Where's the Outrage?

A week ago, Emma Sullivan was simply another high school student in Topeka, Kansas. She had her circle of friends and family like all high school students. She was attending a Kansas Youth in Government program where Governor Sam Brownback addressed her and her fellow students. Sometime during this conference she tweeted: Just made mean comments at gov brownback and told him he sucked, in person #heblowsalot. Okay, no big deal, just a high school student expressing herself. Then, somebody from the governor’s office called the principal of her school. Let’s just think about this just for second. A high school student says something to the governor. As far as I know, she hasn’t broken any laws and hasn’t violated any code of conduct that I know of. Why would somebody from the governor’s office run whining to the principal’s office? Why would the principal’s office pay any attention to it? According to Emma Sullivan, the high school student, she was ordered by the principal to write letters of apology to Governor Brownback, the school’s Youth in Government sponsor and several other recipients.

This morning Emma tweeted “I’ve decided not to write the letter but I hope this opens the door for average citizens to voice their opinion & to be heard! #goingstrong.” Would you or would you not agree that we should all have the right to criticize our political leaders? She does not have the right to be rude, but she does have the right to express herself in a way that does not disrupt the class or the learning activity. If she’s able to do this, there’s no reason for the governor’s office to be offended. There’s no reason for the principal’s office to get involved.

Update: Finally, some common sense (and I didn’t think that Governor Brownback had any!)

From DK:

Oh, but there’s more:

In the uproar over a Prairie Village teenager’s tweet about Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback during a school trip, it is the governor who is apologizing. “My staff over-reacted to this tweet, and for that, I apologize. Freedom of speech is among our most treasured freedoms,” said a statement from Brownback’s office.

Overreacted, indeed. Ya think?

So let’s see. A teenager tweeted that her governor sucks. He does in fact suck, as is evidenced by his staff obsessively compiling an enemies list of teenage girls who don’t like him on Twitter. His staff complains, the school principal freaks out, probably correctly figuring that Brownback’s office will use it as excuse to cut their pencil budget again, this time down to one pencil per thirty kids, and tells the teenage girl she has to apologize. The wider world finds out about it, floods all parties with messages of support for the teenager in question and suddenly everybody remembers the First Amendment again.

Tags: Civil Liberty, Civil Rights by ecthompson md
4 Comments »

I haven’t discussed women’s rights that much on this blog and for this I am sorry. Women’s rights should be important to everyone. If anybody’s liberty is in jeopardy, all of our liberties are in jeopardy. Currently, women’s rights are under a blistering assault by the GOP. Legislation both on the state and on the federal level has been designed to target women and limit their access to healthcare and their right to choose. One of the most egregious assaults on women is rape. Several states are requiring women to pay for their rape examinations. Let me say this again. After a woman is raped, some states require women to pay for their rape kits. These examinations don’t cost $5 or $10. In some cases, women are being charged over $1000 (or more) for these examinations. For women who are poor and without means, this puts justice out of their reach. I talked with a friend of mine, Tamara Benson, who has intimate knowledge of this assault on women. Her own daughter was raped and because her daughter was a minor she was sent the bill for the rape kit. This is a very compelling interview and I hope you find it informative.

The Errington Thompson show – Womens Rights [ 23:36 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Update: The HuffPo has also tackled this subject (listen to the personal story in the podcast below)-

Journalists occasionally shine light on a public policy that is so disgusting it literally stuns you – just takes your breath away and leaves you speechless.

Your first thought is they’ve made a mistake. Or this is ratings hype. It can’t be true.

After the initial shock wears off, you realize it actuallyis happening – that it’s the system – and it hurt real people today; and it will hurt others the same way tomorrow, and others the day after that, and others the day after that. And you just want to urp.

That happened today when I saw this clip on CNN (from Houston station KPRC) that showed the attorney general of Texas (my home state) is sending letters to women who have been raped threatening their credit will be ruined unless they pay for the part of the criminal investigation known as the rape kit.

(A rape kit is a set of items that specially trained medial staff use to gather and preserve evidence of a sexual assault. A woman can decline the process, which can take up to four hours, but going to an emergency room and undergoing this additional intrusion helps document the attack and gives law enforcement evidence it needs to investigate the crime and prosecute the rapist.) The cost, according to CNN/ KPRC, runs $1,200 to $1,800. (more…)

Tags: Civil Liberty, Civil Rights, Podcasts by ecthompson md
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• As I mentioned yesterday, government spending makes up approximately 25% of our GDP. Cutting government spending equals losing jobs. Our unemployment rate is unacceptably high and, instead of creating jobs, Congress has just taking a big step toward losing more jobs. The GOP is killing America.
• Michele Bachmann, in an absolutely brilliant paragraph, starts out by stating that she could not afford to buy a house on her own and needed government assistance. No big deal. Almost everybody has had some sort of government assistance with buying homes over the last 15 or 20 years. Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae have facilitated tens of millions of loans for average Americans. Then, Michele Bachmann pivoted and talked about how these agencies need to be eliminated. Therefore, as I see it, it appears to be okay for her to use government assistance to buy a house, but it’s not okay for you and me to do the same thing. I wonder if you could give her house back?
• Remember when Republicans like Michele Bachmann were talking about how blacks were better off in slavery because they had both a mother and a father? Remember that? Well, here’s a thoughtful response.
• Can somebody please explain to me why there is a fight over funding the FAA? For some reason, dating back to the Reagan years, the FAA has been a political football. It sure seems to me that if Republicans are serious about closing the deficit (and I don’t think that they are) they wouldn’t let an agency sit idle and let millions of dollars in revenue float off into the ether.
• Why is Senator David Vitter still in the Senate? Wasn’t he in the DC Madam’s phone book? How did he win reelection? I’m still baffled by it. He is blocking a nomination to the Assistant Secretary of the Interior because it has become acceptable for senators to block nominations until their pet projects are funded. This is the kind of garbage that hurts America.
• Speaking of hurting America, there is the NRA. The Obama administration is trying to work to control illegal guns getting into Mexican cartels. This would seem to be a good thing… unless you are the NRA. Then, you’re seriously mad about this affront to civil liberties. It would seem to me that we should do everything in our power to choke off the flow of guns to the Mexican cartels. If the NRA is upset, let them buy the guns and store them in a warehouse somewhere. The bottom line is we have to do whatever we can to stop that violence if it’s being fueled with American guns.
• Please list this under the category of very stupid: Rep. Ron Paul has written a bill that will simply cancel $1.6 trillion in Federal Reserve debt.  Yep. that should calm the markets. Let’s simply write off our debt. I’m sure that foreign governments and Wall Street will love that.
• This has been a terribly depressing week from a political standpoint. Because of this, I need to put on something that makes me smile –

