Progressive Democrat Issue 32: THOUGHTS

Bush continues to tank, despite his party’s cynical and disgusting exploitation of 9/11. The latest ARG poll shows his numbers dropping fast:

As a diary on Daily Kos focused on last week one figure must really be haunting Bush:

	Approve	Dispprove
Republicans	84	12
Independents	17	75
Democrats	18	77

See that: INDEPENDENTS HATE BUSH AS MUCH AS DEMOCRATS DO!!!!!

Bush has lost the Independent vote. Republican corruption, American casualties in a war with no obvious purpose, the crappy economy and constant partisanship from the Repubs are taking their toll. Folks, we are starting to win. Which means now is the time we need to get even busier. We need to exploit their weakness starting now and going through 2006 and 2008.

Now on to Bush’s speech on the war in Vietnam…er, I mean in Iraq. Before I get to my comments, I would like to suggest that those who like a good, juicy rant may wish to see the analysis of Bush’s speech by this person. (Note: do not read if you dislike profanity…but if you like a good Hunter S. Thompson style political rant, you’ll love her!)

Now my view:

This last couple of weeks I have been getting more and more pissed. The ongoing, perhaps increasing, exploitation of 9/11 by the Republicans has finally brought me to the absolute boiling point. I am OUTRAGED at the Republican hypocricy and failure. I wrote a Daily Kos diary on this earlier, but of course Bush's speech just makes it all worse.

This week, yet again, I heard George Bush try to link his war in Iraq with the terrorist attacks on the United States. I am sick and tired of conservatives constantly exploiting the attacks on NYC for their own political gain! The war in Iraq never had anything to do with the 9/11 attacks. As I recall it was bin Laden and al Qaeda who were responsible for the 9/11 attacks and Bush has failed to stop them. Why is he sending troops to Iraq when it was al Qaeda that attacked us? In my book since he failed to prevent 9/11 and has failed to capture bin Laden, Bush has failed those who died on 9/11 and he, Karl Rove and other Republicans should stop using 9/11 for their own political agenda.

But it is worse than that. Republicans talk about the 9/11 attacks all the time, but what is their attitude towards NYC, the city that was worst hit? They denigrate NYC all the time! Governor Pataki refuses to give us the funds for transit and education that we are entitled to. Mayor Bloomberg doesn't stand up for NYC when people like Karl Rove exploit the memories of our 9/11 dead for his political agenda. President Bush never gave us all of the funds he promised us for rebuilding after 9/11. And they constantly denigrate liberals, Democrats and progressives, which pretty much means most New Yorkers.

So stop talking to me about Iraq, Mr. Bush. I am a New Yorker and my concern is with the people who actually attacked America, not the weird vendetta you have against Iraq. You failed to protect America in the first place and you have failed for four years to capture bin Laden. In my mind you are a failure and I deeply resent your using the memory of the 9/11 dead to try and cover up your failures.

Now, here are my suggested actions. If we can do these actions en masse, BELIEVE me, it will make a big difference.

In response to Bush's speech and the Republican's continued exploitation of 9/11, I ask you to please consider taking some of the following actions.

· Write letters to the editor. This is CRITICAL. Sound off on this now!

· Write to your Congress Critters and, if you live in NY, to mayor Bloomberg and Gov. Pataki and tell them to demand that Bush apologize to NYC for continuing to link Iraq with the 9/11 attacks even though Iraq and al Qaeda were not linked. Tell them that as long as bin Laden is still loose, Bush's vendetta in Iraq is the wrong war at the wrong time.

· Donate to MoveOn.org, one of the strongest opponents of Bush's Iraq agenda.

· Consider donating to one or more of the Top Ten 2006 Congressional races where Republicans are most vulnerable (a very well thought out Act Blue List that hasn't gotten much attention yet). This is a way to prime the pump for what are likely to be the hottest 2006 House races.

· Donate to one or more candidate on Democracy for America's A-list: good, progressive candidates running for local offices in 2005. These are the leaders of the future who we should nurture now. Please do what you can. It is your personal response to the President who has failed America in so many ways.

