Unfortunately, the author’s gallery web application seems to be down. Found via Bruce Schneier.

This made my day… unfortunately I can only credit Oliver Willis from whom I blatantly copied the image

2007! Hopefully it will last longer than 2006 did, which went by with a swooshing sound.

Anyway, Slate has a list of the 10 worst things that the Bush administration did to the United States… it feels like they got done a lot!

This year I’ll hopefully graduate and start my Ph.D. somewhere, until Bush manages to start World War IX or whatever he’s up to next. So this is to 2007 and everything we’ll accomplish! Let’s go! ;-)

Well, the Democrats took the full Congress. Sometimes it seems that Bill Clinton was right.

There’s nothing wrong in America what can’t be fixed by what’s right with America

We need a Government in the United States that not only holds up democratic principles, but is able to hold the moral high ground. As Germany’s government seems to be unable to lead itself out of a paper-bag… with political oversight restored and with the weapons-dealing, oil-guzzling, child-molesting, “but deeply religious (honest!)” Christians out of the house, I feel that there’s hope for the United States.

Let’s hope that the American people do their best tomorrow to reverse some of the boneheaded things their current administration has produced! I guess impeachment of the sitting president is only possible if he got some head somewhere in the hallway, not if he lied to congress, the American people and Europe about WMDs and intelligence that weren’t there, then labeling the few nations that stood up to him “cowards”, “liars” and “terrorist-supporters”.

The record of this American administration is incredibly sad. They brought the United States of America to the brink of degrading into a perversion of a democratic country, only paying lip-service to the values they once stood for. Not to mention they’re seemingly insatiable lust for power that lead them to protect a pedophile while accusing their political opponents of supporting child-molesters, smearing a disabled Vietnam veteran for being unpatriotic while cutting support for the military they claim to support so much, lead by a guy who never served outside his own country, suspending Habeas Corpus… the list goes on and on and on and on.

Here’s to hope that they start fixing that tomorrow!

The US Senate has confirmed President Bush’s legislation that effectively lets him:

• use “coerced” testimony that would not be admissable in a civilian court of law before military tribunals with little to no oversight (read: a civilian court would not accept testimony that was tortured out of a prisoner, these “courts”, and I define the term “court” very loosely here, will).
• decide that any prisoner is an unlawful combatant and keep them in prison for any period of time without the ability to see evidence that is used against them or even the charges brought against them
• designate prisoners for torture when he wants to

The most important thing however, is that ‘unlawful combatants’ do not have the right to challenge their imprisonment, so they can’t even let the people know that they’re imprisoned. Even more interesting however, is that the legislation also protects the current executive from any backlash their actions might provoke in the future when the american people finally wake up.

9/11 was a terrible, terrible event, but I’m sick and tired of it being used to cram idiotic legislation down our throats in Germany and when I look at the United States today, I see that it will get a lot worse before it gets better. Of course the press is already in full denial, trying to find a “balanced” angle where there really should be none…

You might call it censorship… at the very least it’s embarrassing: take a look at the covers of this week’s Newsweek magazine around the world.

After all, if you call it authorized interrogation techniques, it can't be that bad, right?

I really can't express how I feel about this, language has no words.

So I’m up very early this morning, which feels great, by the way :-). Here is an immensly important article from the Washington Post about torture by someone who has actually experienced it in soviet Russia. Most interestingly he talks about the consequences torture has on the torturers. A must read!

or, more appropiately: “The Administration of Crooks and Liars“, compiled by Mother Jones Magazine. A must read!