Artist: Stevie Wonder
Tune: Do I Do

• The Tea Party explained.

Tags: Budget, Civil Liberty, Congress, Music by ecthompson md
4 Comments »

Governor Scott Walker

The Governor of Wisconsin Scott Walker has made a name for himself. He was unknown three weeks ago. Now he is the face of the GOP agenda.

For an excellent update from C&L on the Wisconsin protests – here and here.

From ClimateProgress:

On Friday, Think Progress posted “REPORT: Top 10 Disastrous Policies From The Wisconsin GOP You Haven’t Heard About.”  I’m reposting the whole piece below since four of those disastrous policies would subject Wisconsin families to dirtier air and dirtier water.

As the standoff between the Main Street Movement and Gov. Scott Walker (R-WI) continues for the twelfth day, much of the media coverage — and anger — from both sides has focused on Walker’s efforts to strip Wisconsin public workers of their right to collective bargaining. But Walker’s assault on public employees is only one part of a larger political program that aims to give corporations free reign in the state while dismantling the healthcare programs, environmental regulations and good government laws that protect Wisconsin’s middle and working class.

Below, ThinkProgress examines ten of the most disastrous policies the Wisconsin GOP is pursuing:

1. ELIMINATING MEDICAID: The Budget Repair Bill includes a little-known provision that would put complete control of the state’s Medicaid program, known as BadgerCare, in the hands of the state’s ultra-conservative Health and Human Services Secretary Dennis Smith. Smith would have the authority to “to overridestate Medicaid laws as [he] sees fit and institute sweeping changes” includingreducing benefits and limiting eligibility. Ironically, during the 1990s it wasRepublicans, especially former Gov. and Bush HHS Secretary Tommy Thompson, who helped develop BadgerCare into one of the country’s most innovative and generous Medicaid programs. A decade later, a new generation of radical Republicans is hoping to destroy one of Wisconsin’s “success stories.”

2. POWER PLANT PRIVATIZATION AND ENVIRONMENTAL NEGLECT: The same budget bill calls for a rapid no-bid “firesale” of all state-owned power plants. One progressive blogger called the proposal “a highlight reel of all of the tomahawk dunks of neo-Gilded Age corporatism: privatization, no-bid contracts, deregulation, and naked cronyism” and suggested that the provision will open the way for large, politically connected corporations, like Koch Industries, to buy up the state’s power plants on the cheap. While it’s unclear whether corporations would be interested in buying the plants, a similar proposal was vetoed six years a go by Gov. Jim Doyle (D), who called the plan fiscally and environmentally irresponsible. Many of Wisconsin’s power plants are in violation of federal clean air regulations and desperately need to be upgraded and cleaned up — not dumped into the private sector.

3. DANGEROUS DRINKING WATER: Republican lawmakers have introduced bills in both the Senate and the House which would repeal a rule requiring municipal governments to disinfect their water. Conservatives have said that the clean water rule — which went into effect in December — is simply too expensive. Yet the rule only affects 12 percent of municipalities and the price may be worth it. In 1993, 104 people died and 400,000 fell sick when the Milwaukee water supply became infected. Even two decades later, the Environmental Protection Agency Advisory Board notes that 13 percent of acute gastro-intestinal illnesses in municipalities that don’t disinfect their water supplies are the result of dirty water. Municipalities can keep their water clean for as low as $10,000 per well — but apparently for the Wisconsin GOP that is too high a price to pay to keep citizens safe from deadly microorganisms.

4. DESTROYING WETLANDS: In January, Walker’s proposed regulatory reform bill exempted a parcel of wetland owned by a Republican donor from water quality standards. But the exemption was more than just an embarrassing giveaway to a GOP ally: environmental groups believe the bill’s special provision would actually affect the entire county, eliminating public hearings on proposed wetland development, short-circuiting approval of development projects, and disrupting the region’s water system.

5. FISCAL IRRESPONSIBILITY: Walker signed a bill this week requiring a 2/3 supermajority in the legislature to pass any tax increase. Republican lawmakers are now reportedly considering a constitutional amendment that would make the rule permanent. A similar constitutional amendment in California has been called the “source of misery” of that state’s crippling budget crisis and has forced lawmakersto “gut public education, slash social services and health care programs, close prisons, and lay off record numbers of public employees.” While claiming to “make a commitment to the future instead of [choosing] dire consequences for our children” Walker and GOP lawmakers are instead putting generations of Wisconsinites in a “fiscal strait-jacket.” (more…)

Tags: Civil Liberty, Civil Rights, Environment by ecthompson md
1 Comment »

• The Economic Policy Institute has completed their evaluation of President Obama’s new budget. As with all budgets, there are good things and bad things. Cuts to programs like the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program are indefensible in my book. At all costs, no matter what our financial situation, we need to help and protect the poor. I really have a problem understanding how we can afford tax cuts for the rich, which do not create jobs, and we can’t afford to help the poor get through the winter. Read more of their analysis here and here.
• Representative Paul Broun of Georgia (Republican) held a town hall event this week in which one of his constituents asked “who is going to shoot President Obama?” The congressman ignored the question and moved on but is that enough? Later, the congressman’s office got in touch with the “appropriate authorities.” I’m still not sure that that’s enough. That man needed to be denounced right there, right then. Suppose it was 2003 and President Bush was in office. The amount of scorn that would’ve been heaped on this man for suggesting that President Bush should be assassinated would have been overwhelming. Security would’ve had to escort the man out of the room because the crowd would have tried to physically harm him. I’m sorry, but the congressman’s response was weak, tepid and unpatriotic. This is the president of the United States. Whether the congressman agrees with him or not, threats against our president’s life should not be tolerated!

