BARBARA'S TCHATZKAHS

In 1776, patriotism meant a lot more than waving a flag. It still does. A look at local patriots, and readers' suggestions of ways to support America's ideals. By Fiona Morgan These are the times that try men's souls," wrote Thomas Paine in The Crisis, a pamphlet that stirred the withering revolutionary army to victory in the winter of 1776. In Paine's day, support for American freedom was an act of dissent. Fearing the same excesses of centralized government that they had experienced under British rule, the newly independent Americans created a Bill of Rights. Those 10 amendments to the Constitution guaranteed that the federal government would not do things as the English had done--there would be no secret detentions, no imprisonment without a fair public trial, no unfair searches and seizures of property, and no squelching of peaceful expression. Today, patriotism often feels to some of us like an odd and uncomfortable thing to embrace. Actions that draw the outr...

Hey Barry? CAN YA' HEAR ME NOW? By Sayed Salahuddin Taliban insurgents rejected on Wednesday a U.S. offer of "honorable reconciliation" as a "lunatic idea" and said the withdrawal of foreign troops was the only way to end the war in Afghanistan. With the Afghan conflict now in its eighth year, NATO-led forces and the Taliban are locked in a bloody stalemate with violence set to rise further this year as more U.S. troops arrive and seek to contain the insurgency ahead of August elections. President Barack Obama is redoubling U.S. efforts with more troops, more diplomatic effort and more economic assistance, but he has also already spoken of the need for an "exit strategy." If the U.S. plan fails to show results, analysts say, time is on the Taliban side. U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton told an international conference on Afghanistan on Tuesday that those members of the Taliban who abandoned extremism must be granted an "honorable form of re...

From the NY Times 7/19/08: A Bush administration plan to define several widely used contraception methods as abortion is a “gratuitous, unnecessary insult” to women and faces tough opposition, Sen. Hillary Clinton said on Friday. Hillary Clinton: … joined family planning groups to condemn the proposal that defines abortion to include contraception such as birth control pills and intrauterine devices. It would cut off federal funds to hospitals and states where medical providers are obligated to offer legal abortion and contraception to women. “We will not put up with this radical, ideological agenda to turn the clock back on women’s rights, ” the New York senator told a joint news conference with New York Rep. Nita Lowey, also a Democrat, at Bellevue Hospital. “Women would watch their contraceptive coverage disappear overnight,” said Clinton. The planned rule is aimed at countering recent state laws enacted to ensure that women can get contraception when they want or need it. It...

From IDDYBUD

'Un-Islamic' Afghan radio station burned 2 poppy eradication police also killed; 100 slain in 2007, officials say Arsonists set fire Friday to a radio station near Kabul accused of being un-Islamic, and two poppy eradication policemen were killed in Afghanistan's southwest, officials said. Four gunmen broke into the offices of Radio Zafar before dawn, tied up two security guards and then set the station's equipment ablaze, said Paghman district police chief Abdul Razaq. The station's director, Najibullah Nassir, said militants have accused Radio Zafar of being morally corrupt and un-Islamic. Its programming includes shows on Islam, sports, news and music. The station has 16 employees, including two female journalists. The Afghan media have flourished since the fall of the Taliban in 2001, but journalists often face threats from militants and warlords for airing critical stories, playing music or employing women. Also Friday, a three-hour clash broke out in southwest...

A THREAT OR A PROMISE? Top Hamas official predicts wave of Palestinian violence after Annapolis Senior Damascus-based Hamas official Moussa Abu Marzouk was quoted on a Hamas Web site Friday as predicting a fresh wave of Palestinian violence in the wake of the upcoming U.S.-sponsored Middle East peace conference scheduled for next week. Hamas was not invited to the conference, to be held next Tuesday in Annapolis, Maryland. The militant Islamic group has said that the summit is being held while Hamas-ruled Gaza is under an Israeli blockade and an international boycott, and therefore does not give a voice to all Palestinians. "Resistance in all its forms and means will escalate in the West Bank and Gaza against the Zionist enemy," Marzouk said in a written interview. "This is because Annapolis will expose the arbitrariness of the [political] settlement track and its destructive endeavors." Also Friday, Gaza's militant groups, including Hamas, rallied tens of thous...

"THEY DON'T WANT PEACE" HELLO!! The clue phone rang and Abbas finally answered it! However, I am not so sure disbanding the coalition government is a good thing - more chaos? more dissent? Who knows! All parties are so unstable... But more death? Absolutely. The Palestinian Authority's president is declaring a state of emergency in the Gaza Strip and dissolving a fragile coalition government with Islamic rivals Hamas, a source close to Mahmoud Abbas said Thursday. The news comes amid fierce gun battle in the Gaza, where intense factional fighting between Hamas and Abbas's Fatah movement has been raging for five days. Earlier Thursday, Hamas fighters overran the most important security installations controlled by Fatah in the Gaza. Hamas fighters lead away Fatah supporters from the Preventive Security headquarters in Gaza City on Thursday. Media quoted witnesses as saying some captured Fatah fighters were dragged from the installation and executed on the street, b...