Dear Gov. Dean -- Just dial 1-800-CALL-SPY …

[understandinglife]

15 December 2005 (# 10)

If only it were a joke. But, it’s not.

For starters, the number does not connect you to the Department of Justice or the FBI. Instead, you’re dialing the United States Army "CALL SPY Hotline" to report "incidents" within the Republic.

A part of aging should not include being forced to revisit really stupid, un-Constitutional endeavors of one’s government that one had hoped were vanquished, forever.

From Hoover’s "black bag" and "Cointelpro" operations, including spying on John Lennon and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., we all got an ample dose of the type of government that we then firmly rejected as un-American and immoral.

Through the 60’s, many of us had direct experiences with the un-Constitutional intrusion of various governmental operatives into our efforts to inform our government that it was performing recklessly and brutally and we wanted that behavior to stop.

One almost had the feeling by the mid-1970’s we might be restoring, and even advancing, a progressive agenda within America - an agenda resonant with the ideals of the Founders; with those of Lincoln, Roosevelt, Truman, Eisenhower, and Kennedy.

The systematic dismantling of anything remotely progressive and "American" began in earnest with Reagan’s crew, and thanks to the enormous financial and fanatical influence of Bruce Kovner and his American Enterprise Institute (AEI), the dismantling of “America” has accelerated.

The AEI crew Cheney infused into numerous Executive Branch positions, and the concomitant contamination of a substantial number of members of the US Congress are direct consequences of realizing the AEI militaristic imperial agenda for America. That agenda is orthogonal to what most Americans think their country is and now, tragically, establishes the legal basis for prosecuting America for the supreme crime of waging war of aggression.

More on Kovner in future letter about what must be done to stop Bolton.

For now, I request that you focus on the need to call upon every American citizen to demand that their Senators not only block the current version of the "Patriot Act" (history will record it as the "Tyranny Act", I assure you), but that they severely restructure that legislation as to have it robustly focused on actual threats.

The United States of America defeated Hitler and Hirohito in less time that it has now been chasing a gang of thugs being led by a fellow who ostensibly has kidney failure.

We must not allow the United States Army to spend one dime or one moment scouting Quaker anti-war gatherings like the one in Lake Worth, FL -- a "threat" requiring the attention of the US Army 902nd Military Intelligence Group!!

A secret 400-page Defense Department document obtained by NBC News lists the Lake Worth meeting as a "threat" and one of more than 1,500 "suspicious incidents" across the country over a recent 10-month period.

"This peaceful, educationally oriented group being a threat is incredible," says Evy Grachow, a member of the Florida group called The Truth Project.

More on just how embarrassingly stupid much of the stuff detailed in that DoD document can be found here:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/10454316

and, here:

http://blogs.washingtonpost.com/earlywarning/2005/12/pentagon_domest.html

William Arkin summarizes it as well as anyone, today:

It is this assumption that everything is potential actionable intelligence that has led to renditions and torture and secrets prisons abroad. Now in the United States, it is contributing to an ever growing domestic military, intelligence and law enforcement triangle. I'm torn between saying that these homeland security goons are a menace and suggesting that perhaps if they are so gung ho they should get on the next plane and employ their fabulous talents in Iraq.

Link: http://blogs.washingtonpost.com/earlywarning/2005/12/pentagon_domest.html

Gov. Dean, we need a legislative halt on the "Patriot Act."

We need a major judicial foray into the vast illegal activities of Bush, Cheney, their neoconster fellow imperialists, and those who are financing the destruction of America as law-abiding member of the community of Nations.

Thank you for your continued leadership,

Peace.