• Governor Scott Walker is been in the news for the past 10 days. He is by far the most prominent Republican at this point in time. He stood strong against the unions. He’s been publicly humiliated by giving an interview to someone he thought was David Koch. Last night, the Wisconsin State assembly passed Scott Walker’s draconian budget bill in a surprise vote but the Senate does not have a quorum so it’s unclear what this means.
• Is Scott Walker is standing against jobs? It appears that he is. He shutting down several clean energy initiatives which would add hundreds, if not thousands, of jobs in the state of Wisconsin.
• Are the state union workers overpaid as Fox news and Scott Walker said they were? Sure doesn’t appear to be that way.
• The state of the health care reform law seems to have confused Americans. Yet another federal judge has declared it constitutional. With the daily back-and-forth, Americans have become confused. A new poll suggests a fifth of Americans believe that the healthcare law has been repealed. It hasn’t. HCR is still alive…at least for now.

Click to Enlarge

• The NFL owners in the NFL Players Association continue to head down the wrong road. For the most part, I hate when millionaires are arguing with millionaires. As far as I’m concerned, this is not about the high-paid football players. Instead, it’s about those guys who play football for a couple of years and are then discarded like a used handkerchief. They are 24 years old. Yes, they’ve made over half a million bucks over the last several years, but now they’re flat broke. In my mind, the negotiations are about these guys. The game of football will be hurt if there is a work stoppage.
• China has dropped the death penalty for some economic crimes.
• Unrest in the Middle East continues. No one’s quite sure who’s in charge of Libya. Oil prices are rising because of the uncertainty of Libya’s oil. My good friend, Brian Katulis, from the Center for American Progress, has written an excellent summary of what’s going on in the Middle East. President Obama and his administration have to perform a balancing act. We need to support the protesters, the people, and stay vigilant against possible terrorist threats. This is an outstanding article.

Tags: Budget, Civil Liberty, Economy, Foreign Affairs, Mess O'Potamia (Iraq/Iran/Israel/Palestine), Obama administration by ecthompson md
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Linda Monk is a constitutional scholar and friend. She just posted this powerful piece on HuffPo:

In rallies much like those currently being held in Wisconsin, and across the nation in state capitals this Saturday, workers during America’s first Gilded Age fought back against the forces of corporate greed that ground them to the bone.

In those days, the Supreme Court believed that the First Amendment to the Constitution, which protects freedom of speech, only applied to the federal government, not the states and the local governments. So any governor, or mayor, or town boss was free to put you in jail or kick you out of town for saying something they didn’t like — union organizing usually being at the top of the list. But union supporters didn’t take that lying down — they flooded towns with speakers who violated local laws that limited free speech.

One of those early union leaders in the fight for free speech was Elizabeth Gurley Flynn, the “Rebel Girl” of martyr Joe Hill’s famous song. Flynn worked for the Wobblies, the Industrial Workers of the World, who organized miners and migrant workers in the western states in the early 1900s. These workers had little political clout because they moved from job to job and weren’t registered to vote. Presaging the civil rights movement, their principal recourse was a mass protest.

Flynn helped lead one of those “free speech fights” in Missoula, Montana, in 1908. Here’s how she described it:

We sent out a call to all ‘footloose rebels to come at once — to defend the Bill of Rights.’ A steady stream of I.W.W. members began to flock in by freight cars… As soon as one speaker was arrested, another took his place. The jail was soon filled.

These mass protests in favor of free speech definitely had an effect. In 1925, the Supreme Court finally ruled that the First Amendment did apply to state and local governments, nationalizing the protection of free speech. Without the concerted action of union supporters, that victory would not have been possible.

Unions have contributed remarkable things to the American way of life: the growth of the middle class; expansion of health care and social security; paid vacations and paid sick leave; a work week that leaves time for families to enjoy each other. None of these things were possible in Elizabeth Gurley Flynn’s day. As she said in 1962: “We never heard of vacations, let alone vacations with pay.”

Make no mistake: What is at risk in Wisconsin, and every state in America, is the quality of life that American workers have fought — and died — for during the past century. When plutocrats like the Koch brothers tell the governor of an American state to roll back the clock on public employees, they are seeking to end protections for all workers. The Kochs are part of an ideological movement that hopes to end all legislation controlling wages, hours, and workplace safety — returning America to a “Social Darwinism” that ensures survival of the fittest (read: richest). This is the constitutional theory that prevailed before the New Deal. To these extremists, Ayn Rand is on par with James Madison.

We must never forget that the most important achievement of the union movement was the protection of the right that makes all other rights possible — freedom of speech. The First Amendment comes with a union label.

Tags: Civil Liberty, Legal, Party Politics by ecthompson md
23 Comments »

Very sad that the Egyptian government appears to be behind the violence.

