The Ferrous Fox

Change of pLace

2006-11-05T22:32:00.000-08:00

This blog is moving to The Panhopticon. Please adjust yourself accordingly.

Priceless

2006-10-16T13:44:00.000-07:00

Radar has an amazing and amusing feature, "America's Dumbest Congressmen." It's a real doozy.

Powell

2006-10-01T17:57:00.000-07:00

The Washington Post had to go and break my heart. Here's what happened after GWB instructed his Chief of Staff to fire Colin Powell:

The president himself made no contact with Powell after Card's call. For two days, the only person at the State Department Powell told about it was his deputy and friend of decades, Richard Armitage. Powell dropped off his resignation letter, as instructed, after typing it himself on his home computer. (The White House later pointed out a typo and sent it back to be redone.) Loath to reveal either surprise or insult, he used the letter to claim the decision to leave as his own.

That's just sad!

Bush is in trouble

2006-09-19T19:55:00.000-07:00

So we all know the Bushies want a way out of their own impending war crimes tribunals... exceptions made for them out of harms way from their violations of the Geneva Conventions (via the War Crimes Act of 1996) and the Fifth Amendment. Well tough fucking luck! And I quote...

Article I of our very own Constitution includes, "No bill of attainder or ex post facto Law shall be passed."

The annotated Article VI also includes, "This Constitution, and the laws of the United States which shall be made in pursuance thereof; and all treaties made, or which shall be made, under the authority of the United States, shall be the supreme law of the land; and the judges in every state shall be bound thereby, anything in the Constitution or laws of any State to the contrary notwithstanding."

I await impeachment and imprisonment for war crimes! (As if the Republicans in the Senate will ever let this happen.)

Kingstitutional republic

2006-09-05T17:22:00.000-07:00

More tales from the Star Chamber. This from a press release by Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility:

The Bush administration has declared itself immune from whistleblower protections for federal workers under the Clean Water Act, according to legal documents released today by Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER). As a result of an opinion issued by a unit within the Office of the Attorney General, federal workers will have little protection from official retaliation for reporting water pollution enforcement breakdowns, manipulations of science or cleanup failures.

Citing an "unpublished opinion of the [Attorney General's] Office of Legal Counsel," the Secretary of Labor's Administrative Review Board has ruled federal employees may no longer pursue whistleblower claims under the Clean Water Act. The opinion invoked the ancient doctrine of sovereign immunity which is based on the old English legal maxim that "The King Can Do No Wrong." It is an absolute defense to any legal action unless the "sovereign" consents to be sued.

The opinion and the ruling reverse nearly two decades of precedent. Approximately 170,000 federal employees working within environmental agencies are affected by the loss of whistleblower rights.

"The Bush administration is engineering the stealth repeal of whistleblower protections," stated PEER General Counsel Richard Condit, who had won several of the earlier cases applying environmental whistleblower protections to federal specialists. "The use of an unpublished opinion to change official interpretations is a giant step backward to the days of the secret Star Chamber." PEER ultimately obtained a copy of the opinion under the Freedom of Information Act.

Hiatus

2006-09-05T15:28:00.000-07:00

Rather than leave empty time (which the Internet sees as the eventual textual stench of decay) let me say that my access to computers is greatly reduced and I will be on a hiatus until the end of my massage program. I graduate in mid-November. Wish me luck!

Happiness is a warm Uzi

2006-08-18T00:47:00.000-07:00

It's called "Bring Me The Head of Charlie Brown."

Sanity rules

2006-08-17T23:41:00.000-07:00

The recent federal court ruling striking down the illegal warrantless wiretapping program has some lovely language in the opinion. Oh so lovely. The following choice of quotes is totally reproduced from TPM Muckraker.

