EUROPEUS

(By Aunk - USA) What is the penalty for hollering fire in a crowded cultural theater? What should the Nation do about Palin mob type Cultural Terrorism? At the Dawn of America, cultural humanist and anti-humanist were present. The Humanist won the war of words - The Constitution - and the anti-humanist won the war on the ground, laws enslaving other human beings to make money. The American challenge has been to overcome its birth defect and move toward that more perfect union, despite the fact that anti-humanists live among us. This election has moved us in that direction however, to say that we have gone Post "Racial" would be over statement at best, foolhardy to the overly optimistic and downright dangerous to the President Elect and African Americans in general at worst.

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(By Robert Dreyfuss / Source: The Nation - USA) The game of musical chairs is underway as Barack Obama narrows his choices for who he'll appoint to key Cabinet posts. Most of the speculation, naturally, focuses on key economic posts, but there's a steady trickle of leaks and inflating of trial balloons in the national security arena, too. The New York Times suggests that Obama might want to appoint a secretary of state who is a Republican, "perhaps including Senators Richard G. Lugar of Indiana or Chuck Hagel of Nebraska." In what would be a far, far better choice, the AP reports that John Kerry wants that job:

(By Erol Önderoglubia / Source: Bianet.org – Turkey) Freedom of Expression Desk has published its “Media Observation Report” for the period of July-August-September. The Desk has been informing the public regularly about the rights violations regarding the media, the reporters and the freedom of expression since 2000. In addition to the international freedom of expression institutions such as IFEX, RSF, CPJ, Article XIX, the Media Observation Reports has become an important source for the European Commission and the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe AGİT as well. To the arrangements that limit the freedom of communication was added No. 5651 Law on Internet Crimes, after the Law on Struggle against Terror, the Turkish Penal Code and the Law for Protection of Atatürk. The global vide sharing site youtube.com has been banned for six months now for having videos insulting to the memory of Atatürk, founder of the Turkish Republic. The internet site of dailymotion was banned for one month. Geocities.com has been banned for eight months. The internet site of gundemonline.com was banned by a court order, too.

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(By Ertuğrul Kürkçü / Source : Bianet.org – Turkey) Those who believe that the issue of headscarves at university is a “legal issue” are totally mistaken. We are faced with a historical question: Does the new block of Islamist AKP and ultranationalist MHP with the passive consent of the army represent a moment of freedom?

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(By Ari Berman / Source The Nation - USA) The Clinton campaign has been busy inventing new reasons for why Barack Obama keeps winning state after state. "One of the hilarious side-effects of every Obama victory is the spin from Clinton quarters and its surrogates and supporters explaining why said victories 'don't matter,'" Markos Moulitsas blogged this week. Either the state has a caucus, or too many black people, or too many affluent people, or too many independent voters, or too many red staters. If only the Clintons had the perfect electoral map. If only. If only the Clintons had a coherent explanation for why Obama has so thoroughly out-organized and out-hussled them across the country in February. After all, there was no reason why Hillary Clinton, after spending eight years in the White House and amassing a hefty war chest of money and incumbency in the Senate, couldn't of won caucus states, or red states, or states with large African-American communities. The front-runner is supposed to win these places. If Obama had lost eight states in a row, his candidacy would most certainly of been toast.

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(By Jane Perlez / Source: International Herald Tribune) Increasingly, Muslim women in Britain take their children to school and run errands covered head to toe in flowing black gowns that allow only a slit for their eyes. Like little else, their appearance has unnerved Britons, testing the limits of tolerance in this stridently secular nation. Many veiled women say they are targets of abuse. At the same time, efforts are growing to place legal curbs on the full Muslim veil, known as the niqab. The past year has seen numerous examples: A lawyer dressed in a niqab was told by an immigration judge that she could not represent a client because, he said, he could not hear her. A teacher wearing a niqab was told by a provincial school to go home. A student who was barred from wearing a niqab took her case to the courts, and lost. In fact, the British education authorities are proposing a ban on the niqab in schools altogether.

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