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No Pardon for President’s Criminal Wiretapping of Americans

No Pardon for President’s Criminal Wiretapping of Americans

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Don’t let the Senate Legislate a Secret Pardon of President Bush – Take Action (Moveon.org)

This week, the Senate is planning to quietly hold a vote that would pardon President Bush for breaking the law by illegally wiretapping innocent Americans.

The bill would let the administration off the hook for breaking the law and make it legal to wiretap Americans, in secret, without any oversight whenever they want to.

Democrats and some Republicans are holding strong against it, and if enough of us speak up we can stop it.

Can you sign the petition opposing the Republican move to pardon President Bush for breaking the law?

http://pol.moveon.org/dontpardon/

My Republican senators – Johnny Isakson and Saxby Chambliss – would be among the last to oppose, challenge, criticize, or even discuss anything that Bush does, but I still feel that it is worthwhile to speak up for Georgia even as a minority without representation.

I am astonished that the Senate could consider whitewashing the criminal offense here by grandfathering a pardon and expanding executive powers even further.

We expect the Senate to uphold the laws of this nation and to act as a full branch of government that represents the interests of all Americans.

Even in the context of party interests, there is a pragmatic reason for Republicans to vote nay on this. Short of cancelling elections, I find it difficult to believe that hard-right rubber-stamping Republicans will continue to hold office unless they get more of a conscience on these matters. This is a matter of the fundamental duties of their position.

If our legislative branch continues to chip away at everything America means, they will have done more to meet the aims of those who use terrorist methods against us than anything that terrorists could have done.

No Pardon for the President

No Immunity for Unconstitutional Spying – Take Action

No Immunity for Unconstitutional Spying – Take Action

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The idea that the rule of law – and even the Constitution itself – threatens our safety has been used to justify repeated attacks on civil liberties and the principle of checks and balances since 2001. And now Congress is about to consider new legislation that would further bloat the power of the executive branch by removing crucial judicial and congressional oversight. Legalizing the President’s warrantless domestic surveillance is not what the Founding Fathers meant by ‘checks and balances.’ I don’t want any legislative “fixes” to the law that would whitewash the executive branch’s illegal eavesdropping.

Please do your bit to stop three awful bills that are taking shape in congressional committees. S. 2453 (Sen. Specter), S. 2455 (Sen. DeWine) and H.R. 5825 (Rep. Wilson) would essentially codify Bush’s illegal domestic spying program despite that 1) the full scope of the program is still a secret, and 2) A federal court in Michigan ruled the program unconstitutional.

Urge your congressional officials to protect the Constitution!

The White House is cranking up its fear and smear machine again. President Bush and his political allies exploited the 9/11 anniversary with yet another round of media appearances equating dissent with support for terrorists. They’re trying – one more time – to smear and intimidate anyone who objects to Bush administration policies that run roughshod over our Constitution. The administration’s propaganda blitz was not only about exploiting fears of terrorism for the fall elections. It was also about building support for a new push in Congress to give the Bush administration political and legal cover for policies that violate basic constitutional principles like due process.

E-mail or fax your representative and senators now and tell them to reject these dangerous bills and all legislative whitewashes that would give the executive branch immunity from the judicial and congressional oversight so vital to our system of checks and balances.

More information about the NSA illegal spying program

(People For the American Way)

No CoverYerA Pro-Torture Legislation

No CoverYerA Pro-Torture Legislation

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Ignoring the Supreme Court, the advice of top military lawyers, our nation’s laws, and the domestic and worldwide outcry against torture, the Bush Administration is aggressively fighting for the legal right to abuse detainees in U.S. custody.

This administration is currently polishing up an amendment to the War Crimes Act (Section 2441 of title 18 US Code) that would legally permit abusive interrogations. This would further undermine Common Article 3 in the Geneva Conventions, and try to evade the recent Hamdan v. Rumsfeld Supreme Court ruling. The amendment would not ban “outrages upon personal dignity, in particular humiliating and degrading treatment” (such as “waterboarding”), although such acts are specifically banned by the Geneva Conventions.

The White House also announced that the bill “will apply to any conduct by any U.S. personnel, whether committed before or after the law is enacted.” So, they want to grandfather in any previous criminal offenses – duh.

Passing this legislation would excuse the administration from current, past, or future criminal charges stemming from its treatment of prisoners in the “war against terror.” It looks to me as though it’s quite concerned with protecting its own policymakers from being prosecuted under the War Crimes Act. Yeah, I wonder why that would be.

