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Saturday, July 25, 2009
Incomprehensible Gitmo Case: 12-Year-Old Tortured
A U.S. district court judge expressed “outrage” over the Justice Department’s admission that it does not have enough evidence to continue the detention of a teenager as an “enemy combatant” in Guantanamo Bay.
Judge Ellen Segal Huvelle said in a ruling Friday that the case against Mohammed Jawad is “gutted” because Jawad allegedly confessed under torture by Afghan officials that he had thrown a grenade at U.S. troops, according to a report by McClatchy Newspapers. Jawad was just 12 at the time, according to his lawyers, though the Pentagon says he was 16 or 17.
“Without his statements, I don’t understand your case,” the judge said, according to reporter Marisa Taylor. “Sir, the facts can only get smaller, not bigger. . . . Face it, this case is in trouble. . . . Seven years and this case is riddled with holes.”
“She then urged the lawyers to ‘let him out. Send him back to Afghanistan,’” the article continued.
link: Raw Story » US judge: Case against Gitmo inmate is ‘gutted’ over tortured ‘confession’
Texas Gov. May Say "No" To Health Care; Texas Tops Nation in Uninsured
The governor of Texas has threatened a showdown with the Obama administration over the president’s proposals for healthcare reform, according to a published report.
Rick Perry — who is facing a reelection fight against fellow Texas Republican, Senator Kay Baily Hutchison, and 2006 gubernatorial candidate Kinky Friedman, who will attempt to run as a Democrat — made the remarks Thursday while speaking to Mark Davis, a conservative talk show host on Dallas station WBAP/820 AM, according to The Fort Worth Star-Telegram.
“I think you’ll hear states and governors standing up and saying ‘no’ to this type of encroachment on the states with their healthcare,” he reportedly said. “So my hope is that we never have to have that stand-up. But I’m certainly willing and ready for the fight if this administration continues to try to force their very expansive government philosophy down our collective throats.”
While the uninsured still have access to hospital emergency rooms should the need arise, but face being buried under a mountain of debt if they do.
Texas’ population has a higher percentage of uninsured citizens than any other state.
link: Raw Story » Texas Gov. threatens showdown over national healthcare
Better That Than a "One-Eyed Scottish Idiot": Genteel Politics in the UK
THE BBC has been plunged into a new controversy after Top Gear presenter Jeremy Clarkson used the most offensive swear word in the English language to describe British Prime Minister Gordon Brown in front of a studio audience.
Clarkson called Mr Brown a c--t during the show's recording on Wednesday night.
Although some in the audience reportedly burst out laughing at his comments, BBC2 controller Janice Hadlow later gave Clarkson a "dressing down" in front of crew, the Daily Mail reports.
He is also understood to have made similarly offensive remarks about Mr Brown to an audience during the show's filming earlier this month.
The 49-year-old host's remarks come less than six months after he was forced to apologise for calling Mr Brown a 'one-eyed Scottish idiot' during an interview in Australia.
link: Jeremy Clarkson's swearing attack on Gordon Brown | News.com.au Top stories | News.com.au
Michael de Broin: Superficial
CrookedBrains writes:
'Superficial' is the creation of Michel de Broin. It was created as an attempt to reflect on the notion of transparency, which took shape in the forest of Vosges, Alsace, France. He used a large stone that was tucked away deep in the woods; using mirror, glue and cement he made the rock disappear and in turn it reflected the natural surroundings. He is born in Montreal, lives and works in Montreal and Berlin.
link: Superficial. Zelaya Crosses Border into Honduras, Briefly
Honduras' deposed president has made a brief return to his country from Nicaragua, nearly four weeks after he was forced from power in a military-backed coup.
Manuel Zelaya walked from the Nicaraguan town of Los Manos to the frontier on Friday, and stepped a few metres beyond a chain marking the border, before being blocked by Honduran army troops.
Honduras' security forces had been instructed by the military-backed interim government to arrest Zelaya if he entered the country, but they did not move against him.
After speaking to journalists, Zelaya then walked back onto Nicaraguan soil, to await members of his family who are on the Honduran side of the border.
Police later fired tear gas at people supporting Zelaya who had walked to within 10km of the border, in defiance of a curfew.
link: Al Jazeera English - Americas - Zelaya makes brief Honduras return
RIP E. Lynn Harris, Author
E. Lynn Harris, whose novels about successful and glamorous black men with sexual identity conflicts (and the women and men who love them) made him one of the nation’s most popular writers, died in Los Angeles on Thursday. He was 54 and lived in Atlanta.
A spokeswoman for the Los Angeles County coroner said the cause of death had not yet been determined.
Mr. Harris fell briefly ill earlier in the week on a train to Los Angeles, said Laura Gilmore, a publicist for Mr. Harris, but he had seen a doctor and everything seemed fine. She said she had spoken to him by phone at his hotel Thursday evening and had no inkling of a problem. He died shortly thereafter.
“A doctor was called and couldn’t revive him,” Ms. Gilmore said.
link: E. Lynn Harris, Who Wrote of Gay Black Men’s Lives, Dies at 54 - Obituary (Obit) - NYTimes.com
Fish, and Visions, Vanishing from the Amazon
Elizabeth Rosenthal writes:
Deforestation and, some scientists contend, global climate change are making the Amazon region drier and hotter, decimating fish stocks in this area and imperiling the Kamayurá’s very existence. Like other small indigenous cultures around the world with little money or capacity to move, they are struggling to adapt to the changes.
“Us old monkeys can take the hunger, but the little ones suffer — they’re always asking for fish,” said Kotok, the tribe’s chief, who stood in front of a hut containing the tribe’s sacred flutes on a recent evening. He wore a white T-shirt over the tribe’s traditional dress, which is basically nothing.
Chief Kotok, who like all of the Kamayurá people goes by only one name, said that men can now fish all night without a bite in streams where fish used to be abundant; they safely swim in lakes previously teeming with piranhas.
Responsible for 3 wives, 24 children and hundreds of other tribe members, he said his once-idyllic existence had turned into a kind of bad dream.
“I’m stressed and anxious — this has all changed so quickly, and life has become very hard,” he said in Portuguese, speaking through an interpreter. “As a chief, I have to have vision and look down the road, but I don’t know what will happen to my children and grandchildren.”
link: As Trees Fall in the Amazon, Fears That Tribes Won’t Be Heard - NYTimes.com
