Thanks with a Giggle from Yours Truly, Dot Calm

I’d like to take this opportunity to thank all of you who have been visiting my blog. To show my appreciation, I’ve hunted down the link to a version of “Hang on, Sloopy” that will surely give you a giant giggle. Click here, turn your speakers up, and relax for a moment.

A June 29 ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court against the Bush administration’s creation of military tribunals for terror suspects said this would violate U.S. law as well as the Geneva Conventions.

The Geneva Conventions consist of four separate treaties that set out standards for the treatment of civilians and military personnel during wartime. The Third Geneva Convention, last revised in 1949, specifically covers the treatment of prisoners of war. The Bush administration had argued that the terror suspects being held at the U.S. base in Guantanamo, Cuba, were not POWs and therefore not subject to the Geneva Conventions.

PRAGUE, June 30, 2006
At a Diplomatic Conference for the Establishment of International Conventions for the Protection of Victims of War, correspondent Jeremy Bransten (JB) interviewed Jarna Petman (JP), professor of international law at the University of Helsinki, on what the Supreme Court ruling means for the application of these international conventions.

JB: Do you consider the U.S. Supreme Court decision a victory for the Geneva Conventions? And if so, in what way?

JP: The whole setting up of "light torture" mechanisms [interrogation techniques that interrogators say do not constitute torture, but human rights groups say do] and the intensified interrogation mechanisms, the unusual detention centers set up all over -- these are all violations of the Geneva Conventions. And [the Bush adminstration has] been pushing and pulling the convention to areas and places where the convention has not been before. So this is a victory for the convention as it has traditionally been interpreted and the way it has traditionally stood.

This version of “Hang on, Sloopy” is in celebration of this landmark Supreme Court decision challenging the Bush administration.

It's true. You know it is.

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ELECTRONIC VOTING MACHINES ALWAYS VOTE REPUBLICAN!
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The Federalist Papers

The Federalist Papers were written and published during the years 1787 and 1788 in several New York State newspapers to persuade New York voters to ratify the proposed constitution. They consist of 85 essays outlining how this new government would operate and why this type of government was the best choice for the United States of America. The essays were signed PUBLIUS. The authors of some papers are under dispute, but the general consensus is that Alexander Hamilton wrote 52, James Madison wrote 28, and John Jay contributed the remaining five. The Federalist Papers remain today as an excellent reference for anyone who wants to understand the U.S. Constitution.

Stay tuned to Dot Calm’s Page of Truth & Sedition for more upcoming posts about the Federalist Papers!

Nota Bene

Have you seen the new Superman movie? Seems Superman no longer fights for Truth, Justice, and the American Way. He now fights for...are you ready?...Truth, Justice, and all
that stuff!

Wow! What happened to the American Way? I was brought up with the American Way. Now it is gone...poof. No more American Way. Why? Are the neocons ashamed of their American Way? Hey, Superman! I want you to fight for The REAL American Way! No cheating!

Four Cranes A-rising...

Yes, giant construction cranes tower over the golden, onion-shaped dome of the great mosque in Baghdad, due to this government’s aggressive plan to erect the grandest embassy known to man. Don’t believe me? Read on.

THE SITE HAS 21 STRUCTURES!

U.S. diplomatic employees in Iraq are to move next year into a multimillion-dollar complex that will be among the largest U.S. embassies. The facility is slated for completion June 2007. It will include

- New office building that includes facilities for classified activities
- New office annex for public diplomacy staff, consular affairs, and the U.S. Agency for International Development
- Interim office building designed for future use as a school
- General services annex to house facilities management, break areas, and staff locker rooms
- Recreation building featuring gym, exercise room, swimming pool, locker rooms, the American Club, commissary, food court, barber and beauty shop
- Six staff apartment buildings featuring one-bedroom apartments
- Residences for the chief and deputy chief of mission
- Marine security guard quarters
- Remaining buildings that are dedicated to security, vehicle maintenance and facilities management, storage, utilities, and water and wastewater treatment

Sources: State Department, Mall of America, Disneyland, Architect of the Capitol, wire reports, and Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

In Iraq, American Taj Mahal is the ONLY Project that is On Time

I added the title for this article, and I added the italic remarks within the article below. See if you can spot the irony.

by Barbara Slavin, USA TODAY

Three years after a U.S.-led invasion toppled Saddam Hussein, only one major U.S. building project in Iraq is on schedule and within budget: the massive new American embassy compound.

