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Friday, December 14, 2007

MR. BUSH ~ TEAR DOWN GUANTANAMO BAY PRISON & ABU GHRAIB

. . . JUSTICE HAS BEEN OBLITERATED BY GEORGE W BUSH ~ COMMANDER IN CHIEF

Mr. Bush will be forever linked to Guantanamo Bay and Abu Ghraib. Not to mention his lies, Iraq and his choice of people to surround himself with.

When I was a kid, we had a next door neighbor boy who changed the rules when he didn't like how things were going in play. I read somewhere that one of George's cousins said this is how George operated when he was a kid. He hasn't changed. He does the same thing today. Don't like the law that has just been passed? He makes it okay if he doesn't want to follow it.

All I had to do to come up with information to back this up was type in the window: Bush Law signings. And there was a list of links to all sorts of articles about Bush and his law side-stepping.

Here is just one link:Bush

Bush’s contention that he can ignore provisions of the Patriot Act, whose renewal he ushered last month, has drawn scrutiny. (Jim Young/ Reuters)

Bush challenges hundreds of laws

President cites powers of his office

WASHINGTON -- President Bush has quietly claimed the authority to disobey more than 750 laws enacted since he took office, asserting that he has the power to set aside any statute passed by Congress when it conflicts with his interpretation of the Constitution.

and in Berlin (Germany) there was a screening of an Abu Ghraib film
Thursday, 13 Dec 2007
The 58th Berlin Film Festival will screen an investigative documentary about the human right's violations at Iraq's Abu Ghraib prison.
Source: presstv


And here is a link
Tear down a piece of Guantánamo Bay
Source: Amnesty International USA

Current government policy allows foreign nationals to be held in a US military prison in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba as "enemy combatants," without charges and with no legal rights. The government plans to try them before military tribunals, where they can be sentenced to imprisonment or even death with virtually no review.

For what this means in practice, see the photos below of men captured in Afghanistan being transported, hooded and hog-tied, in military aircraft to Guantanamo Bay. Le Monde Diplomatique article, United States: the Black Hole of Guantanamo
A description of the physical setup of the prisons at Guantanamo
Source: guantanamo


I received the information below from
Larry Cox, Executive Director of
Amnesty International USA
on December 5, 2007:

The Supreme Court will hear Bush administration lawyers attempt to defend the indefensible: that the President can hold people indefinitely, without charge and without question. With fundamental human rights principles on the line let's hope the Supreme Court rejects this lawlessness and demands an end to the injustice that flows from it.

A thousand miles from the Supreme Court steps, Amnesty International will be observing another crucial hearing today. This one will take place at Guantánamo Bay and while it will get less press attention, it is no less important.

While the Supreme Court considers whether or not Congress improperly took away the writ of habeas corpus from detainees in Guantánamo, a hearing will be convened to determine whether or not Salim Ahmed Hamdan is an "unlawful enemy combatant" and subject to trial by military commission. Under the Military Commissions Act, "unlawful enemy combatants" cannot challenge the evidence brought before them or object to being convicted on evidence obtained through brutal means.

The two hearings are not unrelated.

Both challenge the administration's attacks on our system of justice. Both challenge the assertion that fear, not freedom, guides our country. But even more important, both hearings present a clear opportunity to move our nation back on track -- to a place of respect for truth, justice and liberty. As four Supreme Court Justices put it, "[I]if this Nation is to remain true to the ideals symbolized by its flag, it must not wield the tools of tyrants even to resist an assault by the forces of tyranny."

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Call 1~800~GENOCIDE
and ask your U.S. Representative and Senators
to pass the funding fully for the UN Peacekeepers
for Darfur

President Bush's Comment Phone Line
202-456-1111
He needs a push to do something right.

