Americans United for the Separation of Church is sounding the alarm on the Republican "faith based" initiatives. This initiative completely violates the Constitution, particularly since to date ONLY Christian organizations have been given money.

There is no ambiguity in the line our Founding Fathers drew separating Church and State. Our Founding Fathers were very outspoken in their ideas. For example, Ben Franklin very specifically gave his opinion of government funding of religious institutions:

Thomas Jefferson and Al Gore. Both spokesmen for truth, both statesmen of exemplary principle. But are we truly heeding their words?

My hope that we have not labored in vain, and that our experiment will still prove that men can be governed by reason." --Thomas Jefferson to George Mason, 1791. ME 8:124

"I have so much confidence in the good sense of man, and his qualifications for self-government, that I am never afraid of the issue where reason is left free to exert her force." --Thomas Jefferson to Comte Diodati, 1789. Papers 15:326

I confess.  I was unhappy when they said, "impeachment is off the table," but I dismissed it as a tactical dispute.  At least we knew there were "no more blank checks" and Congress would starve the beast by exercising the power of the purse.  When they capitulated, I was vexed.

When the AG told Congress he didn't recall any Constitutional guarantee of habeas corpus, I was stunned.   I didn't realize Art. I, Sec. 9 of the Constitution was a figment of my imagination.  At least that explains why no one uses it anymore.  

This week really surprised me, though.  I hear Congress just granted more unchecked powers to Gonzales.  I can't understand how that happened.  It's like no one recalls his testimony.  It was awhile before I figured out the problem: we haven't been supportive enough.

Instead of calling them Vichy Democrats who cower in front of glass-jawed bullies, we should be supporting them.  We've done it before.  We can do it again.  In 2006 we gave them a mandate.  You and I know the majority of America was behind them.  The problem was they didn't feel it.  That's our fault.  We need to show them we're behind them.

Working together, we can solve this ...

I once stated that Earth In The Balance was Al Gore's soul on paper. This book is then his heart, and it is well worth the read.

The gutters are clogged with the dead
The ones who couldn't join in
The others refusing to sing
The ones who are losing their voice
The ones who've forgotten the tune.
Excerpt "God Bless America," Harold Pinter, January 2003

Preceeding generations had every reason to believe those following them would step into the breach and continue the vigil over this nation's Constitutional freedoms and, if necessary, fight to preserve them. They believed, like George Washington warned -- "Government is a "force; like fire, a troublesome servant and a fearful master. Never for a moment should it be left to irresponsible action." And they remembered, from generation to generation. Unfortunately, those following our generation will have no such luxury.

We blew it.

As Deaking stated "In this Constitution, although much is written much remains unwritten", then surely the need for an OFFICE OF THE GUARDIAN, a constitutional council, that advises the Government, the People, the parliament and the Courts is wll overdue to be created, as politicians of all political colour and judges alike simply after more then 100 years of federation still do not know and neither so comprehend what is constitutionally appropriate in certain constitutional issues.

The topic below was originally posted in my blog the Intrepid Liberal Journal.

Martin Luther King Jr.'s birthday this week had me thinking about other pioneers with grace, wisdom and decency. One figure worth remembering is Barbara Jordan. It happens January 17th was the 11th anniversary of her death at the age of 59. Jordan was a rare figure who combined gravitas with humility. She broke down barriers to walk the corridors of power but never forgot where she came from.

Educated in the public schools of Houston, Jordan graduated from Phillis Wheatley High School in 1952. Upon earning her B.A. in political science and history from Texas Southern University in 1956 she graduated from Boston University Law School in 1959. Think about that for moment - a black woman from Texas earned a law degree in 1959.

In Al Gore's magnificent treatise on government and the excesses of presidential power that he delivered a year ago, he used the phrase, "the consent of the governed." He called those of us who are the governed to seek within us the same spirit that steered our forefathers through the tossed and stormy seas of great change to birth a nation to now guide us to a new "golden age." His words were daring, bold, brave, visionary, and at the same time reminiscent of that very spirit that first saw us fighting an empire and changing the course of history. They were words that made me proud for the first time in a long time to be an American.

