The truth finally comes out

"Italian police have been accused of fabricating evidence against anti-globalisation protesters at last year's G8 summit in Genoa by planting petrol bombs at their headquarters and falsely accusing them of stabbing a police officer."

They used these fabrications as an excuse for beating the protesters, who they claimed were violent and were resisting arrest. We'll have to wait and see how much of this goes on again at the G8 summit in Canada this month.

Read the Guardian article here.

posted by Michael Curry at 8:57 PM

An interview with Gore Vidal

There is a great interview with Gore Vidal over at the Left Business Observer website, where he talks about his views on Bush, the "war," and the current political state of the US. Though Vidal can sometimes be a bit over the top, he makes a lot of interesting points. Read the interview here.

posted by Michael Curry at 8:48 PM

People who read can be dangerous

"For the first time since the Cold War, the FBI is visiting public libraries to keep tabs on the reading habits of people the government considers dangerous."

Remember the USA Patriot Act? That bit of legislation rammed through Congress so quickly that many who voted for it never even had a chance to read it? Here is one of the many provisions our Congressmen and Senators blindly voted for. Read the San Francisco Chronicle article here.

posted by Michael Curry at 8:33 PM

Maybe we should just drop the pretense of bringing democracy to these countries we bomb

"Afghanistan's warlords are stronger today then they were ten days ago before the loya jirga started," said Saman Zia-Zarifi, senior researcher for Human Rights Watch. "Short term political expediency has clearly triumphed over human rights."

Once again, the US government uses the word democracy over and over to justify a war, and then does nothing to actually bring it about, resulting in situations like the current one in Afghanistan. Read the story here.

posted by Michael Curry at 8:23 PM

A quote

"If ye love wealth better than liberty, the tranquility of servitude better than the animating contest of freedom, go home from us in peace. We ask not your counsels or arms. Crouch down and lick the hands which feed you. May your chains set lightly upon you, and may posterity forget that ye were our countrymen." - Samuel Adams, speech at the Philadelphia State House, August 1, 1776.

posted by Michael Curry at 8:12 PM

Now terrorists are a reason to take away workers' rights

So now the Bush administration has decided that, in order to give the head of the proposed Department of Homeland Security "flexibility" in hiring and firing, many federal employees moved into the new department should no longer enjoy the civil-service protections they are entitled to by law. Read more about it here.

posted by Michael Curry at 8:02 PM

Continuing their fine tradition of religious tolerance

"Leading evangelical Christians, including the Rev. Jerry Falwell, are supporting a prominent Southern Baptist preacher's condemnation of the prophet Muhammad as a 'demon-possessed pedophile.'"

Apparently a Baptist pastor took it upon himself to take a few cheap shots at Islam during the Southern Baptist Convention's meeting in St. Louis a couple of weeks ago, and then people like Falwell decided that the poor guy needed their support when his remarks were called intolerant and deplorable.

Read the full article here.

posted by Michael Curry at 7:46 PM

Pay no attention to the corporations behind the curtain

Another article, this time from the LA Times, about the US government using the threat of terrorism to distract the public from the corporate conquest of America:

"Although combating terrorism is of compelling importance--and should have been before Sept. 11--one is likely to be branded a nut for daring to suggest that the administration might be using current security threats as a smoke screen to obscure our floundering economy."

posted by Michael Curry at 7:22 PM

If we say he's the enemy, he's the enemy

"'This is really an astounding assertion of authority,' said David Cole, a Georgetown University law professor. 'It's not just that you have no right to a lawyer, it's that you have no right to even have a hearing. . . . If that is true, then there is really no limit to the president's power to label U.S. citizens as bad people and then have them held in military custody indefinitely.'" I still hold some hope that eventually a court will inform Bush that he can't suspend the writ of habeas corpus just because he feels like it... but it's only a vague hope.

Read the Washington Post article here.

posted by Michael Curry at 11:02 PM

War war war war war war war war war

Here's an interesting article that talks about the overuse of war rhetoric by the Bush administration, and how they use it to try and justify nearly everything they do. I wonder if George notices that more and more of these sorts of articles are appearing in the mainstream press.

posted by Michael Curry at 10:26 PM

We will not be criticitzed

Last week the Simon Wiesenthal Center took Archbishop Desmond Tutu to task for daring to compare what's going on now with the Palestinians to apartheid, and then issuing a call for divestment from Israel. Read a BBC News story about it here.

posted by Michael Curry at 10:10 PM

Sacrifice is for losers

From an op-ed piece in the New York Times:

"Far from asking the nation's discredited corporate leaders to do their bit in our war on terrorism, the administration wants to fight another war to enable the Kozlowskis and Lays to sacrifice even less than they already are. As for those firefighters who did make a sacrifice by embracing "some cause larger than his or her own profit" on Sept. 11, their families are no more likely to reap serious dough from a repeal of the "death tax" than they are to be protected from losing their pensions in a future Enron by Mr. Pitt's 'reforms.' "

Read the whole article here [registration required].

posted by Michael Curry at 10:00 PM