WPTL Year That Was

I just put together an annual report for the
Washington State Bar Association World Peace Through
Law Section, whose educational program I run as a
hobby.

I'm rather proud of our speaker list, and hope that
you may find some of the links of interest. Here's the
short version:

-----------
September (2006): Attorney Julia Bolz.
In 1998, Bolz left her partnership with Ryan, Swanson
and Cleveland in Seattle to provide legal and policy
development assistance in Africa, Central America and
Central Asia.

Recently, Julia has worked to address the plight of
Afghani girls who have long suffered under the
Taliban's repressive policies toward women. Julia
founded the Journey for Afghan Schools program to
establish cultural ties between Afghanistan and U.S.
schools. With Julia's leadership, and aided by
donations from Seattle students, eight schools for
girls have been constructed, and five restored, in
Afghanistan.

October: Professor Joel Ngugi & Judge Patricia Paul.
They spoke on the relationship between International
Law and the Rights of Indigenous People, based on
their experience in Kenya and on American
reservations.

November: Attorney Phillip Ginsberg and Jen Marlow.
He presented the law of genocide, followed by Jen on
the facts about Darfur. You may have seen Jen's
documentary "Darfur Diaries":
http://www.darfurdiaries.org/

December: Our Year-End Roundup of Human Rights
* David Horn Member of Lambda Legal (
http://www.lambdalegal.org/ ) gave an update on
Marriage Equality Legislation and Case Law in the
United States and Abroad
He was both erudite and witty, nothing that while
Jeffrey Daumer had the right to marry, he himself did
not since, apparantly being the greater threat to
society.

* Lincoln Miller & Robin Nielsen of the Rural
Development Institute (http://www.rdiland.org/) told
of their innovation use of Land Law in Poverty
Alleviation, primarily in South Asia.

* Diane Atkinson spoke on the integration of Public
Health and Human Rights. We take a lot of basic public
health matters for granted here (e.g. water and
sewage) but, where they are lacking, the basic right
to life is in trouble.

January: A panel of American veterans (a JAG, a judge,
and three grunts) discussed "What Is An Illegal
Order?".

The black-letter law is much simpler than the reality
as experienced by the troops.

March: Professor Mary Patricia Treuthart.
What's it like teaching law in Kosovo.

April: Attorney Matt Harris
Department of Peace legislation. See
http://www.usip.gov and
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Department_of_Peace

May: Beth Rivin & Roslyn Solomon
Using international human rights law to improve health
systems from South Africa to Tacoma.

June: Salvador Tinajero, Consul of Mexico.
Litigating in The Inter-American Human Rights System
to improve human rights in Mexico
http://www.cidh.oas.org

July: Participants in the UW Guatemala Project.
"The Shifting Terrain of Human Rights in Contemporary
Guatemala". This is a wholly remarkable project, which
gives me hope for our new generation.
http://students.washington.edu/uwgp

August: Professors Menhajuddin Hamed, Mohammad Haroon
Mutasem, Wali Mohammad Naseh, Humayoun Rahimi of the
law schools in Kabul and Mazur-e-Sharif.
In town for the Asian Law Program (
http://www.law.washington.edu/AsianLaw/ ), they
discussed juggling constitutional, religious and
traditional law.
For example, textual conflicts between their
constitution's gaurantee of equal rights for women
(something, ahem, the US constitution could use...)
and gender differences defined by religion are usually
less important in a village than the traditional
culture, which is usually very sexist.
They also pointed out that "Islamic Law" differs from
place to place; just as Christianity has a variety of
sects, so does Islam.
Many thing done in the name of Islam are actually
matter of culture.
Difficult texts (such as the penalty for apostacy) are
worked out differently by different scholars (Islam
has no "Pope" running things) so there's quite a
struggle going on over the hard parts.
They explained that what Afghanistan needs is peace
and education - a perfect system can wait until a good
system is working.
----

Well, that was the year that was. The upcoming year
should be interesting as well.
If you ever get the chance to meet any of the people
above, don't pass it by. "Life is what happens while
you're making other plans."

