Socialist Challenge to Democrat's Inaction

[Mongol-Swedes]

(The following is an excerpt of an email I received on the Socialist Party of the United States of America mailing list, a benefit of my membership to the SP-USA. It has the same ominous aura as the PATRIOT Act, which was hastily passed immediately after 9/11, and had been written SEVERAL MONTHS BEFORE THAT TRAGIC INCIDENT EVER OCCURED.)

 

 

Below is a press release I sent out last week on the new Military Tribunal Act.

The Act will be signed by Bush today or tomorrow. I hope affiliates (and the NC)

will at least write a reponse to this.

 

PRESS RELEASE

October 8, 2006

Contact: Gregory Pason for US Senate 201-803-7574

e-mail info@votepason.org

 

Socialist Candidate Challenges Senator Robert Menendez on Why He Supports Bush's War Against Civil Rights

 

Gregory Pason, Socialist Party USA candidate for the US Senate, has challenged

Democratic Party Senator Robert Menendez to explain his support for the Bush

administration's attacks on civil rights, including the administration's new,

authoritarian Military Commissions Act.

 

On September 28th, Senator Robert Menendez joined the Republican Party in

passing the Military Commissions Act (S. 3920), part of the Bush

administration's new war on human and civil rights.

 

"September 28, 2006, will be seen as a step toward ending our constitutional

rights of free speech and trial," said Socialist Party candidate for the US

Senate, Gregory Pason, at a forum in Highland Park.

 

"Robert Menendez joined the Republican majority in giving the President the

green light to authorize torture, indefinite detention, and to end the right to

habeas corpus. It is a scary time for all of us, especially those of us who

disagree with the government," Pason said.

 

Caroline Fredrickson, ACLU's Director of their Washington Legislative Office

stated in a recent ACLU press release that "This legislation gives the president

new unchecked powers to detain, abuse, and try people at Guantanamo Bay and

other government facilities around the world. Unfortunately for America, the

Senate chose not to deliberate today. Instead, it joined the House and President

Bush in jamming through a hastily written bill before running home to try to

campaign."

 

The Center of Constitutional Rights state on their website, "This ominously

broad definition of enemy combatants would mean that almost anyone who actively

opposes the President or the government could be locked up indefinitely. This

bill makes a mockery of the rule of law. The current version of the Military

Commissions redefines an 'unlawful enemy combatant' (UEC) so broadly that it

could include anyone who organizes a march against the war in Iraq."

 

The Military Commission Act (S. 3930) passed the US Senate 65 to 34. The Act:

(1) Authorizes the President to establish military commissions to try enemy

combatants

(2) Allows the imposition any sentence "appropriate to the offense," including

death or imprisonment for life.

(3) Prohibits any "combatant" under trial from invoking the Geneva Conventions

or related protocols as a source of rights in a habeas corpus petition or other

civil action brought in a United States court (state, territory, or federal) to

which the United States, or current or former employee/officer/armed forces

member/agent, is a party.

(4) Authorizes the President to interpret the meaning and application of the

Geneva Conventions and to publish those interpretations in the Federal Register

as an Executive Order--any such Order would be authoritative as a matter of U.S.

law.

 

Senator Menendez, who has presented himself as a "civil libertarian" has a

record of supporting Bush's crack-down on civil and human rights. Without

Senator Menendez's (and Senator Lautenberg's) support, the USA PATRIOT ACT would

not have been reauthorized, and if Senator Menendez had spoken up about the new

Animal Enterprise Terrorism Act, the legislations would have to have been

debated, rather than passing "by unanimous consent."

 

Senator Menendez also supported No Child Left Behind, which gives military

recruiter access to all of our public schools.

 

Socialist Party USA candidate Gregory Pason stands for abolishing the USAPATRIOT

Act and other "anti-terrorism" legislation which gives the government authority

to detain people without trial and to harass political activists. He has spent

years visiting and supporting immigrant detainees, including being a key

organizer for the defense of Farouk Abdel-Muhti, a Palestinian detainee who was

held for three years without trial until his release was won. Pason has worked

file numerous habeas applications for immigrant detainees.

 

Mr. Pason has also been active in organizing opposition to military recruiters

in our schools, including actions at William Paterson University, and is a vocal

opponent to the occupation of Iraq.