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

More from Informed Comment:

On Wednesday, the Mubarak regime showed its fangs, mounting a massive and violent repressive attack on the peaceful crowds in Tahrir Square in downtown Cairo. People worrying about Egypt becoming like Iran (scroll down) should worry about Egypt already being way too much like Iran as it is. That is, Hillary Clinton and others expressed anxiety in public about increasing militarization of the Iranian regime and use of military and paramilitaries to repress popular protests. But Egypt is far more militarized and now is using exactly the same tactics.

The outlines of Hosni Mubarak’s efforts to maintain regime stability and continuity have now become clear. In response to the mass demonstrations of the past week, he has done the following:

1. Late last week, he first tried to use the uniformed police and secret police to repress the crowds, killing perhaps 200-300 and wounding hundreds.

2. This effort failed to quell the protests, and the police were then withdrawn altogether, leaving the country defenseless before gangs of burglars and other criminal elements (some of which may have been composed of secret police or paid informers). The public dealt with this threat of lawlessness by organizing self-defense neighborhood patrols, and continued to refuse to stop demonstrating.

3. Mubarak appointed military intelligence ogre Omar Suleiman vice president. Suleiman had orchestrated the destruction of the Muslim radical movement of the 1990s, but he clearly was being groomed now as a possible successor to Mubarak and his crowd-control expertise would now be used not against al-Qaeda affiliates but against Egyptian civil society.

4. Mubarak mobilized the army to keep a semblance of order, but failed to convince the regular army officers to intervene against the protesters, with army chief of staff Sami Anan announcing late Monday that he would not order the troops to use force against the demonstrators.

5. When the protests continued Tuesday, Mubarak came on television and announced that he would not run for yet another term and would step down in September. His refusal to step down immediately and his other maneuvers indicated his determination, and probably that of a significant section of the officer corps, to maintain the military dictatorship in Egypt, but to attempt to placate the public with an offer to switch out one dictator for a new one (Omar Suleiman, likely). (more…)

Tags: Civil Liberty, Foreign Affairs, Mess O'Potamia (Iraq/Iran/Israel/Palestine) by ecthompson md
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What does the so-called Tea Party stand for? What is the Tea Party agenda?

A recent blog post by Tea Party follower David Jennings at his Houston and Texas political blog Big Jolly Politics gives a clear sense of the ideologically extreme Tea Party agenda.

Mr. Jennings regularly attends and offers up observations from meetings of Tea Party cells. His most recent report from the Clear Lake Tea Party here in Houston gives a clear sense of a radical, unworkable, and often un-American Tea Party vision for our nation.

Reporting on a talk given the Clear Lake Tea Party member named Robert Gonzales, who Mr. Jennings describes as the “founder” of this local Tea Party cell, Mr. Jennings offers up a list Tea Party priorities for the days ahead.

Here are some of these Tea Party priorities as reported by Mr. Jennings—

* “Reject Obamacare.”

Repeal of Healthcare Reform will allow insurance companies  to once again toss people off coverage because they get sick, and will allow insurance companies to once again impose lifetime caps on policies. Is that what we want to go back to in our nation? Read about Healthcare Reform for yourself. It does a lot of good. For the extreme right in this nation, the issue is not the good points or the weak points of Healthcare Reform. Instead, it is all about political ideology and scoring political points no matter the merits of the program. You see the same with the reflexive far-right rejection to the idea of global warming.  No facts of any kind matter in the discussion. Ideology and anger are all that counts.

* ” Reinstate Judeo-Christian Values. ….Prayer back in schools and hanging the Ten Commandments in public buildings…”

People can pray anytime they want.  People can live true each and every day to the religious values they hold. Are these values so weak that they must be posted in every building? This would be little different from how an insecure and fearful totalitarian state posts propaganda in every classroom and in every possible location. Where is the confidence in ideas that Christians hold as eternal?  Does Christianity need government support? Can’t people find the truth for themselves rather than forcing one idea of truth on an ever-more diverse nation? What will stop a future government from posting anti-Christian messages in public buildings at some point?

* ” English as the official language….”

It sure would be intrusive of government to tell people how they should speak.  Will the declaration of an official language come with a language police? Will private business places that advertise to Spanish speaking customers or Chinese speaking customers be subject to fines or some type of official sanction?  Will people inform on others who are speaking the wrong language? We could set up a whole new language enforcement bureaucracy. [Read more →]

Tags: Civil Liberty, Civil Rights, Domestic Issues, Other Political Thoughts by Neil Aquino
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We have been told in school that we, the people of  United States of America, are one big, huge, loving melting pot. (I have no idea where this melting pot concept came from, but its effect on the minds of impressionable little kids like me was tremendous.) Outside of a few dust ups, America has been one big love-fest. At least that is how the story went. Here’s a GREAT article from the Smithsonian on how that tale was just that, a tale.

The problem is that this tidy narrative is an American myth. The real story of religion in America’s past is an often awkward, frequently embarrassing and occasionally bloody tale that most civics books and high school texts either paper over or shunt to the side. And much of the recent conversation about America’s ideal of religious freedom has paid lip service to this comforting tableau.

From the earliest arrival of Europeans on America’s shores, religion has often been a cudgel, used to discriminate, suppress and even kill the foreign, the “heretic” and the “unbeliever”—including the “heathen” natives already here. Moreover, while it is true that the vast majority of early-generation Americans were Christian, the pitched battles between various Protestant sects and, more explosively, between Protestants and Catholics, present an unavoidable contradiction to the widely held notion that America is a “Christian nation.”

First, a little overlooked history: the initial encounter between Europeans in the future United States came with the establishment of a Huguenot (French Protestant) colony in 1564 at Fort Caroline (near modern Jacksonville, Florida). More than half a century before the Mayflower set sail, French pilgrims had come to America in search of religious freedom.