The $592 million facility is being built inside the heavily fortified Green Zone by 900 non-Iraqi foreign workers who are housed nearby and under the supervision of a Kuwaiti contractor, according to a Senate Foreign Relations Committee report. Construction materials have been stockpiled to avoid the dangers and delays on Iraq's roads.

"We are confident the embassy will be completed according to schedule (by June 2007) and on budget," said Justin Higgins, a State Department spokesman.

The same cannot be said for major projects serving Iraqis outside the Green Zone, the Senate report said. Many—including health clinics, water-treatment facilities and electrical plants—have had to be scaled back or in some cases eliminated because of the rising costs of securing work sites and workers.

"No large-scale, U.S.-funded construction program in Iraq has yet met its schedule or budget," the committee report said.

Security is the "No. 1 factor that impedes progress," said Stuart Bowen, the special inspector general for Iraq reconstruction.

Contractors and Army Corps of Engineers officials "are being shot at or threatened every day," he said. At least 467 contractors in Iraq have been killed, said Christine Belisle, a spokeswoman for the special inspector general.

According to the special inspector general's office, which Congress created to oversee U.S. projects in Iraq, 25% of nearly $21 billion for Iraq reconstruction has been diverted to pay for security.

The massive new embassy, being built on the banks of the Tigris River, is designed to be entirely self-sufficient and won't be dependent on Iraq's unreliable public utilities.

The 104-acre complex — the size of about 80 football fields —will include two office buildings, one of them designed for future use as a school, six apartment buildings, a gym, a pool, a food court and its own power generation and water-treatment plants. The average Baghdad home has electricity only four hours a day, according to Bowen's office.

The current U.S. Embassy in Iraq has nearly 1,000 Americans working there, more than at any other U.S. embassy. It takes manpower to watch all that oil.

Most embassy functions are now housed in Saddam Hussein's former Republican Palace, also within the Green Zone. The U.S. government and military, which occupied many of Saddam's palaces after the 2003 U.S.-led invasion, are turning the facilities back to the Iraqi government.

The lead contractor on the embassy project is a Kuwaiti firm, First Kuwaiti Trading & Contracting, Higgins said. There are also five U.S. subcontractors, but he would not name them for security reasons. Right, security reasons.

The Senate report recommended that First Kuwaiti consider hiring more Iraqis, if they can be properly screened. Hey, there’s an idea SINCE IT IS THEIR COUNTRY!

Congress Takes a Dump on American Workers

Here’s an ugly fact for you: Congress has given itself raises of over $30,000 in the past nine years while American workers’ minimum wage has been locked at an inhuman $5.15! Congress gave itself more in raises than minimum wage earners make all year working 40 hours per week!

The minimum wage needs to be raised by $2 just to keep up with inflation. After all, we're all going to be working for WAL-MART, aren't we? It's obscene how Congress members keep up with inflation on THEIR WAGES…and give the richest 1% more and more GIANT tax breaks…without lifting a finger to cut working Americans an even break.

Will we eventually see a class REVOLUTION?

Meet Henry Wallace (D)

Henry Wallace was our Vice President from 1941 to 1944. I’m offering the following quotation to see if it makes the hair on the back of your neck stand on end, as it did mine. I’ve added some italicized, parenthetical modern-day translations I’ve made regarding Wallace’s concerns.

Dot Calm’s Quote of the Day

American fascism will not be really dangerous until there is a purposeful coalition among the cartelists (corporations), the deliberate poisoners of public information (the media), and those who stand for the KKK-type of demagoguery (religious zealots).

