POLITICAL ACTION
BLOGPOLITICAL ACTION
BLOGToday my wife, who is a physician, opened a letter from the "House Conservatives Fund" that contained a letter signed by Congressman Tom Price, M.D. Dr Price wanted up to $5,000 from physicians to oppose health-care reform.
We're used to Republican lies -- it's a standard of doing business for the party that routinely uses propaganda as a cover for its commitment to protecting the privileged against the interests of ordinary people. But this letter had so many lies that we were outraged. Here's a selection (lies are in bold):
If you want to protest these lies, send a note -- and be as polite as you can -- to
Congressman Tom Price
424 Cannon House Office Building
Washington DC 20515
Phone: 202-225-4501
Fax: 202-225-4656
http://tomprice.house.gov/
e-mail form: http://tomprice.house.gov/html/contact_form_email.cfm
_____
Yeah, right.
Israeli scientists were informed at the last minute that their travel authorization for the conference had been rescinded by Egyptian Health Minister Hatem el-Gabali.
How would the world respond if the Israeli health minister were to rescind the travel authorization for the same kind of conference to be held in Israel? And then crow about how the Israeli government's behavior showed that "breast cancer has no boundaries... and reveals the beauty of the world's unity....?"
You can be sure that there would be howls of outrage from the world over -- and especially from countries all over the middle East -- those bastions of women's rights.
Well, here's a place to send your own howl of outrage: you can express your opinions to the Embassy of Egypt in Washington by e-mail or find other addresses for consular functions on the Embassy's Web site.
I can empathize with some anti-abortionists: I just don't agree with them. Anti-abortionists include sincere, fervent advocates for the view that a foetus deserves full recognition as a human being. Some argue for protection of what they call unborn babies from the moment of conception. Some of these advocates for recognition of human rights for foetuses argue from assumptions similar to those of animal-rights advocates: they have a profound empathy for the subjects of their protective urges and translate their concern in to moral imperatives. I myself actively support many animal welfare organizations and eat almost no dead animals. I applaud anti-abortion activists who speak their mind and advocate for a change in public opinion.
That's a far cry from supporting legislation to ban public funding of what I consider to be a reasonable medical procedure.
I would not support legislation that attempted to force people to become vegetarians; I accept that people of good will can legitimately disagree on the morality of eating critters. I would and do support legislation to regulate the treatment of animals being slaughtered; I see no conflict in rights there.
But some anti-abortionists have crossed the line between belief and fanaticism. Killing obstetricians who perform abortions is an abomination. Screaming obscenities at pregnant women and women's health centers where abortions are performed is at the same level of fanatiscm as any other expression of religious fundamentalism. All fanatics, whether political or religious, share the same flaw: they cannot accept that their point of view is arguable; i.e., it is impossible for the fanatic to conceive of any possibility that someone who disagrees with their position should be permitted to act in violation of the fanatic's point of view.
Some religions are universalist; some are not. Some religious enthusiasts believe that their view of G-d and truth is the only possible truth; all deviations from their revelation are inherently wrong and perhaps (or definitely) evil. Other belief systems are not universalist; they speak of principles for adherents without vilifying those who hold other beliefs. In Judaism, the seven Noahide laws are generally viewed as having universal application; nobody, Jew or Gentile, is supposed to eat pieces torn from a living animal. However, others of the 613 Mitzvot (commandments) apply only to Jews. Thus for a Gentile to eat a cheeseburger (violating the prohibition on combining meat and dairy in one meal) is not a sin. Similarly, in the Jewish shtetls of central Europe, the Shabbas Goy who could help in emergencies such as rekindling a fire on the Sabbath was not violating Jewish law.
Basically, the Jewish attitude is that we are applying our religious rules to ourselves, not to non-Jews. There has never been a Jewish movement to prevent Gentiles from eating bacon cheeseburgers because it is forbidden to Jews in our religious laws.
So the famous bumper sticker sums up my position pretty clearly: DON'T LIKE ABORTION? DON'T HAVE ONE.
Forcing religious views prohibting a woman's right to reproductive choice into public policy -- and involving taxpayers' money -- is a scandalous abuse of the principles on which our Nation was established.
Urge our country's leaders to reject anti-choice efforts to hijack health care by signing our petition today.
As the Senate takes up health care reform, we need the personal leadership
of President Obama, Leader Reid and Speaker Pelosi to make sure health care
reform legislation doesn't undermine the reproductive rights of women all across
the country.
