April 24, 2009 archive

More Than 250,000 People Demand Accountability

There’s an old saying that goes, “early to bed, early to rise, work like hell and organize.” Well, we on the field team at the ACLU think it needs to be changed to “LATE to bed, early to rise, work like hell and organize!” Who goes to bed early when there’s work to be done?

Boxes filled with the names of 257,961 people who signed our petition. The sign reads: “People say: Appoint a Special Prosecutor.”

You can rest assured we have been working hard to make certain that people at the highest reaches of our government hear our call that torture is wrong, and that we demand action to ensure our country never engages in these horrific tactics again.

Due to the wonderful support of our members and activists, and the collaboration with members of the Stop Torture Now coalition, we gathered more than a quarter of a million signatures calling on Attorney General Eric Holder to appoint a special prosecutor to examine torture and other government abuses. We delivered those petitions yesterday during a hearing on Capitol Hill that under normal circumstances, would have been a discussion of the budget of the Department of Justice. We pushed, prodded and pitched the media, contacted members of Congress and joined forces with other groups like MoveOn….

Democrats.com,

…. Faithful America, Firedoglake, the Center for Constitutional Rights and many others to ensure that when AG Holder was at this hearing, he was asked the tough questions about the recently released torture memos,and what he was going to do about this sad chapter in our country’s history.

The first speaker in the hearing was Appropriations Committee Chair, Rep. David Obey (D-Wisc.). During his opening remarks he discussed the memos and said they definitely described torture. We knew right then and there that all our hard work paid off. As the hearing continued, member after member sought the Attorney General’s view on this issue and asked to hear his thoughts on what actions to take.

At one point, Holder said: “…it is my responsibility as the Attorney General to enforce the law. If I see wrongdoing, I will pursue it to the full extent of the law.”

Join Ed Encho, Gottlieb and I tonight at 6pm EDT for WWL Radio!

Please call with any questions you may have, or respectful commentary.

The call in number is 646-929-1264

The live chat link will be active after 5:30-ish.

http://www.blogtalkradio.com/h…

The Lineup:

We will be starting off with a brief mention of the Venezuelan Polo Horse Poisoning into a conversation on The Summit of the Americas.

Next we take a look at the Pirates of the Somalian.

Our main topic follows with trying to predict what will become of the Torture Memos with reasoned debate about whether or not any type, or which type of Accountability will result.

In closing, we ponder about the American Guidestones. To wit, are these the rules of wisdom?

   LET THESE BE GUIDESTONES TO AN AGE OF REASON

   Maintain humanity under 500,000,000 in perpetual balance with nature.

   Guide reproduction wisely-improving fitness and diversity.

   Unite humanity with a living new language.

   Rule passion-faith-tradition-and all things with tempered reason.

   Protect people and nations with fair laws and just courts.

   Let all nations rule internally resolving external disputes in a world court.

   Avoid petty laws and useless officials.

   Balance personal rights with social duties.

   Prize truth-beauty-love-seeking harmony with the infinite.

   Be not a cancer on the earth-leave room for nature-leave room for nature.

Via Sam Stein

An official at Gallup confirms that the polling firm will be conducting a survey this weekend on criminal investigations into the Bush years. The survey, likely to be released on Monday afternoon, will provide one the first measures of public sentiment on this topic since Barack Obama suggested he would be open to an independent commission investigating the use of now-outlawed interrogation techniques.

Elizabeth Mendes, an associate editor at Gallup, says the survey will ask “how closely people have been following the news about this issue, if they think the techniques were justified, and if they think there should be an investigation.” There could be another question relating to the makeup of such an investigation, though that has not been finalized.

…

The last time Gallup polled this issue was on February 12, when the firm found that 62 percent of the public supported some sort of investigation into the “possible use of torture in terror interrogation.” Thirty-eight percent favored a criminal investigation, 24 percent favored an investigation by an independent panel, and 34 percent said they favored neither.

(Note to Obama supporters, please see the requisite disclaimer and loyalty pledge at the end of the essay)

Ah, for the good old days of having the three independent branches of government that made democracy thrive!

