New Yorkers Wear Orange Against Guantanamo

At high noon yesterday, at the Triumph of the Human Spirit monument in Foley Square (Thomas Paine Park) at the corner of Lafayette Street and Centre Street in New York City, people assembled to protest against the gulags set up in Guantanamo Bay. Protesters wore orange, some in orange jumpsuits like those the prisoners at Guantanamo are forced to wear.

The organizing group explained that the protest was specifically aimed to draw attention to cases dealing with Guantanamo that are set to be heard by the Supreme Court today. “On December 5, the Supreme Court will hear arguments for the cases of Al Odah vs. U.S. and Boumediene vs. Bush. A key issue in these cases is the right of detainees to challenge their detention using habeas petitions. The cases represent a challenge to the constitutionality of the Detainee Treatment Act and the Military Commissions Act of 2006.”

Syracuse Town Hall Meeting On Iraq – Will Jim Walsh Be There?

This afternoon, at the Wayne County Fair, I met with some people offering materials associated with the Americans Against Escalation in Iraq. The Wayne County Democrats are getting a lot more active lately, but still I was surprised.

It’s a sign of dramatically changing times that even in traditionally Republican, rural Wayne County, New York, an anti-war booth at the county fair can seem so much at home. While I was there, an older couple came up, and explained that their grandson was in Iraq, but did so without any anger, and expressed the wish that the American presence in Iraq could end soon.

It is in such an altered environment that Republican Congressman James Walsh, of New York’s 25th congressional district, is still trying to sell the tired old line that the Iraq War was a great idea, and that America needs to keep on doing the same thing in Iraq that’s brought failure for going on five years now. That dim-witted stubborn attitude on the part of Representative Walsh is why challenger Dan Maffei is running so strong.

A local contingent of Americans Against Escalation in Iraq will be holding its own town hall meeting on August 28th, 2007 at the Federal Plaza in Syracuse, New York at 5:00 PM. Congressman Jim Walsh is invited. Do you think he’ll show up?

Mike Arcuri versus Brian Higgins on the Protect America Act

Many people still don’t know that, over the weekend, a bill was passed by Congress and signed into law by President Bush that effectively ends enforcement of the Fourth Amendment to the Constitution. The new law, the Protect America Act, does not really protect America. After all, American intelligence agencies have reported to the President this summer that there is no specific, credible threat of terrorist attack against any target within the United States.

What the Protect America Act actually does is to remove protection against unreasonable search and seizure, giving Alberto Gonzales the unsupervised, unchecked power to eavesdrop on our telephone and email conversations without a search warrant, without the required certification of an “oath or affirmation”, and without the constitutionally required definition of a specific person and place to be searched. To give this unprecedented power to Alberto Gonzales, after Gonzales has been caught abusing the spy powers he already has, is an outrage.

Unfortunately, 41 Democrats from the U.S. House of Representatives and 16 Democrats from the United States Senate took part in this outrage. New York State Democrats can be proud of their representatives and senators… except for those New York State Democrats who are represented by Brian Higgins. Congressman Higgins sided with George W. Bush, and voted with the Republicans for this assault against the Bill of Rights.

As a result, rank and file Democrats in New York State are targeting Representative Higgins for a primary challenge in 2008. Today, WNY Media and The Burned Over District are just a couple of the Upstate New York blogs that are slamming Brian Higgins for his vote in favor of the tyrannical new law.

Brian Higgins has lost the trust of New York State Democrats. Those Democratic members of Congress who stood firm against the already infamous Protect America Act are receiving thanks from their constituents today. Congressman Michael Arcuri, for example, is receiving praise from blogs like Finding Ulysses, and the 24th District Independent today, in thanks for his opposition to the expansion of spying powers for Alberto Gonzales.

Learn your lesson, Democratic politicians: Help the Republicans attack the Constitution and America’s freedoms, like Brian Higgins did, and you will lose the support of your constituents. Do what’s right and protect American liberty, like Mike Arcuri did, and you will gain the support of your constituents.