King George Wins Wiretapping For All Foreigners

Associated Press
House Approves Foreign Wiretap Bill

WASHINGTON –

The House handed President Bush a victory Saturday, voting to expand the government’s abilities to eavesdrop without warrants on foreign suspects whose communications pass through the United States.

The 227-183 vote, which followed the Senate’s approval Friday, sends the bill to Bush for his signature. He had urged Congress to approve it, saying Saturday, “Protecting America is our most solemn obligation.”

Oh well.  What did you really expect?  FISA  neutered,  the 4th Amendment a memory.

The administration said the measure is needed to speed the National Security Agency’s ability to intercept phone calls, e-mails and other communications involving foreign nationals “reasonably believed to be outside the United States.” Civil liberties groups and many Democrats said it goes too far, possibly enabling the government to wiretap U.S. residents communicating with overseas parties without adequate oversight from courts or Congress.

The 227-183 vote, which followed the Senate’s approval Friday, sends the bill to Bush for his signature.

10:38 P.M. –

On agreeing to the resolution Agreed to without objection.

10:37 P.M. –

Considered as privileged matter. On approving the Journal Agreed to by the Yeas and Nays: 205 – 187 (Roll no. 837).

S. 1927:

to amend the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978 to provide additional procedures for authorizing certain acquisitions of foreign intelligence information and for other purposes

(Click here to see how everyone voted) 

Many congressional Democrats wanted tighter restrictions on government surveillance, but yielded in the face of Bush’s veto threats and the impending August recess.

“This bill would grant the attorney general the ability to wiretap anybody, any place, any time without court review,  without any checks and balances,”  said Rep. Zoe Lofgren,  D-Calif.,  during the debate preceding the vote.   “I think this unwarranted, unprecedented measure would simply eviscerate the 4th Amendment,”  which prohibits unreasonable searches and seizures.

The House of Faux Representatives must have a VERY good reason to appease the King.  I am sure the Sunday morning talk shows will be filled with excuses and explanations.  This bill is a great tool not bound by accountability.  Gonzales  will be the decider when and where to use his expanded powers.  Woe, I mean Wow,  I feel safer already.  Time to learn sign language.  I think I’ll wear moccasins, too.  They make no sound as you tiptoe across the border into Canada.

Transexual Pakistani Update

Jailed same-sex couple appeal to Musharraf

A court on Monday jailed Pakistan’s first publicly acknowledged same-sex couple for three years for perjury – prompting the defendants to ask the president for help.

The couple clutched at each others arms with expressions of disbelief on their faces, but vowed their love would survive the separation.

The couple, who married last year, had approached the Lahore High Court for protection against harassment by Tariq’s relatives. However, the judge accused them of lying about the gender of Raj, 31.

Same-sex marriage case: Transsexual Shumail Raj freed on bail

* Shahzina’s father threatens to ‘teach the couple a lesson’

LAHORE: Shumail Raj, a transsexual who is the centre of same-sex marriage and is sentenced for perjury, was released on bail from the Kot Lakhpat jail on Monday.
The prison authorities let Shumail leave with his mother and brother and the family immediately left for Faisalabad.

The Lahore High Court (LHC) sentenced Shumail to three years of imprisonment on May 28. The prison authorities had confined him to a separate room in the women’s block and had treated him as a woman. His perjury sentence was appealed at the Supreme Court, which allowed him bail. However, even after the bail grant, Shumail was kept in custody because he could not come up with bail bonds. After an 18-day period of being granted bail, his mother was able to take him home.

When approached by reporters, his mother and brother refused to comment. However, Shumail expressed happiness over the release. He said Shahzina’s (counterpart in the same-sex marriage) father was threatening him and asking him to put his act together or else he would “teach the couple a lesson”. He also said that the threats would not stop him from continuing to fight the case, however he demanded police protection.

He alleged that the Kot Lakhpat jail’s administration tortured him mentally by tying him up and locking him in a separate cell.

