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Today's
Stories
October 18,
2004
Uri Avnery
Ariel
Sharon's Philosophy
October 16
/ 17, 2004
Alexander Cockburn
The
Free Speech Movement and Howard Stern
Leslie Brill
Unmerciful Judge, Merry Executioners: the Death Penalty as the
True Measure of Bush's Character
Jules Rabin
Reckoning Deaths in an Agitated World
Dave Lindorff
About the Bush Bulge: Was There a Pucker in That Jacket or Was
the President Just Glad to be There?
Peter Linebaugh
Judging Judges: a Few Pages from The Mirror of Justices
Gary Leupp
Iran and Syria: How to Effect Regime Change and Expand the Empire
M. Shahid Alam
America, Imagine This!
Ron Jacobs
Trying to Cross Lake Champlain
Fred Gardner
The Flu Vaccine Question: How Bush Blew It
Jenna Orkin
The Toxic Legacy of 9/11
Dave Zirin
Name the DC Baseball Team: Contest Results
David Hamilton
Alone and Exposed: Bush as a Strong Leader?
Ralph Nader
Criticizing Israel is Not Anti-Semitism
Doug Giebel
Thinking the Unthinkable
Mark Engler
Crimes in Freedom's Name: Dick Cheney's El Salvador
Derek Tyner
Blacks Didn't Get the Vote by Voting: an Interview With Clarence
Thomas on the Million Worker March
Evan Jones
Gimme That Ole Time Religion: Cash and "The Mind of the
South"
Poets' Basement
LaMorticella, Klipschutz and Albert
Website of
the Weekend
No More Bush Girls
October 15,
2004
Paul Craig
Roberts
Where
Did These "Conservatives" Come From?: The Brownshirting
of America
Laura Carlsen
Wal-Mart
vs. the Pyramids of the Sun and Moon
Greg Bates
Empire of Insanity: Kerry's Iraq Troop Numbers
Michael Donnelly
News from a Swing State: Does Anyone Here Have a Spine?
Katherine Lahey
The Venezuelan "Threat": Why Do Kerry and Bush Fear
Hugo Chavez?
Robert Jensen
/ Pat Youngblood
Election Day Fears
Leah Caldwell
From
Supermax to Abu Ghraib: the Masterminds of Torture and Abuse
Website of
the Day
An Anti-Billionaire Policy? Why That Would Be Economic Racism
October 14,
2004
Darcy Richardson
The
Other Progressive Candidate: the Lonely Crusade of Walt Brown
Willliam A.
Cook
Turning
Myths into Truth
Laura Santina
Water, Women and War
Evelyn Pringle
Free Speech Banned by Big Pharma: What You Can't Say About Drug
Importation
Alan Farago
Lessons
from Nature
Rep. Maxine Waters
A Letter to Colin Powell on Haiti
Nicole Colson
Maimed
for Oil and Empire
October 13,
2004
Bishop Thomas
Gumbleton and Bill Quigley
Aftermath
of a Coup: The Other Disaster in Haiti
Sharon Smith
Barak
O-Bomb-a?: Democrats Target Iran
Christopher Brauchli
God and the Bush Administration
Mike Whitney
The Real Meaning of the Hamdi Case
Paul de Rooij
Amnesty
International: a False Beacon?