See also above in my “Giving Voice to Our Soldiers” section.

Issue 32: GIVING VOICE TO OUR SOLDIERS:

In honor of Rove’s claims regarding liberals and Bush’s BS on Iraq, I want to focus on what some of our soldiers are doing in response to Bush.

First off, here is a website where military liberals fight back against Karl Rove.

Check them out! This shows just how angry the Republicans are making true Americans. I honestly think that this is the beginning of the end for the neo-Cons, but only if we focus and exploit their weakness. They are good at weathering problems like this, but their ability to recover goes down as Bush’s popularity goes down. So they are weaker than ever right now.

And here is a blog set up by a soldier just back from Afghanistan.

Finally, I want to point out that there are two soldiers who have returned from Iraq who are running for Congress. Guess what? BOTH are running as Democrats. Says something, doesn’t it?

First there is Paul Hackett running for Congress in Ohio.

To quote him on Iraq:

The White House has been painting a rosy picture and people aren’t buying it anymore. We all know the outcome is uncertain and there is no exit date. But even now, too many conservatives just want to applaud whatever the administration does. And too many liberals who opposed the war want to see the president’s Iraq policy fail.

I was against the war. It was a misuse of our military that damaged our credibility throughout the world and squandered our political capital. Still, I volunteered to serve, and I have no regrets. But now we need to face the reality of the situation there. Our country has gone to war and every American must share in that responsibility.

Please consider supporting this gentleman’s bid for Congress. I should note that he is running for an open seat. His special election is in ONE MONTH so he needs help now.

Then there is David Ashe, running for Congress in Virginia.

Endorsed by Max Cleland, former Senator from Georgia and disabled Vietnam Vet, Ashe’s name is synonymous with service. Excerpts from his website:

48 hours after the [9/11] attacks, David [Ashe] rented a car and made his way to Manhattan. He entered the perimeter with a group of police officers and spent several days at GroundZero searching for survivors with the rest of the "bucket brigades."

On abortion:

Abortion should be safe legal and rare. We must educate to prevent the situations where this choice must be made.

On the Hate Amendment:

David Ashe believes that marriage is sacred, just as the U.S. Constitution is sacred. David Ashe opposes a Constitutional amendment on marriage and believes the federal government should not intrude on religious matters.

As far as I know he is not facing a primary challenge so I can urge you to support him. If anyone knows of a primary opponent let me know and I will give him/her equal time. Ashe is running against Republican Thelma Drake for an open seat.

Issue 32: TARGET THE CORRUPT REPUBLICAN CAMPAIGN:

This week I want to return to an earlier target: Senator Conrad Burns of Montana. I will review his corruption in a minute, but first, the reason why I want to return to him is because Senator Burns just spearheaded an effort to ALLOW PESTICIDE TESTING ON HUMANS! Here is a Daily Kos diary on the subject.

In short, Barbara Boxer first spearheaded an effort to BAN pesticide testing on humans and this was approved by the Senate. Burns countered with an amendment ALLOWING human testing of pesticides to continue but instructing the EPA to study if it's being conducted ethically and whether the benefits outweigh the risks to volunteers. And the Republicans voted it in! WHAT??? This is a continuation of what I have commented on before (and maybe need to review again) that the Republicans are trying to poison Americans! From Bush telling the EPA to lie about the toxicity of the smoke from the WTC (leading to severe illness in many NY firefighters) to trying to lower arsenic standards for drinking water, to testing pesticides in humans, the Republicans want to poison Americans! Let me remind you that pesticides are generally neurotoxins. They are neurotoxins in people as well, but the lethal dose is much higher for humans than for insects, so we can use them in our houses without much harm. But testing an unknown neurotoxin on humans is seriously unethical!

So Senator Burns (R-MT) wants to allow human testing of poisons. Let’s remember who Burns is. From an earlier newsletter:

U.S. Senator Conrad Burns (R-MT) has broken his 1995 pledge not to seek re-election in 2006 and has now been tied to the expanding scandal surrounding GOP lobbyist Jack Abramoff.

