cross-posted from The Dream Antilles and docuDharma

Lost in the July 3 rush to start July 4th partying is the Commander Athlete in Chief's announcement that he will support the athletes by attending the opening ceremony of the Beijing Olympics.  This direct, single digit salute to people who care about human rights in China and who are concerned about the continuing genocide in Darfur, was delivered to avoid outcry.  Put another way, it reeks of cowardice.

Join me across the gap.

cross posted from docuDharma

BBC is now reporting:

The Colombian authorities say they have rescued Ingrid Betancourt and three Americans held by rebels in Colombia.

Ms Betancourt, a French-Colombian politician, has been held for more than six years by the rebel Farc group and is said to be in very poor health.

She is the group's highest-profile hostage and the French government has made securing her release a priority.

The Farc group has been fighting to overthrow the Colombian government for more than 40 years.

The Colombian military said some 15 hostages had been rescued in total on Wednesday, among them 11 Colombian soldiers.

Please join me in Colombia.

cross posted from The Dream Antilles

The Supreme Court ruled 5-4 this week that Louisiana's statute permitting the death penalty for child rape was unconstitutional.  The decision was a step against extending the barbarianism of the death penalty to crimes in which the victim was not killed.  Unfortunately, Barack Obama argued against the decision and for the expansion of the death penalty, making the same argument as the four-judge conservative minority on the Court and his rival, John McSame.

Join me below.

cross posted from The Dream Antilles and docuDharma

This morning's New York Times put on page 1 a story about the interrogation of Khalid Shaikh Mohammed.  It's worth reading all the way through.  I found it extremely disturbing, and I haven't been able to get it out of my mind.  Hence, this essay is an expansion of this comment.

Join me below.

cross posted from The Dream Antilles

Police Break Up Saturday's Protest

This past Spring (Fall in Argentina) Argentina's president, Cristina Kirchner, decided to raise export taxes on grains. This has led to more than three months of bitter protests by farmers, essayed here, and to shortages of meat, oil, flour and fuel.

Please join me in Gualeguaychu.

cross posted from The Dream Antilles and docuDharma

Today the US Government tried unsuccessfully to move the Gitmo death penalty show trial of five "enemy combatants" toward a "trial" by arraigning the accused. Unfortunately for the US, today's proceedings were a complete and utter joke show.  And a complete embarrassment.  And they were the previews of the upcoming Gitmo Joke Show "trial."

Please join me in Gitmo.

cross posted from The Dream Antilles and docuDharma

Nobel Laureate Aung San Suu Kyi

Enough is enough.  The NY Times reports that the Myanmar government has yet again extended Aung San Suu Kyi's dentention:

cross posted from The Dream Antilles

Please join me in remembering a great Wobbly and folksinger, Utah Phillips, who died on May 23.

cross posted from The Dream Antilles and docuDharma

The New York Times reports that 270 undocumented workers who were arrested at a meat plant in Iowa in March, instead of being swiftly deported back to Guatemala, have instead been convicted of federal misdemeanors, sentenced to 5 months incarceration, and then will be immediately deported. This marks a lamentable, new, harsher policy toward punishing defenseless undocumented workers who are selected for this special treatment.  And, let me say it, it's a show designed to frighten and threaten and disrupt the other almost 15 million undocumented workers now in the US.

Please join me in Iowa.

cross posted from The Dream Antilles

It Can't Happen Here is the title of a 1935 novel by Sinclair Lewis.  It raises the question whether a rightwing, fascist political party can come to power in the US.  It used to be that the very idea was preposterous, unthinkable, impossible.  I'm no longer so sure of that. And acknowledging the frightening possibility has changed my reading of events in other countries in frightening, perplexing, alarming ways.

Join me south of the border.

cross posted from The Dream Antilles and docuDharma

La Bloguera Yoani Sanchez

Well, to no one's surprise, Cuba wouldn't relent and permit Yoani Sanchez to travel to Spain to receive the Ortega y Gasset prize, despite my post yesterday urging Raul Castro to permit her to go.

Join me across the Bloqueo.

cross posted from The Dream Antilles and docuDharma

This past week we were all treated to a proposed executive repeal of the venerable Law of Supply and Demand by McCain and Clinton.  Today, not to be undone, El Presidente made it clear that they were too late, he had already issued an executive order nullifying the Law of Supply and Demand.  And by golly, he was going to take credit for that.

Join me in Hooverville.

cross posted from The Dream Antilles and docuDharma

Today, May 1, 2008, in addition to everything else is Law Day in the United States:

Fifty years ago President Eisenhower proclaimed the first Law Day a "day of national dedication to the principle of government under law." The ABA [the American Bar Association] invites you to celebrate this enduring principle during the 50th anniversary of Law Day.

Law Day 2008 will explore the meaning of the rule of law, fostering public understanding of the rule of law through discussion of its role in a free society.

Join me in the Irony Corner.

cross posted from The Dream Antilles and docuDharma

On May 1, 2003, exactly 5 years ago, President Bush stood on the deck of the USS Abraham Lincoln to mark the end of major combat operations in Iraq.

Join me on the aircraft carrier.  Did you wear your costume?

cross posted from The Dream Antilles and docuDharma

A Memorial To Sean Bell

I'm shaking my head at the verdict Judge Cooperman (without a jury) rendered yesterday in the Sean Bell murder case. I'm saddened and troubled.  I think I understand the roots of his acquittal verdict, and I think there has been an enormous miscarriage of justice in this case. Unfortunately, this kind of injustice probably should have been expected because of the way the law acknowledges and fosters police exceptionalism. The defense lawyers for the detectives knew it, and the prosecutors knew it as well.

Please join me in Kew Gardens.

cross posted from docuDharma

Somebody once told me that yawning was a sign of contempt.  So pardon me while I yawn about the Pennsylvania, North Carolina, and Indiana primaries and any other ones that might be coming.  And pardon me while I yawn about those anti-democratic superdelegates and their views  And the polling.  And the delegate counts. And the math. And the diaries about people who won't vote for Obama.  Or Hillary.  And the diaries about how wonderful Hillary is.  And Obama.  And the speculation about the remaining endorsements (Al Gore, John Edwards, Mr. Magoo).  And the talk about the recent ABC "debate."  And the talk about the brokered/open convention.  This stuff has turned into something stronger than Sominex.  Or that drug with the butterfly.  I'm yawning uncontrollably.  I'm amazed, however, that my yawn apparently isn't triggering widespread yawns across the country, throughout left Blogsylvania, and beyond.

Please join me in the clouds.

cross posted from The Dream Antilles and docuDharma

The IOC (the "International Olympic Committee"), the group that runs the Olympics, has figured out how to prevent participating athletes from demonstrating for Tibetan freedom and displeasing their Chinese hosts.  The age old tactic: a "chilling effect" on free speech.

It's relatively simple: the IOC tells athletes that they have a right to free speech, but they don't have the right to make "propaganda."  IOC won't define the line between the two.  But if an athlete so much as steps, even with just one toe, into the latter, s/he's out. of. here.  Goodbye.  Put simply, the IOC doesn't need explicitly to forbid certain kinds of free speech.  It can accomplish the same, desired result by harshly and intentionally chilling it.

Join me in Beijing.

cross posted from docuDharma and The Dream Antilles

The New York Times this morning is reporting that Afghanistan is holding secret trials for dozens of Afghan men who were formerly detained by the US in Gitmo and Baghram: