The Attack on American Democracy -- by the Bush Gang!
I lived through WW2 and was terrified as a child by the attacks on our nation and democracy around the world by Nazi Germany across the Atlantic and the Japanese imperialists in the Pacific. I was preparing (NROTC) to fight in the Korean war when Eisenhower ended it. At first I was supportive of our war in Viet Nam until it became obvious that it was both pointless and wildly murderous. I gradually became aware of our American economic (corporate) abuses of nations both to the South of us -- Chile, Bolivia, Cuba prior to Castro, Guatemala, Honduras, Argentina, Brazil, Peru, and other places (e.g. Iran) -- where we repeatedly destroyed incipient democracies, imposed corrupt and compliant regimes, assassinated democratic leaders, and as a last resort sent in our troops to suppress resistance. I have watched with horror as we have allowed our neocons both to steal a national presidency (in Florida) and implement their unjust, destructive, and pre-planned war in Iraq.
I am now hearing the increasing rumble of neo McCarthyism -- bold faced lying by political officials and our media, suppression of truth telling both by intimidation firings and threats of imprisonment of journalists, crude violations of privacy of any and all, brutal imprisonment and torture of innocents -- both here and abroad. I now see the appointment of an Attorney General (Gonzales) who apparently sanctioned the torture that has made us despised as a nation (!) and a head of national security who looks to have been implicated in high crimes -- death squads -- while negotiating illegal actions (attacks on Nicaragua) as former ambassador to Honduras and G-d knows what other devious activities that put him somewhere to the right of Henry Kissinger with whom he broke for being too moderate at one point (See NY Review account of Negroponte below).
All of the above and the workplan responses urged thereto by such as Anthony Romero for the ACLU (below) must not be taken lightly.
The one saving grace in this ugly situation is that Bush's cohorts (Rumsfeld, Condi, et al) seem to be as simple minded and incompetent as Bush himself. As the New York Times editorial below points out this administration has done virtually nothing to secure our nation from terrorist attacks, despite all its bullying of innocent persons. One wonders whether it might welcome a major terrorist attack on our homeland as an excuse for more of its abuses?
................................
TODAY'S EDITORIALS
Our Unnecessary Insecurity
"Sept. 11 changed everything," the saying goes. It is
striking, however, how much has not changed after nearly
3,000 people were killed on American soil.
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/02/20/opinion/20sun1.html?th
.................................
If this administration plans to resume its attacks on democratic nations in South America -- Columbia where we are dumping a billion a year in support of militias involved in dealing drugs and killing indigenous peoples, Bolivia which is trying to reclaim its public resources (natural gas) from corporate interests, or some misbegotten attack again on Chavez in Venezuela, there are plenty of us left to speak out in protest.
Sadly under this administration we have been converted in the eyes of the world from the nation brutally victimized on 9/11 to global bullies -- (once again) "ugly Americans." May we do better before we do worse! EAK
......................................
Q. Who is John Negroponte?
A. John Negroponte is Our Man in Honduras. Remember?
The New York Review of Books
September 20, 2001
http://www.nybooks.com/articles/14485?email
.......................................
**************************************************
American Civil Liberties Union
For 2005, How Will We Answer the Big Questions?
**************************************************
Dear Friend,
As the ACLU looks ahead to the challenges of the coming year, I'm writing to tell you about our 2005 Workplan. I urge you to consider the fundamental questions below, to inform yourself by reviewing our plans, and join the ACLU to help carry this work forward:
https://www.aclu.org/contribute/contribute.cfm?orgid=EA021705C&cid=1&slp=y&orgid=EA021705C&MX=1916&H=0
I also urge you to tell your families and your colleagues about this important work:
https://www.aclu.org/team/tell.cfm?orgid=EA021705C&action=112&MX=1916&H=0
You and I will face new threats to our freedom in the coming year, but we also have new opportunities to ask ourselves what freedom means to each of us. America will have to face some fundamental questions in 2005, and it is the job of the ACLU to be the voice of liberty and reason as we decide as a nation how those questions will be answered.
* Should we make permanent Patriot Act provisions that give the U.S. attorney general the power to issue administrative subpoenas and launch privacy-threatening investigations of anyone in America without probable cause?
Workplan: Learn about our strategy for this year of decision:
http://www.aclu.org/campaigns/campaignslist.cfm?c=308#PatriotAct
* Do we want to amend the Bill of Rights for the first time in history so that it can become a vehicle for discriminating against people based on their sexual preferences?
Workplan: We're standing up for equal rights -- learn how you can help:
http://www.aclu.org/campaigns/campaignslist.cfm?orgid=EA021705C&c=308.html#Equality
* Should we support expanding "faith-based initiatives" that blur the lines between church and state and put taxpayer dollars to work funding religious discrimination?
Workplan: Learn about our plans for defending religious liberty:
http://www.aclu.org/campaigns/campaignslist.cfm?orgid=EA021705C&c=308.html#Religious
* Is it time to weaken First Amendment protections of free speech and free expression, questioning the patriotism of anyone who criticizes the government, chilling freedom of the press and permitting the FBI and local law enforcement to open investigations of people whose only "crime" is to oppose the government's policies?
Workplan: Find out how the ACLU is working to uphold these fundamental freedoms:
http://www.aclu.org/campaigns/campaignslist.cfm?orgid=EA021705C&c=308.html#FreeSpeech
* Is it right for politicians to interfere with a woman's most private medical decisions, including whether or when to bear children?
Workplan: Read how we can fight back in defense of privacy and reproductive rights:
http://www.aclu.org/campaigns/campaignslist.cfm?orgid=EA021705C&c=308.html#Reproductive
* Should our government continue to ignore universal human rights principles and should our political leaders turn a blind eye to our own government's mounting record of human rights abuses?
Workplan: Learn how the ACLU is striving to preserve America's commitment to human dignity:
http://www.aclu.org/campaigns/campaignslist.cfm?orgid=EA021705C&c=308.html#HumanRights
Freedom's future lies in the answers to these questions. One thing is certain: we are up against powerful, well-organized opponents who are ready to answer each and every one of these questions in the affirmative. That is why it has never been more critical for the ACLU and our members to be a voice of liberty and reason.
The ACLU's task is to rise to the challenges ahead with commitment, energy and smart strategies, to use every ounce of tenacity, imagination and wisdom we can muster to stand up for freedom's cause. Our Workplan addresses each of these vital questions and the ACLU's specific plans for addressing each and every one of them. You can read our Workplan here:
http://www.aclu.org/campaigns/campaignslist.cfm?orgid=EA021705C&c=308&MX=1916&H=0
In a very real sense, the future of our fundamental freedoms and the very vibrancy of our democracy are in your hands and those of more than 400,000 ACLU members.
We need you to do all that you can to support the ACLU at this critical moment. Please review the full Workplan, share it with others and remember to join the ACLU to defend those freedoms I know you hold as dearly as we do:
https://www.aclu.org/contribute/contribute.cfm?orgid=EA021705C&cid=1&slp=y&orgid=EA021705C&MX=1916&H=0
I assure you that we will use every dollar you send to wage a vigorous and spirited fight for liberty that will make you proud to be a card-carrying member of the ACLU.
Sincerely,
Anthony D. Romero
Executive Director, ACLU
P.S. To read the ACLU 2005 Workplan, please click here:
http://www.aclu.org/campaigns/campaignslist.cfm?orgid=EA021705C&c=308&MX=1916&H=0
I am now hearing the increasing rumble of neo McCarthyism -- bold faced lying by political officials and our media, suppression of truth telling both by intimidation firings and threats of imprisonment of journalists, crude violations of privacy of any and all, brutal imprisonment and torture of innocents -- both here and abroad. I now see the appointment of an Attorney General (Gonzales) who apparently sanctioned the torture that has made us despised as a nation (!) and a head of national security who looks to have been implicated in high crimes -- death squads -- while negotiating illegal actions (attacks on Nicaragua) as former ambassador to Honduras and G-d knows what other devious activities that put him somewhere to the right of Henry Kissinger with whom he broke for being too moderate at one point (See NY Review account of Negroponte below).
All of the above and the workplan responses urged thereto by such as Anthony Romero for the ACLU (below) must not be taken lightly.
The one saving grace in this ugly situation is that Bush's cohorts (Rumsfeld, Condi, et al) seem to be as simple minded and incompetent as Bush himself. As the New York Times editorial below points out this administration has done virtually nothing to secure our nation from terrorist attacks, despite all its bullying of innocent persons. One wonders whether it might welcome a major terrorist attack on our homeland as an excuse for more of its abuses?
................................
TODAY'S EDITORIALS
Our Unnecessary Insecurity
"Sept. 11 changed everything," the saying goes. It is
striking, however, how much has not changed after nearly
3,000 people were killed on American soil.
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/02/20/opinion/20sun1.html?th
.................................
If this administration plans to resume its attacks on democratic nations in South America -- Columbia where we are dumping a billion a year in support of militias involved in dealing drugs and killing indigenous peoples, Bolivia which is trying to reclaim its public resources (natural gas) from corporate interests, or some misbegotten attack again on Chavez in Venezuela, there are plenty of us left to speak out in protest.
Sadly under this administration we have been converted in the eyes of the world from the nation brutally victimized on 9/11 to global bullies -- (once again) "ugly Americans." May we do better before we do worse! EAK
......................................
