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Congress voted on border wall in 2006, Hillary, Schumer, Feinstein voted Yes https://www.senate.gov/legislative/LIS/roll_call_lists/roll_call_vote_cfm.cfm?congress=109&session=2&vote=00262 … Bernie voted no http://clerk.house.gov/evs/2006/roll446.xml …
The Vindication of Edward Snowden May 12, 2015
Posted by rogerhollander in Constitution, Criminal Justice, Democracy, Surveillance, Surveillance State, Whistle-blowing.Tags: aclu, bulk surveillance, conor friedersdorf, constitution, edward snowden, nsa, nsa secrets, patriot act, phone dragnet, roger hollander, state secrets, surveillance state, whistle blower, whistleblower
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Roger's note: I suppose, at least in theory, there may be a justification for a "state secrets" doctrine. I could picture an extreme circumstance where the democratic right of the people and their representatives to know could be trumped because making information public could aid and abet an enemy in an imminently dangerous way. Nevertheless, that doctrine has been used and abused over and over again to evade accountability; and I am not aware of a single case where it was used to avoid an actual danger.
But with respect to "legality," I have often referred to a speech given many years ago by the notable civil liberties lawyer William Kunstler, which showed how some of the most noteworthy crimes in history — from the executions of Socrates and Jesus to the Nazi Holocaust — have been perpetrated under the color of "the Law." My point is that men (sic) make the laws and the victors write the history. Take the issue under consideration in the following article, Snowden's uncovering of NSA bulk surveillance. A federal appeals court says it is illegal. This will be appealed to the Supreme Court, which could well reverse with the result that was illegal one day becomes legal the next.
The Law and the judicial system are sacred and not to be taken lightly. But in the final analysis, it comes down who holds political and economic and military power. And in our world today those who own and operate monopoly capitalism are in the driver's seat. Justice will not come about until they are dislodged.
A federal appeals court has ruled that one of the NSA programs he exposed was illegal.
Mark Blinch / Reuters
Conor Friedersdorf May 11, 2015 http://www.theatlantic.com
Edward Snowden's most famous leak has just been vindicated. Since June 2013, when he revealed that the telephone calls of Americans are being logged en masse, his critics have charged that he took it upon himself to expose a lawful secret. They insisted that Congress authorized the phone dragnet when it passed the U.S.A. Patriot Act, citing Section 215, a part of the law that pertains to business records.
That claim was always suspect. The text of the law does not seem to authorize mass surveillance. A primary author and longtime champion of the law avows that Congress never intended to authorize the phone dragnet. And nothing like it was ever discussed during an extensive, controversy-filled debate about its provisions.
Now the wrongheadedness of the national-security state's position has been confirmed.
A panel of judges on the Second Circuit Court of Appeals ruled last week that the program Snowden exposed was never legal. The Patriot Act does not authorize it, contrary to the claims of George W. Bush, Barack Obama, Michael Hayden, Keith Alexander, and James Clapper. "Statutes to which the government points have never been interpreted to authorize anything approaching the breadth of the sweeping surveillance at issue here," Judge Gerard E. Lynch declared. "The sheer volume of information sought is staggering."
Other conclusions reached by the three-judge panel include the following:
"The interpretation that the government asks us to adopt defies any limiting principle."
"We would expect such a momentous decision to be preceded by substantial debate, and expressed in unmistakable language.There is no evidence of such a debate …"
"Congress cannot reasonably be said to have ratified a program of which many members of Congress—and all members of the public—were not aware … only a limited subset of members of Congress had a comprehensive understanding of the program…"
"Finding the government's interpretation of the statute to have been 'legislatively ratified' under these circumstances would ignore reality."
Consider what this means.
Telling the public about the phone dragnet didn't expose a legitimate state secret. It exposed a violation of the constitutional order. For many years, the executive branch carried out a hugely consequential policy change that the legislature never approved. Tens of millions of innocent U.S. citizens were thus subject to invasions of privacy that no law authorized. And the NSA's unlawful behavior would've continued, unknown to the public and unreviewed by Article III courts, but for Snowden's leak, which caused the ACLU to challenge the illegal NSA program.
Snowden undeniably violated his promise to keep the NSA's secrets.
But doing so was the only way to fulfill his higher obligation to protect and defend the Constitution, which was being violated by an executive branch exceeding its rightful authority and usurping the lawmaking function that belongs to the legislature. This analysis pertains only to the leaked documents that exposed the phone dragnet, not the whole trove of Snowden leaks, but with respect to that one set of documents there ought to be unanimous support for pardoning his disclosure.
Any punishment for revealing the phone dragnet would be unjust.
Now that a federal appeals court has found that Section 215 of the Patriot Act did not in fact authorize the policy, punishing a man for exposing the program would set this precedent: Whistleblowers will be punished for revealing illegal surveillance. That's the position anyone who still wants Snowden prosecuted for that leak must take, if the ruling stands. (Other federal courts have issued rulings pointing in contrary directions, and this latest ruling will likely be appealed.)
Related Story
Does the PATRIOT Act Allow Bulk Surveillance?
Consider how this federal court ruling informs the debate over state secrets generally. Civil libertarians have long warned that secret national-security policies undermine both representative democracy and our system of checks and balances.
And that is exactly what happened with respect to the phone dragnet!
Jeb 'Put Me Through Hell' February 27, 2015
Posted by rogerhollander in Constitution, Criminal Justice, Jeb Bush, Right Wing.Tags: 2016 election, bob schindler, jeb bush, jeff nguyen, michael kruse, michael schiavo, right to life, right wing, roger hollander, roman catholic, terri schiavo, terri's law
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Roger's note: I post this article so that you can get an idea of what kind of man is the very possible next US president. This is a well researched piece of investigative journalism, and the apparent reason for this labor is to warn of us of a possible future president who is an uncompromising ideologue who puts himself above the law. Now, I have no love for Jeb Bush, but I find something ironic in this.
Most presidents do in fact put themselves above the law and usually get away with it. Poor Dick Nixon put himself so far above the law that he ended up hoisted on his own petard. He is the exception. The current and penultimate president have taken this putting themselves above the law to new heights (including but not limited to brutal torture, drone missile mass murder and presidential kill lists). Tricky Dick would be envious. Irony number one, you can warn us all you want about Jeb Bush, but you can bet on the fact that whomever becomes the next president — from super-hawk Democrat Hillary Clinton to the wackiest of the Republican menagerie — will continue in this honored tradition.
Irony number two: as you will see, in the end Bush did in fact respect the law when all political channels had been exhausted, and, as you will also see, the nut case murderous pro-lifers (sic) saw him thus as a traitor to the cause.
Finally, thanks to Jeff Nguyen for posting this on his excellent Blog (www.deconstructingmyths.com).
Posted on January 19, 2015by Jeff Nguyen
Once in a while I come across an article that, in my not-so-humble opinion, is so outstanding, I want to share it with anyone who will listen. I especially enjoy long-form articles which can provide a venue for deep dives into genres such as creative nonfiction or narrative journalism. I would now like to present the Longform series…
Jeb 'Put Me Through Hell'
By Michael Kruse
CLEARWATER, Fla.—Sitting recently on his brick back patio here, Michael Schiavo called Jeb Bush a vindictive, untrustworthy coward.
For years, the self-described "average Joe" felt harassed, targeted and tormented by the most important person in the state.
"It was a living hell," he said, "and I blame him."
Michael Schiavo was the husband of Terri Schiavo, the brain-dead woman from the Tampa Bay area who ended up at the center of one of the most contentious, drawn-out conflicts in the history of America's culture wars. The fight over her death lasted almost a decade. It started as a private legal back-and-forth between her husband and her parents. Before it ended, it moved from circuit courts to district courts to state courts to federal courts, to the U.S. Supreme Court, from the state legislature in Tallahassee to Congress in Washington. The president got involved. So did the pope.
But it never would have become what it became if not for the dogged intervention of the governor of Florida at the time, the second son of the 41st president, the younger brother of the 43rd, the man who sits near the top of the extended early list of likely 2016 Republican presidential candidates. On sustained, concentrated display, seen in thousands of pages of court records and hundreds of emails he sent, was Jeb the converted Catholic, Jeb the pro-life conservative, Jeb the hands-on workaholic, Jeb the all-hours emailer—confident, competitive, powerful, obstinate Jeb. Longtime watchers of John Ellis Bush say what he did throughout the Terri Schiavo case demonstrates how he would operate in the Oval Office. They say it's the Jebbest thing Jeb's ever done.
The case showed he "will pursue whatever he thinks is right, virtually forever," said Aubrey Jewett, a political science professor at the University of Central Florida. "It's a theme of Jeb's governorship: He really pushed executive power to the limits."
"If you want to understand Jeb Bush, he's guided by principle over convenience," said Dennis Baxley, a Republican member of the Florida House of Representatives during Bush's governorship and still. "He may be wrong about something, but he knows what he believes."
And what he believed in this case, and what he did, said Miami's Dan Gelber, a Democratic member of the state House during Bush's governorship, "probably was more defining than I suspect Jeb would like."
For Michael Schiavo, though, the importance of the episode—Bush's involvement from 2003 to 2005, and what it might mean now for his almost certain candidacy—is even more viscerally obvious.
Jeb Bush speaks to reporters during a news conference about Terri Schiavo on March 18, 2005. | AP Photo
"He should be ashamed," he said. "And I think people really need to know what type of person he is. To bring as much pain as he did, to me and my family, that should be an issue."
