The only people . . ."he sees [are] the camp guards who bring his meals. He has had no other human contact. The glaring lights in his cell are on 24 hours a day, seven days a week. When we left the cell, we could hear Saber shouting -- brief, truncated cries. We could not understand what he was saying."
Some beings go from dark to dark.
Some from dark to light.
And some from light to dark.
May you go from light to light.
Results
We think http://nobloodforhubris.blogspot.com is written by a man (74%).
"Legal problems
The legal problems involved in trying terrorist suspects have not yet been resolved. Some say that the prisoners should simply be brought before normal US courts. It is thought there are about 50 or so prisoners who might face trial, out of the 255 or so in the camp.
A new system would also come under the close scrutiny of the US courts and a case against it would probably go right up to the Supreme Court to test its constitutionality
The problem is that evidence against them might have obtained either through coercion, or even torture, or from foreign agencies which have used similar methods.
Some of this evidence might be admitted in a trial before a military tribunal. So might hearsay evidence, in which someone relates what he or she was told, if the military judge decides that it would have "probative value to a reasonable person".
But neither would be acceptable under the normal rules of US courts.
Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, for example, charged at Guantanamo with responsibility for the 9/11 attacks, was subject to waterboarding. It is true that he has expressed a wish to die but a civilian court in the US might not admit evidence against him gathered at Guantanamo Bay. Then what happens? It is hard to see him simply being released.
There is also the problem of whether the source of some evidence should be withheld from the prisoner."
"OLBERMANN: Wow. I mean, to what degree is that the other prominent Republican governors who got some passing mention during this campaign, with an eye towards 2012—Jindal, Pawlenty, Crist? Is there any sense that any of them are forming a power base behind Palin? Or are they intending to, you know, cut her up like a Roman dictator and smuggle her out under their robes?
CARLSON: Ha, ha. Well, they only say that quietly, Keith."
Sorry, but that’s very strange. A few months ago, Olbermann apologized for picturing Hillary Clinton getting beaten up by a bunch of goons behind locked doors. This week, he was picturing Sarah Palin getting cut up into pieces.
Within moments, he mockingly compared her to Lindsay Lohan—then, to Dizzy Dean.
It’s always surprising to see the way such fellows discuss the women they hate. They seem to find it hard to do so without picturing violence or turning to overt, gender-based derision. In our view, Palin is a remarkably underwhelming figure, in ways which are quite easy to define. You don’t have to compare her to Lohan, or picture her being killed—unless your skills are remarkably weak, or you simply enjoy hating women. But MSNBC has trafficked, for many years, in weird, remarkable woman-loathing. And when it comes to their new uber-star, it seems he’s gotta have it.
But then, [t]here’s Archie Bunker—sorry, Josh Marshall—letting us know, just yesterday, who the latest “dingbat” is. Without even bothering to report what this new “dingbat” actually said!
But so it goes as progressive intellectual standards spiral steadily downward. Olbermann’s performance on Wednesday’s show was an unfortunate case in point. He performed in ways which used to define the woeful standards of pseudo-con talk. . . .
What can you say about a guy who can’t lay out Palin’s obvious weaknesses without resorting to gender-based trashing? But most strikingly, Olbermann’s instinct for violent imagery doesn’t seem to want to quit. This is bad for progressive interests, and it’s bad for young men and young women. We’d have to say it’s just plain bad for the world in which we all live.
Can someone explain why “progressive” leaders can’t seem to quit this kind of talk?
Perhaps more to the point, why don't we have more men like Bob Somerby unflinchingly calling out the misogyny of people like Olbermann?
New details are coming out about the mother and teenager arrested in a horrific case of alleged child abuse in Pahrump that left a 2 - year - old boy in critical condition.
28 - year - old Michaele Griffin is facing felony child abuse charges.
Her 16 - year - old boyfriend, Danny Linville, was booked on attempted murder. Linville is being charged as an adult.
A day care provider in Rugby is accused of striking, kicking or throwing six children in her care.
KABUL (Reuters) - A victim of an acid attack on schoolgirls in Afghanistan said Saturday she was determined to stay in school and finish her education even if that meant risking death.
The girl, who gave her name as just Shamsia, was the most seriously injured of a group of girls attacked outside their school by unidentified men in the southern city of Kandahar on Wednesday.
"I'll continue my schooling even if they try to kill me. I won't stop going to school," Shamsia said from her bed at Afghanistan's main military hospital in Kabul.
"Sarah Palin is sorting through her luggage working out what clothes belong to her and what do not, her spokesman said yesterday. [hey shouldn't that be "spokeswoman"? Or "spokesmodel"?]
