Wednesday, March 17, 2004

Responsibility To Dissent FEATURED ARTICLES - Oregon High Court Curbs Arrests During Protests, The Oregonian - Spy Tactics Endanger Political Dissent, NY Newsday, - Bush's Latest Preemptive Strike, Magic City Morning Star, - Weak on Terror, By PAUL KRUGMAN, NY Times, QUOTE OF THE DAY "This advertisement breaks the law…As a broadcaster licensed by the Federal Communications Commission, you have a responsibility .. to refrain from complicity in any illegal activity. Now that you have been apprised of the law, to prevent further violations of federal law, we urge you to remove these advertisements from your station." - - Jill Holtzman Vogel  (Republican National Committee Chief Counsel) From her letter to 250 TV stations nationwide threatening them if they run the MoveOn TV ad. http://www.cnn.com/2004/ALLPOLITICS/03/07/moveon.ads KNOW YOUR HISTORY - MARCH 1953 -- At a "Friendly Sons of St. Patrick" dinner in New York, US Attorney General Herb Brownell boasts that "ten thousand US citizens are being investigated for denaturalization & 12,000 aliens for deportation as subversives." 1966 -- César Chávez & the National Farm Workers Association march from Delano to Sacramento, California, from March 17 to April 11, arriving on Easter Sunday. 1968 -- In London, at the largest Vietnam antiwar march in Britain to date, 25,000 people attempt to storm the American Embassy at Grosvenor Square. 1974 -- Ethiopia: 3,000 women workers march for equal pay & better labor conditions. RHINO HERE: As we approach the 1 year anniversary of the start of the war on Iraq,  & as the presidential campaigns move into high gear, many activists worry to what lengths the shrub gang are willing to go to curb dissent.  Today's blog offers several related articles.  But first, be aware that a massive non-violent anti-war protest has been called for this coming Saturday, March 20th to occur across the nation. For info on events in your area, check out: http://www.unitedforpeace.org Here's an example wherein progressive lawyers in  Oregon successfully beat back police use of a law which had previously allowed them to arrest any protestor who didn't disperse when ordered to do so. The lead attorney on the case was Rhino's Blog reader & Director of the Northwest Constitutional Rights Center, Alan Graf, also a member of the National Lawyers Guild Policy Board.  Rhino sez, "Good work, Al." State High Court Curbs Arrests During Protests The Oregon Supreme Court rules that police may not order peaceful assemblies to disperse and arrest those who disobey by Noelle Crombie, The Oregonian, 03/12/04 The Oregon Supreme Court on Thursday struck down part of a law that allowed police to arrest protesters for failing to obey an order to disperse, saying it violates constitutional rights to free speech and assembly. The court overturned a section of the state's disorderly conduct statute that empowered police to disperse demonstrators if officers thought the gathering posed an inconvenience or annoyance to the public. Those who didn't comply with the police order had been subject to arrest....  The ruling came in response to a 1998 Multnomah County case in which 11 people were arrested in Portland demonstrations about Iraqi bombing and May Day protests... MORE: http://www.oregonlive.com/news/oregonian/index.ssf?/base/front_page/1079096576322771.xml   Here's a link to a report on the case written by attorney, Alan Graf. Great Victory for Free Speech in Oregon by Alan Graf  ( peopleslawyer@qwest.net ),  Portland Independent Media Center ...The Portland Police Bureau has used this statute many times to break up peaceful and legal protests. Through the efforts of both the protestors arrested and the mass defense legal teams over a six year period of time, this law has finally hit the dust... MORE: http://portland.indymedia.org/en/2004/03/282685.shtml The tri-letter "liberal media" networks seemed to have missed a story when last October, the FBI told local police agencies to monitor anyone opposed to the war & occupation of Iraq.  Considering the millions of people who spilled into the streets last year to protest the rampant bombing of Baghdad; a city of millions of innocent civilians, Rhino guesses the folks in blue, already busy fighting real crime, have had their hands over full. Spy Tactics Endanger Political Dissent by Murray Polner, NY Newsday, 3/16/04 ...Since it is obvious that the Bush administration loves playing the 9/11 card for political purposes, it is no surprise that efforts are being made to squelch as much domestic dissension as it can.  We've been through this wave of repression before in the 20th century with calamitous results, when government snoopers developed a vast spying apparatus during the '20s, McCarthyite '50s, and the '60s, '70s and '80s against nonviolent dissenters who dared challenge the wisdom of U.S. foreign policies. And though the FBI (and others in the government) deny they are hindering free speech or assembly - declaring that they are only concerned with deterring potential criminals and terrorists - their October memorandum nevertheless asked some 17,000 local and state police agencies to keep a very close eye on anti-war demonstrations and report allegedly suspicious activity to the FBI's Joint Terrorism Task Force... MORE: http://www.commondreams.org/views04/0316-04.htm What do you get when the Republican Secretary of State of the US is a world class liar (remember his UN speech with the unmanned chemical weapon donned drones threatening the US Eastern Seaboard, etc. etc.), & his son is head of the government arm which controls (or doesn't) the broadcasters of the country, & their boss is struggling for re-election during a so-called "JOBLESS economic recovery?" You get the RNC directly threatening the media. Bush's Latest Preemptive Strike By Charles Cutter,  Magic City Morning Star, 3/11/04 George W. Bush and the late Supreme Court Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes have at least one thing in common: They both made statements in favor of restricting free speech. Justice Holmes, of course, was referring to "falsely shouting fire in a theatre and causing a panic." Mr. Bush, on the other hand, was referring to a web site that mocked him, calling the perpetrator a "garbage man" and protesting "there should be limits to freedom". Many people treated this episode as a joke, but when it comes to shutting down freedom of speech, this president is quite serious.  The Republican National Committee - which, for all intents and purposes, is just another branch of the Bush Machine - has sent notice to television stations nationwide, warning against showing ads critical of this administration's policies. These are not innocuous warnings - they're backed up with the not-so-veiled threat of significant punitive actions. Additionally, Mr. Bush's campaign lawyers have filed a complaint with the Federal Election Commission, hoping to have the ads declared in violation of the new campaign finance reform laws. Bush & Co. are insisting on "rapid action" by the FEC and demanding that the commission impose "severe sanctions" against the group producing these ads, MoveOn.org... MORE: http://www.smirkingchimp.com/article.php?sid=15316 Finally, RHINO'S BOTTOM LINE by economist & NY Times columnist, Paul Krugman (author of the book, "The Great Unraveling," reports on the one issue the bushies think they have over their campaign opponent.  In it he examines some of the implications of the recent ouster of the right wing government of Spain, just days after the railway terrorist attacks there. 8:16:23 AM    comment

