Rational Review News Digest ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Published Monday-Friday, except for holidays Made possible by the generous support of our readers http://www.rationalreview.com/news
Produced in cooperation with the International Society for Individual Liberty http://www.isil.org ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Volume IV, Issue #837 Friday, February 17th, 2006 Email Circulation 2,064 ------ SUPPORT OUR SPONSORS -------------------------------------- TOM PAINE MARU The first UNCENSORED edition of L. Neil Smith's classic novel. http://www.lneilsmith.org/tpm-2005.html WINNING ELECTIONS "[A]n advanced guide to running political campaigns. It provides invaluable, practical advice from the leading pros in the industry." http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1590770269/rationalrev08-20 -------------------------------------- SUPPORT OUR SPONSORS ----- Today's News: 1) Iraq: Kidnappings, killings continue 2) GOP Senators shield Bush spy ring 3) White House wants $115 billion for Iraq, Afghanistan 4) Annan: US should close Gitmo prison 5) Sheriff: Cheney won't be charged 6) Senators call for FBI bias investigation 7) Court: Bomber recruitment not terrorism 8) Bush approves Cheney's handling of "mishap" 9) Patriot Act moves closer to renewal 10) Judge orders White House to release spy papers 11) UK: New gadget repels teenagers 12) Civil liberties fear as US terror suspect list rises to 325,000 13) More worries about Google Desktop 3 14) China defends "right to police" Net 15) Skype use may make eavesdropping passe 16) Driver's license or NID? 17) Bolivia: Coca group calls for expulsion of US drug thugs 18) Alzheimer's "faster in educated" 19) CA: Clemency flap puts Starr in spotlight again 20) House balks at reforms on pork 21) How they know what you like before you do 22) MA: Bishops to oppose adoption by gays 23) Couple's implant chips take love to a new level 24) AL: Shooting victim dies; no charges filed yet 25) VT: Pub owner acquitted of murder Today's Commentary: 26) Meet Mr. Insensitive ... me 27) Present upon your piece! 28) In search of darkness 29) Cheney's Dodge: "Taking responsibility" 30) Buchanan of Arabia 31) Iraq and the democratic empire 32) The ever-growing federal budget 33) Espionage and the First Amendment 34) Dick's power trip 35) Firestorm and media brimstoning 36) Invisible men 37) Is religion exempt from criticism and ridicule? 38) The godfather of democracy 39) The anti-abortion paradox 40) Spoiled brat media 41) Gonzales, Watchu & Howe 42) Why public utility monopolies fail 43) Anti-poverty spending grows 44) The second revolution 45) In defense of the individual 46) The next big scandal 47) Pointing the finger 48) Cheney's wayward aim: A guide to Quailgate 49) From hunter to hunted 50) The right to be offended 51) Chickens & eggs in New Orleans 52) The AFL-CIO sweatshop 53) Belafonte's absence at King funeral is noticeable 54) Adjust the balance of debt and education 55) Privacy rights and public safety 56) "Negroes with Guns" -- Robert F. Williams and black power 57) See no evil, become that evil 58) Their own economic reality 59) War planning Today's Movement News and Events: 60) ISIL's 25th World Freedom Summit 61) Petition: Free Cory Maye 62) The Million Moon March 63) Liberty 2006 64) Austrian Scholars Conference 2006 Today in Political History: 65) No one expects the Venetian Inquisition! News 1) Iraq: Kidnappings, killings continue North County Times "Gunmen wearing Iraqi special forces uniforms have kidnapped a wealthy banker and his son after killing five of their bodyguards, police said Friday. ... Drive-by gunmen killed a cigarette salesman in Husseiniyah, a town about 20 miles northeast of Baghdad, early Friday, police said. The bodies of three unidentified man who had been bound and shot in the head were found in two locations in northern Baghdad on Friday, police said. It was unclear who killed the men, but they were discovered in an area where multiple bodies have turned up after being killed in similar fashion." (02/17/06) http://www.nctimes.com/articles/2006/02/17/ap/headlines/d8fqpvg80.txt ----- 2) GOP Senators shield Bush spy ring Indianapolis Star "Senate Republicans blocked a proposed investigation of President Bush's domestic spying operation Thursday as the chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee said he had reached an agreement with the White House to pursue legislation establishing clearer rules for the controversial program. But Senate aides described the discussions with the White House as very preliminary. Angry Democrats expressed skepticism over the negotiations, with some describing it as a ploy to protect the Bush administration and the highly classified surveillance operation from congressional scrutiny." (02/17/06) http://tinyurl.com/dzmdt ----- 3) White House wants $115 billion for Iraq, Afghanistan USA Today "U.S. military spending for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan will rise to $115 billion for this year -- and nearly $400 billion since the fighting started -- under a new White House request submitted to Congress Thursday. A separate request for almost $20 billion in new hurricane relief funds would bring total spending in response to Katrina and Rita to more than $100 billion." (02/16/06) http://tinyurl.com/dn3ow ----- 4) Annan: US should close Gitmo prison Indianapolis Star "Secretary-General Kofi Annan on Thursday said the United States should close the prison at Guantanamo Bay for terror suspects as soon as possible, backing a key conclusion of a U.N.-appointed independent panel. White House spokesman Scott McClellan rejected the call to shut the camp, saying the military treats all detainees humanely and 'these are dangerous terrorists that we're talking about.' The panel's report, released Thursday in Geneva, said the United States must close the detention facility 'without further delay' because it is effectively a torture camp where prisoners have no access to justice." (02/16/06) http://tinyurl.com/cqfrf ----- 5) Sheriff: Cheney won't be charged Houston Chronicle "The Kenedy County Sheriff's Department today cleared Vice President Dick Cheney in the shooting mishap that injured an Austin lawyer, calling it an accident. Cheney shot Harry Whittington last Saturday while they were hunting quail on the Armstrong Ranch in South Texas. Whittington is in stable condition at a Corpus Christi hospital. The sheriff's department determined the shooting was an accident and closed the case without charges, according to a report issued today." (02/16/06) http://tinyurl.com/dcknr ----- 6) Senators call for FBI bias investigation MSNBC "The Senate Judiciary Committee is calling for an investigation into whether the FBI retaliated against its highest-ranking Arabic-speaking agent, a new letter reveals. The public airing of the private workplace squabble is a potential embarrassment for the FBI, which faced criticism after 9/11 for its failure to hire many Arab-speaking agents and for failing to better understand the radical Islamic community inside the United States." (02/16/06) http://msnbc.msn.com/id/11396863/ ----- 7) Court: Bomber recruitment not terrorism MSNBC "A panel of Italian judges upheld the November acquittals of three North Africans on international terror charges, ruling that recruiting suicide bombers to fight against U.S. soldiers is not terrorism, a lawyer said Thursday. The verdict by the Milan judges, released Wednesday, echoes an earlier one in the case when a lower court judge ruled the actions of the three men were those of guerrillas, not terrorists." (02/16/06) http://msnbc.msn.com/id/11398897/ ----- 8) Bush approves Cheney's handling of "mishap" Detroit Free Press "Texas authorities closed the investigation into Vice President Dick Cheney's hunting accident Thursday without bringing any charges. President Bush said Cheney had handled the situation 'just fine.' 