Clipmarks | Corpus Clips

Avoiding ‘CSI Kandahar’

Fri, 01 Aug 2008 11:26:41 GMT

clipped by: merrie
clipper's remarks: they’ve just invalidated — decided the job is better done by politically unaccountable courts … the better to spare Nadler and his cohort from telling voters exactly what protections they’d lavish on the people trying to kill us.

The attorney general begs to differ. The justices ruled that detainees get judicial review, but, as he posits, they “stopped well short of detailing how the habeas corpus proceedings must be conducted.” Many significant questions remain open, and, Mukasey rightly insists, “it is well within the historic role and competence of Congress and the executive branch to attempt to resolve them.”

LAYING DOWN MARKERS
The Justice Department has to live with the chaos caused by Boumediene’s dumping of approximately 270 combatants on the district courts with no guidance about how the cases should be handled. Fans of Kennedy & Co. laughably point to this as a demonstration of the high Court’s restraint. In Justice Antonin Scalia’s apt dissenting phrase [...]

Clip Source: article.nationalreview.com

‘We don’t have to pass anything,” smirked Jerrold Nadler to Newsweek. “Let the courts deal with it.”

Democrats are forever saying they “support” — who need a helping hand. So here was Nadler, giving his usual thumbs-down to a Justice Department plea that Congress provide them, and the nation, with something other than the usual empty words.

The plea came on Monday. Attorney General Michael Mukasey gave a major speech at the American Enterprise Institute. It was a thoughtful request that our lawmakers do their job in the wake of last month’s catastrophic Supreme Court ruling that granted alien enemy combatants a constitutional right to habeas corpus

Justice Anthony Kennedy’s imperious majority opinion in Boumediene v. Bush ran roughshod over carefully crafted legislation by which Congress had balanced wartime security and due process. Such balancing, of course, is the legislature’s job. Yet, like Nadler, five of our esteemed justices — despite having asked Congress to pass the very laws

Tags: justice anthony kennedy, boumediene v. bush, attorney general michael mukasey,

My Country, Tis Of Thee, Sweet Land Of Liberty

Fri, 01 Aug 2008 01:02:00 GMT

clipped by: merrie
clipper's remarks: Long before the Hamdan trial, we already knew that we were offered bin Laden in transit from Sudan to Afghanistan. But we did not want him. Our lawyers had no battle, our leaders no mettle.

Most of us, though not all, have learned nothing. After thousands smote and seven years of war, we are back to our superior ways, demanding Habeas Corpus and noting in the very first trial that bin Laden’s deputy was read no Miranda rights upon his capture - or was it arrest?

They say history repeats itself. Never before has it applied so swiftly, within the same generation and within the same conflict. A selfish society incapable of sacrifice is equally incapable of self-defense. Our greatest concern is not the pursuit of madmen or the states which feed them. It is not even the cost of oil and its affect on our economy and future.

Clip Source: threatswatch.org

In the Hamdan trial at Guantanamo Bay, we learn that bin Laden’s driver, captured and now on trial, said in interrogation that the United States could have killed bin Laden on more than one occasion in the 1990’s. The context is a far greater reflection upon us than our enemies.

The message was, ”You had these opportunities, America. You didn’t do anything,” FBI agent George Crouch Jr. testified Friday at Salim Hamdan’s war crimes trial.
The United States could have killed bin Laden in Khartoum, Sudan, before he moved to Afghanistan in 1996, Hamdan told his interrogators. They could have killed him after al Qaida’s 1998 twin bombings at the U.S. Embassy bombings in Kenya and Tanzania. Or after the October 2000 suicide bombing of the USS Cole, at the port of Aden in Yemen, which left 17 U.S. sailors dead.
Instead, ”Bin Laden was emboldened.” So he struck with the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, leaving nearly 3,000 dead.

It is ‘news’ simply because of the source and the setting.

No more, no less

Tags: bin-laden, hamdan trial, sudan, afghanistan, kenya and tanzania bombings, port of aden, uss cole

Sure-Erect is a natural cure for impotence. Unlike Viagra or Cialis, Sure-Erect has no side effects

Wed, 16 Jul 2008 00:42:12 GMT

clipped by: clipmarksidgbs40615
clipper's remarks: Sure-Erect is a natural cure for impotence. Unlike Viagra or Cialis, Sure-Erect has no side effects and has a 99% success rate

Each tablet of Sure-Erect contains 145mg of Hygrophila, 14mg of Saffron, 126mg of Almond, 115mg of Blepharis edulis, 100mg of Small Caltrops and it is processed in Asparagus.

