Yes, we've been away for a while. And yes, we've missed you too! We've acquired a 'MAC' (you know, the one you've been seeing in the commercials, the two guys, one who introduces himself as "Hello, I'm a PC" and the other, cooler-looking guy, who says, "I'm a MAC".) And it's been quite a learning experience! Mostly, it has been about un-learning the 'Windows' interface. The "MAC" world is, to say the least, fascinating. Those of you out there who've gone through it know of which I speak. But I digress.
Yes, some praise. Praise for the tech folks at *Google*. Swinging over to the MAC also involved some changes to make it possible for me to post from the new system. We experienced some log-in problems and the tech folks got it resolved for us in less than an hour. On a Saturday, no less! So let's hoist one for the *Googlefolk* and say, "Well done!"
And while we're at it, let's have some praise for Apple, Inc. Their OS X (as in 10) operating system is remarkably facile and highly intuitive; almost like it knows what you want to do before you do it. Spooky, right? We've been told that we'll get used to it.
Next up, a brickbat or two.
Number one to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia for it's recent decision depriving prisoners at Guantanamo Bay of any right to challenge the Bush Administration by upholding the Military Commissions Act. The ACLU maintains that it is a misguided endorsement of the Administration's stance that Guantanamo is a place without law and that the detainees therefore are people without rights. It's very simple really. The United States flag flies over Guantanamo. In international law, wherever that flag of our country flies, it has always been the position that area is considered soverign to the U.S., and is fully subject to the laws of the United States. If anyone were to attempt to enter Guantanamo without clearance, our armed forces would be able to claim the right to respond with deadly force against such an intrusion. You cannot have it both ways, folks. Either an area is subject to all the laws of this country or it is subject to none. The real villain in this piece is the Military Commissions Act. The MCA is an abridgement of the first, fourth and sixth amendments in the Bill of Rights and pertains to any person, citizen or not, in the care or custody of the U.S. It is an abomination that the United States declares that it stands foursquare for Human Rights, yet tramples the very concept of same embedded in our Constitution. As a sidebar, most of the 600+ persons held at Guantanamo have been found to have been innocent of any wrongdoing whatsoever. When returned to their native countries, virtually all have been released immediately.
Number two goes to John McLaughlin, host of "The McLaughlin Group on PBS (Friday night, check your local listings). Presenting a piece of file footage purporting to be Senator Barack Obama responding to charges from the Hillary Clinton campaign group that he was somehow besmirching Hillary. The cited footage was, in fact, shot during his formal announcement for President, edited to appear as slamming Hillary. Shame on you, John. This really is beneath you, sir. We watch "The McLaughlin Group" regularly and other than the fact that it almost always pits one liberal (Eleanor Clift, also a female) against three other conservatives (Pat Buchanan, Tony Blankney and the 'guest chair' on McLaughlin's right), usually comes out fair and square. This was not the case in the instance I've cited. Brickbat Two to John.
I see your eyelids starting to droop, fair reader, so we'll close. But not before we call your attention to an incredible singer. You'll be hearing more about *Regina Spektor* in the months to come. We first spotted her on CBS Sunday Morning a few weeks back in a profile that displayed this young lady's amazing range as well as technical skill at the keyboard. You heard it here first (or maybe second). P.S.-Regina hails from the former Soviet Union; their loss is our gain. More rightly, the U.K.'s gain as she now considers Great Britain her home. Visit her website at: http://www.reginaspektor.com.
Last, but certainly not least is Keith Olbermann. "Countdown" on MSNBC is one of the liveliest, quirkiest, funniest (thanks to segments like 'Oddball' and 'Worst Person in the World') hours on cable. For me to forego "The Newshour With Jim Lehrer", that's something. Check your listings.
Next: The Social Conservative Agenda and the harm it is doing to America.
Today is Saturday, the 24th of February, 2007. Only 697 days until the end of the Bush Adminstration.
Showing posts with label ACLU. Show all posts
Showing posts with label ACLU. Show all posts
Saturday, February 24, 2007
Friday, December 15, 2006
FWIW – I Remember Tianemmen Square
In 1989, the picture was stark. One solitary man stood in front of a column of tanks. Frozen in time, it seemed, until we saw motion, revealing ‘real time’. He was just…standing there, defiantly. He put his own frail body in front of a line of tanks as if to say, “Roll over me, if you dare”.
The parallel that occurs to me was Patrick Henry, “Give me liberty or give me death”! Both men chose to take a stand as if to say, “No more! Come no further in your quest to beat men down”!
