TRUFFULAUT #24

 http://home.earthlink.net/~truffulaut/id38.html

 

11 November 2004

 

 

PEOPLE

NEW YORK ATTORNEY GENERAL ELIOT SPITZER

Eliot Spitzer is a fitting successor to the legacy of at least one of his predecessors, Teddy Roosevelt.  We need people with backbone to fight the corruption that has been strangling our nation.  Corruption has reduced much of the so-called middle class to wage slaves (who hope that next year's holidays will not be marred by unpleasant memories of vanished adequate living standards), the number of working poor is exploding, industrial accidents are treated with a paragraph in the newspaper, pension funds disappear, and people die of starvation every night.  You probably know some other examples of corruption, don't you?

http://www.oag.state.ny.us/home.html

Eliot Spitzer became the state's 63rd Attorney General on January 1, 1999.  Since that time, he has advanced initiatives to make New York a national leader in investor protection, environmental stewardship, labor rights, personal privacy, public safety, and criminal law enforcement.

http://www.oag.state.ny.us/bio.html

 

ALBERTO GONZALES, USA ATTORNEY GENERAL DESIGNATE

Even before he came to Washington as chief legal counsel to President George W. Bush, Alberto Gonzales demonstrated a penchant for finding ways around international law.

http://slate.msn.com/id/2102416/

The man himself writes:

On January 18, I advised you that the Department of Justice had issued a formal legal opinion concluding that the Geneva Convention III on the Treatment of Prisoners of War (GPW) does not apply to the conflict with al Qaeda...  As an initial matter, I note that you have the constitutional authority to make the determination you made on January 18 that the GPW does not apply to al Qaeda and the Taliban.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/4999148/site/newsweek

GENEVA CONVENTION RELATIVE TO THE TREATMENT OF PRISONERS OF WAR

http://www.unhchr.ch/html/menu3/b/91.htm

As quoted in Truffulaut #16 (http://home.earthlink.net/~truffulaut/id27.html):

Article 1:  The High Contracting Parties undertake to respect and to ensure respect for the present Convention in all circumstances. 

Will the Senate hearings on the appointment of Alberto Gonzales include a litmus test on adherence to international law?  I have never been to Paris, France, but I bet it is at least as nice as Crawford, Texas. 

 

 

CURRENT EVENTS

IRAQ COALITION CASUALTY COUNT updated at least daily

...this web site was developed... to provide information that has been scrupulously culled from government sources and cross-checked against other existing lists to ensure the most accurate and complete accounting of deaths that we can possibly assemble.  Then we take things a step further.  We present the data in a way that will allow other researchers and interested individuals to easily analyze it for trends and benchmarks.

http://icasualties.org/oif/

 

KEYSTONE TRANSPORTATION SECURITY ADMINISTRATION

http://www.tsa.gov/public/index.jsp

I find the heading "Am I wearing the right shoes?" downright funny, but after getting everyone to remove their shoes before flying, now they are going to be fondling each woman's breasts.  Who's running this show?  Mack Sennett?

Bob Kapp, customer service manager for the TSA in Denver, said that to conduct a thorough pat-down search of women, "It does require going beneath, between, and above the breasts."  Kapp said a few people have been a little bit alarmed by the procedure.  But he called it "a sign of the times" that is probably here to stay.

http://www.10news.com/news/3799783/detail.html

 

DIDN'T KNOW I WAS UN-AMERICAN

http://www.sharedvoice.org/unamerican/pop.html

 

 

HISTORY 001

MAGNA CARTA

http://www.magnacartaplus.org/magnacarta/latin.htm

Sometime ago, Truffulaut jested that in this post-9/11 world, this Administration will be revisiting the provisions of Magna Carta.  It is no longer a post-9/11 world; it is a post-11/2 world.  Methinks it prudent, therefore, to re-read this "corner-stone of liberty."

Magna Carta is often thought of as the corner-stone of liberty and the chief defence against arbitrary and unjust rule in England.  In fact it contains few sweeping statements of principle, but is a series of concessions wrung from the unwilling King John by his rebellious barons in 1215.  However, Magna Carta established for the first time a very significant constitutional principle, namely that the power of the king could be limited by a written grant.

http://www.bl.uk/collections/treasures/magna.html

Magna Carta is practically unreadable in its original form, but is well worth examining for proof of the reality of its existence.  The people forcing King John to sign were not figures in a quaint legend.  Magna Carta is part of our heritage here in the USA, which was formerly a British colony until we, too, ganged up on a King.

http://www.bl.uk/diglib/magna-carta/magna_main.html

King John today:

http://community.webshots.com/photo/50071701/50071701MnWuuj

http://community.webshots.com/photo/50072669/50072669txscLz

The British Library has provided an excellent translation of Magna Carta:

First, that we have granted to God, and by this present charter have confirmed for us and our heirs in perpetuity, that the English Church shall be free, and shall have its rights undiminished, and its liberties unimpaired...  This freedom we shall observe ourselves, and desire to be observed in good faith by our heirs in perpetuity...  To all free men of our kingdom we have also granted, for us and our heirs for ever, all the liberties written out below, to have and to keep for them and their heirs, of us and our heirs.

http://www.bl.uk/collections/treasures/magnatranslation.html

I would rather read it in the original Latin but have not yet fully learned Latin, botulus-halitus.  If you had also rather read the original Latin, and can, we should thank Zoë Stansell of MSS Enquiries (mailto:MSS@bl.uk) at the British Library.  She was kind enough to take the time to provide me with a website:

http://www.magnacartaplus.org/magnacarta/latin.htm

If you are so inclined, you might also drop by the British Library's online bookshop.  The British Museum does an excellent job of preserving a part of our mutual heritage.  We hear from both sides that the UK and the USA have a "special relationship," and I pray it shall be of benefit to all humanity, eventually.

http://www.bl.uk/services/publications/bookshop.html

 

RED VERSUS BLUE VERSUS GRAY VERSUS NAVY

Here is a map of Free States and Slave States, before the Civil War, courtesy of Annenberg/CPB.  The map speaks for itself. 

http://www.learner.org/biographyofamerica/prog10/maps/index.html

http://www.learner.org/about/aboutus.html

http://www.whannenberg.org/

 

 

RANDOM OBSERVATION

GREEN NEWS

I have a very simple, free program (IrfanView -
http://www.irfanview.com/) that has a feature common to all image-viewing programs that I have ever seen.  It gives me the ability to turn any foto into black and white (Convert to Greyscale).  Therefore it makes me wonder when I see pictures from Iraq or elsewhere that supposedly use night vision and are therefore green. 

 

Do the network and cable news stations not have any image-processing software?  Are they trying to make it look more realistic by keeping it green?  Are they trying to confuse or frighten us?  I often stay awake late at night, and I have never seen the world looking green & black -- it is almost always various shades of grey.  Television news stations seem to be conducting psychological warfare rather than journalism.

 

 

COMIC RELIEF

HOT REPUBLICAN GIRLS TALK LIVE!

Not for easily-offended or overly-excitable individuals.

http://www.liegirls.com/listen.html

 

 

 

PAX

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TRUFFULAUT