Will Obama Walk the Talk? Makes good news copy, and stirs enthusiasm,
but when the chips are down, what about freedom?
by Jim Babka, Downsize DC
Reposted by the Coffee Coaster with DDC permission
Text of letter to Downsize DC subscribers 01/14/09:
Quotes for the Day
"I don't want to be ambiguous about this. We are going to close Guantanamo and we are going to make sure that the procedures we set up are ones that abide by our Constitution."
-- President-elect Barack Obama [link ref]
”Under my administration, the United States does not torture. We will abide by the Geneva Conventions. We will uphold our highest values and ideals. We must adhere to values as vigilantly as we protect our safety.” -- President-elect Barack Obama [link ref]
"I think it is important for us to do that not only because that's who we are, but also because it will ultimately make us safer, and will help in changing hearts and minds in our struggle against extremists."
-- President-elect Barack Obama [link ref]
Subject: Obama says good things
Yesterday's Dispatch made the point that the managers of DownsizeDC.org are philosophically anti-partisan and anti-politician. If you haven't read yesterday's Dispatch, we hope you do. The points we made, and the shocking results of a scientific study we shared, are important to us. You can find it on our blog.
In that Dispatch we asserted that we're going to apply the same standards to the new president that we applied to President Bush. This means that we'll not only criticize the new president when he does bad things, but also praise and support him when he does good things. To be honest, we didn't get many chances to praise Bush.
But today provides an opportunity to praise and support President-elect Obama.
This week he introduced his new intelligence team. In doing so he made some very good promises and statements of principle. We've used them as our quotes of the day. We agree with everything the President-elect says in the quotes above. We want to help him achieve these objectives.
The “American Freedom Agenda Act” is a bill that will do what the President-elect says he wants, as well as other important things that are consistent with his statements. This bill was created by conservatives, supported by progressives, and introduced in Congress by Representative Ron Paul, Republican of Texas. This legislation will...
Repeal the “Military Commissions Act of 2006” and thereby restore the ancient right of habeas corpus and end legally sanctioned torture by U.S. government agents
Restore the “Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act” (FISA) and thereby outlaw warrantless spying on American citizens by the President of the United States
Give Congress standing in court to challenge the President's use of "signing statements" as a means to avoid executing the nation's laws
Make it illegal for government agents to kidnap people and send them abroad to be tortured by foreign governments
Provide legal protection to journalists who expose wrong-doing by the Federal government
Prohibit the use of secret evidence to label groups or individuals as terrorists for the purpose of criminal or civil sanctions
You can use your personal comments to paste in the quotes from the President-elect featured at the top of this message. Tell your elected representatives to help the President-elect made good on these commitments. Or mention that this bill was created by conservative groups but also has the support of many liberal organization. Or put it in your own words. But either way, tell them to get this bill passed.
Then, if you want to see this message spread to more places -- to reach more new DC Downsizers -- go to our blog, located conveniently on our home page at www.DownsizeDC.org, and "Digg" the blog version of this message. If you've never used Digg before, please, go sign up!
Thank you for being a part of the growing Downsize DC Army.
Jim Babka
President
DownsizeDC.org, Inc.
P.P.S. Not all new office holders have Internet contact pages yet. We're updating our system as the new contact pages come on line. Your message will go through to any of your representatives that remain the same, or for which we've received new information. Don't let this transition slow you down. Your message will get through to someone. It will make a difference. Take action!
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