Democratic Rights in the US
Strange case of North Carolina “jihadists” used to heighten terror scare
By Bill Van Auken, July 31, 2009
In the wake of this week’s arrest of seven North Carolina men labeled as “jihadists” in a federal conspiracy case, the Obama administration has sought to heighten fears of “homegrown terrorism...
Obama’s Homeland Security chief invokes “terror threat”
By Bill Van Auken, July 30, 2009
In a speech Wednesday, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano echoed the terror warnings of her Republican predecessors while making clear that little has changed in the department since the Bus...
The specter of a police state
Bush administration considered using military to arrest “Lackawanna Six”
By Joe Kishore, July 27, 2009
Discussions over using the military to arrest six US citizens outside Buffalo, New York in 2002 were part of a concerted effort to expand presidential power and the domestic role of the Armed Forces.
Following example of Bush-Cheney
Obama administration bars torture investigators from Guantánamo Bay
By Patrick Martin, July 25, 2009
Adding to its six-month record of extending the Bush administration’s attacks on democratic rights, the Obama administration is blocking efforts by human rights investigators from the United Nations...
NSA monitors millions of American e-mails
By Tom Eley, June 19, 2009
The National Security Agency has been monitoring millions of domestic e-mail communications, according to media reports. The activity is so egregious that it violates even last year’s congressional ...
Michigan: Autopsy confirms police taser responsible for teenager’s death
By Jack Cody, June 19, 2009
The results of an autopsy performed on the body of 16-year-old Robert Mitchell, who died on April 10 after being shocked with a taser by a Detroit police officer, indicate that a taser shock likely ca...
US Supreme Court limits Sixth Amendment right to legal counsel
By Michael Stapleton, June 15, 2009
On May 26, the US Supreme Court handed down an anti-democratic ruling in the case Montejo v. Louisiana which weakens the Sixth Amendment’s guarantee of the right to legal counsel.
The assassination of Dr. George Tiller
By Kate Randall, June 3, 2009
The assassination of Dr. George Tiller by a right-wing anti-abortion fanatic is an attack on basic democratic rights that exposes the pathological state of political life in America.
Pro-Israel forces attempt to silence University of California Santa Barbara professor
By Jack Cody, May 25, 2009
A professor at the University of California Santa Barbara is under investigation on charges of anti-Semitism for an email he sent to his students in which he compared the Israeli assault on Gaza to th...
Obama administration indicates military commission trials to resume
By Tom Eley, May 4, 2009
Recent statements by top Obama administration officials and articles in the New York Times and Washington Post indicate that President Obama will likely revive the system of military commission trials...
US Supreme Court hears challenge to Voting Rights Act
By Don Knowland, May 2, 2009
In oral arguments April 29, the right-wing majority of the US Supreme Court indicated that it was prepared to strike down or weaken Section 5 of the landmark Voting Rights Act of 1965.
Right wing threatens Obama over torture charges
By Patrick Martin, April 24, 2009
Wednesday’s lead editorial in the Wall Street Journal threatens President Obama with all-out opposition to any effort to hold Bush administration officials responsible for authorizing torture by the...
