Electronic Writer

Dear Senator McCain,

If you were to become Commander-in-Chief, you are going to have to do a bit better.

Freedom of Speech is a RIGHT guaranteed to every Citizen of the United States of America by the Constitution–the Supreme Law of the Land.  I learned this in 5th Grade.

You cannot take it away from Citizens who happen to exercise it and say things that do not agree with you–even if it has done before–and right before your very eyes.

If someone were jumping off of a cliff, would you follow him?  NO.  Well, just because someone breaks the Supreme Law, do you have to follow him? (Please follow the article on the “Free-Speech Zone” in The American Conservative.)

Clearly, in the VIDEO below, your actions show that you are breaking the law and denying Citizens of the United States of America their right to Freedom of Speech, and that you are asking other Citizens and Police Officers to enforce it.  What you did to the Librarian who was holding a sign at the rally in Denver, CO was illegal.  She should have never been given a ticket and a court date for exercising her rights afforded to her as a Citizen.

Please do better, and respect the Supreme Law, the Constitution of the United States of America, and the RIGHTS of Citizens.

Thank you,

-Electronic Writer

Lt. Cmdr. William C. Kuebler is a military lawyer for a detainee at Guantanamo Bay.

In the NY Times article, “An Unlikely Antagonist in the Detainees’ Corner,” by written by William Glaberson (published June 19, 2008), Kuebler articulates, from an insider’s perspective, my worst fears about the Military Tribunal system created by the Bush Administration.

The Bush administration’s war crimes system “is designed to get criminal convictions” with “no real evidence,” Commander Kuebler says. Or he lets fly that military prosecutors “launder evidence derived from torture.”

Ugh.

When I first read about the creation of the war crimes system (military tribunal) by the Bush Administration, I understood the goal immediatly–to create more legal grey area. If you take foreigners (or even American Citizens) and remove them from their country, and put them on soil governed by America but not in America, you have problematized some legal foundations. Some laws clearly do not apply.

In a foreign country, you would be subject to the laws of that country. On American soil, your actions would be subject to American Civil Law. However, Guantanamo Bay is NOT on American soil, and what happens there is NOT subject to the laws of Cuba. It is, legally problematic on many levels

• Justices Reject Gitmo Tribunals (USA Today)
• Bush’s Military Tribunals Violate the Law
• Tribunal System, Newly Righted, Stumbles Again (NY Times)

On a side note: Foreign laws apply to you in a foreign country UNLESS you are an American private contractor working in Iraq. They signed statements binding them to NOT be held accountable to laws of Iraq, and they are not on American soil, so they cannot be held accountable to American laws. Basically, the American private contactors in Iraq are living above and beyond the laws of ANY country. See HERE, and HERE and HERE and HERE for the consequences of such a policy–or, at least examples of some people who discovered ways to manipulate that gray area.

Lt. Cmdr. Kuebler has acknowledged the fundamental flaws of this system and rather than simply defending his client, he has attacked the flawed system.

Lt. Cmdr. Kuebler, thank you for making America a better place. You are a constitutional hero (and already in the Wikipedia).

You can read the entire NY Times article here.

The American Library Association is an entire collection of Constitutional Heroes–pun intended.

The ALA was truthfully an unexpected segment of resistance to the denigration of the Constitution.

In my opinion, their most celebrated act was the first line of defense against the Patriot Act.  The Librarians in the American Library Association worked tirelessly to keep censorship out of our libraries and information and research materials available to the public.

These heroes have worked with Congress to fight portions of the Patriot Act that have violated our Constitutional Rights.  Specifically, they worked to thwart the components of the Patriot Act (Title II) that required a librarian to surrender library usage information about any individual requested by the FBI and forbade them to even speak of the materials being requested for 5 years afterwards.

Their response to such an obvious circumvention of the Constitution and Rule of Law was to destroy that information daily.  At the end of the day, and in a consolidated act, Librarians shredded paper trails and deleted electronic records to preserve our freedoms.

You are HEROES!  Thank you, Librarians and ALA, for working to preserve our freedoms.

Alrick Brown, Director of “Battle for America,” is a Constitutional Hero. His Video, Battle for America, is a masterpiece and a wonderful reminder of the values of America.

This video surfaced immediately after the 2004 election. Statements like, “I will deliver Ohio to you, Mr. President,” from Ohio State Voting Commissioner, Ken Blackwell, and it later coming to fruition did not sit too well with many Americans. (Many of the voting discrepancies are described by Black Box Voting.)

There was also a feeling of Helplessness. What can WE do? Ohio’s votes were counted behind closed doors under the protection of Armed Guards. It was the same feeling of helplessness that came from 2000 when Justice Scalia decided the President in the Supreme Court.

Alrick Brown responded within days to that 2004 feeling of helplessness with his video, “Battle for America.”

If you love America, it is time to defend the Constitution of the United States of America.

The Constitution is an amazing document.  Created on September 17, 1787 and ratified on June 21, 1788 and is the Supreme Law of the United States of America–until now. Over the last 8 years, the Constitution has been challenged by policies and actions designed explicitly to circumvent that Supreme Law that it details.

My claims are no secret, and they are not my own. The news is riddled with articles and documentaries about it:

• an illegal Iraq war–Congress never declared war
• a military tribunal system for detainees–designed to circumvent the Rule of Law
• Alberto Gonzales, the acting US Attorney General, stated that “Habeas Corpus no longer applies” to Americans
• over 10,000 pieces of legislation were introduced by George Bush–a member of the Executive Branch that by design, does not have the power to introduce legislation
• Countless examples of US Citizens being silenced for exercising their Freedom of Speech
• US Citizens being forced to disperse–violation of our Freedom of Assembly
• Under the claim of “National Security,” the Bush Administration continues to ignore the Fourth Amendment. According to the Bush Administration, they HAVE probable cause. It is simply not safe for the judges, lawyers, or the people being prosecuted to know what that evidence was . . . .
• I. Scooter Libby, from Vice President Dick Cheney’s office was found guilty of perjury.  No one has been prosecuted in the case or found to be responsible for revealing details to the media of an undercover operative, Valerie Plame (a treasonous act)–and, yet, the details got out there. Libby’s  sentence was commuted by George Bush.

There are, however, a few sources of inspiration of people and groups that have been resisting the assault on the rights and duties, roles and responsibilities outlined in the US Constitution. Over the next few days, I will be profiling these Defenders of Freedom and Constitutional Heroes.

Let their actions be inspirations for us all . . . .