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Saturday, June 3, 2006 |
The 'war against terror' has reached literature.
In Sara Paretsky's Blacklist, V I Warshavski 'finds herself penned into a smaller and smaller space by an array of business and political leaders who can call on the power of the Patriot Act to shut her up'.
VillageVoice about Terrorist: "A novel about a mad bomber by John Updike - why not?
And yet if Terrorist is any indication, in the five years since he witnessed the twin towers crumble from his son's Brooklyn Heights apartment, Updike has been re-evaluating his perspective. Among the few genuinely despicable characters in the book is the secretary of Homeland Security."
11:27:16 AM 
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Guardian: "The Bush administration, heavily influence by the Christian right, is blocking key proposals for a new United Nations package to combat Aids worldwide over the next five years because of its opposition to the distribution of condoms and needle exchanges and references to prostitutes, drug addicts and homosexuals."
CommonDreams: "The U.S. Department of Justice has told Google, Microsoft and other major Internet companies that it wants them to keep detailed records of where people go while surfing the Web for up to two years."
NewsNet5: "A woman convicted of assaulting Cleveland Heights police officers appeared in court for sentencing Friday morning, but the sentencing was delayed when the judge said she must change her clothes.
However, Carolyn Fisher refused to change out of her anti-President George W. Bush T-shirt before arriving back in court Friday afternoon, but Judge Timothy McGinty went ahead with the sentencing anyway, NewsChannel5 reported.
Fisher was arrested in January when she was hanging up anti-President George W. Bush posters, which police say is against the law. Officers said the woman attacked them when they ordered her to take down the posters."
AlterNet: "Four Connecticut librarians were served with a National Security Letter (NSL) in August of last year as part of the FBI's attempt to attain access to patron's records.
The NSL is a little known statute in the Patriot Act that permits law enforcement to obtain records of people not suspected of any wrongdoing and without a court order. As part of the NSL, those served with the document are gagged and prohibited from disclosing that they have even been served.
The librarians, via the national and Connecticut branches of the ACLU, filed suit challenging the Patriot Act on first amendment grounds.
'People ask about private and confidential things in the library setting ... like about their health, their family issues and related books they take out ... these are confidential and we did this to protect our patrons from authorized snooping,' said Peter Chase, Vice President of Library Connection.
On September 9 of last year, a federal judge lifted the gag order and rejected the government's argument that identifying the plaintiff would pose a threat to national security."
Living in latter-day America is not much fun.
Will someone please give Bush a blow job so we can impeach him!
11:06:46 AM
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