As you may know, anti-choice forces in the House led by Representatives Stupak
and Pitts succeeded in making the House health care bill a vehicle for advancing
their agenda.
This isn't, as its sponsors claim, an attempt to make sure health care legislation
maintains the "status quo" when it comes to federal funds not being
spent on abortions. It is an effort to dramatically alter the landscape of reproductive
rights for women all across the country.
Health care reform should improve women's health and lives, not interfere with their ability to get the health care they need. But politics and ideology came together in a toxic mix when the House of Representatives added the Stupak-Pitts amendment to the Affordable Health Care for America Act.
We can't let the same thing happen in the Senate or in final legislation.
Urge our country's leaders to reject anti-choice efforts to hijack health care.
If this amendment is part of the final health care legislation, anyone who participates in the health care exchange will be prohibited from buying a plan that covers abortion care if they receive a federal subsidy, even if they contribute their own private funds to pay part of the premium.
Please act right now by urging President Obama, Leader Reid and Speaker Pelosi to protect women's ability to make private health care decisions without government interference.
Thank you so much for acting to protect reproductive freedom.
Sincerely,
Vania Leveille
ACLU Legislative Counsel
P.S. Even though the odds seem daunting, I know we can win. The Stupak-Pitts amendment is one of the most dangerous intrusions into women's lives we've ever experienced. But you and I know the American people don't want the government interfering in their personal lives. Please take action today and tell your friends to do the same.
On Tuesday, after his endorsement of Beck's race-baiting started to draw attention, Murdoch claimed, through a spokesperson, that he didn't mean he agrees with Beck.[2] It's ridiculous -- what else could he have possibly meant?
Murdoch calls the shots at Fox News, and he's just made it clear that Fox's problem with race starts in his office. Now that he's been caught, he's trying to play dumb -- he doesn't want to be held accountable for Beck's rhetoric, but he won't denounce or stop it either.
It won't work, if we stand up. Join me in telling Murdoch he has a choice -- he can stand by the fact that he agrees with Glenn Beck; or he can tell us why he doesn't and what he's going to do about it. If enough of us call him out, we can create a powerful conversation about Fox's race-baiting that will help us hold them accountable at the highest level.
Please join me in signing the petition to Murdoch, and ask your friends and family to do the same:
http://www.colorofchange.org/murdoch/?id=1828-1047080
While Beck is the worst offender on the Fox News Channel, the network has a long, deep history of engaging in inflammatory racial rhetoric: attacking Black leaders, Black culture, and Black institutions.[3,4,5] And a number of Murdoch's recent business decisions suggest that he is consciously building a media empire -- at Fox News and elsewhere -- that attracts viewers by appealing to racial fear and paranoia.
A month ago, Murdoch put Don Imus (fired from MSNBC for his infamous "nappy headed hos" comment)[6] back on television on the Fox Business Network. And a few weeks ago, Murdoch personally fired Marc Lamont Hill -- one of Fox News' few black commentators -- in response to a racially charged smear campaign led by a News Corp shareholder, who said Hill has "reputation of defending cop killers and racists."[7]
Holding Murdoch, Beck and Fox News accountable
When Murdoch publicly endorsed some of Glenn Beck's most inflammatory comments, it seemed he was making it very clear that he approves of Fox's race-baiting. Now, apparently after realizing how damaging it would be for him to publicly support the rhetoric that cost Glenn Beck 80 advertisers, he's trying to backpedal. But Murdoch is not willing to distance himself from Beck either. He knows that he could face a backlash from Fox's viewers if he appears critical of the racially charged programming that attracts many of them to the network in the first place.
So Murdoch wants to have it both ways -- he wants to build a network that makes money by pandering to racial fear and paranoia, but he doesn't want Fox to be seen as cable's home for race-baiting.
We can't let him get away with it. Murdoch made a mistake by speaking too openly about what he and his media organizations stand for. He rarely makes mistakes like this, and we need to seize the opportunity to expose Fox's problem with race.
It starts by demanding that Murdoch explain what he meant, and be clear about whether or not race-baiting is part of the program at Fox. He may or may not respond, but if enough of us speak out, we can create a conversation that makes it clear who is ultimately responsible for Fox's race-baiting. It's just one step in starting to bring some accountability to the leadership of Fox News and News Corp -- but it's an important one.
