-----------------------------

text

-------------------------------------- <body><!-- --><div id="flagi" style="visibility:hidden; position:absolute;" onmouseover="showDrop()" onmouseout="hideDrop()"><div id="flagtop"></div><div id="top-filler"></div><div id="flagi-body">Notify Blogger about objectionable content.<br /><a href="http://help.blogger.com/bin/answer.py?answer=1200"> What does this mean? </a> </div></div><div id="b-navbar"><a href="http://www.blogger.com/" id="b-logo" title="Go to Blogger.com"><img src="http://www.blogger.com/img/navbar/1/logobar.gif" alt="Blogger" width="80" height="24" /></a><form id="b-search" name="b-search" action="http://search.blogger.com/"><div id="b-more"><a href="http://www.blogger.com/" id="b-getorpost"><img src="http://www.blogger.com/img/navbar/1/btn_getblog.gif" alt="Get your own blog" width="112" height="15" /></a><a id="flagButton" style="display:none;" href="javascript:toggleFlag();" onmouseover="showDrop()" onmouseout="hideDrop()"><img src="http://www.blogger.com/img/navbar/1/flag.gif" name="flag" alt="Flag Blog" width="55" height="15" /></a><a href="http://www.blogger.com/redirect/next_blog.pyra?navBar=true" id="b-next"><img src="http://www.blogger.com/img/navbar/1/btn_nextblog.gif" alt="Next blog" width="72" height="15" /></a></div><div id="b-this"><input type="text" id="b-query" name="as_q" /><input type="hidden" name="ie" value="UTF-8" /><input type="hidden" name="ui" value="blg" /><input type="hidden" name="bl_url" value="ifitaz.blogspot.com" /><input type="image" src="http://www.blogger.com/img/navbar/1/btn_search_this.gif" alt="Search This Blog" id="b-searchbtn" title="Search this blog with Google Blog Search" onclick="document.forms['b-search'].bl_url.value='ifitaz.blogspot.com'" /><input type="image" src="http://www.blogger.com/img/navbar/1/btn_search_all.gif" alt="Search All Blogs" value="Search" id="b-searchallbtn" title="Search all blogs with Google Blog Search" onclick="document.forms['b-search'].bl_url.value=''" /><a href="javascript:BlogThis();" id="b-blogthis">BlogThis!</a></div></form></div><script type="text/javascript"><!-- var ID = 18937585;var HATE_INTERSTITIAL_COOKIE_NAME = 'dismissedInterstitial';var FLAG_COOKIE_NAME = 'flaggedBlog';var FLAG_BLOG_URL = 'http://www.blogger.com/flag-blog.g?nav=1&toFlag=' + ID;var UNFLAG_BLOG_URL = 'http://www.blogger.com/unflag-blog.g?nav=1&toFlag=' + ID;var FLAG_IMAGE_URL = 'http://www.blogger.com/img/navbar/1/flag.gif';var UNFLAG_IMAGE_URL = 'http://www.blogger.com/img/navbar/1/unflag.gif';var ncHasFlagged = false;var servletTarget = new Image(); function BlogThis() {Q='';x=document;y=window;if(x.selection) {Q=x.selection.createRange().text;} else if (y.getSelection) { Q=y.getSelection();} else if (x.getSelection) { Q=x.getSelection();}popw = y.open('http://www.blogger.com/blog_this.pyra?t=' + escape(Q) + '&u=' + escape(location.href) + '&n=' + escape(document.title),'bloggerForm','scrollbars=no,width=475,height=300,top=175,left=75,status=yes,resizable=yes');void(0);} function blogspotInit() {initFlag();} function hasFlagged() {return getCookie(FLAG_COOKIE_NAME) || ncHasFlagged;} function toggleFlag() {var date = new Date();var id = 18937585;if (hasFlagged()) {removeCookie(FLAG_COOKIE_NAME);servletTarget.src = UNFLAG_BLOG_URL + '&d=' + date.getTime();document.images['flag'].src = FLAG_IMAGE_URL;ncHasFlagged = false;} else { setBlogspotCookie(FLAG_COOKIE_NAME, 'true');servletTarget.src = FLAG_BLOG_URL + '&d=' + date.getTime();document.images['flag'].src = UNFLAG_IMAGE_URL;ncHasFlagged = true;}} function initFlag() {document.getElementById('flagButton').style.display = 'inline';if (hasFlagged()) {document.images['flag'].src = UNFLAG_IMAGE_URL;} else {document.images['flag'].src = FLAG_IMAGE_URL;}} function showDrop() {if (!hasFlagged()) {document.getElementById('flagi').style.visibility = 'visible';}} function hideDrop() {document.getElementById('flagi').style.visibility = 'hidden';} function setBlogspotCookie(name, val) {var expire = new Date((new Date()).getTime() + 5 * 24 * 60 * 60 * 1000);var path = '/';setCookie(name, val, null, expire, path, null);} function removeCookie(name){var expire = new Date((new Date()).getTime() - 1000); setCookie(name,'',null,expire,'/',null);} --></script><script type="text/javascript"> blogspotInit();</script><div id="space-for-ie"></div>
Politicking Timebomb
Tuesday, September 19, 2006

Bush Seeks "Humiliating and Degrading Treatment", "Outrages Upon Personal Dignity" and Human Rights

Bush has been a busy man these days. In the span of a week, Bush has gone to Congress and the United Nations with two seemingly divergent yet coinciding requests. First, Bush asked our lawmakers to turn the US into a Totalitarian state, demanding that Presidents should no longer require warrants when spying on their own citizens. Apparently the number of warrants he would need to continue his domestic wiretapping program would be a big pain in the ass, considering that millions of American citizens (I suppose with connections to "Al-Qaida") are already being monitored illegally. Since the NSA ignores the Fourth Amendment regardless, Bush's new wiretapping bill would just be impeachment insurance by providing him retroactive immunity. Changing the laws to immunize himself from crimes he has committed against his own citizens? Haven't we seen this before somewhere? Well, of course Bush doesn't stop there in his quest to become a dictator. In addition to bypassing the Constitution of the United States, Bush is also seeking to wipe his ass with the Geneva Conventions on torture. What Totalitarian leader could be complete without authorizing kidnappings, secret prisons, and unbridled torture? The thought of this torture is very disturbing - not just in trying to imagine what goes on in these black sites that we don't hear about - but that they do it in our name, under our flag. Again, Bush seeks to protect himself and others from prosecution for these horrendous acts and violations of Geneva Conventions in the rare event that Diebold fails him and Democrats win the House and Senate and actually act like a real opposition party. So in light of these bold attempts to legalize violations of the Geneva Conventions, a move which even members of his own party are trying to trim down a bit before rubberstamping, Bush stood days later in front of the United Nations pretending like he cares about human rights in the Middle East. He even had the audacity to mention the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which states: No one shall be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, the very acts he had just asked Congress for a free-hand to do to people. But I suppose this is his tortured logic, that as long as the threat from "extremists" exists, then nobody can have freedom: neither our own citizens and nor people in countries we decide to invade. And of course all of this will bring Bush's poll numbers up - in some ironic way it makes Bush appear visionary and presidential to those who haven't figured out that the extremists who truly threaten this country are in our seats of power, currently dismantling our Constitution.

Huff It! Del.icio.us Digg It! reddit Technorati