Bill Petz / Ashville Citizen-Times & a Report from Georgetown Universisty – 2006-02-27 23:24:22
http://www.envirosagainstwar.org/know/read.php?&itemid=3806
An Analysis of the Bush Presidency
Suggests A Nation Overthrown
Bill Petz / The Ashville Citizen-Times
(August 9, 2002) โ Consider this:
An inarticulate, politically inexperienced man with family links to a previous national regime comes to provincial leadership.
Subsequently he gains the highest national office without winning the popular vote.
The election in which he was declared the victor is considered compromised by his brother’s province.
He appoints a chief law enforcement officer who has repeatedly called for constitutional revisions.
Regulatory agencies are filled with those previously regulated.
Soldiers patrol transportation centers.
International treaties are abrogated.
International legal organizations are shunned.
Roles of police and military are blurred.
Law enforcement agencies are centralized.
Individual civil rights are reduced.
A “shadow” government is created.
Domestic surveillance is increased.
People are encouraged to spy on each other.
Military budgets are increased.
The military establishes a disinformation program.
Media access to government is limited.
Consultations with the legislative branch decline.
Connections to corrupt corporate sponsors are disavowed.
Efforts to further plunder natural resources for profit are initiated.
Access to past administrations’ documents is limited.
A war mentality is established with imprecise enemies.
Nebulous fear-inducing alerts are periodically released.
National level profiling is introduced.
People are imprisoned without public charges and unknown others are “disappeared.”
Does the word “coup” come to mind?
Law Students Turn their Backs on Attorney General Gonzales.
Pride in the Civil Civil Disobedience.
Future American Lawyers To Be Proud of.
(February 26, 2006) โ Alberto Gonzales spoke before law students at Georgetown today, justifying illegal, unauthorized surveillance of US citizens, but during the course of his speech the students in class did something pretty brave. They got up from their seats and turned their backs to him.
To make matters worse for Gonzales, additional students came into the room, wearing black cowls and carrying a simple banner, written on a sheet.
Fortunately for him, it was a brief speech… followed by a panel discussion that basically ripped his argument in half.
And, as one of the people on the panel said:
“When you’re a law student, they tell you that if you can’t argue the law, argue the facts. They also tell you if you can’t argue the facts, argue the law. If you can’t argue either, apparently, the solution is to go on a public relations offensive and make it a political issue… to say over and over again “it’s lawful”, and to think that the American people will somehow come to believe this if we say it often enough.
In light of this, I’m proud of the very civil civil disobedience that was shown here today.”
โ David Cole, Georgetown University Law Professor
It was a good day for dissent.
