Here’s a piece by Nat Hentoff for the Village Voice: Assault on Liberty: Abandoning the Constitution to Military Tribunals

On Thursday, November 15, William Safire

A little good humored Turkey Day fun:

Patriotic Turkey and friend

Here’s an interesting account of the stand-off going on right now in Afghanistan between the Taliban and U.S. Troops written by Ian Cobain (in Konduz Province) and Damian Whitworth (in Washington D.C.) :
America will take no prisoners

The title sounds harsh, but it’s actually a pretty objective article. I mean, on the one hand, sure, it would be kinda silly to go all the way out of there and then kinda look the other way when “they” (or, in this case, the “friends of they”) are finally surrounded.

But at the same time, there’s no need to be too hasty about it if there’s a chance that perhaps thousands of innocent people might be saved…

AMERICAN forces attacking Taleban fighters in Afghanistan are
under orders to take no prisoners, the US Defence Secretary said
last night.

Donald Rumsfeld also ruled out suggestions that thousands of
al-Qaeda mercenaries trapped in the northern city of Konduz
might be allowed to negotiate safe passage to a third country, and
said that America would do all in its power to stop Mullah
Muhammad Omar, the Taleban leader, fleeing Afghanistan.

While searching for information about the Larry Flynt/Afghanistan situation, I happened upon a great essay by Sarah Guzick for the University of Texas’
Campus Newsjournal of Women’s Issues: Issue 2 —
Larry Flynt: “Hero” for Free Speech, Insidious Woman Hater? Or Both?

At least The People vs. Larry Flynt puts the porn/free-speech issue on the table, even if it leaves out tons of relevant information. See the movie, think about porn, think about how it affects you, if it affects you at all. The doors of a dialogue on pornography have been re-opened. Let’s keep them open. Let’s discuss these issues even if they do not affect us consciously on a day-to-day basis. Regardless of our positions, we as women should be concerned. If this film has to be the catalyst for our discussion, then so be it.!

Hilary and Chelsea can’t figure out whether Chelsea was jogging or out getting a newspaper when the first plane hit in New York on the morning of September 11. (And I can’t figure out why anyone cares 🙂

See Larry Elder’s The Clintons and the Journalists who Love Them

What Hilary says (to Jane Pauley on TV):

“She’d gone on what she thought would be a great jog. She was going down to the Battery Park, she was going to go around the towers. She went to get a cup of coffee and

Larry Flynt is Suing the Defense Department for not letting him send reporters to the front lines of Afghanistan. (Thank you, Larry.)

WASHINGTON (AP) – Hustler magazine publisher Larry Flynt has sued the Defense Department for the right to send
reporters to the front lines in Afghanistan.

Flynt asked a federal court in Washington to force the agency to loosen its restrictions on media coverage.

“The actions of American soldiers on the ground in Afghanistan are of great interest and concern to American citizens,” his
attorney said in the lawsuit filed last week.

The Pentagon turned down Flynt’s request to allow writers to accompany troops on combat missions because of “the highly
dangerous and unique nature” of the operations, according to a letter Flynt said he received this month from Pentagon
spokeswoman Victoria Clarke.

It’s hard to believe, but this is the other Newsweek press release that went up today: Newsweek: Afghan Woman Who Had Secret Beauty Parlor in Kabul Says in a Month Or Two, ‘I’ll be One of the First to Open a Beauty Shop in Public’

An Afghanistan woman who secretly
operated a beauty parlor in her home for five years tells Newsweek’s Melinda
Liu that although hers is still a “Taliban style” beauty salon, in a month or
two, “I’ll be one of the first to open a beauty shop in public. I hope you and
other Western women will come.”

Sure I’ll be on the next plane. Pencil me in for Sunday at 2:45…

The woman, named Latifa, wore lipstick and had dyed auburn hair. She
secretly styled women’s hair, applied makeup, hidden by the all-enveloping
burqa, which covers the face, and played forbidden music cassettes and
videotapes for women who lounged on sofas covered in leopard-print material in
her living room…

And isn’t that what freedom is all about? (Lounging on leopard-skinned sofas, listening to Elvis the pelvis and secretly piercing your ears..)

The politics of post-Taliban Afghanistan still need to be sorted out and
Afghan women are waiting to see if Northern Alliance representatives are
serious about women’s liberation.

So it’s in the hands of the Northern Alliance, is it? How unfortunate. They haven’t been overly concerned with women’s rights in the past.

Under Taliban rule, Afghan women were
forbidden to work or show their faces and were required to wear the burqa.
But since last week, Afghan women are venturing into public again and looking
for work…

And food and shelter…

At least four women got jobs at Radio Afghanistan, and others
continued to stop by the radio station to apply. “When I heard the Taliban was
finished, I rejoiced beyond measure,” says Rida Azimi, 25, one of the first
women to read the news at Radio Afghanistan after the Taliban fled. After
Azimi heard the news about the Taliban’s defeat, she joyously burned her burqa
at home. “I felt so depressed wearing the veil,” she tells Newsweek. “Now I
see the sunlight and it’s so beautiful.”

Due process is out and secret military tribunals are in.

Newsweek: Bush Insisted Only He Should Decide Who Should Stand Trial Before Military Court .

(Note: this is not a full article but a press release about an article that appears in the print version of “Newsweek” that hits the stands Monday.)

After he signed an order allowing the
use of military tribunals in terrorist cases, President George W. Bush
insisted he alone should decide who goes before such a military court, his
aides tell Newsweek. The tribunal document gives the government the power to
try, sentence — and even execute — suspected foreign terrorists in secrecy,
under special rules that would deny them constitutional rights and allow no
chance to appeal.

Bush’s powers to form a military court came from a secret legal
memorandum, which the U.S. Justice Department began drafting in the days after
Sept. 11, Newsweek has learned. The memo allows Bush to invoke his broad
wartime powers, since the U.S., they concluded, was in a state of “armed
conflict.” Bush used the memo as the legal basis for his order to bomb
Afghanistan. Weeks later, the lawyers concluded that Bush would use his
expanded powers to form a military court for captured terrorists. Officials
envision holding the trials on aircraft carriers or desert islands, report
Investigative Correspondent Michael Isikoff and Contributing Editor Stuart
Taylor Jr…

Here’s an eerie Flash animation of Michael Jackson’s strange metamorphosis to his latest state.