Harmony's Home Page: Civil Liberties Links

Geocities is closing Oct 26th,2009. The new URL for this page is http://harmony.kieding.no/civilliberty.html and the new main website address is http://harmony.kieding.no/frames.html/.

Civil Liberties Links

Walking Liberty

Civil Liberty
"It is seldom that any liberty is lost all at once."
~ David Hume
"If our democracy is devolving into a manipulated nation of inattentive spectators, we have the responsibility to speak honestly about our national choices, and to do so even if we feel hesitant or scared."
-Paul Loeb, "Reclaiming our Courage"

"Here in America we are descended in blood and in spirit from revolutionists and rebels - men and women who dare to dissent from accepted doctrine. As their heirs, may we never confuse honest dissent with disloyal subversion."
Dwight D. Eisenhower
"Do you think it's possible that if you were to wake up one morning and come to the realization that your freedom is hanging by a thread, that you wouldn't do anything more than get dressed and go to work, as if it were the same as any other day? Is it possible that our freedom and our country could be lost inch by inch without one defining moment to mark the transformation from freedom to oppression, and is it possible that we could miss hearing the call when it comes, or if we do hear it, simply be too tired or not have the time, the strength, the energy, the know-how, or the courage to stand up for justice anyway?"

"...and if you haven't the courage to tell the truth, or the consciousness to honor the truth, or the love to love the truth, then one day you will not have the truth to tell, and soon thereafter you will not live in a place that will acknowledge the truth when it is told, and not long after that the truth will not be told, for it will no longer be allowed. You cannot hope to be a traitor to life, and then expect to live in a free and just society."
-Mark A.Goldman,The Critical Choice

"This Administration cannot promote freedom and liberty abroad while banning our most fundamental freedoms here at home. The pattern of stifling those voices that do not represent conservative orthodoxy has chilling implications for our Democracy."
-Tom Athens, Producer for the Ed Schultz Show

Alphabetical Listing of links

A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Quotes Songs

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A Citizen Shorn of All Rights ACLU American Civil Liberties Union Added December 13, 2001 Through Gag Orders & Secret Evidence, Government Is Suppressing Information About Controversial Patriot Act Powers, ACLU Charges "The government is using gag orders and secret evidence to keep the public in the dark about its use of the Patriot Act to investigate Americans, the ACLU said today, and filed a motion to exclude classified portions of a government affidavit that were provided only to the court in a filing a motion to exclude secret evidence." ACLU Press Release:10-10-01 "Trust Us, We're the Government" Added December 13, 2001 A Letter To My Family And Friends:by Z clip: "June 30, 2003 It's time I spoke up with my own words. I cannot remain silent anymore, even if it costs me personally. All I hope is that my words don't fall on deaf ears, and that my concerns are not just brushed off. I have been personally affected by what is happening, and I want others to know what I feel. I am afraid. Everyday I step out into a world unlike anything I ever thought truly possible � a world of my worst fears. If only I could convince myself that I was afraid of shadows, I could then ignore that quiet voice inside that sees the things I wish were not there. America is no longer the land of the free. Our democratic republic officially died when five Supreme Court Justices, led by Chief Justice Rehnquist, installed George W. Bush as president of the United States. Despite the distractions of hanging chads and butterfly ballots, the fact remains that thousands of mainly black, mainly Democratic voters were purged from the voter rolls before the 2000 election by Bush's brother Jeb and Katherine Harris through DBT Technologies (now known as Centerpoint). Massive vote fraud occurred in Florida, to the rightful outrage of all Americans who know the available, but underreported, facts. When Bush still teetered on the edge of losing the state despite the vote- fixing, Katherine Harris stopped the recount � a conflict of interest, as she was co-chair of Bush's election campaign in Florida. The United States Supreme Court then took the unprecedented and unConstitutional step of illegally selecting Bush as president. These facts are widely known outside this country and in the alternative media here, yet many of my fellow citizens simply refuse to even consider this act � a bloodless coup d'etat � as possible." AlterNet: Human Rights USA "When Americans think "human rights," they assume the term applies to somewhere else. Something to worry about in Africa, or Bosnia or Colombia. Yet human rights battles are fought on American soil every day, right in front of our faces -- in our neighborhoods, our schools, our city halls, our homes, our jails." Added December 13, 2001 AlterNet:Rights and Liberties:The War on Civil Liberties "America's anti-terror laws have been more effective in restricting individual rights than in preventing terrorism." Added September 22,2004 America: The New Heart of Darkness by John Kaminski clip: "The right to a fair trial is no longer guaranteed. You can be put in jail or executed for reasons that can be kept secret. And still, on the crumbling streets of America, most people go about their business as if nothing has happened. Sensible people, who in the deepening darkness of their own secret hearts must realize something has definitely happened, that something definitely will happen. Sensible people, suddenly afraid to speak what they really believe for fear their neighbors will overhear and tell someone with a gun and a uniform, or worse, an employer with an important contract who wants no employees who don't agree with the way things are. And then, they think, paralyzed by fear, who will feed the kids? Scared silence follows." Added February 4,2005 American Police State:Abandoning Liberty; Gaining Insecurity "Americans might never again experience a domestic act of terrorism except from their own police state." Added February 4,2005 The First Ten Amendments Update-January 25,2005- old link no longer works, have found a new one - originally added December 15, 2001 Amendments 11-27 Update January 25,2005- old link no longer works, have found alternative website originally added December 15, 2001 America is a Police State by Neal Boortz America-Soon to Be the Largest Police State Ever by Doreen Miller clip:"More and more, under the pretense of "security measures" as dictated by the ever-expanding reach of the Office of Homeland Security, the USA is becoming a mirror image of the dreadful, freedomless society so eloquently described in George Orwell's 1984. It is all the more imperative that we remain vigilant and outspoken against any and all measures our government is undertaking to intrude into the private lives of its citizens, lest we, too, like 1984's Winston Smith, find ourselves one day furtively writing in a forbidden journal: "You had to live - did live, from the habit that became instinct - in the assumption that every sound you made was overheard, and, except in darkness, every movement scrutinized." America's UnPatriotic Acts: The Federal Government's Violation of Constitutional and Civil Rights By Walter M. Brasch "About the book Within six weeks of 9/11, in a nation gripped by fear and hatred, Congress overwhelmingly approved the USA PATRIOT Act, drafted in secret by the Department of Justice, and forced upon the Congress by the House and Senate leadership. There was almost no debate, and few in Congress were given more than a few hours to read the 342-page document; most didn�t read any of it. The Act gave federal law enforcement the tools it wanted to track down and prosecute terrorists. However, there sections which threaten Americans� Constitutional rights and civil liberties while doing little to protect the safety of the nation. Equally important, the Act has been used against American citizens who have no connection with any act of terrorism. In America�s Unpatriotic Acts, award-winning journalist and university professor Walter Brasch looks not just at the effects of the PATRIOT ACT upon the nation, but also at innumerable civil rights violations conducted in the United States, and by the United States in foreign countries during three years following 9/11." Added October 26, 2004 The Anniversary of the Bill of Rights "Our second great national holiday -- or at least it should be" "Why is the government so resistant to a formal celebration of our founding freedoms?" Added December 15, 2002 Average Joes have tough time leaving no fly list " August 22, 2004 BY LOLITA C. BALDOR WASHINGTON -- The nation's confusing array of terrorist watch lists -- like those that snagged Sen. Ted Kennedy and Rep. John Lewis -- can be easy to get on, but far more difficult to get off. It took Kennedy, one of the country's best known senators, three weeks and several calls to federal officials to separate his identity from that of a person with a similar name on the no-fly list. Lesser-known Americans face greater hurdles when their name is flagged by an airline computer. ''This really speaks to just how difficult it can be for ordinary people,'' said Jay Stanley, spokesman for the American Civil Liberties Union, which has filed two lawsuits on this issue. ''The complaints reflected in our litigation are serious.'' (rest of article on link)
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Bill of Rights: Amendment I "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances." Amendment II "A well regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed." Amendment III "No soldier shall, in time of peace be quartered in any house, without the consent of the owner, nor in time of war, but in a manner to be prescribed by law." Amendment IV "The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized." Amendment V "No person shall be held to answer for a capital, or otherwise infamous crime, unless on a presentment or indictment of a grand jury, except in cases arising in the land or naval forces, or in the militia, when in actual service in time of war or public danger; nor shall any person be subject for the same offense to be twice put in jeopardy of life or limb; nor shall be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself, nor be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation." Amendment VI "In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial, by an impartial jury of the state and district wherein the crime shall have been committed, which district shall have been previously ascertained by law, and to be informed of the nature and cause of the accusation; to be confronted with the witnesses against him; to have compulsory process for obtaining witnesses in his favor, and to have the assistance of counsel for his defense." Amendment VII "In suits at common law, where the value in controversy shall exceed twenty dollars, the right of trial by jury shall be preserved, and no fact tried by a jury, shall be otherwise reexamined in any court of the United States, than according to the rules of the common law." Amendment VIII "Excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted." Amendment IX "The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people." Amendment X "The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the states, are reserved to the states respectively, or to the people." Amendments 11-27 Bill of Rights Defense Committee "Make your city or town a Civil Liberties Safe Zone. Visit our Tools page to find out how! 22 cities and towns have passed resolutions protecting the civil liberties of their 3,355,382 residents." Many more are in progress! Update: "Three states and 230 cities, towns, and counties have passed resolutions, ordinances or ballot initiatives protecting the civil liberties of their 30,052,253 residents. Hundreds more are in progress. Visit our Tools and FAQs pages to find out how." January 6,2004 Update: "329 Civil Liberties Safe Zones! Four states and 325 cities and counties have passed resolutions to protect their 51,645,948 residents' civil liberties. Hundreds more resolutions critical of the Patriot Act are in progress." June 13,2004 Update:"356 Civil Liberties Safe Zones! Four states and 352 cities and counties have passed resolutions to protect their 55,035,941 residents' civil liberties. Hundreds more resolutions critical of the USA PATRIOT Act are in progress."September 22,2004 362 Civil Liberties Safe Zones! Four states and 358 cities and counties have passed resolutions to protect their 55,456,916 residents' civil liberties. Hundreds more resolutions critical of the USA PATRIOT Act are in progress. The U.S. Bill of Rights "During the debates on the adoption of the Constitution, its opponents repeatedly charged that the Constitution as drafted would open the way to tyranny by the central government. Fresh in their minds was the memory of the British violation of civil rights before and during the Revolution. They demanded a "bill of rights" that would spell out the immunities of individual citizens. Several state conventions in their formal ratification of the Constitution asked for such amendments; others ratified the Constitution with the understanding that the amendments would be offered." Added December 15, 2001 Transcription- The Preamble "THE Conventions of a number of the States, having at the time of their adopting the Constitution, expressed a desire, in order to prevent misconstruction or abuse of its powers, that further declaratory and restrictive clauses should be added: And as extending the ground of public confidence in the Government, will best ensure the beneficent ends of its institution." Added December 15, 2001 Black Vote Smothered by Electoral College Boston Globe Online/Editorials/Ashcroft vs Americans Brainwashing America Brave New World:What the FDA won't tell you about the verichip Brian Cloughley: Where Are You Heading, America? "The parallels with 1930s Germany are ominous . . . Have you read the USA PATRIOT Act right through, and examined every one of its amendments to existing legislation? Has anyone done this, apart from its authors and a few agitated souls in media, academia and some Congressional offices? It is 342 pages long, and went through the legislative process of the United States like a hot knife through butter. Senators voted 98 to 1 for the Act, and the House endorsed it by 357 to 56, but not one of those who approved its terms could possibly have had time to read it and cross-reference its details before endorsing it. This was governance by misplaced trust, because the Patriot Act is potentially the most dangerous piece of legislation in US history. The Act alters 15 Statutes. The prerogatives, personal authority and dominance of the president of the United States have been extended to include drastic and quasi-imperial powers that threaten the liberties of all Americans. One reason the Patriot Act is worrying for foreigners is that US military expansionism and economic domination are drastically affecting the entire world. What is decided in Washington today is immensely important for every other capital tomorrow. We are all dependent in one way or another on US policies. Therefore it is appropriate rather than impertinent that the rest of the world should comment on US domestic matters that inevitably impact on every person on the globe. Another reason for concern is that there are alarming echoes of the 1930s, when a semi-elected and eventually-appointed national figure amassed such power as to be unaccountable to the people of his country, and went on to create mayhem and chaos to the