'I'm satisfied with the explanation he gave,' Bush said, making his first public comments about Cheney's accidental shooting of 78-year-old attorney Harry Whittington while aiming for a quail. Bush said the vice president's explanation was 'strong and powerful.'" [editor's note: Where do they keep coming up with these words? "Accident." "Mishap." Bullshit. There is no such thing as an "accidental" shooting. The only question is whether Cheney intended to shoot the man, shot the man through negligence, or is incompetent to handle a weapon - TLK] (02/16/06) http://tinyurl.com/94eco ----- 9) Patriot Act moves closer to renewal CNN "The Senate overwhelmingly rejected an effort Thursday to block renewing the Patriot Act, the 2001 law passed weeks after the September 11 attacks to help the government hunt down terrorists. The 96-3 vote was no surprise to Sen. Russell Feingold, the Wisconsin Democrat who was the lone senator to oppose the law four and a half years ago and is the chief obstacle to extending 16 provisions now due to expire March 10." (02/16/06) http://tinyurl.com/8mklo ----- 10) Judge orders White House to release spy papers Cincinnati Enquirer "A federal judge ordered the Bush administration on Thursday to release documents about its warrantless surveillance program or spell out what it is withholding, a setback to efforts to keep the program under wraps. At the same time, the Republican chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee said he had worked out an agreement with the White House to consider legislation and provide more information to Congress on the eavesdropping program. The panel's top Democrat, who has requested a full-scale investigation, immediately objected to what he called an abdication of the committee's responsibilities." (02/16/06) http://tinyurl.com/8aho4 ----- 11) UK: New gadget repels teenagers Ananova [UK] "A new gadget repels gangs of teenagers by emitting a high-pitched noise that can be heard only by under 20s. Police are backing the Sonic Teenager Deterrent, nicknamed the Mosquito because of its sound, reports the Daily Telegraph. It annoys teenagers so intensely they have to clutch their ears. Eventually they can stand it no longer and have to move on. But because the body's natural ability to detect some frequency wave bands diminishes almost entirely after 20, adults are completely immune. The £622 black box, which can be attached to the outside wall of shops, offices and homes, sends out 80-decibel bursts of pulsing sounds at up to 16khz. It sounds to youngsters like a demented insect or a very badly-played violin. Howard Stapleton, a businessman and former electronics apprentice at British Aerospace, who was sick of youths hanging around outside his shop, came up with the idea." (02/15/06) http://www.ananova.com/news/story/sm_1726378.html ----- 12) Civil liberties fear as US terror suspect list rises to 325,000 Guardian [UK] "Civil liberties organisations expressed outrage yesterday after it was reported that the database of terrorist suspects kept by the US authorities now holds 325,000 names, a fourfold increase in two and a half years. The list, maintained by the National Counterterrorism Centre (NCTC), includes different spellings of the same person's names as well as aliases, but the Washington Post quoted NCTC officials as saying that at least 200,000 individuals are on it. They said that 'only a very, very small fraction' of that number were US citizens, but that insistence did little to defuse the reaction. Timothy Sparapani, an expert on privacy rights at the American Civil Liberties Union, said the ACLU's response was one of incredulity, and alarm that many people are likely to be on the list by mistake, with serious impact on their lives and few, if any, means of getting themselves off it." (02/16/06) http://www.guardian.co.uk/usa/story/0,,1710756,00.html ----- 13) More worries about Google Desktop 3 CNet "Google Desktop's new search-across-computers feature could put sensitive data at risk and violate federal data-privacy regulations, say IT administrators at a public university and a large manufacturing company. Both are banning it from their networks. Last week, Google unveiled Google Desktop 3, a free, downloadable program that includes an option to let users search across multiple computers for files. To do that, the application automatically stores copies of files, for up to a month, on Google servers. From there, copies are transferred to the user's other computers for archiving. The data is encrypted in transmission and while stored on Google servers. The Electronic Privacy Foundation urged consumers to boycott the software, warning that Google could be forced to turn over the data to the government if subpoenaed, even if the data is stored on Google servers only temporarily." (02/16/06) http://tinyurl.com/8ybvc ----- 14) China defends "right to police" Net NewsDay "China on Thursday defended its right [sic] to police the Internet, one day after four American technology giants appeared before Congress on charges they collaborated with Beijing to crush free speech online in return for market access. 'It is normal for countries to manage the Internet in accordance with law and to guide its development in a healthy and orderly fashion,' Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang said. 