Join me in calling out Rupert Murdoch, and ask your friends and family to do the same. It just takes a minute:
http://www.colorofchange.org/murdoch/?id=1828-1047080
Thank you.
References:
1. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FsboAwzj7aY
2. http://tinyurl.com/y8fhg4n
3. http://mediamatters.org/items/200412230012
4. http://mediamatters.org/items/200602090003
5. http://mediamatters.org/items/200510030005
6. http://tinyurl.com/mdtn4x
7. http://tinyurl.com/yzx7xyd
Other Resources:
"This president has exposed himself as a guy over and over and over again who has a deep-seated hatred for white people... this guy is, I believe, a racist."
It's part of a larger argument Beck has been making: that President Obama wants to serve the needs of Black communities at White people's expense. This kind of talk stirs up fear, hate, and it can lead to violence.
I've joined ColorOfChange.org's effort to stop Glenn Beck. ColorOfChange is already putting calls into Beck's advertisers, asking them if they want to be associated with this kind of racist hate and fear-mongering. When the advertisers see that tens of thousands of us are behind that question, I believe they'll move their advertising dollars elsewhere, and his show and platform will be history.
Will you take a stand and be counted, and invite your friends and family to do the same? It takes just a moment: http://www.colorofchange.org/beck/?id=1828-1047080
Glenn Beck is appealing to the worst in America. Of course, some Americans refuse to accept the fact that our president is Black or the idea that he could truly serve all Americans. But the only way these views fade away is if they're not reinforced by mainstream society. Instead, folks like Glenn Beck, Lou Dobbs, and Rush Limbaugh are exploiting racism and race-based fear to bump their ratings, stirring up racial discord in the process.
The dangers of these tactics are real. We saw the same dynamic during the presidential race: By the end, the McCain/Palin campaign was unable to control the violent energy whipped up by their race-baiting. It resulted in an unprecedented number of threats on Obama's life, a rise in the number of hate groups, and an increase in the number of threats and crimes against immigrants and Black people.
FOX has a horrible track record on pushing racist propaganda, but Glenn Beck appears to be taking the network to an even lower standard. He's trying to divide and distract America when we should be coming together and talking about issues that really matter--like health care and the economy.
The good news is that we have the power to stop this. All major media is funded by advertising. And advertisers care more than anything what consumers think. If we want to change what's happening and put an end to folks like Glenn Beck having a platform, we can do it.
It's up to us, and it can start now. Please join me: http://www.colorofchange.org/beck/?id=1828-1047080
When the Nazis took power in Germany, they did so on the backs of passive people of good will who did NOTHING to stop racism and hatred. Don't wait until the hate-mongering turns to even more violence. Take a stand now!
Thanks.
Here are some links to more info:
I am alarmed and I need your help to stop the flood of anti-abortion amendments being added to health care reform bills. Some of those amendments would not only prevent improvements in women's health care -- they could take away the abortion coverage that many women already have from their private insurance plans.
I need activism and the most generous gift you can afford to block these attacks on women's health care. We must move quickly to contact every member of Congress during this late summer recess to make it clear that women's lives are not for sale. What can you do?
First: your senators and representative are at home and accessible. Call their district offices today and remind them that women's reproductive health is not a bargaining chip to be traded at the whim of some insurance company or drug manufacturer. If they are holding town meetings, go and speak up for women.
Second: please send your contribution today <http://lists.now.org/t/540460/3665680/5207727/0/> to help us mobilize NOW's network of grassroots activists. We need to move quickly, so the health care reform that we've all longed for and worked for doesn't turn out to be a disaster for women's reproductive rights.
When even people we helped elect to office cannot be counted on to stand up and fight for basic reproductive health care, it's time to begin holding some feet to the fire.
Congress goes back in session in September, and health care legislation could quickly gel into its final form. While members are at home for their August recess we have an ideal opportunity to make it clear to each of them that women's lives must be taken off the bargaining table.
Please contact your representatives and let me hear from you today.
In sisterhood,
Terry O'Neill
President, National Organization for Women
We've got no money in the bank, and we have payroll to meet on August 31, and
our printer to pay, and other creditors hounding us.
We've got to shell out $130,000 in the next two weeks, but we're only expecting
to bring in $40,000.
That's why I urgently need your help with a tax-deductible donation by clicking
here.
