Somali Pirate to be Charged as Adult, Faces Life

post from TalkLeft on 21 April 2009 10:01:00 PM. © TalkLeft

Here is the complaint (pdf) filed against Abduwali Abukhadir Muse, the accused teen-aged Somali pirate. The primary charge is Piracy Under the Law of Nations which carries mandatory life...no parole.

The Government now says he was the ringleader of the pirate attack. Did Captain Phillips tell them that? How else would they prove that when the others are dead?

He cried in court today. He is being represented by the Federal Defenders office in New York. The Court ruled him to be an adult today even though his father says he's 15 years old. [More...]

His next court date is May 21 for a preliminary hearing. If the grand jury indicts before then, he won't get a preliminary hearing. The Indictment is considered probable cause. From the docket entry:

Deft appears with Federal Defender atty's Philip Weinstein and Deirdre Von Dornum. AUSA Brendan McGuire present for the gov't. Somali interpreter present. Pretrial Report waived. Detention on consent without prejudice. Other: Consular notification made. ( Preliminary Examination set for 5/21/2009 at 10:00 AM before Judge Unassigned.)

and

Age Hearing as to Abduwali Abdukhadir Muse held. Deft appears with Federal Defender atty's Philip Weinstein and Deirdre Von Dornum. AUSA's David Raskin and Brendan McGuire present for the gov't. Somali interpreter present. Finding: Not a juvenile.

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Pensacola Jeff stood up amongst the teabaggers to
speak the real truth, and wins BuzzFlash's Wings of Justice

post from BuzzFlash.org - Progressive News and Commentary with an Attitude | Fight Ignorance: Read BuzzFlash on 21 April 2009 10:00:28 PM. © BuzzFlash.org - Progressive News and Commentary with an Attitude | Fight Ignorance: Read BuzzFlash

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WINGS OF JUSTICE

Pensacola Jeff

It took a blogger with courage to take on the local Republican Party sponsored "Tea Party" in Pensacola, Florida.

Why was the spontaneous speech of "Pensacola Jeff" worthy of this week's BuzzFlash Wings of Justice Award? Because Jeff spoke to the truth to the deluded FOX pod people and got away with his life.

As we noted in a BuzzFlash Editor's Blog, one of the great ironies of the so-called FOX News/GOP "grassroots tax protest" is that most of the participants appeared to earn under $250,000 a year and would thus benefit from an Obama tax cut. "Pensacola Jeff" had the temerity to point this out to the ragtag group of Dittoheads in Florida's Panhandle, but the brainwashed teabaggers appeared unable to realize this indisputable fact.

It takes a bit of commitment, poise, and bravery to walk into the lion's den and be a modern day Jeremiah to the vassals of Rush Limbaugh. But that's what "Pensacola Jeff" did -- and even got immortalized by Keith Olbermann who ran a clip of Jeff's brilliant, succinct remarks.

Would that all of us who spend our time expressing opinions on the Internet get off our duffs and take the battle for democracy to the public arena.

"Pensacola Jeff" did just that and left the hot-wired teabaggers confused, consternated, and yearning for the demagogic falsehoods of Sean Hannity or Michael Savage. For that, he merits this week's BuzzFlash Wings of Justice Award.

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This Week Pundits Whitewash Torture

post from Crooks and Liars on 21 April 2009 10:00:00 PM. © Crooks and Liars

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The panel on This Week wasn't much better than the one on Fox News Sunday with their whitewashing of torture and whether there should be investigations. The worst of them being George Will and Peggy Noonan. When asked about whether there will be prosecutions for those that devised the policies on torture George Will thought the Obama administration was striking the right "balance".

Will: Yes. His balance was right. Whether Congress will stick to it or not, the New York Times and others of that faction are inciting Congress have hearings on this and perhaps they will. Perhaps they should. The problem with transparency is it's transparent for the terrorists as well and as you had a clip on here of former Secretary of Homeland Security Chertoff saying, the bad guys train to resist what they know we can use and they are helped by when they are captured knowing what we cannot use. So this has a cost.

No George. They already knew that we were waterboarding. Your argument is bunk. You and Brit Hume really need to get with the program here. Next on the list is Cokie Roberts who is just oh so glad that those CIA tapes were destroyed.

Roberts: That's certainly true but we don't have, give them ammunition, and you know whoever at the CIA destroyed the tapes of the waterboarding, it was the wrong thing to do but I'm really glad they did it because I would hate to have those tapes out on the Internet and people uh, being using those because I think they would be wonderful recruiting tools for terrorists and the truth is we do wonderful work all around the world, this country, people in this country, organizations in this country, the US government get no credit for it, partly because of these kinds of techniques and just getting them out of there I think is just tremendously helpful.

So Cokie, do you really think that the terrorists don't know what went on because those tapes aren't there to watch? Do you really think this was not already a recruiting tool without the tapes? I fail to follow your logic here. The only thing not having the tapes out there assures is that the people who were in them are never held accountable for what they did.

Then we have Sam Donaldson who throws out the whole Nuremberg trials argument in one fell swoop by giving the CIA agents a pass who tortured prisoners.

