Sunday Afternoon Reading

Some quick links for now...

#1- World leaders get ready to discuss key environmental issues this week in a big summit. As usual, the Bush administration is not attending. Environment what? Do we live in one of those now? Glad to see the lessons of this past hurricane season are so quickly forgotten. Bushie's gotta get back to work defending torture and pretending he isn't gonna pull out from Iraq next year:
World Leaders to Discuss Strategies for Climate Control-

Bush Administration Shuns Conference On Strategies to Build on Kyoto Pact

The nations of the world will meet in Montreal this week to start discussing the next step in combating the global warming problem, hoping to devise a successor to the Kyoto Protocol that was scorned by the Bush administration in 2001. But the United States is saying it doesn't want to talk...


#2-Ayad Allawi, the guy the Bush administration thought was gonna be Iraq's 'George Washington', gives a damning indictment of the situation in Iraq now, stating the human rights abuses are just as bad as it was under Saddam. He states "People are doing the same as [in] Saddam's time and worse. It is an appropriate comparison. People are remembering the days of Saddam. These were the precise reasons that we fought Saddam and now we are seeing the same things." Mission accomplished? The article also makes mention on the likelihood of Bush withdrawing troops next year. No way, man! Bushie won't cut and run! Only cowards do that!:
Abuse worse than under Saddam, says Iraqi leader-

· Allawi in damning indictment of new regime
· Bush prepares way for US troop pull-out

Human rights abuses in Iraq are now as bad as they were under Saddam Hussein and are even in danger of eclipsing his record, according to the country's first Prime Minister after the fall of Saddam's regime...


#3- And the Bush administration, reelected to battle terrorism and bring terrorists to justice, showed just how bad they are at it with the recent indictment of Jose Padilla. The illegal and unconstitutional way they handled this case, which was to be one of their greatest war on terror success stories, has actually made it harder for them to prosecute the case. Incompetent, immoral, and illegal. So glad the Bush crew is running this country:
The Bush Administration's Use of Torture Means Padilla Cannot Be Prosecuted on Original Charges

The U.S. Justice Department has decided not to charge Jose Padilla with trying to build a "dirty bomb" or with having ties to Al Qaeda -- both of which were supposedly why he was arrested in the first place -- because the only evidence supporting those charges comes from two high-ranking Al Qaeda members whose testimony was obtained under torture...

See also this NY Times article:
In Terror Cases, Administration Sets Own Rules

Just another day in George W. Bush's America.