A con a week, or "if it's the 2nd weekend it must be Boston"

Looking back at my friends list members' posts so far this nearly-ended month, it seems as though someone on the list is attending (or performing at, or helping run) a convention just about every single week of the year now, so large and fan-inundated has the list become. First GAFilk, then Arisia, then Conflikt, etc., etc., etc. And the same seems to hold further back in time as I review postings from the last few months of '07. And not being able to afford to attend most of them makes it a tad frustrating for me (not that I begrudge any of you your fun; I just envy the living daylights out of ya).

Anyone else notice this trend in my list, or theirs? And what's your con schedule this year like? Just wondering...

Even now that he's got the damned job, Mukasey still won't answer the question

Is waterboarding torture? Is it illegal? If not, should it be specifically outlawed? New-fledged Attorney General Michael Mukasey's refusal to answer these questions during his confirmation hearings last year, you may recall, almost kept him out of the job. Once safely ensconced, though, you'd think he'd 'fess up at last.

Oh, but no, as this USA Today online article notes: even now that he's been sworn in, the obstinate sumbitch still won't cop to any kind of public affirmation of what most Americans, including many in Congress on both sides of the aisle, already find blindingly obvious: This shit is torture and has no business whatsodamnever being in the toolbox of any US law enforcement or military interrogators. Doubletalk and obfuscation are all the nation's top cop has to offer on this issue, and will remain so in perpetuity:
Mukasey sent a letter Tuesday to the committee chairman, Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., signaling that he will never publicly conclude that waterboarding is illegal. (Emphasis added.)

Nor will he even consider supporting Congressional efforts to legislate a ban on the use of the technique, at least not without first consulting the very people who would be subject to it:
Mukasey said he would want to hear the views of intelligence agents and state department officials before advising support of such a ban, despite his moral opposition to the method.

But the real money quote comes from Jennifer Daskal, senior counterterrorist counsel for Human Rights Watch:
"Mukasey's refusal to declare the use of waterboarding against an American illegal indicates the lengths to which he is willing to go to protect past abusers from possible prosecution. Under what circumstances would the United States ever accept as legal one of its citizens being strapped to a board and suffocated with water?" (This assumes that any new ban passed would be retroactive, or that existing law were found to prohibit it sufficiently to prosecute. One may hope.)

It all goes back to what MSNBC's Keith Olbermann said recently: that the presidency of George W. Bush has devolved into having as its raison d'être the legalistic coverage of the ass of George W. Bush. And that ass-covering extends to all his subordinates, and any officers of the law or the armed forces who might have even a teensy bit of tender butt-cheek exposed on this issue.

The GAFilk donations are in! (Thank y'all very much.)

AMREF, UNICEF's Kenyan relief fund, the International Medical Corps and the Kenyan Red Cross Society have each now received $10 US, courtesy of myself and other members of GAFilk  (Your Humble Correspondent kicked in an extra $15 atop the $25 we collected, making an even $40 to split evenly amongst the four agencies.)

My Songbird assures me that small amounts can go amazingly far in this situation, and the websites seem to bear that out; but even if the money only helps one or two people per agency, it's still more than worth the minimal effort it took to garner the valuta. And the links above are for those of you who weren't there or couldn't drop in the jar then, and might wish to donate; give it some thought—it's one of vanishingly few ways we here in the US and elsewhere can actually do something constructive to help alleviate the suffering brought about by the political/tribal violence there.

On both our behalfs, I thank all those who donated during the convention three weeks ago, and apologize for the whole thing taking so damn long. People, you make me proud to call myself a fan...and a filker.