well, i live in boston. infact, 5 mins of driving away from Fenway park where the shooting happened. the girl who got killed is my friend's friend who goes to Emerson college. and believe me, there was no riot whatsoever and they were not making any serious damages to any public property. there were some drunk people throwing soda cans and sitting on others' cars. that's about it. and most importantly, the girl who got killed did not get involved in anything but trying to talk away. if you are told that there was a riot, i can tell you right here that your source was wrong.

about the prapoganda on tvs, i watch american news everyday, and i can tell you most american people are not aware even tho they are watching some sorta prapoganda. the most recent example happened two days ago. the italian reporter that had been previously taken as hostage by the iraqi terrorists was released. however, her car was shot over 200 times which resulted in one death of an italian agent trying to save her, and three wounded cases. the agent who got killed had 3 kids and a family in italy as well.

i mean the terrorists are inhumans for killing and cutting off people's heads alive. i am very sorry for the american soldiers aboard. that's why i don't think it's a good idea to start a war, resulting in a countless number of deaths. friendly fire is inevitable and that i agree. but what's all the reason behind this tragedy.

basically, i am against war and any violence.

according to american news, the car was going at a high speed trying to run over the american soldiers and did not stop with a warning shot.

according to the survivors, the car was not going at a high speed and there was no warning shot whatsoever. and they were fired with over 200 shots. after they ceased fire, the first thing the american soldiers did was to take away the weapons of the italian secret agents and the cell phones before they brought the dead or wounded to a hospital. she said they were not going at a high speed and successfully passed many check points prior to the incident.

i understand that those soldiers were under a lot of pressure cause they could have been killed anytime. i am not making any judgment on this but in the us, i am sure it's leaning towards the american version of the story with the survivor's statement neglected.

if you've watched real tv, you can see how cops handle their guns in incidents. i've seen someone shot 6 times in one of the scenes and still was not dead. it was amazing. why would u shoot someone 6 times to get control of the situation if you are not trying to kill him?

i believe there are many good cops in the us but there are definitely some really bad and corrupt ones. i have a friend who drives a prosche and got pulled over by a group of cops when he was going 140 mph. the cops asked him if he was willing to pay for the ticket to them so he would have no record of speeding. (my friend would've got his ticket suspended if he got that one more ticket) he agreed and paid the cops 1000 dollars in cash for the ticket at the time he was pulled over (he had it cause he was going to the outlet). he thought it was completely legal cause the cops basically told him he could've paid for the ticket to them instead. later on, everyone else told him he was actually bribing the cops. there was no written ticket whatsoever but a payment of 1000 dollars. this happened in upstate ny.

please tell me i won't get in trouble for saying what i just did. i am very scared of getting in trouble for giving a speech not in favor of some americans cause i kinda got in trouble in school for giving a speech that explained why a war in iraq would not be in the interest of the world. i chose an anti-war topic to talk about on my presentaton and the professor ended up dividing my grade by 2 and gave me a reason that she did not think the speech was my own idea.

i had the computer records and everything to prove that it was me who typed out the presentation. she, however, did not report it as plagarism cause if she did, i could have appealed and i would probably have won.

she just simply divided my grade by 2. i ended up getting an f for that final presentation. after that incident, i've never ever talked about anything political in public in this country. i got freaked out u know. 

as requested:

self-censorship articles in the usa:

CNN practiced self-censorship - Plus the latest outrage from FAUX NEWS

CNN's top war correspondent, Christiane Amanpour, says that the press muzzled itself during the Iraq war. And, she says CNN "was intimidated" by the Bush administration and Fox News, which "put a climate of fear and self-censorship."

As criticism of the war and its aftermath intensifies, Amanpour joins a chorus of journalists and pundits who charge that the media largely toed the Bush administrationline in covering the war and, by doing so, failed to aggressively question the motives behind the invasion.

On last week's Topic A With Tina Brown on CNBC, Brown, the former Talk magazine editor, asked comedian Al Franken, former Pentagon spokeswoman Torie Clarke and Amanpour if "we in the media, as much as in the administration, drank the Kool-Aid when it came to the war."

