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| Freedoms
Under Fire |
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| "There
ought to be limits to freedom."-George Bush, 1999 |
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| Bush
criticizes Web site as malicious |
| Saying
"there ought to be limits to freedom," Gov. George
W. Bush has filed a legal complaint against the owners of a
Web site that lampoons his White House bid. |
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| Presidential
contender's reaction to parody Web site backfires |
| The
parody George W. Bush Web site has gotten 6,451,466 hits during
the first 25 days of May, thanks in part to the story's front-page
treatment by The New York Times online edition, Exley said yesterday.
Meanwhile, the real George W. Bush Web site has gotten about
30,000 hits in May, according to Bush spokeswoman Mindy Tucker. |
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| "If
this were a dictatorship, it would be a heck of a lot easier,
just so long as I'm the dictator."
George W. Bush-December 18, 2000 |
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| If
I Were a Dictator... by GEORGE W. BUSH |
| George
W. Bush has stated he'd prefer to be a dictator at least three
times |
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| Bill
Of Rights |
| This
is to remind readers of the inalienable rights set forth by
the Founding Fathers |
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| America
The Free - Or Is It Under The Bush Dynasty |
| What
it means if the Homeland Security Department is approved by
the Senate? It will place the FBI, CIA, NSA and 22 other government
agencies under the control of one man and one man only. |
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| “Free-Speech
Zone” The administration quarantines dissent. |
| On
Dec. 6, 2001, Attorney General John Ashcroft informed the Senate
Judiciary Committee, “To those who scare peace-loving people
with phantoms of lost liberty … your tactics only aid terrorists,
for they erode our national unity and … give ammunition
to America’s enemies.” Some commentators feared that
Ashcroft’s statement, which was vetted beforehand by top
lawyers at the Justice Department, signaled that this White
House would take a far more hostile view towards opponents than
did recent presidents. And indeed, some Bush administration
policies indicate that Ashcroft’s comment was not a mere
throwaway line. |
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| Announcing
an Anti-Fascism Project-By Mike Hersh |
| CNN.com
and Reuters report: "A lawyer was arrested late Monday
and charged with trespassing at a public mall in the state of
New York after refusing to take off a T-shirt advocating peace
that he had just purchased at the mall." To be honest,
I first thought this story was a hoax. I could not believe that
in my own country, in "liberal" New York State, an
attorney could be arrested. In front of his child. For wearing
a T-shirt slogan famous for decades. But as the article reports,
this really happened: "Stephen Downs was wearing a T-shirt
bearing the words "Give Peace A Chance. |
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| Secrecy
Plan |
| Keeping
information from Congress and other government agencies is nothing
new to this White House, however. Going further back in President
Bush's term, many lawmakers -- both Republicans and Democrats
-- complained that they learned more from the media than from
intelligence briefings on the Hill after the Sept. 11 attacks. |
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| Bush
Administration Thwarts Access |
| Excerpt
from The Buying of the President 2004 Shows the White House's
Propensity for Secrecy |
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| Bush
Clamping Down On Presidential Papers |
| The
Bush White House has drafted an executive order that would usher
in a new era of secrecy for presidential records and allow an
incumbent president to withhold a former president's papers
even if the former president wanted to make them public. |
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| SUMMARY
OF THE BUSH EXECUTIVE ORDER ON THE PRESIDENTIAL RECORDS ACT-PDF |
| The
Presidential Records Act was passed in 1978 to make Presidential
records the property of the public and to assure that these
records are released to the public in a timely manner. On November
1, 2001, however, President Bush issued Executive Order 13233
which significantly curtails the disclosure of Presidential
records under the Presidential Records Act. Under the new executive
order, former Presidents are given virtually unlimited discretion
to withhold their records indefinitely. |
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| Railroaded
speech |
| IMAGINE
if the federal government passed a law that limited advertising
of one political point of view. But you don't have to imagine
such a law because it already exists, even though most citizens
-- even some D.C. politicians who voted for it -- aren't aware
of it. |
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| WE
ALL LOSE IF COPS HAVE ALL THE POWER |
| A
lot of people want to know why I went all the way to the Supreme
Court rather than give my name to a policeman. "What's
so important about that?" they ask. "What's the big
principle at stake?" And last week, when the Supreme Court
ruled against me, maybe some thought I was foolish to have done
it. But I still think I did the right thing and that there were
some issues that had to be decided. |
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| What's
in a Name? |
| YOU
HAVE the right to remain silent." At least, you did before
the Supreme Court handed down a decision in the case of Hiibel
v. Sixth Judicial District Court of Nevada yesterday. Now, when
a police officer suspecting you of a crime stops you in the
street and asks your name, you can be prosecuted for refusing
to answer. |
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| Coalition
of the chilling |
| Bennett,
Falwell, Frum, Kennedy & hate-radio's shock troops blast
anti-war activists |
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| News.com
reports that the House is scheduled to vote on proposal which
could result in the owners of misleading domain names being
jailed for up to 2 years. |
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| Patriot
Act |
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| The
USA PATRIOT Act |
| The
clumsily-titled Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing
Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism
Act of 2001 (USA PATRIOT Act, or USAPA) introduced a plethora
of legislative changes which significantly increased the surveillance
and investigative powers of law enforcement agencies in the
United States. The Act did not, however, provide for the system
of checks and balances that traditionally safeguards civil liberties
in the face of such legislation. |
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| Declarations
of Independence |
| But
seldom before has there been so widespread a refusal to trust
the national government—cutting across political, religious,
ethnic, and other divisions—as the current rising refusal,
even during a war on international terrorism, to yield to the
Bush administration's subversions of the Constitution in the
urgent cause of national security. |
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| Justice
Dept. Drafts Sweeping Expansion of Anti-Terrorism Act. Center
Publishes Secret Draft of ‘Patriot II’ Legislation |
| The
Bush Administration is preparing a bold, comprehensive sequel
to the USA Patriot Act passed in the wake of September 11, 2001,
which will give the government broad, sweeping new powers to
increase domestic intelligence-gathering, surveillance and law
enforcement prerogatives, and simultaneously decrease judicial
review and public access to information. |
| |
| Patriot
Act II (draft) |
CONFIDENTIAL
-- NOT FOR DISTRIBUTION
Draft--January 9, 2003 |
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| Questioning
of Photo Student Challenged |
| "We've
seen the constant erosion of our civil liberties amid this cry
for homeland security by doing things that have an appearance
of making us safe, but in reality it's a sham,'' Winslow said.
``No one showed up at the World Trade Center and took photographs
from nine different angles before they flew planes into it.'' |
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| Redistricting
Wars |
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| The
Redistricting Wars |
| This
aggressive Republican drive represents a Congressional power
grab unprecedented in scale and timing. It is being executed
with the encouragement of White House operatives from Karl Rove
on down, with the full-throttle support of GOP House majority
leader Tom DeLay. And its aim is to shore up the party's Congressional
majorities for the next decade. |
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| Out
With Gerrymanders! |
| This
April, in the case of Vieth v. Jubelirer, the Supreme Court
came close to burying any hope of curing one of the worst diseases
in our ailing democracy--the partisan gerrymander. Finding a
cure is still possible but like so much else, it depends on
the upcoming election. |
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| GOP-backed
plan for redistricting awaits court ruling-By MICHAEL C. BENDER
|
| "In
my memory, there has never been a midcensus gerrymander like
the one that was attempted in Texas and succeeded in Colorado,"
said Nathaniel Persily, a University of Pennsylvania professor
and one of the country's leading experts on redistricting and
election law. |
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| Privacy |
|
| Bush's
Double Vision on Privacy |
| There
are good guys and bad guys. Us and them. Except, that is, when
it comes to personal privacy. Two major news stories in late
April have highlighted the Bush Administration's flip-flop approach
to privacy protection -- what I call suit-yourself privacy.
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| California |
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| CA
Energy Scam Fraud Traced To White House |
| How
California's energy scam was inextricably linked to a war for
oil scheme... |
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