From page 23-24 of Judge Taylor's opinion:

...it is important to note that if the court were to deny standing based on the unsubstantiated minor distinctions drawn by Defendants, the President's actions in warrantless wiretapping, in contravention of FISA, Title II, and the First and Fourth amendments, would be immunized from judicial scrutiny. It was never the intent of the Framers to give the President such unfettered control, particularly where his actions blatantly disregard the parameters clearly enumerated in the Bill of Rights. The three separate branches of government were developed as a check and balance for one another. It is within the court's duty to ensure that power is never condensed into a single branch of government.

From Page 33:

The President of the United States, a creature of the same Constitution which gave us these Amendments, has undisputedly violated the Fourth [Amendment] in failing to procure judicial orders as required by FISA, and accordingly has violated the First Amendment Rights of these Plaintiffs as well.

And last but not least, my favorite, from page 40:

The Government appears to argue here that, pursuant to the penumbra of Constitutional language in Article II, and particularly because the President is designated Commander in Chief of the Army and Navy, he has been granted the inherent power to violate not only the laws of the Congress but the First and Fourth Amendments of the Constitution, itself.

We must first note that the Office of the Chief Executive has itself been created, with its powers, by the Constitution. There are no hereditary Kings in America and no power not created by the Constitution. So all "inherent power" must derive from that Constitution.

A new correspondent

2006-08-10T20:11:00.000-07:00

for the Daily Show enlightens us to the new Opportunity.

2006-08-10T01:10:00.000-07:00

The magic word

2006-08-09T23:07:00.000-07:00

Colbert as veteran

Update on that psychopath soldier

2006-08-08T01:33:00.000-07:00

From the Guardian. On Reddit this story has the title "Drink, Golf, Rape, Kill, BBQ".

Former private, Steven Green, was discharged from the army for a "personality disorder" after the incident and was arrested in North Carolina in June on rape and murder charges. He has pleaded not guilty and is being held without bail.

Yesterday, Private Justin Watt testified that Private Howard told him, before the incident, that Private Green, Sergeant Cortez and Specialist Barker had planned to rape a girl, and Private Howard was to be the lookout. Another investigator, Michael Hood, told the hearing that he interviewed Private Spielman, who denied shooting or having sex with anyone. He was given a lie-detector test and passed.

According to Specialist Barker's statement, Private Green not only raped the girl but also shot her and her family after telling his comrades repeatedly he wanted to kill some Iraqis. Mr Bierce said that on the day of the attack, Specialist Barker, Sergeant Cortez, Private Spielman and Private Green had been playing cards and drinking Iraqi whisky mixed with an energy drink. They practised hitting golf balls, Specialist Barker's statement said.

Specialist Barker made it clear Private Green was very persistent about killing some Iraqis. At some point they decided to go to the house of the girl they had seen passing by their checkpoint. Specialist Barker also said that when they arrived at the house, the father and the girl were outside. Private Spielman grabbed the girl while Private Green seized her father and took them into the house.

Private Green took the father, mother and the younger sister into the bedroom, while the girl remained in the living room. Specialist Barker wrote that Sergeant Cortez pushed the girl to the floor, and tore off her underwear. Sergeant Cortez appeared to rape her, according to the statement. Specialist Barker then tried to rape the girl, Mr Bierce said. Suddenly, the group heard gunshots. Private Green came out of the bedroom holding an AK-47 rifle and declared: "They're all dead. I just killed them," the statement said.

Private Green put the gun down, then raped the girl while Sergeant Cortez held her down. Specialist Barker claims Private Green picked up the AK-47 and shot the girl once, paused, then shot her several more times. Specialist Barker said he got a lamp and poured kerosene on the girl. She was set on fire, but he does not say who did it. He does not say if Private Howard or Private Spielman took part in the rape. The statement says he grilled chicken wings back at their checkpoint.

2006-08-07T23:59:00.000-07:00

Yatta!

Finally the source of the tune!

Religion kick

2006-08-07T23:50:00.000-07:00

This quiz would be more interesting if it assessed more than Christianity.

