Just a quick list of things that the U.S. are doing that are making me righteously angry (a subset of the full list of things that are making me righteously angry):
- An utterly forseeable consequence. It doesn’t take a tremendous amount of insight to grasp that an organizational hierarchy will develop a need to justify itself, and its budget. It’s not a great big step from there to the point where members of the hierarchy need to show a measurable positive value. Mix that requirement with this administration’s penchant for security theatre, and you get lots and lots of innocent people being flagged as risks. (And that’s without even getting into the whole question of the way the system is setup entirely so that members of the system have no incentive to clear anyone and a powerful incentive to mark anyone as a risk.)
- America is at war with Canadian musicians. …and the musicians don’t take it seriously? At least that’s what I’m getting out of the article. Now, of course, these guys were technically entering to work illegally, but doesn’t invoking terrorism in this situation seem pretty out of proportion? Remind me to tell you about my experiences at the border with Mr. Karl sometime.
- Zombies booked for carrying fake WMDs. Was I just saying something about disproportionate response? Well, apparently that extends right into the realm of the ludicrous. If you can read the police inspector’s statement about the backpacks–“why would you have those (bags) if not to intimidate people?”–and not get some serious police state chills, you haven’t been paying attention to history.
- The American Bar Association thinks ‘signing statements’ are illegal. You might think those guys would know something about the law. I wonder if they can revoke the Torturer General‘s qualifications at the bar.
- Speaking of Alberto, did you hear his latest brilliant statement? Apparently it’s perfectly legal for the government to hold prisoners indefinitely without trial, hope of a trial, or even any charges being laid. I hate to keep saying this, but isn’t the text of the sixth amendment to the U.S. Constitution “In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial…”? That’s pretty clear, isn’t it?
- Of course, the law doesn’t really matter, since Bush can just grant himself permission to grant himself more power. I love The Onion something, but I really, really wish the world wasn’t in a state where this was funny.
- If you had any doubt that Cheney was doing illegal no-bid stuff on behalf of KBR, you can officially kill it. Oh, and for an excellent flavour bonus, when choking this down, the Army Corps of Engineers appears to have been quite cooperative in the cover-up. Any bets on whether or not Fox News will carry the story?
- Republicans unashamedly use the needs of the poor to gouge out extra money for the rich. And people still say with a straight face that America is a classless society.
