It's September! Saturday Morning Cartoons...

At one point, the three [members of the U.S. Congress] were trying to discuss the state of Iraqi security forces with Iraq's national security adviser, Mowaffak al-Rubaie, but the large, flat-panel television set facing the official proved to be a distraction. Rubaie was watching children's cartoons.

When Moran asked him to turn it off, Rubaie protested with a laugh and said, "But this is my favorite television show," Moran recalled.

  WaPo

I wonder what cartoon it was that he liked so much more than discussing his country's national security. Christ. Do you suppose that will be in the "Petraeus" progress report? How do you suppose the U.S. soldiers who are there ostensibly giving the Iraqi government time and space to get their affairs in order will react? (On the other hand, maybe Rubaie doesn't see much difference in TV cartoons and U.S. politicians.)

Back when the publishing of cartoons depicting the prophet Mohammed sparked riots, al-Rubaie was quoted by CNN:

Iraqi national security adviser Mowaffak al-Rubaie said he didn't agree with publishing the cartoons. However, he said he also disagreed with extremists using the cartoons to stir up violence "against the Western interests and actually against the good reputation of Islam as a religion, of Muslims as a people, as a peaceful people, and people believing in freedom of speech."

And a people who like cartoons.

Reports yesterday and yet this morning say that Senator Craig plans to announce his resignation from the Senate. I'm not sure what he's waiting for, but maybe he scheduled it for after his favorite cartoon show.

Roll it....

From the Broadway show Avenue Q

Now, the fact that he's soliciting sex in a public bathroom, and voting against civil rights for homosexuals, but sees being gay as the problematic part of the equation...that's why Senator Craig needs to go bye-bye. We'll be waiting.

....but hey, do what you want....you will anyway.

Update 12:45pm: The announcement was made. If you click on the AP video on Yahoo's news article page, you'll hear Senator Craig say that it is his intent (with a strange emphasis on the word intent) to step down effective September 30.

You will also hear a cheering crowd, and somebody yelling, "Do it now!" And I have to wonder, why September 30? Somehow, I think that will allow an entire month of continued press coverage of the issue. That probably isn't good for the GOP. Which may be why Craig emphasized "intent". The GOP may press hard to get him out sooner.

....but hey, do what you want....you will anyway.

Oh, and Iowa...

I told you those newly freed to marry someone of the same sex ought to act quickly. And how. One couple managed before the Judge who threw out Iowa's ban on same-sex marriage was petitioned and placed a stay on his decision. Everybody else in line will just have to wait until an appeal process is heard.

Same-Sex Marriage Okay in....

Iowa! A judge struck down Iowa's ban on same-sex marriage as the result of a lawsuit brought by six gay couples, who should immediately apply for a license and have the ceremony performed, because I'm sure they haven't heard the end of this. This is Iowa we're talking about.

....but hey, do what you want....you will anyway.

Update: Well, that was quick.

Padilla Trial Coming to a Close

Closing arguments were scheduled for Monday in the case of accused terrorist Jose Padilla, a US citizen held in a Navy brig without charge for nearly four years. Defense psychiatrists have testified.

Jose Padilla had no history of mental illness when President Bush ordered him detained in 2002 as a suspected Al Qaeda operative. But he does now.

  Yahoo

Jose Padilla, thousands of Iraqi civilians, and a good number of American soldiers.

Some psychological tests place him on par with individuals who have suffered brain damage, according to the reports prepared by Hegarty, Grassian, and Patricia Zapf, a New York psychologist and psychology professor at John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York.

Padilla's treatment in the brig is classified as a state secret.

[...]

"There have been 12 major reviews conducted of detention operations over the past several years, none of which found there was any policy that ever condoned abuse," says Commander Gordon, the Pentagon spokesman.

Please note: none of the (military, I presume) reviews found there was any policy that condoned abuse. That says absolutely nothing about whether there was in fact any abuse perpetrated, does it?

More Executive Privilege

And you didn't think there was room for any more.

The House Judiciary Committee was set to hold a hearing on the Civil Rights Division's voting rights section tomorrow, but no more. That's because the Justice Department has refused to allow the chief of the section, John Tanner, to testify. The committee has postponed the hearing until the Department allows Tanner to appear.

