thenatureofmind

A Prayer for America

and Israel, Lebanon, Syria, Iraq and Iran...

OM SVASTI Dharmakaya, unchanging unity of appearance and emptiness,
Vast expanse of youthful, great bliss,
Sky of spontaneously present joy free of defilement,
Bestow a feast of unchanging goodness upon us.

Through the seeds of inherently pure virtue
That arise from even a bit of glorious goodness,
And the bright smile of virtue revealed
By offering the light of these lamps to the three jewels,

May the well-being of a golden age arise
In this realm of the thousand-petalled lotus.
May this time of warfare and disputation be pacified.
May auspicious excellence, prosperity and goodness flourish.

Especially, throughout the land of America,
May the youthful lotus of teaching and practice bloom.
May innumerable oceans of realms be filled
With the melodious roar of the profound secret.

- H.H.Karmapa Urgyen Trinley, 16th of August 1999

The American Gulag: Packing the federal courts

As a measure of the the Bush administrations commitment to ending detainee abuse and torture, a top justice dept. lawyer who is responsible for drafting the questioning guidelines that led to the torture in Guantanamo and Abu Graib is now being proposed for a position on the top federal court of the US. Clearly, the administration feels that it needs to pack the court with people who would be willing to allow the executive branch to continue it's abuses without question by the federal court. Even with two recent appointments by Bush to the Supreme Court, the executive branch was severely reprimanded for overstepping it's authority. I guess they'll just have to make sure there are no judges in the federal court system that will question them.

Bush judicial nominee struggles to win Senate OK

The American Gulag: US orders all 'detainees' to be treated according to article 3 of the Geneva Convention

In the wake of the US Supreme Court decision striking down the US government's treatment of detainees and specifying that they must be accorded their rights under the Geneva Convention the government has announced that all prisoners will be treated according to article 3 of the convention. This is very surprising but very welcome news. Not to be cynical, but the statement by the administration spokesman Tony Snow does give some cause to believe that this is just a election year public relations ploy: "Snow insisted that all U.S. detainees have been treated humanely. Still, he said, 'We want to get it right.' 'It's not really a reversal of policy,' Snow asserted, calling the Supreme Court decision 'complex.'"

If this is not a reversal of policy, if as Mr. Snow states, 'all US detainees have been treated humanely', does this mean there will be no change in how the detainees are being treated? Does this mean that the US will continue to treat detainees in the future as humanely as they have been treated in the past?

U.S. will give detainees Geneva rights