Saturday

Bush administration says detainee suicides in Gitmo are really part of an evil plot by John in DC - 7/08/2006 02:09:00 PM
Yeah, because there's no better way to escape than to kill yourself first.Seriously, this is just weird - and at the same time extremely troubline. The Bush administraiton is trying to claim that the detainees are killing themselves in order to pass secret communications back and forth or something. This is my favorite paragraph:

Three suicides at the U.S. detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, may have been part of a broader plot by detainees who were using confidential lawyer-client papers and envelopes to pass handwritten notes their guards could not intercept, according to documents that government lawyers filed yesterday in federal court.Detainees could apparently hide documents in their cells -- including instructions on how to tie knots and a classified U.S. military memo regarding cell locations of detainees and camp operational matters at Guantanamo -- by keeping the materials in envelopes labeled as lawyer-client communications. Did you get that? A classified US military memo about Guantanamo itself. Let's just assume for a moment that these guys ARE Al Qaeda terrorists who are under top security at a US military prison. How did they get their hands on a classified US military memo detailing all sorts of useful information about Guantanamo Bay itself? They got it from their lawyers? Oh really, civilian lawyers now have access to classified military documents about our most secret and important anti-terrorist prison?Sounds to me like, if this is true, the Bush administration just admitted to one of the biggest intelligence snafus and security breaches since they've come into office.
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House GOP pushing "Terri Schiavo" agenda by Joe in DC - 7/08/2006 11:28:00 AM
Anyway they can find to intrude in to your life they will. That seems to be the motto for the Republican party these days. The ultra-right wingers in the House are going to push through their theocratic agenda this summer. That's freaking out some of the less right-wing GOPers:
Frustrated and angry, they say the leadership's new American Values Agenda, a list of initiatives heavy on ideological themes, seems short-sighted and ill-timed considering that few conservatives are at serious risk in November."It was stupid and gross," said Representative Christopher Shays, Republican of Connecticut. "They have this obsession to satisfy conservative Republicans who will probably be re-elected no matter what happens. They get job satisfaction, but they are making it more difficult for me to win my race." Tough luck for you, Chris Shays. You think you're one of them, but they really hate you. Let's hope that the new GOP strategy is, in fact, a winning strategy for the Democrats. Rahm's got the talking point:

Democrats say the ideologically tinged votes could benefit their candidates in areas where they hope to defeat Republicans."It reminds people that the Republican Party is the party of Terri Schiavo," said Representative Rahm Emanuel of Illinois, chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, referring to Republican intercession this year in the case of the Florida woman whose husband wanted her removed from a feeding tube.Remind people every day that the Republican Party is the party of Terri Schiavo.