  TPM Muckraker

And on that day, Satan will be skating to work.

Attorney Purge

As the DoJ is cracking under the impact of the attorney purges that were intended to (and did) suppress minority votes in this country, Bush merrily nominates judges who will carry out the same anti-minority program.

Just because one leg of the beast is hobbled, doesn't mean the other legs can't keep going.

....but hey, do what you want....you will anyway.

Purge

A week or so back, I posted comments from the Black Agenda Report claiming the US Attorney purge was to suppress black votes.

Paul Keil, in an April 6 Muckraker article, offered a similar conclusion:

The U.S. attorney firings scandal has laid bare the administration's -- and particularly Karl Rove's -- preoccupation with prosecuting voter fraud. But there's a flip side to this coin. The Justice Department's Civil Rights Division has virtually abandoned its traditional role, undertaken since the 1965 Voting Rights Act, of actively protecting African American voters from discrimination.

[...]

During the first five years of the Bush administration, the Justice Department's voting section only filed a single case alleging voting discrimination on behalf of African American voters. That's despite the fact that the section, part of the Civil Rights Division, was created mainly to protect African American voters from discrimination.

But during that same time period, the section managed to file the first ever "reverse" discrimination case under the Voting Rights Act.

[...]

A similar shift has occurred in the division's employment litigation section, which is tasked with preventing discrimination in employment. That section has managed to file two "reverse" discrimination cases alleging discrimination against whites under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act, while filing only one alleging discrimination against African Americans in the past six years.

  TPM Muckraker article

An article in the Boston Globe last year points out the beginning move in Bush's dismantling of the DoJ's Civil Rights Division.

In an acknowledgment of the department's special need to be politically neutral, hiring for career jobs in the Civil Rights Division under all recent administrations, Democratic and Republican, had been handled by civil servants -- not political appointees.

But in the fall of 2002, then-attorney general John Ashcroft changed the procedures. The Civil Rights Division disbanded the hiring committees made up of veteran career lawyers.

[...]

[D]ocuments show that only 42 percent of the lawyers hired since 2003, after the administration changed the rules to give political appointees more influence in the hiring process, have civil rights experience. In the two years before the change, 77 percent of those who were hired had civil rights backgrounds.

This is the Bush Administration's Civil Rights Division.

And, by the way...that single case filed on behalf of Black voters was initiated during the previous administration.

....but hey, do what you want....you will anyway.

American detainees

The U.S. military in Iraq has detained five Americans for suspected insurgent activity, Pentagon officials said Wednesday. The five have not been charged or had access to a lawyer, and face an uncertain legal future.

Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman declined to identify any of them, citing the military's policy of not providing the names of detainees. They are in custody at one of the three U.S.-run prisons in Iraq.

One was identified by his family and U.S. law enforcement officials as Cyrus Kar, an Iranian-American filmmaker and U.S. Navy veteran.

[...]

Whitman said the Iranian-American was arrested with several dozen washing machine timers in his car; such items can be used as components in bombs. Military officials said he was arrested with a cameraman and a taxi driver.

Whitman said there did not appear to be any connections among the five.

[...]

In Los Angeles, Kar's relatives said he was born in Iran and came to the U.S. as a child.

They said Kar, 44, was in Iraq to film scenes for a documentary on Persia's founder when Kar was arrested by Iraqi police at a checkpoint in Baghdad on May 17, a date confirmed by military officials.

"He just had the misfortune to get into the wrong cab," said Steven R. Shapiro, the ACLU's legal director. "Our position is that if the government has any evidence against him, bring him home and charge in a court and then proceed accordingly."

  Yahoo News article

Yeah, well, good luck there. And that'll teach him to go to Iraq and get in a cab while America is patrolling the streets. And for having Iranian blood.

The ACLU's suit, filed in Washington, contends that Kar's detention violates his constitutional rights, federal law, international law and U.S. military regulations.

Tough shit. We're fighting a war on terror.

Whitman said the five Americans were being held in accordance with laws governing armed conflict.

See?