'China has also borrowed and learned from the United States and other countries in the world.' While China encourages use of the Internet for business and education, it strictly monitors the Web and censors anything it considers critical or a threat to the ruling Communist Party." (02/16/06) http://tinyurl.com/8nsaq ----- 15) Skype use may make eavesdropping passe Belleville News "Even as the U.S. government is embroiled in a debate over the legality of wiretapping, the fastest-growing technology for Internet calls appears to have the potential to make eavesdropping a thing of the past. Skype, the Internet calling service recently acquired by eBay Inc., provides free voice calls and instant messaging between users. Unlike other Internet voice services, Skype calls are encrypted -- encoded using complex mathematical operations. That apparently makes them impossible to snoop on, though the company leaves the issue somewhat open to question. Skype is certainly not the first application for encrypted communications on the Internet. Secure e-mail and instant messaging programs have been available for years at little or no cost. But to a large extent, Internet users haven't felt a need for privacy that outweighed the extra effort needed to use encryption." (02/16/06) http://www.belleville.com/mld/belleville/business/13889540.htm ----- 16) Driver's license or NID? ZDNet "Motor vehicle agencies must link their databases together, and perhaps implant chips in driver's licenses, as necessary steps to ease the way for a national ID card, the head of a group of motor vehicle officials said Thursday. Technology that may be used for a national ID card could take the form of a chip loaded onto a driver's license, said Linda Lewis-Pickett, chief executive of the American Association of Motor Vehicle Administrators. Lewis-Pickett was one of several panelists addressing the controversy over the National ID System, during the RSA Conference 2006 here. ... The panel unanimously agreed that a national ID system will fail to fight terrorism, one of the intents of the Real ID Act that passed last year and is slated to take affect in 2008. The act will affect Americans in a number of ways, requiring a federally approved ID card to board an airplane, collect social security payments or use virtually any government service." (02/16/06) http://news.zdnet.com/2100-1009_22-6040655.html ----- 17) Bolivia: Coca group calls for expulsion of US drug thugs Washington Times "A coalition of coca farmers led by Bolivian President Evo Morales is calling publicly for the immediate expulsion of U.S. counternarcotics units from the country, raising questions about the viability of U.S. programs. The move, placing further strain on tense relations with the United States, came late Tuesday at a meeting of six dominant coca-growing federations with Mr. Morales presiding. However, the president appeared to back away from the resolution in an address to the armed forces yesterday afternoon, saying, 'As long as Bolivia's sovereignty is respected, no international organism will be expelled from Bolivia.' The resolution would affect the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, the State Department's Narcotics Affairs Section and the Alternative Development Program run by the U.S. Agency for International Development to help farmers develop alternative crops." (02/16/06) http://www.washtimes.com/world/20060215-093634-4464r.htm ----- 18) Alzheimer's "faster in educated" BBC News [UK] "Alzheimer's disease progresses more rapidly in highly educated people, research suggests. It is thought high levels of education may ward off Alzheimer's by helping the brain better tolerate damaging changes. But the latest study, involving 312 Alzheimer's patients, suggests once accumulated damage reaches a critical level, decline is relatively swift. The study, by New York's Columbia University, features in the Journal of Neurology Neurosurgery and Psychiatry. The researchers monitored 312 people aged 65 and older who had been diagnosed with Alzheimer's for five years. Each patient underwent a battery of tests to assess their neurological function. Overall mental agility declined every year among all the patients. But each additional year of education equated to an additional 0.3% deterioration per year." [editor's note: Yeah, that's it -- I didn't "drop out of school;" I took "preventive health measures!" - TLK] (02/16/06) http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/4713570.stm ----- 19) CA: Clemency flap puts Starr in spotlight again San Francisco Chronicle "Kenneth Starr, the special prosecutor in the impeachment of President Bill Clinton, seemed an unlikely ally at first glance for a Stockton murderer-rapist facing execution Tuesday. Michael Morales' lawyers rejoiced in their recruitment last month of the prominent Republican attorney, who had just won clemency for a condemned Virginia inmate, to make the case to Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger to spare their client's life. At the very least, Starr's involvement was guaranteed to draw attention to the case. Instead, much of the attention has been drawn to Starr, and what he knew about a bizarre sequence of events in which documents submitted to Schwarzenegger supporting clemency for Morales were apparently forged." (02/16/06) http://tinyurl.com/9m5xr ----- 20) House balks at reforms on pork Washington Times "The push to end earmarks, which critics call pork-barrel spending, is bogged down in the House, thanks to a strong defense of the practice from top Republicans. Rep. Jerry Lewis, California Republican and chairman of the House Appropriations Committee, said the Predator unmanned aerial vehicle, used for missile attacks on terrorist lairs, is a shining example of the best of earmarks. He said the Predator proved its success in Bosnia after he stuck an earmark into a spending bill in the mid-1990s, long before the war on terror. 'We pushed funding by way of an earmark that moved [research and development] way ahead -- two, three years ahead,' Mr. Lewis said. 'There's little doubt Predator would never have been in Bosnia if we hadn't done that.' Other leaders defend the practice by saying it's how they are judged at home." (02/16/06) http://www.washtimes.com/national/20060216-124221-5182r.htm ----- 21) How they know what you like before you do Christian Science Monitor "The other night, a few friends sat in Tracey Kennedy's Rock Island, Ill., living room listening to music. A song by a band no one but Ms. Kennedy knew started to play, and everyone wanted to know who it was. Kennedy revealed that it was Silversun Pickups, an under-the-radar Los Angeles band she'd found using an Internet music service called Pandora.com. For her, the website's personalized music recommendations have sparked new listening habits. 'It's like I've come back to life,' says Kennedy, a 30-something computer programmer. 