liberty { Polish your tinfoil hats

Saw this on Norweiganity, then checked around to confirm the Raw Story article because I couldn't believe it. But the New Yorker is reporting it. I don't know why I'm surprised, they're just escalating the further erosion of privacy.

P.S. Representative Walz, this is exactly the kind of thing you're supposed to keep an eye out for and curb as a function of the checks and balances of our form of government.

Each branch is able to place specified restraints on the powers exerted by the other branches.[8] The federal government refers to the branches as "branches of government", while some systems use "government" to describe the executive.

[edit] Checks and balances

To prevent one branch from becoming supreme, and to induce the branches to cooperate, governance systems employing a separation of powers typically are created with a system of "checks and balances", a term which, like separation of powers itself, is specifically credited to Montesquieu. Checks and balances refers to the various procedural rules that allow one branch to limit another, such as the authority of the president to veto legislation passed by Congress, or the power of Congress to alter the composition and jurisdiction of the federal courts.

Legistlative:
* Writes and enacts laws
* Enacts taxes, authorizes borrowing, and sets the budget
* Has sole power to declare war
* May start investigations, especially against the executive branch
* Often appoints the heads of the executive branch
* Sometimes appoints judges
* Ratifies treaties

Executive [soon to become the imperial -geistx]:
* May veto laws
* May refuse to spend money allocated for certain purposes
* Wages war (has operational command of the military)
* Makes decrees or declarations (for example, declaring a state of emergency) and promulgates lawful regulations and executive orders
* Often appoints judges
* Has power to grant pardons to convicted criminals

Judicial:
* Determines which laws apply to any given case
* Determines whether a law is unconstitutional
* Has sole power to interpret the law and to apply it to particular disputes
* May nullify laws that conflict with a more important law or constitution
* Determines the disposition of prisoners
* Has power to compel testimony and the production of evidence
* Enforces uniform policies in a top-down fashion via the appeals process, but gives discretion in individual cases to low-level judges. (The amount of discretion depends upon the standard of review, determined by the type of case in question.)
* Polices its own members
* Is frequently immune to arbitrary dismissal by other branches

But Representative Walz, you are not alone, the Media (aka Fourth Branch aka Media-ocrity) is also falling down on the job.

politics { The Gutless and the Gullible (pick up)

Picked up this reading from EvilBobby and thought it warranted a repeating of this Daily Kos article.

Excerpt:

What these politicians fail to realize is that the attacks will come no matter what. No matter which vote is cast, no matter how tightly one embraces this war or how far away from the party they run, the attacks will always come. Because the only thing that matters to the Republicans during election time is that there is a "D" after their opponent's name.

It is that "D" which ensures the inevitable flow of lies. It is that "D"--no matter how faded--which is blood in the water for the campaign sharks. Voting against Feingold-Reid did not and will not save the gutless from these attacks. Voting for telecom immunity will not make the Republicans suddenly raise their hands and admit that Democrat X is "really strong on terror!" In compromising then to try and avoid these attacks, Democrats are only compromising their principles.

And something specific to Tim Walz...who I feel has betrayed us as an elected official in our district, who was elected to help bring change, to protect our basic freedoms and rights (from both terrorists and an overzealous Executive Branch) and who so far, in my opinion has failed.

It is, to be blunt, a lack of a brain and not lack of a spine, which typifies this group. As an extreme example, take Representative Baird, who is enamored with the war. Take the Democrats who voted for the atrocious FISA bill because they genuinely believed it was the right thing to do.

In this category falls every Democrat who takes any word uttered by this administration at face value. Tht includes those idiots who voted for FISA because they were told of al Qaeda was going to strike Congress before September 11th. That includes the naive who think that a sternly worded letter will actually get more than a chuckle out of this administration. That includes the suckers who think putting administration officials under oath isn't necessary.

The gullible are those who fail to appreciate the extent of the damage done to this country by the Republican Party. They are the ones who earnestly reach out to Republicans with open hand and are blind to the knives hovering over their backs.

These Democrats, more than the gutless ones, are the ones hindering progress. They prattle on in Capitol Hill as if the Republican Party weren't controlled by neocons and the radical right. They trust those who have evidenced through their wars and through their words that they should not be trusted. And they, in all their dense glory, believe that they are doing what is in the best interest of this nation.

God help us all.

But ultimately the article was a hopeful one, and very realistic. We, as those who choose to align with the Democratic Party, will have a lot of work and fights ahead of us, both within and without.

Our task, as I see it over the next year, is two-fold. We must continue to call for courage on the part of the gutless, and we must continue trying to wake the gullible. We do so by joining with those in Congress, with the Russ Feingolds in the Senate and the Barbara Lees in the House, to show the gutless and gullible the error of their ways.

It's not an easy task. To be frank, I'm not sure if it's even a possible task. But I will never hold back from writing a letter or making a call because I think it may be futile, and neither should you. Because as impossible as true change may seem, inaction solidifies failure's fate.

response/politics { Tim Walz responds to my email

Or why I voted for Walz, it was because of responses like the one below.

A few weeks back I sent a note to Tim Walz (along with probably many) asking for the cessation of torture and the closing of Guatanemo Bay and all the secret torture prisons the U.S., here is his response.

Dear [I choose to anonymous my name],

Thank you for contacting me about protecting civil liberties. As a 24 year veteran of the National Guard, I served to safeguard the personal freedoms of all Americans. You can count on me to stand up for them as your Congressman.

While we must be vigilant against terrorists and use all tools at our disposal, we must never cede our liberties to our government.

On the domestic front, I believe wiretapping and e-mail monitoring are appropriate only after the judicial branch has exercised its Constitutionally-mandated role and approved the action. Congress must ensure that the NSA and FBI follow the law when conducting investigations of U.S citizens and those suspected criminal activists.

Internationally, questions surrounding the treatment and interrogation of detainees at Guantanamo Bay have sunk the credibility of the United States to an all-time low. The President should move to close this facility immediately and the Justice Department must make it clear that torture is never acceptable. Moreover, the Justice Department and the CIA must abandon the practices of using secret prisons to detain suspects indefinitely and using extraordinary renditions to whisk suspects off to "torture-friendly" countries for interrogation.

You will also be happy to know that I have cosponsored H.R. 1678, the Torture Victims Relief Reauthorization Act of 2007. The legislation will fund domestic treatment centers for victims of torture and broadcast that America stands against all forms of torture. The legislation is pending consideration before the Committee on Energy and Commerce, and I am hopeful it will be enacted into law soon.

Thank you again for sharing your views with me, and I look forward to hearing from you again in the future. For more information about my activities representing southern Minnesota in Congress, please visit http://walz.house.gov and sign up for my e-newsletter.



Sincerely,


Tim Walz
Member of Congress