As the sun sets on hump day...

In the words of the incomparable John Prine: Oooooh Baby, it's a big old goofy world.

WASHINGTON, Oct. 15 - The United States said it would pursue the people who killed three U.S. Embassy security personnel in the Gaza Strip on Wednesday until they are brought to justice.

As it has said about Saddam Hussein and Usama bin Laden, but not the White House leaker/traitor.

On a hopeful-for-what-remains-of-the-Republic-note, the Supreme Court lets stand a Federal Appeals Court ruling that bars federal punishment of doctors who recommend marijuana to their patients. Elaine Cassel reports.

Ashcroft wanted the feds to prosecute doctors in states that allow marijuana to be used for medicinal purposes for talking (yes, talking!) to their patients about the benefits of medical marijuana. Nine states have such laws--Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Hawaii, Maine, Nevada, Oregon and Washington. And 35 states have passed legislation recognizing marijuana's medicinal value.

Ashcroft, who apparently believes in states' rights as little as does his boss, George Bush (forget that he campaigned on that platform--what Bush meant to say was he was only for states' rights when the states were "right" about their rights), makes it a habit of meddling in the practice of medicine. (Recall, that he tried to stop Oregon's assisted suicide law by threatening to prosecute doctors under federal drug laws. The same 9th Circuit stopped him in his tracks.)

So, damn the First Amendment and the state's right to regulate the practice of medicine; let's go after doctor's for talking about the benefits of marijuana. By refusing to hear the government's appeal of the 9th Circuit's decision, the Supreme Court sent a message that it is not going to rubber-stamp Ashcroft's insane policies.

On the European front, the EU is defending its ban on U.S. and Canadian hormone-fed meat and asking for relief from retaliatory tariffs.

Good luck. On a related issue, we're actually threatening to sue them for not buying our genetically modified grain. Sue someone for refusing to buy your product. That ought to set a precedent for some wild action.

What on earth are these people thinking? Or are they? Atrios has a link to an article about a Judge in a child custody case who has ordered an estranged Spanish-speaking father to speak English to his child or lose visitation rights.

I got an e-mail alert from MoveOn.org today.

Dear MoveOn members,

Something incredible is happening. Just a week ago, it appeared that President Bush would get $87 billion for the Iraq war and occupation in a landslide vote. But thanks to hundreds of thousands of emails, tens of thousands of calls, and constituent visits by thousands of Americans, more and more members of the House and Senate are declaring that they will vote No.

This is big news. It appears that members of Congress are standing up and demanding that the President face the facts and make real changes to his Iraq policy. Members of Congress need to know that if they take a leap of faith here and do the right thing, we'll be behind them. With the vote scheduled for tomorrow in the House and Friday in the Senate, it's critical that they hear from us TODAY.

Over the next 48 hours, we're working with Working Assets and True Majority to deliver a flood of phone calls and emails to Congress telling them to take a stand. Please take a moment to call your Representative and both your Senators right now. Let them know that you expect them to vote AGAINST Bush's additional $87 billion request for Iraq.

You can reach them at:
Representative Kenny C. Hulshof
DC Phone: 202-225-2956
Senator Christopher S. Bond
DC Phone: 202-224-5721
Senator Jim Talent
DC Phone: 202-224-6154

What MoveOn doesn't realize is that these people don't give the sweat off a cold rat's ass what I expect out of them. We've seen how responsible Congress is - voting on bills they haven't read, handing over their duties to the pResident-select, lining their pockets with campaign contributions, to name a few things I actually can expect from them. The day we were informed that U.S. troops would be invading Iraq, some of us here in town marched in a peaceful protest to Representative Hulshof's office to speak to him about this decision. He wouldn't let us cross his doorway. He sent a couple of his office staff outside to meet us in the parking lot with a register to sign. Shameful Slug.

We try to vote. Although we get all kinds of sweet talk when someone wants a vote. There've been factions corrupting the voting process ever since the voting process began. And it looks very much like it's a sham and a farce any more.

Lynn Landes has some articles questioning the constitutional legality of voting machines, including this one.

In Bush v. Gore the Supreme Court said, "A legal vote is one in which there is a 'clear indication of the intent of the voter.'"

Voting machines reflect the action of the machine first and the intent of the voter ...maybe. When machines are in the voting booth three violations of federal law take place:
- inability to observe if voting machines properly register votes
- inability to observe if voting machines properly count votes
- inability to enforce the Voting Rights Act, because of the inability to observe if voting machines are properly registering or counting votes.

