Irregular Times Diaries: Unfit Discussion

The government of Syria has started to slaughter civilians who are protesting against the autocratic regime there. Dozens, maybe hundreds, are dead.

When will the United States military start bombing there to protect civilians, as it has done in Libya?

The primary justification for Barack Obama’s rush into war with less than 24 hours of notice to the American people and no opportunity for debate, much less a declaration of war, from the U.S. Congress, was that imposing a no fly zone would protect Libyan civilians from the government run by Moammar Qaddafi.

Yet, after almost a week of bombing by American-led military forces, we now have reports of massive civilian deaths, including the use of government snipers against civilians in the Libyan city of Misrata.

It appears that the escalation of the civil war in Libya by the United States has not been an adequate tool of protection of civilians. Given that, what is the rationale for the United States remain at war?

Will Barack Obama now suggest an escalation of the war, given the failure so far, or will the war simply be a failure?

I like the Fourth Amendment to the Constitution. Really, I do. I can prove it – I’ve clicked “Like” on the Facebook page for the Fourth Amendment.

What, is that not enough?

Luckily, I’m doing more. I work with Irregular Times, for one thing, and for years we’ve been writing about laws like the Patriot Act and the FISA Amendments Act, begun under George W. Bush and have been continued under Barack Obama, that violate the guarantee the Fourth Amendment’s protection from unreasonable search and seizure. We also have designed the lawn sign of the 4th Amendment that you see here.

I happen to know that this yard sign has had at least a little impact on discussion of Fourth Amendment issues. For one thing, this photograph of our Fourth Amendment yard sign is being used as the profile photo of the Fourth Amendment Facebook page I like.

One particularly current thing we’re doing at Irregular Times to show that we like the 4th Amendment to the Constitution is that we’re initiating a protest against the Patriot Act in Washington D.C. this coming Saturday, March 12, at noon, in front of the U.S. Capitol. As you’ll see in the link in this paragraph, there’s a Facebook page for that too.

The question in my mind is whether all the people who have indicated that they “like” this protest will actually show up. We’ll see how much Facebook social networking is really worth.

Today, in the Winona Daily News, Nathan Hansen of the town of Rushford identifies a startling gap between rhetoric and reality on the part of Minnesota’s two United States senators, Amy Klobuchar and Al Franken.

Both of these Democrats claim to be devoted to the defense of Americans’ constitutional rights, but talk is cheap. In practice, both of them voted last month to renew the worst aspects of the plainly unconstitutional Patriot Act – without any attempt at reform. Hansen notes:

“Franken in committee and in public denounces the Patriot Act provisions, including the one roving wiretaps that was extended by his vote. But his voting record does not agree with this. The vote marks the second time that he violated his principles, and his promises to his constituents in Minnesota, and the American people as a whole.

Klobuchar, too, has publicly opposed Patriot Act provisions, but abandoned them in order to keep from rocking the boat. It is sad that this illiberal bill passed by 86-12 margin, but the truly sad part of the story is that Minnesota’s out-of-the-box senators have not really been doing anything out of the box.”

We don’t have to just sit and take it when public officials like senators Klobuchar and Franken fail to live up to their responsibilities. We can, as Hansen would put it, get out of the box.

This coming Saturday, there will be an opportunity for Americans who oppose the renewal of the extraordinary surveillance powers of the Patriot Act to get out of the box and be heard by Congress. There will be a protest demanding repeal of the Patriot Act on Saturday, March 12 at Noon outside the west side of the U.S. Capitol Building in Washington D.C. Bring a sign of protest to show that America will not be silent while its constitutional right are sacrificed!

U.S. Representative Lynn Woolsey took on Speaker of the House John Boehner this week, on a topic that Republicans like to think is all their own: Morality. Boehner had just gotten done preaching morality in front of televangelists and radio tent revivalists, but Woolsey pointed out that Boehner’s own agenda in the U.S. Congress has a rather immoral tone. She said,

“In a speech this past weekend to our religious broadcasters, the Speaker of the House called the Federal debt “a moral threat” to our Nation. It’s an interesting choice of words from the leader of the House majority, who has been a cheerleader for the Nation’s most morally objectionable policy of all–the disastrous, despicable war in Afghanistan.

For some reason, their moral sensibilities are not offended by a military conflict that has cost us hundreds of billions of dollars and 1,500 of our bravest, bravest people without advancing national security objectives or truly diminishing the terrorist threat at the same time.

So how are my colleagues on the other side of the aisle resolving their moral dilemma? By asking corporate special interests to give up handouts and tax breaks? By asking the wealthiest Americans to give back more to the Nation that has given them so much opportunity?

