Bush Administration Disapproved Muhammad Cartoon Reprinting

Chris Meserole: Obama and the New Liberalism
What a year. From the Earthquake in Haiti to the rescue of the Chilean Miners, 2010 certainly wasn't lacking for compelling human drama. Nor was it lacking for politically transformative events. Indeed, given three stories in particular—the passage of ObamaCare, the extra-judicial authorization to assassinate an American Citizen, and the Wikileaks Controversy—this year may well go down as the year 21st century Liberalism, with all its attendant complexity, fully came into its own....

Gay-rights pioneer Franklin Kameny remembers his civil disobedience Part II
World War II Veteran and gay-rights Activist Franklin Kameny has been involved in Civil Liberties Protests for almost 50 years, since shortly after he was fired by the Federal Government for being gay. In an exclusive interview with the Charlottesville Libertarian Examiner last May at the National Press Club in Washington, Kameny remembered several occasions when exercising his First Amendment rights to assembly and expression led to his arrest.  Three of them are recounted here. One memora...

On free speech
When a troll comes to my blog, in my comment threads, and in response to my political Speech, repeatedly and viciously attacks my daughter, and then backs up his threats by posting my home address, well, I suppose the appropriate course of action would be to forward his comments and IP address to the police. Instead, and for only the second time in six years, I’ve permanently banned this cowardly troll from the threads. I think even my harshest critics would agree that no blogger anywher...

The Hijacking of Conservatism by Big Government Progressives
Hey Conservatives, are you there? No I don’t mean you Republicans…I mean those of you who are lovers of liberty! I mean those of you who defend the Constitution, not just when it protects them but when it protects someone they don’t like. I know you’re out there. You may be a Libertarian or an independent, you may not be affiliated with any party at all. Ok you might be a Republican too, but I know you’re there. Well listen up! I am not exactly sure at what moment the theft o

Judith Miller: From the Times to the nuts
Source: Salon Judith Miller used to be a superstar. She was a major reporter at the New York Times for decades -- at the DC bureau, in Cairo, in Paris, special correspondent to the Persian Gulf, embedded with a special unit in Iraq. She had the best sources. She had amazing scoops. Now she's writing -- on contract, not full-time -- for Newsmax, a goofy right-wing magazine where Conservatives you've never heard of (and John Stossel, apparently) report, constantly, that Barack Obama is bad and unp...

Byron Williams: The Consequences of Speaking out
Is there a Paul Kattenburg within the Obama Administration? If there is (or was), the ship has mostly likely sailed on any potential influence he or she may have on shaping policy in Afghanistan. Kattenburg served 23 years in the United States' diplomatic corps. On Aug. 31, 1963, Kattenburg, then chairman of the Vietnam Working Group, attended a National Security Council meeting, which would dramatically alter his diplomatic career. Kattenburg was the lone dissenter at the meeting contemplatin...

The Never Ending Cartoon Crisis
One of the least surprising revelations to come out of the latest tranche of Wikileaks cables is that the Syrian government, led by the supposedly Secular Baathist Bashar al-Assad, helped arrange anti-Danish and anti-Norwegian riots in 2006 in response to the publication of the now-infamous “Mohammad cartoons.” According to a cable from the U.S. Embassy in Damascus, the Assad government “allowed these demonstrations to occur and almost certainly helped to facilitate them at the beginning,

Spencer: Cartoon Rage in Denmark
In FrontPage this morning I discuss the persistence of cartoon rage in the face of the latest attempted Jihad attack against the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten: [...] Ultimately, then, the cartoon Controversy is a question of the Freedom of Speech, and of a realistic appraisal of the Jihad threat - even if expressed wryly or satirically. The cartoon Controversy indicates the gulf between the Islamic World and the post-Christian West in matters of freedom of Speech and expression. And yet if ...

