The Bush administration’s draft “Domestic Security Enhancement Act of 2003” (DSEA) indicates that even after the 2001 Patriot Act expanded federal police powers while curtailing privacy rights, the Bush administration thinks Americans are still too free and government too small. Like the Patriot Act, the massive “Security Act” draft contains a few measures that could help catch a terrorist, surrounded by many that merely propel us further toward a secretive police state.
[Read more]Orange Alert for Civil Liberties
The Justice Department’s plans for a “Domestic Security Enhancement Act of 2003” were revealed only through a Department insider leaking the document to the watchdog group Center for Public Integrity. Dick Cheney and House Speaker Dennis Hastert are the only recognizable elected or quasi-elected officials documented as having obtained the document, which is marked “Confidential: Not for Distribution Draft Jan. 9, 2003.”
[Read more]Clear Channel: the Media Mammoth that Stole the Airwaves
Clear Channel Communications of San Antonio is one of the largest media companies in the United States. The mega-company has gained a reputation for its ugly hardball tactics. Clear Channel has played a leading role in destroying media diversity in the United States. What’s been sorely lacking is strategic coordination of efforts to amplify their impact and link up with broader media-policy initiatives.
[Read more]In U.S. First, Local Government Refuses to Recognize Corporate Claims to Civil Rights
The elected municipal officials of Porter Township, Clarion County – a municipality of 1,500 residents an hour north of Pittsburgh in Northwestern Pennsylvania – became the first local government in the United States to eliminate corporate claims to civil and constitutional privileges. The Township adopted a binding law declaring that corporations operating in the Township may not wield legal privileges – historically used by corporations to override democratic decision making – to stop the Township from passing laws which protect residents from toxic sewage sludge
[Read more]Debacle: Without Vision, A Senate Majority Perishes
The Democratic Leadership Council and other center-right Democrats will doubtlessly argue that this election proves that Democrats dare not deviate from fiscal conservatism at home and hawkishness abroad. But the dwindling of the Democratic base this Tuesday argues precisely the opposite: that when Democratic candidates cease to be Democrats, Democratic voters cease to be voters. Republicans may have worked to depress Democratic turnout in this week’s election, but the real scandal is, so did the Democrats.
[Read more]What Would Democratic Elections Look Like?
Our federal election fiasco in 2000 exposed numerous critical flaws in our electoral process and spurred a new flurry of reform efforts, but despite all the attention generated, the actual changes have been little more than band-aids.
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