Nope. By their moral calculations, the answer is to demand sacrifice from the very Americans who are bearing the brunt of this recession–from the people and communities who depend upon public investment. Their moral compass tells them to cut vital programs to the bone or eliminate them altogether: food safety, family planning, health research, public housing, transportation infrastructure, college aid, and on and on.

There was an article in my home newspaper over the weekend about how local health clinics could be devastated by these cuts. California alone stands to lose nearly $13 million in homeland security grants needed to train and equip first responders. The Republican budget cuts also, according to one study, would destroy 700,000 jobs–but that’s not keeping the Speaker up at night. He sees Americans out of work, and instead of saying this is a moral threat, he says, “So be it.”

In what moral universe, I ask you, Mr. Speaker, does it make sense to destroy jobs at home but send more Americans to die in a senseless war abroad?”

U.S. Representative Lynn Woolsey, who represents the 6th district of California, the area just to the north of San Francisco, spoke in serious tones this week about the dangers of the prolonged failure of the war in Afghanistan to bring security, stability and an end to corruption there. Woolsey said,

“the American people are tired of being talked down to about this war, tired of being told everything is fine and under control, tired of being urged to stay the course, tired of talk about progress that seems to be little more than an illusion.

The President reiterated last night that we will begin to bring our troops home in July, but there’s plenty of evidence to suggest we’re ramping up this war instead of winding it down.

Earlier this month, for example, 1,400 additional marine combat forces were deployed, with the possibility of additional mini-surges during the spring, that would push our troop levels in Afghanistan to the 100,000 mark.

We’re also using heavily armored tanks for the first time, and there are reports that we’re considering expanding the war across the border in an unprecedented way, with risky and dangerous special operations ground raids into Pakistan.

Does this sound like a war that’s drawing to a close?”

It’s quite clear that the blog entitled I Like Mike Huckabee 2012 is run by a Huckabee enthusiast Still, the blog makes a show of claiming to be an objective source of news.

“Get the Facts * Share the Truth,” reads the blog’s byline.

The fact is that, in a straw poll in New Hampshire this last weekend, Mike Huckabee got just 2.5 percent of the vote. That’s the truth – I’m not making it up.

What did the I Like Mike Huckabee blog have to say about this pathetic performance? Nothing. The pro-Huckabee blogger just pretended that the straw poll never happened.

Running from the facts. Scared of the truth. That’s the Mike Huckabee supporter for you.

Today, in his weekly radio address, President Barack Obama said, “We cannot afford to continue these tax breaks for the wealthiest taxpayers – especially when we know that cutting the deficit is going to demand sacrifice from everyone.”

Hey, that sounds like the old Barack Obama! Has he finally got his mojo back? Has he decided to back out of his decision to help Republicans pass tax cuts for billionaires?

Nope. Right after Obama admitted that his plan to help Republicans pass tax cuts for the rich will put future generations in unacceptable debt, Obama declared that he’s going to go ahead with the plan anyway.

Why? Obama says he just doesn’t have any choice but to cave in to the Republicans’ demands. He says that George W. Bush’s old economic plan, the one that led to disaster, is just too important.

Obama says that he doesn’t have the strength to do anything but allow those unaffordable tax cuts for billionaires to become law.

It’s not like he has the power to veto the deal and force the Republicans to come back with something better.

Oh. Wait. He does.

They say that the economic recession has ended. When they say that, they’re talking about the reality of wealthy investors on Wall Street.

In the rest of America, the recession continues. That fact is illustrated by the following graph, recently released by the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office:

This graph shows the rate of long term unemployment – people who have been looking for work, but unable to find any, for over 26 weeks. In the last half century, the long term unemployment rate hasn’t been anywhere close to where it is now – not even under the economic disaster America suffered when Ronald Reagan was in the White House.

Congressman Charlie Dent likes to adopt an anti-Europe posture when he’s talking in front of right wing voters in the 15th district of Pennsylvania. He frequently warns that Democrats are trying to lead America into a “European-style Welfare state”, adding the comment about Europe in order to cast Democrats as somehow unAmerican in character.

It turns out that Charles Dent has some rather strong European political connections himself, though. Just last Thursday, Congressman Dent had a special fundraising event arranged for him at 201 C Street, the home of an influential lobbyist. That lobbyist, David D. O’Brien, is the head of his own firm, which represents several European interests, including the embassies of European nations and Wartsila Defense, a company owned by a Scandinavian technology company.

Representative Dent may insult Europe with his words, but he’s happy to have cash slapped in his hand at parties arranged for him by the agents of European power elites.