Today’s target of American civil rights abuses

Glenn Greenwald agrees with Law Professor Jonathan Turley that Americans are facing "ten major, ongoing assaults on core civil liberties, expanded during the Bush administration yet vigorously continued and/or expanded by President Obama:

Assassination of U.S. citizens; Indefinite detention; Arbitrary justice; Warrantless searches; Secret evidence; War crimes; Secret court; Immunity from judicial review; Continual monitoring of citizens; and Extraordinary renditions.
In today's column, Greenwald asks "who are generally the victims of these civil liberties assaults?" Perhaps his question could be tweaked as follows: "Who are today's victims of these civil liberties assaults?" Here is his answer:
The answer is the same as the one for this related question: who are the prime victims of America’s posture of Endless War? Overwhelmingly, the victims are racial, ethnic and religious minorities: specifically, Muslims (both American Muslims and foreign nationals). And that is a major factor in why these abuses flourish: because those who dominate American political debates perceive, more or less accurately, that they are not directly endangered (at least for now) by this assault on core freedoms and Endless War (all civil liberties abuses in fact endanger all citizens, as they inevitably spread beyond their original targets, but they generally become institutionalized precisely because those outside the originally targeted minority groups react with indifference).
This endless war and civil rights abuses are destroying the American character. On this point, Greenwald refers to Martin Luther King's 1967 speech critical of the Vietnam War, which includes this passage:
I knew that America would never invest the necessary funds or energies in rehabilitation of its poor so long as adventures like Vietnam continued to draw men and skills and money like some demonic destructive suction tube. So I was increasingly compelled to see the war as an enemy of the poor and to attack it as such . . . .
Like so much of Greenwald's research and writing, today's column is detailed and precisely and persuasively argued. I would highly recommend reading the entire original.

Continue ReadingToday’s target of American civil rights abuses

“I watch whatever is on TV.”

I recently overhead a conversation between two women who were discussing television shows. After discussing the particular shows they watched each night of the week, one of them blurted out: "Actually, I watch whatever is on." This attitude concerns me because it risks handing marketers and content providers the keys to one's brain. To the extent that we indiscriminately allow our televisions to stream programing into our homes un-self-critically, the television view of the world risks becoming our view of the world. A salient example these days is that millions of Americans believe that the United States is under constant serious attack by Middle East "terrorists" who have the capacity and desire to destroy America. A constant stream of television programming, including "news" reports, warns us of these "terrorists" without any indication of who these "terrorists" are. The end result is a national nightmare, not a reality, that massively skews our priorities and budgets. As long as the media providers are a diverse group and as long as they vigorously question both the conventional national wisdom and our political leaders, it wouldn't be a terrible strategy to "watch whatever is on." That's not the type of programming that is typically offered, however, and that is the reason for the existence of Free Press. I just happened to receive this save the date card for the next national conference for media reform (April 5-7, 2013 in Denver Colorado), and the message on the front of the card is apropos: The above short message recognizes three critically important ideas: A) the power of the media, B) the danger of a captured media and C) the opportunity we could have if only our media seriously accepted its responsibilities, as envisioned by the founding fathers: Speaking truth to power. It's amazing what passes for "news" these days. There are many good reasons to make sure that our televisions are turned off unless we are consciously seeking particular programming. For more information on the work done by Free Press, search this site for posts from prior media reform conferences, and be careful that you don't slip into watching "whatever is on" TV.

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Tebow, schadenfreude and blasphemy

I barely follow professional football these days, but I've heard enough about Tim Tebow to be annoyed. I'm not annoyed that he has played well this season or that he appears to be a generous and kind-hearted fellow. I'm annoyed because he insists that the alleged Creator of the Universe cares about American football. If this were at all true, what does that say about this "God," given that He has a lot of unfinished work to do healing the sick and helping to feed starving children? How would you characterize an allegedly omnipotent and omniscient God who would choose to watch professional football while even one or two children were dying from preventable causes such as the lack of food? The word "miscreant" comes to mind, because it's not only one or two children: More than 16,000 children starve every day. And how difficult should it be for an adult quarterback to figure out that the Creator of the Universe wouldn't actually hover around at American sports stadiums on the third planet from the Sun on Sundays? For the above reasons only, I was delighted to hear that Tebow and his team were thrashed by the New England Patriots yesterday. Maybe Tebow can figure out during this off-season that what he does for living is merely entertainment--it isn't notable by any cosmic standard. Maybe he can figure out that if the Creator of the Universe has a to-do list, it doesn't include caring about football games. Perhaps it's not fair to pick on Tim Tebow, because he's merely the most recent prominent athlete to assume that God cares about his performance on the field. But he has done an especially good job of bringing attention to himself based on his allegedly close relationship with "God," so I'll continue with this rant. [More . . . ]

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Imagine a family running its budget like the federal government

What good can one say about a family that, year after year, pays for 43% of its budget with borrowed money? Here's a simple and shocking way of comparing the federal budget with a family budget. Many more facts and figures about the United States debt here.

Continue ReadingImagine a family running its budget like the federal government