Mis-Defining Terrorism
If you live outside the DC metropolitan area, you likely heard little about a man who parked his van in front of the White House this past Tuesday, threatening to blow it up if his political demands were not met.
There was never any need to worry. The FBI quickly assured the media, and therefore the public, that this is not an act of terrorism. After all, how could it be? The man in the van was white.
But wait. White males can be terrorists, too. Timothy McVeigh and Terry Nichols became terrorists when they blew up a moving van full of explosives outside a federal building.
Perhaps there were other criteria that led the FBI to quickly discount a man parking his van claiming to be full of explosives outside the White House and threatening to blow it up if his demands were not met as not an act of terrorism. Reviewing what the government considers terrorism should bring some light on this subject.
Over 1500 men, all Muslim, were rounded up after 9/11 under the guise of fighting terrorism - making all 1500 suspected terrorists. How many were charged or convicted? None.
There was never any need to worry. The FBI quickly assured the media, and therefore the public, that this is not an act of terrorism. After all, how could it be? The man in the van was white.
But wait. White males can be terrorists, too. Timothy McVeigh and Terry Nichols became terrorists when they blew up a moving van full of explosives outside a federal building.
Perhaps there were other criteria that led the FBI to quickly discount a man parking his van claiming to be full of explosives outside the White House and threatening to blow it up if his demands were not met as not an act of terrorism. Reviewing what the government considers terrorism should bring some light on this subject.
Over 1500 men, all Muslim, were rounded up after 9/11 under the guise of fighting terrorism - making all 1500 suspected terrorists. How many were charged or convicted? None.
Open Letter to Warren Mitofsky and Larry Rosin from Representative John Conyers, Jr.
January 20, 2005
Warren Mitofsky
Mitofsky International
1776 Broadway - Suite 1708
New York, NY 10019
Larry Rosin
President
Edison Media Research
6 W. Cliff St.
Somerville, NJ 08876
Dear Mr. Mitofsky and Mr. Rosin:
Open Letter to Ohio Attorney General Jim Petro from Representative John Conyers, Jr.
January 20, 2005
The Hon. Jim Petro
Attorney General
State of Ohio
State Office Tower
30 E. Broad St, 17th Floor
Columbus, OH 43215
Dear Attorney General Petro:
Bush’s Mythical Mandate and Social Security Piratization
It seems that the Bush White House and the Bush Republicans have conjured up a mythical mandate for their most unpopular and controversial policies out of the highly flawed 2004 Presidential Election. In the public statements of Bush and other Republican leaders, the widely disputed results of the election has made the White House immune from criticism for their failures in Iraq and Social Security ripe for plunder by Wall Street, despite public opinion polls to the contrary.
It was the Democratic Party and the labor union movement that created Social Security starting under President Franklin D. Roosevelt. Democrats and labor unions have always been the true defenders and supporters of the Social Security program.
It was the Democratic Party and the labor union movement that created Social Security starting under President Franklin D. Roosevelt. Democrats and labor unions have always been the true defenders and supporters of the Social Security program.
Marines stretching movement
No, this is not a military-oriented guide to keeping fit. Yet it has made some people uncomfortable if not downright sore.
It’s about the peace movement and how a U.S. Marine company using downtown Toledo for “urban warfare” training January 7-8, provided an opportunity for activists to think and act beyond normal limits.
With barely a week’s notice, an article in the local paper announced that a weapons company of the 1st Battalion, 24th Marine Reserves would spend a weekend running around our downtown, honing combat skills by firing blanks at imaginary enemies. The North West Ohio Peace Coalition (NWOPC) and local Veterans for Peace (VFP) designed a response, different from what many in the peace movement had seen or that some were even comfortable with.
That response was:
It’s about the peace movement and how a U.S. Marine company using downtown Toledo for “urban warfare” training January 7-8, provided an opportunity for activists to think and act beyond normal limits.
With barely a week’s notice, an article in the local paper announced that a weapons company of the 1st Battalion, 24th Marine Reserves would spend a weekend running around our downtown, honing combat skills by firing blanks at imaginary enemies. The North West Ohio Peace Coalition (NWOPC) and local Veterans for Peace (VFP) designed a response, different from what many in the peace movement had seen or that some were even comfortable with.
That response was:
Character
KEY WEST, Fla. -- Tough gig here. A weekend in Key West holding forth on the subject of humor with a lot of funny people. A pundit's work is never done.
Actually, being earnest about humor is deadly -- if you have to explain a joke, you kill it. Fortunately, the participants in the Key West Literary Seminar did little analysis and a lot of rock 'n' roll. Garry Trudeau, creator of "Doonesbury," is also a comic essayist on occasion and was once inspired by Real Life to write the results of an interview of Madonna conducted by a Hungarian journalist. He asked questions in Hungarian, she replied in English, then it was all translated into Hungarian and then re-translated back into English.
Q: Let us cut towards the hunt: Are you a bold hussy woman that feasts on men who are tops?
A: I am working like a canine all the way around the clock.
Actually, being earnest about humor is deadly -- if you have to explain a joke, you kill it. Fortunately, the participants in the Key West Literary Seminar did little analysis and a lot of rock 'n' roll. Garry Trudeau, creator of "Doonesbury," is also a comic essayist on occasion and was once inspired by Real Life to write the results of an interview of Madonna conducted by a Hungarian journalist. He asked questions in Hungarian, she replied in English, then it was all translated into Hungarian and then re-translated back into English.
