Posted by miri On 7 October, 2008
Judge Urbina said that the detention of the 17 prisoners — members of the Uighur ethnic group, a restive Muslim minority in western China — was unlawful, noting that the Constitution prohibits indefinite imprisonment without charges.
“I think the moment has arrived for the court to shine the light of constitutionality on the reasons for the detention,†he said.
Yay! Someone who’s read, understood and cares about the constitution!
Posted by miri On 7 October, 2008
On the eve of their second presidential debate, McCain and Obama released TV ads accusing one another of untruthful attacks. Both are essentially accurate, though each tells only half the story.
Posted by miri On 7 October, 2008
Since Sunday, Democrats have been buzzing about the re-revelation that during the 1980s, Sen. John McCain served on the board of a far-right conservative organization that had supplied arms and funds to paramilitary organizations in Latin America.
Democratic strategist Paul Begala lit the fire when, during an appearance on Meet the Press, he warned that this relatively obscure detail from McCain’s past could draw him into a guilt-by-association game he was bound to regret.
“John McCain sat on the board of…the U.S. Council for World Freedom,” said Begala, “The Anti-Defamation League, in 1981 when McCain was on the board, said this about this organization. It was affiliated with the World Anti-Communist League – the parent organization – which ADL said ‘has increasingly become a gathering place, a forum, a point of contact for extremists, racists and anti-Semites.'”
Posted by miri On 7 October, 2008
Unbelievable.
A week after the insurance giant, the American International Group, received an $85 billion federal bailout, its life insurance subsidiary, AIG General, held a weeklong retreat for its top sales agents at the exclusive St. Regis Resort in Monarch Beach, Calif. Expenses for the week, lawmakers were told, totaled $442,000, including $200,000 for hotel rooms, $150,000 for food and $23,000 in spa charges.
In addition, the former A.I.G. executive who led the London-based division whose implosion is largely blamed for the insurance giant’s downfall, Joseph J. Cassano, continues to receive $1 million a month from the company, on top of the $280 million he received in the last eight years.
And even after A.I.G. reported $5 billion in losses in the final quarter of 2007, its chief executive at the time, Martin J. Sullivan, argued before a compensation committee that executives should receive performance bonuses. He received $5 million.
Posted by miri On 6 October, 2008
I really hope factcheck.org does a story on this article.
A closer look at the life and career of John McCain reveals a disturbing record of recklessness and dishonesty
Posted by miri On 3 October, 2008
The candidates were not 100 percent accurate. To say the least.
Posted by miri On 29 September, 2008
Hope I die before I get old. (Oh wait…too late.)
More than 90 percent of nursing homes were cited for violations of federal health and safety standards last year, and for-profit homes were more likely to have problems than other types of nursing homes, federal investigators say in a report issued on Monday.
Posted by miri On 27 September, 2008
McCain and Obama contradicted each other repeatedly during their first debate, and each volunteered some factual misstatements as well. Here’s how we sort them out:
Posted by miri On 26 September, 2008
Normally we post a “Whoppers” compilation the week before Election Day. This time we’ve already seen such a large number of twisted facts, misleading claims and outright falsehoods that we are doing that now.
Posted by miri On 26 September, 2008
If it was so important for him to go there and take part in shaping the plan, why did he just sit there? Was his presence needed at all?
At the bipartisan White House meeting that Mr. McCain had called for a day earlier, he sat silently for more than 40 minutes, more observer than leader, and then offered only a vague sense of where he stood, said people in the meeting.
He’s not on the finance committee and said just a few days ago that he hadn’t even read Paulson’s plan (all 3 pages of it). But suddenly, after Obama calls him privately to say that they should issue a joint statement about the pending proposal, McCain publicly decides to go into emergency panic mode, drop everything he’s doing and run to Washington, DC. Well, kind of. He still managed a few network TV interviews and didn’t actually go to DC until the following day. (Just ask Letterman.) Personally, I’d prefer my president to be able to multi-task.
Oh, and then there’s this:
“What I’ve found, and I think it was confirmed today, is that when you inject presidential politics into delicate negotiations, it’s not necessarily as helpful as it needs to be,†Mr. Obama told reporters Thursday evening. “Just because there is a lot of glare of the spotlight, there’s the potential for posturing or suspicions.â€
“When you’re not worrying about who’s getting credit, or who’s getting blamed, then things tend to move forward a little more constructively,†he said.