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GOPs deafening silence on civil rights after 9/11
October 01, 2004Organizers of the Republican National Convention in New York City took every opportunity to use the image of the Statue of Liberty — on giant banners hanging outside Madison Square Garden, and as the backdrop for a speech by Vice President Cheney delivered from Ellis Island. Something is terribly wrong with this picture, however. The symbolism is strong, but the substance is missing. While the vice president gave his speech,...
Read moreWho is the real Alberto Gonzales?
December 03, 2004News Analysis Attorney General John Ashcroft has departed. Some see his designated successor, presidential legal advisor Alberto Gonzales, as an improvement, perhaps because he is a Mexican-American from humble roots, or because he has been attacked by the religious right for not being an anti-abortion extremist. But the ACLU, the Center for Constitutional Rights and others warn that Gonzales has functioned more like a Mafia counselor, a consigliere, than an...
Read moreHundreds gather at counter-recruiting conference
November 04, 2005BERKELEY, Calif. — As the number of U.S. soldiers killed in Iraq neared the 2,000 mark, nearly 500 university and high school students, military resisters, veterans and peace activists gathered on the UC Berkeley campus Oct. 22-23 for “On the Frontlines: Options for Youth in Times of War.” While most participants were from California, some came from as far away as New York state. The conference, co-sponsored by Military Out...
Read moreMounting uproar over secret CIA prisons and torture
November 11, 2005News Analysis Shakespeare’s line, “When troubles come, they come not as single spies, but in battalions,” may well apply to the Bush administration. On top of Iraq and New Orleans and the debacle of Harriet Miers, comes what could be a huge international scandal affecting the United States and its relationship with allies in Eastern Europe and elsewhere. Dana Priest of the Washington Post reported Nov. 2 that the Central...
Read moreHoustonians demand: Clean the House - Dump DeLay!
December 10, 2005HOUSTON — Over 300 activists gathered on Dec. 5 to give Rep. Tom DeLay (R-Sugar Land) and Vice President Dick Cheney a warm welcome here by shouting, “Clean the House — Dump DeLay” during rush-hour traffic. The protesters gathered in the front of the Galleria shopping center where DeLay was holding a fund raiser in the Westin Hotel. The Galleria shopping center is one of the most up-scale shopping centers...
Read moreNews censorship exposed again
January 13, 2006Censored 2006: The Top 25 Censored Stories By Peter Phillips and Project Censored Seven Stories Press, 2005 Softcover, 432 pp., $18.95 Corporate concentration in the news media continues to take a toll. Trivialization of news that blurs the distinction between news and entertainment and under-reporting of serious issues are the trends. “Censored 2006: The Top 25 Censored Stories” is Project Censored’s examination of the crucial stories that the corporate-owned media...
Read moreCIA tape trashing suggests a cover-up
January 11, 2008A new firestorm is raging over the Bush administration’s use of torture in its “war on terror,” ignited by CIA Director Michael Hayden’s admission that the spy agency destroyed videotapes of its interrogation of two detainees. Hayden claimed the videotapes were destroyed in 2005 to protect the identity of CIA agents who conducted the interrogations of suspected Al-Qaeda operatives Abu Zubaida and Abd Al-Rahim Al-Nashiri in 2002. Sen. Edward Kennedy...
Read moreInternational notes
July 16, 2004Colombia: Cheaper to shoot unionists than to negotiate A new report by the London-based International Commission for Labor Rights (ICLR) concludes that in Colombia it’s quicker, cheaper and less risky for employers to kill trade unionists involved in an employment dispute than it is to use legal procedures to resolve their differences, reports Mary Engqvist of ANNCOL, a Colombian news service. According to the ICLR, over three-quarters of the world’s...
Read moreRumsfeld sued for allowing torture
May 13, 2005WASHINGTON — Defenders of human rights have hailed as long overdue a lawsuit holding Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld responsible for the torture of detainees in Iraq and Afghanistan. Filed March 1 in an Illinois federal court by the American Civil Liberties Union and Human Rights First, the lawsuit charges that Rumsfeld violated the U.S. Constitution and international laws prohibiting torture and cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment of prisoners. Rumsfeld knew...
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Scapegoats of U.S. executives and endless blood
February 28, 2008Film Review Taxi to the Darkside Directed by Alex Gibney Jigsaw Productions 106 min., Rated R When you grasp the madness that’s exposed in Alex Gibney’s Academy Award nominated “Taxi to the Darkside,” (Gibney also directed the acclaimed “Enron, the Smartest Guys in the Room”) you wonder if there is a connection between that madness we’re watching on screen and the fact that within 48 hours of the polls closing...
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