Legendary labor organizer Clinton Jencks, who led mineworkers in New Mexico in a strike depicted in the classic 1953 movie “Salt of the Earth,” died Dec. 15, 2005 in San Diego of natural causes. He was 87. An international representative of the Amalgamated Bayard District Union of Mine, Mill, and Smelter Workers in New Mexico,… Read more »
Any time you hear the United States government talking about wiretap, it requires – a wiretap requires a court order.-George W. Bush, April 20, 2004, Buffalo, New York. In an assertion of executive power that rivals the excesses of the McCarthy era of the late 1940’s and 1950’s, and the dreaded COINTELPRO (counter-intelligence program) of… Read more »
The dots have finally been connected and the picture is not a pretty one. It is the face of the president of vice, Dick Cheney. The policies on the treatment of prisoners emanating from Cheney’s office triggered the abuse and torture, according to Lawrence Wilkerson, former Secretary of State Colin Powell’s chief of staff. “It… Read more »
I had been hesitant to speak out before because this Administration is so vindictive. But now I will … Anybody who confronts this Administration or Rumsfeld or the Pentagon with a true assessment, they find themselves either out of a job, out of their positions, fired, relieved or chastised. Their career comes to an end.—… Read more »
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 »
When George W. Bush’s weapons-of-mass-destruction rationale for invading Iraq evaporated, his excuse morphed into bringing democracy to the Iraqi people. But the way Bush has eviscerated our democracy in the United States is proof positive that his democratic credentials are phony. We have seen our government assault First Amendment rights in the past – during… Read more »
As George W. Bush prepares to take center stage at Madison Square Garden, two reports released in tandem purport to represent thorough investigations of the ‘abuses’ at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq. The near-simultaneous publication of the Schlesinger Report and the Fay Report is not coincidental. Following Senator John McCain’s admonition when the Abu Ghraib… Read more »
“I am Saddam Hussein, president of the Republic of Iraq.” So began the surreal public appearance of Saddam Hussein, his first since being dragged out of a spider hole by the “coalition forces” six months ago. The proud, defiant Saddam who ruled Iraq with an iron hand for nearly 25 years was back with a… Read more »
Apparently for the first time since the dark days of J. Edgar Hoover, the government has tried to use the grand jury to harass and intimidate anti-war protestors. Drake University and four peace activists were recently subpoenaed to produce records about the National Lawyers Guild before a federal grand jury in Iowa. But in response… Read more »
“Watch out for well-meaning men of zeal!” These words penned 74 years ago by U.S. Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis are no less relevant today. Brandeis was dissenting from a ruling that exempted wiretapping from the protections of the Fourth Amendment. The Supreme Court later reversed its decision, holding that the government must follow the… Read more »