Hope and Change

I just love this. But then I love the odd twists and turns of "logic" that some people use. Obama's campaign was based largely on the idea that he was going to follow the law and put an end to the illegal things that Bush was doing.
Now the Administration realizes that they will not be able to prosecute the Gitmo detainees in time to close it by the end of the year but they will continue the detention process. And it would seem even worse to transfer the prisoners to another country where they would have even less rights than they had at Gitmo.
But the idea that, even if the detainees are prosecuted, if the sentence is insufficient, they would continue to be detained. What is that?

http://reason.com/blog/show/134686.html

Drone Strike

It is beyond me why there is not more of a furor in this country about these drone strikes. The number of strikes have gone up in the past 6 months and another estimate is that 687 people have been killed, including 14 Al Qaeda militant. The remainding 673 are presumed innocent. Actually, all 687 are presumed innocent.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/8115814.stm

Fighting Terrorism

A belatedly look back on the Bush Presidency

http://www.slate.com/id/2209133/

"The Effective Death Penalty and Anti-Terrorism Act, rushed through both Houses by Bill Clinton after the relative pin prick of the Oklahoma City bombing, was correctly described by the American Civil Liberties Union as the worst possible setback for the cause of citizens' rights. Given that precedent and multiplying it for the sake of proportion, I think we can be pretty sure that wiretapping and water-boarding would have become household words, perhaps even more quickly than they did, and that we might even have heard a few more liberal defenses of the practice."

The Bush-Obama Drone Wars on Pakistan

According to this article, the US has killed nearly 700 Pakistani civilians while killing 14 "terrorists". It is fascinating that this does not get more news reporting. Like the US bombings in Serbia in 1999 that killed 1,500 to 5,000 civilians, the US continues to flaunt it's power.

http://www.nowpublic.com/world/drone-attack-pakistans-tribal-region-casualties-feared

How about the juxtaposition with the 3 torture victims? Apparently it is OK to kill civilians but not scare or bruise terrorist suspects. I just do not get it. If you had a relative, would you prefer that he/she was killed in a bombing raid or in the hands of the CIA?