Website of
the Day
Operation
Truth
October 12,
2004
Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz
"Indian
Country"
Greg Bates
The Year of Voting Dangerously: a Survey Request of Nader Voters
in Swing States
Steven Conn
Progressives as Pawns: Kerry's War on Nader
Jason Leopold
Under Cheney, Halliburton Helped Saddam Siphon Billions from
UN Oil-for-Food Program
Security Scholars
for a Sensible Foreign Policy
Time for a Change of Course
Timothy J. Freeman
Dying for a Mistake
Pierre Tristam
Deconstructing Bush
Niranjan Ramakrishnan
The 2nd Debate: the Blurring of Act and Audience
Bill and Kathleen
Christison
Israel as Sideshow
Website of the Day
John Kerry's Personal Off-Shore Tax Shelters
October 11,
2004
Robert Fisk
Iraq:
Unforgivable Betrayals and Broken Promises
Kevin Pina
The
Untold Story of Aristide's Departure from Haiti
Patrick Gavin
Rethinking
Columbus Day
Chris Floyd
Tribes with Flags in the New Afghanistan
Daniel Wolff
Radioactive Money: Entergy, Political Cash and America's Most
Dangerous Nuclear Plant
Walter Brasch
The Only Ones Who Believe Saddam Had WMDs are Bush, Cheney...and
40% of All Americans
Mike Whitney
The Phony Afghan Elections: Ballot of the Disappearing Ink
Ari Shavit
"He Talks to Condi Rice Every Day": an Interview with
Sharon's Lawyer
Paul Craig
Roberts
The
Debates and the Big Lie
Website of the Day
Dylan's Greatest Recording?
October 9 /
10, 2004
Alexander Cockburn
"There
Are No Innocents"
Paul de Rooij
Northern Ireland is Still the Issue: a Conversation with Gerry
Adams
M. Shahid Alam
Making Sense of Our Times
Laura Carlsen
Protest and Populism in Latin America
Fred Gardner
Pot Shots: ASA Goes to Court
Col. Dan Smith
Bush's Credibility Gap
Paul Craig
Roberts
Faith-Based Economics
Greg Bates
What If Nader Critics Get What They Demand?
Joshua Frank
Cobb, the Greens and the Collapse of the Left
Felice Pace
Wilderness, Politics and the Oligarchy: How the Pew Charitable
Trust is Smothering the Grassroots Environmental Movement
Walter A. Davis
Of Pynchon, Thanatos and Depleted Uranium
William A.
Cook
The Agony of Colin Powell
Phyllis Pollack
Twas No Crank Call Love Affair: London Calling, 25 Years Later
Poets' Basement
Klipschutz, Albert, Ford
Website of the Weekend
Abu Ghraib: the Taguba Annexes
October 8,
2004
Jennifer Loewenstein
The
Israeli Invasion of Gaza
Moshe Adler
Edwards' Gambit: He Hoped No One Would Notice the Similarities
David Swanson
Media Blackout: Press Continues to Ignore Labor's Opposition
to Iraq War
Dave Zirin
CounterPunch Contest: Let's Name the New DC Baseball Team!
Rep. Ron Paul
The Draft is a Form of Slavery
William S. Lind
Keeping Our SA Up
Samar Assad
Kerry v. Bush: No Difference When It Comes to Israel / Palestine
Jim Ingalls
and Sonali Kolhatkar
The Elections in Afghanistan
October 7,
2004
Dave Lindorff
All
Out of Volunteers: A Draft is in the Air
Masha Hamilton
Fear in Kandahar
Christopher
Brauchli
Master of Corruption: the Ripening Scandals of Tom Delay
Jason Leopold
Is There Still Time to Impeach Bush?
Bruce K. Gagnon
Bombing the Panhandle: Fighting the Pentagon in Rural Florida
Meredith Kolodner
Where
is the Urgency?: The Anti-War Movement's Election Year Challenge
October 6,
2004
Jeffrey St.
Clair
"Please,
Dude, Can I Take Them Out?": Targeting Civilians in Fallujah
Ron Jacobs
Going
Nuclear: the Ghost of Edward Teller Lives
Michael Colby
The National Flip-Flop: Suddenly Bush is Unfit to Lead?
Tarif Abboushi
More of the Same: Israel Wins the Debates
Matthew Behrens
Canadian Firms Profit from Iraqi Blood
Mike Whitney
Rethinking WMDs
John Pilger
Stealing Diego Garcia
Ben Tripp
Kerry's "Triumph"
Kevin McKiernan
Cheney's Poison Lab: Wrong Time, Wrong Target
Patrick Cockburn
Elections
Will Not End the Fighting in Iraq
Website of the Day
Is There an Islamic Problem?
