I was astonished. A man, whom I believe can and will be the next President of the United States, the first African-American to hold the Executive Office, received an unfavorable remark from an Israeli newspaper and in order to placate the 80% of American Jews who are registered in the Democratic Party, he is announcing that he is Pro-Israel. Again, I was astonished.

 As a Muslim, I have a tremendous amount of respect for the Jewish people, who worship the same God (Allah and Adonai are one in the same) that we do, but differ in terms of the recognition of prophets and messengers. For any Muslim, no matter a Sunni or Shiite, to announce that the State of Israel, i.e. the Jewish people, should 'wiped off the face of the map' is un-Islamic and inhumane.

 And yet, there is no outcry, not even from the man whom we are supporting for President of the United States for the un-Judaic and inhumane actions of the State of Israel to eradicate the Palestinians from their homeland. How can he call on us to be the Joshua Generation and support such a regime. Instead of being pro-Israel, can we assist him in announcing that he is pro-humanity, pro-justice, pro-Unalienable Rights endowed by The Creator?

I must tell you all, as an American Muslim, a convert born in New Jersey, I am truly beginning to believe that it is time for all of us who state: La ilaha illaLlah, Muhammadur Rasullah, to actively and seriously discuss hijra. This nation is not for us, and I never thought I would feel this way.

I invite you to read some articles written by Israelis to support that being pro-Israel is not a position we should support as the Joshua Generation.

Link

We have witnessed how big oil can sit down at the table and dictate to a Presidential administration what policy should look like.  While contributions meant to influence decision makers is not illegal, Obama shows greater courage in following his own slef imposed higher law, with the benefit of democracy in mind.

You can also do this with your friends, asking them to contribute and pledging to match their contribution.  This shows our commitment and inspires curiosity.

Best of luck in helping to raise funds and protect democracy!

Jack Livigni, administrator Society Hill for Obama and Liberty Bell.

You know, I was thinking about how fast things are going.  It's been a few days since most of us started, and we have seen the media swirl around Barack, and a flurry of activity.

May I suggest that we do not make the mistake of looking at polls too much right now.  It's easy to burn out before starting.  Many have never been involved with a campaign before.  We are not going to see the polls change much right now.  In fact, we may not see the polls change much till the very end.  Think of Dean and Kerry.  There will be many attempts to cause burnout in Obama followers.  The opposing camps may believe we are here just out of a fleeting whim or hope.

We need, in my opinion, to not pay attention to the Hillary Camp and their flag waving in the media with their poll numbers on them.  That is meant to scare away those who are easily fatigued.

May I suggest we make it a routine to analyze the issues and remind ourselves constantly why we are supporting Barack Obama.  Don't allow yourself to get sucked into the manipulation that would have us believing that polls should change in the short term.  They are meant to shake down this network and divert our attention from the reason we are here.  They are meant to induce us to be pessimistic and lose the energy to organize and recruit.  They are meant to have us lose the audacity of hope and friendship that brings us together from many walks to support Barack Obama.

 Stand firm in this course because of the principles that drew you here in the first place!

American Liberty at the Precipice 

In another low moment for American justice, a federal appeals court ruled on Tuesday that detainees held at the prison camp at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, do not have the right to be heard in court. The ruling relied on a shameful law that President Bush stampeded through Congress last fall that gives dangerously short shrift to the Constitution.

The right of prisoners to challenge their confinement — habeas corpus — is enshrined in the Constitution and is central to American liberty. Congress and the Supreme Court should act quickly and forcefully to undo the grievous damage that last fall’s law — and this week’s ruling — have done to this basic freedom.

The Supreme Court ruled last year on the jerry-built system of military tribunals that the Bush Administration established to try the Guantánamo detainees, finding it illegal. Mr. Bush responded by driving through Congress the Military Commissions Act, which presumed to deny the right of habeas corpus to any noncitizen designated as an “enemy combatant.” This frightening law raises insurmountable obstacles for prisoners to challenge their detentions. And it gives the government the power to take away habeas rights from any noncitizen living in the United States who is unfortunate enough to be labeled an enemy combatant.

The United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, which rejected the detainees’ claims by a vote of 2 to 1, should have permitted the detainees to be heard in court — and it should have ruled that the law is unconstitutional.

As Judge Judith Rogers argued in a strong dissent, the Supreme Court has already rejected the argument that detainees do not have habeas rights because Guantánamo is located outside the United States. Judge Rogers also rightly noted that the Constitution limits the circumstances under which Congress can suspend habeas to “cases of Rebellion or invasion,” which is hardly the situation today. Moreover, she said, the act’s alternative provisions for review of cases are constitutionally inadequate. The Supreme Court should add this case to its docket right away and reverse it before this term ends.

