Oh, by the way…

October 10, 2009 at 7:58 am | In Congress, Healthcare, Obama Administration, Politics | Leave a Comment
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I used Congress.org to write emails to my elected representatives on healthcare reform, and I’ve reproduced the emails below. I strongly urge you to send similar letters (but for best results, don’t copy mine). If you prefer, phone your reps: ask for the staffer who handles healthcare reform and leave a message. Or, write a letter. But do it, please: putting pressure on these people, showing them that public opinion is strong on this issue, is the best way to get the job done.

President Obama

When you ran for President you promised us a strong healthcare reform package with a robust public option. Like most Americans, I know we need that package badly: it’s important that we get it, and I care little about the politics and processes. I want it done. Now.

I worked on your campaign and voted for you, but I’ve been disappointed in your lack of aggressive leadership on this issue. Mr. President, the country relies on your strong leadership to get a bill—like the ones in the House—passed in Congress and signed into law.

Please: get it done!

Representative McIntyre

Healthcare reform will soon come to a vote in the House. It is a critical issue. Like most Americans, I want to see a bill that reins in the health insurance companies, makes them compete with each other, and includes a strong public option. We can do this, as every other industrialized nation does, and failure to do it would result in financial disaster for individuals, and for the nation.

Remember, Mr. McIntyre, it is the people who vote, not the corporations. And the people care about this issue. Like the people of North Carolina, you must support real, robust healthcare reform. Get it done!

Senator Kay Hagan

Healthcare reform will soon come to a vote in the Senate. It is a critical issue. Like most Americans, I want to see a bill that reins in the health insurance companies, makes them compete with each other, and includes a strong public option. We can do this, as every other industrialized nation does, and failure to do it would result in financial disaster for individuals, and for the nation.

Remember, Ms. Hagan, it is the people who vote, not the corporations. And the people care about this issue. Like the people of North Carolina, you must support real, robust healthcare reform. Get it done!

Senator Richard Burr

Healthcare reform will soon come to a vote in the Senate. It is a critical issue. Like most Americans, I want to see a bill that reins in the health insurance companies, makes them compete with each other, and includes a strong public option. We can do this, as every other industrialized nation does, and failure to do it would result in financial disaster for individuals, and for the nation.

Mr. Burr, you have voted against virtually every piece of legislation since January. That’s childish, and it’s not what you were elected to do. Remember: it is the people who vote, not the corporations. And the people care about this issue. Like the people of North Carolina, you must support real, robust healthcare reform. Get it done!

The torture in our past

April 22, 2009 at 7:07 am | In Bush Administration, Obama Administration, Politics | Leave a Comment
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It’s not “enhanced interrogation,” it’s torture. It’s ugly, it’s immoral, it’s illegal, and as President Obama has said several times, we don’t do it.

That is to say, we don’t do it now. We used to do it: we did it at “black” CIA sites, at Abu Ghraib, at Baghram and Gitmo, and (via extraordinary rendition) at prisons in other countries. That’s not a theory, it’s established fact: the United States of America committed war crimes, broke the Geneva Conventions and associated treaties, and broke its own laws. The question is, what do we do about it?

We investigate, and—if the investigation reveals individuals who committed crimes—we prosecute the perpetrators. That’s not an option. It’s called the Rule of Law.

Of course justice ought to be tempered by mercy. I don’t think we ought to prosecute the grunts who actually did the torturing unless investigation shows them to have been aware (or uncaring) that their acts were illegal. Citizens of a country regarded as highly ethical, they were told that the acts of “enhanced interrogation” they were asked to perform were approved by their government; legal, necessary, and justified by the circumstances. They may have had doubts, but I think it’s expecting too much to ask them to refuse to carry out what they believed were lawful orders.

But the bigwigs? They decided to use torture, justified it, and wrote the policies that approved it. They must pay for their crimes.