October 5,
2004
Anthony Loewenstein
Rupert
Murdoch and the Marginals: "Personally Creating Outcomes"
Mark Clinton
and Tony Udell
The
Suicide of an Iraq War Veteran
Greg Bates
Trading
Idiots: an Open Letter to Eric Alterman
Dave Lindorff
What's
the Frequency, Karl?
Norm Dixon
Why Washington Won't Save Darfur Villagers
Larry Kearney
God Talk and Burning Children
Bill Linville
Dirty Politics in the Land of "Clean" Government
Gary Leupp
What
Edwards Should Ask Cheney
Website of
the Day
A Guide to Halliburton for Tonight's Debate
October 4,
2004
Diane Christian
The
Gates of Hell
Joshua Frank
An Interview with David Cobb
Doug Giebel
Incurious George: What If Bush Didn't Lie?
John Chuckman
Strange Victory: Sen. Obvious and the Pathetic Lump
Ramzy Baroud
Reverse the Picture: Anatomy of a Palestinian Outrage
Julia Stein
Remembering Mario Savio and the FSM
Sean Donahue
Outsourcing
Terror: Kerry and Special Forces
Website of
the Day
Mapping
Mt. St. Helens as She Rocks
October 2 /
3. 2004
Paul Wright
John
Kerry on Criminal Justice
Kathleen and Bill Christison
An Exchange with Israeli Historian Bennie Morris
Kathie Helmkamp
My Son Trent: a Marine Who Doesn't Want to Kill
Phillip Cryan
Indigenous Mobilization in Colombia
Lenni Brenner
The First Ex-Catholic Saint: Memories of Mario Savio
Fred Gardner
Pot Shots: In Case You Missed "Montel"
Ron Jacobs
It Did Happen Here: When Neo-Nazis Terrorized Olympia
Ben Tripp
Sticker Shock
William S.
Lind
The Grand Illusion: Iraqi Security Forces
Dave Zirin
The Swindle of the Century: Baseball Comes to DC
Dave Lindorff
Lies from the Great Debate
Luscon Pierre-Charles
Haiti's Elections: a High-Tech Sham is Underway
Zoe Moskovitz
& Sasha Kramer
Separating Lies from Truth About Haiti
Nelson P. Valdes
Habana Night vs. Latin American Scholars in Vegas: 61 Banned
Cuban Academics
Alan Farago
The "Ownership Society" and the End of the Everglades
Nancy Haley
What is the Historical Jesus Trying to Tell Us?
Alex Billet
Long Live The Clash: London Still Calling After 25 Years
Steve Fesenmaier
Save and Burn: The War on Libraries
Poets' Basement
Smith, Holt, Albert
October 1,
2004
Steve Breyman
Kerry's
Missed Opportunities
Rose Gentle
My
Son Died for a Lie
Lee Sustar
Iran
in the Crosshairs
Ralph Nader
What
We Didn't Hear at the Debate: Where's the Exit Strategy?
Walter Andrews
We Are Less Secure Now Than Ever
Mike Whitney
Pandora's
Government
Mickey Z.
Debate
This
Saul Landau
The
Iraq Invasion: Lessons from the Pinochet Cases
Hot Stories
Alexander Cockburn
Behold,
the Head of a Neo-Con!
Subcomandante
Marcos
The
Death Train of the WTO
Norman Finkelstein
Hitchens
as Model Apostate
Steve Niva
Israel's
Assassination Policy: the Trigger for Suicide Bombings?
Dardagan,
Slobodo and Williams
CounterPunch Exclusive:
20,000 Wounded Iraqi Civilians
Steve
J.B.
Prison Bitch
Sheldon
Rampton and John Stauber
True Lies: the Use of Propaganda
in the Iraq War
Wendell
Berry
Small Destructions Add Up
CounterPunch
Wire
WMD: Who Said What When
Cindy
Corrie
A Mother's Day Talk: the Daughter
I Can't Hear From
Gore Vidal
The
Erosion of the American Dream
Francis Boyle
Impeach
Bush: A Draft Resolution
Click
Here for More Stories.
