Christmas is now coming up fast. There is always something you forgot and will have to get at the very last minute, there are expectations mostly too high to be met. We had our Christmas present early, this year. Our friends visiting us, after nine years of no see, was really an unexpected but highly cherished treat. They are now on their way back to the United States and I hope they will arrive there safely. So, what’s in the News? With the Christmas Season in full swing and politicians and parliaments out of their respective haunts, not so very much: The Sunday Times examines the case of the destroyed torture tapes and accuses President George W. Bush of war crimes:
Any reasonable person examining all the evidence we have – without any bias – would conclude that the overwhelming likelihood is that the president of the United States authorised illegal torture of a prisoner and that the evidence of the crime was subsequently illegally destroyed.
and…
It’s a potential Watergate. But this time the crime is not a two-bit domestic burglary. It’s a war crime that reaches into the very heart of the Oval Office.
The current administration’s disregard for habeas corpus is mirrored by Reuters covering the original New York Times story about J. Edgar Hoover seeking to illegally detain some 12′000 Americans for “disloyalty”. But there is no proof that President Truman intended to follow Hoover’s advice to suspend constitutional rights.
In order to make effective these apprehensions, the proclamation suspends the Writ of Habeas Corpus,” Hoover’s proposal said, referring to the right to seek relief from illegal detention, a centuries-old fundamental principle of law. According to the Constitution, habeas corpus must prevail “unless when in cases of rebellion or invasion, the public safety may require it.” But Hoover’s proposal broadened that to include “threatened invasion” or “attack upon United States troops in legally occupied territory,” the Times said.
Ring a bell? Why bring up a three days old story about missing teenager Natalee Holloway? Because of this:
In an Internet chat shortly after the May 30, 2005, disappearance of Natalee Holloway on Aruba, one of the three main suspects in the case said the Alabama teenager was dead, the island’s chief public prosecutor told CNN on Thursday.
and…
New technology that was not available to authorities in 2005 was utilized to find that chat and more between two of the three suspects as well as others, he said.
What new technology? And , hey, they still know what you said last summer and the summer before! This is scary, they can trace back your internet activity for two years? And finally some good news. Japan steadfastly refuses to give up whale-hunting. But this time international pressure has been too much. They suspended the hunchback whale hunting at least for this year. “Europeanview” wishes you all a very peaceful Sunday and take care!
11 Comments
December 23, 2007 at 11:17 am
Thank you for the post EV, good to read you here..Sending Blessings and Peace…
December 23, 2007 at 11:24 am
Good morning witch1, how are you doing ? I missed being here but I enjoyed having my friends here and taking care of Christmas preparations for the kids and us, too. I have a tree up for the first time ever, before the 24th. Normally we are dashing to make it happen on Christmas eve and everybody is exhausted then, this year we decided to go about it in a different manner and its very relaxing.
December 23, 2007 at 11:35 am
The sad truth is, even with the destruction of evidence which would prove international war crimes occured, Impeachment remains off the table.
Pelosi won’t even allow any investigation or inquiry hearings into Impeachment.
Why the refusal to bring light to the truth? Could it be that Congress acquiesced to these crimes? Are Pelosi and other Democratic leaders just as guilty as Bush & Co?
At this point, the Democratic leadership is complicit in the cover-up and derelict in their duty to uphold the Constitution.
So, too, is our “free press.” Missing this time are the hard-hitting investigative reports that instigated the fall of the Nixon Whitehouse.
December 23, 2007 at 11:58 am
So, too, is our “free press.” Missing this time are the hard-hitting investigative reports that instigated the fall of the Nixon Whitehouse.
I believe this can be attributed to media consolidation, and the decision by those fewer media owners that news divisions would have to start showing a profit or be scaled back. The Congress has allowed them to abuse their licenses for free air waves (they pay nothing, or next to nothing, for those frequencies, for which they were expected to provide informative programming, such as news.) The main difference between investigative reporters back in 1973 and today is that Woodward and Bernstein were not expected to make a profit on their story, just get the truth. Today, the truth matters very little to most of the mainstream media, just “market share”.
December 23, 2007 at 12:09 pm
J. Edgar Hoover – he must have been Cheney’s idol.
December 23, 2007 at 12:33 pm
EV, you were missed…So glad you had a viset with old friend’s….Those are the cherished moment’s..
I am doing fine, just finished up my Yule and full moon celebration’s…One more thing I am grateful for was the stopping of the killing’s of humpback whale’s…Now if the world would stop killing people, wolves, seal pup’s and anything that move’s I would realy be happy…
Sunday Morning had a short clip of James Taylor this morning and he sang a few bar’s of a song I loved the most by him..Can’t remember the name but a few word’s come to mind.” I alway’s thought I’de see you again”…..Some how it fit’s all the stuff going on now….Including my recurrent night mare’s…..I keep hoping I will see justice return to our country and around the world, even though I know it will be a long hard struggle before it happen’s…..I think of all the famalie’s who have lost loved one’s, thinking and hopeing they would see them again….I think of all the million’s of people here and around the world that are displaced wishing and hopeing their world will be righted and some how their live’s will return to some kind of normalcy….And then I light candle’s for relief of all suffering, against all odd’s in time it will happen…
I am blessed and grateful for my few friend’s, my daily simple life and all the wonderful tree’s…Imagine my little crew is grateful for me as their house keeper and benafacter of good food and lodging…
Not going to be here much for awhile, working on huge project’s…..I send Blessings to all and ask forgiveness for the lengthy post.
December 23, 2007 at 2:27 pm
Great roundup ev! That story of J. Edgar Hoover was especially unnerving.
December 23, 2007 at 6:16 pm
To each of our critters around the World, I wish:
Frohe Weihnachten!
Feliz Navidad
or a Merry Christmas!
December 23, 2007 at 7:59 pm
Witch1 – I believe the name of the song is “Fire and Rain” by James Taylor.
“I’ve seen fire and I’ve seen rain,
I’ve seen sunny days that I though would never end.
I’ve seen lonely times when I could not find a friend,
But I’ve always thought that I would see you again.”
I think I got the words right.
December 23, 2007 at 8:00 pm
Walt – Is your gravatar a picture that was drawn by that cute granddaughter of yours?
December 24, 2007 at 11:14 am
Thank You Coffins, that’s the song…..My life has been surrounded by music…Many of the song’s I have forgoten the name’s of and who did them but the music and a few lines alway’s come to mind….Some people hear voice’s in their head’s and are called crazy, I hear music and lyric’s so must be realy out there….Blessing and a Merry Christmas to all that celebrate this event….