52 - 28 - 21

52 - Percentage of Americans who can name at least two members of the cartoon Simpsons family.

28 - Percentage of Americans who can name at least two freedoms granted in the First Amendment.

21 - Percentage who believe the right to own a pet is one of them.

Source: Health, July/August, 2006.

Tags: First Amendement, The Simpsons, Freedoms, trivia

Destroying Ourselves

Jacob Hornberger, founder of The Future of Freedom Foundation, wrote an excellent commentary on April 26th and I wanted to share part of it:

… we now live in a nation in which the president has the omnipotent power to ignore all constitutional restraints on his power. That might not be the way the president and his legal advisors put it, but that is the practical effect of what they are saying to justify his powers. They effectively claim that the Constitution vests the president — as military commander in chief during the “war on terrorism” — with such extraordinary powers that he is able to ignore restraints on his powers imposed both by the Constitution and by Congress.

No restraints on declaring and waging war against other nations. No restraints on the power to secretly record telephone conversations of the American people. No restraints on the power to kidnap and send people into overseas concentration camps for the purpose of torture and even execution. No restraints on the power to take Americans into custody as “enemy combatants” and punish them — even torture and execute them — without due process of law and jury trials.

If all that isn’t dictatorship, what is?

“But President Bush is a good man. He’s trying to protect us. He’s waging war against the terrorists. He’s not evil like other dictators in history. He was elected. He can be trusted.”

People who say that are missing the point. The suggestion is not that Bush is an evil man. The point is simply that Bush now wields the same omnipotent, dictatorial powers that other dictators in history have wielded. That is not a small transformation in American life when it comes to freedom.

“Well, then, where are the mass round-ups, and where are the concentration camps?”

Again, people who ask that type of question are missing the point. The point is not whether Bush is exercising his omnipotent, dictatorial power to the maximum extent. It’s whether he now possesses omnipotent, dictatorial power, power that can be exercised whenever circumstances dictate it — for example, during another major terrorist attack on American soil, when Americans become overly frightened again.

Unless the American people figure out a way to reverse what has happened to their country — and have the will to do something about it — they will earn the mark of shame reserved for those people in history who voluntarily relinquished their freedom in exchange for the aura of security. Like all others in history who have chosen such a course, they will ultimately learn that they have lost both their freedom and their security. [“A Democratic Dictatoriship” (The Future of Freedom Foundation)]

I very much believe that the average American really wants to believe that the kind of abuses that Bush is actually claiming he has a right to and has actually been committing in the name of President of the United States of America simply can’t happen “here” in this country. This is America. We are the good guys. We are better than that. Our Leaders will protect us.

I’m sure that every other nation and people that found themselves lost and misled and trapped one day thought the same thing. That sort of thing couldn’t happen in their village, their country, their nation, their empire. They were invicible; they were great; they were blessed; they were the good guys. Their leaders were supposed to protect them.

I just don’t want to wake up in a police state some day because September 11th happened. It was a tragedy it happened. There are things we can do to fight back, to protect ourselves, but we don’t have to give up everything and destroy our freedoms and everything that made us a great nation, America, the good guys, just because it happened. That’s not going to make anything better.

Destroying ourselves so the bad guys can’t won’t solve the problem.

Tags: Democracy, dictatorship, George W. Bush, The Future of Freedom Foundation, Freedoms, 9/11

Free Abu Bakker Qassim and A’del Abdu al-Hakim

Abu Bakker Qassim and A’del Abdu al-Hakim have been held in Guantanamo Bay since June 2002 after they were captured by bounty hunters in Pakistan in 2001. At the time they were fleeing China in search of religious and political sanctuary and in the chaos involving the “enemy combatant” round-up that led to anyone and everyone being handed over for American dollars, bounty hunters sold them to America and they were locked up.

Last year, the U.S. military determined that they were not in fact “enemy combatants.” You’d think then that everything would then be find and dandy for Abu Bakker Wassim and A’del Abdu al-Hakim.

However, both are still residents of Guantanamo Bay and their address doesn’t look likely to change any time soon.

