Saddam's trial resumes without him. Good, try him in absentia and then hang him. Global Warming pounds North America. Fellow torture victim splits with the all-powerful McCain on his politically correct torture provision:

“This provision could have devastating effects and is entirely unwarranted,” Johnson wrote in an unsigned and undated draft of the letter obtained by The Hill.

If torture doesn't work why have the "Ticking Time Bomb" exemption in it?

Let's let new detainees sweat a little from fear of the unknown before we put them in their landlocked Holland America prison cells, then, when they're really frightened and pissing themselves from fear, they'll get their orange glazed chicken, rice pilaf, lemon pepper fish, prayer rugs, prayer oils, daily calls to prayer, an exercise yard, an attorney and a fresh new copy of the very book that inspired them to kill us in the first place, the Koran. After all that horror I know I'd sing.

Enemas of the State:Members of the Religious Left march on GITMO to protest the previously mentioned horrors that the terrorists are exposed to. Meanwhile back at the Ranch: Many have a different view of torture...

Most Americans and a majority of people in Britain, France and South Korea say torturing terrorism suspects is justified at least in rare instances, according to AP-Ipsos polling.
The United States has drawn criticism from human rights groups and many governments, especially in Europe, for its treatment of terror suspects. President Bush and other top officials have said the U.S. does not torture, but some suspects in American custody have alleged they were victims of severe mistreatment.

The polling, in the United States and eight of its closest allies, found that in Canada, Mexico and Germany people are divided on whether torture is ever justified.

In America, 61 percent of those surveyed agreed torture is justified at least on rare occasions. Almost nine in 10 in South Korea and just over half in France and Britain felt that way.

Quote of the Day:

"I don't think we should go out and string everybody up by their thumbs until somebody talks. But if there is definitely a good reason to get an answer, we should do whatever it takes," said Billy Adams, a retiree from Tomball, Texas.


Katrina Kangaroo Court:


Racism was to blame for the slow response to Hurricane Katrina.
They compared themselves to victims of genocide and victims of the Holocaust. One congressman pointed out the lack of gas chambers in New Orleans, to no avail.
"Community Activist" Leah Hodges said that victims of the flood died of "abject neglect." I thought they died from the flood? And if they did perish from neglect, whose fault is that?
In what has to be one of the more telling statements, 53-year-old New Orleans resident Patricia Thompson said she knew it was racism. Her proof? "Yes, it was an issue of race. Because of one thing: when the city had pretty much been evacuated, the people that were left there mostly was black."

Par for the course. It's always someone else's fault. Perhaps the people who followed the evacuation order and left town didn't have to worry about being left behind, because they actually left. With a few exceptions, those who stayed behind did so because they were waiting for the welfare state to take care of them, just as they have all their lives. Once again, the Great Society kills, sucking the individualism and self-sufficiency right out of the human spirit.

The facts are the facts: the main reason the Katrina response was botched was because the Mayor of New Orleans and the Governor of Louisiana botched it. This was a Democratic operation, and they screwed it up. Did FEMA come up short? Absolutely! But by and large, this one lies squarely at the feet of the state and local officials.

Tookie:Toast. 9/11 Commission's latest report glistening with political correctness.

Economics 101:

In the wake of the spike in fuel prices, many Americans demand that politicians do something. You can bet the rent money that whatever politicians do will end up harming consumers. Despite a long history of their economic calamity, some Americans and politicians are calling for price controls or, what amounts to the same thing, anti price-gouging legislation. As Professor Thomas DiLorenzo points out in "Four Thousand Years of Price Control," price controls have produced calamities wherever and whenever they've been tried.

Al-Queda muscles in on Earth Liberation Front terrority...

"I call on the holy warriors to concentrate their campaigns on the stolen oil of the Muslims, most of the revenues of which go to the enemies of Islam," al-Zawahri, the Egyptian deputy of al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden, said in a portion of the tape not previously broadcast.

"Stolen oil?" I think I've heard that kind of nonsense from amply wattled Halliburton shareholder Michael Moore. UN declares Kyoto Protocol dead. No oil for food, no Kyoto, wherever will they turn? Media bias 101. Gorilla falls for girl.