November 10, 1984, is when they got married; February 25, 1990, is when she collapsed, early in the morning, in their apartment in St. Petersburg, for reasons that never were determined with specificity but had something to do with a potassium imbalance probably caused by aggressive dieting. Michael Schiavo woke up when he heard her fall. She was facedown, feet in the bathroom, head in the hall. He called 911. Police noted in their report "no signs of trauma to her head or face." The ambulance raced to the closest hospital, but her heart had stopped, robbing her brain of oxygen, and the damage was catastrophic. A court named her husband her guardian that June. Her parents didn't object. All of this was before Bush was elected. And after years of rehabilitation, of waiting for any sign of improvement and seeing none, Michael Schiavo decided to remove the feeding tube that kept his wife alive, saying she had told him and others she never would've wanted to be this way.
To this, Terri Schiavo's parents objected. Bob and Mary Schindler, Catholics, argued that their daughter, also Catholic, would want to live, even so debilitated.
She had left no will. No written instructions. She was 26. To try to determine what she would have wanted, there was a trial, in the Pinellas County courtroom of circuit judge George Greer, in which Michael Schiavo relayed what she had told him in passing about what her wishes would be in this sort of scenario. Others did, too. She also had next to no chance of recovery, according to doctors' testimony. Greer cited "overwhelming credible evidence" that Terri Schiavo was "totally unresponsive" with "severe structural brain damage" and that "to a large extent her brain has been replaced by spinal fluid." His judgment was that she would not have wanted to live in her "persistent vegetative state" and that Michael Schiavo, her husband and her legal guardian, was allowed to remove her feeding tube.
"DONE AND ORDERED," he wrote on February 11, 2000.
The St. Petersburg Times had covered the trial. Bush, a year and a month into his first term, started hearing about it almost immediately. Staffers replied at first with a variety of form responses.
"The Florida Constitution prohibits the Governor's intervention in matters that should be resolved through the court system," read one. But here's what else it said: "As a concerned citizen, you have the opportunity to influence legislation pertaining to guardianship matters in cases similar to Terri's. By contacting your local legislative delegation, such as your senator or representative, new legislation can be introduced. If such a bill ever comes before the Governor for signature, he will certainly remember your views."
Bush couldn't do anything. Laws didn't let him. But that didn't mean he didn't want to. He did.
He heard from Terri Schiavo's father in April 2001. "Allow me to introduce myself," Bob Schindler wrote in an email. He told the governor his daughter had been "falsely depicted" as a "hopeless vegetable." He told the governor she was indeed "responsive to family and friends." "I desperately need your help," he said, adding that "Terri's case may be beyond your realm of authority"—Schindler knew it, too—"but I sincerely believe you could be helpful."
Staffers didn't respond to Bob Schindler's email. The governor did.
Mr. Schindler, thank you for writing. I am asking that Charles Canady look into your daughter's case.
Jeb Bush
Canady had been a Republican member of the United States House of Representatives. He later would be an appellate judge in Florida. He is now a state Supreme Court judge. At the time, though, he was Bush's top staff attorney.
Meanwhile, the Schindlers appealed, asking for new trials, asking for delays, asking for Greer to recuse himself, asking to remove Michael Schiavo as her guardian based on unproven allegations of abuse and neglect and because he now was living with another woman with whom he had children, asking for new doctors who might make new diagnoses—and they were sufficiently successful to stretch the case into the summer of 2003. Media coverage had intensified, especially on conservative talk radio and websites, and activists convinced the Schindlers to violate a court order and post on the Internet snippets of videos of their daughter appearing to respond to what was going on around her. They also continued their zealous email campaign to attempt to prevent what they saw as imminent court-dictated murder. The top target of their efforts? Bush.
"I'm really limited on what I can do," the governor reiterated to the conservative online publication World Net Daily in August. A judge had made a decision. Other judges had upheld the decision.
The emails flooded the governor's inbox.
Bush responded by sending a letter to Greer. He acknowledged it was out of the ordinary. "I normally would not address a letter to the judge in a pending legal proceeding," Bush wrote. "However, my office has received over 27,000 emails reflecting understandable concern for the well-being of Terri Schiavo."
Greer said he respected the governor's position. Then he put the letter with everything else in the already massive file.
"This isn't his concern," Michael Schiavo told reporters, "and he should stay out of it."
He didn't. Bush filed a federal court brief on October 7 supporting the Schindlers' efforts. A judge said his court lacked the jurisdiction to do anything.
The feeding tube was to come out on October 15.
Bush met with the Schindlers. He told them his staff attorneys were conferring with experts on the Florida Constitution to see if he could intervene. "He does not have the authority to overrule a court order," his spokesman told reporters.
The emails didn't stop.
They came from all over the country. They begged him. They used capital letters. They used exclamation points. They told him to talk to God. They told him there were laws higher than man's laws and that he, as a Catholic like Terri Schiavo, like her parents, should know that and should act on it and that he had to. "DO NOT LET HER DIE!!!" said a man from Michigan. "Let's see what kind of compassionate conservative you really are," said a man from Jacksonville. "If you have any aspirations for a higher office," said a man from California, "don't let this be the rallying cry for those who would oppose you."
To most of them, he didn't respond—to many, though, he did.
"It is very sad," he wrote.
"I cannot issue an executive order when there is a court order upheld at every level in the judiciary. … I wish I could but I have no legal authority to do so," he wrote.
"I am sickened by this situation and pray for her family. We have looked at every angle, every legal possibility, and will continue to do so," he wrote.
The emails kept coming.
"I hope George W. Bush is president some day," former Republican Party chairman Rich Bond told the late Marjorie Williams, writing for Talk magazine in September 2000. "I know Jeb will be."
"I want to be able to look my father in the eye and say, 'I continued the legacy,'" he told the Miami Herald in 1994.
That year, he ran for governor of Florida—as an ultra-conservative, a "head-banging conservative," as he put it—and lost. In 1998, he ran again, sanding those hard-right edges—and won.
But one constant from the first campaign to the next and beyond: what Bush said he believed was the right role of government. "Government needs to be constrained," he said in speeches in 1994. "We should be finding practical solutions where we provide incentives for people to take care of themselves." "Our lack of self-governance is the single biggest reason we've seen the growth of government," he said in 1995. "Good government," he wrote that year in his book Profiles in Character, "is grounded in its limitations."
In 1999, in his first inaugural address, he said, "let state government give families and individuals greater freedom"—also, though, "let state government touch the spiritual face of Florida." In the speech, he mentioned "our Creator" and "the Divine Giver" and said "state government can draw much from these reservoirs of faith." He was raised as an Episcopalian but became a Catholic because that's how his Mexican wife grew up. It also suited his disposition. He wrote in Profiles in Character that he believed in the need for a "renewal of virtue" and "passing moral judgments." He once said "the conservative side" of an issue is "the correct one" because "it just is."
Bush, 6-foot-4 and stout, quickly established himself as the most powerful governor in Florida history, according to University of North Florida political science professor Matthew Corrigan and others. His ascension coincided with both houses of the state legislature being Republican majorities for the first time since Reconstruction. Voters also opted to alter the state constitution to shrink the size of the cabinet, leaving the governor, the position itself, with more executive power. Bush did a lot with it. He was reelected in 2002, easily, winning 61 of the state's 67 counties. By this time, of course, his brother was the president.
"He didn't get told no very often," Corrigan said.
"My gift, perhaps," Bush would say toward the end of his two-term tenure, in an interview with the Tampa Tribune, "is that with this office now, we've shown that governors can be activist …"
So on October 15, 2003, Terri Schiavo's feeding tube came out. Judge's orders. She would die within two weeks. This stage of the case looks in retrospect like the start of a test. Just how much power did Jeb Bush have?
HB 35E was filed after 8 at night on October 20. Many lawmakers already were gone for the day. Gelber, the state representative from Miami, put his suit back on at his apartment in Tallahassee and hustled back to the Capitol. Fellow Democrats gathered around as the attorney and former prosecutor began to read the bill one of Bush's staff attorneys had helped to write.
"Authority for the Governor to Issue a One-time Stay …"
Gelber looked up.
"I don't have to read anymore," he said. "It's clearly unconstitutional."
"The governor can't just change an order of the court," Gelber explained this month. "It's one of the most elemental concepts of democracy: The governor is not a king."
The rest of the language described a situation involving a patient with no written will, in a persistent vegetative state, with a family conflict, whose feeding tube had been removed. Terri Schiavo. It gave the governor a 15-day window to step in.
"The courts have listened to sworn testimony and they have determined, court after court, one way," said state Senator Alex Villalobos, a Republican from Miami.
But it passed in the House, and it passed in the Senate.
Bush signed it, and Chapter No. 2003-418, "Terri's Law," as it came to be known, was official less than 22 hours after it had been introduced. He then issued Executive Order 03-201. "The Florida Department of Law Enforcement shall serve a copy of this Executive Order upon the medical facility currently providing care for Theresa Schiavo," it stated. A police-escorted ambulance whisked her from her hospice in Pinellas Park to a nearby hospital to have her feeding tube put back in.
"The citizens of Florida should be alarmed by what is happening," George Felos, one of Michael Schiavo's attorneys, told reporters. "This is not the former Soviet Bloc, where you don't have the liberty to control your own body."
Even one of the law's architects up in Tallahassee expressed unease.
"I hope, I really do hope, we've done the right thing," Republican state Senate president Jim King said. "I keep thinking, 'What if Terri Schiavo really didn't want this at all?' May God have mercy on us all."
