In Washington on Friday protesters will be marching to the Supreme Court to call for the closure of Guantanamo Bay.  Capital cities across the world will be hosting similar events as orange clad protesters show their disapproval.  The day is the sixth anniversary of the arrival of the first of theUS' War On Terror prisoners at Guantanamo.

In Australia it's a bit more personal.  We've been imprisoning the only convict of this combination of concentration camp and kangaroo court.

In Hicks home town of Adelaide the gathering will occur at 3pm on the steps of Parliament House.  I'll see you there.

from Buzzflash ….. 

We received a memo from Liberty "Falwell" University on November 30th, signed by Jonathan Falwell, son of the recently deceased Jerry - and now overseer of the vast Liberty University/Moral Majority corporate empire. 

President Bush's senior national security advisers are debating whether to expand the authority of the Central Intelligence Agency and the military to conduct far more aggressive covert operations in the tribal areas of Pakistan.  

The debate is a response to intelligence reports that Al Qaeda and the Taliban are intensifying efforts there to destabilize the Pakistani government, several senior administration officials said.  

Putin doesn't have a soul: Clinton 

Democratic White House hopeful Hillary Clinton joked that Russian President Vladimir Putin, as an ex-KGB agent, had no soul, in the latest swipe at Russia from the 2008 campaign trail. 

Bush and Cheney are clearly guilty of numerous impeachable offenses.

They have repeatedly violated the Constitution.

They have transgressed national and international law.

They have lied to the American people time after time.

Who needs a Ministry of Truth when we have an "independent media" that seems perfectly willing to tell us that we've always been at war with East Asia? 

I'm referring to the perfect fluidity, depending on the storyline, with which the legitimacy, or lack thereof, of the "Iraqi government" is acknowledged.  

 

2007 was an incredibly frustrating year for opponents of the seemingly endless "War on Terror," and all that it is used to justify. 

Democratic control of Congress had little impact on U.S. foreign policy and progressive lawmakers made little progress towards ending the disastrous occupation of Iraq.  

 

"Every year begins with the renewal of hope.

My hope for 2008 is for everyone to think of others; show compassion and kindness and, no matter what, always try your best."

morris dilemma

Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign is now fighting for its life after a shattering defeat last night in Iowa at the hands of the black senator from Illinois, Barrack Obama.

Also on life support is the candidacy of the Mormon Mitt Romney, trounced in Iowa's Republican caucuses by Mike Huckabee, the folksy and decidedly Christian former governor of Arkansas. 

A few weeks ago, Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-South Carolina) asked Gen. Hartmann essentially the same question: How would the military's legal community react if the Iranian government used water torture to extract vital strategic information from a captured US soldier?

“I am not prepared to answer that question,” responded Gen. Hartmann, the kind of reply one offers when it's too dangerous to speak the obvious truth.

 

The Justice Department opened a criminal investigation into the destruction of CIA interrogation videotapes and Attorney General Michael B. Mukasey appointed an outside prosecutor to oversee the case.  

If you doubt Britain needs a written constitution, listen to the strangely unbalanced discussion broadcast by the BBC last Friday.  

The Today programme asked Lord Guthrie, formerly chief of the defence staff, and Sir Kevin Tebbit, until recently the senior civil servant at the Ministry of Defence, if parliament should decide whether or not the country goes to war.  

I know the subject of citizens initiated referenda  has been discussed before on this site. But it is important that we as fair thinking Australians keep the pressure on Governments to strengthen the democratic process.

There are too many moments these days when we cannot recognize our country. 

Sunday was one of them, as we read the account in The Times of how men in some of the most trusted posts in the nation plotted to cover up the torture of prisoners by Central Intelligence Agency interrogators by destroying videotapes of their sickening behavior.  

It has been known for months that the Bush-Cheney administration and its allies have been manuevering to strengthen their political control of Pakistan, paving the way for the expansion and deepening of the “war on terrorism” across the region. The assassination of Benazir Bhutto does not change this agenda. In fact, it simplifies Bush-Cheney’s options.