Luckily, this is a Brit and not some liberal, pinko, "Hillary for President" leaning Northeastern hater of family values , otherwise O'Reilly and Santorum might be able to say "told you so."
Ennnh, they probably still will anyway.
The somewhat-good news is it appears it wasn't US troops this time. The bad news is that US troops appear to have uncovered a dungeon being run by Iraq's new security forces.
The soi disant party of small government is attempting to ram through a program creating a reasonably Orwellian National Identification system, scheduled to hit the Senate floor Tuesday.
Stealing liberally from a recent article from Democracy Now on this act...
The "Real ID Act" would make sweeping changes to the nation's system for issuing drivers licenses and overturn laws in nine states allowing undocumented workers to obtain drivers licenses. Other provisions raise standards for those seeking political asylum in the United States.
Concerned about the legislature making it even easier for Choicepoint to build an exhaustive dossier of your personal information and spending habits? Be prepared to get asked why you hate America's brave soldiers and waterlogged Sri Lankan orphans if you voice that concern... The House sent the bill to the Senate as part of an appropriations measure for troops in Iraq and tsunami relief. And, no, neither chamber has held hearings or thorough discussions on the measure.
Which isn't to say some haven't begun to complain. In fact, prior to being stuffed into burlap sacks and dragged into Karl Rove's basement for vigorous reeducation and loyalty-building exercises, six Republican senators last week signed a letter last week asking Senate majority leader Bill Frist not to let the Real ID Act appear in the final bill. They wrote "Legislating in such a complex area without the benefit of hearings and expert testimony is a dubious exercise and one that subverts the Senate's deliberative process."
Somewhat skeptical that this is a good idea, or something which should be passed without debate? Behold! An automated feature for sending your senators a fax: http://www.unrealid.com/index.html
Kind of sad honestly. I don't want to immediately pass judgement on a family which a)just lost a daughter and b) may have massive legal bills to pay (although I suspect there are groups out there which may have helped defray legal costs...) Also, as a print journalist, I'm professionally skeptical of --OK, prejudiced against--the accuracy of a story reported by TV news. But still, if this is accurate, the Schindler family should offer some explanation.
It's facile to frame this as an example of conservatives exploiting an issue for personal gain, so I won't. Frankly, it's pretty heartless even to speculate on motives for a family in these circumstances, and i suspect the last thing on their minds right now is public relations. My disagreements with them aside, they have my utmost sympathies in their loss. At the same time, however, I bet a lot of the people, particularly those who spent the last two weeks confronting Florida police and making a spectacle of themselves on national television on what they feel is an fundamental moral issue, might have at least some objection upon learning the family made a move that ,at least on its first face, seems kind of opportunistic.
Hundreds of millions of unaccounted-for dollars and untold thousands of lost lives later, the Bush administration quietly throws in the towel on the WMD hunt in Iraq. The WaPo reports weapons hunters were called home and the search wrapped up last month, after approximately two years of fruitless investigation.
Perhaps the dryest of dry wells George W. Bush has drilled to date, and that's sayin' something...
Granted, he was writing to a reader notorious for liking his briefings short and the words used in them shorter, but AG-nominee Alberto Gonzalez' clemency memos to then-Gov. Bush apparently sometimes favored concision over potentially exculpatory information.
For example, from the WaPo's story... __
Jim Marcus, an attorney for convicted murderer Kenneth Ray Ransom, said, for example, that Gonzales's memo does not correctly state the basis for the clemency request he filed in 1997. "Had I known that the 40-page petition I filed would be boiled down to one slipshod sentence in Mr. Gonzales's memo, I would simply have filed a one-sentence petition," he said.
___
Full story here.
From the church that puts the 'lunatic' in 'Lunatic Fringe', the Westboro Baptist Church in Topeka, a PDF flyer that thanks God for 3,000 dead Americans as part of the big Fella's righteous wrath vis a vis homosexuality. Not one to let an opportunity to thank the Lord pass, the church has also issued a .pdf thanking God for 2,000 dead Swedes. Swedes, apparently, also being on God's shitlist for their lax sodomy laws.
Happy New Year....