Bush had no such qualms.
"I honestly believe we did the right thing," the governor wrote to one emailer.
The emails poured in. Some chided him. More praised him.
One arrived with the subject line "Oh Great One!!" Another woman wondered: "How does it feel to be not only a child of God's, but to actually feel His Hand guiding you and using you as an instrument to do His work on earth?" A husband and wife wrote to him from near Philadelphia: "I wish we lived in Florida and could support you directly—maybe you'll run for President one day??"
"Yes," said President George W. Bush, in late October, at a news conference in the Rose Garden, "I believe my brother made the right decision."
"Terri's Law" had mandated the appointment of a guardian ad litem, and Jay Wolfson, a respected lawyer and professor of public health at the Stetson University College of Law and the University of South Florida, issued his report in December. Wolfson had spent a month reading the court records, observing Terri Schiavo, meeting with Michael Schiavo and the Schindlers and their attorneys, and also the governor, who struck him as "a very intense, highly committed, very informed, faith-driven person who believed in doing the right thing, and doing so through the governor's office."
Left: A supporter of Terri Schiavo keeps vigil outside the hospice where she was being held in Pinellas Park, Florida. Right: Mary Porta prays for Terri Schiavo in Pinellas Park, Florida. | Getty Images
None of this was "easy stuff," Wolfson noted in his report, "and should not be." Nonetheless, he wrote, Terri Schiavo was in "a persistent vegetative state with no likelihood of improvement" and "cannot take oral nutrition or hydration and cannot consciously interact with her environment." He wrote that the practically unprecedented amount of litigation consisted of "competent, well-documented information" and was "firmly grounded within Florida statutory and case law."
In parts, too, Wolfson was prescient: "The Governor's involvement has added a new and unexpected dimension to the litigation. It is reasonable to expect that the exquisite lawyering will continue, and the greatly enhanced public visibility of the case may increase the probability of more litigation, more parties entering as interveners, and efforts to expand the case into federal jurisdiction."
Soon after that, the pope weighed in.
Without using the name Terri Schiavo, but clearly referring to her, John Paul II said "the administration of water and food, even when provided by artificial means, always represents a natural means of preserving life, not a medical act. Its use, furthermore, should be considered in principle, ordinary and proportionate, and as such morally obligatory …"
Back in Florida, though, the courts were focused not so much on what was "morally obligatory" but more on what was legally mandatory.
A circuit judge ruled Bush's "Terri's Law" unconstitutional.
"The court must assume that this extraordinary legislation was enacted with the best intentions and prompted by sincere motives," W. Douglas Baird wrote in his ruling. He then quoted Daniel Webster, a lawyer and senator, who died in 1852: "It is hardly too strong to say that the Constitution was made to guard the people against the dangers of good intentions. There are men in all ages who mean to govern well, but they mean to govern. They promise to be good masters, but they mean to be masters."
The Schindlers' attorneys appealed. The Florida Supreme Court was up next.
Bob Destro, an attorney and professor at the law school at the Catholic University of America in Washington, joined Bush's legal team and emerged from meetings with the governor thinking "this was something he felt very deeply about … that this was a decision that he made, personally, and that he saw this as a question of an injustice being done."
The state supreme court judges listened to arguments the last day of August.
After the hearing was over, outside the courthouse in Tallahassee, Michael Schiavo angrily asked reporters about the whereabouts of Bush.
"If this was so important to the governor, where is he?" he said. He then got personal, referring to Bush's daughter, Noelle, who had been arrested in 2002 after trying to buy Xanax with a forged prescription and then relapsed in rehab. "I can remember you sitting here in front of every one of these reporters with tears in your eyes when your daughter had problems," he raged, "and you asked for privacy and you got it. Why aren't you giving me my privacy and Terri her privacy?"
The seven state supreme court judges took less than a month to dismiss unanimously "Terri's Law."
"If the Legislature with the assent of the Governor can do what was attempted here," chief justice Barbara Pariente wrote in her ruling, "the judicial branch would be subordinated to the final directive of the other branches. Also subordinated would be the rights of individuals, including the well-established privacy right to self-determination. No court judgment could ever be considered truly final and no constitutional right truly secure, because the precedent of this case would hold to the contrary. Vested rights could be stripped away based on popular clamor. The essential core of what the Founding Fathers sought to change from their experience with English rule would be lost …"
Bush told reporters he was "disappointed, not for any political reasons, but for the moral reasons." He said he didn't think it had been "a full hearing." Legal analysts disagreed. They called the ruling a categorical rebuke of what Bush had done.
The governor responded by petitioning the U.S. Supreme Court to review the decision.
The words at the top of the docket of the country's highest court were black-and-white blunt about what this had become: JEB BUSH, Governor of the State of Florida, v. MICHAEL SCHIAVO, Guardian: Theresa Schiavo.
The U.S. Supreme Court refused to review it.
"It means that the governor's interference in this case has ended," said Felos, Michael Schiavo's attorney.
"This matter is now at an end for the governor," said Ken Connor, another one of Bush's attorneys.
It did not. It was not.
That week, Connor, the Bush attorney, sent an email to two of Bush's staff attorneys. "Here is an op-ed I drafted for Dan Webster," Connor wrote. Connor was active in social conservative causes and organizations. Webster was a Florida state senator, and this Dan Webster, not the lawyer and senator from the 1800s, had beliefs that couldn't have been more different than those of his namesake.
The op-ed Connor had written ran under Webster's name on Page 10A of USA Today on January 27, 2005. "By any definition, Terri Schiavo is alive," the op-ed said. "She has now been issued a death sentence by the courts." Serial killers, like Ted Bundy, it said, had more rights on death row than Terri Schiavo did at her hospice.
Connor talked on the phone with Dave Weldon, a Republican Congressman from Florida who also was a doctor. Weldon says Connor called him; Connor says it was the other way around—either way, it led to Weldon meeting with the Schindlers in Washington.
At left, Bobby Schindler attends a special session in Congress to express his sentiments before a right-to-die debate among senators and representatives. At right, activists pray in front of the U.S. Supreme Court for Terri Schiavo on March 24, 2005. | Getty Images
"They showed me some videos of them walking into her room and calling her name and her face lit up and she smiled," Weldon, no longer in Congress, said this month. "They said, 'She does that all the time, she's not a vegetable,' and they said a bunch of stuff about the husband and were very critical of him, that he had a new girlfriend or something like that. And I felt very compelled." That, he said, is when he "got Mel Martinez involved."
Martinez, then a Republican from Florida in the U.S. Senate, talked with Bush. "He's been saying, 'I'm not sure we can get it done here in Florida,'" Martinez told the Palm Beach Post. Martinez told Bush he and Bill Frist, at the time the Senate majority leader, were ready to do what they could in Washington but that it wouldn't be easy.
On March 14, a woman from Clearwater named Pamela Hennessy, who had helped stoke the email onslaught that spurred "Terri's Law," emailed Bush, too. She attached a letter she had addressed to the hospice saying she intended to "file formal complaints" to the state Department of Children and Families. The hope was that the agency charged with protecting mainly kids and the elderly might intervene in this case.
Bush wrote back: "thank you Pamela."
On March 18, in Pinellas Park, Terri Schiavo's feeding tube was removed again.
"If she dies, I will kill Michael Schiavo and the judge," a woman in California wrote on an AOL message board. "This is real!" She was arrested.
On a different message board, at blogsforterri.com, an anonymous poster called The Coming Conflict declared, "FL gun owners, it's in your hands."
Michael Schiavo and the mother of his two kids got letters addressed to their "Illegitimate Bastard Children" talking about how sometimes kids disappear.
Up in Washington, Congress debated the case of Terri Schiavo, searching for possible methods of federal intervention—with Frist and Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert, both of whom now say they don't want to talk about it, vowing to work together through the weekend of Palm Sunday if necessary. A memo that came from Martinez's office called it "a great political issue" for Republicans. Frist, a surgeon from Tennessee, said on the Senate floor that Schiavo didn't seem to him to be in a vegetative state, based on his viewing of the Schindlers' video snippets. Senator Rick Santorum from Pennsylvania called the removal of the feeding tube "a sentence that would not be placed on the worst criminal." Majority Leader Tom DeLay led the way in the House. Santorum and Frist did in the Senate. Few members of Congress spoke against it. South Florida Congresswoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz was one. "There is no room for the federal government in this most personal of private angst-ridden family members," she said. Republican John Warner from Virginia was the only senator to speak against it. Hillary Clinton from New York didn't. Neither did Barack Obama from Illinois. A bill emerged from the Senate after midnight on March 21 that would let the Schindlers ask the federal courts to take another look at the decision made by the state courts.
President Bush flew on Air Force One from vacation in Crawford, Texas, back to Washington to sign it into law just after 1 in the morning.
"Our society, our laws and our courts should have a presumption in favor of life," he said in a statement.
His brother issued a statement of his own: "I thank the Congress for its swift action allowing Terri's parents to seek a federal review of the case." He echoed the op-ed that had run in USA Today. "Certainly, an incapacitated person deserves at least the same protection afforded criminals sentenced to death."
Michael Schiavo called the federal legislation "outrageous." If politicians are allowed to meddle with him like this, he said, "they'll do it to every person in this country."
A federal judge in Tampa heard attorneys' arguments for the justification of the relitigation of a case that had been up and down the judicial ladder for the better part of a decade. He said no. The federal legislation had failed. The feeding tube stayed out, and Terri Schiavo neared death.
