Matt Schonert

Legal experts now say that it’s easier for the federal government to assassinate American citizens than it is to eavesdrop on them:

To eavesdrop on the terrorism suspect who was added to the target list, the American-born radical cleric Anwar al-Awlaki, who is hiding in Yemen, intelligence agencies would have to get a court warrant. But designating him for death, as C.I.A. officials did early this year with the National Security Council’s approval, required no judicial review.

Administration officials take the view that no legal or constitutional rights can protect Mr. Awlaki, a charismatic preacher who has said it is a religious duty to attack the United States and who the C.I.A. believes is actively plotting violence.

What ever happened to “safety vs. ideals” being a false dilemma, as Obama said in his inauguration address? It now seems inadequate to call the hypocrite-in-chief “Bush Lite” when his administration in fact shows more contempt for due process than his despised predecessor.

See also:

• Organizing on the Issues: Improve Intelligence Capacity and Protect Civil Liberties
• New target of rights erosions: U.S. citizens

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Blackwater founder Erik Prince made some political remarks during a rare public appearance in his hometown of Holland, Michigan.

“The greatest threat to our freedom and prosperity is not al-Qaida, the Taliban, Iran or even China,” he said. “It’s an idea, the idea that we can spend our way out of our problems without tightening our belt and paring down the very bloated government.”

The greatest threat to Erik Prince’s prosperity is a Congress that applies the “belt-tightening” approach not only to domestic affairs but also to profligate military spending. Since 2001, the federal government has dished out an average of $111 million per year in federal contracts to Prince’s private military company.

It should be no surprise, then, if Prince and the Republicans he’s purchased don’t object to one penny of the $663.8 billion the Department of Defense asked for in 2010.

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Tyler Horning/Collegian

Earlier this week, H​i​l​l​s​ d​a​l​e C​o​l​l​e​g​e administrators stopped College Republicans from holding a rally in protest of the health care bill, citing a 50-year old unwritten policy dating from the days of college president J. Donald Phillips, who opposed student activism in the 1960s.

“We just simply have a policy: no rallies on campus”

This policy didn’t stop the College Republicans from holding a rally in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom back in 2004. Hardly a under-the-radar event, the rally took place in front of the Central Hall, was attended by Michigan legislator Bruce Caswell, and was patrolled by campus security personnel.

Not only did this demonstration (which was accompanied by an anti-war counter-rally) fail to “arouse the passions” or “get out of control”, but the event was ridiculed by Collegian editors as one of “the most pathetic displays of political activism” they had ever seen, adding that if nothing else, “it proved that this sort of thing should never be attempted at Hillsdale again.”

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“They say we’re the ones who caused the earthquake. But we know ourselves that we didn’t cause the quake, because it was a natural catastrophe,” said Willer Jassaint, one of the priests, or houngans, leading the Voodoo ceremony.

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AFP reports:

President-elect Barack Obama plans to give “a major address” in an Islamic capital soon after taking office as he seeks to mend America’s image in the Muslim world, a Chicago Tribune interview said.

“I think we’ve got a unique opportunity to reboot America’s image around the world and also in the Muslim world in particular,” Obama said in the interview published late Tuesday on the Tribune’s website.

As an information technology guy, I appreciate this advent of computing metaphors in mainstream political speech. I hope his speechwriters make a habit of this. Here’s something to get the ball rolling:

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