The time-honored and (almost) universally-accepted Geneva Conventions help to protect our own troops. The Bush administration is not only willing to risk the lives of our soldiers – and further tarnish our reputation – so that it can engage in cruel and inhuman treatment with impugnity – but it also want to protect those who have authorized it from any accountability!

Outside of all the ethical and legal reasons to oppose torture (especially in our name), there is also the pragmatic reason not to torture: Expert interrogators have already said that good information comes not through torture, but rather by establishing relationships of trust. People who are tortured will say anything to make the torture stop. Read up on the Inquisitions. The Witch Hunts. Or something more recent. Take your pick. Torture doesn’t work.

Shall we go down as the first nation to retreat from the Geneva Conventions?
Shall we be known as the country who stood up to champion cruel and degrading treatment?

Is this what America has become? Is this what we stand for? Will Americans speak up?

The “good guys” don’t need to do this.

No more torture in America’s name!
No grandfathered protections for those who authorized it!

Tell the President to drop this bid to gain the legal right to abuse detainees. Tell him to respect our laws and the Geneva Conventions. (Human Rights First)

Read up on the issues. Then, please contact your representatives to tell them your views, and the position you would urge them to take on this matter.

Reading:

NSA Eavesdropping Ruled Unconstitutional

NSA Eavesdropping Ruled Unconstitutional

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NSA eavesdropping program ruled unconstitutional

Judge orders immediate halt to program

YES! Finally!

A federal judge ruled Thursday that the government’s warrantless wiretapping program is unconstitutional and ordered an immediate halt to it.

U.S. District Judge Anna Diggs Taylor in Detroit became the first judge to strike down the National Security Agency’s program, which she says violates the rights to free speech and privacy.

“It was never the intent of the Framers to give the President such unfettered control, particularly where his actions blatantly disregard the parameters clearly enumerated in the Bill of Rights.”

We must first note that the Office of the Chief Executive has itself been created, with its powers, by the Constitution. There are no hereditary Kings in America and no power not created by the Constitution.

So what now?

No, President Bush, it is not your government

No, President Bush, it is not your government

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This about sums it up. Bush really doesn’t seem to be able to accept the differences between American democracy and a kingship.

Bush declares himself absolute ruler: It’s ‘my government’
August 8, 2006 6:28 AM

Once again, President George W. Bush has shown complete disregard and utter contempt for the documents which define this country: The Declaration of Independence and the Constitution.

Speaking in Crawford, Texas, Monday, Bush said:

“The loss of life on both sides of the Lebanese-Israeli border has been a great tragedy. Millions of Lebanese civilians have been caught in the crossfire of military operations because of the unprovoked attack and kidnappings by Hezbollah. The humanitarian crisis in Lebanon is of deep concern to all Americans, and alleviating it will remain a priority of my government.”

“My government?” Abraham Lincoln, in the Gettysburg Address, said the Constitution establishes a government “of the people, by the people and for the people.” The Declaration of Independence starts with phrase “We the people.” They say nothing of turning the government over to any elected official so that it becomes “my government.”

Presidents have administrations and they can, and usually do, refer to such as “my administration.” But Bush, we believe, feels his power is absolute and the government of this nation belongs not to the people but to him and him alone.

This is not the first time that Bush has disregarded the protections of freedoms that are the cornerstone of our Republic. His widespread abuse of power has forced the Supreme Court to slap him down again and again, especially on the abandonment of Constitutionally-guaranteed rights for detainees at Guantanamo and others held without due course in the hysteria following the 9/11 terrorist attacks.

The American Bar Association recently issued a report noting his abuse of the Constitution through a deluge of “signing statements” where he declares he does not have to obey laws passed by Congress.

Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, while serving as White House Counsel, wrote a memo that referred to the Constitution as “an outdated document” and Bush himself has expressed contempt for the very document he has twice sworn an oath to uphold and defend.

America is no longer a democracy or a democratic republic. Government no longer belongs to the people. The President of the United States has declared it do be a government of Bush, by Bush and for Bush.

In his own words, Bush calls it “my government.”

As has happened too often in the past, the fate of a nation and the world rests in the hands of a megalomaniacal despot who claims absolute power to wage war, destroy freedom and spread chaos.

© Copyright 2006 by Capitol Hill Blue