Politics & Society
Push Obama on Guantanamo today and tomorrow
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Longtime NSP member Jed Downhill sent us this alert from Amnesty International. If you can, please take a few minutes to do this. Amnesty International USA: TAKE ACTION NOW! The self-imposed deadline set by President Obama for his administration to finally close the Guantanamo detention facility came and went to no avail. In fact, the Administration took steps to undermine everything the date was supposed to represent.
Politics & Society
We move to amend the constitution
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I have dived into our last two weeks of getting the print issue of Tikkun to press and have not found time to blog or visit the blogosphere. But this says what I want to say better than I could: an email from my friend Phil who had it from his friend Joanne, so pass it on:
IMPORTANT , PLEASE READ. ( Maybe last chance to save Democracy ) Go to address below to protest Supreme Court Decision. (Received this from an alert friend)
Think well of yourself. Don’t suffer.
Politics & Society
Proto-Fascist Elements in America Today
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If I were Barack Obama, I would be frightened right now, not so much because of the likelihood that there would be serious Democratic losses in the 2010 election, or even a strong challenge to my re-election in 2012. No, I would be frightened because I would feel that I was in danger of losing control of my party, of my authority in government generally, and of the respect I had among the American people. I would feel — if I had my pulse on the nation — that the country was in an unstable and volatile situation and that things could go pretty haywire pretty fast, and I wouldn’t be sure if I could control them. I would be frightened that I had taken on a job that was beyond my capacities, if I were Barack Obama. The fact is that there are proto-fascist elements in America today, and I don’t mean the Tea-Party group or any easy, rightwing target per se.
Politics & Society
Good news: the American Law Institute gives up on the death penalty
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Another major step forward, and this one is significant for the long term. From yesterday’s NY Times:
Last fall, the American Law Institute, which created the intellectual framework for the modern capital justice system almost 50 years ago, pronounced its project a failure and walked away from it. There were other important death penalty developments last year: the number of death sentences continued to fall, Ohio switched to a single chemical for lethal injections and New Mexico repealed its death penalty entirely. But not one of them was as significant as the institute’s move, which represents a tectonic shift in legal theory. A couple more quotes:
“The A.L.I. is important on a lot of topics,” said Franklin E. Zimring, a law professor at the University of California, Berkeley.
Christianity
Lawsuit threatened over atheist city council member
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Did you know that seven states have laws barring atheists from holding political office? I learned this while reading about newly elected Asheville, NC councilman and atheist Cecil Bothwell — both he and the city may face a lawsuit because of his lack of belief in God. Article 6, section 8 of the NC state constitution reads, “The following persons shall be disqualified for office: First, any person who shall deny the Almighty God.” While constitutional experts say the law is not enforceable Bothwell may have to defend himself from civil lawsuits. Bothwell is a Unitarian Universalist who celebrates Christmas and is not opposed to the council praying before its meetings.
Politics & Society
SpiritLawPolitics Blog Kicks Off with Nanette Schorr
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I would like to introduce you to a new blog by a group of us who are partly associated with the Tikkun community: the Project for Integrating Law, Politics and Spirituality. Nanette Schorr, Doug Ammar and I will be sharing duties of blogging, and will be posting items by others. Nanette introduced the blog on August 24 with this post:
I’ve been asked to be the first writer to kick off the new spiritlawpolitics blog. I’m really happy to be contributing on a website dedicated to our new legal culture; a culture characterized by social justice, individual and social healing and community participation. The spiritlawpolitics initiative was founded back in 1996, as part of a larger “politics of meaning” movement whose aim was to create a “new bottom line” in American society which reflected these values.