InvestorsAgainstGenocide


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Monday, December 3, 2007

29 MILLION PLUS BETWEEN THE AGES OF 18 ~ 24 WILL BE ELIGIBLE TO VOTE IN '08 ~ HOW MANY WILL?

WHERE IS THAT COMPASSIONATE CHRISTIANITY OF GEORGE BUSH?
What has Bush gotten right?

I'm sure it depends on who you ask. I can't think of anything personally. But that's just me.


I hope somehow the young people get the message how powerful their voices can be in the way of votes in the 2008 election. I didn't vote in my first Presidential election. And Richard Nixon was elected. And well, most of us would consider that a mistake. Except my family.

I would like to raise the issue of hurricane Katrina and how we have not taken care of our own here, in what President Bush has dubbed "the Homeland".

REBUILDING has different meanings to different people in New Orleans.

Please vote ~ getting to know the candidate you vote for before you vote. And please, do vote.
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http://youtube.com/watch?v=yJDe_efqo6c
Plans to Demolish 4,500 Public Housing Units in New Orleans Approved
The Bush administration has given the Housing Authority of New Orleans the go ahead to demolish the city's four largest public housing complexes. The Department of Housing and Urban Development approved the demolition of the 4,500 housing units on Friday. Democratic Seantor Mary Landrieu criticized the ruling but other lawmakers have endorsed such moves. Shortly after Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans, Republican Congressman Richard Baker said: "We finally cleaned up public housing in New Orleans. We couldn't do it but God did."
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http://youtube.com/watch?v=HEiOk-_NU3g
"...WE HAVE A RESPONSIBILITY TO CLEAN UP THIS MESS...We've got a lot of work to do...and now we're going to go comfort people in THAT part of the world." President George W Bush

Vote Responsibly ~
We will have to live with our collective decision for President for a long four years
It has been a long seven years.
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http://youtube.com/watch?v=Q_JLEzeSs-Y

http://youtube.com/watch?v=-xNWz4UXO7w
BUSH VISITS NEW ORLEANS

"In 2008, over 29 million people between the ages of 18 and 24 will be eligible to vote. How many will?" www.18in08.com

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Monday, November 12, 2007

OBAMA SPEAKS IN IOWA – LED BY PRINCIPLES NOT BY POLLS

PASSION TRUMPS POLITICS EVEN IN POLITICS

“Standing up with courage……”




We need a democratic party that is “…led not by polls, but by principles, not by calculations, but by convictions… summon(ing) the entire nation to a common purpose, a higher purpose…” Barack Obama in Des Moines, Iowa


Before Senator Barack Obama announced that he was going to run for President of the United States of America and our representative in the whole world, I wanted him to run. Now, of course he is running. And he is number two, while Senator Hillary Clinton is poll-wise, number one in the competition.


I stated from the start that I wasn’t Opposed to Hillary Clinton as President, as much as I was For Obama for President. And why? Because he gives me the feeling of inspiration. Hillary does not. We need to get charged up. We need to get fired up. We need to be asked by our politicians to be a part of their elected jobs. And we need to be participants in our government with or without our politicians beckoning us to join them.


The most important office is that of citizen.
I heard that quote stated by Barack Obama.

Obama: "Justice Louis Brandeis said 'the most important office in a democracy is that of citizen.' I come from a community-organizing background and a civil-rights background. I always believe that ultimately, if people are paying attention, then we get good government and good leadership. And when we get lazy, as a democracy and civically start taking shortcuts, then it results in bad government and politics.
"

On Barack’s Jefferson Jackson Dinner Speech Saturday night in Iowa the Des Moines Register published
“Excellent…one of the best of his campaign.”

The Speech:

…………………………………………. …………………………………………. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tydfsfSQiYc
I love the male announcer in this!
20:49

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…………………………………………. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ybk4MeUGBVo Barack Obama and Michelle lead the parade before the dinner
54 seconds


Michelle Obama
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kfsEOJNC3UE
Barack Obama’s entry at the Jefferson Jackson Dinner

3:20


On President Bush’s day of departure out of our White House, I would like to personally hand him a copy of the United States Constitution along with it in audio form. And also, hand him a shredded copy of the Patriot Act.


