VIRTUAL MARCH ON WASHINGTON
On February 26th, hundreds of thousands of people from across the country will send the collective message: Don't Attack Iraq.
(Suggested by Chris Marston and Marcus Widenor)

Why Pollack is Wrong: We Have Contained Saddam
Ken Pollack is a gifted analyst. But in his lengthy February 21 New York Times op-ed, he assembles a house of cards to prove that (1) Saddam Hussein may soon get a nuclear bomb, and (2) if he does, we cannot deter him from using it. For Pollack to be correct, all of Saddam's efforts to build a bomb must work perfectly and all of our efforts to thwart him short of war must fail miserably. Here are six of his key errors.
(Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, from Brief Intelligence Weblog)

OPERATION PIPE DREAMS INDICTS 55 PARAPHERNALIA SELLERS
National Sweep Shuts Down Retailers, Distributors And Internet Sites.
The pipe dream is that these bozos think this is good -or even efficient - law enforcement. The nightmare is that they are running the show.
(Suggested by Paul Whitehurst)

Search Systems
Here's an Interesting site featured in the most recent GnomeReport. It's a database list of resources that is searchable by state. AG Opinions, licenses, civil war soldiers, you name it.

An Incomplete

Saturday was a day of coincidences for me. I ran across a file that I had been looking for. It was a Clarence Darrow quote that I had done for an ACDLA conference. About three years ago I had promised Judge Palughi that I would make him a copy. He had liked it and I thought it really captured the essence of what he was all about. "Great," I thought, "I'll finish this incomplete and give it to him.

I puttered with the thing for about an hour and went to the Garage only to find out that our friend had passed away that morning. Judge Butler's comment that "He represented the poor, the indigent, the downtrodden, and he brought the same approach to the bench," isn't merely the puffery we come to expect when an important person dies. Judge Palughi is going to be really missed.
(Mobile Register)

The French Lesson
Eight out of 10 Europeans on the street agree with the French-German position.... In confronting that awkwardness, the United States has chosen France as its scapegoat. Not having any training as a satellite state... France has assumed the right to judge for itself.

The United States, of course, is free to decide that a cadaverous satrap, kept under close surveillance, affects its national (and familial) interests. If the American administration is intent on precipitating the war that is Osama bin Laden's fondest wish, if it wants to give fundamentalism, which is currently ebbing, a second chance, we can say only, so much the worse for you — while regretting that history's most constant law, the perverse effect, is not better known to the Pentagon. Provoking chaos in the name of order, and resentment instead of gratitude, is something to which all empires are accustomed. And thus it is that they coast, from military victory to victory, to their final decline.

"Old Europe," the Europe of Crusades and expeditionary forces, which long sought by sword and gun to subjugate Jerusalem, Algiers, Timbuktu and Beijing, has learned to distinguish between politics and religion. In 1965, one of its old champions, de Gaulle, loyally warned his American friends that their B-52's would not be able to do anything against Vietnamese nationalism — and that to devastate a country is not the same as winning hearts and minds. Europe no longer takes its civilization for civilization itself, no doubt because it is better acquainted with foreign cultures, notably Islam. Our suburbs, after all, pray to Allah.
(Regis DeBray, NYT OpEd)

Time Europe's Newest Poll -- The Biggest Threat To Peace?
Which country poses the greatest danger to world peace in 2003?North Korea, Iraq or United States? Where did we put those chads?

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Los Angeles Council Adopts Resolution Against Iraq War
After a 9-to-4 vote, Los Angeles became the country's largest city to oppose a unilateral war against Iraq, joining more than 100 other cities and counties.
(NYT)

Necessity is the plea for every infringement of human freedom.
It is the argument of tyrants;
it is the creed of slaves.
William Pitt
(Suggested by Al Pennington)

THE WAR BEHIND CLOSED DOORS
The hidden story of what is really driving the Bush administration to war with Iraq. The investigation asks whether the publicly reported reasons--fear of Saddam Hussein's weapons of mass destruction or a desire to insure and protect America's access to oil--are only masking the real reason for the war. Through interviews with well-placed sources in and outside of the administration, PBS unravels a story known only to the Washington insiders.(PBS FRONTLINE Suggested by Paul Whitehurst)

GROUPS URGE LIMITS ON GOVERNMENT'S SPYING POWERS
"The irony is no one can know for certain whether they are the subject of these secret surveillance orders because they're secret," said Ann Beeson, ACLU's associate legal director
(FINDLAW See cert petition below)

JOHN DOE v. PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH
Lawsuit Brought By Families Of U.S. Soldiers In The Persian Gulf Challenging President Bush's Authority To Wage War Against Iraq.
(FINDLAW, February 13, 2003)

IN RE: SEALED CASE OF THE FOREIGN INTELLIGENCE SURVEILLANCE COURT OF REVIEW
Petition For Certiorari To The U.S. Supreme Court Filed By The ACLU, Nat'l Assoc. Of Criminal Defense Lawyers, And Arab-American Organizations Concerning The Legal Powers Authorized Under The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act.
(FINDLAW, February 18, 2003)

ALABAMA-CUBA WEEK
University of Alabama Calls for Programs and Activities Concerning Cuba
If your work applies to Cuban arts and letters, society, and scientific research the University of Alabama might help you fund a program within their conference devoted to the Alabama-Cuba Academic Partnership. The conference is slated for November 17-22, 2003 and is part of an initiative seeking to build research, scholarly, and teaching partnerships with academic counterparts in Cuba.
The conference is part of Alabama-Cuba Week at The University of Alabama, scheduled in conjunction with the nationwide International Week which concentrates on worldwide issues and interests. At UA, International Week will include a special focus on Cuba.
For more info:
Larry Clayton 348-7103, lclayton@simplecom.net
Carmen Taylor 348-7007, ctaylor@as.ua.edu