Thoughts of an Average Woman

Against the People

There were two opinions issued yesterday, that I didn't get to point to. The first opinion comes from the federal Appeals court, on Guantanamo detainees.

A federal appeals court ruled yesterday that hundreds of detainees in U.S. custody at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, do not have the right to challenge their imprisonment in federal courts, a victory for the Bush administration that could lead to the Supreme Court again addressing the issue.

In its 2 to 1 decision, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit upheld one of the central components of the Military Commissions Act, the law enacted last year by a then-Republican-controlled Congress that stripped Guantanamo detainees of their right to such habeas corpus petitions. Lawyers have filed the petitions on behalf of virtually all of the nearly 400 detainees still at Guantanamo, challenging President Bush's right to hold them indefinitely without charges. Yesterday's ruling effectively dismisses the cases.

Dismisses? Hardly. there is still an appeal to SCOTUS, should they choose to hear arguments. Take note that this decision was not unanimous. There was a dissenting opinion that I'll get to in just a moment.

What excuse the majority uses to determine that detainees held in Guantanamo, other than the defying the will of congress? That habeas corpus does not extend to soil leased from other sovereignty's.

Now for the dissenting opinion. Congress has not suspended the right to Habeas Corpus, and that extends to people on soil leased from other sovereignty's.

Even if this case is heard by SCOTUS, it appears that Congress is going to have to make changes to the Military Commissions Act.

But, as it stands, the Federal Appeals Court has said that detainees have no rights.

The second ruling comes from SCOTUS on the huge tabacco award, to which they overturn.

The Supreme Court yesterday overturned a nearly $80 million verdict intended to punish the Philip Morris tobacco company for endangering the lives of smokers, and the justices set limits on how jurors can decide to make big business pay for wrongdoing.

The court's narrowly written 5 to 4 decision said that an Oregon court had improperly let jurors calculate the harm done to many in deciding damages paid to an individual.

Effectively, Philip Morris holds no accountability when their practice harmed millions of people.

Both these rulings were against the people, and I believe the rights of the people are going to shrink even further, as appointed judges last a lot longer than a president that appointed them.

Sabrine Al-Janabi a Casualty of Maliki, and the Disappearing Allies

Blair announced yesterday that the UK is pulling out of Iraq, and now so is Denmark.

Denmark is considering boosting its contingent in Afghanistan by 200 troops to 600, Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen said Wednesday.

Earlier, the government presented plans to withdraw troops from Iraq. Fogh Rasmussen said no firm decision had been taken on the Danish troops serving under NATO command in Afghanistan, "but we cannot exclude that we will go from the present 400 to 600."

The prime minister said Wednesday that his country will withdraw its 460-member contingent from southern Iraq by August and transfer security responsibilities to Iraqi forces, and that the decision had been made in conjunction with the Iraqi government and Britain, under whose command the Danish forces are serving near Basra.

Actually, as the Danish contingent was under the Brits, once Blair pulls out, it makes sense that the Danish would pull out.

So, in southern Iraq, he Iraqi forces can take control of their own lives. But, more American troops are being sent to Iraq.

Which is so different from Baghdad, and what comes out of the mouth of US toady Maliki. Originally, Riverbend wrote about the horrible repeated rape of Sabrine Al-Janabi, by Iraq forces trained by American troops. As Riverbend's post made it's way around the blogosphere, the MSM had to get into the groove, but instead of listening to the victim of barbaric brutality, they promote her rape as being disputed, and then turn around and say reiterate Maliki's hero-elevating stance of the 3 Iraqi officers that raped a Sunni woman. Why this is so heinous, you'd have to understand the culture. Rape is rarely reported. It would be a stain on the family.

But, it is Riverbend that gives us a clearer timeline of Maliki's quickly changing stance on the rape of Sabrine Al-Janabi.

I hate the media and I hate the Iraqi government for turning this atrocity into another Sunni-Shia debacle- like it matters whether Sabrine is Sunni or Shia or Arab or Kurd (the Al Janabi tribe is composed of both Sunnis and Shia). Maliki did not only turn the woman into a liar, he is rewarding the officers she accused. It's outrageous and maddening.

