Stop Torture

Update :: This effort along with many others have been futile.   It seems that our nation has taken a step backward in time to days when a totalitarian dictator got to define his own laws and tell the rest of the world to shove it...   Welcome to George W. Bush's Amerika... - fc Sign this statement online now! And don't forget to send this statement and your comments to comments@whitehouse.gov and contact the Senate Armed Services Committee using the contact information below. Silence in a Time of Torture is Complicity We have now come to a defining moment, where before the world's eyes the U.S. Congress is poised to legalize torture. We reject such a course outright. It does not represent us. We remember the images from Abu Ghraib prison -- photos of depravity, even death. And what of the images we have never been shown from a world of even more disturbing and more "professional" horrors that have been concealed in secret prisons around the world? To anyone of conscience, this is unacceptable. But this is exactly what your government will be making legitimate. With bi-partisan support, the "Military Commissions Act of 2006" will be made law unless people act to stop it. Sold as a "compromise", this bill is fundamentally worse than what has gone before. The bill takes what has existed in the shadowy world of clandestine action and now gives it the openly declared mantle of official, legal approval. While the compromise is being sold as complying with the Geneva Conventions, it gives the President huge freedom to, by executive order, define "special methods" of interrogation that HE feels "fit" that Convention. It removes the right of anyone to raise the Geneva Conventions in federal court to challenge government action against them. The compromise allows the government the power to use confessions and other testimony derived from torture as evidence in criminal proceedings. The compromise officially, and legally, puts Congress on record approving that the president may, at his own discretion, declare anyone an "enemy combatant". This means the president can name anyone anywhere as such and remove them from the reach of family or legal counsel and hold them indefinitely without trial. It ends the Constitutional right of habeas corpus. All this is now to be done openly, and in our name. All these actions -- and the Bush Regime which has commissioned war crimes -- must be brought to a halt. What is being met with silence in the halls of power must be manifested as a real opposition in the streets. At stake here is what kind of country and what kind of people we choose to be. Let it not be said that the people did nothing when their government moved to make torture lawful. Let the world know that the people of this country did not acquiesce, but instead stood up and said “TORTURE DOES NOT REPRESENT US! THIS REGIME DOES NOT REPRESENT US! WE WILL DRIVE IT OUT!” Send this message with your comments to comments@whitehouse.gov with a cc: to notorture@worldcantwait.org and contact key members of the Senate Armed Forces Committee: Sen. John Warner (Chairman), VA Phone: (202) 224-2023 Fax: (202) 224-6295 Sen. John McCain, AZ Phone: (202) 224-2235 Fax: (202) 228-2862 Sen. Carl Levin, MI Phone: (202) 224-6221 Fax: (202) 224-1388 Sen. Susan Collins, ME Phone: (202) 224-2523 Fax: (202) 224-2693 Sen. Edward Kennedy, MA Phone: (202) 224-4543 Fax: (202) 224-2417 Sen. Lindsey Graham, SC Phone: (202) 224-5972 Fax: (202) 224-3808 Sen. Robert Byrd, WV Phone: (202) 224-3954 Fax: (202) 228-0002 Sen. Hillary Clinton, NY Phone: (202) 224-4451 Fax: (202) 228-0282 Send this information to all your friends and have them send it to their friends. Tell them THIS MUST NOT PASS and that you are pledging to be in the streets on October 5 because The World Can’t Wait. Drive Out the Bush Regime! In the next week we intend to send over 50 thousand of your responses to President Bush and the Congress. Send a copy of your messages to notorture@worldcantwait.org Excellent opinion pieces against torture: Ariel Dorfman in the Washington Post Sunday 9-24-06 Molly Ivins in TruthDig.com

Technorati Cosmos - BlogMarks -                  

Tags :: Politics · Torture · Congress · Anti War · Peace Movement

Peace Mom

      This is perhaps the bravest lady that has graced the Anti War / Peace Movement since the beginning of the NeoCon's forever wars.   Would you have the courage to stand up and ask the President of the United States what was the noble cause that your son died for...?

I actually credit her more than anyone else for creating the vessel that is the 21st Century Peace Movement.   This is not to belittle all the other organizations listed on this page.   I do think that her courage to go to Crawford TX during Bush's month long vacation in 2005 was unprecedented and so very timely.   As I stated at the time, I think she was the driving force in causing Bush to run like the coward he is from a confrontation with her.

This was perhaps the cause and effect that was the downfall of Bush.   If you remember, Bush was eating cake with McCain and playing guitar while the people of New Orleans were drowning in the streets.   His fear of Sheehan was the reason he bailed from Crawford for these photo ops.   Also important to remember was the fact that all the puppetmasters for Bush were on vacation and Bush was left with the schedule they (Rove - Cheney) had worked out for him.   He was on his own and for the first time the vast majority of this country saw what an empty suit he really is.

He was still in the 'Hide from Cindy' mode when Katrina hit and because of the unexpected chain of events he was not smart enough on his own to figure out that he should get his a$$ down to New Orleans and take control of what has since been catagorized as the worst disaster in modern history.

The tide of events that occured because of her efforts to confront Bush were not foreseen by his handlers and it eventually led to his decline in the polls and the beginning of Fall from Grace that Bush has incurred ever since.   We all owe a great deal of respect to this outstanding American.   - ƒç

washingtonpost.com
Books :: Peace Mom

'A Mother's Journey Through Heartache to Activism'

Cindy Sheehan
Activist
Monday, September 25, 2006; 1:00 PM

Antiwar activist Cindy Sheehan was online Monday, Sept. 25, at 1 p.m. ET to discuss her new book, "Peace Mom: A Mother's Journey through Heartache to Activism." Sheehan describes the grief she felt after the death of her son, Casey Sheehan , in the spring of 2004 and how his death led to her controversial, highly publicized month-long demonstration in front of President Bush's Crawford, Tex. ranch last year.

Washington, D.C.: Dear Ms. Sheehan: I honor your son, who made the ultimate sacrifice in dying for our country.

I will not pretend to understand the loss you felt with the death of your son. But nor do I understand why your grief has manifested itself through a hatred for this country that your son sought to protect. Why is your anger not directed at the terrorists who seek to destroy this nation's soldiers and civilians?

Cindy Sheehan: Well, I don't believe that my son died protecting our country; I believe he died for lies. It's been proven over and over again that George Bush and the neocons lied to us. Casey was not killed by a terrorist; he was killed by an insurgent, an Iraqi citizen who wanted him out of their country. I am not manifesting my grief as hatred for America. I love my country and I'm fighting to make my country better and I'm fighting so that no other mothers have to feel the pain that I'm feeling.

Being against the government and being against the war is not being against America.

Annandale, Va.: Do you believe George Bush is a greater threat to America than terrorism?

Cindy Sheehan: Oh, absolutely. I believe that he has damaged our credibility in the world; he has increased, as I said earlier, the amount of jihadism in the world; he has made my children and my grandchildren more vulnerable -- not only physically but economically -- and our country used to be respected. Now we have no moral standing to tell other countries how they should behave.

On Sept. 11, almost 3,000 of our citizens were tragically killed. Now over that amount of our soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan have been killed and tens of thousands of innocent people.

Continue Reading...     See also :: Camp Democracy

Technorati Cosmos - BlogMarks -                  

Tags :: Politics · Cindy Sheehan · Iraq · Anti War · Peace Movement