Author Archives: Bob

Guantanamo calling… it might be for you

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This is bad.  From today’s Washington Post:

A draft Bush administration plan for special military courts seeks to expand the reach and authority of such "commissions" to include trials, for the first time, of people who are not members of al-Qaeda or the Taliban and are not directly involved in acts of international terrorism, according to officials familiar with the proposal.

The plan, which would replace a military trial system ruled illegal by the Supreme Court in June, would also allow the secretary of defense to add crimes at will to those under the military court’s jurisdiction. . .

[snip]

Under the proposed procedures, defendants would lack rights to confront accusers, exclude hearsay accusations, or bar evidence obtained through rough or coercive interrogations. They would not be guaranteed a public or speedy trial and would lack the right to choose their military counsel, who in turn would not be guaranteed equal access to evidence held by prosecutors.

Detainees would also not be guaranteed the right to be present at their own trials, if their absence is deemed necessary to protect national security or individuals.

Can you say junta?

Your president speaks

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Compiled by First Draft, from a Fox interview on Monday.  Examples include the classic:

But, you know, the words "amnesty" are loaded words.

Sigh.

I’m reminded of Mark Crispin Miller’s prescient observation about the precise moments of Bush’s verbal breakdowns, something I wish had been widely noted at the time:

Bush is. . . ludicrously incoherent when trying to fake compassion or idealism. This is someone who performs well when speaking as a punisher. He has mean instincts and is, therefore, able to speak cruelly without any syntactic or grammatical problems.

Not 100% but Bush has been pretty consistent ever since: lucid on war, capital punishment, and sports; a complete mess on anything requiring compassion.

Sigh.

Your president speaks

Posted on by

Compiled by First Draft, from a Fox interview on Monday.  Examples include the classic:

But, you know, the words "amnesty" are loaded words.

Sigh.

I’m reminded of Mark Crispin Miller’s prescient observation about the precise moments of Bush’s verbal breakdowns, something I wish had been widely noted at the time:

Bush is. . . ludicrously incoherent when trying to fake compassion or idealism. This is someone who performs well when speaking as a punisher. He has mean instincts and is, therefore, able to speak cruelly without any syntactic or grammatical problems.

Not 100% but Bush has been pretty consistent ever since: lucid on war, capital punishment, and sports; a complete mess on anything requiring compassion.

Sigh.