 

Gregory Pason is a member of the Bergen County Peace and Justice Coalition, NJ

Peace Action, the National Writers' Union and Residents Against Racism.

 

More information can be found on the Pason for Senate website at:

www.votepason.org

 

 

 

 

[Tamurin]

Well, this is one of the few cases where I'm with the socialists.

 

You should have two options for treating terrorists / suspected terrorists of the "Guantanamo class": Criminals or prisoners of war (which I prefer). As POW's these men would have certain rights and the whole war on terrorism wouldn't look as dark as it does now.

 

If the west does use undemocratic measures to fight terrorism, we're no better than them.

[Suverina]

If the west does use undemocratic measures to fight terrorism, we're no better than them.

Well said.

 

It seems that Bush sees extremists everywhere these days. There have been much talk about that Bush thinks that his on a mission from god or something. Sometimes it actually feels that is true. It's a shame that other nations don't put pressure on USA.

[Deshnavik]

If the west does use undemocratic measures to fight terrorism, we're no better than them.

Well said.

 

It seems that Bush sees extremists everywhere these days. There have been much talk about that Bush thinks that his on a mission from god or something. Sometimes it actually feels that is true. It's a shame that other nations don't put pressure on USA.

If the west does use undemocratic measures to fight terrorism, we're no better than them.

Well said.

 

It seems that Bush sees extremists everywhere these days. There have been much talk about that Bush thinks that his on a mission from god or something. Sometimes it actually feels that is true. It's a shame that other nations don't put pressure on USA.

If the west does use undemocratic measures to fight terrorism, we're no better than them.

Well said.

 

It seems that Bush sees extremists everywhere these days. There have been much talk about that Bush thinks that his on a mission from god or something. Sometimes it actually feels that is true. It's a shame that other nations don't put pressure on USA.

Mission from God? no, He says he is a christian, but i think it is just a facade for the election. after all he wouldn't have been president if he didn't win over all the Religious right and it's extremists. Actually, I think he worships Moloch, a ancient Cannenite god.

 

David Gergen, who worked in the White House through more than three admin. was asked about the rituals preformed at The Bohemian Grove related to Moloch and he said "That's none of your god damn business". He gets very upset when the BOHOs are brought up.

 

<object width="425" height="350"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M8oXGqgwffY"></param><param'>http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M8oXGqgwffY"></param><param name="wmode" value="transparent"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M8oXGqgwffY" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" width="425" height="350"></embed></object>

 

 

 

So, whatever secret societies President Bush is part of, they have a tendency to really like owls, and other symbols of Moloch.

 

 

 

 

 

does anyone know what Le Suis Lafille means? reminds me of skull and bones...

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Suverina]

Necessary to quote me 3 times? :S I never said he thought he was on a misson from God. I just said it seems like it sometimes. :S

[Deshnavik]

your right, He did say that god talked to him. That is a lie, What he is doing is very unchristianly.

[Suverina]

your right, He did say that god talked to him.  That is a lie, What he is doing is very unchristianly.

The Crusade? Anyone?

 

Edit: Okey this is going a bit OT......

[Miiros]

The fact that such things are happening in the land of the "free" just highlights the fact that Congress has failed the American people and no longer deserves re-election. The Supreme Court should be doing something to stop these things, but I bet they will only help restrict American liberties in the coming years. What will happen when the checks and balances cease to function? I think that is when the "terrorists" really win and the fears of the Founding Fathers will be realized; the executive branch of government was never meant to be this powerful. The people need to take power back. The federal government has the United States convinced that safety depends upon them, so Americans watch their rights disappear slowly in the name of security.

 

How much longer until it is illegal to ask questions about these things? It's already "unpatriotic." Anyone who questions the war wants to "cut and run." Anyone who wonders if America is on the right path is "helping the terrorists win." At least that's the feeling I get from the Bush administration.

[Marsitrania]

Are you guys nuts? The Patriot Act is basically essential to combating terrorism in the information age. We're giving the government the powers it needs to protect the citizen body, not powers it wants in order to make dissidents disappear in the night. I believe strongly in the rights enshrined in the American Constitution, but neither is the Constitution a suicide pact. I believe it's the government's absolute responsibility to protect its citizens.

