Global
AUSTIN -- WHOA! The problem is the premise. We are having one of
those circular arguments about how many civil liberties we can trade away in
order to make ourselves safe from terrorism, without even looking at the
assumption -- can we can make ourselves safer by
making ourselves less free? There is no inverse relationship between freedom
and security. Less of one does not lead to more of the other. People with no
rights are not safe from terrorist attack.
Exactly what do we want to strike out of the U.S. Constitution that we think would prevent terrorist attacks? Let's see, if civil liberties had been suspended before Sept. 11, would law enforcement have noticed Mohamed Atta? Would the FBI have opened an investigation of Zacarias Moussaoui, as Minneapolis agents wanted to do? The CIA had several of the 9-11 actors on their lists of suspected terrorists. Exactly what civil liberty prevented them from doing anything about it?
Exactly what do we want to strike out of the U.S. Constitution that we think would prevent terrorist attacks? Let's see, if civil liberties had been suspended before Sept. 11, would law enforcement have noticed Mohamed Atta? Would the FBI have opened an investigation of Zacarias Moussaoui, as Minneapolis agents wanted to do? The CIA had several of the 9-11 actors on their lists of suspected terrorists. Exactly what civil liberty prevented them from doing anything about it?
Clean Sweep in Michigan Deals Major Defeat to American Family Association,
Says HRC
Two Major Miami Victories Help Reverse Legacy of Anita Bryant
Houston Voters Barely Reject Health Benefits for Domestic Partners
WASHINGTON - The Human Rights Campaign today applauded state organizations and activists for winning four out of five ballot measures on gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender equality. The encouraging results show that voters are increasingly rejecting discrimination and want to see all citizens treated fairly, says HRC.
"The smashing success of these campaigns signals a trend where voters are increasingly supporting equality and resoundingly defeating discrimination," said HRC National Field Director Seth Kilbourn. "Nowhere was this more apparent than in Michigan, where voters overwhelmingly rejected a divisive anti-gay misinformation campaign by the American Family Association and chose fairness."
Two Major Miami Victories Help Reverse Legacy of Anita Bryant
Houston Voters Barely Reject Health Benefits for Domestic Partners
WASHINGTON - The Human Rights Campaign today applauded state organizations and activists for winning four out of five ballot measures on gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender equality. The encouraging results show that voters are increasingly rejecting discrimination and want to see all citizens treated fairly, says HRC.
"The smashing success of these campaigns signals a trend where voters are increasingly supporting equality and resoundingly defeating discrimination," said HRC National Field Director Seth Kilbourn. "Nowhere was this more apparent than in Michigan, where voters overwhelmingly rejected a divisive anti-gay misinformation campaign by the American Family Association and chose fairness."
For most people in the United States, the picture of events since
Sept. 11 has been largely framed by television. When pollsters with
Princeton Survey Research asked "Where have you gotten most of your news
about the attacks?" more than a week later, a whopping 87 percent of adults
gave TV as the answer.
While newscasts are still apt to be disturbing, television is mostly back to normal. Some commercials pay respect to patriotic themes, and Old Glory continues to get a lot of screen time. But an ultimate expression of media normalcy -- the relentless barrage of TV ads -- returned to full strength after a mid-September hiatus of several days. The one-two punch of mind-numbing commercials and checked-out entertainment has never packed more of a wallop than it does now.
Overall, the media disconnect is pretty extreme: Journalists and a range of commentators have told us that our world changed profoundly and irreversibly on Sept. 11. Yet the vast majority of what's on television is in the same old groove.
While newscasts are still apt to be disturbing, television is mostly back to normal. Some commercials pay respect to patriotic themes, and Old Glory continues to get a lot of screen time. But an ultimate expression of media normalcy -- the relentless barrage of TV ads -- returned to full strength after a mid-September hiatus of several days. The one-two punch of mind-numbing commercials and checked-out entertainment has never packed more of a wallop than it does now.
