Stilgherrian » dick cheney

New Bush coins: gallons to replace dollars

Stilgherrian — Sun, 13 Jan 2008 00:35:31 +0000

Now that President Bush has declared martial law, it will be illegal to own precious metals after January 2008. Here’s a sneak peek at the new money.

“The 1-gallon coin, or the ‘Condy’, honours Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, whose solution to Middle East conflict is summarised on the reverse: Piping Persia for Peace.”

Yes, this is American political satire at its very, very best.

Also worth watching is the promo for the CD set Lapdogs of the Corporate Press and news that Britney Spears has been cast as the Virgin Mary.

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Greens senator asks last century’s question

Stilgherrian — Fri, 06 Jul 2007 03:44:18 +0000

I like The Greens. They’re funny. They make me laugh. Haw. Haw. Haw. Snort.

There’s a bloody great aircraft carrier in Sydney Harbour. The whole city’s stopping to gawk at it. One of the most potent, visible symbols of Australia’s alliance with the US — and, by extension, our involvement in the War on Foreign Men with Beards and, you know, that Iraq thing — is sitting right there in front of us. So how does Senator Kerry Nettle use this opportunity?

Senator Kerry Nettle reacts to the Big Bad N-word with all the predictability of a cuckoo clock. Senator Kerry Nettle reckons us Sydneysiders have “a right to know” whether USS Kitty Hawk is carrying nuclear weapons. If it is, Senator Kerry Nettle reckons any accident on the ship could be a “catastrophe”.

No shit, Sherlock! It’s a goddam warship! It’s chock full’o jet fuel, ammunition, lubricants, rocket fuel, missile warheads and a thousand other things that are either as toxic as all get-up or go boom. Got that? Warship. So a couple of nukes buried down in some well-protected hidey-hole is the least of our worries.

And besides, Senator Kerry Nettle, what do you reckon? A US aircraft carrier, based out of Yokosuka, Japan, near that place, oh… what is it again? Yeah, North Korea. And with the job of…? Oh yeah, act as the core of an independent task force in the event of global war, whether conventional or nuclear.

Uhuh.

So, Senator Kerry Nettle, do you reckon the Kitty Hawk might be carrying perhaps just one or two nuclear weapons? Maybe just little ones? Yeah, me too. I reckon there just might be a couple’o nukes here.

While we don’t have a “right to be told” — hey, this is America we’re talking about, they’re answerable only to God — we do have a right to use our brains and figure it out for ourselves.

Or, come to think of it, see if that other Greens guy, Andrew Wilkie, has something more contemporary to say. Apparently he knows about stuff.

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The Bush administration’s Must-Do List

Stilgherrian — Sun, 04 Mar 2007 21:53:46 +0000

The New York Times has just published, as their editorial, a list of things that need to be done to “reverse the unwise and lawless policies of President Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney.”

The Bush administration’s assault on some of the founding principles of American democracy marches onward despite the Democratic victory in the 2006 elections. The new Democratic majorities in Congress can block the sort of noxious measures that the Republican majority rubber-stamped. But preventing new assaults on civil liberties is not nearly enough.

Five years of presidential overreaching and Congressional collaboration continue to exact a high toll in human lives, America’s global reputation and the architecture of democracy. Brutality toward prisoners, and the denial of their human rights, have been institutionalized; unlawful spying on Americans continues; and the courts are being closed to legal challenges of these practices.

It will require forceful steps by this Congress to undo the damage.

And those forceful steps?

Here’s their list as bullet points, though the full editorial is well worth reading.

Restore Habeas Corpus, the ancient right for someone to challenge their imprisonment in court
Stop illegal spying
Ban torture, really
Close the CIA prisons
Account for “ghost prisoners”
Ban extraordinary rendition
Tighten the definition of combatant
Screen prisoners fairly and effectively
Ban tainted evidence
Ban secret evidence
Better define “classified” evidence
Respect the right to counsel

Let’s come back to this list in six months and see what’s been fixed.

Thanks to former senator Stephen Loosley for the pointer.