Daily Archives: August 18, 2004

5 posts

Secretive Trial Acquits Haitian Death Squad Leader

18 August 2004 | DemocracyNow! Keywords: Jodel Chamblain, FRAPH In Haiti, former death squad leader Louis Jodel Chamblain who twice helped coups against Jean Bertrand Aristide was acquitted of murder in a secretive trial held during the middle of the night that ended early yesterday. Chamblain was second in command of the paramilitary group FRAPH, the Front for the Advancement and Progress of Haiti. In 1991 the group overthrew Jean Bertrand Aristide’s government and went on to kill thousands of Aristide supporters. After years in exile, he returned to Haiti earlier this year to play a key role in another […]

Alabama Gov. Bob Riley says his religious views influenced his push for a tax increase on the wealthy

Matthew 1040: A Biblical Tax Policy? One Governor Says Yes July 2, 2003 | ABC News by Oliver Libaw What does the Bible have to do with tax policy? For Alabama Gov. Bob Riley, a lot. Alabama’s conservative Republican governor has created a new convergence of faith and politics. Citing his Christian faith, he’s calling for a $1.2 billion tax hike, largely on the backs of wealthier taxpayers, for the benefit of the poor.

Republicans Want to Keep Ex-Con Felons From Voting Because They Don’t Vote Republican

[ Kevin Krajick points out in the Washington Post (18 June) that 4.7 million Americans … are barred from voting because they have felony records. This includes not just prison inmates (48 states), parolees (33 states) and probationers (29 states) but also a large number of people — one third of the disenfranchised in all — who are off parole and “free.” [T]hese state laws … deny 13 percent of African American men the vote…. According to one convincing study done at the University of Minnesota at Minneapolis, George W. Bush would have lost Florida by 80,000 votes in 2000 […]

Cronkite for Kucinich?: The Department of Peace

Why Not a Department of Peace? 15 August 2004 | King Features Syndicate by WALTER CRONKITE With this nation embroiled in what threatens to be an interminable “War on Terrorism,” an idea put forward last year by Ohio Congressman Dennis Kucinich has, for me, considerable appeal. Kucinich, who was the one candidate in the Democratic primaries to unfailingly promote the party’s traditional Franklin Roosevelt liberalism, proposed the establishment of a Department of Peace.