At the end of the day, when the history books are written, I think George W. Bush will go down as a very, very good President. Approaching great? I don’t know yet because I don’t know if we’ve seen the –
A year and a half since he’s been out of office, this may be a little bit early to write George’s history. But here’s why he was an incredibly good President: because this man kept America safe.
–Texas Governor, Rick Perry (via WWJD)
Just south of Fifth Street in Downtown Austin, 16 blue panels line either side of the Lamar Boulevard underpass.
The panels are reflective and some mistake them as traffic signals, but the collective work of art is called “Moments.” Art in Public Places commissioned artist Carl Trominski to create the mixed-media work of art in 2003.
“When I first saw them, I was sort of perplexed by them,” Austin artist Magda Sayeg said. “When I found out that it was an art project, I really liked it. It made me want to think about it more.”
So Magda has temporarily covered them with knitting (and crochet)! Much better looking than the reflectors are all by themselves. I’d always wondered what those ugly blue reflective panels were on that underpass. I would have never guessed they were public art. They look so much better covered in yarn. Doesn’t everything? LOL!
You can read more about Magda -apparently the mother of Yarn Bombing- in the local newspaper, or visit her blog.
Mr. President, I rise to introduce legislation that sets forth a clear, comprehensive policy for the detention, interrogation and trial of enemy belligerents who are suspected of engaging in hostilities against the United States. This legislation seeks to ensure that the mistakes made during the apprehension of the Christmas Day bomber, such as reading him a Miranda warning, will never happen again and put Americans’ security at risk.
Specifically, this bill would require unprivileged enemy belligerents suspected of engaging in hostilities against the U.S. to be held in military custody and interrogated for their intelligence value by a “high value detainee” interagency team established by the President. This interagency team of experts in national security, terrorism, intelligence, interrogation and law enforcement will have the protection of U.S. civilians and civilian facilities as their paramount responsibility and experience in gaining actionable intelligence from high value detainees.
…
A key provision of this bill is that it would prohibit a suspected enemy belligerent from being provided with a Miranda warning and being told he has a right to a lawyer and a right to refuse to cooperate. I believe that an overwhelming majority of Americans agree that when we capture a terrorist who is suspected of carrying out or planning an attack intended to kill hundreds if not thousands of innocent civilians, our focus must be on gaining all the information possible to prevent that attack or any that may follow from occurring. Under these circumstances, actionable intelligence must be our highest priority and criminal prosecution must be secondary.
–Senator John McCain, Arizona
For those of you who prefer to read actual legislative language rather than the public announcements of politicians. From the bill:
INAPPLICABILITY OF CERTAIN STATEMENT AND RIGHTS- A individual who is suspected of being an unprivileged enemy belligerent shall not, during interrogation under this subsection, be provided the statement required by Miranda v. Arizona (384 U.S. 436 (1966)) or otherwise be informed of any rights that the individual may or may not have to counsel or to remain silent consistent with Miranda v. Arizona. (link)
So said individual only needs to be suspected of being one of these new “enemy belligerents” in order to not be informed of any rights they may or may not have. This would, I should think fall far afoul of one of the great laws of our lawful land: innocent until proven guilty.
PRELIMINARY DETERMINATION BY HIGH-VALUE DETAINEE INTERROGATION GROUP- The high-value detainee interrogation group responsible for interrogating a high-value detainee under subsection (b) shall make a preliminary determination whether or not the detainee is an unprivileged enemy belligerent. The interrogation group shall make such determination based on the result of its interrogation of the individual and on all intelligence information available to the interrogation group. (link)
Said individual is determined to be an “unprivileged enemy belligerent” and therefore being eligible for interrogation by the high-value detainee interrogation group (explained starting here) only after being stripped of any rights this individual may or may not have and being interrogated by said high-value detainee interrogation group. That’s some circular logic for you. Paradox much?
CRITERIA FOR DESIGNATION OF INDIVIDUALS AS HIGH-VALUE DETAINEES- The regulations required by this subsection shall include criteria for designating an individual as a high-value detainee based on the following:
(A) The potential threat the individual poses for an attack on civilians or civilian facilities within the United States or upon United States citizens or United States civilian facilities abroad at the time of capture or when coming under the custody or control of the United States.
(B) The potential threat the individual poses to United States military personnel or United States military facilities at the time of capture or when coming under the custody or control of the United States.
(C) The potential intelligence value of the individual.
