Liberal Politics - Positive Action (original) (raw)

Source: ACLU.org

WASHINGTON – The American Civil Liberties Union released a comprehensive report today examining widespread abuses that have occurred under the USA Patriot Act, a law that was rushed through Congress just 45 days after September 11. In the almost eight years since the passage of the controversial national security law, the Patriot Act has led to egregious government misconduct.

“From the gagging of our nation’s librarians under the national security letter statute to the gutting of time-honored surveillance laws, the Patriot Act has been disastrous for Americans’ rights,” said Caroline Fredrickson, Director of the ACLU Washington Legislative Office. “In the panic following the events of 9/11, our nation’s lawmakers hastily expanded the government’s authority to a dangerous level and opened a Pandora’s box of surveillance.”

The American Civil Liberties Union’s report, “Reclaiming Patriotism,” authored by policy counsel Michael German and legislative counsel Michelle Richardson, was delivered to congressional offices on Capitol Hill, as well as posted to the newly re-launched site www.reformthepatriotact.org. The report is being released in anticipation of the upcoming congressional debate surrounding three Patriot Act provisions due to expire on December 31, 2009. The ACLU has been working within the halls of Congress and the courts to introduce Patriot Act reform legislation. In December of 2008, as a result of an ACLU lawsuit, the gag order contained in the Patriot Act’s National Security Letter (NSL) provision was struck down.
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23 February 2009 @ 10:47 am

Wikileaks has released nearly a billion dollars worth of quasi-secret reports commissioned by the United States Congress.

The 6,780 reports, current as of this month, comprise over 127,000 pages of material on some of the most contentious issues in the nation, from the U.S. relationship with Israel to the financial collapse. Nearly 2,300 of the reports were updated in the last 12 months, while the oldest report goes back to 1990. The release represents the total output of the Congressional Research Service (CRS) electronically available to Congressional offices. The CRS is Congress's analytical agency and has a budget in excess of $100M per year.

CRS reports are highly regarded as non-partisan, in-depth, and timely. The reports top the list of the "10 Most-Wanted Government Documents" compiled by the Washington based Center for Democracy and Technology. The Federation of American Scientists, in pushing for the reports to be made public, stated that the "CRS is Congress' Brain and it's useful for the public to be plugged into it,". While Wired magazine called their concealment "The biggest Congressional scandal of the digital age".

How many of the reports have not been seen before?
Almost all.

Full coverage at Wikileaks.
Screw the explanation give the torrent file now!!
These files are HUGE. The tarball is 1.9 gigs for pete's sake. Uncompressed it adds up to almost 3 gigs of PDF's and text files.

quick heads up.
Libertarians are currently in first and third place on the LJ advisory board elections.
cambler gunslnger
The idea of either of them having any kind of say on what happens on LJ is frightening at best.

Why the hell isn't tcpip or theswede on this list.

13 December 2007 @ 05:31 pm

09 October 2007 @ 09:08 am

I'm a member of Dark Christian, which tracks current events related to Dominionist Christianity's activities. As you may know, Dominionists are militant, fundamentalist Christians who are not just waiting for Armegeddon -- they actively seek to bring it about so they can see their Maker earlier than scheduled. They look forward to it, since they believe they will have front row seats in heaven from which they will watch the rest of us get tortured for all eternity. That's their idea of paradise and a just God. Bear that in mind as you read on.

Though a minority in Christendom, they are responsible for a great many of the political and education woes we currently suffer in the U.S. because they are aggressively active -- in recruitment, in subversion, and in militant action.

I've seen a lot of alarming stories go by over the years. Books banned, libraries picketed, member coerced, ex-members threatened, politicians bullied, students wooed, contributors enticed, and leaders corrupted. But the most alarming story I've seen yet is posted in yesterday's entries. Campus Crusade's steeplejacking of the military

Steeplejacking usually involves sending covert members into one of a mainstream denomination's churches, little by little, until the previous membership is outnumbered and the Dominionists can vote their people into leadership and change it to their brand of Christianity. Old members who are orthodox in their beliefs can convert to new doctrine or leave. Fair to say no matter which they choose, they are not treated well.

In this case, the organization Dominionists are steeplejacking is the U.S. military. And that's why I believe it's the most alarming news about them, ever. Thousands of frothing zealots cause enough harm with hate speech and political machinations. Hundreds of thousands of frothing, Apocalypse-crazed zealots armed with the best our military can provide? No. Just no.

Read the article, please. Read as many as you need to convince you this is no small problem. Then write your Congresspeople and express your thoughts on the matter. Thank you.

31 August 2007 @ 04:42 pm

American domestic politics and foreign policies have gotten so fucked these days. It's become nearly impossible to tell the serious from the satirical. (the mere existence of the libertarian party is evidence enough for that..)
But with that in mind have a little read of this article and tell me what you think.

source
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If you do nothing else today, please take the time to watch this extraordinary conversation!

- from Bill Moyers Journal on PBS ...

