Pieter Bruegel the Elder

Links to museums that have Breugel images. Life in the mid 1500s. A little 16th century eye candy.

Bush’s war at home: a creeping coup d’état

In the period since the September 11 terrorist attacks on New York and Washington, the United States has undergone a radical transformation in the structure of the government, in the relationship between the people and the police and armed forces, and in the legal and constitutional framework.

The White House has assumed vast new powers for internal repression, establishing by executive order an Office of Homeland Security that is not subject to either congressional oversight or any vote on the personnel appointed to run it. An all-encompassing political police agency is coming into being, through the passage of an “anti-terror” law that effectively amalgamates the FBI and CIA and abolishes the longstanding separation between overseas spying and domestic policing.

Side by side with the bombing of Afghanistan, the Bush administration has declared that there is a second front in the war, the war at home. The federal government issues vague and unsubstantiated “terror alerts,” which fuel anxiety while providing no protection to the public. Government spokesmen urge the population to get used to measures like random police searches and roadblocks as a permanent feature of life. National Guard troops patrol the airports, harbors, bridges, tunnels and even the US Capitol.
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Rabbani to enter Kabul, declare himself leader

Deposed Afghan president Burhanuddin Rabbani will return to the Afghan capital Kabul on Wednesday to pronounce himself the head of territories now under the control of the anti-Taliban opposition, a senior Afghan envoy here said.

"He will lead the provinces freed from the Taliban and also head the task of freeing provinces now under the control of the Islamist militia," said the ambassador for the Afghan government-in-exile in Dushanbe, Said Ibragim Khikmat, who said he had recenetly spoken to Rabbani. The ambassador said he had earlier spoken to Rabbani, who had previously told some of his other associates on Tuesday that he had no plans to enter Kabul.

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I would guess that Rabbani isn't acting with Bush's blessing. But there is a power vacumm and power abhors a vacuum.

Conversations with Durito

From Ethel the Blog:

DON DURITO OF THE LACANDON
Don Durito of the Lacandon is a beetle, the literary creation of Subcommandante Marcos, principle spokesperson for the indigenous Zapatista National Liberation Army in Chiapas, Mexico. Don Durito plays Don Quixote (on a turtle named Pegasus) to Marcos' Sancho Panza and the dialogs between the two provide a comical frame for introducing outsiders to the problems, analyses and solutions being discussed within the Zapatista communities. A complete (so far) set of the dialogs has been translated into English and illustrated.