No Iraqi woman under the circumstances- under any circumstances- would publicly, falsely claim she was raped. There are just too many risks. There is the risk of being shunned socially. There is the risk of beginning an endless chain of retaliations and revenge killings between tribes. There is the shame of coming out publicly and talking about a subject so taboo, she and her husband are not only risking their reputations by telling this story, they are risking their lives.

No one would lie about something like this simply to undermine the Baghdad security operation. That can be done simply by calculating the dozens of dead this last week. Or by writing about the mass detentions of innocents, or how people are once again burying their valuables so that Iraqi and American troops don't steal them.

It was less than 14 hours between Sabrine's claims and Maliki's rewarding the people she accused. In 14 hours, Maliki not only established their innocence, but turned them into his own personal heroes. I wonder if Maliki would entrust the safety his own wife and daughter to these men.

Maliki become Sabrine's judge, jury and executioner, for what furtherance? Simply this incites further warfare between factions. In this instance, it is very clear that Maliki is purposely sending Iraq into civil war.

Walter Reed Responses

Boy, the interwebs are burning up. I keep getting knocked offline since early this afternoon, as if I was on a dial-up connection, which I'm not. I kept getting this mysterious notice that the "server was busy" from bellsouth, that I had never seen before. Very strange.

It's probably no wonder, as the spin machine is in full swing from Washington, responding to the Other Walter Reed series in the WaPo.

Via John and ThinkProgress, if you missed it, Tony Snow gave the press and the public a snow-job -- Bush isn't responsible for the conditions at the Other Walter Reed, nor does he care, even though he knew about it. Also John got a hold of a memo/letter sent by Major General Weightman, who runs Walter Reed.

Congress is not going to be left out, and are rushing to enact legislation and demand accountings.

Sens. Barack Obama (D-IL) and Claire McCaskill (D-MO) will introduce legislation next week to require more frequent inspections of hospitals providing treatment to active-duty military personnel.” Meanwhile, Sens. Barbara Mikulski (D-MD) and Patty Murray (D-WA) “wrote to Defense Secretary Robert Gates today demanding an inspector general’s investigation into living conditions for the returning soldiers at Walter Reed.”
[...]Rep. Louise Slaughter (D-NY) has sent a letter to Defense Secretary Robert Gates

Note that not one repugnut that claims the left are aiding and abetting terrorists is doing a damn thing to make life just a wee bit better for the men and women they sent into harms way.

How sad, how very sad that the very people the repugnuts claim to support, they left to languish in squalor. But when you make the call to send our men and women into harms way, you then have a responsibility to care for those that are wounded and maimed. But, stemming from the actions over the past 3+ years, the repugnuts, and those that continue to support this war without question, don't feel they have that responsibility.

That is the biggest shame of all. elected officials that will throw your life away at the drop of a hat.

GOP Doesn't Know What to do With the Money?

Liberally lifted from Richard

Well, it makes sense, if you think about it - is there one particular organization or demographic in the world that has benefited more from the GOP’s reign of terror over the past several years than terrorist groups themselves? Yet, the neoconservative mantra has become, “If [your progressive candidate’s name goes here] wins, the terrorists will be celebrating.”

Anyone with half a brain knows that such statements are pure bullshit. Which is why so many dullards still believe it, and why the neocons still use it to appeal to the dullards among us. As exhibit “A” of why such statements are pure bullshit, submitted for your approval:

The National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC) won’t say what it plans to do with thousands of dollars in campaign donations it received from an accused terror financier.

Abdul Tawala Ibn Ali Alishtari gave $15,250 to the NRCC since 2002, according to FEC records published on the Web site opensecrets.org.

On Friday, Alishtari pled not guilty to funding terrorism and other crimes, including financial fraud…

The indictment against Alishtari unsealed in Manhattan federal court Friday charges him with providing material support to terrorists by transferring $152,000 between banks to allegedly be used to purchase night-vision goggles and other equipment needed for a terrorist training camp…

They don't know what to do with the money...just, Wow!

Update: The more I thought about this the more I'm wondering why the FBI hasn't siezed these monies.

