The demonstrations and rhetoric in Khartoum are reminiscent of the charged atmosphere before the 1989 coup d'etat, when Islamists brought down the government and propelled Mr Bashir to power. Now, despite the country's oil wealth, there are growing indications that his regime is unsteady.

Government officials are convinced the ICC (International Criminal Court) is trying to destabilise the presidency and engineer grounds for a "palace coup" within the governing National Congress Party.

Many in the capital are watching the Darfuri rebels to see whether they will launch fresh attacks. For much of last week helicopters buzzed overhead as security forces mopped up remaining members of the Justice and Equality Movement after their attempt on the capital in May.

Source: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/...

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You know. I read this article and it makes me sort of happy. So, I thought I'd share it with you. I hear some of the talk around town and I can't help but think of the TV show, 'The Simpsons' and the television reporter character 'Kent Brockman'.

Allow me to vent regarding the following:

John McCain cashes his monthly Social Security checks despite calling the federal program "a disgrace," the Associated Press reports.

"I'm receiving benefits," McCain told campaign reporters, but added, "the system is broken."

In 2007, he received benefits of $23,157 from Social Security, approximately $1,930 a month. The maximum monthly benefit under Social Security is $2,185. Social Security benefits are determined by age at retirement.

McCain, who is 71, has received benefits since he was 65.

Last week, McCain told observers at a town-hall meeting in Portsmouth, Ohio, "Americans have got to understand that we are paying present-day retirees with the taxes paid by young workers ... and that's a disgrace."

B.J. Jarrett from the Social Security Administration said that individuals can refuse retirement benefits.

In 2006, McCain's wife Cindy earned $6 million, and has a net worth of approximately $100 million.

(San Francisco Business Times)

TORONTO - Canada will not seek the return of a young detainee at Guantanamo Bay, officials said Wednesday, a day after the release of a video showing the teenage prisoner sobbing for his mother and pleading for Canada's help.

"He's disappointed and discouraged that he's alive and he's in the hands of coalition forces instead of in paradise with 72 virgins," Morris said Wednesday from Portland, Ore."

I know I’ve said it before, but I just can’t resist it: These people are scared S**tless. What people, you might ask? Well, the GOP, of course. And why are they scared? Because they lose on every issue that is important to Americans today.

It’s unfortunate that the GOP is so scared of true debate. Why must they always ignore the facts, spin the truth, and point fingers at their opponents? It’s tiring, and more importantly, it’s hurting America. The GOP’s smoke and mirrors act is hindering effective debate on important issues and keeps America from making true progress for all.

The indictment of Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir on charges of genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes over the slaughter in Darfur is a step as bold and historic as it is fraught with practical and political peril.

Source: http://www.time.com/...

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A revealing article by Time on conflicts arising from the ICC's prosecutor charging Sudan's al-Bashir with genocide and crimes against humanity.

The author of the article presented critics of the ICC who warn that implementation of justice for the people of Darfur may be too risky. I think that the author did a fair job of presenting the critics arguments in a fair way and so I don't feel much hesitation in commenting that the critics arguments are fraught with assumptions and concerns that have little to do with U.S. security policy.

I just got back from vacation and saw an email from the United Farm Workers, part of which I quote below:

Ramiro Carillo was the fourth farm worker in the last two weeks to die of heat stroke and the second this week alone!

Ramiro Carrillo Rodriguez, 48, father of two, died in Selma, CA on Thursday afternoon after working all day for Sun Valley Packing in Reedley thru a farm labor contractor.  

snip

42 year-old farm worker Abdon Felix Garcia, father of three, died on Wednesday after spending the morning and early afternoon working for Sunview Vineyards in Arvin. The coroner says Felix's body core temperature was measured at 108 degrees just 13 minutes before his death.

64 year-old Jose Macarena Hernandez died during a record-breaking heat wave on June 20 while harvesting butternut squash in Santa Maria on land owned by Sunrise Growers.

People keep dying and few give a shit.  I'm pissed off and you should be also.  

What we can do, and more, after the fold.

The first time the term "war crimes" was used was during the trial of Capt. Henry Wirz, the former commandant of the notorius Confederate prison camp at Andersonville, Georgia. This how the New York Times described him on August 4, 1865...

"AN INCARNATE FIEND.; How Capt. Henry Wirz Murdered Our Prisoners. Vivid Picture of the Great Torture Pen. THE BLACK HOLE OF CALCUTTA OUTDONE. Fiendishness, Profanity and Obscenity of "Our Southern Brother." Infamy Never Equaled in the History of Man. Gen. Winder and His Son on Rotting Yankees. The Testimony of a Loyal Georgia Planter."

Senator and Democratic nominee for the U.S. Office of the President Barack Obama has announced that it will be the policy of the United States to seek the death penalty for Osama Bin Laden if he is captured alive.