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October 18, 2004
Civil Liberties,
Three Years After 9/11
The
Other War
By
ELAINE CASSEL
The hottest topics in the current presidential
campaign are the Iraq war and the "war" on "terrorism".
It is disappointing how glibly Kerry has adopted the Bush administration's
campaign against "terror" and has not critically examined
its premise. Of course, to do so, would be political suicide.
Any politician who speaks out against the war on terrorism and
how it is a war on citizens and civil rights, will risk being
called a terrorist or a traitor. Senator Russell Feingold, the
only Senator to vote against the un-Patriotic Patriot act and
one of the few who voting against the Iraq war, is fighting for
his political life in Wisconsin.
The word "terrorism" is defined differently in hundreds
of fed laws and regulations, depending on their contexts. The
most expansive use of the term, for instance, is reserved for
immigrants and resident aliens those having green cards
and student visas, for instance.
Terrorism is whatever the government wants it to be. It is a
moving and mornping construct. It can justify the closing of
streets at home, and the waging of war abroad. It encompasses
peacefully demonstrating against George Bush at home, and speaking
negatively against him abroad (I am referring to restrictions
on Arab news media who are trying to report on Iraq). It is the
excuse for declaring a war on civil liberties.
By war on civil liberties, I am referring to the erosion of the
freedoms " embodied in the first ten amendments to the Constitution
- known collectively as the Bill of Rights. Bush said that
"they" "hate" 'us" for our freedoms.
Well "they" have much less to "hate" three
years after Sep 11. Bush talks of spreading "liberty"
abroad like butter or jelly. Well, we are scraping away "liberty"
at home. It is something we are told we must do, in order to
"preserve" freedom.
A radio interviewer made an interesting suggestion to me recently--should
we call the Bill of Rights the Bill of Restrictions? I like that
idea. Restrictions on government power. We could reframe them
as not freedom of speech but freedom from government
intrusion into speech, assembly. Not freedom to  have an attorney
represent us, but freedom from government eavesdropping on us
and our attorneys and on limiting our right to counsel, as it
has done in the case of hundreds of immigrants, hundreds of "enemy
combatants," material witnesses, and Americans Yaser Hamdi
and Jose Padilla.
We are supposed to have freedom from being arrested without probable
cause or not being held to account for a crime unless indicted
by a grand jury. We are supposed to be free from government denying
us access to the witnesses against us. Evidence is supposed to
be presented in open court and subject to cross examination and
the scrutiny of the light of day. We are supposed to be free
from inquisition by secret evidence. We are supposed to be free
from bond being denied us while we await trial and free from
cruel and unusual punishment. And by we, I mean not just American
citizens, but aliens lawfully in this country. These guarantees
have been violated thousands of times since September 11.
Hundreds and hundreds of peaceful demonstrators at the Republican
National Convention were arrested and held for as long as three
days before a judge dismissed the charges against them. They
had committed no crime and further, were held long outside the
time allowed by law. Mayor Bloomberg, taking a page from George
Bush's playbook, would do it all again, he said, proud that the
liberties of Americans were sacrificed in the name of George
Bush.
In my book I follow some of the more egregious examples of the
government's violation of its compact with we, the governed,
embodied not just in the Bill of Rights but also in in federal
laws and rules of procedure.
Much of what I wrote about was ongoing as the book went to press.
I want to bring you up to date on some of the events I wrote
about.
Not one conviction or plea gained by John Ashcroft in his prosecution
of "terrorists" has been against anyone plotting anything
against the United States. Most have been for non-terrorism crimes
like lying on visa application or lying to prosecutors (which
is why none of you should EVER talk to a prosecutor you
cannot in any way defend yourself, lest you be charged later
with lying) or being involved with a Muslim charity that sends
money, goods to countries we don't like-regardless of whether
relief goes to civilians or not.
The Detroit Cell convictions-the first jury convictions of people
charged with supporting "terorrism" have been overturned,
the FBI evidence having been deemed a fraud. Attorney Lynne Stewart
has begun the defense of her case, the govt having rested last
week by reading letters from her client, Sheik Abdel Rahmen,
convicted in the 1993 WTC bombings. She should spend the rest
of her life in prison, the government argues, because she represented
a terrorist, appointed by the federal court to do so. They call
her his "associate," not his lawyer. A frightening
link that should, and does, give all brave attorneys who defend
"terrorists", pause.