The Spanish had other ideas. In 1565, they established a forward operating base at St. Augustine and proceeded to wipe out the Fort Caroline colony. The Spanish commander, Pedro Menéndez de Avilés, wrote to the Spanish King Philip II that he had “hanged all those we had found in [Fort Caroline] because…they were scattering the odious Lutheran doctrine in these Provinces.” When hundreds of survivors of a shipwrecked French fleet washed up on the beaches of Florida, they were put to the sword, beside a river the Spanish called Matanzas (“slaughters”). In other words, the first encounter between European Christians in America ended in a blood bath. (more…)

Tags: Civil Liberty, Religion by ecthompson md
12 Comments »

I continue to be amazed at the fervor that is being generated by a mosque that is being planned two blocks from Ground Zero. I have a few questions for those that are outraged.

1. How far away from Ground Zero is okay? Five blocks? 10 blocks? 15 blocks? 100 blocks?
2. Since when have conservatives become so upset over a private company building on their own land?
3. I thought we were at war with Al Qaeda and not Islam?

Slate has more:

3.  The project is a statement of Islamic conquest. This is Gingrich’s position. “The ground zero mosque is a political statement of radical Islamist triumph,” he tweeted Friday in response to Obama’s speech. Debra Burlingame, the co-founder of 9/11 Families for a Safe and Strong America, issued a similar statement: “Building a 15-story mosque at Ground Zero is a deliberately provocative act.”

These are flat-out lies. The project isn’t a “15-story mosque.” It’s a community center with a library, gym, auditorium, and restaurant. Yes, it will include a mosque. It will also host events to facilitate “multifaith dialogue.” It isn’t at Ground Zero—it’s two blocks away, in what used to be a Burlington Coat Factory.

Deliberately provocative? Radical triumph? Hogwash. Go watch Faisal Abdul Rauf, the imam behind the project, as he outlines the project to a local community board: “It will establish this community as the place where the moderate Muslim voice condemns terrorism and works for new, peaceful, and harmonious relationships with all New Yorkers.” Or listen to Daisy Khan, the imam’s wife and executive director, as she explainsto radio host Brian Lehrer why they’re planning to build the project near Ground Zero:

Imam Faisal has been leading a congregation for the last 27 years in Tribeca, really only 10 blocks from Ground Zero. … We, the members of the Muslim community, want to be part of the rebuilding process. And we feel a special obligation. And it’s also our way of giving back to this great city that has given us so much. So we’re coming at it from the point of view of wanting to contribute to our society and to take that tragedy of 9/11 and turn it into something very peaceful and hopeful for all of us.

4. Any mosque near Ground Zero is offensive. Responding yesterday to Obama’s speech, Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, said, “[I]t’s unwise … to build a mosque at the site where 3,000 Americans lost their lives as a result of a terrorist attack.”

I’m sorry, Senator: Did you say it’s unwise to build a mosque near the site of a terroristattack?

Others have put the equation more subtly. Rep. Peter King, R-N.Y., says, “It is insensitive and uncaring for the Muslim community to build a mosque in the shadow of ground zero.” Marco Rubio, the Republican candidate for U.S. Senate in Florida, says, “It is divisive and disrespectful to build a mosque next to the site where 3,000 innocent people were murdered at the hands of Islamic extremism.” All these objections rest on the premise that the 9/11 hijackers, by committing mass murder in the name of Islam, made Islam a religion of mass murder. To accept this equation is to give them the power to define the religion of 1 billion people. That—not the rise of pro-American Islamic pluralism—is the conquest the masterminds of 9/11 sought. Don’t let them have it.

5. Ground Zero is sacred. Palin, rebutting Obama, asks why the project’s sponsors are “so set on building a mosque steps from what you have described, in agreement with me, as ‘hallowed ground.’ ” Her question assumes that the presence of a mosque would defile the sanctity of the site. In other words, unlike Obama, she believes in the kind of sanctity that excludes Islam. That’s exactly the kind of sectarian thinking al-Qaida wants to attribute to the United States and cultivate among Muslims.

Tags: Al Qaeda, Civil Liberty, Religion by ecthompson md
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I’m not sure why we continue to pick a group of people, a group of Americans, to single out. Whether it be Blacks, Hispanics, Irish Catholics or Muslims, we Americans have pointed to each of these groups at one time or another and said they aren’t American.

From TP:

Tonight [Ed note - last night], President Obama hosted an iftaar dinner at the White House — a feast marking the culmination of a day of fasting for practicing Muslims during the current Islamic calendar month of Ramadan. At remarks delivered at the dinner, Obama spoke out on the controversy surrounding the construction of a new Islamic center near the Ground Zero site, firmly siding in favor of the project:

OBAMA: Let me be clear: as a citizen, and as President, I believe that Muslims have the same right to practice their religion as anyone else in this country. That includes the right to build a place of worship and a community center on private property in lower Manhattan, in accordance with local laws and ordinances. This is America, and our commitment to religious freedom must be unshakeable. The principle that people of all faiths are welcome in this country, and will not be treated differently by their government, is essential to who we are. The writ of our Founders must endure.

Just to show that tolerance has no place in America Representative Peter King added:

“President Obama is wrong,” King said. “It is insensitive and uncaring for the Muslim community to build a mosque in the shadow of ground zero. While the Muslim community has the right to build the mosque they are abusing that right by needlessly offending so many people who have suffered so much.”

Even some on the Right acknowledge that the Muslim community has the right to build anywhere that they want:

Obama’s defense of the mosque has found some support on the right. Former Bush speechwriter Michael Gerson said Obama’s comments were “ultimately the right thing to do,” adding, “Obama is correct that the way to marginalize radicalism is to respect the best traditions of Islam and protect the religious liberty of Muslim Americans.”

