The Court indicated that review and reconsideration must be effective and must provide “a procedure which guarantees that full weight is given to the violation of the rights set forth in the Vienna Convention, whatever may be the actual outcome of such review and reconsideration.” Thus, the procedural default rule cannot be used to preclude a defendant from raising a Vienna Convention violation. In addition, the Court stated that review and reconsideration must occur “with a view to ascertaining whether in each case the violation of Article 36 committed by the competent authorities caused actual prejudice to the defendant in the process of administration of criminal justice.” Thus, the Court declined Mexico’s request to find that a Vienna Convention violation must automatically result in the partial or total annulment of conviction or sentence.

The Court also averred that it was not determining the correctness of any conviction or sentence issued by a U.S. court. It continued:

The question of whether the violations of Article 36, paragraph 1, are to be regarded as having, in the causal sequence of events, ultimately led to convictions and severe penalties is an integral part of criminal proceedings before the courts of the United States and is for them to determine in the process of review and reconsideration. In so doing, it is for the courts of the United States to examine the facts, and in particular the prejudice and its causes, taking account of the violation of the rights set forth in the Convention.

I have added italics to emphasize two things: first, it's quite hard to read the ICJ's decision as permitting the U.S. to dismiss the defendants' or Mexico's Vienna Convention claims because they didn't raise them earlier; and, second, the ICJ isn't saying that anyone has to be retried, let alone released, but is leaving it up to the U.S. to decide whether any defendant was prejudiced by the violations and, if so, what the appropriate remedy should be.

• "Dozens of homeless people have appeared on the streets of Amsterdam sporting warm jackets emblazoned with an advert for ice cream maker Ben & Jerry's."
• "Depending on the commentator's disposition towards the character, Zwarte Piet is either an Ethiopian orphan who was saved by slavery by Saint Nicolas, a chimney sweep (who presumably hasn't had time to have a bath) or a 'Moorish assistant' who really enjoys doing all the work for his white friend." [I've previously mentioned this issue]
• No boobs on the front page of today's Telegraaf (unless you count President Putin); but Georgina Verbaan's website features a large mammogram and a link to "a 'Boobgate video'" that Ms. Verbaan promises is "the ultimate 'BOOBGATE' guide." Netherlands residents can get an access code to the video by calling the Dutch version of a 1-900 number. (Her triumphant message says the paparazzi and media have gone crazy, but now that the truth is out, perhaps they will say, "If you can't beat 'em, join 'em." This last bit is in English, and for the life of me I can't figure out what it means in this context. I suspect it has to do with some unnatural sexual practice among the heathen Dutch.)
• Finally, from the "Did You Know?" department: how many Americans are aware that many of the Pilgrims left England in 1609 (not 1620) and settled for a decade in Leiden, right here in the beautiful Netherlands?

"In Time of Turmoil, Graham Offers Soothing Words"

"... a lot of the Jews are great friends of mine, they swarm around me and are friendly to me because they know that I'm friendly with Israel. But they don't know how I really feel about what they are doing to this country."

"You hear of men of God who fall short. Billy Graham has integrity."

In interviews and on the coalition's website, www.fairjudiciary.com, Daly describes the group as comprising "more than 75 grassroots organizations dedicated to supporting qualified, capable federal judicial nominees." In an e-mail, Daly told me that the groups include Americans for Tax Reform, the Family Research Council, the Christian Coalition, and a number of others. Asked to name the group's top dozen donors, she said the organization hadn't focused on fundraising in the past but hoped to raise between $500,000 and $1 million in the coming year, mainly from small donors.

Ms. Daly also concedes that her group's staff now consists of "just me." And as is true with so many other "grassroots" groups on the right, it's impossible to know just how much clout the "coalition" she presides over actually wields.

[edit]

After all, Daly doesn't appear to have any particular qualifications to speak as an expert on legal affairs. She is not a lawyer; she is a political consultant with an extensive background in marketing. She's worked a variety of corporate communications jobs, most recently with the Signature Agency, a Raleigh-based firm that develops marketing strategies for Fortune 500 companies.

Daly is at bottom a Republican operative. She has held a range of communications and policy positions for GOPers, like former Senator Phil Gramm of Texas and former Representative Fred Heineman of North Carolina. In the mid-1990s, Daly married Jack Daly, an attorney with the U.S. Department of Labor. The Dalys represent a picture-perfect Republican union -- their second son's middle name is "Reagan" -- and are fierce partisan warriors who are not afraid to get their hands dirty on behalf of client or party. Jack Daly threw waffles at candidate Bill Clinton during a campaign stop in Winston-Salem in 1992. And last spring, in the midst of a nasty Republican congressional primary in North Carolina, the Dalys were accused of sending out fictitious e-mails to Christian voters about a rival of Kay Daly's candidate, in which a character named "Pastor Randy" falsely alluded to a variety of lurid criminal charges against the rival. Kay Daly has denied involvement.

