?State Secrets? Privilege Derails Rendition Suit Wil.liam Fisher  The Huffington Post 7/04/08   Maher Arar, the poster boy for the U.S. Government's program of ?extraordinary rendition? has again been denied his day in court and Congressional efforts to rein in the Bush Administration's widespread use of national security as a defense appear to be foundering. Late last month, a federal Court of Appeals ruled that the lawsuit brought by Arar against former Attorney General John Ashcroft, FBI director Robert Mueller, and other senior governme.Bill Maher.

Some Thoughts on the Fourth Tickets, A few months ago I came across this quote on the photography blog of Eric Ethridge, which I pass along as part of today's July Fourth celebrations. It's from the great American historian C. Vann Woodward. Ethridge tells us that it appears in Woodward's 1953 essay .".The Irony of Southern History.". which is collected in his book The Burden of Southern History. Woodward was reflecting on the U.S. position in the world in the years after World War II. We are exasperated by the ironic incongruities.

Poem on privatization of British healthcare New York, SiCKO- Michael Moore Interview On Real Time With Bill Maher - More amazing videos are a click away This is a Michael Moore interview on privatized medicine. Here comes a poem about the tendencies.he Thatcherist-Blairist-Brownist British governments towards privatization of the National Health Service. The Bevan! in the poem ia Aneurin Bevan, the British ?Old? Labour minister, who founded the National Health Service in the 1940s. The ?should be living at this hour? line is borrowed.

PA in Last Week's WSJ Ticket, Sorry this is late. This is a list of articles regarding Pennsylvania in this week's Wall Street Journal. Chances are I missed something, but these are the articles that caught my eye. It should be noted that I routinely do not read the editorials in the WSJ. So any discussions of the state, its elected officials, businesses, or citizens, in editorials will not be mentioned here. PA Politicians This is just sad, people, can't someone do something noteworthy or scandalous? This week we have .

Super-satirist: Mark Twain I suppose I should slap a ?Zeitgeist? disclaimer on this; these links all go to articles on this year's TIME magazine ?Making of America? profile subject, Mark Twain. But they mention Stephen as a successor to that iconoclastic man, and they're worth reading in their own right. From TIME: The Mark of Twain Thursday, Jul. 03, 2008 By RICHARD STENGEL, MANAGING EDITOR . Mark Twain is the subject of our seventh annual Making of America issue. We chose him?after a succession of Presiden. Bill Maher at New York.

THOSE PESKY JUDICIAL ACTIVISTS Bill Maher tickets, By William Fisher Maher Arar, the poster boy for the U.S. Government's program of ?extraordinary rendition? has again been denied his day in court and Congressional efforts to rein in the Bush Administration's widespread use of national security as a defense appear to be foundering. Late last month, a federal Court of Appeals ruled that the lawsuit brought by Arar against former Attorney General John Ashcroft, FBI director Robert Mueller, and other senior government officials, could.

Recommended Reading Recommended Reading Over on Slate, David Greenberg has a couple of interesting essays (here and here) about .".patriotism.".as a campaign weapon.one that's being deployed in the current match-up and which we're likely to see, ad nauseam, in the months ahead. My particular problem with that is that this kind of debate always revolves around a particularly shallow kind of patriotism ? waving the flag, reciting the pledge, standing for the anthem, etc. After 9/11, patriots of that depth all bough. New York ticket broker.

Religulous youtube/watch?v=qB8fPJ6zds8 Here is the trailer for the new documentary Religulous with comedian Bill Maher. Its a Michael Moore style documentary where Maher goes around and investigates religion and what is it exactly that people believe and why they are passionate about it. Of course Maher acts like a total ass in the process but what else is new. This is part of a growing trend of people questioning the notion that religion is an essential and necessary part of society. ticket brokers.

Christopher Hitchens gets waterboarded. True confession time. I do not like Christopher Hitchens! I have watched him many times.".Real Time.".with Bill Maher, among others programs, and I simply do not like the pasty, wheezy, arrogant pig. He was an aggressive supporter of the Iraq war at its start, and an unyielding defender as the bottom started falling out of it. He always seemed either half in the bag, or just coming out of a terrible hangover, and he mumbles his words making it hard to make out just what he is saying so that .tickets.

Comcast Weans The Poor Off Politics Allegorically speaking, to a political junkie such as myself, C-Span and C-Span 2 are the uncut heroin of political news. If you're somebody who doesn't really need to be told what you just saw with your own eyes, C-Span provides the perfect information gathering vehicle to understand what is going on in Washington politics, but also covers other events which literally shape the lives of all Americans and others around the world. I work very hard for my money and reject practically any monthly.tickets.