Please be as generous as you can.
The Progressive is a nonprofit, legally and all-too-literally these days.
Aware of our acute budget problems, we, for the first time in the 26 years I've
been here, recently had to institute staff cutbacks and salary reductions, including
for me. We've also combed over every expense line, and trimmed wherever we possibly
could. There's no place else to trim.
On the revenue side, I've spent the better part of my summer nights calling
people up on the phone for donations. And still we're short.
Next year looks a lot better. With all the savings we've made, we stand to secure
our footing and gain significant ground. But we need to get there first.
If you value the weekly letters and updates I send you,
If you value the writing and reporting on our website,
If you value the Progressive Radio offerings or those of the Progressive Media
Project,
Or if you value the essayists we bring you in the magazine, like Howard Zinn,
Naomi Klein, Barbara Ehrenreich, Dave Zirin, and Eduardo Galeano,
Or if you value the 100-year history of The Progressive magazine, this great
institution of dissent,
Then please show your support right now by sending The Progressive a tax-deductible
donation by clicking here.
I need to hear from you today.
Thanking you in advance,
Matthew Rothschild
Editor and Publisher
The Progressive
409 East Main Street | Madison, WI 53703 US
P.S. If you want to discuss our situation with me, feel free to e-mail me at
mattr@progressive.org, or call me at (608) 257-4626. I really appreciate your
support. And please share this appeal with any and all friends who might be
in a position to help. Thanks so much!
George Monbiot, writing in the Guardian Weekly (2009-08-09, p 19), reports, "Unicef, when it compared teenage pregnancy rates in different parts of the world, found that the Netherlands had the rich world's lowest incidence -- of five virths per 1,000 girls -- and the US had the highest: 53 per 1,000. Unicef explained that the Dutch had 'more open attitudes towards sex and sex education, including contraception.' There was no 'shame or embarrassment' about asking for help. In the US, however, 'contracptive advice and services may be formally available, but in a closed atmosphere of embarrassment and secrecy."
Monbiot's column on his blog is called "Politically Transmitted Disease" but was in the Guardian it was headlined "Masters of denial keep sexual dark ages alive: US conservatives can now add syphilis and teenage pregnancies to climate change and all the other things they want to disavow." He writes,
American conservatism could be described as a movement of denialogues, people whose ideology is based on disavowing physical realities. This applies to their views on evolution, climate change, foreign affairs and fiscal policy. The Vietnam war would have been won, were it not for the pinko chickens at home. Saddam Hussein was in league with Al Qaida. Everyone has an equal chance of becoming CEO. Universal healthcare is a communist plot. Segregation wasn’t that bad. As one of George Bush’s aides said, “We’re an empire now, and when we act, we create our own reality.”[1]
Monbiot analyses the Center for Disease Control (CDC) statistics about teen pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) and -- surprise! -- finds that the Bush administration's insistence on abstinence as the sole form of sex education -- coupled with systematic lies about contraception and STDs -- is correlated with an abrupt shift in what had been a decline of both teen pregnancy and STDs among teens before the Republicans took control of the US government.
Between 1990 and 2004, the birthrate among teenage girls fell sharply: by 46% for 15-17 year olds. The decline was unbroken throughout these years. (The same thing happened in the rest of the western world, though about 20 years earlier). But between 2005 and 2006, something odd happened: the teen birthrate increased by 3%. In 2007 it rose by another 1%. I think most people would agree that this is a tragedy. According to the UN agency Unicef, women who are born poor are twice as likely to stay that way if they have children as teenagers. They are more likely to remain unemployed, to suffer from depression and to become alcoholics or drug addicts (3). Similarly, the incidence of gonorrhea dropped for more than 20 years, then started to rise in 2004. After a long period of decline, syphilis among teenage boys began to increase in 2002; among girls in 2004.
Monbiot did some original research based on the CDC's publications.
The CDC has published a map of trends in the teenage birth rate. I ran it against a political map of the Union and found this: nine of the ten states with the highest increase in teenage births voted Republican in the 2000 and 2004 presidential elections[7]. (Eight of them voted for McCain in 2008.[8]) Among them are the Christian conservative heartlands of Kentucky, Alabama, Mississipi, Louisiana and Oklahoma. These are the places in which Bush’s abstinence campaigns were most enthusiastically promoted.
In this case, I'm afraid that the phrase "A pox on them" has unfortunate resonance.