The Bush Administration wisely says it cannot return them to China as they are Uighurs and would face persecution there. “Beijing has frequently cracked down on Uighur dissidents, who are seeking autonomy in the country’s north-western Xinjiang province. The Chinese government accuses Uighur militants of waging a bombing and assassination campaign, and receiving training at al-Qaeda camps in Afghanistan.” [“Guantamao Uighur Appeal Rejected” (BBC News)]

The problem is that these men are innocent. They’re still in prison.

The Bush Administration doesn’t want them in the U.S. for some reason — you’d think after such a screw up, we might want to make it up to them, make nice.

I just don’t get why someone isn’t making a bigger deal about this. If these were Americans being held in a prison somewhere, we’d be all up in arms. These are innocent men. They’ve been proven to be innocent. We are violating their rights, holding them indefinitely for no reason. That’s it’s own kind of torture, in my opinion. These men have lives we’re stealing from them. This is that Freedom we’re bringing to the Middle East.

Tags: Abu Bakker Qassim, A'del Abdu al-Hakim, Guantanamo Bay, detainees, innocent, Freedoms

The Failure Of Afghanistan

I’m alway on alert for stories and reports about how things are going in Afghanistan. We hardly ever hear anything about how things are going over there since the invasion of Iraq started and, yet, supposedly, Afghanistan is really where all of this War on Terror stuff started. At the very least, Afghanistan is where the Taliban and Osama Bin Ladin was after 9-11. And we did a lot of bragging in the early days about how we were bringing them freedom and democracy and how we were going to rebuild the country. Remember all of that?

Now, Afghanistan hardly gets a mention in the news. Even when they had elections, it wasn’t even one of our top stories. Iraq has taken over our lives. Afghanistan is the forgotten bastard child. Kind of a shame really because apparently a lot has been happening while we weren’t looking.

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Tags: Afghanistan, Freedoms, Democracy, Taliban, Kandahar, Pakistan, al-Qaeda

Is It Time To Panic Yet?

This is a great post by The (liberal) Girl Next Door:

Someone recently told me that it’s not quite time to panic, that things in this country may be bad, but we haven’t yet reached the point of no return. So I’d just like to toss out the question. When is it time to panic? When does mere concern turn urgent, and will we all recognize the signs in time?

[…]

Or is it time to panic when, as Patricia Goldsmith suggests, there is no opposition left? It has long been the case that our two party system is nothing more than political theater. We have two political parties feeding from the same corporate troughs and serving the same corporate interests. If we continue to buy into the lies of either side and continue to separate from one another reducing public discourse to screaming at one another from opposite sides of the wedges driven between us, we give the only power we have left away to leaders who will only abuse it. If we willfully divide ourselves, we will be easily conquered.

I don’t want to panic before it is warranted, but I sometimes wonder if we will recognize the last straw. Don’t we remember that in Germany, the Nazis took control of government, not in a violent coup, but by passing laws that gave them increasing power and control over the people and the news they received? We keep hearing that it’s not time to panic just yet, but if history has a lesson for us right now, it’s that panicking too late won’t do a damn bit of good. Do we really, as a country, want to sit idly by watching evil become a way of life? Most of us judge the German people not as victims, but rather as willing accomplices. Will we judge ourselves the same?

I have been wary of using the Nazi comparison, but since Sandra Day O’Connor, the voice of reason on our high court for decades, feels comfortable warning of a dictatorship, I guess I feel justified. We are being fed propaganda, our government is becoming increasingly secretive, dissenting voices are routinely being silenced, and this administration appears to be accountable to no one. If it isn’t quite yet time to panic, I fear the time is fast approaching.

Read the whole well-thought-out post! I don’t know about you, but I’ve been feeling panicky for a while, but then I come by it naturally. I thought it was just me being paranoid. Apparently, I’m not alone. That’s somewhat comforting. I think.

Tags: politics, George W. Bush, Impeach, Freedoms, liberals, Sandra Day O'Connor, voice of reason, dictatorship, Nazi Germany, propaganda

John Kerry Needs His Mouth Sewn Shut

No, seriously. I’ve been mulling it over since last Thursday when the Patriot Act got renewed.

Mostly I’ve been quietly seething as that’s just another nail in the coffin of our dying civil liberties and freedoms and my first impulse was to write a post about how every single one of those Senators who voted to renew the Patriot Act should be voted out of office when their seat came up — which is saying a lot since I actually like Snowe, Collins, Baucus, Vitter, and up until very recently McCain. However, I decided to sit on it and think on it.

