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8:09 PM | link
You're gutting the Constitution. Already your home can be entered without your knowledge or permission, you can be snatched away and incarcerated without cause, your mail can be spied on, your private records searched. Why isn't this a recipe for widespread business theft, political intimidation, and fraud? I know you've been told all this is for your own safety and protection, but think about it for a minute. Anyway, when did you get so scared? You didn't used to be easily frightened...
If you proceed much further down the slippery slope, people around the world will stop admiring the good things about you. They'll decide that your city upon the hill is a slum and your democracy is a sham, and therefore you have no business trying to impose your sullied vision on them. They'll think you've abandoned the rule of law. They'll think you've fouled your own nest.
The British used to have a myth about King Arthur. He wasn't dead, but sleeping in a cave, it was said; in the country's hour of greatest peril, he would return. You, too, have great spirits of the past you may call upon: men and women of courage, of conscience, of prescience. Summon them now, to stand with you, to inspire you, to defend the best in you. You need them.
3:07 PM | link
From: Shiny Blue GrasshopperGranted, I wasn't very polite. But how come I'm not allowed to be the pissy customer for once? Here's the response I got:
Sent: Wednesday, March 26, 2003 10:08 PM
To: news36@kxan.com
Subject: Protest coverage
Do you think you could have spent more than 30 seconds on the anti-war protests? Do you realize how many Austinites have a very big problem with this war?
FOX7 and KVUE at least interviewed the protestors.
Do your job.
Sincerely,
Kelly Holmes
From: <so-and-so>@KXAN.comI'll tell you what else you could have done to make me happy:
Dear Ms. Holmes ...
Hmmm. Yes, some of the later newscasts had short coverage. But, we covered it live at 5 p.m. at 6 p.m. yesterday. In our 6 o'clock, we had a full interview with UT Prof. Dana Cloud, the organizer of most of the recent events. I don't know what else we could have done to make you happy.
We are doing our job.
It's interesting how I'll respond to your email, the next email is from somebody on the opposite side of the issue wondering why we are covering the protests at all!
Keep watching. At the end of the day, I think you'll know that we are providing balanced coverage. We strive for that.
Sincerely,
<so-and-so>
Managing Editor
1:56 PM | link
9:28 PM | link
We are stockholders. We would benefit financially from a dividend tax cut. But we know an unfair tax proposal when we see one. We are concerned with the unfairness of these tax proposals and how they are overly skewed to the super-wealthy. The benefits of this tax cut will disproportionately go the very wealthy, those with annual incomes over $350,000 a year.Here in Austin, we just heard that we'll probably have to fire teachers because we're in such budget trouble. Will removing billions of dollars from the state and federal budgets help matters any? I certainly don't need an extra $50 a year if it means that we have to fire teachers.
9:20 PM | link
8:44 PM | link
To announce that there must be no criticism of the President, or that we are to stand by the President, right or wrong, is not only unpatriotic and servile, but is morally treasonable to the American public.
-- Teddy Roosevelt
9:21 PM | link
I strongly believe that going to war now will make the world more dangerous, not safer. In our press for military action now, we have created deep chasms in the international community and in important international organisations.She's just one of the US government officials resigning. [via rule42]
10:54 PM | link
Alternative parties have an important place in American politics, and those in them should continue to work for their strength and vitality. They're essential as incubators of ideas and nexus points for activism. Those on the right learned this lesson well, as many groups that at times in the past had fielded their own candidates are now still intact but have also become powerful influencers of the Republican Party. Similarly, being a Green doesn't mean you can't also be a Democrat.
This is not a popular truth.
6:30 PM | link
5:46 PM | link
2:57 AM | link
We need a new relationship between corporations and our society. Just as our founders understood the need for separation of church and state, we need to institutionalize the separation of corporations and the state. This begins with government taking the responsibility to establish the conditions under which corporations may do business in the United States, including the establishment of a federal corporate charter which describes corporate rights and responsibilities.
Corporations should be compelled to pay a fair share of taxes. If corporations shift profits offshore to avoid paying taxes, they should not be permitted to operate in the United States. The decrease in corporate tax responsibility is an indication of the rise of corporate power. According to the Institute for Policy Studies, after the 2002 tax cuts, corporations will pay in taxes an amount equivalent to 1.3% of the U.S. Gross Domestic Product. In the 1950s they paid taxes of 4.5% of the U.S. GDP. Corporations have fewer regulations, pay fewer taxes and yet have greater influence.
1:37 AM | link
12:07 AM | link
Tonight, for better or worse, America is at war. Tonight, every American, regardless of party, devoutly supports the safety and success of our men and women in the field. Those of us who, over the past 6 months, have expressed deep concerns about this President's management of the crisis, mistreatment of our allies and misconstruction of international law, have never been in doubt about the evil of Saddam Hussein or the necessity of removing his weapons of mass destruction.
Those Americans who opposed our going to war with Iraq, who wanted the United Nations to remove those weapons without war, need not apologize for giving voice to their conscience, last year, this year or next year. In a country devoted to the freedom of debate and dissent, it is every citizen's patriotic duty to speak out, even as we wish our troops well and pray for their safe return. Congressman Abraham Lincoln did this in criticizing the Mexican War of 1846, as did Senator Robert F. Kennedy in calling the war in Vietnam "unsuitable, immoral and intolerable."
This is not Iraq, where doubters and dissenters are punished or silenced --this is the United States of America. We need to support our young people as they are sent to war by the President, and I have no doubt that American military power will prevail. But to ensure that our post-war policies are constructive and humane, based on enduring principles of peace and justice, concerned Americans should continue to speak out; and I intend to do so.
12:01 AM | link
9:22 PM | link
It is not a fear of terrorists or weapons of mass destruction or even necessarily of this particular war, as frightening as all those things may be. I believe it is a fear of something more difficult to pin down, a fear of the forces that will be unleashed when the United States defies the world and launches a war that -- while couched in talk of protecting people from threats -- is so obviously about projecting U.S. power to achieve a kind of world domination that was never possible before...
I am scared, and I need help. We all do. Let us pledge not to let each other down -- for our own sake, and for the sake of the world.
8:03 AM | link
...we'll need to remind ourselves and our fellow citizens that no matter how "well" it goes militarily, it's a betrayal of law and of justice, and an incitement to bitterness and terror.
8:29 PM | link