Can Bush Read?
Ron Paul's Texas Straight Talk Will We Bring bin Laden to Justice? - the November elections, of course. Dr. Paul once again recommends letter of marque and reprisal. My opinion: had GW done this a year ago, bin Laden would now be dead. Instead, he's talking about another expensive war.
We seem to have forgotten that our primary objective in the war on terror is to capture or kill bin Laden and his henchmen. One year ago, the desire for retribution against bin Laden was tangible. President Bush referred to finding him "dead or alive." And while the hunger for vengeance was understandable, the practical need to destroy al Qaida before it mounted another terror attack was urgent. Yet we have allowed the passage of time and the false specter of an Iraq threat to distract us from our original purpose. We're preoccupied with an invasion of Iraq, which actually will benefit bin Laden by removing a secular regime led by his enemy Saddam Hussein. This vacuum may well lead to a more fundamentalist Kurd government in Iraq that aligns itself with al Qaida.
AP via NewsOK.com - Ribbon cutting gets new twist at airport - a new exhibit at the Pittsburgh International Airport was opened with a ribbon tearing. It's hard to cut a ribbon when scissors are banned. Sheesh. [kaba]
Adam Liptak at The New York Times -
A State Weighs Allowing Juries to Judge Laws 
- The Times covers
South Dakota's Amendment A, on which that state's voters will decide
this November whether jury nullification will come out of the
closet. [kaba]
Jeremy Watson at Scotland on Sunday - Prince : I'll leave Britain over fox hunt ban - Prince Charles has threatened to leave England if fox hunting is banned. Good for him. Maybe he'd do better to switch to hunting larger game, like the Prime Minister and his anti-gun cronies. [kaba]
It is understood the Prince, a passionate hunt supporter, told Blair that he "would not dare attack an ethnic minority in the way that supporters of fox hunting were being persecuted."
In an outburst overheard by a senior politician, the Prince is also alleged to have said: "If Labour bans hunting I'll leave Britain and spend the rest of my life skiing."
The politician was left in no doubt that Charles was serious. "It certainly wasn't said in jest - he gave the impression that he meant it," the politician said.
The Prince's comparison of the treatment of fox hunters to minorities such as black and Asian communities has caused uproar in senior government circles.
Sarah Foster at World Net Daily - Farmers, hunters march for 'Liberty and Livelihood' - 400,000 protesters showed up in London yesterday for a march organized by the Countryside Alliance. Story and picture links there. Ms. Foster's article was written before the march took place. [kaba]
Stephen Robinson at The Telegraph - 407,791 voices cry freedom - one English paper's report on the march. Includes a link to "the day in pictures".
From a different perspective, Richard Fry, who owns a business in London and a farm in Dorset, had brought his family, along with another 1,000 or so supporters of the Cattistock Hunt.
"Make no mistake," he said, "this one is the last peaceful march I'm coming on. If they press on with a ban now, the gloves will really come off."
...
As hard as a BBC presenter might try, you could not generalise about these people. No cosy British social snobbery or inverted snobbery helps you out, for the crowds were so socially and geograpically diverse.
So, too, were the issues that brought them together. For every marcher talking about hunting, there was another telling you about the local bus service, the closing Post Office, the price of lamb, and the greed of the supermarkets.
Robert Tracinski at Capitalism Magazine - The War on Art Historians - a photographer of realist art is forbidden to photograph a sculpture in NYC because it is near the Triborough Bridge. Sheesh. [trt-ny]
Jim Moore at Etherzone - The Freedom Writer's Dilemma: How to Be Believed - the problems of telling the truth in a society run by lies. [trt-ny]
In short, to the unknowing, you are always wrong.
Your articles about these and other anti-American activities will invariably get one of three reactions:You will be read and laughed at; thought a nutcase and avoided; or taken seriously and whispered about.
There is, however, a fourth reaction possible, which every writer hopes for when revealing something that not one in a hundred people are aware of.
That reaction is a sort of "Aha!" experience; a sense that what the reader just learned from you was not only important and accurate, but raw, unadulterated truth.
Robert Higgs at LewRockwell.com - Helplessly, We Await the Catastrophe Our Rulers Are Creating - Thanks to the USA PATRIOT act, even talking about the evil being perpetrated in DC can get you into lots of trouble. [trt-ny]
Although many ordinary Americans appear to have no quarrel with what is being done in their name, many others oppose this imperial impudence and the brutalities that express and sustain it. For the dissidents, the government has prepared a suitable reception. The TIPS informants are getting ready to report suspicions about them. The prison cells wait to receive more "material witnesses," "enemy combatants," and anyone accused, no matter how baselessly, of aiding or abetting alleged terrorists. For these unfortunates, no writ of habeas corpus will spoil the government's day; no defense lawyer's shadow will darken the doorway of its secret interrogations. As the president and Attorney General John Ashcroft have made clear, if you are not with the government, you are against it, and they have demonstrated already how far they are willing to go to deal with those who are against. Henceforth, thanks to the USA PATRIOT Act, all of us will be subject to closer surveillance. As we are ever more systematically monitored and regimented by our own government, even the elementary freedoms of movement, speech, and assembly will go by the board. In time, all of us will learn to keep quiet, if we know what is good for us and our families.
Ceci Connolly at The Washington Post -
Smallpox Vaccine Guidelines Readied: Emergency Plan To Cover All of U.S. -
the governments plan to turn any smallpox outbreak into a massive
country-wide epidemic. [kaba]
Paul J. Nyden at Common Dreams - Security Plan Threatens Civil Liberties, Byrd Says - One senator who is understandably worried about Amerika's new KGB, er... Department of Homeland Security. The new Homeland Security director may be exempt from congressional approval, eh? Sounds like a dictator to me. [kaba]
"Congress is the leveler when it comes to precipitous actions. The Senate in particular is the place intended by the Framers for cooling off," Byrd said. "A calm oasis where reason and cooler heads prevail against the heat of passion has always been found on the floor of the United States Senate.
"I find myself in a position that I had not intended," he said. "I have often felt, in recent days, as if this 84-year-old man is the only thing standing between a White House hungry for power and the safeguards in the Constitution. That is not bragging, that is lamenting."
Byrd said he knows he is not the only senator worried about the bill. "But I have not heard enough voices speaking out on these important matters. ... I can't fight this battle alone."
Byrd is specifically worried that the new Homeland Security director may be exempt from congressional approval.