"Fox & Friends" Revives "Death Panel" "Controversy"
As the saying goes, the two certitudes in life are death and taxes. But the republican right seems to be seeking to avoid both. While normal, rational, sentient beings have no problem with the idea of long term care planning, which includes things like durable power of attorney and end of life directives, the Right Wing doesn't seem to want to deal with it - especially if it involves speaking to your doctor about it. (Better to have families fighting about "pulling the plug" so that Fox can have...

A Mental State Requirement for Asserting Constitutional Rights?
A few days ago I asked about the constitutional provenance of “rights not to,” and got some very thoughtful and probing comments in return. While I was trying to respond to them, it occurred to me that there might be a related issue worth exploring — namely, whether there is or should be a mental state requirement for asserting Constitutional Rights. If I accidentally or involuntarily speak (perhaps I have a Disability that makes it difficult or impossible for me to control mys...

Your pick for Most Intriguing Person of 2010 is ...
He's been called a criminal, a spy and a champion of the First Amendment. Some think he’s a villain. Some see him as a hero. The only thing that’s beyond debate: Julian Assange has more intrigue than the pulp section of a bookstore. Wikileaks' mastermind, the guy who everyone loved to hate or loved to defend, got the most first-place votes (25%) on CNN.com's “Most Intriguing Person” poll for 2010. Following Assange were: 10. Antoine Dodson, whose thoughts a...

Police Arrest 5 in Danish Terror Plot
The New York Times reports: The authorities in Sweden and Denmark announced the arrests of five men on Wednesday suspected of plotting an “imminent” attack on a Danish newspaper that set off Protests around the world when it published cartoons depicting the Prophet Muhammad in 2005. At a news conference in Copenhagen, Jakob Scharf, the head of the Danish Security and Intelligence Service, said the suspects had planned a “Mumbai-style” attack, referring to the 2008 assault by multip

US spying on Iran from Turkey
Something tells me that the Turks will not allow this to continue. A document released by Wikileaks Wednesday says that the U.S. has been using its Embassy in Turkey to gather intelligence on Iran. According to the cable released from the U.S. Embassy in Turkey, the information was gathered through Iranian citizens living in Turkey. The Iranians who were contacted by the Americans were threatened by Iranian agents not to have contact with American Diplomats, the cable said, and the information...

Karzai keeps minister considered corrupt by US
WASHINGTON — U.S. officials pressured Afghan President Hamid Karzai to remove a former warlord from atop the energy and water ministry a year ago because of Corruption and ineffectiveness, and threatened to end aid unless he went. Karzai rebuffed the request, according to secret diplomatic records, and the minister — privately termed "the worst" by U.S. officials — kept his perch at an agency that controls $2 billion in U.S. and allied projects. The State Department corresp...

US fumed as Karzai backed ex-warlord
WASHINGTON — US officials pressured President Hamid Karzai of Afghanistan to remove a former warlord from atop the energy and water ministry a year ago because of Corruption and ineffectiveness, and threatened to end aid unless he went. Karzai rebuffed the request, according to secret diplomatic records, and the minister — privately termed “the worst’’ by US officials — kept his perch at an agency that controls $2 billion in US and allied projects. The State ...

Karzai Keeps Minister Considered Corrupt by US
Source: Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. officials pressured Afghan President Hamid Karzai to remove a former warlord from atop the energy and water ministry a year ago because they considered him corrupt and ineffective, and threatened to end aid unless he went. Karzai rebuffed the request, according to secret diplomatic records, and the minister — privately termed "the worst" by U.S. officials — kept his perch at an agency that controls $2 billion in U.S. and allied projects. U.S.

Iraq death toll set to be lowest since invasion
W.G. Dunlop, Agence France-Presse · Thursday, Dec. 30, 2010 Baghdad - The number of Civilian Deaths this year from violence in Iraq is set to be the lowest since the 2003 U.S.-led invasion, according to a preliminary report released on Thursday by a monitoring group. Iraq Body Count (IBC), an independent Britain-based group, put the number of Civilian Deaths in Iraq as of December 25 at 3,976, down 704 from 4,680 in 2009. But it also noted that attacks remain common across much of the count...