Even on Fox News this morning, the Fox & Friends weekend hosts all agreed that Obama is performing the job that’s required of him. “Obama has to stand up for religious freedom,” said co-host Alisyn Camerota. “He has to stand up for our Constitution,” co-host Dave Briggs offered, to which co-host Clayton Morris added, “That’s the job he gets…defend the Constitution.” Watch the Video:

Tags: Civil Liberty, Obama administration, Religion by ecthompson md
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We seem to be on the wrong side of this.

From Jurist:

The US Supreme Court [official website; JURIST news archive] on Mondaydenied certiorari [order list, PDF] in Arar v. Ashcroft [docket; cert. petition, PDF], a case concerning the US government’s extraordinary rendition [JURIST news archive] policy. Canadian citizen Maher Arar [advocacy website; JURIST news archive] asked the court in February to overturn a lower court ruling [JURIST report] that he cannot sue the US government for damages based on his detention in the US and his detention, interrogation and torture in Syria after he was mistakenly identified as a terrorist. Arar was attempting to challenge the government’s extraordinary rendition policy under the Torture Victim Protection Act and theFifth Amendment [texts] of the US Constitution. The court declined to hear Arar’s appeal without comment. Justice Sonia Sotomayor, who sat on the US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit [official website] when the case was decided en banc, took no part in the decision. Lawyers from the Center for Constitutional Rights [advocacy website] who represented Arar expressed disappointment [press release] with the court’s decision.

Arar was appealing a November 2009 ruling [JURIST report] by the Second Circuit, which held he could not sue the US government for damages. The appeals court, sitting en banc, dismissed Arar’s suit, finding that a civil remedy for harms endured as a result of extraordinary rendition must be created by Congress alone. The 7-4 decision affirmed a 2006 ruling [JURIST report] by the US District Court for the Eastern District of New York [official website], which dismissed Arar’s claims. The Second Circuit agreed to rehear Arar’s case en banc after a three-judge panel initially dismissed his appeal [JURIST reports] in July 2008. Arar, a Syrian-born engineer, immigrated to Canada with his family at the age of 17 and became a citizen in 1991. He was detained by US authorities in September 2002 after flying to New York from Tunisia on his way home to Canada. The US government deported him to Syria in 2002, where he was tortured despite Syrian assurances that he would not be. Canadian authorities have since cleared him of all suspicion, officially apologized and paid him damages. US lawmakers apologized [JURIST report] in 2007 for his arrest, deportation and torture at the hands of Syrian officials.

Tags: Civil Liberty, Obama administration, Supreme court by ecthompson md
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From time to time, my conservative friends and followers have accused me of being blind. They have asserted that my admiration for Barack Obama has no bounds; therefore, I have completely lost my objectivity. No, I don’t think I’m blind, but I have cut this president a significant amount of slack. I am hoping that the president begins to craft policies on civil liberties that parallel progressive ideals and his rhetoric. For the last couple of months, I feel as though I’ve been watching an episode of The West Wing, an episode where President Bartlet is not really making decisions but is instead just sticking his toe in the water to see how it will play politically.

I watched the President’s speech last night with great anticipation. I was almost salivating. I was hoping the president would boldly do something, anything. Now, I’m not one of those who has been criticizing the president for not fixing the disaster in the Gulf of Mexico. I know that he is not an engineer and does not have a degree in oceanography or hydrodynamics. He is the president of the United States, however, and he should have and could have introduced some programs, to be reimbursed by BP, for the Gulf Coast residents. He could have and should have asked Congress to introduce legislation to restore the Superfund. This fund would be used to clean up toxic spills like this. The fund would be paid for by taxes and fines on industry. He did none of this. Basically he said nothing new. I found it extremely disappointing.

Let me get back to civil liberties — out of all the issues I had with the Bush administration, this was the worst. The Bush administration claimed that the president had the power to detain somebody indefinitely, without trial. The Bush administration claimed that to protect the United States they should be able to snatch somebody and take them somewhere without any judicial oversight — renditions. All of this has been endorsed by the Obama administration. As a matter fact, in court, the Obama administration has been arguing to keep all of the Bush administration’s transgressions in place. I was hoping that Barack Obama would slowly and steadily phase out these transgressions. Not only has he not phased them out, he has aggressively embrace them. Mister President, as one of your biggest supporters, I ask you to stop this.

Glenn Greenwald has a lot more:

When ACLU Executive Director Anthony Romero last week addressed the progressive conference America’s Future Now,he began by saying:  ”I’m going to start provocatively . . . I’m disgusted with this president.”  Last night, after Obama’s Oval Office speech, Jon Stewart began his show with an 8-minute monologue on Obama’s executive power and civil liberties record which, in essence, provided just some of the reasons why Romero’s strong condemnation is so justified.  None of this will be remotely new to any readers here, but it’s still nice to see its being distilled so clearly by a voice which even the most hardened Obama loyalists have decided is a credible and trustworthy one (at least when he’s mocking Sarah Palin and exposing Fox News; we’ll see what reaction this provokes from them, if any).  One point:  contrary to the blatant strawman incessantly raised by those loyalists, note that the criticisms here are not grounded in complaints that Obama has failed to act quickly enough to usher in progressive policies — let’s repeat that:  the vast bulk of criticisms of Obama are not grounded in complaints that he has failed to act quickly enough to usher in progressive policies — but are insteadbased on horrendous policies which Obama himself has affirmatively and explicitly adopted as his own, many of which directly contradict what he vowed to do as President (speaking of which:  see this NYT Editorial today lambasting what it describes as the Obama administration’s disgraceful and inexcusable conduct in the Maher Arar case):

Tags: Civil Liberty, Environment, Legal, Obama administration, Supreme court by ecthompson md
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I had no idea that most modern copy machines have a digital hard drive. So, everything is stored. In a way that’s great. In another way, that is very bad. What is the protocol at these Quik-Copy places? What about a check stub that you copied at work? All of your information is on that stub – address, social security number, etc. Not good.

