Drill Now for oil

The answer turned out to be to include a bribe. IIRC Albania took the

5 that got let go.

[snip] [snip]

Why don't you knock off the leftist weenie misinformation and read...

It only has to do with treatment of prisoners. Looks to me like they can be held until a treaty of peace is signed.

As far as I can see Gitmo is NOT criminal detainment.

Abu Ghraib was, but wasn't because of higher-up orders... some local small-time officers and their men got out of hand... not that I blame them ;-)

...Jim Thompson

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So he can be taxed to non-existence ?:-)

...Jim Thompson

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| James E.Thompson, P.E.                           |    mens     |
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Update: Thanks to Jim providing the link to the actual text of the Geneva Conventions, you will note that in Convention 3, Article 23, the words...

"No prisoner of war may at any time be sent to, or detained in areas where he may be exposed to the fire of the combat zone, nor may his presence be used to render certain points or areas immune from military operations."

Gitmo is at best, a make-shift prison facility for these individuals. There are no combat operations taking place there, and no missiles flying overhead. So I repeat, it is a prison, not a war zone.

The inheritance taxes are especially insane. If I die soon, my business (evaluated by the IRS effective the day before my death) has a large illiquid (ie, illusory) value. And my kids won't have anything like enough real assets to cover the immediate tax bill. So I am advised to loot the company now, and damn the employees and building value long-term. So there's a maze of trusts, plans, insurance policies, buyback deals, an 8" binder full of crap to work all the loopholes. If I die before it's all in place, the smartest thing for my daughters to do is fire all the employees, burn all the drawings, and auction off the inventory and equipment for junk value, to

*destroy* the value and convert what's left into a modest bit of cash, pay the taxes, and keep whatever's left. All because some liberals hate the idea of "family wealth" so much they're willing to kill businesses and jobs to prevent it.

John

This Arizonan...

burned all his unsold paintings just prior to his death, so his children wouldn't be burdened with the taxes.

That's what leftist weenies saddle you with. Before the jerks jump in with disclaimers... who is it that wants to do away with the "death tax" and who wants to keep it?

...Jim Thompson

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Actually, he could have donated them to charity, or to a museum, or sold them on a street corner for cash. And heirs are allowed to disclaim anything they inherit, in lieu of burning it, so long as they never take possession.

But small businesses get trashed either way.

John

Are they POWs?

I'm sorry you can't see past all the wordiness of those, and have an unclear notion of rights that the drafting lawyers share. /The basic sum is that the prisoner of war gets treated humanely./ One can grant that to animals, who have no rights. Rights in the sense of a free human simply don't exist for a prisoner of war, because they are by definition not free, and are not assumed to have some pre-existing assumption of innocence before shown guilty (which is about crime within a civil society/population). It ain't there and never has been, and this not even a matter of being indicted for a crime. "Rights" is the language of a free human in a civil society/ population. You make a categorical error. This is about humane treatment to provide some measure of reasonable relief from the brutality of war, and an acknowledgement that "if you give my guys back okay, I'll give your guys back okay." But it is categorically still in the domain of war, not peace, not civil society.

All the lawyerly verbiage in the world won't make green into red. It won't change _privileges_ granted to prisoners of war into fundamental rights. Privileges are not rights. They never have been, not even in civil society/governance, no matter how much some hack lawyer/judge/ legislator bollixes the language.

If you were to say there can possibly be boundary cases that test the categorization, or make a case that a categorization would be a nice thing for a Power in a war to do in doubtful cases, then I would not have a problem with that. But you need to get the basic understanding of categorization down first.

re

n

I would have no problem with them being classified as POWs and treated accordingly. I would have no problem with them being classified as criminals and treated according. Duck!&W chose to classify them as neither of those, but something else, and since no rules, treaties or laws apply to "somthing else", they claim to be free to treat them in any way they wish.

That is un-American, barbarian, criminal behavior, in my opinion.

I agree completely, Richard, well-said.

You're not double-thinking this properly. It's your daughters' own fault for making so much money.

If they didn't want to pay so much tax, they shouldn't have inherited such a valuable business.

Best solution? Don't die. We'd miss you. And your daughters couldn't afford it.

Cheers, James Arthur

"Joel Koltner" wrote in news:%Uvak.200616$ snipped-for-privacy@en-nntp-04.dc.easynews.com:

I do NOT agree that unlawful enemy combatants,not members of any nation's military,not in any uniform,should get the same treatment as legitimate soldiers. They are not common criminals (to be handled in ordinary courts of law with all that entails;evidence,witnesses,etc.),nor are they lawful soldiers.

We should not reward terrorists with Geneva protections intended for lawful POWs. There must be consequences for unlawful enemy combatants.

Just wondering;have either of you been in the military? I have.

--
Jim Yanik
jyanik
at
kua.net

James Arthur wrote in news:CAwak.257$Ae3.39@trnddc05:

I don't see what justification government has for taking private property after one's death. That's what the inheritance "tax" is,seizing private property without compensation.

--
Jim Yanik
jyanik
at
kua.net

Why not simply define "kill" as "undefined" ?:-)

...Jim Thompson

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| James E.Thompson, P.E.                           |    mens     |
| Analog Innovations, Inc.                         |     et      |
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It's the "progressive" aka socialist way ;-)

...Jim Thompson

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| James E.Thompson, P.E.                           |    mens     |
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[snip]

Well, that's inherent in taxation--they have to take from thems that has, an' give to thems what hain't.

Fair? No, of course not. Some dusty old dead guy weighed in thusly:

"[I]f the law benefits one citizen at the expense of another by doing what the citizen himself cannot do without committing a crime, [t]hen abolish that law without delay; No legal plunder; this is the principle of justice, peace, order, stability, harmony and logic." --Claude Fredric Bastiat

Cheers, James Arthur

snipped-for-privacy@en-nntp-04.dc.easynews.com:

.

ul

8 years US Navy during hte VietNam era and after.

In fact, I was serving during the term of the last criminal President, but he got off clean with a pardon. Will Bush be so lucky?

snipped-for-privacy@en-nntp-04.dc.easynews.com:

.

d as

m as

ul

I don't necessarily disagree with the thurst, but I question how anyone would know for sure that someone held as a terrorist is ACTUALLY a terrorist in real life - and not just some warm body the Executive branch just happend to label as such (incorrectly).

Which is why those detained should have a right to challenge their detention. Do you really believe everything the administration tells you??

I am also a bit intrigued about the numbers. The nation of Moldova supplied a dozen or so support troops as part of the "Coallition of the Willing". Note: This number is fewer than the actual number of hijaackers on 9/11.

If they had been captured on the battlefield, should they be afforded the Geneva Conventions protections? Where do you draw the line? Should a line even be drawn?

I personally believe that history will show that the Gitmo prisoners SHOULD have a right to challenge their detention, and that the Supreme Court got it right, even at a 5-4 decision.