Image by Brad Dougherty via Flickr
with David Swanson
Writer, Dandelion Salad
Let’s Try Democracy
September 17, 2017
Nobody, not racist warmakers, not imaginary non-racist warmakers, not founding fathers, not radical protesters should be made into a deity, larger than life, in marble or bronze, on horseback or otherwise. Nobody is that flawless, and nobody’s story so withstands the test of time. We need human-sized statues and memorials of whole movements.
Image by KAZ Vorpal via Flickr
by Ralph Nader
The Nader Page
August 8, 2017
As the Trump wrecking crew ramps up its destructive campaign against federal health and safety protections and social services for impoverished, disabled and vulnerable people (young and old) the latest targets of their ire are the federal civil servants who faithfully keep our government functioning here and abroad.
Screenshot by Dandelion Salad via Flickr
Ruptly TV on Apr 18, 2017
National Security Agency (NSA) whistleblower Edward Snowden is due to participate via a video link during an international conference at College of William & Mary in Williamsburg on Tuesday, April 18.
Image by Kenneth Lu via Flickr
by Howard Zinn
Writer, Dandelion Salad
Previously published on November 25, 2013
Originally published on www.thirdworldtraveler.com
1970, from the Zinn Reader, Seven Stories Press
February 7, 2017
[By the latter part of May, 1970, feelings about the war in Vietnam had become almost unbearably intense. In Boston, about a hundred of us decided to sit down at the Boston Army Base and block the road used by buses carrying draftees off to military duty. We were not so daft that we thought we were stopping the flow of soldiers to Vietnam; it was a symbolic act, a statement, a piece of guerrilla the after. We were all arrested and charged, in the quaint language of an old statute, with “sauntering and loitering” in such a way as to obstruct traffic.
Image by David Shankbone via Flickr
with Ralph Nader
TheRealNews on Feb 22, 2016
Consumer advocate Ralph Nader says both the Republican and Democratic parties are subservient to corporate power.
Image by Doran via Flickr
by Ralph Nader
The Nader Page
February 20, 2016
The passing of Supreme Court Justice Antonin “Nino” Scalia evoked widespread commentary about how outspoken he was both on the Court and at law schools and other forums where he often lectured and sometimes tangled with audiences. Knowing of Justice Scalia’s unusual expressiveness for a jurist, my colleague Robert Weissman and I wrote him a challenging letter in 2006, starting with these words: Continue reading
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by Arthur D. Robbins
Guest Writer, Dandelion Salad
Paradise Lost, Paradise Regained, March 24, 2015
November 11, 2015
Do away with #elections? To even think such a thought is treasonous. An election, or should I say a presidential election, is one of the few occasions, or should I say the only occasion, on which we take a genuine interest in government. We are spectators at a sporting event, a mix of a bullfight, prizefight and a barroom brawl. We get into heated arguments about which team is “better” about who deserves to win, about which gladiator will be the best for the country. There is an uppercut, a right cross, a roundhouse and he or she (not too often) is down for the count. No, he is not out. He is on his knees, struggling to his feet. The crowd roars.
by William John Cox
Writer, Dandelion Salad
williamjohncox.com
June 7, 2015
Image by Democracy Chronicles via Flickr
The Supreme Court’s acceptance of a case about the allocation of voting districts will have consequences far beyond the millions of U.S. taxpayers its ruling may deprive of representation. A decision that only counts voters, rather than all persons, will undermine the very foundation of the Republic.
Image by Stephen D. Melkisethian via Flickr
with Chris Hedges
TheRealNews on May 15, 2015
A debate emerges between Bob Scheer and Chris Hedges on whether the state can reform its own surveillance practices and whether it can be held accountable by appealing to constitutional principles.
with Ralph Nader
Image by Dandelion Salad via Flickr
ShakeEmUp HLS on Oct 30, 2013
In this groundbreaking conference, Ralph Nader moderates conversations with twelve leading scholars, practitioners, and advocates about transforming America’s broken legal system. Speakers from former Attorney General Ramsey Clark to the founder of the National Legal Services program Edgar Cahn will explore topics ranging from corporate capture of government and the courts, mass incarceration, campaign finance reform, access to justice, and the excesses of executive power.
by Sibel Edmonds
Featured Writer
Dandelion Salad
Originally published by Boiling Frogs Post
January 18, 2013
Image by John E. Parker via Flickr
I just finished reading a critical but seemingly irrational argument by one of the so-called constitutional experts against the concept of Nullification. I am neither an expert when it comes to constitutional law nor do I profess to be one. That said, when I sit and read analyses made for nullification by constitutional experts such as Professor Tom Woods, and then read other analyses made against nullification by experts such as Ian Millhiser, I am left with my own judgment and common sense, and my own decision-making process to judge validity.
by Chris Hedges
Featured Writer
Dandelion Salad
Truthdig
August 13, 2012
Image by Shrieking Tree via Flickr
I was on the 15th floor of the Southern U.S. District Court in New York in the courtroom of Judge Katherine Forrest on Tuesday. It was the final hearing in the lawsuit I brought in January against President Barack Obama and Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta. I filed the suit, along with lawyers Carl J. Mayer and Bruce I. Afran, over Section 1021 of the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA). We were late joined by six co-plaintiffs including Noam Chomsky and Daniel Ellsberg.
This section of the NDAA, signed into law by Obama on Dec. 31, 2011, obliterates some of our most important constitutional protections. It authorizes the executive branch to order the military to seize U.S. citizens deemed to be terrorists or associated with terrorists. Those taken into custody by the military, which becomes under the NDAA a domestic law enforcement agency, can be denied due process and habeas corpus and held indefinitely in military facilities.
Note: The Preface and Chapters One through Twenty can be found here: The 15% Solution
by Jonathan Westminster, Ph.D. aka Steven Jonas, MD, MPH
Featured Writer
Dandelion Salad
crossposted on TPJmagazine.us
July 1, 2012
This is the twenty-sixth installment of the serialization of a book entitled The 15% Solution: A Political History of American Fascism, 2001-2022. Herein you will find Appendix I, the Constitution of the “Old United States and the New American Republics,” as amended through the (fictional) year 2010. This Appendix demonstrates how the Republican Religious Right used the procedures embedded in the original U.S. Constitution to amend it into a document that in effect resembled nothing like the original, except in form.
by Ralph Nader and Bruce Fein
The Nader Page
June 14, 2012
Image by SS&SS via Flickr
June 11, 2012
Honorable Patrick Leahy
Chairman, Senate Judiciary Committee
United States Senate
Committee on the Judiciary
224 Dirksen Senate Office Building
Washington, DC 20510
Honorable Lamar Smith
Chairman, House Judiciary Committee
United States House of Representatives
2138 Rayburn House Office Building
Washington, DC 20515
Re: Upholding and Defending the Constitution
by Ralph Nader
The Nader Page
May 30, 2012
Image by SS&SS via Flickr
The rule of law is rapidly breaking down at the top levels of our government. As officers of the court, we have sworn to “support the Constitution,” which clearly implies an affirmative commitment on our part.
Take the administrations of George W. Bush and Barack Obama. The conservative American Bar Association sent three white papers to President Bush describing his continual unconstitutional policies. Then and now civil liberties groups and a few law professors, such as the stalwart David Cole of Georgetown University and Jonathan Turley of George Washington University, have distinguished themselves in calling out both presidents for such violations and the necessity for enforcing the rule of law.