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HOW MANY GENOCIDES DOES IT TAKE
TO END THE HUMANITY OF THE HUMAN RACE?

SHAME ON US ALL.

WE ARE DEFINED BY THIS ONE HUMAN BEHAVIOR THAT
WE ALLOW TO HAPPEN
AGAIN AND AGAIN AND AGAIN AND AGAIN AND....


Find a Dream for Darfur event at
www.savedarfur.org
or
http://www.savedarfur.org/page/content/torchrun

Be the Champion
your government direly needs you to be


Because the government
has failed us

and so has the "Free" Press
who would rather tell us
about the same stories over and over

instead of telling us the world's news.

There are news outlets on the internet
where you can
get global news
that includes better coverage
of what is
going on
even in the USA.


www.enoughproject.org/
www.bbc.co.uk/
www.sudan.net

1-800-GENOCIDE

CALL President Bush
202-456-1111


We the People have the Power
But it doesn't work without you and me being proactive.

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Tuesday, October 16, 2007

HOW DO YOU LIVE WHEN YOU RUN OUT OF MONEY?

I wouldn’t want to be President of the United States of America. Ever. But more, now, than before Bushed ucked it up. The outstanding public debt as of 16 Oct 2007 is nine TRILLION, forty-eight BILLION, nine hundred twenty nine million, six hundred fifty one thousand, eight dollars and fifty four cents. That looks like this: $ 9 , 0 4 8 , 9 2 9 , 6 5 1 , 0 0 8 . 5 4

The National Debt has continued to increase an average of
$1.42 billion PER DAY since September 29, 2006!

“The U.S. budget deficit is financed by borrowing. More and more of that money comes from China, now the United States' second-largest lender, after Japan. China's investment in U.S. government debt has more than tripled in the past five years, from $71 billion in 2000 to $242 billion in 2005. ….Congress and the president have been unwilling to raise taxes or make deep spending cuts. The only alternative is to borrow.”
http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/prem/200510u/nj_schneider_2005-10-25

China! Do we really want Bank China to be in control? What are we thinking!?! Are we thinking? Who is minding “The Store”? It’s GW Bush and robbing us in more than one way. Imagine if the government suggested spending one-fourth of this amount of money on the education of our children. We would have said “no”. Imagine if the government suggested to spend one-fourth of this money to help our children who are “at risk”. We would have said “no”. Imagine if the government had suggested spending a small portion of this money to reimburse the Social Security accounts. We would have said “no”. Right? Imagine if the government had suggested repaying the Indian Trust Funds that have been robbed from by the very government agencies that were to protect the funds – we would have said “no”. Why are we willing to let our government to invest in the Iraq war and not spend our tax money on what would really invest in our country’s people? And the $12 BILLION that was LOST by sending it in cash to Iraq on wood pallets – how much did you read or hear about that?!
“We had to pay Iraqis in cash,” Mr. Bremer said of the money, most of which came from Iraqi oil sales. “Delay would have been demoralizing and unfair to millions of Iraqi families.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/07/washington/07bremer.html?n=Top%2FReference%2FTimes%20Topics%2FPeople%2FB%2FBremer%2C%20L.%20Paul%20III What of the demoralizing and unfairness to millions of USA citizens?!!

I don’t understand the apathy of the country that we call United States of America. However, I think it would be more appropriately called the Divided States of America. We let this insanity to go on via George Bush and keep going through our lives. It is outrageous that we don’t get angry about the debt. In my town it is annually a contentious subject that our taxes are raised by the town by $350. And where is the same reaction to the federal runaway spending on a war that has had a moving “target” continually?

FOLLOW THE MONEY (OIL): TWELVE BENCHMARKS

1. January 2003: The Wall Street Journal reported that representatives from Exxon Mobil Corp., ChevronTexaco Corp., ConocoPhillips and Halliburton, among others, were meeting with Vice President Cheney's staff to plan the post- war revival of Iraq's oil industry.