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Tags: John Kerry, Democrats, Patriot Act, Senate, loss of Freedoms

Get Off Your Ass & Vote Tomorrow!

I’m fairly certain that in most places in the United States tomorrow there will be a voting booth open. Oh, sure, there’s nothing big to vote on like the Presidency, but there’s still important decisions to make.

Heck, here in Maine, we’re voting on the right to discriminate against perceived homosexuals. Oh, I’ll be voting “no” against repealing the law that protects gays and lesbians from discrimination, but the important thing is that people get out and make an educated vote for whatever their cause. Just because you think whatever’s on the ballot doesn’t affect you, just because you think it’s not as important as last year’s election, doesn’t mean you don’t have a responsibility to vote.

Think of those countries we’re bringing democracy to and how they’ve risked their lives to go to the polls and cast their vote and make their voice count. The likelihood of a polling place here in the states, in your community, getting bombed tomorrow is probably less than the likelihood of a whole day passing in the entire Middle East without a bomb or attack of some sort. Be a role model. Don’t take for granted the very thing our soldiers are dying to give other people!

You know, people died in this country so we could have the right to vote too. Maybe we shouldn’t disrespect their sacrifice for our personal freedoms.

Tags: vote, politics, Gay Rights, Discrimination, Freedoms

Are Libraries A Safe-Haven For Terrorists?

According to CNN.com House limits Patriot Act rules on library records!

WASHINGTON (AP) — Advocates of rewriting the USA Patriot Act are claiming momentum after the House, despite a White House veto threat, voted to restrict investigators from using the anti-terrorism law to peek at library records and bookstore sales slips.

Wednesday’s 238-187 vote came as lawmakers ramped up efforts to extend the Patriot Act, which was passed quickly in the emotional aftermath of the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. When Congress passed the law, it included a sunset provision under which 15 of its provisions are to expire at the end of this year.

Since the Patriot Act passed, liberals and libertarian-oriented conservatives have pressed for changes, citing privacy and civil liberties concerns. The administration has said weakening of the act would draw a veto from President Bush.

“No question, this is a real shot in the arm for those of us who want to make changes to the USA Patriot Act,” said Rep. Bernard Sanders, I-Vermont, sponsor of the provision that would curtail the government’s ability to investigate the reading habits of terror suspects. He said the vote would help “rein in an administration intent on chipping away at the very civil liberties that define us as a nation.”

The real irony is that the Patriot Act hadn’t been used to investigate bookstore receipts or library records as of March 30th. Yet, the Justice Department claims that the authority to be able to do so is a great benefit to investigating possible terrorists and terrorist enablers. WTF? Shouldn’t there be a rule that if they haven’t used it in 3 years, then it should just go away? Obviously they don’t need it. It’s kind of like my George Foreman Grill. Yeah, it’s trendy to have but I never use it and it’s just taking up space in my cabinet.

I particularly like this quote:

“It bodes well that the first vote Congress has taken on the Patriot Act this year has been in favor of liberty and freedom,” said Gregory Nojeim, a lobbyist for the American Civil Liberties Union.

And this is actually kind of funny:

Supporters of the Patriot Act countered that the rules are potentially useful and argued that the House was voting to make libraries safe havens for terrorists.

So, now I’m seeing the backrooms of libraries filled with smoke and bomb-making supplies and little gray-haired ladies in bifocals running after shady-looking types and fussing about how they treat the books on bomb-making. I really think that’s a bit extreme. Like the House wants terrorists to win. Please.

Anyway, it’s a small victories for people concerned with civil liberties and the freedoms Americans claim to be passing on to other countries, but with President Bush’s promise to veto any “weakening” of the Patriot Act, we still have a long way to go.

