Elian Gonzales, now 11, spoke publicly for the first time Friday. He thanked Americans for returning him to his father, Castro and Cuba five years ago.

Elian Gonzalez, the young Cuban castaway whose international custody battle ended in his dramatic seizure from a Miami home five years ago, addressed a crowd of thousands Friday, thanking Cubans and Americans alike for fighting for his return to the island.

Elian thanked his family, Castro and the Cuban people for their help bringing him home. "I also want to thank the support given to our cause by the American people, which contributed greatly to my return," he said.

Elian said the day he returned was the happiest day of his life. His father spoke as well.

I have enjoyed the happy childhood of my son," the father said. His presence in Cuba "is proof that the mafia in Miami lost again."

[link via Raw Story.]

I don't usually walk out on movies but Sin City proved the exception. If there was a redeeming value or even a point to the film, I didn't get it. My distaste for the film is not based on gender or moral issues - or on the amount of violence - it was more the cartoonish nature and total lack of credibility of the violence, coupled with the unappealingness of the main characters. It just seemed stupid. It would have helped if even one of the characters had some depth. Plus, the repetition got old and boring quickly. I can't begin to understand why so many people have described the movie as "visually stunning."

I liked Mickey Rourke in his portrayal of the sadistic Wall Street deal broker in 9 1/2 weeks. He was watchable in Year of the Dragon. But both he and Bruce Willis in Sin City were a total waste of time. I wish I could get my ten nine bucks back.

Update: I probably should add that I didn't know it was based on a comic book and have never heard of Frank Miller or his comic book. Also, I only lasted 25 minutes -- I left at the end of the scene where the parole officer and Marv are in the cannibal's room which had the heads on the wall of the people he had eaten. I had closed my eyes about five minutes before that, I really hate it when people gouge peoples' eyes out, so I didn't get to see any eaten body parts, if there were any.

Remember Khaled el-Masri? We re-told his story here.

Masri, a German citizen of Lebanese descent, says he was taken off a bus in Macedonia in south-central Europe while on holiday on Dec. 31, 2003, then whisked in handcuffs to a motel outside the capital city of Skopje. Three weeks later, on the evening of Jan. 23, 2004, he was brought blindfolded aboard a jet with engines noisily revving, according to his lawyer, Manfred Gnjidic. Masri says he climbed high stairs "like onto a regular passenger airplane" and was chained to clamps on the bare metal floor and wall of the jet.

Masri says he was then flown to Afghanistan, where at a U.S. prison facility he was shackled, repeatedly punched and questioned about extremists at his mosque in Ulm, Germany. Finally released months later, the still-mystified Masri was deposited on a deserted road leading into Macedonia, where he brokenly tried to describe his nightmarish odyssey to a border guard. "The man was laughing at me," Masri told The New York Times, which disclosed his story last month. "He said: 'Don't tell that story to anyone because no one will believe it. Everyone will laugh'."

The New York Times reports today it was Secretary of State Condaleeza Rice who ordered his release five months after his wrongful imprisonment in an Afghan jail. The White House would have us all believe they didn't know much about the detainees. Rice's involvement suggests otherwise.

Bump and Update: The ACLU criticizes the clearing of the officers.

These findings only show that the President must appoint a special counsel -- who is not beholden by rank or party and who is able to look up the military chain of command. We need to make accountable those who are putting our own soldiers at risk of torture and who tarred America’s image in the world community," said Anthony D. Romero, ACLU Executive Director. "The Army has released thousands of pages of internal documents -- after months of stonewalling -- that clearly show that the command breakdown that led to these abuses was more than the work of one scapegoated officer. As we continue to receive more information, the government cannot ignore the systematic nature of the torture that implicates the military chain of command to the very top."

When it suited its own purposes, the Family Research Council had no trouble urging use of the filibuster. People for the American Way (PFAW) reports (received by e-mail):

The Family Research Council is demanding that Senate Republicans override Senate rules in order to ban filibusters against judicial nominees – and has made false and inflammatory charges that the filibuster is being used to keep people of faith – and specifically Christians – off the courts. But several years ago, a senior Family Research Council official defended a Senate filibuster against gay ambassadorial nominee James Hormel, who was viciously attacked by radical right groups.

by TChris

Legislation directed against domestic violence isn't always well-conceived, but the problem of domestic violence shouldn't be belittled by lawmakers who claim to be trying to solve it. Voters in South Carolina should pay attention to this exchange, occurring in the state's House Judiciary Committee.

At Tuesday's meeting, according to the newspaper account, Rep. John Graham Altman asked why the bill's title "Protect Our Women in Every Relationship (POWER)" just mentioned protecting women. Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Harrison suggested calling the bill the "Protecting Our People in Every Relationship Act," or "POPER," the newspaper reported.