It will be argued that torture works. Wrong. You may occasionally get useful information by torturing somebody, but most of what you get is useless, because the person you’re torturing will say anything, literally anything, to get you to stop. Interrogation is like sales: you establish rapport, and you persuade the subject that it’s in his or her best interests to tell you what you want to know. You tend to get very good, very useful information that way. Just ask the detectives on your local police force: they do it all the time.

It will be argued that torture is used by national officials who are under very great pressure to get good information before some terrible thing happens. Pressure? They’re supposed to be able to handle pressure: that’s why we hired them. In a nation of laws, they are supposed to be able to make the right decisions; the morally, ethically, and practically correct decisions—even under very great pressure.

If they don’t make the morally and ethically correct decisions we become just like our enemies. We turn into a nation whose actions help terrorist organizations to recruit members. We turn into a nation that has lost the moral high ground, and whose forces (and other citizens) are subject to the same treatment we give our enemies. A nation that deplores and prosecutes war crimes in others—while committing them itself.

That is unacceptable. The Attorney General, Mr. Holder, must appoint a special prosecutor. The prosecutor must be independent, highly respected, and ethically above reproach. He must be able to conduct an investigation in a highly charged environment, to navigate the shoals of political pressure, and determine the truth. Then he must prosecute those who ordered and justified the use of torture, because they violated the law. They caused the United States to violate treaties and conventions that it proudly helped write. They are criminals under U.S. law, and war criminals under international law.

I hope you’ll write your elected representatives, and the Attorney General, on this issue. I already have.

Obama OKs Wiretaps?!

April 19, 2009 at 12:26 pm | In Obama Administration, Politics | Leave a Comment
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He’s done a lot of good things. He’s taken the right steps (mostly) to get our economy going again. He’s made tremendous progress in mending relations with our allies—and in reassuring our enemies that we’ll talk with them and not just blindly swing a cudgel in their direction. But he’s made some mistakes—serious ones—that we cannot ignore.

The warrantless wiretapping mess is one. The Terrorist Surveillance Program (TSP) is the program under which the National Security Agency has tapped the electronic communications and communications records of thousands of ordinary Americans—in many cases without a warrant. Not just foreign communications: purely domestic communications were caught in the dragnet, as were Americans’ communications with foreigners who had not the faintest connection with terrorism. That’s just wrong, and Candidate Barack Obama said so in ringing tones during the campaign.

But President Barack Obama has not only adopted the Bush policy, he has extended it!

During the Bush administration the Electronic Frontier Foundation filed a suit against the NSA, seeking to stop the program. But the Obama Justice Department recently filed a motion to dismiss the suit, formally adopting the Bush administration policy, and extending it to give the government immunity from being sued over wiretaps—even if they are found to be illegal!

We have a right to privacy. It’s guaranteed by the Fourth Amendment, which says:

The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated. And no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.

If we can’t sue the government for violating our right to privacy we have no recourse. If we have no recourse…do we have a right to privacy? I’m not a Constitutional lawyer or scholar, but like you, I can read—and think. And I think that if this motion is accepted it means we have lost our right to privacy. If it can’t be enforced it does not exist.

The motion should be withdrawn. The TSP, which rests on a tottering tower of specious legal arguments designed to get around the Fourth Amendment, must be amended to preserve the rights of Americans. Those who designed, approved, and implemented the program should be investigated. If criminal acts are found, the perpetrators must be tried.

The problem is that President Obama feels he’s in a political bind. On one side are the people who voted for him because he represented change from the constitution-bending policies of the Bush years. On the other side is the intelligence community, whose support we need to fight terrorism. And there is this: no president has ever voluntarily given up powers that a previous president has acquired.

But the vast majority of the country is on President Obama’s side: we will support him in changing the TSP and the FISA so they no longer trample on our rights. The intelligence agencies are the tools of the president; they are not his master. If he acts fairly, prosecuting only those who have committed criminal acts, the intelligence community will come around. The intelligence community has just as much skin in the anti-terror game as anybody. More than some.

