Last month, in a little-noticed vote, the Senate rejected Democratic Senator Robert Byrd’s proposal to delete funding for the US prison at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba. The amendment to the Emergency Supplemental Appropriations Act for Defense, the Global War on Terror, and Tsunami Relief, 2005 would have stripped HR 1268 of $36 million earmarked for construction… Read more »
The year before Roe v. Wade was decided, I met a poor, young woman in a rural American town who had five children, born one year apart. Sally’s husband would show up about once a year, beat her up, knock her up, and leave her to fend for herself and the kids. She was a… Read more »
Major General Geoffrey Miller, the American commander in charge of detentions and interrogations at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq, recently conducted an overnight tour of the facility for journalists. He proudly displayed “Camp Liberty” and “Camp Redemption,” newly renovated in response to the torture scandal unleashed by the release of the disgusting photographs last spring…. Read more »
Today, the Court repudiated the misguided idea that the United States can pledge to leave no child behind while simultaneously exiling children to the death chamber.Dr. William F. Schulz, Executive Director, Amnesty International Until March 1, 2005, the United States was the only nation in the world that permitted the execution of children under age… Read more »
First they came for the communists, and I did not speak out–because I was not a communist;Then they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out–because I was not a socialist;Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out–because I was not a trade unionist;Then they came for the… Read more »
Like a boil that can never be cured so long as it is covered up but must be opened with all its ugliness to the natural medicines of air and light, injustice must be exposed, with all the tension its exposure creates, to the light of human conscience and the air of national opinion before… Read more »
Rumor has it that George W. Bush’s tailor is busily stitching a royal blue cloak to go with the gold crown that will adorn the president as he takes the oath of office on January 20. Now that Bush has secured a second term, it is no longer necessary to hide behind the subtle flight… Read more »
Without much fanfare, a number of lawyers are busy mounting court challenges to the election. Lawsuits have been filed and other actions are being taken in Ohio and Florida, the two key electoral states. Members of Congress have demanded a General Accountability Office investigation of the election. The largest Freedom of Information Act request in… Read more »
US Supreme Court Justice Robert Jackson was chief prosecutor at the Nuremberg Tribunal. In his report to the State Department, Justice Jackson wrote: “No political or economic situation can justify” the crime of aggression. He also said: “If certain acts in violation of treaties are crimes they are crimes whether the United States does them… Read more »
Most Republicans and many Democrats have hailed Bush’s nomination of White House counsel Alberto Gonzales for attorney general as a brilliant choice. Whereas John Ashcroft ruffled feathers with his coarse warnings that opponents of Bush’s post-9/11 agenda “only aid terrorists,” the soft-spoken Gonzales is much more palatable. And he’s Hispanic to boot, so the Bush… Read more »