tags: clinton, mccain, politics, elections, humor, cartoons

Hillary Python

Sat, 10 May 2008 02:36:25 GMT

clipped by: masbury
clipper's remarks: "It's just a flesh wound!"

Clip Source: illiterateelectorate.blogspot.com

Tags: clinton, obama, elections, humor, news

Trifecta! Obama pulls ahead in supers, dels, and pop

Sat, 10 May 2008 02:18:03 GMT

clipped by: masbury
clipper's remarks: Finalmente!

Clip Source: rawstory.com

ABC’s Jake Tapper reports, “Senator Obama has two big endorsements — Congressman Payne, a former Clinton supporter, and Senator Defazio. That means he takes the lead with superdelegates 267 to Senator Clinton’s 265. For the first time, Barack Obama can now say he leads Hillary Clinton for the battle in the all important superdelegates and mounting odds against Clinton are taking a toll.”

This is the first time Sen. Obama has been in the superdelegate lead during this long and fractious Democratic primary.

The big news in pocketing both of these superdelegate votes is Rep. Payne who switched his vote from Clinton to Obama, calling Mrs. Clinton “a good friend” before jumping off the flat-lined Clinton campaign as Mr. Obama takes the lead in all campaign metrics; superdelegates, popular vote, and earned delegates.

“It’s now time for us to pull our party together. The quicker it’s over, the better we’ll be able to bring all of our forces together.”

Tags: obama, elections, news

Gitmo Judge threatens to halt trial of young detainee

Sat, 10 May 2008 02:12:05 GMT

clipped by: masbury
clipper's remarks: To prosecutors: “On the 22nd, you all will give them [the defense] a copy of Binder 2 [day by day detention records]. If you don’t have it then at 1700 hours (5 p.m.) on the 22nd, we stop,” he said.
Allegations of mistreatment and coercion are on the table.

Clip Source: www.commondreams.org

GUANTANAMO BAY U.S. NAVAL BASE, Cuba - A Guantanamo war court judge threatened on Thursday to halt the case of a Canadian terrorism suspect captured at age 15 if the U.S. government fails to turn over records of his detention.

The judge, Army Col. Peter Brownback, ordered prosecutors to give a classified daily prison-camp log to the military attorney for Omar Khadr, who is now 21 and facing trial on charges of throwing a grenade that killed a U.S. soldier in Afghanistan in 2002.

Khadr and his lawyer say he was mistreated by his U.S. captors and coerced into making incriminating statements. On Thursday, Brownback set a May 22 deadline for the prosecutors to obtain and hand over the log, referred to as “Binder 2,” kept by the Guantanamo prison commanders.

He called it an essential hour-by-hour record of Khadr’s treatment. “On the 22nd, you all will give them a copy of Binder 2. If you don’t have it then at 1700 hours (5 p.m.) on the 22nd, we stop,” he said.

could also lead to dismissal

Tags: gitmo, war, foreign policy

Lieberman: "I personally checked McCain's bearings"

Sat, 10 May 2008 00:32:09 GMT

clipped by: masbury
clipper's remarks: "He has not lost any of them. They're all really in great shape." A touching video. 43 seconds.

Clip Source: www.eschatonblog.com

[Video]

Tags: mccain, lieberman, elections, news

Rasmussen poll stops tracking Dem. primary: "race over"

Sat, 10 May 2008 00:22:27 GMT

clipped by: masbury
clipper's remarks: Will "focus exclusively on the general election competition between Republican John McCain and Democrat Barack Obama."

Clip Source: www.dailykos.com

while Senator Clinton has remained close and competitive in every meaningful measure, she is a close second and the race is over. It has become clear that Barack Obama will be the Democratic nominee. [...]

With this in mind, Rasmussen Reports will soon end our daily tracking of the Democratic race and focus exclusively on the general election competition between Republican John McCain and Democrat Barack Obama.

Tags: clinton, elections, news, obama

International change without imposing Western values

Fri, 09 May 2008 20:36:34 GMT

clipped by: masbury
clipper's remarks: Muslim women and Christian women together: A marvelous paragraph from an author who wrote of the Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, whose election was made possible by a movement led by devout Muslim and devout Christian women working together.