Meg Stapleton added that the Alaskan governor was coming under unfair attack from a 'firing squad' of anonymous John McCain staffers in a frenzy of finger-pointing.
'It’s a circling firing squad,' said Ms Stapleton.
In a string of damaging briefings, it was claimed that Mrs Palin had spent 'tens of thousands' more on her clothes than budgeted for, that she once met McCain aides dressed in nothing but a towel and that she did not know Africa was a continent.
She was also unable to name the nations in the vitally important North American Free Trade Agreement. There are only three - her own, its northern neighbour Canada and its southern neighbour Mexico. "
Via the Sydney Morning Herald:
"The Republican Party must abandon its 'stringently right wing' positions on gay marriage, abortion and immigration or it could be banished to the political wilderness by the American people for decades, says the deputy director of a conservative think tank.
As the recriminations over the Republicans' defeat in last week's elections continued, the deputy director of the Hoover Institution, David Brady, said the party had moved too far to the right, leaving behind a significant proportion of its supporter base, and that more would leave unless the party returned to the centre.
"In order for the Republicans to win again they have to drop the anti-gay, anti-immigrant, strict pro-life, no-abortion social positions they have taken," said Professor Brady, who is in Australia as a visiting fellow at the United States Studies Centre at Sydney University.
"They have to drop those things and move to the centre where the American voters are. Look at gay marriage - support for gay marriage in America is going up; it's not going down. It's a similar situation if you're pro-life. The majority in America has been pro-choice for a while, and it's not moving anywhere."
Using a series of internet surveys to determine voter preferences, the Hoover Institution found that 8 per cent of the Republican base had [already] shifted towards the Democratic Party since 2004."
May all beings have happiness and the causes of happiness.
May all beings be free from suffering and the causes of suffering.
May all beings never be apart from the great happiness that is free from suffering.
May all beings remain in the great evenness of mind free from passion, aggression,and ignorance.
"Americans, frightened and frustrated, have rejected the party of George Bush and have made a leap of faith with Barack Obama, writes the Herald's Political Editor Peter Hartcher. . .
Today, the US has voted to reject the nightmare of George Bush's America and has elected . . .[the] fairy tale.
Americans are more pessimistic today than at the time of any election in four decades. . . .
The economy was the dominant issue for 63 per cent of voters, according to exit polls.
The Bush Administration has given the US two recessions now, and two unfinished wars.
Of a panel of 100 US presidential historians, 61 have voted Bush as the worst president in 2¼ centuries.
He is the most unpopular in the history of US opinion polling.
Americans have rejected the party of Bush and embraced a candidate who, in many ways, is his exact opposite.
He is not only youthful and black, articulate and cosmopolitan, he's also well to the left of Bush on many key issues.
'Bush and the economy were the fundamental dynamics of this election," observed the commentator E.J. Dionne of The Washington Post.'"
UPDATE (4:05 p.m.): Heather Smith of Rock the Vote reports that youth voters have received the following deceptive text message:
Due to long lines today, all Obama voters are asked to vote on Wednesday. Thank you for your cooperation.
"Anecdote for you."
I told you I was going to phone bank today -- out in Bethesda. The headquarters was overflowing so much that by 1 PM, both the HQ and the first two satellite locations were full and they had to open a third satellite -- and by 4 PM, that one too was overflowing. This, btw, in Maryland -- which is not a swing state.
O'Malley, the Governor came by -- and walked around the room and shook hands with maybe 100 people or more -- wearing a tee shirt and jeans and a leather bomber jacket... and afterwards gave a 3 minute speech
Now, I'm a cynic..., but even I was taken by it....
He said this thing's not in the bag yet -- that we're only up four points in PA and four in Ohio -- but how proud he was of Maryland -- that of the 1.4 million calls made into Virginia, 385,00 came "from the Free State of Maryland...!" -- and that "we would take our country back, not to be proven right..., but to be proven worthy of our citizenship...." -- it was really electric.... And so we spent the hours calling into Virginia and Ohio --
Of course..., I'll gladly take 52-48 in both PA and OH....:
So here's a tune to give us luck in Ohio.
" . . . [I]nside and outside the administration . . . upbeat talk masks disappointment and frustration among many White House staffers, who believe Bush's reputation has been unfairly maligned for a series of calamities -- from the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks to the financial crisis -- that were beyond his control and which he handled well. GOP nominee John McCain's escalating attacks on Bush's tenure have added to irritation, these people said.
"Spalinists traipse around with their candidate, grinning and applauding her, sometimes getting paraded out to take a bow at a rally. They sound off about how she’s the target of sexism. (She is. D’uh. But being a victim of misogyny does not necessarily a feminist make—or we’d never have had Liddy Dole. Or Britney Spears.)"
