Another Day another meeting.We held are first drinking liberally meeting last night and the allies just keep rolling in.One new member of the group who has agreed to go public is not only a member of the N.Haven Dem Town committee but also a member of the DNC.Ken wrote a letter and sent a copy to every elected member of the state central committee.He has bravely given me permission to post his letter here in hopes of inspiring others in positions of athority to come out publicly in favor of a primary in CT for our Senate seat.
Dear Democratic Party Leader:
I am writing to request - or rather insist- that you do all within your power to get Senator Joseph Lieberman to leave the Democratic Party, and to begin looking for a real Democrat to run in the next election. I am writing as a member of the Democratic National Committee (#05071073) and active party member who has put many hours and days into campaigning for Democratic Party candidates. I am very serious about this demand, and will work diligently with other like-minded people to make this happen.
Why? Senator Lieberman's vote to confirm Alberto Gonzales as Attorney General is the last straw. Gonzales is a man for whom torture is apparently legitimate public policy!
In August 2002, a Justice Department memo approved by Gonzales radically narrowed the definition of torture to permit anything short of organ failure, death, or permanent psychological damage. It also asserted that laws prohibiting torture did not apply to "the President's detention of enemy combatants." This high-level sanction paved the way for the highly publicized brutal torture committed by U.S. forces in Afghanistan, at Guantanamo, and at Abu Ghraib. Earlier in 2002, as White House Counsel, Gonzales wrote that Al Qaeda and Taliban detainees were exempt from the Geneva Conventions governing the treatment and rights of prisoners. His memo brushed aside the Conventions as "quaint" and "obsolete" in "a new kind of war." This is a moral outrage, and crosses the line into areas that historically have been clearly "un-American" political thought and policy. To quote Senator Dodd `s brave testimony opposing Gonzales, "In a nation founded on the principle of human freedom and dignity, he (Gonzalez) has endorsed the position that torture can be permissible." Thankfully, the Supreme Court has since ruled that the "war on terror" does not justify blocking access to basic judicial protections.
Veterans and other military representatives have spoken out that the safeguards of the Geneva Conventions are important to protect our troops in time of war. Therefore, Senator Lieberman has supported an appointee whose policies have and will endanger our troops.
Besides this outrageous and hypocritical vote, Senator Lieberman's votes and actions make him a Republican in everything except name. He has aggressively championed the disastrous and costly war in Iraq that was sold to the American people with false information and downright lies.
It is no secret that the Democratic Party continues to be defeated and marginalized. Many, if not most, of party members believe it is because the Party has lost its conscience and voice. Senator Lieberman is "exhibit A" of why this is true. We will keep on losing as long as we let this continue. I implore you to do all you can to speak out to encourage the Party to ask Senator Lieberman to leave it!
Kenny Foscue
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During our conversation I asked Ken what his motivation was in writing this letter.Ken told me he was motivated by something in his long ago youth.His 11th grade music teacher had taken a couple of days out of her classses time to show the films of the liberaion of the concentration camps at the end of WW2 and had instilled in her students that whenever they see torture in their lifes they must stand against it.
I wish Joe would have had that teacher.