You scored as Emergent/Postmodern. You are Emergent/Postmodern in your theology. You feel alienated from older forms of church, you don't think they connect to modern culture very well. No one knows the whole truth about God, and we have much to learn from each other, and so learning takes place in dialogue. Evangelism should take place in relationships rather than through crusades and altar-calls. People are interested in spirituality and want to ask questions, so the church should help them to do this.

Emergent/Postmodern: 89% - Evangelical Holiness/Wesleyan: 71% - Modern Liberal: 71% -
Classical Liberal: 68% - Roman Catholic: 68% - Charismatic/Pentecostal: 68% - Neo orthodox: 46% - Reformed Evangelical: 11% - Fundamentalist: 0%

What's your theological worldview?

created with QuizFarm.com

Also, a Jewish murder mystery adventure in Manhattan: Shivah

Allegation of ignorance

2006-08-04T11:34:00.000-07:00

Peter Galbraith (J.K. Galbraith's kid and former ambassador to Croatia) has an interesting tidbit in his new book:

A year after his “Axis of Evil” speech before the U.S. Congress, President Bush met with three Iraqi Americans, one of whom became postwar Iraq’s first representative to the United States. The three described what they thought would be the political situation after the fall of Saddam Hussein. During their conversation with the President, Galbraith claims, it became apparent to them that Bush was unfamiliar with the distinction between Sunnis and Shiites.

Galbraith reports that the three of them spent some time explaining to Bush that there are two different sects in Islam--to which the President allegedly responded, “I thought the Iraqis were Muslims!”

The next six months will be crucial for democracy

2006-08-04T09:44:00.000-07:00

New Gallup poll is out.

A new Gallup poll released today revealed another upward bump in the number of Amercians who now want a complete U.S. troop withdrawal from Iraq in the next 12 months.
That number now stands at 55%, with 19% supporting immediate withdrawal and another 36% wanting it done by August 2007.
"While the percentage of Americans who favor a withdrawal of all U.S. troops either now or within a year is not a supermajority, it is a majority, suggesting that the Democratic leadership is speaking to an issue that resonates with many Americans," Frank Newport, director of the Gallup Poll, writes today.
Another majority, 54%, now say that the U.S. invasion in 2003 was a "mistake."

Comment thingy

2006-08-04T08:14:00.000-07:00

Forgive the spelling test to leave comments, comment spammers are heinous.

Innocent until proven guilty

2006-08-03T03:39:00.000-07:00

An article from the Washington Post:

A draft Bush administration plan for special military courts seeks to expand the reach and authority of such "commissions" to include trials, for the first time, of people who are not members of al-Qaeda or the Taliban and are not directly involved in acts of international terrorism ...

This is not even the first draft. According to the article, Defense Department lawyers objected to the first draft and political appointees in the Justice Department cleaned it up to get to this point. A little like putting faux fur wrist pads in the handcuffs and herb-scented eye pillows in the black hoods.

The plan ... would also allow the secretary of defense to add crimes at will to those under the military court's jurisdiction. ...

... [D]efendants would be denied many protections guaranteed by the civilian and traditional military criminal justice systems.

So it's not a civilian court, and it's not a military court. I suppose it's a Presidential court. Ooh ooh, Imperial court. Or you could just call it a Star Chamber!

Under the proposed procedures, defendants would lack rights to confront accusers, exclude hearsay accusations, or bar evidence obtained through rough or coercive interrogations. They would not be guaranteed a public or speedy trial and would lack the right to choose their military counsel, who in turn would not be guaranteed equal access to evidence held by prosecutors.