It's typical to criticize the Congress which just ended as a "do nothing" congress, one that spent more time on internal feuds than on getting things done.  But nothing could be further from the truth.  Actually, this was an extremely accomplished Congress, and one area where this Congress achieved almost everything it set out to do, comes in the nips and tucks applied to the Bill of Rights.

Like the Geneva Convention, the Bill of Rights was previously full of vague, difficult to interpret terminology.  How can any government agent be expected to apply terms like "secure in their persons" or "but upon probable cause?"  Such ambiguity can only lead to problems that stand in the way of the State taking proper action against all who oppose order.

This Congress has worked in hand in iron hand with the Executive branch, cutting red tape that kept the nation from a secure, orderly future.

As there have lately been so many changes to the basic functioning of the United States -- a shift of powers here, a whittling away of rights there, it seems a good time to issue a revised version of the basic operating document.  This is the real Republican Contract with America.

We the Republicans of the United States, in Order to prevent any challenge to our continued Supremacy, free ourselves from the Confines of Justice, placate the Tranquil masses, degrade the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of War Profiteering for ourselves and our Friends, do ordain and establish Constitution 2.0 for the United States of America.

While the media was focused on the story of Goldstein's, er... Zarqawi's latest death, there was another story that got very little play.  This was from the most important "central front" of this global war -- the home front.  I'm talking about a recent case where secret evidence was used to charge people with  crimes the jury didn't think they committed, yet they were still convicted and sentenced to terms the judge felt were unjustified.

As someone on Dkos so eloquently put it:

"Going after people based upon 'what they are thinking'
should set off alarm bells in any thinking person's head."

You read that right.  The department of pre-crime is handing out warrants to the thought police, and they're forcing courts to hand out life sentences.

Ongoing mayhem in Iraq, ENRON buddies waiting to learn how many years they'll spend in jail, VP Cheney's former Leaker in Chief awaiting trial, gas prices soaring, hurricane season starting, and what does President Bush decide to speak out about?

The diary below was originally posted in my blog the Intrepid Liberal Journal on April 23rd.

Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (FMRI) otherwise known, as brain fingerprinting will revolutionize how governments worldwide administer security and criminal justice. The potential repercussions for privacy rights are devastating. In years to come governments as well as corporations will possess the tools to examine an individual's brain waves and attempt to determine if they're lying.

In effect, FMRIs are neural imaging of one's brain waves. The technology allows researchers to map the brain's neurons as they process thoughts, sensations, memories, and motor commands. Since debuting a decade ago, brain fingerprinting has facilitated transparency with the cognitive operations behind behavior such as feeling stimulated by music or recognizing a familiar face in a crowd.

I've been biting my tongue about the Bush Regime's secret NSA wiretapping / eavesdropping scandal. I wanted to let the ramifications sink in... to soak in to the cockles of my grey matter and see what stewed to the top. Usually an act as blatant as this doesn't take this much time to stew. However, once I grasped the enormity of this story... I had to wait for the anger to subside before I could process the emotions in to words.

Our own Cortexan and current Daily Kos front pager, Georgia10, did an excellent job summing up the legal arguments against Bush's warrantless spying in this article.  

The law does not permit warrantless surveillance searches without probable cause.   The Supreme Court has held that police frisks and other more limited forms of searches could be held to a "reasonable suspicion" standard. But as to the pervasive, highly intrusive search that occurs when the government wiretaps or intercepts the communications of its citizens, a probable cause standard is constitutionally required.

 For anyone having to go up against the forces of right wing talking points and just general media misinformation, it's a must read.

But there's significance to Bush's action that goes beyond the president's ability to conduct searches, or the limits of wartime power.  It's just as import to look at how the Bush administration has conducted themselves in this affair as the specifics of what they've done.