Said Amanpour: "I think the press was muzzled, and I think the press self-muzzled. I'm sorry to say, but certainly television and, perhaps, to a certain extent, my station was intimidated by the administration and its foot soldiers at Fox News. And it did, in fact, put a climate of fear and self-censorship, in my view, in terms of the kind of broadcast work we did."

Brown then asked Amanpour if there was any story during the war that she couldn't report.

"It's not a question of couldn't do it, it's a question of tone," Amanpour said. "It's a question of being rigorous. It's really a question of really asking the questions. All of the entire body politic in my view, whether it's the administration, the intelligence, the journalists, whoever, did not ask enough questions, for instance, about weapons of mass destruction. I mean, it looks like this was disinformation at the highest levels."

Clarke called the disinformation charge "categorically untrue" and added, "In my experience, a little over two years at the Pentagon, I never saw them (the media) holding back. I saw them reporting the good, the bad and the in between."

Fox News spokeswoman Irena Briganti said of Amanpour's comments: "Given the choice, it's better to be viewed as a foot soldier for Bush than a SPOKESWOMAN FOR AL-QAEDA".

CNN had no comment.

[reposter's commentary- Irena's little 'Ann Coulter-wannabe' crack at anyone who dissents from the Bush adninistration reeks of the same stench the media tried to sling at Peter Arnett. Why let her get away with it?] Contact Irena at:

Irena Briganti, Senior Director
Corporate Communications Public Relations
Phone: 212-301-3608
Fax: 212-819-0816
E-Mail: briganti@foxnews.com

For "emergencies," you can page Irena, the footsoldier at 877-645-4203.

http://la.indymedia.org/news/2003/09/83271.php

 

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Actually, that was half rhetorical question and half opinion.  It is an opinion to say that a contry has "better" democracy that another.

As for democracy not equaling freedom, could you explain a little more?  I don't see how if you are free to vote, free to speak, free to have whatever religion you want, and many more things you aren't free.  This is what democracy is, atleast in America and I am sure in most countries.  Democracy always equals freedom but freedom does not always equal democracy. 

People I ahve met in the US tend to think too highly of their country. It borders on arrogance and even bigotry especially when talking about "terrorist" countries (often countries that are not even suhc!) The AMerican president indeed has an ugly accent and I find it difficult to understand him. Sometimes I think Tony Blair should be his translator. However, even though many Americans are rather dumb when it comes to knowlege of others they can be nice people and many of them are in a very innocent way. They tend to be very sympothetic to less fortunate people in word but usually if they are not this way it is becuase they either cannot afford to be or because they are less fortunate themselves.

in america, they won't put you in jail for opposing the government but they can still create you trouble in some other ways that can hurt you.

you can get fired for opposing some powerful people (not nessarily the government). there are all kinds of tricks they can do to you. it all depends on how important you are and how destructive your speech or action can be to them. if you are a small potota of not great importance and no one cares about what u say, they definitely won't care about you and let you speak whatever you what. that's politics.

talking about freedom, in america, you are not necessarily free to protest or demonstrate. many of the demonstrations and protests have been cracked down by force. some college students were arrested and were beaten up after they demonstrated against the war in iraq two years ago in boston. they only arrested them to give them some lessons. of course, they didn't break any laws.

in america, although in theory, people can be muslims and practice islam, but i wouldn't recommend them doing it in public or in your work place or at the airport. u should know why.

everything looks good on paper. according to the constitution, all men are created equal.

but back then, women were not men. so they didn't count. black people were also not men, they were animals and property. so they also didn't count.

according to the constitution, only the congress can declare war. but the last war the congress declared was the ww2. all other post-second world war wars that american boys and girls fought were not declared by the congress.

there are a lot of things that the us is not the best at. for example, public transportation suchs in the us. the trains are dirty and slow and inefficiency and low-tech. the buses are also dirty, slow, and inefficiency. the highways are broken, not parted right, and paved very badly with pot holes at least they are in the north east. there are a lot of things that america should learn from others as well.

but i do agree that many american people are nice and tend to help others a lot with little things. they are friendly to their neightbors and smile at you all the time.

in where i am from, people never talk to strangers including the neightbors. 99 percent of people havent' talked to their neightbors even though they have lived together for 10 years and see each other all the time. when you are robbed, no one will help you cause they are afraid of getting hurt and people are very selfish.

