President Bush’s State of the Union Address

Holy smokes.

1)  Who was the guy Bush presented, who saved someone from a subway train killing him?  Selfless act?  Absolutely.  Ridiculously hilarious?  “You the man.”

2)  What an amazingly heartwarming Democratic response.  Oh, snap!

5th Anniversary of Guantanamo Detainees

Today marks the 5th anniversary of the first detainees at Guantanamo Bay.  Around the world people are organizing in opposition to US practices, and I sit at a coffee shop smoking cigarettes and drinking roasted coffee with sugar and cream.  I look around me and people are conversing, happy, enjoying the warmth of the fireplace, and just winding down.  It’s amazing how detached we all are from the real happenings, the real human rights violations that our country is committing.  I’m am no better.  Maybe worse for knowing it’s happening and not doing anything about it.

There’s a write up in the London Financial Times about Guantanamo detainees ‘driven insane’ by the cruelty of the camp.

“Kenneth Roth, executive director of Human Right’s Watch says the isolation regime at Guantanamo has tightened in recent months, piling the mental pressure on inmates who have ‘no fair procedure’ that would lead to possible release.”

Kenneth Roth went on to say in interview that it is not his belief that the Bush administration plans on closing the camp, even though Bush was quoted saying he would “very much”  like for it to but shut down.  “Very much”?  Apathy is inaction.

“Brent Mickum, a defence lawyer, says one of his two clients, Bisher al-Rawi, an Iraqi-born UK resident ‘ is slowly but surely slipping into madness” because of ‘prolonged isolation couple with environmental manipulation that includes constant exposure to temperature extremes and constant sleep deprivation.’  He says Mr. Rawi’s ration of toilet paper was removed because he used it for shielding his eyes from the light and his prayer rug was taken away because he used it for heat.”

“Jonathan Hafetz, an attorney for Brennan Center for Justice at New York University school of Law, says the five years of the Bush administration’s detention policy and related practices may have ‘done more to reverse 200 years of democracy than any other government act in US history.’”

There are still about 400 prisoners at Guantanamo of which potentially only 60-80 will be prosecuted.  How do you compensate for the lost time and torture and deprivation of human rights that the other hundreds of prisoners have been subjected to?  Will those prisoners that are “proven” innocent have rights to file charges against the US government for wrongful prosecution (prosecution in the way of oppressive, sanity-stretching, physically abusive crimes of humanity)?

Russia Joins the WTO?

 

From the BBC:

 

Russia and US poised for WTO deal

The leaders of the US and Russia can put their heads together in Hanoi

Russia has finally cleared the last hurdle in its bid to join the World Trade Organisation (WTO). The US has agreed in principle to approve Russia’s membership, after holding out in lengthy bilateral talks.

Russia and the US hope to sign a WTO accession deal at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in Vietnam next week.

Despite previous Russian hopes of a break-through, negotiators failed to clinch a deal at the G8 summit in July.

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