Author and journalist Rick Freedman is in Europe to compile a photo essay of the European anti-war, anti-Bush protests. He's got some good pictures up on his blog, World on Fire. Rick describes his journey:

I'm in Europe developing a photo essay illustrating the European anti-war,
anti-Bush action that doesn't get covered by the docile US media. I've posted a
photo essay with some of my exclusive new stuff on my "World on Fire" blog. I
think you'll find it pretty interesting - the atmosphere of conflict and tension
here is impossible to grasp by watching the CNN ten-second newsbite. Please stop by and take a look.

Here's our favorite picture, from Munich.

by TChris

Four days ago, it appeared that Pakistani troops had surrounded the number two Al Qaeda leader, Ayman al-Zawahri. (TalkLeft provided information about al-Zawahri here.)

Since then, Pakistani officials have declined to say that al-Zawahri is being protected by Al Qaeda militants in the heavy fighting, but have speculated that the intensity of the fighting means that the militants are protecting a "high value target." Now, as the fighting wanes, the hope of capturing that unidentified target may be fading. News sources report that key figures in the battle may have escaped through hidden tunnels.

by TChris

What do John Kerry, Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr., Albert Einstein, Frank Sinatra and Marilyn Monroe have in common? The FBI spied on all of them.

Kerry attracted the FBI's attention when, as a leader of Vietnam Veterans Against the War, he exercised his First Amendment right to protest the war.

The Los Angeles Times reports FBI files just now coming to public light show Kerry was watched closely by the FBI in 1971 and 1972: following him everywhere he went, recording his speeches, and taking pictures of the future politician and others involved in the VVAW.

An FBI memo in 1972 recommended that the surveillance end. The author concluded that no evidence linked Kerry to any violent activity, and that Kerry's interest in politics was "apparently legitimate."

Kerry requested his FBI file 17 years ago, after he was elected to the Senate. The FBI withheld much of the information that has now been made public. Kerry is understandably perturbed.

"I'm surprised by extent of it," says the Democratic presidential candidate, in an interview with the L.A. Times. "I'm offended by the intrusiveness of it. And I'm disturbed that it was all conducted absent of some showing of any legitimate probable cause. It's an offense to the Constitution. It's out of order."

The abusive use of police power to monitor protected political action eventually persuaded Congress to restrict the FBI's ability to spy on American citizens. As much as John Ashcroft may believe that such restrictions hamper a war on terror, Kerry's experience serves as a reminder that the government should not be permitted to spy upon any American's legitimate exercise of the right to protest.

Today's hall of shame award goes to Ohio. An investigation by the Cincinnati Enquirer resulted in a new report that finds:

At Ohio psychiatric centers, workers molested children, denied them food or gave them alcohol and drugs. Some kids suffered broken bones. Others lived in homes so dirty they urinated on the floor by their beds. Taxpayers shell out $160 to $1,000 a day for each mentally ill child who lives in these private treatment centers.

Why are these kids in private facilities subsidized by the state? Because Ohio closed all its juvenile hospital facilities:

...the state closed most of its mental institutions in the late 1980s and early 1990s - and created few programs to replace them. Ohio once operated 17 mental hospitals caring for more than 20,000 children and adults. Today, the state runs nine hospitals caring for 1,100 adults - and no children.

If this article doesn't ruin your day, nothing will.

Bruce Godschalk was released from prison after serving 15 years for two rapes DNA later proved he didn't commit. Details of his case are here.

Mr. Godschalk has received a $1.6 million settlement from the township of Upper Merion, PA--it was the townships detectives that extracted a false confession from him. He has already received $740,000 from Montgomery County.

The Supreme Court is considering a case of "Papers, Please?" In other words, if the police think you may have been involved in a crime and ask you to identify yourself, do you have to answer?

That is the question before the US Supreme Court Monday, as the justices consider whether a Nevada law requiring suspects to identify themselves whenever requested by police violates constitutional protections of privacy and freedom from self-incrimination. The case is significant because it gives the court a chance to more closely define how deeply law-enforcement officials may intrude into private lives.

If the court establishes a bright-line rule barring police from forcing such disclosures, it will highlight a new focus by the justices on individual liberty. If, on the other hand, the court upholds the Nevada law, it could prompt other states and the federal government to adopt similar tactics amid heightened concern about possible terrorist activities within the US.

The case involves Dudley Hiibel, a Nevada citizen who refused to provide his name to a deputy sheriff. Hiibel's position, with which we agree, is the police can ask, but you shouldn't have to answer.

The candidates' latest campaign contribution figures are out. If you want to boot Bush, give to Kerry, now and often. The numbers speak for themselves:

Democratic Sen. John Kerry's presidential election campaign reported on Sunday it had collected $8.4 million last month, well shy of the $13.7 million haul of rival President Bush. Kerry's latest take, disclosed in a filing with the Federal Election Commission, barely outstripped his spending and pushed his campaign war chest up only slightly to $2.4 million. In contrast, Bush's re-election campaign had $110 million on hand at the end of last month.

Kerry's March internet campaign has raised him $14 million so far. Let's keep it going.

