we should prepare for executive fiat actions re: PATSY, NSA auth

There is a reek of brinksmanship in the President's statements since the release of the NSA surveillance information and the halting of the PATSY renewal bill, as well as in those of his lackeys such as Gonzales and Cheney.

I believe we need to consider the possibility that some move(s) will be made to continue these programs via some executive action which bypasses the Legislative branch (and the courts for that matter, since that's where it seems the NSA issue is headed). I would anticipate that this would be a legal maneuver cleared by White House and DOJ counsel (the same crew who OK'd the NSA surveillance and torture in the first place), rather than some hamfisted crackdown on civil liberties among the public (although you never know).

I suggest that there need to be two pieces of preparation that we engage in:

1. the members of the Democratic Party who hold Federal office need to game out (yes, this is a wargame) a concerted response to any such event. As far as I'm concerned, all Federal legislative branch activity should be brought to a screeching halt as we respond to such an attempt to force the issue by the administration, and the issue should rapidly be moved to the courts.

2. we the People, as represented here and elsewhere, need to formulate a concerted response of our own. I advocate no illegal behavior here. That means no tax resistance, violence or other behavior proscribed by law. I do advocate that we remind the government who their master is, that government in the US is of, by, and for the people, and that the government (along with social structures and business) exist solely to serve the interests of the people. Since this is such a business- and market-oriented administration, it would seem to me that the appropriate public response to any attempt by the administration to subvert the structure of the Federal government would be to bring life in America to a standstill as we attend to the business of the nation, and follow news, visit our representatives, and voice our condemnation of anticonstitutional behavior in the public square. Europe can bring 100,000 people peacefully onto the street within 48 hours to address problems with social program reforms, we should be able to do the same to remind the government does not grant our inherent civil rights.

If this President and this administration want to force a Constitutional crisis, that's their loss. We need to be prepared to make them fail.

:kick:

How do we bring LARGE numbers of people into the street (peacefully)? That's not a rhetorical question, it's a question that we need an answer to. How would we proceed?

but we do announce it on all venues once it's planned.

There are organizations with contact lists. There are such things as spontaneous demonstrations, even in this day of negotiating for parade permits. This is particularly possible in larger cities because of population masses - critical mass (numbers) works, at some point you can't just tell the crowd to go home, when they're filling three city blocks from sidewalk to sidewalk.

When the Germans started floating reforms to their social programs, the "Monday demos" started, every Monday like clockwork in Leipzig. They got multiple tens of thousands onto the street every time.

There's no reason to offend or not work with municipal authorities to make the event happen peaceably. But when the Constitution is being threatened by the occupant of the White House, I don't see why business as usual should be the order of the day.

And yes, we need to be mindful that we live in a surveillance state and a surveillance age, and not blather in compromised fora about everything we're gonna do to take it to the man. Think globally, act locally, remember the simple premise that it's _your_ country, and that's more important than being a good consumer/producer.

As an example, many cities have small demos every weekend against the Iraq war - if nothing else, the Women in Black standing witness at the Post Office. If we were told that our inherent civil rights had been suspended illegitimately, I suspect that we might talk to our neighbors and friends about it, and decide that we should bear witness similarly, and that that might be more important than living our daily routine, for as long as the state of emergency exists, and for as long as we can afford to.