From Granma International:

Frightened by the growing organization of resistance movements, from Tuesday, February 11 onwards the New York Federal District Court has banned all public demonstrations against the U.S.' announced war on Iraq.

Our first amendment tells us that "[Congress shall make no law ... prohibiting ... or abridiging] the right of the people peaceably to assemble". While this says nothing of our court system, I think we can all agree that freedom of assembly was specifically mentioned as a right that could not be taken away. Yet here we have a clear case of a judge doing exactly that, coincidentally involving a protest to Dubya's war. I'm not going to even claim there's any connection, the fact that this is happening is bad enough that it should cause everyone to take a long look at exactly what what we're allowing our government to get away with.

The first European settlers in America came because it was a place they could be free from the laws & discriminations of their homelands. When the Revolutionary War was fought, it was for freedom. The Bill of Rights is a testament to the fact that those who wrote the Consititution wanted to preserve our rights and freedoms, and specifically named some of these, and those which were not named, and not specifically given to the government in writing in the Constitution, were given to the people.

So when did the American people stop caring about the rights and freedoms that our nation's founders fought and died to obtain and preserve? When did we let the government start walking all over our natural rights? And why do we keep letting this happen?

On a slightly more positive note, though, House and Senate negotiators agreed on a Senate amendment to freeze programs like TIA, saying it won't get any funding until the program and it's impact on Americans can be thoroughly examined by a Congressional oversight board. At least there's some good news to come out of all this.