Thanks to ALPF, I have learned that another American war resister is seeking asylum in Canada. I am so out of the loop, lost as I am in the ancient world . Good thing you guys keep me informed. US Army Pvt. Brandon Hughey, 20, told the [Canadian] Immigration and Refugee Board that he refused "to kill people or lose my life under false pretenses." Hughey said he believed the war in Iraq was illegal and his conscience obliged him to desert his Ft. Hood, Texas army base last year. He said when he joined the military at 17 he was looking for a way to put himself through college and respected the military. "I believe some things are worth fighting for, like defending my home and my family," Hughey told the board. "I had no moral objection to fighting back then. In some circumstances, war can be justified." He believed US President George W. Bush had proof that there were weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, so he initially supported the war. But he later deter...
You know I love books. I also have a thing for reference books. (Am I a geek, or what?) So naturally I love libraries. I always have. When I was a kid, when I walked into a library, I would sometimes get that spine-tingly, awed feeling that some people get when they walk into a church. If I have the chance to visit a really old or really vast library, like the one we saw at Trinity College in Dublin, I still will. As if this wasn't enough love, in these days of government censorship and spying, librarians are now also freedom fighters, leading the battle against the so-called Patriot Act. And so I dedicate this post to wmtc's resident librarian , who keeps the flame alive while battling bunheads on a daily basis. Librarian's brush with FBI shapes her view of the USA Patriot Act By Joan Airoldi It was a moment that librarians had been dreading. On June 8, 2004, an FBI agent stopped at the Deming branch of the Whatcom County Library System in northwest Washington and reques...
These are my notes from the 2011 Marxism conference in Toronto. The series starts here. * * * * This was just weeks after the 2011 election, and is very interesting to think about at the one-year mark of Harper's majority. Given what we know now - Jack Layton's death, the NDP's election of a centrist leader, the continued revelations of Conservative election fraud, the extreme ideology of the Harper government - what would we add to this today? Prospects for the Left under a Harper Majority Panel Discussion, May 28, 2011 Monique Moisan, Quebec Solidaire The election results from Quebec amazed everyone. We knew there was an “orange wave” but no one knew how big it was! Quebec is clearly anti-Harper. We know what Quebec doesn’t want! This was not an anti-Bloc vote, as many think. It was a statement that sovereignty is not an issue for most Quebec voters. The issues are was Layton talked about: public services, health care, pensions. Economic security. The Bloc formed in 1993 ...
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