blog-o-chu: sleeping thru a rainy saturday

craps from the crypt

California's passage of Proposition 8, which bans the marriage of same-sex couples, has set off a series of protests and lawsuits challenging the Proposition. (Photo/left: Robert Gauthier / Loses) Angeles Tim

domestic craps
After the Imperial Presidency
http://www.truthout.org/110808A
Jonathan Mahler, The New York Times: "As it turned out, the power of the president soared to new heights under Bush. Many of the administration's most aggressive moves came in the realm of national security and the war on terror in particular. The Bush administration claimed the authority to deny captured combatants - US citizens and aliens alike - such basic due-process rights as access to a lawyer. It created a detention facility on Guantanamo Bay that it declared was outside the jurisdiction of the federal courts and built a new legal system - without any input from Congress - to try enemy combatants."

Can Barack Obama Undo Bush's Tangled Legal Legacy?

http://www.truthout.org/110808B
Marisa Taylor and Michael Doyle, McClatchy Newspapers: "When Barack Obama becomes president in January, he'll confront the controversial legal legacy of the Bush administration. From expansive executive privilege to hard-line tactics in the war on terrorism, Obama must decide what he'll undo and what he'll embrace. The stakes couldn't be higher."

Will Obama Administration Signal Return to Rule of Law?
http://www.truthout.org/110708E
Brian Baxter, Law.com: "Foremost among the pressing issues he faces: rebuilding America's reputation in the international arena, says Philippe Sands, author of 'Torture Team: Rumsfeld's Memo and the Betrayal of American Values.' The book, excerpts of which appeared in a May 2008 Vanity Fair feature story, examines how U.S. lawyers abandoned the Geneva Conventions and other international protocols after the 9/11 attacks."

Julie Mertus | Letter to President Obama on Human Rights
http://www.truthout.org/110708N
Julie Mertus, Foreign Policy In Focus: "Dear President Obama: The Bush administration had eight years to run our country's reputation on human rights into the ground. It succeeded not only in tarnishing America's image, but also in derailing the entire international human rights movement. As a professor of human rights who has studied the opportunities and challenges for the White House in transition periods, I know that the window of opportunity for distinguishing yourself from your predecessor is open now, but you must act quickly and decisively if you are to get human rights back on track.

Right Tears Itself Apart in Pinning Blame for McCain's Defeat
http://www.truthout.org/110808D
Oliver Burkeman, The Guardian UK: "As the implosion of the defeated Republican campaign continued yesterday, the landscape of American conservatism was dotted with signs that these were very strange times indeed. Rush Limbaugh, behemoth of rightwing radio, took to the airwaves to declare war on two enemies: Barack Obama and the Republican party. Bloggers at FreeRepublic.com, an internet hub for conservatives, announced a boycott of Fox News and John McCain's aides fell over one another to leak embarrassing details about the campaign to the press."

foreign craps

Thousands of frightened civilians fled fighting near a refugee camp in eastern Congo Friday. (Photo/left: Karel Prinsloo / AP)

Refugees Flee Latest Fighting in East Congo
http://www.truthout.org/110708S
Emmanuel Braun and Hereward Holland, Reuters: "Thousands of frightened civilians fled fighting near a refugee camp in eastern Congo on Friday, as renewed clashes between rebels and government troops added urgency to a regional peace summit being held in Kenya."

Georgian soldiers hand coffins to gravediggers during a military funeral for fellow fighters killed battling Russian forces in Tbilisi. Independent military observers are saying that Georgia acted offensively instead of defensively when it attacked the isolated capital of Tskhinvali with rocket fire. (Photo/right: Chris Hondros / Getty Images)

Georgia Claims on Russia War Called Into Question
http://www.truthout.org/110708T
C. J. Chivers and Ellen Barry, The New York Times: "Newly available accounts by independent military observers of the beginning of the war between Georgia and Russia this summer call into question the longstanding Georgian assertion that it was acting defensively against separatist and Russian aggression."

eco craps

The California Sacramento Delta. (Photo: Adrian Mendoza)

Dan Bacher | Canal Controversy Continues
http://www.truthout.org/110708EA
Dan Bacher, Truthout: "If Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger gets his way, a peripheral canal may someday siphon off more water from the Sacramento Delta. Last month, a special task force appointed by the governor released a controversial strategic plan recommending construction of more dams and an updated version of the peripheral canal to address the "co-equal" goals of water supply and ecosystem restoration."

A valley filled with rubble and debris from a mountaintop-removal coal mining operation. Among the environmental protections the Bush administration is seeking to remove before leaving office is a Department of Interior rule that bans mining within 100 feet of a stream and would allow companies to dump the rubble from mountaintops into valleys and streams. (Photo/below: Giles Ashford)

Bush Officials Plan to Dial Back Environmental Protections
http://www.truthout.org/110708K
Renee Schoof, McClatchy Newspapers: "In the next few weeks, the Bush administration is expected to relax environmental-protection rules on power plants near national parks, uranium mining near the Grand Canyon and more mountaintop-removal coal mining in Appalachia."

wha-kindof-crap?!