Baby Steps Toward Justice

Today U.S. District Judge John Bates ruled that Congress can subpoena members of the Bush administration. Unfortunately this is not the end of the legal philosophy of executive privilege since Bates also ruled that these aids can still invoke executive privilege in response to certain questions.

It is interesting to me that this article by Reuters chose to say that it is the Democrats that claim politics interfered with hiring and firing decisions at the Justice Department when an internal investigation by the Justice Department itself came to the same conclusion this week.

The bias in Reuters reporting is interesting because of the way it parallels the line taken by the Republican party in response to the decision by the House Judiciary committee to hold Karl Rove in contempt of Congress.

These are all small steps but they are steps on the path that lead to justice and accountability. We may yet falter on the way but it is proof that our system is not broken and still works. Let this be a lesson to all those who vainly spoke of moving to Canada.

That being said, its all well and good to gloat about Bush and the neo-cons who are using him as a vehicle getting their cummupance, but this story has a portion to it that should upset everyone. The problem is that it is buried past the critical first paragraph of most articles. According to the Justice Department's internal report, Monica Goodling the person under Attorny General Alberto Gonzales in charge of hiring, passed over a highly qualified and experienced counter-terrorism attorny because his wife was active in the Democratic Party. Instead she hired a Bush croney who had no experience working with counter-terrorism in any way. So she put political concerns above national security. Its useless to extend this behavior to other Republicans like some are tempted to do. History has shown us that career politicans are corrupt regardless of what party they belong to. The important thing is to be sure that this individual who put all of our lives at risk for her petty concerns takes responsibility for what she has done and faces justice.

Go Ahead, Move to Canda!: Did Someone Say "NEW ONGOING SERIES"?

In the establishment's perpetual search for power, they have used many a tact in suppressing dissent, and suring up their base. Though it is possible to imprison or murder the dissenters, that takes time, money, lives, effort, etc. There are also risks. The imprisoned or assassinated victims can become martyrs, and blowback occurs. (Though you can never forget about intentionally cause blowback to increase the disorder and chaos in an area to create grounds for heavy force.) Well, one of my favorite ways to get rid of dissent is to offer the dissenters a way out.

I was recently watching the movie "The Unbearable Likeness of Being," with the badass Daniel Day Lewis and the juicy Juliette Binoche. In it they play a brain surgeon and budding photographer living in Prague in 1968. A gold star for the first kid who said, "Isn't that during the Prague Spring?" This is where the Communist, sorry, evil Ruskies came marching in and took control with an Iron Fist. Demonstrations, riots, and general public dissent ensued. Juliette Binoche even took a couple pictures of excessive Russian military practices. Of course it didn't take long for the "secret police" to find her and her pictures, and start making her life difficult. What to do, what to do? Stay around and fight the oppression? Stand your ground and fight for you and your fellow man's rights? Naw, fuck that, they left. They packed up and left. There was then an important scene. Instead of there being a difficult process of escape it was simply a matter of heading to a Russian sanctioned border checkpoint and waving to the soldiers as they headed to Switzerland.

Now the first thought that popped into my head was, why the hell are the Russians letting all of these, though dissenting, talented, valuable human resources leave? If they are so evil, why give them a chance to live in the happy free Switzerland, where the trains only run on time because they made the watches. Well then it dawned on me, and really put domestic events into perspective for me. They let them leave because they are trouble. They were making their occupation easier by getting rid of the people who give a shit.

Let's look to America at this time. A quick Wikipedia check will show you that...(I am actually doing some minor research for a blog, woo is me) 100,000 American men went abroad to avoid service in Vietnam, with 50,000 - 90,000 going to Canada. Initially, Canada didn't want a bunch of American immigrating into their country (we should be able to empathize with concerns about southern border immigration.) However, Canada eventually welcomed them, probably after the US told them we will allow them back in at a later date. Oh, and sure enough we did.

So, America was waging not only an unjust war abroad, but at the same time, the establishment was being fought with over many issues, namely civil rights. Forcing people into service, or anything for that matter, who really don't want to do it can incite rebellion. What better way to quell any serious threat to the establishment than to "allow" 100,00 pissed off young men (all fit for service) to leave. And then someone had the great idea to invite these people back, because not only are they a valuable human resource, but they are sure to be pretty tame now that the man "showed them kindness."

Every member of the counter culture or urban radical out there has heard someone say "I'll move to Canada when shit really hits the fan." As if Canada is some sort of magical safe fallback option for when America really becomes fascist. Hell, I bet there are a ton of ex-pats who have left already, to Canada or Europe, because they think America already is an oppressive state. It is to these yellow-bellied, selfish, all talk no walk, used to be but no longer am dissenters that I dedicate this NEW ONGOING SERIES:

Mark Emery, the Prince of Pot, is founder of the BC Marijuana Party and successful marijuana seed distributor. In 2005, he was arrested by Canadian law enforcement, under pressure from the Yanks, along with two others for selling these seeds. It is almost an never enforced law in Canada (to Canada's credit) though there are some laws on the books. The U.S. wanted him extradited to our country to face our stricter anti-drug legal system. A recent plea deal in the case means that Emery, but not his two compatriots, will serve 5-10 years in prison. Though Canada did not blindly hand him over to the U.S., they did allow a foreign agency to interpret their own laws, dictate the resources and actions of their police, sway the Canadian judicial system, and spend Canadian tax payer dollars all to enforce a victimless crime for political reasons. Emery may still do some of his prison time in the U.S., but that is yet to be determined.

Canada, you ought to be ashamed of yourself. I liked you, I really did. But you're no better than u.s. You give in to the bully. You question your own values. You are willing to hurt an innocent human for what? And to you people out there wanting to move to Canada, where will you move when Canada and the U.S. have the same laws and law enforcement under the banner of the North American Union; when you could spent this whole time fighting the establishment instead of spending all that damn time packing and unpacking your fucking dishes you got from Pier One.

The Plot Gets Thicker

Victoria, BC, the first police department in Canada to include the taser in its "toolkit," is now looking at the justification behind its use of tasers, or at least how the officer who is widely credited with spreading taser use among Canadian police departments came to be on the payroll of Taser International. Apparently, having a very close relationship with a company that includes such factors as having received a token (read:embarrassingly low) amount in stock options for a design for a holster for Taser's M26 model, traveling to the company's headquarters on their dime to become one of their "Master Instructors," and traveling to two different American police departments to conduct training on behalf of Taser constitutes some sort of "conflict of interest." I'm sure that Taser's lawyers are going to have a field day with this one, although one might argue that if they were really good lawyers, they would have advised against this kind of business relationship with a client. Anyways, since there is no conflict of interest procedure or rules for disclosure, Darren Laur will probably continue to have a job, at least for Taser, if not the Victoria PD. I love the way Inspector Bond talks out of both sides of his mouth at the end of the article.

Note, as of publishing, Taser International is down 3.56%.