Presidents Day morning, February 20, 2006, at 11:00 a.m. EST, the American Civil Liberties Union is holding a National Town Hall, via live streaming webcast, on the timely subject of
Freedom at Risk: Spying, Secrecy and Presidential Power.
This event will be held at George Washington University, Jack Morton Auditorium, 805 21st St., NW, Washington, D.C., before a live audience, and will feature an impressive panel and be moderated by journalist Marvin Kalb. The panel will include:
Anthony D. Romero, ACLU Executive Director;
John W. Dean, former White House counsel;
Laurence H. Tribe, Professor of Constitutional Law, Harvard University;
Jim Harper, Cato Institute; and
Mary DeRosa, Center for Strategic and International Studies.
To participate, simply go to http://www.aclu.org to watch the live webcast and participate by asking questions in real time.
(More on the other side.)
This should obviously be a hard-hitting and substantive forum on the illegal and unconstitutional NSA spying program and a powerful push-back at BushCo's pack of lies in attempting to justify it.
Unfortunately, I will have to miss it because of a prior professional commitment.
Perhaps a "Live Blogging Open Thread" would be in order. Volunteers?
One last thing: For many, many years, I have been a proud card-carrying member of the ACLU. So, please let me take this opportunity to seriously urge all civil liberty inclined dKos members -- should be pretty much everyone -- to join now by heading over to the ACLU website, if you are not already part of this outstanding organization. It is a great site so at least go take a look around.
Why join the ALCU? Here are some very damn good reasons.
Still not convinced? Well, let me quote one of our most esteemed fictional Presidents:
For the record, yes, I am a card carrying member of the ACLU, but the more important question is "Why aren't you, Bob?" Now this is an organization whose sole purpose is to defend the Bill of Rights, so it naturally begs the question, why would a senator, his party's most powerful spokesman and a candidate for President, choose to reject upholding the constitution? Now if you can answer that question, folks, then you're smarter than I am, because I didn't understand it until a few hours ago.
America isn't easy. America is advanced citizenship. You've gotta want it bad, 'cause it's gonna put up a fight. It's gonna say, "You want free speech? Let's see you acknowledge a man whose words make your blood boil, who's standing center stage and advocating at the top of his lungs that which you would spend a lifetime opposing at the top of yours." You want to claim this land as the land of the free? Then the symbol of your country cannot just be a flag. The symbol also has to be one of its citizens exercising his right to burn that flag in protest. Now show me that, defend that, celebrate that in your classrooms. Then you can stand up and sing about the land of the free.
Something to consider, I hope.
Thank you all.