RHINO'S BOTTOM LINE - Weak on Terror Weak on Terror By PAUL KRUGMAN, NY Times,  March 16, 2004 My most immediate priority," Spain's new leader, José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, declared yesterday, "will be to fight terrorism." But he and the voters who gave his party a stunning upset victory last Sunday don't believe the war in Iraq is part of that fight. And the Spanish public was also outraged by what it perceived as the Aznar government's attempt to spin last week's terrorist attack for political purposes.  The Bush administration, which baffled the world when it used an attack by Islamic fundamentalists to justify the overthrow of a brutal but secular regime, and which has been utterly ruthless in its political exploitation of 9/11, must be very, very afraid. Polls suggest that a reputation for being tough on terror is just about the only remaining political strength George Bush has. Yet this reputation is based on image, not reality. The truth is that Mr. Bush, while eager to invoke 9/11 on behalf of an unrelated war, has shown consistent reluctance to focus on the terrorists who actually attacked America, or their backers in Saudi Arabia and Pakistan.  This reluctance dates back to Mr. Bush's first months in office. Why, after all, has his inner circle tried so hard to prevent a serious investigation of what happened on 9/11? There has been much speculation about whether officials ignored specific intelligence warnings, but what we know for sure is that the administration disregarded urgent pleas by departing Clinton officials to focus on the threat from Al Qaeda... MORE: http://www.nytimes.com/2004/03/16/opinion/16KRUG.html "RHINO'S BLOG" is the responsibility of Gary Rhine. (rhino@kifaru.com) Feedback, and requests to be added or deleted from the list are encouraged. SEARCH BLOG ARCHIVES / SURF RHINO'S LINKS, AT: http://www.rhinosblog.info RHINO'S OTHER WEB SITES: http://www.dreamcatchers.org (INDIGENOUS ASSISTANCE & INTERCULTURAL DIALOG) http://www.kifaru.com (NATIVE AMERICAN RELATIONS VIDEO DOCUMENTARIES) Articles are reprinted under Fair Use Doctrine of international copyright law. http://www4.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.html All copyrights belong to original publisher. Tell a friend about Rhino's Blog 6:56:28 AM    comment

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