Barack Obama could be remembered as the consummate politician who did the right thing; the president who voluntarily gave up powers that his predecessor assumed in disregard or defiance of the constitution.

Wouldn’t that be a wonderful legacy?

Will Congress pad the last “emergency” war funding bill?

April 15, 2009 at 9:21 am | In Congress, Iraq, Obama Administration, Politics | Leave a Comment

The late but unlamented Bush administration used emergency spending bills to pay for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. The fact is, these bills were a device to hide the cost of the wars by taking it off the budget. The Obama administration has vowed to provide more transparency in government, and says that the current bill—used out of administrative necessity—will be the last.

I hope so. But the current bill, although it is seemingly needed, may acquire additions to fund large weapons systems requested by the Pentagon—like more F-22 fighters and a refueling tanker for the Air Force. These are controversial projects, but even if they were obviously needed “slam dunk” projects, they should be carefully scrutinized on their own merits, not passed as an addendum to an otherwise necessary spending bill.

That seems obvious. But some powerful Democrats are talking about adding the fighters and tanker to the bill: Representative John Murtha (D-PA), chairman of the Defense Spending Committee and Senator Daniel Inouye (D-HI), chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee. They are strong supporters of the military weapons industry. They must be prevented from padding the bill.

Fortunately, opposition to the practice exists. Senator Carl Levin (D-MI) is chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, and Senator John McCain (yes, that John McCain) is the ranking Republican on the committee. Both are working on improving the DOD procurement process, and neither looks kindly on the practice of adding weapons systems to emergency spending bills.

But they need help. I wrote to President Obama and to my representative and senators, and I suggest you do so too. An easy way is to use Congress.org, but you can use the phone, snail-mail, or whatever means you like. Just do it: let your elected representatives know what you think.

Let’s Get Together and Be All Right

February 9, 2009 at 10:10 am | In Congress, Economy, Obama Administration, Politics | 2 Comments

It was 1957 or so when I last set foot in Jamaica, so I have no idea how well their slogan is working. But whether it works for the Jamaica Tourist Board or not, it’s a good idea, and we ought to try it here.

We have always had partisan fights in this country: George Washington was the only president who was elected unanimously. That’s fine. But it seems to me that starting with the Clinton administration, the fights became nastier, focused on putting down the opposition party rather than on doing what’s right for the country. The trend continued through the Bush administration, although the Democrats didn’t demonstrate as much ideological hatred as the Republicans had.

Maybe if we had been less intent on giving the other party a black eye we would have anticipated the economic crisis we now face, and would have done something about it before it became a crisis. We’ll never know…but it’s possible. It would be better for all concerned if we were to work together.

That’s a major idea that drove the Obama campaign, and that President Obama has tried his level best to implement. Before he was inaugurated he met with the top conservative columnists and—as they said themselves—not only talked, but listened to what they had to say. Since the inauguration he has met several times with the leaders of both parties. Not just the formal leadership, but with the leading senators and representatives. Over cocktails, over lunch, and around conference tables, President Obama has presented his point of view—and has listened to the points of view of the members of both parties.

But he has done more than listen. The Economic Recovery plan he presented to the Congress had a lot of things suggested by the Republican minority. Nobody expected it to pass exactly as presented, but it was a truly bipartisan bill. Yet not a single Republican member of the House voted for it, and the Senate Republicans are doing everything in their power to slow it down.

Despite all of President Obama’s overtures; despite the fact that the Economic Recovery legislation contains huge chunks suggested by Republicans; despite the fact that Senators on both sides of the aisle negotiated compromises…the Republicans mulishly dig in their heels to prevent what they cannot prevent: passage of the bill.

They cannot prevent passage, but they can delay it, and every day of delay means a worse economy, because the worst thing we can do is to do nothing. We need to get together and pass the bill. As they say in Jamaica, “Let’s get together and be all right.”

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