With all due respect to the families and friends who lost loved ones in the horrible attacks one year ago, I think there’s enough 9-11 memorializing out there at the moment without my further contributing. So I’ll confine my links to my post that day, W.H. Auden’s “September 1, 1939” (which I still think beautifully encapsulates both the despair of Ground Zero and the hope of Union Square one year ago), and the changes to your legal rights since then. (Last link via Genehack.) Let us hope that 9-11 stands alone with December 7 as a day that will live in infamy, and not as a prelude of darker hours to come.
Category: War on Terror
Mr. Washington’s Congress.
In a show of commitment to NYC a year after the attacks, Congress convenes once again in Federal Hall, just as it did in the days of Washington. To my mind, this is one of the classier displays churned out by the 9-11 memorial industry this week.
Carter Beats the Dubya.
Former President Jimmy Carter decries Dubya’s Middle East policy, as well as the numerous human rights violations currently being overlooked and/or perpetrated in the name of anti-terrorism.
Simulated Tragedies.
Slate surveys the recent spate of politically-minded online games, including Enduring Freedom and New York Defender. Warning: You may find either to be of questionable taste, and you may want to check out this (via Lake Effect) after playing the latter.
Shame of the Founders.
“The only thing the FISA court proved was that when wolves are guarding the henhouse, they eat a lot of coq au vin.” The always incisive Dahlia Lithwick rails against secret courts and the overlooked provisions of the Patriot Act.
I wonder if he read Dune too…
Does Osama Bin Laden have a Hari Seldon complex? This article examines the (possible) links between Al Qaeda and Isaac Asimov‘s Foundation series. (Via Julian’s Jabberings.)
FISA fights back.
The secret court overseeing the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) rebuff Ashcroft’s plea for increased wiretap powers, and declares the FBI has misled the court over 75 times. Never thought I’d be on the side of a secret court, but there you go. It must be getting really ugly over at Justice if somebody’s leaking this bad boy.
Second-Class Citizens, First-Class Surveillance.
Sketching an eerie parallel to Ashcroft’s current war on libraries, Derrick Jackson surveys the FBI’s long and ignoble history concerning Black America.
Ashcroft’s “Hellish Vision.”
Jonathan Turley, Constitutional Law professor at GW and television staple during l’affaire Lewinsky, lashes into John Ashcroft for his recent plan to create extraconstitutional internment camps of “enemy combatants” (re: US citizens) in and around the country. (Via Caught in Between.) Y’know, I do believe John Ashcroft is the scariest man in the country right now.
Cheap Oil is a Right!
All manner of Dept. of Homeland Security Posters (Via Do You Feel Loved?) As Chris noted, some of ’em are kinda shrill, but I’m a sucker for the retro stylings.