Watch CBS News Videos Online

Tags: Civil Liberty, Domestic Issues by ecthompson md
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For years, the Right has been very clever at coming up with novel ways to argue their point of view  Here’s another. Mark Karlin from Buzzflash has the story. Scotus also has the lowdown.

Antonin Scalia is guilty of initiating the theft of the 2000 election from Al Gore through a stay he issued forcing the stop of the State Court ordered recount in Florida, and his subsequent coordination a 5-4 majority to annoint George W. Bush as President.

But as of just yesterday, August 17th, he also added state sanctioned murder to his list of crimes.

Scalia was one of just two written dissenters (along with his puppet, Clarence Thomas), who ferociously challenged the notion that the Supreme Court should ensure that an innocent man not be put to death.  That’s right, Scalia — in common sense terms and not the legal mumble jumble that he dazzles the likes of Harry Reid with (BuzzFlash once wrote an editorial about how Harry Reid thought Scalia so brilliant he might consider voting for him for Chief Justice at the time — such is the sad mindset of our Democratic Majority Leader) — asserts that there is nothing in the Constitution that prevents an innocent person from being executed.

No, we are not making this up. Scalia — although he uses arcane justifications of state vs. federal jurisdiction and that tidy trials shouldn’t be challenged — argues that the governmental legal system is not prohibited by the federal Constitution from killing the wrong person, in the name of — excuse me while I throw up a little in my mouth — “justice.” [Read more →]

Tags: Civil Liberty, Supreme court by ecthompson md
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The Errington Thompson Show. My guest is Mark Karlin. We discuss the latest news: the good, the bad… and the ugly!

Life, specifically my job, has been beating me up as of late. After having been up for more than 36 hours, I foolishly thought I could take a two-hour “nap.” That didn’t work out so well for me. I was seriously late for the show. Thanks to Aaron for calling me. I’m eternally grateful to Mark Karlin of Buzzflash.com for being patient enough to wait for me to show up at the studio. Mark — thank you.

We start by talking about Mark Sanford. The embattled governor of South Carolina is part of this shadowy religious organization called The Family. Their headquarters is located in Washington DC in a building called “C Street.” Now this probably wouldn’t be a big deal, except it turns out that several congressmen live in this building while they are in Washington. First of all, I don’t understand a bunch of grown men living like they’re college students again. I’m sorry, I just don’t understand that. Secondly, Senator John Ensign happens to be an active member of this group. So when you put all this extra information together you get — grown men living like college kids, infidelity and a bizarre secretive religious organization. The whole thing just doesn’t seem to add up. Mark Karlin adds a lot of excellent information to this bizarre incident. The Family believes that these leaders were preordained by God to lead Americans.

We discussed the fact that Barack Obama went to Ghana as his first African country to visit. Clearly, Barack Obama made a good choice.

We then segue into talking about the Central Honesty Agency. I think anybody who was thinking at the time that Nancy Pelosi stated that the CIA lied to her and other members of Congress would have thought that this was a no-brainer. As usual, the Republicans jumped on this using their familiar playbook. They pulled out the play named Patriotism and tried to label Nancy Pelosi as unpatriotic and un-American. As this week has unfolded, though, it turns out that the CIA probably did lie to Congress and withheld vital information on domestic spying. The new inspector general’s report clearly states that Congress was not informed about some domestic spying. It appears that Vice President Dick Cheney led the effort to keep Congress in the dark.

I still have to wonder where Congress is. Where are the hard-hitting investigations?

We also learned recently that the force behind Alberto Gonzales and Andrew Card going to the bedside of John Ashcroft, who had recently undergone surgery, was not Dick Cheney but instead was George W. Bush. I was kind of surprised by this information. Mark Karlin points out that he and others said Buzzflash.com were following the story carefully several years ago. They reported that the available information at the time suggested it was in fact Bush who ordered these two pawns to Aschcroft’s bedside.

Finally, we end with that story about the Washington Post. The Washington Post seem to be selling access to their writers and op-ed columnists. Mark Karlin mentions that this is why Buzzflash takes donations and donations only. You can donate to Buzzflash here.

This is a fun interview. I hope you enjoy it.

The Errington Thompson Show 07-11-09 [ 21:31 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Tags: Bush Administration, Civil Liberty, Domestic Spying, Podcasts, Religion by ecthompson md
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I have written about Don Siegelman and his plight on several occasions – here and here. It may be the worst miscarriage of justice that I’ve seen of a prominent official — ever. This update comes from the Daily Kos:

ISSUE I. THE GOVERNMENT’S FAILURE TO PRODUCE EXCULPATORY AND IMPEACHING INFORMATION IN ITS POSSESSION AS TO KEY WITNESSES AND CORRECT FALSE OR MISLEADING TESTIMONY DURING TRIAL VIOLATED SIEGELMAN’S RIGHTS UNDER THE DUE PROCESS CLAUSE OF THE FIFTH AMENDMENT AND THE GOVERNMENT FAILED  TO COMPLY WITH ITS OBLIGATIONS UNDER THE JENCKS ACT.

The detailed allegations here are worse than the heading sounds.  Siegelman accuses the government of shaping the testimony of a key witness.

Issue II:  BECAUSE OF PROSECUTORIAL MISCONDUCT IN THIS CASE, INCLUDING IMPROPER CONTACTS WITH JURORS, IMPROPER EX PARTE COMMUNICATION WITH THE COURT, AND IMPROPER CONDUCT IN PREPARING GOVERNMENT WITNESSES TO TESTIFY AT TRIAL AND FAILURE TO PROVIDE BRADY MATERIAL, SIEGELMAN WAS DEPRIVED OF HIS FIFTH AMENDMENT RIGHT TO A FAIR TRIAL AND HIS SIXTH AMENDMENT RIGHT TO AN IMPARTIAL JURY.

