Tag Archives: 5th Amendment

UPDATE: Nathan Hale Park Interviews Are ON!

NHP Interviews, , , ,

If you’ve been following my blog, you know that I’ve been in the planning stage as far as getting my NHP interviews off the ground for about 3 months, getting people to agree to dates and times, and finally, this past Wednesday, the very first interview took place!!

 

 

My good friend “m” (who voted for the first time in November because someone she knew, someone close to her, someone blonde, enticed her into casting that very first ballot ever of her life by offering to buy* her Perkins in exchange for enduring the long line at the polls) is helping me do all the filming. And it’s in gorgeous hi-def thanks to my newly upgraded smartphone! (I asked myself, what’s more important? food or an iPhone 5? I don’t think we need to take a voice vote to know the answer to that question.)

 

 

And Aaron Tovo, a local Amnesty International organizer, was super enthusiastic about being interviewed on the 3 D’s: Drones, Due Process and Detention of an Indefinite Nature. It’s split into 2 parts. At the end of the 2nd one, watch for my Progressive Patriot Reflections, a segment I’ll do at the close of every video where I talk about my own gratitude for all the freedoms we enjoy in the United States, how they have been endangered, and how that paradox relates to that particular interview’s topic(s).

 

 

Here’s the first half:

 

 

 

And here’s the second half:

 

 

And here’s the link to the Amnesty International petition on Drones I talk about with Aaron: Take Action to Prevent Unlawful Drone Killings

 

 

Thanks for watching, everybody! I’ll keep you posted on when the next interview will be up. The 2 postal carriers I had ready for my Save USPS video bailed on me, so I need a new one or two who are fed up with the 2006 mandate that requires retiree healthcare benefits to be prefunded 75 years in advance, a law that was passed because some greedy individuals realized, “Holy crap, they’re making $900,000/year at 40 cents a letter!” and then asked themselves, “How much could we make if we cut union pay out of the deal and jacked the price up to $3.00 a letter? A crapload!” So if you are a postal service employee and are interested in being interviewed or know someone who would be, comment below and provide your email address and twitter handle, please please please!

 

 

Talk soon!

~Sarah

 

*you can’t technically call this a bribe because we ended up splitting the check anyway (plus I barely tried to influence her vote)

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Take Action: Ask Senator Franken & Judiciary Subcommittee to Release the Memos on Obama Administration’s Targeted Killing Program Using Drones

President Obama, protesting injustice, Take Action, , ,

From my friends at the ACLU: Help the ACLU of Minnesota protect civil liberties

Ask the hard questions about the government’s secret killing program.
On Tuesday, April 23, the Senate will hold its first-ever hearing on drones and the targeted killing program in which an estimated 4,700 people across two continents have been killed, including four American citizens.  Please send Senator Franken a clear, strong message that you are watching and are expecting him to ask the hard questions about the government’s secret killing program.  And, on Tuesday at 10 am, you can tune in to the hearing here. 
Here’s the letter I sent to Senator Franken; part of it is form letter that the ACLU provided. The parallel drawn between viewing bin laden’s 9/11 airplanes as manned aerial vehicles and viewing drones as unmanned aerial vehicles is my own.
Dear Senator Franken,
I am thrilled that the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee is about to hold its first-ever hearing on drones and the killing program that has killed an estimated 4,700 people across two continents, including four American citizens. I am grateful to the many Senators who have been calling on the Obama administration to release its legal memos on when it believes any president can order the Pentagon and the CIA to kill people far from any battlefield.

Terrorists are supposed to be the ones who execute people they determine to be criminals without the charging of the accused with a crime, without affording them a jury trial, and without obtaining a guilty verdict first. Not the United States.Whether terrorists orchestrate flying manned aerial vehicles (airplanes) into buildings in order to execute people they believe to be guilty or our government orchestrates flying unmanned aerial vehicles (drones) into sovereign airspace in order to execute people it believes to be guilty, the result is the same: the violation of the longstanding principles of the presumption of innocence, the burden of proof, and due process via jury trials in courtrooms where evidence of premeditation and guilt are presented. When bin laden’s attacks on the United States on September 11, 2001 led to the onset of the War on Terror, he was attempting to achieve the eventual financial destruction of our country. He didn’t succeed. Let his legacy not be the destruction of our 5th Amendment and due process in a court of law. Let bin laden’s legacy not be the destruction of what President Obama called in 2009 our strongest currency in the world, our moral authority.

 

 

Ordering the execution of human beings without charge or trial is what bin laden would have done — and did do. Targeted killing via the usage of drones is not only unconstitutional, immoral and unjust, it’s what terrorists would do.

While some senators have seen a handful of the eleven legal memos, it is imperative that all of the memos be available to all members of Congress and that minimally redacted copies be made public. And it is paramount that the Senate Judiciary Committee, the committee charged with enforcing the rule of law, conduct robust oversight of the killing program.  I will be watching the hearing on Tuesday, and I want to hear you ask hard questions and demand clear answers about when the administration claims broad authority to kill people, including American citizens, far from any battlefield.
Sincerely,
Sarah Reynolds