Letter on Behalf of Amy Goodman/ //Mother Jones & Bill of Rights Defense Committee

To All Concerned on Behalf of Amy Goodman and others doing their Work for Peace

Although we have many many great & well-meaning officers in our nation, the kind of rights abuses applied by police in St. Paul's has been similar to the arresting, detaining, disappearing and torture of so many innocent & falsely charged or uncharged persons since the Bush Administration's 8 years. Is this the reputation we want to give America here and abroad--to operate so carelessly with both our constitution and our legally-binding agreements to world-wide human rights accords, laws and understanding-- to do so without legal and humane cause--and to be beyond accountability for such human rights abuses?

How is this in keeping with the reputation the US generally has wanted to have with citizens and the rest of the world?

Where is the justification for lumping together with violent anarchists and actual criminals--those who are journalists and their staff or even those who are non-violent protestors? Where is the legal, constitutional and humane justification for police to arrest, detain, preemptively police and treat roughly and even to charge and hold the undue charges--without due cause--those who are exercising the privilege of free and often needed speech and dissent?

Please heed the various calls for reparations and the National Lawyers Guild's recent news release that in St. Paul there has been unreasonable detention, treatment and charge--as in the case of Ms. Amy Goodman and her colleagues.

Do all you can to prevent further targeting, pepper-spraying and holding at gunpoint all those who respect both law and the need to dissent at such times...as well as the need to cover all sides of issues and events.

The US has never needed more such journalism as Amy Goodman and her colleagues and staff who are among the very best of our time. Our nation has never before been so desperate for non-violent dissent. The RNC and other such venues are the perfect places for such independent journalism done professionally. St. Paul has never before needed more such dissent done non-violently and with integrity.

America and the world is in dire need of with the kind of excellent,professional journalism shown by independent media such as Democracy Now!

Democracy need Democracy Now!

By Connie Nash, blogger of One Heart For Peace-Wednesday September 3, 2008 4:30 PM ET

Submitted also to freepress dot net . Please go to that site and write your own letter which will be submitted to those concerned. The projected goal is 50,000.
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Related to the differences between the discussions/statements within the RNC and those without see:

Mother Jones: GOP Convention Opens: Did You Know McCain Was a POW? 2008-09-03

And throughout the night, there was practically no acknowledgment there's any economic pain in the world outside the Xcel Energy Center. The McCain people say, this election is about character, not issues. Tonight really proved that: McCain doesn't need to feel voters' pain; they need to feel his.
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To see on a DAILY basis the pulse of the nation at large politically and in relationship to human & constitutional rights, simply go often to
The Bill of Rights Defense Committee and get involved/ find valuable resources...

To find the following items go to bordc dot org scroll down for daily news updates
Sep 3, 2008, Allan J. Lichtman and Lee Edwards, Los Angeles Times, How will Cheney go down in history?

Sep 3, 2008, Associated Press, Ex-Professor in Palestinian Case Is Freed After 5 Years

Sep 3, 2008, Timothy Karr, Huffington Post, St. Paul Mayor and Media Mum on Journalism Crackdown

Sep 3, 2008, ACLU Press Release, Common Dreams, Federal Judge Orders Justice Department To Turn Over Memos Authorizing Torture Or Justify Withholding Them

Sep 2, 2008, Leslie Griffith, TruthOut, Silencing the Town Crier

Sep 2, 2008, Peter Jackson, Associated Press, Muslim pilot from Pa. allowed to resume flying

Sep 2, 2008, Carrie Johnson, Washington Post, Report: Gonzales Mishandled Classified Data

Sep 2, 2008, Steven Aftergood, Secrecy News, The Constitution and 9/11

Sep 2, 2008, Agence France-Presse, Three detainees transferred from Guantanamo: Pentagon

Sep 2, 2008, Marjorie Cohn, Common Dreams, Preemptive Strikes Against Protest at RNC

Sep 2, 2008, Democracy Now!, Democracy Now!'s Amy Goodman, Sharif Abdel Kouddous and Nicole Salazar Released After Illegal Arrest at RNC

Sep 1, 2008, Nat Hentoff, Washington Times, Who is under Bush's watch?

Sep 1, 2008, Pioneer Press (MN), Protesters of all stripes march through the streets on St. Paul

Sep 1, 2008, Joe Sharkey, New York Times, The Terrorist Watch List, Jumbled in Translation

Sep 1, 2008, Glenn Greenwald, Salon.com, Federal Government Involved In Raids On Protesters