"[A] Western-state Democratic leader is demanding an investigation into how the Saginaw Chippewa Indian Tribe got a $3 million federal education grant from a program originally intended to benefit only poor Tribes. Bob Ream, the chairman of the Montana Democratic Party, formally requested a Senate Ethics Committee investigation into how former Saginaw Chippewa lobbyist Jack Abramoff might have improperly influenced Sen. Conrad Burns, R-Mont., the chairman of the Senate subcommittee that oversees the Bureau of Indian Affairs.

"Is it a coincidence that Mr. Abramoff, his associates and wealthy Tribal clients made $137,000 in campaign contributions to Sen. Burns' soft-money corporation prior to the appropriation?” Ream said. "Is it a coincidence that Mr. Abramoff and his team arranged for Sen. Burns' chief of staff and an appropriations staffer to take a private jet to New Orleans for a trip to the Super Bowl?"

See also the Great Falls Tribune.

Let’s get this guy! First off, let’s get those letters to the editor rolling. Write a letter complaining about Burns’ connection with the Abramoff scandals and his support of testing poisonous materials on humans. Point out that both corruption and using humans as lab rats are considered immoral by most Americans and it is disgusting that this man is a Senator.

You might also want to send some letters to Montana papers to let them know that they have a Senator who is a national embarrassment.

It is my understanding that a couple of Democrats are gearing up to run against Burns, so I can’t point you to a specific candidate, but I can point you to Frontier PAC, an excellent, new organization that is targeting Burns as well as other Western state races.

And let’s not forget the extremely successful, of late, Democratic Party of Montana. They swept on the state level in 2004 and have been an excellent example of populist politics. Give them support in honor of the people that Conrad Burns is poisoning with pesticides.

Finally, Common Cause has an action regarding Republican Ethics.

Send Speaker Hastert a Message re. Ethics Crisis in the House
The ethics process in the House has ground to a halt as ethics-related allegations pile up against House Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-TX) and other members of Congress.

As House leader, Speaker Dennis Hastert (R-IL) has an obligation to step in and resolve internal staffing problems on the Ethics Committee that have prevented the panel from beginning its work. Then, he must see that an outside counsel is appointed to investigate DeLay.

Common Cause believes that an independent, outside counsel is the only way to credibly investigate DeLay, whose financial ties to nearly every Republican in the House, and whose tremendous influence make it nearly impossible for his peers to judge him.

DeLay was three times admonished last year by the Ethics Committee for abuse of power and has since been accused of taking foreign junkets illegally paid for by a lobbyist who is under federal criminal investigation for allegedly bilking his clients out of tens of millions of dollars.

Please help us urge Speaker Hastert to clean up the House. Ask him to resolve the ethics impasse and then see that an independent, outside counsel is brought in to investigate DeLay.

Call him today, especially if you are a constituent from Illinois' 14th district.:

·D.C. Office
235 Cannon House Office Building
Washington, DC 20515
Phone: 202-225-2976
Fax: 202-225-0697

·Batavia District Office
27 North River Street
Batavia, IL 60510
Phone: 630-406-1114
Fax: 630-406-1808

·Dixon Regional Office
119 W. First Street
Dixon, IL 61021
Phone: 815-288-0680
Fax: 815-288-0743

·Geneseo Regional Office
137 South State Street, Suite 336
Geneseo, IL 61254
Phone: 309-944-3558

Issue 32: NYC LOCAL ACTION

New York…we have a problem. Our mayor really in no way represents us. He represents developers, millionaires and Republicans, not your average working class New Yorker. He tries to prevent us from exercising our freedoms of speech and assembly, he excludes us from the decision making meetings on development that affect our neighborhoods, and he never, never stands up for NYC against the verbal and financial assaults that Pataki and Bush wage on us. Most recently, his only response to Karl Rove’s exploitation of New York’s 9/11 dead was to make a general statement that no one should politicize 9/11. Well, I am sorry Mr. Bloomberg, but the Republicans have been politicizing it since the moment it happened and you have NEVER called them on it.