Enforcement of the Voting Rights requires that Federal Observers observe whether votes are being "properly tabulated." Civil Rights statutes state, "Observers are authorized to watch all polling place activities, including assistance to voters and the counting of ballots." However, voting machines constitute a concealed tabulation of the vote which cannot be observed by Federal Examiners, making the examiner's role in that regard moot and the federal Voting Rights Act unenforceable.

And just how much actual direct input into the operation of the federal government does the average American citizen have a chance to exercise in reality I wonder. In the case of the Department of Defense, for one, before 9/11, we could see its directives and policies online if we were so inclined. They've just closed down their site to the public, so that won't be happening any more. But Memory Hole captured and mirrored it here. Any updates since that capture, of course, will not be viewable unless you have some kind of clearance.

I like the way a "free country" works. Citizens don't get cut in on the policy making most of the time - and now, they don't even get to know what the policy is.

"See, free nations are peaceful nations. Free nations don't attack each other. Free nations don't develop weapons of mass destruction."

That's what Boy Blunder told a group at Midwest Airlines Center in Milwaukee on October 3. It's online at the White House website in the Jobs & Economy section. What that has to do with jobs and the economy I don't know - stumping and pumping his misguided and illegal war, two sentences prior to that he said:

And that's why the thugs in Iraq still resist us, because they can't stand the thought of free societies.

He doesn't really believe himself, does he? People disagree about whether he's just lame-brained or evil. I really don't think the two are mutually exclusive.

And if you didn't see the AP photo portraying him as George W. Christ, here's All Hat No Cattle's version. Keep up the good work, Lisa and Zelda.

What would Jesus do?

Doesn't it appear that we've effectively embarked on a mission of genocide in Iraq? From the targeted civilian bombing, the DU and 12 years of sanctions, the announcement that the food distribution program will be cancelled in January, the bulldozing of farms and orchards, and this from GWI, as reported by Common Dreams.

The US-led allied forces deliberately destroyed Iraq's water supply during the Gulf War - flagrantly breaking the Geneva Convention and causing thousands of civilian deaths.

Since the war ended in 1991 the allied nations have made sure that any attempts to make contaminated water safe have been thwarted.

A respected American professor now intends to convene expert hearings in a bid to pursue criminal indictments under international law against those responsible.

Professor Thomas J Nagy, Professor of Expert Systems at George Washington University with a doctoral fellowship in public health, told the Sunday Herald: "Those who saw nothing wrong in producing [this plan], those who ordered its production and those who knew about it and have remained silent for 10 years would seem to be in violation of Federal Statute and perhaps have even conspired to commit genocide."

Professor Nagy obtained a minutely detailed seven-page document prepared by the US Defence Intelligence Agency, issued the day after the war started, entitled Iraq Water Treatment Vulnerabilities and circulated to all major allied Commands.

It states that Iraq had gone to considerable trouble to provide a supply of pure water to its population. It had to depend on importing specialised equipment and purification chemicals, since water is "heavily mineralised and frequently brackish".

The report stated: "Failing to secure supplies will result in a shortage of pure drinking water for much of the population. This could lead to increased incidents, if not epidemics, of disease and certain pure-water dependent industries becoming incapacitated". The report concludes: "Full degradation of the water treatment system probably will take at least another six months."

During allied bombing campaigns on Iraq the country's eight multi-purpose dams had been repeatedly hit, simultaneously wrecking flood control, municipal and industrial water storage, irrigation and hydroelectric power. Four of seven major pumping stations were destroyed, as were 31 municipal water and sewerage facilities - 20 in Baghdad, resulting in sewage pouring into the Tigris. Water purification plants were incapacitated throughout Iraq.

Article 54 of the Geneva Convention states: "It is prohibited to attack, destroy or render useless objects indispensable to the survival of the civilian population" and includes foodstuffs, livestock and "drinking water supplies and irrigation works".

Well, I'm still lucky enough in this world to be one of the ones who can go to bed relatively free and comfortable. Therefore, so as not to squander that opportunity while it still avails itself to me, I'm going to end this evening with some amusing things.

I like bugs. And origami is cool. Can it really take up to five hours to make some of these? Thanks for the link, Deb. I may have to purchase that book.

Atrios, again, provides a link to Chris Monks' very funny Instapunditathon. Check it out.

....oh hell, do what you want....you will anyway.