 

What rights are actually being compromised? The prisoners in Guantanomo for the most part are not American nationals, and therefore are not ensured any protection afforded by citizenship - as for treating terrorists as prisoners of war, first I feel that such a comparison is demeaning to actual soldiers, but second and more importantly the Geneva Conventions make no specific arrangement for terrorists. Certainly they are not covered under Article III...

 

As for domestic wiretapping and general government invasiveness, a right to privacy is not in the Constitution. Circumstances which have determined precedent in our body of law protect privacy of sexual life in the home. Privacy is not inherent, it is something which has been built up by an attitude of entitlement amongst the American people, who largely remain ignorant as to what their actual rights are. Habeus Corpus is something quite different, and yet there is strong precedent in national crises for it to be denied.

 

Really, I think this is a lot of reactionary backlash over nothing. As long as there is congressional oversight and operating courts to check the intelligence agencies, the balance of governmental power remains. Just because the executive is regaining its strength (as it typically does during war time and other times of emergency), is not a reason to panic, and it certainly isn't a reason to vote for nutjobs like the socialists...

[Nan Gorgwaith]

Oh hey, unrelated sorta,

 

All I wanna know is, if the Guantonimo (mispelled I am sure) guys are being tortured, why are they getting fed like they are being fattened for slaughter? Have you seen the amount of calories they are getting a day? How about spreading the wealth! I am not a prisoner and and I am starving. I will take the 24 hours of loud music, inability to bath, in a cold room, naked, with a porcupine if that is the torture while I get a full set of meals!

 

Oh wait.. that is college life...

 

 

[Emakera]

I am not an american, but I wouldn't accept the Patriot Act in no way. As the laying old man once said, "The chicken feeds itself grain by grain". It's just being able to PEEP ON YOUR PRIVATE CONVERSATIONS, WHICH ARE YOUR OWN MATTER right now. Nothing wrong, only wrongdoers have to fear, et cetera. But then, it comes the Institutional Act Number 5. I'm from Brazil, I've learned this movie on school and my parents learned it on life! It started with "a counter-revolution against the evils of COMMUNISM", and then everything escalates, with simple, innofensive measures, till the time the "counter-revolutionaries", to protect the people from the sheer red evil or whatever, signs a bill banning all civil rights, closing the congress and the senate, for PROTECTION against some people you never heard about. This, and ufanist songs about how we love the country, how the blacks, the whites, and the natives make this country great, and the like. A country SO good that the own dissidents of the D E M O C R A C Y suicided in creative ways, or ended up with missing eyes and penises two inches shorter. Keep this in mind. It happened to us, and it may happen to America. You may lose too much because of too little.

[Miiros]

As for domestic wiretapping and general government invasiveness, a right to privacy is not in the Constitution.

 

Really, I think this is a lot of reactionary backlash over nothing. As long as there is congressional oversight and operating courts to check the intelligence agencies, the balance of governmental power remains. Just because the executive is regaining its strength (as it typically does during war time and other times of emergency), is not a reason to panic, and it certainly isn't a reason to vote for nutjobs like the socialists...

Amendment IV.

 

The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.

 

Listening in on my private conversations without a warrant seems to me like an unreasonable search made by the government. If the government has a good cause to tap a private citizen's phone, they can get a damned warrant. That judge is what keeps power from being abused. Removing the warrant is hurting checks and balances.

 

This backlash is very important and I think there is nowhere near enough. All these acts are vague and give a lot of power to one branch of government and give them basic tools to undermine the other branches. The judicial branch is being cut out of a lot of things like trying combatants and granting warrants. They're the ones who make sure the government is justified in doing what it does. These are the first steps down a dangerous path that I'd rather remain 50 feet away from at all times.

 

Security measures need to be taken, yes, but never at the expense of civil rights or liberties; Ben Franklin backs me up on this. The safest place to live is in a cage and I'll be damned if I'm going to live in a cage. The Patriot Act is a mockery of what America stands for and the title offends me. There are ways to do things without giving so much power to the executive branch, which is NOT to be trusted. Does this mean vote for the socialists? No, but it does mean we need to seriously ask why our representatives aren't doing anything.

[Suverina]

America, land of the free. Is no more...

 

And the government should be liberals of some kind, liberalism is all about freedom. It seems that many liberals are giving up their 'freedom' thoughts for "safety" instead.