To coolstorm

I never heard anyone getting beaten up just for protesting, its a major right for people in america and there would be a huge uproar for such a action. There are war protests everyday. They were following the president around, or found everywhere the president was on his re-election campaign. Those people weren't attacked, and in only one instance did they really get permission to assemble. Usually the police break up crowds that are getting rowdy or didn't get permission to assemble which is to safegaurd people and make sure nothing bad happens. Sop there is obviously more to that story with those college kids and its hard for me to beleave otherwise.

And about congress only being able to declare war, thats wrong. The president has the right on himself to declare war for 2 months, which when it was created was really nothing, but now a days wars end quicker.

I have pride in this country for the reason people are willing to go out and risk death for my freedom in another country. I have pride in my country because thousands have died in the past for this country. I love my country because it can give people opportunity for a good life, although its mostly foreigners making it big now, sadly most americans got lazy....

I answers a few of your questions before but my comp screwed up and I'm not going to type it all out again, I'm still aggrevated from it. Sorry... prob could have gotten more discussion out of it...

If you are not famillar with American Sign Language, this sign means "I love you"

"I never heard anyone getting beaten up just for protesting, its a major right for people in america and there would be a huge uproar for such a action. There are war protests everyday. They were following the president around, or found everywhere the president was on his re-election campaign. Those people weren't attacked, and in only one instance did they really get permission to assemble. Usually the police break up crowds that are getting rowdy or didn't get permission to assemble which is to safegaurd people and make sure nothing bad happens. Sop there is obviously more to that story with those college kids and its hard for me to beleave otherwise.

That's what is so weird, just blind belief that innocent protesters aren't beaten up in America just because it is America. 

I have pride in this country for the reason people are willing to go out and risk death for my freedom in another country. I have pride in my country because thousands have died in the past for this country. I love my country because it can give people opportunity for a good life, although its mostly foreigners making it big now, sadly most americans got lazy....

You are proud that Bush trapped you into this war for which he did use propaganda. Many of his speeches consist of science fiction-like phrases like: "Evil in the middle-east, terrorists trying to take away the freedom US citizens, God is favoring a war (or something like that), we want peace for the Iraqi people, Saddam is probably going to bomb us with chemical weapons". While at the same time you were dragged into the war by your own government, Saddam didn't care about what was going on in the USA and had no plans with it as he probably had so little money and resources due to your own trade embargo that you had starved all of his possible military recruits, that being innocent children, to death. You still proud about your country and your brave countrymen while they have false ideas for fighting.

And to Thegeneral: Saying meningless sentences praising America destroying evil in the Middle-East doesn't make anything legal. The Brittish or the French had no right to invade Germany after 1933. although the world would support the action today, as would i. The Soviets invaded my country in 1940. and again in 1944. and they most certainly said that they were freeing us of tyranny. That is just a blank sentence that does not make the international laws bend. Crossing another countrys border with military equipment without first being provoked or attacked is illegal by internatioanl standards. That is called DEMOCRACY.

And also, the fact that America has quite a long tradition of being a country with  a democratic legacy, does not erase the fact that it wasn't that much of a democracy until the second half of the 20th century. The constitution has throughout American history just been a word to use to blind the people into believing that "look, the forefathers wrote this paper that says we are all equal, that must mean that it is true bla bla blaa..." Even Russia had abolished the type of slavery that the US still used, i mean, Russia was regarded as quite a retarded country in that sence of social change at that time. Trying to reflect accusations of racism and slavery by saying that "Hey, but you guys had it to", makes no difference, theUSA was still one of the most racist, native-killing happy nation at a time that many of them proudly remind as a time of democracy since 1776. July 4th. Bah, blind jibberish, romantic fiction.