extent that the entire world was shaken to its foundations." (Rest of article on link above) "Brian Cloughley writes on military and political affairs. He can be reached through his website http://www.briancloughley.com/" Bringing It All Back Home:The Emergence of the Homeland Security State by Nick Turse "Part I: The Military Half If you're reading this on the Internet, the FBI may be spying on you at this very moment. Under provisions of the USA Patriot Act, the Department of Justice has been collecting e-mail and IP (a computer's unique numeric identifier) addresses, without a warrant, using trap-and-trace surveillance devices ("pen-traps"). Now, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Justice's principle investigative arm, may be monitoring the web-surfing habits of Internet users -- also without a search warrant -- that is, spying on you with no probable cause whatsoever." Part II:The Civilian Half:The Emergence of the Homeland Security State "Today, freedom -- to be spread abroad by force of arms -- is increasingly a privilege that can be rescinded at home when anyone acts a little too free. Today, America is just another area of operations for the Pentagon; while those who say the wrong things; congregate in the wrong places; wear the wrong t-shirts; display the wrong stickers; or just look the wrong way find themselves recast as "enemies" and put under the eye of, if not the care of, the state." -Nick Turse (rest of article on link) Added February 4,2005 Broken Nation- America under the Bush Administration by William Lawrence "Broken Nation is a comprehensive critical analysis of contemporary United States history under the Bush Administration, 2001-2006. Bill Lawrence examines the social and environmental consequences of the dangerous political and industry-influenced policies that have so far shaped the 21st century. This powerful and informative book reveals many new facts, reaffirms many well-known facts and puts them into context, and raises many new questions. An excellent guidebook to any world citizen who cares about a peaceful and hopeful future." Added June 12,2006 Bush accused of civil rights clamp down "President George Bush is presiding over the most secretive administration in 'living memory', according to American civil rights groups and congressmen. Critics accuse him of orchestrating an unprecedented clampdown on freedom of information and the press. This has resulted in a dramatic increase in documents and proceedings being classified secret and an overall shutdown of the free flow of information over the government's political and legal conduct. They are also concerned over what they see as alarming restrictions on the Freedom of Information Act...." (rest of article on link) Bush Seeks Limit to Suits Over Voting Rights By David G. Savage and Richard B. Schmitt, Times Staff Writers WASHINGTON � Bush administration lawyers argued in three closely contested states last week that only the Justice Department, and not voters themselves, may sue to enforce the voting rights set out in the Help America Vote Act, which was passed in the aftermath of the disputed 2000 election. Veteran voting-rights lawyers expressed surprise at the government's action, saying that closing the courthouse door to aspiring voters would reverse decades of precedent. Since the civil rights era of the 1960s, individuals have gone to federal court to enforce their right to vote, often with the support of groups such as the NAACP, the AFL-CIO, the League of Women Voters or the state parties. And until now, the Justice Department and the Supreme Court had taken the view that individual voters could sue to enforce federal election law." (rest of article on above link) Added November 5,2004 Bush "Seizing Dictatorial Power" Bush's Mysterious "New Programs"
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Cassel:Civil Liberties Watch CCLA Canadian Civil Liberties Association- "The Freedom of no one is safe unless the freedom of everyone is safe" Added December 13, 2001 Censorship Is AOL Censoring Liberal Information? The Media,Politics and Censorship National Coalition Against Censorship Project Censored.Org Silenced By the President (Also see "Media") The Center for Constitutional Rights Added November 22,2004 The Center for Public Integrity Citizens for a Legitimate Government Civil Liberties Added December 13, 2001 Civil Liberties Crisis "IS THERE A "CIVIL LIBERTIES CRISIS"� Prominent voices from across the political spectrum say �Yes.� Here are some examples: The ACLU says we�re facing: "one of the most serious civil liberties crises our nation has ever seen." NRA spokesman Wayne LaPierre says:: "We've witnessed a fire sale of American liberties at bargain basement prices, in return for the false promise of more security...The America being designed right now won't resemble the America we've been defending�.The danger isn't that Big Brother may storm the castle gates. The danger is that Americans don't realize that he is already inside the castle walls." Added November 5,2004 Civil Liberties Defense Foundation We believe that the Bill of Rights to the U.S. Constitution is a sacred document that all Americans should help preserve and protect. "We believe that in this age of growing government bureaucracy, increasing gun control, dwindling free speech and diminishing privacy, more must be done to protect individual rights. We believe that it is essential to the preservation of liberty, for all Americans to become more vigilant in their efforts to protect these rights; therefore, it is the mission of CLDF to educate people concerning the rights guaranteed by the Bill of Rights. We believe that our educational efforts must sometimes be supplemented by litigation to ensure that the principles of liberty and individual rights prevail." Added February 28, 2002 Civil Liberties Now Added November 5,2004 Civil Liberties Restoration Act of 2004:Summary " At the core of the American value system is the belief that every human being is afforded certain inalienable rights. From guaranteeing every person a fair trial to providing equal protection under the law to all, respect for individual rights is the foundation of American democracy, and as we endeavor to protect these principles, we can promote unity at home and build credibility abroad. In the aftermath of the September 11th attacks, our nation has struggled to meet new security challenges while preserving fundamental values of liberty and fairness. The Civil Liberties Restoration Act of 2004 (CLRA) would safeguard basic rights and promote our nation�s safety. It would move the United States forward at this important time by demonstrating to the world that this country takes seriously the rights of people it detains. The CLRA includes the following provisions:" (see above link for rest of details) Added October 26,2004 Civil Liberties Trio says theirs were denied By DAMIAN MANN,Mail Tribune "Medford teacher Tania Tong never imagined that a few words on a T-shirt would propel her onto the national political stage. Tong, 34, and two other local women were escorted out of President George Bush�s rally in Central Point Thursday because they wore T-shirts that stated, "Protect our civil liberties." "I think that it�s ironic," she said. "We had this non-offensive statement about protecting our civil liberties, but our civil liberties were denied." Civil Liberty the Next Casualty? Article by Kristen Philipkoski Added December 16, 2001 Civil liberty warnings raised Article BY William Matthews Added December 16, 2001 Civil Rights groups condemn Blunkett's anti-terror plans (UK) Clamping Down on Freedom of the Press:What lessons does Watergate offer for today's beleaguered media? The Coalition for Civil Liberties Added November 26,2003 Commentary-The Rutherford Institute Is Operations TIPS Part of a Plan to Defend Our Homeland or Destroy It? Concentration Camps: American Concentration Camps Amnesty International:Campaigns:Guantanamo Bay:a human rights scandal Concentration Camps Concentration Camps on US Soil US Concentration Camps: FEMA And the Rex 84 Program Camps for Citizens: Ashcroft's Hellish Vision The Normalization of Horror:American Gulags Become Permanent Congress Expands FBI Spying Power (WiredNews) Added January 6,2004 Congress passes `doomsday' plan "By Noelle Straub Sunday, January 9, 2005 WASHINGTON - With no fanfare, the U.S. House has passed a controversial doomsday provision that would allow a handful of lawmakers to run Congress if a terrorist attack or major disaster killed or incapacitated large numbers of congressmen. ``I think (the new rule) is terrible in a whole host of ways - first, I think it's unconstitutional,'' said Norm Ornstein, a counselor to the independent Continuity of Government Commission, a bipartisan panel created to study the issue. ``It's a very foolish thing to do, I believe, and the way in which it was done was more foolish.'' (rest of article on link) Congressman Bernard Sanders ABC News: Congress Expands Use of Terrorist Lists "WASHINGTON Dec 10, 2004 � Anyone who works at an airport or aboard a cruise ship will have his identity checked against government watch lists, just like commercial airline passengers. The change, included in the intelligence bill passed by Congress this week, means hundreds of thousands of additional names will be compared with those on two lists one for people suspected of terrorism, the other for people the government says require additional scrutiny for some other reason." The Constitution of the United States Added December 15, 2001 Constitutional Rules No Longer Valid Constitution Society Home Page Added December 16,2003 Corporate Media and the Threat to Democracy Added November 9,2004 Coup d'Etat in America CLIP:"What the US public is not aware of, is that a code red alert suspends civilian government; it triggers a whole series of emergency procedures; it is tantamount to a coup d'etat -- although in many regards the coup d'etat has already taken place under the post-9/11 anti-terrorist legislation and the rigging of the 2000 elections which brought George W. Bush intothe White House." Added November 7th,2004 Cyber-Liberties (ACLU)
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Databases on Citizens Dialing in For Democracy- Now is Critical by Thom Hartmann " It's time to start using the "F" word. George W. Bush was made President of the United States in 2000 by fraud, and apparently has done it again." Added January 7th,2005 Declaration of Independence Added December 13, 2001 Defence of Canadian Liberty Committee "The constitution of Canada does not belong either to Parliament, or to the Legislatures; it belongs to the country and it is there that the citizens of the country will find the protection of the rights to which they are entitled" Added December 13, 2001 Defend the Constitution MoveOn.org The administration needs to be reminded that we are a government of laws, not men. Every member of Congress has taken an oath to "support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic." Added December 13, 2001 Democracies Online Newswire "Promoting online civic participation and democracy efforts around the world through information exchange, experience sharing, outreach, and education." Added December 13, 2001 Dennis J. Kucinich's Action and Information Center and Dennis Kucinich's courageous speeches, A Prayer For America and Second Renaissance Added February 26, 2002 Dennis Kucinich Blog: "There is nothing patriotic about the loss of our civil liberties" Thursday, June 19 2003 04:06 PM PDT" "The USA Patriot Act represents an attack on the Bill of Rights. Over 100 communities have expressed opposition to the Patriot Act. The Patriot Act permits the government to punish people for innocent associations and constitutionally protected free speech. It has permitted people to be held in jail without charges. The government now monitors conversations between detainees and their lawyers. It permits widespread wiretapping, searches without warrants, and enables the government to get information concerning what people read, what they watch, their financial transactions, and personal health information. As a Congressman, I led the fight against the Patriot Act in Congress and will also lead the efforts against Patriot Act 2 which would permit even more surveillance, more spying, and the cover-up of information about environmental problems caused by corporations. It would even allow for sampling and indexing of genetic information of innocent Americans without a court order! As president, I will lead the effort to repeal the Patriot Act. There is nothing patriotic about the loss of our civil liberties. I applaud the efforts of all those organizations who have joined to fight it." Dennis J. Kucinich Washington, D.C. http://www.fromthewilderness.com/free/ww3/082103_kucinich.html Added October 23,2003 from Wikipedia,the free encyclopedia, the definition for DICTATOR: "In modern times, the term "dictator" is generally used to describe a leader who holds an extraordinary amount of personal power, especially the power to make laws without effective restraint by a legislative assembly. It is comparable to (but not synonymous with) the ancient concept of a tyrant, although initially "tyrant," like "dictator," was not a negative term. A wide variety of people have been described as dictators, from lawfully installed government ministers like Ant�nio de Oliveira Salazar and Engelbert Dollfuss, to unofficial military strongmen like Manuel Noriega to stratocrats like Francisco Franco and Augusto Pinochet. In the modern definition, "dictatorship" is associated with brutality and oppression, most notoriously in the cases of Adolf Hitler, Joseph Stalin, and Mao Zedong. As a result, it is often used as a term of abuse for political oppponents; Henry Clay's dominance of the United States Congress as Speaker of the House and as a member of the U.S. Senate led to his nickname "the Dictator". The term has also come to be associated with megalomania. Many dictators create a cult of personality and have come to favor increasingly grandiloquent titles and honors for themselves. For example, Idi Amin Dada, who had been a British army lieutenant prior to Uganda's independence from Britain in October 1962, subsequently styled himself as "His Excellency President for Life Field Marshal Al Hadji Dr. Idi Amin, VC, DSO, MC, Lord of All the Beasts of the Earth and Fishes of the Sea and Conqueror of the British Empire in Africa in General and Uganda in Particular". In The Great Dictator, Charlie Chaplin satirized not only Hitler but the institution of dictatorship itself. The association between the dictator and the military is a very common one; many dictators take great pains to emphasize their connections with the military and often wear military uniforms. In some cases, this is perfectly natural; Francisco Franco was a lieutenant general in the Spanish Army before he became Chief of State of Spain, and Noriega was officially commander of the Panamanian Defense Forces. In other cases, this is mere pretense; Stalin appointed himself "Generalissimo of the Soviet Union" despite having no real military background." (Didn't Know I Was)UnAmerican DISSENT Dissent is not disloyal Freedom Under Fire:Dissent in Post 9/11 America (ACLU) The Scourge of Her Conviction:Elena Sassower clip: "Jonathan Turley, who teaches constitutional law at George Washington University Law School, finds the Sassower case "extraordinary." Her punishment is unprecedented for a congressional disrupter; it's rare that even raucous outbursts result in charges, let alone jail terms (see sidebar). It also sets up what Turley calls "a worrisome precedent," by which a judge can throw the book at someone simply for expressing political views. Sassower's sentence means dissidents everywhere will have to think twice before opening their mouths. John Bailey, of the White Plains CitizeNet Reporter, an online news service and one of the few media outlets to write about the implications of the case, sums it up. "Many committed activists are obnoxious and relentless," he says. "Does that mean they should all get six months in jail for speaking out at a Senate hearing?" The War on Dissent Widens They Just Don't Want to Know- of dissidents and dissonance Do We Still Have a Democracy? by Ernest Partridge "Was the 2004 presidential election fixed? The question is virtually absent in the mainstream, corporate media, as if it is at least impolite and at worst paranoid and delusional even to ask it. The final totals of this election are an undisputed given, and media discussion follows from this hard-core assumption. The issue of the validity of the final election returns, for the nation or for pivotal states such as Florida and Ohio, is rarely raised in the mainstream media. Meanwhile, on the Internet, speculation as to the fairness and validity of the official vote count is active and increasing. Bev Harris' BlackBoxVoting.org has filed the most extensive Freedom of Information action in history, in an attempt to prove that fraud took place in the 2004 election through electronic voting machines. And Greg Palast has proclaimed straight-out that, had all the votes been counted, John Kerry would have won Ohio, Florida, and therefore the election." (rest of article on link) Added November 12,2004 Domestic Security Enhancement Act of 2003-Reclaim Democracy.org "Orange Alert for Civil Liberties Beware of the "Domestic Security Enhancement Act" The Bush Administration Already Is At War -- Against Your Freedom Added January 7,2004 Doublespeak and the New World Order