 

I'm sure Nazi Germany was quite safe as well, although would you want to live there?

[Tagmatium Rules]

I would have to say that the PATRIOT Act does seem like a crock of sh*te. It seems more and more that our respective governments (the UK in my case and the USA in some of yours') are restricting civil freedoms more and more, for the sake of our protection. I think it's actually letting the "terrorists" win, as the freedoms these various acts and laws are trying to protect are getting smaller and smaller everyday. Soon, although this is quite extreme, freedom itself will be taken away for safekeeping, so that the terrorists themselves can't get their greasy hands on it.

 

The whole idea of keeping people locked up without a trial disgusts me. Just because they are loosely painted as "terrorists", does that mean they do not derserve a proper trial? No, I really don't think it does. Once we begin to make an exception to the idea of giving everyone a fair trial, where does it end? It sets an incredibly dangerous precedent, one that may well bite the wider population of a nation on the arse one day. It also makes us look no better than them in this respect. We can't take the moral high ground if we ape their behaviour and lock up people suspected of terrorism for years.

 

I do thank God that Britain has judges and those in the House of Lords who are challenging the Government's attempts to "disappear" those who have committed the crime of being Muslim and in the wrong place at the wrong time.

[Pirilao]

Civil liberties & democratic rights for all!

Capitalism in crisis cannot tolerate dissent. Yesterday?s anti-communist witch hunt is today?s fake war on terrorism. The bipartisan attack on working people requires an across-the-board assault on basic civil liberties and democratic rights that were won through decades of struggle.

 

The U.S. has the largest percentage of its population in prison and on death row in the world. The massively expanding prison-industrial complex and its rapid privatization are designed to increase corporate profit rates and punish society?s most oppressed?for whom capitalism has no jobs, no hope, and no future.

 

The coordinated and nationwide attacks on abortion rights are part of capitalism?s need to control every aspect of people?s lives, including the fundamental right of women to control their own bodies.

 

Attacks on immigrants are designed to guarantee a cheap and docile labor force, to divide working people, and to re-enforce capitalism?s inherent racism.

The attacks on gays and lesbian are designed to legislate morality and sexual preference and deny equal rights for all.

 

The attacks on the Bill of Rights?and its guarantees of free speech, press, assembly, and political association?are aimed at deepening government repression and preparing the ground for a police state society.

 

Socialist Action campaigns for:

? Repeal the Patriot Act, the Anti-Terrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act, and all other legislation restricting democratic rights and civil liberties! End all restrictions on the right to organize, assemble and protest!

? Abolish the death penalty!

? Repeal the racist ?three strikes? legislation!

? Jobs, education, and rehabilitation?not incarceration!

? Free Mumia Abu-Jamal! Free Lynne Stewart! Free All Political Prisoners!

? We defend a woman?s right to control her own body! Defend Roe v. Wade! Free abortion on demand at every hospital and medical facility! Reopen the closed women?s clinics! Ready access to abortion is a fundamental right!

? End police brutality!

? Legalize same-sex marriages and end all discrimination based on sexual preference!

? Immediate amnesty, legalization, and equal rights for all immigrants! De-militarize and open the border! No worker is illegal! End the economic and political exploitation of Latin America and all other nations whose workers are compelled to leave because their economies are destroyed by imperialist plunder! No to La Migra!

? Close Guantanamo and return this U.S. colonial conquest to Cuba! Immediate freedom for Guantanamo?s political prisoners! Close the government?s worldwide secret torture chambers! Stop the racist attacks on Arab and Middle Eastern communities in the U.S.!

 

 

[Deshnavik]

Free Leonard Peltier

[Tagmatium Rules]

Free someone-or-other!

[Deshnavik]

http://oldamericancentury.org/14pts.htm

 

the 14 points of fascism...

 

yep, and here is PNAC website, the people who dreamed of "another Pearl Harbor" before it happened:

 

http://www.newamericancentury.org/

[Nan Gorgwaith]

Anti-Socialist Activism speaks!

 

The U.S. has the largest percentage of its population in prison and on death row in the world.

- That we know of. China does not talk much about their prisoners.

 

? Repeal the Patriot Act, the Anti-Terrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act, and all other legislation restricting democratic rights and civil liberties! End all restrictions on the right to organize, assemble and protest!

- No, No, No, No ,no (Broken record) Amend & Compromise.