Tags: Public Library, Patriot Act, ACLU, House of Representatives, Freedoms, Terrorists

Deja Vu

The Sedition Act of 1798

An Act in addition to the act, entitled “An act for the punishment of certain crimes against the United States. ”
SEC. I Be it enacted . . ., That if any persons shall unlawfully combine or conspire together, with intent to oppose any measure or measures of the government of the United States, which are or shall be directed by proper authority, or to impede the operation of any law of the United States, or to intimidate or prevent any person holding a place or office in or under the government of the United States, from undertaking, performing or executing his trust or duty; and if any person or persons, with intent as aforesaid, shall counsel, advise or attempt to procure any insurrection, riot. unlawful assembly, or combination, whether such conspiracy, threatening, counsel, advice, or attempt shall have the proposed effect or not, he or they shall be deemed guilty of a high misdemeanor, and on conviction, before any court of the United States having jurisdiction thereof, shall be punished by a fine not exceeding five thousand dollars, and by imprisonment during a term not less than six months nor exceeding five years; and further, at the discretion of the court may be holden to find sureties for his good behaviour in such sum, and for such time, as the said court may direct.

SEC. 2. That if any person shall write, print, utter. Or publish, or shall cause or procure to be written, printed, uttered or published, or shall knowingly and willingly assist or aid in writing, printing, uttering or publishing any false, scandalous and malicious writing or writings against the government of the United States, or either house of the Congress of the United States, or the President of the United States, with intent to defame the said government, or either house of the said Congress, or the said President, or to bring them. or either of them, into contempt or disrepute; or to excite against them, or either or any of them, the hatred of the good people of the United States, or to excite any unlawful combinations therein, for opposing or resisting any law of the United States, or any act of the President of the United States, done in pursuance of any such law, or of the powers in him vested by the constitution of the United States, or to resist, oppose, or defeat any such law or act, or to aid, encourage or abet any hostile designs of any foreign nation against the United States, their people or government, then such person, being thereof convicted before any court of the United States having jurisdiction thereof, shall be punished by a fine not exceeding two thousand dollars, and by imprisonment not exceeding two years.

SEC. 3. That if any person shall be prosecuted under this act, for the writing or publishing any libel aforesaid, it shall be lawful for the defendant, upon the trial of the cause, to give in evidence in his defence, the truth of the matter contained in the publication charged as a libel. And the jury who shall try the cause, shall have a right to determine the law and the fact, under the direction of the court, as in other cases.

SEC. 4. That this act shall continue to be in force until March 3, 1801, and no longer….

Tags: Sedition Act of 1798, politics, Freedoms

In The Words of Senator Russ Feingold

From an address in October of 2001 on opposing the U.S. Patriot Act:

…There have been periods in our nation’s history when civil liberties have taken a back seat to what appeared at the time to be the legitimate exigencies of war. Our national consciousness still bears the stain and the scars of those events: The Alien and Sedition Acts, the suspension of habeas corpus during the Civil War, the internment of Japanese-Americans, German-Americans, and Italian-Americans during World War II, the blacklisting of supposed communist sympathizers during the McCarthy era, and the surveillance and harassment of antiwar protesters, including Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., during the Vietnam War. We must not allow these pieces of our past to become prologue…even in our great land, wartime has sometimes brought us the greatest tests of our Bill of Rights…

…Now some may say, indeed we may hope, that we have come a long way since the those days of infringements on civil liberties. But there is ample reason for concern. I have been troubled in the past month by the potential loss of commitment to traditional civil liberties.

As it seeks to combat terrorism, the Justice Department is making extraordinary use of its power to arrest and detain individuals, jailing hundreds of people on immigration violations and arresting more than a dozen “material witnesses” not charged with any crime. Although the government has used these authorities before, it has not done so on such a broad scale. Judging from government announcements, the government has not brought any criminal charges related to the attacks with regard to the overwhelming majority of these detainees…

…Even as America addresses the demanding security challenges before us, we must strive mightily also to guard our values and basic rights. We must guard against racism and ethnic discrimination…

…And, of course, there is no doubt that if we lived in a police state, it would be easier to catch terrorists. If we lived in a country that allowed the police to search your home at any time for any reason; if we lived in a country that allowed the government to open your mail, eavesdrop on your phone conversations, or intercept your email communications; if we lived in a country that allowed the government to hold people in jail indefinitely based on what they write or think, or based on mere suspicion that they are up to no good, then the government would no doubt discover and arrest more terrorists.

But that probably would not be a country in which we would want to live. That would not be a country for which we could, in good conscience, ask our young people to fight and die. In short, that would not be America.

Preserving our freedom is the reason that we are now engaged in this new war on terrorism. We will lose that war without firing a shot if we sacrifice the liberties of the American people…

Tags: Russ Feingold, Patriot Act, Freedoms, terrorism, politics