On a recent walk I was struck by the gorgeous fall colours this year.

Raise the Hammer is back with a new issue, and it’s a doozy.

Ben Bull gives a hilarious account of how he foolishly agreed to help a Liberal friend with his poll duties for the Lib’s Super Weekend. Ryan McGreal worries about US democracy and the lack of real competition in Hamilton’s mayoral race.

Mark Fenton returns with another whimsical, evocative, thoughtful essay, once again displaying his remarkable knack for finding connections between Southern Ontario’s dreary urban landscapes and art.

I have my first major contribution to the magazine in some time, on the payday loan industry. And of course, there’s lots more.

Happy Thanksgiving to all you Canucks.

[tags]hamilton, ontario[/tags]

Robert Love, who occasionally comments here, has launched a website along with his friend Hamoon Fruzesh-Far. The website is called The Noble Lie. Check it out!

The United States congress and senate have now passed Bush’s Military Commissions Act and in doing so have taken a firm step towards tyranny in the United States.

Strong language, I know. But judge for yourself.

The New York Times: Rushing Off a Cliff:

Enemy Combatants: A dangerously broad definition of “illegal enemy combatant” in the bill could subject legal residents of the United States, as well as foreign citizens living in their own countries, to summary arrest and indefinite detention with no hope of appeal. The president could give the power to apply this label to anyone he wanted.

The Geneva Conventions: The bill would repudiate a half-century of international precedent by allowing Mr. Bush to decide on his own what abusive interrogation methods he considered permissible. And his decision could stay secret – there’s no requirement that this list be published.

Habeas Corpus: Detainees in U.S. military prisons would lose the basic right to challenge their imprisonment. These cases do not clog the courts, nor coddle terrorists. They simply give wrongly imprisoned people a chance to prove their innocence.

Yes, the enemy combatants portion of this bill means that you or I, as Canadians, could travel to the United States, get arrested, be declared enemy combatants, and then be locked away indefinitely (perhaps forever) with no right to challenge our detention in court (habeas corpus). Kind of like what happened to Maher Arar, except now it’s legal.

Worse for Americans, some interpretations of this bill indicate this could also happen to American citizens.

Los Angeles Times: The White House Warden:

Buried in the complex Senate compromise on detainee treatment is a real shocker, reaching far beyond the legal struggles about foreign terrorist suspects in the Guantanamo Bay fortress. The compromise legislation, which is racing toward the White House, authorizes the president to seize American citizens as enemy combatants, even if they have never left the United States. And once thrown into military prison, they cannot expect a trial by their peers or any other of the normal protections of the Bill of Rights.

This dangerous compromise not only authorizes the president to seize and hold terrorists who have fought against our troops “during an armed conflict,” it also allows him to seize anybody who has “purposefully and materially supported hostilities against the United States.” This grants the president enormous power over citizens and legal residents. They can be designated as enemy combatants if they have contributed money to a Middle Eastern charity, and they can be held indefinitely in a military prison.

[…]

We are not dealing with hypothetical abuses. The president has already subjected a citizen to military confinement. Consider the case of Jose Padilla. A few months after 9/11, he was seized by the Bush administration as an “enemy combatant” upon his arrival at Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport. He was wearing civilian clothes and had no weapons. Despite his American citizenship, he was held for more than three years in a military brig, without any chance to challenge his detention before a military or civilian tribunal. After a federal appellate court upheld the president’s extraordinary action, the Supreme Court refused to hear the case, handing the administration’s lawyers a terrible precedent.

The bill also allows the Bush administration to define what constitutes torture, enabling it to continue to use favoured techniques of the Khmer Rouge like forced hypothermia and stress positions. It does not require the administration to reveal which techniques it advocates, opening up yet another loophole for the administration.

And it also retroactively prevents Americans from being prosecuted for war crimes committed in the war on terror. This is especially important for Bush now, because recent Supreme Court rulings made it clear that he had, in fact, committed war crimes by authorizing illegal imprisonment and indefinite detention of “enemy combatants” and US citizens, as well as the “outrages upon human dignity” prohibited in the Geneva Conventions, which were, until now, also American law.

All in all, it’s about time to say, Good Luck America, have fun.

[tags]politics, torture, human rights, tyranny[/tags]

Fidelity is important in any relationship and especially important in intimate relationships. But there’s one kind of cheating that doesn’t count.

When you fall asleep at night and begin to dream, all previous commitments are off. The most faithful person can be flagrantly promiscuous all night long and still wake up with a crystal-clear conscience.

My partner will wake up some mornings with a satisfied sigh and a little smirk on her face. Thankfully, she usually spares me the details, but when I get the goods, it’s like peeking into an Academy Awards afterparty.

I won’t name any names, but if you’re not A-list material, you’re not getting past the velvet rope in her brain.

The reason I’m talking about her nocturnal conquests instead of my own is because I never get to have any. When I meet a beautiful woman in a dream it typically takes just moments before I announce I’m married and that if she’s looking for some action, she’s in the wrong head.

Unlike Pinocchio, I have never wished my conscience would disappear. I just wish it would go to sleep instead of chirping at me all damn night.

Last night’s dream was different.

I found myself in a Shopper’s Drug Mart, filling up a small basket with various items. When I had everything I needed, I walked over to the counter to pay. The cashier was gorgeous.

We exchanged some idle chit-chat as she rang through my purchases. Then I made my move.

“I was wondering if you’d like to have dinner tonight, after work.”

“I don’t get off work until 7:30,” she replied.

“That’s alright, I don’t mind eating late – ”

” – and I have to work really early tomorrow morning.”

There was an awkward pause. “I think the word you’re looking for is ‘no’,” I said.

“Yeah,” she agreed. “That’ll be $26.03.”

If it wasn’t for real life, I think I’d be really depressed.

[tags]humour, dreams[/tags]