'I'm getting all these vitamins I need.' Since she started listening to Pandora at work in late October, Kennedy has bought about 35 new albums." (02/16/06) http://www.csmonitor.com/2006/0216/p13s02-stct.html ----- 22) MA: Bishops to oppose adoption by gays Boston Globe "The four Roman Catholic bishops of Massachusetts plan to seek permission from the state to exclude gay couples as adoptive parents, according to two board members of the church's largest social service agency who were briefed on the plan. The decision follows a three-month study of the theological and practical impact of having Catholic Charities of Boston, the Boston Archdiocese's social service arm, place children with gay couples, given the Vatican's teaching that describes such adoptions are 'gravely immoral.' This decision to seek an exemption from state anti-discrimination rules pits the bishops against the 42-member board of Catholic Charities of Boston, which is made up of some of Boston's most prominent lay Catholics. The board voted unanimously in December in support of continuing to allow gay couples to adopt children." (02/16/06) http://tinyurl.com/aqals ----- 23) Couple's implant chips take love to a new level CTV News "Grand gestures of love take many forms on Valentine's Day -- flowers, chocolate, romantic dinners -- but a tech-savvy couple has taken it to a new level. Jennifer Tomblin and Amal Graafstra have made the most modern declaration of their affection for each other, with implanted electronic chips that allow them unfettered access to each other's lives. It's called Radio Frequency Identification, or RFID. Both have had a small electronic chip embedded under their skin that grants access to each other's front doors and home computers. The system works like a key-card. A simple swipe of the wrist across an electronic sensor, and they're in. The couple sees the decision as a modern declaration of love that also happens to be functional." [editor's note: Eeewwww ... oh brave new world - MLS] (02/15/06) http://makeashorterlink.com/?F5ED237AC ----- 24) AL: Shooting victim dies; no charges filed yet Mobile Register "Victor Russell, who allegedly was shot by a former girlfriend during a fight Sunday in west Mobile, died Monday night at a local hospital, Mobile police said. He was 39. Cpl. Marcus Young, a police spokesman, said no charges had been filed against the woman, Lashonda Cole, 30. But he said that the case would be presented to a Mobile County grand jury. ... Todd lives at a house on Williams Street off Dauphin Island Parkway near Government Street. She said Russell had gone to Cole's house Sunday to pick up some of his belongings. According to police spokesman Young, Russell struck Cole several times in the head with his fist. The spokesman said Cole locked Russell out of the house, then fired a 9 mm pistol through the back door as Russell tried to break through. The bullet hit Russell in the face." (02/16/06) http://makeashorterlink.com/?K25E317AC ----- 25) VT: Pub owner acquitted of murder Rutland Herald "A jury deliberated five hours Wednesday before acquitting Timothy Grover of second-degree murder in the shooting death of a Vernon man in November 2004. ... Grover, the father of two children and the owner of Emil's Pub in Brattleboro, was charged with second-degree murder, a crime that carries a sentence of 20 years to life in prison. He was accused of shooting Kellom, a former part-time police officer in Vernon, on Nov. 7, 2004. Jesse Corum, Grover's attorney, had argued that the shooting was justified because Kellom was about to use a baseball bat to strike the 'final, fatal blow' to the head of James Cleveland, a Grover family friend and one of Kellom's neighbors on Homestead Way in Vernon. Grover testified Tuesday that that he told Kellom to drop the bat several times before shooting the 52-year-old man once in the chest with a .22-caliber pistol. He added that Kellom had already knocked Cleveland's wife to the ground and was about to kill his friend." (02/16/06) http://makeashorterlink.com/?C18E227AC ----- RRND MEDIASHELF -------------------------------------------- Books, CDs and other tchotchkes from today's edition: Andrew Jackson: His Life and Times, by H.W. Brands http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0385507380/rationalrev08-20 How the Pro-Choice Movement Saved America, by Cristina Page http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0465054897/rationalrev08-20 Warriors for the West, by William Perry Pendley http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1596980060/rationalrev08-20 Note: Affiliate links generate commissions for RRND's editors. -------------------------------------------- RRND MEDIASHELF ----- Commentary 26) Meet Mr. Insensitive ... me Blogcritics.org by David M. Brown "Respect. Common courtesy. Civility. Sure. Let's have them. Since when, though, do civilized persons require being threatened with death in order to exercise the virtue of civility? But being civil does not mean never uttering a disagreeable word, nor being snivelingly 'sensitive' about every surly twitch and mutter of the avowed enemies of freedom and civilization. (And when is somebody going to explain how threatening to decapitate those who disagree with you exemplifies the virtues of either civility or 'sensitivity?')" (02/16/06) http://blogcritics.org/archives/2006/02/16/075218.php ----- 27) Present upon your piece! Free Market News Network by Thomas L. Knapp "Blogs are definitely in the 'small arms' category. Reynolds analogizes to the sling, but I'm going to go in a different direction to offer my own historical context: The blog is a rifle. The blogger is a grunt on the virtual political battlefield. ... The cool thing is that the Age of Rifles -- generally defined as that time between the redcoats' discovery that a single rifleman shooting from behind a tree could put the hurt on a much larger number of organized musketeers and the emergence of heavy artillery, tanks and aircraft as forces which could break up massed formations of rifle-bearing soldiery -- never really ended in meatspace, and it's not going to end in virtual space, either." (02/16/06) http://www.fmnn.com/Analysis/118/3833/2006-02-17.asp?wid=118&nid=3833 ----- 28) In search of darkness Fred On Everything by Fred Reed "Now a combination of the enstupidation of the schools, the inflation of grades, and the threat of class-action suits by the parents of failing students means that an adolescent can graduate without assuming any burden whatsoever. Indeed escaping schooling is easier than finding it. Countless colleges will accept almost anyone and graduate almost anyone. Chores do not exist. Sex and drugs are everywhere available. Few things have obvious consequences. The result is a cocoon of childhood that stretches on almost as long as one wants it to. I encounter adults in their mid-twenties who cannot be relied upon to show up at an appointed time, who do not read, who judge a professor by whether he makes the material 'fun,' who have no idea where they want to go in life. It is not grownup behavior." (02/15/06) http://www.fredoneverything.net/Peasantariat.shtml ----- 29) Cheney's Dodge: "Taking responsibility" Truthout by Norman Solomon "When Brit Hume and Dick Cheney did their Fox trot, they were performing the kind of spectacle we've seen many times on television. Network correspondents and powerful politicians know the boundaries and the steps. Their footwork may look simple, but it's fancy and well-practiced. Contrary to pretense, the probing journalist doesn't probe too much, and the forthcoming politician merely hunkers down with a new twist. And so it goes: Whether the media uproar has to do with a quail hunt, or lethal negligence in connection with a hurricane, or chronic deception for a war, top officials may finally opt to 'take responsibility.' But that's nothing more than a propaganda technique for those who view lying as an essential means of governance." (02/16/06) http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/021606C.shtml ----- 30) Buchanan of Arabia WorldNetDaily by Ilana Mercer "After conflating the Danes with the most off-putting exemplars of free expression -- Larry Flynt the pornographer, the Nazis of Skokie, and the late Robert Mapplethorpe of the bullwhip-bedecked behind -- Buchanan allows that we are all entitled to be contemptuous of 'the beliefs and values the Islamic faith holds dear, and for the prophet.' 