Coup!

There's a lot of news today

President Bush spoke at the opening day of the United Nation's 61st General Assembly. By the way, The President this year is Sheika Haya Rashed al-Khalifa of Bahrain. Shie is the first woman from the Middle East ot hold such a position. (w00t) Kofi Annan gave his Annual Report, the the President of Brazil spoke. President Bush finally got up to speak about Weapons of Mass Destruction and laid out our issues with Iran. Later today, the president of Iran, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, will also address the UN General Assembly. One can only believe that the Iranian president plans to reply to President Bush's demands for Iran to UN resolutions.

In Thailand, while the Prime Minister is in New York attending the UN General Assembly, a military coup was staged. This is a current event. CNN is reporting that all external news channels are blocked so residents are not getting CNN, the BBC or other international broadcasters.

According to CNN, there is space debris in the same orbit as Space Shuttle Atlantis. It is unclear whether it is merely debris or a piece of the shuttle itself that has broken off. Astronauts will likely need to do another spacewalk to inspect the ship again before reentry. Obviously, the reentry itself will have to be delayed until the necessary precautions can be taken.

Judge Abdullah al-Amiri, the jurist who was hearing the trial of Saddam Hussein and his cronies, has been replaced under the direction of the Primie Minister of Iraq. He was soft on the ousted dictator and even had said to Hussein during the trial that he was not a dictator. It can safely be assumed that moments like these were what led to the change of judges.

Unless you've been living under a rock, in cave in Tennessee or wherever news is not printed or broadcast, the US has enemy combatant detainees. We are holding them in Guantanomo Bay, Cuba. As long as we are a nation held ot the standards of the Geneva Convention which outlines treatment of Prisoners of War, we have to label these individuals as such. If not, we'd be in severe violation. So on a technicality, we hold these people in prison indefinitely. President Bush proposes that we amend Article 3 of the Geneva Convention to make trying these individuals easier and less recrimination on the CIA for questionable interrogation techniques. In fact, persons could be tried without access to the very evidence that the prosecution will use against them. This violates the due process we hold dearly in this country. They've already violated habeas corpus so this isn't a stretch. Senator John McCain, a Republican form Arizona, is leading two other Republican rebels, John Warner of Virginia and Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, in the senate who are opposed to this proposal. In addition, General Colin Powell, former Secretary of State under President Bush, has also voiced his opinion against the amendment. Several questions remain" If we amend Article 3, do we negate the very convention? Will other nations amend theirs, leave it alone, or disregard it as blatantly as our government has? Can we amned it? Will our service people be treated as bad or worse than we do?