Detainees would also not be guaranteed the right to be present at their own trials, if their absence is deemed necessary to protect national security or individuals.
...
[Military lawyers] objected in particular to the provision allowing defendants to be tried in absentia, said the official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to describe the deliberations. Another source in contact with top military lawyers said, "Their initial impression is that the draft was unacceptable and sloppy." The source added that "it did not have enough due-process rights" and could further tarnish America's image.
...
Some independent experts say the new procedures diverge inappropriately from existing criminal procedures and provide no more protections than the ones struck down by the Supreme Court as inadequate. John D. Hutson, the Navy's top uniformed lawyer from 1997 to 2000, said the rules would evidently allow the government to tell a prisoner: "We know you're guilty. We can't tell you why, but there's a guy, we can't tell you who, who told us something. We can't tell you what, but you're guilty."

Bruce Fein, an associate deputy attorney general during the Reagan administration, said after reviewing the leaked draft that "the theme of the government seems to be 'They are guilty anyway, and therefore due process can be slighted.' " With these procedures, Fein said, "there is a real danger of getting a wrong verdict" that would let a lower-echelon detainee "rot for 30 years" at Guantanamo Bay because of evidence contrived by personal enemies.
...
No one at Guantanamo has been tried to date, though some prisoners have been there since early 2002.
...
The U.S. official countered that a military judge "would look hard" at the origins of such evidence and that defendants would have to count on "the trustworthiness of the system."

Let me just rewind a little bit...

No one at Guantanamo has been tried to date, though some prisoners have been there since early 2002.

These are the same prisoners- excuse me, enemy combatants- who I presume are too dangerous to release. So dangerous that the government cannot take the mere chance of a trial, lest they be freed upon the unsuspecting public by those spineless liberals who deliver verdicts in secret military tribunals.

Switching news sources for a moment (Newsweek), we have a funny thing to confront... it is actually impossible to call the prisoners who are guilty- surely some of them are guilty of something- guilty! Because they haven't been convicted, much less tried. But I'm sure someone in this administration has a plan to deal with that. After all, the administration had "a 'working group' assembled after 9/11 to figure out what rights captured foreign fighters and terror suspects were entitled to while in U.S. custody."

According to a young lawyer also in the group, David Bowker, they were instructed by White House hard-liners, led by Vice President Cheney and his lawyer David Addington, to create and legally justify a system for prisoners where few legal restraints would apply. The day the orders came down, Bowker recalls, a colleague explained to him that they were supposed to "find the legal equivalent of outer space"- a "lawless" universe.

What a plan!

America's finest news source

2006-08-02T00:46:00.000-07:00

I loves me some Onion.

Bush Grants Self Permission To Grant More Power To Self
August 2, 2006
The Onion

WASHINGTON, DC—In a decisive 1–0 decision Monday, President Bush voted to grant the president the constitutional power to grant himself additional powers.

"As president, I strongly believe that my first duty as president is to support and serve the president," Bush said during a televised address from the East Room of the White House shortly after signing his executive order. "I promise the American people that I will not abuse this new power, unless it becomes necessary to grant myself the power to do so at a later time."

The Presidential Empowerment Act, which the president hand-drafted on his own Oval Office stationery and promptly signed into law, provides Bush with full authority to permit himself to authorize increased jurisdiction over the three branches of the federal government, provided that the president considers it in his best interest to do so.

"In a time of war, the president must have the power he needs to make the tough decisions, including, if need be, the decision to grant himself even more power," Bush said. "To do otherwise would be playing into the hands of our enemies."

2006-08-01T13:57:00.000-07:00

HOT HOT HOT

Not fake.

Some other soldiers in Iraq

2006-08-01T13:08:00.000-07:00

From AP (via WP):

The number of neo-Nazis and skinheads in the armed forces is increasing, according to a watchdog group that claims the military is relaxing standards amid pressure to sign up recruits during the Iraq war.
The Southern Poverty Law Center said in a report Friday that the Pentagon is violating its zero-tolerance policy against hate groups and called on Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld to put a stop to it.
But Pentagon officials said they continue to try to weed out supremacists and those who advocate forms of discrimination.

