Antiwar.com Blog

I don’t often agree with Democratic congressmen, but Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-OH) had the right response after listening to Bush’s December 14th speech on Iraq:

“The President now says he is responsible for the war in Iraq. I agree with the President. He is responsible. He is responsible for attacking a nation that did not attack us. He is responsible for the 2,151 American troops killed in Iraq. He is responsible for the 15,881 U.S. troops injured in the war. He is responsible for at least 30,000 Iraqi civilians killed since the start of the war. He is responsible for draining $250 billion from U.S. taxpayers to pay for the war. And he is responsible for the failed reconstruction and for the continued occupation.”

From a speech by George W. Bush on April 20, 2004 , more than two years after the illegal wiretapping of Americans commenced on his personal say so:

Secondly, there are such things as roving wiretaps. Now, by the way, any time you hear the United States government talking about wiretap, it requires — a wiretap requires a court order. Nothing has changed, by the way. When we’re talking about chasing down terrorists, we’re talking about getting a court order before we do so. It’s important for our fellow citizens to understand, when you think Patriot Act, constitutional guarantees are in place when it comes to doing what is necessary to protect our homeland, because we value the Constitution.

What? Wiretaps require a court order? Our Constitutional rights are guaranteed? Then how come ….

from RBN, where I’ve hosted the Weekend Interview Show since August of 2004.

This is all for the better, because now I’ll have to figure out how to do the next project bigger and better…

My best to everyone at RBN.

Oh, yeah, and by the by, I have a new blog called Stress, named in honor of Bill Hicks‘ band. Stop on over if ya like.

I had a wonderful trip to Malaysia to attend the Perdana Global Peace Forum. While in Malaysia, I had no snags or run-ins with any authorities.

This was not the case on my return to the US.

I don’t think I look much like a terrorist. Despite my utter contempt for them, I am always careful to be exceptionally courteous and cooperative with police and bureaucrats who can make decisions that affect my future.

I went through the main line at US customs at San Francisco International Airport. After scanning my passport, the first officer sent me to a different station than the others she was processing. I don’t know if this was a random check, or if I looked like a terrorist because I hadn’t shaved in a day, or if my name popped up when she scanned the passport.

At the next station, I was questioned about what I did for a living. I explained that I was a webmaster. That was not sufficient, so I had to mention Antiwar.com. That sent me to the next escalation and a third station.

At the third station, I was questioned about the nature of Antiwar.com, the forum I went to, and everything I did in Malaysia. The officer looked through all the literature in detail. He made me unfurl an 8-foot banner I had brought back with pictures of all the speakers. He asked me about each speaker in detail, asked me about my relationship with the former PM Tun Dr. Mahathir, who he explained was “very anti-American.” He didn’t just go through my luggage, he examined the political content of the books and papers I had. He made comments about much of it. He was alarmed by the copy of Helen Caldicott’s book because the cover has a photo of Bush, Cheney, and Powell smiling beneath a mushroom cloud. He found it “anti-American.” Then he saw that it was personally autographed to me, which he clearly didn’t like.

He asked me whether there were a lot of Muslims (Duh! It’s Malaysia!). Did I meet anyone I thought might be associated with terrorists? Were there any people from Thailand? (Not that I knew of.)

It didn’t seem to be going well for me, and I am pretty sure that the next “station” would have been “the room” for more intensive interrogation. However, all of a sudden he noticed a group photo with me standing next to a Buddhist Monk, Dr. Chin Kung, who was a speaker at the event. The officer claimed to know who he was and said he saw him on television and liked him. His attitude changed, and he let me go. I am pretty sure he was wrong, because Dr. Kung does not speak English, so I doubt he saw him on TV. But probably to the officer, all Buddhist monks look alike. I am very happy that I met Dr. Kung.

This was a pretty scary experience and in stark contrast to my friendly welcome in Malaysia. I think I came close to a detention/interrogation session that could have turned into something much more serious. With all the articles we run on the site about this sort of thing, it was really brought home to me in a personal way.

They’ll save us from the tyranny of an unrestrained executive.

Won’t they?

In case you haven’t heard yet, or were confused by our titles from late last night like “Bush Won’t Discuss Report of NSA Spying” and “Rice Denies Illegal Domestic Spying”… Bush has since ‘acknowledged approving eavesdropping’.

I’ll spare you any further commentary on it, since I already did so on my own weblog

Addendum: Looks like USA Today updated the article recently and now it’s more about the Patriot Act than the NSA spying. If you want to see what he actually said about the NSA spying, you’ll just have to read the transcript of his weekly radio address