The herbs mentioned above have been conventionally used in the management of ED for centuries. Hygrophila (Herba Hygrophilae Salicifoliae) has been clinically proven to improve sexual desires and enhance erection (Adimoelja, 2000). The pharmacological properties of Hygrophila (Herba Hygrophilae Salicifoliae) extracts have been studied on the rabbit corpus cavernosum muscles. The extract showed increase in relaxation of cavernosum smooth muscles in a dose-dependent manner (Adaikan et. al., 2000). . .

Read More:
1. http://www.Natural.HalloAsia.com
2. http://www.Health.HalloAsia.Com/Related-Articles/Related-Articles.php

Clip Source: www.natural.halloasia.com

Sure-Erect is a natural cure for impotence. Unlike Viagra or Cialis, Sure-Erect has no side effects and has a 99% success rate

Each tablet of Sure-Erect contains 145mg of Hygrophila, 14mg of Saffron, 126mg of Almond, 115mg of Blepharis edulis, 100mg of Small Caltrops and it is processed in Asparagus.

Tags: penis enlargement, penis enhancement, male enhancement, premature ejaculation, sexual dysfunction, erection problems, erectile dysfunction

Baldwin makes a call for impeachment hearings

Fri, 25 Jul 2008 22:35:08 GMT

clipped by: kkcapricorn
clipper's remarks: We have seen this administration fabricate the threat of Iraqi weapons of mass destruction and allege, despite all evidence to the contrary, a relationship between Iraq and al-Qaida. These lies dragged our country into a preemptive and unjustified war that has taken the lives of more than 4,000 U.S. troops, injured 30,000 more, and will cost our nation more than a trillion dollars.

We watched as this administration again undermined national security by manipulating and exaggerating evidence of Iran's nuclear weapons capabilities and openly threatened aggression against Iran, despite no evidence that Iran has the intention or capability of attacking the U.S.

We have looked on in horror as the administration suspended habeas corpus by claiming the power to declare any person an "enemy combatant," ignoring the Geneva Convention protections that the U.S. helped create.

We have seen torture and rendition of prisoners in violation of international law and stated American policy and

Clip Source: www.michaelmoore.com

July 25th, 2008 3:51 pm
Baldwin makes a call for impeachment hearings

By John Nichols / Capital Times

Declaring that "there is no task more important for this Congress than to seriously consider whether our nation's leaders have violated their oath of office," Congresswoman Tammy Baldwin on Friday morning told the House Judiciary Committee, "I now firmly believe that impeachment hearings are the appropriate and necessary next step."

The Madison Democrat's opening statement to the Judiciary Committee's "Hearing on Executive Power and Its Constitutional Limitations" was one of many pointed and at times passionate declarations delivered

our efforts on behalf of the American people to hold the White House accountable for the numerous, credible allegations of abuse were blocked at each step

The list of congressional subpoenas with which administration officials refused to comply is long

the American people have been forced to sit by while credible allegations of abuse of power mount:

Tags: impeach, baldwin, judiciary hearings

Sir Winston Churchill, Quote about Nazis

Sun, 20 Jul 2008 03:55:32 GMT

clipped by: sahara

Clip Source: quotes.liberty-tree.ca

The power of the Executive to cast a man into prison without formulating any charge known to the law, and particularly to deny him the judgment of his peers, is in the highest degree odious and is the foundation of all totalitarian government whether Nazi or Communist.

Tags: totalitarian, government, habeus corpus

American Apathy Enables Tyranny...

Mon, 21 Jul 2008 05:44:57 GMT

clipped by: TJColatrella

Clip Source: video.stumbleupon.com

[Video]

Tags: bush, fisa, torture, rendition, warrantless wiretaps, habeas corpus

When Human Rights Extend to Nonhumans

Sun, 13 Jul 2008 22:59:27 GMT

clipped by: Silkweaver
clipper's remarks: The 300 apes in Spanish zoos would not be freed, but better conditions would be mandated.

Meanwhile, even in democracies, the law accords diminished rights to many humans: children, prisoners, the insane, the senile. Teenagers may not vote, philosophers who slip into dementia may be lashed to their beds, courts can order surgery or force-feeding.

Spain’s Catholic bishops attacked the vote as undermining a divine will that placed humans above animals. One said such thinking led to abortion, euthanasia and ethnic cleansing.

Clip Source: www.nytimes.com

If you caught your son burning ants with a magnifying glass, would it bother you less than if you found him torturing a mouse with a soldering iron? How about a snake? How about his sister?

Does Khalid Shaikh Mohammed — the Guantánamo detainee who claims he personally beheaded the reporter Daniel Pearl — deserve the rights he denied Mr. Pearl? Which ones? A painless execution? Exemption from capital punishment? Decent prison conditions? Habeas corpus?

