|
|
Page
Links |
|
|
|
Anti-Bush Protest
March Halted by Police January 6, 2001 By AndrewKramer Chanting
slogans against President Bush, about 500 activists marched through a Portland
neighborhood Saturday to protest the president's policies just before his arrival here.
"Hey George, we didn't like your dad and we don't like you," the protesters
shouted, alluding to hostile receptions that Portland activists would give Bush's father
when he was president. The protesters -- many of them opponents of the war in Afghanistan
-- had planned to march to a job training center where President George W Bush spoke to
unemployed people. But police barricades and a line of riot police prevented the marchers
from getting close to the job center. As the protesters milled around the barricades a
military helicopter watched them from above. The march started from a park several blocks
from the job center. Later, outside Bush's second stop at a high school, mounted police
cleared an intersection by spurring their horses into a crowd of jeering
protesters, pushing them onto the sidewalk. Chanting
slogans against President Bush, about 500 activists marched through a Portland
neighborhood Saturday to protest the president's policies just before his arrival here.
"Hey George, we didn't like your dad and we don't like you," the protesters
shouted, alluding to hostile receptions that Portland activists would give Bush's father
when he was president. The protesters -- many of them opponents of the war in Afghanistan
-- had planned to march to a job training center where President George W Bush spoke to
unemployed people. But police barricades and a line of riot police prevented the marchers
from getting close to the job center. As the protesters milled around the barricades a
military helicopter watched them from above. The march started from a park several blocks
from the job center. Later, outside Bush's second stop at a high school, mounted police
cleared an intersection by spurring their horses into a crowd of jeering
protesters, pushing them onto the sidewalk. Chanting
slogans against President Bush, about 500 activists marched through a Portland
neighborhood Saturday to protest the president's policies just before his arrival here.
"Hey George, we didn't like your dad and we don't like you," the protesters
shouted, alluding to hostile receptions that Portland activists would give Bush's father
when he was president. The protesters -- many of them opponents of the war in Afghanistan
-- had planned to march to a job training center where President George W Bush spoke to
unemployed people. But police barricades and a line of riot police prevented the marchers
from getting close to the job center. As the protesters milled around the barricades a
military helicopter watched them from above. The march started from a park several blocks
from the job center. Later, outside Bush's second stop at a high school, mounted police
cleared an intersection by spurring their horses into a crowd of jeering
protesters, pushing them onto the sidewalk. kgw.com
Doomed to
Irrelevance September 6, 2001 By BOB HERBERT There was no chance that the United
Nations World Conference Against Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related
Intolerance would end up being more than a grandiose gathering of the cynical and the
naïve. The heroically named conference in Durban, on the east coast of South Africa was
doomed to irrelevance from its conception. The tragic problems of ethnic, religious and
gender intolerance have stained every region of the globe. The United States was as wary
as anyone else about addressing the hard issues. Fearing lawsuits from the descendants of
slaves, American
representatives objected to language describing slavery as "a crime against
humanity." If slavery is not, what is? American
representatives objected to language describing slavery as "a crime against
humanity." If slavery is not, what is?
nytimes.com
Enemies Of The
State November 13, 2001 by Patrick
Healy A conservative academic group founded by Lynne Cheney, the wife of Vice
President Dick Cheney, fired a new salvo in the culture wars by blasting 40 college
professors as well as the president of Wesleyan University and others for not showing
enough patriotism in the aftermath of Sept. 11. ''College and university faculty have been
the weak link in America's response to the attack,'' say leaders of the American Council
of Trustees and Alumni. The report names names and criticizes professors for making
statements ''short on patriotism and long on self-flagellation.'' Several of the scholars
singled out in the report said yesterday they felt blacklisted, complaining that their
words had been taken out of context to make them look like enemies of the state. ''It's a
little too reminiscent of McCarthyism,'' said Hugh Gusterson, an associate professor of
anthropology at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. ''This kind of document reminds
me of the Soviet Union, where officials weren't satisfied until 98 or 99 percent of people
voted with them,'' Gusterson said. Lynne Cheney, who was a powerful voice for conservative
intellectuals as chief of the National Endowment of the Humanities during the first Bush
administration, is not an author of the new report. But it is peppered with quotations
stating her views, and it was prepared by two close allies. The report lists 117 comments
or incidents as evidence that campuses are hostile to the US government and out of step
with most Americans who, according to polls, support the war in Afghanistan. Among the
scholars named in the report, however, several said yesterday the council was carrying out
its own political agenda: painting higher education as a bastion of political correctness
and trying to silence any criticism of the Bush administration. ''These kinds of attacks
will only discourage professors from speaking out and opening up dialogues about what's
happening overseas, and why,'' said Kevin Lourie, a professor at the Brown University
School of Medicine. The council cited Lourie for writing, in a Brown news service opinion
article, that the United States may be ''paying an accumulated debt for centuries of
dominance and intervention far from home.'' Lourie said he was attempting to explain how
other nations and societies may view the United States. Douglas Bennet, the president of
Wesleyan, was named for a Sept. 14 letter to the Wesleyan community. The letter condemned
the terrorist attacks, but the council singled out one passage in which Bennet voiced his
concern that ''disparities and injustices'' in American society and the world can lead to
hatred and violence, and that societies should try to see the world ''through the
sensitivities of others.'' Bennet complained that the report's authors took his comments
out of context. He said that he strongly supports the Bush administration's response to
the terrorist attacks and that an American flag has hung on the door of his house since
Sept. 11. ''I don't know where this group gets off extracting language from my
statement,'' Bennet said. ''They're trying to perpetuate cliches that belong to an earlier
era. I don't think it'll wash - we all have important, real work to do as a nation.''
