Democracy for Vancouver

I normally tire of generic, year-end wrap-ups of the year, but Ken Friedman at WFMU’s Beware of the Blog has a post that is right up my alley. He’s got my picks right up top:

1) Fox News airs an infomercial for torture. On the November 3rd Greta Van Susteren show, reporter Steve Harrigan submitted himself to waterboarding, declaring:

As far as torture goes, at least in this controlled
experiment, to me, this seemed like a pretty efficient mechanism to get
someone to talk and then still have them alive and healthy within
minutes.

Download 10 meg video, mpeg format or youtube it.

2) Federal semantics eliminates the hunger problem.
In November, The United States Department of Agriculture replaces the
word “hunger” with the phrase “low food security” in its annual report
on hunger in America. Problem solved! Link.

3) Defending the First Amendment by proposing that we scrap it.
At a New Hampshire event dedicated to freedom of speech, Newt Gingrich
declares that the United States will have to re-examine that particular
constitutional right as it fights terrorism. Link.
Said Newt: “This is a serious, long-term war. It will inevitably lead
us to want to know what is said in every suspect place in the country. 
It will lead us to learn how to close down every Web site that is
dangerous.”

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