Eagles Versus War Criminals

We seem to have plummeted into actual winter here. That's not necessarily entirely a bad thing, mind you. But it is somewhat of a rarity to have the weather-meisters come so close to getting it right, presumably because the human instrumentation tends to taper off about 100 miles west of us, where the Pacific NW meets Big Blue. It just seems like there are limits to what they can do with satellite photos. Now Dubuque, Iowa, just par example, hey they have a good thousand-plus miles of very-involved on-the-spot observers to exploit and plagiarize from, I would think. I admit oddities like those Dorothy had so much fun with (or was that all a dream?) might challenge even that system. And, to be fair, we never get the extremes of Winter most of the rest of the northern tier seems to experience with some frequency. Our "Winter" is probably laughable to many of you - let's just say I am playing to Southern California.

Anyway, more or less on forecast, distinct cooling began Friday, even causing a little sleet here, followed by minor snowfall beginning Saturday night. The real oddity is the temperature drop, and even more the forecast that it will persist. Apparently there is Arctic air (glad that still is available, frankly, but shouldn't we be spending gazillions on some mechanism, no doubt outrageously-expensively-researched by an aeronautical firm or some other obvious military-industrial long-time no-competition winner, for batting it back on behalf of the Polar Bears?) flowing this way. We barely got above freezing on Sunday. So glad I tested my back late Saturday humping 50-lb planters into the potting shed! (And, yes, since you ask, I did re-stock the bird feeders while I was at it.) I don't think we have seen the up-side of Farenheit 32 since early Sunday.

The mercifully small pre-freeze precip at least in Seattle area has meant that the arterials are not in bad shape, and the buses for example do not seem to generally be wearing chains (thank goodness, for the state of the street surfaces). My commute today was pretty routine, though clogged with first-time bus-riders, leading to standing and thus preventing the reading time I count on.

But the forecast is for sub-32 to persist for a number of days and there is some rumbling about precipitation possibility in the next 24-48 hrs, so we'll see. We don't get all that much of the winter wonderland effect (or winter holocaust) that much of the northern 2/3 of the country seems prone to, so this is always interesting, especially just as the holidays are coming over the horizon.

I went for a little lunch-time expedition today, catching a bus north towards home and getting off at the Amgen pedestrian overpass over the train tracks to walk back through Myrtle Edwards park (bingo for you sharpies - indeed the Thanksgiving Turkey Trot venue!).

I was naturally in the best mood of the day as I was on foot for a spell, which augmented my classic "shit-eating grin" as a gorgeous mature Bald Eagle swooped 50 feet over my head just as I finished the climb to the top of the overpass. That made for eagles at both ends, the other being the 40-foot (or so) iconic Alexander Calder "Eagle" (1971, for those keeping score) at the Seattle Art Museum's new outdoor exhibit park. In between, I did pause to enjoy waterfowl, my reason for choosing this particular expedition, but as I had only a tiny 10x monocle, viewing was a challenge. I'm pretty certain that American Widgeon and Common Goldeneye were the birds that provided most of the entertainment. (Yes, that's my pic from a prior visit, and probably fortuitous Baldie in the flesh just right of the sculpture.)

But, let us get back to politics. I'm sickened by how much press time has been expended on this whole sorry Illinois governor debacle. Our MSM really need to go back to potty-training or something. It is - no, THEY ARE - pathetic. There are actual newsworthy issues out there that they are too busy doing their People Magazine schtick to notice. I guess I already used "pathetic," so I can't justify repeat, but what else can one make of the absolute MSM silence on this:

The bipartisan Senate Armed Services Committee report issued on Thursday -- which documents that "former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and other senior U.S. officials share much of the blame for detainee abuse at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq, and Guantanamo Bay, Cuba" and "that Rumsfeld's actions were 'a direct cause of detainee abuse' at Guantanamo and 'influenced and contributed to the use of abusive techniques ... in Afghanistan and Iraq'" -- raises an obvious and glaring question: how can it possibly be justified that the low-level Army personnel carrying out these policies at Abu Ghraib have been charged, convicted and imprisoned, while the high-level political officials and lawyers who directed and authorized these same policies remain free of any risk of prosecution? The culpability which the Report assigns for these war crimes is vast in scope and unambiguous:

The executive summary also traces the erosion of detainee treatment standards to a Feb,. 7, 2002, memorandum signed by President George W. Bush stating that the Geneva Convention did not apply to the U.S. war with al Qaeda and that Taliban detainees were not entitled to prisoner of war status or legal protections.

"The president's order closed off application of Common Article 3 of the Geneva Conventions, which would have afforded minimum standards for humane treatment," the summary said.

Members of Bush's Cabinet and other senior officials participated in meetings inside the White House in 2002 and 2003 where specific interrogation techniques were discussed, according to the report.

The policies which the Senate Armed Services Committee unanimously concludes were authorized by Bush, Rumsfeld and several other top Bush officials did not merely lead to "abuse" and humiliating treatment, but are directly -- and unquestionably -- responsible for numerous detainee murders. Many of those deaths caused by abusive treatment have been formally characterized as "homicides" by autopsies performed in Iraq and Afghanistan (see these chilling compilations of autopsy findings on detainees in U.S. custody, obtained by the ACLU, which reads like a classic and compelling exhibit in a war crimes trial).

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There is a good deal more at that clip that you owe it to yourself to read. War Crimes: Rumsfeld, Cheney, Bush. I can't imagine any of us are surprised by that charge, but what a relief to again see it right out there where it belongs.

I don't know about you, but despite the other depredations in my neighborhood, having war criminals out loose and free to predate is just about the worst thing I can imagine. Isn't that what Federal Prosecutors used to be all about?

While I had hoped to tag on some coverage of our new heroes, that maestro of the shoe-toss (may he make an Olympic Team in some sport in the future!!) and the incredible former-FBI whistleblower (a Nobel might be a stretch - but he deserves something along those lines), that will have to wait, maybe, for another time.