Such apparently unrelated questions arise in the aftermath of the vote of the environment committee of the Spanish Parliament last month to grant limited rights to our closest biological relatives, the great apes — chimpanzees, bonobos, gorillas and orangutans.

The committee would bind Spain to the principles of the Great Ape Project, which points to apes’ human qualities, including the ability to feel fear and happiness, create tools, use languages, remember the past and plan the future.

Tags: human rights, animal rights, ethics

The Real-Life '24'

Sun, 13 Jul 2008 11:10:12 GMT

clipped by: debbyski
clipper's remarks: "We are once again distracted and unprepared while the Taliban and bin Laden’s minions multiply in Afghanistan and Pakistan. This, no less than the defiling of the Constitution, is the legacy of an administration that not merely rationalized the immorality of torture but shackled our national security to the absurdity that torture could easily fix the terrorist threat.

That’s why the Bush White House’s corruption in the end surpasses Nixon’s. We can no longer take cold comfort in the Watergate maxim that the cover-up was worse than the crime. This time the crime is worse than the cover-up, and the punishment could rain down on us all."

Clip Source: www.nytimes.com

WE know what a criminal White House looks like from “The Final Days,” Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein’s classic account of Richard Nixon’s unraveling. The cauldron of lies, paranoia and illegal surveillance boiled over, until it was finally every man for himself as desperate courtiers scrambled to save their reputations and, in a few patriotic instances, their country.

Nixon parallels take us only so far, however. “The Dark Side” is scarier than “The Final Days” because these final days aren’t over yet and because the stakes are much higher.

So what if they cut corners, the administration’s last defenders argue. While prissy lawyers insist on habeas corpus and court-issued wiretap warrants, the rest of us are being kept safe by the Cheney posse.

But are we safe? As Al Qaeda and the Taliban surge this summer, that single question is even more urgent than the moral and legal issues attending torture.

Why Does The World Hate The American Guvmint?

Wed, 25 Jun 2008 01:00:39 GMT

clipped by: orgone_bosco
clipper's remarks: They hate us for our freedoms? Uh no; Try our foreign policies.

Clip Source: wikileaks.org

How to train death squads and quash revolutions from San Salvador to Iraq

How to covertly train paramilitaries, censor the press, ban unions, employ terrorists, conduct warrantless searches, suspend habeas corpus, conceal breaches of the Geneva Convention and make the population love it

Wikileaks has released a sensitive 219 page US military counterinsurgency manual.

"what we learned about running death squads and propping up corrupt government in Latin America and how to apply it to other places"

The leaked manual, which has been verified with military sources, is the official US Special Forces doctrine for Foreign Internal Defense or FID.

directly advocates training paramilitaries, pervasive surveillance, censorship, press control and restrictions on labor unions & political parties

warrantless searches, detainment without charge and (under varying circumstances) the suspension of habeas corpus.

employing terrorists or prosecuting individuals for terrorism who are not terrorists,

FACT SHEET: Military record of John Sidney McCain III

Fri, 04 Jul 2008 01:52:06 GMT

clipped by: boniface
clipper's remarks: This guy is an idiot and dangerous!

Clip Source: 209.85.215.104

Both McCain III’s father and grandfather were Admirals in the United States Navy.

McCain III finished near the bottom of his graduating class in 1958.

McCain III lost five U.S. Navy aircraft

1 - Student pilot McCain III lost jet number one in 1958 when he plunged into Corpus

Christi Bay while practicing landings.

another plane two years later

”Flying too low over the Iberian Peninsula, he took out some power lines

number three in 1965 when he was returning from flying a Navy

trainer solo to Philadelphia for an Army-Navy football game.

his fourth

While waiting his turn for takeoff, an

accidently fired rocket slammed into McCain Jr’s. plane.

lost a fifth plane three months later (Oct. 26, 1967) during his

23rd mission over North Vietnam when he failed to avoid a surface-to-air missile.

1973 New York Daily News labeled POW McCain III a “PW Songbird”

McCain and Habeus Corpus

Fri, 04 Jul 2008 04:01:33 GMT

clipped by: sparrow

Clip Source: us.mc571.mail.yahoo.com

what McCain just said about yesterday's Supreme Court decision upholding the constitutional right of habeas corpus.

Here's McCain, in his own words,

"The United States Supreme Court yesterday rendered a decision which I think is one of the worst decisions in the history of this country." *

What???

Yesterday's powerful decision by the Court (a decision Americans should be proud of) affirmed a fundamental constitutional right -- in this case, the right of a detainee to challenge the government's grounds for confining him. What does McCain think is so bad about that?