'But if we wish to exercise our right to air [these views] in print or broadcast, we should expect to reap what we have sown.' With these obligatory lines, Mr. Buchanan discharges his duty to the West and its puny freedoms. What follows is an ode to Islam. Buchanan's paean to this faith's brute force is crucial in divining why he demands the West's capitulation, following the cartoon jihad." (02/17/06) http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=48874 ----- 31) Iraq and the democratic empire LewRockwell.Com by Llewellyn H. Rockwell, Jr. "The US spends money, invades countries, sheds blood, and becomes ever more powerful at home and unpopular abroad. In the end, no matter how powerful its weapons or how determined its leaders, it loses. It loses because people resist empire. It loses for the same reasons that socialism and its central plans always fail. Large-scale attempts to force people into predetermined molds founder on the inability of the state to allocate resources rationally and to anticipate change, as well as the ubiquitous and pesky phenomenon called human volition. Mankind was not meant to live in cages. Why did the US win wars in the past? Because it fought far poorer governments. Today it loses because it fights populations -- people acting on their own, forming their own associations, using their brains to outwit bureaucrats, and cobbling together resources from underground markets." (02/17/06) http://www.lewrockwell.com/rockwell/iraq-democraticempire.html ----- 32) The ever-growing federal budget The Free Liberal by US Rep. Ron Paul (R-TX) "The Bush administration released a proposed 2007 budget last week that increases federal spending to a staggering $2.77 trillion, a sum that is 4 times larger than the Reagan-era budgets of the early 1980s. With a public angry about useless earmarks and bridges to nowhere, and a Republican congressional delegation promising to restore some small measure of fiscal discipline, it's troubling that the administration chooses to ignore economic reality and increase spending without regard to revenues and deficits." (02/17/06) http://www.freeliberal.com/archives/001878.html ----- 33) Espionage and the First Amendment AntiWar.Com by Justin Raimondo "How is it that someone who had a hand in drafting legislation -- the PATRIOT Act -- that permits the indefinite detention of American citizens, the surveillance of phone calls, e-mail, and other communications on an unprecedented scale, and otherwise represents the most invasive incursion into our civil liberties since the Alien and Sedition Acts, is now posing as a champion of the First Amendment rights of these two spies caught red-handed? This will have to remain one of the murkiest mysteries of recent times, one that defies all explanation but this one: that this former assistant to Attorney General John Ashcroft and head of the Justice Department's Office of Legal Policy believes that there ought to be one standard for lobbyists on behalf of a foreign country -- in this case, Israel -- and another for us hoi polloi who owe no foreign country our allegiance or bias. There is to be one standard for AIPAC and another for the rest of us." (02/17/06) http://www.antiwar.com/justin/?articleid=8564 ----- 34) Dick's power trip Reason by Kerry Howley "The finances surrounding the vice president's latest hunting trip are murky, though a bizarrely precise February 13 statement put to rest any national concerns about a $7 stamp owed to the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department, bravely disclosing every facet of Stampgate even before lefty blogs could pounce. The statement, which made no mention of the fact that the president had shot a man during said trip, did note that 'A member of the Vice President's staff wrote a check for 140 dollars understanding that this would purchase a Texas non-resident season hunting license,' and 'The staff asked for all permits needed,' both of which suggest that the V.P's office doubles as a travel agency during hunting season. With such a cozy mixing of official and unofficial veep business, it would be instructive to know a little more about who paid for what during the Cheney-Whittington-Anderson hunting flap. But in this age of the soul-baring tell-all, Cheney isn't one for public confession, especially when it's time to explain who is paying how much to get him to the undisclosed locations at which he stays for indeterminate periods of time." (02/16/06) http://www.reason.com/hod/kh021606.shtml ----- 35) Firestorm and media brimstoning The American Spectator by Paul Chesser "The mainstream media's petulance peaked this week after they disapproved of Vice President Dick Cheney's notification method about his hunting accident [sic] in Texas. Once again the White House press corps reminded us that it's not about the story, or the victim, but about them." (02/17/06) http://www.spectator.org/dsp_article.asp?art_id=9429 ----- 36) Invisible men Slate by Dahlia Lithwick "It's an immutable rule of journalism that when you unearth three instances of a phenomenon, you've got a story. So, you might think three major reports on Guantanamo Bay, all released within a span of two weeks, might constitute a big story. But somehow they do not. Guantanamo Bay currently holds over 400 prisoners. The Bush administration has repeatedly described these men as 'the worst of the worst.' Ten have been formally charged with crimes and will someday face military tribunals. The rest wait to learn what they have done wrong. Two major studies conclude that most of them have done very little wrong. A third says they are being tortured while they wait." (02/16/06) http://www.slate.com/id/2136422/ ----- 37) Is religion exempt from criticism and ridicule? Institute for Liberal Values by Jim Peron "There is a peripheral issue that revolves around the phoney brouhaha about the Danish cartons regarding Mohammed. I will reiterate that the issue is phoney. And it is phoney for several reasons. 1. The cartoons did not ridicule Islam as a religion. 2. Images of Mohammed have been created in Islamic cultures for centuries. 