The case started with Shumail and Shahzina, who got married on September 9, 2006, reporting to the sessions court that Shahzina’s father, Tariq Hussain and a couple of policemen were harassing them. The additional sessions judge (ASJ) ruled in the couple’s favour, however the pestering continued. The couple then appealed to the LHC. When the matter came to LHC, Tariq told the judge that Shumail was a transman, earlier named Nazia, and he had had his breasts and uterus removed. The judge directed for confirmation and Tariq’s allegation proved to be correct.

Related stories and references

• Shumail Raj and Shehzina Tariq: An identity under scrutiny
• ACTION ALERT: PAKISTAN: TRANSGENDER HUSBAND AND HIS WIFE SEPARATED AND IMPRISONED
• SC ORDERS FOR RELEASE ON BAIL TWO GIRLS INVOLVED IN SAME SEX MARRIAGE

ISLAMABAD, June 28: Supreme Court has suspended 3-year punishment awarded by Lahore High Court to two girls Shumail Raj and Shazia Tariq on their involvement in same sex marriage and issued orders for their release on bail against surety bonds of Rs 50,000 each besides admitting their appeal for regular hearing. Dr Babar Awan appeared on behalf of Shumail Raj and Shazia Tariq. He argued that one could be sentenced to 7 years term if one was charge sheeted or to jail term of 3 months if one was not charge sheeted. The decision given by the judge of Lahore High Court reflects that he indicted them in haste and anger and then awarded punishment. Justice Sardar Muhammad Raza Khan observed it was incomprehensible to him if both were girls then why one of them was sent to male ward and other in female ward.

This is an interesting development in Islamic Law. The conflict between democratic espoused human rights versus Pakistani Islamic legal system seems to be ongoing. If Islamic culture allows parents to take the law into their own hands, then there is no law. Respect for a constitution based legal system takes second place to religious law in a Theocracy. There may as well be no constitution at all. This is what could happen in America if we don’t open our eyes and protect our constitution from religious interlopers.

Bush Wants To Listen And Watch Our Every Word

Bush urges Congress to pass wiretap bill

Lawmakers hustle to act before recess

By Charlie Savage, Globe Staff  |  August 3, 2007

WASHINGTON — Congress is rushing to expand the military’s authority to wiretap phone calls and e-mails on US soil. The Bush administration, warning that terrorists may soon attack again, is pressuring lawmakers to approve the legislation before they leave town this weekend for their annual August vacations.

The proposal, the details of which remain murky, had received little public discussion before this week and has not undergone the normal committee review process. It would apparently give the National Security Agency legal approval to resume one type of the warrantless wiretapping that President Bush authorized after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.

Doesn’t history remind us that Stalin and Hitler built excuses to spy on their own people to control anyone who opposed their political agendas.  What will your congressman do?  Do you have representation?  Are our ‘inalienable rights’  a terrorist conspiracy?  Our Founding Fathers would be in Guantanamo for fighting for ‘inalienable rights’ as Americans!

Bush, the reincarnation of Hitler,  does this all because his imaginary God has spoken to him and given him the Armageddon Agenda. 

Happy Afghans – Happy Taliban – Buying Power

Another record poppy crop in Afghanistan

WASHINGTON (AP) — Afghanistan will produce another record poppy harvest this year that cements its status as the world’s near-sole supplier of the heroin source, yet a furious debate over how to reverse the trend is stalling proposals to cut the crop, U.S. officials say. As President Bush prepares for weekend talks with Afghan President Hamid Karzai, divisions within the U.S. administration and among NATO allies have delayed release of a $475 million counternarcotics program for Afghanistan, where intelligence officials see growing links between drugs and the Taliban, the officials said.

… counterdrug proposals by some U.S. officials have met fierce resistance, including boosting the amount of forcible poppy field destruction in provinces that grow the most, officials said. The approach also would link millions of dollars in development aid to benchmarks on eradication; arrests and prosecutions of narcotraders, corrupt officials; and on alternative crop production.