What is the government saying Stewart did? They say that in answering
press questions about her client and, perhaps, impeding John
Ashcroft's efforts to record conversations between her and her
client, a blind man in a prison in Minnesota, she was "providing
personnel" her client and herself-for terrorism attacks.
Ashcroft directed prison officials to tape record all communications
with her client.
Ashcroft continues to besmirch the name of Steven Hatfield,
the so-called "person of interest" in the anthrax scare
of 2001. Last week, a federal judge hearing a suit Hatfield has
bravely brought against Ashcroft said that the DOJ made him
ashamed of the system. He ordered Ashcroft to either arrest Hatfield
or cease libeling and slandering him. But Ashcroft does not obey
federal court orders, holding himself above the law. On at least
two occasions he personally spoke about the government's case
in the Detroit trials, blatantly violating Judge Rosen's gag
order on all attorneys. Tell your boss my orders refer to him,
Rosen said to a prosecutor in the case.
Three young Muslim men, Northern
Virginia residents and American citizens, are serving 85 to 100
years in prison for supporting, with their words, and with one
visit to a foreign training camp, the Muslim cause in Kashmir.
The three were part of what the govt referred to as the "Alexandria
11. Yes, the got 85 to 100 years for doing nothing. The trial
took place in federal court in Alexandria. The buddies who testified
against them in exchange for ten years in prison (better than
100, right) said, falsely, that when the guys played paintball
they were "practicing" for battle. Better think twice
before you schedule a paintball party for your kids' birthday
celebration. These men are giving their lives for a cause they
talked about said they might someday participate in. The US
is on the side of India in the battle between India and Pakistan
over Kashmir. Endangering the Indian cause is terrorism. But
wait, isn't Pakistan our friend, too? Don't ask. I have to emphasize,
that there is no consistency in this madness.
Six young men in Buffalo, NY
are serving 10-14 years in prison for journeying to Afghanistan
on a religious trip prior to September 11 and lying about going.
They were afraid to say they went--and the govt presumed from
that they were plotting against American. Only, after they were
convicted, the lead prosecutor said they were not a "cell."
There was not evidence they were plotting anything, he said.
Funny, he had no problem with presiding over their guilty pleas,
extracted, by the prosecutor's admission, under threat of banishment
to Guantanamo as enemy combatants.
A young attorney in the Ashcroft
Justice Department remains under investigation, unemployed and
unemployable, because she blew the whistle on the DOJ and told
a federal prosecutor and judge in Alex that the DOJ had not turned
over all of its communications with FBI agents who interrogated
John Walker Lindh in Afghanistan. She knew, because she is the
one who told the FBI not to question Lindh as his parents and
his lawyer had contact DOJ and wanted their son represented by
counsel. The FBI ignored her and extracted confessions that led
Lindh to plead guilty to conspiring against the US. He was doing
nothing of the sort, but in this Alice in Wonderland world according
to John Ashcroft and George Bush, innocence is guilt, lies are
truth, and injustice masquerades as justice.
The Bush administration continues
to disobey the law, flaunt federal judges' orders, including
those of the Supreme Court. Jose Padilla, an American charged
with no crime, still is imprisoned in a Navy brig months after
the Supreme Court dismissed his suit because filed in the wrong
court. Once it was refiled the federal judge in South Caroline
refused to expedite the case, no hurry he said.
Four months after arguing before
the S Ct that American citizen Yaser Hamdi was so dangerous (though
never charged with a crime) that he could not even see a lawyer
or be out of solitary confinement, the government sent him to
Saudi Arabia where his family lives. Originally the govt wanted
Saudi Arabia to charge him with a crime (what? The govt demanded
the same of Britain when it released four British men from Gitmo,
but the British home secretary refused to press charges. They
have done nothing wrong, he said), or keep him under some kind
of house arrest or restrict his travel. Hamdi's release was delayed
for two weeks before the US finally let him go. Of course, we
don't know what kind of deal was struck behind the scenes. When
held to account for three years of lawless imprisonment, the
balance sheet came up zero.