And this from NYT (via San Francisco Chronicle):

The groups are being abetted, the report says, by pressure on recruiters, particularly for the Army, to meet quotas that are more difficult to reach because of the growing unpopularity of the war in Iraq.
The report quotes Scott Barfield, a Defense Department investigator, saying, "Recruiters are knowingly allowing neo-Nazis and white supremacists to join the armed forces, and commanders don't remove them from the military even after we positively identify them as extremists or gang members."
Barfield said Army recruiters struggled last year to meet goals.
"They don't want to make a big deal again about neo-Nazis in the military," he said, "because then parents who are already worried about their kids signing up and dying in Iraq are going to be even more reluctant about their kids enlisting if they feel they'll be exposed to gangs and white supremacists."
...
The defense secretary at the time, William Perry, said the rules were meant to leave no room for racist and extremist activities within the military. But the report said Barfield, who is based at Fort Lewis, Wash., had said he had provided evidence on 320 extremists there in the past year, but that only two had been discharged. He also said there was an online network of neo-Nazis.
"They're communicating with each other about weapons, about recruiting, about keeping their identities secret, about organizing within the military," he said. "Several of these individuals have since been deployed to combat missions in Iraq."

And this from the Chicago Sun-Times:

"Sometimes there is a definition issue here on what constitutes gang activity. If someone wears baggy pants and a scarf, that does not make them a gang member unless there is evidence to show that person is involved in violent or criminal activity," Grey said.
Barfield said Army recruiters eager to meet their goals have been overlooking applicants' gang tattoos and getting waivers for criminal backgrounds.
"We're lowering our standards," Barfield said.
"A friend of mine is a recruiter," he said. "They are being told less than five tattoos is not an issue. More than five, you do a waiver saying it's not gang-related. You'll see soldiers with a six-pointed star with GD [Gangster Disciples] on the right forearm."
Fort Lewis offers free tattoo removal, but few if any soldiers with gang tattoos have taken advantage of the service, Barfield said.
In interviews with the almost 320 soldiers who admitted they were gang members, only two said they wanted out of gangs, Barfield said.
None has been arrested for a gang-related felony on the base, Barfield said. But some are suspected of criminal activity off base, he said.
"They're not here for the red, white and blue. They're here for the black and gold," he said, referring to the gang colors of the Latin Kings.
Barfield said most of the gang members he has identified are black and Latino. He has linked white soldiers to racist groups such as the Aryan Nations.
Barfield acknowledged that the soldiers he pegged as gang members represent a tiny fraction of the tens of thousands of soldiers based at Fort Lewis in the period he reviewed. But he stressed that he only investigates a fraction of the soldiers on base.
Barfield said he normally identifies gang members during barracks inspections requested by unit commanders. He interviews them about possible gang affiliation when he sees gang graffiti in their rooms, photos of a soldier flashing gang hand signals or a soldier with gang tattoos.
Learning urban warfare
"I know there is a lot more going on here," he said. "I don't inspect off-base housing or married soldiers' housing."
The Gangster Disciples are the most worrisome street gang at Fort Lewis because they are the most organized, Barfield said.
Barfield said gangs are encouraging their members to join the military to learn urban warfare techniques they can teach when they go back to their neighborhoods.
"Gang members are telling us in the interviews that their gang is putting them in," he said.
Joe Sparks, a retired Chicago Police gang specialist and the Midwest adviser to the International Latino Gang Investigators Association, said he is concerned about the military know-how that gang-affiliated soldiers might bring back to the streets here.
"Even though they are 'bangers, they are still fighting for America, so I have to give them that," Sparks said. "The sound of enemy gunfire is nothing new to them. I'm sure in battle it's a truce -- GDs and P Stones are fighting a common enemy. But when they get home, forget about it."

Nickname for your comments please, you might as well put a name on the all-knowing Internet.

Colbert: French vanilla

2006-07-31T00:14:00.000-07:00

He takes on D.C. and meets his match!

A conflict of interest

2006-07-30T23:38:00.000-07:00

Another 21-year-old is the army's best sniper in Iraq. 20 confirmed kills, 40 unconfirmed possible kills.

