Arianna Huffington on Civil Rights2004 former Independent Challenger for CA Governor | |
The act, which erodes essential civil liberties and rights that countless Americans have fought and died for, expands the capacity of government to do pretty much whatever the hell it feels like doing as long as it link its actions, no matter how tenuously, to the fight against terrorism. It allows searches, seizures of people and evidence, wiretaps, & e-mail taps without probable cause. Through a revision of grand jury rules, it erodes the Great Wall that bars the CIA from domestic spying. It allows the FBI unimpeded access to financial and medical records and even, though this provision has not been used (yet), to information from public libraries about suspicious book borrowing. And it clarifies the status of non-citizens detained on national security matters: they have no status.
Let me just say how we are going to know when we have a colorblind society. We don’t have a colorblind society when you have minorities, especially African-Americans in this state, who have a much bigger chance of getting into jail than getting into college. We don’t have a colorblind society when there is one-third more uninsured Latinos than whites. We don’t have a colorblind society when minorities are much more likely to be in schools with teachers who lack certification and with no textbooks.
SCHWARZENEGGER: We’re talking about health care, and you’re talking about driver’s licenses.
HUFFINGTON: But they are connected because parents drive their children.
SCHWARZENEGGER: I am against the driver’s license because it is without any background check and without any fingerprints or anything. Therefore, it is dangerous for the security of California. Davis came out a year ago and has made it clear and has said, we cannot do that because it is endangering us, it is a security problem.
HUFFINGTON: I’m campaigning against Prop 54 all around the state. It is bad for healthcare, bad for education, bad for public policy. It is nothing more than racial discrimination without a paper trail.
HUFFINGTON: I would sign it. I believe in the equal protection clause of the constitution.
Now, I’m certainly in favor of all the gun control we can get-but if we want to rebuild our frayed civil society, we’d better reload young people’s hearts and spirits at the same time. And while reading the Ten Commandments is great, living them is even better-particularly the biblical admonition about tending to the least among us. The TV bookers need to program their speed dials to include people around the country who are using family volunteering to keep kids connected to their own families as well as their communities.
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Opinion Leaders on the Right: Cato Institute Milton Friedman (Nobel Economist) Rush Limbaugh (Radio Talk Show Host) Ayn Rand (Author and Philosopher) Heritage Foundation (Think Tank) Libertarian Party Republican Party Ronald Reagan(President,1981-1989) Joe Scarborough (Former Congressman; Radio Host) Opinion Leaders on the Left: American Civil Liberties Union Democratic Party Noam Chomsky (Author and Philosopher) Green Party Arianna Huffington (Internet Columnist) Robert Reich (Professor and Columnist) Howard Schultz (CEO of Starbucks) John F. Kennedy(President,1961-1963) Sierra Club |
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