CARBON OFFSET IDEAS

How about a carbon offset program that instead of planting trees pays for the construction of a nuclear power plant?

Or here is a better idea: a carbon offset fund that goes into a kitty to provide a financial prize for environmental innovation ala Branson's or the Skeptical Optimist's ideas for Carrot Economics?

Overuse of the word freedom in speeches

Many people think President over uses the word freedom in his speeches. How about this example?

You, who want freedom, freedom for everything, the freedom of parties, you who want all the freedoms, you intellectuals: freedom that will corrupt our youth, freedom that will pave the way for the oppressor, freedom that will drag our nation to the bottom.

Somebody should give Ayatollah Khomeini a thesaurus for Idul Fitri. It wouldn't kill him to use some synonyms like Bin Laden does:

...those awesome symbolic towers that speak of liberty, human rights, and humanity

By the way. after reading these quotes should we mock Bush for saying "they hate our freedoms?"

All quotes from "The Looming Tower"

WASHINGTON - Key House Democrats said Thursday they are considering a plan to close the prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, by the end of 2008, with the exception of several dozen detainees in the war on terror who would be kept at the facility and tried there.

Comments:

Methinks the Democrats or the journalist does not know the meaning of "close" if they plan to still keep some detainees there. The better word would be "scale back" or something.

Where are they planning to move the remaining detainees?

Where are they planning to store any new detainees?

One of the main problems politically with Guantanamo is C.Y.A. Sure, when you are in opposition, you can easily rail against this prison. But when you are making the calls on the ground, I am going to guess that you begin to worry about Willie Horton events.

This doesn't just affect the US either. German politicians delayed release of a German citizen for years even after the US wanted to release him as harmless. Why would they do that? Probably because politicians worry about the "harmless" individual who happened to be in Pakistan/Afghanistan/Somalia actually turns out to be not so harmless.

However, closing or moving the facility would be fine by me since it would deprive the terrorists and their fellow travelers of a rallying call. (Do the terrorists even use it as a rallying call? Are their supporters big on the Geneva convention and human rights?) Ed: And yes, that means Bread was right on this...

For any European or Australian detainees, we should expedite their interrogations and send them to their own countries ASAP so they can cause political trouble for those governments instead of ours. In fact, we should specifically state that we will repatriate prisoners unless their own country does not want them. In which case we should require that country to pay the bill, and to advertise on CNN that they do not want their detainees. Why are we letting German leaders criticize us on one hand, while not wanting their own detainees back?

What I really don't understand is how slow the military judicial system seems to be...rules are slowly drawn up, only to be changed over and over. Tribunals drag on, etc. Is this normal for the legal field / government? Combined with CYA, I can see how a lemon farmer can be stuck there for 5 years. That said, you don't think people get stuck in situations like this in every war?

Of course, in Iraq our more liberal (and swift) policy for detainees is probably hurting us very badly. Please consider this when deciding on Guantanamo's detainees, Congress.

The Funnies

If you are a rightwinger you might enjoy The Daily Gut...actually a lot of it is not political so maybe even a moderate or a left-of-center guy might like it sometimes. Just scroll quickly past the Hillary bashing - oh wait, if you are far left or just plain misogynist-leaning you might like that too.

I sometimes have fantasies about winning the lottery. I am a Year of the Dog surnamed Su, so supposedly this is a good year to buy lottery tickets - so say the Taiwanese. This post on rotten.com makes me feel a lot better about NOT winning the lottery. Read to the end to get my point.

update:

HEADLINE: "Bears fan loses bet, prepares to change name to Peyton Manning"

RED A'S RETORT: Better that than Rex Grossman

Another Podcast Suggestion

The Diner is an excellent podcast, it's basically part radio show, part time machine.

If you feel any nostalgia for 1950's American culture, this will be a delightful listen.

Also, it's a G-rated podcast - I forgot to mention some of the other ones use profanity. (Note the BBC Moyles one though.)