Tell Congress to reject the Bush/Mukasey plan to subvert the Constitution.

Dear ACLU Supporter,

Here they go again. On Monday, Bush’s Attorney General, Michael Mukasey, called on Congress to take dramatic steps to subvert the Constitution.

Mukasey is demanding that Congress issue a new declaration of war that would make the entire globe — including the United States itself — a “battlefield” where the president decides who will be locked up forever.

Instead of ending the Bush system of injustice, he wants Congress to make it permanent.

Tell Congress to reject the Bush/Mukasey plan to subvert the Constitution.

Not only has Bush’s Attorney General called on Congress to issue a new declaration of war, but he is also asking Congress to:

1. Gut habeas corpus — the freedom that protects people from being thrown in prison illegally — with no help, no end in sight and no due process.

2. Cover up the Bush administration’s systemic torture and abuse of detainees. Judges would not be allowed to see evidence of torture and abuse and would instead simply have to trust that a president is holding the right people as ”enemy combatants.”

With only five weeks left in the congressional schedule and only six months left in the Bush presidency, Mukasey’s power grab should be laughed out of town. But, given this Congress’ track record, the Mukasey proposal is no laughing matter.

Tell Congress to reject the Bush/Mukasey plan to subvert the Constitution.

Too many times, we’ve seen Congress cave in to the most outrageous Bush demands for out-of-control powers: The Patriot Act. National Security Letters. The Military Commissions Act. The Protect America Act. And, most recently, the congressional sell-out on FISA.

Four times the Supreme Court has rejected the Bush administration’s efforts to design a war on terror system of injustice that defies the Constitution and mocks the rule of law. In the past, the administration has responded, not by respecting the Constitution, but by counting on Congress to legitimize its indefensible conduct.

There is no way we can let that happen this time. Even as the House Judiciary Committee investigates whether high-level Bush White House officials may have committed crimes of torture and abuse, the Bush administration has the arrogance to ask Congress to give it the power to detain people without trial and hide torture and abuse from the courts.

Tell Congress to reject the Bush/Mukasey plan to subvert the Constitution.

We can’t take for granted that Congress will reject the Bush/Mukasey plan. We have to meet this outrageous proposal with an immediate wall of protest that says to Congress: “Don’t you dare.”

I urge you to join defenders of freedom all across the country in raising your voice against Attorney General Mukasey’s dangerous proposal.

Thanks for speaking out,

Caroline Fredrickson, Director
ACLU Washington Legislative Office

P.S. You can read a blog post from Christopher Anders, ACLU Seinor Legislative Counsel, on the Bush/Mukasey plan to subvert the constitution here.

 

 

 

When did we become the enemy?

After watching the avalanche of infringements on our civil liberties since 9/11 I can only conclude that it is American citizens who have become a threat to “national security”.  It is also apparent to me that what you or I think of as national security is not quite the same thing as the government’s perceptions. 

Through the Military Commissions Act we lost the writ of habeas corpus…the right to due process and to know what we are charged with and the right to mount a defense.  Now, just voicing an opposition to government policies can get you labeled as a “domestic terrorist”. 

The John Warner Defense Authorization Act of 2007 reinforced this loss of due process and gave the president the right to deem any one of us as domestic combatants, solely on his deciding that we are.  It also gave him the right to put our National Guards and Reserves under federal military control to use against us should he decide to.These two pieces in particular gutted the Posse Commitatus Act that forbid the use of any standing army of the United States to be used against the citizens. 

And just this last week, General Renaurt AF, signed the Civil Assistance Plan with Canada that will allow the Canadian Military to be used against us on our own soil.  We have similar agreements with Mexico and Germany among others.  This assistance is needed in case we have a forest fire, earthquake, terrorist attack…..or civil revolt. 

The “Anti Terrorism and Homegrown Radicalization Act” S 1959 will make it an act of force and/or violence to rally, protest, or to gather in any way to try and change social, religious or political views.  To do so would mean that you are now a “radical”.  In the center of this unconstitutional bill is the groundwork for closing down entire sections of the internet.  Supposedly, we are so stupid and gullible that we are being exposed to extremist propaganda on the net every day and we need to be protected from that.  As a person who spends hours every day on the net researching legislation among other things, and have done so for years, I have never once seen or been exposed to any propaganda from any extremists other than those in our own government. 

 Homeland Security now has the Infragard….a coalition of about 23,000 individuals from the business sector who have been deputized to “defend the infrastructure in their area”, and have the right to shoot to kill without fear of prosecution when (not if) martial law is declared. 

Infragard works directly with the FBI and reports “suspicious” activities by employees, neighbors, and others.  And they are armed.The FBI is building a database that now includes about 60 million people, and intends to continue doing this with an end objective of about 20 billion individual files.  They also have a watch list data base with an estimated 300 thousand names on it of possible “suspects”.  

Obama’s “Global Poverty Tax” bill is on the floor of the senate now.  It allows the United Nations to assess a tax of .07% on our GDP…amounting to billions and billions of dollars to be taken from US taxpayers supposedly to fight poverty in third world countries.  Hidden in this piece of work is the intention to ban small arms….including hunting rifles and shotguns.  It would also make US citizens subject to international law, rather than our own courts. 

Even though this is a limited list of assaults on our liberty, does anyone see anything here that would have any affect on stopping terrorism?  Not one of these bills or agreements deals with anything other than stripping US citizens of their rights, and establishing a police state.  So who are these people that our government is so fearful of?  George Bush claimed at one time that he had looked the enemy in the eye……and apparently he was looking at us.