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Archive for the 'Civil Liberties' Category

Supreme Court Has Chance to Curtail McCain-Feingold

By Alan Stewart Carl | Related entries in Civil Liberties, Money, Supreme Court

Today, the Supreme Court heard an important case that could greatly affect the McCain-Feingold campaign laws. It involves a movie highly critical of Hillary Clinton which was originally scheduled for release during the Democratic primaries but was stopped by judges concerned with its legality. This case illustrates the inherent problems with McCain-Feingold. Namely, it forces [...]

March 24th, 2009 | Permalink| 3 Comments »

Senate Bars FCC from Reconsidering Fairness Doctrine

By Alan Stewart Carl | Related entries in Civil Liberties, Senate

Some good news for free speech today: the Senate has used its oversight authority to bar the FCC from reconsidering the Fairness Doctrine. While President Obama has publically opposed reinstating the arcane rule that required equal time on the airwaves for opposing political views, Republicans wanted to make sure the Democratic-controlled government didnâ€™t recreate the [...]

February 26th, 2009 | Permalink| 2 Comments »

Obama embraces the Bush/Cheney unitary executive

By mw | Related entries in Barack, Bush, Civil Liberties, FISA, Religion, Rove, Torture

It is not too early to checkpoint how President Obama is progressing on “undoing the damage” of the Bush/Cheney Imperial Presidency. The most egregious offenses of the Bush/Cheney administration fall under the umbrella of expanding executive branch power at the expense of the legislative and judicial branches, with a commensurate erosion of constitutional protections. On balance – So far… all is not so good.

February 18th, 2009 | Permalink| 10 Comments »

Obama and Lincoln Day

By donar | Related entries in Barack, Cartoons, Civil Liberties, Constitution, Obama, Political Graffiti

January 20th, 2009 | Permalink| No Comments »

Say What You Will About the Tenets of Neo-Conservatism, At Least It’s An Ethos

By Mark Thompson | Related entries in Civil Liberties, Conservatism, Foreign Policy, General Politics, Partisan Hacks, Politics, Republicans, The War On Terrorism, Torture

I’ve been pretty harsh on philosophical neo-conservatism over the last year or so. In fact, it’s safe to say that of all the various (actual) political philosophies that form a significant portion of our governing political coalitions, I have consistently held neo-conservatism in by far the most contempt. And without a doubt, the basic tenets [...]

January 6th, 2009 | Permalink| 3 Comments »

CIA Director – Leon Panetta

By Brad Porter | Related entries in Breaking News, Civil Liberties, News, Obama Appointments, Torture

In one of the more, forgive me, torturous staffing processes, it looks like Barack Obama has finally settled on the last major appointment he had left to make, that of CIA director. Given that the Bush administration has done so much long-term, institutional damage to our intelligence superstructure, basic tenets of human rights and the [...]

January 5th, 2009 | Permalink| 9 Comments »

(Video) James Risen Talks Exec. Power of Bush/Obama

By American News Project | Related entries in Barack, Bush, Cheney, Civil Liberties, FISA, Guantanamo Bay, The Politics Of Film, The War On Terrorism, Torture, Transparency, Washington

This is Lagan from ANP, We sat down with James Risen, the New York Times national security corespondent who broke the domestic wiretapping stories, to talk about the dilemmas Obama faces with the unparalleled executive power he will inherit. Dick Cheney recently said that Obama would appreciate all of the power they are handing over, [...]

December 16th, 2008 | Permalink| No Comments »

What Now for Gay Marriage Supporters?

By Alan Stewart Carl | Related entries in California, Civil Liberties, Marriage, Religion

I thought Californiaâ€™s Proposition 8 would fail and California would become the first state where the voters themselves actually voiced approval for gay marriage. Obviously, I was wrong. Turns out the progressive coalition that swept Barack Obama into office is not so progressive, at least not on the issue that many on the left consider [...]

November 7th, 2008 | Permalink| 34 Comments »

George Will: A veto we can believe in.

By mw | Related entries in Barack, Civil Liberties, Ideas, McCain

McCain is going to need an argument that will attract more moderates, centrists, independents, and libertarians to win. George Will has identified that argument

September 18th, 2008 | Permalink| No Comments »

1,000,000+ Names On Terror Watch List

By Justin Gardner | Related entries in Civil Liberties, Law, Terrorism, The War On Terrorism, The World

Do we really think that this many people could be a threat to our national security? From AFP: A watch list of suspected and known terrorists, compiled by the US authorities, has ballooned and contains more than one million names, the American Civil Liberties Union said Monday. The ACLU said it derived that figure from [...]

July 15th, 2008 | Permalink| No Comments »

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