Does he think protecting the right to be heard in court is...

...worse than locking thousands of Americans in internment camps because they had Japanese ancestry? (Korematsu v. United States -- 1944)

...worse than forcing African Americans to sit at the back of the bus? (Plessy v. Ferguson -- 1896)

...worse than slavery? (Dred Scott v. Sanford -- 1857)

Really, Senator McCain?

Tags: habeus corpus, mccain, politics, supreme court, constitution

The End of Theory: The Data Deluge Makes the Scientific Method Obsolete

Wed, 25 Jun 2008 12:12:11 GMT

clipped by: wildcat
clipper's remarks: "Speaking at the O'Reilly Emerging Technology Conference this past March, Peter Norvig, Google's research director, offered an update to George Box's maxim: "All models are wrong, and increasingly you can succeed without them."

Clip Source: www.wired.com

"All models are wrong, but some are useful."

So proclaimed statistician George Box 30 years ago, and he was right. But what choice did we have? Only models, from cosmological equations to theories of human behavior, seemed to be able to consistently, if imperfectly, explain the world around us. Until now. Today companies like Google, which have grown up in an era of massively abundant data, don't have to settle for wrong models. Indeed, they don't have to settle for models at all.

Sixty years ago, digital computers made information readable. Twenty years ago, the Internet made it reachable. Ten years ago, the first search engine crawlers made it a single database. Now Google and like-minded companies are sifting through the most measured age in history, treating this massive corpus as a laboratory of the human condition. They are the children of the Petabyte Age.

Tags: theory, data, scientific model, computation cloud, google

Democrats give Bush the powers of a King.

Sun, 22 Jun 2008 19:45:26 GMT

clipped by: rustajb
clipper's remarks: The country I live in is not the one I grew up in. The country I was raised to cherish is in the past. These are the proverbial Chinese' "interesting times" we now live in. There was no fight, we gave it away and now must make sense of this strange new frontier.

Clip Source: www.salon.com

George Bush's latest powers, courtesy of the Democratic Congress

CQ reports (sub. req.) that "a final deal has been reached" on FISA and telecom amnesty and "the House is likely to take up the legislation Friday." I've now just read a copy of the final "compromise" bill. It's even worse than expected. When you read it, it's actually hard to believe that the Congress is about to make this into our law. Then again, this is the same Congress that abolished habeas corpus with the Military Commissions Act, and legalized George Bush's warrantless eavesdropping program with the "Protect America Act," so it shouldn't be hard to believe at all. Seeing the words in print, though, adds a new dimension to appreciating just how corrupt and repugnant this is:

The provision granting amnesty to lawbreaking telecoms, Title VIII, has the exact Orwellian title it should have: "Protection of Persons Assisting the Government." Section 802(a) provides:

How to train death squads and quash revolutions from San Salvador to Iraq

Fri, 20 Jun 2008 02:24:44 GMT

clipped by: rustajb

Clip Source: wikileaks.org

How to train death squads and quash revolutions from San Salvador to Iraq

The manual, Foreign Internal Defense Tactics Techniques and Procedures for Special Forces (1994, 2004), may be critically described as "what we learned about running death squads and propping up corrupt government in Latin America and how to apply it to other places".

The leaked manual, which has been verified with military sources, is the official US Special Forces doctrine for Foreign Internal Defense or FID.

The manual directly advocates training paramilitaries, pervasive surveillance, censorship, press control and restrictions on labor unions & political parties. It directly advocates warrantless searches, detainment without charge and (under varying circumstances) the suspension of habeas corpus. It directly advocates employing terrorists or prosecuting individuals for terrorism who are not terrorists, running false flag operations and concealing human rights abuses from journalists.

Juan Cole: MANY TORTURED DETAINEES INNOCENT!

Tue, 17 Jun 2008 22:07:38 GMT

clipped by: masbury
clipper's remarks: Why habeas corpus is Morality 101: "prisoners were routinely abused even after it became clear that they had no intelligence value" We have no right to imprison and torture innocent people. Apparently, some previously innocent prisoners were so radicalized by US torture that they took up arms after being released.

Clip Source: www.juancole.com

Tom Lasseter of McClatchy reports that the news service has done extensive interviewing with 66 prisoners released from Guantanamo and found that most were either innocent or were lower level Taliban foot soldiers with no ties to international terrorism. McClatchy argues that the prisoners were routinely abused even after it became clear that they had no intelligence value. Some were radicalized by being tortured by the US, so that when they were released as innocent, they turned to attacking US interests.

Tags: gitmo, torture