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Eight Ways to Defeat Democracy (from Voting Security) Use machines & Internet to vote - this prohibits direct voter participation in and oversight of the entire voting process. It is also an open invitation to massive vote fraud and technical failure. Encourage absentee voting - the chain of custody is lost. No one can ever be certain if absentee ballots are sent, received, or counted properly - particularly if the process has been outsourced. However, given the choice between machines and absentee ballots - I vote by absentee. Privatize the election process - hire corporations to redistrict, register voters, and process votes (including absentee ballots). Outsourcing also inhibits direct public participation and oversight. Privatization also helps distance election officials from direct involvement in vote fraud. Use bogus polling data to shape expectations - this can apply to both pre-election and exit polls. Control the news media - so that people vote in ignorance of the issues. Redistrict your way to victory - the old divide and conquer strategy. Let the winner take all - denies minority parties any representation on town councils or in legislatures. Just buy it - allow wealth to concentrate in the hands of a few. End of Democracy Sucking Democracy Dry by Rick Perlstein The End of Democracy Losing America's birthright, the George Bush way October 19th, 2004 10:40 AM "Once upon a time, not too long ago, the president of the United States declared that the war on terrorism was the most important issue in this year's presidential campaign. Then every time his opponent brought up this most important of issues, George W. Bush cried foul, accusing John Kerry of hindering the war on terrorism. (America might be a democracy, but that doesn't mean the Democrat has a right to campaign.) The president's campaign enlisted the taxpayers' servants as agents of his re-election, with Secret Service officers submitting attendees at Bush rallies to ideological X-rays, and election officials systematically suppressing the franchise of groups most likely to vote Democratic. Meanwhile the president, who earned some 500,000 votes less than his opponent, busied himself ramming through a radical legislative program as if he had won by a landslide�his congressional deputies all but barring deliberative input from the opposition party in order to do it and gaming the legislative apportionment system in ways, as the counsel to one Texas representative bragged in an e-mail to colleagues, that "should assure that Republicans keep the House no matte[r] the national mood." Evidence Mounts that the Vote Was Hacked- Thom Hartmann Added November 11,2004 Every Evil Thing "Several dramatic recent events highlight how much of our liberty we have lost since September 11, 2001, and how much more we are about to lose." Clips: ATF Attacks Innocent Gun Owners. Thugs Threaten To Shoot Air Passengers. Massive Troop Deployment to U.S. Cities. U.S. Concentration Camps. Added November 5,2004
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Fascism: America:From Freedom to Fascism Eternal Fascism:14 Ways of Looking at a Blackshirt The "F" Word "THE 'F' WORD - The Patriot Act: What "Imperial" Decisions by Bush and Ashcroft have done to your Civil Liberties since 9-11." 12 Warning Signs of Fascism The 14 Defining Characteristics of Fascism Fascist America? Fascism and Homeland Security "The illusion of freedom will continue as long as it's profitable to continue the illusion. At the point where the illusion becomes too expensive to maintain, they will just take down the scenery, pull back the curtains, and you will see the brick wall at the back of the theater." -- Frank Zappa Fascism, Anyone? Fascism Goes Mainstream Fascism Watch George W Bush and the 14 Points of Fascism Hello: You Are Now Living in a Fascist Empire How do you define fascism?- by Bryan Zepp Jamieson Kennedy: Fascist America clip: " In the book, Kennedy implies that we live in a fascist country and that the Bush White House has learned key lessons from the Nazis. "While communism is the control of business by government, fascism is the control of government by business," he writes. "My American Heritage Dictionary defines fascism as 'a system of government that exercises a dictatorship of the extreme right, typically through the merging of state and business leadership together with belligerent nationalism.' Sound familiar?" He quotes Hitler's propaganda chief Herman Goerring: "It is always simply a matter to drag the people along, whether it is a democracy, or a fascist dictatorship, or a parliament, or a communist dictatorship. The people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the peacemakers for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same in any country." Kennedy then adds: "The White House has clearly grasped the lesson." Kennedy also quotes Benito Mussolini's insight that "fascism should more appropriately be called corporatism because it is the merger of state and corporate power." Police State America "President Bush can lock up anyone forever without charge." Torture,Fascism and Our Civilization When Fascism Comes to America- Maureen Farrell The Rise of the Amerikan Nazis by Manuel Valenzuela First Nations Commission on Civil Rights First They Came For The Terrorists by Thom Hartmann clip: "The Gonzales confirmation is not just about the torture memos. It's much bigger than that. If Bush continues to roll back human and civil rights - and the installation of Alberto Gonzalez as America's chief law enforcement officer is very much a part of his campaign to do so - we may be facing a "Pastor Niem�ller moment" sooner than most of us could have imagined. Tuesday, January 10, 2005, is the third anniversary of the opening of America's first concentration camp since Japanese Americans were shamefully interred during WWII. Since the first Guantanamo camp was opened, the Bush administration has built additional concentration camps - the latest known as Camp Five - in Cuba, and is asking Congress for $29 million to build concentration Camp Six. These concentration camps detain uncharged, untried, unconvicted individuals, who may be held for the rest of their lives because, as the UK's Guardian newspaper noted on January 5th of this year, the Bush administration "lacks proof" that they are either criminals or POWs. This is one of the more visible parts of a much larger campaign the Bush administration has embarked on to reverse not only 229 years of the American rule of law regarding the rights of average citizens, but nearly eight centuries of human rights that go back to an epic moment in 1215 on a meadow by the River Thames. The modern institution of civil and human rights, and particularly the writ of habeas corpus, began in June of 1215 when King John was forced by the feudal lords to sign the Magna Carta at Runnymede. Although that document mostly protected "freemen" - what were then known as feudal lords or barons, and today known as CEOs and millionaires - rather than the average person, it initiated a series of events that echo to this day." (rest of article on link) FRAUDULENT ELECTIONS Fraudulent Elections are one of the 14 defining characteristics of Fascism. Freedoms Lost Under G.W. Bush by Chuck Baldwin clip: "Anyone who dares to oppose or even question Bush must be regarded as enemies of America or even as enemies of God. February 1, 2005--Supporters and apologists for President G.W. Bush will often assail my assertion that the Bush administration has done more to dismantle constitutional protections of our liberties than any president in modern memory. It seems that these people believe that until federal Storm Troopers knock down the doors of their homes and drag them off to the gulags, they have lost no freedoms. Nothing could be further from the truth. If history is any teacher, it instructs us in the incremental process that elitists use to implement their totalitarian agenda. The first step is to use an incessant, highly orchestrated propaganda. For all practical purposes, the major media in the United States is providing that propaganda. At the national level, there is hardly any investigative journalism going on. Instead, the national press corps has become little more than lazy lackeys for the White House. The second step is to lay the foundation for totalitarianism by passing legislation that may later be used against the citizenry. And that is exactly what the Bush administration has very successfully accomplished. It very adroitly succeeded where the Clinton administration failed." (rest of commentary on link) Added February 15,2005 Freedom Watch- The Rutherford Institute "Free Speech Zones"- unconstitutional because: ABCNews.com:Do 'Free Speech Zones' Muffle Speech? (clip):"The heart of the issue, according to Bursey and other activists, civil liberties advocates and constitutional experts, is whether there are different policies for different people based on their message. Are people who support the president allowed to cheer him from nearby, while those who want to voice their complaints are sequestered out of sight?" ACLU-Free Speech (clip):"But historically, at times of national stress -- real or imagined -- First Amendment rights come under enormous pressure. During the Red Scare" of the early 1920s, thousands were deported for their political views. During the McCarthy period, the infamous blacklist ruined lives and careers. Today, the creators, producers and distributers of popular culture are often blamed for the nation�s deep social problems. Calls for censorship threaten to erode free speech. The First Amendment exists precisely to protect the most offensive and controversial speech from government suppression. The best way to counter obnoxious speech is with more speech. Persuasion, not coercion, is the solution." CNN.com-Schools under fire for 'free speech zones' "...limiting speech to a few designated areas is unconstitutional because it effectively bans speech everywhere else." Penning Protesters: Are Police-Imposed "Free Speech Zones" and Cages at Conventions Constitutional? By JULIE HILDEN See also (under "Q") "Quarantining dissent:How the Secret Service Protects Bush from Free Speech" Suppressing Free Speech
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Get Ready for Patriot II by Matt Welch "While war news dominates, Ashcroft is ready to batten down the homeland's hatches with a draconian list of curbs on civil liberties." clip: "You can read the entire 87-page draft here. Constitutional watchdog Nat Hentoff has called it "the most radical government plan in our history to remove from Americans their liberties under the Bill of Rights." Some of DSEA's more draconian provisions: * Americans could have their citizenship revoked, if found to have contributed "material support" to organizations deemed by the government, even retroactively, to be "terrorist." As Hentoff wrote in the Feb. 28 Village Voice: "Until now, in our law, an American could only lose his or her citizenship by declaring a clear intent to abandon it. But -- and read this carefully from the new bill -- 'the intent to relinquish nationality need not be manifested in words, but can be inferred from conduct.'" (Italics Hentoff's.) * Legal permanent residents (like, say, my French wife), could be deported instantaneously, without a criminal charge or even evidence, if the Attorney General considers them a threat to national security. If they commit minor, non-terrorist offenses, they can still be booted out, without so much as a day in court, because the law would exempt habeas corpus review in some cases. As the American Civil Liberties Union stated in its long brief against the DSEA, "Congress has not exempted any person from habeas corpus -- a protection guaranteed by the Constitution -- since the Civil War." * The government would be instructed to build a mammoth database of citizen DNA information, aimed at "detecting, investigating, prosecuting, preventing or responding to terrorist activities." Samples could be collected without a court order; one need only be suspected of wrongdoing by a law enforcement officer. Those refusing the cheek-swab could be fined $200,000 and jailed for a year. "Because no federal genetic privacy law regulates DNA databases, privacy advocates fear that the data they contain could be misused," Wired News reported March 31. "People with 'flawed' DNA have already suffered genetic discrimination at the hands of employers, insurance companies and the government." * Authorities could wiretap anybody for 15 days, and snoop on anyone's Internet usage (including chat and email), all without obtaining a warrant. * The government would be specifically instructed not to release any information about detainees held on suspicion of terrorist activities, until they are actually charged with a crime. Or, as Hentoff put it, "for the first time in U.S. history, secret arrests will be specifically permitted." * Businesses that rat on their customers to the Feds -- even if the information violates privacy agreements, or is, in fact, dead wrong -- would be granted immunity. "Such immunity," the ACLU contended, "could provide an incentive for neighbor to spy on neighbor and pose problems similar to those inherent in Attorney General Ashcroft's Operation TIPS." * Police officers carrying out illegal searches would also be granted legal immunity if they were just carrying out orders. * Federal "consent decrees" limiting local law enforcement agencies' abilities to spy on citizens in their jurisdiction would be rolled back. As Howard Simon, executive director of Florida's ACLU, noted in a March 19 column in the Sarasota Herald Tribune: "The restrictions on political surveillance were hard-fought victories for civil liberties during the 1970s." * American citizens could be subject to secret surveillance by their own government on behalf of foreign countries, including dictatorships. * The death penalty would be expanded to cover 15 new offenses. * And many of PATRIOT I's "sunset provisions" -- stipulating that the expanded new enforcement powers would be rescinded in 2005 -- would be erased from the books, cementing Ashcroft's rushed legislation in the law books. As UPI noted March 10, "These sunset provisions were a concession to critics of the bill in Congress." Give Me Liberty or Give Me Death March 23, 1775 - Patrick Henry Added December 13, 2001 Global Justice "The Global Justice Center (Centro de Justi�a Global, or JG) conducts direct action and training of local groups to combat human rights violations" Added December 13, 2001 Government Executive Magazine- 7/15/03 Microsoft chosen as exclusive Homeland Security contractor (clip):"The Homeland Security Department has chosen Microsoft Corp. as its preferred supplier of desktop computer and server software, according to a statement issued late Tuesday. The move is a significant development in the government�s ongoing merger of 22 agencies and comes as officials are selecting various technology companies� products as de facto standards for the department." GrannyD.com The Greater Knoxville Civil Liberties Alliance Added January 6,2004 Guantanamo Human Rights Commission "�We are appalled that revered conventions are being blatantly flouted such as the dictum that someone is presumed innocent until proven guilty and that everyone is entitled to legal defence of his choice and that habeas corpus obtains. I support your efforts to ensure justice is done for your loved ones and that they will be given access to the families. God Bless you.�-The Most Reverend Desmond Tutu"