"Fortunately, at the last hour real friends of the city on Capitol Hill undid most of Ms. Landrieu's damage by eliminating her appropriations riders, which, according to city officials, would have jeopardized current dispositions of school properties, resulting in a significant loss of revenue to the city; given charter schools an additional or double discount that could amount to 50 percent on property purchased from the city; and changed leave-of-absence provisions for teachers, undercutting the school system's ability to plan for adequate teacher coverage.

"Why on earth would Ms. Landrieu arbitrarily take such unilateral action without a word to city officials? Apparently the Louisiana senator, despite her oft-professed respect for local self-determination, is inclined to throw comity and courtesy to the wind and grant the wishes of local charter groups when lobbied directly.

"The bill ... still has a problem provision that takes away any discretion by the mayor and D.C. Council on the disposition of future school property, giving charter schools the right of first refusal on any property the school system wants to sell. Yes, it derails the District's service and revenue priorities. But why should the senator and the charter group she serves care?

"... The District is probably the most charter-friendly jurisdiction in the country ... The city reports that it has opened 45 charter schools ..."

A boy sleeps in the shade of a grass shelter at Zam Zam camp near El Fasher, the capital of North Darfur state, November 22, 2004. Tribal clashes have blocked the delivery of food aid in parts of western Sudan's Darfur region despite recent peace agreements. More than 20 months of fighting in Darfur has driven 1.5 million people from their villages, creating what the U.N. calls the world's worst humanitarian crisis. (Finbarr O'Reilly/Reuters)

The Fuhrer was G Gordon Liddy's first political hero. Liddy was a sickly, asthmatic child when he grew up in Hoboken, New Jersey, in the 1930s. The town was full of ethnic Germans who idolized Hitler. Liddy was made to salute the Stars and Stripes Nazi-style by the nuns at his school; even now, he admits, "at assemblies where the national anthem is played, I must suppress the urge to snap out my right arm." His beloved German nanny taught him that Hitler had - through sheer will-power - "dragged Germany from weakness to strength."

This gave Liddy hope "for the first time in my life" that he too could overcome weakness. When he listened to Hitler on the radio, it "made me feel a strength inside I had never known before," he explains. "Hitler's sheer animal confidence and power of will [entranced me]. He sent an electric current through my body." He describes seeing the Nazis' doomed technological marvel the Hindenberg flying over New Jersey as an almost religious experience. "Ecstatic, I drank in its colossal power and felt myself grow. Fear evaporated and in its place came a sense of personal might and power."

WUNC-FM recently informed Ipas, a Chapel Hill-based international women's rights and health organization, that the phrase "reproductive rights" in the group's on-air announcement could be interpreted as advocating a particular political position. The station required Ipas to use "reproductive health" instead.

WUNC made the change to avoid trouble with the Federal Communications Commission, general manager Joan Siefert Rose said. ... "We can accept sponsorships and make announcements from advocacy groups, but we can't use advocacy language," Rose said. "Unfortunately, the FCC doesn't specify what that is. There's no list of forbidden terms. The only way to find out if you've stepped over the line is if someone challenges it and the FCC issues a fine. So we are always pretty conservative in interpreting the announcements we make."

"Ipas, a Chapel Hill-based nonprofit that protects womens reproductive health and rights at home and abroad. More information available at www.ipas.org."

We highly value WUNC listeners and want to inform them about our work. But there is no alternative language. Promoting reproductive rights is half of Ipas’s mission. WUNC’s position denies Ipas the right to describe itself accurately and completely. It goes against fundamental values which we -- and many others in our community -- expect our local public radio station to uphold.

Frankly, it's a relief to have something in the Dutch news other than MPs who are in hiding in fear for their lives.

Not that violent Muslim fundamentalists would be much more in favor of Ms. Verbaan's work than they are of documentaries about women's rights under Islam.

Sigh. This was supposed to be a lighthearted post. The world just isn't a lighthearted place at the moment.

Right now, our whole country's on life-support from Beijing and Tokyo.

The rest of the world has allowed us to enjoy a good lifestyle. But, at some point, we have to pay for it.

I don't know why people think a decline in the dollar is going to make foreigners more willing to buy our exports. If people don't want to buy our stuff, they're not going to buy our stuff.