Bush's last-ditch effort involved the Department of Children and Families. Attorneys for the state agency made motions to intervene based on thousands of anonymous allegations of abuse against Terri Schiavo. Bush ordered the mobilization of officers from the Florida Department of Law Enforcement—in essence his own police force—and they readied to seize Terri Schiavo if a court order allowed it. "I requested that FDLE in concert with the Department of Children and Families be prepared to enter," Bush told reporters, "if that was going to be the option available to us"—which it wasn't, because judges said no. "We were ready to go," a Bush spokesman told the Miami Herald. "We didn't want to break the law."
"I cannot violate a court order," Bush told CNN on March 27.
People in his email inbox continued to plead with him to do exactly that.
"I do not have the authority that you suggest I have," Bush responded to one of them. "Under your thesis of executive authority, should I shut down abortion clinics since I abhor abortion?"
On March 30, meanwhile, Bush called a woman in Tampa named Dawn Armstrong, whose husband, Staff Sgt. Robert Armstrong, had died of a heart attack two days before in Camp Shelby, Mississippi, while readying for deployment to Afghanistan. She emailed him later that night, thanking him for "the time you took out of your busy day to express your sorrow for the loss of my husband."
On March 31, at 6:29 a.m., Bush responded. "Bless you Dawn," he wrote. "Please let me know if I can be of assistance to you."
Two and a half hours later, across the bay from Tampa, at the hospice in Pinellas Park, Terri Schiavo died.
Shortly after 12:30, Bush got another email from Dawn Armstrong. "I will be deriving strength from many sources—one source of strength is from you, Governor," she wrote. "We have witnessed your steadfastness in the face of many challenges for a very long time now …" She continued: "May God grant us all the peace we so long for, in His perfect timing. Take care. I'll be praying for you and your administration."
Later that night, just before 9, Bush wrote back.
you are making me cry. Maybe it is the day with Terri's death. I don't know but the fact that you would write what you did given your loss, makes me thank God Almighty that there are people like yourself. I am nothing.
Let me know how I can ever be of help to you and your family.
Terri Schiavo's death did not spell the end of the governor's intervention in her case.
One email suggested the firing of Greer.
"I will look into this," the governor responded.
In an email to one of his staff attorneys, less than 48 hours after the death, Bush asked about her autopsy. "We need to get the details of the autopsy," he wrote, "meaning what was done if possible."
The staff attorney responded: "I got an update this morning from FDLE. Six board certified examiners participated. They were attuned to the issues involved. Are working on their reports." She added: "Santorum's office called me yesterday …"
In early May, Bush gave a speech in Savannah, Georgia, at the state's Republican convention, in which he stressed that the party had to be uncompromising in what he saw as "a time of moral ambivalence."
"There is such a thing as right and wrong," he said. "Republicans cannot continue to win unless we talk with compassion and passion about absolute truth."
Saxby Chambliss, then a senator from Georgia, followed by telling the crowd he wanted this Bush to be the next Bush in the White House. He asked the people what they thought. They hollered their approval.
In June, the medical examiner released Terri Schiavo's autopsy, which confirmed what the judges had ruled for years based on the testimony from doctors concerning her prognosis. Her limbs had atrophied, and her hands had clenched into claws, and her brain had started to disappear. It weighed barely more than a pound and a third, less than half the size it would have been under normal circumstances. "No remaining discernible neurons," the autopsy said. She couldn't see. She couldn't feel, not even pain. Forty-one years after her birth, 15 years after her collapse, Terri Schiavo was literally a shell of who she had been.
Bush read the autopsy—then wrote a letter to the top prosecutor in Pinellas County. He raised questions about Michael Schiavo's involvement in her collapse and about the quickness of his response calling 911. "I urge you," the governor wrote to Bernie McCabe, "to take a fresh look at this case without any preconceptions as to the outcome."
McCabe, a Republican, responded less than two weeks later, saying he and his staff "have attempted to follow this sound advice"—without any preconceptions—"unlike some pundits, some 'experts,' some email and Web-based correspondents, and even some institutions of government that have, in my view, reached conclusions regarding the controversy …" McCabe's assessment: "all available records" were "not indicative of criminal activity."
Bush relented. "I will follow your recommendation," he wrote to McCabe, "that the inquiry by the state be closed."
Michael Schiavo buried the ashes of his wife in a cemetery not far from his house.
Today, looking back, what makes Felos, the attorney for Michael Schiavo, angriest about the case is Bush's letter to McCabe. Even after 18 months of legal wrangling, even after her death, even after the autopsy—after all that—the governor asked a prosecutor to initiate a retroactive criminal investigation of his client. It struck Felos as "odd," "bizarre"—"personal."
Michael Schiavo at home. "He should be ashamed," Schiavo said of Jeb Bush. "To bring as much pain as he did, to me and my family, that should be an issue." | Maggie Steber/Redux for POLITICO Magazine
"It was such an abuse of authority," Felos said. "I think that really raises red flags about his character and his fitness to be president. Jeb didn't get his way in the Schiavo case. I think he tried to take it out on Michael."
That, Michael Schiavo said this month, is what makes Jeb Bush "vindictive." "Knowing that he had no standing in this, he made it worse for everybody," he said. "He made life, for a lot of people—the nursing home people, the local police, lawyers—he made everybody miserable."
What makes him "untrustworthy," he said, is that he fought the courts as long as he did just because he didn't like the decisions they kept making. "I wouldn't trust him in any type of political office," he said.
But for the now former governor of Florida, the second son of the 41st president, the younger brother of the 43rd, the man who sits near the top of the extended early list of likely 2016 Republican presidential candidates — what makes him a "coward," Michael Schiavo said, sitting on his brick back patio, is that they've still never talked.
Bush has never said he's sorry. He wasn't. What he was sorry about is how it turned out. "I wish I could have done more," he told reporters the day of the death.
Other politicians have said they're sorry, though, Michael Schiavo said. "I've had politicians come to my home and apologize to me for what they did to me." Names? "No names." But he mentioned Barack Obama and something he said during a debate in Cleveland with Hillary Clinton during the Democratic presidential primaries in early 2008. The question was about what he'd like to have back.
"Well, you know, when I first arrived in the Senate that first year," Obama said, "we had a situation surrounding Terri Schiavo. And I remember how we adjourned with a unanimous agreement that eventually allowed Congress to interject itself into that decision-making process of the families.
"It wasn't something I was comfortable with, but it was not something I stood on the floor and stopped. And I think that was a mistake, and I think the American people understood that was a mistake. And as a constitutional law professor, I knew better."
Did Obama apologize to Michael Schiavo? In a call? At his house? "I can't comment on that," Schiavo said with a smile.
"But I never heard from Jeb," he said.
What would Jeb Bush say to Michael Schiavo now? Nothing. He didn't want to talk about the Schiavo case for this story.
What would Michael Schiavo, though, say to Jeb Bush?
"Bring it on," he said. "Come visit me. I'm asking you. Almost 10 years later and I still haven't heard from you.
"Was he afraid to meet with me? To see me? Why? That's what burns me. You got so much to say—but where are you? You lost against this little ordinary man from Philadelphia. You lost. And then to continue on? Unspeakable.
"Why? Give me an answer. Why? Why? What was Terri Schiavo to you? Why? Tell me why. Why do you think you had the right to be involved? Why would you put me and my family through hell? And what did you gain from that? And after you lost, why did you pursue it? What did you gain from that?"
The emails didn't stop.
"Please do not run for President of the United States," a man from Goshen, Connecticut, wrote. "If you cannot protect the life of an innocent woman in Florida, how can I expect you to protect the United States of America as Commander in Chief?"
The governor also heard from people like Rick Warren. "On behalf of everyone who truly understood the issues, thank you for doing all you could for Terri Schiavo," the evangelical megachurch pastor and author of the bestselling book The Purpose Driven Life wrote to Bush in an email. "It's a sad ending but you lead the right side with courage and conviction. I'm proud to call you my friend."
"Thank you so much," Bush responded. "You have lifted my spirits."
Bobby Schindler, Terri Schiavo's brother, emailed to say that "in time everyone in my family will understand your situation and that you were doing your best …" "I think he probably did as much as possible within his jurisdiction at the time," he added this month.
"I found him to be a person of principles, and I hold his actions in the Schiavo case in esteem," said David Gibbs III, one of the Schindlers' attorneys. Gibbs said that as "a devout Catholic," Bush was "very personally bothered" by the case and that the governor felt what he did "was the right thing to do."
Polls showed majorities of people in Florida and around the country disagreed. They objected to his intervention as well as the ensuing flurry of federal involvement. Some of the most fervent believers in what he had done turned on him because of what he had not. They said he "blinked." "He failed us miserably with Terri Schiavo," Troy Newman, president of the anti-abortion group Operation Rescue, said this month. "If Jeb had acted, Terri Schiavo would be alive today."
Still, said Connor, the Bush attorney, "I never, ever heard Jeb Bush waver in the midst of the political fallout. He was steadfast."
That's what bothers his critics.
Maggie Steber/Redux for POLITICO Magazine
"He doesn't accept loss. He doesn't accept that the answer is no. He couldn't possibly consider that he may be wrong," Wasserman Schultz said this month. "If he had the chance to be president, he'll do what he's always done—he'll do everything he can to implement his very rigid, ideological view of how the world should be. Voters are going to have to ask: Do you want a president who thinks the executive, the president, is supreme, above all else? It's frightening to think about what he could do with that kind of power as president."