3. The same cartoons appeared in an Egyptian paper months ago without a single protest. But for a moment let us accept the claim that the cartoons ridiculed Islam and are offensive. Offensive is meaningless as a concept. It always has a question behind it which is rarely answered: Offensive to whom?" (02/17/06) http://tinyurl.com/ae4ap ----- 38) The godfather of democracy The Weekly Standard by Dean Barnett Review of Andrew Jackson: His Life and Times by H.W. Brands: "Given the mark that he left on the nation, it is something of a surprise that Jackson isn't discussed more often. While Founding Fathers such as Adams, Washington, Hamilton and the sage of Monticello have all received much recent attention, Jackson hasn't. Other than in rap songs that evoke the image of a $20 bill, his name is seldom mentioned. Perhaps that's because Andrew Jackson was a hard man. He seems all the more imposing when judged by modern standards. While Jefferson and Hamilton are recalled for their soaring ideas and rhetoric, Jackson's skills were different. Andrew Jackson wasn't an intellectual. He was a fighter." (02/17/06) http://tinyurl.com/9gbqy ----- 39) The anti-abortion paradox AlterNet by Cristina Page Excerpt from How the Pro-Choice Movement Saved America by Cristina Page: "For the most part, pro-lifers tend to be absolutists. For them, you are either churchgoer or sinner, procreator or contraceptor, for the culture of life or for the culture of death. Pro-choicers, by contrast, tend to be more pragmatic. For the pro-life movement, decision making is less complicated. For the unmarried, the right course is abstinence (which we'll discuss later). And for everyone, single or married, the right course never, ever leads to abortion. Unfortunately, if the goal is to reduce abortion, the pro-lifers' morally unambiguous strategies don't seem to work." [editor's note: Page's stereotype/caricature of pro-lifers immediately calls the allegedly factual parts of her work into question, but the piece is still worth reading - TLK] (02/17/06) http://www.alternet.org/rights/32367/ ----- 40) Spoiled brat media Human Events by Thomas Sowell "The first revolt of the American colonists against their British rulers was immortalized by Ralph Waldo Emerson as 'the shot heard round the world.' Vice President Dick Cheney's hunting accident has now become the shot heard round the Beltway. The accidental shooting of Harry Whittington, while he was on a hunting trip with Dick Cheney, has nothing to do with government policy or the Vice President's official duties but the mainstream media have gone ballistic over it nevertheless." [editor's note: Speaking of "accidents," I don't think it's an accident that virtually every conservative is using the word "accident" at least once per paragraph when describing Cheney's intentional, negligent or incompetent conduct. Anyone got a copy of the RNC talking points sheet? - TLK] (02/16/06) http://www.humaneventsonline.com/article.php?id=12506 ----- 41) Gonzales, Watchu & Howe Mother Jones by Mark Fiore Cartoon. [Flash format] (02/16/06) http://www.motherjones.com/commentary/fiore/2006/02/defend.html ----- 42) Why public utility monopolies fail Ludwig von Mises Institute by Gennady Stolyarov II "To prevent 'burdensome competition' among utilities in a given area, governments have often granted legal local monopolies to specific water, electricity, and natural gas companies -- or provided the services themselves. Competing firms have been legally excluded from the utility market, with disastrous results. Occasional blackouts and deactivations of hot water are common in the experience of many Americans -- while a free market in, say, groceries, brings about no conspicuous shortages. Furthermore, prices for the 'public' utilities are on the rise -- typically accompanied by declines, rather than improvements, in the quality of service." (02/16/06) http://www.mises.org/story/2028 ----- 43) Anti-poverty spending grows Heartland Institute by Steve Stanek "Congress adjourned until January 31 without taking final action on federal budget and tax bills, but that did not stop Republicans and Democrats from both praising and vilifying separate spending and tax bills passed by the House and Senate shortly before adjournment. Republicans claimed Congress is again serious about controlling spending, while Democrats asserted tax cuts and 'cuts' in spending would hurt the poor and benefit the rich. Brian Riedl, senior policy analyst in federal budgetary affairs at The Heritage Foundation, scoffed at both claims." (02/06) http://www.heartland.org/Article.cfm?artId=18396 ----- 44) The second revolution Frontiers of Freedom by Mike Burleson "We should have seen the end of our own democratic form of government coming, by observing the downfall of the ancient republics. Like our own Congress in modern times, the elected legislatures of Greece and Rome were racked by scandal and corruptions in their latter days, making them increasingly unable to perform their duties to the public. The people then turned to powerful and charismatic individuals to bring about change, and so it was in our day." (02/17/06) http://tinyurl.com/ahhqp ----- 45) In defense of the individual Foundation for Economic Education by Edmund A. Opitz "The author, for nine years a parish minister, formerly directed the conference program for Spiritual Mobilization, and in that capacity held a number of two-day seminars for clergymen and laymen designed to promote a better understanding of the libertarian philosophy. Similar questions recurred at many of these conferences, and experience suggested ways of clearing up certain persistent misunderstandings. The following dialogue is a reconstruction of many conversations. Mr. Opitz is now a member of the staff of the Foundation for Economic Education." (written 11/55; posted 02/16/06) http://tinyurl.com/9gf6h ----- 46) The next big scandal FreedomWorks by Richard W. Rahn "As you read this commentary, a highly predictable scandal is developing that may embarrass leaders, including President Bush, British Prime Minister Blair, and other heads of government, severely damage the reputations, or worse, of many bureaucrats, and cost taxpayers billions. A summit meeting of the leaders of the 'G8' nations (U.S., U.K., France, Germany, Russia, Japan, Italy, and Canada) was held last July in Gleneagles, Scotland. The major decision of the summit, widely applauded by the world's press, was to write off the debts of many highly indebted poor countries, most of which are in Africa." (02/16/06) http://tinyurl.com/73jdl ----- 47) Pointing the finger Center For Individual Freedom by staff "A former Capitol Hill lawyer and White House official says Congress, bureaucrats and activist judges are destroying American's constitutional liberties. In his new book, Warriors for the West: Fighting Bureaucrats, Radical Groups, and Liberal Judges on America's Frontier, author William Perry Pendley reveals the inside truth about government bureaucracy and its stranglehold on Americans' constitutional liberties and the rule of law." (02/16/06) http://tinyurl.com/9d8t4 ----- 48) Cheney's wayward aim: A guide to Quailgate Independent [UK] by staff "When the Vice-President of America shot a hunting companion in the face and chest, it was at first just seen as an unfortunate