Matthew Rothschild

May 11, 2004

When peace activist Frank Van Den Bosch heard that George Bush was coming through Platteville, Wisconsin, on May 7, he knew he wanted to be there to protest. Van Den Bosch lives only thirty miles to the north, and he and his wife had helped set up a group called Students for Peace and Justice when she was at UW-Platteville a few years back, he says.read more

McDermott Assailed for Omitting God from Pledge of Allegiance

May 1, 2004

On April 27, Representative Jim McDermott, Democrat from Seattle, was given an assignment by Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi's office: Open the House session with the obligatory recitation of the Pledge of Allegiance, a task that rotates among House members. When McDermott delivered the pledge, he omitted saying the words "Under God," and that created an uproar. Representative Pete Sessions, Republican of Texas, blamed McDermott for "embarrassing the House and disparaging the majority of Americans who share the values expressed in the pledge," AP reported.read more

March 17, 2004

If you're ever thinking about going down to Crawford, Texas, to protest against Bush, beware. The police do not take kindly to demonstrators there--or legal observers, for that matter. And even if you're just wearing an anti-Bush button, you could get arrested. That's the message a local jury sent last month.read more

March 15, 2004

The work of political cartoonist Ted Rall will no longer be seen on The New York Times Digital site. Even his archived work is no longer there. "After two years of monitoring cartoons by Ted Rall, we have decided that, while he often does good work, we found some of his humor was not in keeping with the tone we try to set for our website," said Len Apcar, the editor of NYTimes.com. "While NYTimes.com and its parent company support the right of free expression, we also recognize an obligation to assure our users that what we publish, no matter what its origin, does not offend the reasonable sensibilities of our audience."read more

March 15, 2004

When Sahar Aziz, a third-year law student at the University of Texas Law School in Austin, organized a campus conference February 4 on "Islam and the Law: A Question of Sexism," she didn't expect any trouble. "It was nothing out of the ordinary for a law school conference," she says. "It was an academic conference discussing the sociological, political, historical, and legal perspectives."read more

March 4, 2004

U.S. Representative Tom Cole, Republican of Oklahoma, said if Bush is defeated, it's a victory for Osama bin Laden. Speaking to a group of Republicans on February 28, Cole said: "I promise you this. If George Bush loses the election, Osama bin Laden wins the election. It's that simple. It will be interpreted that way by enemies of the United States around the world." He went on to make comparisons to voting against Roosevelt during World War II or Lincoln during the Civil War.read more

March 17, 2004

A high school student in Prosser, Washington, had an assignment in art class: keep a notebook of your drawings and then show them to the teacher. The fifteen-year-old at Prosser High complied. But the content of his drawings were deemed so out of line that not only was he allegedly disciplined but the superintendent reported him to the Secret Service.read more

February 27, 2004

Add another wrinkle to the controversial case of the Des Moines peace activists. Earlier this year, they faced federal subpoenas to testify about an anti-war conference that was held at Drake University in Des Moines last November 15. Under public pressure, the federal prosecutor withdrew the subpoenas against them and Drake. Turns out that at least two Polk County Sheriff's deputies infiltrated that conference. "On November 15, 2003, this Senior Deputy Leo along with Senior Deputy Griffiths, both acting in an undercover capacity, attended a Civil Disobedience workshop held at the Olmstead Center at Drake University," reads a document that was released to the protesters in the discovery phase of their trespassing trials.read more

February 11, 2004

The outcry over the U.S. Attorney's heavy-handed tactics against peace activists in Des Moines seems to have had a positive effect. On February 10, just a week after handing down subpoenas on four nonviolent peace activists and Drake University, U.S. Attorney Stephen Patrick O'Meara withdrew the subpoenas.read more

February 9, 2004

The crackdown is upon us. The U.S. government has issued subpoenas to four nonviolent peace activists in Des Moines to appear before a federal grand jury. The local U.S. Attorney's office has also subpoenaed Drake University to turn over documents about who attended an anti-war conference on campus in November and who the leaders of the local National Lawyers' Guild chapter are.read more

February 4, 2004

He took a lot of notes. That's how one member of a California anti-war group, Peace Fresno, described Aaron Kilner, a member of the Fresno County Sheriff's Department, who had infiltrated the group.read more

February 2004 Issue

In many places across George Bush's America, you may be losing your ability to exercise your lawful First Amendment rights of speech and assembly. Increasingly, some police departments, the FBI, and the Secret Service are engaging in the criminalization--or, at the very least, the marginalization--of dissent. "We have not seen such a crackdown on First Amendment activities since the Vietnam War," says Anthony Romero, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU).read more

January 29, 2004

Thomas C. Frazier works as an investigator in the prosecutor's office of the South Coast Air Quality Management District, the anti-pollution agency in Orange County and the surrounding area. Last October 16, he decided to take the day off to go to San Bernardino from his home in Santa Ana. His purpose, he says, was "to engage in a legal and peaceful protest" against George W. Bush. The President was in town that day at the Radisson Hotel and Convention Center to support the candidacy of now-Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger.read more

January 24, 2004

The grassroots, progressive Internet group MoveOn.org held a competition for the best 30-second anti-Bush ad. And the winner was "Child's Pay," by ad man Charlie Fisher. It features, according to MoveOn, "young children working in difficult service and manufacturing jobs--washing dishes, hauling trash, repairing tires, cleaning offices, assembly-line processing and grocery checking--followed by the line: 'Guess who's going to pay off President Bush's $1 trillion deficit?' "read more

January 27, 2004

Chuck Bowden is an artist who lives near Eureka, California. He contributed a work to a local art exhibit sponsored in December by the Redwood Art Association. Bowden's was not a quiet piece. Entitled "The Tactics of Tyrants Are Always Transparent," it depicts George Bush as a little boy with blood dripping from one hand and a hand grenade in another. He has a crown on his head, and he is wearing an "I Am Not a Terrorist" T-shirt. Behind him, the twin towers are ablaze. Next to him is a grave with a covering that says, "Homeland Security Blanket: We Terrorize You." And the headstone reads: "For Fascism to Flourish, Freedom Must Die."read more