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Hacking Into Democracy by Farhad Manjoo "A few weeks after Election Night 2002, Roxanne Jekot, a computer programmer who lives in Cumming, Ga., began fearing demons lingering in the state's voting machines. The midterm election had been a historic one: Georgia became the first state to use electronic touch-screen voting machines in every one of its precincts. The 51-year-old Jekot, who has a grandmotherly bearing but describes herself as a "typical computer geek," was initially excited about the new system. "I thought it was the coolest thing we could have done," she says. But the election also brought sweeping victories for Republicans, including, most stunningly, one for Sonny Perdue, who defeated Roy Barnes, the incumbent Democrat, to become Georgia's first Republican governor in 135 years, while Rep. Saxby Chambliss upset Vietnam veteran Sen. Max Cleland. The convergence of these two developments - the introduction of new voting machines and the surprising GOP wins - began to eat away at Jekot. Like many of her fellow angry Democrats on the Internet discussion forums she frequented, she had a hard time believing the Republicans had won legitimately. Instead, Jekot began searching for her explanation in the source code used in the new voting machines. What she found alarmed her. The machines were state-of-the-art products from an Ohio company called Diebold. But the computer code - which a friend of Jekot's had found on the Internet - was anything but flawless, Jekot says. It was amateurish and pocked with security problems." -(rest of article on link) Added November 11,2004 Hacking the Presidency- Tom Flocco "A dishonest presidential election sets aside the future economic, social and military will of the American people. There is substantial evidence that electronic voting machine corporations and political forces in some states could turn aside the electoral wishes of the U.S. populace on November 2 by means of election fraud." Added November 11,2004 Have Your Civil Liberties Been Violated? Added January 6,2004 Hello: You Are Now Living in a Fascist Empire HR 10:The 9/11 Intelligence Bill:More Beaurocracy,More Intervention, Less Freedom Speech by the Hon. Ron Paul of Texas Before the U.S.House of Representatives October 8, 2004 Homeland Security State by Nick Turse (Part I) clip: "Part I: The Military Half If you're reading this on the Internet, the FBI may be spying on you at this very moment. Under provisions of the USA Patriot Act, the Department of Justice has been collecting e-mail and IP (a computer's unique numeric identifier) addresses, without a warrant, using trap-and-trace surveillance devices ("pen-traps"). Now, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Justice's principle investigative arm, may be monitoring the web-surfing habits of Internet users -- also without a search warrant -- that is, spying on you with no probable cause whatsoever. In the wake of September 11, 2001, with the announcement of a potentially never-ending "war on terror" and in the name of "national security," the Bush administration embarked on a global campaign that left in its wake two war-ravaged states (with up to one hundred thousand civilian dead in just one of them); an offshore "archipelago of injustice" replete with "ghost jails" and a seemingly endless series of cases of torture, abuse, and the cold-blooded murder of prisoners. That was abroad. In the U.S.A., too, things have changed as America became "the Homeland" and an already powerful and bloated national security state developed a civilian corollary fed by fear-mongering, partisan politics, and an insatiable desire for governmental power, turf, and budget." (rest of article on link) Homeland Security State by Nick Turse (Part II) clip: "Part II: The Civilian Half When we last left this story, we were knee-deep in the emerging Homeland Security State, a special place where a host of disturbing and mutually reinforcing patterns have emerged -- among them: a virtually unopposed increase in military, intelligence and "security" agencies intruding into the civilian sector of American life; federal abridgment of basic rights; denials of civil liberties on flimsy or illegal premises; warrant-less, sneak-and-peek searches; and the undermining of privacy safeguards. But our last cast of characters: NORTHCOM, the Office of the National Counterintelligence Executive, the FBI and the Air Force only represent the usual (if expansive) suspects. To make America a total Homeland Security State will take more than the combined efforts of the military and intelligence establishments. The civilian side of government, the part of the private sector that is deeply enmeshed in the military-corporate complex, and America's own citizens will have to pitch in as well if a total-security state is to truly take shape and fire on all cylinders." (rest of story on link) Homeless Voting Rights Project Added January 13th, 2004 House About to Strip More Civil Liberties in Name of Anti-terrorism Added November 5,2004 How Big A Role Did Fraud, Ballot Theft & Suppression of the Vote Play in The Election? by Ruy Teixeira "In the last few day's accusations of massive vote fraud, ballot theft and suppression of the Democratic vote during the 2004 elections have mushroomed to such a level that both the New York Times and the Washington Post have given the charges front page coverage. Unfortunately, almost all the discussion of this issue has become focused on the specific question of whether a sufficient number of votes might have been stolen or suppressed to have changed the outcome of the election. In many cases, the unstated assumption seems to be that if such violations did not rise to the level where they changed the result then they can safely be ignored." Added November 12,2004 How to Protect Your Civil Liberties Added January 6,2004 How to take back America from the Enemy within
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I Refuse to Surrender My Freedom Pledge Petition "Help Us Get 100,000 People to Take the Pledge by Inauguration Day -- January 20th Today our most fundamental freedoms are in jeopardy. Only a bold, spirited movement of people like you who refuse to surrender your freedoms can protect our civil liberties. On January 20th, George Bush will pledge to uphold the Constitution. Our goal is to recruit 100,000 new ACLU supporters by that day to proclaim "I REFUSE TO SURRENDER MY FREEDOM" by taking this simple pledge: "I pledge to join with over 400,000 ACLU members and supporters to help ensure that the President, his administration, and our leaders in Congress fulfill their duty to preserve, protect, and defend our Constitution. By reaffirming my commitment to the American values of justice and liberty for all, I am enlisting in a powerful movement to defend our freedoms against assaults on our civil liberties." Let's make it clear to those who seek to take away our freedoms that they are on the wrong side of the law... the wrong side of core American values... and the wrong side of history. Take the pledge now and stand strong in support of freedom." ICCL Home:Irish Council for Civil Liberties Added December 13, 2001 If You Want to Win An Election, Just Control the Voting Machines By Thom Hartmann Added November 11,2004 Illegal to be Homeless:The Criminalization of Homelessness in the United States "Homelessness or economic status is increasingly likely to be a cause of incarceration, as local jurisdictions adopt ordinances that criminalize common activities such as sleeping, sitting on a sidewalk, standing, or begging in public spaces. People without homes frequently face arrest for public "nuisance" crimes such as public urination, indecency and intoxication." Added January 15, 2002 Impeach George W.Bush-Failure to Defend the Constitution of the United States of America "ARTICLE I In the conduct of the office of President of the United States, George Walker Bush,in violation of his constitutional oath faithfully to execute the office of President of the United States and, to the best of his ability, preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States, and in violation of his constitutional duty to take care that the laws be faithfully executed, has attempted to impose a police state and a military dictatorship upon the people and Republic of the United States of America by means of "a long Train of Abuses and Usurpations" against the Constitution since September 11, 2001. This subversive conduct includes but is not limited to trying to suspend the constitutional Writ of Habeas Corpus; ramming the totalitarian U.S.A. Patriot Act through Congress; the mass-round-up and incarceration of foreigners; kangaroo courts; depriving at least two United States citizens of their constitutional rights by means of military incarceration; interference with the constitutional right of defendants in criminal cases to lawyers; violating and subverting the Posse Comitatus Act; unlawful and unreasonable searches and seizures; violating the First Amendments rights of the free exercise of religion,freedom of speech, peaceable assembly, and to petition the government for redress of grievances; packing the federal judiciary with hand-picked judges belonging to the totalitarian Federalist Society and undermining the judicial independence of the Constitution's Article III federal court system; violating the Third and Fourth Geneva Conventions and the U.S. War Crimes Act; violating the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination; reinstitution of the infamous "Cointelpro" Program; violating the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations, the Convention against Torture, and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights; instituting the totalitarian Total Information Awareness Program; and establishing a totalitarian Northern Military Command for the United States of America itself. In all of this George Walker Bush has acted in a manner contrary to his trust as President and subversive of constitutional government, to the great prejudice of the cause of law and justice and to the manifest injury of the people of the United States. Wherefore George Walker Bush, by such conduct, warrants impeachment and trial, and removal from office." (rest on link above) Added January 7th,2005 In Defense of Civil Liberties Added November 5,2004 In the 2002 Election, The Issue is Unchecked Power "Is this the most important election in US history? With his TV talk of war, George W. Bush has blown smoke over what's really at stake today: the future of democracy. Not in Iraq; here in the United States. Never in US history have we ever been closer to an unchecked one-man one-party rule than right now. And as the world's sole military super-power, we have made the crisis truly global. The reality is simple: the right wing of the Republican Party controls three of the four branches of government, and is just a single vote away from taking the fourth. The Executive, the Judiciary, the media and the House of Representatives are all in Republican hands. The Senate teeters on the edge. And the USA Patriot Act, passed in the wake of September 11, has obliterated most of the Constitutional guarantees that made this country a democracy in the first place. Should Congress go Republican in November, there will be no institutional check or balance left to guarantee that the democracy born here two centuries ago will survive."-Harvey Wasserman, CommonDreams (CLIP) International Bill of Rights Project International Society for Individual Liberty Invasion of Privacy Is America a Police State? by Congressman Ron Paul Is America Preparing for Martial Law? by Michel Chossudovsky ISIL-Is Your Freedom in Danger? The Destruction of the Bill of Rights Added November 26,2003
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Justice Department Drafts Sweeping Expansion of Anti-Terrorism Act by Charles Lewis and Adam Mayle (clip)"(WASHINGTON, Feb. 7, 2003) -- The Bush Administration is preparing a bold, comprehensive sequel to the USA Patriot Act passed in the wake of September 11, 2001, which will give the government broad, sweeping new powers to increase domestic intelligence-gathering, surveillance and law enforcement prerogatives, and simultaneously decrease judicial review and public access to information. The Center for Public Integrity has obtained a draft, dated January 9, 2003, of this previously undisclosed legislation and is making it available in full text (12 MB). The bill, drafted by the staff of Attorney General John Ashcroft and entitled the Domestic Security Enhancement Act of 2003, has not been officially released by the Department of Justice, although rumors of its development have circulated around the Capitol for the last few months under the name of �the Patriot Act II� in legislative parlance." (Rest of Article on link above) Added January 6,2004
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kidSPEAK! Where kids speak up for free speech! Added January 5, 2002 Kiss Your Rights Goodbye by Gary Indiana Clip: "A curious feature of the Patriot Act is that it authorizes virtually nothing that would effectively prevent terrorists from hitting American targets. Like other "emergency" measures since 9-11, it attacks Americans. Racial profiling, arbitrary searches and seizures, roving wiretaps and judge-less warrants, harassment of nonviolent activists, indefinite detention without probable or even improbable cause, and guilt by association are only a few of the "appropriate tools required to intercept and obstruct terrorism." Not all of them are stipulated in the Patriot Act, but such has been its use-value. Naturally, putting these and similar "tools" in the hands of intelligence agencies and police officers guarantees their rampant misuse, just as deregulating industry has freed corporations to break every labor and environmental law they haven't managed to rescind. Unfortunately, a large terrorist event in New York City is just as likely to happen with or without the Patriot Act and the Department of Homeland Security, no matter how many random Muslims and political dissidents the FBI harasses or locks up." Added September 3,2004 Know Your Rights From the National Lawyer's Guild Added December 16, 2001 Know Your Rights! (different site from above) "I am compiling important documents that need to be easily available for interested people. I have started with the Constitution of the United States, the U.S. Bill of Rights, the U.S. Declaration of Independence, and the Bill of Rights portions of the constitutions of the individual States. As time goes by I will be to gathering supporting documents and pointers to other relevant pages. I would also like to branch out to countries other than the United States. Any suggestions or URLs will be greatly appreciated."- ken at harbornet.com Kucinich: Look under "D"- Dennis Kucinich