Everyone I know predicts that we will re-elect this man who doesn’t in any way represent us. Why? I hear many people say that the Dem candidates just aren’t no good! Well, I think we DO have some good Dem candidates. I think ANY of the Dem candidates would be better at leading and representing NYC than Mr. Billionaire, Developer friend Bloomberg. There is no question that none of the Dem candidates really stands out as perfect. None of them has yet connected with the voters. But that doesn’t mean we should be abandoning them and satisfying ourselves with Mr. Bloomberg! The following is drawn from comments I made on Daily Gotham:

By now I have heard three of the four Dem candidates, and heard two of them more than once. I think there is no question that so far they have failed to spark much interest among New Yorkers. There is a big problem there. But, I do not see them as having no message. In fact I have rather liked the message of at least two of them...more than liked, I have thought they kicked ass and one of them I found extremely inspiring all three times I have heard him.

What is going wrong? Part of it is that politics is still very racial in NYC and this applies far more for Dem candidates than Repub candidates. I guess NYC expects and accepts white candidates from the Repubs, but often demands ethnicity from its Dem candidates. Each Dem candidate has a huge uphill battle getting even noticed outside his or her particular cultural group. It takes a real orator and some connections within different communities to get your message out there. All of the Dem candidates have a lot going for them, but none is a great orator, and connections aren't being made.

Part of the problem is that, in some ways, at least two of the candidates may be running TOO MUCH on message alone and not enough on charisma. Wiener and Miller are appealing mostly to our reason and not enough to our heart. I am personally very attracted to a good message and that is why I like two of the candidates a great deal...not just as being better than Bloomberg, but being excellent in and of themselves.

Part of the problem is the same things Democrats do almost every election at all levels. Democrats spend more time dissing ourselves than in dissing the opposition. Republicans rarely do that! Instead they hammer away at their message more or less in unison. I do not advocate that kind of blindness, but I do advocate a more positive attitude among ourselves. It is true that some candidates don't deserve our support (and this time I am not referring to the mayor’s race, but Zell Miller comes to mind...). But I have found in many elections going all the way back to Mondale that a really excellent, intelligent, caring, visionary candidate will be put down by his own party as not being good enough. I have found that since the media doesn't do a good job of presenting candidates, I have to find out what a candidate is like myself. Often when I do so, I am impressed and I find it hard to believe why so few Democrats see what a good candidate the person is. To use Mondale as an example again, did anyone talk about how he led the Civil Rights movement in Congress? Did anyone talk about his instrumental role in the Camp David talks? Did anyone talk about how he had been called the "strongest vice President this nation has ever had" and it wasn't meant as damning with faint praise? No! Everyone just picked up the media line that he was boring. So he lost big even though he was one of the best Dem candidates ever.

Al Gore also suffered both from his handlers and from the fact that few even in his own party bothered looking beyond the image the media portrayed. Yet I think he would have been among the best, most environmentally aware and active presidents we have ever had. But instead, we complained about him and so he won…er, I mean lost…well, okay he won but Bush was allowed to steal the election.

I don't know what to say to help change this image that the Dem candidates for mayor are somehow incompetent or lack a message. I don't think that this is true at all. They have indeed failed to connect with the people. In some cases I think that is due to personality. Ferrer, for example, comes off condescending, even though I think he has a lot going for him as well. In other cases I think it is harder to understand. Miller really impressed me as having a message, with considerable detail, and he communicated it well. And he is out there among the people in a way that the other candidates haven't been. I see him everywhere and he seems willing to talk to any group of any size.

