The blog has been quiet for some time while I have been teaching myself video production. Here is the first draft of the first fruit of my efforts, a short video clip on exponential growth.
Albert Bartlett has said, "The greatest shortcoming of the human race has been its failure to understand the exponential function," or something very close to that. I've tried to convey his message as succinctly as possible in this video clip.
Here is the latest from Matthew Simmons, a must understand piece:
Nixon Era John Dean Was Right About Bush
John Dean, former counsel to President Nixon on secrecy in the Bush whitehouse. Recorded in 2004.
Legalizing Torture
There is blood on George Bush's hands. You can include me among those who are appalled at the so-called "Detainee Bill" now likely to be passed by the Senate, which will have the effect of further embodying the Presidency with monarchical status. Not that due-process or checks-and-balances considerations seriously impeded this administration of its imperial tendencies before.
Here is a short list taken from the New York Times of things we get with this bill:
The bill repudiates 50 years of international precedent (Geneva Conventions) by allowing the President to determine his own limits to "interrogation" - and keep them secret.
A prisoner in a U.S. military prison loses his or her due process right to prove innocence: habeas corpus. (This blows me away.)
By labeling an American or foreign born "illegal enemy combatant," the President and anyone to whom he delegates authority can make summary arrests, and hold people indefinitely with no hope of appeal.
Court review would be limited solely to verdicts by military tribunals. Any reference to Geneva conventions is barred.
Coerced evidence (from torture) is admissable if a (military) judge considers it reliable and relevant. Right.
Coercion is defined in a way that exempts anything done before the passage of the 2005 Detainee Treatment Act. (Does this amount to Bush's get-out-of-jail-for-free card on the remote possibility Americans could elect an opposition party into authority in the legislature?)
Protections against secret evidence are weakened.
The bill effectively eliminates the idea of rape as torture.
Here is a good essay on this latest gift from Bush and our (largely) one-party Republican legislature.
Edit, 4:19p.m., 9.28.06: Well the bill passed. I'm not impressed, to say the least.
Here's the bill that was under consideration this morning.
Look, I engaged in that hostile act of creating the image montage you see above. Uh-oh. Reading the first part of the bill, I note that I'm not a "lawful enemy combatant."
Well, according to clarifying definitional language in this bill, I therefore become an:
"UNLAWFUL ENEMY COMBATANT- The term `unlawful enemy combatant' means an individual engaged in hostilities against the United States who is not a lawful enemy combatant."
Edit 2, 5:26p.m., 9.28.06: It looks to me like this section denying habeas corpus is part of Bush's get-out-of-jail-free formula:
SEC. 6. HABEAS CORPUS MATTERS.
(a) In General- Section 2241 of title 28, United States Code, is amended--
(1) by striking subsection (e) (as added by section 1005(e)(1) of Public Law 109-148 (119 Stat. 2742)) and by striking subsection (e) (as added by added by section 1405(e)(1) of Public Law 109-163 (119 Stat. 3477)); and
(2) by adding at the end the following new subsection:
(e)(1) No court, justice, or judge shall have jurisdiction to hear or consider an application for a writ of habeas corpus filed by or on behalf of an alien detained by the United States who--
`(A) is currently in United States custody; and
`(B) has been determined by the United States to have been properly detained as an enemy combatant or is awaiting such determination.
`(2) Except as provided in paragraphs (2) and (3) of section 1005(e) of the Detainee Treatment Act of 2005 (10 U.S.C. 801 note), no court, justice, or judge shall have jurisdiction to hear or consider any other action against the United States or its agents relating to any aspect of the detention, transfer, treatment, trial, or conditions of confinement of an alien detained by the United States who--
`(A) is currently in United States custody; and
`(B) has been determined by the United States to have been properly detained as an enemy combatant or is awaiting such determination.'.
(b) Effective Date- The amendments made by subsection (a) shall take effect on the date of the enactment of this Act, and shall apply to all cases, without exception, pending on or after the date of the enactment of this Act which relate to any aspect of the detention, transfer, treatment, trial, or conditions of detention of an alien detained by the United States since September 11, 2001.