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Lawyers Committee for Human Rights Proposed Anti-Terror Legislation Would Amass Further Executive Branch Power Liberty in the Balance "Aimed at terrorists, the landmark legislation affects average citizens." Liberty or Death:Fighting the Stolen Election of 2004 Added November 23,2004 Liberty: protecting civil liberties, promoting human rights "Liberty is an independent human rights organisation which works to defend and extend rights and freedoms in England and Wales. Founded in 1934, it is the largest membership organisation of its kind in Europe." Added December 13, 2001 Light Up America with Dennis J.Kucinich-General Donation Lockdown is descending clip: "In roughly forty-eight hours, the lockdown of this nation will begin to happen. Since the appointment of Bush in 2000, this moment has been building to exactly this crescendo. What will flow from the sanction of the swearing-in ceremony will be the reign of King George; the first formally recognized American dictator in our history. All of what has gone before was only prologue. Beginning with 12-12-2000, which was that black day when the Supreme Court appointed this man to run this country: from that day people here began to lose their nation to insider groups from the criminal world of the major multinational corporatocracys. With nine-eleven as the major opening event, the corporatocracy has unleashed their drive for privatization on everything from war to public transportation, from health care to prisons; and now social security is on the chopping block, along with what remains of medicine, and public education. The executioner of privatization is waiting to destroy all that remains of what we once thought of as American enterprise and American ideals � the death of dreams and of democracy and of decency are only token shadows now, of collateral damage, in the Bush-War on Freedom." - kirwan (rest of article on link)
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MEDIA "Media criticism does exist in America. But by and large, it is not citizen-based criticism designed to make media a better source of information in a democracy. Instead, it is a cynical manipulation of the discourse designed to silence even the mildest dissent from the conservative, militantly pro-corporate dogma that has come to pass for news in an era when "reporters" brag about the size of their American-flag lapel pins." - Robert McChesney and John Nichols A Dimming Beacon clip:"The irony is inescapable. A country known around the world for press liberties and freedom of expression now plays host to delegations visiting a journalist jailed for protecting her sources on a story she never wrote." A Repressive Embarrassment clip: "Anyone who thinks the administration and its law enforcement chief, Attorney General John Ashcroft, aren't out to impede a free press need only hear how the federal government is treating foreign journalists coming to this country on assignment. Without notification to foreign media outlets, the immigration and customs people are arresting, detaining, and deporting journalists arriving here without special visas. This is so even when they come from nations whose citizens can stay for up to 90 days without a visa if they are arriving as tourists or on business. If that threatening form of registration is not enough, members of the press arriving without the visas, which no one told them they needed, are treated like criminals, handcuffed as they're marched through airports, photographed, fingerprinted, and their DNA taken." Alternative Media Amplifies as Mainstream Gatekeepers Decline Paul Joseph Watson & Alex Jones \| August 7 2005 clip:"The number of individuals worldwide who acknowledge that there is a hidden hand shaping world events is growing at a faster rate than ever before. This is directly due to the burgeoning power of the alternative media and the declining influence of the establishment media. Mainstream media has been caught so many times colluding with government in order to sell major domestic and foreign policy initiatives on a foundation of lies. People are voting with their feet and turning away from the mainstream and seeking the truth." An Upside Down Media clip:"By Robert Parry February 18, 2006 "The gravest indictment of the American news media is that George W. Bush has gutted the U.S. Constitution, the Bill of Rights, the Geneva Conventions and the United Nations Charter - yet this extraordinary story does not lead the nation's newspapers and the evening news every day." Are Independent Journalists Being "Executed" By the Bush Administration?-by Cheryl Seal "The number of casualties among independent journalists in Iraq is higher, percent-wise than ANY OTHER GROUP in the war zone." Big Media, Some Nerve! "The major U.S. news media has missed scandal stories involving the Bush family from the 1980s -- the days of Iran-Contra -- to the current administration's bogus claims about Iraq's WMD. But that sorry performance hasn't given these outlets pause as they criticize rank-and-file Americans who suspect that the Nov. 2 election wasn't on the up and up. November 13, 2004" Case in Point- not even a blip on this Denver protest from the "Main Stream Media": Denver Election Protest Rally CBS 'Memogate' Fallout: Selective punishment shows media's true bias Censorship of the Media Creating Insidious Chill on Free Expression on our Airwaves by Congressman Bernie Sanders Clamping Down on Freedom of the Press:What lessons does Watergate offer for today's beleaguered media? Corporate Control of the Media- Congressman Bernie Sanders Corporate Media and the Threat to Democracy CovertAction.org "It is part of the American myth that our major media are objective and unbiased, a mainstay of democracy. We believe, however, that the overwhelmingly dominant corporate media have become merely the voice of an increasingly unilateral and controlled empire, devoted to the indoctrination of the public in the interests of corporate, industrial, military, and ruling powers. There has been, throughout the post-World War II years, little analysis of this phenomenon, little criticism of the myth of the impartial media." Corporate Media Ignores US Hypocrisy on War Crimes Could the Associated Press (AP) Rig the Election? -by Lynn Landes Cut on the Media Bias by Dianne Lobes Fake News, Fake Reporter "Why was a partisan hack, using an alias and with no journalism background, given repeated access to daily White House press briefings?" How the Bush Administration Intimidates the Mainstream U.S. Media-Jackson Thoreau "Ed Gernon was another casualty of these McCarthyism times in which journalists couldn't even comment in general about what our country was like without being fired. The veteran TV producer was fired in April 2003 from the company that produced the CBS mini-series Hitler after this comment about that project in TV Guide: "It basically boils down to an entire nation gripped by fear, who ultimately chose to give up their civil rights and plunge the whole nation into war. I can't think of a better time to examine this history than now." 3 Another note for conspiracy theorists: TV Guide was owned by far-right media mogul Rupert Murdoch in 2003. Was Gernon set up? At the very least, his firing for expressing an opinion about a society when such opinions were suppressed further proved his point about the parallels between 1930s Nazi Germany and the present-day U.S." Is AOL censoring liberal information? by Brian Livingston clip: "For example, if you've set up AOL to restrict your children to "Kids Only" Web sites: Your children can easily view the site of the Republican National Committee, but the Democratic National Committee is blocked. Children can call up the conservative Constitution Party and Libertarian Party, both of which are promoting their own U.S. presidential candidates. But if they attempt to view Ralph Nader's Green Party or Ross Perot's Reform Party, they see only a "not appropriate for children" error." Is Media a Danger to Democracy? "Liberal" Media Silent About Guckert Saga clip: "Proof that "the liberal media" is but a figment of right-wing mythology has now arrived in the person of one James Guckert, formerly known as Jeff Gannon. Were the American media truly liberal�or merely unafraid to be called liberal�the saga of Mr. Guckert's short, strange, quasi-journalistic career would be resounding across the airwaves. The intrinsic media interest of the Guckert/Gannon story should be obvious to anyone who has followed his tale, which touches on hot topics from the homosexual underground and the investigation into the outing of C.I.A. agent Valerie Plame to the political power of the Internet. But our supposedly liberal media becomes quite squeamish when reporting anything that might humiliate the Bush White House and the Republican Party." Look For Media Labels- By Ted Rall "the media has become so accustomed to absorbing and regurgitating official government propaganda that they never stop to think." Make-Believe Media: The Politics of Entertainment (Book) Media Black Out on Vote Fraud Allegations Media Cheerleaders- Mike Hersh Media Coverup:Leading Journalists Expose Major Cover-ups by Media Corporations "This is a two-page summary of revealing accounts by 18 award-winning journalists from the book Into the Buzzsaw, compiled Kristina Borjesson. All of these courageous writers were prevented by corporate media ownership from reporting major news stories. Some were even fired or laid off. These journalists have won numerous awards, including several Emmys and a Pulitzer. Join in building a better world. Spread this news across the land." Media Crimes Lead to War Crimes Media Held Guilty of Deception Media Manipulates Minds "The media is not in cahoots with big business - the media IS big business" Media,Murder and American Morality Media Reform Needed for a Continuing Democracy Monopoly Media Manipulation OUTFOXED:Rupert Murdoch's War on Journalism Project Censored.Org A Quisling Press Corps Selective punishment shows media's true bias Sycophantic Media by Paul Craig Roberts The Explosion of the 9-11 Truth Movement -- U.S. Media's Dirty Little Secret by Bill Douglas clip: "A mass movement and a mountain of disturbing evidence has been growing beneath the radar of U.S. media. The U.S. media (including alternative media) has done an extraordinarily superhuman job of "hearing" "seeing" and "speaking no evil." However, almost immediately after 9-11-2001's horrendous attacks on New York and Washington D.C., many researchers, ordinary citizens, and journalists [who've been given precious little print in U.S. papers or TV] began to smell something rotten . . . not in Denmark . . . but rather, right here in the good ol' US of A." The Media and their Atrocities The Media Can Legally Lie (ProjectCensored.Org) The Media's Bloody Footprints The Media Want the War The Menace of America Online (AOL) clip: "Following its merger with Time-Warner, AOL now has unparalleled control over mass media in America. The Justice Department needs to examine the monopolistic power which AOL possesses. AOL controls the largest portal to news, financial services, and entertainment on the Internet for 24 million families. And AOL doesn't encourage those families to breeze right on to the Internet, it forces its subscribers to remain in its high-pressure bazaar where its own and its partners' goods and services are hawked night and day." The Neocon Battle for Media clip:"Since the 1980s, when the neoconservatives burst onto the Washington scene, they have always understood the power that comes from controlling the flow of information that passes from the U.S. government to the news media and then to the American people." The New Media Monopoly by Ben Bagdikian (book) clip: "This newest edition of Ben Bagdikian�s classic critique of media power, ownership and control not only updates the previous editions, but completely revises the work, including seven chapters of new material. Bagdikian, the dean emeritus of the Graduate School of Journalism at UC Berkeley, provides essential background on the economics of the media industry and the radical growth of international media conglomerates. It is now twenty years since the first edition, Media Monopoly, predicted media ownership would converge into a handful of companies by the year 2000. Since then, the number of corporations controlling most of America�s daily news-- printed, televised, and radio-- have �consolidated� from fifty to ten to five." The News Media Has Joined the Government as One of the Least Trusted Institutions in the Country clip: "In unprecedented numbers Americans are questioning the "official stories" of mainline news media and the business and government which they serve. The news media has joined the government as one of the least trusted institutions in the country. A national survey conducted in August, 1996 reveals that only 13% of the population trusts the news media showing an 87% margin of distrust. With this overwhelming distrust factor, why are record numbers of viewers watching or listening to news-based programming? Why are news/talk shows so popular? The answer may lie in the fact that the news industry has become primarily an entertainment industry, apparently more interested in their standings in the Nielson Ratings than in reporting the hard, painful truth. With the fierce competition of this "news" or "information" based programming, the emphasis is not on informing or educating their viewers regarding the deeply significant events which are now shaping the immediate future; rather, the focus is producing sensational, captivating, anesthetizing material. The consumers may not trust the news media, but they are entertained and sedated by it." The Rockefeller Mediacracy There is No Media - Mike Hersh clip: "What masquerades as a free press is largely the propaganda arm of the right wing of the Republican Party. Few brave souls still present the news in a balanced way. Most of them are "opinion" writers like Paul Krugman, Joe Conason and Molly Ivins. Few liberals get to speak out on television - where most Americans get their "news." When they do, it's on "roundtable shows" where right wingers shout down their comments. Bill O'Reilly, Joe Scarborough and other rabid right wingers pontificate without any counterbalance." Third columnist caught with hand in the Bush till By Eric Boehlert / Salon clip: "One day after President Bush ordered his Cabinet secretaries to stop hiring commentators to help promote administration initiatives, and one day after the second high-profile conservative pundit was found to be on the federal payroll, a third embarrassing hire has emerged. Salon has confirmed that Michael McManus, a marriage advocate whose syndicated column, "Ethics & Religion," appears in 50 newspapers, was hired as a subcontractor by the Department of Health and Human Services to foster a Bush-approved marriage initiative. McManus championed the plan in his columns without disclosing to readers he was being paid to help it succeed." (rest of article on link) TV Networks Officially Refuse to Release Exit Poll Raw Data "TV Networks Officially Refuse to Release Exit Poll Raw Data By Gary Beckwith The Columbus Free Press Wednesday 22 December 2004 Mainstream media finally displays true colors. For those watching the growing body of evidence concerning election fraud in our past presidential election, one question has remained: Why don't we hear about this on the evening news? As of yet it's been hard to explain why the controversies in Ukraine make the headlines, but when similar problems are discovered at home, you have to scour the Internet to find the information. It certainly isn't for lack of events on which to report. Members of The House Judiciary Committee have been meeting regularly reviewing evidence of systematic voter suppression and voting machine tampering. A coalition of lawyers have filed a lawsuit against the Bush campaign citing deliberate manipulation of votes. Sworn testimony and signed affidavits have implicated companies, individuals, and a Florida congressman. This developing story could eventually turn out to be more explosive than Watergate. But it's rarely mentioned on the major networks, and when it is, there's almost always a chiding remark about the "conspiracy nuts" and obscure "internet bloggers" who are behind it all. The truth is, it's not just conspiracy nuts, or bloggers, or even just Democratic supporters of Kerry. It's a growing number of people who want to know what really happened on November 2nd. It's teachers, doctors, lawyers, all kinds of people who care about their Democracy just as much as the people in Ukraine do. And a recent survey showed that even without the media coverage, 20% of Americans believe the election was stolen. For these people it's been a difficult task to spread the word, and to tell the uninformed about the election problems. That's because for many, if it's not on the evening news, it isn't happening. And as soon as you start telling someone about it, their first question is always, "Why aren't I hearing about this on the news?"