Here we go...

All I wanted to do was respond to my friend Scott's first posting and here I am with my own...ee gad...

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"a state of war is not a blank check for the president when it comes to the rights of the nation's citizens."

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Supreme Court to Hear Tribunals Challenge By GINA HOLLAND, Associated Press Writer 2 hours, 1 minute ago THE NEWS: WASHINGTON - The Supreme Court agreed Monday to consider a challenge to the Bush administration's military tribunals for foreign terror suspects, a major test of the government's wartime powers. Justices will decide whether Osama bin Laden's former, driver, Salim Ahmed Hamdan, can be tried for war crimes before military officers in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. THE ISSUE: Just in case you need some talking points for when you are embattled with neo-patriots created by the fear mongering that the Bush Administration has stirred up; THIS is why a balanced court is ESSENTIAL and why Judge Alito can NOT be allowed to sit on the bench. As the article states, the Supreme is going to hear a challenge to the Bush administration's military tribunals for foreign terror suspects, which is not only a major check of the government's wartime powers, but will put Chief Just...
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How Afghanistan's Opium can save the world - and itself !

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In researching Funding Access-vs.-Prevention at 14th ICASA AIDS Conference in Nigeria there was this other topic, indirectly effecting the global HIV/AIDS pandemic. Its wider effects on the world stage are equally staggering, and it effects every person on every continent to some extent. The issue is the fledgling democracy of Afghanistan and threat that the illicit opium trade poses in destabilizing the democratic process and stability in the entire region. Opium is bleeding Afghanistan of its chances of democracy. Go anywhere in southern Kandahar, Afghanistan (the former spiritual stronghold of the Taliban) and you’ll run in to poppy fields. Drive 20 minutes in any direction and you’ll find farmers busy harvesting their crop, in spite of the Interim Authority's January 2002 ban in on poppy cultivation. An estimated 1.7 million people are directly involved in opium production, as widespread and family-based poppy cultivation proliferates in 28 of the 34 provinces of Afghanistan. ...
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