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The Daily Muck
The Washington Post's extensive four-part series on the shoddy health care provided to imprisoned illegal immigrants ends today with a look into the drugging of detainees, oftentimes for no medical reason. (Washington Post)
The Detroit City Council narrowly voted to begin the removal of embattled Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick Tuesday. The measure, passing by one vote, asks the governor to force Kilpatrick out as the council simultaneously moves to do the same. (Detroit Free Press)
Another legacy of the Bush administration: Using federal agency bureaucrats to propose or adopt rules limiting lawsuits, circumventing an unfriendly Congress and the public's watchful eye. (Associated Press)
The U.S. Interior Dept. is investigating allegations that the Washington D.C. Martin Luther King, Jr. National Memorial Project Foundation did not follow federal competitive bidding rules and "Buy American" policies as the foundation outsourced the statue's creation to a Chinese sculptor. (New York Sun)
House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-MD) said he supports reversing a House rule instituted by Dems last year. The rule disallowed the prolonging of floor votes to change its outcome. But Hoyer said while testifying before a House committee investigating the August, 2007 disputed vote that the rule was "unenforceable." (Roll Call, sub. req.)
Both Sen. Barack Obama and Sen. John McCain have voiced their disapproval of 527 groups using negative political ads in the current campaign. Obama's camp went as far as stating their worries of the private groups' low blows this month at an Indianapolis meeting and asked supporters to fund the official campaign, not outside groups advocating for the candidate. (Washington Post)













The drugging of detainees is a violation of the Geneva Conventions (and while they are not prisoners of war, darned close!!
Did you know that several people in the Bush Administration have been charged with war crimes? Read it now!
May 14, 2008 10:42 AM | Reply | Permalink
Just as this Administration has said that Geneva doesn't apply to "illegal combatants," restricting Geneva to actual, declared wars and their actors, those being detained because of alleged illegal immigration do not hold Geneva rights.
However, these "detainees" should at least have treatment as good as the prison population has, which, though certainly not great, is better than life in immigration detention. If they're accused of breaking a law, give them the same rights as anyone accused of a crime.
These people haven't been proven guilty of illegal immigration. If they had, they'd have been deported. They're in holding-pattern hell.
May 14, 2008 6:36 PM | Reply | Permalink
The scandal-ridden Interior Department is cracking down on a nonprofit organization whose goal is to build and donate a memorial to the United States Government?
Maybe they'd like to work on the Indian Trust Fund, the unresolved Abramoff issues, the sweetheart oil leases, the long overdue royalty payments from big oil to the US Treasury before they go investigating a nonprofit.
And how incredibly tone-deaf.
May 14, 2008 10:53 AM | Reply | Permalink
re: Another legacy of the Bush administration
It will be decades before We The People can recover from Little Georgie & The Big Dick's assault against personal rights and their proto-fascistic undying support for corporations.
Why a theoretical concept, written on paper, albeit based on law, have the same rights as a US citizen I have no idea. Changing the legal balance between corporations and people is a necessity. Is the US a prot-fascist totalitarian state with the aim of maximizing corporate profits or a democratic republic with the aim of preserving life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness?
ITMFA
May 14, 2008 12:06 PM | Reply | Permalink