Oh yeah you can get more info on the above programs:
http://rewinn.com/7000

Gondor to withdraw troops from Iraq!

Minas Tirith - One of the remaining nations with troops on the ground in Iraq announced today the withdrawal of its forces there.

"Our corp of elite guards have done all that Men can do", said King Aragorn, son of Arathorn. "We also have concluded that Iraq never had The One Ring of Sauron, and the information provided to us by Gollum was falsified."

A White House spokesman reacted calmly. "Our coalition remains strong. Narnia has promised to keep its centaur staffing the Green Zone visiting center, and we're continuing to receive assistance from Saruman's elite corps of crows."

(more of my spoofs here)

A Whiter Shade of Powell

He did the facts fandango
Turned cartwheels 'cross the war
We were feeling kinda sandsick
But Dick Cheney called out for more
Iraq was burning harder
As the coffins flew away
When George called out for another drink
The Congress brought a tray

And so it was that later
As the general told his tale
That his face, at first just ghostly,
Was a whiter shade of Powell

He said, 'There is no worry
Our progress is plain to see.'
But I wandered through fact checking
The truth would not let it be
But like sixteen vestal virgins
Truth was leaving for the coast
And although my eyes were open
They might have just as well've been closed

He said, 'I'm home on shore leave,'
Though in truth we were at sea
But he took us by Teleprompter
And he forced us to agree
Saying, 'You must be the coward
Who want just to run and hide.'
But he smiled at me so sincerely
That my anger straightway died


And so it was that later
As the general told his tale
That his face, at first just ghostly,
Was a whiter shade of Powell


---Protocol Harem
(With apologies to Keith Reid and Procul Harum)
http://www.procolharum.com/w/w9901.htm

Iraq deaths DOWN to 1809 from 1760!

Washington - The White House announced today that Iraqi civilian deaths decreased in August to 1806, from 1760 in July.

A reporter who asked how an increase of over 40 represented a decrease was escorted to the door and beaten. The rest of the media asked about Barney and the upcoming wedding of Bush's daughter.

http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/archives/individual/2007_09/011979.php

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070902/ap_on_re_mi_ea/iraq

POP QUIZ: Dr. Clinton & Dr. Bush

Some people have difficulty understanding how Clinton could drop the poverty rate from 15% to 11%, and Bush raise it from 11% to 12%, and yet Bush's average poverty rate is lower than Clinton's.

It's like this. Imagine the economy is an ER and sick patients are the unemployed.

When Dr. Clinton came into the ER, there were 15 sick patients.

He cured 4 and sent them home, leaving 11 sick patients.

Dr. Clinton turned the ER over to Dr. Bush.

Dr. Bush kicked two janitors in the balls. The janitors were admitted with ruptures, bringing the ER to 13 patients.

Dr. Bush then discharged 1 patient, leaving 12 patients.

QUESTION 1: which Dr. had the lower average number of patients?

QUESTION 2: which Dr. was the better at his job?

GOP Book of Proverbs Chapter One:

"If At First You Don't Recall ... Lie, Lie Again!"

Bush Administration logic:

1. The people have no right to information about their government

2. People who have no information about their government don't know that their government has done anything wrong

3. People who don't know that their government has done anything wrong have no right to complain

THEREFORE:

You have no right to complain

The Two Best Things About Every Major GOP Candidate ...

... is his position on any particular issue.

Really!

It sounds like a joke, but Guiliani, Romney, Thompson and McCain are the most amazing flip-floppers in the history of flipfloppery.

Kinda funny, really.

Bush is the First President ....

... with criminal record.

... to be a cheerleader.

... to be a known drug addict.

... to have gone Awol from the military.

... to have been rejected from every law school he ever applied to.

... to start two wars that he was unable to win.

... who had never published anything, not even so much as a letter to the editor.


CONCLUSION:

D.A.R.E. is right!!!!

( with thanks to friends on Craigslist)