At some point, China might decide it's best to cut us off this welfare scheme and start spending the money on their own citizens.

On the tax code, administration officials are discussing plans that would, among other things, lower the tax rate on higher-income Americans and eliminate some deductions. In the poll, more than 6 in 10 of the respondents said people with higher incomes should pay a greater proportion of their income in taxes ...

Nearly two-thirds of all respondents -- including 51 percent of Republicans -- said it was more important to reduce deficits than to cut taxes, a central element of Mr. Bush's economic agenda.

Even as two-thirds of respondents said they expected Mr. Bush to appoint judges who would vote to outlaw abortion, a majority continue to say they want the practice to remain either legal as it is now, which was Mr. Kerry's position, or to be legal but under stricter limits.

Americans said they opposed changing the Constitution to ban same-sex marriage, which Mr. Bush campaigned on in the final weeks of his campaign. A majority continue to support allowing either same-sex marriages or legally recognized domestic partnerships for gay people.

How would you rate the overall state of moral values in this country today -- as excellent, good, only fair, or poor?

Excellent - 4%
Good - 22%
Only fair - 41%
Poor - 32%

Right now, do you think the state of moral values in the country as a whole is getting better or getting worse?

Getting better - 27%
Getting worse- 64%
Same - 7%

Some people think the government should promote traditional values in our society. Others think the government should not favor any particular set of values. Which comes closer to your own view?

Promote traditional values - 55%
Not favor any set of values - 41%

Some people think the government is trying to do too many things that should be left to individuals and businesses. Others think that government should do more to solve our country's problems. Which comes closer to your own view?

Government doing too much - 55%
Government should do more - 36%

Do you think the church or organized religion currently has too much or too little MORAL influence in America?

Too much - 27%
Right amount - 6%
Too little - 64%

Do you think the church or organized religion currently has too much or too little POLITICAL influence in America?

Too much - 48%
Right amount - 7%
Too little - 40%

The bottom line is that the Senate GOP is five votes short of ending filibusters, and that will moderate the whole confirmation process.

The United Nations is investigating about 150 allegations of sexual abuse by U.N. civilian staff and soldiers in the Congo, some of them recorded on videotape, a senior U.N. official said on Monday.

The accusations include pedophilia, rape and prostitution, said Jane Holl Lute, an assistant secretary-general in the peacekeeping department.

Dutch actress Georgina Verbaan has vowed to publish x-rays to settle a major controversy - is her ample bosom natural or silicone-based?

[snip]

According to a leaked contract, she was paid EUR 200,000 to appear naked in the Dutch edition of men's magazine Playboy. As soon as the December edition with the 12-page spread hit the news stands earlier this month, gossip magazines began to question whether she had undergone breast augmentation surgery.

RTL Nieuws reported on Tuesday that the issue is such a hot topic that search engine Google has logged 136,000 searches under her name in recent weeks.

And as I said earlier, this is not a question about support for one candidate or another candidate. This is a question about support for the democratic process, for people being able to--without intimidation or harassment or the threat of violence--to be able to freely express their opinion, and for that opinion to be accorded its due weight in a fair and transparent process. That, up until now, has not happened in the Ukraine.

"For us to do the bill in early December it will take significant involvement by the president and the vice president," said Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn. "It will take real focus on their part."

At a news conference after an economic summit in Chile, Bush said: "I was disappointed the (intelligence reform) bill didn't pass. I thought it was going to pass up to the last minute." He said he and Vice President Dick Cheney had talked with key members of the House and "it was clear I wanted the bill passed."

The legislation has met resistance from (Defense Secretary) Rumsfeld and other Pentagon leaders who do not want to cede control of the intelligence budget. The Pentagon now controls roughly 80 percent of the estimated $40 billion spent on intelligence each year.

"It's well-known that the secretary of defense wasn't enthusiastic about this loss of budget authority," Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., said on NBC's "Meet the Press." McCain said Pentagon obstruction of legislation backed by the president was "one of the more Byzantine kind of scenarios that I have observed in the years that I have been in Congress."

While acknowledging opposition from the Pentagon, (Republican Senator Pat) Roberts also said some has come from the White House "despite what the president has said."

Bush calls for verifying Iran nuclear claims

Nov. 22, 2004 | CARTAJENA, Colombia (AP) -- President Bush said Monday that he hopes Iran's claim that it has suspended uranium enrichment and has no nuclear weapons ambitions is true, but "there must be verification."

