… at least in a few papers, after today’s strip.

I love Aaron McGruder.

US wartime intelligence believed the Nazi salute may have been copied from American cheerleaders, rather than Mussolini’s fascists.

Arguing that this city faces a far more perilous world than once imagined, New York’s police commissioner wants to toss aside a decades-old federal court decree governing the limits on police spying and surveillance of its own citizenry.

…

To infiltrate lawful political and social organizations, police must establish a suspicion of criminal activity and gain the permission of a special three-person authority.

This three-person authority consists of two high-ranking police officials and a civilian appointed by the mayor. Civil libertarians argue this is hardly an onerous burden for law enforcement.

— from the Washington Post

There is also a small article in the NY Daily News on this today. I find it disturbing that there is no article on this in the NY Times.

Do you trust the NYPD to police itself?

Santorum has told the White House that, during the debate over welfare reform, he will fight for a provision to allow religious groups to discriminate against certain people — gays, for instance — when hiring if they don’t share their religious beliefs. “I will make that stand,” Santorum said.

James Ridgeway in the Nov. 13 Village Voice:

Power may be wielded to advance ideology, but more often, ideology is a front for the simple protection of power. Bush may pose as a Texas wildcatter, a Bible-thumping Christian zealot, a war-ready patriot, and a champion of the common man. But in reality, he’s a blue-blooded New England Methodist who dodged the draft by joining the National Guard and pledged for Skull and Bones at Yale. And he’s never had anything remotely like an ideology, with the possible exception of the 12-Step Program. If Bush succeeds in spite of an elitist pedigree, it’s because he heads—and epitomizes—today’s Republican Party. This is a party that wields the money and power of Big Business, shrewdly woven into a populist, patriotic ideology designed to appeal to a country so desperate for passionate ideals that in return it will give them the license to rob their pensions and send their children to war.

Those who fail to fall for all this are left feeling powerless and depressed, wondering where to go next. The answer is not terribly hopeful, but it is very simple—and it has nothing whatsoever to do with party politics. Take every opportunity to oppose the power structure: March on Washington, go on strike, organize a boycott, start a resistance radio station, take to the streets with the anarchists. If you are looking for models, they are all over the rest of the world: the East German Christian opposition to the Honecker police state that led to the toppling of the Berlin Wall, the massive Czech uprising, the South African overthrow of apartheid, the protests in Seattle. Don’t wait for the Democrats to do it. Do it yourself. Stand for something.

He gets extra points for the Mark Bingham remark at the end.

—

I’m not sure if “admire” is the right word, but I’m impressed with what the Bush regime can get away with. They’ve appointed a man who orchestrated secret bombing during the Viet Nam War, and can’t travel freely overseas at the risk of being arrested or subpoenaed for his role in helping Pinochet’s Chile kill its opponents, even in the U.S.

Interestingly, the NY Times hasn’t mentioned Chile once in connection with Kissinger in yesterday’s article on his past or today’s editorial, which argues that he’s not a very good choice.