Hamdan Gets 5.5 Years (Plus Time Served)
Carol Rosenberg of The Miami Herald reports from beautiful, sunny Guantanamo Bay:
In a stunning rebuke, a six-member U.S. military jury Thursday ignored a Pentagon prosecutor’s plea for a 30 years-plus term and ordered Osama bin Laden’s driver to 66 months in prison.
With credit for time served given by the judge, that means Salim Hamdan, 40, of Yemen will be sent back to the general detainee population of Camp Delta by January, and eligible to return home.
[...]
In court, Hamdan’s longest-serving defense attorney, retired Navy Lt. Cmdr. Charlie Swift, clasped the more diminutive Yemeni in a bearhug and both men openly wept.
Afterwards, Swift vowed that lawyers would work to send Hamdan home to his wife and two daughters by January. Lawyers were prepared to go straight to federal court with a habeas corpus petition, he said, were the U.S. to seek to continue to hold the driver after the sentence were done.
”What happened — despite the system — is justice,” said Swift.
[...]
After the jury’s verdict, the judge turned to the convicted terrorist and said:
“I wish you godspeed, Mr. Hamdan. I hope the day comes when you return to your wife and your daughters and your country.”
”God willing,” the man in traditional Yemeni robe and head scarf replied in Arabic, interrupting.
The judge continued: “And I hope that you are able to be a father, and a provider, and a husband in the best sense of the word.”
Then the detainee said it again: “Inshallah.”
Allred replied in Arabic. “Inshallah.”
I Like a Man Who Honors and Respects His Wife
Josh Marshall posts a video of Sen. McCain at a campaign event, telling the crowd he thinks Cindy McCain should compete in a bikini beauty pageant at the Buffalo Chip Campground:
We’re trying to find out a bit more about the Bikini Beauty Pageant at the Buffalo Chip, where John McCain showed up and offered up wife Cindy as a contestant. ESPN says the event is topless and “occasionally bottomless”. Actually their description is worth quoting in full …
Buffalo Chip has a reputation for that sort of thing. It holds a Miss Buffalo Chip contest every night, which is essentially a topless beauty pageant. And occasionally bottomless, too. During a drenching rain Wednesday night, the contest broke up into smaller groups and one woman wound up dancing naked on a bar top. Her boyfriend/husband saw her and angrily dragged her away as she struggled to put her pants back on and muttered something about how, “It’s only this one week a year.”
Here is the video:
Upchuck and Vomit
Earlier this evening, I blogged at Liberty Street about Alan Brinkley’s review of Jane Mayer’s new book, “The Dark Side.” At the very end of the post, having just heard about Alexander Solzhenitsyn’s death, I wrote the following:
Interestingly, just as I was about to wrap up this post, I read the news that Alexander Solzhenitsyn died today, at the age of 89. I expect that we will soon be treated to reams of laudatory praise for this towering human rights hero (which he was) coming from the mouths of people who are responsible for exactly the same horrors Solzhenitsyn experienced.
Well, guess what? It’s started.
David Gergen Hears The McCain Campaign Dog Whistle Loud and Clear
Via TPM:
Liss has more instructions for Jake Tapper on “how dog whistles work” (hope you’re taking notes, Taps).
Obama Must Be Careful About Responding To Racist Dog Whistles
That is the gist of an article by Michael Powell in today’s New York Times.
U.S. House of Representatives Apologizes for Slavery
The House on Tuesday issued an unprecedented apology to black Americans for the wrongs committed against them and their ancestors who suffered under slavery and Jim Crow segregation laws.
“Today represents a milestone in our nation’s efforts to remedy the ills of our past,” said Rep. Carolyn Cheeks Kilpatrick, D-Mich., chairwoman of the Congressional Black Caucus.
[...]
The Cohen resolution does not mention reparations. It does commit the House to rectifying “the lingering consequences of the misdeeds committed against African-Americans under slavery and Jim Crow.”
It says that Africans forced into slavery “were brutalized, humiliated, dehumanized and subjected to the indignity of being stripped of their names and heritage” and that black Americans today continue to suffer from the consequences of slavery and Jim Crow laws that fostered discrimination and segregation.
On Misogyny, Racism, and the MSM
PSA: Day of Blogs 2008
Cara of The Curvature and Feministe is participating in today’s Day of Blogs blogathon. RAINN is the very worthy organization that is benefiting from her tireless efforts. Go check it out–Cara will be updating every 30 minutes until 9am EDT Sunday morning.
(Full list of participants here.)
How To Do Illegal Torture and Get Away With It
That’s the way Spencer Ackerman sums up the gist of the August 2002 Torture Memo — one of three memos that the ACLU received today pursuant to an FOIA request:
JewsOnFirst.org Pwns Pastor John Hagee; Greenwald Nails Joe Lieberman
(Christian) Zionism: yr doin it wrong:
I’m with Glenn: Serious Centrist™ Joe Lieberman is totally getting a whiteboy pass from the media for appearing at an event sponsored by this anti-Semitic extremist.
