news on the march

from wikinews:
iraq war increases likelihood of terrorism, says bbc poll

from ny daily news:
are we ready for 'terrorist' movies?

from tennessean:
surveillance = safety

from alternet:
"we, you know, bring up subjects."

bush on trial

from newsday: A mock war crimes trial of President George W. Bush at a Parsippany high school continued Friday, despite criticism from people across the nation who heard about the classroom exercise from a prominent Web site and talk-radio programs.

more bush secrecy...

from star-telegram: Intelligence officials will meet with the county's top archivist early next week to discuss the withdrawal of historical documents from the National Archives' public shelves, Archivist of the United States Allen Weinstein said Friday.

He said he requested the meeting following disclosure last month of a program in which thousands of documents, previously declassified, were being removed from public access. Historians protested the practice, saying they had access to many of the documents in past years...

The New York Times, which disclosed the reclassification program last month, reported that archivists have said the agencies involved include the Central Intelligence Agency, the Air Force and the Defense Intelligence Agency.

snorer in the court

from world net daily: According to the Associated Press, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg snoozed during oral arguments today over political redistricting in Texas.

"The subject matter was extremely technical," notes AP writer Gina Holland, "and near the end of the argument Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg dozed in her chair."

During a report by Megyn Kendall of Fox News, an artist's sketch of the hearing was aired with Ginsburg's head using the bench as a pillow.

There was no word if there was any audible snoring echoing through the esteemed chamber, but the sleep session was noticed by Bader's colleagues who made a snap judgment to let their associate continue her slumber.

oregon senator unveils 'net neutrality'

from information week: Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., on Thursday unveiled a bill that would prohibit telephone and cable companies from charging others businesses for faster delivery of content to consumers over the Internet.

The bill to ensure so-called 'Net neutrality' would also prohibit network operators from favoring content over others, such as their own video services over those of Internet companies.

In unveiling the Internet Nondiscrimination Act of 2006, Wyden said in a statement that allowing cable and telephone companies to create a two-tiered system for distributing content over their networks would "have a chilling effect on small mom and pop businesses that can't afford the priority lane, leaving these smaller businesses no hope of competing against the Wal-Marts of the world."

patriot act renewed by senate

sen. wyden of oregon and sen. byrd of west virginia are 2 of the only 10 senators who voted against the renewal of the patriot act...

from the new york times: Senators voting against the bill today, besides Mr. Feingold and Mr. Jeffords, were Akaka of Hawaii, Bingaman of New Mexico, Byrd of West Virginia, Harkin of Iowa, Leahy of Vermont, Levin of Michigan, Murray of Washington and Wyden of Oregon.

The ACLU expressed deep disappointment with today's vote. "The Patriot Act contains too many intrusive powers that lack meaningful checks and balances... debate is far from over: secret record searches must be reformed so they are focused on suspected foreign terrorists and not used to invade the private records of ordinary Americans. Congress can, and must, take steps to fix the Patriot Act to keep America both safe and free."

the most dangerous film of the year

from chud: It'’s shocking that a film like V For Vendetta, in which the hero can be described in no other terms but terrorist, has been made by a major movie studio, which is itself a part of a major, world-dominating corporation...
Sure, this film is about a fictional fascist state that denies its people basic liberties and makes them live in fear, and sure it'’s set in the London of the future, but there'’s no hiding the fact that the film'’s timeline is one that begins today.

tim robbins' patriot act

from alternet: In his newest production by Los Angeles' Actors' Gang ensemble, a corrosive play based on George Orwell's novel "1984"... Big Brother is here and torture is us.