Congress should not wait for the Supreme Court to act. With the Democrats now in charge, it is in a good position to pass a new law that fixes the dangerous mess it has made. Senators Patrick Leahy, Democrat of Vermont, and Arlen Specter, Republican of Pennsylvania, have introduced a bill that would repeal the provision in the Military Commissions Act that purports to obliterate the habeas corpus rights of detainees.

The Bush administration’s assault on civil liberties does not end with habeas corpus. Congress should also move quickly to pass another crucial bill, introduced by Senator Christopher Dodd, Democrat of Connecticut, that, among other steps, would once and for all outlaw the use of evidence obtained through torture.

When the Founding Fathers put habeas corpus in Article I of the Constitution, they were underscoring the vital importance to a democracy of allowing prisoners to challenge their confinement in a court of law. Much has changed since Sept. 11, but the bedrock principles of American freedom must remain.

Barack Obama is involved in Specter's Bill, but I think this is an important fight to be waged against those who would take away Constitutional protections and degrade this Country's principles.  No steps toward fascism should ever be tolerated in our Union.  Bush has made many.  This one can be fixed now.

Dear fellow Obama Group Administrators and bloggers,

I know I am not the only Barack supporter who’s Voter Registration says “Independent.” 

I went knocking on doors on Election Day in 2004 for John Kerry, and have supported Democratic ideas for many years now, but have never registered for the party.  In many ways I prized my status as an “Independent” voter.

Many of Barack Obama’s supporters are young people who have never registered as voters.  Many are Independents.  I think our first big push as a network of hopeful citizens of this great Country in support of Barack should be to work with all of our GROUP MEMBERS to ensure that they have registered as Democrats.

Our registering as Democrats will be essential in getting Barack on the Democratic ticket.  We should start this push now in my opinion and make this a high priority in at all of our events.  I sent in my new registration yesterday.

You can register at:  Link

Best of luck!! 

Jack Livigni, Administrator Society Hill for Obama,  Philadelphia

(If this post has been of any help, consider contributing $10 at Link - It will take serious fundrasing for Barack's message to reach every ear in this nation.)

This Administration’s choices have benefited largely some very powerful families and the rich of America, while the divide between rich and poor has become wider as the Middle Class has been consistently under attack.  Sure enough, the existence of a robust Middle Class is not ideal for fascist undercurrents in Democratic nations.  Poverty reduces a citizens reach and impact on the whole of society, and all that is left to do is reduce Civil Liberties, rig election machines, and degrade the Judicial, and then the imposing of power agendas on the whole can proceed unobstructed. 

This Administration’s idea of “America” is a metaphor for the rich and powerful, to be measured up by the quantity of stock options in their portfolio, a vision in which the common American is a useful tool, a useful worker bee, a useful foot soldier. Where is the wisdom in those who have supported over time this President’s agenda?  Where is Senator Clinton’s wisdom in supporting this President? Did Barack Obama show wisdom and vision on the eve of this monstrous mistake which was the war in Iraq?  What are some talking points we can use to help share with others what Barack foresaw back in 2002?In reality, his words are convincing enough:

I don't oppose all wars. After September 11, after witnessing the carnage and destruction, the dust and the tears, I supported this administration's pledge to hunt down and root out those who would slaughter innocents in the name of intolerance, and I would willingly take up arms myself to prevent such tragedy from happening again.

I don't oppose all wars. What I am opposed to is a dumb war. What I am opposed to is a rash war. What I am opposed to is the cynical attempt by Richard Perle and Paul Wolfowitz and other armchair, weekend warriors in this administration to shove their own ideological agendas down our throats, irrespective of the costs in lives lost and in hardships borne.

You want a fight, President Bush? Let's finish the fight with Bin Laden and al-Qaeda, through effective, coordinated intelligence, and a shutting down of the financial networks that support terrorism, and a homeland security program that involves more than color-coded warnings.

Now let me be clear: I suffer no illusions about Saddam Hussein. He is a brutal man. A ruthless man. A man who butchers his own people to secure his own power.... The world, and the Iraqi people, would be better off without him. But I also know that Saddam poses no imminent and direct threat to the United States, or to his neighbors...and that in concert with the international community he can be contained until, in the way of all petty dictators, he falls away into the dustbin of history.

I know that even a successful war against Iraq will require a U.S. occupation of undetermined length, at undetermined cost, with undetermined consequences. I know that an invasion of Iraq without a clear rationale and without strong international support will only fan the flames of the Middle East, and encourage the worst, rather than best, impulses of the Arab world, and strengthen the recruitment arm of al-Qaeda.

Did any of Barack Obama’s rivals for the ‘08 Presidency show the kind of vision and wisdom he did?

