Apr 27 2009
The first photos of the Abu Ghraib prisoner abuse scandal were shown on CBS’s ”60 Minutes II.” The photos had been taken by U.S. military personnel responsible for detaining and interrogating Iraqi prisoners arrested following the U.S. invasion of Iraq.
Article by investigative journalist Seymour Hersh, Torture at Abu Ghraib
American soldiers brutalized Iraqis. How far up does the responsibility go?, who helped break the story.
Apr 24 2009
Happy Friday and welcome to the 3rd in the First Amendment Friday series. This is a series looking at the Supreme Court decisions which have given shape to our First Amendment protections. In this phase of the series we are looking at the way that seditious speech has been defined. If you missed the first two installments of this series, you can find them at the links below:
First Amendment Friday 1 – Abrams v US
First Amendment Friday 2 – Gitlow v New York
Cross Posted at Square State
Apr 17 2009
Happy Friday and welcome to the 2nd in the Dog’s series on the Supreme Court Cases defining the boundaries of our 1st Amendment protections under the Constitution. Each week this series will look at one or two Supreme Court decisions. We will look at the facts of the case, the Majority Opinion and the Dissent Opinion. The Dog is not a lawyer so this is strictly a layman’s point of view, but the Dog believes there is value in looking at these things even if one is not a trained professional. If you find the Dog’s analysis to be wrong or you simply disagree, correct him in the comment. This is a learning exercise and the Dog wants to learn too! If you are interested in last weeks installment you can find it here:
Apr 10 2009
Happy Friday and welcome to the beginning of a new series First Amendment Friday! This series is going to look at the Supreme Court cases that put a boundary around our Free Speech rights. It is also going to be slightly deep water, so hang in with the Dog; he is going to do his best to provide a layman’s perspective on the cases, which does not get to deep in legal jargon. As with the Friday Constitutional series the Dog might be wrong in his interpretation, if so, correct him in comments! This is a community learning experience not a concert lecture series.
Apr 03 2009
Happy Friday and Welcome to a bonus installment of Friday Constitutional! This is the Dog’s seemingly never ending series about the Constitution of the United States of America. Up to now we have focused on reading and giving a layman’s interpretation of the Constitution. This week we will take a slightly new direction we will talk about some of the influences of on the construction of the Constitution itself. Specifically we are going to look at what role the governance of the Iroquois Confederacy or the Huadenosaunee had on the structure proposed and ratified by the Constitutional Convention in 1787. For those that have not been following this series and who are interested in the previous installments, you can find them at the following links;
Mar 27 2009
Happy Friday and welcome to the last of the Friday Constitutionals (Wow, that is surprisingly hard to write!)! This is the final of the Dogs 21 week series on the Constitution of the United States. For those of you just coming in, where have you been the last five months? In any case this series takes a layman’s look at the founding document of our nation and its system of laws. If you are interested in the previous installments of this series, you can find them at the following links:
Mar 20 2009
Happy Friday and welcome to the penultimate Friday Constitutional! This is the Dog’s series looking at the United States Constitution from a layman’s perspective. For those who like to have access to the entire series, all of the previous installments in this series can be found at the following links:
Mar 13 2009
Happy Friday and welcome to the 19th installment of Friday Constitutional! As nearly everyone that is reading this knows by now, this is the Dog’s series looking at the Constitution of the United States. For those that missed any of the other installments or are coming in now, you can find all of the previous installments of this series at the following links (the Dog just realized that the links for this series are longer than some folk’s essays. What does that say about the Dog?):
Mar 06 2009
Happy Friday and welcome the 18th installment of Friday Constitutional! For those who are joining this program already in progress, this series takes a layman’s look at the United States Constitution. It is shameful for the Dog to admit, but prior to this series he had never read the entire document. Sure he knew his Bill of Rights and had the basic mechanics of the Federal Government down, but that is in no way the same thing as actually reading it and thinking about it. Being a gregarious hound, the Dog decided to share his thoughts on the Constitution with anyone that might wonder by. If you are interested in the previous installments of this series, you can find them at the following links:
Feb 27 2009
Happy Friday and welcome to the 17th installment of Friday Constitutional! Sorry for the late posting, the Dog has been in meetings all day! For those of you that are joining us for the very first time, this is a weekly series taking a layman’s look at the Constitution of the United States. If you are interested in the previous installments, you can find them at the following links:
Feb 20 2009
It is Friday, so it must be time for a Constitutional! Welcome to the 16th of the Dog’s series on the United States Constitution. It is hard to believe that the Dog has been writing about the Constitution for 4 months now, but as the Dog’s Mom said (with infinite and constant repetition) anything worth doing is worth doing correctly (she has a bit of a proper English fetish, the Dog blames the Nuns). If you have not been reading this series or missed any of them, you can find all of the previous ones at the following links:
Sorry, the Dog is still having some technical difficulty with the links to the previous installments in this series, he does promise to resolve it one way or the other by next Friday!
Feb 18 2009
“Latin America’s Document-Driven Revolutions” is an interesting article at the Washington Post – interesting because of the subject and because of how ripe it is with pro-American imperialism propaganda with no sense of irony.
From the introductory paragraph:
Once a product of armed rebellion, the revolution in Latin America today is taking place on paper in the form of new constitutions, a mostly peaceful process influenced by the work of European legal scholars who have played a behind-the-scenes role in drafting the populist documents.
The U.S. has long meddled in Latin America and has backed those violent means of change. While Europeans have opted to contribute to a more peaceful path. Of course, Europe has a violent history in Latin America too… it goes back a bit father than the Monroe Doctrine.
What was done?