Judy last night I watched The Cats of Mirikitani a moving documentary on PBS's Independent Lens. It's about Jimmy Mirikitani, a Japanese-American artist (born in Sacramento and raised in Japan) whose life was torn asunder when his family was interned during World War II. In 2001 he is homeless and bitter, living on the streets of New York City doing nothing but creating art -- much of it "internment art" about his three-and-half years in the wretched internment camps. After the 9/11 attacks, a stranger takes him into his home and a new journey begins ...

Highly recommended! Besides being a wonderful personal tale, it shows how the mentality behind the MCA has destroyed people, families, and lives.

http://www.pbs.org/independentlens/catsofmirikitani/

Ironclad:

Because no one really has figured out how to fight a non governmental organization that can do damage equivalent to the military capabilities of most 3rd world states.

Please explain how my giving up the right to habeas corpus helps in this fight which, as you state, nobody actually knows how to wage.

you can't yell fire in a theater and claim freedom of speech.

Sure you can. You'll even get the chance to defend yourself in court-- or, at least that used to be the case.

The first thing I thought of was when Lincoln did exactly that during the Civil War- by suspending Habeas Corpus AND ignoring the Supreme Court when they ruled it invalid.

I keep hearing about Lincoln and how he led the way in this brilliant strategy, but no one ever mentions how this worked out for him-- did his suspension of habeas corpus do any good? Did it save lives or win the war? Or has it merely lived on in infamy as some convenient excuse for poor judgment?

If an American citizen, by virtue of being here in America because of war, and her bloodline is traced to an American soldier (not me), in a village near My Lai, guide her carefully away from a couple crooked lawyers.

The Laundromat can be rented and a tricky two-deed $210,000 con, who is "friend," (go-ahead-'hit') who gets a 'to-good-to' be true deceitful arrangement, from my fried and her family of four. I helped sponsor with no government assistance. She was dumped in East Saint Louis.

Her and her husband rented property that boasted a Section-8 payment plan, and 4-apartments. No keys were given on closing day, she had no way to collect back rent (magistrates are no help), and it took an additional $55,000 of hard-earned money that was needed to fix a slum dwelling and make it habitable.

The seller lawyer is a "friends" of a solicitor for the Waynesboro Pa, seller-lawyer, and also the Republican States Attorney General wrote the most confusing real estate "papers". An additional 45,000 went to the 'go ahead' sales predator who already was renting the Laundromat. My friend kept saying "NO" for months, but a dinner with the seller-lawyer eventually snookered Kim real good. I haled the asbestos after Kim and Hai gutted much of the slum. Don't call Peter Anglos and waste much time. Grief!

Also: The Laundry rental-predator was married to (Kim was not friends and had no associations before the months of deceptive sales-pitch) a American/Vietnamese who he beat. He, the rental-friend of the lawyer-seller ran an unlicensed business that boasted he had State Department and embassy connections. "Want to bring the entire extended families of immigrants to America?" NO believe it. I knew none of these people and after it all was realized a fiasco, Kim comes by to say, "help me?"

I know this won't be clear to others. I just felt in a ugh mood and am unburdening my memories. Thanks. We need a shoulder to lean on...Merci upon the neck, a French gentleman may ask? too...

Don't e-mail the Attorney Generals White Collar Investigation Division. Don't question why the FBI interview and a Pennsylvania Criminal Investigation was swept under the rug. Don't respond to invites from female voices or you may be stabbed 30ish times up near Chambersburg Pa. if you are a black lawyer out in the neck of the wods leaving Baltimore. Don't get anon-e-mail treats and phone call threat to 'shad up' quite frequently...Gads.

My mind went blank. Best to get da' into a lettuce patch, chop-chop on Thomas Jefferson's favorite bib lettuce. Be calm, and roll in the bib green lettuce and a good, a getting, a all dirtied up. Dirty...That's where I belong. It's less agravation.

It's not convictions that are lacking. It's the courage of those convictions.

"Convictions" in the absence of courage, aren't "convictions" at all. Perhaps they are more like "positions", which can be fairly easily abandoned and/or re-occupied, as political winds change.

Regarding 'security state' issues, european terrorism clearly shows that the greatest source of terrorist activity in Europe are indigenous citizens, not folks smuggled in from Pakistan or Saudi Arabia. I would be very surprised if our own homeland security strategies were not the same (all rhetoric about securing the borders aside)--that is, focused primarily on our own Muslim population, be they citizens or not. All the evidence points this way--from treatment of people who are "flying while Muslim", to the most recent 'triumph' of breaking the nefarious terror cell aimed at the destruction of Fort Dix, New Jersey.

It is because our security strategy is actually focused mostly on our internal Muslim population that all these civil liberty evils are being committed, imo.

It is my fervent hope that this story gets a lot more press, and that if the Military Commissions Act is repealed or radically altered, that the responsibility is squarely laid at the feet of the Democratic leadership on what could only be a virtual party-line vote.

This is my hope as well. I have some faith in the American people, and I can't help but note that the bulk of our most vocal rightwing authoritarians are over-40 white boys. Not America's growingest demographic, eh?

By the way, did Nancy Pelosi get around to hiring process servers to serve subpoenas on all of the trial witnesses in the Hindu Kush? -- Elephantman

Not easy to do. Our military was held back from widespread hard engagement in Afghanistan; the fight against the Taliban was contracted out to Northern Alliance opium warlords from non-Pashtoon tribes. That is why Guantanamo is seeded with innocents. Little nobodies were sold to us by these "allies"; we accepted the word of Iron Age tribal warlords that these poor saps were Al Qaeda or Talibani. There are doubtless Al Qaeda men in Gitmo, but we've no chance now that the world will believe it. The administration's 6 years of stonewalling and secrecy have seen to that.

If we had had leadership that believed in and honored the fundamental liberties this nation was founded on we would be in much better shape. The American military would have been in Afghanistan in full force from 9/11 through whenever they captured or killed Osama bin Laden and Al-Zawahiri. Success in this effort would have had a profoundly positive effect on our status and power in the Mideast. What we have instead is 2 failing occupations that bleed strength and stature out of us with every passing day it.