Overall, the media disconnect is pretty extreme: Journalists and a range of commentators have told us that our world changed profoundly and irreversibly on Sept. 11. Yet the vast majority of what's on television is in the same old groove.
AUSTIN, Texas -- The fate of Flight 587 is not just a
free-standing tragedy, but almost the last thing we needed. Even if the
cause remains a mystery, the edginess quotient just shot back up again.
It has seemed to me the media have been engaging in a slightly unseemly amount of navel-gazing concerning our nerves, with perhaps excessive media temperature-taking of anxiety levels, crooning over stress on the home front, etc. Americans on the front lines of this war, including the NYFD, are handling their jobs without swooning, and from my own travels around the country, it seems to me most of the rest of us are managing to comport ourselves with reason and dignity, whatever our anxiety levels.
Unfortunately, the few nincompoops among us now have fresh occasion for hysteria: the always-timely advice THINK comes to mind. The absolute last thing we need is another round of Arab-bashing.
It has seemed to me the media have been engaging in a slightly unseemly amount of navel-gazing concerning our nerves, with perhaps excessive media temperature-taking of anxiety levels, crooning over stress on the home front, etc. Americans on the front lines of this war, including the NYFD, are handling their jobs without swooning, and from my own travels around the country, it seems to me most of the rest of us are managing to comport ourselves with reason and dignity, whatever our anxiety levels.
Unfortunately, the few nincompoops among us now have fresh occasion for hysteria: the always-timely advice THINK comes to mind. The absolute last thing we need is another round of Arab-bashing.
CHICAGO -- Good news, bad news; bad news, good news. Plane
crash: bad news. "Just" a plane crash: good news. Our side takes Kabul.
Ooops, our side could be a problem.
My favorite guy on our side is Gen. Abdul Rashid Dostum, the Uzbek warlord who took Mazar-i-sharif.
According to The New York Times, at age 23, Dostum led a militia of Uzbeks who sided with the Soviets when they invaded in '79. He rose to command an armored division and helped the Soviets kill about a million Afghans and drive more into exile. He sided with the Soviet puppet regime after the Soviets left in '89, but switched sides in '92 and helped overthrow them, instead.
In 1996, he joined the Taliban, and since then he has switched sides again -- first fighting then joining the late leader of the Northern Alliance, Ahmed Shah Massoud. Dostum ruled Mazar-i-sharif and six northern provinces, according to Pakistan intelligence. He seems to have favored corruption, nepotism and an un-Islamic lifestyle. In other words, this one is a doozy.
My favorite guy on our side is Gen. Abdul Rashid Dostum, the Uzbek warlord who took Mazar-i-sharif.
According to The New York Times, at age 23, Dostum led a militia of Uzbeks who sided with the Soviets when they invaded in '79. He rose to command an armored division and helped the Soviets kill about a million Afghans and drive more into exile. He sided with the Soviet puppet regime after the Soviets left in '89, but switched sides in '92 and helped overthrow them, instead.
In 1996, he joined the Taliban, and since then he has switched sides again -- first fighting then joining the late leader of the Northern Alliance, Ahmed Shah Massoud. Dostum ruled Mazar-i-sharif and six northern provinces, according to Pakistan intelligence. He seems to have favored corruption, nepotism and an un-Islamic lifestyle. In other words, this one is a doozy.
Remember the "third degree"? It used to be the standard way many
police departments in this country extracted confessions from criminal
suspects. The practice was sharply diminished after the 1931 Wickersham
Report prepared by the National Commission on Law Observance and
Enforcement, which found that the "'third degree' -- the infliction of
physical or mental pain to extract confessions or statements -- was
'widespread throughout the country' and was 'thoroughly at home in
Chicago.'"
The methods identified in the Report "range from beating to harsher forms of torture. The commoner forms are beating with the fists or some implement, especially the rubber hose, that inflicts pain, but is not likely to leave permanent visible scars ... authorities often threaten bodily injury ... and have gone to the extreme of procuring a confession at the point of a pistol.'" It further found that the practice of police torture in the United States was "shocking in its character and extent, violative of American traditions and institutions, and not to be tolerated."