"Trying to write laws that clearly are outside the constitutionality of his state, trying to override the entire judicial system, that's very, very dangerous," said Arthur Caplan, a New York University bioethicist who edited a book about the Schiavo case. "When you're willing to do that, you're willing to break the back of the country."
"It was appalling," said Jon Eisenberg, one of Michael Schiavo's attorneys and the author of The Right vs. the Right to Die. "And I think it's important for people to understand what Jeb Bush is willing to do. It's important for people to know who Jeb Bush is, and the Terri Schiavo case tells us a great deal about who Jeb Bush is."
The Jebbest thing Jeb's ever done hasn't been an issue so far in Bush's pre-campaign because it won't help his potential opponents in the primaries. They're trying to paint him as a moderate. This demonstrates the opposite.
"People who agree he's a conservative point to the Schiavo case," Florida International University political science professor Dario Moreno said this month.
So most of the talk has touched on his more measured stances on immigration and Common Core. He's been portrayed as a cerebral policy wonk in contrast to his father, the solicitous writer of thank you notes, and his brother, the clownin'-around worker of rooms. This bloodless depiction, though, ignores the intensity, the vehemence, the practically gladiatorial certitude with which he pursued what he wanted in the Schiavo case, and more generally the fervid way in which he believes in what he believes—that "absolute truth" he talked about in his speech in Savannah, two months after the death of Terri Schiavo, and one month before he asked the prosecutor to investigate her husband.
(Source: POLITICO Magazine)
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'Gagged' by the Government December 26, 2014
Posted by rogerhollander in Civil Liberties, Constitution, Criminal Justice, Surveillance State.Tags: alfredo lopez, civil liberties, gag order, national security letter, police state, roger hollander
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Roger's note: Here is a phrase I find myself using with increasing frequency: "this is truly frightening." Do you know what a National Security Letter is? Do you think that one in a hundred thousand Americans has any idea what a National Security Letter is, or that the notion even exists? It is a lock-you-up-and-throw-away-the-key kind of thing, the kind of thing Kafka and Orwell tried to warn us about. The government orders you to provide certain information. You will go to jail if you refuse to provide it. You are not allowed to tell anyone that you have been so ordered. You are not allowed to tell anyone that you have been ordered not to tell anyone. If you do, you will be financially ruined and thrown into jail. No appeal. No recourse. Add this to the loss of habeas corpus, indefinite detention, state sponsored and sanctioned systematic torture programs, and presidential kill lists. Does "truly frightening" really do the trick here anymore?
A Police State Story
For the past three months, I and other leaders of the organization May First/People Link have been under a federal subpoena to provide information we don't have. During that time, we have also been forbidden by a federal court "gag order" to tell anyone about that subpoena, although we had already announced it and commented on it before the order was sent. Finally, we were forbidden from telling anyone about the gag order itself.
It all sounds comical but any laughter would end if we violated that "gag order," because that would be a felony and we could face prison sentences and huge fines.
We were silenced by our own government in a case we had nothing to do with and over information we didn't have…and we couldn't tell anyone about any of it.
The court order has now expired as of December 18 and I am now free to talk about it.
It's actually not easy to write about. Not because it was very painful — it really wasn't. But it was so bizarre, illogical and foreign to my normal experience that it cut into the normal expectation of discourse and communications I, and people in this country, take for granted as a right. Not being able to talk about something and not being able to explain why was among the most surreal experiences I've had in nearly 50 years as an activist and, because of its implication, it was one of the most disturbing.
It's also difficult because I have no complete political context for this. I know there are many activists who are under such gag orders but I don't who they are. They are gagged and, while the order that restrained us came from a judge and had a three-month time limit, many of these orders are issued instead as a federal National Security Letter and they are open-ended. I know people who have been gagged for years and had to press hard to have the order lifted long after the relevant investigation was over.
I also know that about 300,000 such letters have been issued over the last ten years — over 140,000 between 2003 and 2005.
The numbers alone attest to the seriousness of this situation. So let me explain what happened to us.
Among other things, May First/People Link provides Internet hosting services to its members — like a web host. Most of our members are activists and activist organizations in the United States and Mexico but we have a few members in other countries who need the security of data and protection from government intrusion which we provide on principle.
We've been doing that for a decade and during that decade we have received many information requests, letters about investigations and other less official but just as daunting actions like threats from companies who believe their copyright has been violated in some satirical piece on them. We respond by resisting all these requests for as long as we can and usually the affected member tells us to comply. Since May First doesn't keep much recorded information on members, there's not much to turn over.
On September 5 this year, the Department of Justice (apparently cooperating with Greek law enforcement authorities) demanded account information about the Athens (Greece) Indymedia Center (IMC), one of our members. Although no government has confirmed this, we believe the target of the investigation was an activist organization wanted by Greek law enforcement that is believed to have used the Indymedia website at one point. There's nothing unique or surprising about that — IndyMedia is an international organization dedicated to providing news about movements world-wide, news which is often written by those movements. So anyone who wants to post on an Indymedia Center website is freely allowed to do so.
In fact, the Athens IMC had very little information on the organization under investigation. It doesn't maintain logs or records of visitors. It just had a couple of email addresses that the government already knew about. In other words, we didn't have anything the government wanted and couldn't turn over what we didn't have even if we wanted to. Normally, things would have ended there.
But this request was different from others we've received because the government subpoena demanded information not just for the Athens IMC but for the entire server their site is on. And that serve, which belongs to us, hosts many other May First members.
This was particularly egregious for two reasons. First, those other MF/PL members had nothing to do with this investigation and seizing their information not only violated the privacy and data protection principles we live by but it also violated any concept of responsible investigation. The government wanted us to turn over information about members who didn't even know anything about this case and who had no connection at all to Athens IMC (much less the target of the investigation).
Second, the Athens IMC itself wasn't suspected of doing anything illegal, but the Greek government could easily use information concerning it for repressive purposes. We knew there was nothing connected to its investigation on that server so why were these people trying to get this information?
After consulting with the Athens IMC, we refused to release personally identifying information to the government. We then publicly announced the existence of the subpoena to our membership and posted that information on our website.
Two weeks later, we were served with the gag order forbidding us from talking about the subpoena and forbidding us from even acknowledging to anyone outside our Leadership Committee that the order existed. That included friends, family, our membership and even the Athens IMC. We were to act as if nothing had happened even though we had already announced that it had.
We were informed that any violation of this order could result in fines and imprisonment, which could have destroyed the organization. Our lawyers from the Electronic Frontier Foundation advised us to comply.
I hate bullies and my natural inclination when I confront one is to push back. That's more or less what May First does in most of the legal cases we face. It wasn't the threat of a prison sentence that concerned us but a misstep in this case could mean a huge fine that would shut us down, closing down the websites and email accounts of thousands of activists. That would be movement-crippling and so we decided to follow our lawyers' advice and comply.
We heard nothing more from the government and haven't heard anything since. And that's the first absurdity in the whole tale.
You would think that not allowing a citizen to talk would be a pretty huge decision for the government in this country. But this was treated like a routine matter and that's because it is routine. It has become one of the government's favorite investigative tools and the specific kind of tool the government usually uses is a National Security Letter.
Essentially the NSL is a demand for certain information which always includes a gag order like the one we received (except ours came from the federal court itself). Under the Patriot Act, the FBI can issue such a letter (without a judge's approval or a hearing) if the agent running an ongoing investigation believes the information being sought is relevant to the case. Most of these letters are about illegal clandestine activities or terrorism but that's a pretty wide berth for any investigation. What's more, the letters never tell you what the investigation is about. There is no judicial review of the request required although, after the reform of the Patriot Act in 2006, you can appeal the letter to a federal judge. But the record shows that such appeals are almost never successful.
So you have to give up the information on people who expect that you will protect their information, never tell these people or anyone else you're doing it and never tell anybody that you can't tell them.
This alone shows that, in the United States, we have no privacy and, since you can't communicate with people about what you're being forced to do, no real freedom of speech.
To illustrate how absurd things got: I was contacted by several journalists from Greece who were, naturally, interested in a story about the US government cooperating with their own government's investigators.
One asked me, "Have you received this subpoena?" and I responded that we have issued a statement on it.
He then asked if there are new developments and I answered, "I am unable to further comment on this situation at this time."
These Greek reporters are clever souls so this one asked me, "Are you under a gag order from your government?"
I repeated my answer about not being able to comment. (By now I was starting to feel like the British Prime Minister during Minister's Questions in Parliament. "I refer the honorable gentleman to an answer I gave previously.")
Then, in the kind of question I would ask several times a week when I was working for a daily newspaper, he asked "Can we assume that this would be your answer if you were under a government gag order?"
My non-answer answer: "You can only assume what I have stated in my previous answer."
Any reporter with any experience would realize that I'm under a gag order at that point, so the whole thing was ridiculous, particularly because we had already published a statement about this before we were gagged.
But maybe this wasn't about not publishing the information. Maybe this was about exercising repressive power over a citizen…testing how far they can go, testing how much we will accept.
Because our order was issued by a federal judge, it was reviewed and had an expiration date. But if it had been issued through an NSL, the gag would be virtually permanent. If an activist believes that a particular government investigation is invasive (which it often is), that activist can never speak about it, comment on it, publicly analyze it. It becomes cloaked in the virtual smoke of a room of repression and constitutional violation.