—Henry A. Wallace, Vice President to Franklin Roosevelt (1944)

The London Times

Peace deal offers Iraq insurgents an amnesty

by Ned Parker in Baghdad and Tom Baldwin

The Iraqi Government will announce a sweeping peace plan as early as Sunday in a last-ditch effort to end the Sunni insurgency that has taken the country to the brink of civil war.

The 28-point package for national reconciliation will offer Iraqi resistance groups inclusion in the political process and an amnesty for their prisoners if they renounce violence and lay down their arms, The Times revealed.

The Government will promise a finite, UN-approved time line for the withdrawal of all foreign troops from Iraq; a halt to US operations against insurgent strongholds; an end to human rights violations, including those by coalition troops; and compensation for victims of attacks by terrorists or Iraqi and coalition forces.

It will pledge to take action against Shia militias and death squads. It will also offer to review the process of “de-Baathification” and financial compensation for the thousands of Sunnis who were purged from senior jobs in the Armed Forces and Civil Service after the fall of Saddam Hussein.
The deal, which has been seen by The Times, aims to divide Iraqi insurgents from foreign fighters linked to al-Qaeda.

The Rise of American Fascism

I was going to report the salient features of the Rise of American Fascism, but I came
across this site:

http://www.rationalrevolution.net/articles/rise-of-american-fascism.htm

It is so complete that it even includes cartoons, circa 1919-1920. What more can I say? A long but comprehensive read.

Follow the Money

When the New York Times first reported on the SWIFT program, this administration called it treasonous. Our media must follow the money, and our government must follow the rules, if America is going to continue to be America. Monitoring the flow of money to and from suspected terrorists must be done under a clear and coherent set of rules. And Americans’ civil liberties must not be suspended in the process!

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How SWIFT (Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication) follows the money

WASHINGTON, June 22 — Under a secret Bush administration program initiated weeks after the Sept. 11 attacks, counter-terrorism officials have gained access to financial records from a vast international database and examined banking transactions involving thousands of Americans and others in the United States, according to government and industry officials.

Viewed by the Bush administration as a vital tool, the program has played a hidden role in domestic and foreign terrorism investigations since 2001 and helped in the capture of the most wanted al Qaeda figures in Southeast Asia, the officials said.

The program, run out of the Central Intelligence Agency and overseen by the Treasury Department, "has provided us with a unique and powerful window into the operations of terrorist networks and is, without doubt, a legal and proper use of our authorities," Stuart Levey, an under secretary at the Treasury Department, said in an interview on Thursday.

"The capability here is awesome or, depending on where you're sitting, troubling," said one former senior counter-terrorism official who considers the program valuable. While tight controls are in place, the official added, "the potential for abuse is enormous."

The program is separate from the National Security Agency's efforts to eavesdrop without warrants and collect domestic phone records, operations that have provoked fierce public debate and spurred lawsuits against the government and telecommunications companies.

Officials described the Swift program as the biggest and most far-reaching of several secret efforts to trace terrorist financing. Much more limited agreements with other companies have provided access to ATM transactions, credit card purchases and Western Union wire payments, the officials said.

Data from the Brussels-based banking consortium, formally known as the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication, has allowed officials from the CIA, the FBI and other agencies to examine tens of thousands of financial transactions.

Swift executives have been uneasy at times about their secret role, the government and industry officials said. By 2003, the executives told American officials they were considering pulling out of the arrangement, which began as an emergency response to the Sept. 11 attacks, say officials. Worried about potential legal liability, Swift executives agreed to continue providing the data only after top officials, including the chairman of the Federal Reserve, intervened. At that time, new controls were introduced.

NYT reporter, Barclay Walsh, contributed to this article.

Fear Trumps Hope

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THE INVASION OF IRAQ:

As of this 4th of July:
2,530 Americans killed
60,010 Americans injured

Why are we celebrating?
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G’head and Express Yourself…

The vote was 66-34 in the Senate ... one vote short of passing the flag desecration amendment...so burn away.