." (rest of article on link) Under Bush, A New Age of PrePackaged Television News clip: "To a viewer, each report looked like any other 90-second segment on the local news. In fact, the federal government produced all three. The report from Kansas City was made by the State Department. The "reporter" covering airport safety was actually a public relations professional working under a false name for the Transportation Security Administration. The farming segment was done by the Agriculture Department's office of communications. Under the Bush administration, the federal government has aggressively used a well-established tool of public relations: the prepackaged, ready-to-serve news report that major corporations have long distributed to TV stations to pitch everything from headache remedies to auto insurance. In all, at least 20 federal agencies, including the Defense Department and the Census Bureau, have made and distributed hundreds of television news segments in the past four years, records and interviews show. Many were subsequently broadcast on local stations across the country without any acknowledgement of the government's role in their production." "U.S. lied about deaths of journalists in the Palestine Hotel" White House Queried on Media Policy Why the Media Lie clip: "..... The result is that a total of 12 corporations dominate the world�s mass media. US media and communications expert Dr. Dean Alger � former Fellow in the Joan Shorenstein Center on the Press, Politics and Public Policy at Harvard University�s John F. Kennedy School of Government � lists this �dominant dozen� as follows in order of power: Disney � Capital Cities � ABC; Time Warner � Turner; News Corporation; Bertelsmann; Tele-Communications (TCI) � AT&T; General Electric � NBC; CBS Inc.; Newshouse/Advance Publications; Viacom; Microsoft; Matra � Hachette � Filipacchi; Gannet. Leading journalists have commented on the implications. Journalist and former top editor of the Chicago Tribunal, James Squires, describes the concentration of media-ownership in profit-orientated corporations: In its struggle for relevance and financial security in the modern information age, the press as an institution appears ready to trade its tradition and its public responsibility for whatever will make a buck. In the starkest terms, the news media of the 1990s are a celebrity-oriented, Wall-Street dominated, profit-driven entertainment enterprise dedicated foremost to delivering advertising images to targeted groups of consumers." Why the Media owe you an apology on Iraq by Rick Mercier Millions Of Americans To Be Prohibited From Flying 10-17-3 "Last February, the Transportation Security Agency announced that all U.S. citizens who fly would be assigned a green, yellow or red travel code under a new system known as CAAPS II - "Computer Assisted Passenger Screening." A green code means you fly like normal. A yellow code means you would be subject to repeated searches and interrogation by police before you would be allowed to fly. A red code means you can't fly and may be arrested. The system will eventually be expanded to every form of public transportation, including ships, trains and buses. It will probably also be expanded eventually to issuing driver's licenses and even opening bank accounts. The criteria for determining your travel code is secret, and there is no provision for challenging it. So, if you're assigned a yellow or red travel code, and you are prohibited from visiting your own children or lose your job because you keep on missing business flights while police interrogate you, tough luck! Now TSA has dropped another shocker: The number of U.S. citizens to be initially yellow- or red-coded is enormous! Up to 8% of all U.S. citizens are to be yellow-coded initially, and 2-3% red-coded. That's 10% of the entire U.S. adult population! TSA says they plan to implement this system nationwide within 12 months. And CAAPS II is just one of many threats you now face to your liberty and privacy, in post 9-11 America, including: CLIP" - from http://www.rense.com/general43/prohi.htm Added October 23,2003 MoveOn.org: Democracy in Action "What is MoveOn all about? MoveOn is working to bring ordinary people back into politics. With a system that today revolves around big money and big media, most citizens are left out. When it becomes clear that our "representatives" don't represent the public, the foundations of democracy are in peril. MoveOn is a catalyst for a new kind of grassroots involvement, supporting busy but concerned citizens in finding their political voice. Our nationwide network of more than 600,000 online activists is one of the most effective and responsive outlets for democratic participation available today."
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National Lawyers Guild National Law Center on Homelessness and Poverty "The National Lawyers Guild is an association dedicated to the need for basic change in the structure of our political and economic system. We seek to unite the lawyers, law students, legal workers and jailhouse lawyers of America in an organization that shall function as an effective political and social force in the service of the people, to the end that human rights shall be more sacred than property interests. Our aim is to bring together all those who recognize the importance of safeguarding and extending the rights of workers, women, farmers and minority groups, upon whom the welfare of the entire nation depends; who seek actively to eliminate racism; who work to maintain and protect our civil rights and liberties in the face of persistent attacks upon them; and who look upon the law as an instrument for the protection of the people, rather than for their repression." Added December 16, 2001 NLCHP: Civil Rights of Homeless People National Law Center on Homelessness and Poverty Added December 13, 2001 New 'U.S. Human Rights Network' Slams Growing Abuses Under Bush by Jim Lobe (clip)"WASHINGTON - Key U.S. civil liberties and social justice groups marked International Human Rights Day Wednesday by launching a new �U.S. Human Rights Network� dedicated to raising awareness about international human rights standards and focusing attention on the U.S. failure to enforce them. More than 50 groups, ranging from the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) to the New York-based Center for Economic and Social Rights (CESR), said they had agreed to join forces to address what they said was �the alarming rate of human rights violations in the U.S.�, particularly as it pursues its �war on terrorism�. They called for U.S. citizens to speak out against these abuses, as well as to fight �U.S. exceptionalism�, the view pushed strongly by the administration of President George W. Bush, that the United States should not be constrained by international law or human rights standards, especially relating to economic and social rights." Added December 16,2003 NO FLY LISTS: please see Americans Continue to Challenge Secrecy Laws to Fly (also see,under "A")Average Joes have tough time leaving no fly list Babies Caught Up in "No Fly" Confusion clip:"WASHINGTON - Infants have been stopped from boarding planes at airports throughout the U.S. because their names are the same as or similar to those of possible terrorists on the government's "no-fly list." It sounds like a joke, but it's not funny to parents who miss flights while scrambling to have babies' passports and other documents faxed." Canada:Dozens rejected at U.S. borders, airports clip:"Suspected links to terrorism By JIM BRONSKILL January 19, 2005 OTTAWA (CP) - Dozens of people from Canada have been turned back at the American border or prevented from boarding U.S.-bound airplanes in recent months because of suspected links to terrorism, newly obtained memos show. The cases include individuals on a U.S. "no-fly" list and others who showed up on the State Department's Tipoff watch list, which contains the names of more than 100,000 possible terrorists. The incidents are detailed in a series of daily briefs published between September 2004 and this month by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security's operations centre." (also see,under "M")Millions Of Americans To Be Prohibited From Flying No-Fly Watchlist FOIA Documents (also see,under "T")Ted Kennedy Mistakenly Put On 'Watch' List Twenty Thousand put on Government "No-Fly" Lists "Approximately 20,000 people are now on official "no-fly" lists. Being put on a no-fly list can have serious repercussions for your life and career. It could mean you won't be able to visit your relatives, complete travel required for your business, and it could even mean being stranded half-way around the world with no money, because some computer says you have a name similar to that used by some scummy terrorist." Well after 9/11, no fly lists a work in progress-By Alexandra Marks "Tom Burke recently tried to print out a boarding pass from home before one of the frequent flights he takes. He couldn't. When the San Francisco lawyer got to the airport, he was told the reason: His name, or one similar to it, is now on one of the Transportation Security Administration's terrorist watch lists." You Have Papers? by Craig Roberts
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On Patriots, Patriotism, and the Patriot Act by Dick Dorworth (clip)"A few weeks ago the city of Philadelphia joined more than a hundred other United States local and state governments to call for the repeal of the USA Patriot Act. By a vote of 13-to-3, the Philadelphia City Council called for the Philadelphia area congressional delegation to "vigilantly monitor the implementation of the USA Patriot Act and to actively work to repeal the Act." Councilman Angel Ortiz, who introduced the resolution, said, "The real irony of the Patriot Act is that it�s just plain unpatriotic. The Constitution and the Declaration of Independence grant every American unalienable rights, and we�ve allowed the Patriot Act to erode those rights without question. And the worst of it is, if you dare to question the Patriot Act you�re immediately labeled unpatriotic." It�s good to know there are at least 13 free and clear and courageous thinkers left in the city where it all began 227 years ago. These 13 are worthy descendants of those original free and clear and courageous thinkers who we think of as the founding fathers of America. It is tempting and perhaps appropriate to refer to all of them as "patriots," but that�s what all those Democrat and Republican legislators in Washington D.C. who voted in the Patriot Act call themselves. Still, though the Patriot Act gives the concept and very name of patriotism a bad name and a foul odor, it is refreshing, encouraging and inspiring to see that in the symbolic and real birthplace of American democracy there are responsible and courageous people who see through such dangerous chicanery. More, they have stood their ground, pointed out the obvious---that the Patriot Act is "just plain unpatriotic"---and said, "NO! This is not what democracy is about. This is not what America is about. This is not what Americans are about." (Rest of article on above link) Added January 6,2004 Outsourcing Terror by Jane Mayer The secret history of America's "extraordinary rendition" program
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Partnership for Civil Justice Legal Defense & Education Fund Added January 29,2004 Patriot Act II: Bush Administration Wages War on Freedom By Jeff Milchen First published by Pacific News Service February 11, 2003 clip: "A leaked copy of the Bush administration's draft "Domestic Security Enhancement Act of 2003" (DSEA) indicates that even after the 2001 Patriot Act expanded federal police powers while curtailing privacy rights, the Bush administration thinks Americans are still too free and government too small. Like the Patriot Act, the massive "Security Act" draft contains a few measures that could help catch a terrorist, surrounded by many that merely propel us further toward a secretive police state. For starters, the DSEA would revoke key elements of the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), enacted to prevent government from keeping secrets from the public unless a legitimate security concern exists. Currently, FOIA gives us the right to know if a missing person is in the custody of any government agency. But under DSEA, anyone -- even U.S. citizens -- could be detained secretly in connection with any "terrorist" investigation, a term lacking legal definition. Does abandoning this bedrock principle of freedom make us safer? Not likely. The Freedom of Information Act already allows the government to withhold such information if disclosure could hamper investigation of other suspects or events. Under the government veil of secrecy established last year, we have no legal right to know who among the 1,000 plus-people secretly detained by the Bush administration since Sept. 11 was charged with a terror-related crime." Patriot Act II:TOTAL POLICE STATE TAKEOVER "The Secret Patriot Act 2 Destroys What Is Left of American Liberty By Alex Jones www.infowars.com "...The second Patriot Act is a mirror image of powers that Julius Caesar and Adolf Hitler gave themselves. Whereas the First Patriot Act only gutted the First, Third, Fourth and Fifth Amendments, and seriously damaged the Seventh and the Tenth, the Second Patriot Act reorganizes the entire Federal government as well as many areas of state government under the dictatorial control of the Justice Department, the Office of Homeland Security and the FEMA NORTHCOM military command. The Domestic Security Enhancement Act 2003, also known as the Second Patriot Act is by its very structure the definition of dictatorship.' People's Movement for Human Rights Education "Every woman, man, youth and child has the human right to a life of dignity. The human rights framework can be a practical, effective tool for achieving dignity for all. Explore the 23 issues below to learn how human rights relate to social and economic injustices in your community. Discover how increasing awareness of human rights can strengthen and invigorate efforts for change. Learn what obligations and commitments your government has made to ensuring the realization of human rights for all, and hold your government accountable. Know your human rights, and claim them!" Added December 13, 2001 Petition:Just Say No To Government Spying on US Citizens! Added July 19, 2002 Police State "CLIP:I never in my life thought I would see in America what I have seen happening in the town of Savannah. It made me angry at that Governor, and the police and plainclothes people. They are giving press releases that they are there to protect the people of that town, and have convinced some townies of that, while others have just left town or closed business for the week. It sure didn't look to me as if they were there to protect people. Quite the opposite. Their function appeared to be to instill fear and intimidate the populace. They succeeded. We left on Sunday, and were followed by a Sheriff's white truck which pulled up close in back of us and followed us for a way. I could see the uniformed driver talking on his phone as he followed our car. I knew he was checking our plate with his HQ. We must have passed the test. He put the phone down and peeled off . I've never seen my government act this way, not even immediately after 9/11 in New York City." The Poster Police The Independent Weekly "If a trained police officer doesn't know the difference between political speech and a threat to the president, then we're all in trouble," Charns says. "If the Secret Service has nothing better to do than check on political posters, that's a bad sign." Added December 16, 2001 The Presidential Oath of Office "I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully execute the office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my ability, preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States." Added October 23,2003 Project Censored.Org " Our mission is to educate people about the role of independent journalism in a democratic society and to tell The News That Didn't Make the News and why. (more)" Censored News Flash (also see "Censored", under "C") protecting civil rights and defending dissent Public Citizen\|Welcome "Protecting Health, Safety and Democracy" Added December 13, 2001