accident. However, because of poor news management and some questionable recounting of events, the story has become a political scandal, a chance to bash the Republicans, and a wealthy source of humour for many comedians. Here's why." (02/16/06) http://news.independent.co.uk/world/americas/article345936.ece ----- 49) From hunter to hunted Boston Globe by Joan Vennochi "Forget about quail. If you're Dick Cheney, your eye should be on Scooter. While quail-hunting last weekend, the vice president accidentally shot a friend and fellow hunter, 78-year-old Harry M. Whittington. This unfortunate event came a few days after a piece of Cheney-related news that might rattle any marksman's aim. According to a Feb. 9 report posted by the National Journal, the vice president's former chief of staff, I. Lewis 'Scooter' Libby, told a federal grand jury he was 'authorized' by Cheney and by 'superiors' to disclose classified information about Iraq's nuclear weapons capability. A president can declassify information and a vice president has some legal leeway to do so as well. No one is suggesting any crime was committed. The implication is that information was declassified for political gain, so Libby could defend the Bush administration's use of prewar intelligence." (02/16/06) http://tinyurl.com/7dvue ----- 50) The right to be offended Tom Paine by Gary Younge "In April 2003, Danish illustrator Christoffer Zieler submitted a series of unsolicited cartoons offering a lighthearted take on the resurrection of Christ to the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten. Zieler received an e-mail from the paper's Sunday editor, Jens Kaiser, saying: 'I don't think Jyllands-Posten's readers will enjoy the drawings. As a matter of fact, I think they will provoke an outcry. Therefore I will not use them.' Two years later, the same paper published 12 cartoons of Muhammad, including one with him wearing a turban shaped like a bomb with a burning fuse. Predictably enough, it created an outcry. How we got from there to talk of 'the Muslim threat' to the immutable European traditions of secularism and freedom of speech, while Scandinavian embassies burn in the Arab world, is illuminating." (02/16/06) http://tinyurl.com/a6n8g ----- 51) Chickens & eggs in New Orleans The American Prospect by Robert B. Reich "More than five months after Hurricane Katrina -- and almost five months of political verbiage and posturing and name-calling and blame-mongering -- New Orleans is still a wreck. Two thirds of the Big Easy's pre-Katrina residents continue to live in exile, only a handful of schools have reopened, only a third of the city's former hospital beds are available, two-thirds of its buildings are still without electricity. Two hundred thousand homes and business properties are in ruins. The next few months will be a turning point. Either there will be a raft of personal bankruptcies, foreclosures, and bank failures, followed by the permanent closing of much the city, or ... what? Free-market fundamentalists say New Orleans just has to wait until capital and people return. But it's been five months and they haven't returned. Why should they be expected to?" (02/16/06) http://www.prospect.org/web/view-web.ww?id=11146 ----- 52) The AFL-CIO sweatshop Washington Times by Rick Berman "They work outside in the middle of February at poverty-level wages. They don't have health benefits or regular hours. Their pay is docked for taking bathroom breaks. And they have no one to speak up for their needs. Ask a labor leader if these workers are in desperate need of a union. Then see if he'd like to revise his thought when he learns they're employees of the United Brotherhood of Carpenters. With a ringing endorsement from AFL-CIO chief John Sweeney, the Carpenters have taken to hiring the homeless to picket construction sites. Needless to say, there's no health care or pension plan contributions for these folks. In Las Vegas, the temp workers hired by the United Food and Commercial Workers union to protest outside Wal-Mart were paid a grand total of $6 an hour. The union was generous enough to cover bathroom breaks, but in the middle of a scorching desert summer with picketers dropping out from the heat, perhaps these part-time employees would have preferred health care." (02/16/06) http://www.washtimes.com/op-ed/20060215-094732-5469r.htm ----- 53) Belafonte's absence at King funeral is noticeable Tennessean by Dwight Lewis "Where was Harry Belafonte? Where was the entertainer, civil rights activist and humanitarian last week when funeral services were held for Coretta Scott King? Why wasn't he present? Mrs. King's husband, the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., and Belafonte were very close before King was assassinated April 4, 1968 as he stood on the balcony of the Lorraine Motel in Memphis. Look at some of the photos taken on the day of MLK's funeral services, and you will see Belafonte walking alongside Mrs. King and three of her children, Yolanda, Dexter and Martin III. So why wasn't Belafonte in attendance at Mrs. King's funeral? He had planned to be there." (02/16/06) http://tinyurl.com/c9vml ----- 54) Adjust the balance of debt and education Christian Science Monitor by Anya Kamenetz "You don't have to be in college, or have a child who is, to realize that the student loan crisis is close to a tipping point. In 2004, the average loan burden of graduates, $17,600, nearly matched the maximum that undergraduates are allowed to borrow from the federal loan program over four years. In the student-loan industry's own estimate, 39 percent of student borrowers have an unmanageable debt burden after college. ... For hundreds of young people ... unmanageable debt burden has a specific meaning. Before they ever get to college, it means downsizing their choice from a public university to a regional state college, to a community college, or a trade school. While they're in school, it means working more hours (an average of 30.5 per week), going to school part time, and being more likely to drop out. About half of those who start at a four-year college don't finish within six years." (02/16/06) http://www.csmonitor.com/2006/0216/p09s02-coop.html ----- 55) Privacy rights and public safety Boston Globe by David Cohen & Kathy Glick-Weil "Something happened in Newton recently that should be reassuring to us all. We found that we were able to protect public safety without having to sacrifice the privacy of law-abiding Newton citizens. We did this by requiring the FBI to follow the law and obtain a warrant before accessing library computers believed to be used in e-mailing a threat to Brandeis University. By requiring a warrant, we ensured that the FBI received the information it needed to pursue the perpetrator of a serious crime, while ensuring that the information of the other law-abiding users of those same computers was kept private. This is precisely how the American system of justice is meant to work." [editor's note: David Cohen is the mayor of Newton, MA. Kathy