great post thanks for reminding us that our nation has been sliding down this bloody slippery slope under the Bush administrations reign.

Just hope the International community attempts to hold those in the Bush administration responsible for this “bloody slippery slope” ACCOUNTABLE for their war crimes since our Congress has not had the integrity or chutzpah to do so.

I want to add to these human rights;

everyone has the right to keep themselves and their family healthy;

it is to the government’s long term benefit economically, socially, intellectually to insure people remain productive for as long as possible

everyone has the right to healthy food on the table for their entire family, see paragraph above

everyone has the right to retire in comfort after their service as gainful contributers to society

everyone has the right higher education if they are eligeable, see paragagh’s above for reasons

everyone has the right to a healthy work weak and over comepensation when required to work longer then those hours of healthy production

everyone has the right to replenish batteries after a year of productive service for at least a week

there are a few other human rights but these are absolultely necessary and they represent positive investments with positive return they do not cost money they make money for this country

A lawyer employed by the IS Justice Department stated that there was no Constitutional violation and Congress hadn’t authorized such lawsuits?

Since fucking when do people like Saxby Chambliss and that loon Bachmann, not to mention Miss McConnell, get to decide who has standing and who doesn’t?

Do not forget that any person brought before the courts must have effective, competent legal council able to give that person a voice in that court. Any finding by that court otherwise is unsafe. The US Constitution is deficient in it’s protections, politically, economically, and culturally.

I remember reading this Declaration as a child and thinking well of COURSE the world should do this, why wouldnt they?

Digg

wow Jim! This is stunning!
GOOD WORK.
i’m sooooo glad you r an FDLer!
Thank you.
Sincerely.

and I remember thinking that we, America, are the ones who began this entire trend. And i recall feeling proud. And safe.
That was then.
This is now.
*sigh*

the US has never been very good with the declaration… we’ve executed minors, the mentally handicapped, the debatably innocent, and those over which international law said we have no jurisdiction. We sell torture devices to foreign thugs, which use them to break the limbs of dissidents. We deny consular assistance and sometimes even translators to foreigners arrested in our cities. We use cluster bombs, land mines, napalm and white phosphorus. We use stun belts and cattle prods in our jails. we jail more of our population than virtually any other country. And all this was before shrub decided to torture, imprison without trial or charge, order secret trials, disappear people, and even exile them.

Of course, Shrub just can’t stomach it… U.S. stalls signing U.N. rights statement

The statement, proposed by France on behalf of the European Union, was scheduled to be presented to the U.N. General Assembly in New York next week. More than 50 countries have signed the statement.

“The statement will call on all governments around the world to ensure that sexual orientation and gender identity are not subjected to criminal penalty, and that individuals are not executed, arrested or otherwise detained because of their sexual orientation or gender identity,” according to the Council for Global Equality, a human rights group that advocates for gay and transgender rights.

It just makes me want to cry or scream, not sure which.

Of the 30 Articles, it appears that the US appears to comply with zero; courtesy of the Patriot Act.

It will have to be other countries that hold these war criminals accountable. Rumsfeld had to run from France in October 2007 because charges had been filed against him. He wasn’t taking any chances that the French prosecutor would agree to arrest him. He left secretly from the building where he gave his speech and ran to Germany.

http://www.informationclearing…..e18633.htm

There will be few places that any of these war criminals will be able to visit without major protection surrounding them.

Iraq war vet Andre Shepherd seeks asylum in Germany. He is the first vet to seek refugee status in Europe.

http://www.couragetoresist.org…..iew/643/1/

Germany declared the Iraq war illegal in 2005, so this will be a president setting decision.

http://www.germanlawjournal.co…..684#_ftn66

Very sad. Another (inter)national treasure trashed in the pursuit of executive power.

Bruce Springsteen and All Along the Watchtower.

The actions of the US & Canadian governments leading up to the rendition of Arar to Syria are unconscionable.

Who cares were the Nazis hassled by war crimes which were largely not illegal at the time? The question is can we pass this now assuming you front pagers make a repeated issue of this?
If you won’t the Hague will will.
America will just slip into the old role of the USSR as far as rights are concerned.
Are you and the front pagers willing to fight or is this a drive by post?

Diary Please!

Welcome to the front page, Jim. Nice work. Looking into the rearview to see where we need to get to, in deed as well as word.

Good evening, all.

I assume bringing this up now is to embarrass Bush now and force Obama’s hand remember if it becomes law then we either turn Bush over or we have the embarrassment of protecting Bush

the US has never been very good with the declaration… we’ve executed minors, the mentally handicapped, the debatably innocent, and those over which international law said we have no jurisdiction. We sell torture devices to foreign thugs, which use them to break the limbs of dissidents. We deny consular assistance and sometimes even translators to foreigners arrested in our cities. We use cluster bombs, land mines, napalm and white phosphorus. We use stun belts and cattle prods in our jails. we jail more of our population than virtually any other country. And all this was before shrub decided to torture, imprison without trial or charge, order secret trials, disappear people, and even exile them.

Sounds like it’s time for us to change. Go to http://www.change.gov and tell Obama you’d like to see us fall in line with the International Declaration of Rights.

Its France’s way of sticking it to the Man who outlawed French Fries:). They know it won’t pass know but it does create a movement for Obama to sign.

lln up at the mothership

But we do have a government who grants it’s bureaucrats the “religious right” to deny women the contraception they need for family planning

…a law which could open up the possibility that doctors could deny or offer faith healings or exorcism instead of viable treatment based on THEIR religious beliefs.

BTW There is an artist in Malaysia that produced a rather “controversial” painting (and posters and T-shirts) simply stating the provisos of the UN’s Declaration on Human Rights. It was controversial because the articles printed went against Malaysia’s Internal Security Act.

Charles Cham

Cham is an interesting artist and runs a collective in Malacca called the “Orangutan House” where politically and environmentally oriented artists produce “social message” work. It’s worth a visit for anyone travelling through that region.

Jim, thanks very much for this update — sorry I’m so late in finding it.

The U.S. government prosecutors in this case have repeatedly sounded absurd on a number of grounds, and this is about the only argument they have left. Arar is just a Canadian, after all. None of this “all men are created equal” nonsense for them.

There is still murkier stuff to be explored at the State Department. Rice has continued to stall and stonewall on the Arar file, and to imply that U.S. officials know things about him that she can’t divulge.

But everyone who followed Justice O’Connor’s inquiry here knows that Arar is pure as the driven snow, and one day, a lot of people are going to have to account not only for what they did but for covering up what they knew, absolutely knew, for years, to be lies.

We have at least seven other cases like this in Canada. However long it takes …

Oh, yes, skdadl: Even after a full commision of inquiry in Canada there are American officials including members of Congress who say that there is super secret special information that only the U.S. government possesses that Arar is a terrorist. It’s such a blatant example of how self-serving and incredibly corrosive all these secrets are.

Thanks, Jim. I didn’t realize this would be available via C-Span.

Perhaps we’ll find eventually the Arar file contains a photocopy of a rental lease from Canada and a bit of pocket litter from a NYC airport.