2. March 2003: Iraqi Oil Ministry was one of the few structures the invading forces protected from looters in the first days of the war.

3. April 2003: During the initial assault on Baghdad, soldiers set up forward bases named Camp Shell and Camp Exxon.

4. May 22, 2003: President Bush signed Executive Order 13303 providing full legal immunity to all U.S. oil companies doing business in Iraq in order to facilitate the country's "orderly reconstruction."

5. November 2003: McKee (ConocoPhillips executive who is overseeing Iraqi oil industry) quietly ordered a new plan for Iraq's oil. The drafting would be overseen by a "senior adviser," Amy Jaffe, who ....now works for James Baker, the former Secretary of State, whose law firm serves as counsel to both ExxonMobil and the defense minister of Saudi Arabia. The plan, written by State Department contractor BearingPoint, was guided, says Jaffe, by a handful of oil-industry consultants and executives.

6. March 2004: Iraq's interim constitution, the Transitional Administrative Law (TAL) passed in March 2004 by Iraq's Governing Council, sets forth that Coalition Provisional Authority laws, regulations, and orders are to remain in force after the transfer of sovereignty unless a duly enacted piece of legislation rescinds or amends them.

7. August 30, 2005: Bush says U.S. troops would continue fighting in Iraq in order to protect the country's vast oil fields, which he said would otherwise fall under the control of terrorist extremists.

8. February 2006-June 2006: USAID contracts with Bearing Point to draft Iraq’s oil law to provide "legal and regulatory advice in drafting the framework of petroleum and other energy-related legislation, including foreign investment".

9. March 15, 2006: Gen. John Abizaid, the Army general overseeing U.S. military operations in Iraq said the United States may want to keep a long-term military presence in Iraq to bolster moderates against extremists in the region and protect the flow of oil.

10. July 2006: U.S. Government and oil companies get a copy of the draft oil law. In September 2006 the Internation Monetary Fund and World Bank receive their copy.

11. February 2007: "Draft Hydrocarbon Law" was submitted first to the Iraqi Cabinet and then to the Iraqi Parliament (Council of Representatives) by the Cabinet.

12. April -May 2007: Defense Secretary Robert Gates and U.S. Vice President Cheney each travel separately to Baghdad to push political benchmarks and specifically the oil law.

From a Study of U.S. Influence on Iraqi Oil, by Erik Leaver, Carol and Ed Newman, Fellow Institute for Policy Studies June 4, 2007. Click above title to read full article and complete bibliography of sources. http://www.afterdowningstreet.org/?q=node/23353

And yet we won’t vote for any candidate who would admit that taxes will be raised. Are we rational?

Are we afraid of the truth?

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Wednesday, October 10, 2007

18 in 08? WE NEED YOU TO VOTE. I LIKE BARACK. WHO DO YOU LIKE?

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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Rs9sinZJ_4&watch_response
The Show Must Go On
Bush Don’t Take the USA into War with Iran.
Bush took us and Iraqis into war with Iraq and that was a colossal mistake and continues as an on-going disaster.

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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dY2BviiUDsw
Senator Barack Obama makes his opening statements to the the audience at the NAACP Democratic Candidate Forum in Detroit, MI
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RyHJZxNm-Cg
Barack Obama on Iran
Barack Obama says that George Bush and Dick Cheney must hear from the American people: "You don't have our support, and you don't have our authorization for another war" in Iran.

I plan to vote for Barack Obama for President. I look at the Republican Presidential candidates and I am worried. It is a puzzle to me that most of the Republican candidates think they have the ability to lead the Divided States of America. Mike Huckabee is likable but his specific stands don’t fit my values. Is this the best the Repbulicans can come up with for Presidential candidates?

