Should an actual "showdown" occur over the constitutionality of Cheney's stonewalling, we would welcome it. Let's know exactly where we stand with respect to the willingness of elected officials to stand up to the criminals-in-chief.
It's well past the time Leahy and company should have been pressing for these sorts of answers. Get on with it.
Two bits of good news today, one from a federal appeals court and one from a US prosecutor at the Nuremberg Trials...
Can't sum it up any better than this ... "You know you're living in a Reichwing dictatorship when the Nuremberg prosecutor is critical of your regime." Lori Price, Citizens for Legitimate Government
Does this even need an 'editor's comment,' really? The "Arkansas Democrat Gazette" published an article quoting the new chairman of the Arkansas Republican Party as stating that it is "time for a rediscovery of our values and our common sense." In an apparent effort to demonstrate the values and common sense that got him unanimously elected, he goes on to suggest, "all we need is some attacks on American soil like we had on [Sept. 11, 2001], and the naysayers will come around" to supporting Bush. So does that mean if I want to be appreciated at work I should just use common sense and, say, blow up the copy machine and blame it on the mail-room guys? And then maybe I could hike our customers' rates to pay my cousin's start-up office machine repair company to fix the damage caused by those dreaded mail-room terrorists. (By the way, this guy also states, "I am a pro-life individual" who is "'150 percent' behind Bush on the war in Iraq." A-hem...)
Project Censored Releases a New study on the History of US Intelligence Community Human Rights Violations and Continuing Research in Electromagnetic Weapons.
CLICK HERE TO READ COMPLETE STUDY (pdf): US Electromagnetic Weapons and Human Rights...
Fascist America, in 10 Easy Steps; 911truth.org
By Naomi Wolf, Chelsea Green Publishing
April 28, 2007
Alternet Editor's note: This is adapted from Wolf's forthcoming book "The End of America: A Letter of Warning to a Young...
It seems every federal failure these days becomes an excuse for expanding federal power. As James Bovard writes in the American Conservative, the Orwellian “Enforcement of the Laws to Restore Public Order Act” grants the President a new power to declare martial law in response to "“natural disaster, epidemic, or other serious public health emergency, terrorist attack or incident, or other condition”—and of course, what other "condition" that might be was not specified.
This new law discards 200 years of civil protections greatly limiting the use of the military on US soil - limitation which were committed to law in the Insurrection Act of 1807. As usual, virtually nothing critical was heard from our somnolent representatives in Congress. Every US Governor opposed the passage of this Act, and yet it passed the House 398-23 and flew through the Senate by a unanimous consent vote.
As Bovard states:
“Martial law” is a euphemism for military dictatorship. When foreign democracies are overthrown and a junta establishes martial law, Americans usually recognize that a fundamental change has occurred. Perhaps some conservatives believe that the only change when martial law is declared is that people are no longer read their Miranda rights when they are locked away. “Martial law” means obey soldiers’ commands or be shot.
Some Senators did speak out before the bill was passed, and two [Patrick Leahy, (D-VT) and Kit Bond (R-MO)] are currently sponsoring a bill to repeal the changes to the original law that have resulted in these new executive powers. They need our support.