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Quarantining dissent:How the Secret Service Protects Bush from Free Speech by James Bovard (clip)"When President Bush travels around the United States, the Secret Service visits the location ahead of time and orders local police to set up "free speech zones" or "protest zones," where people opposed to Bush policies (and sometimes sign-carrying supporters) are quarantined. These zones routinely succeed in keeping protesters out of presidential sight and outside the view of media covering the event. When Bush went to the Pittsburgh area on Labor Day 2002, 65-year-old retired steel worker Bill Neel was there to greet him with a sign proclaiming, "The Bush family must surely love the poor, they made so many of us." The local police, at the Secret Service's behest, set up a "designated free-speech zone" on a baseball field surrounded by a chain-link fence a third of a mile from the location of Bush's speech. The police cleared the path of the motorcade of all critical signs, but folks with pro-Bush signs were permitted to line the president's path. Neel refused to go to the designated area and was arrested for disorderly conduct; the police also confiscated his sign. Neel later commented, "As far as I'm concerned, the whole country is a free-speech zone. If the Bush administration has its way, anyone who criticizes them will be out of sight and out of mind." (rest on article on link above) (and thanks, Goldi!:-) ) Added January 7,2004
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RFID Invades the Capital The Real Freedom of Free Speech by Scott Nearing "[Ed. Note: In February 1919, Scott Reading was put on trial under the Espionage Act of May 16, 1918 for having written a famous pamphlet, The Great Madness, in 1917. While the US government sent many pacifists and activists to prison under this act, not one actual agent of the enemy of the day (Germany) was ever convicted... The last lines of the pamphlet read: "The plutocracy and the democracy cannot exist side by side. If the plutocracy wins, dollars rule; if the democracy wins, people rule. There can be no alternative and no compromise. During the past three years of struggle, the democracy has lost every move. The power of the plutocracy has been strengthened immeasurably." Sounds familiar? Here are excerpts of his closing argument.]" Added September 3,2004 Real Patriots Must Act or Symbolic Gestures Will be Irrelevant Reclaim Democracy! Revoke Corporate Corruption of American Democracy Added January 7,2004 Reclaiming Our Courage
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'Sac Bee' hailed for series on Patriot Act "The series -- which deserves a Pulitzer -- was the brainchild of the paper's executive editor, Rick Rodriguez, who, in a "note to our readers" on the first day the series ran, said the Bee would examine "how the crackdown on terrorism has come into conflict with the civil liberties that set America apart."-Nat Hentoff Added November 2,2003 Save Our Civil Liberties "The November Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA) Ministerial in Miami shocked the world by the deliberate and flagrant supression of democratic rights. Forty law-enforcement agencies launched a violent para-military response against unarmed, peaceful protestors funded with nearly $9,000,000 in Federal money highjacked from the Iraq reconstruction budget. In the aftermath of the Miami Ministerial, the Save Our Civil Liberties Campaign has formed to raise public awareness about what happened in Miami, to hold accountable the individuals and organizations who were responsible for those violations, and to increase cooperation among the many groups and individuals working to save and expand our human rights and civil liberties. It is a large and diverse collaboration initated by global justice, labor, environmental, community, and other organizations working at the local, state and national level." Added December 27,2003 Save Your Freedoms "Your Rights and Freedoms Are Being Trampled!" Added January 6,2004 The Sacramento Bee-sacbee.com Liberty in the Balance "Sept. 11, 2001, changed America. In its wake, Americans demanded bolstered security. The Bush administration responded with new policies and new laws giving the government broad investigative powers in the name of fighting terrorism. Some say the government has gone too far. Over the next four days, The Bee examines how the crackdown on terrorism has come into conflict with the civil liberties that set America apart." -Rick Rodriguez, Executive Editor Security vs. Freedom:False Trade-Off-Reclaim Democracy.org Added November 26,2003 Secret Patriot Act II Destroys What is Left of American Liberty *Total Police State Takeover:"A Brief Analysis of the Domestic Security Enhancement Act 2003, Also Known as Patriot Act II" Senate signs off on USA Patriot Act Seventeen Techniques for Truth Suppression Signing Away The Constitution? Silenced By the President "A few weeks before my father died, he woke me in the wee hours of the morning. He needed to talk. He was worried about Attorney General John Ashcroft and the destruction of American civil liberties. I comforted my father, believing he was delusional from medications. I was wrong."-Trish Bowcock Soul of a Citizen:Living With Conviction in a Cynical Time,a book by Paul Rogat Loeb SpotLight on the Cops (Washington Post.com) "The District of Columbia, through [assistant police chief Alfred Broadbent] seems to be admitting that it maintains widespread, extensive spying operations on the activities and operations of political advocacy organizations, such as Plaintiffs [International Action Center, et al.],on the basis of their political philosophies and conduct protected under the First Amendment. Moreover, Chief Broadbent admitted in his testimony that such operations are carried on even in the absence of allegations of criminal activities by the organizations being spied upon." -- U.S. District Judge Gladys Kessler Added January 29,2004 Statement from Democracy Radio C.E.O. Tom Athans on the Bush Blacklist for Fargo Harmony- Bold emphasis in the following statement is mine- "02/03/2005 Tom Athans on the Bush Blacklist Statement from Democracy Radio C.E.O. Tom Athans on the Bush Blacklist for Fargo - Ed Schultz Show producer, elected city commissioner were to be banned from Bush speech (WASHINGTON, D.C.) - In response to reports out of Fargo, North Dakota that dozens of citizens - including the producer of Democracy Radio's The Ed Schultz Show and an elected city commissioner - had been banned from attending President Bush's speech today, Democracy Radio's C.E.O. Tom Athans released the following statement: "News of the Bush blacklist of dozens of citizens from a Fargo, North Dakota speech is as frightening as it has become routine for this Administration. To blacklist a local citizen because he produces a radio program at odds with the political agenda of the White House is dangerous for Democracy. This Administration cannot promote freedom and liberty abroad while banning our most fundamental freedoms here at home. The pattern of stifling those voices that do not represent conservative orthodoxy has chilling implications for our Democracy. Consider these recent cases. A man is arrested and charged for holding a small "No War" sign at the January Inaugural. The mother of a soldier killed in Iraq is ejected, arrested and charged while attending a rally for Laura Bush in September. Across the country, citizens are removed from public sidewalks because "the President had requested a federal protection zone." The greatness of this country lies in our constitutionally-protected freedoms and liberties. To attempt to ban those freedoms here at home hurts every American." Added February 4,2005 Steal Your Election Added November 22,2004 'Stinking Evidence' of possible election fraud found in florida Added November 23,2004 Stolen Election Added November 22,2004 Student Rights Subdermal Chips* Post 9/11 Security Fears Usher in Subdermal Chips\|VeriChip recipients can be ID'd,monitored anywhere in the world
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Tampa:Safe AND Free-Defending Our Civil Liberties "Tampa: Safe AND Free is an organization of concerned individuals and community proposing a resolution to the Tampa City Council to defend our freedoms and rights locally against the USA Patriot Act and other federal assaults against our State and Federal Constitutions." Added January 7,2004 Ted Kennedy Mistakenly Put On 'Watch' List The Arrival of Secret Law "Last month, Helen Chenoweth-Hage attempted to board a United Airlines flight from Boise to Reno when she was pulled aside by airline personnel for additional screening, including a pat-down search for weapons or unauthorized materials. Chenoweth-Hage, an ultra-conservative former Congresswoman (R-ID), requested a copy of the regulation that authorizes such pat-downs. "She said she wanted to see the regulation that required the additional procedure for secondary screening and she was told that she couldn't see it," local TSA security director Julian Gonzales told the Idaho Statesman (10/10/04). "She refused to go through additional screening [without seeing the regulation], and she was not allowed to fly," he said. "It's pretty simple." Chenoweth-Hage wasn't seeking disclosure of the internal criteria used for screening passengers, only the legal authorization for passenger pat-downs. Why couldn't they at least let her see that? asked Statesman commentator Dan Popkey. "Because we don't have to," Mr. Gonzales replied crisply. "That is called 'sensitive security information.' She's not allowed to see it, nor is anyone else," he said. Thus, in a qualitatively new development in U.S. governance, Americans can now be obligated to comply with legally-binding regulations that are unknown to them, and that indeed they are forbidden to know. This is not some dismal Eastern European allegory. It is part of a continuing transformation of American government that is leaving it less open, less accountable and less susceptible to rational deliberation as a vehicle for change." (rest of article on link) The Attack on American Civil Liberties-The Village Voice The Center for Democracy and Technology THE COMING WARS by SEYMOUR M. HERSH: What the Pentagon can now do in secret. Issue of 2005-01-24 and 31 Posted 2005-01-17 clip: ".....The President has signed a series of findings and executive orders authorizing secret commando groups and other Special Forces units to conduct covert operations against suspected terrorist targets in as many as ten nations in the Middle East and South Asia. The President�s decision enables Rumsfeld to run the operations off the books�free from legal restrictions imposed on the C.I.A. Under current law, all C.I.A. covert activities overseas must be authorized by a Presidential finding and reported to the Senate and House intelligence committees. (The laws were enacted after a series of scandals in the nineteen-seventies involving C.I.A. domestic spying and attempted assassinations of foreign leaders.) �The Pentagon doesn�t feel obligated to report any of this to Congress,� the former high-level intelligence official said. �They don�t even call it �covert ops��it�s too close to the C.I.A. phrase. In their view, it�s �black reconnaissance.� They�re not even going to tell the cincs��the regional American military commanders-in-chief. (The Defense Department and the White House did not respond to requests for comment on this story.)" The End of the Right to Counsel? "What if the government arrested you on terrorism charges? What if your lawyer was afraid to zealously defend you (as required by the Model Rules)? http://www.law.cornell.edu/ethics/ny/narr/NY_NARR_1_03.HTM What if your lawyer was so afraid, he wouldn't even tell you that he wasn't able to zealously defend you? This is the direction American criminal law is taking, according to defense attorney and civil rights activist Elaine Cassel, author of The War on Civil Liberties: How Bush and Ashcroft Have Dismantled the Bill of Rights, and my radio show guest on Feb. 26." The End of 'Unalienable Rights' The Enemies Among Us by Mike Whitney "12/20/04 "Progressive Trail" -- The new Intelligence reform bill is a more stunning attack on the Bill of Rights than the Patriot Act. Most people have no idea how dramatically their "inalienable" rights have been savaged, or to what extent the Congress has sold them out. It's no exaggeration to say that the foundation of personal liberty, guaranteed in the law, is cracking at the base. It'll be a miracle if we can put it back together in time to pass it on to our children." The New KGB "A Kinder, Gentler Facism-Last September, German Justice Minister Herta Daeubler-Gmelin pointed out that George Bush is using Iraq to distract the American public from his failed domestic policies. She capped her statement by reminding her audience: �That�s a popular method. Even Hitler did that.� She was chastised so severely that she soon recanted. But let�s face it, she was right on the money. Rather than recanting, she should have clarified. She wasn�t comparing Bush to the Hitler of the late 1930s and early �40s; she was comparing him to the Hitler of the late 1920s and early �30s. And if the jackboot fits�" The New McCarthyism "People should be worried that their freedoms are being taken away right and left." Added January 7th,2005 The Other War:A Three Year Assault on Civil Liberties Elaine Cassel, AlterNet. Posted October 19, 2004. The Power of Delusion The Power of Nightmares The War on Civil Liberties:How Bush And Ashcroft Have Dismantled The Bill Of Rights Top 10 Secrets They Don't Want You to Know About the Debates Torture by Proxy/How immigration threw a traveler to the wolves by Christopher H. Pyle "On Sept. 26, 2002, U.S. immigration officials seized a Syrian-born Canadian at Kennedy International Airport, because his name had come up on an international watch list for possible terrorists. What happened next is chilling. Maher Arar was about to change planes on his way home to Canada after visiting his wife's family in Tunisia when he was pulled aside for questioning. He was not a terrorist. He had no terrorist connections, but his name was on the list, so he was detained for questioning. Not ordinary, polite questioning, but abusive, insulting, degrading questioning by the immigration service, the FBI and the New York City Police Department. He asked for a lawyer and was told he could not have one. He asked to call his family, but phone calls were not permitted. Instead, he was clapped into shackles and, for several days, made to "disappear." His family was frantic." (rest of article on link) Added January 6,2004 Treason: 911 Widow's Bush Treason Suit Vanishes The Leaker-in-Chief Treason TimeLine truthout Added December 13, 2001 truthout-EDITORIAL- ANTHONY LEWIS\|Wake up, America Added December 13, 2001 truthout-ISSUES-ACLU President Nadine Strossen\|Testimony Before Senate, on Dangers Added December 13, 2001 Tyranny Watch Added June 13,2004