During a large-scale attack on Easter Sunday, Wilson says, he spotted six gunmen on a rooftop about 400 yards away. In about 8 seconds he squeezed off five rounds — hitting five gunmen in the head. The sixth man dived off a 3-story building just as Wilson got him in his sights, and counts as a probable death.

"You could tell he didn't know where it was coming from. He just wanted to get away," Wilson said. Later that day, he said, he killed another insurgent.

Wilson says his skill helps save American troops and Iraqi civilians.

"It doesn't bother me. Obviously, me being a devout Catholic, it's a conflict of interest. Then again, God supported David when he killed Goliath," Wilson said. "I believe God supports what we do and I've never killed anyone who wasn't carrying a weapon."
...
The key to accuracy is composure and experience, Wilson says. "The hardest part is looking, quickly adjusting the distance (on a scope), and then getting a steady position for a shot before he gets a shot off. For me, it's toning everything out in my head. It's like hearing classical music playing in my head."

"I came over here because I wanted to kill people."

2006-07-30T22:15:00.000-07:00

This from a 21 year old private in Iraq, one of those charged with the raping, killing the family of, and burning the corpse of a 14 year old Iraqi girl.

I am 21 years old.

When I started telling my brother about this story he asked, "Oh, in Haditha?" "Haditha? No I think that was where they [flipped-out soldiers] went door to door shooting people. This is in someplace called Mahmudiyah." "Oh right..."

Those two Israeli soldiers captured, in Lebanon?

2006-07-30T22:09:00.000-07:00

Here's a wire story that a bunch of papers picked up. Unless "the Lebanese police force" (the only source of the wire stories) made up the details (having psychically predicted Israel's coming invasion?) it would seem that the two Israeli soldiers were in Lebanon when they were captured.

John Bolton blows off Sudan meeting to speak at a conservative think tank

2006-07-27T21:53:00.000-07:00

Old footage from his confirmation hearing, being questioned by Russ Feingold.

The Word

2006-07-27T08:12:00.000-07:00

Perhaps the best Colbert yet.

Federal Air Marshals: "more afraid of my manager than I am of terrorists"

2006-07-26T16:50:00.000-07:00

Air marshals across the country have spoken up, telling 7NEWS that their safety and the safety of all airline passengers was being compromised because air marshals have to show identification three times at the airport, making it easy for anyone, including terrorists, to figure out who they are.

Now those air marshals believe they may lose their jobs because they came forward. Air marshals said the retaliation is part of the culture inside the nearly 5-year-old federal agency, and that it's happened before and now they fear it will happen again.

"The managers in the air marshal service are experts at retaliation. They have perfected it. They know every loophole around the whistleblower laws," said an air marshal in Las Vegas.

That's the reason why nearly all 17 air marshals 7NEWS spoke with insisted that we disguise their faces and digitally alter their voices.

"I'm definitely more afraid of my managers than I am of terrorists," said an air marshal in Dallas.

Washington Supreme Court sez DOMA constitutional

2006-07-26T16:37:00.000-07:00

From the majority opinion:

The two cases before us require us to decide whether the legislature has the power to limit marriage in Washington State to opposite-sex couples. The state constitution and controlling case law compel us to answer “yes,” and we therefore reverse the trial courts.

In reaching this conclusion, we have engaged in an exhaustive constitutional inquiry and have deferred to the legislative branch as required by our tri-partite form of government. Our decision accords with the substantial weight of authority from courts considering similar constitutional claims. We see no reason, however, why the legislature or the people acting through the initiative process would be foreclosed from extending the right to marry to gay and lesbian couples in Washington.

The link goes to the Court's webpage of recent opinions. The ones in all caps are the ones you're looking for.

├1Γ$t qΩ§±

2006-07-24T21:28:00.000-07:00

This is the beginning of my electronicked journey.