What Are We Coming To?

The degradation of our basic rights here in the U.S has had me really upset. Unauthorized surveillance (tapping phone calls), holding people in jail (and Gitmo) without filing charges and allowing torture of our prisoners is just far beyond anything I ever thought we would come to.

But as much as I dislike it all, I don't think it even comes close to some of the abuses taking place in Britain where they don't have our Bill of Rights. Check this out from the British Times Online...

The government has been accused of trampling on individual liberties by proposing wide-ranging new powers for bailiffs to break into homes and to use “reasonable force” against householders who try to protect their valuables.

Under the regulations, bailiffs for private firms would for the first time be given permission to restrain or pin down householders. They would also be able to force their way into homes to seize property to pay off debts, such as unpaid credit card bills and loans.

Did You Know - International Corruption

The biggest crooks in the world are often the richest to begin with. And they all run in the same circles. And they all share the same moral code: screw the little guy.

From the Washington Post....

Prince Bandar bin Sultan, a member of Saudi Arabia's royal family and the kingdom's former ambassador to the United States, pocketed about $2 billion in secret payments as part of an $80 billion arms deal between Britain and Saudi Arabia that was first signed in 1985, British media reported Thursday.

The reports revived questions about the British government's decision in December to drop a fraud investigation into the deal, which has been plagued by allegations of bribes and secret slush funds for almost two decades.

In remarks Thursday, Prime Minister Tony Blair did not comment
directly on the reports made on the BBC and in the Guardian newspaper. But he repeated his frequent defense of the decision to drop the investigation on national security grounds.

"This investigation, if it had gone ahead, would have involved the most serious allegations in investigations being made into the Saudi royal family," Blair said at a meeting of the Group of Eight nations in Germany.

Did You Know - Bush Bombs

You probably know the old adage - when all you have for a tool is a hammer, then every problem looks like a nail. Well, President Bush only has a hammer - the U.S. Military. Beyond that, the man can't conceptualize any other kind of solution. The following is from a British newspaper, the Guardian Unlimited - click here to read the entire article...

The US offered to take military action on behalf of the 15 British sailors and marines held by Iran, including buzzing Iranian Revolutionary Guard positions with warplanes, the Guardian has learned.

In the first few days after the captives were seized and British diplomats were getting no news from Tehran on their whereabouts, Pentagon officials asked their British counterparts: what do you want us to do? They offered a series of military options, a list which remains top secret given the mounting risk of war between the US and Iran. But one of the options was for US combat aircraft to mount aggressive patrols over Iranian Revolutionary Guard bases in Iran, to underline the seriousness of the situation.

The British declined the offer and said the US could calm the situation by staying out of it. London also asked the US to tone down military exercises that were already under way in the Gulf. Three days before the capture of the 15 Britons , a second carrier group arrived having been ordered there by president George Bush in January. The aim was to add to pressure on Iran over its nuclear programme and alleged operations inside Iraq against coalition forces.