I, for one, am not all that sympathetic

In the middle of a recession a federal judge from Connecticut is resigning because he can't seem to get by on his salary of $169,300; an income that, without any additions and I'm sure he has some, puts him well within the top 5%. Of course, he is a Republican!

Credit where credit is due

Assuming that the story that yesterday's commutation of sentence for the two US Border Patrol ex-officers convicted of covering up the murder of a Mexican drug dealer are indeed the last of Captain Codpiece's acts of mercy I have to congratulate him on getting it just right. Unlike Bill Clinton's distasteful final flourish the Captain has been sparing and, thankfully, avoided the wholesale, pre-emptive pardons of his criminal cronies, including "I'm a Big" Dick Cheney and "Gone-zo" Gonzales, the rabid right wing has been trying to push him to making.

Even the fact that he commuted the sentences of the two ex-border guards, who had become poster children for the wing nut community, rather than pardoning their crime is, I believe, the right thing.

So let it never be said that I never complemented Captain Codpiece on anything; even though it had to wait for his ultimate day!

Today in infamy

10 years ago today, at the behest of a Spanish judge, British police arrested alleged war criminal Augusto Pinochet in a London hospital. I would think that "I'm a Big" Dick Cheney should consider his future movements carefully!

Elsewhere in good news...

...the unelected House of Lords has come to the aid of the British people by forcing Gordo to abandon his plans for 42 day detention without charge. One small step for freedom...

Reassuring words

I have just finished reading Philippe Sands's excellent and disturbing book Torture Team: Deception, Cruelty and the Compromise of Law Philippe Sands. In it the eminent human rights attorney, who used to share chambers with St. Tony's wife Cherie Booth (whatever did they talk about), tracks the involvement of the lawyers in the American path to torture and violations of international law. In one of the later chapters Mr. Sands discusses with an unnamed Judge and prosecutor from a NATO country the possible expose of these seven or eight people to international prosecution. In the words of the Judge:

"It's a matter of time, these things take time. And then something unexpected happens, when one of these lawyers travels to the wrong place."

So we have something to look forward to then.

By the way if you have read Mr. Sands's other equally disturbing book Lawless World it is well worth a read as well.

How many divisions does Judge Bates have?

A US Federal judge has ruled that Captain Codpiece's evil minions are not above the law but as the Imperial argument has been that judges have no role in deciding the issue I can't see how it will come to much. His Imperial Majesty George the Last will simply ignore it one would think.

"Whatever you do don't mention the CIA...

...I did it once and I'm still stuck at the Guantánamo Bay Beach and Leisure Club.

Log Cabin Republicans need not apply

Under the brutally efficient regime of Monica Goodling at the US Department of (In)Justice not only did one have to be loyal, rabid, right wing Republican to get or keep a job one had to be straight too! I'll bet that we eventually find out that one had to be right handed as well.

Put your head between your knees...

...and kiss your habeas corpus goodbye. Despite all his fine talk it appears that Captain Codpiece has no intentions to follow the law despite the Supreme Court's unequivocal ruling!

Shari'a law comes to Louisiana

The truly frightening Governor of Louisiana and rumoured Republican VP contender Bobby Jindal has signed into law a bill that will see convicted rapists and other sect offenders chemically castrated, possibly after a first offence. Now I consider rape to be a truly horrible crime and those guilty off it certainly need to be punished but to do that by reverting to the practices of millennia past is hardly the mark of a civilised nation.

This is just one expert's opinion - your experience may vary

The rabidly right wing sober and moderate Murdoch owned Faux Street Journal seeks out the patron saint of torture, John Yoo, so that he may explain to us the irreparable damage done to America by the freedom hating members of the Supreme Court of the United States who voted in the majority in Boumediene v. Bush. And who better indeed?

Shorter Conrad Black

"American judges are way too stupid to try the likes of me!"

"If we showed you we'd have to kill you!"*

When US Military's Office of Show Trials Military Commissions told the Washington Post that detainees will have the right to see classified information presented to the juries that will be convicting them with "no exceptions" what they really meant that detainees will have no rights to see classified information nor will they necessarily be able to question their torturers interrogators. Justice, American Style.

*Note: we reserve the right to kill you anyway.

Get your fear out!

Great American Newt "I'm an Amphibian Not a Reptile" Gingrich has decided that the US Supreme Court's recent decision in Boumediene v. Bush is the "the most extraordinarily arrogant and destructive decision the Supreme Court has made in its history" and that it could cost us a city. Not New Orleans though; that's already spoken for.

Topsy turvy world

An ostensibly left wing government, if only by American standards, has just pushed its draconian 42 day detention without charge bill through the lower house of Parliament. New Labour's probable replacement, the right wing Tories, plans not just to scrap the 42 day limit but to reduce the limit below the current 28 days! I knew I shouldn't have had the mushroom omelet for breakfast.

1,000 reasons John McCain shouldn't be President

Number 49: he hates the Magna Carta. His comments on the Supreme Court decision in Boumediene v. Bush say it all as he said that the court had "rendered a decision yesterday that I think is one of the worst decisions in the history of this country". Dred Scott v. Sanford is outraged!

I thought these guys were bought and paid for

Why does the Supreme Court of the US hate freedom so much that they would dare to rule that the guilty evildoers held forever without charge at the luxurious Guantánamo Bay Beach and Leisure Resort have the right to access to civilian courts in order to contest their internment? Apparently these misguided justices believe that the framers of the Constitution intended for evil doers to have rights. I am shocked, appalled and not a little disappointed.

R.I.P.

Habeas corpus - (c. 1215 - 2008). It is fitting I suppose that, bring back memories of the last days of John Major's premiership, Gord-o only won because of the support of the Democratic Unionist Party.

A sad day indeed. Hopefully the House of Lords is not as foolish.

"As soon as the kangaroos arrive we'll be ready to start"

Authorities at the palatial Guantánamo Bay Beach and Leisure Resort have had to dismiss judge Colonel Peter E. Brownback III from his role as the chief judge. Although no explanations were given for putting Col. Brownback on gardening leave it appears that amongst other things he was insisting that the prosecutors turn over evidence to the defence teams and that he was resisting the carefully worked out schedule that would see the first convictions verdicts come in time for the coronation of President John McCain in November!

As if we need evidence! These men are evil doers and we all know it. Why else would the US government be financing their six or seven year long holidays in Cuba?

Isn't there a crime here?

The Washington Post carries a story about a legal Ghanaian US resident, Yusif Osman, who was taken into immigration custody over possible smuggling charges and then died when he was essentially refused medical care. If there isn't a crime, why not? If nothing else there is certainly criminal neglect of someone for whom the guard and the nurse had a duty of care.