BARBARA'S TCHATZKAHS

By Nick Allen Michael Winston Hicks, from New Jersey, was first singled out as a baby when his mother tried to get him on a flight in Florida. She was told by airline officials that her son’s name “was on the list”. As a two-year-old the boy, who is known as Mikey, was patted down by security officers at Newark Airport, which reduced him to tears. His name appears to be among 13,500 on the “selectee” list, which sets off a high level of security screening, after a man called Michael Hicks at some point triggered suspicion. It is not on the much smaller no-fly list which has about 2,500 names, mostly of non-US citizens. His mother, Najlah Feanny Hicks, a photojournalist, told the New York Times that Mikey was badly shaken returning from their recent holiday to the Bahamas when he was aggressively frisked re-entering the US. “A terrorist can blow his underwear up and they don’t catch him,” she told the newspaper. “But my eight-year-old can’t walk through security without being frisked. “...

by Andy Borowitz Responding to the botched terrorism attempt on board Delta flight 253 from Amsterdam to Detroit, the Department of Homeland Security announced today that it was considering a new rule that would force passengers to fly naked. "They won't be able to hide any powders or liquids, and they'll speed right through security," said Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano. "This is a win-win." Anticipating complaints from chilly travelers, she said that the Homeland Security Dept. would force the airlines to institute a " Snugglies for Purchase " plan once the aircraft doors are closed. Ms. Napolitano expressed no embarrassment at having ignored a warning from the Delta terror suspect's dad made weeks before the terror attempt: "Our official policy is that we have to be warned by both the mom and dad before taking it seriously." SOURCE

(repost from 2008) by Alan M. Dershowitz As Israel celebrates its [61st] birthday, the world should recognize the enormous gifts the Jewish state has given the world. Israel has exported more lifesaving medical technology to the far-flung corners of the earth than any nation of comparable size. It has done more to protect the environment, to promote literature, music, the arts and sciences, to spread agricultural advances and to fight terrorism within the rule of law. Israel has created a legal system that is the envy of the world, with a Supreme Court that is open to all with few, if any, restrictions on its jurisdiction. As America's most liberal Supreme Court Justice William Brennan observed when he visited Israel in 1988: "It may well be Israel, not the United States, that provides the best hope for building a jurisprudence that can protect civil liberties against the demands of national security. For it is Israel that has been facing real and serious threats to its securi...

by Tom McLaughlin Two recent court cases on two continents make me very nervous. That they're even being tried is outrageous. That either may succeed is ominous, and few people know anything about either one. First is the case of Roger Barnett - an Arizona rancher who has been under siege by illegal immigrants and drug dealers. In the Washington Times, Barnett claims illegals "tore up water pumps, killed calves, destroyed fences and gates, stole trucks and broke into his home." Now sixteen illegals are suing him in federal court for $32 million, accusing him of "conspiring to violate their civil rights when he stopped them at gunpoint on his ranch next to the US-Mexico border." The sixteen illegals claim Barnett caused them emotional distress by holding them at gunpoint and they want $2 million each. Chief among our federal government's responsibilities is to protect American citizens from foreign invasion, but it's done little or nothing to help Barnett...

Bush's Trojan Taco By Greg Palast Psst! George Bush has a secret. While you Democrats are pounding each other to a pulp in Pennsylvania, the President has snuck back down to New Orleans for a meeting of the NAFTA Three: the Prime Minister of Canada and the President of Mexico. You're not supposed to know that - for two reasons: First, the summit planned for the N.O. two years back was meant to showcase the rebuilt Big Easy, a monument to can-do Bush-o-nomics. Well, it is a monument to Bush's leadership: The city still looks like Dresden 1946, with over half the original residents living in toxic trailers or wandering lost and broke in America. The second reason Bush has kept this major summit a virtual secret is its real agenda. More important, the agenda-makers, the guys who called the meeting, must remain as far out of camera range as possible: The North American Competitiveness Council. Never heard of The Council? Well, maybe you've heard of the counselors: the chief...

How The Bush Administration Uses Fear As A Political Tool by Randolph T Holhut With public support for the Iraq war hovering around 30 percent, the Bush administration is falling back on a familiar strategy it loves to use when it find itself in trouble — scaring the American people. On Tuesday, the National Intelligence Estimate, which reflects the consensus view of the 16 U.S. spy agencies, was released to the press. It states that al-Qaida is stepping up efforts to sneak terror operatives into the United States and has acquired most of the capabilities it needs to strike here. President Bush immediately seized upon the report's findings as justification for the continued U.S. occupation of Iraq. Bush still believes that al-Qaida is responsible for the violence in Iraq, something that has been repeatedly proven false. And, for good measure, Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff chimed in last week, saying he had a "gut feeling" that another major terrorist atta...