hope everybody had a great holiday. hope everybody had a nopisy holiday and ate like a pig. that’s what 4th of july is all about – no matter what Sen. Obama says in his fancy schmancy speech.

One thing I would love to here from these candidates, is if they support Pelosi, Hoyer & Reid for leadership positions in the next congress.

I will enthusiastically donate to candidates who commit to a change in leadership.

Lest we be tempted to think that Bush II’s assault on civil liberties is novel, here’s an article about former Sen. Sam Ervin, about his 1971 investigation into the US Army’s nationwide Vietnam era illegal domestic spying operations:

Ervin refused to accept the arguments that Americans should surrender their basic constitutional rights or alter the traditional balance of power between Congress and the President in exchange for the government’s dubious promise of greater security.

To strengthen its case, the Nixon administration sent Assistant Attorney General William H. Rehnquist (later Chief Justice of the Supreme Court) to testify before Ervin’s subcommittee….Rehnquist admitted that isolated examples of an abuse of government power had occurred, but insisted that…they did not represent an actual legal infringement of any individual’s constitutional rights….[H]e pledged that the Justice Department would take all appropriate steps to prevent any further mistakes from occurring. And…he refused to divulge any more information about either the Army’s previous domestic spying or the Justice Department’s newest domestic security programs. Rehnquist concluded his testimony by promising that “self‑discipline on the part of the Executive branch [would] provide an answer to virtually all of the legitimate complaints against excesses of information gathering.”

Senator Ervin did not like what he heard. The old southern constitutionalist challenged Rehnquist’s argument that the Army’s spying on law-abiding citizens was legal, and he found little comfort in the suggestion that executive self‑discipline was sufficient to prevent abuses of government power.

Three historical parallels are worth noting: The unstinting GOP support for their president. The administration’s claim that domestic spying is essential to security and worth the silent erosion of our civil liberties. And the intimate involvement of the best brains in the DOJ in carrying out the assault on civil liberties.

Tom Wicker of the New York Times said Rehnquist’s [defense that the executive’s self-policing its domestic spying ops was an adequate safeguard against abuse] was similar to “asking a goat to guard a cabbage patch,”…other editorialists described it as “audacious” and “ludicrous.” The Albany Times‑Union called Rehnquist’s statement that government surveillance of law‑abiding citizens was not prohibited by the Constitution “an insult to the millions of Americans who are listed in the dossiers of federal agencies.” [Citations omitted.]

http://www.cmhpf.org/senator%20sam%20ervin.htm

This excerpt on Ervin and Nixon exposes the disconnect between their world and ours. One is the power of Senate investigations. Two chaired by Ervin were his 1971 hearings on the Army’s illegal domestic spying operations and his 1973-74 Watergate hearings, which ultimately ended in forced Nixon’s resignation. The other is that in Nixon’s era, the press responded with outrage and occasional dogged interest in outing unacceptable, wholesale violations of the law.

Today’s GOP, having learned its lesson, has co-opted both institutions. Today, weak-kneed Congressional oversight, which the administration freely ignores, is treated as a radical intrusion into the executive’s implied authority. And former Democratic NSC deputies tell us that sure, telcos broke the law for years, but blame only Bush, and accept a “good-enough-spy law” that provides NO accountability as if it were one that provided full accountability.

The neocons, Cheney especially, because he’s the common link from Nixon to Bush II, have become the Little Engine that Could. With a little will, a little Wingnut Welfare and a little controlled press, owned by billionaire press barons and a handful of entertainment companies, they’ve changed our world.

http://www.latimes.com/news/op…..8346.story
h/t Glennzilla