<<<<<<<<<<<<<>>>>>>>>>>>

“Afghanistan is providing close to 95 percent of the world’s heroin,” the State Department’s top counternarcotics official, Tom Schweich, said at a recent conference. “That makes it almost a sole-source supplier” and presents a situation “unique in world history.”   (entire article)

So, here we go again. Just like Viet Nam (remember that one?) the CIA was an accomplice with the drug cartel of SE Asia. What makes this any different?   We talk big, but the bottom line is, to make the local war lords happy we must allow their economy to flourish. They let us destroy a field here and there to show the media, but the big money always wins. They must also line the pockets of the Narcotics Police – it’s economics after all!

Following The Yellow Brick Road Makes Enemies Stronger

The Pashtun time bomb

The alarming growth of Al Qaeda and the Taliban in the Pashtun tribal region of northwest Pakistan and southern Afghanistan is usually attributed to the popularity of their messianic brand of Islam and to covert help from Pakistani intelligence agencies.

But another, more ominous reason also explains their success: their symbiotic relationship with a simmering Pashtun separatist movement that could lead to the unification of the estimated 41 million Pashtuns on both sides of the border, the breakup of Pakistan and Afghanistan, and the emergence of a new national entity, “Pashtunistan,” under radical Islamist leadership.

Pakistan and Afghanistan are fragile, multiethnic states. Ironically, by ignoring ethnic factors and defining the struggle with jihadists mainly in military terms, the United States is inadvertently helping Al Qaeda and the Taliban capture the leadership of Pashtun nationalism. (entire article)

I could while away the hours
Conferrin’ with the flowers
Consultin’ with the rain
And my head, I’d be scratchin’
While my thoughts were busy hatchin’
If I only had a brain.

Are we living in OZ?  Are we Munchkins running toward the Land of Oz: a fantasy region containing four countries under the rule of one monarch?  The United States is on a collision course with reality.   Other countries that occupy the same planet, are holding their breath to see if America will return from the alternate reality imposed on the American population and the world.   The USA has emboldened the occupants of that nether world between Pakistan and Afghanistan.

In the conventional wisdom, either Islamist or Pashtun identity will triumph, but a more plausible possibility is that the result could be what the former Pakistani diplomat Hussain Haqqani has called an “Islamic Pashtunistan.”

Pashtuns being the largest single ethnic group in Afghanistan, bitterly resent the disproportionate influence enjoyed by the Tajik ethnic minority in the Karzai regime, a legacy of U.S. collaboration with Tajik militias in overthrowing the Taliban.  Pashtunsalso feel that they have been the main victims of U.S.-NATO bombing attacks on the Taliban, who are largely Pashtuns and operate almost entirely in Pashtun territory. In one authoritative estimate, civilian casualties have numbered nearly 5,000 since 2001.

So, what does the US do?  It promotes further conflict that insures the “terror” threat does not fade.  The Republican Administration is fearful that their grip on World Domination remains justifiable.  Without a Terror Threat could we accidentally slip back into stability?.  Without a Terror Threat,  Republicans would loose their grip on the gullible voters.   After all,  there is a lot of taxpayer money money money to be pocketed. 

The Minnesota bridge is a fine example of where taxpayer dollars should be going,  not into the pockets of corrupt war profiteering buddies.  The billions of dollars that are wasted, lost or unaccounted for since the Terror War was hi-jacked to Iraq,  could be applied to countless US projects to protect our own infrastructure.  Take a VERY close look at what Congress is spending on right now!   They are appropriating money to fix that Minnesota Bridge.    Great afterthought, huh?

 

Tough Choices: Who Should We Fear, Them Or Us

Maliki: timetable for US withdrawal not possible

Iraqi PM says neither Baghdad nor Washington can set timetable for withdrawal of US troops from Iraq.

