(no subject)

Happy, happy birthday, ophidiae! And a big thank you for the yummy goodness of the Halloween box you sent, Aelf and I had such fun opening it together!

If I could I should very much like to ask the gods of work related activities to please show a little mercy on me this week. Yesterday was oh my gods busy and today is looking much the same. And let's not even discuss tomorrow...*sigh* I really do need to leave early enough today to actually get to the store and cat sit for the neighbor, plus I'd love to clean up my bathroom and maybe run another load of laundry. But I'll settle for the cat sitting and shopping. It would be nice to have food around the place again.

On the other hand I've gotten lots done already this week both at work and home so I shouldn't complain. And my apartment once more looks like, well, an apartment rather than a cramped, dirty, somewhat seedy motel room. One more load of laundry and I'm going to be quite content indeed.

Huh

Go figure, Harry Reid remembers he has a backbone and uses it! Wow:

This past weekend, we witnessed the indictment of the I. Lewis Libby, the Vice President’s Chief of Staff and a senior Advisor to President Bush. Libby is the first sitting White House staffer to be indicted in 135 years. This indictment raises very serious charges. It asserts this Administration engaged in actions that both harmed our national security and are morally repugnant.

The decision to place U.S. soldiers in harm’s way is the most significant responsibility the Constitution invests in the Congress. The Libby indictment provides a window into what this is really about: how the Administration manufactured and manipulated intelligence in order to sell the war in Iraq and attempted to destroy those who dared to challenge its actions.

As a result of its improper conduct, a cloud now hangs over this Administration. This cloud is further darkened by the Administration’s mistakes in prisoner abuse scandal, Hurricane Katrina, and the cronyism and corruption in numerous agencies.

And, unfortunately, it must be said that a cloud also hangs over this Republican-controlled Congress for its unwillingness to hold this Republican Administration accountable for its misdeeds on all of these issues.

There's lots more, and I find myself once again hoping that perhaps this indicates my party might remember that they are actually vertebrates and start acting like it again.

A gulag with a view

I really wish I could say I was surprised by this:

The CIA has been hiding and interrogating some of its most important al Qaeda captives at a Soviet-era compound in Eastern Europe, according to U.S. and foreign officials familiar with the arrangement.

The secret facility is part of a covert prison system set up by the CIA nearly four years ago that at various times has included sites in eight countries, including Thailand, Afghanistan and several democracies in Eastern Europe, as well as a small center at the Guantanamo Bay prison in Cuba, according to current and former intelligence officials and diplomats from three continents.

...

The CIA and the White House, citing national security concerns and the value of the program, have dissuaded Congress from demanding that the agency answer questions in open testimony about the conditions under which captives are held. Virtually nothing is known about who is kept in the facilities, what interrogation methods are employed with them, or how decisions are made about whether they should be detained or for how long.

...

Host countries have signed the U.N. Convention Against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, as has the United States. Yet CIA interrogators in the overseas sites are permitted to use the CIA's approved "Enhanced Interrogation Techniques," some of which are prohibited by the U.N. convention and by U.S. military law. They include tactics such as "waterboarding," in which a prisoner is made to believe he or she is drowning.


Attaturk points out:

Remember "The Gulag Archipelago?"

Well, the Bush Administration has recreated it.

And any person who has not fully sold their soul to be a Bush Cheerleader should be sickened and fully, totally, and righteously pissed off.

...

This action is BLATENTLY ILLEGAL. The programs were set up overseas because they violate domestic law. But as the United States has signed the "Convention against Torture" it is not made legal because it is done somewhere else...only more difficult to expose. Not only is Bush a liar when he states he is opposed to torture, he has explicitly violated every human rights law in the United States Code by authorizing and continuing this practice. This is Nixon authorizing the bombing of Cambodia, on a more methodical, systematic scale. He is shaming each and everyone of us, and the GOP controlled Congress (with some Democrat help no doubt) has enabled and perpetuated this crime.

And it is a crime. There is no legal authority for the President of the United States to authorize this, zero -- NONE.

Further, it is an impeachable crime, the very embodiment of a High Crime & Misdemeanor. Of course, a HUGE and self-funded swath of the citizenry actually get their lizard-minded jollies out of such depravity (see the post below). "Why should we lift a finger to help out these swarthies?" It's not like Bush has lied about something really serious like receiving the "oral sex". No, all Bush has done is create a legacy of the United States being just another imperialistic asshole of a nation, where might makes right. Bully for us -- we've become what we have always been able to fool ourselves into believing we could never be.

More GoF goodness

For those interested Warner Bros. and the Today show are doing a "Triwizard Tournament Sweepstakes" (www.today.msnbc.com) and will feature the following actors on the Today show:

Daniel Radcliffe - Thursday, November 10th
Rupert Grint - Monday, November 14th
Emma Watson - Tuesday, November 15th
Emma Watson & Rupert Grint, November 19th

The prizes actually aren't too shabby:

First Prize: Dragons of the First Task Statute and “Scene It? Harry Potter DVD Game.”
Second Prize: Hogwarts Houses Quidditch Chess Set and “Scene It? Harry Potter DVD Game.”
Third Prize: Limited Edition “Goblet of Fire” pewter recreation (5,000 units worldwide) and “Scene It? Harry Potter DVD Game.”
Fourth Prize: Triwizard Cup (replica) and “Scene It? Harry Potter DVD Game.”

I suspect that "Scene It?" game is going to end up on my wish list this year...