That room is furnished the other accoutrements of a rapidly degenerating police-state society: cops killing young men of color without any real legal repercussion; a prison system bloated with young people that substitutes for gainful employment; a war policy that provides the only job potential young people have…to kill and die; a shocking policy of data gathering that violates every premise of privacy and civil rights; a democracy that is broken and manipulated as a matter of course and a government that is brazenly dysfunctional.
In that context of a society that clearly cannot be reformed, this absurd drama that would make Samuel Beckett proud makes a whole lot of sense. It's not about the information you can give the government, it's about blocking the information you can give other people.
For most of my life, people in this country have pointed out to me that at least we should be pleased that we can protest and that we have freedom of speech, privacy and association. But we really don't. At least a third of a million of us haven't enjoyed that freedom for an indeterminate period and probably a large percentage of them still don't. Any freedom we have is granted by a government which constantly demonstrates that it's ready to withdraw that freedom if it deems that necessary.
For some reason, not being gagged doesn't feel very "free".
Alfredo Lopez writes about technology issues for This Can't Be Happening!
Report: Senate Report on CIA Will Sidestep Look at Bush 'Torture Team' October 19, 2014
Posted by rogerhollander in Constitution, Criminal Justice, Democracy, Dick Cheney, George W. Bush, Human Rights, Torture, War on Terror.Tags: addington, alberto gonzalex, bybee, CIA torture, condoleeza rice, constitutiion, Criminal Justice, Dick Cheney, George Bush, human rights, International law, john yoo, jon queally, nuremberg, obama torture, roger hollander, rumsfeld, senate intelligence, torture, waterboarding
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Roger's note: The United States government and military violate international law on a daily basis; the Bush/Cheney torture regime, which Obama has outsourced to Bagram and god knows where else, is one of its most blatant manifestations. Obama's "we need to look forward not backward" excuse for violating his oath to defend the constitution does credit to Lewis Carroll and Franz Kafka. The next time you are before a judge accused of a crime, please remind her that it is time to look forward and not backward. Your charges are sure to be dropped.
According to sources who spoke with McClatchy, five-year inquiry into agency's torture regime ignores key role played by Bush administration officials who authorized the abuse
According to new reporting by McClatchy, the five-year investigation led by the U.S. Senate Intelligence Committee into the torture program conducted by the CIA in the aftermath of September 11, 2001 will largely ignore the role played by high-level Bush administration officials, including those on the White House legal team who penned memos that ultimately paved the way for the torture's authorization.
Though President Obama has repeatedly been criticized for not conducting or allowing a full review of the torture that occured during his predecessor's tenure, the Senate report—which has been completed, but not released—has repeatedly been cited by lawmakers and the White House as the definitive examination of those policies and practices. According to those with knowledge of the report who spoke with McClatchy, however, the review has quite definite limitations.
The report, one person who was not authorized to discuss it told McClatchy, "does not look at the Bush administration's lawyers to see if they were trying to literally do an end run around justice and the law." Instead, the focus is on the actions and inations of the CIA and whether or not they fully informed Congress about those activities. "It's not about the president," the person said. "It's not about criminal liability."
Responding to comment on the reporting, legal experts and critics of the Bush torture program expressed disappointment that high-level officials in the administration were not part of the review. In addition to the president himself, Vice President Dick Cheney, National Security Advisor Condoleeza Rice and Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, others considered part of what it sometimes referred to as the "Torture Team," include: Alberto Gonzales, a former White House counsel and attorney general; David Addington, former vice-president Dick Cheney's chief of staff; Douglas Feith, who was under-secretary of defence; William Haynes, formerly the Pentagon's general counsel; and John Yoo and Jay Bybee, who wrote many of the specific legal memos authorizing specific forms of abuse.
"If it's the case that the report doesn't really delve into the White House role, then that's a pretty serious indictment of the report," Elizabeth Goitein, the co-director of the Brennan Center for Justice's Liberty and National Security Program at the New York University Law School, said to McClatchy. "Ideally it should come to some sort of conclusions on whether there were legal violations and if so, who was responsible."
And Kenneth Roth, executive director of Human Rights Watch, indicated that limiting the report to just the actions of the CIA doesn't make much sense from a legal or investigative standpoint. "It doesn't take much creativity to include senior Bush officials in the Senate Intelligence Committee's jurisdiction. It's not hard to link an investigation into the CIA's torture to the senior officials who authorized it. That's not a stretch at all."
As Mclatchy's Jonathan S. Landay, Ali Watkins and Marisa Taylor report:
The narrow parameters of the inquiry apparently were structured to secure the support of the committee's minority Republicans. But the Republicans withdrew only months into the inquiry, and several experts said that the parameters were sufficiently flexible to have allowed an examination of the roles Bush, Cheney and other top administration officials played in a top-secret program that could only have been ordered by the president.
"It doesn't take much creativity to include senior Bush officials in the Senate Intelligence Committee's jurisdiction," said Kenneth Roth, executive director of Human Rights Watch. "It's not hard to link an investigation into the CIA's torture to the senior officials who authorized it. That's not a stretch at all."
It's not as if there wasn't evidence that Bush and his top national security lieutenants were directly involved in the program's creation and operation.
The Senate Armed Services Committee concluded in a 2008 report on detainee mistreatment by the Defense Department that Bush opened the way in February 2002 by denying al Qaida and Taliban detainees the protection of an international ban against torture.
White House officials also participated in discussions and reviewed specific CIA interrogation techniques in 2002 and 2003, the public version of the Senate Armed Services Committee report concluded.
Several unofficial accounts published as far back as 2008 offered greater detail.
Cheney and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld relentlessly pressured interrogators to subject detainees to harsh interrogation methods in part to find evidence of cooperation between al Qaida and the late Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein, McClatchy reported in April 2009. Such evidence, which was non-existent, would have substantiated one of Bush's main arguments for invading Iraq in 2003.
Other accounts described how Cheney, Rumsfeld, National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice, Attorney General John Ashcroft, and Secretary of State Colin Powell approved specific harsh interrogation techniques. George Tenet, then the CIA director, also reportedly updated them on the results.
"Why are we talking about this in the White House? History will not judge this kindly," Ashcroft said after one of dozens of meetings on the program, ABC News reported in April 2008 in a story about the White House's direct oversight of interrogations.
News reports also chronicled the involvement of top White House and Justice Department officials in fashioning a legal rationale giving Bush the authority to override U.S. and international laws prohibiting torture. They also helped craft opinions that effectively legalized the CIA's use of waterboarding, wall-slamming and sleep deprivation.
Though President Obama casually admitted earlier this, "We tortured some folks." — what most critics and human rights experts have requested is an open and unbiased review of the full spectrum of the U.S. torture program under President Bush. And though increasingly unlikely, calls remain for those responsible for authorizing and conducting the abuse to be held accountable with indictments, trials, and if guilty, jail sentences. In addition, as a letter earlier this year signed by ten victims of the extrajudicial rendition under the Bush administration stated, the concept of full disclosure and accountability is key to restoring the credibility of the nation when it comes to human rights abuses:
Publishing the truth is not just important for the US's standing in the world. It is a necessary part of correcting America's own history. Today in America, the architects of the torture program declare on television they did the right thing. High-profile politicians tell assembled Americans that 'waterboarding' is a 'baptism' that American forces should still engage in.
These statements only breed hatred and intolerance. This is a moment when America can move away from all that, but only if her people are not sheltered from the truth.
As McClatchy notes, a redacted version of the report's summary—the only part of it expected to be released to the public—continues to be under review. Its release date remains unclear.
Revealed: Gov't Used Fusion Centers to Spy on Occupy May 23, 2014
Posted by rogerhollander in Civil Liberties, Constitution, Criminal Justice, Democracy, Occupy Wall Street Movement.Tags: #occupy movement, civil liberties, dissent, first amendment, fusion centers, Homeland Security, occupy, occupy wall street, politica protest, roger hollander, sarah lazare
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Roger's note: The Patriot Act and the establishment of the Orwellian named Homeland Security have taken the United States one giant step forward towards a police state. Criminalizing dissent is nothing new, goes back to WWI and further; but the scope of it today is truly frightening.
New report exposes US government's treatment of social movements as 'criminal or terrorist enterprises'
U.S. government Fusion Centers, which operate as ill-defined "counter-terrorism" intelligence gathering and sharing centers, conducted spy operations against Occupy protesters involving police, the Pentagon, the FBI, military employees, and business people.
So finds a report released Friday by the Partnership for Civil Justice Fund based on 4,000 public documents obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request. The release was accompanied by an in-depth article by the New York Times.
"The U.S. Fusion Centers are using their vast counter-terrorism resources to target the domestic social justice movement as a criminal or terrorist enterprise," PCJF Executive Director Mara Verheyden-Hilliard stated. "This is an abuse of power and corruption of democracy."
"Although the Fusion Centers' existence is justified by the DHS as a necessary component in stopping terrorism and violent crime, the documents show that the Fusion Centers in the Fall of 2011 and Winter of 2012 were devoted to unconstrained targeting of a grassroots movement for social change that was acknowledged to be peaceful in character," the report states.
Police chiefs of major metropolitan areas used the Southern Nevada Counter Terrorism Center to produce regular reports on the occupy movement.
Furthermore, "The Boston regional intelligence center monitored and cataloged Occupy-associated activities from student organizing to political lectures," according to the report. That center also produced twice-daily updates on Occupy activities.
The New York Times notes:
The Boston Regional Intelligence Center, one of the most active centers, issued scores of bulletins listing hundreds of events including a protest of "irresponsible lending practices," a food drive and multiple "yoga, faith & spirituality" classes.