Tennessee Blue

Interesting study released today, saying that party affiliation is changing among Tennesseans.

With increasing dissatisfaction with President Bush and the handling of the war in Iraq, fewer Tennesseans are claiming to be Republican, a new poll shows.

The Middle Tennessee State University spring poll released today found that 33 percent of respondents identify themselves as Democrats, 31 percent consider themselves Republicans and 22 percent claim to be independent.

That compares with the 35 percent that took the Republican label in 2004, when Bush won handily in Tennessee with 57 percent of the votes. Twenty-nine percent that year said they were Democrats and 23 percent independent.

I would love to know the changes regionally, particularly for east Tennessee which has leaned heavily rightward. It would also be interesting to know the changes in each of TN major cities.

Eyes Stuck Wide Open: II

As the outrage from Dana Priest and Anne Hull's series on what soldiers and their families face at the other Walter Reed, the army is only now starting to fix the horrible conditions our troops have been living. I was particularly struck by this:

Walter Reed and Army officials have been "meeting continuously for three days" since the articles began appearing, Weightman said. A large roundtable meeting with Army and Defense Department officials will take place at the Pentagon early this morning to continue talks about improvements in the outpatient system, he added.

Weightman said the medical center has received an outpouring of concern about conditions and procedures since the articles appeared and has taken steps to improve what soldiers and their families describe as a messy battlefield of bureaucratic problems and mistreatment.

"We're starting to attack how we'll fix and mitigate" some of the problems, he said.

Shorter Weightman: Our ugly secret has been revealed and now we have to do damage control.

I can't imagine complaints never reached his office, which begs the question why wasn't any of this addressed before the articles appeared?

Eyes Stuck Wide Open: I

You wouldn't think that the situation at the "other" Walter Reed could get worse, but they do. Dana Priest and Anne Hull add to the two part series published earlier this week, with two more damning reports.

An Aid Chief was doing fundraising work -- for his own charity. What I find absolutely amazing is that the army didn't start investigating Michael J. Wagner until the WaPo reporters asked the Commander about his activites.

For the past three years, Michael J. Wagner directed the Army's largest effort to help the most vulnerable soldiers at Walter Reed Army Medical Center. His office in Room 3E01 of the world-renowned hospital was supposed to match big-hearted donors with thousands of wounded soldiers who could not afford to feed their children, pay mortgages, buy plane tickets or put up visiting families in nearby hotels.

But while he was being paid to provide this vital service to patients, outpatients and their relations, Wagner was also seeking funders and soliciting donations for his own new charity, based in Texas, according to documents and interviews with current and former staff members. Some families also said Wagner treated them callously and made it hard for them to receive assistance.

Last week, Walter Reed launched a criminal investigation of Wagner after The Washington Post sought a response to his activities while he ran the Army's Medical Family Assistance Center, a position he left several weeks ago. Maj. Gen. George W. Weightman, the commander at Walter Reed, said the probe by the Criminal Investigation Command (CID) "reflects the seriousness with which we take these allegations."

The army is taking this seriously? Well, perhaps now that their eyes are stuck wide open, they are taking this seriously. Really, how can Wagner expect anyone to believe that his fundraising, was not occuring hen he was signing letters as "Executive Director and Founder."

Leita Sosin, an 11-year Army veteran who worked in Wagner's office for two years, said she complained to him and to co-workers about his involvement with the charity. "It really broke me to see what he was doing," said Sosin, 29, a former Army operating-room technician. "Instead of working with the families at Walter Reed and with us, he spent all his time putting together the Phoenix Project."

Moscow Spencer, a case manager fired by Wagner in October, also complained to her co-workers. "All day long he'd work on his program," she said. "If someone came in to donate money, he would talk to them about his project."

Sosin said the office was overwhelmed by the number of families who needed assistance and who were confused by the complex bureaucracy. "Everyone needed help, but you couldn't get them the help as fast as they needed it," she said. "Someone like me could scream all day about how it was broken, but no one wanted to take the time to fix it."

She also said Wagner was arrogant toward some staff members and families. "People got hurt in the process, whether it be financially or because he promised a lot of things he never followed up on," she said.