Boston Globe
Republican staff
ordered camera crews to leave, including those of C-SPAN... After Ashcroft finished speaking [at a House hearing in which
Democrats indicated that some of what Ashcroft was requesting was unconstitutional and
excessive (“Past experience has taught us that today’s weapon against terrorism
may be tomorrow’s law against law-abiding Americans,” Dem Conyers said.)],
committee Democrats called civil liberties and free-speech advocates to testify, including
representatives of the American Civil Liberties Union and People for the American Way,
which have echoed some of Conyers’ concerns. But while Ashcroft’s testimony was
open to television cameras, the committee’s Republican staff ordered camera crews to
leave, including those of C-SPAN, the public interest network available on cable
television systems nationwide, NBC News’ Mike Viqueira reported. Print reporters and
members of the general public were allowed to remain, meaning the speakers’ comments
could be reported, but none of them would be available for Americans to see or hear for
themselves. House rules state, “Whenever a hearing or meeting conducted by a
committee or subcommittee is open to the public, those proceedings shall be open to
coverage by audio and visual means,” Viqueira reported. --NBC, 9/24/01 (The
original link was http://msnbc.com/news/632335.asp, but the story is no longer there.
9/26/01)
Americans
need to "Watch what they say, watch what they Do"
October 30, 2001
After Sept. 11, Bush press secretary "got off to a wobbly start when he was
instructed to tell reporters that the president had not returned to the White House the
day of the attacks in part because of reports that Air Force One was a target. Later, the
administration had to backtrack and admit there had never been a credible threat. Just
over two weeks later, on Sept. 26, Mr. Fleischer made another false step of his own,
responding to a question about a critical comment about the American military made by Bill
Maher, the host of ABC's "Politically Incorrect" talk show, with the answer that
Americans "need to watch what they say, watch what they do." Mr. Fleischer's
words — some of which were left out of the White House transcript, compounding the
error — suggested that the White House was seeking to curb criticism during the
crisis, and he is still bruised by the incident. When Americans write to the White House
about it, Mr. Fleischer sends a two-page letter explaining that his words were also
directed at Representative John Cooksey, Republican of Louisiana, who made intemperate
remarks about Arabs." --NYT, 10/30/01
Left-of-center
talk show host, and program yanked without notice "After broadcasting for a year on a Santa Cruz AM station,
left-of-center talk show host, Peter Werbe, had his program suddenly yanked from
KOMY-AM
without even notification to him or his network. The many listeners who called the KOMY
management were told that the show had no sponsors and few listeners. The station never
sought ads for the program, but the management said it aired Peter’s program to
balance its bevy of right-wing shows. However, even without any promotion, the show had a
growing audience as evidenced by the high number of calls Peter’s program received
daily from the station’s broadcast area.
Facing growing complaints from the Santa Cruz audience, on Oct. 6, the KOMY station
owner took to the airwaves and denounced the show and its host, and “apologized’
to the people of Santa Cruz for having him on “his” airwaves. Then, dogged by
what was becoming a community issue in Santa Cruz, KOMY owner's mother, Kay
Zwerling,
similarly denounced the show and Peter during an on-air editorial, October 16, to explain
why the station had dropped the program. She specifically mentioned its left of center
content, Peter’s criticism of the Bush administration, and his questions about the
attacks on Afghanistan.
On Oct. 18, station owner, Michael Zwerling, called Peter an "asshole" on
the air because the station was receiving hundreds of emails from as far away as Korea,
Britain, and France as well as from KOMY’s local listening area. Local residents have
written the owners that they are considering a license challenge, as well as a complaint
for the owner's language." --Peter Werbe, 10/22/01
On November 1,
President George W. Bush signed Executive Order 13233, a policy enabling his administration to govern in secrecy. For good reason,
this has upset many historians, journalists, and Congresspersons (both Republican and
Democratic). The Order ends 27 years of Congressional and judicial efforts to make
presidential papers and records publicly available. In issuing it, the president not only
has pushed his lawmaking powers beyond their limits, but he may be making the same
mistakes as Richard Nixon. tompaine.com
|