Donaldson: As to prosecutions, I agree that people that thought they were following "the law" as outlined, they say well, following orders no excuse. This is not Nazi Germany. This is not that type of thing. They should not be held (crosstalk)..but the people who devised these methods, devised these memos, if in fact they knew that they were just trying to find cover. Just trying to find a way to get around American values and American law and the American Constitution, I think they should be held responsible. I think they should be brought in and if President Obama wants to pardon them as one President pardoned a former President, then let him do so. But they should be held accountable in a court of law.

So Sam, your idea of accountability is to pardon someone who broke the law after a court finds them guilty? That's one hell of a high standard you just set there. Kind of like the one we had for the Iran contra thugs, or Nixon. And we all know how much good that did for the country with giving us the Bush gang of thugs that should have been in jail instead of making policy and leading us into that debacle in Iraq.

Then we have Peggy Noonan who is oh so swept up in her own importance with her demeanor in this response. I'm sure it must be nice to be one of those very, very serious Villagers that should have us mere mortals out there hanging from every word that comes from her lips.

Noonan: Oh I have reservations about all this. It's hard for me to look at a great nation issuing these documents and sending them out to the world and thinking oh much good will come of that. Sometimes in life you wanna' just keep walkin'. History has changed. It does change. We have a new administration, a new way. Sometimes I think just keep walkin'. Don't always be issuing papers and reports.

She adds that "some of life has to be mysterious". Really? Somehow I find nothing "mysterious" about torturing people. We either did it or we didn't, and you hold someone accountable or you don't. No mystery there.

This was a much more "civil" debate than the one that happened on Fox News, but in so many ways, it was worse. These are people who pretend to be in the middle of our political discourse and aren't as openly partisan as Fox but they're touting the same sorry talking points. They all had a good chuckle at the end of the segment about whether there will be Congressional hearings to investigate the torture. I'm so glad that served as a source of amusement for them. Heaven forbid we could take a small matter like Congressional oversight for war crimes seriously. I would guess if those hearings are ever followed up by some prosecutions, they'll quit laughing. We can only hope that happens instead of the Bush protection racket we had at the DOJ for the last eight years. I'm not holding my breath, but we'll see.

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This brings tears! Unexpected tears from an
unexpected soul!

post from Docudharma - Front Page on 21 April 2009 09:59:31 PM. © Docudharma - Front Page

You will forgive me. I just need a night's break from the torture issue. I wake up in the middle of the night, not every single night, but so many, obsessing about what we've done -- then I can't get back to sleep for several hours later.[...]

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Karbala Governor Vows to Close Liquor Stores

post from IraqSlogger.com on 21 April 2009 09:54:15 PM. © IraqSlogger.com

Karbala's new governor announced on Tuesday that he would "take strong measures against liquor stores and brothels" in the holy city.

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DFA/Netroots Nation Launch '09 Scholarship
Competition

post from MyDD on 21 April 2009 09:51:10 PM. © MyDD

It's that time of year again. From August 13-16, the 4th annual Netroots Nation conference will take place in Pittsburgh and once again, NN is teaming up with DFA to offer scholarships to send at least 30 deserving folks to the event. As the conference[...]

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NY-20: "We Lost."

post from Daily Kos on 21 April 2009 09:50:04 PM. © Daily Kos

Former Rep. Thomas M. Davis of Virginia is one of the smartest Republican strategists in the state - in the entire country, really. The onetime architect of Republican Congressional gains as head of the NRCC has earned almost universal acclaim from Democrats and Republicans alike for his coldly rational, reality-based political wisdom, both during bountiful times for the GOP and when the party was at its lowest ebb.

So when he speaks, people listen. And Tom Davis has spoken:

"We lost the special election in New York. It's gone," said former Virginia Rep. Thomas M. Davis III, a veteran election vote-counter and former chairman of the National Republican Congressional Committee.

Scott Murphy won this election, and is going to Congress.

Take it to the bank.

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CNBC hosts fail to challenge Pence's debunked
cap-and-trade claim

On the April 20 edition of CNBC's Power Lunch, co-hosts Sue Herera, Michelle Caruso-Cabrera, Bill Griffeth, and Dennis Kneale all failed to challenge Rep. Mike Pence's (R-IN) debunked claim that the Obama administration and Capitol Hill Democrats are planning to introduce cap-and-trade legislation "which literally could see the utility rates of every American household go up by more than $3,100 per year." Pence's assertion echoes a claim by the House Republican Conference that the[...]

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Why they call him a fascist

Via AMERICAblog, Saul Anuzis -- the former Michigan GOP chairman who recently joined Newt Gingrich's political machine -- explains why Republicans call President Obama a fascist:

"We’ve so overused the word ‘socialism’ that it no longer has the negative connotation it had 20 years ago, or even 10 years ago," Mr. Anuzis said. "Fascism — everybody still thinks that’s a bad thing."

As David Shuster wondered on Countdown last night, what are they going to say next, after they've used up the 'fascist' word?