It would be the height of presumptiousness for me to equate myself with either of these noble persons, so I won’t. But, events unfolding in a court in this country so infuriate me, so offend my belief in the Constitution of The United States that I feel compelled to make my stand.
Background: In the state of New York, the ACLU has asked a federal judge to quash a grand jury subpoena that demands the ACLU surrender
to the FBI “any and all copies” of a December 2005 document in its possession. Service of this subpoena on or about November 20th is nothing more than an attempt to suppress informed criticism and reporting.
"The government's attempt to suppress information using the grand jury process is truly chilling and is unprecedented in law and in the ACLU's history," said ACLU Executive Director Anthony D. Romero. "This subpoena serves no legitimate investigative purpose and tramples on fundamental First Amendment rights. We recognize this maneuver for what it is: a patent attempt to intimidate and impede the work of human rights advocates like the ACLU who seek to expose government wrongdoing."
For those of you who remember the Pentagon Papers flap of the late 1960’s, this is a blatant attempt to impose prior restraint on the press and the media to prevent revelation of government misconduct which can only be seen as outright censorship. Just like revealing the Pentagon Papers showed how the American people were duped into supporting the Viet Nam war through implementation of the Gulf Of Tonkin resolution, this document will likewise show how the current administration in Washington has duped us into supporting the present sad state of affairs in Iraq.
The three-and-a-half page document, issued in December 2005, is marked "Secret" and apparently is classified. The ACLU received the document, unsolicited, on October 23, 2006.
In legal papers, the ACLU said that while release of the document might be "mildly embarrassing" to the government, the ACLU's possession of it is legal and its release could in no way threaten national security. To the contrary, the ACLU said, the designation of the generally unremarkable document as "Secret" "appears to be a striking, yet typical, example of overclassification."
"No official secrets act has yet been signed into law, and the grand jury's subpoena power cannot be used to create one," said ACLU Legal Director Steven R. Shapiro. "The most significant thing about this case is not the content of the document but the government's unprecedented effort to suppress it." If the government can enforce a subpoena in this way, Shapiro explained, "it could just as easily have subpoenaed the Pentagon Papers from The New York Times and Washington Post. The effect of the subpoena is no different than a prior restraint and it is equally unconstitutional."
This is where I choose to make my stand.
I am hereby formally requesting the ACLU to release the document to me, a private citizen of the United States. In a fair and unbiased manner, which cannot be guaranteed by any Federal Judge (since the plaintiff is the Government of The United States and the Federal Judiciary is but one arm of the aforementioned Government), my impartiality can be guaranteed to the judgment of the merits.
By so requesting, my choice is to confront the government of The United States, much as Fr. Daniel Berrigan did in the Pentagon Papers imbroglio, and force the government to admit once and for all, that the First Amendment reigns supreme over the wishes of any government cabal and that the rule of law in this country subjects all citizens to abide by that rule.
Bring on Henry Gonzales, bring on George W. Bush, bring ‘em on! (sound familiar?)
I’ve had it with a government that unabashedly lies to its people. Enough of a corrupt government/military/industrial complex that chooses to obscenely conspire to make certain people rich over the sacred bodies of those soldiers who bravely serve to protect and defend this Constitution of The United States.
I’ve had it with a cowardly (there can be no other word for people who claim to be public servants who abandon their duty under Article 1, Sec. 8 of that Constitution and transfer [although there is nothing in the Constitution that permits those servants to transfer those responsibilities] transfer to another branch (i.e. the Executive Branch in the person of the President) of the government.
The framers of the Constitution, wiser than any who now sit in that great chamber, intended that the legislative branch be closer to, and therefore most accountable to, their constituents, the people. That’s you and me, my friend. They drew that document up with the intention that no chief executive could, by personal fiat, involve the sons (and now daughters) in a conflict in a foreign land, but that Congress, itself was to have sole power to “…declare and make war…”.
The election of November 7, 2006 is over. The people have spoken. Yet, this government continues to send our young, brave soldiers to walk around with targets on their backs in a land involved in all-out civil war.
Have you, like me, had enough? Are you mad as hell enough? Are you mad as hell enough to write to your congressperson?
Then, like Nike, JUST DO IT!
Tomorrow: Saturday, a day of rest.
To my dearest Jewish friends, Happy Chanukah!
Today is December 15th; 765 days until the end of the Bush Administration
The parallel that occurs to me was Patrick Henry, “Give me liberty or give me death”! Both men chose to take a stand as if to say, “No more! Come no further in your quest to beat men down”!