July 13, 2007 - A public opinion poll from the American Research Group recently reported that more than four in ten Americans — 45% — favor impeachment hearings for President Bush and more than half — 54% — favored impeachment for Vice President Cheney.

Unhappiness about the war in Iraq isn't the only cause of the unsettled feelings of the electorate. Recent events like President Bush's pardoning of Scooter Libby, the refusal of Vice President Cheney's office to surrender emails under subpoena to Congress and the President's prohibition of testimony of former White House counsel Harriet E. Miers in front of the House Judiciary Committee have caused unease over claims of "executive privilege." In addition, many of the White House anti-terror initiatives and procedures — from the status of "enemy combatants" in Guantanamo to warrantless wiretapping — have come under legal scrutiny in Congress and the courts.

Bill Moyers gets perspective on the role of impeachment in American political life from Constitutional scholar Bruce Fein, who wrote the first article of impeachment against President Bill Clinton, and THE NATION's John Nichols, author of THE GENIUS OF IMPEACHMENT.

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( Watch Using Windows Media Collapse )

Now Jerome Corsi is a total fuckwhit. He's one of the co-authors the attack book on John Kerry, Unfit for Command. He's going to run as the presidential candidate for the Libertarian party next time around. So this may very well be part of a name making campaign for himself. That aside, everything this guy is saying has checked out...

This is what it looks like folks. This is what Dictatorship looks like. Welcome to Germany 1932.
The whole of the US population is now just one simple decision by Bush away from living under a complete and utter dictatorship.

And people wonder why I was only to happy to move to Finland.

With a keyboard on loan from God, I am the Independent Blogger of the Office of the Independent Blogger. Allow me to introduce you to my site if you haven't heard of it before. I do hope you visit and stay -- add it to a Feed, bookmark it.

My latest post is a satire of Mitt Romney, who is more Elmer Fudd than John Wayne, more Michael Dukakis than George H.W. Bush. It's a look at his -- and his state's -- Looney Toon Politics.

Earlier today, I wrote about Disney recognizing gay relationships, which is good news, and Florida law forbidding people from feeding homeless people, which makes even a sane man wish himself Libertarian!

A couple of days ago I looked at Newt Gingrich's comments about bilingual education and the whole ugly matter of textbooks being censored or neglecting portions of history.

For those of you interested in Congressional politics, I looked at portions of the Democratic agenda and outline the potential pitfalls and my own opinions on these ideas. A small excerpt, in response to Price's warning of the price Democrats might pay for going too far with certain things: "I’ll buy that. If the Democrats, say, pass a bill legalizing gay marriage and pledge to give money to terrorists, they’d be homosexual Ronald Reagans — and out of work come 2008." And then I took a serious look at their agenda. The Democratic Agenda.

Here I chide Bush's chief policy strategist in 2004 for now saying Bush is wrong. (Of course he's wrong -- my argument is that Dowd is not someone to appreciate in any sense of the term because his whole behavior suggests he's an idiot.)

Here, at OkayStupid, I Got It! we've got a look at Online Politics and the recent announcement that Barack Obama raised more money than Hillary did...on the Internet, and the dishonest, ridiculous manner the whole situation was covered in by the media and on the Internets. (And here we've got a deep apology to Barack Obama's intern...who I told that I was a Republican because I can't possibly donate to his campaign on principal or prudence.) (And here, on a final note on the matter, we've got a better look at the media's coverage of Obama/Clinton and a casual look at billionaires v. government when it comes to newspapers.)

A short post here, pithy, that would be longer in summary than whole!

Small post here, too, about Thompson's Presidential announcement. An excerpt:

I didn’t know that the Department of Health and Human Services was a launchpad for Presidential ambitions, but I suppose it is now with Tommy Thompson’s announcement that he’s running for President. I, for one, am not sure what to make of it. He’s angling himself as a reliable Conservative but that’s what Senator Brownback is in the race for. Perhaps he’ll catch fire if Brownback’s big mouth catches up to him, but otherwise I don’t think he’s got much of a chance to make waves.

Of course, there are hundreds of posts beyond that, and I update daily. I'd like to think I have a good idea what I'm talking about and an excellent sense of humor, but I'll leave that up to you, and I hope you agree to stay at the Office of the Independent Blogger, open daily for business!

25 January 2007 @ 05:53 pm

Truth-Telling in a Time of War: A Call to Civic Courage. Guest Speaker: Daniel Ellsberg
Saturday, January 27th 2007 7:30 PM
First Unitarian Universalist Church of San Diego
4190 Front Street, Hillcrest San Diego CA 92103
Daniel Ellsberg will speak on the need for a "Pentagon Papers" of the Middle East, a new ethic of patriotic whistle blowing, a resolution of the constitutional crisis due to the president's abuses of power, and a new policy to prevent nuclear proliferation and further U.S. aggression.
- Info/RSVP ...
http://www.unitedforpeace.org/calendar.php?calid=19696

- from San Diego CITYBEAT ...
It’s time again to do the right thing A Q&A with Pentagon Papers leaker Daniel Ellsberg
http://sdcitybeat.com/article.php?id=5308