Jun. 23, 2006 - 21:45 MDT

CALL TO ARMS

When some people talk, I take a minute to listen. And when some folks talk I do more than listen. There is a column in the Rocky Mountain News this morning by Cokie and Steven V. Roberts of United Feature Syndicate, people who I respect deeply, both their ethics and their ideas. Might be a good idea for me to stop, look and listen. Herein quoted in full (bolds mine):

DEFENDERS OF DEMOCRACY MUST STAND UP TO BUSH

"It's disgraceful. You have a Justice Department that has now taken a complete turn in policy. It shows how this department has lost all perspective when it comes to the right of a free press in a free society."

"No, that's not a lawyer for the American Civil Liberties Union talking. Or even a Democrat. Those are the words of conservative Republican Mark Corallo, who served years as chief spokesman for the Justice Department under Attorney General John Ashcroft."

"Corallo is right. The Justice Department under Ashcroft's successor, Alberto Gonzalez, is out of control. It treats the press as a nuisance, not as a critical part of a "free society," New York Times editor Bill Keller warns. "I'm not sure journalists fully appreciate the threat confronting us." Corallo does appreciate the threat, and what set him off was a Justice Department declision to subpoena two reporters for the San Francisco Chronicle who published secret grand jury testimony while breaking the story of steroid use by major league ballplayers."

"In an affadavit filed in federal court, Corallo points out that it takes two signatures -- the attorney general and the chief spokesman -- to compel testimony from a journalist. And those approvals should be strictly limited to cases where there is a "danger to life" or "a grave (threat to) national security." Accordingly, during Corallo's tenure, he approved only one subpoena and "denied numerous requests" for others. The subpoena in the steroid case will have an " incalculable chilling effect on the press," he warns, and never should have been approved."

"The steroid stories served a useful purpose, pushing baseball to estalish tougher rules against perormance-enhancing drugs. but they are a sideshow compared to a much bigger issue: the ability of the press to cover and criticize, the administration's handling of national security issues."

"In this area, Gonzalez and his boss in the Oval Office have even more contempt for the press. As Keller has told The National Journal, "There is sometimes a vindictive tone in the way (administration officials) talk about dragging reporters before grand juries and in the hints that reporters who look too hard into the public's business risk being branded traitors." If you think Keller is being an alarmist, or a special pleader, consider these recent episodes."

# "The attorney general has suggested seeking indictments the The New York Times for revealing a top-secret program to eavesdrop on phone calls between the United States and foreign countries."

# "The FBI has tried to rummage through the papers of the late muckraking columnist Jack Anderson, seeking evidence against two pro-Israeli lobbyists now being prosecuted under an espionage law hardly used since its passage 89 years ago."

# "Two ABC reporters, Brian Ross and Richard Esposito, allege that the FBI is seeking phone records from them and other journalists to track criminal activity."

"The president has issued more than 750 statements, declaring that he will not be bound by legislation he doesn't like. The president's abuse of executive authority is not only disgraceful, but dangerous. The other defenders of democracy -- the courts, the Congress, the press -- have to stand by and stop him."

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In my way of seeing things I wonder, are we heading down the slippery slope toward dictatorship ? When the chief executive of the land makes it plain that he will heed only the things he wishes to and ignore the rest, and the general run of the administration treat the press and us John Does as traitors if we beg to differ on one point or another ? When various arms of the administration, using peoples paranoia and fears exercise the threat of hellfire and damnation in order to obtain every bit of data they wish about just anyone they think they want to, and to find out which way the roll of toilet paper is hung in their personal bathroom, is that not violating every principle of freedom and civil rights ? If they really want to know, I hang the teepee with the paper coming over the top, hanging away from the wall. Makes it easier to grab that way.

Seems to me that those who have a bent for demonstration might just make an effort to make a big enough demonstration that would gain the attention of The Royal George. Rather than guns and swords, maybe just plain feet, many of them could be more or less of a CALL TO ARMS . . . . . . . . . . .

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