The stupidest thing I've ever heard

Arlen Specter (R-PA) was questioning Attorney General Alberto Gonzalez recently and got to asking him about the restriction of habeas corpus by the Bush administration. Habeas is basically the right of prisoners to challenge their incarceration before a court to prevent unlawful imprisonment. It dates back to the Magna Carta and up until recently was a right guaranteed by the Constitution of the United States. This has been the central debate surrounding the Guantanamo Bay detainees and comes up repeatedly whenever Gonzalez testifies before congress.

This one was a beauty though. Specter is asking Gonzalez how the Bush administration can restrict this right when Gonzalez drops the bomb on Specter. Are you ready for this? You might want to sit down. It makes my brain hurt?


There is some mundane stuff at the beginning, the fireworks start around 6:20.

Gonzalez claims that the Constitution doesn't guarantee the right to habeas corpus, it just ... I can't even type this with a straight face... prevents the government from restricting. Do you see the wrinkle there? It doesn't say you have it, it just says you can't take it away. So if they never had it then Bush et al aren't taking it away. And Bob is your uncle while the Constitution staggers back into its cave after another savage beating. Unreal.

What will we call Canadian money now?

Now I'm not saying that we should all have to sit around and do integral calculus with our trusty slide rule or anything ( yes, Dad, I know you think we should ), but this is a little silly. No more Monopoly money? Why didn't they just go straight for the retinal scan for indentity verification to directly debit your fake monopoly account?

What fuels the fire?

Here is a very interesting LA Times article about some of the possible motivations on all sides surrounding the new open conflict in southern Lebanon. How many groups over there really want to see the fighting stop? Are there any?

The long wait

I'm not really into video games, but the prodigious wait for Duke Nukem Forever has a way of bringing a decade into perspective.

An issue of scale

The US is in a bit of a spat with the rest of the world over . But I saw an article on space weapons that made me laugh

From the article:

The White House is due to announce a new space policy this month, the first overhaul in a decade. Some U.S. experts have said it will underscore the Pentagon's determination to protect its existing space assets and maintain dominance of outer space.

For some reason that strikes me as a statement that is going to be sublimely funny someday. I wonder if my cats are vying for dominance of that one clean litter box in the back of the basement.