As you celebrate the 4th with family and friends, do not forget the reason you are celebrating…Freedom! While we BBQ, swim, laugh, and enjoy our family and friends, there are 30 million people who are touched by human slavery! Don't take your freedom for granted, and use your voice to speak for those who have […]
BBC: Liberia's former President Charles Taylor has appeared at his war crimes trial in The Hague for the first time. Wearing a blue suit and a yellow tie, Mr Taylor, 59, turned up after the judge had explained why his trial would again be delayed – until 20 August. The delay is to appoint a […]
As part of the path to close the naval detention facility in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, senior advisers to the Bush administration are exploring the legal options for the detention of foreign terrorist suspects in the U.S. civilian prison system. Officials are proposing legislation that would create three legal categories for the estimated 375 detainees; one […]
HIV/AIDS is a true pandemic, and unless we take serious action, it will continue to plague us for generations, and generations to come. AIDS has taken more than 20 million lives, and HIV has infected more than 60 million people worldwide. But the virus doesn't stop there, it continues to devastate families and villages around […]
Dingell v Waxman (and others) – Congressman John Dingell has been in the House of Representatives since 1956. He holds the seat held by his father from 1933 to 1955. If you want to follow the federal energy legislation wending its way through Congress, you have to know the players and John Dingell is near […]
I mentioned the superb work of RENEW Wisconsin and my old friend, Michael Vickerman, at Some Notes on Renewable Energy from April 30. Michael has been kind enough to share his impressions from a recent major renewable energy event. ******* Random Thoughts from this Year's Renewable Energy Fair For some, turnout is the measure of […]
CROATIAN TRIAL DELAYED A decision by a U.N. war crimes tribunal delays the proceedings for three Croatian military and police officials on trial for atrocities. The appeals court for the U.N. system upheld the disqualification of the defendants lawyers for conflicts of interest. The defendants are alleged to have run a joint criminal operation with […]
Two U.S. soldiers were charged with premeditated murder in two separate incidents. On Saturday, the U.S. military cited Staff Sergeant Michael Hensley and Specialist Jorge Sandoval were charged with murder and wrongfully placing weapons with the remains of the deceased. Hensley is charged with three counts of murder, while Sandoval faces one conviction. The charges […]
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The Supreme Court said on Friday it would hear appeals by Guantanamo prisoners on their right to challenge their confinement before federal judges, a test of President George W. Bush's powers in the war on terrorism. The court in April had denied the same appeals by the prisoners, but the justices in […]
“The true measure of a nation's standing is how well it attends to its children , their health and safety, their material security, their education and socialization, and their sense of being loved, valued, and included in the families and societies into which they are born.” -UNICEF What is really a better life for a […]
We looked at the Senate energy legislation from June 15 to 22. (See various posts below.) Now the ball is very much in the court of the House. Yesterday, the Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi, led a press conference of leading Democratic committee chairs to “Announce America’s “Energy Independence Day’ Legislation.” Frankly, the package, […]
An independent commission has reached an official death toll from the Bosnian war in the 1990's. The study from the Norwegian Research and Documentation Center in Sarajevo – called the “The Bosnian Book of the Dead” – has reached a figure of 97, 207, far less than United Nations estimates. UN estimates cite a figure […]
Children so often suffer unjustly, just because they are children, for the world too often sees them as less worthy to have a voice. However all children have the right to be heard, and they have so much to say and contribute to the world. With age and power we so often forget the wisdom […]
The tribunal established to investigate allegations of war crimes for members of Saddam Hussein's former regime has stated it will begin prosecuting individuals accused of launching a campaign against a Shi’ite uprising following the liberation of Kuwait in 1991. Following the defeat of Iraq in the first Gulf War, Shi’ites in southern Iraq and Kurds […]
