I agree with Matt Lawton. The attempts by certain conservatives to stop Michael Moore's film by arguing it really should be covered by political campaign restrictions just shows that such restrictions violate freedom of speech.
Chilling political speech is the last thing a democracy needs, even the lousy excuse for speech coming from the mouth of Michael Moore.
If you disagree with someone, use your own free speech, don't try to sic the law on them!
Using language you normally hear from right-wing extremists and neo-nazi conspiracy theorists, independent presidential candidate Ralph Nader made a speech as part of a conference of the Council for the National Interest titled, "The Muslim Vote in Election 2004", saying:
"What has been happening over the years is a predictable routine of foreign visitation from the head of the Israeli government. The Israeli puppeteer travels to Washington. The Israeli puppeteer meets with the puppet in the White House, and then moves down Pennsylvania Avenue, and meets with the puppets in Congress. And then takes back billions of taxpayer dollars. It is time for the Washington puppet show to be replaced by the Washington peace show."
Is Nader, himself an Arab-American, such a nutcase that he believes this, or is he really playing to a radical Muslim and left-wing anti-Israel audience?
A survey released by the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) has shown that Nader currently has 26% of the American Muslim voters, Kerry has 54% and Bush only 2% (presumably Iraqi-Americans).
The results mark a shift in the choice of American Muslims from the 2000 elections, in which 55 percent of Muslims voted for incumbent President George W. Bush.[bold mine]
So now we know how well they are paying attention!
Israel's Supreme Court forces changes to security barrier
Israel's Supreme Court has ordered changes to the West Bank barrier. The court affirmed the security argument, but also decided that the barrier should not be built in a way that disrupted the lives of Palestinians to such a degree. A balance had to be found between Israel's security and the Palestinian's human rights.
The Ministry of Defence issued a statement saying it would abide by the ruling and redraw the barrier's route.
This decision will no doubt be celebrated by Palestinians and their many supporters in Europe, but I fear very few of them will properly recognice the true lesson from the decision. Israel is a democracy, with an independent judiciary. In none of the Arab states in the Middle East, and especially not in the Palestinian Authority, could a court strike down a decision by the head of state or government.
Indeed, if Israel's enemies had been proper democracies with independent judiciaries, the conflict would have been solved decades ago.