Q: Let us cut towards the hunt: Are you a bold hussy woman that feasts on men who are tops?
A: I am working like a canine all the way around the clock.
In the Shadow of Dr. King, counting the vote remains a civil rights issue
In the shadow of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., America's electoral crisis continues.
King marched across the south and the nation to guarantee all Americans, black and white, the right to vote. But in 2000 and again in 2004, that right was denied.
Now in the wake of another bitterly contested vote count, is the electoral situation improving in the spirit of Dr. King?
The Rev. Jesse Jackson, when briefing the Senate Democratic leadership on the day before the historic challenge to the Ohio electors, told them that in the 40 years since the Voting Rights Act, the people opposed to voting rights have simply changed parties -- from "Dixiecrats" to Republicans -- while still doing "everything in their power to suppress the voting rights of [the] poor and minorities." Jackson also told Senators Reid, Durbin and Stabenow that after President Lyndon Johnson refused Martin Luther King, Jr.'s pitch for voting rights in 1964 at a ceremony commemorating King's Nobel Prize award, it was a "remnant of the civil rights movement that went down to Selma" that was beaten and bloodied in a struggle that led to the Voting Rights Act of 1965.
King marched across the south and the nation to guarantee all Americans, black and white, the right to vote. But in 2000 and again in 2004, that right was denied.
Now in the wake of another bitterly contested vote count, is the electoral situation improving in the spirit of Dr. King?
The Rev. Jesse Jackson, when briefing the Senate Democratic leadership on the day before the historic challenge to the Ohio electors, told them that in the 40 years since the Voting Rights Act, the people opposed to voting rights have simply changed parties -- from "Dixiecrats" to Republicans -- while still doing "everything in their power to suppress the voting rights of [the] poor and minorities." Jackson also told Senators Reid, Durbin and Stabenow that after President Lyndon Johnson refused Martin Luther King, Jr.'s pitch for voting rights in 1964 at a ceremony commemorating King's Nobel Prize award, it was a "remnant of the civil rights movement that went down to Selma" that was beaten and bloodied in a struggle that led to the Voting Rights Act of 1965.
Bush’s Choice for Energy Secretary Was One of Texas’ Top Five Worst Polluters
In the bizarro world that President Bush lives in, it pays—literally—to be a
miserable failure, a criminal and a corporate con man. Those are just some
of the characteristics of the dastardly men and women who were tapped
recently to fill the vacancies in Bush’s second-term cabinet.
But one of the President’s most outrageous decisions (besides naming Alberto Gonzales, who concocted a legal case for torturing foreign prisoners at Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo Bay, Attorney General) has got to be choosing 66 year-old Sam Bodman to serve as Secretary of Energy. This is a guy who for a dozen years ran a Texas-based chemical company that spent years on the top five lists of the country’s worst polluters.
But one of the President’s most outrageous decisions (besides naming Alberto Gonzales, who concocted a legal case for torturing foreign prisoners at Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo Bay, Attorney General) has got to be choosing 66 year-old Sam Bodman to serve as Secretary of Energy. This is a guy who for a dozen years ran a Texas-based chemical company that spent years on the top five lists of the country’s worst polluters.
Happy Birthday Martin Luther King, Jr.
You never lost faith. You believed that it was possible for all of us to live in a world of peace and justice. Martin Luther King, Jr. believed in God. I had enormous respect for MLK despite that fact. For at that time, I didn't believe in God, I only believed in miracles. I thought a miracle was about to happen and that I would live in a world of peace and justice in my lifetime. It was 1967.
And for every 1967 there will be a 1968.
Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated one year to the day of his speech "Beyond Vietnam - A Time To Break Silence." He gave that speech in New York City at the Riverside Church on April 4, 1967. In that remarkable address MLK single-handedly united the anti-war and civil rights movements. In his impassioned speech he explained how the Vietnam War was immoral and how it was impossible for us to not try to end it. In other words, MLK had white people and black people working together for both peace and justice. No one has to wonder why he was murdered at the age of 39.
And for every 1967 there will be a 1968.
Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated one year to the day of his speech "Beyond Vietnam - A Time To Break Silence." He gave that speech in New York City at the Riverside Church on April 4, 1967. In that remarkable address MLK single-handedly united the anti-war and civil rights movements. In his impassioned speech he explained how the Vietnam War was immoral and how it was impossible for us to not try to end it. In other words, MLK had white people and black people working together for both peace and justice. No one has to wonder why he was murdered at the age of 39.
Moss v. Bush moves on and movement continues
The lawsuit challenging Ohio's 2004 presidential race has been withdrawn from the Ohio Supreme Court, having served as a lightning rod to draw national attention to the widespread and possibly illegal irregularities in the vote that gave George W. Bush a term as president starting in January.
While the election challenge lawyers say they may raise the suit's constitutional and civil rights issues in other legal venues, the case, Moss. V. Bush, became a vehicle for an aggressive investigation of irregularities in the Ohio presidential vote that culminated in a congressional challenge of the 2004 Electoral College.
While the election challenge lawyers say they may raise the suit's constitutional and civil rights issues in other legal venues, the case, Moss. V. Bush, became a vehicle for an aggressive investigation of irregularities in the Ohio presidential vote that culminated in a congressional challenge of the 2004 Electoral College.