September 25, 2006

Trial By Jury In Danger Of Extinction
by Jim Kouri

One of the most important constitutional rights is the right to a fair and open trial. The Sixth Amendment guarantee is apparently a personal right of the defendant, which he may in some circumstances waive in conjunction with the prosecution and the court, but it is the defendant's decision.

Because this right is so fundamental in the United States, the US Supreme Court in the past has had little occasion to deal with the right. It is a right so fundamental that it is protected against state deprivation by the due process clause, but it is not so absolute that reasonable regulation designed to forestall prejudice from publicity and disorderly trials is foreclosed.

Yet there are those working within our nation's legal system who wish to change the process by which civil liberties are protected for someone accused of a criminal offense or faced with civil litigation. The most serious but little known trend is the reduction in use of the jury trial.

(Read the rest here - click back button to return to The Price of Liberty)

Afghanistan: Time for Truth
by Eric Margolis

Do not believe what OUR media and politicians are telling us about Afghanistan. Nearly all the information we get about the five-year-old war in Afghanistan comes from US and NATO public relations officers or "embedded" journalists who merely parrot military handouts. Ask yourself, when did you last read a report from a journalist covering Taliban and other Afghan resistance forces?

Now, the official rosy view is being flatly contradicted by impartial observers.

The respected European think-tank, Senlis Council, which focuses on Afghanistan, just reported the Taliban movement is "taking back Afghanistan" and now controls that nation’s southern half.

This is an amazing departure from claims by the US and its NATO allies that they are steadily winning the war in Afghanistan. Or, more precisely, winning it again, since the Bush Administration claimed to have won total victory in Afghanistan in 2001. At the time, this column predicted that victory was an illusion and the war would resume in force in 4–5 years.

According to the Senlis Council, southern Afghanistan is suffering "a humanitarian crisis of starvation and poverty…caused by "US-British military policies." (Read the rest here - click back button to return to The Price of Liberty)

Mark Steyn: It's breeding obvious, mate
Australia and the US can avoid the bleak future awaiting dying old Europe
18aug06