Body and Soul will continue. Blogdom came through and now Jeanne will be able to replace her dying computer and thus save her blog, a blog treasured by many.

Jeanne blogs her stunned thanks, more than 100 donated, using a metaphor of her love for the blubbery movie "It’s a Wonderful Life."

In the meantime, I just wanted to let you know that I will always think of the community of liberal bloggers and readers with the blubbery love I’ve reserved until now for the riff-raff of Bedford Falls. Thank you. I really believe together we can save the world from Mr. Potter.

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The monarchy of Hawaii was overthrown in 1893 by armed thugs backed by the US government and commercial interests.

Armed insurrection by a relatively small group of men, most of them American by birth or heritage, succeeded in wresting control of the Islands with the backing of American troops sent ashore from a warship in Honolulu Harbor.

Sugar and a coerced constitution played roles in the drama — intertwined themes of economics and politics.

The Akaka bill, which is working its way through Congress would "express the policy of the United States regarding the United States relationship with Native Hawaiians and to provide a process for the recognition by the United States of the Native Hawaiian governing entity." If this passes, and it could, it would be a seriously big deal for Hawaii.

More from Sen. Akaka’s website

I introduced this legislation with Hawaii’s Congressional delegation to extend the federal policy of self-governance and self-determination to Native Hawaiians. We have been working to enact this legislation since 1999. I have made clear to my colleagues in Washington, D.C. that this is a nonpartisan issue. This is a team effort and we greatly appreciate the efforts of everyone involved who is working to enact this bill.

The Hawaiian independence movement, like any nationalist movement, has many currents. Some want nothing to do with the invaders, they want the invaders gone, period. Others favor limited sovereignty rather than independence and will work with anyone working towards their goals.

The ANSWER Coalition, which I’m active in, has a stated position on independence movements. An oppressed people has the right to self-determination. Outside groups should support whatever path is chosen. Most especially, outside groups should refrain from telling them what to do, for that decision is theirs alone to make. Solidarity is what is important, backing them in whatever path they choose.

Hawaii Nation

Hawaiian Independence blog

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CIA’s bungled Italy job

Sloppy use of cell phones, other missteps help police unravel cleric’s 2003 abduction.

The trick is known to just about every two-bit crook in the cellular age: If you don’t want the cops to know where you are, take the battery out of your cell phone when it’s not in use.

Had that trick been taught at the CIA’s rural Virginia training school for covert operatives, the Bush administration might have avoided much of the current crisis in Europe over the practice the CIA calls "rendition"

But wait, the CIA was even more brain-dead than that.

The list of mistakes made here is long, but it begins with the operatives’ indiscriminate use of their cell phones, not only to communicate with one another but with colleagues in the U.S. Consulate in Milan, in northern Virginia where the CIA has its headquarters, and in some cases even with the folks back home.

There appears to have been little effort to maintain a "wall" between the abductors and the CIA’s facilities in Milan and Rome–a violation of the primary principle that "deep cover" operatives should never have contact with CIA officers posing as diplomats in U.S. embassies and consulates abroad.

Bumbling boys with expensive toys. And no clue. All of which would be comical until you realized they kidnapped someone and took him to Egypt where he was no doubt tortured. These inept thugs need to be indicted here in the US too, as do their higher-ups in the CIA, all the way to the bloodstained top. They are all criminals, period.

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Iraqi court disqualifies prominent Sunni candidates

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 The Mashpee gave tens of thousands to lobbyist Jack Abramoff and California Rep. Pombo.

The Mashpee Wampanoags, famed for greeting the Pilgrims at Plymouth, will be named a nationally recognized tribe — a designation they sought for 30 years so that they could benefit from federal aid programs.

Jack Abramoff, the lobbyist embroiled in a Washington corruption scandal, and his firm championed the Indians’ cause and pocketed tens of thousands of dollars in tribal money.

And Rep. Richard W. Pombo (R-Tracy), chairman of the influential House Resources Committee, landed a lucrative source of political donations: the small group of Native Americans whose ancestral lands are about as far from his Northern California district as one can get in the United States. 

I’m guessing the Abramoff investigations, which will go supernova when he starts testifying against former colleagues and friends early in January, will show an interlocking web of corruption and payoffs that go way beyond Indian tribes.

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 The Council for American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), the largest Muslim rights organisation in the United States, has described the revelation that Muslim gatherings and homes around Washington have been electronically "sniffed" for radiation as "disturbing."

In a statement on Friday, CAIR said, "This disturbing revelation, coupled with recent reports of domestic surveillance without warrant, could lead to the perception that we are no longer a nation ruled by law, but instead one in which fear trumps constitutional rights. All Americans should be concerned about the apparent trend toward a two-tiered system of justice system, with full rights for most citizens, and another diminished set of rights for Muslims."

This is racial profiling. Orwellian too. Not to mention being idiotic. Like anyone who had radioactive devices would be dumb enough to store them at home. Like there couldn’t be vastly more intelligent ways to look for possible threats.

This seems absurd until you realize such surveillance demonstrates that our government is out of control. It’s time for regime change in DC.

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Sri Lanka pro-rebel MP gunned down at midnight mass

Sri Lanka has had a long, bloody civil war, with the Tamil Tiger insurgents considered among the most ruthless and best-trained insurgents anywhere. A friend who knows the terrain says this was probably done by a break-away faction of the Tigers. When I asked if the government might secretly be backing that faction, he said, it’s certainly possible.

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Courts criticize judges’ handling of asylum cases

Federal appeals court judges around the nation have repeatedly excoriated immigration judges this year for what they call a pattern of biased and incoherent decisions in asylum cases.

In one decision last month, Richard A. Posner, a prominent and relatively conservative federal appeals court judge in Chicago, concluded that "the adjudication of these cases at the administrative level has fallen below the minimum standards of legal justice."

The federal appeals court in Philadelphia said in September that it had "time and time again" been forced to rebuke immigration judges for their "intemperate and humiliating remarks." Citing cases from around the country, the court wrote of "a disturbing pattern" of misconduct in immigration rulings that sent people back to countries where they had said they would face persecution.

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