Restoring our basic values

Yesterday, David Dayen (aka:D-Day) wrote Just Weights and Measures, calling for a return to the basic values of fairness, justice and the rule of law in America. It's a great bit of writing, and advocates for the restoration of habeas corpus and FISA, the closing of Guantanamo, and bringing back a working system of checks and balances.

For six and a half long years we have seen an Administration throw morality out the window while claiming to have the word of God on their side. They have eliminated the Great Writ of habeas corpus, they have spied on their fellow citizens without warrants, they have incarcerated terror suspects at Guantanamo and secret prisons indefinitely and without charges, they have nullified federal statutes through the questionably legal means of signing statements, and more. And we cannot stand idly by while they use one ephah for their friends and allies, and another ephah for anyone they deem a threat, be it militarily or politically. We must stand up for just measures.

This week, the ACLU of Southern California is launching The Campaign for Our Constitution, and is kicking off with a conference call with Salon.com contributor and bestselling author Glenn Greenwald and Cenk Uygur, co-host of Air America's "Young Turks". Please sign up at http://www.ourconstitution.net/.

I naively expected that once we had a Democratic majority, we'd start stuffing this genie back into it's bottle, but instead the opposite has happened and Congress has continued to capitulate to Bush's demands. Congress needs to be held accountable, and to be reminded yet again, to fulfill their constitutional role, and uphold the basic values of this nation.

You can sign up at Campaign for Our Constitution for updates about what you can do to help.

I'd like to see the presidential candidates talking about this a lot more. Of course, it's really in the hands of Congress, but a suitable choice for president should be able to lead on this issue, rather than silently hoping all those shiny, new expanded powers are still sitting there for him/her to have at their disposal as president.

Greenwald on FISA

Glenn Greenwald posted an excellent piece on Friday regarding the Democratic capitulation on FISA.

With each new Democratic enabling event -- from the recission of habeas corpus to the approval of "enhanced interrogation techniques" to the FISA capitulation and the complete silence (at best) over the administration's increasing belligerence towards Iran -- it becomes more and more difficult to know whether the Democratic leadership is affirmatively supportive of this agenda or simply afraid to oppose it due to the political risks. Either way, on the most egregious abuses of this administration, there is little to no effective opposition, and increasingly, there is much affirmative bipartisan support for those abuses.

This. This is precisely why I am disgusted with the Democratic "leadership" right now. There are certainly more Dems in office now that will really work toward both big D and little D democratic values, but they are few and far between in the leadership. The problem isn't that the Congressional and Senate Democrats are just frightened or spineless, but that too many of them are complicit. Do you believe for one moment that DiFi votes the way she does because she's scared of being called weak or of not being re-elected? I don't. She's voting her values. She constantly acts as if she knows what's right for the country, and public opinion be damned. Over and over she accomodates the White House in their efforts to "protect" America by undermining the constitution.

Contrary to what seems to be a common thought, you can't save the constitution by destroying the constitution.