For anyone who questions whether the precedents or paradigms of Bushco and the Unitary Executive Theory of Presidential power live on, be reassured that they do! Not to mention using those powers for political purposes!

The big difference? Bush NEVER backed down to Democrats.

So no, for those wondering and ready to pounce, the preceeding sentence proves I am not engaging in the heresy of Obama=Bush.

President Obama does back down to his political opponents. Unlike Bush.

In a lengthy exchange with House  Minority Leader John A. Boehner (R-Ohio), Obama appeared to back away from a statement earlier this week that suggested he could support an independent commission to examine possible abuses, according to several attendees who spoke on the condition of anonymity so they could discuss the private meeting freely. White House press secretary Robert Gibbs, also seeking to clarify the president’s position, told reporters that “the president determined the concept didn’t seem altogether workable in this case” because of the intense partisan atmosphere built around the issue.

Apparently he is willing to silence his own party, use his influence to politicize justice and exert undue influence on the other branches of government to advance his political agenda. Which brings us to another way he does not equal Bush.  

His policies are much needed and incredibly admirable. That does not in any way excuse him from attempting to tell Congress what they should do in order to advance them. Or excuse him from “knuckling under” to the Hard Right. (Read that link!)

As Gibbs said:



“The last few days might be evidence of why something like this might just become a political back and forth.”  

.

.

Uh-huh. CITIZENS push for justice, an incredibly damning bipartisan Senate report is issued that directly states that torture was approved at the highest levels is issued, on the heels of the government being forced to release incredibly damning legal memos by the ACLU, that came on the heels of the incredibly damning leak of the ICRC report that charges torture….

The press (finally) starts reporting on torture, public outrage grows…

But then the Republicans start making scary noises about all of this evidence coming out and the apparently ludicrously partisan idea that someone MIGHT ACTUALLY DO SOMETHING ABOUT ALL OF THIS EVIDENCE.

And THAT is a “political back and forth???”

These are my distractions for you on this Friday.

They are all of light overcoming the darkness we sometimes seem trapped in.

In the beginning there was nothing.

And God created light

There was still nothing

But now you could see it.

To honor therevolutionarysieve`s request, I open with this.

Hopes Dreams & Aspirations

At the age of reason, we begin to see ourselves as what we would or could be, in numerous fantasies. These are manifested in dreams sometimes & in daydreaming at others. It would seem natural, that these reveries would usually cast us in a good light & unintentionally, always steer one away from the dark side.It has always been my fantasy that the dreamers of the world, the young ones, with the purity of their aspirations & hopes, should have theirs fullfilled.

I try to eschew Earth Day hoopla, because for me every day is Earth Day and it’s a bit too much of preaching to my choir. I’ve been heathen all my adult life, and mysterious Nerthus who gave Her name to our planet is one of my Vanic Deities, the mother of Yngve-Freyr and His twin sister, my Matron Goddess Freyja. The tendency of some to do the right thing only on Earth Day (or worse yet, to do nothing but TALK about it!) makes about as much sense to me as locking yourself into a little box on Sunday for an hour and claiming that after you leave that little box your worship is done for the week. But being a live and let live sort in general, I figure if that’s what gets them their jollies I don’t have to be there to like it, I’ll just go do things my way anyway and it is sure to take me sufficiently away from theirs.

So for my own cynical amusement, I spent the day AFTER Earth Day wondering how much of a haul I’d bring in. The car is full. I am guessing I’ll get about five to seven bucks for what I picked up. Seems to me that there are enough people NOT doing the right thing on Earth Day to the degree that if someone’s going to go out there and pick up cans for an ego trip, I say LET THEM, because it really doesn’t matter WHY they’re doing the right thing so long as they’re bloody well DOING it. Perhaps I should be glad from a financial perspective that I don’t have as much competition out there but believe me, I don’t entirely welcome the opportunity to have a cynical laugh about it.

If I did, I wouldn’t say a single word about it. I’d just do what I do and keep silent and hope no one else would join in. More nickels for little me… right? Wrong.

But that ended up not being the focus of the day. I am occasionally given opportunities by these little trips into the Big Blue Room to learn something else. I have decided to share what I learned with the rest of you about the growing problem of homelessness in this country.