A voice on the tape is heard pronouncing it "Pop her." Then another says "Pop her again," followed by laughter.

Funny. Real funny.

by TChris

As Tom DeLay's Republican colleagues wonder whether they can muster the courage to stand up to DeLay before he destroys their party, some former House Republicans are making their views known. Ten former representatives sent this letter to Speaker Dennis Hastert last week, expressing their "grave concern" about the decision to change the rules of the House ethics committee so that a party-line vote can protect representatives from investigation of their ethical violations.

We saw it as an obvious action to protect Majority Leader Tom DeLay who had been admonished three times by the Ethics Committee for well-publicized misuse of money and/or power.

We felt even greater concern when the leadership then fired Chairman Joel Hefley and two other members of the Committee, replacing them with Members who had either given to or received funds from Mr. DeLay.

One of the signers, former GOP congressman Caldwell Butler, explains why he felt compelled, albeit reluctantly, to criticize Republican leadership in the House:

by TChris

Apparently secure in the belief that Texas will forever be a red state, the Bush administration slapped the state for defying the mandates of the administration's signature piece of legislation: No Child Left Behind.

For the last two years, the Texas Education Agency has exceeded the federal cap on how many students with learning disabilities can be exempted from regular state testing, mandated by the act, in favor of an easier exam.

To quash the defiance, Education Secretary Margaret Spellings fined Texas $444,282 yesterday, a relatively small chunk of the state's $1.1 billion allotment of federal education funds, "and a sliver of the state's $33 billion annual public education budget." That letter imposing the fine was released yesterday evening, the administration's favored time for disclosing unpleasant news.

Texas isn't standing alone in its rebellion.

Colorado's maximum security federal prison, often referred to as Supermax and the Alcatraz of the Rockies because it is home to some of the nation's most serious offenders, lost an inmate to violence Thursday. 64 year old Manuel Torrez was "viciously beaten" by fellow inmates.

Prison staff and medical personnel tried for about 20 minutes to resuscitate Torrez, but he was pronounced dead at a nearby hospital. Fremont County Coroner Dorothy Twellman says Torrez endured a "vicious" beating, suffering severe injuries to his face, neck and chest. It's the first alleged killing of a prisoner at the hands of other inmates in Supermax history.

Torrez was serving a 160 month sentence for a racketeering conviction from a 1999 California case. The case was one of the second wave of La Eme ("Mexican Mafia") gang indictments that charged 27 defendants with a variety of drug offenses and four murders, three attempted murders, 13 conspiracies to commit murder, four conspiracies to assault and conspiracies to distribute drugs. (Copley News Service February 02, 1999.) One of those murdered was a man named Victor Murillo.

Bump and Update: The Associated Press reports that Moussaoui denied being part of the 9/11 attacks in court Friday:

But in his court appearance, Moussaoui hinted at a possible death penalty defense. He tried to distance himself from the specific events on Sept. 11, saying that nothing in the statement he signed declared he was "specifically guilty of 9-11."

Nonetheless, after today's hearing, Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, sounding more and more like John Ashcroft, reaffirmed the Government's intent to seek the death penalty against Moussaoui and trumpeted to the world:

"The fact that Moussaoui participated in this terrorist conspiracy is no longer in doubt," he said, hailing Moussaoui's "chilling admission of guilt."

The chilling admission was that he intended to commit a horrific crime but was prevented from doing so by his arrest on immigration violations. Gonzales' statement notwithstanding, the tally is:

--Bush Administration's total Number of Defendants Charged with Participating in 9/11: 1
--Bush Administration's total Number of Defendants Convicted of Participating in 9/11: 0

The Virginia Supreme Court has upheld the death sentence of John Muhammad, the elder of pair convicted in the 2003 "sniper" attacks. There were two good arguments in the case, but the Court ruled against both:

The court brushed aside arguments that Muhammad could not be sentenced to death under state law because he was not the triggerman. And it rejected claims that the post-Sept. 11 terrorism law under which he was prosecuted is unconstitutionally vague.

It was close on the triggerman argument though:

The Supreme Court unanimously affirmed the conviction based on the terrorism law but split 4-3 in upholding the conviction under the triggerman rule. The court's majority found that even if Muhammad's teenage accomplice, Lee Boyd Malvo, pulled the trigger, Muhammad was eligible for the death penalty as an "immediate perpetrator" of slaying.

Background on the triggerman argument is here, and the previously untested terrorism law here.

It's official. Police say the claim that a woman found a fingertip in a bowl of chili at Wendy's is a hoax. She was arrested today on grand larceny charges that allege she caused Wendy's to lose $2.5 million.

But whose finger is it?