Hooray for Hillary
It’s been a long time since I’ve written “hooray” and “Hillary” in such close proximity, but this piece of hers in The Huffington Post — about the Bush administration’s planned new “rules” that would block access to many common forms of contraception for the very women who need them the most — is terrific:
The Bush administration is up to its old tricks again, quietly putting ideology before science and women’s health. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services is poised to put in place new barriers to accessing common forms of contraception like birth control pills, emergency contraception and IUDs by labeling them “abortion.” These proposed regulations set to be released next week will allow healthcare providers to refuse to provide contraception to women who need it. We can’t let them get away with this underhanded move to undermine women’s health and that’s why I am sounding the alarm.
These rules pose a serious threat to providers and uninsured and low-income Americans seeking care. They could prevent providers of federally-funded family planning services, like Medicaid and Title X, from guaranteeing their patients access to the full range of comprehensive family planning services. They’ll also build significant barriers to counseling, education, contraception and preventive health services for those who need it most: low-income and uninsured women and men.
The regulations could even invalidate state laws that currently ensure access to contraception for many Americans. In fact, they describe New York and California’s laws requiring prescription drug insurance plans to provide coverage for contraceptives as part of “the problem.” These rules would even interfere with New York State law that ensures survivors of sexual assault and rape receive emergency contraception in hospital emergency rooms.
We’ve seen this kind of ideologically driven move from the Bush administration before. Senator Patty Murray and I went toe to toe with the Bush administration to demand a decision on Plan B by the FDA. We won that fight and we need to win this one too.
BREAKING: Radovan Karadzic Arrested
Good news for human rights accountability as Radovan Karadzic - the Bosnian Serb politician indicted for war crimes by the International Criminal Tribunal - has reportedly been arrested.
On Kangaroo Courts and Dry Runs: Hamden is Ready For His Close-Up
Tomorrow marks an historic occasion: the first military commission trial of a so-called ‘enemy combatant’ in the War on Terror is scheduled to take place at beautiful, sunny Guantanamo. And Osama Bin Laden’s chauffeur–a prime example of “the worst of the worst”, IMO–is the lucky duck who’s been given the opportunity to see post-9/11 justice in action:
The Articles That Got Away
I admit, I missed some:
The great thing about Tom Friedman is that he never gives us a chance to forget what an idiot he is.
Colonialism off: Pres. Bush will not get his Status of Forces Agreement before he leaves office.
Jeralyn’s post about the Omar Khadr interrogation video includes links to transcripts of previous trial proceedings and TalkLeft’s prior coverage of the case.
Matthew Yglesias’s post, “War for War’s Sake,” is one of his last as an Atlantic contributor (he’s moving to the Center for American Progress).
Ron Beasley writes about a radioactive river.
We already know that John McCain called his wife a “cunt.” Now we find out he is a fan of rape jokes as well.
Did you know that the only way to get around Arizona is by small private plane?
Over 100 University of Chicago professors have signed a letter to the university president objecting to the university’s new $200 million investment.
The Bush administration is trying to push through a new rule requiring recipients of federal health aid funding to certify that opposition to abortion or to contraception will not be a bar to employment. (To bypass compulsory free registration, go to www.bugmenot.com.)
Maliki wants the Green Zone back, too.
How to be on the “Far Left”, from the paper of record
According to the New York Times, an American is on the “far left” if they are angry over Obama’s support for the FISA bill. Or, in other words, if an American is vocal about defending their civil liberties, that puts them in the fringes of politics — the outcasts wandering around the hinterlands, forgotten and ignored because of their extreme views.
Nice.
Why don’t we see extreme activities which receive Republican support as being considered “far right”? Why isn’t the anti-immigration group the Minutemen ever considered far right? How come wanting to destroy social security isn’t from the far right? How come wanting to enforce religion by law (for example, by making gay marriage illegal) isn’t on the far right? How come using tax cuts to distribute more wealth to the greedy isn’t coming from the far right? I could go on — and I’m sure you could, too. Suffice to say, in today’s political discourse “far right” is defined as either God Hates Fags or Adolf Hitler; yet the “far left” consists of activists who dare to defend the Constitution.
Insert some witty cliche about the “liberal media” here. When this is the starting point defined by the mainstream, no wonder political discourse in this country is a joke.
Believe in Jesus, Or Die
Jesse Helms: Satan’s Values
I have been insanely busy the last few days with a new editing project, so I did not get a chance to add anything to the flood of commentary on Jesse Helms’ death yesterday. Not to mention that the day Helms died is also the day I was born, so I was a bit distracted.