Unbanned in Boston

The UN war crimes tribunal for ex-Yugoslavia has started to race through its backlog of cases by plea bargains, under pressure from the US. Because the principle in disposing of cases of systematic rape, killing of civilians, etc etc, should be not wasting too much time and effort.

Just in case anyone believed that Bush speech about bringing democracy to the Middle East, he names as next ambassador to Saudi Arabia, wait for it, a Texas oil lobbyist.

We here in Kallyfohrnia have a new governor. If you wake up tomorrow and the land mass of North America suddenly ends at Nevada, you’ll know the reason. He immediately rescinds the car tax by executive order, because you have to do something unconstitutional on your first day. His big plan for the budget turns out to be $15 billion in bond indebtedness (which means $15 billion in interest, buying exactly nothing). Ya know, anybody could have come up with that idea.

The Bushies just cancelled the only public event he had, which wasn’t very public, invited guests only. So the British people are paying millions for security, and all that disruption, just so that Bush can meet the queen and try to erase the impression he made on her the last time.

The Mass. Supreme Court rules that marriage cannot exclude homosexuals. Bush says that he will “defend the sanctity of marriage against the queers.” OK, I added those last 3 words, but who else would he be “defending” marriage from? I’d also like Bush just once to be made to define “sanctity.”

A trial is going on of a substantial proportion of the admittedly quite small adult male population of Pitcairn Island for sex crimes (where Fletcher Christian and the Bounty mutineers settled). They’re claiming that Pitcairn is in fact an independent country.

Florida suspends constitutional rights to a speedy trial during the free trade meetings next week.

Wal-Mart was selling a toy, made in China, that is supposed to be attached to cribs and makes ocean noises, and also subliminally says “I hate you” over and over. They’ve pulled the product, but refuse to admit to hearing the words.

Here’s a story I missed. A US lt-col. is being given a military hearing (like a pre-court martial)--safely out of the way of publicity in Tikrit--for beating and staging a mock execution of an Iraqi POW to extract information. Evidently, this is all over talk radio, which is defending the guy, who is claiming self defense in that the information he was seeking (the report doesn’t say if he got it) was about a plan to attack him and his unit.