Better not piss off the executive

The torture/ending of habeas corpus/executive can declare anyone an enemy combatant bill just passed the Senate. 12 Democrats voted for it; only one Republican voted against. Mr. Bush is expected to sign it tomorrow. Whether unlimited detention powers and the degree of denial to access to courts includes citizens is unclear, but I imagine that the Bush administration will argue that it does. I can't speak more to the bankruptcy of the American political system than Arlen Specter's own words and actions:

During the debate on his amendment, Arlen Specter said that the bill sends us back 900 years because it denies habeas corpus rights and allows the President to detain people indefinitely. He also said the bill violates core Constitutional protections. Then he voted for it.*

These are not the powers of a president in a republic.

Thanks to everyone who worked against this abomination. Everyone who voted for this has to lose in the next election, but, of course, most won't. It is a very long road back to sanity from here; even the Alien and Sedition Acts of 1798 and the Sedition Act of 1918 didn't attempt to remove the right to court review. How vile.

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* Link is to source, one of many.

another article online; wow I'm tired

Between school and a doctor's appointment that ended up being with three medics and stress and a few other things, I feel very wiped out and am having a very hard time concentrating and such. I am not very optimistic about this quarter.

Maybe I should go to bed, but it's only 9:30ish and I've even taken a nap. I don't want to be all awake at 5:30am or something dumb like that.

I'm sorry for no flower pictures this week. I have to play with photoshop for a while and get the next batch web-ready, and I haven't had the energy.

Oh, the results of the appointment: I get to start weaning myself off dilantin, yay, but that means I'll still be on at least a low dose for another week. So some good, but some bad. The medical group continues to find my recovery surprising. They're going to call me about a ear/nose/throat doctor with relevant experience in the next couple of weeks. And I'm not allowed to participate in anything that can result in a whack in the head for a year, so once again, my plans for resuming Aikido (in the spring at UW's dojo) are fucked. God dammit. (Also no to most sports, and oh yeah, Shoreline's archery club meets during my bio lab, so I can't even do that. This year blows donkeys now.)

They are also rather surprised that I'm still trying to take fall quarter classes and rather suggested it might be a good idea to wait. Apparently normally it would be expected that someone with my injuries would not be at all ready - that I'd need more cognitive therapy and such first, plus, well, really, really far ahead of schedule. Also, I really, really, really do not want to lose a year to this. So here I go - I hope.

Oh, in other news, another one of my articles is online at TechNet. It's reasonably amusing. The phrase "reading comic books" is supposed to have strikethrough over it, and actually does in the print edition. I should drop them a note about that. Update: They fixed it. Yay!

Today's (Thursday's) miles: 1.3 burdoned
Miles out of Hobbiton: 1340.8
Miles out of Rivendell: 875.8
Miles out of Lothlórien: 420.8
Miles past Rauros Falls: 12.9
Miles to Isengard: 458.0