Clip Source: blog.beliefnet.com

What can we do to enable this change

without imposing our Western values

precisely right

Why do we insist on imposing "solutions" that are always at best temporary, and at worst impractical and even disrespectful to indigenous cultures? I think at heart we are sometimes deeply mistrustful of the competence of indigenous cultures to find their own answers. And when we impose programs, very often we do so in such a manner as to set them hunting for external money that is scarce, inadequate, and hard to get. The answer is to do some better listening. As people coming in from the global North we need to arrive in places with a little less confidence in our "answers" and a little more confidence in the people we are there to serve. People aren't poor because they don't have values, don't have smarts, don't have gumption—people are poor because they don't have money. We need to recognize that most of the "resources" needed to fight the world's problems are also the victims of those problems.

Tags: foreign policy, liberia, culture, news, africa

Big Oil starts slick public relations pitch. And get used to it.

Fri, 09 May 2008 19:37:57 GMT

clipped by: masbury
clipper's remarks: "It's not our fault! Don't raise our taxes!"

Clip Source: thinkprogress.org

The American Petroleum Institute, Big Oil’s main lobbying group, “has embarked on a multiyear, multimedia, multimillion-dollar campaign” to convince voters that “rising energy prices are not the producers’ fault and that government efforts to punish the industry, especially with higher taxes, would only make pricing problems worse.”

The Senate Democrats unveiled the Consumer-First Energy Act of 2008, a bill to address the root causes of high gas prices. Major oil companies “are getting away with murder” and “gouging” consumers as the price of oil continues to soar, Sen. Carl Levin (D-MI) said.

Tags: energy, environment, politics, news

McCain "spiritual guide": Destroy Islam

Fri, 09 May 2008 18:51:11 GMT

clipped by: masbury
clipper's remarks: Rev. Rod Parsley, on stage with McCain, and reported in Al Jazeera: "The fact is that...America was founded in part with the intention of seeing this false religion destroyed."

Clip Source: www.washingtonmonthly.com

First, here's McCain

"I am very honoured today to have one of the truly great leaders in America, a moral compass, a spiritual guide, Pastor Rod Parsley....I am very grateful you are here."

And now, the great moral compass himself:

"I do not believe that our nation can truly fulfill its divine purpose until we understand our historical conflict with Islam....

The fact is that...America was founded in part with the intention of seeing this false religion destroyed."

I chose to link to al Jazeera's report about McCain's appearance with Parsley

One of the biggest foreign policy challenges

is the fact that a very large number of Muslims believe that the United States is

engaged in a war against Islam. And why wouldn't they? Rod Parsley says so, and one of our presidential candidates is willing to get up

and call him a "moral compass."

Andrew Sullivan

gets it right:

And the truth is: the GOP is far, far more influenced by its religious fanatics than the Democrats by theirs'.

Tags: elections, foreign policy, republicans, mccain, parsley, news, politics, religion

Oops... weapons really NOT from Iran

Fri, 09 May 2008 18:35:39 GMT

clipped by: masbury
clipper's remarks: Ah, well, surely there are some somewhere. Maybe the CIA has satellite photos of a mobile weapons factory (i.e., truck).

Clip Source: www.washingtonmonthly.com

There was something interesting missing from Maj. Gen. Kevin Bergner's introductory remarks to journalists at his regular news briefing in Baghdad on Wednesday: the word "Iran," or any form of it. It was especially striking as Bergner, the U.S. military spokesman here, announced the extraordinary list of weapons and munitions that have been uncovered in recent weeks since fighting erupted between Iraqi and U.S. security forces and Shiite militiamen.

....A plan to show some alleged Iranian-supplied explosives to journalists last week in Karbala and then destroy them was canceled after the United States realized none of them was from Iran. A U.S. military spokesman attributed the confusion to a misunderstanding that emerged after an Iraqi Army general in Karbala erroneously reported the items were of Iranian origin.

Tags: iran, war

Clinton superdelegate lead down to ONE!

Fri, 09 May 2008 18:31:26 GMT

clipped by: masbury
clipper's remarks: Clinton once led 169-63; ABC now shows Obama leading by two.

Clip Source: www.nytimes.com

Clinton’s Superdelegate Lead Is Fading

Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton may be trailing her opponent, Senator Barack Obama, in the popular vote and total Democratic delegate count. But from the outset of the race she has been able to enjoy a consistent if narrowing lead in at least one mathematical area: pledged superdelegates, the Democratic Party insiders who are granted autonomy to support whomever they wish at the convention in August.

But that advantage — one of Mrs. Clinton’s few remaining trump cards — is fading fast. Mr. Obama picked up endorsements on Friday from two more superdelegates, one of whom switched his allegiance away from Mrs. Clinton, bringing the Illinois senator within one vote of his rival, according to the latest New York Times count.

Tags: clinton, obama, politics, elections, news