XPost: alt.politics.socialism, alt.politics.economics, alt.politics.media   
   From: efreem2@alumni.umbc.edu   
      
   Neurotic: A person who worries about things that   
   didn't happen in the past . . .   
   instead of worrying about something   
   that won't happen in the future . . .   
   like normal people.   
      
   *.*   
      
   Oneliners:   
      
   If something goes without saying, let it!   
      
   Regular naps prevent old age, especially if you take them while   
   driving.   
      
   If you want a new idea, read an old book.   
      
   Quick!! Act as if nothing has happened!   
      
   If your plan is having no plan, do you have a plan?   
      
   I have not yet begun to procrastinate   
      
   You can't make your candle burn brighter by blowing out the other   
   fellow's.   
      
   *.*   
      
   Sing for Beer   
      
   DOH - The stuff that buys me beer.   
   RAY - The guy who sells me beer.   
   ME - The guys who drinks the beer.   
   FAR - A long way to get beer.   
   SO - I'll have another beer.   
   LA - I'll have another beer.   
   TEA - No thanks I'm drinking beer.   
      
   and that brings me back to DOH!   
      
      
   My boyfriend is not too bright but I love the guy.   
   We go into this trophy shop   
   because my basketball team won second place.   
      
   We were in this shop and there are trophies everywhere.   
      
   My boyfriend looks around and says,   
   "This guy is really good.   
      
   *.*   
      
   You come into this world with nothing,   
   and you leave with nothing.   
   Except, when you leave . . . you have to pay taxes on it.   
      
      
   I have learned a great deal about myself from my Inbox.   
   According to my junk e-mail,   
   I'm bald, impotent and in need of constant refinancing   
      
      
   Starbucks says they are going to start putting   
   religious quotes on cups. The very first one will say,   
   "Jesus this stuff is expensive!"   
      
   *.*   
      
   The Pasta Diet   
      
   1) You walka pasta the bakery.   
   2) You walka pasta the candy store.   
   3) You walka pasta the Ice Cream shop.   
   4) You walka pasta the table and fridge.   
      
   Issue of the Times;   
   The US of Tyranny by Christopher Manion   
      
   I never thought that I'd have to write this about that land that I love.   
      
   But now there's no escaping the fact that our government possesses   
   tyrannical powers that are unchecked by appeal to the "independent"   
   courts.   
      
   How this president, and future ones, will use that power is unknown. As   
   the   
   historian Charles Burton Marshall once famously said, "there's no such   
   thing   
   as the foreseeable future."   
      
   But what I have learned from people I trust tells me that the future of   
   our   
   liberties is in grave peril.   
      
   For instance, consider the Founding Fathers. They made it clear that the   
   greatest danger to liberty was not England, or Islam, or Indians, or any   
   foreign foe. The greatest enemy was government - our government, driven by   
   lust for lucre and power, breaking through the firm constitutional fences   
   that the Founders placed around it.   
      
   Our Founders' biggest nightmare was the prospect of an executive with   
   totally unlimited power. They relied on the dominant powers of the   
   legislature, facing frequent election by the "virtuous people" of   
   Federalist   
   57, who would also keep their representatives in line.   
      
   And consider the trustworthy conservative stalwart, Paul Weyrich. He often   
   admonishes well-meaning but ungrounded conservatives: "do not give to your   
   friend any power that may someday fall into the hands of your enemy."   
      
   Against the grain of those dire warnings, past and present, the Bush   
   Administration has claimed, and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th   
   Circuit has just confirmed, the unlimited power of the executive to do   
   anything it wants to in the name of "national security."   
      
   Anyone - whether a foreigner or an American citizen - can be kidnapped, at   
   home or abroad, either by a foreign government at the request of the U.S.   
   government, by an agent or employee(s) of the U.S. government or by of the   
   U.S. government itself. That person can then be transported anywhere in   
   the   
   world, imprisoned indefinitely, kept from any outside contact, tortured,   
   even killed.   
      
   All in the name of "national security."   
      
   And there is nothing you can do about it.   
      
   The case in question was filed by one Khaled El-Masri - but it could have   
   happened to anybody. El-Masri is a German citizen who says he was   
   kidnapped,   
   jailed, and tortured by the CIA in Europe. The Court's opinion, which is   
   well worth reading in full, narrates El Masri's claims:   
      
   [O]n December 31, 2003, while travelling in Macedonia, he was detained by   
   Macedonian law enforcement officials; after twenty-three days in   
   Macedonian   
   custody, he was handed over to CIA operatives, who flew him to a   
   CIA-operated detention facility near Kabul, Afghanistan; he was held in   
   this   
   CIA facility until May 28, 2004, when he was transported to Albania and   
   released in a remote area; and Albanian officials then picked him up and   
   took him to an airport in Tirana, Albania, from which he travelled to his   
   home in Germany.   
      
   El-Masri was released because the CIA finally realized they thought he was   
   somebody else. "Oops! We tortured the wrong man. Sorry."   
      
   According the New York Times, "in June 2006, a report issued by the   
   Council   
   of Europe concluded that Mr. Masri's account of having been abducted and   
   mistreated was substantially accurate. In January, a German court issued   
   arrest warrants for 13 people it said were involved in the matter.   
   Prosecutors would not identify the suspects."   
      
   According to German news reports, "Senior US diplomats" tried to reverse   
   the   
   German government's decision to prosecute those involved. The German   
   government refused, as the Italian government did in a similar recent   
   case.   
      
   The CIA has had more success in the United States courts than it did in   
   Germany and Italy. Even though it refuses to confirm or deny any part of   
   Mr.   
   El-Masri's story, it has nonetheless demanded that the U.S. Federal Courts   
   throw the case down the Memory Hole. In particular, it opposed El Masri's   
   appeal.   
      
   The unanimous decision of the Court of Appeals granting the CIA request is   
   very readable - at least for Kafka fans. In 24 calm and careful pages, the   
   court methodically closes off every avenue that any victim of kidnapping,   
   imprisonment, torture, or even murder might use to seek justice under   
   American law. The rule is ironclad: if the government asserts that such an   
   effort will reveal "state secrets," the revelation of which would violate   
   the "national interest," or be harmful to "national security," the Court   
   is   
   required to vacate the case, and let the Government off scot-free.   
      
   Which is exactly what the unanimous appeals court did last Friday.   
      
   Like all ideological arguments, the Court's opinion is very logical, once   
   one accepts the axiomatic preambles. In this case, the Court clearly   
   identifies the axiom: the Court is bound to trust the Executive Branch,   
   when   
   the chips are down, without question. It cannot use its own independent   
   judgment regarding the evidence, or lack thereof, regarding the   
   government's   
   assertion of "state secrets" that might be divulged at trial. In fact, it   
   cannot even see the evidence, much less question it.   
      
      
   [continued in next message]   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)