Let me quote Rudy Giuliani.  He said about George W. Bush at the 2004 RNC in NYC:

There are many qualities that make a great leader but having strong beliefs, being able to stick with them through popular and unpopular times, is the most important characteristic of a great leader.

Rudy Giuliani, Zell Miller, Arnold Schwarzenegger, John McCain, and Hillary Clinton have supported George W. Bush and his “strong,” beliefs.  Those beliefs were not founded on a wisdom that benefited the common American, as all can see now. 

It is now up to this congress and to the next President to reverse the damage these fascist forces have inflicted upon this nation at home and abroad.

Giuliani’s words well apply to Barack Obama who opposed the war in Iraq when most Americans were under the spell of this Administration’s media manipulation.  While everyone was infected by Condoleeza Rice’s “mushroom cloud” virus, and Dick Cheney’s treasonous lies on “Meet the Press” regarding Saddam’s WMD cache, Barack Obama’s wisdom cut through the fog.

I want a President with wisdom and vision, and that uses those qualities for the good of America as a whole, not for a fascist, oligarchic vision of America.

Barack says it best:

You want a fight, President Bush? Let's fight to make sure our so-called allies in the Middle East, the Saudis and the Egyptians, stop oppressing their own people, and suppressing dissent, and tolerating corruption and inequality, and mismanaging their economies so that their youth grow up without education, without prospects, without hope, the ready recruits of terrorist cells.

You want a fight, President Bush? Let's fight to wean ourselves off Middle East oil through an energy policy that doesn't simply serve the interests of Exxon and Mobil.

Those are the battles that we need to fight. Those are the battles that we willingly join. The battles against ignorance and intolerance. Corruption and greed. Poverty and despair. 

Experience is no good unless it leads to wisdom.  Judge Barack based on his wisdom, not on the amount of time he has been in Washington! 

(quotes from Remarks of Illinois State Sen. Barack Obama Against Going to War with Iraq,  October 26, 2002 - Link)

(If this post has been of any help, consider contributing $10 at Link - It will take serious fundrasing for Barack's message to reach every ear in this nation.)

I am very concerned because of the pervasiveness of certain ideas in the general citizenry of our nation, mostly the consequence of lack of critical thinking, and of deception imposed upon them by manipulators, inside and out of the Government, well represented in this Administration.

There is an underlying idea whereby because the United States and its allies have been attacked numerous times by Muslim terrorists, that we are justified in waging wars with Muslim nations that support these terrorists - the terrorist becoming the extension of the nation.

According to this view we did not conduct a “pre-emptive war” against Iraq, but are responding to multiple attacks already perpetrated against our nation.  “You are either with us, or with them” – the black and whites of fascists.

By this rationale many citizens accepted the war in Iraq as justifiable.  After all, this Administration lifted its incontrovertible intelligence on the hilltops for the whole world to see, confirming links between Iraq and terrorist attacks and activity, and unveiling sinister plans by Saddam Hussein to use terrorists to lift up mushroom clouds over US cities.

Now lest someone accuse us of being naïve in this conversation lets say clearly that the dynamics of warfare are far more complex than the label “pre-emptive” allows for.  By some opinions most nations, including the USA, have conducted pre-emptive warfare for a very long time.  There are “Wars” and there are “wars.”  Nations conduct battles all the time on many fronts aimed at influencing events for their national interests.  We as a country are subject to aggression all the time.  In fact, in this sense we are in a constant small scale war.

When the USA supports a group that then turns around and commits horrible crimes, have we also committed them?

If the leaders of Iraq supported terrorists in Palestine by sending them money, does that mean that they committed the attack on the World Trade Center, or on the USS Cole?  Is a military invasion against an entire nation justified by scarce intelligence regarding covert actions of leaders?  Did we have incontrovertible evidence that the alleged covert actions resulting in the attacks on the USA were sanctioned and directed by the leadership of Iraq?  Do we wage a full scale invasion, with the unavoidable loss of innocent life, based on assumptions?  Is that what America stands for?

The whole “you are either with us or with them” mentality is truly very dangerous.  While everyone on the GOP side, and many on the Democratic side, cheered at President Bush’s deception, Barack Obama did not.  His wisdom gave him a different perspective.

At some point this administration used the fear of mass murder to sway public opinion, which in turn sways elected officials.  They told the American people in systematic attacks through the media that Iraq represented a clear and present danger for the USA; that Iraq not only could, but planned on giving weapons of mass destruction they had to terrorists so that these could be used against US cities.  They were like a computer virus poisoning the collective mind of our nation with lies meant to bring us to war under false pretense, and in so doing committed, in my opinion, treason.

