A UK resident detained at Guantanamo Bay has won a High Court ruling that the government should disclose material which he says backs his torture claims.
Binyam Mohamed, who is facing terrorism charges, says the documents support his case that the evidence against him has been obtained through torture.
Reading the latest on the Russia/Georgia conflict, I found an interesting tidbit. From AP via MyWay news:
Georgia said another hit Friday near the key Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan oil pipeline, which carries Caspian crude to the West. No supply interruptions have been reported and Russia denies targeting the pipeline.
Wikipedia page on the so-called BTC pipeline, including this picture.
I just heard a quick blurb on the American Awakening radio show hosted by Michael Herzog (Republic Broadcasting network) that the Governor of Arizona has signed some sort of anti REAL ID bill.
Details to come…
Well, because the Dems and GOPers offer the same solutions. These days, the issue is how to help “poor” people in Maine keep warm this winter. What solutions do Maine GOP “leaders” offer?
PPH:
Senate Minority Leader Carol Weston, R-Montville, and House Minority Leader Josh Tardy, R-Newport, proposed Monday that the governor call a special session on Aug. 20 to address heating-fuel assistance.
Currently, the statewide average cash price for No. 2 heating oil is $4.42 per gallon, compared to $2.69 per gallon at the beginning of October 2007.
“People are worried. I get calls, I know everyone else is getting calls,” Weston said Wednesday. “I think we should give them some confidence that we’re not just going to ignore this.”
Tardy said in a written statement that “waiting for Congress to act will not fill anybody’s heating oil tanks. It’s time for the governor to call a special session so we can use our own funds to take care of our fellow Mainers this winter.”
Congress hasn’t passed a new budget for low-income fuel funding, and it’s expected that the program will proceed under a continuing resolution, according to Jo-Ann Choate, energy and housing services manager for the Maine State Housing Authority, which administers the program for the state.
Essentially, the program would continue to be funded at the same base level as last year. Maine and the state’s Indian tribes received a combined $25.5 million last year from the federal government. The state’s portion was $24 million. Some states supplement that fund, and Maine has done so in the past.
If the state gets that amount again, the money would pay for oil for about 51,000 Maine households, with an average benefit of $415. Choate said her agency has seen a “huge increase” since the beginning of June in people asking for assistance, though she didn’t have specific numbers. If an extra $10 million were added to the program and the average benefit maintained, an additional 24,000 households could be aided.
In other words, politicians should use taxpayers’ money to bribe taxpayers into thinking the government has helped them avert a potential crisis.
I have a better idea. How about abolishing the personal income tax, the property tax, the annual vehicle registration fee, and multitudes of other schemes of extortion levied by the gangsters in Augusta against individuals and businesses that are largely to blame for poor economic conditions in this state?
I just saw this on “Turn Maine Blue”.
According to the BDN:
McCain’s campaign announced its committee, Maine Veterans for McCain, through a press release issued Monday. The Obama for America campaign responded by holding an event Wednesday afternoon at Davenport Park in Bangor to announce its equivalent, Maine Veterans for Change.
So, is “Maine Veterans for Change” an official arm of the campaign? Does that mean the campaign endorsed itself? Or did the campaign set up an “un”official “committee” which turned around and endorsed the campaign by which it was established? I’m so confused by all the extravagance and nuance staged to create the illusion of a meaningful election.
I saw a story on Wool Blitzer’s “Propaganda Room” show today about some California State police officer (wearing full fatigues) who was proudly recounting a tale about a major crop of pot his unit discovered and will (has already?) destroyed the crops. Searching for that story lead me to this from San Francisco/Oakland NBC affiliate:
It used to be that marijuana came to the Bay Area from the legendary back country of Humboldt County or the desert fields beyond Tijuana.
Now the fields are in the Bay Area, and everywhere else in the state. Marijuana is one of the top cash crops in California, NBC Bay Area’s Mike Luery reported.
Many of the fields are located next to popular trails and in the middle of state parks.
A fierce battle is being waged in our own back yard to remove the pot groves. They are hidden in brush so thick that specially trained officers must dangle dangerously from ropes tied to helicopters or hike miles just to get in.
“If you grow it, we will come,” said one agent.
“We’ve recovered assault weapons, rifles and hand guns from those that we’ve arrested,” said another agent.
Last year, the state’s Campaign Against Marijuana Planting eradicated nearly 3 million pot plants. Most of them, about 75 percent, were found on public land.
“They’re basically stealing the land from what it was intended for, which is recreation and hiking and hunting,” said Ryan Pontecorvo, Eradication Team Commander.
One pot grove that Luery visited in the Napa Valley is located on federal land owned by the Bureau of Land Management. However, Luery said, typically agents find farms in state and national parks.
Wherever people go, drug traffickers have chopped down trees and hijacked the water supply.
They lay hundreds of yards of plastic tubing to irrigate their plants with stolen water, while leaving behind mounds of fertilizer and trash that brings chemical pollution.
Let’s review. Innocent taxpayers are forced to pay for police officers who scavenge public lands looking for a plant illegal to grow only because other people supposedly hired by those same taxpayers have declared it to be so. On top of that, every plant seized and destroyed means those that survive have a higher value, thus making drug trafficking a more lucrative business, in turn causing increased violence among dealers and various gangs who profit from the sale of this plant which is deemed illegal for absolutely no legitimate reason.
In the end, there is absolutely no way to “win” the “war on drugs” with armed men lawlessly seizing people’s property and throwing non-violent people into prison. Ending this farce would save untold sums of money, and taking marijuana off the black-market would reduce real crimes committed by gang bangers desperate to stake their turf in the market place.
Ironically, it seems even the most wonderful of all humans, government bureaucrats, those treasured “servants” to whom we are all supposed to thank and worship, are not immune from the profitable lure of drug dealing.
Glenn Greenwald asks a series of great questions in his recent column.
Regarding the show trial of alleged “al Qaeda” member, the Washington Post states:
The military jury of five men and one woman found Hamdan guilty of supporting al-Qaeda by driving and guarding bin Laden and ferrying weapons for the terrorist group.
If that is a crime punishable by life in prison, I would be very concerned about my future if I were a henchman serving the DC terrorist network and its current war criminal kingpin George W Bush.