The Actors' Gang show differs markedly from previous Orwell adaptations in that Sullivan and Robbins focus on the book within the novel, written by Big Brother's enemy No. 1, Goldstein, who argues that capitalism uses continual warfare as a means of economic exploitation and control.

simpsons 'trump' 1st amendment

from bbc: Americans know more about The Simpsons than the 1st Amendment, an opinion poll says. Only 1 in 4 could name more than 1 of the 5 freedoms it upholds but more than half could name at least 2 members of the cartoon family. About 1 in 5 thought the right to own a pet was 1 of the freedoms.

seventy-two percent

from zogby: An overwhelming majority of 72% of American troops serving in Iraq think the U.S. should exit the country within the next year, and nearly one in four say the troops should leave immediately...

from msn: John Zogby, president of Zogby International, said US commanders in Iraq unofficially gave approval for the poll of 944 respondents to take place. It took place before last week's bombing of the Golden Mosque in Samarra. Although Mr Bush has acknowledged that Iraq played no role in September 11, 85 per cent of the troops said the US mission was mainly "to retaliate for Saddam's role in the 9/11 attacks".

what, me worry?

from abc news: "And there's no -- look, these are -- there are people that don't want to see democracy, and the reason why is because it defeats their vision of a totalitarian type government from which they can launch either attacks on America or future instability in the Middle East. You're witnessing this ideological struggle that's taking place..."

- president bush inadvertently describes self
(while describing insurgents)

enabling/patriot

the 21st century enabling act clears final hurdle...

from ap news: Months overdue in a midterm election year, the USA Patriot Act renewal cleared a final hurdle in the Senate Tuesday on its way to President Bush's desk... Others still plan to vote against the bill as a whole, but they stand little chance of blocking it. Led by Sens. Russell Feingold, D-Wis., and Robert C. Byrd, D-W.Va., they contend that the months of haggling produced few meaningful curbs on government power.

thirty-four percent

from cbsnews.com: The latest CBS News poll finds President Bush's approval rating has fallen to an all-time low of 34 percent, while pessimism about the Iraq war has risen to a new high...
Even on fighting terrorism, which has long been a strong suit for Mr. Bush, his ratings dropped lower than ever. Half of Americans say they disapprove of how he's handling the war on terror, while 43 percent approve.

garofalo: inside job

from total 411/911truthaction/revere radio network:

Today, 2/23/06 at 7:39 pm EST, XM SAT radio channel 167, Air America Radio, The Majority Report, co-host Janeane Garofalo said, "9/11 was an inside job!! I have come to this conclusion about that."

I think all Air America phone-in callers should open by saying, "9/11 was an inside job. We can all agree on that.", then get on with their specific question or comment. We should re-condition the listening audience to accept the Truth about 9/11 as the gospel. Repetition, to inspire research....

he ain't hitler... he's hirohito

from katy mcky on raw story:

Teddy Roosevelt said, "The President is merely the most important among a large number of public servants...Therefore it is absolutely necessary that there should be full liberty to tell the truth...Any other attitude in an American citizen is both base and servile."

Emperor Bush doesn't understand this. Like Emperor Hirohito, he is distracted from his designated service by his dreams of empire. And his base still believes that Bush knows best-by his birth.

bbc: the big brother corporation

from the independent:
In the event of all-out nuclear war, the BBC was to distract the nation by broadcasting a mix of music and light entertainment shows... Hundreds of security-vetted BBC staff and a select band of unnamed radio artistes were to be clandestinely dispatched to transmission sites across the country...to broadcast a national service that the Government hoped would create "a diversion to relieve strain and stress".

morrissey vs. the fbi

morrissey was recently interrogated by the federal bureau of investigation. and he would've fought them in a battle of wits, but he refused to fight an unarmed bureaucracy...

read all about it here, here & here.

"democracies die in darkness"

From MySA: The greatest threat to democracy is not terrorism but secrecy, said Bob Woodward... Although a massive attack is still possible, the nation faces a greater threat from the government's secrecy... He said, "9-11 will be a footnote, but it could happen, and if it does, we will become a police state."

if you tolerate this your children will be next

From the Telegraph: British troops were braced for violent retaliation in Iraq last night after a video film allegedly showed soldiers assaulting defenceless Iraqi youths. Senior officers expressed horror at the footage, which they believe will aggravate already difficult relations with Iraqis...

false opposition

"Isn't this just deep cover? Isn't this sort of black ops stuff?"