Nationwide surveillance has included extensive monitoring of social media, in addition to a variety of spying methods used across Fusion Centers.
"[T]he Fusion Centers are a threat to civil liberties, democratic dissent and the social and political fabric of this country," said Carl Messineo, PCJF Legal Director. "The time has long passed for the centers to be defunded."


text:
Lord of the Rings Adventure Game (Boxed Set)
Lord of the Rings Adventure Game | |
Author | Jessica M. Ney, S. Coleman Charlton |
Illustrator | Angus McBride (cover); Liz Danforth (interior) |
Publisher | Iron Crown Enterprises |
Released | 1991 |
Format | Boxed Set |
Pages | 32 & 64 |
Lord of the Rings Adventure Game (Boxed Set), featuring rules, a map, character descriptions and the adventure "Dawn Comes Early", was the first publication for the Lord of the Rings Adventure Game.
[edit] Back Cover Text
In the Lord of the Rings Adventure Game™, you'll follow in the footsteps of all the greatest heroes of legend. As a mighty Elven Warrior or a deft Hobbit Scout, you'll enjoy hours of adventure in the magical, mythical world of J.R.R. Tolkien.
Wasn't The Hobbit© a great read, and The Lord of the Rings™ unsurpassable? Perhaps you've even imagined your own adventures in Middle-earth – dreaming of great deeds performed and impossible quests accomplished. Now you can do more than dream!

subset: commoncrawl


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Campoli looks to be perfect fit with Hawks
by Brian Hedger / Chicago BlackhawksCHICAGO -- Chris Campoli still is a little caught up in the whirlwind of being traded to the Chicago Blackhawks on Monday, but he's ready to get on the ice for his new team.
He'll get the chance to do that Wednesday at the United Center, when Chicago hosts the Calgary Flames in a big game between teams separated by just one point in the Western Conference standings.
After leaving Ottawa and last place in the Eastern Conference, the puck-moving Campoli is looking forward to joining a heated playoff race -- not to mention a talented corps of puck-moving defensemen.
"It was a completely different atmosphere (in Ottawa)," Campoli said following Chicago's morning skate Wednesday. "In Canada, there's a lot of passion for the game, so that's there, but the confidence and the buzz around the (Senators) and lack of success in Ottawa this year kind of deflates that. Here, there's so much excitement. Winning the (Stanley) Cup last year and having another successful season this year, it's exciting to be a part of that. It's a great town, great team and a great group of guys. I just want to fit in well and help us."
That's all the Hawks are looking for out of him. After defenseman Jordan Hendry went down with a season-ending knee injury last weekend and the loss of Nick Boynton on waivers to the Philadelphia Flyers, the Hawks needed to add a defenseman quickly. To get Campoli, as well as a conditional 2011 seventh-round pick, they dealt forward Ryan Potulny and a 2011 second-round pick to the Ottawa Senators.
Chicago feels it not only got depth on the blue line, but a great fit for the team's up-tempo style. Coach Joel Quenneville wants his defensemen to be active offensively and also make tape-to-tape passes to forwards out of the defensive zone.
Quenneville said Campoli will play Wednesday with Brian Campbell -- another defenseman known for his slick skating and puck-moving ability.
"I think they're going to complement each other with their agility, the way they move the puck and the way they defend," said Quenneville, who also might give Campoli some time on the penalty kill. "I think it'll be a nice start for the both of them. (Campoli) adds an ingredient that we like in our team, whether it's puck possession or the activation of our 'D' in a pressure game."
As for the craziness of being traded, Campoli said it's still kind of overwhelming.
"It's madness, if you will," he said. "I must have 200 messages on my phone. All in all, though, it's a good opportunity for me."
Frolik staying positive -- Chicago forward Michael Frolik hasn't scored a point in nine games since coming to the team from Florida in a trade for forward Jack Skille.
The 23-year old Frolik, picked No. 10 by the Panthers in the 2006 Entry Draft, also hasn't scored a goal since Dec. 17, a span of 32 games. He's trying not to worry about it, but at the same time he's quite aware of the dry spell.
"It's not easy," Frolik said. "It's been a while since I've scored. For sure, there's still a little monkey on the back, but hopefully when I score it's going to go away and I will feel lighter and more confident. But I try not to think about it and stay positive. The guys and coaches are trying to help me with that, and just say, 'Play the game.' But hopefully it's going to come … but other guys are scoring and we're still winning, so that's good for the team. Hopefully we'll continue winning games."
Author: Brian Hedger | NHL.com Correspondent


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In it, but not of it. TPM DC
Poll: Wis. Voters Unsure On Walker Recall
PPP's Tom Jensen notes Walker's unpopularity, but offers this analysis about a possible inherent difficulty of recalls: "But I think there's a certain segment of voters in Wisconsin -- somewhere around 10% of the population -- that is generally opposed to the concept of recalls regardless of how they feel about how things are going in the state. We've seen that in the State Senate recalls so far- the polls have universally moved in the closing days in favor of the incumbents, both Democratic and Republican. When folks get off the fence they're tending to vote anti-recall."
As for those horse-races, Feingold -- who lost his senate re-election bid in the 2010 Republican wave -- leads Walker by 52%-45%, roughly corresponding to Walker's approval and disapproval ratings. In the poll from May, Feingold led by a slightly wider 52%-42% (also corresponding to Walker's 43%-54% approval ratings in that poll).
Other hypothetical candidates were tested, as well. Walker's 2010 Democratic opponent, Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett, edges Walker by just 48%-47%, compared to 50%-43% Barrett lead in the last poll. Former Rep. David Obey trails Walker by 47%-44%, and Rep. Ron Kind trails Walker by 46%-43%. (Obey and Kind were not tested in the previous poll.)
The poll also asked: "Were you happy or unhappy with the results of
Tuesday's State Senate recall elections?" The result was 43% happy, 39% unhappy, and 18% undecided. As can be expected, Republicans were overwhelmingly happy with the results and the GOP's narrow survival -- the Dems gained two seats, just short of the magic three -- Democrats are largely unhappy, and independents correspond closely to the top-lines.


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(Top row left to right: Heroes in Transition President Michael Warshaw, Somers WWII Veteran George Merritt and Pound Ridge WWII Veteran Peter Senatore. Bottom Row left to right: Yorktown WWII Veteran Joseph Arena, Yorktown WWII Veteran Frank Tempistilli and Brewster WWII Veteran Norman Berenback.)
Sponsor an Individual Veterans' Trip For $100
Brewster, N.Y. – 8/13/2013 – Five local World War II veterans gathered at Senator Greg Ball's (R, C, I – Patterson) district office to prepare for their upcoming Washington D.C. trip. The veterans shared their stories on a video that can be watched by clicking here.
Senator Greg Ball, Heroes in Transition and the Military Order of the Purple Heart, Chapter 21, have planned a free road trip for 50 local WWII veterans to visit the National WWII Memorial in Washington, DC on Tuesday, September 17, 2013.
Senator Ball has pledged to host the trip completely free of charge for all the veterans that attend. Senator Ball said that about half the money needed has already been raised but is urging members of the community to help reach the $5,000 goal before the September 17th trip.
"It is so wonderful to see the community come together to help send these heroes to see the national monument built in their honor. I am proud to announce that so far we have raised $2,200; we are almost half way to our fundraising goal of $5,000! However, we are running out of time and need help in this final push," said Senator Greg Ball, Chairman of the Senate Veterans, Homeland Security. "According to the Veteran's Administration, our World War II veterans are dying at a rate of 600 per day. These brave men and women gave so much to fight for our nation's safety and freedom and it is my honor to give them an opportunity to see the national monument that was created in honor of their service."
Heroes in Transition, a sponsor of the event, is accepting donations to help pay for the busing and food for the veterans. Anyone interested in donating can go to the Heroes in Transition's website: heroesintransition.org and make a donation online. Checks can also be made payable to Heroes In Transition and sent to 22 Bates Road, Suite 135, Mashpee, MA 02649.
Residents can sponsor an individual WWII veterans' trip for $100. They can also sponsor anything from a lunch for $25, all the way up to a bus for $1,000. Those that sponsor a veteran will receive a signed thank you letter along with a picture and video from the trip.
Two chartered buses will leave from Senator Ball's District Office in Brewster, NY and take the veterans to Washington D.C., where they will place a wreath at memorial the in honor of all WWII veterans from the 40th Senate District.
"Heroes in Transition has been providing assistance to veterans in honor of fallen Marine Captain Eric A. Jones since 2010," said Heroes in Transition President Michael Warshaw. "It is our honor to be able to help these American heroes finally see the WWII memorial and also find peace by being able pay their final respects to their dear friends and fellow military servicemen and women who lost their lives in WWII."
"We deeply appreciate all the efforts of Senator Ball and Heroes in Transition to make this trip possible," said Eugene Parrotta, Chair of Senator Greg Ball's Veteran's Advisory Council, and member of the Military Order of the Purple Heart. "We are excited that these WWII veterans will get a chance to see the monument that was built in their honor."
"I think it's good to be patriotic and to serve your county. We certainly should honor all our veterans no matter what war or military action they have been involved in. I am proud that I served and I think everyone that serves should be proud," said George Merritt of Somers. "Visiting the monument means a lot to me. I haven't been to Washington for years and years. I am very proud of the monument and excited to see it."