Jury tampering as well as witness tampering.  The House Judiciary Committee and a group of 75 former state attorneys general have both already complained about this to the U.S. Justice Department.

Issue III. FAILURE TO DISCLOSE EX PARTE COMMUNICATIONS AND THE EXISTENCE OF A SECRET INVESTIGATIVE REPORT ON THE AUTHENTICITY OF JUROR EMAILS, A CRITICAL MATERIAL FACT IN A MOTION THEN PENDING BEFORE THE COURT, VIOLATED SIEGELMAN’S SIXTH AMENDMENT RIGHT TO COUNSEL AND HIS FIFTH AMENDMENT RIGHT TO DUE PROCESS. [Read more →]

Tags: Civil Liberty, Legal by ecthompson md
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I just saw the movie Angels and Demons. It was much better than The Da Vinci Code. Tom Hanks has lost 35 or 40 pounds and he looks good. The movie lacks those dull, slow parts that so dominated the first one. It’s very entertaining and, in my opinion, more respectful of religion.  It is well worth the admission price.

North Korea proved that they are less respectful of the rest of the international community by setting off some sort of nuclear device earlier today. It will take several days to analyze the data, but it seems clear that North Korea set off some sort of large device. Now what? Should there be consequences for defying the international community? Who should enforce those consequences? The United States? Should the United States try to enforce something unilaterally? That sounds a lot like what the Bush administration did with Iraq. The international community will not go for the US going its own way, again. Should the United States, Russia, China and the European Union try to do something jointly? It is important to remember that no matter what we do, North Korea has the ability to retaliate, not against us, but against the South Korean civilians. It will be interesting to see if President Obama will be able to forge a coalition that will actually force North Korea into some sort of international compliance.

Former Secretary of State Colin Powell went on the offensive yesterday to combat charges that several Republicans, including Dick Cheney, have thrown at him (remember, Powell left the Republican party). He argued that he is still Republican. To paraphrase his argument, the Republican Party needs to, dare I say it, change. Now there are a lot of Americans who still believe that Colin Powell can save the Republican Party. I don’t know. Maybe he can. I know it’s a long way to the 2012 elections, but I don’t see Colin Powell as a viable candidate. I believe that his reputation is too tainted with the stain of Iraq. I just don’t see how the Republican Party can move forward without dealing with some of their more radical elements. This would include Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, Bill O’Reilly and Dick Cheney.

Many progressives are upset that Barack Obama has decided to push ahead with military commissions. Personally, I think that military commissions set a terrible precedent. Putting precedent aside, though, I understand that President Obama is in a terrible situation. People like Khalid Shaikh Mohammed and the so-called “20th hijacker” Al-Qahtani are clearly terrorists. If given the opportunity, they would try to wreak havoc either on the United States or United States interests around the world. They need to be tried and jailed for the rest of their lives. Unfortunately, both of them were subjected to harsh interrogations (torture). There’s no court in the United States that would try these guys. Most, if not all, of the evidence would be thrown out. So what do you do with them? Indefinite detention without charges seems repugnant to me. If we could find a way to try Terry McVeigh and the so-called Blind Sheik, then we should be able to find a way to try and convict these two terrorists. We have to have some evidence that was not obtained by illegal means. We must. (I hope.)

Finally, Ryan Leaf has been arrested. I’m not laughing at the misfortune of others, but… just a little over 10 years ago, Ryan Leaf was the number two draft choice for the San Diego Chargers. He went from the anointed one to a bum in less time than Sarah Palin has. The former NFL quarterback has been indicted on drug and burglary charges. This says something about our society and about Ryan Leaf. Maybe putting athletes up on a pedestal is not the best idea.

Oh, this is a great Memorial Day story.

Tags: Civil Liberty, Domestic Issues, Movies, North Korea, Obama administration, Party Politics, Torture by ecthompson md
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To expand on an item that I mentioned last night: These new memos are truly remarkable. In the post-9/11 confusion, John Yoo, deputy assistant attorney general for the Office of Special Counsel, and Robert Delahunty, a special counsel, wrote extraordinary memos. Basically, as they saw it, the president had the power to do anything and ignore everyone. They saw a “legal” way to do anything. There is much, much more to this story. Keith talked about it last night. Watch:

From NYT:

“The law has recognized that force (including deadly force) may be legitimately used in self-defense,” Mr. Yoo and Mr. Delahunty wrote to Mr. Gonzales. Therefore any objections based on the Fourth Amendment’s ban on unreasonable searches are swept away, they said, since any possible privacy offense resulting from such a search is a lesser matter than any injury from deadly force.

The Oct. 23 memorandum also said that “First Amendment speech and press rights may also be subordinated to the overriding need to wage war successfully.” It added that “the current campaign against terrorism may require even broader exercises of federal power domestically.”

Mr. Yoo and Mr. Delahunty said that in addition, the Posse Comitatus Act, which generally bars the military from domestic law enforcement operations, would pose no obstacle to the use of troops in a domestic fight against terrorism suspects. They reasoned that the troops would be acting in a national security function, not as law enforcers.

In another of the opinions, Mr. Yoo argued in a memorandum dated Sept. 25, 2001, that judicial precedents approving deadly force in self-defense could be extended to allow for eavesdropping without warrants. (more… )

Tags: Bush Administration, Civil Liberty, Countdown, Domestic Spying, Legal by ecthompson md
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I have had Glenn Greenwald on my show many times in the past couple of years. We have discussed Glenn’s three books and his views on domestic spying and unlimited detention. He does a very good job of summarizing President Bush’s legacy. This video is very good.

Bill Moyers Journal - Glenn Greenwald - part 1 [ 0:01 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

BMJ - Greenwald - part 2 Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Tags: Bill Moyers, Civil Liberty, Domestic Spying by ecthompson md
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