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Unconstitutional:The War on Our Civil Liberties "We created Unconstitutional to show Americans the extent to which our civil liberties and our freedoms have been trampled upon by our government since 9/11," said Robert Greenwald, the film's executive producer. "The more Americans understand what is at stake, and what has already been lost, the more determined we become to protect our rights." Unconstitutional, which was written, directed and produced by Nonny de la Pe�a, explores how the Patriot Act has taken away checks on law enforcement and continues to endanger the civil liberties of all Americans. The Patriot Act, which was passed just 45 days after September 11 with virtually no debate, is being met with a significant grassroots groundswell from across the political spectrum. Resolutions opposing the Patriot Act have passed in approximately 340 communities in 41 states, including four statewide resolutions. These communities represent over 53 million people who believe that the Patriot Act goes too far. Unconstitutional is a chilling look at how the Patriot Act went too far, too fast in restricting important liberties while not making us any safer," ACLU Executive Director Anthony Romero said. "The ACLU is proud to support Greenwald's effort to present a bipartisan view of the problems with the Patriot Act." By focusing on the personal stories of real people, Unconstitutional aims to reveal how paranoia, fear and racial profiling have led to gross infringements on freedom and democracy without strengthening national security." Unequal Protection by Thom Hartmann "Unequal Protection:The rise of corporate dominance and theft of human rights a new book by Thom Hartmann "In Unequal Protection, author Thom Hartmann tells a compelling, can't-put-it-down story that tracks the history of the loss of democracy in America. It starts with the birth of the modern corporation with the founding of the East India Company in 1600, through the Boston Tea Party revolt against transnational corporate domination of the early American economy, the rise of corporations during the Civil War, the ultimate theft of human rights before the Supreme Court in 1886, and into the modern-day theft of human rights in the US and worldwide by corporate interests and the politicians they own." Added January 13,2004 United States Human Rights Network "Underlying all human rights work in the United States is a commitment to challenge the pernicious belief that the United States is inherently superior to other countries of the world, and that neither the US government nor the US rights movements have anything to gain from the domestic application of human rights. Rather, in the view of a growing number of US activists, the US government should no longer be allowed to shield itself from accountability to human rights norms and the US civil, women's, worker, immigrant, lgbt, prisoner and other rights movements stand to benefit, perhaps now more than ever, from an end to US impunity in this regard." Added December 16,2003 Universal Declaration of Human Rights Urge Your Senators to Fix the Patriot Act (ACLU) "More than 170 communities in 30 states have passed resolutions opposing provisions of the PATRIOT Act and other government actions that threaten civil liberties. Three states -� Vermont, Hawaii and Alaska -- have likewise passed statewide resolutions. Last month the House voted overwhelmingly -- by 309 to 118 -- to limit the PATRIOT Act provision that allows government agents to conduct �black bag� searches of homes and never let the individual know that the search occurred. These actions demonstrate the strong concern about the PATRIOT Act and the need to correct its most dangerous provisions. The Senate however has yet to take action to correct the PATRIOT Act�s flaws. It is time for the Senate to take real and concerted steps to correct the PATRIOT Act." Added November 26,2003 U.S.A. Patriot Act(H.R.3162) Added November 22,2004 U.S.Commission on Civil Rights assails Bush Administration Record on Civil Rights- Press Release "Washington, DC - In an assessment of the civil rights record of the Bush administration, the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights released a draft report that concludes the administration has failed to exhibit leadership or define a clear focus, relegating civil rights to a low priority. The report,Redefining Rights in America-The Civil Rights Record of the George W. Bush Administration, 2001-2004, analyzes scores of policy reports, scholarly papers, briefs and executive orders to chart the administration's responses to a broad spectrum of civil rights issues. Similar criteria have guided evaluations of previous administrations, including the civil rights review on former President Clinton released in 2000." Added November 12,2004 U.S. Has Been Preparing to Turn America into a Military Dictatorship U.S. plans lifetime detentions with no trial The U.S. Prison State "The United States is the world�s primary example of a country that deals with its social, economic, and cultural problems by incarceration. But this is its history. Prisons are the logical outcome of the country�s foundation on the genocide of Native Americans, the enslavement of Africans, and the "manifest destiny" of imperial settlerism�from sea to shining sea." Added November 23,2004
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The Village Voice: Nation: Nat Hentoff: Terrorizing the Bill of Rights Added December 13, 2001 Voting Security Added November 11,2004 Voter Registration Forms Shredded in Vegas FBI told applications of Democrats tossed in trash
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W's Stiletto Democracy War is Hell (On Your Civil Liberties) by Jessica Reaves (clip)"Thursday, Nov. 15, 2001 This is wartime, the President reminds us. The usual rules do not apply. Fair enough. But what worries some people, ranging from Bush's persistent critics at the ACLU to conservative New York Times columnist William Safire to uber-conservative U.S. Rep. Bob Barr, is this administration's propensity for overstepping centuries-old legislative procedures in the name of national security. In the days immediately after September 11th, for example, Ashcroft issued a decree permitting federal officers to wiretap pretty much anyone for almost any reason, and to detain people for extended periods of time without filing charges. This Tuesday, the Bush administration went to a whole new level when the President signed an emergency order allowing non-citizens suspected of terrorism to be tried in military tribunals. The decree, urged on the President by Attorney General John Ashcroft, allows the government to circumvent the legal requirements of a civilian trial (i.e. all that "innocent until proven guilty" stuff) in favor of brisk, clandestine proceedings behind closed doors. No jury, no public hearing. Just swift "justice." (rest of article on above link) We The People:A Call to Take Back America "America faces its greatest threat since the Civil War. The worst fears of the Founders are being realized, as powerful corporate interests have taken over our culture and representative government. We the People now face a fundamental choice: take back our country . . . or do nothing, and become victims of tyranny and empire. Thom Hartmann, the acclaimed author of Unequal Protection and The Last Hours of Ancient Sunlight, tells a compelling story -- of how a government of, by, and for the people has been replaced by corporate domination. Through brilliant analysis and imaginative illustrations, this fully graphic book illuminates the central dynamics of American politics. He reveals the forgotten history of the Founders� intent and the devious way that corporations came to possess "human" rights. He explains what the Boston Tea Party actually was, what constituted the Second American Revolution, and how "corporatists" disguised as conservatives are looting assets from We the People�s common ownership through privatization schemes. Most importantly, the book issues a call to action from citizens who want to restore true democracy, and liberty and justice . . . for all." We're in the Beginning Stages of a Police State We've Been Taken Over by a Cult - Seymour Hersh Note: words in bold red are my emphasis- Harmony CLIP: "There's a lot of anxiety inside the -- you know, our professional military and our intelligence people. Many of them respect the Constitution and the Bill of Rights as much as anybody here, and individual freedom. So, they do -- there's a tremendous sense of fear. These are punitive people. One of the ways -- one of the things that you could say is, the amazing thing is we are been taken over basically by a cult, eight or nine neo-conservatives have somehow grabbed the government. Just how and why and how they did it so efficiently, will have to wait for much later historians and better documentation than we have now, but they managed to overcome the bureaucracy and the Congress, and the press, with the greatest of ease. It does say something about how fragile our Democracy is. You do have to wonder what a Democracy is when it comes down to a few men in the Pentagon and a few men in the White House having their way. What they have done is neutralize the C.I.A. because there were people there inside -- the real goal of what Goss has done was not attack the operational people, but the intelligence people. There were people -- serious senior analysts who disagree with the White House, with Cheney, basically, that's what I mean by White House, and Rumsfeld on a lot of issues, as somebody said, the goal in the last month has been to separate the apostates from the true believers. That's what's happening. The real target has been �diminish the agency.� I'm writing about all of this soon, so I don't want to overdo it, but there's been a tremendous sea change in the government. A concentration of power." Added January 28,2005 White House stomps on our constitutional rights clip:"Freedom of the press and religion, the right to peacefully assembly, freedom from unlawful searches and seizures have all been endangered by this administration's reckless conduct in the global war on terror. The Clinton administration brought us the end to welfare as we knew it. The Bush administration has brought us an end to the Constitution as we knew it." Added June 27,2006 WIRING OUR HOMELESS:Logan's Run 2004 Mandatory sub-dermal tracking systems to be implanted in New York, San Francisco, Bethlehem, Pennsylvania and Washington DC's Homeless Populations. By Laura Dawn Lewis clip:"It starts with the homeless, where does it end? In the movie Logan's Run, freedom prevails. Two people escape the monitoring systems and in turn free the entire society, finding themselves in an ancient ruin of Washington DC. Logan's Run takes place in the USA, the ultimate irony. This movie is supposed to be science fiction, not a prelude to reality. Where does it end, America? Eventually each and every one of us will fall under some category that must be monitored for our own or society's protection whether due to circumstance of life, such as unemployment, illness, old age or bad choices. Is this freedom? Is this what we fight for? If we allow our government to exploit the most vulnerable, the homeless and mentally ill in our society as implanting tracking systems within a person's skin does, it is only a matter of time before they find an excuse to implant us all." (rest of article on link) Note-(Harmony)-"First they came for the Jews and I did not speak out because I was not a Jew. Then they came for the Communists and I did not speak out because I was not a Communist. Then they came for the trade unionists and I did not speak out because I was not a trade unionist. Then they came for me and there was no one left to speak out for me." - Pastor Martin Niem�ller The We The People Organization Home Page Added December 13, 2001 What to do to Save Your Civil Liberties "What can we do about the major erosion of civil liberties and basic human rights that is taking place under the Bush administration (with the help of congress)?" Added January 6,2004
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Xenophobia as State Policy-Congressman Barrett's Collective Punishment by Ron Jacobs (clip)"As for the people from other countries on the list, it's just more of the same. It doesn't matter what one's opinions are regarding their country's government, it only matters what country one's passport is from. This legislation is not about preventing attacks on the United States, it's about scapegoating whole segments of humanity for the failures and selfishness of America's foreign policy. Mr. Barrett's agenda is not an agenda that defends the freedoms that we are told this country represents, nor is it an agenda that will breed goodwill among other nations or their peoples. Our country's history is a history of immigration, with all that that means. It is important that this bill be killed in committee, before it hits the House floor." (rest of article on above link) Added January 6,2004
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Your Civil Liberties are On the Line- What are you going to do about it?(Kansas City InfoZine) by Ira Harritt (clip)"In the mid-1970's the Church Committee studied governmental intelligence activities and found "excesses committed by intelligence agencies -- lawless and improper behavior, intervention in the democratic process, ... and the use of covert techniques to discredit and "neutralize" persons and groups defined as enemies by the agencies." - www.aarclibrary.org/publib/church/reports/contents.htm - Abuses of government power and invasions of civil liberties targeted individuals such as Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and groups including the civil rights, anti-war, religious and political organizations. The Church Committee found that "The Government has often undertaken the secret surveillance of citizens on the basis of their political beliefs, even when those beliefs posed no threat of violence or illegal acts on behalf of a hostile foreign power." Rest of article on link above. "Your Papers Please":US adopts National ID: Homeland Security Now In charge of Regulations for all US States Drivers Licenses and Birth Certificates "By: Jonathan Wheeler In a chilling act more reminiscent of the now defunct Soviet Union or the Nazi regime of Adolph Hitler, the United States Congress passed legislation yesterday that requires the States to surrender their regulatory rights over driver�s licenses and birth certificates to The Department of Homeland Security. The massive US Intelligence Reform Bill weighed in at over 3,000 pages and though unread by individual Members of either the House or Senate nevertheless passed all of the legislative hurdles needed in order to become law."
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