Because Saddam refused UN inspectors, or impeded investigations when they were allowed in, the Administration increased the speed of the planned attack.  They banked on Hussein’s stupidity and arrogance.  Eventually, about two weeks before the attack, Saddam agreed to unconditional inspections, and this administration said it was “TOO LATE”, that the time for diplomacy had come and gone.  The objective was now “regime change.”  Did the GOP congress stand up against this morphed rationale for war?  Were the Democrats standing up?  Barack Obama was!!  So much for lack of experience!

So this war was not “pre-emptive” at all.  It was an aggression of the USA on a foreign country, a straight up military invasion that ignored diplomacy when it mattered most.  The agenda of those behind the invasion was more important than the lives of the soldiers and of the innocent civilians that would fall as a consequence of the invasion. This administration sent our citizens into a country that did not attack us because of the geo-political agenda of a specific power group well represented in the neo-cons.

The Republican Party and some democrats, including Hillary Clinton, are directly culpable for this action.  Some have admitted and apologized for their lack of vision and action.  Others, like Hillary Clinton, refuse to admit to any wrong doing, placing culpability and responsibility for their lack of judgment on the President entirely.  When the President changed his motive for the war from imminent threat to regime change did none of these experienced politicians’ alarm bells go off?  The phone calls and conferences must have been very effective!  Or maybe this goes to show how much people like Clinton are influenced by the mood of the electorate.  They follow power opportunities like a hound follows its pray.  The public was infected by this virus spilled out by Bush, Cheney, Rice, and many others, and they did what people wanted rather than what was right.  Their's was not experience, it was cunning.  Obama showed great wisdom and vision.

Perhaps the most worrisome ideological trend I see is that we have been spoon-fed the idea that - Muslim nation equates to terrorist cell attacking US.  Yes, Muslim populations will be in part sympathetic to terrorists because of the dynamics in the relations between USA, Israel, Palestine, and the Muslim world in general, especially now.  The lack of trust toward the USA is not unmotivated in their view.  So it behooves us to not engage in promoting stereotypes and generalizations of Muslim countries but rather renewing a dialogue that promotes clear thinking and facts rather than skewed perceptions.

I don’t know that I see a desire for this dialogue in a segment of the nation.  Patriotism and Rush Limbaugh go hand in hand for many.  “Rush” should be a new four letter word in my book.

In pondering the profound deception we as a nation were subject to at the hand of this Administration, the GOP run Congress, and the GOP party in general consider this: these groups of people and individuals just mentioned are representatives of very powerful individuals, families, and groups in this country who think they are “America” and who equate their interests with “American interests,” who use the word “patriotism” as a metaphor for a defense of their power at the expense of the dispensable foot soldier and the pocket book of the middle class.  They wage war and give themselves tax cuts so as to pocket more of the profits for the resulting positive economic developments.  They wage wars and recruit soldiers aggressively in neighborhoods where they influenced the under-funding of schools, infrastructure development, public services, police, and where they rigged and disrupted elections.  While all along, these brave guys and gals go out to defend their country with honor and true respect for the Constitution.

We do not know well what the secret works were that lead to this war because they are protected by strong powers within and without the government, just look at the farce with Sooter Libby.  But we do know that this group of men seek power and are willing to take it by sacrificing the lives of US soldiers as well as the lives of people in other nations that have not attacked us.

Terrorists say that there are no innocent American lives.  Are we going to commit the same mistake and attack and hate nations as if there were no innocent lives there?

This administration and the former GOP Congress have manipulated the conscience of the citizenry and have inspired intolerance and hatred in the process... and for every action there is a reaction for sure.  It is no surprise that anti-American sentiment is at an all time high.  Perhaps that was the whole goal in the first place.  These fascist forces want instability and fear.  No surprise Bin Laden was allowed to escape.

I hate conspiracy theories, and I can’t stand Michael Moore “mocumentaries” – but I am not blind to evidence and proof of wrongdoing, especially when it is in my face.  I expect the highest scrutiny to be applied to our leaders, and the treason committed against the United States citizenry by this administration warrants tremendous scrutiny and consequences.

One of the reasons why I support Barack Obama is because he will not be controlled by these powerful groups of conspirers.  He is smart enough to sort through the deceptions that will come his way from forces within the government machinery hostile to the common American, and will make choices that reflect his high moral imperatives and worldview.

Barack Obama, because of his background, is in a unique position to use all of his God given talents to make a difference in the relations between the USA and Muslim countries, and set them on a course toward peace.  He truly is our best hope for defeating terrorism and curbing radicalism, and will not shy away from defending this country when needed.  Given his moral directives and worldview he is clearly governed by, I would expect Barack to make choices that are not meant merely to enhance “American” power, but to actually bring about or set us on the road for greater World peace, and strengthen the real America.

-Jack Livigni, Administrator Society Hill for Obama, Philadelphia