It would be the height of presumptiousness for me to equate myself with either of these noble persons, so I won’t. But, events unfolding in a court in this country so infuriate me, so offend my belief in the Constitution of The United States that I feel compelled to make my stand.
Background: In the state of New York, the ACLU has asked a federal judge to quash a grand jury subpoena that demands the ACLU surrender
to the FBI “any and all copies” of a December 2005 document in its possession. Service of this subpoena on or about November 20th is nothing more than an attempt to suppress informed criticism and reporting.
"The government's attempt to suppress information using the grand jury process is truly chilling and is unprecedented in law and in the ACLU's history," said ACLU Executive Director Anthony D. Romero. "This subpoena serves no legitimate investigative purpose and tramples on fundamental First Amendment rights. We recognize this maneuver for what it is: a patent attempt to intimidate and impede the work of human rights advocates like the ACLU who seek to expose government wrongdoing."
For those of you who remember the Pentagon Papers flap of the late 1960’s, this is a blatant attempt to impose prior restraint on the press and the media to prevent revelation of government misconduct which can only be seen as outright censorship. Just like revealing the Pentagon Papers showed how the American people were duped into supporting the Viet Nam war through implementation of the Gulf Of Tonkin resolution, this document will likewise show how the current administration in Washington has duped us into supporting the present sad state of affairs in Iraq.
The three-and-a-half page document, issued in December 2005, is marked "Secret" and apparently is classified. The ACLU received the document, unsolicited, on October 23, 2006.
In legal papers, the ACLU said that while release of the document might be "mildly embarrassing" to the government, the ACLU's possession of it is legal and its release could in no way threaten national security. To the contrary, the ACLU said, the designation of the generally unremarkable document as "Secret" "appears to be a striking, yet typical, example of overclassification."
"No official secrets act has yet been signed into law, and the grand jury's subpoena power cannot be used to create one," said ACLU Legal Director Steven R. Shapiro. "The most significant thing about this case is not the content of the document but the government's unprecedented effort to suppress it." If the government can enforce a subpoena in this way, Shapiro explained, "it could just as easily have subpoenaed the Pentagon Papers from The New York Times and Washington Post. The effect of the subpoena is no different than a prior restraint and it is equally unconstitutional."
This is where I choose to make my stand.
I am hereby formally requesting the ACLU to release the document to me, a private citizen of the United States. In a fair and unbiased manner, which cannot be guaranteed by any Federal Judge (since the plaintiff is the Government of The United States and the Federal Judiciary is but one arm of the aforementioned Government), my impartiality can be guaranteed to the judgment of the merits.
By so requesting, my choice is to confront the government of The United States, much as Fr. Daniel Berrigan did in the Pentagon Papers imbroglio, and force the government to admit once and for all, that the First Amendment reigns supreme over the wishes of any government cabal and that the rule of law in this country subjects all citizens to abide by that rule.
Bring on Henry Gonzales, bring on George W. Bush, bring ‘em on! (sound familiar?)
I’ve had it with a government that unabashedly lies to its people. Enough of a corrupt government/military/industrial complex that chooses to obscenely conspire to make certain people rich over the sacred bodies of those soldiers who bravely serve to protect and defend this Constitution of The United States.
I’ve had it with a cowardly (there can be no other word for people who claim to be public servants who abandon their duty under Article 1, Sec. 8 of that Constitution and transfer [although there is nothing in the Constitution that permits those servants to transfer those responsibilities] transfer to another branch (i.e. the Executive Branch in the person of the President) of the government.
The framers of the Constitution, wiser than any who now sit in that great chamber, intended that the legislative branch be closer to, and therefore most accountable to, their constituents, the people. That’s you and me, my friend. They drew that document up with the intention that no chief executive could, by personal fiat, involve the sons (and now daughters) in a conflict in a foreign land, but that Congress, itself was to have sole power to “…declare and make war…”.
The election of November 7, 2006 is over. The people have spoken. Yet, this government continues to send our young, brave soldiers to walk around with targets on their backs in a land involved in all-out civil war.
Have you, like me, had enough? Are you mad as hell enough? Are you mad as hell enough to write to your congressperson?
Then, like Nike, JUST DO IT!
Tomorrow: Saturday, a day of rest.
To my dearest Jewish friends, Happy Chanukah!
Today is December 15th; 765 days until the end of the Bush Administration
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