(D) Membership in al Qaeda or in a terrorist group affiliated with al Qaeda.
(E) Such other matters as the President considers appropriate. (link)
The bit in bold rather destroys all pretense of checks and balances and the division of governmental powers in order to keep any one branch of becoming a little too god-like. Never should there be a law of any sort that says anything like “oh, and whatever the President thinks should be included.” Much too open-ended and fraught with danger of abuse.
But finally, we come to something of true importance for any American citizen to consider:
An individual, including a citizen of the United States, determined to be an unprivileged enemy belligerent under section 3(c)(2) in a manner which satisfies Article 5 of the Geneva Convention Relative to the Treatment of Prisoners of War may be detained without criminal charges and without trial for the duration of hostilities against the United States or its coalition partners in which the individual has engaged, or which the individual has purposely and materially supported, consistent with the law of war and any authorization for the use of military force provided by Congress pertaining to such hostilities. (link)
Bad enough McCain and his fellow co-sponsors are more than willing to throw away “all men are created equal” (not just Americans) and innocent until proven guilty for non-citizens of the USA, but they are also more than willing to do so for American citizens, and as we’ve read earlier in the bill … pretty much at the whim of whomever happens to be living in the White House. If I were these Senators, I think I’d be wondering if handing such an open-ended and easily abused law to the current administration might not lead to being named an enemy belligerent for having created the thing. It does say the President gets the final say on who is and is not an enemy belligerent, after all.
And back again to McCain’s announcement:
Mr. President, it should come as no comfort to any American that nearly eight and a half years after the attacks of 9/11 we still don’t have a clear mechanism, legal structure, and implementing policy for dealing with terrorists who we capture in the act of trying to bring about attacks on the United States and our national security interests at home and abroad.
–Senator John McCain, Arizona
Yes, we do. The USA has this thing called a legal system that we’ve been using for some time now to lock up people who do stupid, crazy, or evil stuff, and it seems to mostly work not just for your common street thug but also for those pesky terrorists (who are obviously supermen since normal prisons and normal trials are too puny to hold or try them). One of the cornerstones of our country has always been our belief in the right of everyone –citizen or not– to a far trial and certain rights … and that in order to be found guilty of some crime a person has to be found to actually be guilty, instead of some single someone (say, the President) just deciding they are. This bill jumps up on that cornerstone and craps all over it.
Every day is feels more and more like McCain has lost some of his previously functioning brain cells. Take for example all those years he called himself a “maverick” to only recently saying he never considered himself a maverick at all. Was he lying back then (during the 2008 elections and before), lying now, or has he gone senile? Me, I’m voting for having gone senile, because this piece of crap bill doesn’t sound like anything the McCain of the past would have anything to do with. My how things change when one either goes bat-crap crazy or starts playing entirely too much to the far right base.
I’ve been trying to maintain hope that the Republican Party would once again be the Republican Party that I once enthusiastically supported. Every step of the way, I fully expected the party to regain its sensibilities and begin behaving like the Republican Party of yore. But … no. They continued to slide further and further rightward, leaving me further and further behind in the what was quickly becoming The Center. And now, they really just seem to have jumped off the cliff into lunacy.
It started with their support of Tea Party thinking, and now this:
That’s the page one arrives at when visiting GOP.com. I went there looking for reasoned arguments and plans presented by the National Republican Party, and what I found was a page that is not only childish, petulant, and just not becoming of a national political party, it looks like total crap on top of it. It looks like the sort of web page designed by a crazy conspiracy theorist after an all-nighter of ranting on a caffeine high about America’s leap into the maw of socialism at the hands of our Muslim/Terrorist/Dictator President.
Seriously. If they think that page reaches out to the moderate, centrist, and compassionate conservatives they have lost during their downward spiral into insanity on the backs of the Tea Party members, as one of those people, let me assure them, the message comes through loud and clear … the Republican Party is never going to be what it once was and until they begin behaving like adults again, I won’t be considering any of their candidates.
Last Saturday, our farmer friends informed us the farmers market was moving to the Barton Creek Mall parking lot. No complaints from us, seeing as that location is both closer to our home (only by a little) and far easier to access. I’d figured something would be changing at some point, as I’d heard previously that the stadium was getting grumpy about the farmers market taking up space in their parking lot.
But there seems to be more to the story than just a farmers market moving. Apparently, it’s splitting into two markets: one moving to Barton Creek and one moving to some field somewhere.