I think the mayoral hopefuls do need to get their acts together. But I have begun to think that the voters also have to get THEIR acts together because nationwide for decades now voters have passed over superb candidates for dingbats like Reagan and Bush and Bloomberg who are much, MUCH more removed from the world of the common American, yet manage to use the media and their connections better to get elected. Few candidates seem to combine BOTH the skills it takes to get elected with the skills it takes to kick ass in the position they are running for. Looking at the Brooklyn DA race, the best-connected candidates (Hynes and Sampson) and the most charismatic candidate to reform-minded folks (Peters) are in my opinion lousy since they are, respectively, absent, corrupt, and too slick and inexperienced to be good DAs. The two best candidates I know of, who actually have the skills, passion, and vision to be superb, honest DAs (Kriss and Wooten) are largely ignored by the voters. So they can't get the money to put up a good fight. It is sad! And it is something I am finding very frustrating as someone who is fighting hard to get the really good people (rather than simply the most electable people) elected.

Democrats spent a great deal of time dissing Mondale, Kerry, Dean and Gore, yet the bottom line is they were all superb leaders who would have been far better presidents than those they ran against. It is good that we have high standards for our politicians, but are we killing ourselves because we sometimes can't see that a candidate does meet our high standards?

The mayoral candidates DO need to get their acts together. But so do we because without enthusiasm from us, they have no chance and we are left with Bush, Pataki, Bloomberg...and a whole line of truly horrible people who don't come anywhere near the high standards we set. So I ask you to help me get rid of the guy who won’t stand up for us. I ask you to help get rid of Bloomberg.

Please get active in your local DFA meetup and/or Dem club (see below). And, please check out and get involved with BOOT Bloomberg out of Town, a non-partisan anti-Bloomberg group.

And let’s get a REAL New Yorker in the mayor’s office!
A way to get hooked into any NYC candidate’s efforts (including mayor, Public Advocate and Brooklyn DA), please sign up on the Democratic Leadership for the 21st Century of New York’s website.

Issue 32: NYC EVENTS (Brooklyn/Queens)

ALL NYC: (Manhattan events of interest to all of us)

CRITCAL MASS BICYCLE MOVEMENT! Critical Mass is a bicyclist movement (NOT an organized group!) that holds weekly protests all over the world to protest pollution. Rides every Friday starting in Union Sq. Park North, 7PM!

See their NYC calendar for Bike Workshops and other rides (including ones in Brooklyn).


Sat, 7/2 - Freedom Weekend - New York City:
A massive coalition of progressive NYC groups will be holding a picnic, softball games, and other fun stuff to celebrate Independence Day and spread the word about upcoming activities in defense of our freedom. Click here for more details.

Monday, July 4th: Patriot's Picnic & Reading of the Constitution with Norman Siegel
In the spirit of Thomas Payne and Martin Luther King, Jr., Norman Siegel has ritually recited passages from the Constitution, the Bill of Rights, and the Declaration of Independence every July 4th since 1969. Join in this year as Norman and friends converge on Strawberry Fields in Central Park for an afternoon of festivities to celebrate liberty, life, and the pursuit of accountable government. Meet at Strawberry Fields, the Garden of Peace, near Central Park West and 72nd St. at 3 pm. Bring a blanket, picnic fare, and a passage of your own choosing.

The Alliance for Quality Education (AQE) has been operating a volunteer phonebank to contact voters in three "swing" State Senate districts. The purpose of the calls is to generate pressure on three key Republican senators who are vulnerable politically and who have a large number of schools that would benefit from the legislation that has been proposed to resolve the CFE court order, the Schools for New York's Future Act (click here to learn more about the Act). Contact April at 718-222-1089, aphumphrey@aqeny.org.

Below is a schedule of 15 3-hour shifts for the phonebank through mid-August:

July 6, 6-9 PM
July 7, 11 AM – 2 PM
July 11, 6-9 PM
July 13, 6-9 PM
July 16, Noon – 3 PM
July 20, 6-9 PM
July 27, 6-9 PM
July 28, 11 AM – 2 PM
August 1, 6-9 PM
August 3, 6-9 PM
August 6, Noon – 3 PM
August 10, 6-9 PM


BROOKLYN:


Democracy for America Meetings. One of my favorite groups.