In May 2009, the American Civil Liberties Union challenged the US Patent & Trademark Office for granting patents on naturally occurring human genes. These patents make it illegal to study isolated genes, examine mutations in those genes, and even carrying out research involving correlation of mutations in those patented genes and diseases. This absurd situation grants companies rights over aspects of the natural world -- and of individual human beings -- for which they contributed nothing, in direct contradiction of the mandates under which patents were established in the first place. For more information see the introductory overview and the plaintiff's statements from a range of scientific and medical organizations and experts.
I am a long-standing member and monthly contributor to the Human Rights Campaign and read the organization's equality magazine with news about lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered America with interest. In the Spring 2009 issue, headlined ENDING THE LIES: HRC TAKES ON THE ULTRA RIGHT. The organization has established a new Web site to fight lies with truth.
One section of the article by Lesley Frohling reads in part as follows:
>Across the country, LGBT people and their allies who have fought hard and long for equality are securing some legal protections and social acceptance.... Unfortunately, all of these successes are firing up our foes.
"We need to remain vigilant," warns Human Rights Campaign President Joe Solmonese. "Many far-right hate groups and leaders are stepping it up -- and they're turning more and more to the use of deception and fear to paint the LGBT community as dangerous and immoral."
The lies go on and on -- from the dangers of allowing gay and lesbian couples to raise children to forcing churches to hire homosexuals -- despite the numerous reputable scientific studies and legal experts refuting them. Our opponents are using lies at the state and federal level -- in legislative testimony, from the pulpit, on billboards, everywhere.
HRC recenting took a big step toward trying to halt these lies. This spring, HRC launched "End the Lies" -- a groundbreaking interactive website with audio recordings, photos, videos and quotations from leaders and groups, or "Voices of Fear," who are using fear tacticts and manipulating the truth about LGBT Americans.
EndtheLies.org allows visitors to click on the panels of a colorful, interactive "wall" to access information, watch videos and add comments on multimedia discussion boards. In addition, visitors can click on links for taking action to refute the lies, while the discussion forum allows people to engage in respectful dialogue about the lies and to suggest new "Voices of Fear...."<
I strongly urge readers to join the HRC and to support the EndtheLies.org project. Speak out against homophobia just as you speak out against sexism, racism, religious intolerance, and prejudice based on national origin and socioeconomic class. Treat people with decency and respect by learning about each person as an individual human being, not as a cipher who stands in for false assumptions about entire groups.
I recently wrote a rant to a colleague who praised the intelligent-design (ID) propaganda film Expelled. I hope that readers will be moved to read the detailed analysis of the film at the site sponsored by the National Center for Science Education.
The ID movement is a deliberate attempt to persuade naïve Americans that there is a debate about whether critters on earth have evolved from earlier species. There's disagreement, yes, but it isn't debate. When the observations about speciation are met with a barrage of falsehoods, that isn't debate. There is no possibility of falsifiability in the ID position; it's a belief system impervious to empirical evidence. You can't have a debate in which one side is open to disproof and the other isn't.
The disagreements among evolutionary biologists concern details of classification, timing, and mechanisms. THAT critters give rise to offspring which eventually form new taxonomic groups (species, genera, orders, classes, and phyla) is NOT a matter of disagreement among professional biologists. Yes, there are some nut-cases who keep repeating NO, NO, I REFUSE TO ACCEPT IT but so what? You can see people with the same kind of mentality living under bridges in big cities or in the local pyschiatric ward. They have what psychiatrists call "encapsulated delusions;" i.e., they have fixated on delusions in one or a few specific areas of their lives and cannot be shaken out of their beliefs regardless of reason and evidence. Some of these people are fine in the other aspects of their lives. Another description of this kind of thinking is "cognitive rigidity."
As for balance in teaching, I wonder how far scientists would get with a demand that religious-studies classes include considerations of geology, biology, and physics? Or if scriptural studies focusing on prophets of the Jewish and Christian Bible were forced to include consideration of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders of the American Psychiatric Association as part of their curriculum?
