Color of Change and Blue America PAC teamed up to run the above ad in the Washington Post, placing the blame for the FISA travesty in the House squarely where it belongs -- on the shoulders of Steny Hoyer. It will appear next Thursday.
Our prisons are a mess. The drug laws are tremendously inequitable. And what does Steny Hoyer spend his time doing? Dispensing amnesty for high-dollar telecom donors, giving the Bush Administration more than they asked for, and covering his own ass for looking the other way in the face of abject criminal behavior for the past eight years.
This is just the beginning. We've now raised over $266,000 and we're working hard to put it to good use, and make sure a price is exacted for this abuse of the public trust. You can help by donating here.
In 2004, Rady Ananda began contributing to the Web, as part of the growing community of citizen journalists. Focusing mainly on elections, her blogs also address religious, gender, sexual and racial equality, as well as environmental issues; and are sprinkled with book and film reviews on various topics. She spent most of her working life as a legal investigator for lawfirms, and about 5 years as an editor. She currently serves as a senior editor at OpEdNews.
All material offered here is the property of Rady Ananda, copyright 2006, 2007, 2008. Permission is granted to repost, with proper attribution including the original link.
In a time of universal deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act. Tell the truth anyway. Sign this petition: http://www.electiondefensealliance.org/ny_levers_petition
I have no problem at all with this ad - it is perfectly appropriate. MLK and Malcolm X were wiretapped by the government because of their race, and the African-American population is disproportionately targeted even today because many of the taps done in the US are done on drug cases for which blacks are disproportionately prosecuted.
But I have a hard time believing that Steny Hoyer's target constituency - the demographic he absolutely depends on to get elected - will be heavily impacted by this particular ad.
Hopefully, it can be partnered with another that will be sure to hurt him - as the "stupid, old white man" that he has proven himself to be.
by
JC Garrett (34 articles, 49 quicklinks, 5 diaries, 456 comments)
on Friday, June 20, 2008 at 3:54:23 PM
In this historical report by the ACLU (which I covered in Duopoly Expands Spy Powers; Grants Telcos Immunity), Senator Frank Church noted that a (white) university president found his career destroyed for daring to criticize federal police agencies like the FBI:
Beginning with a brief comment starting with the 1950s, the report first focuses on the harassment and surveillance endured by American hero, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and describes how University of California president, Clark Kerr's career was deliberately destroyed by the FBI for exercising his First Amendment rights in a way that was critical of federal police agencies.
So, we must be mindful that it's not necessarily the color of our skin – but the tone of our politics, which motivates domestic spying by those in power, completely in violation of our constitutional rights.
Rather shocking... all of it.And I totally agree with your sentiment, JC:
Hopefully, it can be partnered with another that will be sure to hurt him - as the "stupid, old white man" that he has proven himself to be.
I am fuming angry ... Thanks for commenting, JC. (And thanks for your hit piece on passage of gutted FISA: Sneaking FISA Through the Back Door)
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Rady Ananda (97 articles, 247 quicklinks, 19 diaries, 705 comments)
on Friday, June 20, 2008 at 4:47:26 PM
Yes, there is reason to be fuming with anger today and almost every day these days. I hope we can just both have an election and elect people who will destroy the corporate culture and the militarization of our society and it will take time but both are the right fights.
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Deborah Emin (13 articles, 1 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 58 comments)
on Friday, June 20, 2008 at 5:56:25 PM
I'm heating tar and plucking chickens too (well, gathering the plucked feathers anyway...)
Let's line them up in a public sqaure... we have stopped fighting for our freedom. The "what can we do?" mantra still prevails...
I keep asking myself... just how much MORE can we take? And unfortunately, the deck is stacked against us... looks like we are going to take a lot more (weaker dollar, just wait until after the election and China and Saudi Arabia dump dollars)... higher prices.. (that will trigger massive inflation)... And the hedge fund collapse has yet to be felt in the credit squeeze...
What will it take to pry people away from the television sets and sports games???
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August Adams (10 articles, 0 quicklinks, 1 diaries, 430 comments)
on Friday, June 20, 2008 at 7:47:27 PM
and he says that looking at the torture photos is just too overwhelming for the biggest bulk of the population.
The "Good Germans" mentality must be broken.
IT's FIGHT or FLIGHT time now in the US and Canada.
We CAN turn this around, I am convinced, but don't expect things to go smoothly ..
We are already in the collapse gap predicted by Dmitri Orlov.
I'd like to see the same amount of money putting in impeachment ads in the WaPo. You'd be really surprised how many people want impeachment now that the market has fallen out.
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ladybroadoak (37 articles, 20 quicklinks, 12 diaries, 392 comments)
on Saturday, June 21, 2008 at 1:22:25 PM
In neighboring Delaware, she dumped a right wing, Bush supporting Democrat. As second in command under Pelosi, I've always wondered if Hoyer hasn't been the one playing a major roll keeping impeachment off the table.
I'd love to see a national movement to fund a progressive primary opponent to Hoyer.
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Rob Kall (762 articles, 3850 quicklinks, 321 diaries, 1643 comments)
on Saturday, June 21, 2008 at 5:50:03 AM
As a progressive blogger and one who is totally against what this Bush junta has done and is doing to our country, I would just like to take this time for a special thanks to representative Steny Hoyer and his colleagues in DC. I feel so much safer now knowing that people I've never met are listening in (already been confirmed) on our home's Verizon phone line and most likely, internet service.
Keeping us all safe, but from whom? Shades of 1984 are indeed upon us. George Orwell would be proud.
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Munich (0 articles, 53 quicklinks, 12 diaries, 739 comments)
on Saturday, June 21, 2008 at 11:32:58 AM