The methods identified in the Report "range from beating to harsher forms of torture. The commoner forms are beating with the fists or some implement, especially the rubber hose, that inflicts pain, but is not likely to leave permanent visible scars ... authorities often threaten bodily injury ... and have gone to the extreme of procuring a confession at the point of a pistol.'" It further found that the practice of police torture in the United States was "shocking in its character and extent, violative of American traditions and institutions, and not to be tolerated."
AUSTIN --- This being the season of thanksgiving, I am come to
toast Bob Eckhardt, the great Texas congressman, who died last week at 88.
We owe him thanks and are so lucky to have had him with us. What a rare one.
And a lot of fun, too.
If ever a politician of the 20th century deserved the title "legislator," it was Eckhardt -- legal scholar, craftsman, steeped to his bones in the constitution, law and history. They called him, "The House's lawyer." The only politician I ever knew who could write a bill so that it did precisely what it was intended to do, and did nothing it was not intended to do, with a vision lasting past generations.
If ever a politician of the 20th century deserved the title "legislator," it was Eckhardt -- legal scholar, craftsman, steeped to his bones in the constitution, law and history. They called him, "The House's lawyer." The only politician I ever knew who could write a bill so that it did precisely what it was intended to do, and did nothing it was not intended to do, with a vision lasting past generations.
Agbiotech and corporate special interests in reaction to stubborn
global resistance have stepped-up their propaganda and bullying. This
aggression is evident in the media, the marketplace, the trade and
diplomatic fronts, the legislatures, courts, patent offices, and the
streets of the cities where anti-globalization protests have taken
place. Recognizing that a critical mass of youth, consumers, farmers,
environmentalists, and public interest nongovernmental organizations
(NGOs) all over the world are rejecting, not only the biotech and
industrial agriculture model, but also the entire "Free Trade"
globalization agenda itself, the Gene Giants and their allies know
they are losing ground. Reacting to massive demonstrations in
Seattle, Washington, Quebec, Sweden, and Genoa--with anti-Frankenfoods
concerns often in the forefront-governing elites have clamped down and
repressed youthful protestors, and have begun shifting their meetings
to inaccessible locations such as the oil sheikdom of Qatar, where the
142 nation members of the World Trade Organization (WTO) are scheduled
to hold a ministerial meeting November 9-13.
The bombing campaign against the people of Afghanistan will be
described in history as the "U.S. Against the Third World." The launching
of military strikes against peasants does nothing to suppress terrorism, and
only erodes American credibility in Muslim nations around the world. The
question, "Why Do They Hate Us?," can only be answered from the vantagepoint
of the Third World's widespread poverty, hunger and economic exploitation.
HARARE -- A showdown is looming between Zimbabwe
and the European Union (EU) over the African nation's refusal to
allow the European Union to monitor next year's presidential
elections.
Zimbabwe's foreign affairs minister, Stan Mudenge, has described as "thoughtless and futile" a demand by the European Union to be allowed to send its election monitors for the elections.
"That is how exactly we feel when people... come to us, even before we ourselves know the date of our elections to urge, insist and demand that they should be allowed to come by such and such a date and start assessing and observing," he said.
"It breeds suspicions and tempts others to ascribe sinister motives," said Mudenge, warning that Zimbabwe is a sovereign and independent state that can never take orders from any country.
Zimbabwe's foreign affairs minister, Stan Mudenge, has described as "thoughtless and futile" a demand by the European Union to be allowed to send its election monitors for the elections.
"That is how exactly we feel when people... come to us, even before we ourselves know the date of our elections to urge, insist and demand that they should be allowed to come by such and such a date and start assessing and observing," he said.
"It breeds suspicions and tempts others to ascribe sinister motives," said Mudenge, warning that Zimbabwe is a sovereign and independent state that can never take orders from any country.