Libertarians say restore freedom, repeal Patriot Act
WASHINGTON - Libertarian Party Chair Mark Hinkle issued the following statement today:
"Yesterday, Republicans and Democrats in Congress joined hands to renew several provisions of the Patriot Act. These provisions are unconstitutional and violate our right to freedom from unreasonable searches and seizures.
"These provisions should be repealed, and if they're not repealed, they ought to be ruled unconstitutional by the courts.
"Anyone who believes that Democrats care more about civil liberties than Republicans ought to be disillusioned by this renewal. It has become painfully clear that the Obama administration is indistinguishable from the George W. Bush administration.
"The plain injustice of these search provisions is compounded by the secrecy that surrounds them. In some cases, Americans -- even members of Congress -- aren't permitted to know the legal interpretations that govern how these searches may be implemented. And of course there is the infamous 'library records' provision, which prohibits targets from telling anyone that they were ordered to turn over records to the government.
"Yesterday, Republicans and Democrats in Congress joined hands to renew several provisions of the Patriot Act. These provisions are unconstitutional and violate our right to freedom from unreasonable searches and seizures.
"These provisions should be repealed, and if they're not repealed, they ought to be ruled unconstitutional by the courts.
"Anyone who believes that Democrats care more about civil liberties than Republicans ought to be disillusioned by this renewal. It has become painfully clear that the Obama administration is indistinguishable from the George W. Bush administration.
"The plain injustice of these search provisions is compounded by the secrecy that surrounds them. In some cases, Americans -- even members of Congress -- aren't permitted to know the legal interpretations that govern how these searches may be implemented. And of course there is the infamous 'library records' provision, which prohibits targets from telling anyone that they were ordered to turn over records to the government.
The search for war
In times of war, U.S. presidents have often talked about yearning for peace. But the last decade has brought a gradual shift in the rhetorical zeitgeist while a tacit assumption has taken hold -- war must go on, one way or another.
“I am continuing and I am increasing the search for every possible path to peace,” Lyndon Johnson said while escalating the Vietnam War. In early 1991, the first President Bush offered the public this convolution: “Even as planes of the multinational forces attack Iraq, I prefer to think of peace, not war.” More than a decade later, George W. Bush told a joint session of Congress: “We seek peace. We strive for peace.”
While absurdly hypocritical, such claims mouthed the idea that the USA need not be at war 24/7/365.
But these days, peace gets less oratorical juice. In this era, after all, the amorphous foe known as “terror” will never surrender.
There’s an intractable enemy for you; beatable but never quite defeatable. Terrorists are bound to keep popping up somewhere.
“I am continuing and I am increasing the search for every possible path to peace,” Lyndon Johnson said while escalating the Vietnam War. In early 1991, the first President Bush offered the public this convolution: “Even as planes of the multinational forces attack Iraq, I prefer to think of peace, not war.” More than a decade later, George W. Bush told a joint session of Congress: “We seek peace. We strive for peace.”
While absurdly hypocritical, such claims mouthed the idea that the USA need not be at war 24/7/365.
But these days, peace gets less oratorical juice. In this era, after all, the amorphous foe known as “terror” will never surrender.
There’s an intractable enemy for you; beatable but never quite defeatable. Terrorists are bound to keep popping up somewhere.
Is Fukushima now ten Chernobyls into the sea?
New readings show levels of radioisotopes found up to 30 kilometers offshore from the on-going crisis at Fukushima are ten times higher than those measured in the Baltic and Black Seas during Chernobyl.
"When it comes to the oceans, says Ken Buesseler, a chemical oceonographer at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, "the impact of Fukushima exceeds Chernobyl."
The news comes amidst a tsunami of devastating revelations about the Fukushima disaster and the crumbling future of atomic power, along with a critical Senate funding vote today:
Fukushima's owner, the Tokyo Electric Power Company, has confirmed that radiation was released at Unit One BEFORE the arrival of the March 11 tsunami.
This critical revelation confirms that the early stages of that melt-down were set in motion by the earthquake that sent tremors into Japan from a relatively far distance out to sea.
"When it comes to the oceans, says Ken Buesseler, a chemical oceonographer at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, "the impact of Fukushima exceeds Chernobyl."
The news comes amidst a tsunami of devastating revelations about the Fukushima disaster and the crumbling future of atomic power, along with a critical Senate funding vote today:
Fukushima's owner, the Tokyo Electric Power Company, has confirmed that radiation was released at Unit One BEFORE the arrival of the March 11 tsunami.
This critical revelation confirms that the early stages of that melt-down were set in motion by the earthquake that sent tremors into Japan from a relatively far distance out to sea.
Ostroy Report: When Did the Truth Become "Gotcha" Journalism?
Tina Fey recently hosted Saturday Night Live and resurrected her brilliant impersonation of Sarah Palin in a 2012 Republican presidential debate skit in which The Wasilla Wonder incredulously declares "I just hope the lamestream media won’t twist my words by repeatin’ em verbatim."
SNL and Fey were of course spoofing the real Palin, who has made many such accusations of media foul-play, including over her most embarrassing encounter when famously asked by Katie Couric what books and magazines she reads. That interview was the beginning of the end for Palin's 2008 vice presidential bid.
