From the New York Times, word that Bush’s people are still making up new rules with international law:

A new legal opinion by the Bush administration has concluded for the first time that some non-Iraqi prisoners captured by American forces in Iraq are not entitled to the protections of the Geneva Conventions, administration officials said Monday.

Translation: Team Bush is again inventing its own right to Guantanamize people.  Read on.

The officials outlined the opinion on Monday in response to a report in The Washington Post over the weekend that the Central Intelligence Agency had secretly transferred a dozen non-Iraqi prisoners out of Iraq in the past 18 months, despite a provision in the conventions that bars civilians protected under the accords from being deported from occupied territories.

Translation: you thought we broke the rules?  Ha.  There are no rules.  We make the rules.

Whatever this election is to Americans, remember: to much of the rest of the world, it’s a referendum on Abu Ghraib, Guantanamo, and unilateral action after a stream of lies.  If we say we’re OK with all that, then that’s what the world is gonna see.

Our webmeister Colin, a native of splendid Victoria, BC, alerts us to the latest fashionable travel craze sweeping the lower 48: "flu cruises" in which Americans take advantage of not only scenery, but an actual functioning health care system.

VICTORIA – The shortage of flu vaccinations in the United States is creating a mini-travel boom for Victoria as an American ferry company is now booking flu cruises.

Clipper Navigation of Seattle is offering return fares from Seattle for $105 US, which includes a flu shot at the Clipper terminal in Victoria.

General manager Darrell Bryan says business has tripled since it started running its flu cruises last weekend.

"This has astounded us. We’ve got people coming in from as far away as Iowa [and] Arizona, and we’re of course getting most of western Washington, northern Oregon."

If you’re keeping score, over 1,000 American booked to the Seattle-to-Vancouver flu cruise in its first week of service.

Of course, we all know that the Canadian health care system is vastly inferior to our own, and anyone who would suggest adopting something similar here is anti-American…

Via Atrios comes word that Tapped has gotten an expert to give a more vivid thumbnail than mine of what the most recently-revealed Bush fuck-up has transferred from the control of international inspectors to people interested in killing Americans:

Ballpark 2500-8600 destroyed federal buildings’ worth.

Via Atrios comes word that Tapped has gotten an expert to give a more vivid thumbnail than mine of what the most recently-revealed Bush fuck-up has transferred from the control of international inspectors to people interested in killing Americans:

Ballpark 2500-8600 destroyed federal buildings’ worth.