"I am not a cheerleader for the death penalty," Obama said.

"I think it has to be reserved for only the most heinous crimes, but I certainly think plotting and engineering the death of 3,000 Americans justifies such an approach."

"I think this is a big hypothetical, though -- let's catch him first," he said.

Source: http://afp.google.com/...

(Cross posted from Docudharma)

The likely outcome of the Bush-led Republican raid on America astonishes me.  As America’s national nightmare approaches the eight-year mark, the Bush administration is apparently going to escape unpunished.  They are going to skate scot-free.  They have brazenly committed major crimes against the people of the United States, not to mention the terrible things they have done to much of the rest of the world...and these bastards are going to skate scot-free.  

Israel has been staunchly defended against all potential enemies, such as, say Iran, by the United States, as we heard lately from Condoleeza, who along with most neocon-oriented folks, believes that defense should know no boundaries, even all-out war. But few dare question why a nation that receives 23 times the aid given to Palestine should even need to use the strongarm tactics against Palestinians and others that it does. Who even dares to ask why they should bring their thugs on a prize-winning journalist?

Dahr Jamail tells of this harrowing experience suffered by Muhammad Omer, a Palestinian journalist who, along with Dahr Jamail, received the Martha Gellhorn Prizefor Journalism in London on 16 June (1).

E-mail Gov. Schwarzenegger today!

I need to share some news with you that breaks my heart.Yesterday another farm worker’s life was lost due to heat stroke. Abdon Felix Garcia was the third farm worker heat death in the last 8 weeks and the 12th farm worker heat death since CA Governor Schwarzenegger took office. Then I need to ask for your immediate help to e-mail Gov. Schwarzenegger and California legislatures today and tell them this has to stop now.

The FBI plans to "ethnically profile" Muslims in terror probes, an unconstitutional and dangerous Big Brother-style course. Why do neocons insist the only road to security is that taken by totalitarian dictatorships?  Are they our new example of How to Run a Country and Secure Its Citizens? Don't they see they will become the problem, not solve it?
This article in Salon discusses the issue where the inimitable Juan Cole shows how this policy both violates the U.S. Constitution and at the same time does not help in the fight against terrorism.

As liberals, we take pride in not only being the antithesis to the right wing, but we like to think of ourselves as better than our conservative counterparts. We value truth, compassion, and intellect. We believe in the right to an opinion and the freedom to express it. We revile the typical right win smear machine and their propaganda tactics. All in all we have a fairly noble view of ourselves.

But is it true?

Could it be that we are just the yin to their yang? Is it possible that we are not the better half, but just the other half? Is the blogosphere of the left just the liberal equivalence to the conservative propaganda machine? I believe the answer is no, we are better than that. But that doesn’t mean we don’t have to guard against our baser instincts and the temptation to fight fire with fire.

Wayne Besen, in an entertaining and provacative editorial in the Falls Church News, points out what is obvious to most of us -- the "pro-family" American Family Association is anything but.

In the editorial, Besen points out that in their single-minded, anti-family quest to deny GLBT families marriage equality, they are ignoring many real, relevant issues that are having a far more pressing impact on the same "traditional American families" they are purporting to defend.

Nicholas Kristof's column in today's NY Times prompted me to jot down some thoughts on personal responsibility.

But if they're pissing off the American Family Association, they must be doing something right.

According to the Washington Post:

A group that opposes same-sex marriage has called for a boycott of McDonald's, saying the fast-food giant has refused "to stay neutral in the cultural war over homosexuality."

Say what? The fast food corporation that is notorious for clearing rainforest to pasture thier cattle is coming out for gay equality? I think my head is going to explode. Wanna watch? Follow me!

He called it "outrageous" when a federal court ruled that Maher Arar, who was kidnapped at JFK and sent by the U.S.government to Syria, where he was tortured, does not have "due process rights" and therefore cannot sue the U.S. government for that torture under the Torture Victim Protection Act. As reported
here,

Arar alleged that U.S. officials aided and abetted in his torture at Syrian hands, but the court ruled that the federal officials could not be held responsible for their conspiracy with the Syrians because they were federal officials exercising federal authority.

Now if there was ever a good reason to "go Federal" and work for the U.S. government, this is it: Immunity from prosecution! So that's why Nancy Pelosi took impeachment "off the table" - Bush is... federal!

By Natasha Minsker, Death Penalty Policy Director, ACLU of Northern California

A panel of experts, including 10 law enforcement officers and prosecutors, unanimously  agrees that California’s death penalty is utterly broken. To fix it, we’ll  need to spend over $ 200 million per year. The current failed system already costs over  $ 137 million more each year than our alternative of permanent imprisonment. Today’s report forces all Californians to ask: how much we are willing to pay for our death penalty when we have an alternative that punishes criminals and protects our communities without making us bankrupt?