GOP senators keep 'nuclear option' in reserve for judges

692 words
7 May 2003
The Washington Times

Republicans could immediately break the current filibusters against two of President Bush's judicial nominees with a rarely used parliamentary procedure that would confirm them through a simple majority vote, according to a plan under consideration by Senate Republicans.

The tactic would be so drastic in the usually congenial Senate that Republicans refer to it as their "nuclear option."

While this proposal is itself controversial, it is the threat of exploiting parliamentary rules in order to forcibly eliminate the filibuster by a bare majority vote that presents the greatest threat to the political environment and the Constitution. Under normal conditions, attempting to change the rules regarding cloture votes (Rule XXII) would require the support of two-thirds of the Senate (67 votes), which would inevitably fail considering that Republicans cannot now even secure the 60 votes needed to invoke cloture on the current nominees. Thus, Republican senators are considering a so-called “nuclear option” that would not entail seeking a Senate vote on a rule change, but rather a ruling from the presiding officer of the Senate, most likely Vice-President Dick Cheney, that Rule XXII doesn’t apply to judicial nominations. As it would require 51 senators to override Cheney’s ruling, Senate rules would effectively be changed despite the Senate’s own explicit requirement that changing the rules can only be done with the support of two-thirds of the Senate.

How would the "constitutional option" unfold? The next time Senate Democrats balk over a principled Bush nominee, Frist would attempt to resolve the impasse. Failing that, he would ask the presiding officer of the Senate to rule on the appropriateness of applying the 60-vote supermajority requirement to judicial nominees. The presiding officer is a senator who oversees Senate floor debate and is empowered to interpret Senate rules and establish binding Senate precedents. Given the gravity of this ruling, expect to see the Senate president pro tem, Alaska Republican Ted Stevens, occupy the chair when Frist issues his challenge to the 60-vote requirement.

Next, the presiding officer would rule that using the filibuster in this narrow set of circumstances is inappropriate, perhaps noting (but only in passing) the constitutional concerns that arise when a Senate minority effectively eviscerates the "advice and consent" requirement with respect to court nominees. The ruling would lower the confirmation threshold from 60 to 51 votes. On cue, a senior Democrat, either the new minority leader, Nevada's Harry Reid, or perhaps Senate procedural expert Robert Byrd of West Virginia, would appeal the ruling of the chair. The ensuing floor vote to implement the presiding officer's ruling, which would unfold largely along party lines, requires only a simple majority.

FRIST: Oh, it's clearly one of the options. I've always said it's one of the options.

What it basically — it's called the nuclear option. It's really a constitutional option. And what that means is that the Constitution says you, as a Senate, give advice and consent, and that is a majority vote. And then you vote on that, and that takes 50 votes to pass.

And I think it clearly becomes a viable, viable option if we see a minority denying the majority the opportunity to express advice and consent.

Congress passed legislation Saturday giving two committee chairman and their assistants access to income tax returns without regard to privacy protections, but not before red-faced Republicans said the measure was a mistake and would be swiftly repealed.

ABC News found Hilal living openly in the Sudanese capital, Khartoum. When asked about the genocide accusations, Hilal told ABC News in Arabic, "It's not genocide. It's war. And in war, bad things happen. People die."

THE BUSH administration shrugged its shoulders last week at the genocide in Sudan's western province of Darfur. At an extraordinary meeting of the U.N. Security Council in Kenya, it sponsored a resolution that not only failed to advance those that passed in July and September but actually stepped back. The veiled threat of sanctions on Sudan's government was dropped. So was the demand that Sudan's government disarm and prosecute its allies in the Janjaweed death squads, which have burned villages, raped and murdered their inhabitants, and left nearly 2 million people homeless and at risk of starvation.

The Bush administration presents this abdication as a triumph.

The Senate voted 65-30 for the legislation late on Saturday that sets aside funds for a range of priorities including a presidential yacht, foreign aid and energy. It is one of the final pieces of work for the 108th Congress and they may return to finish a spy agency overhaul before the end of the year...
To fit into limits demanded by Bush as part of his effort to trim the record budget deficit, Republicans agreed to make an across-the-board cut in spending levels backed earlier by the House and Senate, provoking anger among some lawmakers.

"It's been a terrible bill to handle," said outgoing Senate Appropriations Committee Chairman Ted Stevens, an Alaska Republican.

Some last minute increases were allowed for favored White House projects like NASA space programs.

Democrats fumed that Republican leaders had cut crucial funding for education, health and the environment.

[The Republican-dominated, "fiscially conservative" congress approved] $2 million for the government to buy back the presidential yacht USS Sequoia, sold in 1977 by President Jimmy Carter to demonstrate frugality.