"I don't think the report is true, but these crises work for those who want to make fights between people." Kulam Dastagir, 28, a bird seller in Afghanistan
No Straw Men: How Rudy Will Make GWB Look Good
Topic: Politics and Law
11:45 am EDT, May 12, 2007
Well, I've yet to find a candidate in this pack that I support, but there are clearly a few that I don't. Rudy Guiliani just moved from a maybe to an absolutely not under any circumstances. These are direct quotes from him:
Freedom is not a concept in which people can do anything they want, be anything they can be. Freedom is about authority. Freedom is about the willingness of every single human being to cede to lawful authority a great deal of discretion about what you do.
We're going to try to cut back on the Patriot Act. We're going to cut back on electronic surveillance. We're going to cut back on interrogation. We're going to cut back, cut back, cut back, and we'll be back in our pre-September 11 mentality of being on defense.
Better yet, check this YouTube video in which Guiliani literally laughs at Ron Paul's defense of Habeus Corpus:
Criminal charges dropped in marketing stunt - The Boston Globe
Topic: Current Events
11:21 am EDT, May 12, 2007
Two local artists whose guerrilla marketing stunt caused a day of bomb scares in the Boston region -- and then fueled public outrage by appearing to make light of the incident -- apologized in court yesterday as prosecutors dropped the criminal charges against them.
Fueled public outrage?
Michael Flanagan, president of the MBTA Police Association, said he was angry with the settlement.
"I'm upset we had to use so many resources and dedicated so much time and energy to these kids who were just playing around and obviously amused by their actions," he said.
More pictures from Banff! Some color balance issues and some of these need to be flipped, but there are cool shots of a mountain goat in it's natural habitat. Open the big versions of the closeups of snow and look carefully.
An inuksuk (plural inuksuit) [1] (from the Inuktitut: ᐃᓄᒃᓱᒃ, plural ᐃᓄᒃᓱᐃᑦ; alternatively inukshuk in English [2] or inukhuk in Inuinnaqtun [3]) is a stone landmark used as a milestone or directional marker by the Inuit of the Canadian Arctic. The Arctic Circle, dominated by permafrost, has few natural landmarks and thus the inuksuk was central to navigation across the barren tundra.
We still don't know why Verio/NTT gave Cryptome.org the boot, but John Young says he's found a new home for the controversial government-secrets repository: Network Solutions. NetSol was once owned by spooky government contractor SAIC, which would seem to make it a poor choice for hosting Cryptome.
This might not actually be a problem. The government didn't want NetSol, they wanted Verisign. Time will tell.
Action by Police at Rally Troubles Los Angeles Chief - New York Times
Topic: Civil Liberties
10:43 am EDT, May 4, 2007
Chief William J. Bratton of the Los Angeles Police Department said Thursday that the episode here in which police officers clashed with demonstrators and journalists on Tuesday at an immigration rally was the “worst incident of this type I have ever encountered in 37 years” in law enforcement. After a request by Mr. Bratton, the F.B.I. announced Thursday that it would open a civil rights inquiry into the incident,
Whatever went on in L.A. on Monday it sounds like it wasn't your standard police/protestor clash. (Of course, when the cops are beating down professional journalists they tend to be more willing to admit error than when they are beating down college students who can be accussed of lying or baiting.) (On the other hand, I really, deeply wish people on the left would tell the "black bloc" fucks that throwing rocks at the cops is not constructive. Its possible to have a peaceful protest on any issue that you want. You guys can't do it because you're not peaceful, and not because the police are involved in some sort of right wing conspiracy with the man.)