In April, Sosin said, she laid out her concerns in a three-page letter to her superiors. She received no response and resigned. Wagner said that Sosin never complained to him and that he had no idea why she quit.

I know it's easy to justify that someone having been fired by Wagner would lash out, except, what they are saying is being repeated by others. You know, like being substantiated.

Wagner, having the poor, poor pitiful me syndrome, has harassed families in his effort not to help

A wife who accompanied her wounded husband, who was based in Germany, said Wagner asked her repeatedly why she did not return to Germany so she could continue working. The woman "reported she felt harassed and bullied but that she held her ground," the employee's memo states.

Go back to Germany and leave your husband in this wasteland. Right, that the ticket.

And the man has the nerve to trivialize these people's plight. Uncompassionate, unmoving and uncaring. This is what awaited our troops when they came home. The down and dirty of it, Wagner found a life-line to the cash-cows he needed for his new charity, and took full advantage of it. And the people that donated to this charity should be just as ashamed for thier part in allowing these soldiers to live in unconcionable and reprehensible conditions.

I'm glad this man is finally being investigated, but why were the higher-ups eyes closed until all their ugly shortcomings became very, very public?

ed. adjusted blockquote to take out my writing

What S/He Said

With the recent legislative bill filed by wingnutty Campfield, and the ensuing marginalization, I wanted to point to this post of MahaBarb's.

From time to time liberal writers and bloggers break out in a rash of discussion about how to discuss abortion. Not what we think about it, as we pretty much settled that years ago. No, we ask ourselves how to talk about it, because the crims (e.g., people who want to criminalize abortion) are eternally carping on our alleged insensitivity to “life.” I take it the crims are not staying awake at night worrying about offending us, however.

Anyway, I take it we’re supposed to acknowledge that terminating a pregnancy is a bit sad when you think about it, but we can’t go too far in that direction because that would be admitting abortion is bad. Yet the crims are never put on the spot to consider the desperate measures women take to abort —

More than something to think about. Obviously, Stacey X doesn't lose any sleep thinking about it, as it wasn't part of his (ridiculous) questions to justify he was right. I noticed in comments at Stacey X, a doctor posted in support of the bill for aborted fetuses. I don't know if this is a medical doctor, just in case he is, you should know that patients are not getting all the information they may need to make an informed decision on their medical care. There are other, serious consequences to banning abortion.

Atrios questions the "medical establishment's obsessive concern with potential fetuses" and questions if this is something relatively new. Echidne explains.

One way to reduce the number of abortions is to have a comprehensive sexual education class in the schools. Instead, our children are stuck with Abstinence-Only and gum sharing. Knowledge and understanding of contraceptives isn't just for our young people. Jill discusses an evangelical Christian's dilemma. It is enlightening, to say the least.

As you all might have heard, Fox has developed the conservative answer to The Daily Show. The reviews are in, and boy is this show taking a lot of hits -- actually, the black-eye sort of hits. Crooks & Liars has the clip, and some of the reviews.

While I'm on the subject of wingnuts, I can't help but revisit TX state legislator Warren Chisum, and his memo that the earth stands still. Chisum's regressive ideas aren't limited to a small group in Texas. Apparently, Chisum got the info from GA legislator, Ben Bridges. R. remarks that Stacey X missed out. I think he just never opened that email.

As you pack your child's lunch, you might want to consider switching to paper bags. For some odd reason (cough corporate cough greed cough) the memo that unsafe levels of lead were found in vinyl lunch boxes never made it to the public. The UK is wants GM trials for potatoes ended, after finding more evidence of link to cancer from the mutated spuds. I bet that's another press release that won't make it to the American public.

For those of you watching the housing market slump, bonddad has explains the fourth quarter drop.

Kevin's take on the Two Georges.

And finally, you heard it here there first.

Continuing Saga of Our Neglected Soldiers: Hotel Aftermath

Dana Priest and Anne Hull have a lengthy article on the soldiers neglected by our leaders, part two of a series on how our troops are treated after being wounded in Iraq or Afghanistan.

