CBS (and greedy parents) sanction child abuse

Courtesy of madfilkentist (in whose journal I am apparently still banned from posting, or I would have put this there), a news story on the appalling contract required of participants in CBS' latest slimy "reality" series, Kid Nation:
Network Being Investigated for Allegations of Child Labor Law Violation

Am I the only one here flashing on William Goldman's book Lord of the Flies after reading this? Somehow, I seriously doubt any of the (alleged) parents who signed their kids up for this have ever even heard of it, much less read it.

Birthday greetings

Many happy returns of the day to wolfette (belatedly) and cflute! You two bring beauty and talent, wisdom and humor into my life, and I am forever grateful.

The case for impeaching the President

In the past six years he has held the office (to which his electoral claim is still suspect, based on reports from Florida in 2000 and Ohio in 2004), Geo. W. Bush has committed the following offenses against the law and common decency:

• Imprisoning persons, both citizens and foreign nationals, without charge for long periods, with no recourse to courts for redress, simply on the basis of nationality, ethnic or national ancestry or type of surname
• Ordering and condoning torture of said individuals, including simulated drowning ("waterboarding"), sleep deprivation, degradation of their persons by stripping, and other treatment banned by both the Geneva Conventions and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights;
• Suspending the writ of habeas corpus, which has been the foundation of law in all civilized societies at least since the signing of the Magna Carta
• Spying on the private communications of law-abiding citizens without warrants having been obtained beforehand as required by law
• Refusing to comply with lawful requests for information from Congress, the press and government agencies, even under threat of contempt, citing "executive privilege"
• Defying portions of legislation he has signed by the use of "signing statements" citing his refusal to comply with those portions
• Ordering the invasion and occupation of another sovereign nation, with no real provocation, no actual threat to our shores or people and no end in sight, or even considered
• Willfully and knowingly misrepresented the need for said invasion, using falsified or "cooked" intelligence to justify attacking, i.e., linking Saddam Hussein to Al-Qaeda and the 9/11 terrorists, claims of Saddam's effort to obtain or already possessing weapons of mass destruction, etc.
• Failure to obey the will of the people who elected him, as expressed through their elected representatives in Congress, and end the unlawful and immoral occupation of Iraq and the continuing senseless sacrificing of human lives therein
• Arranging for the public exposure of a covert government agent in vindictive retaliation, not even for any action of hers, but for her husband's criticism of administration policy
• Ordering or condoning the mass firing of U.S. Attorneys whose records were without malfeasance, for the "crime" of refusing to ignore the law and its fair application in favor of his political agenda

These, my friends, are not the actions of a President, a wise and just leader elected democratically by and responsible to the people. These are the actions of a petty tyrant, a despot, a dictator, who believes in his own infallibility and rules by what he sees as divine right, who spits on the very Constitution he swore an oath to uphold.

This man must go—not in two years, not in two months, but right frakking NOW. It' is time, and long past it. Even if he is nearing the end of his term (and who's to say he won't try pulling some extra-Constitutional stunt to avoid having to leave office in January 2009?), he, and all those who abetted him, must be made to pay for the above enumerated high crimes and misdemeanors.

Yours for seeing Bush and Cheney perp-walked out of the White House in handcuffs,
TCC