 

? Abolish the death penalty!

-So that the criminal who raped & killed little girls can continue to live?

 

? Repeal the racist ?three strikes? legislation!

-Should be fixed so you don't go away for a stupid mistake on your third strike.

 

? Jobs, education, and rehabilitation?not incarceration!

-All come at the taxpayer cost. Figure out a nice balance between them and figure out who cannot or willnot rehablitate.

 

? Free Mumia Abu-Jamal! Free Lynne Stewart! Free All Political Prisoners!

-"Political prisoner" is a state of mind.

 

? We defend a woman?s right to control her own body! Defend Roe v. Wade! Free abortion on demand at every hospital and medical facility! Reopen the closed women?s clinics! Ready access to abortion is a fundamental right!

-Fundamental right? Life, Liberty, and the pursuit to kill fetuses! (and I am pro-abortion too...). I don't think it is a right, it is a medical and social decision.

 

? End police brutality!

-End Criminal brutality!

 

? Legalize same-sex marriages and end all discrimination based on sexual preference!

-Uh, ok.

 

? Immediate amnesty, legalization, and equal rights for all immigrants! De-militarize and open the border! No worker is illegal! End the economic and political exploitation of Latin America and all other nations whose workers are compelled to leave because their economies are destroyed by imperialist plunder! No to La Migra!

-No to the first part. To do that would undermine our country and discredit all those who work hard to become legal, including all of my ancestors. As for Latin America, I say isolationism, the Anti-Monroe Doctrine. "Imperialist" countries will pull out all resources etc and will say HI in the UN occasionally.

 

? Close Guantanamo and return this U.S. colonial conquest to Cuba! Immediate freedom for Guantanamo?s political prisoners! Close the government?s worldwide secret torture chambers! Stop the racist attacks on Arab and Middle Eastern communities in the U.S.!

-Yes, although I disagree with colonial conquest. It was a business deal. No. when someone fires a weapon at you or are present on a battlefield, they are not political prisoners. Close those secret prisons, if you can find em! The last one is up to stupid individuals to stop harrassing people in the name of patriotism.

 

-

[Tagmatium Rules]

-So that the criminal who raped & killed little girls can continue to live?

Not having the death penalty works fine for many other countries, UK included.

[Nan Gorgwaith]

Not having the death penalty works fine for many other countries, UK included.

 

Yes, but they do not have "the largest percentage of its population in prison" either.

The US is too liberal with its death penalty rules though. It should only be reserved for the worst of the worst, ie serial killers aka mass murderers, and baby/child and elderly murderers.

 

by the way, most of my answers were rather tongue -in-cheek. (or not totally serious, but more like counter-statements for the hell of it, sorta, maybe? )

[Mongol-Swedes]

Mortal humans cannot possibly comprehend what it is not to have life, and should not judge when others are no longer deserving of their life. Too many times there are cases where people have been wrongfully tried, and once is too many.

 

 

 

And there's plenty of folks who won't stand for it...and plenty who are all for it...

 

 

Is not life our most sacred possesion?

 

Or are some folks so fricken arrogant that they think they have the right to take the lives of others?

 

Don't answer that last one with a "ur in da Army" comment, I haven't fired a shot in anger since I joined years ago.

 

My prized award...

[Tagmatium Rules]

Actually, I think [bush] worships Moloch, a ancient Cannenite god.

Not being funny, Desh, but I really think that is a load of rubbish. The whole thing about that note having an image of an owl on it is nonsense. If you squint hard enough, eveything has hidden images. A tiny blur in the patterns on a note hardly constitute a hidden meaning.

[Miiros]

-So that the criminal who raped & killed little girls can continue to live?

Not having the death penalty works fine for many other countries, UK included.

It works fine in Michigan too. We just exile all of our criminals to a god-forsaken island prison off the coast of the Upper Peninsula.

Edited October 26, 2006 by Miiros (see edit history)

[Mongol-Swedes]

Ah, yes, exile...coop them up in substandard prisons where nobody seeks to bring about their reconciliation but merely their suffering, enforcing the arcane deterrence theory with no remorse, only abject terror and disgust of their crimes...yes, there are many horrible and despicable crimes, and there are individuals that can never be reformed, but this is no excuse to attempt to strip a human being of his or her humanity.