Freedom of the press, 'Palestinian' style
US-trained 'Palestinian security forces' detained a 'Palestinian' Journalist for five days after he reported on tensions between 'moderate' 'Palestinian' President Mahmoud Abbas Abu Mazen and former Gaza security chieftain Mohamed Dahlan (Hat Tip: Daily Alert). George Canawati of Radio Bethlehem was held in an office at the city's general intelligence service headquarters over the Muslim holiday of Eid last month, according to an account he has given to the Guardian. He was pr...

Golden Oldie: On the merging of journalism and activism spaces
An Adam Bink Golden Oldie From Apr 19, 2010. Original HERE Tim Vollmer has a thoughtful piece out expressing concern over the decline of traditional LGBT press. A few reactions are in order. I think folks like Tim have to get past the notion that you're only an LGBT media Journalist if you have credentials, an office, write entirely without opinion, and your work appears in print. To borrow the phrase of a friend, "journalactivists"- something I would call myself- are on the rise. While I eng...

Mayor Bloombergs Snow Job
New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg has experienced this week his own Katrina-BP Oil Spill disaster management moment. Two days after a blizzard dumped more than twenty inches of snow on the city where I live, snow-clogged streets still abound, continuing to prevent New Yorkers from resuming even a semblance of their normal lives. The mayor has been giving New Yorkers a snow job rather than making sure the snow on the streets is removed on time. It took the Billionaire Bloomberg, who aspire...

We Hold These Truths Because They Are True
The proper bafflers are the ambiguists. Their flashes of insights are frequent enough; but in the end the fog closes down. They are great ones for the facts, against the fundamentalists, and great ones of "conscience," against the cynics. They insist on the values of pragmatism against the absolutists; but they resent the suggestion that they push pragmatism to the point of relativism of moral values. -- John Courtney Murray, S.J. (September 12, 1904-August 16, 1967) We should not let the year...

The Highs and Lows of 2010
Year two of the Obama Administration began with the president riding high, at least among his supporters, for having managed to somehow ram a Healthcare Bill through Congress as 2009 drew to a close. The president signed the landmark bill into law on March 23, but that was hardly the end of the issue. Indeed, passage of the “Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act” seemed to be merely the end of the beginning. Multiple states filed suit to challenge provisions of the Act , with th...

Maybe the First Amendment Should Apply to Everyone
On Tuesday, Dec 28, more than a dozen Protesters gathered outside the offices of the Chicago Sun-Times to Protest a column Neil Steinberg wrote about Mayoral Candidate Carol Mosely Braun. The Protesters thought it was unfair to her and wanted Steinberg fired. Florida Congresswoman-elect Sandy Adams is an avowed opponent of teaching evolution, and voted in favor of a bill that calls on teachers to "teach theories that contradict the theory of evolution." Adams herself does not believe evolution a...

Former PHA worker sues, says he was unfairly fired
A former assistant General Manager of the Philadelphia Housing Authority has claimed in a federal Lawsuit that he was unfairly fired in 2009 after he spoke out against waste, Fraud, and theft at the authority. John Tatum, who supervised more than 400 workers, says his termination came after he informed his superiors and their outside lawyers that he suspected some PHA employees were using the agency's Home Depot Credit Cards to steal building materials. Tatum says he was first demoted and reassi...

Ofcom reports on BSkyB takeover
Media Watchdog Ofcom has submitted its report on News Corporation's takeover bid for broadcaster BSkyB to Culture Secretary Jeremy Hunt, it has said. But the contents of the report will remain confidential for the time being. Business Secretary Vince Cable asked Ofcom to advise if the plans would restrict the range of UK media voices. But the PM passed responsibility for a final ruling to Mr Hunt after Mr Cable was recorded saying he had "declared war" on News Corp.owner Rupert Mu...