The Miami Model and Debates

The Indymedia-produced film "The Miami Model" is available for download in its entirety thanks to the wonderful people at archive.org. It's an interesting piece of work regarding the massive use of force by the Miami Repression Machine against protesters of the Nov, 2003 FTAA meetings. 91 min. Another documentary, Robert Greenwald's "Uncovered: The Whole Truth about the Iraq War" is available for download. 54Mb Real Media.

In other news, John Kerry was towering and "presidential" last night at the Florida debates, while our president reminded me of a raccoon that had been caught digging through the trash. I really think his eyes are growing closer together. I guess everyone on "both sides" now agrees that "Hussein was a threat" of some kind. This is John Kerry obviously backtracking. One thing that I found interesting was the president's comment that the military would remain "all-volunteer." The administration has made comments to the effect that they don't plan on reintroducing the draft, but last night Bush seemed to make a definitive statement on the matter. This despite the recent calls for the activation of selective service and the Pentagon's suggestion on their website (later taken down) that local selective service boards be revived. (Democrat reps Charles Rangel and John Conyers as well as Sen. Fritz Hollings' proposal for universal service, on the other hand, is a separate attempt to provoke discussion about military uses.) I don't see how the administration can back itself into a corner like that, but I'm glad they are. It kind of begs the question as to whether the meaning of the word "volunteer" will go the same way as "freedom" in the administrative lexicon.