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'Blink Tanks' Fight to Restore Lost Liberties
Flush with their success in helping defeat Republican candidates in last year's midterm congressional elections, left-wing bloggers and blog think tanks are pushing Democrats to restore habeas corpus and other civil liberties weakened or jettisoned by the passage of Bush's Military Commissions Act. Ari Melber is a contributor to The Nation, where a longer version of this piece was published. This is a special ongoing NAM editorial exchange with The Nation.
Just before it imploded last November, the Republican Congress passed the Military Commissions Act (MCA), one of the worst legislative setbacks to human rights policy since World War II.
The law loosens restrictions against torture, provides new immunity for war criminals, eliminates habeas corpus -- the sacrosanct right of U.S. residents to go to court and challenge government detention -- and authorizes military trials for enemy combatants without any oversight by American courts. But the public barely noticed because Congress rushed to approve the sweeping legislation with no hearings before the midterm elections.
Some Democrats in the new Congress say they will roll back the law, but others want to avoid the entire issue, preferring to leave it to the Supreme Court to hopefully find the law unconstitutional. However, one political bloc has the influence and expertise to put constitutional rights on the congressional agenda. It's the emerging network of liberal bloggers, netroots activists and "blink tanks" (blogs that function as online think tanks) that have been doggedly fighting Bush's six-year assault on the Constitution.
The midterms showed how dramatically bloggers can upend public opinion. They successfully boosted long-shot candidates like Montana's new Sen. Jon Tester and undermined popular incumbents such as former Virginia Sen. George Allen, who was YouTubed to political death by clips of his racist "macaca" comment. Now, many influential liberal bloggers are turning their attention to repealing the MCA.
Bob Fertik, a blogger and founder of ImpeachPAC, a political action committee that raised more than $75,000 for House candidates who support impeachment hearings for Bush and Cheney, is one of many activist bloggers arguing that constitutional rights should top the "netroots legislative agenda." When one liberal Web site recently asked more than 400 online activists to vote on their preferred legislative priorities for Democrats, restoring habeas corpus ranked first, ahead of Iraq withdrawal and impeachment. The Democratic Party's top interest groups, however, may have different priorities.
More
http://news.newamericamedia.org/news/view_article.html?article_id=68738e79a244522598459c22aefceab7
The law loosens restrictions against torture, provides new immunity for war criminals, eliminates habeas corpus -- the sacrosanct right of U.S. residents to go to court and challenge government detention -- and authorizes military trials for enemy combatants without any oversight by American courts. But the public barely noticed because Congress rushed to approve the sweeping legislation with no hearings before the midterm elections.
Some Democrats in the new Congress say they will roll back the law, but others want to avoid the entire issue, preferring to leave it to the Supreme Court to hopefully find the law unconstitutional. However, one political bloc has the influence and expertise to put constitutional rights on the congressional agenda. It's the emerging network of liberal bloggers, netroots activists and "blink tanks" (blogs that function as online think tanks) that have been doggedly fighting Bush's six-year assault on the Constitution.
The midterms showed how dramatically bloggers can upend public opinion. They successfully boosted long-shot candidates like Montana's new Sen. Jon Tester and undermined popular incumbents such as former Virginia Sen. George Allen, who was YouTubed to political death by clips of his racist "macaca" comment. Now, many influential liberal bloggers are turning their attention to repealing the MCA.
Bob Fertik, a blogger and founder of ImpeachPAC, a political action committee that raised more than $75,000 for House candidates who support impeachment hearings for Bush and Cheney, is one of many activist bloggers arguing that constitutional rights should top the "netroots legislative agenda." When one liberal Web site recently asked more than 400 online activists to vote on their preferred legislative priorities for Democrats, restoring habeas corpus ranked first, ahead of Iraq withdrawal and impeachment. The Democratic Party's top interest groups, however, may have different priorities.
More
http://news.newamericamedia.org/news/view_article.html?article_id=68738e79a244522598459c22aefceab7
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Restore Habeas Corpus
Sat, Feb 10, 2007 3:14PM
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