But what is even more about
the striking case is that Hamdi, charged with no crime was not
only deported but also STRIPPED of his US citizenship,likely
no great loss considering how he was treated by its laws.
Falls Church resident Ahmed Abu Ali remains in a Saudi prison,
where Saudi police took him from a Saudi university classroom
in June 2003. Federal prosecutors and FBI agents from Alex Va
visited him personally and questioned him in connection with
the Alexandria 11 prosecutions, while denying that they ever
heard of him. You can be sure if he had any connection, they
would have extradited him, as they did another man living in
Saudi. Finally, forced to admit that he was in Saudi, Ashcroft
and company said they had nothing to do with his detention. But
the Saudis disagree. They said they are holding him because the
Americans told them to. His family has sued in federal court
in DC to gain the release of their son. The govt says it has
nothing to do with the case Saudi has him. The Saudis now
say that the US is pressuring them to prosecute their son. For
what, they don't yet know.
The new Intelligence bill floating around the Congress now affirmatively
calls for the US to ship immigrants to countries for the express
purpose of being tortured. Don't take my word for it. Go read
the bill. Your congressmen likely are not.
The Transporation Security Administration has more than 10,000
"names" on a no fly list and you can't know how you
got on it and you can't get off of it. The ACLU is suing the
government in behalf of a couple who even the govt admits should
not be on the list. But they won't take them off.
The government wants you to believe that Cat Moonbeam Stevens
is properly on the list. Accepting that premise, then, aren't
you appalled that the plane he was supposedly in danger of blowing
up took off? How many "terrorists" whose names are
or are not on the list are boarding planes? Speaking of Cat,
though, don't you love it that the plane was diverted from DC
to Maine, presumably steering clear of Kennebunkport?
The government continues its ignorant campaign of telling you
how safe you are while terrorists, like Cat Stevens (I mean that
is their designation, not mine), board planes, intelligence sits
collecting dust because the govt can't seem to find Arabic translators
(who, as you recall, must be card-carrying heterosexuals), and,
by recent report, guns and explosives continue to make it through
airport security. Billions of dollars in training can't keep
us safe. We know that. The government says more money and more
restrictions will guarantee it
Besides, Ashcroft can read
our email get our bank records. Don't you feel safer?
I applaud the Congressman who shut down his office. If it as
dangerous as the feds and DC and Capitol police are telling me,
he says, then we ought to get out of this place. I don't know
whether or not he is serious or demonstrating the absurdity of
the govt position. But if it is for the later reason, I applaud
it. My 10 year old grandson commented as we were trying to get
around the city this summer to do some sightseeing and faced
fenced in monuments, closed streets, and cops with assault guns
on the subway. Why don't they tear down the monuments if we can't
visit them? What good are they, he said, this after our "tickets"
to see the Washington Monument (did you know you need tickets
and have to pay online with your credit card to have a shot at
seeing the momuments-online ticket purchasers are given preference-you
know where I am going with this) were cancelled three days before
Ronald Reagan's funeral. Try explaining that to a 10 year old.
But, he said, our tickets being for Wednesday, the funeral isn't
until Friday? Speaking of all our thwarted efforts this summer,
he said, why don't they just shut down the city he said and send
food and clothes to the people who have to live there? Even he
felt the absurdity of the government's position.
As we begin year four of the
war on civil liberties, some Americans are a little more aware
of what our government is doing to us, some congressmen and women
are a little concerned, and a few judges are taking names and
making notes. Hundreds of counties and cities, and a few states,
have passed resolutions condemning the Patriot Act (which, by
the way, is only the tip of the iceberg in the govt's war on
its people. Much has been blamed on the Patriot Act which has
nothing to do with that law).
Would anything be different under a Kerry administration? I doubt
it. I tend to agree with Nader that Kerry is, in terms of Bush
and civil liberties, a distinction without much of a difference.