"Most people that I went to school with were very patriotic. I did 6 months at Brooklyn college then was drafted right from there," said Peter Senatore of Pound Ridge. "I am very excited to visit the monument. I didn't have much a part of it, but this monument was built for this generation. This generation, when I look at it, is a generation that was gung-ho and I think we changed the word."
"Visiting the World War II Monument means quite a bit to me," said Joseph Arena of Yorktown. "I think being in the army was a real experience and I believe our youth should serve, even for just a term. The discipline you take out of it could be very good for today's youth."
"I think about the war every day, every time I look up to the sky, every time I see a plane and at night when it gets dark," said Frank Tempistilli of Yorktown. "I have never been down to visit the monument and I can't wait to go see it."
"I can't get over it that Senator Ball is doing all of this for us veterans. It's not only for me but it's for all WWII veterans," said Norman Berenback of Brewster. "I think it's important for everyone to know how much we really appreciate this."
"When we knew Norman was about to leave for Europe he would get 24 hour passes to leave base. When he would get a pass, I would meet him down in New York City and spend all the time I could with him. He told me, 'the day I don't call you, you know I shipped out', and then that day finally happened. It was a tough time," said Shirley about her husband Norman. "It's really wonderful that Senator Ball is putting together this trip. We certainly appreciate it."
For more information contact Joe Bachmeier at firstname.lastname@example.com or (845) 531-9796.


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Grammar: Subject and Verb Agreement.
NOTE: We will use the convention of a thin underline for subjects and a thick underline for verbs.
Being able to find the right subject and verb will help you correct errors of agreement.
The list of items is/are on the desk.
Being able to identify the subject and verb correctly will also help you with commas and semicolons as you will see later.
Basic Rule
The basic rule states that a singular subject takes a singular verb, while a plural subject takes a plural verb.
NOTE: The trick is in knowing whether the subject is singular or plural. The next trick is recognizing a singular or plural verb.
Hint: Verbs do not form their plurals by adding an s as nouns do. In order to determine which verb is singular and which one is plural, think of which verb you would use with he or she and which verb you would use with they.
talks, talk
Which one is the singular form?
Which word would you use with he?
We say, "He talks." Therefore, talks is singular.
We say, "They talk." Therefore, talk is plural.
Rule 1
Two singular subjects connected by or or nor require a singular verb.
My aunt or my uncle is arriving by train today.
Rule 2
Two singular subjects connected by either/or or neither/nor require a singular verb as in Rule 1.
Neither Juan nor Carmen is available.
Either Kiana or Casey is helping today with stage decorations.
Rule 3
When I is one of the two subjects connected by either/or or neither/nor, put it second and follow it with the singular verb am.
Neither she nor I am going to the festival.
Rule 4
When a singular subject is connected by or or nor to a plural subject, put the plural subject last and use a plural verb.
The serving bowl or the plates go on that shelf.
Rule 5
When a singular and plural subject are connected by either/or or neither/nor, put the plural subject last and use a plural verb.
Neither Jenny nor the others are available.
Rule 6
As a general rule, use a plural verb with two or more subjects when they are connected by and.
A car and a bike are my means of transportation.
Rule 7
Sometimes the subject is separated from the verb by words such as along with, as well as, besides, or not. Ignore these expressions when determining whether to use a singular or plural verb.
The politician, along with the newsmen, is expected shortly.
Excitement, as well as nervousness, is the cause of her shaking.
Rule 8
The pronouns each, everyone, every one, everybody, anyone, anybody, someone, and somebody are singular and require singular verbs. Do not be misled by what follows of.
Each of the girls sings well.
Every one of the cakes is gone.
NOTE: Everyone is one word when it means everybody. Every one is two words when the meaning is each one.
Rule 9
With words that indicate portions—percent, fraction, part, majority, some, all, none, remainder, and so forth —look at the noun in your of phrase (object of the preposition) to determine whether to use a singular or plural verb. If the object of the preposition is singular, use a singular verb. If the object of the preposition is plural, use a plural verb.
Fifty percent of the pie has disappeared.
Pie is the object of the preposition of.
Fifty percent of the pies have disappeared.
Pies is the object of the preposition.
One-third of the city is unemployed.
One-third of the people are unemployed.
NOTE: Hyphenate all spelled-out fractions.
All of the pie is gone.
All of the pies are gone.
Some of the pie is missing.
Some of the pies are missing.
None of the garbage was picked up.
None of the sentences were punctuated correctly.
Of all her books, none have sold as well as the first one.
NOTE: Apparently, the SAT testing service considers none as a singular word only. However, according to Merriam Webster's Dictionary of English Usage, "Clearly none has been both singular and plural since Old English and still is. The notion that it is singular only is a myth of unknown origin that appears to have arisen in the 19th century. If in context it seems like a singular to you, use a singular verb; if it seems like a plural, use a plural verb. Both are acceptable beyond serious criticism" (p. 664).
Rule 10
The expression the number is followed by a singular verb while the expression a number is followed by a plural verb.
The number of people we need to hire is thirteen.
A number of people have written in about this subject.
Rule 11
When either and neither are subjects, they always take singular verbs.
Neither of them is available to speak right now.
Either of us is capable of doing the job.
Rule 12
The words here and there have generally been labeled as adverbs even though they indicate place. In sentences beginning with here or there, the subject follows the verb.
There are four hurdles to jump.
There is a high hurdle to jump.
Rule 13
Use a singular verb with sums of money or periods of time.
Ten dollars is a high price to pay.
Five years is the maximum sentence for that offense.
Rule 14
Sometimes the pronoun who, that, or which is the subject of a verb in the middle of the sentence. The pronouns who, that, and which become singular or plural according to the noun directly in front of them. So, if that noun is singular, use a singular verb. If it is plural, use a plural verb.
Salma is the scientist who writes/write the reports.
The word in front of who is scientist, which is singular. Therefore, use the singular verb writes.
He is one of the men who does/do the work.
The word in front of who is men, which is plural. Therefore, use the plural verb do.
Rule 15
Collective nouns such as team and staff may be either singular or plural depending on their use in the sentence.
The staff is in a meeting.
Staff is acting as a unit here.
The staff are in disagreement about the findings.
The staff are acting as separate individuals in this example.
The sentence would read even better as:
The staff members are in disagreement about the findings.
Read more at http://www.grammarbook.com/grammar/subjectVerbAgree.asp


text: The Fellow Programme in Management (FPM) is the doctoral programme of the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad. The objective of the programme is to provide students with necessary skills to identify and research complex issues in the field of management. FPM seeks candidates with outstanding academic backgrounds, intellectual curiosity and discipline needed to make scholarly contribution. FPM is a research programme. To the selected students, IIMA provides an excellent environment for carrying out advanced research, thus creating highly committed researchers trained in the most recent methodologies and engaged in producing original research work. IIMA's doctoral programme provides a diverse set of opportunities for interdisciplinary education and research. The small entering class ensures close interaction with the faculty, where students can determine their own directions under the guidance of their thesis advisory committees. The student becomes part of one of the eleven functional/sectoral groups and acquires the basic theoretical knowledge and practical aspects of the area. This allows close interaction with faculty members, who provide the intellectual stimulation and help develop the student's own research interests and professional goals. The programme is strongly committed to preparing thought leaders both for the academic and corporate world. Students spend generally a little over four years that includes two years of rigorous course work. Course work in the first year provides a general management overview and develops basic skills for analyzing managerial problems. In the second year, students take advanced doctoral level courses in their areas of specialization. The doctoral dissertation, for the next couple of years, provides them with an opportunity to make original contribution to an area of management or to one of its source disciplines. IIMA's faculty have studied and worked in the best of institutions within India and around the world. Their involvement with public and private organizations internationally allows them to bring relevant managerial issues into the classroom and in their research. This creates an exceptional environment for developing a research programme that can build sound theory for analyzing complex managerial problems.


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Undefeated Bellator Welterweight Champ Ben Askren To Face Douglas Lima April 6
By FCF Staff
Reigning, undefeated Bellator Welterweight (170 pounds) Champion Ben Askren (9-0) will put his title on the line against Douglas "The Phenom" Lima (21-4) in the main event of Bellator 64 at Caesars Windsor in Windsor, Ontario, Canada on Friday, April 6.
After a split-decision victory over former UFC veteran and Season 4 Welterweight Tournament winner Jay Hieron, Askren, a former U.S. Olympian, has continued his stand up training with the legendary Duke Roufus.
"After my fight with Jay, I went back to work the following Monday to continue my training," Askren said. "I made no secret I wasn't happy with my performance in that fight, and now having spent over six months training at Roufusport, I'm really confident in my striking. Douglas is a great fighter, but I don't think he'll be able to handle what I bring to the table."
The Brazilian-born Lima will look to push his win streak into double digits.
"There is no question Ben is a great fighter, and I've been focusing a lot of time on my wrestling," Lima said. "This is the biggest fight of my career, and I'm preparing for it. It's all I think about. Every day from the time I wake up, until the time my head hits the pillow, I'm thinking about April 6th and winning the title."
Bellator 64 will also host the semifinals of the promotion's Season 6 Featherweight (145 pounds) Tournament. Marlon Sandro, Ronnie Mann, Alexandre "Popo" Bezerra and Daniel Straus headline the tournament.
Ontario native and knockout artist Chris "The Polish Hammer" Horodecki will take on an opponent to be named soon.
The event will air live on MTV2, starting at 8 p.m. ET and in commercial-free HD on EPIX.