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Camp Democracy Taking Shape: Where Were You?

The following is an update from key organizer, David Swanson.

Sunny Miller, from the famous Traprock Peace Center, and I are organizing a series of nonviolence trainings during Camp Democracy...

Where Were You When They Took Your Rights Away?
>
> By David Swanson
>
>
>
> Can you name the one country on earth where the government can steal
> elections, strip away basic rights, spy on citizens, and launch wars based
> on lies, but where the people do not take over the nation's capital in
> protest?
>
>
>
> If you said the United States, you'll be wrong on September fifth when Camp
> Democracy begins on the National Mall in Washington, D.C.
>
> http://www.campdemocracy.org
>
>
>
> At long last, Americans are preparing to say "Enough is enough," and to do
> what Ukrainians, Mexicans, or any other people not drugged into acquiescence
> would do when things got this bad: occupy the capital city to demand peace,
> justice, and accountability.
>
>
>
> The goal of the many organizations and individuals working to prepare for
> Camp Democracy is to provide a space for everyone who is fed up with lies
> and criminality to come and demand change. In fact, at the suggestion of
> Cindy Sheehan who will come to Camp Democracy following Camp Casey (Aug. 16
> � Sept. 2 in Crawford, Texas), we're calling it Camp Democracy at Fort Fed
> Up. Our demands will not be for anarchy or disorder, but for a restoration
> of the rule of law. This is a tough-on-crime movement. We just have a
> different notion of who the criminals are. And when we get tough, we use
> nonviolence.
>
>
>
> Camp Democracy will offer training in nonviolent protest, as well as in
> media production, activism, and PR. There will be workshops provided by top
> scholars and activists on a variety of issues � all of them connected by the
> democracy deficit, the shifting of resources against our will to war and
> away from useful endeavors. A schedule of events is posted on the right
> side of the website http://www.campdemocracy.org and we'll be building
> toward the International Day of Peace on September 21, when the Declaration
> of Peace has pledged to begin civil disobedience.
> http://www.declarationofpeace.org
>
>
>
> While we are working hard to provide tents, bathrooms, stages, and necessary
> equipment, to arrange for places to stay and food to eat, and to schedule a
> rich array of educational and inspirational activities, Camp Democracy will
> become whatever the people who take part choose to make it. The effort is
> nonpartisan and will seek to hold Congress Members accountable as well as
> Bush, Cheney, and gang. But one focus of the camp will be impeachment.
> Speakers leading workshops on the subject will include Howard Zinn, Marcus
> Raskin, John Nichols, Dave Lindorff, Barbara Olshansky, and many more.
>
>
>
> This morning I was a guest lecturer at a college course on modern history.
> We spent two hours discussing impeachment, impeachable offenses, and where
> the Bush Administration's actions fit in history. This is where I think
> they fit: as a significant threat to end the oldest democracy on the planet.
> Never before has an American president offered anything close to this
> wide-ranging assault on the Constitution, the Bill of Rights, and the powers
> of the legislative and judicial branches of government.
>
>
>
> Here's a sampling:
>
>
>
> Illegal spying in violation of FISA and the Fourth Amendment, openly
> confessed to, openly promoted in signing statements, known to involve phone
> calls, phone records, internet use, bank records, and observation of legal
> nonviolent activities.
> Illegal detentions in violation of the Fourth Amendment, International law,
> U.S. Law, and a recent Supreme Court ruling.
> Rounding up of thousands of citizens and legal residents for detention or
> deportation.
> Torture, maintenance of secret camps, and extraordinary rendition, in
> violation of the Fourth Amendment, International Law, US Law, and openly
> promoted in signing statement and administration policy papers.
> Illegal war � launched illegally under international law, launched in
> violation of the U.S. Constitution which requires that the Congress declare
> war, and launched on the basis of feloniously misleading Congress and the
> American public.
> Use of a variety of illegal weapons.
> Illegal targeting of civilians, journalists, and hospitals.
> Illegal seizure of another nation's resources.
> Illegal use of funds in Iraq that had been appropriated for Afghanistan.
> Leaking of classified information in order to mislead the Congress and the
> public, and in order to punish truth tellers.
> Leaking of identity of an undercover agent.
> Retribution against whistleblowers.
> Use of signing statements to reverse 750 laws passed by Congress.
> Production of phony news reports at home and abroad.
> Dereliction of duty in neglecting global warming, hurricanes, hunger, AIDS,
> and warnings of 9-11 attacks.
> Facilitating Israel's attacks on Lebanon.
> Obstruction of investigations by Congress, the 9-11 Commission, and Special
> Counsel Patrick Fitzgerald.
> Stealing elections.
>
>
>
> When is it enough? When does it become clear that history will view us as
> those who let it all go to waste, as those who sat by as they came for the
> Muslims and then they came for the immigrants and then they came for the
> next group on the list, as those who saw the nation sliding into fascism and
> let it slide� or as those who rose up and resisted and restored what was
> most worth saving in a system of government based on the rule of law?
>
>
>
> The time is now. On the Camp Democracy website you can arrange to share
> cars, vans, busses, trains, or planes, as well as tents or rooms. Please
> plan to join us, and please contribute what you can to help cover expenses.
> Together we can turn everything around. Other people in other nations have
> done so. It's much easier than you think.
>
> http://campdemocracy.org/sponsor
>
>

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