Daily Archives: November 30, 2011


Elizabeth Warren House Party In Southbridge on Dec 3

There is a house party for Elizabeth Warren’s Senatorial Campaign that will be held in Southbridge on Saturday, December 3 from 5 to 7 PM.  Sharon and I plan to be there.

If anybody in the area would like to attend, send me an email and I will give you the details.  I have to report to the hosts all the names of people planning to attend.

Use the email address sturbridgeforelizabethwarren@gmail.com. You can send email by clicking the previous link or by pasting this address into your email tool.  I have verified the validity of the email address. Previously, I had trouble with the spelling.


Ask Obama To Veto Indefinite Military Detention of AMERICAN CITIZENS

You can sign the petition at DemandProgress.org. Here is a bit of what you will see if you follow the previous link:

An unimaginable violation of due process: The Senate just voted to allow the military to detain American citizens indefinitely — without even charging them with a crime — if they are said to be suspected of terrorism.

As Senator Dianne Feinstein put it, “Congress is essentially authorizing the indefinite imprisonment of American citizens, without charge,” said Sen. Dianne Feinstein.”

Thankfully, President Obama has threatened to veto the bill, noting that:

Applying this military custody requirement to individuals inside the United States, as some Members of Congress have suggested is their intention, would raise serious and unsettled legal questions and would be inconsistent with the fundamental American principle that our military does not patrol our streets.

Obama only has a few days to make up his mind: Will you urge him to make good on his veto threat?  Just fill out the form at right.

PETITION TO PRESIDENT OBAMA: We urge you to stand by your threat to veto the new National Defense Authorization Act as passed by Congress.  Allowing indefinite military detention of American citizens — without even being charged — is an unfathomable violation of due process.

It is just so hard to imagine that we have come to this.  In defense of this ridiculous bill Carl Levin pointed out that the the Supreme Court has already approved this kind of behavior.  What a sad commentary on the Supreme Court.

President Obama and his promised veto are all that stand in the way of this heinous proposal.  If he keeps his promise, this alone will be reason enough to re-elect him in 2012.  If he fails, _________ (fill in the blank).

To get more background on this issue, see my previous posts Senate defeats challenge to indefinite detention provision, Battlefield America: U.S. Citizens Face Indefinite Military Detention in Defense Bill Before Senate, and Block expansion of presidential power to make war and imprison.


Senate defeats challenge to indefinite detention provision

It is sad to read the article Senate defeats challenge to indefinite detention provision on Raw Story.

The polarized US Senate on Tuesday beat back an attempt to set aside proposed rules on detention of terrorism suspects, defying a White House veto threat and criticisms from the FBI and the Pentagon.

Republican Senator Lindsey Graham, who voted against Udall’s amendment, accused Obama of overrelying on the FBI and other civilian institutions in fighting suspected terrorists.

That exact dependence which worked pretty well under Clinton and was decried by Bush.  Bush was the one who changed all that so that the 9/11 attack was not prevented.  The FBI had detected it actually, but their warnings went unheeded.  The Air Force stood by and watched it happen.

Why does Lindsay Graham want to use proven defective methods and forgo proven effective methods?  Who, exactly, is Lindsay Graham working for?

Is the preference for methods that are proven failures part of the Republican strategy to demonstrate that government does not work?

It is hard to imagine that Inouye (D-HI) voted against the amendment.  Wasn’t this country’s atrocious internment of Americans of Japanese descent during World War II enough proof of the dangers of going down this path?

It is easy to believe that Brown (R-MA) voted to defeat the challenge.  It just adds one more reason why Elizabeth Warren must replace Brown in the Senate at the next election.