None of the in-fighting or whatever is going on will change much for us. We’ll be going to the new Barton Creek Farmers Market, because that’s where our farmers are moving. I think this move will be a good thing, and not just an improvement in our personal convenience. More and better parking, easier access, and it’s now on a popular and busy bus route. Additionally, what does one find in a mall parking lot? Consumers with money to spend. There are bound to be some who stop by to see what’s going on, and maybe that will lead to a few more people eating local and organic goods and a few more dollars in local farmers’ pockets.
But we won’t be going to the new location today. We’d already decided to skip this week to give everyone a chance to sort out the details at the new location, and … it’s raining cats and dogs out there right now. Besides, we are still well-stocked on meats and the new season’s veggies aren’t really being brought to market in large quantities yet, so instead, I’ll likely be heading to the grocery store at some point today for some non-organic and likely not local fruits and veggies. Hate to do it, but we’ve got to have fresh fruits and veggies, even if that means kiwis from Italy and bananas from wherever the hell it is our bananas come from these days. Do you read the tiny labels on your fruits and veggies? If not, you’d be amazed where they come from.
I have done it. I have taken control of my online existence. I have fed the ouroboros his tail. The circle is completed. I am now able to post audio, video, photos, and text to Twitter, Facebook, Livejournal, and my own blog all at one go. No muss, no fuss, easy as I please from anywhere in the world with cell phone towers. Additionally, I can post to just some places or groups of places or filter what I post at those places. And no damn expensive data plan necessary!
Ever see the movie Hackers? When Cereal Killer is broadcasting on the hacker network and he says “I kinda feel like God” … yes, that is kinda how I feel right now.
Woo hoo!!! I have Posterous to thank for it. Great service, and I hope it lasts. Why, I think I’d even pay a little every month to use it, but for now, it’s FREE. How cool is that? I did have a few problems getting it all set up, but once I did, it all worked like a charm, as evidenced by the previously posted photo of Sasha that went absolutely everywhere at once. Everywhere … at once.
With all that said, it’s highly likely I will be terribly annoying today as I try things out with all my new god-like posting abilities. I doubt I will end up doing massive crossposting from my phone too much once the newness wears off, seeing as I am so infrequently out and about and wanting to post things, but now I freaking CAN, if the mood strikes. I really can’t tell you how excited I am about this. I’ve been trying to get this all worked out for ages.
In other news, I had to log into the T-Mobile web site to get some information, and that was when I noticed that our phone bill wasn’t lower as it was supposed to be when our new contract kicked in. Somehow, they are screwing us on the family plan messaging. I thought we had that straightened out, but now it looks like maybe they canceled our unlimited family messaging altogether while simultaneously charging us for unlimited messaging (in a really odd way). There isn’t much we can do about it until the next bill comes out and we finally see what the hell they have done. I expect there will be some kind of insane muddle involving speaking to idiots at customer service when all is said and done. I do love the T-Mobile service. It’s very reliable and works everywhere I need it to work, but their billing department seems to be staffed by monkeys on heroin.
And now I think I’ll have my second cup of coffee, a little breakfast, and make out the shopping list. Even though I slept very poorly last night and would really not go shopping today, we need some of those things that are total requirements for continued existence. I’ll just have to caffeinate myself as much as possible, get the shopping done as quickly as possible, and then … a nice nap (or two).
The only problem I have at the moment is that I haven’t figured out how to attach categories to the Posterous crossposts at LJ and my blog, but if it’s possible, I’m sure I’ll eventually figure out how.
Austin can’t claim taco primacy. That category is too broad, encompassing too many variations in style. When it comes to breakfast tacos, however, Austin trumps all other American cities.
–Tacos in the Morning? That’s the Routine in Austin
This morning, I went out for breakfast. I never go out for breakfast, at least not alone, but I was super hungry and didn’t feel like cooking. Naturally, I went for a breakfast taco. They are quite plentiful, popular, and inexpensive in Austin.
I didn’t go to our usual place –thankfully not mentioned in the NYT article (it’s busy enough over there as is). Instead, I just drove over to Lamar and picked out the taco truck with the longest line of people waiting to be served. That may sound counter-intuitive, if one wants a quick breakfast, but there is a wide range of quality out there in taco truck land, and the one with the most people is always going to be the one with the biggest, best, and most economical tacos.
My favorite blend of breakfast taco flavors? Egg, cheese, potato, bacon, and a touch of hot sauce.