72-year-old Filiberto Ojeda Rios, leader of the Boricua Popular Army (a Puerto Rican independence advocacy group in Puerto Rico) and US fugitive wanted for the planning of an armored car robbery in 1983, was finally tracked down by the good ol’ fuzz on September 23.

According to this article “Ojeda Rios was alone with his wife in their home in the rural southwestern Puerto Rican municipality of Hormigueros, near the city of Mayagüez, when scores of FBI agents stormed his property, unleashing a rain of bullets. According to reports, at least 100 armed agents were involved, backed by helicopters and a squad of military sharpshooters brought to the island from Virginia.”

100 armed agents, helicopters, and sharpshooters? With that much manpower, you’d think he planned the 9/11 terrorist attacks and not an armormed car robbery. (Meanwhile, Bin Laden’s still living like neanderthal man, squatting in caves.)

Though American news sources claim he fired first (maybe he threw Amadou Diallo’s wallet at them?), they don’t deny that the agents left him to bleed to death after he suffered a single non-fatal wound (Autopsy: Rios Didn’t Die Immediately) . After going military ambush on Rios, they surrounded the perimeter of his home for 24 hours before going in under the suspicion that the house was rigged with explosives, denying access to emergency medical aid.

Justice is served once again, American style.

-zoneil maharaj

Twenty-two Democrats voted for confirmation of John Roberts as our country’s next chief justice of the Supreme Court, According to This

And, 22 Democrats voted against the confirmation.

Fortunately for Roberts, the dissenting votes didn’t matter. He got the gig anyway.

Unfortunately for Democrats and their constituents, they prove once again that the party is like oil and water these days — can’t tell if its two seperate entities or one murky pool of confusion.

A few weeks ago I was at a show and I noticed that this guy in the middle of the mosh pit had his cell phone open so that his friend on the other end of the line could hear the band. He was getting tossed about like a rag doll, but still managed to have his arm up and his cell phone on.

It cracked me up, but it also made me aware of how we really have entered the digital age. Since the start of the war and occupation of Iraq, soldiers have been sending home photos. Unlike past wars, the average soldier, not just professional journalists, can document the war.

Lately, reports have been circulating that soldiers have been trading pics of the dead in exchange for access to a porn website:

Click here for the article

“The allegations surfaced last week, when the Bay Area weekly East Bay Express published a story about graphic photographs that appeared on one section of the Web site. The photographs, which show the bodies of several people killed in shootings, explosions or fires, include crude captions, some of which mock the dead.

Pentagon and Army officials issued strong statements Wednesday condemning the taking and posting of such photographs but said there was little evidence to authenticate them and few ways to pursue a criminal investigation. While some of the photos appear to show U.S. soldiers in uniform near mutilated bodies, it is unclear where or when the pictures were taken.

The Web site’s creator, Chris Wilson, said Wednesday that about 30,000 members of the military were registered on his site, several thousand of whom have sent him photographs or comments from their official military Web addresses. Many photographs depict life in Iraq, while only a few are extremely graphic, he said.

“It’s an uncensored view of the war, from their perspective,” said Wilson, 27, of Florida, who began accepting the photographs from soldiers overseas as payment for access to pornography on his site. “It’s a place where the soldiers can express themselves without being filtered by the Bush administration.”

-Jean Chen

At a noisy bar recently, gin and tonic in hand, a friend of a friend of mine spoke to me about being instructed to kill small children during her recent tour of duty with U.S. forces in Iraq.

“We’re trained to keep going, no matter what, so if some kid comes running up to our truck as we’re driving through a town, or if they are just in the way, we’re given orders to run over people,” she said.

A young woman in her twenties from Southwest Colorado, she said Iraq was the single-most tragic experience in her life. Iraqi people, she said, are constantly running up to U.S. military vehicles carrying grenades or guns, so soldiers must handle the situation by removing potential dangers.

Since they don’t always know why people are approaching them or their vehicle, they have to take action, because their job is to complete their assigned mission, she said.

I’m not reporting this as fact, just reiterating a friend of a friend’s experience.

READ THIS To see how the war is affecting Iraqi children.

Ok, so I’m going to go on yet another rant about Intelligent Design. As a former biology major, it makes me really sad and upset to see that we are going to be witnessing the Scopes Monkey trial all over again. Yesterday, the trial in Dover, PA began that is going to determine whether or not Intelligent Design is going to be taught in public schools:

Click here for the article

Proponants of Intelligent Design, including George Bush, claim the issue is about academic freedom. But it’s really about science vs. religion. Intelligent Design is NOT science. The theory is that life is so complex that it can’t be explained by evolution. So the obvious answer is that God (or a higher being) created life. Hmmm. God? Higher being? Sounds like religion to me.

I’ll be the first to admit that there are some things in nature that may not be able to be explained by our current theory of evolution. But does that mean that we throw up our hands and say, “Oh well, can’t be explained. Must be God.” No, as scientists, you keep studying and exploring until you find the answer.

It’s not about whether or not you believe in God. There are many scientists who have a faith. You can be a Christian and believe the theory of evolution.

This issue, by the way, is not something that is only happening in Pennsylvania. Intelligent Design proponanats are challenging the theory of evolution in schools at a statewide level in many states. I just think it’s sad that we could be teaching a generation of students to stop reasoning and thinking.

- Jean Chen