Pharmacies in Canada will soon be provided with Government marijuana to dispense to patients:

Officials are organizing a pilot project in British Columbia, modelled on a year-old program in the Netherlands, that would allow medical users to buy marijuana at their local drugstore. Currently, there are 78 medical users in Canada permitted to buy Health Canada marijuana, which is grown in Flin Flon, Man. The 30-gram bags of dried buds, sold for $150 each, now are sent by courier directly to patients or to their doctors.

But the department is changing the regulations to allow participating pharmacies to stock marijuana for sale to approved patients without a doctor's prescription, similar to regulations governing so-called morning-after pills, emergency contraceptives that can be obtained directly from a pharmacist without the need for a doctor's signature.

The quality of the pot isn't up to snuff yet, but the Government promises it's working on the problem.

A department spokeswoman says tests are under way to improve the marijuana after numerous complaints from users. "We are taking the concerns of users seriously," said Aggie Adamczyk.

One of our favorite singers and songwriters, Jackson Browne, takes on the Bush Administration's Cuban policy in an op-ed in today's New York Times, Songs of Cuba, Silenced in America. First, the context:

Carlos Varela, the great Cuban singer-songwriter, applied for a visa to come to the United States to sing his powerful, amazing songs. He had concerts planned in Miami, New York and Los Angeles. Our government turned him down.
Visas have been denied to other Cuban artists because their visits are "detrimental to the interests" of our country. In essence, the government says that if Carlos Varela plays concerts in the United States, the money he makes would go to Fidel Castro. This is untrue. In Cuba, renowned artists keep much of what they earn, because the government does not want them to leave the country and live somewhere else. Yet, the Bush administration used the same reasoning to keep Ibrahim Ferrer, of the Buena Vista Social Club, and Manuel Galbán from attending the Grammy award ceremony in Los Angeles last month. (Both men won awards.)

Browne progresses to Bush's Cuban policy in general:

United States foreign policy toward Cuba is unpopular in America, and for good reason. It stops Americans from traveling to Cuba and Cubans from coming into the States. It stops us from sharing medicine with the ill and restricts our ability to sell food to the hungry. This policy is an outdated relic of the cold war and exists only as a political payoff to Republican-leaning Cuban-American voters in Miami.

I believe in justice and human rights in the United States and abroad. I am saddened by the treatment by the Cuban government of the political dissidents in their country. I long for the day when there is freedom for both Cubans and Americans to travel in both directions across the Straits of Florida without undue interference by their governments. I want this freedom not just for artists but for all people, American and Cuban, who live each day in the hope for a just and prosperous future. Giving Carlos Varela a visa to sing in America would be a good way to begin.

Former President Jimmy Carter is the latest critic of the War in Iraq. From an interview with London's Independent:

"There was no reason for us to become involved in Iraq recently. That was a war based on lies and misinterpretations from London and from Washington, claiming falsely that Saddam Hussein was responsible for [the] 9/11 attacks, claiming falsely that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction. And I think that President Bush and Prime Minister Blair probably knew that many of the allegations were based on uncertain intelligence ... a decision was made to go to war [then people said] 'Let's find a reason to do so'."

[link via Political Wire.]

by TChris

If the late night talk show hosts either shape or reflect the mood of the country, John Kerry can take comfort in the fact that he is ridiculed less than the President.

In Washington, of course, everything must be studied and scrutinized. So the Center for Media and Public Affairs has divined that Bush remains the biggest late-night target -- the butt of 213 jokes from Jan. 1 through March 9 -- compared with 53 for Kerry (who barely beat the 43 jibes aimed at Dennis Kucinich). Even in February, when Kerry was surging to the nomination, it was Bush hands down, 121 to 25.

Even Jay Leno is taking hard shots at Bush.

"President Bush admitted that his prewar intelligence wasn't what it should have been," Jay Leno said. "We knew that when we elected him."

Ouch!

Leno and the other late night comedians make fun of Kerry's hair, appearance, and alleged flip-flopping, but 94 percent of the jokes about intelligence, and 89 percent about honesty, have been told about Bush. It will be a long campaign season for the President if the trend continues.

by TChris

The tranfer of power to the people of Iraq, scheduled to occur on June 30, will be largely symbolic, as the United States will still exercise the real power in the country.

The fledgling Iraqi government will be capable of tackling little more than drawing up a budget and preparing for elections, top U.S. and Iraqi officials say.

Since the U.S.-led occupation regime will have a hand in choosing Iraq's next government, the body will lack a mandate for anything but administrative tasks. Many envision a team of nonpartisan Iraqi technocrats who concentrate on keeping the country functioning.

The interim government is not expected to enact any laws or enter into significant contracts. Rather, the government will try to create a budget while preparing for elections. In the meantime, the U.S. government will direct spending of much of the U.S. aid package, giving the U.S. "a huge tool with which to influence Iraq's affairs."

The U.S. influence on Iraqi affairs is expected to last beyond the formation of a democratically elected government. For example, Paul Bremer is appointing inspectors general for Iraq's ministries that, according to current rules, can't be replaced by an incoming Iraqi government.