Posts filed under “War on Terror”
How A Hero Becomes A Villain (Update Below)
So it turns out that the cop who pepper-sprayed the nonviolent protesters at UC Davis is an exemplary officer – a “hero” who once saved the life of a fellow officer. Clearly, there’s a discrepancy between the overzealous role he played on Friday afternoon and his normal routine. I think, however, that in order to understand why police in full riot gear [...]
You Know You Live In A Police State When…
…the planning involved by the police in dismantling a nonviolent demonstration is almost identical to the Navy SEALs preparation for catching and killing a terrorist mastermind. I really want to disclaim that I’m not talking about some conspiratorial Black Helicopter shit, except for the fact that in its most basic essence this was literally Black Helicopter [...]
Getting your money’s worth
The New York Times published an unflattering article yesterday on the practice of the government contracting out services to private companies. The article examined the findings of a study done by a nonprofit organization called the Project of Government Oversight, and found, in 33 of 35 occupations, the government actually paid billions of dollars more [...]
Short Review: Better This World
If you missed the PBS documentary film “Better This World” last night, I highly recommend that you check your local PBS listings and catch it on a second run or simply watch it online. The documentary, produced by filmmakers Kelly Duane de la Vega and Katie Galloway, captures the workings of the government’s post-9/11 [...]
The More The Merrier?
As if peace negotiations between the Taliban and the Afghanistan government weren’t already fraught with enough complications, Pakistan wants to get into the act too. Underlining the constructive role they have played throughout the war in Afghanistan, the Pakistanis are threatening to derail any peace agreement that might be reached without their participation: Pakistani security [...]
Videotape And Lies (No Sex)
Well, well, well, well, well! The CIA has videotapes, after all, of interrogations in a secret overseas prison of admitted 9/11 plotter Ramzi Binalshibh. Discovered in a box under a desk at the CIA, the tapes could reveal how foreign governments aided the United States in holding and interrogating suspects. And they could complicate U.S. [...]
Cordoba House, And The Families and Friends of 9/11 Victims
It’s really very simple. Feisal Abdul Rauf has a perfect right to build an Islamic community center 2 blocks from Ground Zero. He has a legal right, and he has a moral right. He has a fundamental constitutional right. Nobody has any right to stop him from building that community center. Not even the family [...]
We-a Culpa! We-a Minima Culpa!
Back in May, the Joan Shorenstein Center on the Press, Politics and Public Policy at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government published an interesting little study of media dishonesty. It examined how four major newspapers — the New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Wall Street Journal and USA Today — have covered the topic of waterboarding [...]
Trapped In A Kafkaesque Nightmare
Yahya Wehelie is an American citizen, born and raised in Virginia, trapped by President Obama‘s homeland security apparatus in a literally Kafkaesque nightmare which ranks right along with some of George Bush‘s most ludicrous homeland security shenanigans. This is far from the first time that Obama has been in the spotlight for seamlessly continuing the [...]
The Dream Team With Feet Of Clay
Back in January 2009, when President Obama was assembling his Justice Department team, liberal bloggers were giddy with excitement over the fine, fine people he was picking. Champions of the Constitution, and paragons of virtue, they were going to preside over the Constitution’s slow but complete recovery from the gang rape it had suffered for [...]