DFNYC meetups; WEDNESDAY, JULY 6, 7PM

Park Slope/Crown Heights, Brooklyn, Chocolate Monkey, 329 Flatbush Ave. (near Grand Army Plaza), with host Merle McEldowney, guest TBD

Williamsburg, Brooklyn, Royal Oak, 594 Union Avenue (@ North 11th) with hosts Paul Nocera and Ben Morrison, guest TBD

Sheepshead Bay, Brooklyn, Wycoff-Bennette Homestead, 1669 East 22nd. St. (between Quentin & Kings Highway), with hosts Annette Mott and Estelle Glasser


New Democratic Majority Petitioning for Norman Titus for City Council, 45th dist.
The Norman Titus campaign for city council is paying $1/signature to augment its petitioning effort in the final two weeks of the signature-gathering period (July 15th is the final day to gather valid signatures). If you are available and would like to earn some extra money, please RSVP to volunteer@titus4council.com or by phone to Jaqueline Charles at 718-490-0436.


Independent Neighborhood Democrats: Contact me or Devin Cohen: devincohen@msn.com if you are interested.


OZZIE’S MEETUP: I also recommend getting Marjorie’s very informative newsletter which you can get by contacting her at: johnkerry57@covad.net


Central Brooklyn Independent Democrats (CBID) (mostly covers Park Slope, Windsor Terrace, and Kensington).


Lambda Independent Democrats (Brooklyn’s gay and lesbian organization) for meeting info contact LID@LIDBrooklyn.org.


DRINKING LIBERALLY: An informal, inclusive weekly Democratic drinking club. Raise your spirits while you raise your glass, and share ideas while you share a pitcher. Drinking Liberally gives like-minded, left-leaning individuals a place to talk politics. You don't need to be a policy expert and this isn't a book club - just come and learn from peers, trade jokes, vent frustration and hang out in an environment where it's not taboo to talk politics. Here are our local Brooklyn groups:

Park Slope: First Wednesday of each month, 7:00 pm onward, Commonwealth, 497 5th Ave (at 12th Street). Hosted by Emily Farris and Peter Wohlsen, parkslope (at) drinkingliberally.org

Williamsburg: Every Tuesday, 8:00 pm onward The Levee, 212 Berry St (at North 3rd). Hosted by Elana Levin and Michael Freedman-Schnapp, williamsburg (at) drinkingliberally.org


To find your nearest Brooklyn Democratic club, please CLICK HERE.


QUEENS:
Democracy for America Meetings. One of my favorite groups.

DFNYC meetups; WEDNESDAY, JULY 6, 7PM
Bayside, Queens, The First Edition, 41-08 Bell Blvd, right near the LIRR stop, with hosts Steve Behar and George Howard

Queens Jefferson Democratic Club: Our meetings are normally held the first Thursday of every month, @ 8:00 p.m. (the doors open @ 7:30 P.M.) except for July, August, and months in which a holiday falls on the First Thursday. Meetings are held at the Auburndale American Legion Hall, 198-09 33rd Ave Flushing, New York 11358 (just off Francis Lewis Blvd. near 33rd Avenue).

Queens County Young Democrats.


DRINKING LIBERALLY: An informal, inclusive weekly Democratic drinking club. Raise your spirits while you raise your glass, and share ideas while you share a pitcher. Drinking Liberally gives like-minded, left-leaning individuals a place to talk politics. You don't need to be a policy expert and this isn't a book club - just come and learn from peers, trade jokes, vent frustration and hang out in an environment where it's not taboo to talk politics. Here are our local Queens groups:

ASTORIA: Third Wednesday of each month, 7:30 pm onward. Cassidy's, 34-16 Broadway (at 35th Street). Hosted by Bob Chamerda, astoria (at) drinkingliberally.org


To find your nearest Queens Democratic club, CLICK HERE.