I think he or anyone else that replaces Bush (someday) will appreciate
the precedence of the Bush years that sanctioned an administration
making up the rules as it goes along and ignoring the courts
and the Congress. Who wouldn't want that power? The founding
fathers did not want the Bill of Rights, and fought its exclusion
from the actual constitution. Refusal of some delegates to the
Constitutional Convention to agree to sign the Constitution without
some protection of people's rights led to their adoption as amendments.<o:p></o:p>
Thanks to the lobbying of George Mason and others, the Bill of
Rights became law.
But the Bill of Rights-or any other law-only has meaning if it
is obeyed and enforced. In the past three years, Bush has demonstrated
that an Administration can trample on the Bill of Rights with
impunity. That is not a trend that we will see reversed in our
lifetimes.
I believe, as I stated in my book, that the erosions of liberty
and justice that masquerade as laws to protect us from terror,
will serve any president's powers. I don't think any administration
will want to give up the right to eavesdrop, spy on, and arrest
Americans for wearing a T-shirt it does not like, or send FBI
to law school symposia or community organizations interested
in peace and the environment.
Kerry's administration, if
there is one, might not choose to act against its citizens but
it won't repeal the laws.
I don't know much about history or political science. I am a
lawyer committed to the rule of law administered with a good
dose of compassion and a strong sense of injustice. It has been
many many years since the country had a revolution committed
to justice - the civil rights era, protests against the Vietnam
war, but that was 40-50 years ago.
It's time for a revival of those days, but that requires a change
of heart in the country. We have to have a change of heart before
we have a change of govt.
I hope our Nov 2 will be counted and counted accurately.
I doubt they will be for reasons
too numerous to mention. But one bears particular notice:John
Ashcroft is leading the charge to state and local voting officials
to man the polls with law enforcement presence, something that
every American ought to rise up and rail against. This directive
and its execution is an act of terrorism aimed at non-Bush voters.
I hope that the only poll that counts the 5-4 poll of justices
on the Supreme Court doesn't decide this election.
I hope we rid our country of the evil of George Bush and John
Ashcroft. But if we do, our work will begin in earnest to hold
the new administration to the contract the govt has with us embodied
in the constitution. It won't be easy, because neither Republicans
or Democrats are committed to civil liberties. And therein lies
the heart of our dilemma, our challenge, as we look outside the
ballot box.
Elaine Cassel practices law in Virginia and the
District of Columbia, teaches law and psychology, and follows
the Bush regime's dismantling of the Constitution at Civil
Liberties Watch. Her book, The
War on Civil Liberties: How Bush and Ashcroft Have Dismantled
the Bill of Rights, will be published by Lawrence Hill this
summer. She can be reached at: ecassel1@cox.net
Weekend
Edition Features for September 18 / 19, 2004
Alexander Cockburn
Forgeries,
Fingerprints and Forensic Fakery
Jeffrey St. Clair
High Plains Grifter: Bush's Mask of Anarchy
Patrick Cockburn
Into the Abyss: the Week Iraq's Dream of Peace Fell Apart
Fred Gardner
Pot Shots: Financial Torture (Asset Forfeiture)
Joe Allen
The Comrades Kerry Abandoned: the Real Story of Vietnam Vets
Against the War
George Corsetti
Poletown Revisited: Finally, Some Vindication
Scott Handleman
The Knock-Knock of a Sledgehammer: Sequestered in Nablus
Richard Ward
Two Weeks in Beit Arabiya
Conn Hallinan
Ashcroft and Indonesia
Lori Smith
Health Care in America: And Then I Got Sick...
Dave Zirin
Hold the Booyah!: SportsCenter Out of the Middle East
John L. Hess
Rather Will Take the Heat, As Bush's War Deteriorates
Brian J. Foley
W is for Wimp: So Why do Manly Men Love Him?
Mickey Z.
Pat Tillman and Osama bin Laden: Odd Juxtapositions
Poets' Basement
Vest, Landau & Albert
Website of the Weekend
Eye on the NYTs
/
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