And just this week, as his 2012 presidential candidacy appeared to be imploding, the real Newt Gingrich, when asked by Fox News' Greta Van Susteren about his $500,000 Tiffany credit card balance, refused to answer and claimed he won't play "gotcha games."
SNL and Fey were of course spoofing the real Palin, who has made many such accusations of media foul-play, including over her most embarrassing encounter when famously asked by Katie Couric what books and magazines she reads. That interview was the beginning of the end for Palin's 2008 vice presidential bid.
And just this week, as his 2012 presidential candidacy appeared to be imploding, the real Newt Gingrich, when asked by Fox News' Greta Van Susteren about his $500,000 Tiffany credit card balance, refused to answer and claimed he won't play "gotcha games."
Wanted dead or alive
When President Obama, summing up the killing of Osama bin Laden, said, “Justice has been done,” the problem wasn’t simply that he misspoke — justice, after all, can only emerge at the end of an impartial judicial proceeding — but that, in so misspeaking, he hit the emotional bull’s-eye.
“Justice has been done.”
We got him, America! Oh yeah, sweet! Who can’t feel the pop of satisfaction in those words? “He should have said, ‘Retaliation has been accomplished,’” Marjorie Cohn pointed out recently at Common Dreams, and that’s true, of course, but the president wasn’t summoning the dry, sober rule of law. He was evoking, just as George W. Bush did before him, the Wild West, America’s deepest font of mythology, where justice, you know, comes from the muzzle of a revolver. As with Geronimo, so with Osama: Wanted Dead or Alive.
“. . . it was the Indians who, by the ambush, the atrocity, and the capture of the white women . . . became the aggressors and so sealed their own fate,” writes Tom Engelhardt in The End of Victory Culture, describing the first mythological enemy we created as we carved a nation out of a continent.
“Justice has been done.”
We got him, America! Oh yeah, sweet! Who can’t feel the pop of satisfaction in those words? “He should have said, ‘Retaliation has been accomplished,’” Marjorie Cohn pointed out recently at Common Dreams, and that’s true, of course, but the president wasn’t summoning the dry, sober rule of law. He was evoking, just as George W. Bush did before him, the Wild West, America’s deepest font of mythology, where justice, you know, comes from the muzzle of a revolver. As with Geronimo, so with Osama: Wanted Dead or Alive.
“. . . it was the Indians who, by the ambush, the atrocity, and the capture of the white women . . . became the aggressors and so sealed their own fate,” writes Tom Engelhardt in The End of Victory Culture, describing the first mythological enemy we created as we carved a nation out of a continent.
Perfecting the art of civil protest
Ben Masel, October 17, 1954 to April 30, 2011.
In arrest at the tumultuous 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago sent Ben Masel on a life course like no other. Ben joined the protestors who sued the City of Chicago and Mayor Dailey over their illegal detentions and police brutality. After several years fighting city hall, Ben collected $40,000 in damages. His career course was set.
Born in the Bronx, Ben Masel moved to Madison Wisconsin after he met a group of Madison activists at the May Day 1970 mass protest against the Vietnam War. Madison and the world will never be the same.
In arrest at the tumultuous 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago sent Ben Masel on a life course like no other. Ben joined the protestors who sued the City of Chicago and Mayor Dailey over their illegal detentions and police brutality. After several years fighting city hall, Ben collected $40,000 in damages. His career course was set.
Born in the Bronx, Ben Masel moved to Madison Wisconsin after he met a group of Madison activists at the May Day 1970 mass protest against the Vietnam War. Madison and the world will never be the same.
Ben Masel in his trademark shirt protests in front of the State Capital, Madison, WI.
Whose debt is it anyway? Bush, Kasich and red ink
With the Ohio House of Representatives ready to ram through the reactionary budget of former Fox commentator and now-Governor John Kasich, the Columbus Dispatch ran a Washington Post article entitled “U.S. detour to debt on road to surplus.” The lead is both accurate and timely for Ohio. It reads: “The nation’s unnerving descent into debt began a decade ago with a choice, not a crisis.” That choice is about to be echoed in Ohio budget policies.
The Post and the Dispatch should be praised for stating the obvious. In January 2001, as President Clinton departed the Oval Office, the budget was balanced and the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office predicted even larger annual surpluses through the new millennium. Within a decade, they predicted, we would pay off all of the U.S. debt.
Recently, as Kasich faced an $8 billion shortfall in Ohio’s budget, he reverted to Fox-style punditry, remarking, “The president of the United States has, I think, a $13 trillion debt. Why doesn’t he do his job? When he gets our budget balanced and starts to prepare a future for our children, maybe he can have an opinion on what’s going on in Ohio,” according to the Dispatch.
The Post and the Dispatch should be praised for stating the obvious. In January 2001, as President Clinton departed the Oval Office, the budget was balanced and the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office predicted even larger annual surpluses through the new millennium. Within a decade, they predicted, we would pay off all of the U.S. debt.
Recently, as Kasich faced an $8 billion shortfall in Ohio’s budget, he reverted to Fox-style punditry, remarking, “The president of the United States has, I think, a $13 trillion debt. Why doesn’t he do his job? When he gets our budget balanced and starts to prepare a future for our children, maybe he can have an opinion on what’s going on in Ohio,” according to the Dispatch.