Sponsors

Suing Bush Email Print

By sdf
01/19/2006 12:11:00 PM EST

There is an interesting article in the San Jose Mercury news this morning about Stanford Professor Larry Diamond, who is one of the plaintiffs in the ACLU Lawsuit against Bush for the illegal, warrantless NSA wiretapping.  It is worth reading, but I wanted to excerpt a few paragraphs, because Diamond states his position quite eloquently, I think:

Every day on the Stanford University campus, Larry Diamond teaches his students that the president of the United States is not above the law.

Which is why Diamond decided to sue President Bush when he learned that the president had authorized spying on Americans without consent of Congress or the courts. Diamond believes he is among the targets of surveillance.

"I'm disturbed,'' said Diamond, a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution [sic!] who has studied and taught democracy for more than 30 years. He is also a plaintiff in the lawsuit filed Tuesday by the American Civil Liberties Union suit against Bush, the National Security Agency and the heads of other major agencies. "I'm not afraid. I don't feel that I'm in danger. I don't expect retribution.''

[More below the flip]

"What I'm disturbed about is the practical consequence for academic freedom and my ability to do research that enables me to be a good advocate for democracy,'' he said.

"It is not simply what the president is having the NSA do. It is the unilateral and unconstitutional means by which he is doing it.''

Very well said.  Little Scottie, of course, has already dismissed the lawsuit as "frivolous," and said it does nothing to protect civil liberties (a great concern of the administration, of course), but maybe it'd be fun to ask (entirely rhetorically, of course): who is more frivolous, Little Scottie or Professor Diamond?

Kudos to the Merc, by the way, for frontpaging this article and, for the most part, giving Prof. Diamond the floor.

And let me put in a pitch (something I don't often do):  The ACLU does increasingly vital work, routinely gets pilloried by the Right and its Blowhard Sycophants, and needs our support.  If you are interested in helping, there's a link here.

-- Stu


KEYWORDS: , , , ,

Sign up for a Complimentary Member Account... Join the community! It's fast. And it'll allow you to take advantage of all this site's great features!

< Failures of Leadership | Treason Talk >
 Display:
Suing Bush | 3 comments (3 topical, editorial, 0 hidden)
Somewhere I saw ... (none / 0)
somebody commenting on this lawsuit as "an uphill battle" because NSA is simply going to refuse to turn over records for "national security" reasons.

Which, I agree, is probably the case.

But that kind of analysis misses the point -- if we're trying to bring attention to the unconstituionality of Bush's actions, publicity is necessary and this lawsuit gives an opportunity for the media to cover it.

And I agree with you on the ACLU ... gotta love 'em and donate. They've been on fire, fighting this administration in the trenches over many, many issues.

by SusanG on 01/19/2006 02:57:08 PM EST

You're exactly right, Susan (none / 0)
that even if the lawsuit is difficult to conduct, the publicity of the unconstitutional infringement of civil liberties is also critical, and that is why it is encouraging to see a major newspaper put it on the frontpage (with the appropriate local professor angle).

We'll see what kind of attention it continues to receive ...

-- Stu

by sdf on 01/19/2006 03:19:48 PM EST

[ Parent ]
Exactly (none / 0)
More generally, the administration doesn't have to be proven guilty or impeached for justice to gain traction.

The common knowledge that Bush and the entire Republican leadership are anti-American, Constitution-wrecking criminals will go a long way in ressurecting the true American values that have been buried by the neocon scurge.

Political Cortex -- Brain Food for the Body Politic

by Tom Ball on 01/19/2006 04:16:34 PM EST

[ Parent ]
Suing Bush | 3 comments (3 topical, 0 editorial, 0 hidden)
 Display: