What would Wellstone have done? He would have FOUGHT.

[shance]

What Would Wellstone Have Done? He Would Have Fought.

The Geneva Conventions. The writ of habeas corpus. Presidential power. Torture.

by David Morris

Four years ago this month Paul Wellstone was taken from us. Today, more than ever, American politics suffers from his absence.

Just days ago, Senate Democrats agreed not to filibuster a bill allowing the president to detain indefinitely, even for life, any alien, whether in the United States or abroad, whether a foreign resident or a lawful permanent resident.

The bill denies prisoners the right to challenge their detention in court.

Why would Democrats allow 51 senators to eliminate one of the fundamental pillars of free societies? I imagine it was because their pollsters told them a vigorous opposition would lose them votes in the coming election as Republicans pummeled them for being soft on terrorism.

Paul would have filibustered. That would almost certainly have delayed a Senate vote until after the election, enabling Americans to more clearly demonstrate how they stand on the 800-year-old right of habeas corpus.

Three weeks before he died, Paul voted against war in Iraq.

At the time, his opponent was aggressively accusing Paul of being weak on national security. Polls told Paul a vote against war would lose him the election. But as he told the Washington Post two days after the vote, "I think people want you to do what you think is right ... ." And added, in typical Wellstone fashion, "how would I have had the enthusiasm and the fight if I had actually cast a vote I didn't believe in? I couldn't do that."

Paul knew how to filibuster. Singlehandedly, his filibusters prevented a remarkably inequitable bankruptcy bill from being passed while he was in the Senate.

In 1996, Paul was among the very few who voted against the Telecommunications Act. He argued it would lead to concentrated ownership. He was right. Over the next 22 months, more than 1,000 radio stations were sold. Some 450 owners left the field. Single companies now dominate local radio broadcasting.

http://www.alternet.org/story/42351/

[Jim Sagle]

1. And that's why the Bush gang killed him.

[Kurovski]

5. Even more now than then, I believe that to be a very high probability.

K&R.

[Cleita]

13. I do too. It's just too obvious. n/t

[shance]

17. That is what they do. They kill all that is good.

n/t

[madmusic]

2. K&R

[MelissaB]

3. Kickin' for a fighter.

:kick:

[Jcrowley]

4. Can I just say

That's right!!!

The straight truth he would've been demanding that the rest of the Dems go after these corrupt bastards throats. James Baker and George Bush the elder hated Wellstone who treated them with disdain when they expected deferential treatment.

"Who is that little shit?"
- G H W Bush referring to Wellstone

[Kurovski]

6. The "little shit" is George Jr.

The littlest, shittiest little shit that ever was in the good ol' U S of A.

[Monkeyman]

7. K&R

[DemonFighterLives]

8. Never Park the Bus

:dem:

[lonestarnot]

9. Yes he would have! I sure miss him!

[alteredstate]

10. kicked

and recommended

[Selatius]

11. Bernie Sanders will replace the roll of Paul Wellstone

That man fights.

[petgoat]

12. Check out the reviews of "American Assassination"

at Amazon.

Here's from one by David Ray Griffin:


The evidence includes several facts suggesting that the NTSB (National Transportation Safety Board) colluded with the FBI in a cover-up:

1. FBI agents from Minneapolis arrived at the crash site within 2 hours after the crash, even though the trip from Minnesota to Duluth to the crash site would have taken at least 3 hours--so they must have departed before the plane crashed.
2. When asked for the times at which private flights had arrived in Duluth that morning, the FAA said the records had been destroyed.
3. Considerable disinformation about weather conditions was quickly given to the press.
4. Although regulations called for the investigation to be carried out by the NTSB, not the FBI (because the crash site was not designated a crime scene), the FBI agents were there for 8 hours before the NTSB team arrived.
5. The FBI, even though there illegally, prevented the local "first responders" from taking photographs.
6. Although it was the NTSB's responsibility to determine the cause of the crash and although the FBI's prior presence was illegal, the NTSB leader publicly accepted the FBI's declaration, made before the NTSB's investigation, that there was no evidence of terrorism.
7. When the NTSB team finally carried out its own investigation, it was unable to find either the cockpit recorder, which it assumed the plane had had, or the black box.
8. The NTSB held no public hearings, claiming that it was not a sufficiently "high-profile" case.
9. The NTSB's final report concealed the fact of the FBI's participation.
10. The NTSB investigation was headed by Acting Director Carol Carmody, a Bush appointee who had earlier ruled that there was no foul play in the small airplane crash in 2000 that took the life of Governor Mel Carnahan of Missouri, the Democratic candidate for the Senate who was killed 3 weeks before his expected victory (over John Ashcroft).