Barack Obama’s website:
http://www.barackobama.com/index.php
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S5V6W_xPc4o
Bush
This is edited but it still makes a statement about our President

The whole world has had to endure his blundering. I hope this time we end up with a mind that isn’t hibernating the whole time he or she is President. I hope this time we get better than we deserve. It is so painful to have a President with poor judgment and who lies.

I sincerely hope the youngest people who can vote this time will take the time and effort to exercise their democratic right and vote and vote smart. We need a thinking person as a President. Not just someone who wears a suit well.

Please, vote. And vote smart. Don’t leave it up only to those who voted in the last two presidential elections. We all have a stake in what the next President’s legacy will be. The legacy of Bush is sad, dismal and a President who does not respect democracy or our Constitution. He is not a person of substance. We need someone willing to lead with sights on building a stronger American through something more than military means.

18 IN ‘08
http://votesmart.org/blog/

Vote in 2008
http://www.18in08.com/

Blog at 18 in ‘08
http://im18in08.blogspot.com/

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Friday, September 21, 2007

THE LIKES OF BLACKWATER, THE OTHER US MILITARY BRANCH

The privatization of our US military is not a good thing. Jeremy Scahill wrote: Blackwater: The Rise of the World's Most Powerful Mercenary Army and debuted on the New York Times best seller list at number nine. Blackwater with a no bid contract was hired by the US government to work in Iraq. We could withdraw our troops from Iraq and our tax money of millions and billions of dollars could continue to pay outfits like Blackwater to fight in our name in Iraq. This is big business. And George is nothing if not a supporter of big business.

Blackwater represents us.

In the Google window type: Blackwater kills in Iraq
and have a plethora of links.
Here is one:

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/iraq/2003893130_iraq20.html

The time is past due to take up the metaphorical sword. We are losing our government. It is time to not fear appearing radical or civilly disobedient. It is our espoused values that we risk losing if we sit back and let our elected politicians run our country into the ground. Freedoms are continually in need of our nurturing and our control. Freedom endures only when it is on our watch. Not when we entrust it to someone the likes of Dick Cheney or George W Bush. Freedom is not on the march in the Divided States of America.

A leader of free people would stand up or stand down when it comes to the plight of the people in the path of hurricane Katrina. A leader of free people would see the potential of a troubled land when ropes made into nooses are hung in a tree to send a message to black US citizens in a school yard. A leader of free people would not take his charges into a war without a plan and equipment that will protect them. A leader of free people would not take the military into an invasion that was based on lie after lie. A leader of free people would not pretend lies were truth and expect a nation of free thinkers to believe him. George W Bush is not a leader of free people. George Bush is an oppressor. George Bush thinks “We the People” are to be manipulated for his personal reasons. George Bush surely doesn’t get it. Which segment of Americans is he the President of? He is afraid of speaking in a group that has not been vetted. I would not be allowed in his audience. And yet I am his audience.
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pf4-xuq-Ypo

Bill Moyers
“…The strong took what they could and the weak, what was left…”
Please, take the time to listen to this speech.

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We have the army, navy, marines, air force and national guard. And then there is our private military. Your tax dollars buy this private, corporate-owned military. And yet, they are not held accountable.

BLACKWATER - from our other military branch

http://www.blackwaterbook.com/news/2007/01/about_blackwate.html
About Blackwater: The Rise of the World's Most Powerful Mercenary Army

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=7244128
Congress Hears from Killed Contractors' Families
The mothers and widows of the workers have filed lawsuits against Blackwater, the company that hired them.
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nqM4tKPDlR8

The Nation's Jeremy Scahill describes the rise of Blackwater USA, the world's most powerful mercenary army.

Writing about Blackwater:
http://www.thenation.com/doc/20051010/scahill

http://getunderground.com/underground/features/article.cfm?Article_ID=2188

http://www.truthdig.com/interview/item/20070330_jeremy_scahill_on_soldiers_of_fortune/

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