Q. Who is John Negroponte?
A. John Negroponte is Our Man in Honduras. Remember?
The New York Review of Books
September 20, 2001
http://www.nybooks.com/articles/14485?email
.......................................
**************************************************
American Civil Liberties Union
For 2005, How Will We Answer the Big Questions?
**************************************************
Dear Friend,
As the ACLU looks ahead to the challenges of the coming year, I'm writing to tell you about our 2005 Workplan. I urge you to consider the fundamental questions below, to inform yourself by reviewing our plans, and join the ACLU to help carry this work forward:
https://www.aclu.org/contribute/contribute.cfm?orgid=EA021705C&cid=1&slp=y&orgid=EA021705C&MX=1916&H=0
I also urge you to tell your families and your colleagues about this important work:
https://www.aclu.org/team/tell.cfm?orgid=EA021705C&action=112&MX=1916&H=0
You and I will face new threats to our freedom in the coming year, but we also have new opportunities to ask ourselves what freedom means to each of us. America will have to face some fundamental questions in 2005, and it is the job of the ACLU to be the voice of liberty and reason as we decide as a nation how those questions will be answered.
* Should we make permanent Patriot Act provisions that give the U.S. attorney general the power to issue administrative subpoenas and launch privacy-threatening investigations of anyone in America without probable cause?
Workplan: Learn about our strategy for this year of decision:
http://www.aclu.org/campaigns/campaignslist.cfm?c=308#PatriotAct
* Do we want to amend the Bill of Rights for the first time in history so that it can become a vehicle for discriminating against people based on their sexual preferences?
Workplan: We're standing up for equal rights -- learn how you can help:
http://www.aclu.org/campaigns/campaignslist.cfm?orgid=EA021705C&c=308.html#Equality
* Should we support expanding "faith-based initiatives" that blur the lines between church and state and put taxpayer dollars to work funding religious discrimination?
Workplan: Learn about our plans for defending religious liberty:
http://www.aclu.org/campaigns/campaignslist.cfm?orgid=EA021705C&c=308.html#Religious
* Is it time to weaken First Amendment protections of free speech and free expression, questioning the patriotism of anyone who criticizes the government, chilling freedom of the press and permitting the FBI and local law enforcement to open investigations of people whose only "crime" is to oppose the government's policies?
Workplan: Find out how the ACLU is working to uphold these fundamental freedoms:
http://www.aclu.org/campaigns/campaignslist.cfm?orgid=EA021705C&c=308.html#FreeSpeech
* Is it right for politicians to interfere with a woman's most private medical decisions, including whether or when to bear children?
Workplan: Read how we can fight back in defense of privacy and reproductive rights:
http://www.aclu.org/campaigns/campaignslist.cfm?orgid=EA021705C&c=308.html#Reproductive
* Should our government continue to ignore universal human rights principles and should our political leaders turn a blind eye to our own government's mounting record of human rights abuses?
Workplan: Learn how the ACLU is striving to preserve America's commitment to human dignity:
http://www.aclu.org/campaigns/campaignslist.cfm?orgid=EA021705C&c=308.html#HumanRights
Freedom's future lies in the answers to these questions. One thing is certain: we are up against powerful, well-organized opponents who are ready to answer each and every one of these questions in the affirmative. That is why it has never been more critical for the ACLU and our members to be a voice of liberty and reason.
The ACLU's task is to rise to the challenges ahead with commitment, energy and smart strategies, to use every ounce of tenacity, imagination and wisdom we can muster to stand up for freedom's cause. Our Workplan addresses each of these vital questions and the ACLU's specific plans for addressing each and every one of them. You can read our Workplan here:
http://www.aclu.org/campaigns/campaignslist.cfm?orgid=EA021705C&c=308&MX=1916&H=0
In a very real sense, the future of our fundamental freedoms and the very vibrancy of our democracy are in your hands and those of more than 400,000 ACLU members.
We need you to do all that you can to support the ACLU at this critical moment. Please review the full Workplan, share it with others and remember to join the ACLU to defend those freedoms I know you hold as dearly as we do:
https://www.aclu.org/contribute/contribute.cfm?orgid=EA021705C&cid=1&slp=y&orgid=EA021705C&MX=1916&H=0
I assure you that we will use every dollar you send to wage a vigorous and spirited fight for liberty that will make you proud to be a card-carrying member of the ACLU.
Sincerely,
Anthony D. Romero
Executive Director, ACLU
P.S. To read the ACLU 2005 Workplan, please click here:
http://www.aclu.org/campaigns/campaignslist.cfm?orgid=EA021705C&c=308&MX=1916&H=0
posted by Ed Kent at 8:40 AM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home