When communist rulers cracked down on Poland's Solidarity movement in 1981, Malgorzata Niezabitowska risked prison to smuggle out photographs of tanks on Warsaw's streets and police turning water cannons on protesters Poland Opens Communist-Era Files
Eye on Politics & Law Lords: Birth of a Democracy
The January 30 elections will do for the people of Iraq, and after them, in all likelihood, the rest of the Arab world, what the end of the European imperial period did not: show the way to sovereignty without tyranny. For the first time really in Arab history, people power has expressed itself democratically. Say whatever you want about the coverage of the Arabic-language satellite channels, Al Jazeera and Al Arabia, they relayed quite well stunning democratic imagery--the repeated shots of entire families voting together, from pregnant mothers with babies to grandparents in wheelchairs.
• Serious opposition to the vagaries, incompetence, and corruption of princely and dictatorial rule. [The brave voters of Iraq defied the terrorists — and proved the doom-mongers wrong The Ballot Box Beats the Coffin - Amir Taheri, Times of London ; Virgins talk about sex. Fish gotta swim, birds gotta fly, marines gotta kill the enemy General: It's 'fun to shoot some people'; Act of kindness will cost girls $900 No Good Deed Goes Unpunished ]
• · At tough times in my life, with the landlord tossing my clothes and record collection out on to the street, I could have used an aunt like Benon Sevan's. Asked to account for the appearance in his bank account of a certain $160,000, Mr Sevan, executive director of the UN Oil-for-Food programme, said it was a gift from his aunt. Would you trust these men with $64bn of your cash? Of course not
• · · No matter how clever its captains and lieutenants are becoming in the face of the insurgency, the Army may never be able to declare victory in Iraq. Thirty years after the fall of Saigon, the military finds itself thrust into another war with limited public support, insufficient resources, and a murky definition of success Battle Lessons Dan Baum: What the generals don’t know ; Paul Campos, Rocky Mountain News ... Campos: Real question is, how did prof get on CU's faculty in first place? The Real Question About Churchill
• · · · Dan Christensen of the Daily Business Review in South Florida writes about an interest group’s FOIA request for documents from the Justice Department relating to legal proceedings involving immigrant detainees since Sept. 11: compiling the records, the agency said, would cost “approximately $372,799. Please note that this does not include the search times estimated from 5 districts. At least one of those districts (Southern Florida) informed us that their search would require hundreds of hours. Therefore, this is an estimate. People for the American Way asked for documents relating to any request by the government to seal the proceedings of a case in any federal court arising from or relating to the detention of a post 9/11 immigrant detainee. Costly Documents ; The key to understanding Lincoln's Philosophy of Statesmanship is that he always sought the meeting point between what was right in theory and what could be achieved in practice. Abraham Lincoln as Statesman
• · · · · Dion Lefler of the Wichita Eagle, along with KWCH-12 Eyewitness News, found that while Wichita paid $7 million to lure outdoors retailer Gander Mountain to a downtown development project, the vast majority of cities and counties that have a Gander Mountain store didn’t pay any public money to get one. The investigation found four other local governments that paid subsidies to get Gander Mountain. In three of those communities, the estimated value of the incentives was $500,000 or less.” Retail of Gander Mountains; The CBS of Walter Cronkite’s salad days is gone. And the beginning of the fall of network news can be traced to that era, right down to the day and month. Richard Nixon’s Revenge
• · · · · · On Wednesday, in hearings on his nomination to be head of Homeland Security, Michael Chertoff had this to say: "If you are dealing with something that makes you nervous, you'd better make sure that you are doing the right thing. And you'd better check it out…. You had better be very careful to make sure that whatever it is you decide to do falls well within what is required by the law." A Whistle-Blower's Inside View of the Homeland Security Nominee; Alex Bellotti Jr, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette: Fewer in number, they're back from Iraq. My son, too My Son Is Back From Iraq