The conflict in Iraq has hatched a virtual town of desperation and dysfunction, clinging to the pilings of Walter Reed. The wounded are socked away for months and years in random buildings and barracks in and around this military post.

The luckiest stay at Mologne House, a four-story hotel on a grassy slope behind the hospital. Mologne House opened 10 years ago as a short-term lodging facility for military personnel, retirees and their family members. Then came Sept. 11 and five years of sustained warfare. Now, the silver walkers of retired generals convalescing from hip surgery have been replaced by prosthetics propped against Xbox games and Jessica Simpson posters smiling down on brain-rattled grunts.

[...]

Some soldiers and Marines have been here for 18 months or longer. Doctor's appointments and evaluations are routinely dragged out and difficult to get. A board of physicians must review hundreds of pages of medical records to determine whether a soldier is fit to return to duty. If not, the Physical Evaluation Board must decide whether to assign a rating for disability compensation. For many, this is the start of a new and bitter battle.

Months roll by and life becomes a blue-and-gold hotel room where the bathroom mirror shows the naked disfigurement of war's ravages. There are toys in the lobby of Mologne House because children live here. Domestic disputes occur because wives or girlfriends have moved here. Financial tensions are palpable. After her husband's traumatic injury insurance policy came in, one wife cleared out with the money. Older National Guard members worry about the jobs they can no longer perform back home.

While Mologne House has a full bar, there is not one counselor or psychologist assigned there to assist soldiers and families in crisis -- an idea proposed by Walter Reed social workers but rejected by the military command that runs the post.

For all you saber-rattlers, this is not, I repeat, NOT, the way one should treat any human being, much less someone you sent to a bogus war. Now, what are you going to do to change this disgusting, and deplorable situation, or are you just going to sit on your laurels and let those that truly care about the people, the dems, clean up your mess?

This is how a TN soldier was treated:

Sgt. David Thomas, a gunner with the Tennessee National Guard, spent his first three months at Walter Reed with no decent clothes; medics in Samarra had cut off his uniform. Heavily drugged, missing one leg and suffering from traumatic brain injury, David, 42, was finally told by a physical therapist to go to the Red Cross office, where he was given a T-shirt and sweat pants. He was awarded a Purple Heart but had no underwear.

This man was awarded the purple heart, and this is the way he was treated? One of TN's own? Some fucking "volunteer state"! Volunteering apparently only goes one way.

Next time any war mongers makes a statement that they support the troops, this series will be held up to your face, expecting to know why you have allowed this to happen, and continue for so long.

McCain's Contortions

What happens when a candidate is not truly viewed as being a conservative, but wants the conservative voter base? If you are John McCain, you pander to that base by making statements such as Roe should be overturned.

Why do I claim he's pandering? Let's not forget that supreme-leader of the wingnuttier segment of our population, James "Pain is a Marvelous Purifier" Dobson will not support McCain.

McCain is trying to build support among conservatives after a recent rebuke from Christian leader James Dobson, who said he wouldn't back McCain's presidential bid. Conservatives question McCain's opposition to a constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage. He opposes same-sex marriage, but says it should be regulated by the states.

We also need to look at what the people think of McCain. As Jonathan points out, a CBS poll shows that only 28% of registered voters see McCain as being actually conservative. Thus the need to make statements that will appease those that want to regulate a woman's body, which was not his stance previously.

It's funny that Captain's Quarters doesn't note McCain's flip-flopping on the abortion issue, apparently taking McCain at his word, but rather focuses on McCain's flip-flopping on reactivist judges instead, lamenting on the reactivist judges that were "thrown under the bus by the gang of 14."

In contrast, while I generally feel Hillary is not a good choice to lead this country at this time, she won't apologize for her original vote on Iraq. In fact, she pretty much told those that want her to apologize or even justify her reasons for her original vote, to vote for someone else. I'll give her this much, that was a pretty damn honest, from the gut statement, that is lacking from political campaigns.

My interest in McCain's posturing is not that I think he has a chance, hell, the man has a snowball's chance in hell, in getting the repugnut nomination. What I'm finding so interesting is his contortions in trying to energize a group of people that are not the majority of this country, and would do nothing to further his political desires.