do they fire gay non-arabic translators?

* the US army is firing more gay arabic translators. Question: do they fire gay non-arabic translators with the same gusto?

* RBC:

"(Arnie) has, I wish to note, restrained himself so far from jumping on the deeply anti-planet bandwagon of deploring high gasoline prices that seems to have swept up almost every national politician. Has there ever been a product that everyone agrees we need to use less of, that reasonable people want sold at lower rather than higher prices? Let's do this slowly, for the candidates and their spin people:

Gas . Prices . Are . Much . Too . Low"

* Athenae (to Dems):

"What keeps killing me is that the way around this is so EASY. Just be the people we elected you to be. Be obstinate. Be unreasonable. Be good goddamn right for once in your miserable lives because this is a time when you're either right or you lose your fucking soul. Be steadfast. Be the people we elected you to be. Good God, it can't be that hard. I can think of a thousand jobs in the world that are harder than following your conscience and the dictates of your office, and most of them involve walking point in various hellholes in and around Iraq, and if those people can get up every day and do their jobs where they are, there's no reason you can't do your jobs and bring them home.

Schmucks."

* amy:

"U.S. Among Nations Highlighted in Amnesty Human Rights Report
Amnesty International is accusing the United States of turning the world into a global battlefield in the so-called war on terror. On Wednesday Amnesty issued its annual report on the state of human rights. The criticism of the United States was multifold – Amnesty called for Guantanamo to be shut down, for senior government officials to be held accountable for authorizing torture, and for an end to the practice known as extraordinary rendition. Amnesty’s report also highlighted human rights abuses in many other areas including Iraq, Russia and Zimbabwe and Sudan.

Amnesty International Secretary General Irene Khan: "Darfur is a bleeding wound on the world's conscience. The U.S. government has been outspoken on the need to protect civilians in Darfur and we welcome that very much. But nothing proves more clearly the loss of U.S. moral authority than its failure to persuade the Sudanese government to accept U.N. peacekeepers."

For Israel and the Occupied Territories, Amnesty says Israel killed more than 650 Palestinians last year, three times the number of Palestinians killed in 2005. Half of the Palestinians killed last year were unarmed civilians. The Palestinian death toll included 120 children. During the same period, Palestinian militants killed 27 Israelis – including 20 civilians and one child."

* amy:

Environmentalist Jailed for 13 Years After Ruled a Terrorist
In Oregon, an environmental activist involved in a series of arsons has been sentenced to 13 years in prison after a judge ruled the man should be considered a terrorist. Stanislaus Meyerhoff was arrested in 2005 and admitted to being a member of the Earth Liberation Front. Meyerhoff faced up to 30 years in prison, but his sentence was decreased because he had become a government informant. Nine other environmental and animal rights activists will be sentenced on similar charges in coming weeks. Federal prosecutors have requested all of them be considered terrorists even though their actions caused no injuries. The Oregon-based Civil Rights Outreach Committee said the activists should not be be considered terrorists. The group said the court’s decision sets a dangerous precedent that could be exploited by the federal government to seek greater prison time for political activists engaged in acts of civil disobedience.

The ELF is presumably 'al qaeda linked'

* there's something darkly amusing that there's a WhiteHouse spokesman named Johndroe.

* Mizgin: "

In other news, I'd like to point out that a long-time supporter of the Armenian Genocide Resolution in the US Congress has been purchased by the Ankara regime. Former Congressman Dick Gephardt is now a foreign agent for the Ankara regime, working for infamous lobby/legal firm, DLA Piper. As such, Gephardt now earns excellent bucks working to oppose the Armenian Genocide Resolution in Congress.

I should also point out that DLA Piper is the legal firm for The Cohen Group, which provides job security to some of the worst rodents on the planet, under the guidance of Deep Staters William Cohen, Marc Grossman, and Lockheed Martin's PKK coordinator, Joseph Ralston.

Furthermore, it was DLA Piper that was in on the Australian Wheat Board's (AWB)UN Oil-for-Food scam, a scam that was facilitated by none other than Willam Cohen and the legal vermin at DLA Piper. Oh, yeah . . . Ahmed Chalabi was in on that, too."

(welcome back mizgin, and congratulations.)