Collapsing Bridges vs. War in Iraq

The Bush administration’s spending priorities – including an estimated $1 trillion for an unnecessary war – will cost the lives not only of US soldiers and Iraqi civilians but American citizens who will die from a decaying infrastructure and other government neglect, argues Stephen Crockett.

Daily demonstrations of corporate corruption, political corruption, missing cash, misused assets, and general bribery reminiscent of third world dictatorships. Corruption is an epidemic in the United States of America. Why? The ’shock and awe’ of America’s decline is overwhelming. Republicans and Democrats share this disgusting tragedy. Republicans currently hold center stage and are too arrogant about being entitled to break every law this country has. Why? Aren’t tired of the word “FREEDOM” being used for everything from War to Viagra? What exactly are Americans FREE to do? Free to be lazy and complacent? Free to be led by the nose into total chaos by self-serving politicraps? America’s passion has been hi-jacked and is held hostage by political marketing!

Does anyone remember Nikita Khrushchev:

“Politicians are the same all over. They promise to build a bridge even where there is no river.”

He was the instigator of Soviet missile forces in Cuba and the Cuban missile crisis, the builder of the Berlin Wall, launched Sputnik and started the Cold War and the space race.  Nikita was a comic but worthy enemy.  His uneducated wisdom does ring true today.

We are victims of our own success and will be hung by our own rope, so espoused Nikita Khrushchev.

 

Letter From An American Muslim

As American as you are

Pious Christian and Jewish values are not inherently in conflict with American civic life, as secular folk tend to forget. Devout immigrant Muslims don’t belong? That ship has sailed. This is a letter to your beautiful heart: We are your blood, says Mohja Kahf.

Fayetteville, Arkansas – A certain Middle Eastern religion is much maligned in this country. Full of veils and mystery, it is widely seen as sexist. Often violent, sometimes manipulated by demagogues, it yet has sweetness at the core, and many people are turning to it in their search for meaning.

I’m talking about Christianity.

This Muslim squirms whenever secular friends – tolerant toward believers in Buddhism, Judaism, Hinduism, Islam and Native American spirituality – dismiss Christians with snorts of contempt. “It’s because the Christian right wants to take over this country,” they protest.

That may be, but it doesn’t justify trashing the religion and its spectrum of believers. Christianity has inspired Americans to the politics of abolition and civil rights, as well as to heinous acts. Christian values have motivated the Ku Klux Klan to burn houses, and Jimmy Carter to build them. You can’t say that when Christianity informs politics, only bad things happen.

This may strike you as odd coming from a Muslim. But it’s true: people of faith do not signify the apocalypse for democracy. And that goes for believing Muslims as much as for other religious folk. Muslims, in a very specific way, are not strangers in your midst. We are kin. Not just kin in the lovely way that all humans are. We carry pieces of your family story. (see entire letter)

This story is poignant because we do not hear from enough centrists.

All faiths have something to contribute to our spiritual well being, but lately the centrifuge has spun so fast that organized religion has been flung to the edges. It is refreshing to hear from someone who espouses a more thoughtful demonstration of their faith. This letter is so correct that middle eastern religions grew from the same root. The family tree whose limbs fight each other is no more than sibling rivalry. All those siblings appear to be trying to get special attention from the same parent.

God is supposed to be over ALL those who believe in God as their spiritual parent. What the hell, then, is an Army of God?   The idea that an army can battle in the name of God is an oxymoron. Religions should not to be used as weapons! What is the point? The world conflict we find ourselves in is NOT religious but political economics driven by marketing geniuses.

We are so naive to have fallen for the oldest magic trick, sleight of hand. They hand you a cat but call it a dog. The words of our political leaders when they talk about religion are designed to appeal to your inner-most beliefs so you don’t look at the facts. If you fall for this, then you contribute to the destruction of this world through ignorance. Politicians use marketing to get your vote and approval for their decisions. This is a marketing ploy. See it for what it is. Learn the facts, even if you have to dig for them. But don’t distort those facts through a religious filter.