Bush Likes Torture
"The only proper answer to the question, 'Do you have a pistol?' is, 'How many lines of coke did you do this morning before coming to work?' That's what I always ask interviewers when they ask me if I'm carrying. Both questions are rude, intrusive, and the answers are nobody's business but your own." -- L. Neil Smith
# The Gun Guy - Judicial Nomination - why the Gun Guy hasn't commented on Bushnev's latest nomination for the Supremes. [gunguy]
So Presidents may come and go, and nominate this person and that person to the Court, and their nominees can put on their black robes and make all the legalistic contortions they want to justify their positions; that's the process.
But if I don't think their judgements are in line with the Constitution, I'll simply ignore them all.
# Edgar J. Steele - Peak Silver - after a few ruminations on the concept of "peak oil", Mr. Steele explains that the same thing is about to happen to silver. He recommends putting your soon-to-be-worthless dollars into silver. The word "jew" does not appear until the letters at the end of the article (and in the word "jewelry").
# Charley Reese at LewRockwell.com - Poor Do It for Themselves - fans of big government like to tell you that the poor are helpless and need our "help". "Bull!" says Mr. Reese. Most poor people have nobody but themselves to blame. [lew]
# Francis Harris at The Telegraph - Bush will veto anti-torture law after Senate revolt - the Senate, by a vote of ninety to nine, added an amendment to the defense spending bill forbidding the use of torture by the U.S. government. Bushnev has threatened to veto the entire spending bill if it contains this amendment when it hits his desk. He likes torture, doncha know. I think the article is referring to S.AMDT.1977 to H.R.2863, passed by Record Vote Number: 249. Below is the text (PDF) of that amendment. Unfortunately, it has no teeth. [root]
SA 1977. Mr. MCCAIN (for himself, Mr. GRAHAM, Mr. HAGEL, Mr. SMITH, and Ms. COLLINS) submitted an amendment intended to be proposed by him to the bill H.R. 2863, making appropriations for the Department of Defense for the fiscal year ending September 30, 2006, and for other purposes; which was ordered to lie on the table; as follows: At the appropriate place, insert the following:
SEC. ll. UNIFORM STANDARDS FOR THE INTERROGATION OF PERSONS UNDER THE DETENTION OF THE DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE.
(a) IN GENERAL.--No person in the custody or under the effective control of the Department of Defense or under detention in a Department of Defense facility shall be subject to any treatment or technique of interrogation not authorized by and listed in the United States Army Field Manual on Intelligence Interrogation.
(b) APPLICABILITY.--Subsection (a) shall not apply to with respect to any person in the custody or under the effective control of the Department of Defense pursuant to a criminal law or immigration law of the United States.
(c) CONSTRUCTION.--Nothing in this section shall be construed to affect the rights under the United States Constitution of any person in the custody or under the physical jurisdiction of the United States.
SEC. ll. PROHIBITION ON CRUEL, INHUMAN, OR DEGRADING TREATMENT OR PUNISHMENT OF PERSONS UNDER CUSTODY OR CONTROL OF THE UNITED STATES GOVERNMENT.
(a) IN GENERAL.--No individual in the custody or under the physical control of the United States Government, regardless of nationality or physical location, shall be subject to cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment or punishment.
(b) CONSTRUCTION.--Nothing in this section shall be construed to impose any geographical limitation on the applicability of the prohibition against cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment or punishment under this section.
(c) LIMITATION ON SUPERSEDURE.--The provisions of this section shall not be superseded, except by a provision of law enacted after the date of the enactment of this Act which specifically repeals, modifies, or supersedes the provisions of this section.
(d) CRUEL, INHUMAN, OR DEGRADING TREATMENT OR PUNISHMENT DEFINED.--In this section, the term ''cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment or punishment'' means the cruel, unusual, and inhumane treatment or punishment prohibited by the Fifth, Eighth, and Fourteenth Amendments to the Constitution of the United States, as defined in the United States Reservations, Declarations and Understandings to the United Nations Convention Against Torture and Other Forms of Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment done at New York, December 10, 1984.