Issue 32: NATIONAL ACTION

The biggest story of the weekend is the retirement of Sandra Day O’Conner. Isn’t it a pity that we now look at her as one of the more LIBERAL more REASONABLE judges? This shows how far to the extreme right Bush has taken us. We now fear a MORE right wing judge to be appointed to fill the vacancy. I even hear people speculate that Ashcroft or Gonzales may be Bush’s choice.

The left is fully mobilizing to take on Bush if he appoints someone too extreme. Here is MoveOn.org’s action:

Its rumored that Bush will nominate a replacement as quickly as this Tuesday. In the next few days Bush, the Senate and the media will all be will be listening very carefully—gauging the public reaction to this vacancy and deciding how far they can go.

That's why we've launched an emergency petition calling on our Senators to do what it takes in the crucial weeks ahead to protect our rights. We're aiming to deliver 250,000 signatures and comments by Tuesday. Please add your voice today!

From the Patriot Act to the Terri Schiavo tragedy, in the last four years the Republican leadership has exploited every opportunity to attack the basic American right to keep our private choices private, and to make personal decisions without government intrusion.

This vacancy could represent the biggest threat yet.
The only clear indication from Bush about who he might nominate is that he intends to follow the example of his two "model" judges—Clarence Thomas and Antonin Scalia.1 These two have weighed in from the far-right fringe for decades, and another judge in their mold could shift the balance on the Court significantly.

Below are just a few examples of landmark cases where Scalia or Thomas voted against O'Connor to try to strike down core rights and freedoms. In many cases if they had one more vote they would have succeeded.2

Worker's Rights: Nevada Dep't of Human Resources v. Hibbs, which protected the right of workers to care for newborn children or gravely ill family members.

Women's Rights: United States v. Virginia, which allowed women to attend all publicly funded schools. (C'Connor was not on the Court at the time of Roe v. Wade, but has opposed Scalia and Thomas on reproductive freedom issues in such landmark cases as Planned Parenthood v. Casey)

Church and State: Locke v. Davey, which ensured that states could not be required to fund religious training.

Envrionmental Rights: Friends of the Earth , Inc. v. Laidlaw Environmental Services (TOC), Inc., which protected citizens' rights under the Clean Water Act to sue against the illegal dumping of mercury and other toxins.

Civil Rights: * Dickerson v. U.S., which upheld the "Miranda" guarantee that people accused of crimes are read their rights. * United States v. Fordice, which protected the rights of those still suffering from the effects of state-enforced racial segregation. * Grutter v Bollinger, affirmed the right of state colleges and universities to use affirmative action in their admissions policies.

Civil Liberties: Hamdi v. Rumsfeld, which blocked the government from indefinitely detaining American citizens without charges, an attorney, or any basic rights.

On Capitol Hill, today's resignation unleashed a swarm of right-wing fringe groups and corporate lobbyists pushing for a nominee who will favor narrow prejudice and greed over the rights of the American people.

If we can deliver 250,000 signatrures and comments by Tuesday, we can make sure the voice of ordinary Americans can compete with this swarm and tell our senators to stand up for our rights.

Please sign today.

Thanks for all that you do.

Ben, Joan, Justin, Eli and the MoveOn PAC Team
Friday, July 1st, 2005

P.S. As soon as we heard about the resignation, we put an ad on the air calling for Bush and the Senate to protect our rights and not nominate an extremist. You can check it out HERE.

If you like it, help us keep it on the air by donating to keep it on the air.

Footnotes:
1 NBC's Meet the Press, November 21, 1999
2 Case history courtesy of People for the American Way.

And here is what Americans for Democratic Action has to say:

The implications of Justice O’Connor’s resignation could be monumental given the delicate balance of the current court, her oft important swing vote on key issues, and the Bush Administration’s penchant for nominating right-wing ideologues to the bench.

ADA will continue monitoring this latest development and will act with our liberal allies in fighting for a fair and balanced federal judiciary.

ADAction: Keep updated on the latest developments at ADA ACTION and urge President Bush to embrace consent over confrontation when choosing his nominee to replace Justice O’Connor.