The ID fanatics don't want balance: they want to push their propaganda into the classroom because they cannot integrate their beliefs with reality and they cannot stand having anyone else believe anything different. To put their fanaticism into perspective, just imagine how you would respond if I were to tell you that because Torah specifically forbids eating milk with meat, everyone in America should be forbidden to eat cheeseburgers. You'd think I were nuts, right? So how do these people get away with insisting that their religious beliefs have to be imposed on everyone else? I learned during my studies of Judaism that Jews established several thousand years ago that our religious obligations and restrictions apply to us, not to Gentiles; thus although lighting a fire on the Sabbath is forbidden to Jews, it is not sinful for non-Jews. I sure wish this approach to religious beliefs were more popular with the right-wing crowd, because insisting that they have a pipeline to G-d sure doesn't make me feel very safe. Do you really want to live in a country where there is a state-defined incorporation of specific religious views? Where religious ideology determines what can be taught in non-religion courses?
If the ID fanatics win these battles, why shouldn't we have flat-earthers insisting that their beliefs must be included in geography classes? Let's have people who still think that the stars are holes in a heavenly sphere around Earth demand equal time in astrononomy classes and nut-cases who think that homeopathic remedies that consist of provably-pure distilled water can force their way into medical school classes on pharmacology.
And before you accept the claim that scientists and atheists are pushing their views on other people, ask yourself when you heard about atheists demanding equal time in Bible-study classes to debunk religion or of pro-choice activists demanding that women be forced to have abortions. Objecting to having religious views pushed into science classrooms is not intolerance, it's a defense of intellectual freedom.
It's not a very long stretch between knowing you are absolutely right because G-d told you so and deciding that people who disagree with you are G-dless heathens -- infidels! -- who should be prevented by force from doing what you know is wrong. The people promoting ID have much more in common with the Taliban than they do with the free-thinking founders of this nation.
Readers may be interested in this book: The Fundamentals of Extremism: The Christian Right in America, edited by Kimberly Blaker (2003). New Boston Books (ISBN 0-9725496-0-9).
There are many resources available from the NCSE that may interest readers:
The Creationism Controversy: Understanding and Responding to Creationist Movement
Evolution Education: Understanding and Teaching the Science of Evolution
Publications on a wide range of related
topics
I hope you will support the NCSE and take action to fight ID across the country.
National Resources Defense Council (NRDC): PETITION HERE
Physicians for Human Rights: PETITION HERE
End Warrantless Wiretapping!
In the fight against the Obama Administration's cover-up of the Bush Administration's warrantless wiretapping program, we've seen that the situation is as bad as we feared. The New York Times reported, "The National Security Agency intercepted private e-mail messages and phone calls of Americans in recent months on a scale that went beyond the broad legal limits established by Congress last year," resulting in a "significant and systemic" "overcollection" of domestic communications of Americans.
It is imperative that there be strict oversight to ensure that the government does not abuse its unprecedented access to our domestic communications networks. Increasingly, the courts -- and in particular, EFF's lawsuits against the NSA and the telcos -- appear to be our only hope for government accountability and transparency when it comes to warrantless wiretapping. Please lend your support to our ongoing efforts to secure accountability from the government, end the warrantless surveillance, and deliver justice to the countless ordinary Americans caught in the NSA’s surveillance dragnet!
Please support EFF in our efforts to hold the government accountable for illegal surveillance against innocent Americans:
http://secure.eff.org/wiretapping
Sincerely,
Electronic Frontier Foundation
NOTE FROM MK: see also NSA
Wiretapping: More of the Same (21 April 2009) by Ed Brayton.
When the Bush-Cheney Administration drastically cut federal resources for the investigation of white-collar crime, they invited a new era of Wall Street rule-breaking and the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression.
I just forwarded an email to my members of Congress urging them to support Sen. Patrick Leahy's Fraud Enforcement and Recovery Act.
The Act will give federal law enforcers the resources they need to prosecute and punish the mortgage and corporate fraudsters that have so severely undermined our economy and hurt so many hard-working people.
Just click the link below to join me and do something real to make sure lawbreakers know they will be caught... it'll only take 30 seconds of your time.
TAKE ACTION: PETITION HERE
_____
An Open Letter to Attorney General Eric Holder
It is time to appoint an independent prosecutor to investigate who knew about and authorized the Bush administration’s torture policies. If the evidence warrants, prosecutions should occur.
Nobody is above the law -- that includes high-ranking government officials. And we must look back to make sure this never happens again in order to move our country forward.
Please appoint an independent prosecutor to restore credibility at home and abroad and to give us an America we can be proud of again.
TAKE ACTION: PETITION HERE
_____