Postcards From Myself

This sounds so outrageous, it seems like a joke or something out of “The Onion.”

Attorney General Michael Mukasey is demanding that Congress issue a new declaration of war so that anyone that this president or the next one declares to be an “enemy combatant” can be held indefinitely without a trial.

The new declaration of war would make the entire globe — including the United States itself — a “battlefield” where the president decides who will be locked up forever.

With only four weeks left in the Congressional schedule and only six months left in the Bush presidency, Mukasey’s ridiculous power grab should be laughed out of town. But given this Congress’ track record, the Mukasey proposal is no laughing matter. Especially because it also includes a cover-up of the Bush administration’s systemic torture and abuse of detainees.

We can’t take for granted that Congress will reject this outrageous proposal. We have to meet it with an immediate wall of protest that says to Congress: “Don’t you dare.”

I just told my members of Congress to reject the dangerous Bush/Mukasey plan. You can do the same thing here:

http://action.aclu.org/mukasey

I am actually writing this while sitting in line in the Charleston humidity for the Apple store opening. It is 8:15 am, and I have been here for about two hours. Just because you want to know, I am number 34 in line behind a dog named Olive and her owner. The number one person in line got here last night at about 8:30 pm. The line and the waiting isn’t too bad, but the humidity is killer. Has to be about 95 percent! Combine that with a temperature of about 76 degrees and we are all drenched.

Well, here is hoping I get my iPhone this morning. I would hate to think that all I am going to get out of this is a free t-shirt. Of course I do get bragging rights to being one of the first people in the new Apple store. Is that geeky or what?!

First it was bumper stickers, now it is buttons. If you want a free Barack Obama Vote button, you can get one here from MoveOn.org. You can get one for free, three different buttons for a two dollar donation, or 45 buttons for a $20 donation. If you haven’t already, sign up for the free bumper sticker too. And remember, Barack Obama for President!

The first Apple store in South Carolina is officially scheduled to open this Saturday, July 25th, at 10 am on King Street in Charleston. I can tell you that I for one am extremely excited. I will be there waiting for those doors to open!

Who else is going to be there? And the big question - how early do we need to start lining up? Damn I wish I hadn’t placed my iPhone order last Saturday.

A gas firm boss faced a heated backlash yesterday after telling families struggling with soaring fuel bills to ‘wear two jumpers’. You can read the full detail of this at The Daily Mail Online. This happened in England, but you can see it happening just as easily here in the US. Just as most of our political leaders are completely out of touch, big corporate executives just don’t care.

And to make matters worse, corporate executives don’t have to go up for public election every four or six years. So, they get to make statements such as the one above or the ones they made in front of congress not too long ago about how they and their companies are just as much victims of high oil prices as the American consumer. What? The oil companies are experiencing years of their highest profits ever. They are victims how? Oh yes, they are victims of foreign oil and so their friends in Washington are pressuring for off-shore drilling to be allowed. Funny how this whole thing comes right back around to giving the big oil guys something they have wanted for years.

If we really wanted to solve the long term energy crisis then we should be looking to alternative sources of power, not alternative ways to keep the big oil machine churning. But that depends on who is leading the search and where your heart and loyalties lie. If they lie with the people and the needs of those people, then you look at alternatives. If your loyalties lie with big money, big oil, and the big machine, then you tell people to put on another sweater while you drop an oil rig in their backyard.

The peasants have no bread? Then let them eat cake. The gas prices are too high at Shell? Then let them use Exxon.