Glick-Weil is director of the Newton Free Library - SAT] (02/16/06) http://tinyurl.com/aa8ap ----- 56) "Negroes with Guns" -- Robert F. Williams and black power Online Journal by Jerry Mazza "For me, one of the revelations of Black History Month has been the life of Robert Franklin Williams ... thousands of KKK members met in Monroe met from time to time. After burning copious crosses, they hopped in their cars, honking horns, shooting off guns, and threatening to kill people. The object again: racial terror. During that time Williams had personally started organizing armed squads of black people for self-defense. ... And when push came to shove back in Monroe, when the Klan came raging into the black section of Newton one night, they were met by a cordon of armed black men. The Klansmen panicked and fled every which way. And this was the last time they rampaged through Newton." (02/15/06) http://onlinejournal.com/artman/publish/article_509.shtml ----- 57) See no evil, become that evil Common Dreams by David Michael Green "People are dying in Iraq by the tens of thousands, and that destructive project is entirely dependent on the acquiescence of the American people in allowing it to continue in their name, and financed by their tax dollars (or, more accurately, by their children's tax dollars which will be used to pay back the massive loans we are racking up in China and Japan). No one who is a true patriot can support such a grave policy decision until they have seriously examined it. No one who really supports the troops can put them in harm's way without studying and analyzing carefully the justification for doing so. Anyone who does otherwise is, in fact, an unpatriotic coward." (02/16/06) http://www.commondreams.org/views06/0216-28.htm ----- 58) Their own economic reality CounterPunch by Paul Craig Roberts "Consumers deeper in debt and fresh from their first negative savings rate since the Great Depression show high consumer confidence. It is as if the entire country is on an acid trip or a cocaine trip or whatever it is that lets people create realities for themselves that bear no relation to real reality. How can the upbeat views be reconciled with the Bureau of Labor Statistics' payroll jobs data, the extraordinary red ink, and exploding trade deficit? Perhaps the answer is that every economic development, no matter how detrimental, is spun as if it were good news. " (02/16/06) http://www.counterpunch.org/roberts02162006.html ----- 59) War planning Strike the Root by Mark Davis "If we sit idly by as the war planners 'manage information' with the goal of influencing a docile population to forego more treasure and sacrifice more children to their schemes of world domination then we will soon meet our fate. Speak the truth, for it is the only thing that will set us free from the war planners." (02/16/06) http://www.strike-the-root.com/61/davis/davis3.html Movement News and Events 60) ISIL's 25th World Freedom Summit International Society for Individual Liberty 07/07/06-07/12/06 "ISIL's international conference for 2006 is being held in the stunningly beautiful city of Prague, Czech Republic." Scholarships for students/young activists available. Watch this space for details To Be Announced! http://www.isil.org/conference/ ----- 61) Petition: Free Cory Maye What is Liberalism? ongoing "The law has been misapplied to Cory Maye. If an unidentified intruder were to burst into our home in the middle of the night, we would be within our rights to defend ourselves and our children. Given the law of Mississippi, Cory Maye acted within his right on the night of December 26th, 2001. It is a great tragedy that a police officer lost his life in this encounter. The execution of Cory Maye would magnify the tragedy, killing an innocent citizen because of the death of an officer. Haley Barbour, the governor of Mississippi, should grant an unconditional pardon to Cory Maye." http://www.whatisliberalism.com/index.php?pageId=87667 ----- 62) The Million Moon March War on Guns Blog thru 06/06 "An international citizen disarmament coalition, Control Arms, is sponsoring a 'Million Faces petition' and 'is collecting photos and self portraits from around the world to reach [their] goal of one million faces by June 2006. [They] will use these faces to send a powerful, global message of support to the world's governments for an International Arms Trade Treaty.' The idea of The Million Moon March (as in 'mooning') is to send them photos from the side that believes in the right of the people to keep and bear arms -- to let the rights grabbers know there are untold numbers of people who refuse to be disarmed, and quite candidly, to taunt and hopefully enrage them." [Editor's note: Thanks to the inimitable David Codrea for this action ... be sure to check his blog for the latest pictures and join in the fun by submitting your own - MLS] (02/06/06) http://waronguns.blogspot.com/2006/02/million-moon-march-gallery.html ----- 63) Liberty 2006 Libertarian International 02/25/06-02/26/06 Libertarian International's Spring, 2006 convention at Universite Libre de Bruxelles, Brussels, Belgium. Speakers include Eline van den Broek, Antoine Clarke, Mark Cools, Dr. Sean Gabb, Edgar Gaertner, Daniel Mitchell, Andreas W. Tauber, and Stephan Wyckaert. http://tinyurl.com/dt539 ----- 64) Austrian Scholars Conference 2006 Ludwig von Mises Institute 03/16/06-03/18/06 "The Austrian Scholars Conference is the international, interdisciplinary meeting of the Austrian School, and for scholars interested or working in this intellectual tradition, it is the event of the year. Over the course of three full days, the Austrian Scholars Conference offers eighty plus presentations on economics, history, philosophy, and the humanities, in addition to named lectures by the leaders in the field." Mises Institute campus, Auburn, AL. Free for students (application required), $200 for others. Online registration available. Group rate available at local hotel. http://www.mises.org/upcomingstory.aspx?control=77 Today in Political History 65) No one expects the Venetian Inquisition! Details, and the "quote of the day," from Leon's Political Almanac at: http://perspicuity.net/cgi/hypercal.cgi ---------------------------------------------------------------------- RRND is published every weekday except on holidays. Forward freely. To subscribe, unsubscribe, or financially support RRND, visit: http://www.rationalreview.com/news To support ISIL's Free-Market.Net Project (tax deductible) http://www.isil.org/store/membership.html ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Thomas L. Knapp ..... Publisher Mary Lou Seymour .... Editor Steve Trinward ...... Editor R. Lee Wrights ...... Editor --------------------------------- Yahoo! Mail Use Photomail to share photos without annoying attachments. [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] ForumWebSiteAt http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Libertarian Yahoo! 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