The evidence also includes some facts strongly suggesting the falsity of the NTSB's official conclusion, which was that the plane crashed because the pilot failed to maintain proper speed, causing the plane to stall.

1. The plane would have stalled only if it slowed to below 70 knots, yet it was equipped with a device that emitted a loud warning at 85 knots.
2. The plane was being flown by two experienced and fully certified pilots, a fact--obfuscated in the NTSB report-that makes this kind of pilot error very unlikely.
3. The NTSB's theory fails to explain why, about two minutes before the crash, all communication was abruptly terminated and the plane began going off course.

The evidence also includes facts suggesting that the plane was instead brought down by an EMP (electromagnetic pulse) weapon:

1. The plane's fuselage burned, although it was separated from the wings, which contained the fuel.
2. The plane's electrical system, which would be affected by an EMP, was in the fuselage, and the fire from the fuselage gave off blue smoke, which is indicative of an electrical fire.
3. An EMP could explain why the plane simultaneously went off course and lost its radio about two minutes before the crash.
4. At the same time, cell phones and garage doors in the area behaved in a way consistent with the occurrence of an EMP.
5. An NTSB spokesman professed ignorance about the existence of EMP weapons that could have brought down the plane, although the existence of such weapons had been known for several years.

An important part of the authors' case is the fact that the Bush administration would have had several motives:

1. Wellstone's defeat would return control of the Senate to the Republicans.
2. Wellstone's death 10 days before the election meant that $700,000 in the Republican campaign chest could be transferred, the very next day, to the (successful) effort to defeat Max Cleland in the Senate race in Georgia.
3. Wellstone was the biggest obstacle in the Senate to several Republican policies, such as those involving Iraq, Colombia, the SEC, tax cuts, and Homeland Security, and he was the strongest voice in Congress calling for a full investigation into 9/11.
4. Two days before his death, Wellstone reported that Cheney had told him: "If you vote against the war in Iraq, the Bush administration will do whatever is necessary to get you."
5. Wellstone had developed a 7-point lead in the polls over Norm Coleman, the Bush administration's hand-picked candidate.




Michael Ruppert said that a number of congressional representatives susbcribe to
his newsletter, and that some had told him privately that they thought Wellstone
had been killed.

[Raster]

15. I think one very good reason we didn't see more in Congress and other high

positions speak out against bushco* is the very real threat of retaliation and retribution. Retaliation could take several forms--remember this is the administration that has been bugging phones of Americans for several years WITHOUT following standard procedures or the laws of the land. This is also the administration that has been building a hidden infrastructure of prisons and camps to make people "disappear," never to be heard from again. This is the administration that not only sanctioned torture, but gone to Congress to make it law.

Yep I can understand why more haven't spoken out. Suicide and death by freak accident have been a very real hazard to investigative reporters, weapons experts, foreign journalists and others that have challenged bushco*'s official line. bushco* has managed to stay in power by extorting the public with trumped up terrorist threats. Two words that will hallmark this administration will be fear and intimidation.

[petgoat]

16. Congressional Reps who are afraid of dying should resign and

take up a career in probate law. They've got no business
appearing in Congress.

[Raster]

14. Paul would have fought and also been in the faces of his fellow Democrats

that won't fight. The Senate lost two democrats in 2002. Max Cleland courtesy of diabolical diebold and Paul Wellstone courtesy of the convenient and curious small plane accident. Those were the two Senators, if returned to the Senate, that would have held bushco*'s feet to the fire.

[onenote]

18. I miss him too, but he alone couldn't have stopped the vote

One person can't mount a filibuster anymore. He could've blocked the unanimous consent agreement that allowed the vote to go forward without needing a cloture vote, but he couldn't have blocked the cloture vote and since only 34 votes were cast against the bill, its hard to see where the necessary votes to prevent cloture would've come from.

[Kurovski]

19. Kick(nt)