In response to US plans to ”hold terrorism suspects indefinitely without trial” for those “the Pentagon and the CIA suspect of terrorist links but do not wish to set free or put on trial for lack of hard evidence”, two Senators, Carl Levin (D-Mich) and Richard Luger (R-Ind)  have squeaked up with what passes for dissent in the ruling class today. 

“There must be some modicum, some semblance of due process … if you’re going to detain people, whether it’s for life or whether it’s for years,” Levin said.

Detaining individuals for life without judicial review “is a bad idea,” Lugar said on the same program.

A “bad idea?” “Some semblance of due process?” That’s all they can say? The Bushite neo-fascists (yes, the word does apply) want to jail anyone anytime with no evidence forever and all these Senators can say is, Gee whiz Mr. Bush , this isn’t a good idea. How lame, how pathetic.

Instead, they should be calling for people to get into the streets, for massive protests and dissent nationwide in response to this grotesque attack on basic Constitutionally guaranteed freedoms. But, being part of the ruling class, their “dissent” is a token gesture at best.

If we want to stop them, we will have to do it ourselves. Congress will not help as they are part of the problem.

No Comments »

The tsunami disaster is now orders of magnitude worse than any other disaster.

In Indonesia

In the city of Meulaboh, about 110 miles south of Banda Aceh, the provincial capital, only 1,000 people survived out of a population of 60,000,

From World Vision, a Christian humanitarian organization

Many people lost everything. We saw the spot where World Vision built a housing project with 65 houses. They are all gone, as are the 95 Canadian-sponsored children who lived there. So, so sad. Clarence, the staff member in charge there, told us that on the first day, they cleared about 350 bodies from the rubble. The army took photos and fingerprints. Eventually the task became so overwhelming and impossible that they began burning bodies right where they lay.

One staff member, who celebrates 21 years of service with World Vision today, also is grieving the loss of 16 extended family members.

Child advocates fear children are being abducted from hospitals and relief camps to be trafficked as domestic help or into the sex trades.

Yesterday in Matara, some 7,000 people were buried in a mass grave. To facilitate identification, officials had the grisly chore of severing one finger from each body. World Vision provided a refrigerator where the body parts can be stored until family members are able to identify their loved ones.

In Sri Lanka, Tamil fishing industry swept away

More than a million fishermen in Sri Lanka’s north-east may have lost their livelihoods in the Asian tsunami, experts say.

Sri Lanka has a population of 20 million. 1.5 million are homeless and the fishing industry is gone.

About 80% of fishing boats there are believed destroyed and many fishermen are also too scared to go to sea.

The Tamil Tigers who hold some areas say the government has not shown it is committed to giving aid.

Indeed, there are disturbing reports the Sri Lanka government is actively blocking aid from reaching the Tamil-held areas, even though they deny it.

Highly industrialized areas of the world have tsunami warning systems. The Third World doesn’t. This could have been prevented. In a better world, one with a just and equitable economic system rather than the exploitative hyper-capitalism we have now which fattens a few while the many scramble to survive, all countries would be able to afford such now obviously essential things as tsunami warning systems. 

World Vision donations A non-sectarian Christian relief organization that quietly has done much good for fifty years now with no proselytizing.

Sarvodaya donations This Sri Lanka-based peace organization with 100,000 volunteers throughout the country can get aid to the stricken when no one else can.

No Comments »